Snakehead Whisperer

Maryland started this year. They also ask for a physical description (height, weight, hair color, etc.) At least they were buying licenses so the money can go back into the fishery.

Ah, thanks for clarifying. I do the saltwater registration yearly anyway, and I hold a Chesapeake license.

The $50 sport fishing decal for the Chesapeake allows anybody on your boat to fish, license or not right?

Washington DC is $10. Washington DC does not reciprocate any other states licenses (namely VA.) In other words, if you are fishing the Potomac from a boat or the Virginia shoreline across from DC, you must have a DC license. With Virginia and Maryland freshwater and tidal licenses I end up spending about $100 every year to fish all of the water in my area.

I'm cracking up over here imagining him calling the seller, then Bill Siemantel answers the phone and says "Duuude! It's a real signature."

The technique is tried and true. You can also rig them on something like this...

Maybe someone who knows what his signature looks like will chime in here. I don't have any idea whether it's real or not, but I wouldn't just assume it's fake without doing more research. It's a good read regardless. Enjoy.

That makes sense. Notice I said "while wearing them." I absolutely need my glasses to see, so putting them in my pocket is not an option for me. It's funny that I have a hard time understanding that some people only wear them when they need them, since I always need them thus always wear them.

I couldn't tell you whether that's authentic or not, but what makes you so sure that it's not? Folks signatures aren't always intelligible.

I really don't understand how one loses a pair of glasses while wearing them. I have been wearing prescription specs since I was a child and have never had them fall off of my head that I can remember, especially not into the water. I also don't use any type of safety cord with them either. Just bend the ear pieces to fit your head and call it a day (heat helps, use a hair dryer.)

They grow on trees out here too. The ones that fall to the ground are over ripe. I prefer these, but they're rare in the wild.

Fair enough. The problem I see is that it's still a popular misconception to many that harvesting the bigger fish is the right thing to do. Of all the bass I saw other anglers harvesting on the Potomac last year, most were 4 lbs. or larger (completely within the law.)

Ha... I love to read things in verbose detail. For some it can be overwhelming I suppose. I think I've read just about every thread on Tackle Underground. Perhaps I should have said "excruciatingly slow loading pages." The hardest thing for me when I learned to make handmade crankbaits was getting the ballasting correct. Once I learned to take it slow and check the displacement of every bait I made, it all fell into place. So, to the OP... learn how to ballast your baits if you want them to run true and not blow out.

There have actually been numerous studies that show that fish most definitely do feel pain, and most controlled studies reach these same results. How they interpret that pain, and whether it causes suffrage to the fish is a different question (nobody knows but the fish.) I do understand the logic of thinning the herd. I just choose to do so in a humane way. I've killed lots of fish in my life, so I too am guilty. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pain_in_fish

Those look top notch. Post pics of your catch.

Classic.

$150 with lenses at Warby Parker. http://warbyparker.com

A right handed spinning reel has the handle on the left. Baitcasters are the exception. AFAIK, the reason that baitcasters have the handle on the right side dates back to antiquity. On early baitcasters the handle would spin with the spool when casting, and for right handed people there was less obstruction to the spinning handles when placed on the right. This is also the reason that most baitcasters have 2 handles as opposed to one (the handle needed to be balanced while spinning. Not an issue on modern baitcasters.) I've also heard that early baitcasters had very little mechanical advantage, so it was preferred to reel with the strongest hand. I use almost exclusively lefty baitcasters because they build them now, but most of my older reels are right handed. Probably wouldn't buy a righty today though. There has been virtually no innovation in reel design for many, many years. It's probably one of the most overlooked aspects of fishing gear, in my opinion. Many of the design features of modern reels serve no purpose other than to be familiar to anglers. There are exceptions of course, but they are few and far between.

I am right handed, and prefer left handed baitcasters. I use both though.

No prob. Hope it works well for you. Post pics.

Sometimes bass fishing cracks me up. There are infinite ways to rig a bait (duh.) Bass fishing has borrowed a number of these rigs from other types of fishing (example: the Alabama rig is just a glorified umbrella rig that striped bass fisherman have been using for years, with the exception that you cast it. But whether this rig is really 'castable' is a matter of opinion, I suppose.) It's just hilarious to me how bass fisherman like to think that bass are somehow only suckers for 'bass fishing rigs.' BTW, the neko rig looks interesting.

If you prep it right, I'm sure any paint will work. It's the top coat I would be concerned most about. I've done reels with Devcon 2 Ton epoxy topcoat that turned out pretty good, but you need a rotisserie to get an even coat. It also builds up pretty thick which might not work with a compact baitcaster. Did my Abu C4 and it worked fine though. BTW, I used regular latex based airbrush paints... I think Createx.

There are so many variables when making baits that you could never cover them in one thread. The website that I linked to above is a great community where much of this information can be found. I would advise against joining the forum and asking these same questions there though, as the information has already been covered numerous times. Do a search there, kick back and read the threads that are of interest to you. All of these things are covered in excruciating verbose detail.

If you meant to say 'pierce' through, then yes. The tool is called an iki spike or ikijime, but you can use an awl or a sharp knife. I have always called it the 'icky stick' because when I was a kid it seemed icky, so naturally I thought that's what it was named for You are basically piercing through the flesh and puncturing through the brain, causing immediate brain death. It's at the end of the spine between the lateral line bend and eyes. If done right the fish will have a spasm and arch it's back, then quickly lose it's color. It's probably best to have somebody show you first, or look up fish anatomy to locate the brain. It may take several tries the first time you do it. IMHO not only is it inhumane to keep a fish alive for consumption (e.g. tossing it on the shore, in a bucket, etc.) but it also ruins the flavor of freshly caught fish because the flesh will become contaminated with various acids, etc. This is possibly the reason that some claim that bass is mushy or flavorless.

I've always used the 'icky stick' to dispatch a fish. It is quick and to the point, and seems to be more humane than any other method I've found. They die almost instantly.