Zach Dunham

It isn't even about doing it on purpose. If you don't keep your license in your box like I do it is perfectly plausibe that you just forgot it in your car. Or even if I intended to wear it, it is plausible that one day I left it in my box. I really deserve a ticket of over $100 bucks and a misdemeanor after I paid for a license and supported proper fish management? If you actually believe that I feel bad for you. I THOROUGHLY believe in taking care of the environment and giving some money for a license to help manage fisheries. If doing what is right and responsible gets thrown in my face by the DNR because of a moronic technicality, you can bet I'm going to do something about it.

I'm perfectly calm. I threatened no one and you implying that I did offends me. I've never been in the least bit uncordial on here. You chose to take what I said that way. I agree with stkbassn here, why is there a huge problem with disagreeing with authority when authority is clearly wrong?

Depends on the guy. I have seen really nice people and really bad ones. I have never had a problem yet just keeping my fishing licenses in my box. I always have it with me and I won't lose them then; I can pull it out in 5 seconds and don't even have to walk to my car. Even though it is technically required that I display it, this has not been a problem thus far because it is COMMON SENSE that I am doing what I should be doing. The day it is a problem is the day I will have a problem. Even the DNR officers think it is a stupid rule. The only reason they would ever ticket you for it is because they are trying to make money, and I think that is just dirty. The point of the DNR is to manage fish/game/environment/etc, NOT to make money off of people.

Going to a judge will most likely help, actually. If the person has nothing on their record and it is an offense this minor they will probably not waste the court's time and just lower it to something smaller or get rid of it, similar to what happens for a first traffic offense. And as for the gear, if I have a fishing license less than 50 feet away from me and can produce it in a few seconds, and some DNR guy tries to take my gear, things will not end well.

100% THIS. I could create a database of this stuff in about an hour that would be easily searchable by name.

I always have mine in my box and not displayed. I have been stopped by the guys here in PA multiple times and they never have a problem. I can whip it out in 10 seconds and show it to them. As for the OP: This is a ridiculous ticket this person received. It is not like he was claiming he had a license and had no way to prove it or said he left it at home. He was able to produce a license in 30 seconds. The point of these laws isn't for the state to try to SCAM people for money. Fishing regulations are in place to make sure people are putting in their share for maintaining the fisheries. He put in his share by purchasing a fishing license and some stupid money-making loophole was abused by the DNR officer. The northern states have absolutely archaic laws when it comes to anything wildlife management.

There are nets out there made of materials that will not just wipe the slime coat off like a carpet or clothing. Plus this prevents the fish from being tossed around or high in the air and smacking in to things. It just shows this rule is not entirely about protecting the fish.

Yeah, I can see how many more hooks in the hands will be coming of this. It is one thing to test skills by not allowing a net, and even a little harder by not allowing carpet hits, but this is getting absurd now. Pretty soon you're going to have to use the force to unhook a fish. If this is really about not harming the fish then they should just allow a d**n net and then the fish wouldn't have to get swung up and smacked around in the first place.

I have never tried *** before so I cannot comment on that. I do have two 7' MHF Veritas rods though and I do love them. As others have said, they are very rigid. I only use these for certain techniques that that would be beneficial for, mostly flipping/pitching or fishing some kind jig or large soft plastic on the bottom. With how rigid they are, I don't use them with moving baits or baits that are likely to get hit hard while the line is taut.

I sure hope the water level doesn't keep going down. I want to fish this place again soon. One of my favorite small holes.

Depends how much you are looking to spend! I have a pair of Oakley's and I just received a pair of Amphibia 2112's that I ordered. Both were less than $200.

I would say that the top 20 guys in each organization are solid and close to equal (some of them are actually in both, I.E. Jason Christie). I think the talent pool in BASS is deeper because of the qualification requirements. FLW majors that have 150+ boats in them have a lot of guys who have money or are just really good at selling product for their sponsors and have their way paid in.

This year the FLW Majors are $125,000, but there are only 6 tournaments. The Bassmaster Elite Series are $100,000 each but there are 8 tournaments. The Forrest Wood Cup and The Bassmaster Classic are both $500,000 this year. No difference here.

BASS has college fishing also.

The answer is, as always, it depends. If you are punching mats, you definitely want tungsten because you can have a 1oz or 2oz tungsten weight that is half the size of its lead counterpart. As others said, you can feel the bottom better and feel structure better. The biggest advantage to me is that you can get the same amount of weight on your line without greatly inreasing the profile of your bait or altering its shape in the water. I use tungsten 90% of the time, there are few situations where I will use lead. Yes, it does cost more, but I have the budget for that.

Was this on the St. Lawrence?

Anyone go through USAA (Yes I realize not everyone can get it)? I have my car insurance done through USAA and they have been amazing. I see that they offer boat insurance as well, but I have not had any experience here since I don't have a boat yet.

That lake is chock full of big largemouth. My friend caught a 7 pounder out of there 2 years ago. It even has some smallmouth in it, but they are rare.

It is truly sad what is happening here. Minsi is such a great lake. It is FULL of big largemouth (big for PA). The lake is supposedly as low as it is going to get right now until it is fixed. As long as it doesn't go any lower, I think the fish population should be OK. They just need to fix the thing ASAP.

Was just up at the St. Lawrence River this past Wednesday-Sunday for the Elite Series tournament as a marshal. What a great 3 days on the water. Drop shotting is probably the thing I am worst at so I hoped to learn a lot here. Day 1 I was with Chris Zaldain. He decided to fish the river and not make the insanely long run to Lake Ontario. He had 14 something the day I was with him but in subsequent days he did make the run and caught a much bigger bag afterward. Super nice guy. I learned a lot about the drop shot from him. Day 2 I was with Jared Miller. Definitely was the most fun guy to be out with. We made a 90 mile run each way to the Duck Islands on Lake Ontario. I was sore after this day, lol. Again, I learned even more about the drop shot from watching him. He did not place well in the tournament; just couldn't find the big ones. He still caught plenty, though. Day 3 I was with J Todd Tucker. Super nice guy, just not as talkative as the others. He used the tube a lot more than the drop shot. I learned a lot about boat positioning in the current from him though. He also stayed in the river. All in all it was a great experience. The Thousand Islands area is amazingly beautiful. If I was wealthy I would definitely have a summer home there.

Yeah that changes everything. In a lake that is only 200 acres there isn't enough room for there to be a lot of spots. On small lakes you end up "junk" fishing a lot of the time. I was incorrectly assuming big lake size. I've noticed the same thing about any of the small lakes I fish. When pros, or people, are talking about these general "rules" of fishing, I think it mostly refers to lakes with enough size to have different types of cover and depth available in quantity.

2) Late spring is the best time of the year, followed by early summer - this is the best because it is the easiest time to catch them shallow, they have either just moved up to spawn, are spawning, or have just finished spawning. For people who like to fish deeper and offshore right now is great and getting better. Some guys on my local lake have been wacking huge bags of smallmouth finesse fishing deeper right now. 3) Partly cloudly days are best - clear sun is the worst - clear and sunny just means if there is a bite it will probably be deeper, especially in clear water. Cloudy makes a shallow bite more likely. My personal favorite is overcast and a small breeze, but that doesn't mean there aren't ways to catch them when it is clear and sunny. If you're good at fishing cover, a sunny day should help you as the sun comes up and gets brighter the fish are usually pinned closer to cover. 4) Good spots are generally good and unproductive spots are unproductive - it's not worth "patterning" a certain type of cover - on my lakes, a few docks are good and the rest are bad, etc., you actually have to know the "good" spots to catch good numbers of fish - trying to establish a "pattern" will cause you to fish lots of unproductive areas - there is a reason why some of those spots are good. The certain docks that are good aren't just random. Nothing is ever just random. There is always a reason why (nearby weeds, bottom contour, etc). That is why you can pattern it. If you have a lake where you know certain spots are good, find something in common, I guarantee you there is a reason. 12) A 3' or 4" grub on a simple open hook jighead will catch a few smaller fish in rocky areas - but it's not that productive - there are much better ways to catch fish in rocky areas, and I'm assuming you're talking smallmouth here. Hair jigs and tubes are amazing. 13) The following lures have been a waste of time: spinnerbaits, swimbaits, hard jerkbaits, poppers, jitterbugs, shakey head worms, large power worms, most lizards (unless they have chartreuse tails), sweet beavers, plastic toads, any type of carolina rig - jerkbaits are the best thing in the world when the water is 40-50 degrees in april. You can't just rule out all baits like that. Just because you haven't figured out a situation to use them yet doesn't mean they don't work. I haven't learned how to swimbait fish well at all, I don't particularly like them, but I know they work amazing if used at the right time and place. I didn't comment on every single point, just the ones I thought noteworthy. Everything is about a time and place. If all of the diff baits didn't have their time and place, they wouldn't be used. Excuse the bold font, I wanted to differentiate without writing inside a quote. TIGHT LINES!!

None of those points of wisdom were ever meant to be 100% of the time. When it comes to points, you have to look at why certain points are better (how steep are the drops around it, what kind of cover exists up on the shallower parts that would hold bait, etc). Spinnerbaits serve their purpose (as you can tell they are my favorite thing in the world), but they aren't meant to be used all the time. They are the best when the bass are ultra active; you can cover a lot of water and you can fish a spinnerbait so many different ways (burning it, slow rolling, jerking it around, medium speed, etc.) You should look at these things in order of importance: 1. Fish location - if you can't find them it doesn't matter what you are throwing. Yes, it is different in different lakes, but the main ideas are somewhat the same. You take the main items you stated above and work from there. It won't usually be drastically different. 2. What do they eat? The forage is different in different places. If the bass are super active, it may not matter what their normal food is. If its a day where you actually have to work at them, matching what their normal forage consists of can help a lot. In the lakes I fish alewives and crayfish are definitely the two biggest food sources. After that just experiment and learn. Sometimes it just seems like there is nothing you can do. Personally, I can't accept that. I always think there is something I can modify slightly to change things and I will never give up, lol.

That is definitely not how that suffix is meant to be used. When you say something is needless or pointless it means they have NO need or point, not that they have a few. As for the OP, rigging something weedless usually just makes it come through the weeds easier with a few jerks of the rod. Not always, but usually.

I'd rather not think about this question!