WookieeJedi

Bama Rig, still no fish on it. I may correct that in the morning though.

Never fished any of the uptown spots. Those lagoons and St. John's are good places to fish, right in the city. The guy who won this year weighed in a 5 pounder.

I must have missed the memo telling us to stop using slugs, I have never stopped fishing them.

A few hundred acres of prime real estate in Costa Rica. Live there for 6 months before deciding how to spend the rest.

I would rather hook one and lose it. That way I know exactly where to find her again.

I keep one of those plastic retractable box cutters in my box. There's all sorts of stuff you can do with soft, flexible plastic. Some of those creature baits are just asking for it.

I got some other stuff from them too. It ships straight from China, so they take a little longer too get here. When I ordered mine, there were 3 color choices, they may be running low.

Those old Bang-O-Lures were special. Bagley's really made some good lures, I don't know how they managed to tank.

Sometimes the old flotation will hold water, and weigh down the boat. My first rig had that problem. Previous owner had cracked the bottom, then repaired it witout drying out the inside. I had to take it all out and replace it. I used some blocks of waterproof foam to replace it rather than use the spray-in stuff, since that was what was holding water in the first place. Maybe the spray-in stuff is better now, but I would find out first.

I keep up a report on Lake Claiborne at the La. Sportsman forums. I'm wookieejedi there too.

So far, Northstar and War Eagle seem to be pretty popular. I'm looking to get into spinnerbait fishing, I have held a baseless bias against them for years.

My lake went from 2 ft down from pool to 18" over. All the while, the water temp continued to rise. Confused a lot of fish, and even more fishermen.

D'Arbonne is a good lake, I had a house there for 4 years. I fished it nearly every day. A lot of it gets overlooked, especially the lower end.

When I was 15, I caught a crappie that weighed just over 4. We were slow trolling shad raps behind rubber core sinkers on the bottom in 35 ft of water, targeting stripers. I thought the lure had snagged some moss or line at first. I had never caught a crappie before, so I didn't know what I had, I just knew it didn't fight much, so I wasn't really impressed with it. Now I know how big that fish was, and understand why my dad got all excited. My favorite "trophy catch" has to be the 2 back-to-back 9.5lb hybrid stripers I caught when I was 17. I got them both on 8lb-test on very long casts into breaking fish. I spent half the morning fighting 2 fish.

Looks like the folks at Mustad have caught another break. That fish could have cost them some $.

With a boat like this, your most important consideration is the motor. It is the most expensive thing to repair or replace on the entire rig, and without it, you are going nowhere fast. Everything else can be dealt with fairly easily. Check inside for any signs of deterioration, particularly at the transom. It's a nice-looking boat!

I have never fished a tournament, but I can understand the mindset behind getting some fish in the box quickly. That's bound to do a lot for your confidence, and take some stress out of the equation. It would seem that fishing for fun involves an entirely different decision-making process. Last week, if I was fishing for pure weight, I never would have gone after those shallow fish with the frog, I would have targeted the post-spawn fish out in the creekbed. Those are plenty easy to catch and there's lots of them. The frog bite is usually less productive, but more exciting. As it turns out, I got into some big fish after all, but even if they had been dinks, there's no way I'm pulling off a frog bite to go fish a Carolina rig. Those fish will be there all summer, the good frog bite you only get once or twice a year.

Chotard is across the river, in what should be MS. The river changed course after state lines were drawn. Most of Chotard and Eagle lake are in LA. I have heard good things about the fishing in Chotard.

Have you ever fished Chotard? I have been wanting to make a trip over there.

Some spinnerbaits are designed with a twist in the front so you can use a snap. I think the bent-wire form is used more because it doesn't tend to drag on weeds as much.

Beautiful work!

I have been told they deplete oxygen in ponds. I know this, whenever I see a pond with a bunch of big carp, it is rarely a good bass pond.

They do grow up too fast, but that's why we had 4 of 'em! I still remember all their first fish, and first bass. My oldest got his first bass last year, a 3lb spot, and he got it on a cricket and 1/2 a cane pole. I was on the other end of the dock videoing my 5 y/o catch his first fish, you can hear the commotion in the background. It was almost too much! My 8 y/o girl got her first bass last month, with the added bonus of it being in the NOLA City Park lagoon. Plus, I still have the 5 yet to get his first bass, and a girl not yet 2 who hasn't caught anything yet. It's like hitting the lottery over and over.

Nice fish!

Welcome!