RSM789

If the fish is in high heels, there is a 97% chance it is female.

I may not be a biologist, but I did stay in a Holiday Inn last night...

The Stanley Cup is obviously more prestigious based on the history of it, but that wasn't the topic. If we are talking about what team is the best, the Presidents Cup is most likely a better measurement. Plus, the current King's roster will never win a Presidents cup, they can't sustain a high level of play for a consistent period of time. When they won the Stanley Cup 3 years ago, they came in as an 8 seed & there is a good chance this years team won't even make the playoffs. They are a gritty, hardnosed team that when playing well, can grind out 4 wins for every 3 losses. The rest of the time, they get run (skated?) off the ice. it is fortunate for them that 16 of the 30 NHL teams make the playoffs, otherwise they would never even had the opportunity to win either of those cups.

There are a couple of things that make me think twice before I agree with that. First, in the 70's, nearly all bass that were caught were kept. That means the only fish left in a lake to reproduce had the disposition of being more difficult to catch. Now with the popularity of catch & release, the most gullible bass can get caught 30 times, yet still end up with old age being his cause of death. Having those willing to bite fish in the gene pool seems as if it may balance out the increased angling pressure. Second, the plastic worms of today are a far cry from the Crème worms & Mann's jelly worms of the 1970's. I remember the first time I saw a Mister Twister worm with a 4" curly tail, I thought that I would catch every fish in my lake. With the addition of scent, specialized hooks, softer worms that the fish hang onto, tungsten sinkers and more sensitive line & equipment, catching a bass with a 6" plastic worm is much easier now. Remember how good you used to have to be to even feel a strike with a fiberglass rod, monofilament and a lead sinker? I may be swayed by personal experience on this. I added up some totals for 2014 from my fish logs & over 1/3 of my bass were caught on T-rigged plastics, with another 1/3 caught on wacky rigged Senkos. Some of that may be experience I have gained over the years, but it sure seems like using plastic worms now (& catching bass) is much easier than it was 40 years ago.

I bought some of the Owner keepers and found that the screw on portion hung on to the worm a little too well for my liking. Different lake, different cover, they may be a better choice depending on the circumstances. I like & use most of Owners other hooks, including their wacky model.

I know that most people don't use them, but I don't have that problem with Mister Twister keeper hooks. The barbs on the point that goes into the front of the worm hold them well without tearing up the worm, even when using thin plastics like Roboworms. I have used these hooks for over 30 years and have never had problems with hook sets or the worm balling up on the hook. It is similar to a shakey head without the weight on the hook.

Aaron's Magic in the spring, summer & fall, Orange Crusher in the winter. Apparently I am not the only one that feels this way, because every store I have been to is out of the Orange Crusher color. I can guarantee that the empty peg among the sea of Roboworm colors will be listed "Orange Crusher". I am afraid it may be a discontinued color because BPS doesn't even carry it online anymore (the R.C. store has a peg for it).

The bowls, or any championship is not about who is better, but who can win the championship. I like what the NHL does in giving out 2 team awards. The Presidents Cup is won by the team that has the best regular season record & the Stanley Cup is won by the team that wins the playoff tournament. Neither is a confirmation of who the best team is, but rather what team achieved what. It would be ludicrous to say that the L.A. Kings, last years Stanley Cup winner, was the best team in the NHL. The were 6th in their Conference and did a high wire act through the first 3 rounds of the playoffs to make it through. That doesn't take away from their accomplishment & in no way tarnishes their Stanley Cup win, in fact it makes the win even more incredible. Sort of like the 1980 US Hockey team that won Olympic gold, they won the tournament with a team that most would consider not the best.

For the longest time, I only thought of Roboworms as a drop shot bait. Then late this summer for a reason I can't explain, I tried the 6" model Texas rigged with a 1/8" tungsten sinker. I found it effective when fish were in a neutral mood & hanging out near docks or other shade in 2-6 feet of water. They accounted for about 1/2 of all the fish I caught the rest of the year, including the 8-0 in my avatar photo.

I'd apply for some menial job there, like picking up trash or washing their vehicles. Tell them in exchange for 8 hours of work a week, you will forgo any payment, you just want access to their waters. Make them a deal that doesn't cost them anything & lets them save having to hire someone else to do. If that doesn't work, tell them you are a marine biologist from the EPA and you need to do some testing on the fish populations of their ponds to confirm there is no contamination.

Absolutely correct. In fact, if you win a prize valued at $25,000 and sell it immediately for $15,000, the IRS will still base your taxes off of the $25,000. Kinda like having to pay full sales tax on the cell phone that the carrier gives you for $1 when you sign a contract with them. Decades ago, my cousin won a billiard table & mink coat on "The Price is Right". She & her husband were flat broke, so she sold the billiard table to pay for the taxes on the mink coat. Her husband divorced her about 3 months later.

I wonder if the choices break down along personality lines, boats for those who are more free spirited & pond for those who are more conservative? With a boat, you have less responsibility. All you have to do is take care of the boat, someone else has to manage any & all of the lakes you fish. With the pond, you have ownership and the work involved extends beyond just maintaining a boat & fishing. Some similarity to renting a home versus buying a home. My previous vote for the pond also reflects an interest in being an amateur biologist. Skip the schooling & dissecting, stand on the shoulders of others and have an ever changing classroom right out your front door. I do it currently on a much smaller basis with Blutarsky the bass living in my koi pond.

I found that funny based on it coming from Nick Saban. If John Wooden had said it, then there could be some legitimacy to it, for Wooden always said that winning was a byproduct of excellence. His focus was on doing the best you possibly could. I don't believe Saban ever said such a thing after Alabama or LSU won...

Pond, especially if I could make it a bit bigger than 5 acres and throw in a Pond Prowler. I like the solitude, so being able to control who is on the water is a plus. Living in a highly populated area may be the driving force for that. My sister moved to Texas a few years ago, about an hour outside of Austin. A few of her clients have ponds or small lakes on their cattle ranches & were gracious enough to let me fish them when I visited. The entire experience each time was incredible.

1) A bag of grapes. I kept the bag & released the grapes; 2) A freshwater clam while using a clam for bait (for catfish); 3) A big bullfrog on a Jitterbug. Not sure if he was trying to eat it or mate with it. Closest non-catch was when my sister hit a swallow in midair while casting a buzzbait. She didn't hook it, just knocked it silly, so it doesn't count.

That is what a boat is for, a casting platform that lets you carry more tackle. If a boat is not an option, try a service dog or small child (preferably yours).

There have been a few houseboats sunk there by inexperienced renters who believe the big boat can cruise right through those 5 foot rollers on the main lake. If they are savvy enough to take shelter in a cove, they often don't realize that the nice sandy beach they have chosen to park at is actually the mouth of a flash flood channel. Out of the frying pan & into the fire...

They work, but I found that I was spending as much time putting them on & off as I was untangling lures, so I quit using them.

That is interesting for me to read because on my lake, the topwater bite stops in the fall once the water reaches about 65 degrees. It is probably relative, because the lowest the water temp gets here is about 55 degrees. In the spring, once the water reaches 65 or so again, it picks back up.

The most recent was when I was trying to lob a drop shot rig up against a retaining wall that juts out a little into the lake (part of a green belt area). I was so focused on the cast that I forgot about the huge oak tree on said greenbelt that hangs over the retaining wall. I made a horrible cast and the rig ended up in the tree, about 25 feet in the air. Irritated with myself, I gave the line a quick rip and snapped my rod in half. Now I'm really ticked off, I grab the spool of the reel (to eliminate the drag system) pull down & away from me so I don't fire the weight into my head. Instead, the branch breaks & falls on me. Leaves all over me & the boat, I just started laughing...

I was having trouble following this thread because like you, I always heard of closed face reels referred to as spincast. Spinning was the term for open face reels and casting for bait casting reels. In fact, when you google "spincast", all the images are of closed face reels (except for the web pages showing spincast vs. spinning).

Santa Ana Winds. They typically happen here in the colder months, late fall to early winter. It isn't just the velocity, but the bursts & direction changes. You will go from a steady 10 mph northern wind to a 35 mph gust from the east back to 10 mph from the NE followed by a 30 mph gust from the north. Throw in a few dust devils swirling around like mini tornados. The velocity make boat control & casting accuracy near impossible while the direction changes eliminate calmer spots. Only positive is they raise the air temps, so the days following them often find the fish more active.

One of the goofiest books I ever read was this - http://www.amazon.com/The-happy-fish-hooker-perpetration/dp/0876912420 I was about 10 when I bought it and had to convince my mom it was a PG book.

Just a smidge under 11 lbs. ..... if you weighed it on Jupiter. I believe that the space shuttle does have a livewell.

Well now you guys have irritated me enough to confirm that it is a Matzuo. Specifically the Matzuo Phantom Minnow, which has been discontinued (and is why they were packaging them in a two pack). The color is Chrome/Blue back, #200. http://www.fishusa.com/Product/Matzuo-Phantom-Minnow-Lures Mystery is solved, go on home, nothing to see here...