Fish Chris

What, nobody here actually brings > food < ??? I mean some of you bring nothing.... and a lot of others just bring a "snack" ? I dunno'..... either you guys fish shorter average trips that I do, or you can go for 14 or 16 hours without eating ! Sure, I might only be on the water for 8 or 10 hours, but I usually eat breakfast an hour or two before I leave.... then maybe 3 to 4 hours of travel (for the round trip). So anyway, I bring a good sized icebox, with two sandwiches, chips, some kind of sweets, a banna or apple.... maybe a gatorade, and either way, a gallon jug of icewater. A "snack" is what I have > between < my two full meals (usually at about 11 am, and 5pm) while on the water ;-) Sure, I wish I were as skinny as some of you, but if I let myself get really hungry, next is the headache, and loss of energy, and that hurts my fishing effectiveness. And that's no acceptable. Hmmm, Peace, Fish

Hey Mitch, it's kind of a funny story.... You know I was sponsored by G3 right ? Well, they went through the whole "are you worth sponsoring" thing, reviewing my resume, photos, writings, etc, "first". Then, after everything has been considered, and they decided that I was worth sponsoring, they basically said, "Okay. Your in. What boat do you want" ? So I told them, I want this V143. To which they replied, "That's it ? You do realize that we will give you the same {very large} % off of whatever boat you choose, right" ? Well yes, I kind of assumed that..... But that V143, with electric start, and power trim, is pretty much my dream boat ! Anything bigger, and it would just be a cumbersome PITA (personally speaking) + the fact that anything that used more gas, would start to cut into my time on the water ! So they were like, "Uhhh.... Well okay. I don't think we have ever sponsored somebody with such a small light boat"...... To which I replied, "That's awesome :-) I prefer to be the oddball anyway" ;-) So yea', I know a lot of guys would find it hard to believe, but my 14ft aluminum (for most of the different types of fishing I do anyway) really is my dream boat ! Hand picked, from every boat I could find and research on the internet, and customized by me, for me :-) Peace, Fish

That was just all bad Very sad story. On the other hand, that was also the most "poorly written storey" I've read in a long time, as well. I hope the writer for that didn't actually get paid. Might have just been one of those things...... I forget what they call it, but somebody is interviewed on the spur of the moment, and everything they say is just put directly into print, stutters, repeats, and all. Peace, Fish

Have you seen it yet ? I saw it last night, and I thought it was really good. Very original story line. And Frieda Pinto is absolutely, bombastickly beautfiful I'd rate it a solid 8. (and Frieda an 11 Must see. Peace, Fish BTW, I watched an old movie a few nights ago, which I rate as one of my all time favorites..... If you haven't seen it, you absolutely have to see "American History X" It carries a very strong, important message.........

Hey Spaz, my certified scale happens to be a Salter Brecknell, but you can get any scale certified, as long as it falls inside acceptable guidlines. Actually, I usually use my Berkeley 50 lb, which is also pretty much spot on, for fish which are not really special / huge. I store my certified scale in my Pelican case, along with my digital cameras, stereo faceplate, 2 way pager alarm, etc. Peace, Fish

....for a new desktop or something; Don't remember if I posted this one here, but I took this one at the trophy Smallmouth pond last week; And I took this one a few hours ago at Bodega Bay CA. {another reason to LOVE CA ;-) Here's a larger file size if you want it.... http://www.trophybassonly.com/11b528fc0.jpg Peace, Fish

Hey BassMan, that's why I usually tell them, "Yea ! Great trip ! Wanna' see the photos" ? Do you think those couple of guys in high-per bass boats (the ones that had the really tough trip) would have believed me about the 10.5 lb Northern bass, or the 5.7 lb Smallie that day ? Heck no, they wouldn't have.... unless maybe if they knew me. Anyway, great photos are just too easy nowadays, with modern digital cameras (even when fishing by yourself) for anyone to have any excuses. Peace, Fish

Actually a big, expensive boat (with a big, gas guzzling motor) would hurt me a LOT ! If it costed me 4 X's as much to operate, I could only fish 1/4 as often as I do. If I could only fish 1/4 as often as I do, I'd only catch 1/4 as many fish. If I only caught 1/4 as many fish, their would be a 75% chance that my biggest fish would be smaller ;-) See how this works ? Actually, my biggest bass came from a place that allows "no gas motors"..... So, make that a 100% chance ;-) LOL Peace, Fish

Bassmajor, I hear you. But it's really funny how I get mostly ignored by "serious bass anglers" because of my boat. I mean, I can't be a "real" bass angler, who catches anything worth mentioning, from a 14ft aluminum, right ;-) Tell you what else..... I've heard all the jokes about my camo paint job, "Oh, is that so you can sneak up on the big ones" ? Yea, dude. That's it. But I'll tell you, I can see their 21 ft glitter rockets coming from the other side of the lake..... while they often get so close to me, with my camo boat, often sitting in 2 feet of water, up against a earth, rock, and tree background, that I'm wondering when their going to finally see me..... and then, 200 or 100 yards out, I hear that big 225 wind down.... putt around for a minute, then shoot off at 70 mph in a different direction ;-) Anyway, I'll usually tell them about hogs I caught "at the end of a trip".... But good luck finding me the next time ;-) Peace, fish

Hey Senile, well actually, as I've said before, "where I come from too" ! It's just this one particular pond where legit 5 lb Smallies start to seem like no big deal. And heck, this 5.2 had a heck of a frame on it ! With a fat belly, she could have easily gone 6 1/2 ! Oh, one other thing..... Remember my 10.5 Northern bass from last week ? Well, as I said, I caught her on a long, blind cast of the Hud, out in deep water. Didn't see her before, or after the catch...... Until yesterday ;-) She was up shallow, straight in to the shore from where I caught her, snooping around looking for a place to dump her eggs. I know it was her, as 1) their are not too many like her, at any one place on this pond, and 2) I saw that chunk out of tail.... but anyway, she was just as colorful and healthy looking as when I caught her :-) What a cool fish ! Peace, Fish

;D I love it ! ;D Fish

Fishizzle ! You had me tripping for just a second ! You kind of look like that guy ;-) LOL But I see your from CT.... We are in CA :-) Hey, I fish (and take fish photos, and weighings), first and foremost, for myself too. But also, for anyone who likes to see big fish photos, and here big fish stories ! Tell you what I else, "I wish" more guys would break out photos of their personal trophy catches ! I love seeing them ! It gets me stoked ! Of course that turns me into the guy that says, "Yea, yea, uh huh, yea"........ "Holy #$#$ ! That's a hog ! Great fish ! You da' man" ! :-) I guess the whole point of my post (since I always seem to have somebody come back to ask me, "What's the point of this post" ? ) is that, as somebody pointed out > It is within the realm of biological possibility, that this guy did, in fact, catch both a 13.7 lb Northern bass, and a 10.25 lb Smallie...... But he {and everyone} should be well aware that their are a WHOLE BUNCH of guys that just blow a lot of smoke about big fish catches. And unless you have some kind of photo evidence, your likely to be brushed off as "just another one of those guys". Personally, I can't imagine having worked as hard as I have, to have no photos to go back to look at, and relive those experiences, and to share with others who are into the same thing, or worse yet, to get shoved into the same box, with a bunch of BS'ers. Peace, Fish

So I'm launching the boat yesterday and I see a guy launching a high-performance bass boat. He has to ask me what I'm fishing for {because I'm fishing from a 14ft aluminum}. Bass, I tell him... preferably a monster Yea', he says, "I hear you. I caught a 13.7 lb'er here last year... that's my biggest". Wow, I reply, "Did you know that these are Northern strain bass, and the lake reord here is only 13.4 lbs" ? "Really" he says ? "Wow ! I brought them a picture of it, and they didn't even tell me I caught the lake record" ! {while I'm thinking to myself, that maybe they smelt the same odor of BS that I was smelling about right now} So I go on to tell him that as much fun as the big Northerns are, I actually come here for the giant Smallies. "Yea', he says, "I caught a 10 1/4 lb Smallmouth last year". So again, I ask him, did you know that the Lk. record here is 9.8 lbs, and in fact, that 9.8 lb'er crushed a 30 year old CA state record ??? "Yea, he says"..... but the marina was already closed..... and we couldn't find anybody with a certified scale.... and yada... yada..... I took one more moment to pop open my camera case, and show him my cameras, and certfied scale. I told him that catching the kind of fish that he was, he might want to invest in something like this...... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Anyway, how lucky am I to meet the one guy who has caught the lake record Largemouth, AND the Lk + state record Smallmouth too ! : > This is why I carry my fish photo album < Their are just so many catches that I wouldn't even want to mention, if I couldn't back it up. Plus, it's always kind of funny to mention several big catches, and people are like.... yea, yea, yea...... and about the time they are thinking you are full of BS, you can say, "Oh BTW, I have my album right here if you'd like to see some of these fish I've been talking about"...... So you break it out, and now the same guys that were like, "Yea, yea, uh huh, yea......" "Are like, "HOLY $^%$ ! Joe, Jim... come check this out !!! OMG !!! Oooh Ahhhh ! I'm always thinking, "What ? Why the sudden change of heart ? Funny how this works, huh ? :-) Peace, Fish

Well, I guess I didn't jinx myself with the pre-post, too badly I did decent. No hawgs, but I caught two Smallies of about 3 and 5.2 lbs (the latter was spawned out) And 3 Largemouth's of 3,4, and 5 lbs. I think a lot of guys would have got their butts kicked yesterday > because most serious bass anglers won't use crawlers < Here's the thing, the few Smallies that you can still find are spawned out, and shell shocked beyond belief ! They run away, and sometimes won't even come back "if they so much as see an artificial lure" ! The Largemouth's (in this lake) on the other hand, are almost impossible to sight fish anyway, and will just flat run away from a bed, and stay away, as long as their is an artificial lure near it. So anyway, by flylining crawlers, not only did I manage to scrape out about 20 lbs for 5 fish, during a time when I think most guys would be lucky to get a dink or two, blind casting a plastic worm or something similar, but also, I got to play with those fish on the micro-light :-) Too bad I wasn't able to get any of the big Largmouth's to play... I saw several Largemouth's between 8 and 10 lbs, up shallow, sitting or slowly cruising, but not looking to eat. Instead, they are thinking about making babies soon. Can't wait till they are finished, so I can stick them on a swimbait ;-) Peace, Fish

My worst tourney ?!?! Ha ! Let's see if anybody can top this one ! First off, I've never been the slightest bit competitive, and never had any desire whatsoever, to fish a tournament. But about 20 years ago, I let a buddy talk me into fishing one. They were having a boater / non-boater tourney, and were short on non-boaters. So, here we are picking names from a hat, to see who fishes with who. Now in this arrangement, the boater and non-boater were fishing against each other (supposedly to keep each other honest). I pick this guy (I still remember his name, but won't repeat it here) a big, buffed, black guy, that most guys probably wouldn't want to start any garbage with. He seemed like a nice enough guy though. So, we get out on the water, and he noses up to each of the best spots, getting all of the "first shots"..... but he was not catching $#!+ ! So, he'd turn around, I'd fire out a cast behind him (I was throwing spinnerbaits.... So was he... don't know why he wasn't catching any) and Pow ! I'd stick one ! To make a long story short, I backseated the crap out of this guy in his own boat ! He caught 1 small keeper. I caught 7, culled two, and my big fish was over 5 lbs. So, at about 3pm I ask him, "Don't we have to be back to the ramp by 4pm" ? He says, "we have plenty of time". Okay. So I ask him again at about 3:30pm.... He says, "Oh, the weigh in is not until 5pm". Hmmmm. I sure thought they said 4pm :-/ So, at about 4:15pm, we run back to the ramp. My buddy is standing on the ramp asking, "Where were you guys" ? We were about to go looking for you ! The weigh-in was at 4pm ! So your already disqualified ! My heart just sank :-( So I tell my buddy, "Well wait until you see the 5 fish I have in the live well" ! So the boater tells me, "Ah man, I'm really sorry... I thought they said 5pm" {my buddy tells me later that this guy had fished with this club for at least two years, and every tourney they ever had, ended at 4pm, besides a couple half day Sunday things, which ended at noon, for a B-B-Q} Then he asks me if I could bring his truck down to the ramp, so we could pull the boat out (I felt like purposely crashing it !) but I went and got it anyway. When I got back down to the ramp, I was like, "Where the heck did he go" ? So I'm looking all over and finally I see him 400 yards away, coming back to the ramp at full speed !?!? Huh ? So, we pull the boat out, and I start digging in the livewell, to show my buddies my fish....... and that wretched had dumped my two biggest fish ! It was bad enough that the scum-bag piece of crap got us purposely disqualified, but then he didn't even want to let anyone see what I had caught ! Or should I say.... Didn't want everyone in his club to see how bad this non-boater had backseated him ! Urgggggggg ! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ So anyway, I know this guy was just an exceptional @$hole, but the whole thing is, I never really wanted to fish tourneys anyway..... Then I let a buddy talk me into one, and this is what I get ! BTW, it was a tough tourney for most. I would have ended up with at least a 2nd place + big fish :-( Never again. Peace, Fish

When I encounter huge waves (the predictable rolling type, from a much larger boat) I usually don't slow for them in my 14ft aluminum. However, I will turn my boat as much as 90 degrees, to hit them at a really slight / gradual angle, to prevent any hard slamming on my hull. Usually works when I get it right.... but once in while I slam a little harder than expected, and / or, end up with some water in the boat. Peace, Fish

So, is it okay to post about an outing "before" we have made it ? ;-) Last week was just pretty messed up. Bunch of cold, North winds. But this week, it's starting out nice and warm, with zero North winds. Okay, so we have a little bit of a cutoff low coming across Tuesday, with a chance of showers, but not cold, and little to no wind. If anything, I think that might even "help" the bite. Anyway, watch and see.... I'm going to stick some good ones in the next day or two ! ;-) But still, please wish me luck :-) I'll be back tomorrow or the next day, to post pics ;-) Whoo Hooo ! Fish

Hey Muddy, you probably already know this anyway...... But basically, the big ones are never going to be far from deep water. Prime locations would be shallow flats, and long tapering points, {and humps, if you can find them ;-) right off of the main (deeper) body of water. That, and also, if you find big fish using a certain area one year, they will probably use that same area, year after year, just so long as the water level is relatively the same each year. A little difference, and they might still be close. 30 feet of difference, and all bets are off. Peace, Fish

Hey NBR, my point is, a lot of guys say, "I want to catch a big bass...... but I want to do it using these particular methods.... And they basically cut out so many possible big bass fishing options, that they 'never' end up catching the giant that they dream of. While some of the most successful trophy bass guys I know, say, "I want to catch a big bass. And I'll do any crazy thing it takes {as long as its legal}. I totally understand that some guys just don't like to fish swimbaits... or live bait... or sight fish, and that's totally okay. Just as long as they realize they are seriously hurting their chances for catching that giant of a lifetime. Peace, Fish

Right on guys. I was afraid I might get hammered a little for this post. I agree with what BassMan Mike said Exactly. I've mentioned fishing to a LOT of guys in the past, who replied.... "Yea ! We can get a case or two and....." Beeeep. Wrong answer. My high comes from catching a freaking pig ! It's better than crack, + it's legal, and not physically harmful to you ;-) LOL It doesn't sound like any of you have a serious problem with alcohol, and that's a good thing. My father, and best long time friend were both alcoholics. And for them, alcohol was no different than crack, heroin, or methamphetamines. It still blows me away that alcahol is legal, and pot is not. I don't do that, nor recommend it either, but I do believe its considerably less dangerous than alcahol, on many different levels. Just be safe, and responsible out there. Their are too many big fish waiting for you, to screw it up with drugs or alcahol ;-) Peace, Fish

I know I lot of guys consider drinking alcohol to be an important part of their fishing trips. {I don't drink at all}. I'm just curious as to how they manage this responsibly ? I mean, do they drink for the first 3 hours, then not drink another drop for the next 6, so they can drive home legally ? (personally speaking, I'd feel like crap an hour after I stopped drinking, and the rest of my trip would be miserable) ? Or, do they sit there and drink their arse off, while their buddy drinks gatoraide, then he can drive them home ? I dunno..... the whole thing just sounds like a major PITA to plan around, to me. And I sure as hell hope they don't drive with even so much as, what they might call "just a buzz" :-X Drugs suck, and alcohol is one of the worst of them. Fish

Thanks again guys. Hey Pitchin, posing as a hunter in not such a bad thing, is it ? :-) Seriously though, although I've never been a hunter, I've always felt like I was still kind of on the same page. In fact, for a long time I've felt as if I was more of a "fish hunter" than a fisherman. Heck, I sneak around physically looking for big fish, like 8 or 9 months out of the year, then do whatever it takes to put them in the boat {of course only 1 to 2 months of that is during the spawn}. I've had a lot of guys joke about > So, does the camo help you sneak up on the big ones ? Ha ! Ha ! ;D ;D ;D Hmmmmm...... I sure don't think it hurts. I've certainly managed to sneak up on my fair share ;-) Peace, Fish

Biz ! Dude ! It will get better, I promise ! Lord knows I have been there. We all go through slumps. I mean, this has not started off as what I'd call a fantastic year for me, either. But it's early ! And with our trout pond (the mudhole ;-) we have a shot at a 17+ bass all Summer long ! Whooo Hooo ! You just have to look at it like this > You have just been paying your dues ! My crystal ball shows you catching a MONSTER this year ! :-) Peace, Fish

Thank you Paul. I feel the same about you. When I see you holding that freaking monster in your avatar, the only thing I think is > "Now theirs a guy that is as proud as can be (rightfully so), and just as stoked as I am when I stick a big one". It's a really weird thing to me, but every once in a while, somebody will see you, or I {or the next guy} holding a big fish out to the camera, and it makes them angry ? I mean..... Huh ??? Heck yea' I'm stoked that I stuck a big one ! ......and I'm happy for the next guy when he does. That's just something I can totally relate to ! :-) Stick a pig ! Fish

Right on. Thank you Muddy Peace, Fish