Intrepid

How do you find your spots? Map reading, experience, etc? The reason I ask is....well, look at the fish you have caught. I have a hard time believing you are "lucky" and stumble upon the fish you catch. There is something you see beforehand or while on the water that cues you to the likely presence of big fish. What is it and how can the rest of us utilize it? sight fishing

unless youre sight fishing, are you sure its bass that are breaking you off? i ask because you said on the hook set or when you get the strike, and unless sight fishing shallow water i wonder how you would know for sure its bass that are breaking you off. i trust you when you say your line is good, it could be your knots

i remember when it was open a long time ago, ive fished there. i heard several reasons for it being shut down was due to people swimming illegally and some did drown, a lot of partying there and people trashing the place, and security reasons...

my local walmarts have decent selections. ive bought a lot of clearance baits from them this winter as well. its seems the clearance boxes in the walmarts around here often are full of baits they dont typically keep on the rack at any time ever... the walmarts here usually have a good selection of plastics and lines though, some decent reels and even some decent rods from time to time. i like the $1 spinner baits as well. and often get basic hooks and sinkers there as well

small floating shallow diving cranks will work well, like rebel crawfish and crickhoppers. also i would throw floating worms t-rigged weightless and fished slowly

i bought mine online last year. i like it because if i happen to lose it i can print out another one, or print out multiple ones from the get go

how to hold a bass to make it look bigger in the picture than it actually is haha, seriously though, some of the best stuff ive learned here has to do with what the fish do and what they relate to. as well as to SLOW DOWN. i used to fish soft plastics like they were crankbaits or something. steady retrieve in, i still do sometimes, works good for me in ponds actually, but not in large lakes, once i started to slow down i started catching bass out of lakes on soft plastics as well.

use the fish chris method, nose hook a live night crawler in the fat part of it and toss it out there weightless or with a light split shot

ive worked in printing and i imagine it costs a lot of money to print those catalogs. they have to recoup some of the money atleast. i dont see the problem with selling them in stores at all even if you can get one free. it all depends if you want to wait for them to send you one or pay for it and get it now. plus not everyone uses computers/the internet(even in this age). some people are just really weary about entering anything personal about them online. and im sure other reasons. its a way to get the catalog in their hands as well. there is also the cost of shipping them out to these various stores that sell them.

i was thinking about trying that stretch/making that walk this spring/summer. can you catch smallies from kipheart all the way down to the river? or is it much better to make the full hike to the potomac? any suggestions on productive lures to use? Is the end of March too early? any info youre willing to give would be much appreciated, thanks..

i love my mono. i like trilene xl 12lb, and i use various sizes of big game and stren...

if youre keeping line around for 8 to 10 to 20 years then it makes me wonder if it was really necessary to buy it in bulk. so was it really necessary? my impression is(and i could be wrong) that if youre keeping line that long then you dont use it enough to justify buying it in bulk...

Sounds like a lot of "attitude" to me. Probably won't be invited again... I fish with several guys, some a lot, a couple once or twice. Sharing expenses comes in a number of ways. Breakfast, lunch or dinner; bait or gas. Maybe if I were fishing tournaments a more formal arrangement would be in order. To me, the perfect solution is when the money "comes out in the wash" and no one feels they have been taken advantage of. 8-) sorry, dont mean to sound like i got a ton of attitude. im all for splitting costs and such. but some people seem like they would take it to ridiculous extremes. let me put it like this. suppose me and you were fishing together. your boat, i live on the lake, you live 50 miles away, should i pay half the gas money for you to get there when im already there? half the boat gas money, for sure, id pay that no problem. should i be responsible for half the repairs if you have a flat tire on the way too? no i shouldnt. as far as lunch, id probably buy you lunch as a gesture of gratitude for you taking me out, but for someone to demand/claim i have to buy their lunch and that i am atleast half responsible for what they eat, thats a bit petty. someone wanting extra money for their boat insurance from me because they took me out once or twice is a bit ridiculous too, especially when the person is going to have insurance whether they take me out or not. thats where im coming from. sure it takes a lot for you to maintain your boat, i fully understand that, but its also unrealistic of someone to expect a guest on their boat to pay for half if you drive it into a log and bust a hole in the boat, just because they were in the boat with you.

wow, some of you sound a bit greedy. i can see paying for half the boat gas and entry fee. but im not paying for half your food and your drinks, you bring your own and i bring my own when it comes to that unless there was a formal agreement beforehand that one person would pick food/drink up and split the cost. and im not paying for half your truck gas unless you picked me up and im riding with you, then again i still may not pay half. if you fill up that morning and have practically an empty tank and say it costs you 75 bucks to fill your truck up, yet it only takes half a tank total to get to the lake and back, im not paying you 37.50 for truck gas. if im driving my own vehicle, im not paying a dime for your truck gas as you were going to the lake with or without me and i did not cause you to go out of your way. you bought the boat so insurance, maintenance, and such is your responsibility as boat owner. im not paying a half days worth your insurance. if your boat trailer blows a tire, im not paying half that. if your boat motor pukes its guts out on the lake, im not paying half that. if the battery on your trolling motor dies, im not paying for half the battery charger. if you smoke, im not paying for half your cigarettes on the water that day. if i do something stupid or clumsy or even accidental and break something on your boat, then i will pay for the repair of it.