Paul Roberts

Lake-wide Gatorbassman is right it lasts about as long as the spawn as not all females spawn at the same time. For individual fish, it doesn't appear to be very long, from what I see in the small waters I fish. This is what I see: Healthy females will spawn more than once. Toward the end of the spawn some willing females run out of males to spawn with it appears. Once males have eggs, they are unwilling to let another female on, attacking it like any other intruder. Such late females will cruise shorelines and hang around outside of occupied beds. These "jilted" females are catchable -I've done best with slowly swum/killed jigs, tubes, and worms. They seem unwilling to chase, having short strike windows. Go horizontal or aggressive with lures and you'll catch males. Fish more vertically and slowly and you'll pick up females. After they are done, I just haven't seen the "recuperating period" others talk about. I assume the confined strike window and spread out locations of "post-spawn" females accounts for the difficulty in catching them consistently. But this might be different in other waters. From what I've seen females come out of spawn-mindedness hungry. Here, they do two things: -Some females (quite a few in my waters) hang out just outside bluegill spawning colonies. In my waters, find a colony and there will be bass there and colonies with larger gills attract big females. I'll buoy colonies like I would key spots on structure. I fish swimming jigs, swimming worms, and tubes to these fish. Topwaters can work well too I like walking baits. -Many drop away from shore and collect on structure and/or developing vegetation -small clumps can do it if they are isolated only/best thing available. This scenario can bring large catches as moving bass can really stack up on such spots. In my small waters I may catch a dozen fish from one spot, but a friend of mine fishes larger reservoirs and has taken 30 from a spot! These are not all females though, but I do find some big females mixed in. They are aggressive and horizontal presentations will catch em. I use cranks a lot, and swim jigs, and tubes (falling). Ralph Manns is a pond watcher too, and he reports something interesting that males remain aggressive for a time after the spawn causing a shift in dominance between sexes, normally determined by body size. Ralph feels that males can push females from prime spots. So, if you are catching shorts (post-spawn males), move, but not necessarily far if the location is good. This isn't something I've managed to make use of, but is something to keep in mind. Good luck with your waters. Let us know what you find. Edit: Great stuff from Roger too. It appears maybe he sees the aggressive bucks moving females too. Love the shad interpretation too. I'm fishing bluegill based waters.

It looks like "American Pondweed" (Potamogeton nodosus). There are quite a few species of Potamogeton, but only a few that have elliptical floating leaves. P. nodosus is apparently found in Texas: http://aquaplant.tamu.edu/database/submerged_plants/american_pondweed.htm Ditto Roger on the fact that it won't "take over". The reason it's in one location is because the soil/substrate is right for it there. Many pondweeds have a seasonal growth period and then die back like you describe. All pondweeds create food, oxygen, and cover and attract bass.

Very cool. Always neat to see what people come up with. Thanks for sharing.

Very nice A-Jay. One of the ultimates in fw angling right there. Those big mayflies were probably one of the burrowing mayflies, most probably Hexagenia -the biggest and most common in northern lakes. "Hex" larvae, as the they are called, burrow in fine gravel, sand, and silty sand. I used to fish Hex and Ephemera (another big burrower genus) emergences for smallies back in NY.

For ease of handling, spincast is the way to go. You have to keep tabs on line twist building up, and keep the spool topped off properly. But, the big disadvantage with spincast is retrieve speed. Most spin-cast reels are too slow to fish many artificials well. The child has to retrieve like mad to get a bait moving, or keep one from dredging weeds and rocks. Ever spent an afternoon burning a crank? It'll wear you out. That's what spin-cast does with every lure. If they are fishing live bait, soft plastics, and some topwaters, spincast is fine, which is where most youngsters are at. If a child can handle spinning or casting gear -go for it. It also depends on the child's maturity -dexterity and focus. My son is simply a late bloomer, esp in the focus department. He's 8 and using spincast gear. He has a Zebco 11 (4lb), Zebco 22 (8lb), and I just got him an ABU 170i (12lb) which has promise for a good summer LM rig. It has a retrieve speed of 23ipt and appears to have a decent drag. Others I've looked at wimp out in the drag department, and so far no other has that retrieve speed. We'll see how it pans out this summer.

With 'gills on the beds now, you are at the end of the LM spawn. Some males still guarding eggs/fry. Females done and now hunting. Might be a few females still hanging out at occupied beds, or looking for a receptive male. Ditto what Bassnajr said about 'gill colonies. Bluegills are faster than bass. If they chased every one they saw, they'd die of starvation. They are looking for the right opportunity. They know it when they see it. Tip: Lures do not look like food to a bass very often.

I fish them two ways: -Flipping a T-rigged tube in and around cover on heavy tackle. -Cast on a light jighead and fished mostly on the drop on light tackle. In general, if fish are following, short striking, it often is indicative of the need for speed, and other lures do this better -or better- I simply haven't adapted a tube for this.

PB is the place. It always was. I thought the record was 2-2? We always wanted to break it there.

Well...I caught her AGAIN! Check the opening post for the story. Notice the torn soft dorsal -probably from a cormorant bite when she was small. Her spot patterns for 2008, 2009, 2010: Today I caught her about 200 yards W of where I caught her in 2008, and a good 600 yards from where I caught her in 2009. (This is a ~35acre reservoir). In 2008 she took a 4" wacky'd Senko. In 2009, a 6" finesse swimming tail worm. And in 2010 she took a 6" swimming tail worm. I actually measured her this time and am embarrassed to say she was just over 17". Guess she didn't have 2" of growth from 08 to 09, and I apparently didn't know "what I'm looking at". :-[ In fact, she apparently didn't grow much, if at all, from 09 to '10. Anyway, when I caught her this time I called out to my buddy, "I know this fish!"

Nice report. And that IS a monster rocky!

We've become SO removed from nature that the "circle of life" is simply unknown in any real sense. Death is rare and foreign. Many simply avoid it. We have done it, abstracted ourselves from reality because we can. We have the intellectual architecture, the technology, and resulting affluence to have left traditional selective pressures behind. And most would agree that's a good thing. The comment made by an elder Lakota women from the turn of the last century echoes in my mind, "Much of the time people were just darn cold." On the flip-side though The lid is off! I like to say. We are now free to believe that we are really aliens from another galaxy, and get away with it! (I know people who believe this). On top of this, the sheer amount of potentially disturbing input and influence from outside our homes is overwhelming. While I want reality, I feel the need to provide it to children (and adults in many cases) in proper doses so it's understandable and not traumatic. I also don't want to emotionally de-sensitize kids to important issues that WILL come to them in various ways in their lives. As to human' and nature's relationship with animals, I started early to meet that issue with my young son. We are animal lovers too, but we try to keep it in proper perspective. Some things my wife and I have purposely done: -Comment on video content. Videos see powerful. These things were written by people that reflect what they think. If anyone says they side with Bambi I ask them to see it again, and ask themselves: Are the characters animal, or human? Is Bambi a deer or a boy? Bambi is really a violent story depicting murder and war. After you've watched it, ask yourself if it is appropriate for children. Dressing such a story up like a cartoon doesn't get past me. My son has not seen Bambi. But the myriad other, and more benign, depictions of animals he sees I always question with him: Are these real animals, or characters in a story? Or as simply as, Why does that rabbit have a human coat on? I don't destroy the story the funbut I make the difference known in my son's mind. When he does see Bambi, for instance, he'll have the raised eyebrow of a skeptic. I make sure he watches reality too documentaries about nature are great, esp ones by David Attenborough, BBC, and NOVA. Not the sensationalized animals killing animals with no context or explanation stuff out there. -Our family raises chickens for eggs and meat, and we maintain several gardens, and bee hives. We had a rooster once that was aggressive. He was named Floss, until he started attacking my son and his young friends. We explained that he was only protecting his flock. But my son dubbed him Soup after that. And eventually that's what we did with him. And the neighbor kids insisted on being able to come and enjoy a bowl of Soup soup. -I hunt and fish, so my son has seen game come home and had it on his plate. I purposely take some fish home for my son to see and eat. He is fascinated by what's inside a fish and I show him the organs and their functions. He loves the process and I let him explore all he wants. If I'm back late, I'll even let him get out of bed to explore even on a school night. Every spring since he was little we've gone on a bluegill hunt. It was my son's idea actually, when he was 3, inspired from reading about Indians. The power imbibed in procuring his own food was the motivation I think. When my son was 7, I took him on his first real hunt. He's had his own archery gear for a long time (actually on his third bow by then) and I fashioned nifty mini-broadheads for some of his lightweight arrows to hunt rabbits. Now, my son's elementary classroom has domestic bunnies named Sunshine and Floppy, as well as Guinea pigs and chicks and ducks and other critters they've raised and grown attached to. My son cries hard when one dies. But he knows the difference between pets, independent wild creatures, and food. There are pets we care for and grow attached to, and there are wild rabbits that fend for themselves, and that we are predators too. He is able to make that distinction, without trauma. We even lost a rabbit once that was hit and managed to hole up. We both felt responsible, and we discussed it I checking in with him on his feelings. He said I was the faster and should have gotten to it quicker. He was right. He also said he hoped a fox or weasel would find it so it wouldn't go to waste. My wife, an elementary teacher, has kids every year that are traumatized by simply the idea that animals get eaten in the wild. Very thoughtfully and gently, my wife eases them into a more realistic understanding of nature. But to me at home, she may roll her eyes and call such a state of being, pathetic. We believe rich experience allowing an informed opinion is much better than the alternative. Ditto for sex, violence, abuse, politics, war, and other aspects of human existence that WILL come into my son's life. No topic is taboo in our house. But we do our best to regulate when and how it enters and we are prepared to discuss anything. I guess , in a nutshell, since we don't live in nature anymore, we have to seek it out. But in balance with what the culture around us brings. We are not alone in the world and have responsibilities to community too. It's hard to keep a foot in both worlds and really, we don't. We live in an abstracted world and only rarely visit nature. So my job as a parent is to give those experiences and understandings to my son and others in my community in understandable steps. It's all a continuous work in progress, just like the circle of life.

I fish from shore and use a backpack. I also fish from a float tube a lot. -The backpack will keep things dry, but not easily accessible while wading; I have to go to dry shore to access it. As a fly-fisherman I have several "chest packs" that allow access to gear while wading. The reason I use a backpack for bass is the sheer lbs of stuff I bring. If you can travel light, a chestpack could be perfect. Some are reasonably large. Check fly-fishing catalogs and websites for a selection. -I put a credit card, my driver's and fishing licenses, in a small tough zip-lock pouch, and leave my wallet home. My "fishing shirts" have breast pockets to hold stuff up and away from the water. -I tether everything. I carry a camera, voice recorder, hook sharpener, hemostats and sundries, but they are tethered to retractors. Ready, but safe. Suppose you could do that with a cell phone, but I leave mine in the car -calls can wait. -For years (like 20) I carried an SLR camera around my neck, even when deep wading on slick-as-ice steelhead rivers, the camera tucked into my chest waders. Then one day it happened, I barely dipped it while bringing a feisty chromer to hand midstream. My current camera is waterproof: http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1218589384/0

Very nice. There's some good stuff going on around. Thanks for sharing.

Expecting, or hoping, the fish will find your lure, rather than the other way around. Straining water, chuck-n-wind, rather than physically probing/nipping/crashing/banging/ripping structure and cover. Once you get hip to CONTACT, your electronics and lure/tackle choices begin to make real sense -they become real tools not just things to have that other people have caught fish on.

Nice pics. I like reports that make my office chair feel like I'm in a boat. Hey, are those Skeet sneakers?? ;D

What he said.

That Lil Pek is a great head.

Wasn't a honey hole before this trip. I had only fished this place 3 times so I'm still learning it. But I'm happy with the results so far. As for a location, ya - OK ~ it's way up yonder past the caution light - there's a little country store with an old Coke sign - be sure to stop in and ask Miss Bell for some of her sweet tea - then a left will take you to right to the ramp. hehe A-Jay Hey, wait a minute...! Describes one of my honey holes to a T! > ;D

Love this idea, of following a pond for a time with an angler. Fun idea. That bass is "healthy" bc it's young. It's growth you want and that fish, if it's typical, appears stunted. They should be thinned -unless there's a population of big bass that'll eat them. Give a swimbait, or night fishing, a go -just to see. A buddy and I did that once in a pond full of stunts -night fishing with SBs. We caught two 4's, a 5, a 6, and a 7. Either way, consider thinning -even if you have to feed the turtles. Here are pics from a pond the year before and three years after a massive winterkill: I caught over a hundred of these 9"-10" stunts. These survivors were 13"-16" and fat, three years later (this is the north -you're growth rates would likely be greater).

Figuring it out -- that's where knowledge and the "fishing" coincide. It's what makes "fishing history" a tool for some, and a crutch for others. Absolutely key.

http://www.richz.com/fishing/blog/?page_id=552

This will vary with angler of course. FM hit a lot of really good ones:

I assume that was the only one with some red? Hey, is that an BPS lipless? Rattle Shad? I just ordered some.