Raul

Have you read the Iliad and the Odissey JF ? After the initial battle at the fields that surround Troy was won by the Greeks it became time to surrender the city by siege, Agamennom wasn 't there to revenge the kidnapping of his sister in law Helen ( spouse of Agamennom 's brother, Menelaus King of Sparta ) he was there to capture the city and surrender it 's population to the dominion and incorporate it to the influence of Athens. Agamennom made a bad move trying to win the war with one blow and the Trojans defeated them so the greeks had to retreat to the beaches where they landed, by that time Agamennom and Achilles weren 't exactly in good terms and Achilles didn 't participate in that battle. Obviously after brilliantly winning the first fight getting defeated at the very walls of the city you are trying to conquer demoralizes any army. In a discussion between Odisseus ( King of Ithaca and member of the Greek coalition against Troy ) he questioned the terms in which Achilles and Agamennom were, Agamennom replied that Achilles was unrulabe and he did pretty much what he pleased, to which Odisseus replied that he didn 't care if Achilles was unrulable and did what he pleased all he cared about was Achilles ' ability to heighten up the moral of the soldiers, mount a coherent offensive and to win battles. If you don 't want to read the Iliad because it 's such a thick book ( and sometimes boring ) you can watch the movie TROY, shortened, cut, pasted, edited and glamorized but it 's not that far from what the Iliad describes. Another historic figure that fits the Pattonesque behavior is another great warrior, Curtis E.LeMay, if JFK didn 't keep him on a tight leash during the Cuban Missile Crisis we would have returned to the stone age, this man put several times the uneasy truece between the US ( and it 's allies ) and the Soviet Union in jeopardy, JFK had the club [ LeMay and the SAC ], he warned the Soviets that if they didn 't remove their missiles he would use the club ( unleash his Achilles ) and the Soviets stood down.

Do not remove the hook hanger you will create a larger hole by unscrewing it out and rescrewing it in, later it will come off exactly when you have a fish on. Puchase good quality hooks ( Owner cutting edge ) of the same size and some split rings, cut the original hook and remove it, insert your split rings and insert your hooks. Add a drop of super glue to the hook hanger where it enters the body so it would never fall off.

How much is worth your reel ? How much is worth a reel cover ? If I sold you my 12 year old first Curado you could swear it 's a brand new out of the box reel, all my reels look like new, even the box and paperwork are like new.

Achilles was considered to be the greatest warrior that this planet had ever seen in it 's existance, even though the historic figure of Achilles and his Mirmidons is questionable ( there 's no proof of thei existance ) Homer inmortalized his name and described his character in the Iliad. Was this man a good politician ? well not really, the only policy he understood was the use of brute force and the narrow vision of what 's honorable. Was this man loyal ? to a certain point, his allegiance varied greatly upon his mood. Was this man a good warrior ? the greatest warrior ever lived. King Agamennom had Achilles serving in his army and he knew he had the best warrior ever, entire armies surrended just because Achilles was there and they knew they were going to loose if King Agamennom "unleashed" Achilles. Who was the general the germans feared the most during WWII ? Bradley ? nope, Eisenhower ? nope, Montgomery ? nope, it was Patton who they feared the most but his big mouth and his lack of respect to the chain of command always put him in trouble, he was demoted several times and he was also punished several times because he couldn 't keep his big mouth shut. As an analogy Patton is kind of our modern day Achilles, a great warrior that has to be kept leashed and muzzled at all times only to be used when his ability to win battles are needed to be put under lead and muzzle once the battle is over.

All I 've heard is that they are goooood Red. The blue gill is now out of stock . But right now I 'm going to pass, I 'm saving some kash to get me a Fantasista Resista for one of my Pixies ( maybe two ? :-? )

Bass Master Raul ...you can envision him doing the hand gesture as he says the phrase. See the phrase below my avatar ? It can be translated from the japanese as: "mind as clear as water" ....... too much zen for me :-?, here between buddies it means .- free your mind ...... your arse will follow.

There are no perch in my waters, perch colored cranks are some of the baits that mimic fish not found in my waters that I fish consistenly. Free your mind of the color issue.

Guess how I learned to fish lures correctly ? Fishing with them in gin clear water ponds. Guess how I learned how bass react to a bait ? By watching them in those ponds. Good for confidence, not really, bass in those ponds are really hard to catch but if you can catch them there there are few places where you can 't catch them. Good for practice, oh yeah !

In shallow lakes bass like to move to newly flooded areas because their forage has done it to take advantage of the situation, lots of insects, worms n 'such get trapped and isolated by the flood so forage fish move there, also, water flowing at the spillway creates current on boths sides of it, those areas near the spillway are also productive. In steep sloping deep lakes bass only rise in the water column. How do you all handle/deal with changes in water condition? Water gets dirty ---> time to bring my rattling baits, fat bodied cranks with rattles, big bladed hammer finished spinnerbaits, rattling jigs, C tail grubs and worms.

Some food for thought: in my neck of the woods most bass have never seen a trout, they will never see a trout in their lifetime, why ? simply because where I live the only place where trout can survive is up in the sierra 7,000+ above sea level, so 99.9% of all bass have never seen a trout beacuse it 's warm water where trout can 't survive. One of my favorite and most productive color is rainbow trout and it 's productive because I like it. Choose the color you like or think it 's going to be the most productive, there are a lot of things more important than bait color, present it right in the right place and the fish will grab it.

What you are doing wrong is that you are desperate to catch some bass and you don 't fish right, that reflects in your record and your attitude specially when your buddy caught more than you did, what, where or how was he fishing ? after a while of him catching fish and you nuthin did you took a little time watching him ?

For me the rod is more important than the reel to a certain point, I 'd rather have a great rod than a great reel sitting on it. Of course I would love to have a setup like the one Dan showed, got the reels but not those rods however I do have top end, mid end and entry level end GLoomis, I 've had Pro Qualifiers, Extremes, Bionic Blades, Compres, they are not bad but they don 't come close to what at least IMHO GLoomis has to offer even at entry level ( GL2s ) not only in sensitivity buy in lightness, balance and feel. Of course that a GL2 is not a GL3, an IMX or a GLX but still it 's one heck of a rod, Cart also made a good point, for example GLXs are not for everybody and for everything, that thin wall can be extremely brittle, do something stupid and there goes your 350 dollars rod ( yeah you can have it back with only 50 bucks but so far it 's going to ruin your day preciselly that day ), he also is right about another point, I can feel the difference between a GL2 & a GL3 & an IMX but I swear that I can 't feel that much of a difference between the sensitivity of IMX and a GLX worth those extra 120 dollars, go figure. There are many really good rods in the 100-150 class and the difference between those and a BPS Tourney Special or a Lightning Rod or one of the mid end All Stars, Falcons, Shimanos, etc is like night and day, not that they are bad but they are not as good as the other ones.

Excellent description of what a breakline means Catt.

Worth selling 2 rods for 1 better quality rod? In an eyeblink.

Two years ago the lake where I took that pic dropped to it 's lowest point ever ( not enough rain ), the only time I 've seen it so low was almost two decades ago, those ruins are usually under 30+ feet of water, those don 't appear on a topo map, the only thing that appears on a map is the contour of the bottom and the river channel not far from those ruins, those ruins are an important structural feature, while everybody is beating the bank I go and fish upon those ruins.

Contour maps show the contour of the terrain below the water and important features that change the contour like channels, river or creek beds but it doesn 't tell you if there are structural features such as old dirt roads, sunken bridges, contructions, rock piles. A contour map helps but still you have to read your finder, structural features sit on top of the bottom contour. Want to see an example ?

1.- Genetics: Florida or Northern strain 2.- Environment: fishing pressure, temperature of the water throughout the year, length of the growing season, etc, etc, etc. 3.- Food: supply and nutritional value These three elements work in unison, the fish may have the best genetic make up ( potential to grow large ) and food but if the environment is not ( one or several elements ) then it won 't grow large. For ex Cali fish, they have the genetics ( Florida strain ), they have an abundant food supply that 's also dense in energy, easy to digest and easy to catch ( dumb hatchery raised trout ), also they have the environment ( not too warm, not too cold, deep clear reservoirs ), perfect place to grow a lunker, and they do grow big there.

For many years I fished with straight shank hooks, fine, then when Tru Turns came out I tried them, not only they needed a good honing but also I began noticing that many of the fish came hooked in the eye socket ( the hook penetrated the mouth and the point penetrated the eye sicket from behind the eye ) I fished with them no more, I 've also fished with the ones 5BL mentions, the Eagle Claws, good hooks but not for delicate thin baits like finesse worms and such, the wire is quite heavy and tears to pieces the bait.

In-line spinners are one of the most underrated lures, everybody views them as "beginner 's" lure however they caught fish back then at the age of the dinosaurs when I started to fish and they continue to catch fish now.

Fishing reels are just like cars, they need maintenance and the apropaite kind of lubricant for each and every single moving part in them, there 's no such thing as a multipurpose lubricant. Here is not: If it should move and it doesn 't ---> WD40 If it moves and it shouldn 't ---> duct tape It 's a matter of viscosity and properties, lubricants are made to cover a particular lubrication need and that 's what you should use if you want your gear working properly and lasting you a very long time.

Nope, I didn 't take that one, I have a couple more but I can 't find the danged CD where I stored them > , they are even more impressive, they are from a 5 pound bass with a two and a half pound tilapia stuck in it 's mouth ( I weighted it ), if you 've ever seen a tilapia you 'll know why the pics are so impressive, tilapias are rounded ( a little bit less rounded than bluegills ), at that size they are the size of a dinner plate.

You think it 's too big ? Watch this:

Any lure that claims "easy to assemble" in reality means that if a bass hits it it 's going to break to pieces in an eyeblink.

It 's a good thing to clean but not to prevent corrosion, corrosion is prevented by maintaining your reel well oiled and greased.

Crap always happens to other people 's tackle when they are in your hands reason why I don 't borrow from others. Soft plastic baits could be an exception, but it 's difficult that I 'm not carrying some sort of plastic bait they are biting on.