Inside March 11, 2003's Issue

-Opinions-

House of Thought

Top 10 new Mascots for FC

Bourne with an opinion

Live bait is better than artificial bait

By Jason Bourne
Staff Writer

A couple of weeks ago during a church service, the pastor said something that got me to thinking. He said that his son told the family, "Live bait is better than artificial."

You may not believe this, but that statement has some truth to it in more ways than one. Confused? Hang on tight and I'll explain.

While fishing, I have used a wide variety of artificial lures and a variety of live baits. And I have come to the conclusion that live bait, whether it be live minnows, night crawlers or crickets, is a lot better than plastic worms, lizards, spinner baits or deep diving crank baits.

The same can be said about life, although in life you obviously don't use fishing lures to work through tough times.

Several times during my life I have been in a position where I have had to tell someone the truth or to lie. Let me tell you, it is better to tell the truth (the night crawlers, or live bait) than to suffer the consequences of telling a lie (the spinner bait, or artificial lure).

There have also been times I have had to either forgive someone calmly or bite his or her head off angrily. There have been so many times I have acted hastily (the top water chartreuse buzz bait) and as a result gotten in trouble and had privileges taken away.

So, like Bill Dance or Orlando Wilson, I changed patterns and forgave those people I used to get angry at.

And, boy, I feel a lot better because I know that my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ would want me to forgive that person.

During my grade school and collegiate career I have had many tests, and there have been times when I failed a test. I think the reason I failed the tests is I didn't study long enough.

So, in fishing lingo, I changed lure patterns. I went from not studying enough (the deep diving blue with silver back shad rap) to studying longer (the live gizzard shad) and as a result got better grades.

As I reel in and head back to the boat ramp, let me encourage you to change your lure pattern if you are not seeing results you would like to see.

I guarantee you will get more strikes (er, better results) every time.