From the Associated Press –

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama announced Thursday that he’ll host a White House summit next month on combating the chronic joblessness that continues to be a drag on a struggling economy.

“We are open to any demonstrably good idea to supplement the steps we’ve already taken to put America back to work,” Obama said before taking off for a trip to Asia, where U.S. and global business prospects will be among the key issues under discussion.

Speaking at the White House, the president called a report showing fewer claims for jobless benefits “a hopeful sign.” But with millions of Americans out of work, Obama said the government has “an obligation to consider every additional responsible step we can” to get people back to work.

The nationwide unemployment hit 10.2 percent last month, the highest jobless rate since 1983. Economists believe more jobs will be lost, and the unemployment rate could possibly reach 10.5 percent next year because employers remain reluctant to hire.

The December jobs “forum” will bring in public and private sector experts to talk about how to get the job-creation engine running again, Obama said. Because economic prosperity at home is tied to economies around the world, the president said he also plans to talk about a strategy for growth with leaders in Asia.

“It’s a strategy in which Asian and Pacific markets are open to our exports,” Obama said. “Prosperity around the world is no longer as dependent on American consumption and borrowing, but rather more on American innovation and products.”

As I sat today waiting for my Fraternal Order of Eagles district meeting to start I had time to contemplate my life, and I came to the following conclusion — Every man or woman, rich or poor, who has fished is a “millionaire.”

Now you might think to yourself, “What in the blue blazes is he talking about?” And normally you would be right, but think about it this way. It may not be reflected in the fishermen’s wallet or checkbook and you may have a poor credit rating, but even the modest fisherman is a millionaire — his wealth is in his heart and in his experience.

How can you count in dollars the beautiful sunrises you have seen. Or the peaceful sunsets when the receding sunlight is flickering off the water. Or the serenity of the delta that is broken when you know you’ve caught the big one.

“What kind is it?” “How big is it” “Will I land this fish or will it get away?” Then it comes tumbling across the water. You have won the match. You drop it in your lave well for the evening meal or gently release it to thrill another. It’s your moment of glory and you are happy.

You are also wealthy in friendship. Think of the times you said to your buddies, “Hey guys, lets get our gear together and go fishing.” It may have been a day or evening trip or a weekend camping and fishing. It’s time you spend with your buddies and swap stories and tips. You might discuss Joe’s new rod, Pete’s new reel, Charile’s new tackle box or Fred’s new boat. Work might come up in the conversation, but you don’t let it get you down.

You gain wealth when you introduce fishing to somebody who has never fished before. You might learn something from them just as they may learn something from you.

If it’s an overnight or a camping trip, the wealth also comes from the camaraderie. It comes from the dusk of evening and a little fire flickers under a blackened skillet. The sweet smell of frying fish floats close to the ground and perking coffee adds a little noise to the serenity.

You look at your invisible bank book. You can’t count the amount fingers. You have wealth beyond measurement.

So now you see that what I said at the beginning is true. Every man or woman, rich or poor, who has fished is a “millionaire.” The wealth is in the experience. How wealthy are you?

So until next time, keep your lines wet and your bait fresh.

As a beginning bass fisherman, this is something I’ve been wondering, what do you need in your tackle box? My wife, 1sexymomma, has her tackle boxes nice and orderly, but she is not a basser, she fishes mostly for trout and catfish. I haven’t asked my buddies in “The Bass Brigade” what’s in their arsenal, but maybe I should based on the size of the hawgs they’re reeling in.

Bill Dance Tackle Box

There can be a lot of differences between the professional angler and the fish-for-fun weekender. Yet one of the differences should not be the basic approach to equipping the tackle box.

My tackle box for bassing is a Bill Dance Tackle Box by Plano. According to the Bass Pro Shop:

Legendary angler, Bill Dance designed this durable tackle box with the serious angler in mind. Offering a huge storage capacity, this Bill Dance Tackle Box features up to 46 worm-proof compartments and up to 25 adjustable storage spaces in the top section, the longer compartments and a see-thru lid are two more smart features anglers will love. Size: 16-7/8” x 5” x 12”. Color: Tan/Green.

Now what to fill it with? The novice Basser, like me, is faced with a virtual jungle of lures when he visits any well stocked sporting goods or tackle store. and now with the Internet there is even more to choose from. Almost all tackle websites carry not only the same brads as each other but many also specialize in lures made in Japan and other places overseas. It’s no easy task for the beginner to sort through the many displays and websites to select the lures that will be the most practical for the conditions they fish in. The beginner can accomplish the same versatility of the pro by categorizing.

The tackle box should consist of the following items:

• Hooks
• Sinkers
• Extra Line
• Swivels
• Lures

For practical purposes, the angler may lump the Bass lures into 3 (three) basic categories. Those categories are, along with a description:

Assorted Crankbaits

Crank Baits — or Plugs are a popular type of hard-bodied fishing lure. They are widely known by a number of other names depending on the country and region. Such names include crank bait, wobbler, minnow, shallow-diver and deep-diver. The term minnow is usually used for long, slender, lures that imitate bait-fish, while the term plug is usually used for shorter, deeper-bodied lures which imitate deeper-bodied fish, frogs and other prey. Shallow-diver and deep-diver refer to the diving capabilities of the lure, which depends on the size of the lip and lure buoyancy. All things considered, plugs of this grouping probably get more action than the others. At any time of the year, bass can be picked off with these.

Spinner-baits — any one of a family of fishing lures that get their name from one or more metal blades shaped so as to spin like a propeller when the lure is in motion, creating varying degrees of flash and vibration that mimics small fish. The two most popular types of spinner-baits are the ‘in-line spinner’ and ’safety pin’ spinner-baits, though others such as the ‘tail-spinner’ also exist.

Plastic Worms — a plastic fishing lure, generally made to simulate an earthworm. Plastic worms can carry a variety of shapes, colors and sizes, and are made from a variety of synthetic polymers. Some are even scented to simulate live bait. Plastic worms can be rigged on the line many different ways. Commonly they are used with a small fish hook and a split shot weight to keep the lure deeper in the water. The fishing equipment recommended is a 7 foot fishing rod with 8 to 10lb fishing line.

Your Tackle box is your toolbox to a successful trip. It is up to you to keep it organized and full. I personally do not let anyone take anything out of my box as I have it set up the way I want. In the top portion of the box I have my weedless frog and weedless mouse along with assorted crank baits in individual compartments. One third of the top portion is not separated and it contains my extra hooks, line, slip-shot and bullet sinkers, swivels and cutters along with anything else i think I might need. In the bottom compartment I have Plastic Worms and more crank-baits along with some rubber shad and various other plastic and rubber lures. The spinner-baits will be added as I get them.

That’s all for now, so until the next time keep your lines wet and your bait fresh.

A collection of Crank Baits.

I recently got a great purchase from eBay. It was a hardcover book called “The Best of BASSMaster”. It is a collection of articles from BASSMaster Magazine covering the years 1968 to 1980. For a beginning Bass Fisherman, the articles are great and this is one of the best that I’ve read so far. It’s from a larger article called “The ‘Crank Bait System’” written by Bill Phillips. I would tell you the year but that information is not available. Here is the article in it’s entirety.

Should the art of lure painting imitate life? Do naturlized baits help you catch fish?

the answer from one bassin’ biologist who dedicates about 200 days a year to uderstanding why bass bite, is an unequivocal…”probably not.”

Bill Phillips of Auburn university in Alabama, who is working toward a Ph.D in fisheries biology, is also the 36-year-old president of Angling Research Associates, an independent research firm for the tackle industry.

According to his tests:

“Under most conditions, the natural lures failed to compete favorably with really good, contrasty color patterns like bone/orange or yellow/black, especially in greenish-tinted, productive waters.

“The catch per hour rate for the baby bass and rainbow trout patterns on Rebel Deep Maxi-R lures, for example, were 0.4 and 0.3 fish, respectivley, while the bone/orange belly Deep Maxi-R produced 1.2 fish per hour.”

“There were, however, notable excetions to this rule. For example, in clear water lakes where a sizable portion of the bass population is made upof spotted or Kuntucky bass, naturals outproduced all other color patterns. Crawfish-like Deep Mini-Rs were especially effective, yeilding 1.25 fish per hour, as were shad-imitation Natural Ike, which caught 1.1 fish per hour.”

But Philips says it’s the paint, rather than the paint job, that’d the key.

“Quite often, the poorest imitations were among the best,” according to Angling Research Associates’ field testers. “For instance, Natural Ike’s crawfish pattern is not convincing at all — whoever heard of a crawfish shaped like a fish? But the pattern produced fish on numerous occasions for our field agents, apparently because it was basically a light patern of contrasty colorswhich stand out against the aquatic backgroound.” Philips reports.

And, he says, one of the best looking imitations — the bluegill — was the poorest performer.

“Two-and-a-half-inch long bluegillsaren’t dark blue, green and orange, the wai bait manufaturers usuallyt pait them,” Phillips explains. “They’re pale yellow and silvery, with light olive backs. But the worst fault of the natural bream baits is that they do not contrast with the background. Bass can’t see them.”

The problem with natural-finish luresis that they emphasize the one most important defense a prey fish posesses — protective coloration.

Baby bass, crappie, shad and crawfishare colored the way they are to keep preditors, such as big bassfrom seeing them, biologist Bill Phillips points out.

“So why copy the item least likely to be seen?” Philips asks. “To sell lures, for one thing. And because the lures are certainly beautiful to the human eye, if not the bass’ eye, most of us will buy them.”

After reading this article I have decided that as Bass Fishermen, we need to make the choice for ourselves as to what works. From what I can see Bass do like Crank Baits.

As a new Bass Fisherman, when I would go out the rest of the guys like for lunch and they would start using terms I had never heard, I thought to myself, “OK, I have to find out what that means.” I figured the Internet would be a god source for that information. And I was right. I discovered a website called FishingTipsAndTecniques.com. Going further in their website I found not only a page of Bass Fishing Terms but also a page of General Fishing terms. I’m going to share a few of them with you but you can see the entire list at http://www.fishingtipsandtechniques.com/bass-fishing/bass-terms.php. Here are the terms I needed help with:

• Comeback Lure – A lure selected to throw when bass misses the primary lure being used.
• Finesse Fishing – A technique that implies a slow presentation and requiring the angler to feel a fish to set the hook. This technique targets bass that have become lethargic from a cold front.
• Hawg (or Hog) – Slang for a large bass.
• Jig-And-Frog – Simply a bass style jig dressed up with a plastic or pork-rind frog. Jig-And-Pig – Term used to describe a bass fishing jig with a plastic body or pork rind attached.
• Wacky Rig – Method of rigging a plastic worm through the middle of the bait without any sinker attached to the line.
• Walking The Dog– A technique used when retrieving a lure such as the Heddon Spook that causes the lure to be retrieved in a zig-zag pattern.
• Weedguard – A mechanical device typically consisting a single piece of spring wire that covers the open gap of a hook to make it weedless.
• Weedless – A description of a lure designed to be fished in heavy cover with a minimum amount of snagging. Various strategies are often employed to make a lure weedless.

The Glossary Of Fishing Terms And Slang can be found here: http://www.fishingtipsandtechniques.com/fishing/fishing-glossary.php.

I would recomend going to this website and seeing all it has to offer.