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It's hard to pick just one ~ A-Jay

Two of my favorites from this year.

Favorite lake picture? Here's mine. Here's another.

Sunset from our deck at our camper

Sunrise on Lake Okeechobee. iPhone photo.

Cold...high...and muddy water on Chickamauga Lake in Tennessee over the weekend. A few bass noticed my Bomber Flat "A" in Fire Tiger color. I got lucky and hit one in the head with it I think. A pretty good bass but better days ahead.

lake norman, nc at dusk my dog on the old inflatable when he was little pup! the dog on his first swim and actually not a lake, but a fish house near tampa, fl

Here are a few of Quabbin Reservoir in central Massachusetts:

Spend too much money, that's what I do

Gardnerjigman and I had a chance to get on one of the local power plant lakes this past Friday. Weather was a little chilly but the lake was as calm as it gets, which never happens on this lake. The fishing started hot and heavy, slowed just a little, and then went nuts towards the end. We had well over 100 fish with a mix of largemouth, smallmouth, whites, wipers, walleye, and a drum. I had to edit out a lot of white bass to make the video somewhat reasonable length, and it still ended up almost 25 minutes long. Not a bad problem to have I suppose.

Not so much the lake, but when topwaterrob took my wife and I out on the Everglades while we were on vacation, these guys made me a little more careful about how close to the edge of the boat I was standing.

This is me in the canoe on one of my little neighborhood lakes last October. I didn't know that someone had taken this photo until I saw it on the front page of our local weekly newspaper as part of a "why we live here" feature. The photographer must have been using a LONG lens since the dam of this lake was quite a ways behind me. I emailed the newspaper and requested a copy of the digital file.

The private lake that my buddy lives on in South Carolina

Steeze 100HA. Just got it in today and it will satisfy the "weight weenie" user! Getting it cleaned up internally so it will be ready for its first spring outing in a few months.

If it's an option at all ~ Send her flowers At Work on Friday. Always a fan favorite . . . . . It's early , It'll catch her by surprise and she'll be the E N V Y of the Office. And don't skimp ~ Go Big ! That move may just buy you fishing Saturday & Sunday . . . and she can sleep in both days. Win ~ Win ! A-Jay

Not a lake, but a cove of the Potomac. Not my pic....photo credit to my wife

I just maxed out my "Likes" quota on this thread - So as long as there is NO SNOW in your pic - consider it "Liked" A-Jay

The lake I usually fish at.

I would print that response and carry it with me while hunting. May save you a headache later

Really excited for this combo! I will primarily use it for Jerkbaits and Topwater. I'll spool it with 13lb Sunline Defier Armilo. The Type R+ was brand new, I just put HH bearings in it and Carbontex drag. The Ultima is simply beautiful can't wait to fish it. Is it Spring yet?????? http://s1067.photobucket.com/user/mattbfleming/library/Jerkbait%20and%20Topwater%20Combo Matt

Rattle-L-Trap

How about this one.

Maybe in order to avoid detection you should just hunt at night - a big spot light really helps . . . . I'm Kidding. A-Jay

Music is not a problem unless it is rap!!

Plenty of success fishing straight braid.

Finding out I was going to be a grandfather was exciting enough, now the twins are almost here, the doctors said they would be here the week of the 27th barring any unforeseen emergency, they were to busy at the office today to schedule the C-section but we will find out sometime in the next couple of days when the procedure will take place, OH MAN I cant wait !!! If I may ask for prayers from you guys for a healthy and safe delivery for mom and babies they would be truly welcomed !!!

As a LEO, I 100% suggest you follow this suggestion along with making sure you save that email exchange.

X2 for me. I normally keep mine in origional bags as well in the gallon ziplock. I narrow it down to just my confidence colors/styles to keep weight and amount down. I usually just have 4 freezer bags, worms, senko, jig trailer, and lizard/creatures. Each bag has a strip of blue painters tape labling it in sharpie.

Let's see if this link works, they even carry a 10" bag. http://store.do-itmolds.com/Laminated-Bags-8x4_p_290.html I haven't personally bought any from here, but had seen them when I was searching for a specific mold.

Either that or he's talking about swimbaits with built in hooks vs swim baits with hooks you rig yourself? I have no idea.

The zip lock "freezer weight " bags work better for me than the standard zip lock bags do.

@okiangler do you take medication for your migraines? I get severe aura migraines that cause numbness in my extremities (usually my left hand/arm), temporary blindness (left eye, always), nausea and eventually vomiting. It's completely debilitating when I get one and sleep is the only thing that sort of makes it better. The last couple years I've been taking medication for it and went from getting 2 or 3 a month to getting 2 or 3 a year.

I used to drink coffee and have a banana or two on the boat til that faithful day in September. Had the boat launch been 10 seconds further from where I was at. I would have had to drop a five pounder in the live well. Now I stick with a monster and some granola bars.

As others have said space will be an issue no matter what. This is going to be my third season with a 16 foot V hull and I cram a lot of stuff onboard but also have no room to move and always in danger of stepping on a pole. So I have been working up different ideas to store gear and poles and generally make the boat more of a fishing machine. I have this to-do list of about 25 things to do before the season starts. Some of those items are maintence but there are going to be rod holders, a stern platform and a bicycle seat for the bow. Third year and I'm just getting to that now but have fished the dickens out of the boat the past two years. So my advice is don't give up and don't lose heart. If you can, try to get into it and make steady improvements one at a time and as money allows. A small modest boat is way better than no boat and there will always be something better out there but once you leave the bank it's all good.

Round bend is exactly that the bend is a full radius. Sproat bend starts out bending with a larger radii and changes near the hook point to a tighter radii, this design strengthens the bend. O'Shaunessy bend is a sproat bend that is forged to increase strength. All 3 styles are made in wide gap and standard gap. O'Shaunessy being the strongest with equal diameter wire. Round bend having the shortest bend length. Tom

I love Quabbin so much. Such an incredible body of water, we are very fortunate to have it nearby!

I don't get to fish nearly as much as I like so nothing, almost literally nothing, stops me. My buddy and I have fished numerous hurricanes, snow storms, cold, hot...you name it. I completely understand the migraine thing though. This was me 3 weeks after having my tricep re-attached last summer:

For topwater I think it's just the silhouette and the noise/action of the bait that draws the fish in to strike. If a fish is looking up at a lure from underwater with the light source behind it, it's not really going to see the colors. In clear water maybe a dark or light belly will be noticable, but the colors on the top of the lure, the fish are NEVER going to see those colors.

Sometimes ignorance is bliss. I knew nothing about bass fishing until 1980 when we moved from Mexico City to León where I live now, I fished for carp and for hatchery raised trout in several pay-to-fish places around Mexico City and even though we came to León to visit my grandparents every two weeks and I stayed my vacations here I never went ( and nobody took me ) warm water fishing. So here I am completely new to warm water fishing, the only thing I new, because my cousin told me, was that there was a warm water predatory fish called LOBINA common in ponds and lakes in the zone, so I thought: "if it´s a predator then it can be caught with lures" and I had lures, I caught trout with in-line spinners and those Rapala minnows. A friend invited me to a placed called "Lomas De Comanjilla", a gated community with a "lake" ( actually it´s very large pond ) to fish; we went fishing and when I arrived what struck me was the water, it was the muddiest least visibility place you can imagine, the visibility was like 2 inches, I prepared the C-rig and attached a silver/black back minnow and cast it into the mud, at that time I didn´t know the rig I made was called a C-rig, it was a rig a friend of my father taught me to do to catch trout, I dragged the rig and after a few pulls the line tightened and I set the hook, minutes later I landed the fish, it wasn´t a monster, it was maybe a pound but since then I was hooked forever into bass fishing.

This was my favorite .... As a father of 4 girls it definitely gave me thoughts of upgrading my car. This is so ME! ... LOL

I have been tournament fishing for 4 years now. The first three were using a uni-uni with very good success. I did have some incidents of losing my leader which led me to explore other options. After hearing from this forum about the love for the Alberto knot I spent last winter practicing it and committed to it last year. Found the Alberto to be much much stronger and reliable. I lost lures (pike, pickeril, hangups etc.) but not once did I lose my whole leader. I'm sold.

I prefer to use small earplugs. With a little corkie, position it mid way inside the tube so it doesn't interfere with either end of the hook. With a soft earplug you can drive your Texas rigged hook right through it. Obviously with either item you can't insert a tube head jig into the tube in addition. Texas rigging a standard hook or tube head jig is really the only option. You can also use a standard jig head and run it through the earplug if you want an exposed hook.

Straight 20lb fluoro I don't like using braid but I will for frogs and heavy vegetation. A knot and a leader is just another spot for something to go wrong. With all the pressure that goes into a hookset and getting a bass away from whatever he is in while pitching/flipping I just don't have much faith in it.

I like the Alberto ( modified Albright).

whatever you end up getting, if it involves writing, get it spell checked.

Scored a pretty fair deal on eBay recently. I got about $265 worth of tuning parts for $222: Avail deep spool ZPI 4bb handle w/Daiwa-style knobs 2bb cog wheel 1bb level wind kit Ceramic spool bearings Carbontex drag washers Ceramic pawl So, you're thinking, that's not THAT great a deal - $265 value for $222. Not THAT much of a savings................ . . . . . . . . . ................did I forget to mention that the deal included a relatively rare, mint condition (as in practically new) Abu Ambassadeur 2600C for FREE... I hadn't planned on buying anything but was cruising through eBay looking at the usual suspects. I came across a mint 2600C already tricked out with all the usual tuning parts, and including the original box, papers, and all original parts. WOW! I place a relatively low bid, thinking I'll get outbid in the last few minutes of the auction. There was only ONE counterbid, that bumped the price $10, and the auction closed at $222 - quite a bit less than just the REEL would usually go for. Happy Camper me ! Not too many of these around: Holy Thumb Bar Batman ! I have some muscle memory for these small Ambassadeurs and several times I caught myself reaching across the reel with my off-side thumb to push the clutch button like you would on a 1500 or 2500. I guess the PO couldn't figure out how to use a nut retainer with the stock Abu nut on the ZPI handle: Line on the reel, ready to go: Original box, papers, parts: The reel was WAY overbraked as I received it (the light Avail spool doesn't need a lot of braking). Opened the reel and found out that it already had the short/light brake blocks. I didn't have any lighter blocks in my modest collection so I just removed one of the blocks. Casts GREAT... I haven't caught a fish with it yet so I can't give it Goose's official seal of approval...but I did have it on the water today so I get partial credit... This type of reel might not be your cup of tea....but it floats my boat !!

I got this smallie close to 8 lbs a few weeks back on a 6" swimbait