Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss Fellowship of the Traveling Lure-Stories & photos

I was waiting for a response from the other end of the planet........took you long enough.

Fantastic Nate. I knew you'd find a way to exercise those lures to the fullest extent.

Have you ever thought about all the free help you could get if you allowed Pond Boss members to spend a week of their vacation assisting you in your daily life?

Thanks Nate. A lot of HSB. That minnow has caught some serious fish on its journey.

Updates???

Just putting the finishing touches on our rather unproductive story. One more attempt on the pond this afternoon, and then sending them off to James. The cold front that hit when I got back from vacation was wonderful, but bad for the fishing. Time to go and hit it. pictures and story this evening.

All right,

Here is our adventure.

The lures arrived when we were on vacation. We got back, excitedly opened the package and headed to the ponds. I have three different ponds that we fish: my new pond with one-year-old LMB, BG and YP; my neighbor's pond with some nice sized LMB and BG; and our neighborhood pond with a mix of everything, including NP.

I hit my pond and worked it for an hour and drew a goose egg! Many of my small BG hit, but did not or could not suck the hooks in.

That night, the cold front came through. I recruited my two daughters and we headed to the neighborhood ponds with much anticipation. Darby, my youngest, chose a lure that matched her shirt.



I chose the spoon.



my oldest (pictured later) chose the little crayfish Rebel.

We hit the pond, which is loaded with BG, LMB and Crappie and, after an hour, had nothing. The fish were on lock down. I did lose two small bass on the Spoon. We were getting ready to go when my youngest complained that her minnow was stuck in the FA. My first concern was that we were going to loose a lure (egad!). I went to help her and noticed that the Algae pile was moving. Fish on!!

We quickly landed the beast, and took a picture.



The Blue minnow had come through!

AT this point, I did not have a very good story, and it was getting time to send the package to James.

Kerrigan said she wanted to try one more time, so the next morning we head to my next door neighbor's pond. I was determined to catch something with the spoon, and Kerrigan switched to the in-line spinner.

We hit the pond and I caught a bass on the third cast.



Kerrigan decided she wanted to try the spoon, and caught one on the next cast.



I switched to the jointed Rapala and Kerrigan stuck to the spoon. We spent the next hour catching about 10 bass and 5 BG.



It was time to ship, so we wrapped up our fishing adventure and put the box in the mail. We did not catch anything on the in-line spinner, the Road Runner or the crayfish. I didn't try the jig head. I was very pleasantly surprised how well the spoon did (plus I could throw it a country mile on my light tackle).

I can't wait for the next story.

I sure wouldn't put this in the unproductive category. I've been sport/food fishing for nearly sixty years. Like the rest of life, some days are better than others. Optimism must reign supreme. Friends make life wonderful.

In today's world, I would hope that learning and fun trump the curmudgeon's world of unhappiness and despair.

I strongly believe that the "Traveling Lures" resulted in an immense amount of camaraderie and friendship. It certainly did for my bride and me. We had interactions with some wonderful people because of it.

We need more projects like this that can bring people of disparate backgrounds together for a common purpose -- even if it isn't about fishing.

Ken

what cat said.

Looks pretty productive to me. Smiles all around. Nice job folks.

Yes and just think how many ponds and fish that jointed Rap minnow has seen. What a trip its had !!

True, true. The time with my daughters trying to catch a fish that first night are precious memories that that far outweigh the lack of fish. As my oldest always says, "that is why they call it fishing, not catching!"

I truly meant unproductive from a photo's standpoint.

nice story coachb, appreciate yer humility, very productive story and +2 to catmandoo.

eric, that brown trout jointed rap has significance (for me) much beyond the traveling lures. it was not that lure exactly, but an identical one that was responsible for the greatest evening of fishing in my entire life, and the evening that my late brother and i reconnected as friends. i collected several more of these brown trout lures after that trip, one donated to this wonderful story. the original one i laid to rest w/ my brother.

First off great story and photos Coach, I love it.









Wow guys thank you all for this input. To be honest I thought we had come to a point where people didn't particularily care about the Traveling Lures anymore and had become somewhat dishearted about the entire event.

This thread went quiet a while without any updates and I thought that perhaps the event had been a mistake. JWHAP and I spent quite a bit of time researching the presentation box and deciding what lures would go in it and thankfully Todd jumped in and has done all of the calendar work and schedule coordination.

It's good to hear that people have enjoyed the event as much as I have in reading about it. I had already planned an event for next year but had decided to scrap it because I didn't think people were particularily interested - - perhaps now I will begin the planning stages of next year's event. Thanks for the feedback, I truly appreciate it.

JHAP - I appreciate both yours and Todd's work to keep this rolling and would like to request this event continue. I wish we had other events to get us together just like this.

In fact, I'd like to register for another slot if there is one for September. Things are slowing down for me and should provide more ample time to give this project the attention it deserves.

I don't know what the next event could be, but it would be great if we could figure out if there was a way that it could be like the Olympic torch relay. I don't know if we could get 11 vestal virgins to start it off, but . . .

Maybe it starts at the next conference. People from four or five parts of the country start off with something or some idea, whatever it might be. The final outcome is completed at the following conference. It could be just for fun, or it could even be to raise money for something worthwhile, like a scholarship.

It could be something as simple as progressive dinners. I figure I'm within a two hour drive of at least six fairly active forum members, scattered in four states. If we just started in Illinois or Indiana and headed due east to the Atlantic, we've got Brettski, Nate, ESSHUP, Cecil, Cody, Theo, Sunil, Todd, me, Victor, CJBS -- and all of us are surrounded by other active members.

And, I'm sure I'm not the only crazy one who travels a lot. As of next Tuesday, I get transferred to a new boss in Sacramento, CA, even though my operation will remain in Northern VA. I could easily stop by and see DIED on one of my many anticipated trips. I get to a lot of other places too.

So, just a thought . . .

I like Ken's idea of get togethers - in NE we have Omaha, Bruce Condello, Shorty, and Bullhead that are active forum members. I think we have some KS and IA guys who also could make the trek this way or vice versa.

Didn't PB used to have informal "mini conferences" in different parts of the country? I would be in favor of one of those - maybe get Bob to travel to these - perhaps one per quarter?

I'd like to contribute if you get the lures again TJ!

Speaking of traveling, I was at the tire store the other day and since 9-22-09 I've racked up slightly more than 30K on the car.

There are a few PB members around here.....

Is that all?

One of my all-time favorite movies was "Never Cry Wolf." My favorite line from the movie was "Good Idea." I think it fits very well here and now, even if we aren't eating mice in the name of research.

Yep. Remember this isn't a business vehicle.

TJ, go ahead and sign up again. I don't see any problems with folks having multiple time slots. Remember this isn't a contest it's all about having fun. As soon as I know my October schedule I'm going to sign up (I haven't seen the lures since I first mailed them out back in April).

The next event that I had planned had nothing to do with get togethers. I'm certainly not opposed to them, in fact I'd love it, but unfortunately we don't have many pond meisters on Pond Boss that are in California. In fact lately the only two active forum members in California are DIED and myself. We have our own get togethers every time we can (ususally ever time I'm up north).

Also I'm not going to be able to attend the next conference so I wasn't going to kick off anything there.

Perhaps the best idea would be for me to discuss my idea with someone (Ken? TJ?) that will be attending the next conference and have them run with the idea (or any other idea that they see fit).

Also Ken make sure you let us know when you are going to Sacramento, my place is only 45 minutes from DIED's and to the best of my knowledge we are about 1.5 hours from Sacramento. Are you ever down in San Diego anymore, we couldn't get together the one time you were here but most of the time our schedule is free.

You know me, I love projects that involve the community. I have 9 hrs of windshield time tomorrow as I'm driving to LL2 for a few days. Please call me on my cell I'd love to catch up.

402.730.4897

TJ, do you get emails on your phone?

I ask because, if so, we'll start a PM thread with a hundred or so folks, and that way, we'll be reaching out and touching you everytime someone makes a post.

Grimes loves it.

I hope you get a lot accomplished this week TJ!

Yes I do get emails on my phone. However, I can't access PB Forum on my blackberry - it's too small a screen and is a total pain. So, email is best over the next few days.