Dan:

"Who wears short shorts? Lightninrod wears short shorts!" LOL, just kidding man, great looking fish.

There's something strange about him. ONe time I remember he caught a fish, then gave a slight hoot, then looked back at the cameraman as if to check if he was recording and then went back to getting his fish measured while all of a sudden going totally bananas. It seemed very staged to me. And it wasn't a big fish, it was small. Sometimes I think his antics generate talk about fishing and that some of them are manufactured for that purpose. Of course, I don't know this for sure, it just seems strange.

So what companies does Coleman own now? It seems like they're getting a monopoly.

Awesome, I'm sure you had a lot of fun. Where on the Susky where you?

gotta remember that we pay the athletes. If people didn't want to see them play as much as we do, they wouldn't make that much. We create the demand for them.

I would throw a fluke, jerk it hard a few times and then let it "die" (sink). I would choose a color close to the shad, the dying action should get them to narrow in on your bait, but if not, try a color that varies from the other fish, something to draw the bass' attention.

same thing happened to me the other day, I was fishing with a fluke, thought I hooked a giant but I had hooked about a 4lb carp. I was surprised because although I'd heard of carp going after bass lures, I'd never had it happen to me before.

That's AWESOME! I always thought it would be cool to watch those guys work. I'd probably ask them what the biggest fish was that they had shocked recently and asked them where it was.

Same here, I like to know where I'm throwing my $15.

Come on, RW, it looks very different from your fish--much stouter and different general color and patterns. This is stupid to argue, there's no way to tell for sure now. Who cares anyway, it's a fantastic fish no matter what. BTW, Chris, will you be keeping up the smallie fishing now that the weather is getting warmer or are you gonna go for the greenies?

Be careful with auctions from different countries. Make sure to check what the shipping would cost. It could end up being more than buying from a store or American site.

yup, I think that's it.

I think this was posted here before, but it doesn't really surprise me that a bass would eat a small gator. Somebody's going to make a topwater lure that looks and swims like a gator now.

the pattern is more striped than diamond blotches. I don't know much about snakes but it looks like it could be a northern water snake.

Cranks 1. Rapala 2. Lucky Craft (expensive) 3. Bandit Jigs 1. Booyah 2. Bass Pro 3. Terminator Jerkbaits 1. Rapala 2. Lucky Craft 3. Smithwick Topwaters 1. Booyah (buzzbaits) 2. Heddon 3. Arbogast Softplastics 1. Zoom 2. Yum 3. Gary Yamamoto Custom Baits (expensive)

I would love to catch some of them. Congrats on the good catch.

If glenn or the mods don't see this soon, I would try sending Glenn a Private Message.

I was done near the Rapp a couple weeks ago and people were catching shad. I couldn't figure out what to use and I had limited tackle so I didn't catch any. I saw people catching tons of them though, there were a lot of fishermen there that day and a few were catching them left and right. What baits do you use for them?

nice job, man. Congrats on the good fishing and new PB.

I haven't done that, Avid. But I have missed a guide or wrapped around the rod and I have run line through the guides and tied on a lure before realizing I didn't go under the bail. Most of these things haven't happened in a while though, since I've become used to doing them more often.

I haven't had a double digit day in lord knows how long. This week is supposed to be warm though, hopefully I'll be able to have a DDD soon.

AGREED. And Glenn's comment is very wise, I would take his advice.

I thought the same thing muddy, but if you download the presentation he's talking about, it has citations for every assertion it makes.

You aren't really in the middle. You think the earth is warming and you think we should reduce emissions to reduce our effect on the warming. That's pretty much a global warmist to a T. I don't think there is anything we can do to make China and India reduce emissions. Developing nations use more energy and emit more pollution, it's as simple as that. To ask them to stop developing would be unrealistic. Also, development almost always leads to more stability, better human rights, and decreased poverty so hindering development anywhere really isn't a great thing for people in general. We can't limit human rights and decreased poverty because the earth warmed less than a degree centigrade in a century. And I do know both sides of the argument, and no, I don't want to do anything because I don't think there is anything to do but let the earth do what is has been doing for ages--that is, exhibit a cyclical pattern of heating and cooling; anything else is unnecessary.