Jolly Green

I did BJJ for a few months and it was interesting, great exercise, etc. but I need my body to work and one of those little spider monkey guys made a tendon in my elbow go "pop" loudly enough that the whole rest of the class stopped. It was fun while it lasted, and it was a kid-friendly gym, great way to wear out your rugrats. It kind of cracked me up when the instructor would start in on the self-defense angle; while I have no doubt that some aspects of BJJ have practical self-defense applications, I also think that if I ever find myself in someone's guard during a life-or-death struggle, I'm probably going to skip the attempts to pass his guard and just reach for the back of his skull with my thumbs through his eye sockets. Too much art, not enough martial, IMO.

Wow, that's tough. Kind of like bass, whichever one I currently have on is going to be my favorite. From that guitar-god era, I always thought Slash of G'n'R and Kirk Hammett of Metallica wrote and performed solos that went somewhere. But I'm also a Wes Montgomery fan. And where do I put Frank Zappa? And Neil Young's one-note solo in "Cinnamon Girl" is good one, too. This is big can of worms, man.

I just did some random clicking around and I got sporadic instances of the same issues. Weird. P.S. - If I end up logged in as Raider Nation Fishing I'm gonna run with. Watch out, ladle-wielding world!

To be fair, last week I was looking out across a lake and pondering the few die-hard guys that I could see fishing in negative temps when I spotted someone on a different part of the ice taking advantage of the nasty gusting wind... with ice skates and a kite. One of the other odd things I see regularly is a couple buddies who look old enough to know better. They will stand for hours on end at one of the most unproductive spots along the river and throw noisy top-water baits until they're arms must be ready to fall off and I've never seen them catch a thing. I admire their persistence -- maybe they caught a lunker or two there before, who knows -- but my understanding and experience with surface baits is that the fish tell you pretty quickly if they aren't interested, if they're even there. I just want to go over and hand them a worm or something.

Ice fishing.

If bleach didn't do anything, you're probably stuck with the stock color. I'd be concerned about it corroding the hook anyway. You could try hydrogen peroxide. Another long shot option would be professional carpet cleaning spotters; there are some that are specifically designed to remove acid dye stains like Kool-Aid, but they are expensive and again, probably not as strong as normal household bleach.

I think it's an interesting change of pace. I understand the view point of people who want to see the best game possible and don't want the weather to have (potentially) a huge effect on the outcome, but they will still watch it, along with millions of other people. Will there be empty seats? Probably not. Will TV viewers tune away to whatever local garbage is unfortunate enough to be up against the Super Bowl? Nah. Will the half-time show get rained out? Big deal. It's a game so big that the Monday after should probably be a national holiday; I think the NFL would have to deliver a terrible Super Bowl many, many years in a row before it started to see a significant drop in viewership.

Exactly. Every so often a similar discussion about hammers comes up among my coworkers, and to me it comes down to value, not the monetary value of the tool itself, but how that tool measures up to the personal values of the person swinging it. I (and a lot of other guys) use a very common Estwing framing hammer that does what I need it to do and is built to last. Some guys use a Dead-On framing hammer because it does what a hammer is supposed to do, is built to last, and has a cool-looking skull and crossbones on it. $25 for either of them, and they line up just fine with the values of their users. Where it starts to crack me up is when some of these guys get all worked up into a lather of disbelief at the few guys who use $200+ Stiletto titanium hammers. "$200 for a hammer!? Who can afford that!?" Probably anyone who uses a hammer every day could save for one easily. What do you spend on non-essential beverages, cigarettes, etc. in a month? "$200 for a hammer!? What if you lose it!?" Really? Just likes yours, it's in his hand or his loop. How is he going to lose it? Don't confuse the carelessness YOU perceive in his use of money with some oh-well attitude on his part about where his hammer is. "$200 for a hammer!? That's crazy! Nobody needs a $200 hammer!" Well, maybe not. But in addition to performing the basic functions of a hammer, it has features that satisfy the values of enough of the hammer-using public that they keep making them. Some people really value the lighter weight, some people value the reduced shock/vibration, some people really value knowing that they are using a top of the line tool. And yes, some people value that they have a hammer that costs more than yours. Who gives a floating rat bait's behind?

Congrats!

Lol... I didn't know the name had changed until I looked up its proximity to Greenville.

True in my experience, too. They will have weeded out all the obviously antique wooden plugs and slapped $25 tags on them, but your modern baits often go for a song. To the OP, if you ever road trip south in the direction of Cincinnati for any reason, you should bring your birthday money and stop at Trader's World and/or Treasure Aisles flea markets in Lebanon, they are enormous. In the meantime, those $1 spinnerbaits at Walmart will absolutely catch fish, but you should wire the skirt on as the stock rubber band deteriorates quickly.

Another vote for spinnerbaits, both kinds, and I like some red somewhere in the color scheme. Lipless cranks are great too; I fish 1/4 oz. Super Spots on spinning gear all the time, best colors for me are fire tiger, red craw, and anything in the chrome family. I often use a wire leader with lipless cranks because the bass don't care in dirty water and the pike will sometimes completely inhale them. Have long needle nose pliers or other hook-removal device handy, and mind your grip, pike are slippery.

Super Bowl. But I purposely fish through regular season Packer games because I have all the water to myself. I'm a transplant to this state from Cincinnati, so not only do I not bleed green and gold, I have little natural football pride to begin with.

My local Walmart clears out inventory with extreme prejudice; currently they're practically giving away Gamakatsu EWG and finesse hooks, Strike King jigs, and various minnow baits. Anywhere that sells sporting goods merits a cruise through the clearance aisle.

Read aloud: There ya go.

I was kidding, gents. But if they did, would anyone really be surprised?

I keep waiting for some tackle manufacturer to roll out half-sizes, or maybe even a size 0 hook to fill that gaping void in the market.

I have used a snap temporarily while trying out different blades on a particular bait, running it through debris-free water. Once dialed in, the regular swivel goes back on. Get split ring pliers either way; you'll never regret it.

Ice fishing made easy: Bring a bag of peas, cut your hole, line up peas all around the hole, fish comes up to take a pea you grab him.

Mine's on the To Buy list for spring. It's going on a 6'6" M Vortex rod I picked up cheap at GM and together they will hopefully land a lot of fish for my 10-year-old. The colors are going to look just awful together; hopefully his mother still lets him out the door with a combo that clashes.

It often comes down to where you want the knot. Some people don't like the knot to go through any of the guides, some people just don't want it on the reel, some people insist that having it on the reel plus a few turns of line is the way to go when bringing in a fish. I use a leader 12 to 18 inches shorter than my rod because I like to use a long leader but prefer to keep the knot off of my reel. Unless it sustains some kind of damage, I will use the same leader until it is down to about 12 inches, then I cut it off and tie on a new one. I use an Alberto knot to join lines. There are other considerations for leader length, such as water clarity, but I don't fish anything remotely clear so I'm mostly just after abrasion resistance and savings on braid, and to those ends my method works well for me.

Forum member Ghoti wrote this article, an all-around good read but I found the section on bearings particularly interesting. http://www.bassresource.com/fishing/supertune-baitcaster.html

I don't. I use their regular EWG hooks from 3/0 to 5/0 with braid and they work fine for me. I rarely hook into anything over 3 lbs. but I do drag them out of brisk river current sometimes and have yet to have one of these fail.

I've only ever used Power Pro and have no complaints. The first time I tried it I spooled up with all braid, but as it got used up (mostly from having to cut off sections due to wind knots) I realized that I could replace all of it or start backing it. I use 12# Berkley Big Game for backing because it was like $5 for about 100 miles of it, tied with an Alberto knot. If there is one thing I wish someone had told me about braid, it's that lures that promote line twist coupled with a tendency to throw too hard sometimes will lead to wind knots that you won't always be able to undo. Use a swivel for twist-prone lures and easy does it, 10# PP should cast pretty effortlessly.