This is pretty cool, an up close picture shot of a bluegill. This fish species is definitely one of my favorites, mainly because of the tasty fish flavor. If you haven't tried any bluegill yet, you should try cooking up a dozen bluegill for your next dinner. They absolutely taste great!

Check out this picture of the ugly snakehead fish, I guess it's beautiful in it's own way, but I'm not a big fan of the species. I still haven't caught one yet, a lot of fisherman say these fish put up one hell of a fight. They are definitely one of the strongest fish species in freshwater. This snakhead in the fish weighed around four pounds. I have to say, the fish truly looks like a snake from this view angle. I've seen other pictures and wondered why they call it a snakehead fish, now I exactly now why, man is the thing ugly!

Have you guys ever heard of Mattlures Ultimate Bluegill Series lure? It's pretty cool looking, it exactly looks like a bluegill, pectoral fins and all. When the bait swims through the water the fins lay back against the side. And now the tail has been improved to get great action out of the lure. A lot of fisherman on the bass forum have been ranting about this lure, I definitely want to give one a try at Kent Lake this summer. I bet this would work really well in the deep area of the water. Mattlures also makes a crappie style bait as well, I have all the different types of colors and models down below.

Ultimate Female Blue Gill

Ultimate Bedding White Male Blue Gill

Ultimate Red-Ear Sunfish

Ultimate Pumpkinseed

Ultimate Crappie

Ultimate Green Sunfish

Ultimate Male Blue Gill

Ultimate Talapia

One fisherman pointed out this lure to me on a bass fishing forum, it's called the Shyster spinnerbait. Quite a funny name to say the least. It sure looks like a great spinnerbait to use on trout and bass, you might want to look into getting a few of these. I usually buy Mepps spinnerbaits, but these Shyster spinnerbaits have unique colors and wobble to them. After doing a search on Google, I notice there's only a few fishing stores carry them.

One lure I'm going to give a try this spring on walleye is the Triton Mike Bucca Bull Shad Swimbait. The lure is designed to accurately mimic a variety of different shad and baitfish. While it's not the usual type of lure I use with it's rough finish, but it's life-like action really brings out the hunger in bass. You're able to fish this lure at a slow speed or normal fast speed. Looks like it could be a dynamite lure to use on Walleye in the spring, I let you know how it works out for me. Anyone try this lure out yet?

I've heard mixed reviews on this bass pro angler, some say he's a bit of kook, some fisherman say he's a fishing god. I think he just has a hard time trying to get his point across. I know I have a hard time expressing myself at times as well, some people just aren't good at it, doesn't make you stupid. Look at president Bush, he was definitely not a good spokesmen, he was still an intelligent man. Believe be though, I didn't like the guy at all. I just hate to see some fisherman disrespect a pro fisherman because he's not a big talker.

Because of cabin fever I've been doing a lot of research on Craigslist, I have to say it sure is easy to find a decent priced fishing boat on Craigslist. One boat I really like in particular was a 16 foot Starcraft Bowrider, the current owner is only asking $4250. And the great thing about Craigslist is these prices aren't final, remember you can always talke the current owner down, especially since the country is in a recession. This Starcraft is running a 3.0 liter cobra outdrive, the motor is making 135 horsepower. Man if I had the money I would definitely think about going with this boat. This boat would be perfect for Lake St. Clair, I bet I could get the boat for $3500.

Another favorite boat I saw on Craigslist was a fishing boat my Sylvan, it was a 16 foot 1987 Evinrude, other cool features the boat comes with is a livewell, three seats, trolling motor, fish finder, gas can, sea anchor, river anchor, and all fishing boat reqiurements such as life preserveres, flares in case you get pulled over by the boating police. The current owner is asking $2500 for the boat, not a bad price at all!

Or for only $1960 I could get a 17ft Deepbow Starcraft aluminum boat, it's from 1975, but it's still in good condition. The boat comes with a complete remanufactured 70hp motor with receipt on work done, boat in good condition with trailer seats up to 4 to 6 with newer tires. I think it's a decent price, but I'm not sure if I want to buy a boat this old.

One of the greatest lakes to fish at in Virginia is the Smith Mountain Lake. You're able to catch Stripers in May along with a boat load of Crappie. The Lake has many different spots to fish at. If you're looking to get away, you should think about getting vacation rental. Check out one of the lakes famous websites when you get chance, just type "smith mountain lake" keywords in the Google search engine.

One of the greatest lures to use on topwater is the Heddon Zara Spook. The lure is just filled with big catching power. I personally like using the Zara Spook Puppy, it's smaller and a little more efficient to use. All you have to do is take a cast and twitch your rod tip side to side, definitely try to keep your rod tip down near your feet. Once you get the hang of it you'll find that the lure is very easy to use. After twitching the Zara Spook 10 or 15 times, stop for a brief period of time, even wait for a long period of time if you like. This small stop will give the big fish a chance to hit the lure. But, this will not always work, it depends on the conditions. Sometimes the fish are hitting on movement, sometimes they are not. This is definitely one of my favorite lures to use in my tackle box, it could be yours too, once you find out how fun the lure is to use. Another plus side is seeing the fish jump out of the water trying to hit the lure, it's truly an amazing site to see. If I get a video camera this summer, which I want to do, I'll be able to post videos of the fish jumping out of the water trying to hit the lure. There sure are a lot of different colors to choose from as well, I love the flashy silver and black colored Zara Spook, it's pretty much a flashy chrome paint job. There are other colors like the ones I posted below, it's up to you to decide which one works best in your lake. Trial and error is probably the best way to go. I would definitely start of with the silver(chrome) and black color though.

This is the color I like, it's very flashy and gives off the best appeal for bass and pike. Great color to start off with, basically because we all know fish go after a flashy minnow color.

Here's a large assortment of colors, I don't know how current these colors are on the Zara Spook, they might be outdated. This gives you an idea of how many types of colors you get to choose from.

Although the round goby population has already flourished and pretty much taken over a lot of waterways, here's some great ways to help keep their populations down. Some fisherman say they are good because fish such as largemouth bass and smallmouth bass feed on them, but did you know that the Gobies actually feed on bass eggs. And guess what, Gobies spawn several times a year. So their species of fish can populated a lake very fast and become out of control. Here's some good pointers I promised for prevention!

• Learn to identify round gobies and if caught, kill them. Do not throw them back alive
• Do not use round gobies as baitfish
• Dispose of bait properly: Do not release bait into the water
• Always drain water from your boat, livewell, and bilge before leaving any water access
• Never dip your bait bucket into a lake or river if it contains water from another water source
• Never dump live fish from one body of water into another body of water