Dan:

i saw it featured in Bass Master a while ago. It wasn't an ad either, it was a little section about new lures. Apparently it has a little fan type thing inside of it and a hole in the front so water goes through and spins the fan, churning the water and creating a buzzbait-like disturbance with the look and depth of a crankbait. I might try one.

I think it really depends on a particular body of water, but I've had a lot of success with the Pearl Gray Shiner DTSS04 and the Bluegill and Blue Shiner DT04

Don't waste your money replacing a PS2. Just wait for Christmas and get him a next generation console like Nintendo's Wii, the Sony PS3 (if you can afford it, it is the most expensive) or the XBOX 360. I honestly don't think it would be wise right now to bother spending money on a PS2 unless he has a ton of games that he plays all the time. In that case, I guess you should try www.half.com

Just make him shut up with the amount of fish you catch. If he still talks, just tell him "SCOOOOORRRRREEBOOARD"

muskies.

that titleshot looks pretty good.

I've never been to Texas, but I went on a roadtrip to New Orleans this year from Northern Virginia, and I can tell you that I thought Tennessee seemed like a fantastic place to live. We stopped in Chattanooga and I was blown away by how nice the city is. I also saw a lot of signs for lakes as we drove through the countryside. The only thing I didn't like about Tennessee as I drove through was that there are long stretches of highway that looked like they were completely or almost completely uninhabited so it looked like nobody was around and it got quite boring to drive through there

Here are some Zeppelin songs that might go well with the video Good Times, Bad Times - title is great for fishing When the Levee Breaks Moby Dick - another excellent fishing title, pretty fast paced, and instrumental.

Yep, definately a rock bass http://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/greatlakesfish/frockbass.html

I'm almost positive that isn't a smallie, it looks like a rock bass.

In NJ you are allowed 9 hooks each line. Matt How do you find information that is state specific like this? obviously, i checked NC G&WL site but no luck see if you can find a rules and regulation booklet or something. I know Virginia publishes a a new Fishing Rules and Guidelines booklet every year with updated creel limits, license information, fishing locations, and species identifications.

I think it has a lot to do with the variety of ways you can catch bass. It's not like carp where you just throw something out and let it sit there. With bass, there are tactics, strategies, patterns, and equipment. All of that makes it more exciting and challenging. They are also moderately easy to catch most times and are relatively easy on equipment. I think those factors make them appealing to game fishermen.

I don't think you would be able to cast more than one spinner bait on one rod. It seems like if you cast it with any sort of distance it would undoubtedly get tangled. It sounds like a good idea, but it might just be too complex for one person.

Making the bread float is very important for me as well. I've caught carp under the surface and at the surface, it seems that sometimes they are just more agressive and willing to feed on the surface, and that is much more fun to hook them that way. It's tricky to get the breaad to float on your hook, but try to rip out the center of a slice of bread and fold it over itself twice and compact about 3/5 of it. That is, leave about 2/5 of the bread light and airy, don't squash it with your fingers. Then put the hook through the bread on the airy side, slide it up the hook, twist it around, and insert the hook again. This way you have secured the bread, packed it enough that bluegills and other bream won't peck the bread off the hook, and you have enough airiness in the bread to allow it to float. If you don't understand those directions, let me know and I'll try to take a picture of what I mean and post it. Also, the chumming advice is very good as well. And make sure you don't move the line too much, I find that carp are pretty spooky.

You could leave on time, but your friends are gonna start thinking you are inconsiderate. Humans are more important than fish, remember that. Don't you like fishing with the people you invite? Then why the intolerance to their lateness? I can understand if a guy does it a dozen times, but if it's just a couple, I mean come on, everyone runs late every now and then. Just give the guy a call to see what's up with him and when he'll be there. For all you know, he could be getting eaten by a pack of rabid dogs or something terrible. Then wouldn't you feel bad.

i think it can change depending on where you are fishing for them. In my river, though, they like to hangout facing upstream in riffles and runs in the current OR directly adjacent to the current waiting for food to float by. This is the biggest difference I've noticed between smallies and LMB. You would be extremely hard pressed to find a LMB swimming in the current that I catch my smallies in. BTW, this doesn't mean that you can only catch them near these currents, some of the biggest ones I've caught have also been in deep pools where the current was calmer or in structure near the bank. Structure is extremely important for smallies, they can be caught in cover, but they mainly relate to rocks (at least in my river which is EXTREMELY rocky) and wood. Good luck, smallies are a heck of a lot more fun than LMB.

i caught a jacket one time. That sucked not only because it was hard to land, but also because I knew someone was cold somewhere.

so keith, by your standards, checkers is a sport? it is played competitively and some people have greater skill than others at it...selling girl scout cookies would also be a sport then. They compete to sell the most and there are certainly some girls who have more selling skills than others... I want to make myself clear, I do not think fishing is a sport, but why does that even matter? There are plenty of activities that require knowledge and experience and have different levels of expertise. I don't think it is insulting to say something isn't a sport, it is still a fantastic activity that many people enjoy everyday, why should it matter what its label is? Being a sport or not doesn't change its value, difficulty, importance, or enjoyability. In response to the Olympic sport comment, I think the Olympics' judgement on what is sport or not is very questionable. Again, this is just my opinion and obviously everyone is entitled to think differently.

I dunno, to me, fishing isn't a sport, it's an activity. Poker isn't a sport either, and it should not be televised on ESPN (especially not as much as it is). There really isn't any athleticism required...This is just my view on it.

What times of the year are the fish most active? I mean in the summer, fall, spring and winter is there a difference in whether or not the fish will be most likely to bite an active bait (like a spinner, jerk, or crank) and are the other times when the fish will be too lazy to eat anything but a slow moving worm, craw, or tube? Just wondering if the time of year or water temp and clarity make a difference in what speed of bait I should throw. Now that fall is approaching, i just wanted to know whether or not I should try something other than the worms and slow baits I've been fishing this summer.

I had the same feeling when i started fishing. The best thing to do is what others have already said, just do it. I don't lip fish if they have treble hooks in their mouths because I got a pretty bad cut one time, but if you are using a regular hook, I usually use my non-dominant hand to lip them so that I can use my dominant hand to take the hook out. The best advice I can add is to just do it fast and grab hard. Not so hard as to hurt the fish, but they might wriggle when you put your thumb in there so if you grab fast and are determined to hold hard, they won't be able to wriggle free. That's basically the best advice i can give, just do it and grab firmly, once you do it once, you'll be fine. Post a pic of yourself doing it and be proud!

i would say probably 4.5

that's amazing man

Wouldn't these egg laden males weigh more? So there are more heavy fish in the Potomac now?

My brother caught a hula grub on a hook one time. I think his hook went right into the side of the grub. He pulled it up and had the funniest look on his face, he thought it was some sort of fish at first!