BigAngus752

If I could catch fish I might compete! But....I don't catch fish. So I float around on my cool boat and throw stuff into the water and reel it back in and float a little more and throw more stuff. And I chat with my wife or son because one of them is always with me. And I usually have a sandwich at some point. And I think we've been out for two hours and I look at my watch and it's been six hours. And it's always just about the best day ever.

Good call on that. Almost set mine out for recycling but thought the better of it and kept it.

So for the first time ever I ordered a rod through Tacklewarehouse. I just received it today and discovered TWO great things about buying a rod from them. First, the rod. I got a 7'6" Powell Inferno and it's awesome. I'm really going to like this rod. The second awesome thing is the huge 8ft heavy duty cardboard tube that they ship the rods in! This has allowed me to point it at my wife and yell "RIIIICOOOOOLLLLAAAAAAA!!!!!" into it over and over! Awesome!

Your pic looks like that water is smooth as glass. One of our regular lakes is great for bass but it tends to be as perfectly smooth as window glass and when it is, there is no topwater anything that works. But running an inline spinner just below the surface at that time of morning gets hits every time.

If you are talking about just one residence then anything east of Nashville to the Smoky Mountains. Beautiful area, good weather, lots of high reservoirs and plenty of rivers chock full of fish. Nashville has a great international airport and more nightlife than you can find anywhere outside of Vegas. This is where we will retire in just a few short years. As for winning the Powerball....well....cabin in Colorado for fall fly fishing and hunting, house on the Gulf side of Islamorada for winter salt fishing, big house in northern Michigan for spring and summer fishing, off-roading....

Never leave your boat alone. Trust no one.

That's just cool.

Fantastic video. The #1 takeaway for me was just how beautiful smallies are. Even more amazing seen in the water than on the end of my line. Just a gorgeous fish. And how do you get so darn close? Are you dressed like a giant Senko?

That "lightning" is actually a plastic tube referred to as "nonel" which is short for "non-electric". It is a very small diameter tube packed with a high explosive, usually HMX, and it's used as a long, fast fuse for detonating a high explosive package. Sometimes it's not feasible to run an electric cord to the explosive to cause ignition. Such as when you are detonating something under water. Nonel is used instead and ignition is accomplished by a sparking device which causes the HMX to run the distance of the tube and set off the final explosive package. At night it makes for a really cool sight as the explosion speeds through the tube. We used to use it to set up impromptu shows. We would make a clothesline of it about ten feet off the ground and and run t-lines straight down into 5 gallon buckets of gasoline. When ignited you can see it run across the ground, up into clothesline section, down all the t-sections nearly simultaneously and the ignite the gas buckets into huge fireballs. Very mature and smart we were...LOL

This one just dropped another ten bucks if you like this lefty. http://www.ebay.com/itm/142163817285

Don't listen to really good, experienced fisherman like @scaleface. He will only get your hopes up. My wife and I have a beautiful new Ranger boat and we can't catch a cold.

As a fellow lefty fisher...how about a Tatula Type-R for $124? http://www.ebay.com/itm/Daiwa-Tatula-CT-TYPE-R-Baitcast-Fishing-Reel-100HL-LEFT-hand-6-3-1-TACT-R100HL-/142163817285

You are absolutely correct with this assessment. Muskrats rarely spend time on land. If your water is that low it is doing two things: 1. Altering their behavior and patterns 2. It has uncovered the entrances to their dens. Use #2 to your advantage. They are out more and more mobile because of the low water. You will have more opportunities to exterminate them quietly. I had a farmer come to me once and ask me to take care of a muskrat that had literally drained his pond to 1/3 of it's normal depth. It takes patience. Sitting very quietly and waiting. Dusk is prime time.

Wow. Sorry, man.

This is such a blatantly poor business choice that there must be something else happening behind the scenes. There are many reasons to run a company into the ground either permanently or temporarily. It can be advantageous to devalue a company intentionally. I would suspect that either this company is going to cease to exist or it is going to change significantly if they are truly making an effort to tank all of their U.S. advertising.

Do other people fish the same lakes? What are they catching? Tomorrow we are headed to a small lake that hosts a bass tournament EVERY Thursday. And every Thursday the stringers are 14lb plus with someone catching at least one upwards of 5lbs. So tomorrow if I am coming up completely empty then odds are I am doing something wrong. But it's our first time there so I have to give myself some extra cushion for mistakes. By our 5th or 6th time there we should be regularly catching good fish. Are you working hard on the same lake repeatedly? Are other people having success on the same lake? I once had a good friend tell me, "Your first divorce might be someone else's fault. By the second or third divorce it's time to look in the mirror". That applies to a lot of things.

Actually last night I read your sticky on structure, printed a map of the lake we are going to this weekend, and sat and marked my spots while reading over your structure post. I will keep this in mind also. Thank you, sir.

That is very helpful. I just wasn't sure how much "cooperation" I could expect from a hungry bass.

That makes sense. Thanks I did a search on 'patterning' and found quite a bit. I just didn't know the term for it. Thank you

I've read all the stickies and articles and I've spent weeks practicing my pitching out in the yard. I've gotten to the point where I can reliably walk a Texas rig up and down the flowerbed from various distances and I can put it within 4 inches or less of my target each time. I was feeling pretty successful with my practice but then I realized I don't recall reading anything about how to choose the target line. I know what structure to pitch to, but if I'm working a line of grass or a dock from 25 feet away how much to I move my landing zone as I'm working through the area? If I don't get a bite with a couple pitches to the same spot do I move a few inches? A foot? A few feet? What's the strike zone for a bass? Does if vary with the weather, water temp, season, etc. ? I know I have a lot of practicing to do still but what else am I missing? Thanks in advance.

What technique helps me catch the most fish? Reading bassresource.com and stealing the knowledge and experience of all you guys!

Our first boat. Beautiful Ranger aluminum. Second trip out. After 45 minutes of fishing my wife says, "We sure are sitting low in the water back here". Thank goodness for auto-bilge. Step 1: Put the plug in.

@freelancer27 I'm totally with you on the whole lure size thing. I really struggle even putting some of these huge buzzbaits, etc. in the water. Probably because I've never caught a fish large enough that I thought it could handle a buzzbait the size of my hand. But perhaps I've never caught a huge fish because I fish only medium lures! You know what women say when a guy has big feet! He wears big shoes!

I just helped my son 14yr old son catch his biggest LMB a couple weeks ago in this same scenario. Don't focus on the school. Focus on the area of the school. My theory (which is based on totally weak science and an extreme lack of experience) is that there are always fish AROUND the school, either feeding in it or stalking it. I told my son to throw his Rooster Tail past it by several yards, count it down just briefly, and pull it back through. 3rd cast hit his PB bass. We generally catch fish doing this.

@roadwarrior has the same weather as we do. But I would still rather be in Tennessee.