Sam

Glad you found banks to fish in the greater Hampton Roads/Tidewater area. Great pics. Keep 'em coming.

I had been hearing "strange" noises from around my three plastic trash cans behind my house and a two days later decided to look into each can. Don't know why I thought of doing that but I opened all three lids and looked in. And there it was! A big, fat raccoon. I threw the trash can on its side and watch the raccoon waddle off under my shed. Poor thing somehow got into the plastic trash can and could not get out. Also have had snakes and beavers visit me in my boat but they did not try to get in the boat. We have deer all over the place at my house and when they are in my field when I am in the garage or driveway they pay no attention to me. They are really used to people.

Ghost, the bass follow the bait all year. Now the shad in lakes are heading into the back of creeks so that is where the bass will be. The shad also have "shad balls" in lakes and the bass will be under them waiting to ambush one, The spawn is based on water temperature. When the water temp hits 62* to 65* in the spring the bass spawn.

Please keep us posted on your situation as long as you have the electric power to do so. Of course we are concerned about our fellow Forum members in the Sunshine State and hope for the best for them and their families. Mike, as with North Florida Mike, the same goes for you and your family. Please keep us posted on your situation and we hope all goes well. Crypt, as with the two Mikes, please keep us up to date on what is going on in your area along the coast. Good luck and we hope you and your family have no damage or problems. Let us know if you made it. Good luck and have a fun cruise.

LSU-Florida game is postponed. No police; no school; players worried about their families and want to go home ASAP; no neutral site considered; will have to check everyone's schedule to try to play the game at a later date.

Some of the best fishing is right before a hurricane. We used to clobber them in south Louisiana before big storms headed our way.

11AM UPDATE MATTHEW AS FORECAST NOW A CAT 4 SUPER BAD NEWS FOR EAST COST OF FL As we talked about early on Thursday morning Matthew has undergone significant significant intensification in the last 12 hours and is now solid category 4 Hurricane. I do not believe it willl make category 5 t before it makes landfall however. While the current atmosphere conditions over the Northwest Bahamas as it approaches the Florida Coast are ideal ... the conditions t...o the north across the Georgia and Carolina Coast are not. The European model shows a 939 mb --- which is the current latest pressure reading from the aircraft reconnaissance as of 10:00 AM.- a category 4 hurricane at 8:00 PM on Thursday evening approaching the South Florida Coast. This is supported by the HWRF and GFDL models as well. I suppose it is possible that Matthew might drop to 930 mb bars before reaching landfall. However if you look on the satellite picture you will see that the northwest portion of the hurricane appears to be getting disrupted as it is spreads into northwest into north FL and coasal GA. This is indicative of the strong shear winds which you can see on this image. Also note that most of the hurricane models show significant weakening the next 48 hours be cause of the shear and because as the hurricane approaches land ... it will begin to pull in much drier Continental Air from GA AL which will be entrain into the core of the system. This will cause significant weakening in addition to the SHEAR . That of course does not help FL --as you can see from this image from the early Thursday morning European model. Notice however that the very high severe damaging inds will be restricted to the immediate coastal areas and that the winds drop off dramatically over Central Florida and over the interior portions of the coast of Georgia and South Carolina.

According to latest map Destin should be OK. The storm would really have to move a lot to the west to impact Destin. Your problem is flying, unless you are driving, and having a place to stay as the east coast of Florida is evacuated. You should be OK. Have a fun time. And the LSU-Florida game will be played in Gainesville on Saturday.

LSU and Florida are discussing bringing the game to Baton Rouge. No way LSU can fly into Florida tomorrow or Friday and no way fans can get to the game. My office assistant and her husband were run out of town (Orlando) and told to go home. Last I heard they were at the NC/SC border on I-95. Bummer for their vacation. They were going to visit the theme parks other than Disney World. Everyone stay tuned as 17 computer models can't figure this one out and it is a dangerous storm.

Now it looks like the storm will miss Virginia and go out to sea. Of course, the football games along the southeastern coast line may have to be postponed. But wait! Check out the following for some fantastic information that I never have seen before. This is from Dave Toleris early Wednesday morning. Can't wait for his 8 AM post. Wxrisk.com FOLKS too tired to post... will be up at 8am WED... need sleep. The early Wednesday morning GFS model wants to keep hurricane Matthew around for an extended period of time. The new GFS brings Matthew into extremely close contact with the Central Florida Coast by Thursday evening and the eye is very close to the eastern and northeast coast of FL by Friday night and early Saturday morning. The system turns to the north missing Savannah Georgia and then the GFS ...model turns Matthew to the Northeast. But instead of going towards Cape Hatteras the new GFS model turns hurricane Matthew due east by 8:00 PM Saturday evening when it is almost on top of Charleston South Carolina. From there the model takes Matthew due east out into the southwest Atlantic Ocean. But the new GFS model on this early Wednesday morning shows the new change in the track of hurricane Matthew. By Sunday afternoon Matthew is turning to the SE then due SOUTH by Monday morning as it heads back towards Bahamas.!!! In Fact if you look at the new operational or regular GFS model on this early Wednesday morning it actually has Matthew taking a giant loop and moving moving back into the Bahamas 7 days from now.. By October 13 Matthew is almost hitting Miami and southeastern Florida.!!! The operational early Wednesday morning GFS model does not finally take hurricane Matthew out to sea until October 15 !! This would be a very interesting hurricane track and one to be remembered for many years to come. Some of the GFS ensembles support a turn of Matthew back to the southeast and cords the Bahamas but other GFS individual members take hurricane Matthew out into the open Atlantic Ocean.

Wednesday's updates will be more specific about the storm. Here is what we have to date. From Dave at wxrisk.com. Enjoy! Sam Wxrisk.com added 2 new photos. After viewing the morning hurricane models as well as the European ensembles I am sure that there will be significant changes in language at 11:00 AM from the hurricane center in the discussion about what Matthew might do for the southeast US coastal areas and possibly into New England. The GFS model as well as the GFS hurricane models all take Matthew west of Hatteras into eastern North Carolina making landfall over Myrtle Beach SC/ Wilmington North Carolina and tracking west of Hatteras and over NORFOLK / Hampton roads on Sunday. This is the track further inland which brings worse conditions into Hampton roads when compared to what the data was showing on Monday It also Places all of Eastern North Carolina on the eastern side of the hurricane which is often the stronger side on East Coast hurricanes. For Hampton roads however IF hurricane Matthew makes landfall at or close to North Carolina then cuts across Eastern North Carolina this would allow for significant weakening for all of Southeastern Virginia. If this track from the 12z hurricane models were to hold and verify most of Hampton roads would not see hurricane conditions. There might be a few gusts up to hurricane force -- 74 mph th or greater and the coastal areas or out by the ocean but most areas in Hampton roads (where most people live) would probably not see winds over 75 mph in this sort of track. That doesn't mean it would not be bad --just not a disaster. For Eastern North Carolina however this would be bad and all of the PAMLICO and ALBERMARLE sounds as well as the Outer banks and North Carolina would be significantly impacted . It is still uncertain as to whether not Matthew will reach Southeast and New England. Many of the hurricane models & ENSEMBLES show a BEND to the east taking the system to the Southeast of Cape Cod Mass -- and we can also see that on the early Tuesday morning European ensembles. MORE LATER See More

Sorry to write that the storm seems to be on a track to hit Virginia Friday night into Saturday. No telling where he will make landfall. All we can do is get ready and keep watching the TV and go to www.weatherunderground.com for details. Can you postpone your trip?

Hey all, want to have some fun at BPS or Cabela's? Go to their fish tank with one of their spinnerbaits in the package. Put the spinnerbait near or up to the glass and shake it as you move it around. The bass, and other fish, will watch it and follow it around as you move it. I love doing this to entertain the small children at the tank and also watch the bass, that can see me, follow the lure. May not be as much fun as a laser light but it will show you how the bass, as a predator, thinks. Give it a try.

I thought that was you at the checkout counter. Giving me my 5% military discount! See you in the near future after the hurricane passes.

Darren, looks like it will hit around Wilmington, NC. Let's hope it goes out to sea. I think my Lake Gaston tournament will be put on hold. Hope so as I am not going. Stay tuned, Dave from Wxrisk.com is going to update his forecast later today and he has been on the money with hurricanes although this one has him somewhat perplexed. And guys, when you look at Darren's map you will see two large lakes on the Virginia/North Carolina border. These are Buggs Island and Lake Gaston. You can see how close the storm is coming to them. In addition, we have to tow our boats on I-85 and that's not going to happen if we have high winds and rain.

Being a plumber is a great career. Don't need them often but when we do they are worth their weight in gold. Water and electricity. We can't control either so use a professional plumber and electrician and you can't go wrong.

Great having you with us. What department do you work in at Green Top?

Over four-inches of rain at my house by Bosher's Dam on the Historic James River this past week. As for fishing, who knows? Tidal James still OK but when the water flow intensifies from out west the river will be chocolate milk. As for lakes, probably not so much of a problem once you get into the lower end and out of the creeks. You have to watch out for debris no matter where you go. As for the projected bite, with lots of rain and now blue bird skies I think fishing will be tough.

Only dream of the ones that got away. Can still see so many jumping and throwing baits or coming unhinged. Stuff nightmares are made of.

X2. Looking like the storm will go eastward and miss the USA. Keep fingers and toes crossed while me monitor this one.

Darren, the European model has the storm gaining strength into a 5 and hitting around Wilmington. A little too early to go with the Wilmington solution so stay tuned. This time next weekend could be wild for us in central Virginia and Tidewater/Hampton Roads/Middle Peninsula/Northern Neck. Let's hope the storm moves more east. Take your pick, guys. Still too early to tell where this storm is headed. Hope the Euro is correct and it is out to sea. DTVaWeatherman ‏@DTVaWeatherman 10h10 hours ago 0z SAT EURO takes Matthew over Haiti NOT Jamaica= track much further off us coast & out to seapic.twitter.com/toFIHuZhKs DTVaWeatherman ‏@DTVaWeatherman 10h10 hours ago DTVaWeatherman ‏@DTVaWeatherman 10h10 hours ago DTVaWeatherman ‏@DTVaWeatherman 22h22 hours ago 12Z EURO shows a stall of cat 4-5 cane just ne of the Bahamas- LONG duration event for Bahamas !pic.twitter.com/hzjxMyk0vj

Great having you with us and thank you for your service. We could use a whole lot of guys and gals like you in the military. Do you know Cpt. Will Calkins? He is stationed a the base, to the best of my knowledge. But he is not a fisherman. Be safe and careful overseas and head back home ASAP. Let us know how the fishing is in Europe and post pics of what you catch.

Looks like Hurricane Matthew will be "stalled" in the Caribbean giving the cold front time to move east and sending him out to sea. I hope so. We don't need a hurricane this late in the season. Plus the fact that I have a tournament on October 8th on Lake Gaston and if Matthew comes ashore south of Virginia I am sure it will be rescheduled.

Great having you with us. Looking forward to your posts and comments. Welcome aboard.

NEVER, EVER GIVE OUT YOUR HONEY HOLES LOCATIONS LIE IF YOU MUST. IT IS OK TO LIE ABOUT YOUR HONEY HOLES IN BASS FISHING.