jomatty

lbh, i think other than Yera most of the world record chasers in cuba are there on a trip from the US. most of what i know comes from sowbelly but it seems like almost all of the rest of the cuban fishermen are more interested in catching dinner. im sure there are exceptions but it is so hard to get good equipment over there. most of the fishing is done with home made lures like worms cut from the bottom of rubber boots, from what it said in sowbelly. apparently lake hannabannilla (or something like that) had fish that could have gone for the record and altough some still believe it most consider the lake to be past its prime (again my only source for this is sowbelly). matt

my favorites are the handpoured ones i make. i use two main styles, one like a traditional chunk and one like the paca chunk. when swimming a jig i use yamamoto single tail grubs. i used to use a lot of single and double tail grubs but have started using the ones i handpour almost exclusively. if i was gonna buy one i would use the paca chunk and joes trailer chunk.

lake el salto may produce the most teens but it is unlikely in my opinion to break the record, at least not right now. i dont think it has ever produced a bass over 17 or 18 lbs. cuba probably has a better shot but that seems unlikely now as well. $20 says the next WR comes out of cali, but i wouldnt suggest you take that bet. in my opinion dixon has got to be the frontrunner, at least during the next few seasons. matt

when i was young i just loved to fish. when we went to the beach i loved to throw out a bottom rig and when my mom (most certainly not my dad) would take me to the river i would throw out a bobber an meal worm or nightcrawler and have a blast. i started watching fishing shows on tv and they dealt with either saltwater or bass. i would have liked to do either as they both looked exciting but did not live near the ocean. so bass it was. the first time i caught a bass on an artificial lure (a original rapala) i set down the bobber and worm for good. it was so much more fun for me as a young kid (and still today) to be casting and reeling than just waiting. even as a kid it was not all about catching fish it was also about having a good time exploring the river, and i could cover a lot more ground with a grub on a jighead, and got a great satisfaction every time i "tricked" one of those river smallmouth. im surprised no one else contributes any effect from bassmasters and the other bass shows to their initial interest. i think that the bait monkey and the tv play a larger part than some of us want to admit to. i always loved buying new tackle and now not having to depend on an allowance can buy all the tackle i want (not completely true as i still have a wife). i love buying and playing with tackle, and man is there a lot of options when you are talking about bass gear. anyways i rambled a lot but i guess the bottom line is that i developed a love for all things associated with bass fishing in my youth and never really lost it (although i took some breaks along the way). its a fish that everyone can fish seriously for if they choose, wherever they live. there are a lot of different tactics and techniques you can master which keeps it fresh. this is a good thread and made me kind of sentimental. kinda want to call my mom and thank her for taking me to the river :)

thats def. not true but it does seem to me that some bass become conditioned to certain techniques. some things like a jig or a worm, i believe are immune to this sort of thing since they resemble so many things at different times. spinnerbaits however seem to sometimes get recognized as something the fish associate with something bad happening. especially in some smaller lakes where they must see spinnerbaits whizzing by there heads every day. and that dosent even mean you cant catch one on a spinnerbait but you prob. will have to get a reaction strike to do so. its hard to prove any of this, but i do think that SOME fish can become conditioned to SOME lures. there will always be some that are kamikazee and when you catch em look like they been feeding on pincushions or something. matt

keep us posted on this i for one am interested in how they catch em at smith mountain. what sort of pattern/baits are most of em getting caught on?

would you like a police report taken? thats precious. no, no need. my insurance company will just buy me another one. and i dont mind that much anyways.lol

ive got an email from paypal saying that i had been charged for something and asking for similar info. only thing was that i had not used that account for years and the credit card had been canceled for ages. people used similar scams to get peoples internet poker passwords. basically anytime anyone asks you for your password something is up.

when my wife and i got out first email address we had to think of a name. my knickname is matty and i call her jo (middle name is josephine). hence jomatty. when i started signing up for poker accounts i used that name (before i got serious about the game and realized i might not want the same name on all my accounts). when i signed up for this forumn it was very much spur of the moment. i had visited it many times but only to read articles. i checked out the forumn and wanted to reply to something and when i did was not about to spend the time to come up with something clever, so jomatty it was. when i meet poker players who know me from online they always think my name is joe. anyhow there is the all too boring tale of my name

whenever something says that it has been banned in two states i read no further. i mean what if one of those states is virginia, i could go straight to jail :)

ive been having the same experience. i think it has to do with the temperatures not settling at all. for what you described i would def. downsize and slow down. something like a roboworm on a dropshot or finesse jig worked really slowly. maybe a wacky senko making sure to deadstick it for a fairly long period. im having trouble putting together a fall pattern in the ponds i fish. i also wonder if the faster moving baits like jerkbaits and such are as effective in ponds where the fish dont have schools of shad to chase. just seems like im not having much luck with anything but senkos and ikas.

lbh sounds like hes broke the bank on his outdoorwear. hes gonna need to pick up some extra shifts or something to cover his silk/north face expenditures. i love the north face gear and would like to own more of it but man is it expensive. if i still skied much id probally bite the bullet. do you use some of the same stuff for skiing and fishing lbh? when skiing i usually just where a thin shell on the outside so i suppose it would work for fishing as well. matt

This thread got me to thinking about my fishing priotities in relation to the opposite sex. I fished as a kid almost non stop until about 14; when I got interested in girls. No more fishing at all; not through high school, college, nothing. No fishing at all until I had been married for about ten years; once again non stop fishing. Smiley It's really great, I feel like a kid again, I have a lot of fun and try to get out as much as possible. I do kinda miss the girls though Wink how true is this. i bet im not the only one who related with this.

id def try a rattletrap, and a fluke. if you can get under the frenzy on top you may find some of the bigger lazier fish hanging out below. matt

im a big fan of slots. at one lake i fish even 7 lb bass will often fall short of the slot. its a good thing when i see someone releasing a 7 lber that was destined for the dinner table. i have nothing against anglers eating what they catch but there are so many 12-15 inch bass that there is no reason to eat anything over a couple pounds. the small ones taste better anyway. I really like slot limits. matt

a few quotes that i like on superstition: its bad luck to be superstitious the harder i work the luckier i get ronnie, your exactly right about poker and superstitions. superstitions lie a lucky mesh hat are harmless and may even be helpful due to confidence issues. superstitions that cause you to due something that affects the play of a hand(like always or never drawing to a flush becasue you always or never hit it), will destroy you at the table. there is a corrolary in fishing imo.

im really curious about this as well and would be very curious to hear about it. ive long wanted to try to relocate some bass into one of the ponds i fish but am unwilling to take the risk of killing out what is left of the fishery by introducing LMBV or some other disease or parasite. matt

willow trees seem to make very attractive brushpiles, although i use a variety of wood to make em.

yeah very good link but i am still not sure about a pond weed im curious about. it looks kinda like hydrilla or egeria, or coontail. its in a lot of ponds in virginia and looks similar to each of these. matt

being late is a major bone of contention between my wife and i. i rarely lose my temper with her but when we are already late and i see her taking clothes she just put on off again i lose it (rarely do i get upset about women undressing). we are already late and she is still looking for the perfect outfit. arghhhhh she dosent seem to mind sying sorry and thats it for her but for me it eats me up every second until we get there and is very embarrasing to have to make lame excuses. we have a 3 year old son so sometimes xxxx happens but you can bet i would never be late for a fishing trip. i have a hard time finding guys to go fishing with (well at least finding guys with a boat). if someone is nice enough to want to go you can bet that ill be waiting when he gets there (with two cups of coffee) my wife would show up 30 min. late but would have the perfect outfit. matt

i just wrote an article for an online poker site where i talked about superstitions. in it i talked about how superstitions are both real and not real, and how some are big negatives and some are big positives. i talked about my lucky shirt. it really is lucky. its lucky because i look good in it (others may strongly disagree) and i am comforatable in it. this is what i call a good or at least harmless superstition. other superstitions that affect the decision making process are much more dangerous. the almost exact same examples work for poker or fishing. lucky camo mesh hats can help to put you in a positive confident mood, but believing that you always lose with Aces or that crankbaits are unlucky just impaires decision making imho. matt ps there are a ton of similarities between poker and fishing. the short term luck factor vs long term skill factor is very similar in both

to echo what others have said, you should be getting there right on time. in the summer the crack of dawn is good to me but as it cools down some i think it gets considerably better when the sun gets out and does its thing for awhile.

ok ive gotten semi interested in trying to carve either a crankbait or hard wooden swimbait. my question is what is the difference, technically speaking between the two. i mean i know when i see a big 12 inch lipped swimbait that it is called a swimbait but dont really know what the difference other than size is between the two. is there any real difference between the two, other than size? matt

you know thats what it sounded like to me too but it seemed like a lot of work. hmm i guess that is what he did.

for me a senko is the ultimate deadsticking lure but i also deadstick jigs, but generally not for as long. generally i like to fish somewhat fast, but there are days that i know if i can just force myself to leave the senko alone i will catch some fish while if i use a more standard retrieve i would never catch one. my 3 year old son taught me this lesson. we were at the local pond and he had thrown out his senko, put his rod down and walked away (not uncommon when the fishing is even a little slow) im catching nothing and after a few minutes his rod tip is moving across the ground and he catches a nice sized bass (after i set the hook and track him down). what a lucky duck i think and continue about my business. well he does the same thing. on about the third fish for him i decided that maybe he was doing something i wasnt and slowed down and caught soem fish. matt