Shad_Master

I was watching a show just the other day where Jimmy Houston was fishing lipless CB's and his main tip was to make the lure change from one action to another action - in other words - vary your retrieve and even stop and let it flutter down or hit the grass and then rip it out. I was thinking this is pretty much what KVD says about spinner baits and, based on this, I think the presentation is pretty much the same.

In keeping with the theme of this thread, check this out: http://my.break.com/content/view.aspx?ContentID=526620

Earlier this year, I had a bird "catch" me -- I was fishing from bank at a local lake and had walked out onto an island that has the nick name "goose (exrement) island" because of the all th geese that congregate there. As I walked up to the point, there was a momma goose and a daddy goose with about 6 baby geese that looked like little tennis balls. Whe I walked up they began to move out into the water and set up a racket. I really didn't pay attention to them until daddy goose took flight and slapped me across the face with his wing - it was hard enough to knock my cap off and came as quite a shock. But they swam off and I kept on fishing, but kept an eye on daddy for awhile.

I actually have three stories, but don't have time to share them right now - but I did want to let you know that my club has created a special award that is given out "when earned" called the Human Bobber Award. I have two of them on my wall at home and will tell the stories later.

For you guys with cameras - did you have to buy a license to go out during the hunting season - I wanted to go out with my brother-in-law a few years ago down in Arkansas - but the game warden said that I would have to have a license and deer tag or risk being ticketed.

Just talked with a buddy last evening that was there about two weeks ago - he said that he was catching fish in 30' of water up the James River - but had his most productive results fishing bluffs. BTW he was using a green pumpkin jig that he makes and said he couldn't get bit on brown/purple (which seems to be the team colors for people fishing TR).

They definitely seem to be low visability lures - I have had good luck with them in the past (but not lately) in muddy water.

Re-tie immediately after having a fish break off or losing a lure to a snag ;D (sorry, couldn't resist)

If the cover will allow it you might want to try a trailer hook on your frog - if not, try waiting before setting the hook and let the fish run with it for few seconds. But know that you will have a lot of blow-ups that never get hooked on this type of bait. But when you do, it is awsome and worth all the aggravation.

So that's what they are called - I saw that in the magazine and told a couple of my buddies about it, but couldn't find the magazine again. I may put in an order as well. Looks like they would be especially good for changing up crank baits. Thanks for the link and keep us all posted.

This can really kill off a fishing area, especially a smaller lake or pond. Usually the weeds along the bank are being sprayed and this will cause the fish to pull back into deeper structure, often outside of casting range. But the long term effect is that there is no cover for the fish to spawn in the next season which eventually reduces the size and number of fish. A pond near me has gone through this and has been reduced from consistent 2-4 #'ers to 10" fish as the common catch - but, as I am always reminded by the residents of the area, "doesn't the pond look nice?" >

On getting "hung up" on weeds - try ripping it out of the weeds like you would do with a rat-l trap and you may find that most of the "weeds" will be shaken off. I agree though, Gamblers aren't as good as the original Ch-baits - they seem to ride too high when being retrieved and don't sink as well. Just my opinion.

That's exactly why every time I see some cute young thang walking around the lake I always offer to check her for ticks -- so far haven't had any takers, but I'm available :

There can be all kinds of variations of colors for various runs of any product. If you don't think so, try matching wall paper from different stores or the same brand carpet from different stores. It is impossible to get the exact color match from one run to th next - BTW the fish don't know the difference.

As you may already know, the rain has been comming down in buckets here in the Mid-west for last several weeks. I fished a tournament last saturday on a lake where the visability was 2-4" all around the lake and 4-6" at the dam. After 8 hours of fishing I wasn't lucky enough to hit one on the head and blanked as did almost all of the guys in our club (3 people caught fish out of 16). My question is, there was some talk that the fish would pull out in deeper water during real muddy conditions as the water would be clearer there as opposed to the shallower water. I have never heard this and wonder if anyone has any thoughts on this. BTW, the four fish caught were all taken within 2-4' of the bank.

GULP!, 'nuff said!!!

Another option might be to have a paper tournament based on fish length rather than weight - this is what our club has done for years. The minimum length is 12" and fish are measured and then released. The points go up as the fish get bigger. If you are interested, I can send you the point counts. Another option was one that I saw last week while another club was fishing a tournament on the same lake as ours. The had a weigh boat, when someone caught a fish, they put it in the livewell and raised a flag. The weigh boat came over, weighed the fish and let 'em go. Not real sure how all this worked, but it was interesting.

Thanks for all the input guys - it really is about sportsmanship - I don't want to implement a "rule", 'cause I don't want to have to enforce it - I was just wondering how you all handle it. This is not a real problem although sometimes our guys get caught up in catching and seem to forget about others. Overall our club is a really great bunch of guys - I will just have to deal with this incident to try to avoid hard feelings.

About the third time, I would have been thinking about goose pie for supper ;D

You might want to see the Shepherd of the Hills play some evening - it may sound hokey, but it really is fun. Also, you can visit the farm area before and get a real feel for the history of the area. If you are into a road trip, you might want to check out Eureka Springs, Arkansas - about an hour's drive - some really nice scenery and there is a place or two there that will take your $$'s if you are looking to part with 'em (mostly antique shops and things) but they also have some cool tourist sites as well. Your son may be too young for the amusement parks this time, but he might like to "ride the ducks" (check it out).

I appreciate all of the input and really don't want to belabor this issue, but seems like everybody is focusing on anchored boats - would the same "sportsmanship" issue apply to boats not ancnored or bank fishermen. We really do have a buch of good guys in our club, but we also fish a lot of small lakes as well. This sometimes makes it more crowded than any of us would like. I just think we need to have something clearly defined. I don't want to be an enforcement officer and am not trying to make it hard on anyone. I was just curious how other handled this.

Would this also apply to bank fishermen? I don't want to set up any kind of punitive action but want to try to establish what people think is sportsmanship for this sort of thing. Thanks for your input.

Do any of you have a club rule about encroaching on another fisherman's water - not just other club members, but boats from other clubs, local fishermen and even bank fishermen. I am president of a small local bass club and we have had an issue. We were fishing a tournament on a rather large lake (by our standards anyway) and apparently one of our guys got too close to a boat that was fishing in a different tournament on the same lake. Our tournaments are for small $'s and there is no pay-in - - the other club has a pretty hefty pay-in/pay-out and these guys were pretty steamed. Currently our club rule says you cannot fish within 50' of an anchored boat - but hardly anybody anchors (unless the wind is major factor) and says nothing about encroaching on other club members or others. I plan to bring this up at our next meeting and wanted to see how some of you handle this rule. Thanks.

So from the snake identification guide, I need to get close enough to look in it's eye and see where it's nose is pointed to find out if it is poisonous or hamless -- I THINK NOT!!! I can appreciate that snakes are cool - but I don't like them anywhere near me

You guys are spelling it right - it's GULP! and it is like fish candy - the biggest problem you will have is just about every fish in the water will eat it - if that is problem for you.