Comic Book Collectors; Nerdy Geeks or Shrewd Investors?Written by Dave Gieber
When one says, yeah, I collect comic books, what is general public response? Oh no, a slightly off wall geek. Here is someone who has lost touch with reality. Or someone that is in his or her own little world. I think not. Yes, comic book collectors may sometimes march to beat of a different drummer, but who says we all have to be cut from same mold. Comic books are big business.Back in days of my youth (what, several millennia ago?), I loved reading comic books. And so did a lot of my friends. Whenever we had an extra dime or sometimes a quarter, we could run up to local small town grocery and spend some very happy times at comic book rack. We would even go out and find small odds jobs for pocket change, which was enough then to purchase 2 or 3 good flights of adventure and fantasy. I can even remember crawling under our house to retrieve a cat that had misfortune of dying there. My Dad couldn't stomach smell and enticed my friend and I to accomplish chore for ample pocket change. We braved spiders and other crawly creatures to retrieve and bury unfortunate cat. Not long after that, we were proud owners of yet, several more intriguing comic books. Even local bully (who was really a pretty good guy) would purchase our worn out or unwanted magazines for far more than they were worth, so we could purchase new ones. I didn't know much about collecting then. I just liked saving what I enjoyed. I had a large cardboard box that I kept under my bed, filled with all my little treasures. I didn't realize that I had beginnings of what could have been something very lucrative. In later years when I headed off to college, I dragged my large cardboard box with me. At one point in time, I left most of my belongings in charge of what I thought were trusted friends. When I returned from my forest firefighting adventures, my box full of magazines were no where to be found. And needless to say, were my trusted friends either. Others had seen value in what I had and wanted it for themselves. Oh well, live and learn. That limited collection of comic books and other magazines would have been worth a small fortune today.
| | A Guide to Non-Typical Catfish Fishing Techniques Part IIWritten by Jeff Williams
Method 1Equipment I fish baits at all depths, not just bottom, in wide-open water. I always set up and fish deep lake structures. Besides an understanding of contours on bottom of lake, being mobile and being able to read your fish locator are keys. The tools I use are 8-foot heavy action rods, circle hooks, cut and live shad, balloons and all-important fish locator. I use 30-pound line, large capacity reels, 8-foot heavy action rods, 2 oz. Egg sinkers, barrel swivels and #7/0 circle hooks. Basically a Carolina Rig, I have a hook with an 18-inch leader tied to your barrel swivel, which is connected to your main line, which is where your egg sinker is attached. My boat is equipped with steel rod holders, a hand-controlled trolling motor, two fish locators, a big dip net and marker buoys. My equipment is not most expensive but it is practical. The main thing to remember is to keep whatever equipment you use in good condition. Many know all too well about disasters that can be caused by old line and improperly maintained fishing equipment and big Blues will test everything from your knots to your rod holders. If there is a weak link, they will expose it. Find Big Fish You need to know how to tell difference between larger fish and bait fish while using your fish locator. There are two main structures that I catch Blue Cats on: ledges and humps. Blue Cats are creatures of edges and they seem to congregate on brake lines of ledges and humps. The one-two punch comes when you find these structures with both bait fish and big fish mixed together on your locator. There are very few spots that I will stop and fish where I don’t see either big fish or bait fish on my locator. The ledges that I primarily fish are old river channels edges. The fish can be scattered up and down edge but best fishing occurs when they are on top. Catching Them Typically, when I set up to fish these ledges, I run my boat over them and throw out my marker buoy where I see fish. A little trick to using your marker buoys is to throw your marker upwind of where you are going to fish. If you drop marker right on top of fish, you will be bumping it and will eventually move it while wind is pushing you around. If you throw it upwind of fish, you can run your trolling motor right up to it without wind pushing you over it.
|
