Greencoachdog

Some folks may think that a person that poses such a question may be jealous of someone that can go out and catch a limit.

That is a good reg for the honest fisherman, but you know as well as I do that if someone really wanted to keep the 24"er, all they would have to do is cut the 22" in half and let it sink to the bottom (wonder what his chances for survival would be?) I'm mainly a C&R fisherman and don't keep 10% of the fish I catch, but the ones I do keep are treated with great care to maintain their freshness and table quality!

We don't have that rule here, and the culling law in Canada has been revised somewhat... I cull at the hook, if he doesn't look like something I wanna eat when he comes off the hook he goes back in the drink, he sure aint gonna grow in the livewell or cooler. You also have to "limit out" to cull, I can't remember the last time I kept a limit of freshwater fish.

Amazing pics Doug!!! Thanks for posting those!

When kept, my fish either go from the livewell into the cooler alive or straight from the hook into the cooler of ice. I feel that the fresher a fish is when cleaned, the better it will taste on the table. Yes, 9 out of 10 of my fish are still slightly alive when cleaned and nearly frozen. They all have clear eyes (not cloudy) and red gills. The longer you can keep a fish alive the better, fish can start to decay even before death so ice is mandatory for all of my kept fish. It is a real peeve of mine to see people keep fish in a bucket with no ice when temps are above freezing. These fish are rotting and unfit to eat in my opinion. I personally would rather die of hypothermia than blunt trauma, and that's the way my fish are treated as well.

Yeah, he'll feel that one! Good judgement, maybe they shoulda charged $5300?

Where's the Sabiki rig???

I don't have to worry aboot all or any of that, we don't have any closed seasons on freshwater fish in 'Bama.

Great report and pics Bill!!! Did you eat any of those fish? They're all good, especially that Pompano!!! That Black Snapper isn't a snapper, it's either a Porgy of a juvenile Black drum... but still a good fish!!!

LMBO!!!!! 2 Geese and a Bunji cord!!!

It's just amazing what you can catch on a live minnow! Catfish love them!

I just can't say that I'd be too interested in eating an Asian Carp from the Illinios River... can you imagine the consumption advisory on that thing???

Maybe they'll let me change my name to FishingGivesMeWood?

If you want to catch a big Bass on Okeechobee, get a bucket of live Golden Shiners (10-12 inchers) and bring your heavy Pike/Musky tackle. A nice 5/0 circle hook and a few ballons, blow the balloons up the size of a baseball or softball and tie them on the line about 2' above your hook. Throw the hooked Shiner into the thickest weeds you can find and hang on!!! The artificials will catch the 1-2 lbers, but the Shiners will get the bigguns! Entertainment tip: If the fish aren't biting, the 3 and 4' Alligators love to chase a Buzzbait!!!

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No wonder you thought you had 11 feet of rain then!

Actually you have aboot 11 inches... 1 inch of rain = 1 foot of snow. Have ya ever tried to melt snow in a cook pot to make water?

Mornin' Roy, s'posed to rain all day here... but will still be a great day because we need the water! ... to make those Spring flowers grow!!!

Had this song playing in my head while viewing those pics: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tZIaapf2gU

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Paint it Black!

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I look at it this way. The 50 h.p. Merc gets a helluva lot better gas mileage than the 5.4L truck motor... so i'll be doing more than driving this year!

Why don't you talk about your own country's politics?... on a different forum.