.ghoti.

Thanks, Lee. ;D The thing about the net is true. I tried three times before I netted Lee's big fish of the day when I fished with him in January this year. I have a feeling this is going to come back to haunt me. ;D Nice talking to you, Matt. You know where to find me. Burley, I was about to say "I got your bum", but that just ain't right. Mike, I'm sending you my recipe for Boiled Owl with Hedge Apples. Serve it with Carp Gravy on the side. Yummy. Jack, thanks for the assist. ;D ;D ;D Cheers, Ghoti. aka Bud Tuggly

A musical director was having a lot of trouble with one drummer. He talked and talked and talked with the drummer, but his performance simply didn't improve. Finally, in front of the entire orchestra, he said, "When a musician just can't handle his instrument and does not improve when given help, they take away the instrument, give him two sticks, and make him a drummer." A stage whisper was heard from the percussion section: "And if he can't handle that..." "...they take away one of his sticks and make him a conductor."

Congats on the 20. Hope you have 50 more. And, what's a snot rocket? I'm guessing it's a little pike, the ones I call hammer handles. I'm really hoping it's not another name for the world famous Coney Island Whitefish. :-X ;D

Four hundred and eleven rods? You carry around a few more than me. ;D ;D I take 3-6, depending on where I'm going, who I'm going with, and what conditions I think I might find. When I go to Trophy Country, I take "em all. Reel Rod Line Bait ST CROIX 253, 6'10" SETYR H-MF, #14, TOAD, SWIMBAIT, JIG ENERGY PT 770, 6'8" AVID M-XF, #12, SENKO, IKA ENERGY PT 660, 6'6" SETYR MH-F, #12, HULA GRUB, JERKBAIT ENERGY PT 660, 7' SETYR M-F, #10, TUBE, LIGHT T-RIG MILLIONAIRE, 6'6" SETYR M-F, #10, SPINNERBAIT, TOPWATER PFLEUGER SUMMIT, 6'8" CUMARA M-XF, #12 , T-RIG, JIG JOHNNY MORRIS, 6'9" BPS XPS ML-F, #10, FLUKE, TUBE ENERGY PT 770, 6'3" TEAM DAIWA L&T MH-F, #12, IKA, HULA GRUB REVO STX, 7' SETYR M-F, #10, JIG WORM, T-RIG MILLIONAIRE, 7'6" SETYR M-MF, #12, CRANKBAIT SYMETRE, 7'2" AIRRUS M-F, #8, FINESSE BAITS

I catch a lot of fish on 3" tubes. Here's the rig. bobber stop, small bead, 1/16oz weight, and Owner 1/0 rig'n hook. I use the yellow thread bobber stops and the small beads that come with them. About 6 bucks per hundred. The stop is to peg the weight and the bead is to keep the stop from sliding through the weight. You can also reverse it; weight goes on first, followed by by the bead, then the stop and the hook last. This gives you a light weight adjustable c-rig, or an adjustable split shot rig.

I keep a few buzzbaits rigged with Super Flukes instead of skirts. Rig it perfectly straight, and super glue it in place. Works better than a skirted buzzbait, some times.

And here I thought Burley was all about quiche and mimosas.

Why? what do you mean, why? Pike are a blast.

Oh, you mean like the baseball managers say, my rented Peurto Rican can beat your leased Dominican?

Yes, and we could accomodate any size group of fisherman. All we have to do is scale it up, or scale it down.

Two bowling teams, one of all Blondes and one of all Brunettes, charter a double-Decker bus for a weekend trip to Louisiana . The Brunette team rode on the bottom of the bus, and the Blonde team rode on the top level. The Brunette team down below really whooped it up, having a great time, when one of them realized she hadn't heard anything from the Blondes upstairs. She decided to go up and investigate. When the Brunette reached the top, she found all the Blondes in fear, staring straight ahead at the road, clutching the seats in front of them with white knuckles. The brunette asked, 'What the heck's going on up here? We're having a great time downstairs!' One of the Blondes looked up at her, swallowed hard and whispered... 'YEAH, BUT YOU'VE GOT A DRIVER

I have black, white and white/chart. I haven't noticed one being any better than any other at any time or condition.

Central Illinois here. Pana, about 45 miles south of Decatur. Shelbyville is about 20 minutes away. In about a month I'll be thinking about muskie below the dam. That's how I finish up every fishing season. A get-together would be great. Cheers, GK

For all you northern anglers, who like pike, the Rage Tail Shad is a great pike bait. For those overcast rainy days that keep the pike in the weedbeds later in the day than normal, this is the bait to try. Just don't a hook much bigger than a 4/0. A 5/0 ewg has the hook point far enough back to get occasionally fouled by the tail, impeding the hook set. Cheers, GK

I know I could rely on you to put in the proper context. ;D ;D ;D

Welcome aboard. I'm in the middle of Illinois

A little background before I tell this story. When I was younger, I didn't get to spend that much time with my dad's dad. It's too long a story to get into here. I remember him as a tall, white haired, very gruff man, who absolutely scared the snot out of me when I was a kid. I found out after he died that I was one of his favorites, and that he was very proud that I was working as a musician. Really surprised me to hear that. Anyway, the other day I happened to catch a glimpse of my reflection in a large window. I saw him, for just a split second before I realized it was me. Totally weirded me out. It's happened a couple more times, when I'm not paying attention. I guess I really do look like him, at least to a certain extent. I've just recently discovered that quite a few of one of my kid's friends were scared spitless of me, until they got to know me. Weird, eh? This weirdness has made me think about him a lot more recently. I truly regret that I didn't get to know him better. There's a lesson here for you younger folks. Even if family conflicts try to get in the way, you really should try to get to know the people in your family that you don't get to see often. I can't help but think that I really missed out on something. It's way too late now for me, but may not be for you. Cheers, GK

Falcon spinnerbait and spinnerbait/buzzbait boxes are the best, hands down.

One of my go-to baits this year has been a GYCB 5" Hula Grub on a Shake2 head. If you haven't tried the Shake2 head yet, you'd better.

Looks like another good idea I've never had. I'll give it a shot

Hey Jayce. To get the handle off, you have to screw the drag down tight, then push down on the black plastic collar, and turn the handle off counter-clockwise. The black collar is spring loaded. I don't quite understand what your problem is. Your description left me a bit puzzled. Since you bought it used, it is possible somebody didn't put it back together correctly. Quantum's website will direct you to their service website where you can downlaod schematics. You might want to do that before you take it apart. If you don't feel comfortable with a complete tear down, check out Reel Mechanic, a long-time forum member and board sponsor. he can fix whatever is wrong, for a very reasonable fee. Cheers, GK

To answer your original question, absolutely. A 7" Power Worm, or a 3X flaoting worm on a small jighead are soemthing I have tied on all the time. One of my go-to rigs, for any time of the year.

Woke up to a light drizzle, and complete overcast. This after a Saturday that bright, sunny and warm all day. Steve and Paul headed for a small pit that hadn't been fished in a while. They reported a great day. Lots of fish with a few three pounders. Mike, John and I headed for the lake Steve and Paul had fished Friday. Mike and John had a good day fishing dark plastics deep. I started at one of the few flats areas in this whole place. These are all strip mine pits, so they're deep and steep. I stayed the whole morning, fishing a flat that was about 150 yards long. The topwater bite was on from 7:30 until 12:30. I started the day with 4 packs of Rage Tail Toads and 4 packs of Rage Tail Shads. Ended up with no toads and one Shad left. Also went through 3 packs of Horny Toads. The Rage Tail Toads caught all of the biggest fish, including one that went 4 3/4 pounds. I had a dozen over 4. I remembered one of LBH's videos where he changed color every time he caught a fish, just to prove that color doesn't really matter sometimes. I did the same thing with a box of topwater baits. I went through most of the box, and caught fish on every bait I tied on. That included Spooks, Pop-Rs, Jitterbugs, Chug Bugs, Spittin Images, Torpedos, and eveything else I could find to try. I believe I caught close to 200 pounds of fish in that 5 hour period. I've never caught that many three and four pounders in one outing. It was awesome. A total reversal from the day before. Then, it was slow and deep, with specific colors. This was on top, with anything, as long as it was moving. The faster the better, it seemed. Around 12:30, the cloud cover broke up, and the sun came out. That was the end of the topwater bite. It quit completely. I moved out and tried the jigworm, Ika, tube and an Evo Shake2 head with a Blue Bacon Rind. Caught a couple of small fish doing that. When I fished with CJ on Kentucky Lake, he showed me his version of a double Fluke rig. I tied up one of those and went back to the flats and started catching fish again. Thanks CJ. That rig is just too cool. I caught a dozen more before it was time to pack up and head home. I almost had a double. Cj had told me to let the fish swim around a bit, and sometimes another fish will grab the other bait. I remembered to try that, and had two fish make a swipe at the extra FLuke. Or, maybe the same fish went after it twice. That would have been amazing, but it didn't quite happen. To top it all off, I got a bonus 36" pike on a Rage Tail Shad. Made my day. I like pike. If the weather doesn't really go south, we might get one more trip to this place over the Columbus Day weekend. Depends on the weather and on the hunter's bookings. Clint will be calling me some time soon to let me know if he has room for us that weekend. I've been there twice before in October. Once was an awesome trip, and one time we hit the turnover. Turnover is not a good time to spend a bunch of money and time fishing. So, the temperature trend will tell me if I go, or not. Steve, John and Mike are all unable to go that weekend. Paul might be able to. Long Mike is interested. The cabins will all hold 6 easily, some of them more. Anybody interested, shoot me a PM. It costs $100 for a whole day of fishing, $65 for a half day (6 hours), and $35 a night for the cabin. Let's have a mini BassResource.com get-together. Cheers, GK

Hey Chris, no more math. I promise. Besides we all know that pies aren't square; pies are round.

SUUUUUUUUUN!