Mattlures

looks lika a scar from an injury. Posibly a bird attack or a bigger fish or turtle etc tried to eat it.

Too bad there wasnt 5 quarters. My Chargers always seem to start slow and then get going in the 2nd half. The Steelers played a perfect 1st half and my bolts just started too far behind. I wish they would play the whole games like they play the 2nd halfs. Congrats to the Steeler fans. The Steelers will win thier division. I still think Rivers is the best QB playing. Everything he does, he does it without a running game and no protection

That depends on how hot the wife is. If the monkey is better looking then I would go with the monkey. If the wife is hot then still go with the monkey, just be sneeky about it. If the wife is hot and smart your screwed. Just buy her something first

I love those rage shads. I have been trying out weedless buzzbaits for a while and they pretty much all disapointed me except the shad. I havent had one run bad but I always use a hook with a little weight on it. As with alot of baits, its usualy the hook choice and not the bait itself.

I think you can buy the Castaic rockhard trout in other colors. Yes I know its not the correct profile but if your a huge Castaic fan then maybe thats an option. Castiac has been sold and since then has been taken over and last I heard is for sale again. That is probably why release dates continue to get moved back.

well in that case get back to fishing! good on you for taking your sister.

Well its obvious why you havent been fishing. You gat a girlfriend. Well actualy you have been fishing, but not for fish I like you pics of all the koi and carp etc. Keep posting and welcome back

I have tagged fish before using zip ties with numbers on them. This was a long time ago before everything was on the internet. I would highly recomend tags that are made for fish. You can gain a lot more info then just how often you catch a tagged fish. I am sure you could make the hole in different locations but your limited to how many fish you could actualy track, plus the hole would probably heel. I would love to have my own pond and have all the fish tagged. I did my ziptie tagging in a pond that my friends dad had. Unfortunatley a big storm came through and the dam broke so I was only able to get about 2 years worth of info. The pond was only about 3-4 acres. My biggest suprise was that catching tagged fish was rare. I had about 50 tagged fish and maybe only caught 12 of them.

My theory is that the smell doesnt make a lot of difference, maybe a little. but I think the taste makes a huge difference. I also think we as fisherman get a lot more bites then we know of. When a bass holds the bait longer we will detect these bites and belive we are getting more bites with scent then without. In any case I think it helps put more bass in the boat. I also like the lube factor with swimbaits. Bobby please post up what you got!

Bobby do you have any videos of the demonstartions you can post? I would like to see them. Paul, I use Megastrike,Procure scents and my own. I fish for many differnt species and I have found that scent helps more on some then others. I am a firm beliver in fish holding on longer because of taist.

This is why I tend to believe in scents. In humans smell and taste work together. I assume bass are similar. Now I definitely could be wrong but I think fish, specificaly bass do use their sense of taste. I think they use taste more then smell but they probably do use smell a little. I have heard many anglers claim that fish hold the bait longer with scent applied. I also have experienced this. I do think that the smell of a slow moving bait will help a little but I think taste helps more. I have seen footage of a bass biting a jig and the angler had no idea he was bit the fish spit the bait and he never knew it.. After seeing this, I think fisherman using scent/attractant may believe they are getting more bites because they are aware of more bites. I have also seen bass reject food after tasting it. So they were interested enough to try it but something was negative about the taste. Tadpoles come to mind. I have fed bass bullfrog tadpoles and they almost never kept them down and they rarely tried them again. these same bass would eat a small bullfrog but not the tadpole. And toads, forgetaboutit! I have never seen a bass eat a toad and not spit it out. One more example. I make my own scents using the actually prey fish species. One day I was throwing a prototype trout swimbait with my secret trout sauce on it. I watched a big (around 10lbs) bass come out from under a dock from a distance and charge the bait. The fish hesitated right when it got to the bait and then it nipped the tail. It slowed for a second and then charged and swallowed the bait. I ended up loosing the fish > I theorize that the fish was unsure about the bait. I was fishing a lake where swimbaits are heavily fished so I am sure this fish had been caught before. I think when it nipped the tail it was tasting it. When it tasted like a real trout, it ate it. So I don't know how much bass use their sense of smell or even how much they can smell, but I believe they use their sense of taste alot. I also believe taste and smell overlap. BTW I really like that sweet stink of power worms.

not a bass Very posably a carp. Car come in different shades from orangw to silver, to green and everthing inbetween. Plus it depends on where on the body the scale came from. I have never seen a bass with that large of a scale or even close to that and I have seen some big bass. Nope not a bass

Catt inspired this thread. Have any of you ever conducted your own scent vs no scent experiment. I for one think it helps but I am not sure it makes a lot of difference when it comes to bass. Bass are sight feeders. The feed by sight and feel. I do think scent makes a difference but I am not completely positive. It is possible that scent doesn't make much difference. Now with other fish like sharks or catfish they use there sense of smell as a primary sense. I know scent makes a difference with those species. Can anybody show an example of an experiment or experience where scent made a noticeable difference. I would think it would help the most with a slow moving presentation like a worm or jig. And I would think it would make little difference on a reaction type presentation like a spinnerbait or crank. What do you guys think or know about it?

Catt I have read the articles posted in this thread. I know several fisheries biologosts. I have talked to them about it. You have not posted 1 bit of evidence to suport your argument. You just dodge the issue. I have conducted my own experiments. I have managed a few private ponds/lakes, I have kept bass in aquariums. I have proven to myself beyond any reasonable doubt that fish can be conditioned to aviod danger. I dont know to what degree but it is obvious that they do this. In most cases they assosiate humans with danger, unless they are pets and they are being fed by them but it doesnt take long if they get caught by those humans. You talk about peer reviews? Ok show me a peer review that disputes what the original experiments shows. Show me where it says the info is incorrect. That it is wrong. You cant. Matbe you can find something that says the experiment wasnt perfect but that does not make the conclusion wrong. All you have done is take a stance against all the experiments and all the experiances of the fisherman. You have not provided any form of proof to suport your obviously wrong position. I have seen thousands of examples of fish adapting, learning, instinct etc. I dont need a scientist to agree with me, even though they all do. Having this debate with you is pointless. You have lost along time ago. At this point its like arguing with a traffic cone. I am done with this one. Like I said before I truley have no hard feelings and I still dont.

tyrius. It doesnt matter how many scientific studies you find to support bass can "learn". It doesnt matter how many MILLIONS of examples you can come up with from your own experience or all the other fisherman's experiences. All the fisherman are wrong and all the scientist are wrong becasue an "expert" said so. To answer the question of why we catch the same fish. There are many possabilities. First nobody is saying they "learn" the very first time. A dog which is much more intelegent does not learn the first time it is discaplined. It takes a couple times and even then that dog may need a reminder every once in a while. But we all know dogs learn and can be taught. 2nd we dont know how long bass retain what they "learn". it is possible they forget after a while. I would geuss it depends of how much negative and possative experince that particular fish has. Example: you have a pond and you feed the bass shiners for a year. Then you use some for bait. The fish you catch have been eating shiners every day so even though you release them it will most likely take a while for them to figure out not to eat them when your using them for bait. Now if you werent feeding them shiners and just used them for bait they would figure it out faster. I have seen bass follow up a hooked trout but not eat it and as soon as it was thrown back without the line and hook the bass ate it!. That fish knew to aviod the line and hook. 3rd. fish dont live very long, plus there is a new crop every year, so that is another reason why the same old lures keep working. fish will become conditioned accoring to pressure. In a small pond you can condition fish much faster to a specific technique or bait. You can litteraly catch most of the population over a short period of time and catch some multiple times. They will "learn" and you will need to change it up. The bigger the lake and less pressure each fish recieves would greatly affect how fast they become conditioned to a bait or if they become conditioned at all. and last just like other animals some individuals will be more or less intellegent then the others. Nothing has been posted to prove that bass cant "learn" nothing even clost to proof has been posted. Just sarcasm. BTW you can replace the word "learn" with instinct, condition,adapt, etc.

I have been making saltwater swimbaits for about 20 years. That is how I learnd how to make baits. I just dont sell them. Maybe someday I will. The whole reason I got into bait making was I was going through way to many saltwater swimbait and it was getting too expencive. !

I would guess that myself or Aluring would have more I wouldnt even know how to weight it all. Of course I am cheating becuase most of it is not for personal use But I bet I still got over 100lbs of baits for my own use. I use a lot of soft plastic swimbaits in saltwater.

I think a7/0 is way to big. It may look proportinate but there is no need foh hooks that big unless the bait needs those hooks for balance. I would put 2/0 or 3/0 on it, if the bait still perfromed right.

I do the same as Rolo. I dont keep them very often but when I do they are the small keeper sized fish. I usualy let all of them go but there are a few lakes I fish that have a ton of small fish. So I do my part and harvest a few of them

How about something that PROVES bass cant learn. Or maybe a real pic of aliens or a mermaid

Yep the saltwater guys have been using the "dropshot" rig for a looong time.

I dont think I can ad much to what these guys have already said. My favorite technique is to dead stick it. sometimes 15 minutes or more. It is hard to do and stay focussed but after a few monster blow ups when I wasnt ready, its a little easier now to keep the faith. Of course catching a bunch on it doesnt hurt either.

The hardgill is much less likely to get thrown. I have not had one throw it yet. It has 2 dangling trebles. That is much harder to throw then 1 big hook. Of course you dont let them have their way and jump all over the place. Then you just asking for them to throw the bait. I still fight the fish hard and sweep down and sideways when they try to jump but I play them a little more then the regular swimbait winch.

Sammy I was basing my suggestions on small ponds. to me 40 acres is a small lake. I dont think it would need a rest unless it has a masive amount of presure. still if something isnt working anymore then you need to change.

One other thing to try is to bring sombody new to the pond that is a decent bass guy with little or no preconcieved knowledge of this particular pond. The idea is that the new guy doesnt know what has worked for you in the past and he doesnt know your spots. I have done this with a couple guys who I knew but never fished with and they went to spots I normaly pass up and they threw baits that I normaly dont. They ended up beating me. I liked it. The quick answer to your problem is you have to change something.