farmpond1

Yo! For all you fishermen (and women) out there! Unless you are brand new to the sport and have no equipment whatsoever, here is the best advice I can give you about your Christmas wish list. It will serve you well this year and many years to come: Unless you are extremely specific and stress you want no substitutes, do not ask for fishing gear from friends and relatives. Otherwise, you will wind up with three nylon stringers, 2 dozen red and white bobbers, a gob of non-descript night crawler hooks, and one or two zebco 202's. If you do receive any lures, they will very likely be those cheap stamped spoons and knock off spinners mass produced in the billions in China. You'll thank me later.

So, you're saying, in order for the boat to have a really shallow draft it has to be "on plane" which, in turn, means it has to be moving pretty fast?!!! I can see how/why you might be nervous about this. Good luck with your new ride. d**n the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!

My coworker thought I had sneezed when I let out a loud explosive laugh at one of the autocorrect entries. As this is a family site, I won't say which one.

Half the people are screaming "We need more security!" while the other half are screaming "How dare they take away my rights!" I know! We can have airlines without any security measures whatsover and people can sign waivers saying that they won't hold the airline or government responsible for whatever happens to them. I guess you can tell which camp I am in.

I wonder if that Meth lab would explode if you held an open flame up to it?

Christmas (and all holidays, for that matter) has definitely become a commercial racket. Commercialism has almost overtaken television as the opiate of the masses. Still, if you can overlook it or, perhaps, rise above it, there are some nice traditions which can involve buying/possessing things. Since this is a fishing forum, I'll use fishing as an example: Buying a fishing "pole" for your girl or boy should only be the tip of the iceberg. Teaching her or him how to use it and then taking them fishing with it should still be the central part of it. There's a pond I have the privilege to fish which is surrounded by very expensive (by my standards anyway) houses. Seldom do I ever see anyone from those houses enjoying their backyards or the pond itself. Not that I'm complaining, mind you, because I have the pond nearly to myself, but with all that money spent, those folks don't seem to appreciate what they have. Okay, I'll get off my soap box now.

The last time I brought a flasher with me ice fishing, he turned blue and then passed out.

I agree. It would be different if, say, the boat were involved in an accident (on the road or on the water) but otherwise trying to dodge any liability for a lousy boat (design, material, workmanship, or otherwise) just sends the message out that Tracker is not a company to be trusted. Although my boat is sufficient for my purposes, I'm now less inclined to consider Tracker.

I don't know how different they are-although I imagine there are some big advantages to the new ones over the old (better visibility, sensitivity and zooming). Apart from how the image is displayed, they actually may have more in common with a graph than the old flashers.

Yeah, I kind've figured it had more to do with number they make (and sell) then the technology. But there are things about my flasher which are advantageous over a graph so, for ice fishing anyway, it's worth it.

I'm am in this club as well. I would LOVE to try a Silent Red Eye Shad . . . . A-Jay Or a silent clackin' shad ;D

Jerk bait: Any bait thrown by someone who keeps more fish than they can reasonably use, throws used fishing line, beer cans, and styrofoam containers into the water or shore, and does not give others proper distance when approaching them from a boat. The person for which this bait is associated also does not bother to pull away from a boat ramp before prepping their boat for departure. Crankbait: 1) Any bait thrown by someone who makes false or deceptive phone calls; usually to lie about the size or number of fish they have caught. 2) Any bait which has been dipped in the powder form of methamphetamine for the purpose of attracting or luring fish which are already hooked.

Exactamundo! It matters less what the immediate air temperature is than what the water temperature is (and has been). Water cools much more slowly than air so even if there has been a drop in the air temperature, the water can still be at an acceptably warm temperature for bass. Of course, once the water does cool off, that's a different ball game-particularly once a lake "turns over." Although it's not unheard of to catch bass on surface baits when the water temp drops into the 50's or lower, unless you just love to fish them, or unless you can find a shallow wind blown cove (for example) where the water temperature is up, there are other baits and techniques which will generally pay off better. Just my 2 cents.

I'm really not complaining because I love my flasher (for ice fishing) but can anyone explain why flashers cost so much? Unless I'm missing something, the technology is about the oldest in the business (compared to graphs, etc) and yet I've never seen a unit much below 300 dollars. And most are considerably more. Any ideas?

It's a bummer your season was rough. Sometimes it's a combination of things-outside distractions/committments, poor weather, or just whatever. I've had a few years like that myself. They stink! But hey, there's always next year! Hopefully we'll get some rain or snow!

If the bass aren't terribly selective, and if you've been using crankbaits with a wide wobble, try switching to a flat crank bait or a lipless crankbait. Or try the opposite if you've been doing the latter. Or try a suspending crank where it can hang in front of the bass for a bit. Mix it up a bit and see what the response is.

On the contrary, if I could catch fish like that everyday during my lunch hour, coming to work would be a heck of a lot easier! One heckova nice bass man!

Way to go, man! Based on the number of views, you just made about 174 fishermen turn a vivid shade of green! About a month ago, my brother and I pulled in a 5, a 4, and about six 3 lbers and I was in hog heaven. But that's nothing compared to your day! Jumpin' Jehosephat!!!!

While a spinning reel takes, perhaps, a few minutes more instruction and a little more practice, I strongly recommend a spinning rod/reel combo over a spincast setup. I remember many years ago starting with a Zebco 202 and "graduating" to a 33 but I detested nearly every minute of it. The line gets tangled so easily in the spool and the drags stink. I think The only advantage I can really see (and it's slight) is that spincast combos may be more ergonomically correct for little hands. But with ultralight spinning reels, this isn't really true either.

Upon closer inspection (and reflection), I doubt this was "ground zero" because there are several buildings and line of utility poles in the immediate vicinity which would have very likely been pulverized (The bomb (nicknamed "fat man") was dropped on August 9th and the photo is purported to have been taken on August 10th). So, unless they hustled right out and built all these things immediately afterwards, it's unlikely that this is "ground zero". Or, another hypothesis is that the photo was not taken on August 10th but many weeks or months afterwards. It's a black and white photo but that looks like living vegetation in the picture-not likely on August 10th (although I think the crab grass in my yard has that level of endurance). Like you said, the bomb was detonated about 1600 feet above the city in order to create the strongest blast effect.

So, you're saying it wasn't aliens who did those unspeakable things to me last weekend?!!! ;D

didn't Carl Sagan say that? or was it Jodie Foster Daffy Duck. You mean "Duck Dodgers in the 24th and a half Century!"

My brother went on a tour of the USS Intrepid (picture number 75) where it is moored in New York. At one place, the tour guide stopped and pointed out that that place was the spot where the kamikazi aircraft had hit the ship and where numerous sailors had lost their lives. He (my brother) said it was quite a sobering moment.

So, what you're saying is you might have to change your gender to a "she"? But seriously, though. Is having a whole head of hair really worth risking serious side effects such as liver or kidney damage (or worse)?! Dialysis, I hear, isn't a lot of fun.

It might be easier to understand if you take your options to their extreme. If you are directly underneath a fish and you pull, the fish will be "forced" toward you (down deeper) whereas if you are directly above a fish and you pull, the fish will be "forced" toward you and to the surface. So, holding the rod tip down or, even, under the surface, will keep a fish down a lot better than if you hold the rod high (toward the sky). Same rule applies if you want to coerce a fish in one direction or another (to avoid a snag, for example).