burleytog

Sensitivity is entirely subjective. One man's shad fart detector is another man's rug beater.

The Tierra is just a TD Advantage with a different paint job. Compared to the Curado 200DHSV? The Tierra is a bit smaller. One has magnetic braking, the other centrifugal. Both are good reels.

IMO, the LTX is the best $150 or less rod on the market.

Do they check your vehicle for guns before you enter?

I just hope he can keep this pace. Sucks that the season is a week old and I've not yet seen an entire game.

Like others have said frogs, but most importantly do not use Fluorocarbon if you do not want to re-tie often! You need to constantly retie, Note after catching a fish definately because bass teeth can really shred Fluoro. Flourocarbon is notable for it's resistance to abrasion.

Roland, I think there's one particular bait that you will find very very interesting. Just wish I could tell you about it. OK, I'll spill the beans. I can't wait to fish that 3" Anaconda.

The only time I'm not using flourocarbon is at night. Hopefully one of these days someone will infuse a lightning bug's *** into the flouro matrix.

BPS's shipping has slowly degraded into a farce. I've been ordering from BPS for 20 years and they used to be great. My last order shipped pretty quickly, but they managed to screw the order total up. Still waiting on a resolution to that one. I don't know why they send an email offering $20 off your next order and then remove that $20 discount when they print the invoice.

To say the least...

This is what you missed out on. Thanks to Sure Life JJ's Magic Rage Tail Atlantic Mapping Shimano Yamaha Ol' Nellie Baits Megabait Megastrike RMR Industries (makers of KVD Line & Lure and Bow to Stern)

Wish I could have had the time to spend a day on the water with you.

Turn to page 42 of the April 2009 issue and enjoy! :-?

I only snapped around 300 photos. Figured I'd leave a few for the video.

http://blog.al.com/breaking/2009/04/slideshow_tornado_damage_at_la.html Some amazing photos there.

They would never let me in a place like that.

I'm not good at summarizing things, so I'll lay down the whole week... Met 5bass on I-81 at around 10:30 last Saturday night. Loaded my junk in his truck and we hit the road. We stopped and watered some bushes along the way. Glenn called somewhere between Knoxville and Nashville to let us know that I-24 in Nashville was screwed up. We managed to follow the detour signs for a while, but got caught by a late sign and managed to get turned around. We got our saving grace via a Nashville police officer. I drew the short straw and had to go get directions. Mind you this was at 3AM or so. He was parked at an on-ramp. I approached slowly from the rear and found him asleep in his car. I had to knock on the window twice to wake him. Once he woke up, his directions started with, 'Drive through the hood.' At that point I almost stopped him, but I figured he wouldn't be that mean. In the end, his directions got us headed in the right direction. We rolled into the Kenlake Lodge parking lot around 6AM Sunday morning. As we drove past the lodge, I told 5bass to slow down as I thought I saw Medium Mike. I rolled down the window and yelled at the goofy looking guy sitting on a bench. It indeed was Medium Mike, who was followed by RW. After a quick meet & greet, 5bass pulled off what would end up being the first of many d**n fine boat parking jobs (Kenlake wasn't exactly set up for boaters). We went in to see if we could possibly check in a bit early, but got rebuffed. Gave them our number so they could call when the room was ready. Couldn't raise Jimzee on the phone, so we piddled around for just a bit. Saw 5bass drag his phone out and dial a number. Next thing I know he shoved his phone in my face and said it was Jimzee. Wrong! It was Jimzee's wife. She gave me Pitchinkid's number and we managed to touch base with the campground posse. Rolled down to the marina to start rigging rods and then head out. While we were rigging, had a quick meet & greet with several of the group. Jimzee, Speedbead, Fluke and LBH stopped by for a bit. We finally got the boat in the water and started to head across the bay by the marina when the phone rang. It was the hotel telling us our room was ready. Great timing, no? Hell with it, we're going fishing. 5bass got the first fish of the trip, a decent dink on a trap. We fished around there for a while, then hit the main lake and headed south. Saw a decent little bay and decided to duck in for a while. We had run about 200' of pea gravel when I felt a tick on the line and set the hook. Didn't think it was much of a fish at first although 5bass said it was a good one after it came to the surface. Got it in the boat, put it on the scale and found out it was a good 5 lb. KY Lake bass. After that I was ready to head home, but 5bass wanted to fish a while longer. My next cast resulted in a nice 10 lb. limb. :-[ We fished a few more hours, I think we each got three fish each. All of mine came on a jig, 5bass junk-fished his way through the morning. Came back to the hotel, got settled in, met a few people, then had the smallest $13 buffet I've ever seen. By that time, more people were rolling in, so we spent the afternoon in the lodge shooting the bull. Pretty much everyone met in the back lobby to get our gift bags and tell lies. 5bass was wiped out and went back to the room to pass out. I thought I was a sound sleeper, but he takes the cake. Had a quick snack with everyone, then I hit the sack. Being up for 30 hours caught up with me. Monday morning we awoke to cold air, rain and snow. Had my first KY Eggs Benedict at the lodge restaurant. There weren't many brave souls Monday AM. Most of us congregated in the back lobby to trade stories and whatnot. By 2 or so, Jimzee, 5bass and I were stir-crazy and decided to at least hit the water and fish around the lodge for a while. We braved the snow and wind and managed to catch a few fish. Well, 5bass and I caught a few fish. Jimzee got the skunk. I nailed mine on a carolina rigged Space Monkey. Eventually got numb, so we headed back to the lodge. Dinner was a 6:30, so we ran over to the Bayview building just in time for RW's burgers. Had a good time shooting the bull and listening to JJ and Big-O tell us about their products. After dinner, dick gave me quite the surprise. That sorry wretched had made me a rod, so we went back to the campground for a beer and the presentation of a d**n fine rod. Brian, can't thank you enough for that sweet stick. While we were at dinner, I switched my phone to silent mode so as to not interrupt the presentations. When we got back to the hotel, I forgot to switch the phone back to normal. So when cart and Jimzee tried to call me Tuesday morning, I didn't hear a d**n thing. I did wake up around 8, looked at my phone and saw a few missed calls. Felt like an ***. Hurried to get ready and then cart and I hit the water. That ride up the lake Tuesday morning may have been the most miserable I've ever been in a boat. There were 3-4' waves on the main lake and we were going 5-6 miles up the lake to Jonathan Creek. Forgot my toboggan in the room, so by the time we got to JC my scalp was frozen. IIRC, air temps were in the upper 30s and the wind was 10-20 out of the NW. Cart took me to school and I only managed to boat two dinks. We eventually got too d**n cold to fish, so again we had a nice boat ride back to the marina. Not nearly as rough as the earlier ride, but still bad enough. Cart's Champion gave a nice ride though. That spring seat saved my spine a few times. Napped for a while Tues. afternoon, then headed back to the Bayview building for Speedbead's chicken dinner. Ate way too much thanks to Deb's gut busting desert, felt like crap all night. Had a little entertainment and whatnot. Wednesday 5bass and I headed across the lake for the first time. We drove up the lake a bit to Hester's Marina so we could have a straight shot across the lake via a cross-channel. The marina launch was a little more rustic than I've ever used. Got the boat in just fine, but when I went to park the truck & trailer, I managed to get mired up in at least 6" of mud. After 15 minutes of throwing mud all over the place, I managed to get the truck out and parked. Felt like a real turd after covering 5bass's truck with a good 60 lbs. of mud. We ran over to Duncan Bay and 5bass got a nice 3 lb. keeper on the first point we hit. We each caught a couple in that pocket. Sadly that was it for the day for me. 5bass was killing them on an xr50, but I couldn't get bit to save my life. I may have gotten 6 bites all day, boating two of those and breaking one off. Ran into Jimzee, Pitchinkid and Speedbead, then 5bass proceeded to explode the xr50 on the trolling motor head. About that time the wind decided to pick up. We found a few protected areas and 5bass snagged a nice one off a fallen tree using a fluke. I saw the fish come out and hammer the fluke. We decided to hit the next bay up and ventured out onto the main lake where we encountered some nice 3-4' rollers. Made for a rough ride up to Smith Bay. The place was full of boats and very little cover from the wind. I was really sweating the ride back across the lake. Thankfully the wind slacked a bit just before we headed back across the lake. The main lake was still plenty rough, but not as rough as it would have been an hour previous. After the fun and wet ride, we fished around Hester's for a bit before taking out and heading back to the lodge for dinner. Wed. night's dinner at the lodge was pretty good. The fried okra was d**n good. Almost wish I hadn't filled up on chicken. Bassinsoldier gave us a good laugh before dinner out on the patio (got the pictures to prove it ;D ). Bob Lusk gave a good presentation, then it was raffle time. I think Glenn was trying to tell me that I stunk as I managed to nab 12 bottles of JJ's Magic in the raffle. :-? CJ had a great night, cleaning up on Shimano reels. Thursday morning I headed out with ShortMediumLong Mike. I pieced together a decent morning, but Mike couldn't buy a bite. Morning started off a little cool, but the day ended up being the best we'd had, at least from a weather standpoint. Mike and I headed down the lake a bit and fished a nice little pocket. I pulled two decent fish off a little stretch of bank with a football jig. Ran into Glenn and Keri and they gave us a few tips. Saw a fat red fox along the shore, but couldn't get a good photo. Rain was in the forecast and once it started coming down a good bit, we headed back to the marina. As luck would have it, that was pretty much all the rain we saw. > We were on our own for dinner Thurs. night. A few of us headed up to Murray for dinner at Tom's Grill. Great conversation and brainstorming ensued. ;D Friday morning, 5bass and I loaded up and headed home. May have been one of the most miserable drives I've ever experienced. We drove through rain the entire way home. We were in Nashville and on I-40 when the tornado hit Murfreesboro. The rain got so hard at times the road was barely visible. That d**n system followed us all the way through TN. I would have hated to have been behind us before we stopped and pulled the boat plugs. Some people got quite the shock when the bilge started. ;D I didn't catch nearly enough fish, but all in all it was a good week. Got to meet some great people and have some good laughs. I took some great photos (right CJ?) and got to fine-tune my jigging and c-rigging. Wanted to get bit on a crankbait, but it just wasn't in the cards. I'd like to thank 5bass for putting up with me, cart for being so great about my tardiness Tues. morning, LongMike for not throwing me out of the boat Thurs., Big-O for the advice, Booten again for the rod, Glenn for not banning me and Speedbead for the d**n fine chicken. I don't know where or when next year's trip is going to be, but I'll try like hell to get there. If for no other reason than to again teach everyone how to catch big fish.

Yes, but you aren't sponsored by Nitro and you also aren't fishing for large sums of money.

Screw that, I can't wait to see the fish's reaction to them, especially the super secret bait.

If you weren't on the water with Big-O, in the Kenlake Lodge lobby or in the Bayview building on Monday night, you're just going to have to wait.

Big-O gave those of us on the roadtrip an inside look on the latest and greatest from Strike King and Rage Tail. Some very very interesting baits are going to be hitting the market this year. That's about all I can say. One particular bait actually has me very excited. That's certainly a first.

GYBC Flappin' Hog

Yay for cryptic posts!

When the hell did postage go up to 44 cents?