Dane

Having been struck by lightning, I can tell you it is the worst experience you will ever have. I wasnt on the lake, but hitting golf balls at my house. I'm working on my long irons and there was a little drizzle, but nothing serious, and five mintues later, still a slight drizzle, i get smacked at the top of my backswing. I go black and wake up with my parents driving me to the hospital. The rubber grips saved my life, even though it melted onto my hands. Long story short, at the first rumble of thunder, I am outta there as fast as possible.

Is it required to be a BASS member to host?

I am a versatility angler. I will anchor the boat at spots where I get multiple areas with different kinds of structure/cover, and i'll have one pole with a small swivel for spinners and cranks, and one with a slip sinker and hook for the soft plastics, allowing me to then become the biggest junk fisherman in the world. My tackle box looks like the trail a twister leaves behind in the sooner state after every trip.

i had this happen to me yesterday, i started with a spinner, and moved to a rat-l-trap, which landed a fish. buddy was throwing a crankbait which caught a 3lb'er . i moved to the spook after the sun was setting and we were bite-less for the next 15 mins. I was thining it was due to throwing my spook, but then my buddy put on a french spinner, and had a large northern follow it to the boat. I now believe the bass may have been spooked by the northern, rather than my bait.

hey buddy, it definately seems you are on the right track. All the suggestions in the world won't prepare you for the 'rookie' mistake and out-takes and all that. It's gonna be a fly by the seat of your pants situation, roll with it, and never get serious and we will have ourselves a few new bass-nuts.

Be yourself, but don't be afraid to let your mind go off on the ultimate ego trip. Tell the camera what you like to fish in certain situations, but dont give advice. For one, most people who are watching the local news aren't really gonna care about your fishing advice, but to the fisherpeople who are watching, they will hear what you are using, or your technique, and will probably try the same thing. And I assume this is a special interest story, so play the heart strings, be young and excited, yet professional. make every mom in the tri-county area think "I wish that was my son"

as a gen-x'er just out of my teen years, i have a few pieces of advice that might contradict some others. I agree make it fun, but don't be a kindergarten teacher either. Depending on the age of the 'teen' dont put them below you. even if they have never fisehd a day in their life, they might find it belittling that you give them a worm and a bobber. (definately no snoopy poles! ha!) Maybe ask them straight up, "Alright guys, I can pretty much garauntee we'll catch fish with the worms and the bobbers, but if you wana go for something bigger, try this (insert cast out, reel in, or soft plastic bait here), but you may not catch as many, or any this way." "And if you wanna try the other way, just let me know." This way the guys won't feel like girls, and the girls feel just as empowered as the boys by using the same epuipment, or when the guys are skunked and the girls cant keep the fish off their hooks!

I for one am most definately "weed educated". A day on the water isnt the same...but back to the topic at hand I have transplated 3 smallmouth from a public river, to my private fish hatchery, and they are still alive and well.

i have had new found success on a super fluke rigged weightless

Here's a thought: this might be an insight or an anomoly (haha, like i can spell that). Catch a bluegill and reel it in, no big deal, touch it on its side, and wham! the dorsal spikes go flying up, so why, if a fish is hurt/feeling threatened does it not have its spikes up continually? (not a rhetorical question) i have limited knowledge on the anatomy of fish, but i thought it was a point worth adding.

PB stands for personal best, Britt. my mistake boy is 6lbs 7oz, which is a dink compared to some of your fish, but my state's record is only 11-9 or something close to that. My pb that i am most proud of is a 29" walleye caught during a fly-in fishing trip in ontario

the two reasons that keep me fishing irregardless of fish feeling pain or not. 1. Its an animal 2. If I don't hook it, somebody else will. And I'll be damned if I let you catch my fish.

aww, come on capt. hooks, its a blizzard every day from nov. til march... I agree as long as the guys in florida take it out during a hurricane, the guys in Oklahoma take it out during a tornado, and the guys in california have to fish from Los Angeles Island after the big one hits ;D

news reporter: Chris, congratulations on catching the new world record largemouth. how does it feel? chris: Well It's a wonderful feeling, Dawn, I got up today and ate my kellog's corn flakes, and its 13 essential vitamins and minerals helped me get going. Then I jumped into my shower and turned on my Moen showerhead and lathered up real nice with lever 2000. I tell ya, after those 25 pounds of fish, i still smell like a spring meadow! I jumped out of the shower and put on my BVD's, boy they give some great support where ya need it most, and threw on my wranglers and nike's and turned down my Honeywell thermostat so i didnt waste any gas while i ws gone. So away I went in my Ford F-150, which rides like a dream. Dawn, the news reporter: OK...uhh so what did you catch your record breaking fish on? Chris: Okuma lures baby!!! Dawn: And why is that? is it the quality, perhaps the color scheme? Chris: Ahhh, they were free... i got bored, just a little 4:43AM humor

If it ends up here with the boys from the northwoods in WI, MI, MN and the like, I'm game, as long as it gets here before the ice does

whoa, definately gonna try that bad boy out... gotta work tonight though, being a DJ is tough work, work all night, sleep and fish all day... Everybody, tell a record store owner in your area, i have ridiculous amounts of weed, and they need to give me a call so we can take care of this problem

thanks for all the tips. i went out today to try my hand before work from the shoreline. Frog at first light with a hit, but spit the hook out before i set the hook (i cant believe i waited too long!), then i went with a weightless centipede plastic and rolled it across the tops of the weeds in an area without slop about a cast length away from shore, and sure as hell, i guess everything went right. barometric pressure was low, 29.8, but rising air temp was around 70 instead of 95 anyways i hauled in a largie that was big for me, didnt have a scale or anything, but compared with the 4 pounder that i caught a week back, id put this one a little heavier but nothing way bigger. caught a dink and my hour of killin bass was over. to answer some questions, yeah its worth it, its the only place i have to fish now, when when the choices are fish or dont fish, its not a hard decision. and the lake doesnt freeze solid in winter due to something that im not sure what the purpose is for. its literally a square, cement sided hole approx 8ftx8ft with a steel guard on top, water rushes in and i dont know where it goes. anyways, thanks for the help, im gonna take all the suggestions next time i bring out the boat, and i'll give some feedback on what worked or didnt, also snap a few pics and let you know exactly what i am talking about.

i understand what you are saying about the nutrients, however there are a few things i should point out. the lake is fed by a river about 300 yards away, i dont know how, but all that stands between the 2 is a county road and 2 bars. also there is no structure in the lake, only milfoil every 6 inches. which means crankbaits are out, as are anything that isnt at least labeled weedless. there are areas without the weeds, but it is too shallow to be of any use, especially in the heat. i pretty much understand the food chain is shot, due to the extreme overpopulation of 4-6 inch bluegill. youd think with muskie, northern, and bass, these guys would be kept in check... any more suggestios will definately help

Here's a problem I have never faced, and I hope one or more people here will be able to throw some insight my way. I live in WI, and usually fish Lake Wissota or the Chippewa River, however my motor has been either out of service or in the shop the past few weeks. There is another man made lake that I have basically been forced to fish. It is a shallow (max depth maybe 10ft) lake that has a no wake restriction on it. Thats no the problem, my boat is a 12 foot steury, which is bulletproof and old enough that jesus probably used it to ski (barefoot, of course). And I just throw the ol' trolling motor behind it and im ready to rock, anyway.... The lake is covered with eurasion water milfoil. It is absolutely everywhere. it is also combined with a slimy kind of algae that floats and covers the surface of 35% of the lake, which is bad for me, but its basically bass heaven. the largest I have caught in the lake so far is a 4 pounder on a texas rigged 7" gulp worm fishing a laydown. The temps are in the 90's almost every day, unseasonably warm for cheesehead country, and I am simply looking for help on a few things. 1. How can I fish under the slime and algae 2. how can I keep weeds from grabbing my slip sinker 3. any rig i could fish that I may not know or maybe overlooked that would help me? 4. basically any suggestions on how to fish a bass heaven and angler's hell

to me, its not that bass wont bite live bait, but its that panfish wont bite, or shall i say wont be hooked by the oftentimes larger artificial bait. In WI we seem to have an over-abundance of panfish, and believe it or not, its getting to the point where it is annoying to catch a 'gill when you could be reeling in a bass. Another reason artificial has an advantage is the number of different ways to present a lure. Ask an experienced fisherman how many ways he can think of to fish a live worm, then ask him how many ways he can think of to fish an artificial worm. good luck buddy, and keep asking questions and everybody will be happy to answer them

I gotta agree with mudcat, in spawn especially i like to throw a white tube with a heavier than average weight into the beds, and annoy the hell out of the bass, who are just trying to get their freak on and protect the eggs. Also running a small sized spinner, colorado blades with a white skirt parallel to the shore seems to work for me. my retrieve is unorthodox( i would think) in that i will reel about 5-10ft, let is stop next to a bass, and if they give the bait a glance, start reeling again, just bouncing along the bottom has worked for me. maybe not tried and true, but its my secret recipe

First and foremost fishing should be fun. This is a great topic because the way you fish is a small insight onto a personality. Which leads to a question that was onced posed to me. Would you rather spend all day catching little guys, or wait all day, and land a lunker? Obviously everybody would want somewhere in the middle, but given the two options, i would take the lunker. Your thoughts?

unfortunately I dont have an answer to your question, but i do have a similar experience. With the boat motor in the shop, I went my pond to do some fishing in an old john boat, being as the pond is about half an acre, its not big by any means. However, the heat (I live in WI) conditions had evaporated a foot of water in a pond that runs 5 feet at its deepest. With a large bass population for its size, and less water than ever, the fish should have been practically swimming on top of each other. however, i caught two fish in two hours, before the heat forced me back to the house. I used mostly plastics, texas rigged worms, some tubes, and just for *hits and giggles threw a topwater frog and a spinner, only seeing results on a texas worm. what i wouldnt give for the spawn right now.... 1. Arms - gotta hold that pole 2. My uhhhh, you know...other pole....and the tacklebox

I couldnt help but yelling "Set the Hook!" more than once into my monitor.

the music that gave you the headache is 'redefine' by incubus, fyi