• Online Fishing Community Sites

Over the years, the online fishing community has largely been dominated by forums. If you can think of it, there is a forum dedicated to it. Of course, now you have many anglers becoming bloggers like myself. BassPundit makes it a habit to announce new Bassin' blogs he has come across. I add blogs to my list and keep a blogroll going with some of my favorite fishing blogs.

While all of this is going on, those of us that are technologically inclined also have Myspace profiles, Facebook profiles, and maybe even a Twitter account. Many of the old timers don't understand all the hubbub surrounding this sort of online interaction, but social networking is really quite an interesting phenomenon. For professional anglers, the social network gives their fans an up close and personal experience that adds to the sport we love.

Some have taken this phenomenon one step further. Now there are online communities just for anglers. If you've ever wanted to surround yourself with others who share your passion for the sport, you've got it at your fingertips now. I signed up on GetReeled and although the community is still somewhat small, it offers something Myspace and Facebook may not. Another similar site is Fishing Recreation (http://www.fishingrecreation.com). I have added links to GetReeled and Fishing Recreation to my Fishing Links section on my blog. I encourage anyone with the time to sign up on any of these social networking sites and get in on the fun.

• Some Upcoming Posts, Star Ratings

I've been thinking about what else I could write about in the near future. My list already includes a look at Bandit 100 Series crankbaits, Revenge jigs, how to repair LFT Pig Claws, and a post on the Gander Mountain Guide Series rod. Those posts are currently works-in-progress. I do have two more photos I could post. One is of a cormorant and the other is of a leaning tree one of the hurricanes left behind.

I recently added the Pflueger Patriarch to my arsenal, so I may put up a post giving my first impressions. I swapped out the hooks on my Bandit cranks with Gammy EWG trebles and once I catch a few fish with them, I'll share my thoughts. With my recent post on buzzbait techniques, I thought it would be appropriate to discuss how to follow up after a missed strike on a buzzbait.

I'm not using the Blogger designed star ratings. Instead, I signed up with Outbrain and use theirs. There have been a few bugs. For instance, sometimes they do not load. Other times, the widget which lists the top rated posts does not load. I am a bit miffed that a few select posts have been victims of abuse. One user visits a post and in a matter of seconds, gives that post one star and moves on to another post. Most visitors don't even rate posts at all, so I'm not sure how helpful the ratings will be.

• Alphabetical Labels

The labels on the left side of my blog were listed by frequency and visitors would occasionally click on a few of them to read more. However, I feel that listing my labels alphabetically may be more suitable for my target audience than a list by frequency. I still list labels by frequency further down on the left, but listing tags in alphabetical order makes it a lot easier to find what you're looking for. I'm already noticing a few more clicks in my site log thanks to this change. Like every other new idea I've had for my blog, we'll see how it goes.

I'm still not completely satisfied with my fonts. One day I might change my layout to a white background with a cleaner look. The problem is, MSIE 6.0 makes everything look ugly.

• Scenic Photos

I have a new digital camera. I am thinking about using it to take photos of nature on the lake. We've got lots of cypress, birds, plant life, and sometimes very nice sunsets off the water if you catch it at the right moment. The only thing is Blogger has a space limit of 1024MB for images and over time, photos like this could take up quite a bit of space. I might use Photobucket. Then I could use the photo slide show widget Blogger has. The pics won't be huge and would be presented more appropriately in a separate blog and not crammed in with the fishing blog. I could organize them using labels and still post them in the fishing blog to keep things simple.

Not sure where I'll go with this idea, but I'm throwing it out there since photography is pretty commonplace in the world of blogging.