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Having fished the sport fishing boats based in Southern California for many years, I have learned that bait selection and presentation are probably the two most critical, yet often overlooked, steps in fishing with live bait that can ultimately lead to a successful fishing trip. Anglers who have the good fortune of fishing live bait such as anchovies, sardines, mackerel and squid, can easily better their chances of landing more fish with these simple measures that begin at the bait well or tank.

When selecting a bait from the well, spend some time choosing the hottest, or liveliest bait in the well. The bait should not be missing any scales and check to see if the nose of the bait is red. The nose should always be a natural color and not red. Baits with red noses and missing scales are normally stressed from improper handling, overcrowded tank conditions or disease and do not look or swim in a natural behavior, the key to enticing fish to feed.

After selecting the best bait, bait scoops should be used to remove it from the others. If a bait scoop is not available, the angler should carefully slide his hand under the bait and slowly grab the bait with light pressure by the head, so as to not remove the slime or any of the scales on the body. Quickly bait the hook and fluidly cast it as far from the boat as possible, landing the bait softly in the bite zone. Make sure that your tackle, rods and reels, match the appropriate bait and creates as little excess drag on the bait as possible.

Anglers should always be aware of the fishing conditions that surround them. This includes tides, moon phases, currents, patterns and more. Knowing what the fish and the fishing conditions are doing should determine how the angler should bait their hook. Baits can be hooked in the nose, collar, shoulder and butt, depending on how the angler wants the bait to react. I like to nose hook my baits because I move them around as much as possible, including when I retrieve them. Nose hooking is the only way to retrieve the bait with a natural swimming motion, head pointed towards the angler.

When you collar, shoulder or butt hook a bait, they usually get ripped off, fall off or come back in an awkward spinning motion. I only hook my bait in the collar or shoulder when the surface fishing is good and when I know the bait will be inhaled before I need to wind it in. On the other hand, butt hooking is used when the bite zone is deeper and not on the surface. Normally, butt hooking will force it to swim down and away, the ideal scenario for many fishing applications. The price you pay is that you sacrifice the ability to wind the bait back through the bite zone if it did not get bit in the first pass. When butt hooked, the bait will usually spin and come in backwards, not a very appealing appetizer for a finicky fish.

Also, make sure your tackle matches in size and weight to your bait. Sometimes, fishing conditions demand heavy tackle for small baits and on other occasions, light gear for big baits. Other than these times, your rods, reels, bait hooks, fishing line, weight and sinkers should not create any excess drag on the bait. Spinning and conventional casting combos come in a wide range of actions and line classes in both freshwater and saltwater versions and carefully selecting the proper live bait rod and reel is essential.

With these bait selection and presentation tips, I hope you will someday be able to enjoy the thrill of being picked up by a trophy size fish. There is nothing more exciting than fishing with live bait, the heart stopping sensation when you feel that familiar thump on the end of the line, followed by a thumb burning grab of your line from the now, rapidly spinning spool waiting to be engaged with a flip of a button, turn of a handle or a slide of a lever with the familiar call of “hook up”.

My son just turned 7 years old this week. Surprisingly his favorite birthday present was a Eureka tent. We signed him up for cub scouts a few months ago. My wife and I agree that scouting is a good life experience for our boy. Which is good because otherwise I would have to sneak him away to the meetings. My son, Jan, is somewhat of a ham. He loves attention, and will get it anyway he can. When I first started taking him out to fish or hike, he would act scared. I think he was just acting to get attention, because in other situations he seems pretty fearless. Like running in the woods in the dark… I’ll finish that story later in just a minute. So, my son has been pretty excited about being a cub scout. At his age scouting is all about fun and getting the kids to learn something without them realizing it and running away covering there ears.

For Jan’s 7th Birthday, his grandmother went online to the scouting supply store, and bought him a Class A uniform, and other scout supplies including the BSA 75th Anniversary Akela 2 person Eureka tent, which is no longer available. Jan’s mother and I got him… toys. We figured we would have him open grandma’s presents first, thinking he would like them but would want toys, so we saved the remote helicopter and video game and transformers for last. Well, we should have done it the other way around, who knew. After opening everything the first thing he wanted to do was set up the tent.

So we went out back and started unpacking it. Of course Jan wanted to do it all, even if he didn’t know what he was doing. I have to hand it to him though, after a few minutes he figured most of it out. He wasn’t quite strong enough to bend the poles in order to insert the pins, but I was there to help him with that. Once I got the pins inserted into the poles, he started clipping the tents sides to the poles. I got to tell you the quick clips, shock corded poles, and ring pin / pole features are really great. They make setting up and tearing down a breeze. I was really surprised once we got it set up. The thing is huge for a 7 year old. I’m sure it will last him clear until he’s a full BoyScout, especially since its made by Eureka. Most of you probably already know a 2 person tent will only fit 1 person comfortably, because you need room for your gear. Well, Jan definitely had plenty of room. The dogs liked it too.

The next day I had to rush home from work at the end of the day because Jan’s cub scout troop had a camping trip planned at Starkey Park. Starkey Park is a great campground by the way. It’s located in New Port Richey, Florida about 45 minutes from Tampa Bay. Its a good thing me and Jan got familiar with the tent the night before, because by the time I got us there it was already getting dark. Making camp wasn’t too hard even though light was scarce. When the Troop Leader stopped by to say hi, he noticed we had two tents setup and look a little confused. He thought it was really strange that Jan would be sleeping alone. I just told him Jan was very independent and didn’t want to share his new tent. After that we started building a fire, which didn’t take long. Jan decided he wanted to move his tent a few feet further away from the fire and before I could say anything he took out the stakes and moved the whole thing back. I wouldn’t have been able to do that with my old pop tent. That ring and pin/pole feature is really cool.

This is the part where my son receives his first black eye. It’s that special time in a boys life when he realizes getting hurt isn’t as bad as being afraid of getting hurt. Jan saw his best friend two campsites away from us and went running after him, completely disregarding my calls. You would think its common sense not to run in the woods in the dark(unless your being chased by a madman with a machete), unfortunately common sense isn’t that common in children. Jan tripped over a log and fell on a tree stump. It caught him just below his left eye. A half an inch higher and his nickname, “Jan the Pirate” would have some real weight to it. Jan stood up holding his eye, which made me start to freak out just a little. Luckily It wasn’t anywhere close to as bad as my overactive fatherly imagination first thought. I was relieved when I saw that his eye was still very much intact, but I could tell right away that he was going to have a shiner.

Jan took it like a man, I couldn’t believe it. He didn’t cry or anything, just got a bit of an attitude because he was embarrassed that he fell. After Jan begrudgingly let me look at his wound, he went into his tent and zipped up the doors and windows. He thought the other boys would make fun of him. One of the den mothers brought us over some ice to keep the swelling down. We gave Jan the ice and talked him out of the tent with the prospect of roasting marshmallows. To Jan’s surprise, and mine, all the other boys thought Jan was the toughest scout there due to his lack of tears; and even some of the older boys admitted they would have cried.

The next morning before breakfast at the pavilion, me and Jan packed up. We ate and did some activities and played baseball with the other cub scouts. I had a bit of a hard time with him when it was time to go, until I told him we had to go to another birthday party(big families are the best). After we got home, I told Jan we had to clean up all out camping gear. I got to listen to some moaning and groaning about that, until I told him he was in charge of setting up his tent to dry out. Jan’s birthday tent made a fun weekend an unforgettable one.

I started writing this article to recommend the BSA’s 75th Anniversary Akela Eureka Tent, but, before I could finish it I came to the realization that it is no longer available. I can, However, recommend a comparable Eureka tent that would suit a cub scout or boyscout. The Apex 2 – 3 Season Eureka Tent is almost identical to the Akela Eureka Tent. Both have about 36 sqft of area, ring and pin/pole assembly, and shock corded poles. They also weigh about the same at a little over 5 lbs. And you can count on a Eureka tent to last.