Poolie727

That would have to be my great uncle. I was his little fishing buddy and he would always drop by the house on a Saturday or Sunday morning and take me fishing with him pretty much every weekend from Spring to Fall. I am however happy that I did not pickup any of his equipment care techniques. He normally carried 8 or 10 rod and reels all wadded up into one big mess. Most of the rods had a permanent arch in them from where he would clip the hook on the bottom eye and reel in too much line. And there was usually one or two broken rod tips from a lost battle with the truck lid. The reels weren't in much better shape. He liked closed faced reels and when they wouldn't work properly he would just shove them in the water and jiggle them around a bit and magically they would work for a while. I was usually comical to share a boat with him, but he loved to fish and it rubbed off on me. As far as influence, in the late seventies I ran across a book titled: "There he is!": Bill Dance's book on the art of plastic worm fishing. I bet I read that book 50 times. I'm still pretty old school about my worms, a lot of the basics I learned in that book, so I guess you could say Bill Dance has been one of my biggest influences. I got away from bass fishing for many years and just started back recently. Of the current pros, KVD is the man. I learn something new from him every time I see him on the fishing shows.

HA! Sounds like something those two wascals would do! When I was a teenager I actually had a Harry and Charlie t-shirt. Got lots of strange looks in public with that one.

If I would only pick one, it would be Bassin, but as others have mentioned BassMaster is good too. Seems to me BassMaster used to be much better though. Maybe it's just my fading memory, but 20 some odd years ago when I graduated from pan fishing to serious bass fishing, having the Bassmaster magazine show up each month was most awesome. BTW... when did Harry & Charlie get whacked?

Welcome! This is a great place to blow a lot of time in the evenings :-)

Had that happen once when I was about 15. It was early morning I had paddled to the top end of a 20 acre lake that my parent owned and was in the process of removing a large mouth from a crankbait when the crazy thing started flopping around and the next thing I know one set of treble hooks is the bass and one set in my hand. After I managed to get the bass loose (hard to do left-handed when you're right-handed) I discovered that the hook was buried right up to where the three come together so that was no way to pull the barb through and cut it off. I paddled back one handed, woke my parents up and asked to go to the hospital to have it removed. My dad, who I'm certain had been up all night drinking wanted to cut it out with a steak knife but luckily my mom thought better of that idea :-)

My thumb works best for me.

Add one more to the list. The Governor of GA was pushing some fishing initiative a year or so ago so lets see if they really care.

We bought a house three years ago with an in-ground pool in the back and every time I write a check to the pool service during the summer months I grumble something about turning it into a large Koi pond. So far the wife hasn't seen the humor in my comments. Now one thing it is useful for, though the neighbors look at me kinda funny, is that I take an old rod/reel rigged with a soft plastic and practice casting into it. Interesting to be able to watch how the worm reacts to different retrievals.

I'm going back for more this weekend. Those suckers pull like a freight train. :-)

Welcome Mike! Keep us up to date on the boat. I'm boat-less at the moment and all the project stories here are exciting. Will be getting my own boat late summer and can't wait to get started. Several people here have done some awesome boat projects so you've landed in the right place for help.

I had a chance to fish a small pond over the weekend that I know is stocked mostly with channel cats but recently several people have spotted several large bass prowling around so I thought I'd see if I could get any action out of the bass. I started throwing a spinnerbait and after about four casts it something just pounded it. Turned out to be about a 3lb cat. Man, can they pull. I'd never caught a catfish before... I'm not much on stinky hands. Anyway, had several more follow the spinnerbait back to the bank and could feel them pulling at the skirt during the retrieval. I caught two more about the same size and am sure if I had slowed my retrieval down a little I'd caught more. They actually pulled most of the rubber skirt off. Three hard pulling fish for one $4 spinnerbait was a pretty good deal I guess. I always assumed they were strictly scavengers.

Welcome David! I'm a returning fisherman myself and can say for certain you have landed in the right spot to get caught up on everything Bass!

Welcome David! I'm a returning fisherman myself and can say for certain you have landed in the right spot to get caught up on everything Bass!

Had several when I was younger and I liked that everything in the box was pretty much right there in front of you... but when they turn over, and they will, it's ugly!

From one returning fisherman to another, welcome back. I'm just back into it after 20 some odd years myself. This a great forum!

From one returning fisherman to another, welcome back. I'm just back into it after 20 some odd years myself. This a great forum!

Welcome! This IS the best bass fishing forum on the internet.

I'm convinced... going to fill um up with worms. Thanks all,

I just picked up an Okechobee Flats medium (Red) box at Walmart and am wondering how you guys are using the pop-outs on each side of the bag. The tape measure says they're about 7" high, 5 1/2" wide and about 3" deep. I would have thought there would be a Plano box just the right size, and maybe there is and I just overlooked it, but their spinner bait box appears to be slightly too large. So, just curious to what others with this bag are storing in those pockets. Thanks,

Why not. The crew of Apollo 13 used it to fixed their spacecraft ;D

Howdy all! I'm returning to bass fishing after a 20+ year detour. I grew up just west of Atlanta with a 20-acre pond in my backyard and started fishing from the time I was big enough hold a rod up. I pretty much lived and breathed bass fishing till my late teens when life started getting in the way. Fishing took a back seat and it's been there ever since. Over the past year the urge to get back into fishing has been gnawing at me. Life is as busy as ever, but I can't ignore that urge any longer. So after a little bit of Googling this looks like a great place to relearn everything bass fishing! Stopped by the local Bass Pro Shops a couple weeks ago and out of nowhere this monkey jumps on my back and forced me to buy a new rod and reel and uhhh, well a bunch of other stuff. So I guess there's no turning back now. Heh heh. Now I just need a boat. I read several of the treads where you guys are taking old Jon boats and converting it into a small bass boat. That sounds awesome. Wow, have things have changed since I last wet a hook. Shaky what??? At least my good old friend the Texas Rig is still around. Worms were always my favorite. Anyway, I look forward to getting to know some of you, and catching up on all the things bass related. Cheers, Jon