Fish Chris

Thank you Endless. I myself, was about 6ft from the rattlesnake. My camera, on the other hand, was about 1 or 2ft, while attached to the end of my tripod. I j set the camera to take 5 shots, after a 5 second countdown. Wish he would have stayed out from under the rock.... or even, struck at the camera ! Peace, Fish

Fun trip, with cool bonus fish too That Largemouth is cool.... Hecka' dark ! Talk about a "black bass" ! Fish

Thanks guys Hey Dwight, yea, back in the old days, I'd be fishing for big bass, even when it was tougher than nails... and I did end up scratching out a big one here or there, in spite of how tough the bite was, so no regrets. But nowadays, as you have seen, I'll just fish for whatever species is on the hottest bite at the time. I guess I've just been getting back to my fishing roots If it will bite my hook, and pull on my line, I'm always down for a fight Fear no fish Oh, and of course, size is just so relative to the species. I get just as stoked to land a 3 lb Redear, as I do to land a 100+ lb Sturgeon (on the same gear), or a 13 lb Largemouth. Hey Jeff, yea, I just LOVE my Canon A650is ! Peace, Fish

Well, I missed last week, due to my trip to Louisiana (heat-wave there... not much fishing) Anyway, right from the start, I have to say it was a VERY tough trip. Only caught 5 Bluegills, and 1 Redear....... But two of the Bluegill went 1.7 lb each ! And the one Redear was another MONSTER ! This one had a slightly smaller frame than my 3.2 lb'er did, but it was even fatter ! Weighed it at 3.1 lbs, and I was quick enough with the photos, that it released good and strong :-) The pair of 1.7 lb Bluegill were not so lucky though. They made a great dinner ! Not bad for a straggler, huh ? It had obviously not laid the first egg. One of the 1.7 lb Bluegill..... On the way to the lake, I made a pit stop, and just about walked over this guy ! Pretty tattered looking. I suspect it was moulting. Still pretty cool though, huh ? In spite of the tough bite, the 3.1 lb'er all by itself, made it a great trip :-) Peace, Fish

Well, first off, are we talking bass ? Or fish, in general ? For bass, sure, I've lost a handful of fish in the 15 to 18 lb range. But what's funny, is I can actually say with quite a bit of certainty, that "I have landed the biggest bass, I have ever hooked" Here's why I say this.... Their was this one, VERY big bass at one of our trophy ponds, that two of my buddies hooked, and landed. She weight 17.3 lbs for one of my friends, then several months later, when my other buddy caught her (in the prespawn) she weighed 18.1 lbs. Well, we all knew where she hung out, and guess what, I hooked her too.... but she came unbuttoned But in retrospect, that was okay with me, because when I hooked my PB of 18.4, I landed that one So, my biggest bass, didn't get away ....until I released her, anyway ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Now, biggest fish ? I hooked a Sturgeon once, on heavy gear (80 lb braid, and light salt water tackle), which pulled the back end of my boat all the way around against the tide, then proceeded to drag my anchor (attached to the bow of the boat) up river ! It drug me around for 30 minutes, and never once did I start to gain any control over it. Finally, after all that, it simply came unbuttoned The next week, I landed a 300+ lb'er, my "all species PB". The one I lost might have been another 300 lb'er.... or it might have been 500+, but I'll never know. Oh well. That's fishing, right ? Peace, Fish PS, Vinny ! That Musky is freaking awesome ! I am SOOO freaking envious, you don't even know !

Well, of course LOL BTW, the 9-1 state record for Cali is no longer valid. That nearly 30 year old record was crushed a few years ago, by a 9-6, which was caught at the same lake I caught the Smallies I posted above.... Peace, Fish PS, BTW, we do have some good Smallies at other lakes too. One of my buddies just caught a 5 and a 6 lb'er at my home Lk. Berryessa, a few weeks ago. Another buddy caught a 6 1/4, out of the same lake I've been catching all of those giant sunfish.... So yes, we do have some big Smallmouth's

Yep. I was sponsored by Okuma for about 6 years. So of course, I've owned a BUNCH of Okuma's. Never had a single one actally fail on me. I wore several of them totally sloppy loose, tossed them in the can, and slapped on a new one.... But then in fairness, I've done the same thing with Daiwas and Shimano's. Even though I'm not with Okuma anymore, and have no incentive to push them, I still just can't say anything bad about them. Thanks to my Okuma's, I caught a TON of nice fish, from Bluegills, to Sturgeon, and just about everything in between. Thank you Okuma Fish

A single filament ??? Okay, so it's "mono-filament" then ! Isn't that all we needed to know ? Mono just sucks. Plain and simple. I used that garbage for more than 25 years. Switching to braid was 10 X's as big a leap, as the next biggest improvement to my fishing ever was. Then again, I despise Fired Line, just about as much as mono, also. I've heard straight from insiders, that the only reason fused lines were ever created, was that they had "a couple of the good properties of braided line.... non-stretch, a little thinner, but yet were a LOT cheaper to produce, which = higher profit margins. If it's not straight up braided spectra, or dyneema, it's not worth fishing. Who me, opinionated ? LOL Peace, Fish

Nahhh.... Nothing to speak of. Just a few dinks here and there 8.5 7.5 6.2 7.3 Seriously though, I've never fished for Smallies in any state besides Cali, but I've caught 8 over 7 lbs, with two of those over 8. Peace, Fish PS, Their are some awesome sportfish which we don't have, such as Musky's, Alligator Gar, etc, which I am very envious of.... but fortunately, we do have some of the biggest Smallmouth's in the country.

X3 And BTW, even though I don't pay for my line, I do make it go a LONG ways. For one thing, after I have cut off, and retied, enough X's to get low, I simply remove the line, add enough backing (still braid though) then put the line back on, and I'm full again Oh, and with braid (unlike lame mono) you can reverse the line you put back on {just take it off onto one coffee can.... wrap to one other, then put back onto the reel} and now, it's like you have a full spool, of brand new braid Peace, Fish

Well.... most are.... but this one was pretty old and wore out. I don't think the photo shows the size well at all... but if you insist.... Peace, Fish

Hey Endless, well the weight loss per say is kind of old news now, as I was down to my lightest weight, of 192 almost exactly 1 year ago > but I was still in pretty lousy shape {what they call, skinny-fat... 23% body fat}. Since then, I've bulked up (purposely) twice, and I'm just about at the end of my second cut now. And while I'm weighing about 10 lbs more than I did 1 year ago, my body fat % is now down to about 13.5% (the lowest in my life). So, I feel like I'm doing great > But I have a LONG ways to go. My 50 year old goal (38 months from now) is to be 225 @ 9% BF. I know that's pretty crazy, but I'm the type of guy that has to be pushing as hard as he can for the top.... or else I'm falling quickly to the bottom. No in-betweens for me. Not saying this is "good".... It's just me. Peace, Fish

Much thanks guys Brent, I took this shot, of myself, by myself, as is usually the case. I really feel like I can take better fish photos this way, without having somebody in my way. Peace, Fish

Well first off, you knew I had to go back and try for those giant Sunfish again this week, of course.... But honestly, my experience with bedding sunfish has often been, "here today, gone the next".... let alone a full week later. I was giving myself maybe a 25% chance that they would still be there. None the less, I bought myself four 15 packs of mini-crawlers, and went for it. I pulled up to my spot at about 11am, and made my first cast. About 15 seconds later, there goes my line... Stick ! I catch a drag ripping 1 lb'ish Bluegill. Can't get too excited on the first cast / first fish, as we have all done that, then never stuck another one all day, right ? Second cast.... 30 seconds later... tick... there goes my line... stick ! Another nice 1 lb'ish Bluegill. Well, by about the 5th fish, it was pretty obvious they were still here.... Except for 1 thing; They were all nice Bluegills, but no big Red Ears ? Anyway, I think it was about my 6th or 7th fish, when I stuck one that felt really heavy, but not as fast. Just dogging for the bottom. Finally got it up to the boat, and it was a monster Bluegill ! Really thick across the back..... but hollow in the belly {it didn't look spawned out, but rather, like an OLD beat up, male}. Lumpy... pretty poor looking... but none the less, it went 2.0 lbs ! My new PB Bluegill. Yes, of course I took some photos, but they just don't show the size.... and beside the next trophy sized PB I would later catch, just not worth posting. After that, I found that the Red Ears were still in the area, they had just moved farther out. Once I figured that out, I started sticking a bunch of nice legit 2 lb Red Ears Geeez, these things fight SOO hard ! Finally, at about 3:30, I stick one that literally rips off 40 feet of line, then just starts hugging the bottom. Honestly, I was thinking it might be a Bass, as it didn't do the short rapid little head shakes like most sunfish. But anyway, with 4 lb mono leader, I just babied the heck out of it. Finally, as I got it close to the boat, it rolled to one side, and I was like, "holy $%#$ ! Look at that belly" ! Of course I didn't even attempt to pick it up by the line, as I have with some of the others pushing 2 lbs. Instead, I put my hand under it's gut, and gently held the line to keep it stable. As I brought it over the rail, I was already thinking this was probably my new PB Redear..... So, I have this 2 gallon pale, which conveniently weighs 1.0 lb. I placed the fish in the bucket, then hooked the handle.... and, yea' buddies ! Minus the 1 lb bucket, she went 3.2 lbs ! Measured her at 14 1/2". Finally got my 3 lb+ Redear Only took 46 years ! Of course I had to get some good photos of her...... But their is only one messed up part to all of this.... > This was the one fish I caught today, which I would have most wanted to have released, but after a hard fight, and photos, she was just too worn out, and didn't make it Oh well. I did actually end up keeping 16 of them though, which weighed a total of 32.7 lbs ! A straight up 2 lb average.... and I weighed, and released 3 more after the BIG one, that were 2.0, 2.1, and 2.3 lbs. If I had to guess, for the whole trip, I probably caught 40 Sunfish, for a total of 65 lbs ! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Okay..... So, photo's, or it didn't happen, right ? I thought they came out really good.... Tomorrow I'm going to play around with print sizes, until I can make this shot print to actual size.... then have Costco put it on a 12" x 18" And I think this one is just begging for a larger print, too Ya' know guys, I've taken just a few fish photos in the last 40 years, but honestly, I think this has to rank right up next to my very best, all species included. What do you think ? Geeez, that was just an absolute kick Peace, Fish PS, I just got done eating a plate of Redear fillets, and Strawberry / Blackberry oatmeal for desert (sugar free, of course Absolutely screaming good !!!!

I'd have rigged that big ol' Golden Shiner up, and fished for a MONSTER Bass ! Fish

Well JF, kind of.... You can put any boat you want to on this lake, even a high per bass boat.... you just can't actually fire up anything greater than a 10hp. So, with my 25hp, I'm restricted to t-motor only. But that's okay. The lake is small enough that with a couple group 29 batts, I can fish any part of the lake. And believe me, I still bring my gas tank and keys Hey, I'm all cool if my t-motor will get me there and back, but in an emergency, I'm sure not trying to paddle for 2 or 3 miles ! Fish

It's a little (600 acre) drinking water lake about 50 minutes from my home. Fish

Much thanks guys ICU, I was using the same rod I often use for 100+ lb Sturgeon LOL No, seriously... My G-Loomis SR720, which is a 6ft, 1 piece, rated for 1-4 lb mono. Granted, I used a micro-braid (2/10 lb test) but I used a 6lb mono leader, for the Sunnies.... Oh, and I caught them all on night crawlers.... Which were bigger than I'd have preferred, but what the hey, I guess I managed okay Man, I'm so tempted to do it again today, but stuff to do. I REALLY hope they are still up next week though. Peace, Fish

So, based on those big Red Ears that I caught last week at my home lake, I decided to go try for them at a much smaller lake, about 10 miles away (as the crow flies) because I knew their would be WAAAY less boat traffic {no water skiing, or motors over 10hp, keeps pressure way down}. Now, I haven't caught a big sun fish out of this place for close to 10 years.... so it was a little bit of a goose chase. Then, because of slightly off color water, and mostly breezy, so water was kind of choppy, I was pretty lucky to have found a nice bedding area.... But once I did, whooo hooo ! I think I ended catching about 30 Sunfish, for 40 lbs ! Mostly Red Ears, but I caught some really nice 1 to 1 1/2 lb Bluegills too ! And they all fought ridiculously hard As for actually weighing some, let me put it this way.... I kept 12 of them. I weighed my water bucket, and it was (conveniently) exactly 1 lb. I then put in all 12 Sunfish that I kept, and minus the 1 lb bucket, they went 22.1 lbs ! I picked up what looked like the biggest, and weighed it by itself, and it went 2 lb 3oz (my PB is 2-7) Those are some darn nice Sunnies for me Oh, so I took them home, filleted them up, and I just got done with an absolutely screaming good Sunfish dinner ! Geeez, that was SOOO much fun. Hope they are still up next week. Peace, Fish PS, I lost either one monster twice, back to back... or two monsters back to back, that the second time I hooked it, I saw it, and it really could have been my 3 lb'er But thats okay. Cool to know I even have a chance at one that big. It's also VERY cool to know that after all these years, this little lake still holds giant Sunnies

I am such a dum-bass !!! So, I haven't been out for about 3 weeks. Saving some gas money. Doing a lot of weightlifting, some mountain biking, and a little photography... But decided to go out for a short 6 hour trip, on my home lake Berryessa. I got slammed once on a Hud, but didn't hook up. That area is known to have a lot of big aggressive Spotted bass, so it was probably a 3 to 5 lb Spot that just couldn't get it in it's mouth. I also had 4 nice fish follow my 9" MS Slammer up on another stop.... Then, about 12 feet from the boat, the biggest one (only a 7 or 8) blasts it, but it didn't hook up either. Oh well. At least it wasn't a 15+ ! Then I'd be crying ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ But here was the highlight of the trip > I went across one long, tapering finger point, and saw a bunch of sunfish beds ! Couldn't see the fish at that point, as the water was a little choppy, but I flipped out half a crawler, on a smaller hook, on the micro-light, and Bam ! First cast, I get a fat, 13", approx 1 1/2 lb Red Ear Sunfish ! Yea' buddies Fought SOOOO hard !!! I LOVE BIG Red Ears So, in the next 45 minutes or so, I ended up sticking about 15 Red Ears, and they had to have went 15 lbs ! So, almost like a knee jerk reaction, I let them all go. Now, about 1 hour later, I'm heading for the boat ramp, and I start thinking about what I'm going to have for dinner.... And I think, "maybe Tilapia fillets" ? Then I realize > Doh ! Tilapia are just the Mexican version of a Red Ear Sunfish ! What the heck was I thinking ? I might have to try for them again next week.... Of course now that I'm thinking about keeping some, I probably won't catch a freaking one ! Oh well. It was a beautiful day on the water Peace, Fish

RootBeer, my cheapy bike actually has a coil, over a hydraulic shock. Works great, although it weighs a bit more. But as for "mechanical brakes"..... what other type of breaks are you talking about ? The $5K to $12K Jamis bikes all have the same basic design of brakes that my bike does.... Again, I'm sure they are lighter / better.... but just as "mechanical" as mine. Just curious... Fish

Don't want to hijack the thread, so I'll PM you... Fish

Well, a mountain biker, you asked ? Let's put it this way > with my whole whacked out / destroyed hand-eye coordination (long story) I'll never even be decent, at anything technical...... But I did just get my first, full suspension mountain bike last Fall, mostly for cardio exercise. I think it's absolutely the best value on the market. It's a Jamis Dakar. It had an MSRP ofd about $1000, but I got mine for $489 from Jensonbikes.com. Pretty heavy {for about $5000 or $6000 you can have one that has all the same features, and is literally half the weight} But seeing as I bought mine mostly for exercise anyway, the weight doesn't really make much difference. I've really enjoyed it though. Even on pavement, I think I prefer it over a road bike.... especially when I hit bumps, potholes, etc Oh, and it's a 24 speed, with the lowest gears being stupid LOW ! I guess 1 and 2 must be for technical stuff, because I crank up 15% grades in 3rd and 4th (not that this doesn't kick my arse.... but that's the whole point of my rides Peace, Fish

Well hey then Grundle, you have opened yourself up If you would please, start with the (nearly) original shot I posted, and do anything you would like to it, to come up with something more interesting and different. I'd like to see what 5 years of digital art schooling can achieve > Keeping in mind that I was not trying for anything even close to reality, with that shot. I've taken SO many shots of the GG bridge from that vantage point, that a lot of the excitement is gone..... which is probably why, for one of the few X's, in the last many years, I even messed around with the photoshop special effects for this one in the first place. Way back in the day, I used to play with all kinds of photoshop special effects, and they were all really new and exciting to me. But I burnt out on that stuff a long time ago. Nowadays, the extent of my photoshopping is typically just to bring back detail, remove noise, fix slight blowouts (thank God for RAW ) etc. In other words, fine adjustments that novices might not even notice. Peace, Fish

You might like to use it as a desk top. I am right now Of course this is photoshopped. I used a feature called high pass. Really like the effect. Here's the original.... (I've got much better 'natural' shots of it.... which is why I like the shopped version ) This shot is in a wide screen format. If you use it on an old school 4:3 screen, you will either have to chop the ends off, or stretch it.... I had to size it down about half, for my web hoster to post it Looks freaking tack sharp, at twice this size on a wide screen HD monitor Anyway... Peace, Fish