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Dont need Oakleys, You can get a good pair of polarized sunglasses with good UV protection for 25-50$ Vic

Out of curiosity, I just checked Ebay and there are some sets there to compare yours to. Search for Japan Bamboo Fly Rod. Vic

Finding stuff in the attic is always great! Value shouldnt be the only factor impacting your enjoyment of the item though:) That being said, Japanese bamboo fly rods were mass produced and sold after the war. Many were purchased by GI's. They often came in boxes with flies, line and rod. No one is really sure how many were made but it was a lot. Many of them were also poorly made and poor quality. The average values with the boxes in good condition would be under 100$. The names of the brands are varied. Now there ARE handcrafted japanese rods that have a premium. But they probably dont have a made in japan stamp on them. Hope this helps. Still a cool find though. But unless its sentimental or you can do it yourself, a repair may not be worth it. Vic

I find that good deals at pawnshops are getting harder and harder to come by. Especially at the "chain" pawnshops like Cash America Pawn etc. The smaller shops still will have a good deal but it seems that the chain ones are charging arround market value for their used items now. Anyone else noticing this? A manager once told me that they even have a number to call that researches the prices on items when they dont know the value of something offhand. Vic

I agree about the fun factor. Its fun to cast and pull the fish in with the line. Try bass sometime its just as fun though the bites are less frequent. Vic

I have taken martial arts since the age of 4. We had full contact sparring that was always supervised but we didnt have any saftey equitpment. If done right and supervised correctly there will be no problem with this. I have gotten into 0 fights in my life and it was martial arts that gotten me out of all the situations I have encountered. BUT on the other side of the spectrum I have known martial arts schools that focus only on fighting and hurting (think cobra kai from karate kid). So the fact that kids are doing this isnt the problem. The problem will come about on how they are taught and structured. Vic

From the sounds of it, you like good gear and quality items. Columbia puts out nice things that will last. I have never tried out that particular product, but I do like other products put out by columbia. That being said, I also have to say that I never tried a group (5+) person tent that worked well, expecially with kids. The reason is the large person tents were always noisy. Kids like to play, ESPECIALLY in tents. And that is fine because that is what they are supposd to do! The problems happen when they start banging arround inside the tent when its time to sleep. They roll arround and bang into the wall and shakes the entire tent (along with everyone else inside). Now it is nice to have everyone on the same tent so you can keep an eye on everyone inside and it gives you piece of mind for sure. But these are just some things to think about. I was camping with some cousins one time and their parents screamed at them the whole night to go to sleep and stop shaking the tent. I can tell you that it was hard for the kids to enjoy nighttime because they kept getting yelled at. When it comes time for my kids to grow up and camp with me, I think im going to have one tent for myself and the wife. And another tent for the kids to goof arround and play during the night. The only thing is to make sure they dont wander out in the middle of the night. Vic

Title 14 section 1211 doesnt have anything to do with UFO's but to stop contaminates from resulting from moon landings and gives legal recourse to quarantine those who come in contact with contaminates. http://www.snopes.com/legal/et.asp Vic

I try to only take 1-2 rods. The rod type depends on where I am going. I like to either take a Baitcaster, spinning rel, or a fly rod. If the place that I am going has a lot of trees, I rule out the fly rod. If the place I go to has a lot of smaller bass, then I am sure to take the spinner reel. If it is a new spot that I havent fished before, then I go with the baitcaster. Either way I never carry more than 2 because I spend to much time fumbling arround rather than enjoying the environment/fish. Vic

WOW, Does this now mean that I can use my son's toys r us gift cards for reels?? hmmmm Vic

I think consistency in your lures help also. practice using one lure or lures similar in weight first. Going from a light spinner bait to a heavy T-rigged worm can make it a little harder to get used to the accuracy of your casting. Vic

Firstly sorry to hear about your father. 4 years goes by fast when thinking about something like that. Secondly welcome to bass resource! Thirdly, your question. If they are fly rods, I have seen a range of 300-500 for unnammed decent condition rods. 500-800 for good-great conditioned unammed bamboo fly rods. Named rods by a custom maker can run 1000+ (depending on condition and maker). I have seen some on the 3k-5k range. Basically its a big range. But there is a large market out for them so the values will be a premium considering its in good condition. pictures would help, how many pieces, length etc would impact price also. Vic

I havent sold a house FSBO but we recently purchased a house less than a year ago and maybe a perspective from the buyers point of view might be helpful. We looked a few few FSBO houses before purchasing our house. We loved our realtor and trusted her fully. What we noticed about FSBO houses is that many of the homeowners werent willing to pay the 3% to our realtor for their fees. Some were only willing to pay 1.5% of the buyers realtors fees. That forced us into a position where we would need to buy the house without a realtor or pay the fees out of our own pocket. Well we didnt look at many FSBO houses after that. And with the market the way it is now, we had many many options to look at. So basically if you are going FSBO without a realtor, keep in mind that many buyers are using a realtor and would have to cover their realtor's fees that are customarily paied for by the seller. Good luck with the sale though! I was lucky to have a great realtor. Vic

One thing that helped me with accuracy is a good follow through. After learning to follow through after my thumb left the spool seemed to help tremendously, at least for me. Just continue your forwardcast untill the tip is pointing to your target. Just something that I remembered helping me a lot. It might be something you already do though. Vic

Parks department was doing a randome catch check one day and gave out citations to people who tried to keep the gar they caught in their lines. But those gar can easily reach 3 and up in length here in Fl. Be carefull throing them back form the docks also! Fun catch though tanks for sharing the pics Vic

The only thing that I watch out for are low hanging trees behind me on the shore. That and people. Then I usually sidearm it. Vic

Alright I got Aaragon lol Putting your appointed path ahead of any inner conflicts, you make your own rules for the benefit of all. If my life or death I can protect you, I will. Aragorn is a character in the Middle-Earth universe. There is a description of him at TheOneRing.net. Vic

One thing you can do is type a smiley with a space in between the semicolon and the parenthases. that will give you an "old school" smiley face and should not have any problems with the filters. Like this : ) they will still know you are joking now or jesting : ) Vic

;D What a freakin ball buster. I literally cannot read more than 2-3 sentences of the OP. Honestly, I thought the same thing and I usually skip posts that are once huge paragraph, but then I read the part about being 18 and I gave it another shot lol I was young once Vic

I say keep the insurance and dont sweat it, here is why. You stated, "my mom mentioned im still covered for a little while longer on her medical insurance since im barely 18". From that statement, it shows that you can have your mom's insurance cancled at any moment. In most states (I think) that when you turn 18 and are not going to high school/college, you cant be covered under your parents insurance. If this is the case, then you will still be covered under your own insurance. If you cancled your insurance now, and then your mom's coverage runs out, then you CAN NOT sign up for your jobs insurance again untill their "registration" period. The only times you can generally sign up for insruance is if A) you start a new job Registration/enrollment period or C) life changing event (marriage, baby, etc) So be safe and stick with the insurance you have. because once you get rid of it, you wont get it back untill next year. And if your mom does file a claim for you under her insurance, it has the possiblity of being denied since you are over age. Depends on the specifics of her plan. in otherwords dont let a few bucks leave you uncovered. Vic

Walmart by us in FL has just redesigned and restockd their fishing department.

Im just so glad that big movie companies are seeing the profitability of Superhero/fantasy movies now. Before we were only stuck with B grade stuff. Now with X-men, Spiderman, LOTR, there is a much more open market for movies like this. Vic

I have an Okuma Fly reel. Contructed nicely. I would go with them again certainly. vic

Ok here is what I do, It doesnt need a tool and it is fast fast fast. Its a little confusing when you read it but when you see the pictures, it will all make sense. First thing is to strip out about a foot or so of line and make a loop. Now flatten the loop and string it through the baitcaster eye in reverse. In otherwords insert it where the line usualy comes out. Now the eye of the loop will be in the spool area. Just open up the loop now. and place the tagend of the loop (end tip of the line) through the loop. Now tug on the loop exiting the baitcaster eye, this will tighten the loop onto the end of the line a bit. Now just yank the end of the line out the eye of the baitcaster. And finally pull the end of the line all the way out untill the loop is eliminated and you will have a threaded baitcaster without tools! Just remember to pull the end of the line as soon as it exits the eye of the biatcaster. Hope this helps! I actually send this into field and stream tips a little while ago. havent heard a response yet though. Vic

Here is a method that was not to hard and worked really well for me. http://www.rod-crafting.com/articles/balancing.html) It really seemed to help make the rod with reel feel much lighter even though it actually weighed a bit more Vic