Long Mike

Fourbizzle make a very strong point, but, so does MS bass. If a person is fishing for food, then he should keep all he can catch within legal limits. I have a relative who lives barely above the poverty line. He hunts and fishes every chance he gets, and then consumes it all. If he saw me catch and release any decent sized fish, he would probably try to choke me to death.

Avid, thanks ahfully for your response. It's quite nice of you ectually! Naturally having my people contact your people is "der rigour" and I wouldn't have it any other way. Incidentally, my people may tell your people that the cruises on the yacht tend to be rather short, because the yacht is located on a 200 acre lake. Also, the yacht sorta looks like a pontoon bridge; but if you squint your eyes and use your imagination ...

1. Catching. 2. Peeing off the side of the boat. ;D ;D ;D

When I want to show off, I take my clients on a cruise aboard my 150' yacht. When I want to go fishing, I use my inflatable.

I just knew everything would work out. A good old cold restart will solve 98% of all problems. Dell, and many others, provide very dependable products, and the monitors these days rarely, if ever fail. Your computer will crash before your monitor will.

Muddy, if the offer is still open, I'll take an XL. I can pay by any means you wish. I would prefer to pay with an IOU. ;D

Gawd, That was a Hoot! Loved it!

You may want to do a site search on this subject. It has been covered NUMEROUS times. ;D

Sorry, not me.

Kent, once upon a time I spent eleven years living overseas while working in the oil patch. Three years were spent living in Iran (before the revolution) Needless to say, we Americans tended to band together and to party - A LOT. In three years, regardless of the host of the party, YOU DON'T HAVE TO CALL ME, DARLIN was heard and heartily sung by all attendees. Those were some really great times to the best of my recollection.

OK, let me get this straight. The only reason, at this time, that you want to go to college is to party. In the same breath, you say that you want to run your own business, but you are not really sure what business you want to own. To me, that speaks volumns about your business ignorance. Bear in mind that I did not say you were stupid, I said you were ignorant. Everyone on the face of the planet is ignorant. For example, I don't know a thing about atomic physics. But I know how to run a small business. You need to start asking yourself some hard questions about any new business, but at this point I strongly doubt that you have any real idea what questions to ask yourself. I'll throw out a few. "How much money in sales will I make each year? More important, how much money will it cost me to make that much money? What equipment am I going to have to buy to make that much money? How am I going to get the money to buy the equipment to make that much money. What costs did I forget about, like insurance, advertising and taxes?" The answer to the above questions is that the money you expected to make is one hell of a lot less than you figured it to be. You do not need to go to college and get a degree to own and run your own small business, but, in my opinion, you are an idiot if you do not take at least a few business courses at your local Junior College.

Thanks for the responses guys. I figured that Modulus was a moving target, depending upon where it was measured along the length of the rod, and therefore, a meaningless term when evaluating the quality of a rod. You proved it.

I caught two fish off their beds during the Fork trip. One was back in the water within a minute and within ten feet of her bed. The other was back in the water just as quickly, but within 10 yards of her bed. I truly don't believe that I affected the reproductive process in the least bit. On the other hand, if anyone can point me to evidence that me tactics are detrimental to the spawn, then I will never bed-fish again.

Lures, golf balls, women. Ya gotta learn to luv'em and leave'em. But don't tell my wife of 36 years.

Russ, you just produced the kind of video that I've always wanted to see, but seldom do. The hand and rod action was very informative to a realtive newbie like me. I would very much like to see you produce a pitchin & flippin video - using spinning gear.

G-Blanks offers a split grip rod for about $135. It's a helluva rod for the money. Their web-site sucks, but they are very responsive on the phone. Bear in mind that they are a small company, so you may have to wait 3 or 4 weeks for your rod. http://www.imaginationbassin.com/gblanksproducts.htm

That combo is well worth the money. The Extremes are very good rods, and the President is a sweetheart of a reel. IMO either one alone is worth a hundred bucks.

Hey Keith and Roger, can you guys explain to an ignorant old fart (no, not Muddy - me) exactly what the significance of a high or low modulus is? I assume that a high modulus means that the rod is stiffer. e.g. I've got a MH BPS Extreme that proudly claims a 60 million modulus. Also, how is modulus measured? Thanks. Mike

Skillet, I have a copier called "Copy and Paste" The questions were so generic that I figured a generic response was called for. You have to admit that there are no "correct" answers to the questions.

In Muddy's defense, I fished with him for an entire afternoon on my piece-of-crap boat from, you guessed it, Rickey's Boat Rental. I put him on the trolling motor the whole time and he handled it like a pro. That is proof positive that Mooks can learn. Attaboy Dominick!

P-Rock, good point. From my point of view, most all who have come, and will come to the States wish to be amalgamated into the generic term of American. There is no need to give up one's ethninticity to become an accepted citizen of the USA. In fact, I feel that that it is almost a necessity for an immigrant to have ethnic areas in which to be initially received. I will not go into the reasons, because they are obvious.

With only one exception, all poisonous snakes in North America have two things in common. First, their heads have a distinct diamond shape. Secondly, the pupils are elongated, much like a cats eyes. With only one exception, if the pupils are circular, the snake is NOT poisonous. The one exception is the coral snake. It is one of the most poisonous snakes in the world, but fortunately for us humans, it is highly visible, relatively small (18 inches), and has no fangs. The coral snake has concentric bands of red/yellow/black along its body - always in that order. Because the snake is small and has no fangs, it has to be able to bite AND chew to insert its venom. For these reasons there have been no confirmed deaths from coral snake bites since the 1940's, although there was an unconfirmed report of a death in Florida in 2006. Incidentally, there is another snake out there called the scarlet king snake. It always has concentric bands of red/black/yellow, and always in that order. It is non poisonous. Notice the difference between the two? Poisonous=Red/Yellow/Black. Non-poisonous=Red/Black/Yellow. Personally, if I were in the wild and ran across either one of them, I would run like hell. It would be difficult for me, when faced with a snake as potentially dangerous as a cobra, to remember, or even rely on, the correct color-banding sequence. i.e. red/black - friendly Jack: red/yellow - kill a fellow.

Avid, you and I have a lot in common. I very much hope to meet and fish with you one of these days. Mike

It depends. Value for money means different things to different people, depending upon a number of factors. There is no ONE answer to your question.

It depends. Value for money means different things to different people, depending upon a number of factors. There is no ONE answer to your question.