Long Mike

I have the Sea Eagle 9 with a transom-mount trolling motor and really enjoy it. It easily fits in the trunk of a car, with room to spare. How limited is your budget? Are you planning on rowing it or do you want to mount a motor?

I have had the luxury of Dining at Arnaud's and Brennen's, and have had more than my share of Hurricane's at Pat O'Brians. I would much rather have a beer and the cuisine prepared in someone's back yard in SW Louisiana. Now THAT is groceries! BTW, thanks for the Abbeville plug Catt. Ther are a couple of restaurants in that little city that will blow your socks off. Black's and Dupuis' come to mind. When I was in my late 20's I set a BP record of seven dozen oysters on the half-shell at Dupuis'.

Muddy, where can I buy one of those lures?

Why don't you ask the people at your local Bass Pro Shop? After all, they are the ones who set the policy at their store. BTW the word you is spelled y-o-u. To my knowledge, there is no word in the English language that is spelled with "u."

When you are messing with LBH you are messing with me, and I want to tell you that I can be a BAD S.O.B. when I am not wearing my ballerina outfit. Since I have plenty of room in my Suburban, and, as a result of certain threats placed upon said person of LBH, I will be carrying my little Barrett M107 with me. It's a sweet little .50 caliber rifle. You can REALLY reach out and touch someone with it..

Man, I miss Louisiana this time of year! I miss Mardi Gras in both NO and in Lafayette (I'm surprised I never got arrested). I miss crawfish season. I miss the Cajuns and their music. I miss the fresh and the salt water fishing. I DO NOT miss the oppressive heat and humidity. I DO NOT miss the mosquitos, horse flies, love bugs and millions of other bugs that seem to exist in South Louisiana solely to make life miserable for human-kind. The odd thing is that when I lived there, these things never bothered me. I grew up with them and didn't know any better.

I would recommend against it also. Most Jon boats have styrofoam flotation within the seat housing.

Hey Avid, I've been ciphering on your predicament for a bit, but I'm kinda vague on what your canoe looks like. Would it be possible for you to post left and right side (that would be port and starboard for you nautical types) pictures of your boat? Also, please advise if the drilling of any holes in the above-water structure of the boat is permitted. Mike

Jerkbate, great idea! For course material a would suggest Bass Wisdom by Homer Circle. I feel that $100 per student is REALLY inexpensive. You could probably fill the class at twice the price. Another suggestion I would make is that you hold several of your sessions at a swimming pool so the students could watch the action of the various lures, practice presentations and learn retrieval techniques.

Yes. Go to the "Forum FAQ's/Guidelines" sticky.

Nice one Dink! ;D ;D It really twigged my sense of humor and trully leafs me laughing. ;D

I don't want to appear immodest, but I will catch the largest Hawg - out of the lake. I will listen to, and learn from, my much more experienced collegues for four days. On the fifth day I will either land a Share Lunker or I will hang my head in shame, drown my sorrows, and wait until closing time and beat out Avid and Muddy for an alternate Hawg. Hopefully, she will be weraing dentures. On the other-hand, I can always try a new wrinkle. ;) ;D

Avid, I assume that you are actually going to by-pass N'Awlins and stay on I10 through Baton Rouge to Lafayette and then pick up I49 to Shreveport. As a word of caution, there is a stretch of I49 between Alexandria and Shreveport where a radar detector will do you no good. The Highway Patrol in that area has a nasty habit of driving un-marked cars. They come screaming up the highway at 100 mph, pull in behind you, and then hit you with short burst of pulsed radar. If you're not speeding, the cops just floor it on go on to the next one. If you ARE speeding ... well, it cost me $87. Muddy, since I will be driving down with the Italian bread, plus other breads and butter, do you want me to bring the garlic as well? I can buy minced garlic, in its oil, in 48 oz jars.

Unfortunately I mis-read the label. I thought is said Real Butter, so I put in on my pancakes.

Take a hard look at the Fishingbuddy Tounament 480. It's a hellofa product for only a 100 bucks.

Avid, glad to see that you are not bitter about the loss of your Rod.

Hey Muddy, do you want me to pick up some Italian bread for the trip? I haven't heard anything pro or con as yet. We have a chain store here in Tulsa called Panera. They sell all kinds of off-the wall breads. Just tell me what kind of bread you are looking for, and how many loaves. Then we'll go from there.

GREAT! I LOVE BOUDIN! AND I KNOW HOW TO PRONOUNCE IT!

It's really very simple. Do as much research as you can, and then buy the very best rod THAT YOU CAN AFFORD With few exceptions, almost all rods in any person's price range will perform pretty much equally all across the board. For example, if you buy a $20 rod, you can pretty much expect that most every rod in your price range will be equal in their quality. As you move up in price, the quality and the sensitivity of the rod goes up, but your ability to catch bass does not increase at the same rate.

Sorry, I forgot to tell you the one I have selected. http://www.basspro.com/servlet/catalog.TextId?hvarTextId=59721&hvarTarget=search&cmCat=SearchResults

I've been doing a lot of research on this very same subject lately, and have narrowed my choices down to one. It's light, effective, and I can wear it in the 100 deg heat of Oklahoma August. Mike

Triton 21, if it is going to cost you any money for the Lake Fork update, buy the map from BPS instead. I have them both and the BPS map has more information than the chip. Don't get me wrong, the chip is great, but the map is better. I could go on, but I don't want to hijack this thread.

FBL, have you already forgotten your commitment? You said that you would buy me a Loomis GLX "just to teach a newbie" the difference between an average rod and a great rod. I really appreciate the offer and can't wait to take you up on it. There is no need to bring anything else to the show. My new rod will suffice nicely, as I plan on showing off your generosity to everyone in the BFR group, I'm sorry, I must have dozed off. What were you saying?

Spaghet for me too. If there are no places locally to obtain Italian bread, I can bring it with me also. Isn't Italian bread called Lira?

Avid, you hit the nail on the head. The butter is made by hand in wooden churns.