Sam

Dustin is legal? He can drink; chase girls; watch R rated movies; buy a Playboy magazine; join the military! Super! We need more guys like him in this world. I guess he is getting all dressed up for the Orange Bowl. I wonder if he will use face paint?

One more suggestion since you mentioned live bait. Use a #6 gold hook with a small split shot above it on 4 pound test and a plastic bobber. Add Nightcrawler. Throw out. Hold on! Everything will hit the Nightcrawler and the bass will come in to see any bream or bluegills you catch as you are reeling them in. I have allowed the bass to attack and then take the bluegills into their mouths and play the bass for a while before the bass spits out the bluegill. Had a nice size catfish do the same thing but they take the bluegill and dive deep so they are not as much fun as the bass. I use this rig when I take the boys (ages 10 and 7) to a local pond. The 7 year old tells everyone that all we do is throw the line into the water and pull in a fish. You will want to get your Nightcrawlers at Wal-Mart as they are the cheapest and use only a part of the live worm on each hook. My friend who fishes the same pond uses either a 1/0 or a 2/0 with a Nightcrawler and he has caught some nice bass. But I think that is cheating as I use only artificial bait for bass. Best fishing around if you don't mind getting worm juice on your hands and clothes!

Vic, Here is my two cents. 4 pound line is great. If you really want to have some fun go to the 2 pound line but be ready for line twist and a cobweb on your spinning reel. Twopound test is a pain in the fanny. Use a five foot light rod. I have been using a 1/64 jig head (silver) tied to a 4 pound mono or flouro, with a size 12 brass barrel swivel above the jig head about a foot to help stop line twist. I put a 1 inch white grub with a curley tail (you can go 1.5 inches) on the jig head. I caught a 6 pound beauty at a golf course pond with this rig. Almost had a heart attack. Had to go into the locker room and change my underware. OK, just kidding about the underware. Throw rig, let drop to bottom, and then reel back. They love that whtie grub with the curley tail. Great lure for the upper James River where I have caught largemouth, smallmouth and some beautiful bluegill. Have a good supply of 1/64 jig heads on hand as you will lose them. Also have a pliers ready to remove the jig head from the fish if necessary. Give it a try and let us know what happens.

Anime is right. Throw to the wood in the water. Throw to the shore and reel back along the cover. Change positions and throw to go across the cover. Throw, throw and throw. Mann's Minus One is an excellent shallow running crankbait. The Bandit 100s are also good. Don't be afraid of getting hung up. You will get hung up so why worry. Crankbaits with the square bills will flip over the structure and not get hung up as much as the other crankbaits so look for the ones with the square lip. You can also fish the Mann's Minus One over grass but be ready to get grass on the hooks. Have fun.

J, May I make a suggestion or two? First, get a map of the lake. If there are no commercial maps then go to the County and see what maps they have or contact the Corps of Engineers in your area. Second, ride around the lake looking for old roads that once existed before the lake was flooded, if it was flooded. Old roads on the lake bottom makes for a great roadway for the bass to travel. Third, get Mike Iaconelli's "Ike's Rules for Better Fishing" Volume 1: Taking the Luck OUt of the Equation. This DVD will tell you how to approach any body of water that you have never fished before. It is excellent. Fourth, if you have a sonar unit on your boat, you will have to take time to "zig-zag" in specific areas to map the contour, hardness/softness and structure/cover on the bottom; what baitfish you see, etc. You do this before you fish so you will know what is under you and where it is. The types of baitfish are important, too. So check them out one day by fishing for them or watching the water for their schools. Fifth, using a Carolina-rig with a tungston weight, feel the bottom for grass, rocks, gravel, etc. Sixth, are there any "old timers" who know the lake and can give you tips? You may be able to find other boaters on the lake that can give you some help. And last, just watch and see where others go to fish. If you cannot find a commercial or County map you may have to make one, yourself. Be sure to write down everything when you catch a bass. Where you are; water clarity; time of day; overhead conditions; water temperature; depth; around any wood, cover or structure; what you threw; your technique; etc. Anthing that will give you a better understanding of how the bass in this lake migrate and feed. Good luck.

Are they real as opposed to fake? Yes, they are real and are very nice folks. I personally spoke with the Megastrike guy and he was a great help. Lots of guys speak with other sponsors. So yes, the sponsors are not only real but very helpful and they enjoy speaking with them. So give one a call. Nothing personal, but by asking the question you probably need a lot of help with your fishing.

Subject: LOUISIANA CAJUN MAN STRANDED ... Boudreau finally decides to take a vacation. He books himself on a Caribbean cruise and proceeds to have the time of his life until the boat sank. He found himself swept up on the shore of an island with no other people, no supplies.. Nothing. Only bananas and coconuts. After about four months, he is lying on the beach one day when the most gorgeous woman he has ever seen rows up to him. In disbelief, he asks her, 'Where you come from? Mais ami! How you done get here?' 'I rowed over from the other side of the island,' she says. 'I landed here when my cruise ship sank.' 'Amazin',' he says. 'You really lucky to have dat dere rowboat wash up wit' you.' 'Oh, this?' replies the woman. 'I made the rowboat out of raw material found on the island. I whittled the oars from gum tree branches; I wove the bottom from palm branches; and the sides and stern came from a Eucalyptus tree.' 'But ... but .. dat impossible,' stutters Boudreau. 'You had no tools or hardware an' stuff. How you manage?' 'Oh, no problem,' replies the woman. 'On the South side of the island, there is a very unusual strata of alluvial rock exposed. I found if I fired it to a certain temperature in my kiln, it melted into forgeable ductile iron. I used that for tools and used the tools to make the hardware.' Boudreau is stunned. 'Let's row over to my place,' she says. After a few minutes of rowing, she docks the boat at a small wharf. As Boudreau looks onto shore, he nearly falls out of the boat. Before him is a stone walk leading to an exquisite bungalow painted in blue and white. While the woman ties up the rowboat with an expertly woven hemp rope, he can only stare ahead, dumbstruck. As they walk into the house, she says casually, 'It's not much, but I call it home. Sit down, please. Would you like to have a drink?' 'No, no tank you,' says Boudreau, still dazed. 'Can't take no more coconut juice no.' 'It's not coconut juice,' the woman replies. 'I built a still. How about a Pina Colada?' Trying to hide his continued amazement, Boudreau accepts, and they sit down on her hand-woven couch to talk. After they have exchanged their stories, the woman announces, 'I'm going to slip into something more comfortable. Would you like to take a shower and shave? There is a razor upstairs in the cabinet in the bathroom.' No longer questioning anything, Boudreau goes into the bathroom. There, in the cabinet, is a razor made from a bone handle. Two shells honed to a hollow-ground edge are fastened on to its end inside of a swivel mechanism. 'WOW! dis woman, she amazin'!,' he muses, 'what next?' When he returns, she greets him wearing 'nothing but vines' strategically positioned, and smelling faintly of gardenias. She beckons for Boudreau to sit down next to her. 'Tell me,' she begins suggestively, slithering closer to him, 'We've been out here for a really long time. I know you've been lonely. There's something I'm sure you really feel like doing right now, something you've been longing for all these months. You know...' She stares into his eyes. He can't believe what he's hearing! 'You don' mean ...', Boudreau swallows excitedly, 'We can watch dat dere LSU game from here?'

So when are you going to invite us to join you?????

Great story. Glad she got away safely. This is an ***. Go fishing more.

Keep it up, Bait Monkey. Our economy needs you.

Nope. Went to bed after the AU-Clemson game. I was hoping that he would hit a bird and crash land. Now that would have been great! Feathers flying all over the place; bike going one way and he falling another direction. So I guess he made it.

Same back to you and Gidget. Be sure to let us know when the bid day is scheduled this year.

A WOMAN was flying from Seattle to San Francisco. Unexpectedly, the plane was diverted to Sacramento along the way. The flight attendant explained that there would be a delay, and if the passengers wanted to get off the aircraft the plane would re-board in 50 minutes. Everybody got off the plane except one lady who was blind. The man had noticed her as he walked by and could tell the lady was blind because her Seeing Eye dog lay quietly underneath the seats in front of her throughout the entire flight. He could also tell she had flown this very flight before because the pilot approached her, and calling her by name, said, "Kathy, we are in Sacramento for almost an hour. Would you like to get off and stretch your legs?" The blind lady replied, "No thanks, but maybe Buddy would like to stretch his legs." Picture this: All the people in the gate area came to a complete standstill when they looked up and saw the pilot walk off the plane with a Seeing Eye dog! The pilot was even wearing sunglasses. People scattered. They not only tried to change planes, but they were trying to change airlines! True story... Have a great day and remember... THINGS AREN'T ALWAYS AS THEY APPEAR. A DAY WITHOUT LAUGHTER IS A DAY WASTED!!!

PM sent, too.

Hit the wrong button, sorry. I am going to lose some weight by not eating so much today or tomorrow and just stay home and enjoy the football games. Wife had back surgery so we are not going out nor have any friends over as we have in past years. Just keep it quiet and simple and enjoy the games.

I have to lose some weight.

I am using a view of what a bass sees as he/she attacks a crawfish. I also love to eat crawfish. My license plate says CRAWFSH. Crawfish are the happiest animals on the planet. They get their tails pinched and their heads sucked.

Looks nice. In the About Caleb section do you think you should use some short paragraphs with more white space so that it is easier to read? Can you have a color photo of yourself with a nice size bass? Otherwise, I like it.

Yes, Gaston is a great crankbait lake, In fact, whatever hit one of my favorite crankbaits last year while we fished in the snow is still heading north. I could not turn the fish so I believe it was a stripper. If it was a bass it as a very b-i-g bass. But it took the crank and headed out of Popular Creek and never looked back. The line popped, probably from his teeth.

Soft sided one are always good. I have started using a gym bag. Soft sides; lightweight; and you can put a lot of stuff in it but not too much so you don't bring more tackle than you need. Check out BPS web site for soft sided tackle systems and consider them.

What is your strength? Finesse? Power? If finesse, consider finesse baits and tackle. If power, do the same. Do you need topwaters? Buzzbaits? Poppers? Do you fish during the winter? If so, do you need pointers and jigs? Do you fish in structure? Jigs, plastics, wacky and Texas rig tackle. Do you fish deep? Carolina rigs; deep running cranktbaits; lipless crankbaits. Do you need any jigs? Do you like Chatterbaits? Want to try some tiungston weights? Do you like the new swimbaits? Just think how you want to fish and what tackle will help you and then have some fun and use that gift card.

It is very interesting to read the posts and see the pictures. Thanks for having the site, Glen. I go to it more than ever and "save" a number of the posts to read over the winter. Have a safe New Year.

I have some Basstrix minnows that I use for drop shotting and I guess they bounce all around since they are hollow. Only used them one time but plan on fishing them on the drop shot rig a lot more in 2008. They are some beautiful baits.

Glad you had a good trip. Sounds like the jig bit was on. Are you going to try Buggs? Let us know.

Ditto!