tbayboy

I'll agree with iko here - get one or two medium rods (maybe medium heavy) that don't break the bank and fish for a season learning as you go. No point buying loads of gear when you don't know what to do with it. If you go to bass pro (or any other decent shop) when they aren't super busy and say 'I've got x dollars and want the basics' they'll probably be happy to help you out with some fundamental stuff (jigs, hooks, spoons, etc). Now this is gonna sound kinda funny but a few years back we bought a copy of 'fishing for dummies' as a joke prize for our annual walleye trip and you know what - its a nicely done book that I'd certainly recommend. Here's the amazon link Fishing for Dummies

First: I'm not a lawyer - you probably want to consult one to be sure BUT that said I hate to say it but you're probably pretty fubar'd. A couple jobs back for me the company went bottoms up and I had friends that were still around then and they never got a penny (vacation pay due, last pay cheque, etc). I was in the middle of a law suit with them over some severance stuff and my lawyer told me that it wasn't worth the cost of continuing the suit now that they'd filed as the best I could hope for was a fraction of a penny on the dollar and it just wasn't worth the legal fees. Sorry to hear about your situation but your best bet now is to put the past behind you and move forward (but PLEASE get a competent lawyer to look at your situation - don't trust the peanut gallery here as every situation can be different ).

Another nice one. Those poor pike are gonna feel forgotten now. I'm lousy at guessing sizes but there's a calculator here: http://www.bassresource.com/bassfishing/fishcalculator.html (no idea how good it is) that says a 26" carp should be around 10 pounds

Happy birthday Cliff, I expect to see a fish as long in inches as you are in years tonight. Nothing like a challenge eh

Dang, couple nice looking smallies there. I've become addicted to river smallie fishing this summer, nice to see something other than boring old salmon and trout

Beauty report Shawn, great mix of species there and that pickeral stringer has me drooling on my keyboard.

Even though it should no longer surprise us to see reports like these it still blows me away. Amazing fish both of you, couldn't happen to nicer people (as fishnsled attests to above). Congratulations, looking forward to tomorrows report.

Nice fish minnow, thanks for all the reports today

Congrats Cliff and I'm sure your right - Bly is just letting your ego climb a bit so she can drop it that much further with her 40" 20lber tonight . Hmm now I'm gonna have to learn all about this salmon shore fishing stuff - when's payday or as I now call it "give bass pro all my money day"?

Great stuff, some beauty fish there and that beaver pic kills me - little guy has a definite "how the hell did I end up here" look to him.

Why oh why aren't these fish active at ohh say 2pm on a Saturday afternoon? Good on ya for doing the 3am trip, sure paid off.

Thats awesome. Sounds like we have a new carp addict on the board

Great story Cliff, congratulations!

Nice stuff Rich. Glad to hear stories of new water success from OFNers

Nice stuff. Sure some might have been small but constant action of any size beats not fishing any day. Thanks for the report.

Congrats, she's a beauty.

Shows how some hard work can really pay off. Congrats on some great fishing.

Haha Gerrit, thats pretty funny I'm still jealous of your location in Paris - being able to walk from your place to 2 different rivers every night would cause me to cancel my TV subscription (well maybe not WFN).

Well if you squint really hard and look from a funny angle it kinda looks like a salmon - ahh who am I kidding but nice bullhead all the same

Great stuff Pete, congrats to you dad on that beauty.

Great trip, looks like the kids had a blast and so did the adults. Can't do better than that.

Nice stuff - I love the spider man boots

Damn, I didn't think you could out do the first part but those breaching shots are just amazing. I thought seeing a muskie jump was something but thats just incredible. Trip of a lifetime in my books for sure. Thanks for all the wonderful details.

Wow, great bass there. Congrats on the PB. Hopefully you just bruised a rib but if it still hurts in the morning it might not be a bad idea to get it checked out.

A weekend of non stop fish action - sounds like a great couple days to me. Congrats and thanks for the report.