toni63

You can't control how other people act, only how you react. I can honestly say, having fished for many years, I have never once had any confrontations, issues, arguments, close calls of any of that stuff while fishing. Boat, bank, off the boat docks at the ramp, nothing. No one has ever shot me the evil eye, tossed a comment my way, let me know they didn't like me for just being there, insulted me or anything like that fishing. Sure, I have seen stupid people do stupid things, but its kind of sad to see that our country has now come to a point where people refer to their guns and concealed carry permits as possible solutions to their issues with other people. Seriously? You're going to shoot someone because you can't figure out how to be an adult and walk away long before it turns into something tragic for you, your family, your friends, their family and friends? People seriously think the way to handle "being disrespected" is a way that could cost you your lifestyle and possibly life because you don't have enough sense to respect yourself, your family, your friends to not get into it over something trivial and stupid with someone you don't even know? It just seems very sad that we are all turning into gangbangers packing guns and our thoughts to settle being "dissed" seem to involve violently assaulting each other. I am very happy I don't fish near fisherman who think like that and I seriously hope I never do. I fish to have fun and relax, if it ever turns into "walking in the valley of the shadow", I'm done fishing.

Signed up. Like other people said, I'm going fishing and taking pictures anyway.

Interesting. Kind of confirms what i figured though, they get paid whether they win or lose. Can't see them competing with these restrictions without a check.

Do they get paid to show up? I wonder how enthusiastic the competitors are about this format when all the stuff that makes the best the best is taken away. Maybe this is really interesting because its new and different, but I can see guys dropping out in later events when they find out that most of their choices are not their choices at all, but down to the discretion of the tournament director. Like which part of the lake you get to fish versus what parts someone else gets to go to, etc. I've just found, when being a competition director in other sports, that when you start dictating that kind of stuff, guys will always say it was those restrictions that cost them the win, not their own ability. And since they feel like the outcome is not within their control, they will choose to go compete somewhere else. Hence my comment, do they get paid to show up? Because under this format, I think MLF is going to have to make it worth everyone's time to compete regardless if they win or place last.

Good luck with the surgery and rehab. They have been on fire down here at my main boat fishing hole for the last few weeks, just killing small spinners and buzz baits. I had a period about 2 weeks ago that for about 90 minutes I couldn't go more than 3 casts without hooking a fish and actually went 3 for 3 at one point, casting to the exact same spot with a little spinner. Size ranged from dink to 3 lbs. Then that lake slowed down a lot, so I hit a little farm pond near me the last couple of days for the last hour or so of daylight with a little spinner and have been catching 3 or 4 each day. So its been a really fun fall and this year my luck has been in and I was actually fishing during the fall bite and had plenty of time to go. Unloaded all the tackle and whatnot out of my boat Sunday morning, I usually leave all that stuff in it for the summer when I fish a lot and then during the winter I will load/unload since i don't go much on the spur of the moment. I go to Newton in the winter and its about 90 minutes away so thats more of an all day deal and planned in advance.

thanks!

Now here's something you don't see every day......... from when I was at Bluford Lake two weekends ago. These 4 boys were shoved into this tiny john boat they had pulled there with this set up. I could hear them hoopin' and hollerin' about a half mile away and when they got near me they asked if I was catching anything. I said about half a dozen little ones and asked how they were doing. "Caught two around sun up when we got here, nothing since then," the oldest and tallest replied. "Just don't seem to be biting any more." I can hear you halfway across the lake, and sound travels through aluminum and the water about as well as it does on the surface, I thought. But I just didn't have the heart to spoil half their fun, which was making a ruckus and ribbing each other as they trawled along the banks in search of "a big 'un" to take home and claim bragging rights. They went further along and every time I heard the voices crescendo all I could see in my mind was all the fish making a beeline directly away from their boat at light speed. But hey, they were having fun and once they moved along and peace descended again, I resumed catching one here and there. Maybe I got a couple of the ones they ran away.

Wouldn't hurt to call. My experience with anyone in any type of law enforcement is if it's a "slam dunk" situation they know they can be successful in prosecuting with the minimal amount of effort, they usually don't take a lot of persuading. That isn't a slam on law enforcement, just a matter of fact statement of practicality. If you have the choice of going to great lengths to making a case, or just showing up and it's all right there, which would you consider a better use of your time? I'd bet if they can show up and start handing out tickets and it's all clear cut, they will be there. It helps both the public and them. A Win-Win. Oh, and for the record, once when I was 15 or so I got ticketed for fishing after dark and fishing without a license. So it's not like I always thought having the license was as important as going fishing my whole life, either. But since then, I always get my license every year. Small price to pay to enjoy the sport, and if I have to pay, so should everyone else I share the water with. And to the guy complaining about the wardens showing up on tournament day, I saw that earlier this year too. Surprisingly, many of the tournament guys didn't have their boat registrations up to day due to a change in how Illinois renews them. So yes, they did have quite the field day. I didn't see that as a negative reflection on the wardens though. I kinda thought guys who were all serious about their big bassin' rigs and angling accomplishments would have kept up to date with the regs, too. Guess not... lol

I read an article about a managed bass lake (one you had to pay a daily fee to fish in, and it wasn't cheap), wish I could find it back again now, but they had some basic rules for people to fish in the lake. I remember 2 things mentioned distinctly. One was you could not hold a fish out of the water for more than 30 seconds at a time for pictures because it wasn't healthy for the fish and they discouraged holding it sideways with both hands, preferring you held it by the jaw as the slime on the scales was the fish's defense and scraping away the slime left it vulnerable to infection. The guy commented he had found many large bass dead with fingerprint patterns of infections on them from being held that way. The other thing was no plastics allowed. You could fish with anything else, but no rubber baits, as they had found many dead bass with rubber baits in their guts and presumed that ingesting the foreign objects was what killed them. The guy stated they insisted you bring everything back with you you took on the lake, snips of line, trash, anything. His comment was bass eat almost anything, so leave nothing out there. Since then I have always been careful to hold a fish by the jaw only, get it back in the water quickly, and I really try to avoid letting anything get out of the boat and into the water, like remnants of a worm torn up from reeling one in or whatever. I don't know if this is all true or not, but I just feel like its my responsibility to do the best I can to preserve things the way I find them and not introduce anything into their environment that might harm them or do them damage in the long term. And as the guy who was being quoted managed a very successful lake with a lot of large bass in it he had cultivated for sport fishing over a number of years, and he took a lot of time to survey his lake to see what killed his fish, I thought he was a credible authority to offer advice.

I think one big breakthrough for me was learning that the right equipment makes a big difference in your catching of fish and enjoyment of your time fishing. I fished with closed faced reels and fiberglass rods to start off with, but they would snarl line inside and the gears would strip pretty fast. Spent more time frustrated and fixing problems when fishing than concentrating on fishing. So I got a baitcaster and a graphite rod after doing some research to learn what the real bass guys were using. Now I have the whole gamut, multiple graphite trigger rods and bait casters, spinning rods and reels. All decent stuff, I don't buy junk just to throw money away. Haven't bought a rod or reel in a few years, don't need to, and I fish a lot. The breakthrough was understanding that you can't catch fish fixing junk, you gotta have a decent rod and reel in your hand first. Once I got decent equipment, I could start learning how to actually catch fish instead of learning how to fix a reel, untangle a birds nest or retrieve a lure stuck in a tree without falling out of the boat.

in this day and age in the nation we live in, I wouldn't approach anyone's kids and "instruct" them in anything. I would stay away from them entirely. You are putting yourself too much at risk of false accusations, retaliation, etc if you go putting the fear of God in other people's kids. Remember, they aren't your kids. They belong to and are the responsibility of someone else to discipline. Sure, you may think you are on the side of right, doing the correct thing and teaching them something, but as soon as Dad or worse still, Mom gets ahold of you, you could very well regret ever crossing those kids path. Quite frankly, regardless of what my kid is doing, if I catch ANYONE shooting their mouth off or talking anything less than completely politely to my kid, regardless of the situation, that person best be leaving the area. Quickly. It's my prerogative to harshly reprimand my kid, no one else's. And that is my decision, not yours. Obviously I would want to know what happened and would sit Jr. down and talk it over, point out that you just don't do that kind of thing to living creatures, it's cruel, etc. And it wouldn't happen again, because my kid and I have a great, respectful relationship and I don't have to worry about them doing stuff like that in the first place. But if I ever caught someone else "speaking sternly" or "disciplining" my kid with harsh words, etc. they best be moving on. Quickly. Or they would be getting a lesson in meddling with other people's kids real fast. And maybe another lesson in how you don't talk to kids like that because they immediately think you're just an overbearing jerk and all they do is make fun of you later and you don't accomplish anything positive from doing it. just my .02.

Fishing License. Got a ticket for it too. Happened when I was in High School. When the recruiter asked me for my history of interactions with law enforcement, he about fell off his chair laughing at me. In fact, I got two tickets that night, one for not having my fishing license with me and another for "fishing after dark" in the public park lake. Those were big time violations in the little town I was from. lol

Some people fish for trophies, I just fish because I like to fish. Unless you caught something that is a world record, your catch is nothing special to anyone but you anyway. Think you're the only guy to catch a 10, 12 15, 18, 20 pound bass? Hardly. I don't even take pictures much, unless its something to share with some friends who fish for fun too. And I could care less who's telling stories and who's legit. Makes no difference to me what someone else caught or didn't catch and I wouldn't waste a minute thinking about it and could care less if they photo edit a pic to enhance their BS. Anyone claiming to have caught anything "large" is just bragging, and claiming it's bigger than it was is like running a 4 minute mile in the dark by yourself. It's not the world record, you only have you as a source to verify what you did, and quire frankly no one else cares because it's all been done already. Most people just do recreational stuff for fun and leave the competition to the professionals who set the records. I do not fish to compete, be the best, or prove anything to anyone about my angling skills. I just fish cuz I love to fish.