Paul Roberts

We know it happens, and some fish have been known to be more "vulnerable to angling" than others. I do keep track of individual fish when I can. The other day I caught a nice 18"er and noticed it had a shredded soft dorsal -probably from a cormorant bite when it was young (lucky bass). I remembered catching one with a similar fin in this pond last year. So I found the photos and compared the fin damage -same. I then examined the spotting pattern and lo' -they are the same fish. Yesterday. Note shredded soft dorsal. Last year Last year; showing shredded dorsal Spotting pattern (2009 fish) Spotting pattern (2008 fish) In 13 months July 09 to August 09 this fish gained about 2 inches in length -from ~16" to ~18". (Unfortunately I did not bother to measure this year but do know what I'm lookin' at). This is actually pretty impressive growth for my waters. This year, with low summer temps, and a tremendous bass hatch, I've expected a good growth year. Who knows what she'll be like next year. These catches occurred on different shorelines, about 600 yards apart (guesstimate) as the tube floats (crow flies).

Mapping I spent half my fishing time (8hr day) continuing the mapping of my ponds offshore areas with sonar. Anything of interest I'd make shoreline references so I could line up and locate it on future trips. I transfer the maps into my journal at home. I made straight transects (using shoreline reference points) off the most interesting (diverse) shorelines trying to locate anything unique. I then make ever-widening concentric rings around an area of interest. I also probed with a 1/2oz football jig to feel the bottom and better define what I'm seeing on sonar. I took a single 15 on the football when I passed through a brush pile: tiptaptipWap! Wap! Wap! That one's a fish! 15 on *** 1/2oz Flat Football head, 'dozer skirt, Rage Craw trailer. This "pond" is a small reservoir built to catch snow melt from the mountains via ditch. The plains are very dry and reservoirs and ditch networks were built over the past 130 years to support agriculture. There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of such small reservoirs dotting the plains along Colorado's front range. This particular res is newer less than 50 years old. It was a low-lying area (realize this is the flat plains) that was once a stream bed that had moved its course south a ways who knows how many hundreds of years ago. The res is rip-rap lined at the low end and mostly dead flat across the bottom -11 to 14 feet deep throughout. There are a few drop-offs; a couple seem to run almost the length of the pond and quite straight obviously from the initial construction -maybe also part of the old stream bed. There are some large boulders (left over from rip-rap work) and some that appear to be concrete slab chunks (there are some, now nearly buried, in the woods near shore). There is also brush and saplings (these dry plains do not grow many large trees mostly shrubs), and sparse remnants of these are scattered across the bottom. Overall it's pretty boring water. Small saplings and the stump of a small tree. Brush. Here's a really good screen shot of the rock pile at the deeper drop-off (see thread Brilliant Blue). It shows what I believe is a concrete slab. There are rip-rap boulders around but some of the unseen rock chunks are very abrasive, really chewing my line up likely concrete. Notice to the left and above the brush trunks, the branches that appear to be hanging in space. Sonar screens are 2D, where transducer cones are 3D with a plane at the edge picking up and distorting things at the edge. Such "floating things" could be fish or branches/brush. Tough to tell for sure, unless they are well separated from bottom or brush. The one on top of the slab is likely a fish. The thin lines near the stumps are gas bubbles being released from the bottom. Notice the really hard returns (yellow) around the rock pile and especially on the slab face. The most interesting area on this little res (so far) is a large rubble/cobble bar likely used for gravel before it was flooded, or maybe it is the spoil pile from excavation. Regardless, it is an obvious piece of structure and is a consistent fishing spot. Fishing This mapping is slow going in a float tube, an investment for the future, and after 4 hours of it I was ready to get some fishing in. When I first arrived I made a short walk along the shoreline to get a bead on shallow activity. On the brilliant blue day a few days ago my walk yielded one mature bass obviously conserving energy. Today I spied three right off the bat: a 14 and a 15 cruising the shoreline loosely together and nosing into shallow areas. Tucked safely away under wood, rip-rap, and shoreline grass root masses were very small bluegills and YOY bass (now ranging from 1½ to 3+ the larger with VERY fat bellies. I also spotted a nice ~18 holding in 2fow next to shore on a steep bank. When it spied me it slowly moved off to some sunken brush gaining enough depth (at least another two feet) to disappear from sight. After a dry week we are back in El Nino weather: overcast, and some threatening T-storms. Sunday/Monday would have been my target days a front came through but I couldn't get away. Today (Tuesday), BP was up and rising yet we had nice dark low lying clouds obscuring the blue that barely peeked out here and there. Surface temp was 75F; 73F at 11ft at 12 noon. Surface rose to 77F at 4:30pm. Depths maintained 73F. I started my fishing along the shoreline, just to get a bead on that potential pattern already bolstered by my earlier sightings. I caught a 13inch right away on the Slider/worm, then had a leak and had to pull ashore and look for the culprit likely a hook *****. But it turned out to be just a valve loosening Phew! I put back in, cast to a steep shoreline with some flooded shoreline brush (I knew would be full of bass-snacks) and came into a heavy weight. It bolted and had me back-reeling (8# fluoro), and then leapt twice. It was an 18er or a bit better (unmeasured, unweighed) and had taken the Slider-n-worm way back in. It appears this fish inhaled the little slow moving worm (6 slim swimming tail), trapping the worm in it gill rakers. 18+ on 1/8oz Slider U and 6 swimming worm. Jig-worm trapped against gill rakers. By then a big rain cell passed close and a big wind came with it, so I abandoned the big pond, shouldered my tube and my hand-full of rods (5) and hoofed over to another small pond nearby. This pond is so small I was able to map and fish as I went. It had a flat silted bottom (9-10 feet all across) with steep banks and a shallower end of 7feet. The only cover was overhanging shoreline shrubbery and two small brush piles obviously thrown in by someone at one time. These brush piles each had a cloud of YOY bass and bluegills hovering and dimpling over them. I expected to crush em with this layout. I used a 6T-rigged swimming worm and a 1/4oz Mango Jig, and a deep crank. I plied the entire shoreline, paralleling it; swimming the more open areas with the worm, pitching that Mango INTO the overhanging shrubbery (where Mango's shine) or swimming it deeper than the worm could reach, and covering the depths with the crank. I came away realizing there was little to offer bass in this pond. I caught two a very thin 13 on the worm, and a very thin 16 on the jig from one of the brush piles. Mango Jig and #11 pork trailer (pre-softened). You can cast this jig into trees, over slop, into brush, onto shore anywhere! It swims open water beautifully too. GREAT jig. Thin 16er from Small Pond. This fish is not sick, actually healthy, just not a lot to eat apparently. The blow had subsided so for the last hour and a half I plied the big bar on the big pond. I caught 3 more here from 14 to 16 on the Slider-n- worm and a small 3 swimbait. One thing that's especially fun about this small res is the lack of cover makes jumpers out of these bass. Every one did vertical tailsprings. In most waters I fish it's all vegetation below and those bass dive for it. But here the bass go airbirne. If it's a good one, and you want to be sure to get her in hand, you gotta snub em down as you feel em coming up. I let a couple have their way and paid the consequences. Dim Gray postfrontal tally: 13, 13, 14, 15, 15, 16, 16, 18 -and dropped two good leapers. Brilliant Blue post-frontal tally (See thread "Brilliant Blue"): 10, 10, 11, 12, 12, 15, 19+ Not a fair comparison really as I didn't exactly retrace my steps, but I'd have to say the darker day was an easier fishing day. Interestingly, I didn't catch any smalls (<12) on the darker day. I caught the shorts on the bright day during a period of wind rippling the shallow hump they were on.

Chartreuse is a bright greenish yellow -usually (or always?) fluorescent. For "yellow" think of a schoolbus. For Chartreuse think...those vests road workers wear, or... flagging tape, ...

I was wondering about you too. Good to have you back.

17-11. Ouch! That's a good bag.

Weighted Spro Bronzeye! ;D

Yes, great detailed post. So...what did it take to win?

I got the bass fishing bug at Mendon -over 35 years ago. Those look like summer MP bass as I remeber them -very dark. LOVED that water. Still do.

Congrats! Ugly kid?? No -a happy kid is a beautiful kid.

Yeah, that's the tough thing about deciphering fish behavior with a fishing rod -was it them, or me, or something else unseen. Seems fishing theories run the gamut from "determinism" to "pre-destiny" -often on the same fishing trip lol. We all like to have something to latch onto, and in my view, some things are more important, and useful, than others. But I'm careful about latching on too tightly to pet theories. I like to play around with the ideas out there -and get a ballpark bead on their limits. Some things hold up pretty well -like "low light". BTW: Bladder expansion/retraction does occur and apparently is a real limitation for fish like bass, but most barometric pressure changes are minimal enough in effect that a fish only needs to move up or down in the water column a bit to hit equilibrium again. And from lots of observations by anglers, researchers and divers, active bass move up and down more in a given day than most BP changes bring (a few feet). I think you can safely put that notion to rest. Here's one (rather dense) article that offers some calculations on this subject: http://www../bassfish/articles/T199.htm As to whether they feed when we're fishing, or later: I don't tend to put too much stock in bass "putting on the feedbag". Yes, this does happen, like low light periods, or if prey is somehow made available and catchable (I've seen instances of this, and even created it). But, on a good low light day like you describe, my guess would be you just missed 'em somehow. Nice to have other good anglers on the water around you running different scenarios to let you know what you might be missing. If there is one set of conditions that will most likely make it tough for everyone, that is brilliant blue following a good dark front. (Except during colder water periods) -that can be a different scenario altogether).

Congrats! Really nice looking water too. Love that dark clear water, and the dark bass that go with 'em Not surprising how different the stick worms fish. Never enough Senkos lol. BTW: Set your camera to macro for the sonar screen shots -then tell us what they are of.

Welcome. I think you'll enjoy this site, and we'd love to hear your take on stuff.

Welcome

Howdy back, from Colorado! Welcome

That's not a premonition -in the mystical sense -it's knowing your stuff. It can get, or seem, almost weird. Could make you start believing your sensory perception is "extra-sensory" rather than just fine-tuned.

I have a love hate relationship with brilliant blue skies mostly hate because blue skies can make for tough fishing. Some fishing theorists believe that barometric pressure, virtually by itself, controls bass behavior. But I think there's a lot more to it than that. There are known cases where BP affects activity level in some other species, mostly saltwater, so, the case is far from closed in my mind. BP may allow fish to predict better hunting opportunities, but I just haven't seen anything related to BP in my fishing that couldn't be explained by a good layer of clouds. The problem with brilliant blue appears to me to be two-fold: First, bass are known to have a sight advantage over bluegills in attenuated light, and will press that advantage. The morning/evening activity pattern is something universally recognized in fishing, and fish behavior research. High visibility conditions compromise that advantage. Secondly, under bright lighting it's harder to hide the fact that lures are fakes. One theory states that after a good dark front passes, the rapid change in lighting intensity that follows makes fish inactive. Some blame the lighting, others claim full bellies; likely it's some of both. On the day after a good dark front it CAN appear that the fish are asleep and I believe many are. After a day or so of this, the bass appear to acclimate to the lighting some, or get hungry, and hunting activity resumes. This is the theory anyway -especially likely to be more true in shallow water. I do see bass hunting under bright lighting brilliant blue -so they can, and will. I will say that I do not see the breaks and rushes of bass surging into prey fishes nearly as often as I do under lower lighting. But bass can hunt a number of ways, and the tactics they seem to resort to under bright light are ambush (or something akin) and habituation. Habituation is slow non-aggressive cruising, looking for an opportunity to get close to an unsuspecting preyfish (who can see the bass coming pretty well under bright light I've watched this play out enough to know it's real), or one caught in a bad position. Mature bass seem to know, or have learned, when to strike. Lab studies have shown bass have a high prey capture rate and the decision of when to strike is what most greatly affects the outcome. Ambush is not something I can watch in the wild. And it's not really true ambush from a fish behaviorists view. It appears that "ambushing" in bass is done by resting fish or those hunting by habituation, inside of cover. These are the fish that flippin' targets so well. And brilliant blue is one sky condition when a flippin' stick can be save your butt. It seems to me that fishing under brilliant blue has three big strikes against it: Bass that are hunting in an energy conservative manner, our especially fake looking lures, anddid I mention spooky? Give me dark clouds and I'm often happy to let a lure splashdown near my fish, sometimes it even draws em to the splashdown the main reason behind the advice to let a topwater rest before starting the retrieve. But under bright sun, splashdown, the line landing, even the lure zipping through the air over shallow fish, turns em inside out. It's no wonder at times the only fish we can catch are in shade, under cover, or under a wind rippled surface. It's also no wonder that light line and downsized lures are so often advised. The other option is going deep where these limitations are somewhat relaxed. I do wonder just how spooky deeper fish are. Shallow fish, the ones I can see, are skittish under brilliant blue, and in clear water paranoid. So, given the choice, and wanting to catch a bunch of fish, I'll choose a good dark oncoming front. But, there's the curious skeptical side of me too, that has me choosing to fish such days on occasion to play around with the above mentioned ideas on just what's really going on down there. Yesterday's fishing trip was, however, not one of those days. I've had so little fishing time this summer that I've had to take what comes, and yesterday brought me brilliant blue. So, I reluctantly crammed on my curious-skeptics hat, a thick coating of sunscreen, and hit the water. The pond I chose to fish has no appreciable weeds, and precious little wood; generally, no place to hide. It's a fishery with a food chain based on plankton, followed by yellow perch and largemouth bass. The bluegill population is very small here lol. Weather Trend: Second day of brilliant blue amidst a mostly dry week with some afternoon puffballs all the T-storms gods could muster this past week. The day of, and the day prior, were absolutely cloudless. As you can see BP was high (Friday), and doing its afternoon oscillations eroding either from atmospheric moisture (cumulus) development (the T-storm gods at work). Despite a cooler than normal summer, and some record low nights, water temps have held up with surface temps peaking at 77F, and 71F at 12 feet. Nights are still too short to counter the day, but that is now changing rapidly. Fishing: I started my fishing day at noon ( > ) and spent some time walking the shoreline looking for fish 8-). The hordes of fingerling bass were still there but fewer and a bit bigger many had barrel bellies on em ;D. I spied a tightly allied pack of yearlings (~6inches) that took great interest in a northern water snake, following and nipping at its tail as it plied the rip-rap along the bank. I saw several two or three year olds (~9-10) loosely grouped and physically quite active. I also spotted one mature fish of ~15. This mature bass appeared to be alternately sunning (holding very shallow and near the surface), and hunting by habituation very slowly cruising and facing into shoreline cover spots. Sneaky devil, I thought. Decided this would be a day to peruse deep structure, and continue mapping this pond. I focused my time perusing off one of the deeper shorelines (all of 12.5 feet), mostly dragging a C-rig, crawling a football jig, and running a deep crankbait. Area 1: There are two drop-offs here: 8 to 10, and 10 to 12.5. These don't seem like much, but that's what there is in this coverless dishpan. What is important about breaklines like this is that silt is unable to build on sharp drops leaving good substrate (large cobbles) exposed. Such nooks and crannies provide the space for crayfish and small fish to hide. There are good numbers of crayfish in this pond, and this is where they live. At one place the deeper drop has some larger boulders, including one discrete pile of them. I've caught fish off these, but today I blanked there and again on a re-visit. Lost a C-rig trying to crash the big boulders too. Drop-shot would have been a better alternative with such discrete breaks, but I was rigged to travel and map today. Screen shot of drop with boulders. The weak (blue) returns across the top are from the turbulence caused by my swim fins I'm in a float tube. No, my legs are not that long (5ft deep!), they are at the outside edge of the cone, and 5 ft from the transducer. Screen shot of same break but at edge of cone (weaker returns and maybe a small bit of brush), with dudes present likely bass. Area 2: A lone brushpile in 12fow off the big bar (Area 4 below). Because of it's proximity to the big bar it holds fish, and I could see them on sonar. They were unwilling to respond to a crankbait and a grub. So I lined up on the brush and banged it good with a deep crank, nearly got it hung, popped it free BAM! caught a bass. Sometimes contact is what it takes. Followed up quickly with a football head-n-*** Scrub but no one responded. Contact bass. Area 3: A lone hump that would be called a point except that it is not connected to the shoreline, being interrupted about 30 feet from the shore. It is tapered though, and runs from 3 to 6 feet deep on top dropping to 7 or 8 at the sides and 10 at the end. There is also a drop-off at one side from 7ft to 11ft running perpendicular to the hump (paralleling the shoreline). The hump and drop always give up both bass and yellow perch. The bass can be all around the hump, and sometimes on top although smaller ones are often on top, I believe because they are more shoreline related and not depth related. The perch are near bottom off the sides. There are scattered larger boulders here and there on top and at one side and along the drop-off. Today this hump gave up 5 small bass (10-12) and three 8-9inch perch, on a 1/8oz Slider head with swimming worm, and a small shad style crank. Area 4: This is a large wide cobble bar, 2 to 5 feet on top dropping precipitously to 7 to 10 feet all around deepest at the end. It is rimmed with a narrow band of dense threadleaf pondweed (Potemogeton). This is the obvious location on this pond and I tend to save it until I've done my exploring, because I could eat up my day here. I saved it til nearly dusk, and found the kicker for the day a 19+ (3-12) that took the Slider/swimming worm gently about 6ft down, over 8ft, and wouldn't let me see her for several minutes! Look at that sky. Almost enough to make you want to stay home and mow the lawn.

That's the warning. The failure (as you know) was not heeding it. At least you have that warning system intact. Your buddy may not -yet. I know the feeling. > > > :-[ I've developed a certain number of those warning bells. One I did a bit too often lol: I'd be grouse hunting, and I'd see FRESH grouse tracks in the snow. And I'd say, "Wow! Those are fres..." Thppppppppp! (grouse flushing) -and me looking at the ground! For some reason I did that more often than a sane man should. I finally got over it -the second the word "fresh" comes into my head -I look up and flick off the safety!

Yeah, I haven't seen it that tall either. But I've only seen it in NY and CO. Here it reaches about 3 feet high. And I've not seen it reaching the surface. If it's Chara, it'll have a skunky odor when crushed (hence 'muskgrass')and tends to be gritty in texture (hence 'sandgrass'). Here's a pic:

He's right, in the large scale (many waters over the course of the seasons), but as WRB mentions, and Buck also mentions elsewhere in a similar way, patterns of behavior can be found, but they rarely hold up for days on end. Don't tell Wayne P that. He consistently goes to lakes in the Central VA region and catches 40-100 Bass every time he goes. I've tried to debate him on in but several other people have shot me down. I'm in agreement though, the factors aren't likely to be identical every time. Not saying it's not possible, just unlikely. From what I know of Wayne -he really knows his stuff. Doubt he has any need to BS, and takes his lumps on occasion like everyone else. Let's not get into bashing people and close down a good thread. My point is I was proven wrong because many other people have agreed with him and have seen him do it. Agreed, he knows his stuff. So to say there are to many variables is not necessarily correct when someone can figure them out. Not bashing at all, you took it the wrong way. I see. I actually meant that Wayne usually catches 140-200 bass a day. To say he doesn't break 100 is an insult. ;D Seriously, my guess is there are waters with the populations that can support that kind of catch rate, on some days. My other guess is that Wayne does not do this on every water he fishes, and has his tough days too. From what I hear Guntersville is crankin' 'em out. What's a great day on Guntersville now? What's a poor day? Some of the ponds I fish don't even have 40 mature bass in 'em! ;D But this is kind of off topic. Perry's comment was that there is no single factor controlling fish behavior, including the moon phase. I think people like to gravitate to a simple answers. KISS doesn't mean ignore weather and water conditions, or possibly moon phase in certain circumstances. If Wayne has it all figured out -can realize 40+ bass on every trip on every water through all conditions, he needs to step up and put us all out of our misery.

I believe you are seeing Chara -a macro-algae. It doesn't need a soft bottom to grow on. Chara can grow pretty deep -deeper than you can see. Sonar helps sort things out. I've read that crayfish will eat it and use it for cover, and I've caught fish in it -drop-shot with a bullet weight, or crankbaits over the top of it. It's tough stuff and if a bass is able to dive into it they can be tough to pull out. But I do better in other 'weed' species. Chara doesn't seem to attract many bass-at least so far as I've found. Regardless of vegetation type though, spend your time looking for shallow to mid-depth structure near deep water. You should find some fish to play with there. Fine tune such an area by looking for changes in vegetation, or substrate (boulders would be great).

Every water's different. And regions are different. Minnesota is not likely to have water temps too high for bass. You may well have both shallow and deeper fish. The idea is to hone down the real estate: My guess is you likely have a thermocline so most of your fishing will be less than 20 feet, probably less than 15. If it's a natural lake (again my guess for MN) I'd look for two options: -Away-from-shore structure (long points, sunken humps). -Shallow slop bays, with lots of vegetation. With such options, I'd say fish your strengths.

That's my general understanding too. Ralph Manns did a catch data study (his and friends tournament data) and could not find a mid-day bite statistically. He then looked at large bass (thinking of Hannon's ideas on it) and still found nothing there. This was catch data from TX. Might be different farther north (??).

Yeah, mighty thin. Likely it was just old and on her way out. Great face on the little one there. Congrats to him, and to his guide.

Thanks for the details Kenny. Always interesting.

You know, this kind of thread comes up every year at this time of year. Come summer, after all the bass in the lake stop crowding the shorelines, and remaining shallow bass can become tougher to catch. Lots of people hang up their rods. The standard advice is to fish deeper. This is a hard transition for a lot of anglers bc deep spots cannot be seen and cast to as easily. Realize that you still have to get a lure close to a good spot (that may not be very large) and make it look good. Also, in many waters bass will end up collected up on top locations and so it's a real hit or miss proposition. In shallow lakes with lots of cover, esp vegetation, lots of bass will simply be buried in it, and in many waters. Here bass can become well distributed throughout. Time to start punching the dense stuff. This is why, I believe, that most big bass are caught not just in spring but throughout the cold water period -vegetation dies back exposing prey and bass. The other advice is the shallow bite. Early and late, or at night, due to high temps. But this is a uniquely cool year over a much of the country. Very interesting. Wish I could have been able to get out more this year. What TommyBass is on is like an extension of pre-summer. Fish conditions not history. Despite the cool temps there will still be deep fish too. But I'd definitely lower a thermometer and check for a thermocline. If there is one it'll rule out a lot of real estate. Final advice: Pick scenarios (such as above, or others you can ferret out) and check 'em out . Move until you find fish. That's first.