Leaderboard

The ito is here

Been on a more expensive kick the past few weeks: cymbal monkey got me.

That's gotta be some kind of record, right there.... A French bike hooked with a Japanese lure with an Italian name. Love it! Tight lines, Bob

Never have been pics, never will be pics. That hillbilly's too busy bangin 2 mamas, riding his invisible hog, and working 7/12's at the nuclear plant with Homer Simpson.

Are you sure you don't walk around the lake with a weapon to find these items? The only thing I find are skunks and trees.

For those of you who couldn't access the site tonight, I apologize. The network that our site sits on went down for 3 hours tonight, which made our site unavailable. We're back up again, and shouldn't have any further issues. My apologies to those that experienced severe withdrawal symptoms, including nervous ticks, short tempers, and uncontrollable urges to cast a bait at the cat.

When I read the title of the thread I expected to open up a blank page.

Talk about making the best out of a bad situation.

Whatever you do... DO NOT WATCH THIS VIDEO. It contains ninja bait monkey propaganda that you will not be able to unsee.

I've seen this happen dozens of times, and even experienced it myself. The problem? When you're concentrating, you're looking/thinking about where you don't want it go. Inevitably, that's exactly where it ends up. Happens a lot in bowling too, when trying to pick up a tough spare. The lure will go where you're looking. So stop looking at that branch or dock you want to avoid, and instead look at where you want it go. You'd be surprised at how well that works.

My neighbor was 74yo and he passed away last week. We talked all the time about politics, crime and the weather. A little Tim Allen over the fence chat. I mentioned I was going bass fishing and he perked up but said nothing. In the news paper his obituary said he was an avid fisherman and they had a picture of him holding a bass in his boat. I feel really bad I been living here going on eight years and all this time with the both of us being retired I could of taken him fishing. We could of fished together. He was a quiet nice old man who kind of kept to himself. I would offer to help him at times but he refused my help. My point is if you have a neighbor talk to him and see if he fishes. You could learn from these elderly gents. Don't miss out on the good fishing trips you could of hand like I did. I moved into a neighborhood were there all old timers who lived here for ever. I'm the youngster at 64yo. I enjoy talking with some of them about how things have changed through the many years. My street was a stagecoach trail and a nearby house was a layover. There is so much untold facts and history. I fear once we lose these people the stories will be gone forever. God bless, happy holidays. Remember to enjoy thanksgiving. Bigbill

**** The In-Fisherman classification of impoundments are; Canyon Plateau Highland Hill-land Flatland Lowland All the changes in the terrain that classify these impoundments are clear cut by there land forms. A trip by car across our nation could mean traversing a great variety of terrain. Swamps and marshes. coastal lowlands, plans, high and low hills, plateaus, canyons and mountains. Water has been impounded in all of these landforms. For example, flatland are more common in the broad Mississippi plans than in the Appalachian high lands. The hill-land class, meanwhile is the most difficulty to pinpoint because it is a transition between the highland and flatland classes and can appear almost anywhere. For instance, lake Shelbyville in Illinois is in the hill=land but Rend and Caryle, its sister reservoirs are both flatland types. Why is this important to know for bass fishing? The type of water you fish determines where the bass locate and what their primary prey source should be. If you are a traveling fisherman that bass fishes in more than one locality, you can determine where the general bass location should be before you start fishing. General classification characteristics; Canyon; Water quality is ultra clear, bass grow to about 10 pounds, prey is shad, crayfish, dam is concrete, water level fluctuation about 10 to 150 feet, purpose of the dam is power generation and some flood control/irrigation. Plateau; Water quality is clear to off color, bass grow to about 5 lbs, prey is shad, sunfish and salamanders, dam is earth and small concrete spillways, water fluctuation about 5 to 25 feet, dam is mainly for irrigation. Highland; Water is mostly clear, bass grow to 12 lbs, prey is shad, crayfish, sunfish, eels, salamanders, dam is all earth or all concrete, water fluctuation 12 to 20 feet, dam has many purposes, power or irrigation. Hill-land; Water is slightly off color, bass grow to 10 lbs., prey is shad, crayfish, sunfish, fresh water shrimp, dam is earth with some small concrete spill ways, water fluctuation is 2 to 10 feet, dam is mostly flood control and irrigation. Flatland; Water is off color, bass grow to 15 lbs, prey is shad, sunfish, frogs, eels, dam is earth, some have concrete spillways, water fluctuates 2 to 8 feet, dam used for flood control and irrigation. Lowland; Water is coffee colored to clear, Florida strain bass grow to 18 lbs., prey is a wide variety depending on region, dam is concrete, water fluctuation 2 to 8 feet, dam used for power and maintain the watershed. *** From a very very interesting discussion on this on another forum (post by Tom).

My 223/5.56 is 1:9 twist and shoots the snot out of 55 grain. Just sayin Jeff

As a basic rule of thumb, highland tends to be deeper/steeper and clearer water, while lowland is shallower/flatter with more stained water. This link should help answer a lot of your questions and save us from a whole bunch of typing http://www.kevinvandam.com/news/article/kvds-6-season-bass-guide/ -T9

I look under technique specific and for swiimbaits, make sure you try the swimming hornet or any underspin as they are great with any swimbait, fluke etc..especially good in colder weather, tough bites, suspended fish, and pretty weedless. I also like to use a swimbait jighead and the open hook not only improves hoookups over grass, but acts like a fin to keep it balanced, and gives bait contrast, color, and you can fish it like a trap and rip it out for strikes. I usually Buy regular EWG hooks and use D..O.A. pinch weights on the shank if weight is needed, mustad makes a sliding weight, and Owner beastlocks are fantastic hooks. Nail weights are good in swimbaits as well if you don't want a weighted hook. Just my 2 cents but I got crushed on TW last order with all the underspins, Jigheads, and I just love the topwater selection, and scored with the Owner Lures on sale for $6....Awesome concept, have not fished them yet, but they look great in the box, and that is important as well.

The boys over in MO. and AR that live on the White River chain of lakes know how to use the Wiggle Wart. If you can get them to share any information about their setups and how to work the bait, they are the ones to talk with.

I like to use the EWG Mustads with the sliding weight or Owner Beastlocks. Lately I have been riggging swimbaits on some swim jig heads I ordered from Siebert and when the hook is up it almost acts as a fin and is surprisingly weedless, adds nice colors to match or contrast, an eye, and a 1/4 ounce jig head with a swim senko may just work too good at times. The Yamamoto website has some good ideas on how to rig swimbaits. You can also use a weighted EWG hook for your Rage Tail Craws, Bugs, and for the Rage rig..I love a sliding weight, but you can always crimp a small split shot, or D.O.A. makes pinch weights you can crimp on...I use Nail Weights alot of times and then go with a regular EWG hook, but if on a budget, the VMC weighted hooks are good as well imo....Also try the Swimming Hornet Jigheads as Underspins are awesome at times, especially when fish are suspended...TW has an awesome selection under technique specific and swimbaits...Hope that gives you some ideas...That order is way too small. How can you not get onto the Hardbait pages and just lose your mind....Try the Owner lures on sale for $5.99 if they have any left of that square bill, thing is pretty good, paint can't chip, owner hooks pretty sharp...Heck of a deal, I have not tried the topwaters but they look good.

Save time and money. Get your son one of these. Grown men have been known to flee from its presence.

indeed. lol

I trust products, not brand names.

just curious which one you hit, the powerball or the mega millions?????

Winter project starts..... Now

Because the gear is considered entry level and not the same caliber as what a pro bass angler would use. That's what Abu is for. Is there a baitcaster in the Shakespeare line equivalent to a Revo Premier? When you turn pro, and someone asks you, "We'll pay you to fish a $30 reel and an Ugly Stik, or you can use an MGX and a Villian, so long as you promote them as the best." What are you going to choose? If they ever decide to offer top level gear under the Shakespeare name (this is highly doubtful) then I'm sure they'll hire some big name pros to pimp the products.

That is a nice example of an ITO, one of my favorites.

That reel has always been a classic for me.

Seems to be a rather confusing message. You are keeping the name, so you must value it and the 'goodness' that was earned by the old regime. At the same time, you don't seem willing to make amends with those that have been harmed by that same regime. I'm not in manufacturing, nor in sales or merchandising, so I'm rather ignorant here....but it seems to me that there are words coming out both sides of the corporate mouth.

I've found a number of lures stuck in trees. Also have found a canoe paddle, a hat, etc. Nothing spectacular, though. I'm waiting to latch on to a Stella + rod that someone threw overboard in frustration, LOL.

They're very similar to the siglett- a sexy looking and well thought out version of a jitterbug. It's worth mentioning that there are cheaper alternatives that do about the same thing... But who cares I guess? It's Megabass and it's gorgeous. If you're looking for a sexy jitterbug buy one.

No problem. I've been considering a KLX, so I've been on their website a lot lately. That's the only reason I know that.

Jerkbait wake one minus shallow (2-4) medium (5-10) deep (11+) lipless/countdown

Why not just take it up with ABU directly?

Now I know why TW is out of stock on the negotiator alumnis

Seriously Tom the bass don't care! If it catches bass I gonna throw it & I do not care who made it!

I’m going to suggest that there are not “two social mindsets” among bass, but instead that we see a range of behaviors depending on what environments require. Bass are highly adaptable and may use available prey in almost any sector of a given water body. They can (or at least some can) figure out how to hunt effectively from dense cover to open water. We anglers often focus on the bass, but their prey species ecology and behavior can tell us a great deal about what bass are doing, as Tom introduced to the conversation above. There are a number of factors that affect bass group sizes and how they arrange themselves, in particular: mortality/survivorship, body size, and prey type and abundance. Some prey –in particular open water true schooling species– are more difficult, even impossible, for single bass to catch. There are social factors too that appear early in life stages and “individualism”, as put above, is one. Bass fry start out in large groups (and these aren’t true schools either) and continue to hunt cooperatively in shoals and aggregates because it works. But when it doesn't, they will abandon it. Extra large bass tend to be loners in most waters bc there are so few of them. Lots of food in a small area tends to produce bass with smaller home ranges while waters with sparse and patchier resources produce more "roamers". Bass do what it takes. There are few fish out there more capable of exploiting varied environments than bass. That’s why we love em. Bass do sometimes exhibit "schooling" behavior –defined as tightly coordinated and moving in synchrony in the same direction. I believe that this is, in most waters, rare and/or transient. And, because of the individualistic part, I’ve chosen to call it "schooling-type" behavior. Selective pressures that created true schoolers are not present for bass and aren't exhibited in their morphology or behavior. The places where bass are most apt to use schooling-type behavior is when hunting open water prey fishes, and possibly during migration movements in certain circumstances. The scenes in Glen Lau’s “Bigmouth” appear to show some schooling-type behavior. But exactly what is going on there is not apparent. It looks to me as though those bass could just be, and likely are, a good-sized shoal (obviously there’s plenty of food there to support larger groups, including several open water schooling species) doing what shoals do. In fact, at one point you see some members of the group spot something in the vegetation below and break up momentarily to inspect. Then they move on like active cruise-hunting shoals do. In some clips where they are looking more school-like they may be being pushed by the diver. It’s also possible that they may be influenced by current as the film was shot in Rainbow Springs in the Crystal River in Florida. Schooling efficiently covers distance over open water (think drafting), and current could force shoals of bass into assuming a tighter “school-like” arrangement in certain places. The narrator states that telemetry studies have shown two types of bass –schoolers and loners / social and asocial– but that’s a very simplistic take and there have been a whole lot more studies done since. Again, I’m going to suggest that there are not “two social mindsets” among bass, but instead that we see a range of behaviors depending on what environments require, possibly within those two extremes. Indeed pelagic and littoral habitats are extremes and most fish species can’t handle both, but apparently bass (as a species) can. Wish it were true that we could say that there are only two types of bass, but freshwater systems are enormously complex, especially as you start jumping around between water bodies. Each water body has its own (often changing) story going on and each is illustrative. But there are core tendencies that define a species. Bass just happen to be a highly adaptable one.

NRX + Stella... Be still, my beating heart.

Most of the replies so far talk about cheap discount worms, this baffles me. How many worms do you guys use in an outing? Your time on the water is priceless, catching bass should be your goal and good quality soft plastic worms may cost 5 cents more each then a discount worm. If you used 10 worms in an outing, you saved 50 cents and caught few if any bass. Tom

It'll be a perfect date night place with the lady.

250s Plural.

We have an annual benefit tournament to help raise funds for the children's unit of Metrohealth hospital. This was the 19th year, and we've raised enough this year for the hospital to purchase a sensory tube for kids with special needs. We usually have 100+ boats show up! Here's the video from this year's event. Central Basin 2014: What do you love most about your club?

#1 - Powerbait 4" on a drop shot #2 - Missile Fuse 4.4 on a Mojo #3 - Yum Flash Mob Jr with small swimbaits (Zoom swimmin Fluke Jr's) #4 - Cavitron Buzzbait #5 - Sexy Dawg Notable mention for the Strike King 1.5 Flat.

I have a gentleman who must be in his upper 70s as a neighbor next to my office and he still works part time for Jerry Cooper at Cooper's Marine outside of Ashland, Virginia. He is a pleasure to speak to and he knows so much about motors and boat maintenance and repair. He has offered to help me with my motor but I always decline. I may take him up on his offer to winterize my Mercury as I think he would enjoy helping me for once. And yes, there are so many stories and facts taken away from us when the older generation passes along. That is why I tell my wife to take an 6 X 4 inch index card and write on it about old furniture we have, who made it and when, etc. My grandson is infatuated when my wife tells him stories of her growing up on a dairy farm in Pennsylvania. You should see his eyes light up as he listens to her stories.

The Tighlines baits work, but I haven't seen them do anything special that makes them worth as much as a regular Senko to me. If you have fairly clear water with smallmouths in it, the Zinker on a Ned rig is almost cheating. It's effective enough for smallmouth around here that I have a rod dedicated to it. It catches everything from sunfish to catfish too. I've caught lots of walleye, crappie, wipers, white bass, and drum on them. Largemouth with eat it really well too, but it's like crack for smallmouth. My biggest Ned rig largemouth Like I said, it catches everything too.

The young grandson walks up to his grandfather who is siting in the recliner watching TV and he asks his grandfather, "Grandpop, can you make a sound like a frog?" "Well," said the old man, "I guess I could but why?" "Because, grandma said that when you croak we can all got to Disney World."

What about a rainbow?

Put in at the public ramp on the south side of the 154 bridge. Go under the bridge and there will be a large cove on ur right. That's Searcy, fish it all day front to back then back to front. Best of luck

I'm in!

Just ran a quick analysis using CDC data. Based upon the overwhelming barrage of news stories on ebola, which do you think the news should focus on? Sensationlized Diseases Data: 1999-2013 – people who contracted the disease in the U.S. and subsequently died from it. Virus U.S. Cases Resulting U.S. Deaths West Nile 39,557 1.668 Bird Fle 0 0 SARS 8 0 Ebola 1 0 Car Accidents ???? 33,000 per year That's not to say these aren't terrible and prolific illnesses worldwide. They do need to be addressed and eliminated. But the news hype in the U.S. does not match the actual threat level. Not even close.

After mike at dvt tuned my curado e i realized longer casting, smoother casting and less casting effort. I still het the occasional overrun but thats not the reels fault I know i plan to send him a couple reels over the winter months for tuning and new drags Mike is totally worth rhe work he puts into a reel...honestly his prices make it almost like stealing lol. Super service at an exceptional price!