Paul Roberts

Great report. Thanks for sharing the details. They make it feel like I'm there. Get's my wheels turning anyway. Man, those big waters sure take their time warming up.

A lipless that will run at that depth is the smaller Sebile Flattshad. Pricey, but fishes 4 to 7 feet very well. They have a strong tight vibe and fall horizontally. Most others drop like rocks.

Not wanting to discourage you. Depending on the lake layout, and how warm your waters get, you may find some good fishing from shore. But, bass have a general and pretty consistent tendancy to move away from shore in summer and winter. Let us know how you make out.

I just saw this. That’s a good point. Exactly what's turning fish on and off can be hard to get at and we're left to interpret as best we can. Here are some thoughts, and things I've seen... As to schools of fish turning on and off I've interpreted it (in part from watching fish in clear shallow waters) as fish bouncing between being put off (being disturbed) and excited by competition -the latter being a strong motivator. Bob Underwood wrote about diving with bass and one thing he was excited about was how his test angler could be casting repeatedly to a school of bass with no response. The only reason that angler didn’t move on is bc Bob told him the bass were there. Suddenly, Bob said, a bass would yawn –stretch its jaw muscles. Then another would yawn, then another. Suddenly one would grab the lure that had been so disinteresting previously. Then the whole school turned on and the angler caught one after another. Brian Waldman (bigindianabass) has described fishing to large post-spawn/pre-summer aggregations in which he could catch 30, 40, or more on “a run”. I think his record was something like 60 fish! Get one to bite and…it’s off the races. Positioning on the school is critical he says, but I also wonder whether those fish are not just waking up. I wouldn’t know, my home waters now are too small for such massive aggregations. I tend to trust Brian's interpretations. When I'm fishing groups of fish I often try to think ahead before I start bombing the group. Trying to catch fish off the top of the school, then going deeper alongside, then going back to the top is one way that can sometimes seem to eek more bites. But I’m not down there, so I dunno. One group situation I seek out is when bass in my ponds target spawning bluegills. Groups of mature bass hang out around the ‘gill colonies waiting for opportunities to efficiently capture a ‘gill. The bass can be spooked, or put off, if I just excitedly start chucking and I might only catch one or two. So I fish carefully and place casts outside and along the edges of the colony, and use any cover to both hide negative parts of my presentations and serve as “ambush points” –which I define as places that offer energetically efficient opportunities for fish to make a kill. I cast so my lures enter quietly, and I switch lures (usually between 2 or 3 options). The idea is catch as many of the bass as I can before I need to rest them, moving on to pester another colony. As to my switching lures to eek out more bites idea, I’ve come to that from enough experiences in which the events happened in such a short span of time that I don’t believe it’s the fish “turning on or off” on their own accord. And I’ve just plain watched it -fish getting wise to one lure then willing to try another: Catching spawning ‘gills with fly tackle, nymphing to clusters of trout in a stream pool, steelhead gone stale from too many fluorescent balls drifting by, suddenly committing suicide bc I switched to an in-line spinner –something they’d never seen before. Catching stream smallies in pools: I used to live near a good smally stream and I’d spend hot summer days fishing and swimming. I’d approach a good swimming hole, cast a jig and catch several before they wised up. Then I’d switch to an in-line and catch some more. Then I’d jump in and cool off. Repeat at next pool, picking raspberries along the way. Gosh, I miss that stream. Another case of fish “wising up”, or more accurately, educated bass being “wise” to begin with... A while back I fished a small res for the first time. Got out of the car to do some reconnaissance, and walked up on a 4lb largemouth. Then another. Then two more! They were large females on small groups of large spawning ‘gills. I’d hit it just right in timing. I went back to the car to get my gear, shaking with anticipation. As I was rigging a couple other anglers came over and said, morosely, “Did you see those big bass? …They won’t hit anything.” I approached the bass quietly, but somewhat visibly, and tried several things including a swimming worm, a 4” wacky’d finesse worm, and a plastic craw, to no avail. But I’d noticed something in those fish at my approach, something I’ve seen fish do before. Their erect fins sagged and they sunk ever so slightly deeper at my approach. They “sulked” is how I describe it. Trout on hard-fished rivers, esp large browns, do this. So, I rested the bass, then rotated back through each fish approaching low to the water’s edge and hidden behind shoreline brush. Casting from behind bushes was difficult but the bass did not see me, and did not sulk. And I caught three of the four. Two tipped up for the swimming worm on the first cast like a trout coming up for a dry fly. Number three took the worm on the second cast. She was interested but turned away on the first, and took the worm killed and twitched on the second. The fourth had moved and spotted me on my attempted approach, and vacated. The bass I lipped were two 19s” and a 20” –top fish for that water –or just about anywhere here in Colorado.

You'll likely do fine fishing shoreline cover -vegetated back bays (slop bays), inside edges of weedwalls, and marinas are great places. Lotsa bass will move away from shorelines in summer and winter though, so if you can't find good summer locations you may want to find some ponds, or a partner with a boat.

I fish lipless cranks year round. They are great in the spring. Lotsa great colors but depth, speed, and action are most important. I like painted fluorescents (charteuse or red-orange) or pearls in low vis conditions and reflective metallics (chrome, gold) in high vis conditons. All sizes work -heavier ones sink faster and are fished deeper or faster. Vary your retrieve: stop-n-go, accelerations, pump and drop, rip weed walls, high speed burn, etc .... . They can be ripped clean through sparse weeds or at weed edges but are prone to snagging wood so have a plug knocker handy and some extras. I've tossed a few including: Heddon Sonic, Bayou Boogie, Cordell Spot, Rattle-Trap, Strike King Red-Eye Shad, BPS RattleShad, Yozuri Rattlin' Vibe, Matzuo Rattle-Eye, and Sebile FlattShad. They ALL work but have diff properties -amount of vibes, sink rate, posture on the fall.

I see the mutilated tongue now that you mention it. Fish can take a beating from hooks, esp barbed trebles. I went barbless on most of my soft plastics a while back bc of deep hooked fish. After seeing stuff like the pic below on some of my harder fished waters I finally started experimenting with barbless trebles on crankbaits. Someone had a heck of a time getting the barbs extracted from this fish. This fish is going to look like this in another year: I found barbless trebles held fish just fine and I've crushed the barbs on most of my cranks. I don't go barbless on heavy lipless, or jigs -too heavy and easily thrown on any slack, like jumps. Brian Waldman (bigindianabass) also experimented with barbless cranks and found they worked just fine too. He boated over 200 fish during that period and said he saw no difference, except in unhooking. He tourney fishes though and I think he settled on micro-barb hooks. He's got a write-up in his blog about it.

Diggy, Are you guys in the spawn season now?

Agree with Ratherbefishing's fish-in-a-barrel comment. Location is much less of an issue in small waters, at least quicker to resolve, and you can concentrate more on presentation. In larger waters, location becomes the first order of business as bass often move fairly far seasonally. You might want to start reading up on bass seasonal patterns on both natural lakes and reservoirs. I'd recommend the In-Fisherman Largemouth Handbook of Strategies book. Both the earlier edition and the newer are worth having. These will get your “thinking cap” focused –on bass habitat over the course of the year as you won't always just be able to walk up to the water and be certain there are some fish in front of you. As far as presentation goes, big water tends to offer more options to both fish and angler. if you've fished enough of a variety of small waters (there are natural ponds that are a lot like coves in natural lakes, and there are a lot of tiny reservoirs and quarries that are a lot like the big reservoirs in terms of presentation) then you'll probably be a pretty versatile angler already and will recognize the similarities. And then there’s just plain getting around. Essentially, high performance bass boats, and electronics, exist bc of big water.

It looks old to me. May just be on her way out. Blinded bass apparently are at a disadvantage but I have seen a number of single blinded, and a double blinded bass, do just fine. I had a thread on here about the double blinded one a while back. Here it is: http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/80005-blind-bass/

Yes, that shows the yellow color well. Again, not sure what it's about. Looks like a scar from a heron.

Fun pic.

Absolutely. There are real reasons why some areas produce better fishing than others. As to knowing your trees, here's an example... Take a forest. Trees are not randomly distributed. Different trees have diff site requirements that offer a certain range of soil type, drainage, nutrients, amount of sunlight, etc... Willows like wet areas with richer soils like creek bottoms and springs, some maples and oaks are wet rich soiled swamp dwellers, others occupy higher drier less rich flats or ridges, some like S facing slopes, others N. The ironwoods like dry well drained gravelly ridgetops. Juniper and Cedar need tons of light and not much moisture so they grow on disturbed or sites with little competition for light. Etc., etc., .... Now flood that forest. If you can recognize the tree types sticking up you can read the topography and substrate beneath in a direct visual way. Soil qualities are a hot topic amongst pond managers as soil can determine what grows where, and how much. As jhoffman said, it all connects. And the more you know the more you have to draw from. Some favorite quotes (paraphrased): "There is only as much beauty available to us in nature as we are prepared to appreciate. And not a grain more." -HD Thoreau "Opinion is easy. Knowledge takes work." -Carl Sagan "My grandmother told me the secrets of life are scrawled on little scraps of paper strewn on your life's path. Your job is to collect and read them. Eventually, if you collect enough of them, they'll begin to make sense.... If we never pick up those scraps of paper and never read them we'll keep wondering about life and never learn. Guess I must've missed a few." -Frank Davis, Pawnee elder I like his sense of humor too.

Was that Easter 2010? Where were you fishing? Looking at weather records for Chicago, that day was in the midst of a string of unseasonably warm 75F days. Do you have water temps for that day?

Thanks, PABASS. You know, I have no idea why very early season (winter) bass tend to be yellowish. I associate the color with mud on the belly (although many don't have mud) apparently from resting on the bottom for some time.They seem to lose it quickly though, lightening up to white bellies and greener sides. And I don't know why in cold water they get brilliant red (blood engorged) tooth pads, fin bases, and sometimes engorged capillaries under the skin along the throat and belly. This is very common -all bass seem to have it here very early. A common explanation for the red teeth is that they are crunching crayfish -apparently appearing to anglers as worn and bloody. But this isn' t the case here. My best guess is it is hormonal. I have wondered if it had anything to do with the stress of fighting when in very cold water, but I'm not so sure of that, just a passing thought since all the bass I handle that early are caught by hook and line.

That's a nice spot. Sounds like you were checking all over.

Thanks for reading, and the kind words.

Agreed. It's not a complete reset. Fish a pond that's NEVER been fished and you'll see.

I agree with WRB that peri-spawn cruisers can be particularly difficult. Those fish are not feeding. The fact that you saw males on beds means the spawn is imminent.

Yes. Well put. As for your example ..LOL. Same for me! Must be true.

If you are really looking for "facts", you're looking in the wrong place.

If it's a fish, you'll know.

Spoken like a true steelheader. They reset every night. What was it Lanny Waller said, "Be first, or be different."

Bass can defintely learn. And they can become more difficult to catch after being exposed to angling. There are quite a few studies that have shown this. And each individual fish in a group does not need to be pricked to learn that something is "not food". They can observe other fish sample and reject and get the message. If you doubt that fish can get wary of angling, all you need do is fish a pond (or trout stream) that's NEVER been fished before (no small order nowadays). It's shocking how "stupid" the fish are. Also, read the relevant sections in "Knowing Bass" by Keith Jones. In short, at Berkley, the bass in test tanks learn really quick what is "not food" and they must be replaced regularly so as not to skew test results. Add a sharp poke to that and … I would suspect that the message is that much stronger, even negative, at least for a time. According to Jones, as I remember it, bass could “remember” a lure as dangerous for up to a couple of months. And realize, not all individuals are the same; Some learn quicker and probably hold on to it longer. Whether this “remembering” is "learning" or classic “conditioning” I'll leave to others to decipher. In the wild, things are MUCH more complex, that is, way fewer variables can be controlled for. We’re not talking indoor climate controlled laboratory tanks anymore. All the things that go into the "decision" a fish makes in striking a lure -competition, aggressively feeding, visibility (weighs huge), etc… would suggest that a fish fooled by a common lure is no evidence for conditioning either way. That said, I have seen things that tell me that fish in the wild can learn that particular lures are either “not food” or worse. The question though is, for how long? A couple examples: This is a common ploy I use... Run a particular lure through a pod of fish and catch 3. Then they stop biting that lure. Immediately switch lures and I catch a few more. Switch again.... I've done this on MANY different occasions. And I still use it. If I know I'm on fish I'll often have alternate lures rigged and ready to eek out more bites. Here's a particularly good example of this: I used to fish walleyes at night under schools of shad that were attracted to a light hanging off a bridge. It was a uniquely consistent late spring / early summer pattern and I would go every night. At first I'd KILL em. Then the bites would taper off. Shad were still there, walleyes still chasing them. But bites would erode. Then I'd switch lures and bam! Back in business. Once I got hip to this I'd begin the night with a row of crankbaits layed out before me and I'd go through each one, one by one, as bites eroded. And it worked like a charm. What was interesting was, some lures were more difficult for the fish to learn than others. Plastic fat plugs lost their charm quickest. Balsa floating Rapala's less so. The one lure it appeared they NEVER learned was a small soft plastic swimbait (this was way prior to the "swimbait craze"), the “Lil' Fishie”. I think the same might be true for bass –that some lures are harder to recognize as “not food” than others– like plastic worms and jigs. Again, the question is, for how long do they “remember”, and we have to keep in mind that changing conditions with the fish as well as environmental conditions (esp visibility) weigh in huge. I’ve come to realize that, in the small public waters I fish regularly, visibility (lighting conditions) is one of the major factors relating to how willing bass are to bite chunks of plastic, wood, metal, and silicone. Let's face it, lures look pretty stupid MOST of the time. Just ask the fish. Lures have to do something special, at just the right times and places, to do us any good. I can’t control when fish are in position to feed, I can’t control whether they are in high competition with cohorts, but I can often pick the best lighting conditions--the days and places--I fish. A lot of the time I’m just not all that keen on getting my butt kicked. This is one angler that can learn, albeit often the hard way. Maybe I've become conditioned to mowing the lawn on those brilliant blue summer days.

Wow. That's one gorgeous fish. Is that a pond? How big?