RSM789

I enjoy spending time with my wife, so I wish she enjoyed going fishing like KY-Anglers fiancee does. She is a sport, has goes out on the boat with me occasionally, but doesn't fish. She will land a fish if I hand her the rod after I have hooked one & will even hold it for a photo, but angling just isn't in her blood. When she is on the boat, she just enjoys the sun and messes around on Facebook on her phone. She said she enjoys going more if i am catching a lot of fish, she is the type of person who gets joy seeing other people accomplish things or win at stuff. Like Mastr Baitr said above, I think she also enjoys alone time when I am gone fishing. I just can't figure out why the UPS guy only shows up on the Saturdays that I am gone...

In most products, be it fishing gear to electronics to automobiles, there is a diminishing return as you go up the scale of price. That doesn't mean you are stupid for what you chose nor that what you chose wasn't right for you. Rather is sounds as if the guys who were chiding you are misapplying this adage to mean that less expensive is the way to go for you. They seem to be making a universal declaration without looking at your particular situation, wants & needs. I would wager that none of them are in sales or if they are, they aren't any good. If you fished from the bank once a month and were struggling to make rent, then they might have a valid point. However, from your posts, this doesn't seem to be the case.

To a girlfriend, no explanation is required, in the same manner she does not need to justify to you how she spends her money. It is a good thing for both of you to know the others spending & savings habits, but until you are married, whats yours is yours & what is hers is hers (usually). Once married, it is a little different, depending on whether or not the spending habit was known before marriage (as in Glenn's case) or if it is detrimental to the family income. In that case, the money is both of yours, how it gets spent is a mutual decision (even if it doesn't divide up equally). If that isn't a situation you are comfortable with, keep her as a girlfriend and don't propose (or have kids).

Irish Spring on a buzzbait tends to attract red headed bass that are averse to the sun...

When I read that, I knew you were from Colorado without even reading the info under your avatar That claim, popular in parts of Colorado, is an exaggeration. Colorado, with just over 5 million people, gets nearly the same amount of water from the river as do the 4 main Southern California counties (Orange, Riverside, San Bernadino &San Diego) even though those California areas have twice the population. Colorado & California combined get about half the water, with Arizona getting about 20%, Utah about 12% and the remaining used by Wyoming, New Mexico & Nevada.

Good point. We have gotten use to professional & amateur sports where the rules are enforced by officials as opposed to the contestants themselves (which occurs in the schoolyard or neighborhood). While inappropriately enforcing of rules can lead directly to an outcome, I wasn't addressing error or incompetence. Rather, I was speaking of the judging where the actual outcome is determined by people who are not participating. Not influencing the outcome, but deciding it. Human judgement in enforcing rules of a contest or sport can be maddening, especially when it seems like there are fouls or penalties being called non-stop. While it would never be changed, I had a simple suggestion that would not only reduce the number of penalties in football, but also reduce the number of major injuries. Allow any player to tackle any other player at any time anywhere on the field. No holding calls, no pass interference calls, all those judgments are no longer needed. Collisions would most likely be at lower speeds because rare would be the time that anyone could get anywhere unmolested. To make baseball more interesting, I suggest moving the fences back to 600 feet at the lines. Every line drive in the gap becomes an exciting play at 3rd or home. And please, oh please, automate the strike zone!!

I hear you, wind is the only weather condition that gives me fits (we really don't have lightning out here). I take pride in accurate casts and gusty wind just wreaks havoc with my aging skills. The best way I find to deal with it is remember how slow the fishing was just a few short months ago and suddenly fighting the wind in order to fight some bass doesn't seem so bad. But I do hate the wind...

It is easy to discern, it has a distinctive bark.

I think too many types of competitions have been labeled "sports". It doesn't mean those competitions don't require some kind of skill, mental prowess or endurance, but those attributes do not make something a sport. Many of these are better labeled "athletic contests" or something similar. In my opinion, to be a sport, the contest must pass all 3 of these tests: It must require athleticism more than basic hand/eye co-ordination or endurance - This eliminates those types of contests like poker, darts, competitive eating or other events that you can do while drinking beer at the same time. Scoring must be done by accomplishment of something as opposed to being judged - Contests like gymnastics or ice skating fall short for me because a 3rd party determines whether you win or not. It also forces boxing, MMA & wresting matches to be decided by one person quitting or being knocked unconscious as opposed to 3 corrupt judges deciding who looked better. There must be the opportunity to play defense - This brings in the will to win, which in sport can be illustrated by stopping a talented opponent from achieving a predetermined goal. This condition makes a 100 meter dash an athletic contest, while a longer mile run, where you can literally block or hem in an opponent, a sport. I know these conditions are insulting to some, but that is what I use to draw the line. Ironically, the 3 things I enjoy the most (bass fishing, bowling & poker), I don't consider to be sports, even though all 3 can attract very competitive and skilled contestants.

Wait a minute, 2 of the Arkansas bodies of waters are named "Peckerwood lake" & "Nimrod lake"? Either that link is an April Fools joke or my appreciation of Arkansas humor has grown threefold...

Any chance that they hoot as well?

Maybe it was a bear eating an owl...

I really wish I could do that, but in Orange County: The closet thing we have to creeks are concrete lined barancas that carry our thrice-a-year rain out to the ocean; Most kids here aren't very nature oriented, seeing crows eating out of a garbage can and cottontails nibbling on their grass is the extent of their wildlife experience. I know you guys have had a long, hard winter, but I really *** the more rural aspects of your cities & towns. Easy for me to say when I never have to experience that cold, but I would prefer to have that kind of surroundings.

It has a series of waterfalls leading to the main pool, which is about 20 feet long, 5 feet across and about 3 feet deep. It doesn't seem that big until you see how much water you have to take out to do the annual clean-out. I may be personally responsible for California's drought...

I didn't even think of that, what a brain fade on my part. Today, as the koi were munching down on their pellets, Blutarsky sucked in & spit out a half dozen nightcrawlers, something she has never done before. I don't have a temperature gauge in the pond, but with the waterfall & current, I am guessing it is in the low 60's (10 - 15 degrees cooler than the lake). She doesn't have that egg bulge that many big females get, but then again, she is probably pretty young. If Blutarsky is indeed a girl, then it would only be appropriate to change her name to Babs... Or maybe Rosie O'Donnell. There is a big bluegill in the pond as well, if he is a male & Blutarsky is desperate, well you know what they say about any port in a storm. Soon I may be in the business of selling largemouth/bluegill crossbreeds. Shaped like a bluegill, matching appetite with a bass's mouth and growth potential...

Yeah, it has been pretty dry. What isn't being reported is that based on the size of California & how different areas get their water, the one-size-fits-all solutions offered by the governor really don't make sense. The hardest hit areas are the Northern Sierra, which ends up supplying water for most of the state down to Los Angeles. South of that, much of the water comes from the Colorado river, so a drought in Northern California is irrelevant to those areas. What matters for those southern areas is the snowpack in the Rockies. Further, there are many cities & municipalities that get their water from local aquifers and those areas are also not affected by the conditions in the Sierras. So while the problems in the Northern part of the state are severe, it doesn't affect each & every city. It is like when an earthquake hits someplace like San Francisco & the news reports say "California rocked by earthquake". It really isn't an accurate description of the damage and who is affected by it.

If they are indeed females, they are most likely hanging around the fry to eat them, not guard them. The past two weeks, I have had success throwing a 3" tube where the fry have been hanging out. All of the strikes came on the drop, as the tube slowly dove through the fry ball. I don't know if the fish I caught were males guarding the fry, believing the tube to be a predator, or if they were fry eaters who thought they were taking advantage of a distracted bluegill as he tried to eat the fry. One of the bass I caught coughed up a dozen fry as he got near the boat. I also tried a small little crappie jig (curly tail grub), to match the size of the fry, but didn't get a strike with it. A larger 5" wacky rigged senko also didn't lead to many strikes. Either the size of the tube or what it represented or the speed of its fall was the formula that worked.

Someone else mentioned that once, but since Blutarsky came from a private (association owned) lake instead of public waters, I was under the assumption that I was in the clear. If not, I'll post a picture of me being led off in handcuffs (which wouldn't be my first bass fishing related arrest). My defense will be that I brought him home to eat and as I pulled him out of the livewell, he leapt into the koi pond. Once there, i was never able to get him to bite again. He apparently is the great, great grandson of Tom Mann's bass Leroy Brown. I am trying to figure out the reasoning behind making a law against keeping a wild fish in captivity. I understand laws against transporting them, as well as laws against introducing them into non-native waters, but unlike a tiger, gorilla or other large wild animal, having a wild bass in a pond or aquarium doesn't endanger the public.

Unfortunately in Southern California, there are few bait shops and those there are rarely specialize in live bait for bass. He may have to settle for anchovies or mackerel... OR, I could treat him like every other transplanted Southern California bass & give him some small rainbow trout to eat. I am imagining him becoming 18' long with a 37" girth.

I keep waiting for someone to ask if it is a state record...

I did not know that, thank you for the advice.

Houses.

We did our annual clean-out of our Koi pond today, giving me a chance to get my hands on Blutarsky, the bass I introduced to it last spring. When I caught him & added him to our pond, Blutarsky was just over 12" long and weighed 1 lb., 2 oz. After nearly a year of a steady diet of goldfish, nightcrawlers and any other critters my kids feed him, he is now 15" long and a hefty 3 lbs, 1 oz. (see picture below). He is a very solid fish, just real thick throughout as opposed to a pot belly. His girth is an amazing (to me) 14", which explains why he weighs a pound or so more than most other fish his size. I am guessing that the small size of the koi pond may limit the length he grows to, but not necessarily the weight. I also was amazed at how his coloring has changed. He is now a very dark fish, matching the bottom of the pond pretty well. He spends most of his time under a few lily pads, but even that shade hasn't stopped him from getting quite the suntan. One interesting thing that occurred was about 4 hours after we refilled the pond and reintroduced the fish. I tossed some pellets in & the koi as usual started swarming the surface to eat. I flipped a couple of nightcrawlers towards Blutarsky & he completely ignored them. The sank right past his nose & he made no movement to eat them. This is a fish that once tried to eat a ping pong ball!! Either he is very ticked off about his home being disturbed or he doesn't handle the movement out & back into the pond as well as the koi do and is stressed. I am guessing the latter and it opened my eyes a little as to how environmental changes can just shut down a bass bite out on a lake or river.

I broke one of my black ones like you did and they replaced it with the white version (including matching the sale price I got it for). It has been great, I use the two interchangeably. However, I did notice that after a while, I liked the look of the white rod better than the black because the black one has those swirl marks in it. Kind of an OCD thing, I kept trying to clean the swirl marks...

That is my favorite topwater for smaller bodies of water with good visibility. I theorize that the lack of a defined shadow in clear water makes it more difficult for the fish to realize it is a fake. Basically there is something splashing around that is not a dark, menacing shape. I even had a double on one of these last year.