Dan:

Recent investigations into oil company profits have revealed nothing illegal. I have read articles that say oil pipelines in some parts of Alaska have IMPROVED some of the wildlife in the area (I think the article I read cited an example of increasing deer population in the region affected by the oil pipeline) Drilling in Alaska doesn't necessarily mean we have to destroy the entire wilderness. Hell, most of that wilderness up there is unseen, so don't say we are getting rid of a environmental resource because nobody is using most of it. Also, why is it that California gets to vote on whether or not to drill for oil offshore (and vote no) while Alaska has not been allowed to vote on whether to drill on their property or not? (which they would vote yes for) Isn't that a bit of a double standard? If we drilled in these two states, gas prices would be lower. Maybe it's not the gas companies that are being greedy but the lawmakers who determine whether we can drill in these areas or not. And vekol, you're analysis of investment relating to alternative energy is precisely why I beleive we are NOT running out of oil on this planet. The gas companies would be the first to know and the first to find an alternative if they found out oil was running out. Why? Because they have the most money depending on it.

lucky....I would be ecstatic if I could catch 1 where I am right now... >

That supreme is a nice looking reel. I got a Medalist for Christmas and I have enjoyed it a lot. It is a very smooth real.

does it make anyone else sad that he calls 5lbers small?

They have the chrome red color at Cabelas http://www.cabelas.com/prod-1/0023546110266a.shtml

How's the Juniata in the springtime? I have grandparents up there and I would like to include some fishing in my next spring time visit.

what's the best knot to tie a flourocarbon leader to a braid?

lmao, they sure do ;D

yep

that approach is probably your best bet, but if that doesn't work, sometimes I fish em with a couple pops mixed in while slow dragging across the bottom

but if you get firefox, you won't have to deal with those issue..

I have yet to catch a smallie on my new Pflueger Medalist, hope you have better luck with your President, Muddy. :-/

do you ever crank for smallies, rw?

Try Mozilla Firefox, it's a very popular browsing alternative to IE

i'll bet you'll laugh at that story when you tell it later

because all of my smallie fishing is done in a shallow river, my feet are my preferred vehicle while fishing for smallies. THere's nothing quite as nice as wading a cool river on a hot summer day with some friends (especially when someone slips and falls in up to their neck in 3 feet of water!)

I fish a small lake/pond in the shenandoah valley here in virginia. Lots of the locals seem to mistakenly call the largemouth out of this lake "smallmouth", most likely because they haven't fished anything but the shen. river which has very small numbers of largemouth that can only be caught in limited locations but has tons of smallies. They might just not know the difference.

I recently found a lake that gets pretty deep pretty quickly and I started fishing it with an X-Rap and caught some trout with it while I was fishing for smallies. I decided that I might want to try to get down deeper in the lake to see if I could catch some smallies so I was looking for an X-Rap with a longer, deeper diving lip. I have found them online but couldn't at the store so I ended up getting a Deep Down Husky Jerk in a perch sort of pattern (same pattern I caught trout on with the x-rap) Anyway, my question is if and how should a husky jerk be fished differently than an x-rap?

let me know how they work, I've been looking at them recently. I've had a lot of success with regular dingers in that pumpkin and chartreuse color.

I have the red BPS tackle bag that someone posted earlier filled with a two of the large boxes they come with, one for cranks/jerks and one for topwaters/jigs. I also have two spinnerbait boxes in the side pockets and a Browning binder for soft plastics.

a seller tried to get me to buy one of those at the Maryland Fishing Expo last weekend. I told him I didn't really throw frogs too much, which is true, but I also declined because it was really expensive and I thought the spinning blade would get tangled. Who knows though, it could work...

yeah, i wouldn't spend money on buying carp bait when you can buy a loaf of bread for less than a dollar and still catch them.

they look good but I've never tried them.

Vyron, wouldn't eating frequently raise his metabolism due to the constant digesting? It sounds to me like that would be the opposite of what he needs.

Do you eat frequently? If you eat a bunch of meals throughout the day, your metabolism is probably really high. You might be able to lower your metabolism by eating fewer meals in the day. Also you could try some weight gain stuff you can find at GNC or on the internet.