abkeenan

It was a two part TW VLong. Part 1 Part 2

I believe that was a winter or two ago when TW and their sponsored Elite Pro Jared Lintner did a tour of Loomis' plant. Was pretty cool to see the whole process from beginning to end. If you break a Loomis' IT IS YOUR FAULT as I saw the contraption they use to test their rods and those suckers were nearly doubled in half before they gave.

So a generic spoon. Sorry couldn't resist.

It's Prepreg. Only reason I know is that is one of the fancy selling points or features on one of my Duckett Ghost rods. No idea what it truly is or if it actually makes for a better rod but I like the way Ducketts feel in the hand. "Prepreg" is the common term for a reinforcing fabric which has been pre-impregnated with a resin system. This resin system (typically epoxy) already includes the proper curing agent. As a result, the prepreg is ready to lay into the mold without the addition of any more resin.

Very nice Thumbs!

Sooooooooo how bout that jerkbait bite eh?

First off I was having a friendly joke with Mark as that was the understood tone between him and I, cordial. You took it to defcon 2 with this rant. Take away from your splattering of nonsense is that you care about what other people have and devote time to being angry that you feel slighted by the more fortunate. I am not going to get into political policy here like I've said before. I will get into just common courtesy of your fellow man and neighbor, which is pretty clear you don't have a taste for. Maybe you should care less about what your neighbors have and focus on yourself. Your version of the American dream is hilarious. "The american dream was never that you could be super rich, but that you could work hard and make a living to provide for your family." Pretty sure I saw you in a DirectTV commercial recently. It's easy to connect the dots with you and your mindset on everything you have thus set forth on this forum. The American Dream is whatever you want it to be. If that means digging ditches and just scraping by to provide for your family, fine. If that mean's owning Microsoft and having a demolition derby once a week with Lamborghini's fine. Sounds like you are too concerned about the Jone's house when you should be concerned with looking at your own. I don't judge a guy that has a $75,000 Ranger boat or the guy in the 14 foot tin rowboat. Apparently you do. You do you and I'll do me.

That is a very Republican load out. Shame on you. You undoubtedly worked hard to be able to afford those. You should have to give all or at least a large portion of that gear to guys using ugly sticks and zebco's with pre-rigged 10lb 4 year old curly monofilament who made poor life choices fishing from the bank. Just giving our "token donkey" some flak. Sweet combo's though even for your guests. You have more expensive taste than First Lady Obama, but at least you earned and paid for yours.

Like Dave said earlier "I get it" if someone catches a fish of a lifetime and wants to have that exact fish mounted. I don't necessarily condone it but I understand how someone has an attachment to that fish. Every time you look at it on the wall memories will shoot back and take you to that fond moment. That is worth more than anything you paid for the mount. I honestly don't mind someone taking a fish like that and having it forever. The guy that just eats fish of size with regularity is a different story. No sense in that at all. I'll pay for your all you can eat fried fish dinner at Starvin' Marvin's if you just put that fish back in the lake.

If you're from Broken Arrow why would you fish anything else! Can't go wrong with Falcon.

I think that is painting a certain political party with huge broad strokes of the same paint brush. Generalizing is typically never good, unless about Jayhawk fans. I don't really care to get into politics over the internet with someone I've never met. Probably won't end well and will just increase my blood pressure. I have my opinions but I will just keep them to myself. Or until I have a few drinks with my left leaning friends and let them feel the brunt of my conservative fury. Besides there is a ton of issues involving harvesting energy and natural resources while trying to maintain a healthy sustainable environment. The same people that want to save the spotted sea-monkey owl squirrel of Eastern Alberta also drive a 1987 3 Ton Diesel Dodge Ram and eat 5lbs of Jimmy Dean Sausage for breakfast. It goes both ways. Most of that talk is above my pay grade anyhow. I am just a simple and lowly Mizzou fan just trying to catch fish when the wife lets me out for a weekend of recess and when it's above 45 degrees outside. Typically those coincide around March-October. So close but so far away.

That's a good idea. Only problem with the snap a pic and release system is that it's a general or ballpark weight. It's not a fine, super accurate measurement and if there is a fair amount of money to be made or lost....you know how that goes. People are going to be miffed off and claim that their fish in their pic is most certainly heavier or bigger than the guessimate weight. Even if before the tournament starts they have already agreed to the scoring system, people will still have issues. That system is fine for the little tournaments but not some of the bigger ones. Fractions of ounces can make or break someone. MLF has the best system but that is pro level stuff. What small tournament organization is going to be able to have a ref in the boat with the participant to verify weight and that he/she is abiding by the rules? I would say the best thing to do would to have the tournaments issue scales to participants that have either been pretested, certified or calibrated to be as close to accurate as humanly possible. Each fish is then weighed, recorded, quick pic snapped and released within minutes if not seconds exactly like the MLF format only no ref. It would be on the honor system of course but what tournament isn't at this point? If you're gonna cheat at that you are probably going to cheat in any other type of format.

Not going there.

They are 25" long and have teeth out there......they never make it to the boat for species nor photo verification. Can you even imagine like a 13lb smallmouth?

The bottom left pic is the one I saw on Facebook where Zona said his is the "little 5lb'er" and how much do you think that Ehrler's weighs? Of course Ehrler is long arming his but still...thing is a Panzer. The meanie in Ehrler's left hand I would venture to say is pushing 7-8lbs????? Yeah, it's not good to be a salmon, trout, bird, snake or anything else with a pulse in that lake.

Yeah the amount of big fish that Matt Allen and his buddy (forget his name) catch per year and moreover kicking out this year is outrageous. Matt is a friggin' nut as I have seen article and videos of him SLEEPING on the deck of his boat in a sleeping bag. Just so he can have as much time on the water as possible to catch trophy fish. That is commitment teetering on insanity but nobody can deny his success or that his method to his madness works. His Tactical Bassin' videos are some of the very best that you will find on the interweb. He is not just another West Coast big swimbait chucker (well he is that too) but he fishes jigs, spinnerbaits, topwater, spoons, etc just like the rest of us in the Ozarks. Just awesome stuff all around.

This one? Wonder if any of those fish were ever caught and released.

I saw a quick pic of Zona and Ehrler. That the one you speak of?

While that is true and I agree, fish RELEASED after a tournament have at least have a fighting chance to survive. Fish in the cooler/fryer have a mathematical chance of exactly 0.

I do believe that I have witnessed hipocritical mass....both an animal slaying democrat and then a level headed one. God.....am I dead?

I thought that was a little ironic.

Everything is making perfect sense now.

We're just not going to see eye to eye. And that's fine.

Happy B-Day Bill. Hopefully Becky lets you run wild on Tackle Warehouse today.