Paul Roberts

The one fish-shaped spoon in two of the pics might be an Al's Goldfish, or a Phoebe. Either way it's either a knock-off, or an early original. Hey, maybe the Al's was the knock-off -who knows?? lol Look at the hook hanger on that spoon. How cool is that! I can appreciate lure collecting when you start looking at details. But that kind of collecting pales compared to lures with memories attached.

Very nice. I have my grandfather's Jitterbug. I never met him, but I remember my Dad catching the first bass I ever saw on it in the mid60s, and many more after -including one horse he hooked at night that sounded like a cow in the water! We never saw that fish, but we got our Jitterbug back! He gave it to me and I've caught a bunch on it. My son is next. It's hanging over my desk as I type...waiting. I've had the opportunity to look through, and buy, several old timer's boxes. Amazing what some collectors will pay for certain lures. That stick shaped one, if it's the one by the measuring tape, is a European lure called..."Eel-ie"...or something like that. Gosh I can't remember. I had one when I was 10. If it's the spoon, it could be anything as many were made by small outfits and basement shops. Thanks for sharing.

The crayfish thing doesn't hold in my mind. The red appears in every fish regardless of size and all my ponds in early spring. It's too consistent. I believe it's physiological.

When I caught the above fish, the surface temp was 51F, but the fish was in 6fow and 47F. Will be interesting to see more pictures and observations.

Mango

This is a topic that comes up every now and then -in early spring. Bass having brilliant (blood) red tooth pads, and sometimes throats too. Lots of conjecture. They lose it quickly as water warms in spring. I've been getting a little fishing in and am trying to see how close to ice-up I can catch LM in my ponds. Haven't thought much about the red teeth but snapped this pic yesterday. Sorry for the out-of focus shot, and I almost discarded it, but then noticed the fish does not have red teeth -yet. This fish came, along with several others, from 47F water. I did not notice red tooth pads in any of them. The tooth pads are not nearly white like they are in summer, but not close to the brilliant red of very early spring. I have two guesses on the red turgid (blood engorged) teeth: -It's some response to very cold water. And we aren't there yet. -It's hormonal in nature. The second is interesting when one realizes that bass' and other sunfish' "spring" activity (movements toward shallows) begins before ice-out. Just something to stuff away into your lexicon. Will keep watching, but my guess is I won't see it until after ice-out.

Keep us informed. Always love a good natural history story.

I read a study that tracked smallies in a deep northern lake. There were cisco's, but no smelt. After the thermocline broke up the bass moved deep, as much as 60feet. The researcher's felt the reason was that the thermal barrier was broken giving bass access to the deeps, and cisco. One tack might be to identify smelt forage. Here's a stab: Smelt can be piscivorous. During summer they may be keying on YOY perch. As the perch grow they may become too large for smelt. Maybe you have Mysis ('opossum shrimp') in your lake? If so, these guys live deep (glacial relicts in many waters) and maybe the smelt switch to them. My guess is, since you are on a large water body, that your DNR or a university has something on smelt forage. LOL Ask a question and more good questions arise. If you figure it out, you may be alone out there, with a bent rod.

RW, what about location...what would you look for?

They spawn in the spring. I never saw any in tribs in the fall. They like colder water than alewife. I know they can be very deep in summer. Not sure about fall. The best info will be Great Lakes states: try MI DNR and NY DEC sites, as well as universities.

Thanks Chaki.

Tony, can you describe the spot further? Depth, nearby structure, relation to shoreline, ... Not at all surprised that the big girls are grouped up at this time. Hope you lined that spot up well!

Very nice. The late fall jig bite is wonderful. Here, there's no one out there but me.

Well...all I can say is there is (supposed to be) no hookset. You can edit that out. But what do I know, I only tried it once, with 4" Zoom finesse worms and a #6 Gammy circle. I never hooked a fish. Line would move out...I'd FREAK! I would have been better off using a forked stick for my rod I think. PM the Wacky King himself, WayneP, if he doesn't pop in.

Another question: Why did you title this shad shutdown? What are you seeing with the shad?

As I have understood it, when you build a rod the spine's orientation only needs to be in line with the guides. This is the case for both casting and spinning. As far as I know the only difference would be that a spinning reel needs larger first and second guides. I suppose it's possible that some vibration between the reel and stripping guide might occur with a casting reel and affect distance some. Once up on a time, I used a 6foot MH spinning rod interchangeably with both spinning and casting reels. Both worked just fine.

Frankly, I'm disgusted.

It's brittle.

I've always considered losing a few as part of the game with lipless cranks. I play them extra-vigilantly -snubbing down jumps, and going easy when they are close to hand. I keep them in the water and lead them. If you are used to trying to handle 'em green, or swinging 'em aboard, STOP IT! I've not experimented with hooks except for upsizing and quality, and I use round bends. Don't know about the EWG type -I've heard both sides of the argument, but haven't tried them. One thing that I would expect would make a difference is shank length. This can make a HUGE difference in how well a single hook holds. As a fly tyer/designer I discovered this the hard way. So I began to pay close attention to the angle of the hook point in relation to the direction of pull on the shank from the line. I would expect that a short-shanked treble is going to give away more fish than a longer one. And, I had the biggest trouble with round bends. I haven't applied this to my crankbaits though, but I probably should consider it. The one new thing I've read regarding hooks on lipless came through Doug Stange while fishing with a guide on Stickmarsh. They claimed that going to a 4xtra strong hook (that's a chunk of steel) did not allow bass the added leverage to throw a lipless that a flexible hook could. The drawback was it did not allow them to bow-and-arrow "twang" the plugs free when hung in wood. Interesting, I thought. Maybe George Welcome has heard of this on Stickmarsh. BTW, where is George anyway? Just some thoughts.

I have a question: What time of day do you start your fishing?

That was a sticky hook point!

With single hooks like with plastics and jigs, I have brought some bass to hand that only had the very tip of the hook point in the maxillary bone. I can only assume that some fish that spit my lure prematurely were 'hooked' that way. I hear you there. Here's a jig fish I felt lucky to get to the boat... ;D Perfect shot. Yup, that's it. And... Yup, you were lucky. (That's a darn nice NY bass too). That might have been one of those fish that "shook off" or "popped free", leaving us wondering what did we did wrong. Sharp hooks, a proper hook-set, and some luck are what it takes. Still, we don't get them all. In fly-fishing with heavy sink-tip or full sinking lines in current, I've had heavy forged Atl. salmon hooks blown through lower jaw bones of steelhead . It's the pressure exerted by heavy current on a length of thick line that can do that. However, that kind of pressure is hard to realize on even a MH bass rod.

With single hooks like with plastics and jigs, I have brought some bass to hand that only had the very tip of the hook point in the maxillary bone. I can only assume that some fish that spit my lure prematurely were 'hooked' that way. But with CBs, with all those points on a set of sharp trebles, I haven't found it too difficult to get some of those points into bass -at least the size bass I catch. However, I suppose it's possible to have it happen, just not likely I would think. As to setting the hook on a galumph strike (mind your spelling lol) a pop might move the bait into a better hold, as Roger mentions. But too hard a set might tear what's holding that fish to begin with. The big difference between cranks and jigs or plastics is hook gap size. So I am mindful of this when using cranks. We only have to have the hooks pop free on a few fish to make that intuitive. Proper hook size, sharp points, paying attention to the strike, and how they are hooked are more important with cranks than other lures I think. When I hook a good one on a crank I find I'm always anxious to see it (not airborne though), to get a look at how it's hooked, and whether I need to be paranoid or not. I hate seeing a lot of plug sticking out, esp when they are stuck by only the tail hook.

Thanks Mike. Great stuff.

John, I don't think you needed to to do anything different on that fish, or probably most of them. The strikes I am talking about are the more subtle, and require a reaction, or I miss them -like a jig take. You described it perfectly before I thought: As to drafting, or feeling them 'before they strike' -if those are indeed the same thing -I am deferring to the others on this. I have not experienced that. Since it's not well defined in my mind in the first place, I can only refer you back to my post above about how I believe wakes are generated, and that maybe it's 'overrun' strikes being described. This has happened to me a lot. I feel I know what that's about: the loss of vibration -the disconnect -created by the bass engulfing from behind and overrunning your retrieve speed. If you aren't paying close attention to the vibrations (they stop as soon as the fish has the bait), ... BUT ... you won't feel the "strike" until the fish stops or turns, when you are able to catch up and reel into them. If you are not paying attention to the plug's vibrations you won't know when the fish first contact the plug. Maybe a buoyant wide-wobbling balsa might be required to feel this 'drafting', or 'pre-strike wave'. I fish a lot of production plastics. So I dunno. I'll keep my hands and mind on the job, and leave it to the others to do the explaining in this one.