burleytog

The article said that sometime in the near future, someone like Ike or KVD (doubtful) would probably sign a big-time deal with a sponsor like Nike. I could see Ike, Reese, or Swindle signing such a deal, but I don't think you would ever see KVD sign a deal like that. Assuming, of course, that the Elite Series continues to get good coverage on ESPN.

I would love to fish with Ish. He seems like he would be really fun to be around. I started to post a question about the show he did with Roland Martin, but I didn't want to put Ish on the spot.

Wal Mart is phasing out any merchandise that isn't making money. They have eliminated gun sales in a great many stores. I visit two stores on a regular basis. My local WM and the one in my in-law's hometown. My local store hasn't been restocking their high-end reels (Daiwa, Shimano) over the last year. That I can understand and they have had the same reels for at least the last year. They still carry a good selection of baits, line, etc. The other store clearanced all of their premium reels late last summer and have not restocked them. I have heard from several sources that WM intends to transition into a more Target-like store. Which is bad news for outdoorsmen in general.

Got the BASSMaster ProGuide today and it has an article about what some of the top pros make from their sponsorship deals. The numbers are, quite simply, mind-boggling. They listed six and here they are. Skeet Reese - $600 000 Gerald Swindle - $515 000 KVD - $500 000 Jason Quinn - $400 000 Ike - $370 000 (more before he lost his Ranger sponsorship after last year's Classic) Marty Stone - $320 000 I was surprised that Reese gets more than an established angler like KVD.

3 or 4" Mr Twister in pumpkinseed or white on a 1/8 oz unpainted leadhead OR a Rebel Craw.

This was brought up at our meeting tonight. About 95% of our membership owns boats. We need more non-boaters, but most people think that you have to own a boat in order to join a club. Nothing could be further from the truth.

I do enjoy floating the river in my Old Town, but when it comes to lakes, I like to fish standing up. And while my Discovery is quite stable, it ain't quite that stable.

Luckily I didn't have 'that' trip last year (came close once) and it something that won't happen again. Time to find room in my boat for a spare battery.

Well, that was $3 less than well spent. :-/ Only took 4 rods with me today and fished the rig filled with the X-Tex the most. I don't think soaking it for 6 weeks in water would help it any.

Glad to see someone was having some luck. Good way to break in a new reel.

If he is referring to the lake I think he is referring to, there are only 4 or 5 people total who throw swimbaits and I am one of them. That number might be increasing a bit as the local tackle shop started stocking some big swimbaits. Luckily everyone is cheap and refuse to pay $20-30 for a bait. The fish in that lake see a steady diet of spinnerbaits from the bass fishermen. They also see a constant flow of worms, corn, cheese, and salmon eggs. Again, I'm assuming that Peasey is referring to a specific body of water that we both fish. The main problem with this lake is that there isn't a lot of structure or cover. It is a municipal reservoir and they do a good job of keeping the banks cleaned up. I've been thinking of sneaking a few PVC attractors up there.

I originally watched about half of the first season, missed a couple of shows and figured I wouldn't waste my time. Decided last year to start watching again. Then I did the same thing as you Fisher. I ended up getting the first season, went through that pretty quickly. Went through the second season quickly as well. But watching two seasons at once really burned me out. The premiere two weeks ago was the first time I had watched 24 since Day 5 ended.

12 gauge.

UVA? I'd sooner wear a nasty LSU hat.

I stand corrected. Just checked my spools of #6 and #10. The 6 is 0.010 and the 10 is 0.011.

My friend and I decided to hit the water today. Nice warm day, albeit a bit on the windy side. But def. a great Jan. day to at least wet a line. Decided to take his boat as the lights on my trailer have been on the fritz. Unload, lower the TM, no power. Yep, battery dead. Had been on the charger for a good while. About 3 years old, so it's gone. Switch the TM over to the cranking battery and decide to fish for at least a while. Had to break through 1/2" ice to get out into the main body of the lake. Fished the sunny bank for a while with little success. The wind made it quite difficult to fish as slowly as we needed to. Headed up the lake just a bit, both main forks were covered in 3/4-1" of ice with some open water along the edges. Water temp was hanging around 37*. Wind started picking up to the point of almost creating whitecaps. Figured we'd better head in. At which point the cranking battery died. :'( Electric only lake, but we tried the gas motor. Not enough juice to turn it over. So we broke out the paddles and started paddling into the wind. 30 minutes later we made it to the somewhat sheltered shore. Where we found 1" ice from the bank out 20 yards. Grabbed a dead tree and used it as a push pole. One on the stern with the pole, the other on the bow with a paddle breaking ice. That lasted about 20 minutes and we moved about 50 yards. At that pace we might have made it back to the launch by 9PM (I had to be at work by 7). We gathered all of our gear, tied the boat up, and headed back to the truck. Went from there to Wal Mart, bought a new battery (hoping it had a good charge), came back and put the batt in the boat. Had just enough power to run the TM for 45 seconds. Just a surface charge. Sat there for a bit considering our options. Thought about driving the 20 minutes to my place to get one of my batteries, but then it dawned on me. Try the new battery as a cranking battery. It didn't have enough juice to run the TM, but it had enough to start the motor. Took a while to warm up and then we were off to the ramp. Took us a total of 2.5 hours to get back after the battery died. Crap happens. And the year can only get better.

I played with the Steez and Stella at BPS last week. Nice reels, but... :'(

Looks like my living room over the last couple of weeks. Nothing but Top Ramen and water for me for a while. :-[

A free catalog is a benefit? Wow, I must be a super preferred member as I usually get 2-3 master catalogs each season. I can't believe they actually expect people to pay for their catalogs in the stores. I usually get 2-3 of every edition.

I have been working on a similar design myself. It gets old having my wife or co-worker hold the spoon when I refill my casting reels.

Baits: Super Duper Flatfish Kastmaster spoon Rooster Tail Panther Martin Mepps Aglia Berkley Powerbait or Power Eggs Some people use cheese or corn. With the Powerbait or salmon eggs, use a small hook (#8 at most) on 4 lb. test with a small split shot (bb size) attached about 8-12" up from the hook. OR, use without the split shot when drifting. With the other baits I listed, retrieve across or at an angle against the current. Pay special attention to current breaks (such as rocks standing above the water that create a patch of slack water downstream). Use the smaller lures (can't remember the Super Duper numbers, but I use an F4 and F5 flatfish quite often). With the other baits listed, I like then around 1/16 or 1/32 oz. As for colors, I use gold and silver most often. I have a couple of secret colors that I just can't reveal. I will also use a small floating Rapala minnow or a 2 3/8" Yo-Zuri Pin's Minnow. Both in silver/black or silver/blue. One thing to consider is that all the trout I catch are hatchery fish. If you are fishing for wild fish, you will have to be a lot more selective with your lures and more careful with your presentation. I would use a 750/1000 series spinning reel on a 5'6 or 6' L or UL rod. I like the BPS Microlite Graphite and the Fenwich Eagle GT rods. You don't want a noodle, but you do want something with enough whip to the tip to throw the light lures. I like 2 and 4 lb. test Super Silver Thread and 4 lb. test Vanish flouro.

One thing to consider is that one manufacturer's 6 lb. test will be different than another manufacturer's 6 lb. test. I know that 8 lb. test P-Line CX is 0.009" in diameter. 6 lb. Yo-Zuri Hybrid UltraSoft is also 0.009" in diameter. 10 lb. test Berkley XL is 0.011" in diameter. I tend to judge lines by their diameter rather than the listed lb. test rating. I consider 0.007-0.009" diameter lines to be just right for smallie fishing.

I have caught three 3+ lb. smallies. The first was around 1990 in the New River fishing under the bridge in Prince WV. Caught it on a Storm (I think) minnow. Can't remember much about the fish, but I do remember it gave me all I could handle on a small Johnson spincast combo. Only fish I ever caught on that lure as I lost it that same day to a much bigger fish. I was using a snap swivel, fish took bait and straightened swivel. I caught the other two last year. The first in early April on a 1/4 oz. Strike King Rocket Shad. Fishing off a house sized rock in the river next to my place of employment. Had spent about an hour walking the river bank without a bite. Threw across a patch of swift water and eased it through the current. Big pig of a smallie hit it like a ton of bricks. Didn't think I was ever going to get it in. Second pig came on Memorial Day. I was floating the river with my wife and friends. Threw a 3" pumpkinseed grub on a 1/8 oz. jighead under an overhanging tree. She hit almost immediately. Thought I was hung up, gave another tug and she came out of the water. Not a long fight, but an exciting one nonetheless.

The only bad thing about the fishing shows on Vs is that they run the same episodes four or five times a week. I have my DVR set up to record all showings of Bill Dance Outdoors, Fishing with Roland Martin, On the Water with Hank Parker, The Bass Pros, and so on and so forth. I usually end up deleting about half of them without watching. BDO is the worst for this. At least they show a good variety of Roland's shows.

Anyone else as surprised as I was that Mr Bluetooth is Jack's brother?