RoLo

Yup Bass beds are normally separated by several feet of territory. Bluegill sunfish normally nest in colonies with beds separated by inches. Roger

Hmm...isn't drop-shot a rig?

I'm not real fond of that 'jaw-wrenching' grip Roger

Soft Swimbait (aka: paddletail minnow) Roger

My wife has given me several double-blind taste tests between grilled bass & grilled crappie, and I can always tell them apart. The firmer more flavorful flesh is bass, the softer nearly tasteless flesh is crappie. Roger

The Culprit 7.5" ribbontail worm was my mainstay for years (right up there with the Original Floating Rapala). I still throw Berkley Power Worms, but the bulk of my ribbontail worms have been replaced by straight-tail worms. Roger

Good luck with the new boat C&G, looks ideal for Banks Roger

Oddly enough, bass can be caught at night on any lure that you fish during the day. When I did a lot of night fishing (not much anymore) my favorite was a black Arbogast Jitterbug. I did better with a Jitterbug than a buzzbait, probably because of the intermittent pauses. Roger

Raul, do you remember the Arbogast 'Sputterfuss' (Hawaiian Wiggler)? Sadly I do :-(

KOOL Looks a lot like my house Roger

Owner 5/0 Wide-Gap Plus Hook It sports a triangular cutting point (same as Trokar), Z-bend keeper & 3X wire. Roger

I agree with your priorities regarding fear, despite its lack of support in the recent snake thread ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I own several rifles, shotguns & sidearms for hunting and benchrest shooting but never pack a firearm for personal protection. Sliding a handgun under your belt comes with enormous responsibility that is fraught with grave liabilities. If someone is bent on taking you out, the odds are low that you'll get an opportunity to use your gun. Aileen Wuornos used a little 22 caliber handgun to kill 7 men in 7 separate instances during a 12-month period. I don’t know how many of her Johns were packing, but all were defenseless against Aileen. Even in an otherwise benign situation, exposing a firearm can trigger a deadly reaction in your adversary, who now believes it’s his life in jeopardy. In a panic-driven situation, there’s always an outside chance of shooting an unarmed assailant or innocent bystander. Right or wrong, it will turn your life upside down, empty your pockets and have you spending many days in a courtroom, or worse, many years in prison. In Newark, NJ, I was involved in an armed robbery. While inserting the key in my car door, I was confronted by 4 men and a revolver with a silencer pointed at my face. Obviously, if I dared to go for a gun, I wouldn’t be typing this today. Attitude is underrated, and can be more effective than the gun you never get a chance to use. When adrenalin mixes with testosterone, it straightens the spine, lifts the chin and has you staring directly into the eyes of your alleged adversary. I firmly believe that appearing like the mugger rather than the muggee has spared me from serious harm on more than one occasion (offered solely as food for thought). Roger

Long Mike (Mike Long) Rodger

Tell me again, I keep forgetting....What is "line-twist"? In 2006, I switched from nylon monofilament to braided polyethylene, and that sounded the death knell for "line-twist". Roger

Many moons ago, gin mills were on every corner and the bartender would knock the bar about every 3rd beer. (for the youngsters, that means a free drink). Back then, no one even heard of a DUI, and rather than arrest you, some cops would offer to follow you home so you got there safely (hard to believe today, but that is true). Back in the day, I always packed a couple cans of beer with my lunch. Then one day, long before DWI was in vogue, I decided that I'd no longer mix pleasures. Since that day there hasn't been any alcohol in my boat, which I'd guess was 35 or 40 years ago. Today of course, alcohol is forbidden in most management areas and state parks. Roger

All our lakes are down in central Florida, in fact some are dangerously low. Just today though, we got the rainfall everyone was hoping for, and lightning that sounded like cannon fire. June & July is our rainy season, and just like last year our first welcome rain coincided with June 1st Roger

"Coontail" (Ceratophyllum demersum) We rarely go a day without seeing coontail. Roger

Among the most common: flouro (fluoro) Misspelling = Flower Oh definately (definitely) When misspelled the spellchecker defaults to 'defiantly' spinner bait (spinnerbait) Crank bait - Bait Caster ~ ~ ~ ~ Suffix (Sufix) ect. (etc.) Daredevil (Dardevle) Roger

The lure tied on Roger

Exactly, we see the same thing Snook. I'd like to know what conditions make the difference, but that'll never happen. Going a step further, I also see that same pattern regarding intraday activity. For example, it's a a day when the smaller bass are cooperative, but as usual the bite eventually fizzles. We've found that the best fish of the day will often be landed during a lull in small bass activity. Roger

A lake that produces mostly big bass (5, 6 & 7) is an angler-pleaser for sure, but could be a sign of big trouble ahead. A healthy lake should provide a healthy mix of bass of all year-classes, not just small bass and not just trophy bass. During my waterfowling days in New Jersey, the bag limit for brant was 6 per day (a brant is a small sea goose) One year I noticed a proliferation of huge brant and assumed that the brant population was in great shape. As it happened, I made the same mistake as the NJ Fish & Game Commission. They were late in realizing that the age composition was sadly lacking in juvenile birds. The following year they reduced the daily bag limit from 6 to 0. The brant moratorium was not lifted until nesting conditions in Canada rebuilt the immature stock. All that glitters is not gold Roger

Unfortunately the Deps Deathadder Grub has been discontinued, but I stocked-up using a couple of Japanese vendors. I like nearly every lure manufactured by Deps, somehow they combine durable plastic with great action (unlike yamamoto). We've also had good success with the Deps Twin-Tail Grub and Deps Deathadder Shad, but both have been discontinued. It seems that Deps is looking to land a barnburner, and running limited production on everything else. Roger

Wow, those dogs are courageous, and I don't think Ursa Major will be back anytime soon Roger

This afternoon, Lois & I gave Tiger Lake a shot. Although Tiger is a member of the Kissimmee Chain, it gets less recognition & less pressure than most lakes in the chain (we like that). Today we fished from about 2:30 pm to 7:30 pm, and the action overall was good (not great / not bad). As soon as we arrived there was an activity peak, so we probably missed the front portion of the best bite. We boated about half-dozen bass between 12 & 16", and one good fish around 5:30 pm. In our experience, it seems that the largest bass of the day will often strike during a lull in action, when the smaller bass are uncooperative. Has anyone else noticed this pattern? The little lady from Tiger fell for a 7" Deps Deathadder Grub (scuppernong). Roger

I'm surprised that no one said: "The last time I used two hands, I was teaching some girl how to cast"