Dan:

I don't agree. I have owned a handful of flyrods and used many more, including mid to high-end Sage and St. Croix rods. The guides on these are straight as an arrow. When stripping line, the line is held against the cork handle by the index finger of the hand holding the rod, and stripped straight down with the other hand. This is the flyfisherman's "anti-reverse." Holding the line next to the reel would negate any advantage of off-center guides. Ok, then don't buy a rod with an offset stripper guide.

So did you call customer service? I'd like to hear what they said about your complaint. ;D

18" to keep!?!? Sounds like you just happened to have the wrong species bite the hook.

To answer the question: Yes, I would think it is weird.

It's a fly rod? If so, then then it's almost certainly supposed to be like that. Some fly rod companies build the guide with a slight offset to the side under the assumption that it will make stripping with your left hand easier. Your elbow moves back and forth at your side, which is naturally to the left of where the rest of the guides are aligned when holding the rod with your right hand. That style of wrap guides the line from your right hand towards your left.

Try to PM soccerplayer. He knows Pohick and adjoining areas very well. The river seems to be doing just fine as of now. Soccerplayer absolutely crushed them today near Pohick but I don't expect him to give away too many secrets on his new spots just yet. Just know that fish are being caught in the river (and specifically near Pohick) right now.

Vicious in 6lb has been working pretty well for me. Haven't tried any higher # tests. I use 15lb Seaguar Invizx a lot and it's awesome.

Probably more than 99% of that info. I probably have a thick folder from my younger days, LOL. People that are concerned with government plots really need to watch C-SPAN for a half hour or so. Its will be pretty apparent that they are completely incapable of some complicated plot to steal your children. Correct. ;D Nah, I'm just kidding. So those of us who may have an issue with some of the questions are all lunatic conspiracy theorists ? :-?

Seriously. If the government wanted to do something with your information, it can get it without even asking you for it.

It depends on what you study. I wrote my senior thesis on why the Czech Republic and Slovakia have different patterns of human trafficking despite their relatively similar characteristics. The State Department and UN's offices that deal with human trafficking had no information about that type of thing.

No one obviously read my post which was second. i commented on each link. Yeah, that's true for the first batch of links he gave, but I was also talking about the second batch that was later posted.

for what it's worth we were catching them in 21-25 feet of water with silver buddies.

I'll be fishing with Charlie in a tournament on Saturday. I'll be driving over the Occoquan early Sat. morning. I'll check to see if I can determine the condition of the river and try to post it somehow. You should have gone out in the past weeks! Me and some friends caught somewhere over 300 of them in water temps ranging from 34 to 48 degrees! All that was in maybe 7 trips since the last Tuesday in February.

Says who? You still have provided no evidence that proves holding fish vertically is likely to hurt them. All you have provided is a couple links that say to some extent that it is probably best to hold fish with a hand under their belly. (BTW, one of those sources also says that fish should be sedated before being weighed....come on!) It could very well be the case that holding a fish with a hand under it's belly minimizes stress, but even IF that is the case, I do not believe that the difference in the amount of stress caused to the fish is significant enough to even worry about it...Like I said before, bass are tough. If you really want to do all you can to prevent mortality, make a thread about ending tournaments. Oxygen depletion seems to be the most realistic threat here. For the record, I would have examined the other links but two of them do not work (from the first post) and one is about muskies which have completely different anatomies so I'm not accepting that as relevant considering they have a completely different distribution of weight than bass.

My buddy and I were there 3 weeks ago in our yaks, but the water was muddy that day we went out after some recent rains/melting snow. So it really slowed down the yellow perch bite. Hoping that the the 4-5 days since the heavy rains have past this coming Saturday (along with the warm weather) will settle things down in the river and get the YP (or whatever else) to bite. My buddy has sworn off ever going to Burke anymore as that place has been a tough place catch fish. I can't say for sure but I think the Occoquan will still be muddy by Saturday. There is still a lot of water running through the system. The river is still high. I'm curious to see what the flood and the water clarity will do to the yellow perch. The water is also fairly warm from what I've heard. I'm worried that they might have already left the tributaries.

I personally thought my LTB spinning rod was more sensitive than my Shimano Cumara. Very light and sensitive. The only thing I didn't like was the reel seat on the spinning rods. It had a tendency to unscrew itself as you fish.

Seriously...I heard an ad for the Census on the radio a few weeks ago...Why in the world do they need to advertise the census with commercials? Ghoti, me and my Dad were questioning the "pre-Census-notification" as well. Sometimes I am amazed by what some people consider good ideas to be...

Yellow perch have been in the Occoquan for a few weeks. Not sure what the recent runoff has done to their spawn situation. The water at the Occoquan, fast, and EXTREMELY muddy as of a couple days ago. If you are in a kayak I would avoid the rivers for a little while longer.

Did anyone even read Hooligan's posted "evidence"? I have a feeling nobody actually looked at them because someone would have said something. http://www.sdafs.org/tcafs/meetings/96meet/gillilan.htm https://www.tntech.edu/fish/bass/ http://www.state.tn.us/twra/fish/Reservoir/blackbass/livebass2.pdf None of these articles say very much about the physical handling of fish. They are mostly about managing dissolved oxygen content in livewells and during weigh-ins. NONE of them attribute deaths to holding fish vertically and the last one actually says: "GRASP FISH BY LOWER JAW ONLY, HOLDING THEM VERTICALLY" Between those articles, the link about muskies, and the dead links, I'm not seeing a whole lot of evidence here at all. I'm inclined to believe that the jaw thing is kind of in the same boat as the slime coat thing. I think one person thought "oh, well there are ways to handle fish that might be less likely to injure them" and then people talk about it and it spreads as if it is absolutely necessary to hold the fish like a baby and not to let anything touch it's slime coat unless it's a wet hand. In reality, I think both of these tips MIGHT be marginally beneficial to the fish, but not nearly to the extent that most people think. Bass are tough. I think it'll be ok if we don't handle them like newborn babies.

Has this been written about before? Have you found any evidence that can be used to support your thesis? Be careful about coming to a conclusion before doing any research. Even if your first hypothesis is correct, sometimes it can influence your research if you approach it with an answer already in mind. Don't forget to search for information that could possibly disprove your argument. If it is out there, explain why it's wrong.

tony, come on! that was a perfect opportunity for a picture post! like this: NEEEEEEEEERDSSSS!!!!

You only get a new custom class slot every OTHER time you prestige. If you got a new one every time then you would have 10 + the original 5=15 slots. By 10th prestige you will have 10. You keep all your emblems and titles but you lose your progress towards any that you haven't completed yet. It's really not that hard to earn your guns back and there are so many good guns that it doesn't really matter if you don't have your favorite. If you can't use the ACR, just use the M4 for a while.

watching it now. So far, very cheesy. Seems almost like they're trying to force it.

brokeju, does Dobyns pay you? If they don't, they should. ;D

let's just say I'm not going to be trying to call on that telephone.