Technology advances have allowed Handheld GPS receivers to be much smaller and still contain new features. They are more sensitive to receiving data from the satellites as well as being more rugged. The Garmin GPS can be hand carried, worn on your arm like a watch, or clipped to your side. It weighs less than one-half pound and is only 6.2 inches long.

The Garmin Handheld GPS 76 contains a viewable screen size of 1.6 in. wide x 2.2 inches high. It is a level 4 gray LCD and uses 180 x 240 pixels for enhanced viewing. The Garmin GPS 76 also uses the newer technology called WAAS, allowing for accuracy within 3 meters anywhere on the planet.

Depending on the quality of the batteries, a Garmin GPS 76 will give up to 16 hours of use on 2 AA batteries. Always carry extra batteries for extended service, since they are easy to carry and store.

The Garmin GPS 76 can interface with your home PC or your laptop using a serial cable. This feature allows you to enter up to 500 points of interest, lodging, etc. You also can input your camping spot or where your car is parked. The Garmin GPS 76 comes preloaded with maps of cities, and streets worldwide. It also includes marine navigation aids including buoys, beacons and other points of interest.

The Garmin Handheld GPS 76 allows you to input as many as 50 different routes on one of 10 saved tracks. This is up to 2,048 points on the map. The Garmin GPS 76 is waterproof and floats if dropped while you are on the water. No worrying about losing your GPS 76 while fishing by dropping it in deep water.

The Garmin GPS 76 Marine Friendly Reciever is great for hunters and fishermen; it has a built in celestial data, which includes a calendar and tide information, as well as the sunrise and sunset times of the day. If you are in a party and other members also have one of the Garmin Handheld GPS Reciever they can pinpoint your exact location as the screen shows a dotted trail straight to you.

One of the great features hunters and fisherman that enter competitive tournaments can use with the Garmin GPS 76, is the built in timer. With it’s side accessed buttons you simply push a button and the timer will keep track of the elapsed time on the GPS 76.

It would benefit everyone no matter whether you are using the Garmin GPS76 Marine Friendly Reciever for your outdoors activities or over the road. You will always have a helping hand with one of these systems strapped to you. Your owners manual and the quick reference guide will always be a great help in learning how to operate a Garmin Handheld GPS Reciever.

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Probably more people are fresh-water trolling with standard bait-casting outfits than with anything else. It seems they are primarily using the modern glass fiber rod which is well adapted to this work, since it will not take a set and, unless badly misused, will not break.

The standard bait-casting fishing reel, if loaded to capacity with bait-casting line, is adequate for anything but deep trolling. It is true you have to hold the handles of your reel or keep a finger on the spoolor the line will run,  but this is a minor inconvenience.

Jusr as in other forms of fishing, small, light lures require light tackle. Medium-size lures call for medium tackle, and heavy lures for heavy tackle. Medium and medium-heavy action spinning outfits are also used for most freshwater trolling. Heavy fly tackle can also be used in trolling for landlocked salmon and large rainbow and brook trout and other large fish.

To reach different water depths, you can try out one type of lure with different weights, or you can  test out several types of lures in combinations using varying weights.

For trolling, you will find wobbling spoons are well suited. You will also see that some can be trolled at various speeds and perform well, while others need a particular speed for best results. Again, you must  test this out for each one.

The large spinners and spoons are frequently used for muskies, pike, and lake trout. Personally, I prefer a spoon that wobbles or darts to one that spins in the water. The spinners may catch as many fish, but I find them tiring to troll. I’d much rather use a lure that throbs and gives notice that it’s working correctly, but doesn’t put up much resistance.

Another point is spinners pull heavier in relation to size as compared to spoons - especially the large ones.  They require a real effort even when used with light tackle. Spinners also have an irksome way of twisting the line, which requires using extra swivels.

When your fishing line does get tangled (and it will), then you have a problem that taxes your patience. If it is just twisted, You can try the method of un-twisting it by letting it out behind a fast-moving boat (without any lure of course). Then it should un-twist itself. On the other hand, a really tangled line could be so hard to get back in shape that would just  replace it with a new one.

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Some Secrets of Sausage Meat Baits

Searching for cheap but well proven big fish protein baits is very important and homemade sausage meat baits and ground baits are excellent baits for many reasons. Luncheon meats and Pepperoni are popular and effective also but these prove to be extremely expensive as fishing baits. So let’s see how you can make your own big fish sausage meat baits and save a small fortune!

If you use sausage meat as a base for bait this is a bit more ethical than using valuable marine resources, but it can be used to bulk-up certain fish or shellfish bait mixes to cut costs and create different nutritional profiles, tastes effects etc. Sausage meat fresh or frozen fresh can be found easily. Fresh meat is best though catfish are know for being attracted to baits just souring, Some people prefer to use this effect with blood based baits and not pork. Often the biggest fish in your waters will take a new safe bait pretty quickly and sausage meat based baits are not trendy and can really give you many competitive edges!

Sausage meat is simple and easy to use. You can either mince it up or buy the minced product. The nutritional value of pork sausage meat is a stimulant to both carp and catfish and it has a fair proportion of the important fish stimulators such as amino acids and oils. Pork sausage meat is often made with bread crumbs and it is very simple to make a bait by simply mixing it with eggs and very cheap wheat flour, though other more nutritional binding flours and meals are very numerous, and will help bind bait into a dough.

Making one of the cheapest protein based homemade baits is simple, fast and very easy to do

For example, get half a pound of minced sausage meat, mix in a bowl with about 3 to 4 large eggs and around 2 table spoons of ordinary cheap wheat flour (use more if required) and kneed this into a stiff pliable dough. This can be used as fishing bait immediately as paste, baged up in using a tie to make the bag air tight, store in the fridge or freeze it for use next time. This bait is pretty much right on target with most carp and catfish waters even though various meat brands and grades may vary results and basic and simple will produce lots of fish.

Like most carp and catfish baits, the best way to start fishing with it is to prefeed perhaps 2 to 6 pounds or more of it into your swim, ahead of your fishing trip. (This is not necessary however!) You might for instance, over a period of 3 days prior to fishing, start prefeeding paste pieces about an inch in diameter just by pulling them off your balls of dough you have made.
Pre-baiting will make the fish be far more prepared to eat your bait with even more enthusiasm when you start actually fishing; so grab a tight hold onto your rod! Sausage meat in this form also makes fantastic ground baits too. Fishing paste balls has always been extremely effective, but these days you might prefer to make your baits more resilient to smaller fish (by par-boiling,) to help keep them intact when the bigger fish arrive; but add some dough to your bait or hook or PVA bag anyway too!

Boil your baits for anything from a minute to 5 minutes; be aware, the longer boiling makes them harder, but it loses more attraction in the process. To help attraction there are so many choices to add to your bait, or just to keep results coming. As a suggestion, you could add sea salt at about a teaspoon per 2 eggs worth of bait mixed, or add curry powder at a heaped teaspoonful per egg used in the mix or more depending on the form of curry powder used.

You might just add a teaspoon of black pepper powder per egg used. Other examples of well proven kitchen favorites are yeast extract products like Marmite or Vegemite; add at a heaped tablespoon per egg, or even Parmesan or blue cheese powder which is ideal in sausage meat baits. You can simply add some Minamino or proprietary fishing liquid amino acids supplement like Nutramino to boost feeding stimulation and nutritional profile of your bait; or add fish meal, keratin, or poultry meal, or ground bird foods and lecithins for more digestible baits in winter, for example…

If you use the proven fish feeding triggers and proven fish attractors with a nutritional or other beneficial physiological effects, they will pay for themselves for sure. Even supermarket oil based citrus flavours can be very effective. Homemade sausage meat baits do compete even with the latest enzyme-active commercial baits and catch big carp and catfish at a fraction of the cost of very many popular baits. Being different is one of the top edges in fishing even just using the bait ideas here to adapt, will add an unusual bait paste moulded round your readymade bait is going to get you thinking about more productive possibilities in the future; and the more you know the more valuable cheaper edges you have and thee more fish you will net.!

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When the males of my family used to go fishing back when I was a kid, we mainly used worms and minnows for bait. My Dad and I were competitive and usually had a friendly fishing contest going on. This led me to dig deep into the worm container in an effort to try to find the biggest worm for bait. After all, bigger bait, bigger fish, right? That is not always the case. Dad usually caught the most fish as well as the largest every time we went fishing. He refused to reveal his “fish-catching secrets”, so I decided to create a secret of my own. I learned how to make homemade fish bait.

Catfish are bottom dwellers and are scavengers. They will eat anything that doesn’t eat them first. They seem to be the least of the picky eaters when it comes to lake or pond fishing. They’ll go after most anything if they’re in the mood. There are many homemade fish baits made especially for catfish, but you’d be surprised how many other types of fish will bite on the same bait.

When I was a kid, we would take biscuits or sliced bread and roll it into a ball and put it on our hooks and head for the lake in our recreation park nearby. These doughballs are probably the most popular of the homemade baits. They’re easy and inexpensive to make, and easily loaded on your hook. Doughballs were my favorite homemade fish bait. We always had leftover bread. You can use it plain, which we mostly did or mix together pieces of old white bread and tuna juice to make tasty doughballs hoping the fish will rise to your hook. Or, you could buy some cheap, premade dough at your local grocery store. Make up one-inch round balls out of the dough. Then, you place them in a sealable container and pour tuna juice over them. Let them soak until time to use them. If you want to make a tastier treat for the fish, mix in some cheap shredded cheese. It also gives the doughballs a nice, bright orange color that will help attract the fish by sight.

Good luck and good fishing.

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When your catches are not as you wish there are many tricks to try; and improving the pulling-power of your hook baits is just one of these but it is a massively important one! Carp can be very difficult to tempt when previously hooked before on any bait, so aiming to make your hook baits unique can really pay-off. Liquid bait soaks have always been successful but you can make you own homemade ones very easily…

You can make homemade dips using many house-hold food items including oils and juices from tinned fruits and canned fish. Pastes and pastes are very under-used items and mix with various liquids to make effective nutritional cheap dips. It is cheaper to make homemade boilies but steam them instead of boiling them for better catches!

Coating your baits in even simple paste or dough bait certainly increases catches. Because most of the stimuli which incite fish feeding are water soluble, it is sensible to get many soluble attractors in your paste for best effect! There are many feeding triggers in fish and using mashed tinned fish like tuna, anchovy or salmon to make paste to go around your hook baits is easy; just mix with eggs and wheat flour or with ground dog mixers to bind!

If you use readymade baits like boilies and pellets or even prepared particle baits like nuts or seeds or tinned meats, you will get more takes by altering the surface coating. Make it irregular shaped as if other fish have already been chewing at the bait. This helps release the baits intrinsic attractive substances too. Another trick when using boilies is to poke them with a knife point or baiting needle to go deep inside the bait to release attraction - it really works and changes the bait surface into a very unusual and irregular texture too with all its advantages!

Try coating your baits with a dough or paste. This does not have to correspond to the hook bait you use at all; it could be you use a red fish meal boilie coated with a yellow bird food paste mix. Or tiger nut coated in shrimp paste, or luncheon meat coated with aniseed flavoured ground bait based paste.

Making the leap of faith and trying coating pop-up buoyant baits with paste is a very good edge indeed and extremely well proven! The pop-up or semi-buoyant hook bait has no need to be like the paste around it and in fact the more alternative your paste is the better. Coating pop-up baits with paste is a great edge which is little-used by the majority of carp anglers and as you can see, these things just take a little lateral thinking utilising what we are already using.

Many big fish can tell which baits are hook baits by their behaviour in the water and their weight and buoyancy. Using a more buoyant hook bait can seriously fool these fish where blank sessions could well occur on mere conventional bottom baits! It might come as a surprise but you can easily make pastes from scalded pellets and other baits too.

It is a commonly held angling myth that fish do not learn, but in truth very many species can be conditioned by angling activities, bait introduction etc and even koi carp can be trained to take baits from out of a keepers hands and be in a particular place in advance of feeding time! If you think carp do not learn just consider that over time when repeatedly hooked by anglers, they do not get easier to catch but harder! It’s just the same with hunting of other kinds. For this reason alone it is definitely in your best interests to find out as much as possible how to maximise the impact and effects of your hook baits and free baits because a trap is only as good as the bait!

By Tim Richardson.

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Death Valley is known for being one of the harshest locations in the USA. It’s hot, it’s barren and it certainly wasn’t the location of the gold mine that was supposedly there and funding the construction of Albert Mussey Johnson’s vacation retreat. There wasn’t a gold mine, even though Johnson had invested in one.

Walter Scott was a miner, a dreamer and apparently a scammer to boot. He convinced Mr. Johnson to invest in the gold mine in Death Valley. It was probably going along just fine (with Scott getting his money from the investment) until Mr. Johnson decided to visit. He thought a tour of the mine would be a good idea. It was hard to do since there wasn’t a mine to see.

It was lucky for Mr. Scott that Mr. Johnson became enamored with Death Valley. Because he liked Mr. Scott and thought that Death Valley was truly spectacular he and his wife decided to build a vacation retreat in the valley. It was called Death Valley Ranch but was known to the locals as Scotty’s Castle.

The rich and famous came to the retreat when it became a tourist attraction. They wanted to see the retreat built by one of California’s richest gold miners. Of course, had he told that it wasn’t from the riches gained from the non-existent mine there wouldn’t have been nearly the attraction to it that there was at the time.

There are guided tours available at the castle for those of you wanting to visit. With interactive displays, living history exhibits and all inside the house it will be a treat to see. The tours are available daily on the hour.

The second tour available for you while you are at the castle is of the underground area. It shows you the technology used to provide electricity to the castle. There is a 1/4 mile tunnel system that runs under the castle that you will be able to see.

Thanks for the National Park Service the castle is maintained for people to visit. Technology from the past and present are both used in the lower level of the castle to keep it functioning as it should. You will enjoy the tour and the history of the castle.

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Facts About Fishing Reels

Fishing is a great leisure activity and recreational sport. Families, individuals or groups can enjoy this wonderful activity. The advanced fishing reels make fishing even more enjoyable and fun. This article throws light on fishing reels and their types and brands.

Fishing is an enjoyable leisure activity for families and groups of outdoor sports lovers. Fishing is emerging as one of the most popular sports activities too. Recreational fishing is governed by conventions, many rules, licensing restrictions etc. that govern various methods of fishing.

Fishing for sports or recreation is known as angling. Anglers widely use modern equipment and accessories that help catch more fish. Technological innovation has made fishing more enjoyable and easy.

What are fishing reels?

Fishing reels are important equipment that is used by anglers. In angling an angle or hook is used for catching fish. Usually, the fishing reel is connected to the fishing rod. The fishing reel works as a system for carrying out many functions such as storing, retrieving and letting out the fishing line. Fishing line is a cord that is specially made for angling. This is attached to the fishing rod to catch fish. The hook is where the bait is kept. The fishing reels should be cleaned and lubricated after each use. The reels should be cleaned and lubricated professionally at least once in a year.

Types of fishing reels

Fishing reels are of many varieties depending upon the type of fishing activity. There are conventional saltwater fishing reels, fresh water reels, spinning reels, spincast fishing reels, baitcast fishing reels, electric fishing reels, lever drag fishing reels, high speed fishing reels, twin drag reels, and trolling fishing reels. Ultralight Spinning Reels handle six pound test line or less. Some reels are actually designed for 2 pound test line. There are many other reels specialized for different types of fishing.

Popular Brands

Fly reels from Martin are America’s oldest fishing reels. Shimano fishing reels, Daiwa fishing reels, Penn, Svendsen, Okuma, Shakespeare, US Reel and Zebco are popular brands of fishing reels. Alvey Reels and accessories from Australia are used all over the world. Everol is an Italian company that makes lever drag reels. There is an alluring choice in fishing gear for the anglers worldwide.

Discount fishing reels

If you want to save money on fishing reels you have to check out sites that sell discount fishing reels at prices. Some online shops sell wholesale fishing reels at discounted prices.

Antique & Classic fishing reels

Collecting the oldest models of fishing reels has been a hobby for many. These rare fishing reels fetch high prices. Fishing enthusiasts can find photographs of old fishing reels and other relevant information are displayed online.

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There are four basic types of fishing reels.  Spincast, spinning, casting and fly reels.  Part 1 of this was covered in Fishing Reels.

Casting

Casting reels have a visible line spool that lays perpendicular to the rod so it functions much like a winch. This type of reel has a trigger to release the spool and the spool turns when the crank is turned. There is usually a spoke wheel drag adjustment around the base of the crank handle. There will be a spool tension adjustment knob and sometimes an adjustment for tuning the spool rotation speed when you are casting. The last two adjustments are used to maximize the casting distance while minimizing the amount of backlashes. Backlashes occur when the spool rotates faster than the line is pulled off the spool. This causes the line to start winding back around the spool in the opposite direction and somehow you always end up with a knot or a complete mess that requires clippers to solve.

To cast a rod equipped with a casting reel do the following:

1. Place your thumb on the trigger and make sure it overlaps the spool.
2. Press the trigger and use your thumb to keep the spool from turning.
3. Start your casting motion.
4. On the forward part of the casting motion remove your thumb from the spool.
5. As the lure flies through the air, you may need to lightly touch your thumb to the spool to prevent it from rotating faster than the lure pulls line. This usually will happen during high wind situations, or when your lure goes up farther than out.
6. When your lure hits the water, place your thumb on the spool to stop rotation. If this is not done you can, and probably will get a backlash.

Tips:
When first starting to learn to use a casting reel, adjust your spool tension as follows:

1. 1. Tie on the lure you are going to use.
   2. Hold the rod out horizontal and trip the trigger.
   3. Allow the lure to fall to the ground/water and observer the spool. Tighten the spool tension so they spool stop rotating on its own when the lure strikes the water. This will help reduce backlashes.
   4. As your skill increases you can adjust the tension and magnetic drag systems to fine tune your reel.

Fly

Single Action Fly Reels
Single Action Fly reels consist of a simple spool with a housing around it.  The single action fly reel is far less complex than the automatic fly reel.  The housing has a large hole out of which the line comes. There is a small handle on the spool used for cranking and a simple drag system. These reels are the most widely used of the fly reels. They are used to hold line and fight the smaller fish when one is hooked.

Automatic Fly Reels

Automatic fly reels have a spring system located inside the reel and a trip lever to wind the line back on the spool. As you pull off line the reel spring loads up. When you trip the lever it releases tension in the spring and causes the spool to rotate and wind the line back in. You should note that automatic fly reels are not designed for for use with fighting fish, and therefore, have no drag system.

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In a previous post, I mentioned my friend Tommy snagging a snake with a cast out in a field.  As Paul Harvey says, “Now for the rest of the story”.

We took the snake back to town with us and went to a community park.  We gingerly placed the snake (Newly dead) on a lim of a relatively small tree sapling.  We moved one of the park benches back against the tree with the back edge of the bench off the ground so any pressure on the bench would cause the tree to shake a bit.  Then we settled in to wait.

Sometime later, an elderly gentleman came by and sat down, ostensibly to catch his breath or maybe just to take in the playground scene.  When he sat, the pressure of the bench did indeed cause the tree to shake a bit and dislodged the snake which fell on the bench beside him.  I am sure it caused him a bit of a fright and could have done much more had he possessed a weak heart but we never thought about that possibility.

Sometimes, it causes me to wonder how I survived my childhood.

• Discover The Secrets Of The Kissing Cure Great sex does not begin with rotten kisses. Most people do not usually think about the "proper" way to kiss. When it comes to the lip tango, most people just wing it, or worse, just keep doing it wrong. Each of us probably has encountered enough slobbers, peckers, and tonsil-divers......
• Beware the FUD Of the Legacy Telecom Vendors - Be Prince Charming - Get the Right Fit Be careful what you believe! The Telecom legacy vendor guys will tell you anything to keep you in there customer pool. That may or may not be a good thing for your business. I have seen the evolution of the Telecom business since 1993, I am relatively new to......
• Leno tells his side of the story [/caption] LOS ANGELES - As a final signoff on the settlement sealing Conan O'Brien's exit from "The Tonight Show" was pushed by another day, Jay Leno on Monday gave his side of the story of NBC's late-night turmoil, and fans of O'Brien braved the rain to rally support. O'Brien's settlement......
• San Mateo County Hike of the San Bruno Mountain State and County Park Location: This hike is located in San Mateo County in the San Bruno Mountain State and County Park. The Hike: This is an all access 1.2 mile loop hike that travels through coastal scrub. Distance: This trail is 1.2 miles in total from the beginning to end and back......
• Retirement Rx - A Plan for Living the Rest of Your Life This is my review of Retirement Rx, a book that presents a "prescription" or plan for living a happy and fulfilling "rest of your life." This book is not about financial planning, although that is part of the "prescription."  Instead, it is more about implementing or fine tuning personal and......

The only experience other than what I previously narrated had to do with a lake at a local recreational park.  This lake had quite a few fish in it and you could see them while standing on the pier and looking out.  We tied string to a long stick and tied a hook to the end of the string.  No sinker, no bobber.  For bait, we would roll up pieces of bread from home and form it around the hook.  We knew from throwing bread off the pier the fish would eat it.   However, when you put it on a hook, they would not even come close.

Is it any wonder I didn’t stick with fishing?  I gave it up for baseball and girls.

• There Are Alot Of People Making Money Affiliate Marketing On The Web Are People Really Making Money Internet MarketingI was forced into a career change and didn't know what I was going to do. My wife is a stay at home mom to our little girl, the house all the bills and suddenly I didn't have a job. I did have a......
• Fishing Report: August 15, 2009 Trying to decide where to fish or what to fish for this week? Let the following guide ensure that you have a decent week on or in the water. Saltwater Fishing: The Suisun bay has been relatively productive in terms of striped bass, but their numbers are still not where......
• Five Fun Things to do on the Weekend That Don’t Cost a Dime Budget-oriented families often think that they have to give up entertainment entirely. Expensive concerts certainly won’t fit into a frugal budget. And expensive nights on the town are out of the question. So how can you fill those weekend days and evenings if you’re on a budget? If you do......
• How To Make Ends Meet On The Internet - The Uncomplicated Way Let me start with the fact that when it comes to information about how to make money on the web, you need to be aware that not all advertisements, jobs and other information about how to earn money on the internet is real or even worth your time. As far......
• Tips for Fishing in the Fall As the weather begins to cool down, and as the leaves begin to change in hue, you may begin to have daydreams about fishing. The autumn season is the perfect time to start thinking about fishing, as there is no better time for you to be fishing than in the......