Paul Roberts

Nice. Love really healthy pretty fish like that. Beautiful things they are. What do they eat there?

Looked into some tests people have done. This one looked fairly well done: Couldn't get table formatted well. Just pick a brand and follow it over. Brand/Model Avg strength Lbs Sq Inch/dry P Line Evolution .011 13.912 146382.064 P Line CXX .0140 21.836 141846.656 Stren Magnathin .011 13.149 138353.778 Gamma Competition .013 18.249 137469.717 Stren Extra Strength .012 15.25 134825.25 Sufix Tritanium Plus 0.013 17.337 130599.621 Sufix Seige .012 14.744 130351.704 Izorline XXX Super .012 14.501 128203.341 Izorline Platinum .012 14.357 126930.237 Trilene Maxx .013 16.832 126795.456 Trilene XT .013 5 18.101 126453.586 Seaguar Fluoro 100% leader .01 9.888 125894.016 Sufix Elite .012 14.182 125383.062 Yozuri Hybrid .0125 15.08 123067.88 Big Game clear .012 13.776 121793.616 Berkely Big Game HT .014 17.676 114823.296 PLine CFX 100% Floro leader .012 12.649 111829.809 P Line Floroclear .012 12.618 111555.738 Cabela's Pro Line .012 12.445 110026.245 Cajun Red .012 12.107 107037.987 Maxima Ultragreen 0.012 12.101 106984.941 Stren Original .013 13.943 105032.619 Danielson Plus 7 .012 11.699 103430.859 Maxima Chameleon 0 .012 11.462 101335.542 Makima Ultragreen 0.014 15.519 100811.424 Ande green .012 11.142 98506.422 Maxima Chameleon .014 15.019 97563.424 The table gives break strength made relative to diameter by expressing it as lb/sq.in. (psi). The author suggested that anything with this value > 120,000 was good.

That pretty much describes fishing with my son too. I posted about a trip with him last year in which I had to simply take a deep breath, and get my priorities straight ;D. http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1237706484/0#0

Nice post CRF. Sounds like the banana baits are due some newfound "cachet".

Yes, we can be fooled. And/or we do have to check things out to be sure. No argument there. The suspended bass in the first shot I wondered if they were carp, and didn't get an answer until I threw 'em a lure. Never considered them to be perch though. And I never did cast to that bubble raising carp either lol. But you must agree that some fish can have characteristic sonar signatures, and contexts. A friend and I were just sharing pics of crappie schools we shot. Mine was taken 1200 miles, 6 months later, and 40* different in water temp. Interesting, yes? Mine: His:

Here's a shot of a crappie school, in one schooling form. Granted they can be more distributed at times, esp when active, but, we wouldn't mistake this for bass. And while we're at it, here are gas bubbles being released from bottom silt, and a carp (at the edge of the cone) that released some of them.

So...why don't companies rate their lines at the actual break strength -or even close? Makes it impossible to compare. Diameter is what effects presentation parameters most. After this, we can stat talking about other useful attributes.

I don't think questioning whether sonar marks are bass or not is off topic. No, we can't ID by marks alone, (no one suggested we can) but we can put together the facts at your disposal, environmental context and behavior, and make a pretty good guess. Good thread I think.

That's what I was thinking too. Mighty dense arches for small fish, esp with such a depth range setting. Of course, in the Great Lakes it is possible to find 2lb perch! What is telltale is not the length of the arches--a function of cone angle and speed of boat--but the density of the readings seeing color in there. Those look like bigger fish than perch. They are also un-perch-like being so high up and loosely arranged, as Crestliner points out. (They look like trout to me unless it is mid-summer in the bay they might then be drum?) The perch caught on bottom (where they belong) would not likely be seen on sonar as they would get lost in the bottom returns. But the point is valid -marked fish may not be bass. It's not a fair comparison really, but here's a shot of two suspended bass on a 200kHZ TD (note short arch). There was a third, but I caught it a 17incher. There are perch in this water (up to about 12) and none of them create dense enough returns to show color.

Great post Crestliner!

Great S-L-O-W lure, with intense action. Smallies and trout loved 'em. Probably still do. Biggest problem, esp for LM, is they are one of the least weedless lures out there. Every little weed piece sticks to em like a magnet and kills 'em dead. IF you can find bass in weed and wood-free water, they would be worth a go. This year I threw a couple into my winter LM box, along with some Bull-Shot (they are very shallow runners), but...haven't tied one on yet. Yup, steelies love 'em.

-Best, or worst, of both worlds? -Does it sink or float, or something in between? -Diameter to break strength? Line is expensive. Hate to end up with something I don't like.

I loved it when that crick was full of smaller domestics -13-18in. I'd use a 4wt rod and have a ball. Nothing like scaled tackle. I actually avoided big fish at times there. I once caught a 29inch steelie on a 7ft 4wt (in the Willow Roots Cut below the main bridge). It went berserk and simply beached itself lol. BTW, don't wanna be a know-it-all, but those little guys are called "parr". The purple thumbprints along the sides are called "parr marks". Bows smolt in May. They turn bright silver (while still in the creek), then drop out over the course of the summer -usually on spates.

Is that a fly rod I see there???

Duh!! Why didn't I think of that! Guess I'm here to talk fishing, not shopping.

Ouch! Fishing is like golf -one club doesn't cover. First, a question: Will this be for spinning (rod has large line guides and a straight handle) or casting tackle (rod has small line guides and probably a finger trigger on the handle)? If you aren't sure of the details of his fishing, I would suggest getting a spool of say 3 different lb tests: Spinning: 6, 8, 10 Casting: 10, 12, 14 These would be useful for many applications. If you are on a budget, then maybe a spool of 8# for spinning, 12# for casting. As to brands, I'd suggest Bass Pro Shops XPS. I would avoid 'Vanish', 'Transition', and 'Viscious' -three common and inexpensive brands with reputations. I'm sure others will chime in with good ideas too.

With that convoluted a shoreline, there's a lot more going on in there than you describe. Enjoy it.

Exactly. Fish are weightless hydrofoils. All they have to pull with is the tail fin, with direction provided by body depth. Hook 'em in the front end and you've got some control. Except for eels. They seem to be able to swim somewhat in both directions ;D.

I think I'm doing OK with settings. I'll look into the effects of play in my TD mount to solve the question in pic#1. Pic#2 is going to yield fish somewhere down the line. There is a nearby hump with a finger bar that is all rock. When I first found it I thought the 'dozer operator had fish on his mind! #3 will have me much more mindful of the shape and appearance of fish on my sonar.

Occasionally yes, with spinning tackle. I'm still not certain the exact cause but seems to have to do with the way I make the cast. Maybe it's when I keep the rod tip up on a strong cast. Dunno really. It's not a regular problem.

Greatest distance (in order of effect): -braid -long rod w/mod action -wide spool reel

Very nice. Congrats to you both.

OK...caught another -just one this time -not happy about that. Anyway, this fish a 16" LM was in 41F water and had just the start of red in the tooth pads. So...it appears water temp is not the whole story.

It hangs pretty straight, but I'll keep that in mind as I go. Thanks WRB. A friend sent me a screen shot of a huge dense school of crappies, and it had the exact same shape as my third pic: a big rectangle! Flat on top with a vertical edge, looking like a weed wall. Pretty neat. I've heard of crappie schools commonly being vertical. But they can be square too! It's not related to temperature as his showed a surface temp reading of 80F.

WRB, that's interesting. My transducer appears to be relatively stable, not much movement really. But it MIGHT be enough to alter density readings. That is something I can play with. I have tried moving the TD around a bit to see what I get and haven't noticed anything, but I'll play around some more. Wayne, a good idea, but I think my tube would be more stable than something smaller pulled behind, esp considering I throw a wake as I "motor".