Fish Chris

Geeez, I dunno..... Either would make it a pretty good trip Think I've caught about 10 Smallies over 7 lbs, and 20 LMB over 12 lbs, and they were all fun Honestly, I'd rather catch a 40+ lb Striper than either of these ^ ....just because I haven't done this yet. Peace, Fish

2 to 4. I went out Sturgeon fishing Mon-Tues, and all I brought was 2 micro-light combos I guess that's all I needed, as I landed a 7ft, 140 lb'er, and a 7 1/2ft, 200 lb'er Peace, Fish

That's freaking awesome ! That guys a wildman ! Very exciting to watch in the ring. Fish

Well first off, I assume you mean to say, teaching someone to fish for bass, correct ? Alright well, I don't think chunking big heavy swimbaits all day, with a very high chance of getting skunked, would be a good way to teach a new angler..... And I really think sight fishing is more of a niche' type of thing that should probably be added to the arsenal later on down the road, after an angler has already learned the basics. And since most of my bass fishing other than this stuff ^ is with live bait, sure. I'd probably show them how to "really use live bait" and how not to use it like the crowds do. That would be my 1A lesson Don't fish like everybody else, or all you will catch, is fish like everybody else catches Peace, Fish

Ha LOL This is Yaho Mandrell, from the San Fran Zoo Fish

Alright..... So say you are fishing in Cali, from the shore, right before dark...... when suddenly, you have one of these guys run up and bite you on the @$$ ! That might get your attention pretty quick, huh ? LOL Got to watch out for the Mandrils Peace, Fish

Hey now ! ...... Maybe I like to chase "Strippers" LOL Fish

To say the least LOL Fish

All 100ft, and 366 tons of her ! And imagine this..... she can drag tankers around that weigh hundreds of X's as much as she does ! I took this shot from the Marin Headlands above the Golden Gate Bridge last week. Using it for my latest desktop Wonder what the Captain gets paid to be responsible for Billions of $$$ worth of product, + hundreds of lives ? Peace, Fish PS, Oh and it's "Goliah"..... NOT Goliath, like so many goofballs mistakenly lable her on Google images..,.

Okay... Here's my recommendation; Peace, Fish

Thanks guys. But BTW, I really should add one thing... While I strongly believe in evolution/ science, I also strongly believe in a higher power. Where the two intersect, I haven't the foggiest idea, and I probably never will.... at least until my number comes up. Peace, Fish

Much thanks to all. And Redline, I just shot you a PM. Thanks again. Peace, Fish PS, I just wanted to say, when I first posted this, I was concerned about anybody thinking we were trying to "get over" and that all we cared about was free rent. In reality, given the choice, we ALL would have rather just continued to pay our rent, and for none of this to have ever happened ! In reality, what our Landlords did, was nothing short of a scandalous scheme, to help them finance their new house, on the other side of town. It seems to me that what they did should be illegal. But I am finding out that this exact same kind of thing is happening all over the place ! ....my neighbors brother in law..... my bosses cousin... etc, etc. We were even thinking that we "might" be open to making a deal with the bank, to pay a monthly rental fee, until the house is actually sold... IF it were a decent deal, of course.

I don't think anything "made me love fishing". I think either you are born with it, or you aren't. I believe people who love fishing / hunting, are simply more in touch with their evolutionary roots. 50,000 years ago, it was a VERY good thing to be able to catch a fish, or kill an animal, because it meant you and your cave peeps were not going to starve ! And, I bet nearly every caveman was a hardcore fisherman / hunter, as he had to be to survive. Nowadays, we just go to the grocery store, but many of us still retain that urge to "provide sustenance" for ourselves. Of course as millennia click on, this trait would theoretically become less and less, to the point that nobody cares about fishing / hunting, as it will not increase our odds of survival / reproduction, so the trait is not passed on. Why does a house cat bring a dead mouse, or bird back to your door, strutting around showing off its prize ?...... {even if its totally not hungry, because you feed it Purina cat chow every day} Same reason. Because it evolved that way. Peace, Fish

So, we kind of had a bombshell dropped on us today {we > my 6 room mates, and myself....huge house, but I always got the best deal, master bedroom + garage} The owners use to live here, but moved out about 1 year ago, after buying another house, in the same town. So this morning, we get this big legal notice on the door, stating that the bank is fixing to take this house back, for the owners failure to make payments (default) Now, I REALLY liked my living arrangement here, and this really sucks. However, the notice said that we had 20 days, for the house to be put up on the market and if..... read > IF the house was bought buy a new owner, that they would need to give us a 60 day notice of eviction. So that's 80 days from now "IF" the house was to sell. But what if it doesn't ? Oh, and then it went on to say that we could be granted extra time, depending on circumstances, and we may with to contact a lawyer. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Well, in any case, we are all a little PO'd that we have worked to pay rent on time, and did our part to make everything straight....... While they were taking that money, and doing whatever with it > besides paying the mortgage 80 days free rent.... eh..... I think I'd rather have just stayed. 6 months ? Hmmmm. Maybe. 1 year free rent ? {because I hear that this is happening all the time} and then I'd be totally okay with the whole thing ! Your thoughts ? Fish

Well, ya' know, I have an old sub-ten lb'er skin mount on my wall behind me, which was done by BPS way back in 89'. They did a good job on it..... but instead of thinking, "Wow ! That's the actual fish ! How cool !..... Instead I think > Live and learn. That was certainly the way it was in the old days. Now, I look at replicas as pieces of (in some cases) fine art. Will the shape or the color match the fish I caught exactly ? Eh... probably not, but if it's a nice looking mount, that's close enough for me. Heck, I ALWAYS get some good photos of all of my trophy catches anyway... mount, or no mount. In any case, I've had one mount done by Lake Fork Taxidermy, and they did a fine job, albeit, the fish shape was off for the 16.5 it was supposed to replicate. Since it looked a LOT more like my 15.8, that's what I call it Then I had a really cool closed mouth replica made by Roberts Taxidermy from So Cal. He had a WAY bigger selection of blanks, for giant bass, because he lives in So Cal, and has been collecting them for like 20+ years ! Still, the closed mouth replica was a full 1 1/2 inches shorter than my 18.4 lb'er.... and it was supposedly molded from a 19 1/4 lb'er ? Hmmmm. I still really like this replica too though. If I had money, I'd have replica mounts all over the place. Heck, I love artwork of nearly every kind... especially wildlife and nature artwork Peace, Fish

A-Jay, I know your right. I often bring up some of the old timers I know, that used to stick monsters around here, in the 40 to 50lb+ range, and granted, their were a LOT more 40-50lb+ Stripers back then, but even so, most of those giants were caught at night.... Hate to say it, but that's just the facts of the matter. Need to get me one of those screened face covers.... Mosquitos can be rediculous in these parts, at night.... Peace, Fish

Well heck yea'..... Everyone knows that strippers come out at night But then chasing strippers is a good way to lose all your $ too ! Beware ! LOL Peace, Fish Oh, glad you liked the photos ALWAYS have my DSLR camera with me for nature shots..... and my couple of point and shoots for fish photos

here shortly, it looks like I will have to break down and go night fishing :-l Here's why..... my Striper fishing around here is so totally dependent upon the tide, then what ends up happening, is on my days off one week, I have a great, big moving tide, during the day, and fishing is usually good..... if their is a bite to be had. But the following week, that same great tide rotates around so that it occurs at night, and day fishing usually sucks... like last week. But here's the real kicker; So I was talking to a buddy, and told him my fishing last week sucked, and then he tells me that his friend was out in my same waters "at night" (during the good tide) and he stuck a 38" and a 40" Striper ! Fish that length could go about 23 to 30+ lbs, depending on male / female, condition of the fish, etc. But nice fish either way ! Urgggg..... night fishing throws me off so bad. But at least it has been staying warmer {lows only around 60} So anyway, this next Mon-Tues has the good tides in the day again. Hope to post some full color, trophy Striper shots for you in brilliant sunlight But the following week, I think I am just going to have to do an overnighter. I don't even want to have to run at night, so I'll just get there around 6pm, and fish until at least 6 am. Will bring a pillow and blanket Even on a great day / night of Striper fishing, their is always a dead period in the tides somewhere, which will be great for a good long nap Thank God my 14ft aluminum doesn't have benches to get in the way Peace, Fish Oh, here's a few shots from last week.....

Hey, but all of that other stuff aside, successfully landing that Curiosity Rover on Mars is just darn near miraculous ! I watched all of that on Nasa.com.... SOOO freaking cool ! And BTW, who gives a crap about some guy with a Mohawk ? I see several of those every day. One of our assistent managers has one. Whipty. I wanna' know who the cute brunette chick in the Nasa control center was ? Peace, Fish

Much thanks for all the consolations guys I know you guys can probably all relate.... Hooah, the fish in that pic is about 9 lbs.... the one I lost had to be 45 or more... so imagine that ! Peace, Fish

Well ya' know, I have to start by saying, I totally believe I caught the biggest LMB I've ever hooked. I probably landed the biggest Sturgeon, Catfish, Red Ear Sunfish, and Bluegill I've ever hooked too. Not so with Striped bass.... especially not now On a whim, I decided to go Striper fishing last Mon. I NEVER fish for Stripers this early. Typically I start in late October. But I ended up catching one nice 9 lb'er {eating size } weather was great, and I had a great time. Enough so, that I decided to go try it again on Tues, so I could try different areas. About 15 minutes after I got setup, I had a fish eat my 12" Split Tail. Their was no messing around, or frantic Split Tail action ahead of time either... just a single, 'thunk', and then my line slowly started peeling from my bait runner. I picked up the pole, flipped the bail open, disengaged the bait runner, then, after a few seconds, I flipped the bail closed, let the fish take out the slack, and swung back on my rod. It didn't budge ! Then it starts swimming, and its tail strokes felt so long, I was thinking it "had to be" a Sturgeon > which I have caught many of on Split Tails, but never in this area. So next it starts making these big circles out in front of me. When it would come toward me, I would gain, but only because it was coming toward me. Then, when it would turn out away from me, I would start feeling those huge tail sweeps, and really felt like I had zero control..... Like a Sturgeon on my micro-light kind of feeling..... Suddenly it rushed for the surface, and although it didn't jump, it basically came up to where its back was just out of the water, and Holy $%^^$ ! ..... my best guess 48" to 52", and 45 to 55 lbs ! About that time, it just came unglued, and started exploding the water, when suddenly.... zing.... here comes my Split Tail flying at my face Deep sighhhhhh..... My only consolation is that I had not done anything wrong on my end. But just through bad luck of the draw, the hook had gotten spun back around, and was hooked into the Split Tail instead of the Striper I never had a hook in it But such is fishing, right ? I guess its kind of nice to know that there is at least one humongous monster still out there, waiting for me Maybe next week ? But if not, maybe some day down the road Oh hey, I ended up catching an 8 and a 10 lb'er, plus a couple smaller ones, and had several more hits. So LOTS of action, for Striper fishing in August Can't wait to go back next week Peace, Fish

Thanks again guys Entering them in contests..... ehhhh..... Time and effort. Plus, I honestly think I could do better, if I had some better equipment, and more time to do it. Even my best stuff, I always seem to find fault with, which I guess is true of pretty much all artists..... But I keep trying Peace, Fish

Thanks guys I always relate photography to fishing. Great equipment, and some strong skills certainly help, but in the end, their is always the element of luck.... or just being in the right place, at the right time Peace, Fish

Well, I got blown out from my Sunfishing the last two days, and that sucked But at least I still played really hard, all day, both days {weightlifting, hill climbing, photography, etc} And last evening, I was rewarded with some lucky shots > right place, right time Figured you nature folks would enjoy these I'm sure he was thinking > "I bet this big ol' guy, following me, wants my dinner, but he ain't gettin' it ! See ya' ! LOL Hope you enjoy them, Fish

So totally variable. But if you plan to release it, you should have it out of the water as little, and for as short a period(s) as possible, keeping it in a livewell between photos, weighing, etc. Fish