Sam

Muddy, Congrats on your achievement. I know it was difficult but you did it and you should be proud. Now reward yourself and go out and buy a new bass boat! ;D

One more piece of advice: Do not worry about the amount of weight you lift; the reps are the most important. Use a weight that is comfortable and do 10 to 15 reps for three sets, each, resting about 60 seconds between reps. Like 15 pound dumbells until you can move up to the 20 pound dumbells. Lift up and down for a full range of motion; don't cheat. You can then increase your weight as you develope your muscles. And don't forget your legs. You are only as good as your legs. So work on your leg strength, too. When I played sports in high school, I would work on upper body one day and lower body the next and then mix them up every now and then to break up the routine. Your school coaches can also give you some tips, especially the "movement specific" exercises to help improve your moves for specific sports (and fishing, too). Have fun and remember, if your muscles hurt your body is telling you something. Rest and then go back to your workout schedule.

Yes, I go to a personal trainer now to try to drop 10 pounds for my son's wedding in July. I ache all over today but I feel great. Only problem is that I keep my stuff in my locker at the fitness center and my wife has a fit since I do not bring it home to wash it after every use. I do wear a fresh tee-shirt every time I work out (try for three times a week) so I don't smell that bad, ;D Remember, Be Thin, Be Happy!

The raindrops cause confusion on the top of the water which will help mask your bait. The bass will not hold tight to cover and start to roam. The barometric pressure starts to drop causing the fish to feed. I have had some of the best days on the water fishing in the rain. Get wet? Sure, why not? No problem; just dress for it and take along a change of clothes, shoes and socks. And remember to remove the plug when you trailer home to let the water drian out of the boat. Have fun.

The fish may not be able to graduate from high school or hold a full-time job, but they do know how to survive and that is what makes it fun to hunt and catch them. I think bass are smart in their own way and that is why I agree...we pay thousands of dollars to try to find and catch them and then we throw them back. I have always said bass are smarter than us and I still stand by that statement, in a bass sort of way.

I have caught many on the Chatterbait but the one I remember the most is the one I lost in a tournament last year which would have given me my five fish limit. It was my fault, totally. I did not relaize he was on until it was too late as I was looking around the boat for something. He made one nice jump when I set the hook; took one look at me; and spit out the Chatterbait. I have not used a trailer hook but will do so in future tournaments. As for trailers, I have not used anything other than what comes with the bait but I llike the fluke idea. Thanks for sharing it.

I thought I had some black grape worms and I purchased them in Virginia at Green Top. I can't find them as they are somewhere in the 500 pounds of plastics I have around here. But I have seen them and have them. Somewhere.

Great question with a lot of different answers. Here is my two cents for you to ponder. The guys will add to the info. 1. Take anise seeds (aniseed) and mix them with cooking oil and heat it up in a pot on the stove. Let mixture cool and place your plastics in a plastic bag with the solution. Soak 24-48 hours before going fishing. 2. Consider using Jack's Juice as the attractant. Nice spray and I like the garlic flavor. 3. Ever think of putting some vanilla extract on your plastics? What about anise extract from the bottle? Use an eyedropper to spread the extract on your bait. Give it a try and see what happens. 4. Mega-Strike is an excellent gel to use as is Carolina Lunker Sauce. 5. Soak a cotton ball with your favorite scent and stuff it into a tube. You can always spray, rub or soak your plastics for 24 to 48 hours before you go fishing if you want the scent to impregnate the bait. Other than for your wife or mother complaining about the smell there should be no problems. Your hands will smell great for at least three days after using the baits! Good luck.

That photo would be a great engagement picture for the newspaper! I think your girlfriend is a "keeper"!

Did anyone receive a message when trying to log into this forum that you needed to verify your password? I received the message and followed the e-mail reply instructions but all verification tries failed. Then, I closed the web page and logged back on to this site and everything worked correctly. Any ideas what was occurring? Has an outside source gotten into this forum and is playing games? Just wondering.

Who knows how we would have fished the lake? It is always a crap shoot. We would have tried a few things in your tourny, such as: 1. Fish exactly as you did if the bass were in pre-spawn and ready to move onto the beds. 2. Fish shallow and bring the crankbait or C-Rigged lizzard from the shore back to the boat. 3. Fish both shallow and deep if the bass were off the beds and roaming using topwaters, tubes, finesse worms, a spinnerbait and a crankbait to try to find out what they wanted. First club tourney this year my friend won it as we caught the largemouth bass 15 to 20 feet from the shoreline in 5 to 7 feet of water and along the weedlines in five feet of water using Bomber 300s in shad and crawfish colors. Second club tourney my partner caught 5 (I missed one; landed three; and let my buddy keep the front of the boat where he caught two more that would have been mine) by fishing the grass lines in 1, 2 and 3 feet of water as they were still on the beds or starting to roam. We were throwing a topwater shad colored RICO all day, altough I did throw a few frogs and he tried a Chuggbug. Those RICOs are worth the $20 price tag. So you did nothing wrong. In the first tournament we had to stay in the creek as the lake was too rough and we just lucked into a pattern that worked. In the second tourney we caught all fish by Noon and then the bite stopped for us. First tournament my buddy placed first; I was 7th. Second tourney my friend placed 5th and I was 15th. I still have dreams about the ones that got away, six in all. Just remember that Ike and Kevin don't win all of their tournaments,either! And bass fishing can be a very humbling experience. A lot of fun but humbling, too.

Now you know the fun of the buzzbait. I love to buzz early in the AM and then again during the day. Nothing like a big hit; even the "swallow" hits without the splash are exciting. Use a trailer hook to increase your hook-up ratio. Make sure the trailer hook is the same size or one size smaller than the buzzbait hook. And "change" the bait, too. Use a pliers and "tweak" the blade's end towards the rearof the bait along the shaft's end so that it makes a different squeek. Experiment with this as it will mean your buzzbaits will have a different sound than other buzzbaits. Also, if the bass strikes at your buzzbait and misses it, have a Senko ready to throw to the same spot immediately. Sometimes they will hit the Senko after missing the buzzbait. In rivers and ponds, you can use a smaller size bait; in lakes a larger size bait. But I have caught large and small bass on both the large and small sizes so it may not make any difference. Don't forget the "dual bladed" buzzbait or the inline buzzbaits, too. Have fun.

Justfishin, Have you fished the Rappahannock River around Route 360? If so, please let me know as I have a tournament on the river in June. As for I-95 between Richmond and the Tri-Cities, you are so correct. It is a dangerous stretch of highway. When I go to the Tri-Cities area I usually go Route 288 or I-295 if to Hopewell. Be safe.

Fished this weekend with a friend. He threw a RICO the entire time and caught 8 nice bass. I used a Pop-R and lost one on it; then went to a RICO and caught three keepers. The RICO was slimmer than the Pop-R and had a nicer "water blow" when it was popped. So, in my humble opinion, I am going to throw the RICO, then a Chugbug then a Sammy and then a Spook and then a Pop-R or similiar topwater. But they all work well in the right conditions.

Keep the rod tip pointed towards the water and using your hand flex the rod tip to make the lure "pop" and "dart" on the surface. Fast flexes make the lure go faster and pop louder. Slow flexes make the lure go slower and softer. I like the RICO for its slim body but the Pop-R is also good. Each topwater has a different "pop" to it and you then have to decide to pop it loud and fast or soft and slow. Good luck.

Justfishin, I agree. Sounded nasty but it was not meant to be. This guy knew he was in the wrong; imperiled all of us on the road; and could not care if he drove anyone off the road as he was on the move so just get out of his way. I-95 is the Indy 500 of the east coast. Sometimes I have to go 80 to get out of the way and let the morons pass me. Other times I have to go 75 just to keep up with traffic. It is very dangerous on the roads, as we all know, and I just refuse to let one driver who did not care for me or others safety to stop me from my appointment. Also, I did not read about him being killed in the accident in today's Richmond Times-Dispatch so he is probably in the hospital in Fredericksburg, all banged up but on the way to recovery.

Fltech, I called my friend who is a Virginia State Trooper and he told me to go on and that the accident had alrady been called in and that help was on the way.

Sorry to hear of his passing. You have to grow up in NOLA to really appreciate these guys. I remembe sitting too close to the stage when Al Hurt had his club in the Quarter when in high school and was blown away by the sound of his trumpet. Man, could ole Al play. Later.

While driving at 70 MPH in the middle lane of I-95 this morning heading North towards Fredericksburg from Richmond, I looked into my rear view mirror and saw a white sedan traveling at a very high rate of speed bearing down on me as he had just swerved into the middle lane from the hammer lane. I thought he was going to hit me when he swerved into the bumper lane, passed me and the car in front of me and then swung back behind a vehicle ahead of the car in front of me, crossing the middle lane and going into the hammer lane. There was a vehicle in the hammer lane right behind me so he had no choice but to go into the bumper lane and then swing back into the hammer lane after he passed us. After he got into the hammer lane he lost control of his car, which must have been going at least 90 to 95 MPH, went onto the shoulder of the interstate, did a magnificient flip, with parts of the car flying off the car and into the air, just like a NASCAR crash, and then he hit a tree. The car hit the tree in a perpendicular position as the car was standing up dragging its rear on the ground when he flew off the road, meaning he did not hit the tree head-on, but the front of the car hit the tree while standing up from the flip. I saw him bounce around in the driver's seat but he was not moving. The two cars in front of me stopped but I kept going as I had an 11 AM meeting that I did not want to be late. And what could I do anyway? There were at least five other vehicles that witnessed the crash so I just went on my way as these other vehicles stopped to offer help. I am going to look in the newspaper tomorrow to see if he survived. It was one spectular crash and I was right there, no more than 30 feet from his flip, when he hit the tree. Oh well, one less stuipd person on the road now.

LBH, I bet you look pretty in Teal blue. And where can I get one of these things???????

Redline Robert nailed it. The use of life jackets usually prevails in all bass tournaments, from club to the Classic. If any boater in our club tournaments gets a ticket for speeding or any other safety violtation, his boat and his fishing partner are disqualified. Simple as that!

Ike is a great guy and a fantastic ambassador for bass fishing. So he had a temper tantrum and kicked the flag in the water. Big deal in today's society with what is going on, potically. I went balistic this weekend when I lost a bass in my tournament. I even said a few nasty words. And the money on-the-line in our club tournaments do not come close to the money paid in the Classic. So we all get frustrated and handle the situations in different methods. What Ike did out of passion and the love of the sport is better than the Mexicans burning our flag at their rallies; what Sharpton and Jackson do to our country; and that horrible rap music disrespecting our beautiful country and individuals. Ike is the best and I love attending his seminars; reading his fishing tips; and watching his DVDs. Now, you guys DO NOT BUY IKE'S DVDs. There is too much good information in them to make you a better fisherman and I don't want the competition. And neither do the bass and the PETA people. Now sit down at a beautiful wood table and eat a cow.

When ther is "big" money on the line in some tournaments, polygraphs can be used to make sure everything is in order and there has been no cheating. Sometimes the participants are selected at random. Othertimes, participants are selected at random along with those who are expected of cheating. The test can produce stress and a false positive is not surprising. The use of the polygraph is nothing more than a deterrant so those in the tournament will not cheat. Statistics will show that very few individual bass fishermen cheat in tournaments. But it has happened in the past and it will continue into the future when there is money being paid for the top fishermen. It is costly to have the tests at a tournament but sometimes the tournament committees want to have the test available to make sure their tournament has been fair and honest. Now, if we castrate the cheaters that will definately stop all cheating in the future.

When the fry are around forget the bedded bass. You can use a baby bass color and throw small flukes, etc., into the grasslines and lilly pads. Those males will not take your bait, as stated above, while guarding their fry. I have hit one on the head last week and he just ignored the bait. But it was fun playing around with him as he guarded his nest. Be patient and within the next two weeks fishing will be back to normal in your favorite waters; or at least close to normal unless you have a second spawn.

With the full moon and the cold front moving through the bass probably fed the night before. So it was reaction strikes that you would want first thing in the morning, using topwaters such as a RICO (thinner than a Pop-R) or Zara Spook. Maybe a small buzzbait would have produced some results, too. With the clouds you need to use darker colored lures to match the surface background (looking up to the surface like a fish). Then, later in the day, around 10 or 11, you could throw crankbaits as search baits along the dropoffs or Senkos or Zoom finesse worms into the weedlines. By this time some bass are off the beds while others are still on the beds. In some places there is a second spawing season underway so maybe this is occurring in your area and the fish are back on the beds. There will probably be a "lull" in the action around Noon and then the bite can pick up in the late afternoon. And don't worry about getting wet. That is the fun part of fishing. You can get wet and dirty and go home as a success!