SudburyBasser

If you haven't already I'd be putting a ring on her finger ASAP. Women with that kind of sense of humour are far and few

What excites me? Mostly the anticipation of just being out there. I've often said that I don't care if I catch anything, just as long as I have a line in the water and a cigar. That said, I also enjoy the challenge of trying to figure out where the fish are and what will get them into the boat.

If it were only television programs. The level of sponsor whoring by television programs, magazines and web sites devoted to the fishing pastime and industry is so egregious that I rarely even consider what I'm reading or watching to be credible information. About the only people I have any trust with are the members of forums like this one or Ultimate Bass -- they have no economic stake in a company (usually, anyway) and they tend to promote what actually works for them. A bit off topic, I will confess, but I was actually thinking about this last night while I was reading a popular bass fishing magazine and laughing out loud at the obvious advertorial nature of the articles. At any rate, I don't mind Lunkerville.

Well, it apparently wasn't against the rules of the tournament but I do have to agree with you. A pro angler entering a lower level event does seem a bit dubious in principle. If you want to be a pro then you go against other pros.

I'm in a management capacity and there is more than I wish to deal with at work. After a week of dealing with demands from above and below me, all I want is a few hours on a lake. Don't care if I catch a damned thing, just so long as I have a cigar and a line in the water. What does it do for me? Keep me sane. Give me a few laughs. Empty my wallet. Wouldn't trade it for anything.

I don't know if I would use the word specialty but if push came to shove I'd either throw a soft plastic or crankbait, depending on where I am.

I must, and embarrassingly, confess I fell for the Banjo Minnow when it originally came out back in the early to mid-90s. I caught precisely one fish on it, a sucker. Still have the kit, sits forlorn on a shelf in a closet.

I'm equal opportunity worm and jig, crankbait and top water guy so I'm not sure if my style(s) of fishing matches my personality...unless I have Multiple Personality Disorder

We got a small shop in my neck of the woods that's been around longer than sin on earth. My brother-in-law buys his minnows there and I always make a point of buying something myself when we stop there. Might be a lure, might just be some leaders...I just like the idea of a Mom & Pop place that has that accumulated history and I do what I can to throw some money on the counter when I can.

2 to 3 is max for me. I find any more and I'm tripping on the darned things, particularly if we have three guys in the boat.

Much like my last girlfriend: Cold and Indifferent.

Robert Montgomery's Better Bass Fishing is also a good option.

I tried the Trokar hooks based on the quiz/free offer that many others on this web site did as well. Is there a difference? I generally use Gamakatsu hooks and I really couldn't tell a difference -- or at least not enough of a difference to warrant the price disparity.

Yeah, that's my excuse...wrong side. Any way, only got one smallie today and all things being equal the net broke while the fish was in it and of course it, the hook and my line got viciously tangled up. Managed to get 'er out and back in the water with no ill effects. The guy on the other side of the boat? That's where all the fish were :-)

Don't feel bad. While I have more I'm still in your league compared to the other people in this thread, ha ha. The idea of owning 150 crankbaits alternately thrills and scares me. I already have a hard enough time carrying the stuff I do have and I make the average fisher look like a piker.

In a past life I was a journalist and did many of an interview for newspapers and magazines...36 questions is way too many to expect a subject to answer :-)

I think you might have hit it here. I had a feeling there might have been a cultural difference but the notion of bass tournaments didn't immediately leap to mind (though I wonder how much the average American angler really knows about the tournament culture). Well, I'll keep C&Ring and only keeping the occasional one for dinner and suffer the odd looks from people wondering why I would spend ungodly amounts of money to catch fish and them let them go :-)

This might be due to a small sample size but I've noticed that the concept of catch and release seems to be more popular in the U.S. than Canada (even to the point that I read an American article last year lamenting that every one caught fish and no one ate them) -- and I'm not sure why. It's inarguable that the average bass caught in the U.S. is larger than Canadian bass because of your longer growing season, at least in the southern U.S. That means you catch more eating fish -- yet you throw them back. When I tell people up here that I catch and release they look at me like I'm an idiot. Why catch fish if you aren't going to keep them? Any how, am I a victim of reading too many articles written by American catch and releasers who aren't representative of the wider American fishing population, or do I know too many Canadians who don't fish and don't know why you'd throw a fish back?

5" Senkos and fished wacky rigged, any time and anywhere.

Another vote in favour of Senkos. I use a 6" watermelon Senko a lot and I find that doing a slow reel with pauses and a rod tip pop every few feet then allowing it to sink a little before resuming a slow reel really does well where I am. I think it's actually impossible to fish a Senko improperly, ha ha.

Like others I don't have spotted anywhere near me so I'd vote for largemouth.

I was using a wacky rigged 6" watermelon Senko.

I have to admit it was my biggest smallie this year as well, ha ha.

I doubt I'd stop fishing if I had to go with Hitler...let alone because of the extraordinarily remote chance of getting WNV.

Went out to Lake Penage in northern Ontario and it was a pretty fallow day. A lot of small smallmouths. Highlight of the day was a 2 pound, 9 ounce smallie. That said, I'll take a quiet day on the lake over any day in the office!