Lund Explorer

Speaking of over statement, if that were the case, Mr. Yamamoto would be selling three packs of senkos for $79.95. Seriously, there is no magic lure that will catch fish on every lake under all the variable conditions that fishermen faces throughout the year. In many tournaments, there are guys qualifying for the final day cut that fish something completely different than the pack. I learned long ago that I don't concern myself with what others are throwing. I simply try to look for where the fish are located, and then go through the baits that I have confidence in. Location is about 90% of the game, what bait you throw takes up a small part of what's left.

Zing!

I made this mistake with my first job. I claimed 1 when my mother was claiming me as well. I had to pay back over 200 dollars. I was either 16 or 17 at the time. I've seen this many times before. What is even worse is when both the kid and the parents file claiming the same exemption...... And here comes a letter from our favorite Uncle!

One of the few things I'll recycle are the wife's 4" power worms. The darn things catch a lot of dinks, but the surviving tail sections are also great for bluegills. The firetail and chart. tail worms seem to produce most of the action when I stick them on a 1/64oz jighead.

Make sure to post up a report after you get back. I haven't been on that lake since 1968, so whatever I can remember is squat! I'm not sure, but you may also want to mark your spots by placing small clusters of yellow flowers along any productive shoreline. It sounds like the guys at the last roadtrip there will thank you.

Unfortunately, we have a local lake here that has been managed for waterfowl and suffers these draw-downs every once in awhile. It is a combination of a half dozen small lakes that becomes about five times larger at full pool with most of that water under 5' deep. You also get the same assortment of folks that push across the mudflats to reach the surviving pools every time. They pound these "fish in a barrel" relentlessly. The only good news is that the meat fishermen never return when the water comes up. It usually takes a few years for fishing to return to its prior productive self, but it does return. It also seems like you don't catch as many dinks when it first comes up either, which is most likely because they have been without heavy cover to grow up in. I figure we lose a couple of year classes due to predation from the bigger fish. Hopefully it won't take too long for you to be back on productive water.

Ghoti, I'm not sure if you bounce things like this off of your wife before you post them, but I just read this one to my little war dept. One big groan and a head toss from her means it was PERFECT! ;D

yup I was thinking much along these same lines. Maybe starting a "Best of Thread", to highlight some of the over 6,000 posts he made over the years. The man had a unique wit along with an untold amount of knowledge on bass fishing and life in general. Not an exact quote, but what he replied to Senile only a few days ago would be the perfect title: "It's called a plane ticket - The back seat is open!"

R.I.P. Jack

Here's your cure for old scissor nose! I've used this stuff for jigs and even T-Rigs as well. http://www.cabelas.com/product/Cabelas-Single-Strand-Wire/710030.uts?Ntk=AllProducts&searchPath=%2Fcatalog%2Fsearch.cmd%3Fform_state%3DsearchForm%26N%3D0%26fsch%3Dtrue%26Ntk%3DAllProducts%26Ntt%3Dsteel%2Bleaders%26WTz_l%3DHeader%253BSearch-All%2BProducts&Ntt=steel+leaders&WTz_l=Header;Search-All Products

First, make sure you have your work permit completed and approved by your school. Second, get ready to fill out Federal, State, and maybe Local W-4 withholding forms. Name, address and social security number is needed on all of them. You are a minor living at home with the people who are going to claim you as an exemption. Fill out all forms as Single & Zero. Also be prepared to fill out other forms such as an I-9 form. Sure it's a family business, but your uncle still needs to have it on file. Finally, always show up to work 15 minutes before you punch the time clock. Look over the employee's bulletin board for anything new, write down your upcoming work schedule, and do whatever else you may need to do prior to actually starting your work shift. ALWAYS offer to stay over if needed. ALWAYS strive to stay busy throughout the day. If you aren't working with a customer, clean something, straighten out something, restock something. If a customer asks for a product that is temporarily out of stock, ask your supervisor when the next shipment is due, get the customers phone number, and offer to call them when it is comes in. Customer service is what separates the local store from the box stores. Suggestion selling! Learn what products go with what the customer is purchasing. You've seen that side bar at BPS.... "Other Related Products". You may save a customer from a return trip for something they forgot, and they won't forget the helpful advice. Learn as much as you can about the products you are selling, so that customers can ask you questions. If you don't know the answer to a question, say the following: "I'm not sure, but let me find the person that does.". Good customers admire honesty! Remember that customers have bad days. You are working in a hardware store, so that means people will be coming in to buy things to fix unexpected problems. No matter if the customer is in a good mood or bad, treat all of them with respect. If you are having a bad day, keep it to yourself. If you do something wrong, man up and admit it. Make the effort to correct the problem, and try to make your supervisor see that you care about your job. Hardware stores = weekend projects. Expect to work weekends while your buddies are fishing. Save your fishing for days off when most others have to work. Weekdays = better fishing. Just ask any of us that have already retired!

Was the package making a ticking sound?

Sorry to hear about your loss. Thoughts to you and the whole family to get over losing a member of the pack, and hoping you'll find a new companion soon.

Congrats Nate, to you and the rest of the family.

The only time I really feel like a rattle is needed is in muddy water, after dark, or in heavy veggies. Most other times, I don't feel that I need the rattles. It wouldn't bother me at all if the rattles were just a side option that I could put on when I thought they were needed.

Thanks Simp! People are driving their trucks across the frozen surface of our lakes right now. Getting to see a picture of somebody holding up a couple of bass in front of open water is sure to make the winter crawl along even slower! JK. My calendar says that in just three short months, I should be preparing to back my boat into KY Lake for the first morning. It can't come soon enough!

Absolutley nothing wrong with Berkley's Lightning rods or their Cherrywoods. I have one Lightning rod that I use as a backup worming rod, and several of the Cherrywoods that are used for a number of applications from topwater to livebait fishing for perch/crappie. Don't let the fact that these rods are priced towards the lower end to keep you from using it.

I live in an area that is half large farms mixed in with rural residential, so I enjoy half and try my level best to ignore the others. Our square mile section has two fairly large dairy farms and you couldn't ask for better neighbors. Several times, I have walked cows home that got out of the enclosures, and have been allowed to hunt their properties whenever I want. I have helped with haying and milking when the need arose, and have enjoyed more than my fair share of fresh garden veggies in return. And then we have the neighbors that moved from the big city into to the house just to the south of us a few years ago. Within a month, the wife was passing around a petition because the cows made too much noise, and smelled. She really doesn't seem to happy that she and the cows are still next door to each other after a couple of years. Across the street we had out of town parents buy that home to rent out to their college age son and his buddies. Fortunately the parties were so long, loud, and frequent enough that the kid was kicked out of school in less than a year. I now own a dog that barks when someone comes onto our property. Aside from the two farmers that actually know how friendly our Blue Heeler can be, we just let her bark!

I must confess that I've had the same resolution for several years now, and I always, I mean ALWAYS fail to carry through with it. So this year I am going to try even harder. Everytime a jetski or water skier flies by at close range, I going to wave at them. And I'm going to try to make sure they can see more than one finger! ;D

Call your local director for Big Brothers/Big Sisters? Local Boy Scout/Girl Scout Troops? If the tackle is geared more for adult usage... Cast for Kids?

Depending on location and forage base, it could range from a tube, to a grub, to a craw worm. And then there is a cut down ribbon tailed worm. In the early part of the year, I will take a 7" power worm (black or motor oil) and cut down the head so that it is small enough to fit a 2/0 Gammy EWG hook. I use either a smaller worm weight or a splitshot that is just heavy enough to maintain bottom contact when I fish the bait with casts that quarter upstream. This allows the bait to move along with the current and under overhanging cover. I think this approach mimics a leech or smallish eel and the smallie simply hammer the bait when they bite it. If the fish takes off running with the bait, I'll always cast back into the same cover assuming that the fish was trying to escape with his meal from others inside the same cover.

I can't give the exact scientific answer, but I know that air, water, and land all heat and cool at different speeds. Air will change the fastest, then the land, and finally the water.

Up here in the sticks when I was growing up, the townies were expected to walk and the buses either ran on the main roads, or just didn't bother to. If they did run, you were expected to make your way to a main road to get picked up. These days, if the buses don't run, there's no school and it is made up for in June. It's always funny to see all the country kids playing out in the snow, riding their snowmobiles all over, or ice fishing because it wasn't safe to go to school. Even more fun to pick on the teachers who don't get the day off, but are expected to add an extra week to the school year before they get the summer off!

If it hasn't been said before Burley, I hope everything comes out okay, it certainly seems that you have all the tools you'll need!

Not bad. They had that place in stitches. But now I'm trying to digest the one on Ted's BD.