Dan:

Nice fish Chris, and excellent photos as well. You should make a slideshow of all your photos, almost all of them look exactly the same. You sitting there with a big grin holding a BEAST of a fish horizontally in front of you. ;D Can I make a request for some giant CA smallie pics?

I thought the EWG hook would be a good feature because you could texas rig a plastic on there and not have to worry about the weedguard. Here's a link to their website, there is a link on this page to see all the color options. http://www.critterbait.com/store/store_product_detail.cfm?Product_ID=11 I ordered 3 jigs, 1 Green Pumpkin/Brown Barbed Wire, 1 PB&J, and 1 Green Black and Chartreuse

I saw another topic about a particular swim jig and wondered what other kinds there are. I have never fished them before and I was wondering what kind of rod, line, retrieve, weight,etc is recommended. I just ordered a few Critterbaits Swim Jigs, has anyone had experience with these?

That sucks man. My usual fishing partner goes to school in New Orleans so I only get to fish with him on rare breaks. Most of the time I have to fish by myself. I hope you can find a new fishin' partner

I said all along I could very well be wrong. These pictures seem to prove that. I stand by what I said about the original picture though, something looks funny about it. In fact, I would say that second photo looks strange too, but the other ones don't have the same clarity issue and look normal. I don't know what caused it, but the fact is, the photo looked fake, I just guess it wasn't.

The varying resolution is quite clear. I just asked my brother over to the computer and he noticed it immediately. It's quite obvious if you are used to dealing with digital images. I'm sorry someone called your fish a fake, but in all honesty, this photo looks doctored. I could be wrong, but I am pretty sure I'm not. To prove me wrong, I'd need a good explanation for the variation in resolution. I'm not a lurker and I'm not trying to ruin anyone's reputation, I'm just saying what I see as a person who has used photoshop for 4 or 5 years.

I don't care if this fish is real or not, the lake record or validity of this catch has no meaning to me, I'm just saying that the picture looks sketchy to me.

I still don't think you understand what I'm saying. What I'm trying to say is that it appears that the bass's body itself has more pixels per inch than the rest of the picture. That suggests to me that two different pictures were involved, and that the bass's body was from a picture that has more pixels per inch (providing better clarity) I'm not talking about the specifics of the lateral line or coloration, but instead the photographic clarity of it. The bass should have the same blurry qualities that the rest of the photo has, specifically the blurriness in the foreground--but it doesn't, which makes suspicious. Comparatively, in your photo, both the bass and your hands and face (all at relatively the same distance from the camera and therefore should be similarly in focus) all have the same amount of photographic clarity--that's what I would expect of a fish photo, for the angler, boat, and background to match the photographic quality of the fish itself.

I saw it and thought it was awesome. As for children and R rated movies, when I saw Jackass 2, there were kids in there that looked no older than 8

the green color isn't what I meant by the coloration. I have no doubt that a smallie can get that green. What I meant by "coloration" was the patterns on the fish. They have much more clarity than the rest of the picture which doesn't have very high resolution. If a portion of an image has a different amount of clarity from the rest of the image, it suggests there are two different images involved. Take your picture for example, your picture is much crisper the whole way through, the fish has a high resolution and so does your hand and your face. You can see your knuckles and the individual hairs in your mustache. The other photo lacks the clarity in the fisherman and background that is evident in the fish.

I'm not saying I don't believe smallmouth can look like that, I'm just saying that the clarity and color as well as some blurring make the photo look very suspicious to me. I could very well be wrong, but I have quite a bit of experience with Photoshop and I know what it would take to make a photo like that. Either way, it doesn't really matter to me because I didn't catch it! ;D

looks photoshopped. The contrast of the fish and the background don't seem quite right, as if they are lit differently. Also the left hand's grip is suspicious and there seems to be some smudging or blurring on the right hand. The main indicator for me is the fish's coloration. The patterns on the fish have a higher clarity than the details of the other objects in the photo. That suggests to me that the fish's scale patterns were taken from a photo with higher resolution and put into the a photo with lower resolution.

isn't reproducing coupons fraud?

wow.

There is a difference in being PC and not making light of the handicapped. >

oh, I was expecting something from "Aliens" or tape worms or something like that.

But what does this news mean for us in the short term? CLEARANCE SALES

I'm beginning to become concerned with a term being used more frequently on the board. Most of us are probably guilty of using this term (myself included) but for some reason, I've seen it a few times in the past few days and it has just struck me in a bad way. The term I am referring to is "retard" or "tard." I know people who have used this term don't mean it in a way that is meant to make fun of disabled people, but that is irrelevant. Using the term as a synonym for "stupid" or "dumb" is offensive. I have worked with children with special needs for my past 5 summers and it has created a much greater compassion in me for the mentally and physically handicapped. To me, it is unacceptable to use this term so freely. I'm not trying to be the PC-police but I just think it's insensitive and we should try not to say it. What do you think?

you're right, I should make a new thread about it. But these threads aren't private property. They are communal. Authoring a thread doesn't give you control over what is posted in it. It isn't a little personal kingdom of which you are the king.

ok, I know you probably don't mean this in a bad way and I know you're not the only one who uses that term, but I've been seeing it more on this board as of late and I just have to say that it is offensive to me. "retard" or "tard" is not an acceptable term to me. Having worked with kids for special needs over the last 5 summers, it really hurts me when people say it and I just don't think it is acceptable. Making fun of a friend not a special needs child or person. My friend dosent even know his left from his right so I have the right make a video of him taking 56 minutes to cut a muffler off. I dont think guy up there meant anything by saying "tard" But if it bothered you that much you should have imed him and told him something, not me. Im tired of people screwing up my threads. Everytime I put something on here someone has something to say about a comment or what the video is or picture. Dangit. it doesn't matter if he is your friend, and it doesn't really matter whether or not the person who said it meant any harm by it or not. It is not an acceptable way to describe a person behaving stupidly. The reason why I didn't PM him was because he isn't the only person who has said it recently and I think it is important for more than 1 person to see. And just because I posted it in your thread doesn't mean it's directed at you, you didn't say it.

i've never cleaned a smallmouth before, what do these worms look like? are they parasites? anyone have pictures?

ok, I know you probably don't mean this in a bad way and I know you're not the only one who uses that term, but I've been seeing it more on this board as of late and I just have to say that it is offensive to me. "retard" or "tard" is not an acceptable term to me. Having worked with kids for special needs over the last 5 summers, it really hurts me when people say it and I just don't think it is acceptable.

I recently went on the market for a new mp3 player. I wanted to stay away from iPods because everyone I know who had one had it break on them. I even had one friend who went through 3 in 1 year. Also, I know they tend to have poor battery life. I know they are very simple and well designed and work well, but personally, I didn't trust them and I didn't want to pay for the iPod name. So I go a Zune. It has 30GB harddrive, radio tuner, and it can play movies. It has worked great for me. I think the interface of the device is far superior to iPod. I have heard that people have had trouble with the device, but it has been great for me. The only thing I would warn you about is if you have lots of music you bought from iTunes. Zune will not play .m4p music files so anything you buy off of iTunes will have to be converted or lost. I bought a converting program for like $15 to do this and it worked great. If most of your digital music is in mp3 format, you can transfer them right to your zune after you load them to the zune software library. If you have any questions about the Zune, just ask.

is it the fishing from a boat type of crabfishing? I've never done that, but I have done the ole' toss a like with chicken necks out and pull some crabs in kind of fishing.

I didn't see the story, but fishing equipment is a good survival tool. i know a lot of sets of survival gear given to the military include fishing line and hooks.