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A company that takes trades.I had a lot of tackle that wasn't being used. Took it in, they made me an offer. Walked out with $820.00 in rods with not a penny out of pocket. It pays to take care of your stuff. Hootie

Yes, you instantly become part of Phi Bait'a Kappa- or the fraternal order of those who spend thousands of dollars to specifically eliminate catching 99% of the fish in the lake.

My vote would be to start it in May, just because everyone doesn't fish rivers, and we still have 24" of ice. Getting softer, but still tons of it. It will be quick, though, once it starts really warming up.

whip 'em out boys ....... its a measuring contest now. yall want to talk about helping young folks and new anglers????? What kind of example is whining like little girls setting? can we drop the agendas now and talk about fishing? Please.

I want to share with all of you a fascinating story that just occurred to me less than 20 min ago. Let me rewind to earlier today. I am hanging out with my wife and kids and my son knows that at certain part of the day I go fishing during the weekend. The time was approaching and my son says " Dad are you going fishing for nothing". I explained to my son, that I do not go fishing for nothing, you never know when you go fishing, and your next cast may be the biggest fish you ever catch. The conversation finishes and he walks away and says "Have fun fishing for nothing". Fast forward, I walk to my neighborhood canal throwing my trusty spinnerbait. I fish and fish and nothing is happening. The water is really stained and after an hour of fishing I have not caught anything. I make cast, swim the spinnerbait my special way, and then it happens...... the behemoth rears its head. In one second I see my spinnerbait swimming and the next this monster of a fish inhales my bait. GAME ON... I say, and we begin to battle. She surges, I counter. Then I realize I am on the high ground of the canal and there is no way to land this fish without my breaking my rod or popping my leader. So I make a dash to a low clearing while fighting the fish. We at one point cross paths. When I reached the low ground I controlled her from jumping successfully and then she surged, I countered, she surged again away and parallel to the shore to an out crop of limestone and then!!!! it was over.... the line went dead. When I reeled up my line, and felt it, I knew what happened. She went against the limestone and sheared off the line. I have caught some nice bass over the years, but that one would have/or could have been my personal best. I do not get heart broken often when I fish, but this one hurt. Once the line went dead, all I could here was " Dad are you going fishing for nothing"..... LOL.... what are the odds of my son and I having that conversation and the big one getting away all on the same day.... Now I just need this kid to give me six magic numbers... LOL...

Had planned on getting a new G Loomis GLX. Instead, I got two of them. Got the 804c jig and worm rods. Hopefully I will get to try them out this weekend. Can't wait! Hootie

I've caught a bass with a snake sticking out of it's throat, but never seen one actually attacking one. fishinthedacks' story reminded me of a bass my wife caught while we were fishing on a friends private lake in South Carolina. She was fighting a solid 3-4 pound fish to the boat when it spit up a large object, turned out to be about a foot long eel. Seeing that prompted me to try a YUM Mightee worm weightless like a Senko, first cast with it;

In all cases, they are under water. In all seriousness, though, you should check the articles section for seasonal patterns. In general, 40s is winter or ice out, 50s is pre spawn, 60s is spawn, 70s and up is post spawn summer. That is a BIG TIME generalization though. There's quite a bit more to it.

Man, what a battle! LOL I respectively agree with Tom, Catt, and ShaneJ. All you fellas catch toads on separate coastlines. Last but not least Big O as well. I met ShaneJ and Big O last year in Tulsa during the Classic. Great guys! I look forward to meeting other bass resource members one day. We are all passionate about our opinions and our experiences. I can state the obvious for me as well as other members. I thought I was a decent bass fisherman until I joined this site. HMPH. I had no idea what the hell I was doing. Being a member here has taken me to a new level. And I owe it to all the members here. I take the advice from the more seasoned veterans to heart. I love all the guys advice that I stated above and others too. Glenn, Long Mike, 00mod, JFrancho to name a few more. Thanks for being passionate and helping the handicaps like me with our future adventures. Darin

300 double digit bass is very impressive. I would love to see some pictures. .

Officially finished school today (thus the display name change), so i had to sneak the boat out this afternoon to celebrate despite the cold and the fact that it snowed this morning. Three hours at Lake Olathe. Got three bites and landed two of them. Both 1.5 ish lb largemouth on jerkbait (pointer in ghost minnow). Could not get bit on anything else. One was way back in a cove on a secondary point, the other was just off the bank on the north end. Water temps 46-49.

Everybody is ready for the year

Alright, so, in re-reading through, I have to kind of admit, that I sort of did steer it off topic, and into an area that was irrelevant, and I apologize to the group for that. As far as me n Tom go, there are just a couple people that, despite having some very valuable info and accomplishments on the water, just rub me the wrong way in how they they use it. We may never see eye to eye, but that doesn't mean that thoughts, opinions, and yeah, even a little rubbing shared along the way, shouldn't be okay to experience.

So last year in an effort to help to teach my son that the food we buy at the supermarket has to be grown and takes work so we should be appreciative of the efforts involved we grew a garden last year. We followed the square foot gardening technique where basically you have a series of raised beds and do not use row spacing but rather individual plant spacing for your planting. . The technique maximizes space. Anyways last year we did jalapeños, carrots, lettuce, tomatoes, green peppers and tried some cucumbers and squash but the varmints got to them. Well this year i was perusing the burpee website and next thing you know i have 150 worth of seeds in my cart, after downsizing I am hoping to start planting this weekend after building the garden out a little larger than last year, well who am i kidding, it will be at least double the size. Here is what is on the menu: Butter lettuce Romaine Arugula carrots 4 types of tomatoes brussel sprouts 2 types of onions green peppers 3 types of hot peppers cucumbers squash zucchini peas lima beans spinach and i am sure there are other things i missed....I am going to be mapping it out this week and building it this weekend... anyways, any one else do up a garden? I know last year it was pretty awesome to walk in my back yard before dinner and pick the stuff to make a salad and it was also great to see my 3 1/2 year old go over to the tomatoes while playing out side and popping a few cherry tomatoes off and eat them as a snack

Decided to take off work a little early yesterday and try to get on the lake after running some errands and I'm glad I did. Caught this girl in about 15 ft of water of the end of a tree top on an alabama rig. She weighed right in at 9 lbs. This has been a great year so far as far as quality fish.

The bass bite in my part of NC is non existant, so me and a buddy have been bream and crappie fishing until its gets a bit warmer. I caught three crappie back to back tonight, and none of em were less than a pound a piece. This was the best (also the biggest Iv ever caught) of the night. 1lb. 15oz.

My brother caught another huge one this month...Went fishing this morning with a friend and around 9:30 we hopped to this small pond and 3 casts caught 3 fish. My friend first casted and caught a nice 3 pounder on a Berkely Pit Boss texas rigged. My brother then casted (berkley Pit boss) and set the hook with what seemed like bottom LOL. After a tough fight we landed him and it was HUGE. My friend was so excited he decided to take another cast while we still had the big one on land and catches another one! It jumps out of the water and seems to be a nice one. We land it and it is atleast 4.5-5 pounds. Our adrenaline was pumping so much from fish after fish and not small ones either. Kind of jealous of my brother lol I want to break my pb this season and he's already caught two giant ones.

May it is ! Hopefully will be able to catch a few fish in April.

I'm planning on just officially starting it in May like Shane said. Even if there are some places open in April I don't think a competition for that month would get that much action...

Tournament fishing has taught me that while fish move, they don't move that much, outside seasonal movements. I'm referring to largemouth here. You can try to beat them into a bite sometimes, but if you cut through the dock talk, and listen to the guys that had good days, when you did not, I've come to the conclusion that the bite moves, not the fish. Having terrible results? Move. Seriously.

I think he was just getting at the folks that go fishing and have a "milk run" of spots somewhere. They just go hit those spots if they catch nothing they put the boat on the trailer and say the fishing sucks and go home. Alot of people dont take the time to break down a day. I have spots just like everybody else here but if the fish arent on that spot i know from the other knowledge ive read on here from Catt and WRG and a few others about fish movement that the fish are going to follow the contours where they are going. So the fish that were on that spot could move either way from it and setup close by or a mile down or further. I fish river systems mostly so I know if I caught fish on a spot roaming that if the water is high the next week those fish are going to be up with their noses stuck into the bank or if its lower they will be roaming that area or moved further out into the river and setup on new cover. I think what the biggest mistake is and i've read a few others say it but alot of fisherman lack the ability to stand back and look at the big picture and figure out whats happening. And the worst part about that is the big picture is never complicated. The bass brain lives off instinct we spend all this time and money learning that instinct. And we as fisherman tend to complicate that way to much. I guess the biggest thing I'm getting at is there are alot of fisherman that should learn to ask "why?" more and not to the internet forum but while they are on the water and hitting their spot and its dead they need to stop and ask themselves "why" and if they start digging around they will find out quick and it might be that the fish just pushed out deeper cause of a temp change or the dnr came in and sprayed all the weeds and the fish vacated down a ways to clean water. I'm just a nobody around here though and spend more time reading than typing but thats my two cents on this subject. Best ill get is a penny lol

Craziest thing I've seen was a coyote chase a deer into the water. I'm on my boat and heard a loud splash behind me, turnaround to see a deer swimming and a coyote standing on the bank with his tongue hanging out. Scared me!!!! Wish I had had the presence of mind to take a pic. No snakes, though.

I've got the regular & the mini. I use the mini on my dock for the grandkids because it runs on a 9V battery. I will be honest, there were times it made a difference & times I couldn't get bit. But the one thing that convinced me that it was doing something was the day I had Cormorants all around my trolling motor. I turned it off & they went away - turned it back on & they returned. As far as KVD, it is interesting when he had the prototype in development, he absolutely dominated. Now that they all use it, the field seems a little more balanced. Could be a coincidence.

My latest build.

Tatula $150 vs Curado $250 the $100 should get you something. Try swapping rods and give it another try. Tom

exactly how high do you get before you post this stuff?

TSI321 oe

I would say jerkbaits, swimming jigs, and if you switched the line to mono or braid, topwater. You can do a lot with a 6'6" MH rod.

Sounds like a good spinnerbait rod with those specs/line

I find gear oil to be a good compromise. It stays put better than oil but doesn't gum up the way grease does in an exposed application.

Hit the potomac near 4 locks with Allen (munkin) today , not a lot of action but I did manage 2 nice smallies ..this was the bigger one... Just shy of 3lbs

out of all the dumb things I have read in my life this has to be up towards the top. Unfortunately, that is in reference to your entire post and not the tort in discussion. Lol

In my humble opinion, there is never - I repeat, NEVER - a "good reason to hit her." That's just a messed up way to think, and be careful my friend ... next time you think you have a "good reason to hit her" there might just be another Mr. Short Fish with the honor to jump in to save the girl, and tear your stupid ass up! I mean, Seriously?!?

umm ... what?

Acted like they have never had to face a zone before. Too many bad shots and dumb turnovers. How did Illinois fare this year???

What chapped your hide today? Why is it so difficult to find a good receptionist? We've gone through a few. They're either lazy, sloppy, or just sub par when it comes to tasks. We have one great receptionist that's been with us for a few years but are always looking for a couple others during tax time since we're open 7 days a week 12 hour days. Anyway, a young lady we hired today was given a script to discuss with clients when it comes to making appointments. She said it was too long. That she didn't want to do it. I told her thanks, it's been nice working with you for 12 minutes.

Egotistical narcissists who think they are the center of the universe. I work with one and it is a good day if I don't run into him. I stopped handling things like this a long time ago, but I'd still LOVE to grind him into the concrete!

The most noticable differences are mild winters and four true seasons. It's hot and humid in the summer, but not any different than Kansas City or even Omaha. Fall is basically the same and beautiful here as it is in most of the country (my favorite season). Spring is usually early with hyacinths and daffodils blooming in late February. We have a few weeks of cold in the winter, but the first seven years I lived here there was no snow. A few ponds will freeze, but it's a thin sheet of ice. Lakes and rivers never freeze and some of the best fishing is in January and February, especially smallmouth! It's not San Diego, but if you like the change of seasons, the Mid South has a very pleasant climate.

I would never start a fight and beat on a woman, and always attempt to restrain before hitting. However, I will always advocate self defense when needed, not with excessive force, but with justifiable force, regardless of sexes involved. I hate the blanket statement of not hitting a woman. I've seen situations where, sadly, it was necessary, and these days women want to be men anyway, so I say if you're a lady, be a lady and I'll treat you like a lady, but if you're gonna act like a man, then welcome to the club with full benefits.

Name one. Dude, I've noticed a few of your posts over time and have saw that a few of them are very edgy...and I've kept my mouth shut.... But that is over the top dude. In fact, that's just plumb wrong. What the hell are you thinking

Pretty pathetic statement. A man never lays a hand on a woman. Ever.

Until very recently it's been arse chappin' cold outside and next week it's going to be AGAIN!!!!

Well I woke up and realized the dream I was having was just that...a dream and it hit me that I wasn't a millionaire and had to go to work

People who pass by throwing their trash in the ditch in front of my house, it drives me insane.

The welders burn on my arm. For you people that don't know. Its a lot like a sun burn. For the last few days its been peeling. Because of it peeling. It has been itching all day.

keep playing until you lose

The biggest reason i use fluoro on almost everything is its slack line sensitivity. Braid doesnt have any and mono isnt as dense. Nothing beats braid when using a tight line. Once theres a bow in the line or you are letting the bait fall on slack line, fluoros sensitivity is unmatched. Its abrasion resistance is also great. As far as handling and memory, use kvd line and lure conditioner and all your problems go away. Tie the right knot and check your line and you wont have any mystery breakoffs

Liver & onions

I'm from Richmond, lived in Newport News, and now live in Louisiana. (There might be a quiz later.) Trying to get back to VA, and Yes Teal the Traffic in/around the Peninsula does stink!!! Darren, I used to fish Newport News reservoir a lot!! Send me a PM if you want and I'll download what I know. Also, my profile picture came from Prince Lake in Suffolk. ZARA SPOOK!!!