Paul Roberts

;D No pics? Can you replay that for us on YouTube?

Hey, now wait a minute! I resemble that remark. ;D

Awesome is right. Beautiful fish, and a nice shot; Congrats to Lois too. I see a Slider Head too. Is that Okeechobee Craw color on that Big Stick?

Well designed, well made, top notch people.

Now that's cool! But, isn't that a Strat?

C&R for bass out of season makes such sense. Glad they did that. I see a 4lber as a big bass where I fish. Sure there are 6's around, in many waters, but how many? One or two a year makes that a top end fish -something different in my book. Again, fun post. Great pics. Thanks for keeping us up on NY bassin'.

All a fish has to pull wit his its fins and body depth. Tail-hooking a big fish gives you no control. They are facing the wrong way! You are fighting their total swimming power. With light tackle (no lifting power) tail-hooking a big fish is a rush at first -then it just sucks.

Fast to XF, MH (8-17lb), 6-6 or 7ft, coupled with a fast retrieve reel.

Sounds like a spawning pair.

Thanks Wayne. I've had 30 some this week and the red is still there but fading. Water's mid 50s up. Here's a pic from yesterday: One researcher Brian contacted wondered if it had to do with cold water and struggling on a line, coupled with cold water. I kinda doubt that. I've contacted a friend who runs trap-nets in early spring for pike and muskies -hoping he can shed some light on non-angled for bass from cold water.

I have a small res that has had a strong year class of 19-20 LMs in it. They are not all that hard to find and on an average day I could expect to catch one or two. On my best days (periods of predictable CARNAGE!! lol), I've caught half a dozen such fish: http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1206553821/2#2 But last year my top three fish from this pond were in the 18 class. This year, so far, I haven't broken 18. What's up? This pond was opened to the public for fishing in the mid 90s. I started fishing it in 2003. It was full of big mamas. But, each year I've watched these girls being carried off to the parking lot, despite signs requesting anglers to practice catch and release (I don't believe it is mandatory). The place is lined with spinnerbait chucking anglers all summer. I was concerned about people taking the big ones, but when one stops catching them, have they been caught off? Or just grown old and died out the passing of a year class wave? Northern bass tend to die of old age at between 10 and 12 years some a little older. It takes around 8years for most Colorado bass to break 18. There has been research showing that anglers complaints of fished out waters doesn't always end up being true, revealing big ones that people just aren't catching. SoI have to be cautious in pointing an accusatory finger at those that kill bass. But I always tell em, when I get the chance, Keep the little ones; Let the big ones go. Well, the best way to find out is to fish it during periods when fish are consolidated and chowing down. Early spring is such a time, when warming water consolidates bluegills and bass tight to heated banks with cover. It can be pure carnage on those shorelines. From 2003 to 2008 I found bass over 4lbs. I didn't do anything special, bait-wise no swimbaits, or heavy cover crashing (in fact there is no cover there through the coldwater period). The trick is timing and location, and it's predictable. Yesterday was such a day. April 15, 2010 Bright sun with cirrus and cottony veils of light cirrostratus. Light breeze created a nice chop most of the day. High nudged 70 decent heating day. BP high and slightly rising: Weak front due in tomorrow. I knew where I wanted to go, but also knew it would get better later, so I worked my way there leisurely, fishing a #11 Rapala hoping for the first topwater bites of the year. I rigged to fish a variety of depths from 2 to 9 feet. A temperature profile showed no thermocline anymore, so the entire water column was fair game: 58F ST and 54F at 16ft. The ST was to rise to 62F, and 65F in the immediate (downwind, and protected) shallows, by evening. I fished the Rap out to about 4fow (visibility 2ft), twitching it on top close to the shore, then cranking it down and fishing it as a jerkbait. I did take a topwater fish with it, but most came subsurface. They liked a slow retrieve, just enough to keep the plug down, then, single twitches and a pause Smack! Too much action and they didn't respond. I covered the 4 to 8ft range with a 10cm X-Rap, and took a few with this too same general retrieve. I also used a Sebile lipless that caught fish really well for me a couple days ago here from shore, but today I didn't catch with it. My guess is it still would have done the trick but I didn't spend the time to figure it out I was doing just fine with the stickbaits and a jig. The jig was my primary interest for its ability to draw bigger fish on average. Floating Rapala, fished as a jerk, worked very well. First topwater bass of the year. The X-Rap covered slightly deeper water. A 1/4oz jig-n-pork was my GoTo for the day. When bass are keyed on bluegills, it does a fine job. Oh yes, I took to landing fish in a unique, and very effective, fashion Never thought of it before. Pull 'em into my lap, and clamp 'em with my legs. They instantly stop struggling, and I can get a lip lock on em. Very efficient. As I neared the Zones of Carnage I watched the surface temp climb on my sonar, and came into large numbers of fish: carp rolling and breaching, bluegills feeding, and the occasional surge from bass chasing gills. There was also a good midge emergence going on and it was what's called a Ghost or Phantom midge the largest midge we have fully a size 14 (for you FFs) that's a HUGE midge. The biggest gills in the pond were there, and they made blooping rises that sounded like good sized trout. And I started picking up better bass. Many were right tight to shore (carnage zone) and took the jig well cast right to shore and then swum out and away. I probed deeper too but the majority of the action was at the shoreline where the majority of the gills were. I was using a rod that turned out not to be a good jig rod too soft in the tip. It's my plastics/drop-shot rod, with plenty of backbone, but a soft tip that's very useful for weighing line for plastics takes. But jigs require a faster rod faster reaction time as bass just won't hold a jig very long. And swimming the jig resulted in many over-run strikes strikes you feel as weightlessness tougher to detect on a soft-tipped rod. Further, an over-run strike, even if you detect it, requires you keep reeling after the hook-set because you are towing the fish along and may not feel they are there, until you say, Oh, missed em!; Then suddenly you feel em spit it! > I missed a bunch of takes, and finally gave myself a talking to. I took to making sure the rod was at a 90degree angle to the line so I could maximize feel in the rod, (never point the rod AT the jig AOK for other baits, but not a jig), then SET THE HOOK! and keep reelin'. After I adjusted I brought my catch rate up. In all I ended up with 20 some bass from 12 to 17inches; all fat and happy. ButI didn't find a single big mama. They should have been there. In my experience they aren't any different than the 2 and 3lbers. They just didn't seem to be there. SoI'll try more through the year, but, I have a strong feeling that too many of them were carried out to the parking lot. Might be time to move on to another pond. However, if all goes well, this'll be a pond to re-visit in about 3 years when that horde of 13-14ers grows up. They are on their way -nearly all were small-headed and fat. The zone of carnage was enhanced by giant Phantom midges, attracting big bluegills and some yellow perch. 12-1/2 perch that smacked a lipless. A 23 channel cat that got in on the action mistaking my jig for a bluegill in 2fow. The better bass for the evening -ranged from 16 to 17+" (2-1/2 to 3lbs): (Oh yeah, I accidently pushed a "shadow highlight" feature on my camera in the heat of battle and had to save the colors at home in Photoshop > ) Look at this bluegill stuffed porker!

Great post J. Great photos.

Ditto. Catching big fish on light line will teach you how to fight fish, all the way down to the nuances. I've caught carp, striped bass (as many as 50 in a run), false albacore, three species of salmon, and 100s of steelhead. I once caught a 9lb rainbow on 1lb Trilene XT (2kg IGFA) in less than 10 minutes timed. This is not to brag, at all, but to say I do speak from experience. This is how I came to the understanding of fish being neutrally buoyant, and only having fins and body depth to pull with. It's also why tail-hooking a big fish sucks. Although I've never caught bass much over 6lbs, they are different in one main respect from all the open water speedsters I've caught. They use cover to hide in. It's well known by fisheries personnel that LM cannot be seined -they dive and hide in any cover and the net misses them. Hooked bass, both LM and SM, but esp LM, head for cover if they have the option -they look for it: weeds, heavy wood, rocks -I even had one dive into a muskrat hole once! All I could see was the tip of its tail > . By midsummer, when the weeds are up, I go to 15 to 20lb lines, even for the 2-5lb fish I have here. If you don't get immediate control of its head, a 4lb LM will bury you in 10lbs of junk. Get the head coming toward you and it's comin' your way. I call this torque reeling, and discovered it using single action fly-tackle for stripers. Not going to take the time to explain the details right now (fishin' day awaits ), but it works. Most of us do it, just don't think about it.

Congrats Paul. Real pretty pic, that second one.

I rarely lose a lure. I like my lures and spend time to get them tweaked just so. They're worth more to me alive then dead lol. All my lost lures I can attribute to wood, and almost always when fishing from shore. I fish weedy ponds a lot, with little wood worth bothering with most of the time. If I am fishing wood, and some of my waters require this, I do so with appropriate tackle, and fish deftly. I tend to know what lures to throw, where they are in the water column, when they are at risk, and how to negotiate risky spots. I know wood when I feel it, and when my line is contacting wood so I don't set the hook into it. Wood, being hard, can feel like a strike if I'm not paying attention. That said, I managed to lose a $15 lipless the other day. I know my waters pretty well but found a lone tree I didn't know was there. Happy to fish wood with a lipped bait, or many other baits, but not a lipless. >

OMGosh...there it is. Dangerous sharp hooks are imperative with jigs. I think your problem is solved. It used to be that all hooks needed sharpening from the factory. Nowadays we're spoiled as top name hooks are good to adequate from the factory. Always check them though, and make sure they will stick into your thumbnail before you fish with it.

Nice to be back at it. All's right in the world again. Man! Those things must pull! How long does it take to boat one on a jerkbait? I've had smallies stalemate me below the boat for quite some time of course those were with lighter line. But those dogs must pull!

Congrats! Sound like a nice reel. FYI: The "spinner" is officially called the "rotor".

Really like islandbass' rod holder set-up. But, one rod should do it on a trout stream. Pick one -an UL to L say 5-1/2ft with a MF action (some stiffness in the butt).

A few things that could all help: -When trimming the guard, don't cut it shorter -that stiffens it. Remove individual fibers until you have the stiffness you feel you need for the cover. -Sharpen the hook with any small fine-tooth file. Don't need to over sharpen. It only has to stick into your thumbnail. With the correct angle (low across point from behind), one swipe with the file should do it. When you resharpen, use another side of the point. This will allow a bunch of sharpenings before the hook is done for. -One mistake I make occasionally, is to point the rod at the jig as I retrieve. This costs me fish as I don't feel them as quickly (important with a jig) and slows my reaction time (to move line quickly enough). I try to keep the rod at close to a 90deg angle to the line, either tip up, or off to one side. -The vast majority of the fish I miss are smalls, that either grab the pork or just don't get hooked. -Smallmouth, on some days, are notorious "biters" -meaning they bite rather than engulf like LMs more commonly do. I downsize when this is happening. -Last, some hook designs do not set or hold as well. A 0-deg eye round bend can have this effect -the eye and point not traveling in line. This is not always bad, just something to be aware of in playing fish -I'm not apt to pull as hard until I see hook placement. The Mango jig is such an animal, but WELL worth the few losses I attribute to hook angle.

If I made an error, I feel it. Bums me out. But some fish get off and I didn't screw up; such is fishing. But I hate screwing up. that's part of being human, but I WISH it were otherwise for some time after. Yesterday I had a frustrating day. The catching wasn't easy, so I had to capitalize on what I could muster, and I BLEW three out of the four better fish that struck. > > > :( :-/ :-/ : :)

lol, that's the problem with lures -they're all made of plastic, wood, and metal.

This seems to be a learned ability as well. There's a classic study in which bass were blinded and then fed, and they were severely compromised. Clear water bass that have to live through periods of heavy murk can get really thin -I've seen this. But from this, and the other thread, it seems it's not rare for sight compromised bass to survive, and even prosper.

Being neutrally buoyant, fish are essentially weightless underwater. All they have to pull with are their fins, and body depth. Control where the head goes and you control the fish. Ideally, you want the head coming toward you ASAP. Judge the hook size and how well the fish is hooked as to how much pressure you should apply. Do not let a fish stalemate you -that is just hold against your pressure. To alter his hold you can change rod angles to get them to lose their grip in the water. Hold the rod solid -get the appropriate bend in it and maintain it. Stay smooth: Pumping the rod can cause the fish to react, and gives them the opportunity to turn and get fins or body dug in. I also strongly advise back-reeling with spinning tackle. You should decide when to give line, not that mindless box of gears. With casting tackle you are stuck with the drag, although some old timers (with leather thumbs lol) tell me that is not so. Do not attempt to land a "green" fish. Lead them with the rod until they give (stop turning, twisting, attempting to jump). You can then continue to lead the fish to hand. If you miss, repeat.