Paul Roberts

Didn't see scales on the previous shot -the other obvious candidate. You know, one of the things I've never understood about snagging is the lousy fight you get. Without hooking the front end -preferably the mouth -you've got no control and it's just a tug-of-war.

It's a single beam 200kHZ transducer. And it's pretty narrow at such depth. I'll try zooming in on that crevice next time. I'll have to play with this directional idea further shouldn't be the case. Maybe I was on the edge of a hard lip. I sure hope so. Don't need a direction variable added to things. The second shot looks like a drop with a huge boulder at the bottom. But there's a tree growing out of it! or very close to it. I don't think it's a boulder as it's longer then that running some unknown distance along the bottom of the drop. That overlap of returns runs a ways. It was most probably formed during construction work before the pond was filled. The surrounding topography (surrounding the pond) is pretty darn flat. Must be the work of a dozer. These are preliminary shots. As I decipher things I'll post it. I'm trying NOT to start threads lately. I've got too much work to do and too little play time as it is. Someday 5 hours of it. Neoprene, fleece, and excellent circulation (a gift from my Dad). A Ranger appeared as I was pulling out (thought he was going to lecture me on hypothermia, or worse County liability) but he didn't. I told him it was downright cozy out there. I have a good PFD, tight fitting waders, and figure if I fell in I'd have just enough time to swim to shore before I stiffen and sink lol.

Tail-hooked mud shark. Did you know...(my obligatory DYK paragraph)... A 4ft dogfish shark was found at the mouth of I-Bay back in the 80s. The oddest thing was that it was still alive. Best we could figure was someone carried it in from the salt, and dumped it.

OK...What do you make of these? It appears that my Skimmer transducer (Lowrance) is somewhat directional. Since I'm in a float tube I can see the difference rapidly. In this shot it's esp noticeable. I am rotating while over a gentle drop-off. Look at the difference in density of returns.Those are not boulders but caused by me simply rotating in my tube! It looks like a hard spot I was at the edge of. But I noticed I got a hard return one direction and a soft the opposite. So...is this a hard or soft bottom? It's along the same shoreline as the following screen shot. This is a complex bottom area I haven't figured out yet. In this shot I am traveling in a straight line. Haven't fished it so I haven't sent a jig down yet. See the overlapping returns in the valley? What do you think? This is the edge of a large isolated weed clump off a really nice sunken hump. I carefully marked it's dimensions and then buoyed it. I then snuck back later to fish it. I hooked two fish but both came unpinned quickly and felt smallish. I also caught a 2lb LM. What was weird was I couldn't feel the weeds! I finally put on a heavy exposed hook jig trying to foul weeds, wanting to know what kind they were, being so deep -running 13 to 19ft deep. Nada! So I went over it again and my carefully marked weed bed was gone! It was a pile of fish -I'm guessing crappies. Felt kinda foolish. I use a voice recorder for journaling. When I reviewed what I had said when I first found the mass I said, "Looks like a pile of fish!"

Don't know of any studies on domestic's behavior. They do smolt and go lakeside. It's a bow thing in general to look for certain habitat which is rarely met in small streams. By 12" (pretty much max), resident bows drop out. In bigger rivers (like the Big D) they end up in the lower reaches in large pools with laminar flow. Browns can eek out a living and may grow large in smaller waters. What domestic's habits are in the big lake would be interesting. They do grow rapidly and quite large (although not usually quite as large as steelhead) which tells me they are on alewives for much of the year. Teh largest domestics I caught were around 11 lbs, although a friend took a 16 one night off Mill. When I think of catching them in the lake we did so closer to shore (and often on bottom at Gannet), where steelies were what we found suspended on the thermal bars offshore. Did you know one of the earliest successful introductions of 'bows in the east was in the Genesee River? They naturalized and some anglers believe(d) that that run still exits to some degree. I did occasionally catch some interesting looking smallish bows there, and wondered.

Very cool. Congrats on another accomplishment! I once decided to do something similar, with big trout. I used 1lb Trilene XT (rated for IGFA at 1kg) on a 6ft spinning rod built on a 3wt fly-rod blank, and caught a 9# 'bow. I had to bow to her each time she leapt -learned that one early on lol. It took 10 minutes to net her -on a watch. She was darn tuckered, and I decided not to do it again. Fish actually fight best on scaled tackle anyways. Was your tube fished weightless?

Well...that's exactly how it works. Nothing new under the sun. Those browns are there, out on the lakefront -many will drop eggs there, including Chinooks. Go at night with a flashlight -they are there. The run in those little cricks is all about water level. The lakefront creeks are so short they go to freshet and then drain out in one to three days. Be there or be square lol. As it was we didn't tend to get wet weather until November. Those freshets brought a wall of browns. More bows came as water temps dropped to low 40s. If you get December rains, get out there. On unseasonably warm Decembers, with rain, I've had SPECTACULAR bow fishing. Domestics and the first steelhead -often males -but lots of them. If you don't get rain, the rivers are the only game in town (except for the lake front and estuaries). As to fall spawning 'bows -they've been doing that for a long time. They were what I called the 'domestic rainbows' -the domestic hatchery strains, not those with recent saltwater ancestry -what I called 'steelhead'. Domestics are short and fat, often with heavily warped dorsals. I spoke with a DEC hatchery guy in Altmar once a while back, who said they were working on photoperiod manipulations but were just starting it. I don't remember details -he was actually questioning me bc I was beginning photoperiod research at that time. I couldn't help him I remember since I was just getting started and wasn't up on things. But...those fall spawning domestics are doing it all on their own.

Nice! Neat that there are fall spawning 'bows. Pray for rain!

Thanks all.

Congrats. What is it about New England??

Fun! What's that you're fishing out of?

First... I heard it was recently re-formulated. Is that so? Who makes it??

Real good stuff from Randall, as usual. To add to the big bass expelling a lure easier -I don't have much specific experience here -but it would seem to me that a large mouth and set of gills behind it could expel a lure pretty forcefully. As to soft fleshy mouths: Bass do have a lot of soft tissue and fine bones up front -except for one: the maxilla (maxillary). That slab of bone is the one area that can be tough to maybe impossible to penetrate -since it is also free to move, being attached by tendons. I've had fish come to hand with just the point of a very sharp hook barely imbedded in the maxilla, only to have it fall out in hand. I'm guessing a large number of bass lost by hooks popping free at boatside (properly and not overly aggressively played) are due to this.

Thanks Wayne. I have to be careful what questions I raise. Don't want people going out of their way. Just curious as usual. Never know where things might go. Reminds me of an interview I read with a native American elder, who said his grandmother used to tell him that life's trail is scattered with little pieces of paper, each with a message. All together, they are the answer to 'the great mystery'. He quipped, "Guess I missed a few of those along the way." ;D

Thanks. I've liked their buoyancy but shied away after hearing rumors. One more: I've heard that they'll eat their way through your tackle box, boat hull, and finally fizzle out somewhere down in the earth's core. Is this one true??

Wayne, is that the super stretchy 3x? I've heard bass don't like to hold on to those -they taste bad or something.

Wayne, were those surface temps? Was there much diff in water temp in each area? My ponds are pretty much same temp top to bottom now (mid 40s).

November 18; 46F It's happening...

It happens. Sucks to suck.

No.

Go flashy. Retrieve straight. Three favorites: Mepps #2 Johnson's Silver Minnow Floating Rapala

Two: -Cline-Finder -120bucks or so, but works. -Thermometer on a metered line (mark ever foot). Takes longer but works. Cabela's offers an inexpensive unit, by Minn-Kota I think. But a friend had one and said it was cheap and soon failed him.

Very nice. Curious, how were you and Roger fishing diff? Speed? Method?

Good point. If it were crayfish we'd probably see this at other times of year too, esp in SM. This is a brilliant red -like well oxygenated blood. I've even seen it just under the skin in the throat area, so teeth pads aren't the only indication, although the most common one. No, I haven't looked for that research specifically. I believe I've seen papers along that line, and may even already have something in that line. However, I have a list of other priorities right now. At this point, this is just a curiosity. Both mine and esp idlov2fish's pic show some red, like it may just be developing. Am in the midst of a snowfall here so next week my ponds should have given up some more heat. If I can get away, and manage to catch something, I'll watch for it.

Ahhh...while we're on the subject, I also have my maternal grandfather's fly reel -an old Pfleuger brass bird-cage. Dates from early last century. I still use it every now and then, just for kicks. Darn pretty reel.