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Maybe you could be like Rick Clunn and win an Elite series tournament in your 60's. (Late 60's)

Congratulations. Nice boat. There is a store near by that is an Alumacraft dealer and I have stopped by many times and admired the boats.

I bring way too many soft plastics to the lake during a tournament. There are packs of worms and creature baits I have never used but when I am going through by tackle bag the night before, I can not bring myself to remove those packs because of the "Just in case" scenario. If I only brought what I fished, it would be one pack of Zoom Super hogs, one pack of Senkos and one pack of Mann's Jelly worms. When my fishing partner opens the rod locker on his boat, it looks like the Zoom section at BPS.

There is a good video/article on here about backing a trailer. As funny as this may sound, I have a long gravel driveway and will hook up the car trailer and practice backing down the driveway with the mirrors just to stay in shape. During the 90's I had a mechanic career in NASCAR racing and during race weeks at whatever track the race was at there was a truck driver challenge for the race team hauler drivers with money prizes and an end of year points champion. It was awesome to see the experienced drivers parallel park an eighteen wheeler in less than 10 seconds. You thought the trucks gears or driveline was going to break when they shifted. I think Schneider Trucking was the sponsor and supplied the trucks and trailers for the challenge.

I bought some scroungers after a fish tank demonstration at a fishing show a couple of years ago. The bass in the tank went crazy for a scrounger with a beaver style bait on it. I have tried them a few times with no success, but I probably have not given them a fair shot. I was always swayed by my boater catching fish on something else and just had to switch.

I've seen Bill Dance wear 'em out with the Dancin' Eel on TV. I do not think YUM made the original version. I think I remember Bill Dance pedaling these lures back in the 90's.

#3 and #4 Aglias some with silver blades and some with gold. Bare hooks have always done the best for me, but I do not fish them very often now. The local fish gurus swear by the Mepps inline spinner. They all have their favorite size and style; they call it the forgotten lure. I asked them why you do not see it much anymore in the South and they said because no pros pitch (advertise) for them.

One of my favorite songs is Hank Williams Jr's "The Pressure is On." Whenever I am in a tournament and it gets down to the last hour and the livewell is looking slim I think about the last verse of the song. "The trains I ride in my dreams run on the pressure of the steam. Lord I could pull one a mile long, 'cause the pressure is on."

TW's bait and tackle in Nags Head is a good store and they have fishing reports on their website. Frank and Frans in Avon is a good store and they have fishing reports and beach access updates on their website. You will need a Coastal fishing license and beach driving permit if you drive on the beach. I have surf fished many times at the Oregon Inlet and Coquina Beach as well as down in the Rodanthe, Salvo and Buxton areas and if you can find a good hole in the beach you can catch fish there. Also, I feel you can cast over the fish trying to cast as far as you can. I like to have one or two 10' - 12' rods rods out far and one or two 7' - 9' rods in close in the surf. I have been able to see my rig laying on the sand as the waves pulled out and have a drum hit it when a wave rolled in.

My cousin went to UNC and then to law school in Alabama. He married a girl from the University of Alabama and they live in NC. A couple of years later they have a son and as he is learning to talk, every night his father is teaching him to say "Go Heels" when he comes home from work. The wife is staying home with the baby and one day my cousin comes home from work and as he starts his nightly "Go Heels" lesson, his son looks up at him and says, "Roll Tide".

Copperheads and rattlesnakes are pit vipers just like cottonmouths and swim just like cottonmouths. It is not uncommon to see them swimming in Badin Lake and Lake Tillery in the Uwharrie region of NC which has a lot of copperheads and timber rattlesnakes. If bass will eat a 12" Jellyworm, they would likely eat a 12" live snake.

I always buy my children fishing stuff I would use, so I can use it when they are tired of fishing and go off to play elsewhere. Just the other day I asked my 9 year old if I could borrow some Zoom shaky head worms that I bought him and he said sure.

I to am trying to keep my eye out for a good deal on a good used bass boat. My sons (14yrs and 9yrs) and myself are starting to outgrow our Old Town Tripper canoe and would like something easier for 3 people to fish out of. But even used fiberglass bass boats from the 90s seem to fetch in the 4-6 thousand dollar range here which seems to me too high, but then again a brand new fiberglass boat is in the 30-50 thousand range. I will tell you if money were not an issue I think I would seriously consider a Lund aluminum boat. After reading a post on here about Lund boats I went on their website and feel like they could be some of the best fishing boats available. They seem to be more prevalent in the north. I think there is one Lund dealer in NC. But the canoe has served us well and you may want to consider one or a simple fishing boat first just to get on the water.

I am sure it is just like pro golf or racing. Before pro golfer Payne Stewart died in a plane crash he signed a deal with Golfsmith. They did not care what clubs were in his golfbag they just wanted their name on the bag. Ping is the only company (I think) that requires their sponsored players to use all Ping clubs. I spent a few years in NASCAR racing and many teams that were sponsored by petroleum products would not use their sponsors products in the race car. If I really liked Senkos but sponsored by Yum or whatever, I would probably put Senkos in my sponsors package.

No, but when I'm fishing (and maybe at times during the day) I do keep a bag of Mann's Jelly worms handy for smelling. Takes me back to a simpler time.

When I was a kid learning to fish in the early 70's, the only artificial bait we had were black plastic worms. We rigged them with a split shot about 12" above the worm and I was taught to reel them in slow and steady. I feel like we did ok back then in the rivers and local ponds. When Bill Dance started coming on TV in my area, sometimes he would be hopping a plastic worm, and since he was always dragging in lunkers, I started implementing different retrieves when I fished. Now when I am making steady retrieves, I feel like I am not fishing properly and I begin hopping the bait or start and stop during the retrieve. The next time I am out on the lake, if I can make myself do it, I am only going to fish with a steady retrieve and see what happens.

And a week from now the line color question will be raised again or the braid vs mono question. People will respond with their opinions, and I will be right here hanging on their every word.

My favorite line is Stren clear blue florescent. I have caught plenty of fish in the lake and off the surf with that line. I also have reels spooled with clear mono, hi vis yellow braid and lo vis green braid. caught fish on all. I have outfished others in the boat that were using "invisible line" and I have been outfished by people in the boat who were using "invisible line". My personal opinion is that the fish could care less what color you line is; it only matters to the fisherman. There is probably enough discarded line in the lake that it looks normal to them by now.

I always liked to play basketball and still do, but my creaking joints prevent me from too much action. I play just hard enough to beat my kids (which is getting tougher everyday). I follow only college ball. Mainly Carolina and other ACC schools. It is going to be interesting to see what the NCAA does with Carolina's academic issues.

When I fish lakes with lilypads or other surface vegetation, I like to use a weightless Senko, texas rigged. I like to lob it on top of the pads and drag it off slowly.

That gives you a good excuse to use the reward money to buy more fishing stuff.

Hank Williams Jr. 1989 in Greensboro, NC. He was not drunk and gave a good concert. Alabama in 1988 was good. This past November we saw the Trans Siberian Orchestra in Raleigh, NC and that was very good. It was a Christmas show and the performances were great. Great laser show also.

I was looking recently at 1996 Javelin with a 150 Johnson Fast Strike engine. It was at a dealer with a $6800 price which could have been negotiated lower I am sure. I thought that price was a little high for a 19 year old boat but it seems that is the norm these days.

I have been needing to touch up some crankbaits but I have been afraid of adding an offensive smell to the lure. I guess if anglers are having success with nail polish and spray paint there is no need to worry about it or spending money on fish attractants.

I apologize to the OP for getting off topic. My in-laws live in Bonneau, SC and their land joins Santee Cooper Power land at Lake Moultrie. We would walk to the lake and watch the boaters and jet skiers go by wide open and then there was a drought about 5 or so years ago and the water was pulled way down. We walked out to the lake and as far as you could see was stumps about 5' tall. The water at this spot was around 7' to 8' deep when full and I remember wondering if people realized how close they were to a bad day.