Paul Roberts

I really like the post spawn in my small waters, for the facts that the females are hungry, and the concentrations of bass on prominent cover/structure that develops. There is another pattern happening then too, and that is the concentrations of mature bass around bluegill spawning colonies. But, I don't have threadfin nor alewife in my waters. Gizzard shad at this time are often too large or too small yet for bass. So the key appears to be threadfin behavior. Outta my range of experience here, except that I've fished the gizzard shad spawn for walleyes in several places. The night fishing FAR exceeds the daytime in effectiveness -especially for larger fish. Check this out: http://www.bigindianabass.typepad.com/ Scroll down to: Shad Spawn Bite

Look up Blue Tilapia. I think that may be what it is.

I wonder if they are simply digesting the shad they ate at night? So in these T's -Are others finding the bigger fish?

That's a good idea . A while back I picked up a Sammy knock-off -$2 ! I changed the hooks on it and it fished well. I caught a bunch on it. SO I bought s'more . The next one sat tail straight down :. Another lay on it's side . The third was tail down too >. So I took out the drill and epoxy and went to town. Took me all night but I gave each one the proper attitude. -and new hooks of course. A couple Sammy's would have saved me the trouble .

I bought a cheap drugstore digital camera ($9.99) for just this purpose and keep it on the boat in the glove box. Last week I was on the boat by myself and caught a monster bass (must of been 20 pounds : ). I held it up best I could, even with my super-human strength, extended the camera out with my other arm and snapped the picture. I rushed home and downloaded the pics to my laptop only to find a picture of myself with my arm out to the side, cut off at the elbow right where the fish should have shown up. When I get home from work, I'll upload the picture, and you can use your imagination where the fish should have been. EDIT - Sorry for the bad cut/paste on the quote :-[ Also -photo of mentioned monster fish ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D I was going to stay out of this one...but that photo just killed me. ;D Welcome aboard!

Search the site. There are some good threads. The greatest limitations are depth you can fish (FF is a shallow game), lack of versatility in presentation methods, and speed and efficiency at which you can cover water. That said...FF is just a great fun and challenging way to fish. I love it. It's addicting. With ingenuity you can adapt to a fair amount of fishing, but IMO FF shines in shallow cover. For cover free situations and stream smallies a 6 or 7wt is about right. For most LM fishing an 8 or 9wt is what you'll need to pitch those bulky flies.

There is a strong pattern that develops in my neck of the woods. And it appears it's more widespread than I first realized at least in the north. In a nutshell, it involves the concentration of bass on isolated cover as fish transition to summer locations. Now, my waters are bluegill based, heavily vegetated (milfoil mostly), and farther north than you. But I have a friend that fishes relatively weed free, shad and bluegill based reservoirs (also in the north) and sees a similar pattern. As the bass leave the shallows they aggregate in large numbers on certain key spots. In my vegetated waters the milfoil is just developing and it's prominent isolated plants or clumps that attract large numbers of bass. Many are average fish but there are large ones mixed in. It seems the females (large fish anyway) don't re-group like they will in winter in my waters. And in my waters (large ponds and small res), this holds for the summer. My friend's situation involves vegetation but also substrate transitions. These can be really minor in appearance, like silt to gravel or rubble, but are found as bottom hardness changes with sonar. As the bass distribute to summer quarters they seem to collect at prominent (to them) spots. It my case it's developing vegetation individual standout clumps in his case it's often substrate transitions. Two things are shared between our waters: One is that these waters are relatively sparse in prominent structure (dishpan-ish') so bass seem to be looking for something to relate to. The other is the concentrations of bass that can be present. His waters produce more fish and he may take 20 or more from a single spot. For me it's more like 8 to 15. These aren't all big fish though, but as I said, there are large ones mixed in. Find a few of these spots and your day is made. These concentrations last in my waters until vegetation develops enough that the spots are not isolated. My friend says his lasts about 3 weeks from what I remember. It may be water temperature and the new crop of YOY gizzard shad coming into the scene that breaks it up.

When the line is short between you and the fish, things get critical: much less line stretch, and the possibility of gaining slack or pulling too hard are greatly magnified. Do as J Francho suggests -lead the fish with the rod. Don't reach for a fish (with net or hand) unless it's coming toward you. You control this by leading the fish with the rod. Figure eight -just keep the tension even and then get her coming toward you smoothly. Also, keep the head under the water. Drop the rod tip to the surface (or below) if it tries to jump or head thrash. Realize, you've got time. No rush. I really liked John's photo of him leading that big smallie. He had about as much control of that 5.0 smallie as you can get.

tyrius Wrote: Bingo. Great thread.

I fish small waters. Some offer more/better shoreline fishing than others. Get to know a number of small waters -some will offer more than others. I also have a "long distance" rig -a 7ft spinning rod, and wide spooled reel filled with braid. Sometimes just getting beyond the shelf is all you need.

When I'm fishing a lot, it takes only enough time to throw together a lunch, tie fresh knots, a few tackle additions and deletions, apply sunscreen, and load the Jeep. I take care of most maintenance the night after fishing, so I don't forget something I'll pay for later, and I'll be close to ready for the next outing. When I've not been able to get out much (like lately ) it takes longer, and I often end up missing opportunities on the water by forgetting appropriate stuff. To stay in the game -ya' gotta stay in the game!

I have a very old Senko. And it CAN'T outfish the young ones. It's more glue than plastic now -it creaks when it tries to wiggle. Most of the time it can't wiggle at all. I'd retire it but I'm too cheap. And it still has it's good days.

When John started out on those 10days he was GUNG HO! That catches up with you. But...he wasn't fishing T's or running a charter. He was in it for pure fun and probably happy to crash and burn -or not consider it until the end. He knew he was back to work right afterwards. Hell, I'd burn it all too, and used to. I had to have an understanding with my bosses Here's where experience matters. An experienced T-angler will know how to pace him/herself and prioritize effort. Young guys, and weekenders with a free week , may be more prone to crash and burn. Thus, Catt's list: Old enough to know how to play the game (not just the fishing) but young enough not to wake every morning in pain. John, I think your Dad/family ran a charter service? That's work, and it isn't hell bent. It's a business and a physically demanding one, from the experiences I had with that world. I for one would rather do the former -have the luxury of crash and burn every now and then -then I would running my fishing as a business. I've done the middle ground too: Spent days on end following fish, and there is always the point where you ask yourself just what the hell you're doing out there and why ! Then...for me, I grab a power nap and a sandwich and suddenly I know exactly why I'm out there . It's the coolest thing in the world to be running wild as a predator .

Now this is a cool idea! I'll be curious how the diff states come out.

Awesome week! Some serious smiling going on there esp with that 5-0 smallie. Great images too.

RoLo Wrote: Have I been doing it wrong?? Sorry, couldn't resist. :

Ditto. Unless it's an artifact of where I fish, I just havn't seen any 'recuperation period'. Females come out of the spawn HUNGRY. What is notable is that larger bass, mostly these are the females, seem to require a slower presentation. I catch more large fish on bulky jigs and worms than I do cranks. It just isn't time to 'rip the weeds' yet it seems. I've had to re-learn this each year it seems LOL. If I chose two lures for post spawn females they would be a skirted jig and a ribbontail worm, swum. These almost always account for most of my larger fish on a given day. Later, and not much later, more speed will do it. Then I'm into cranks, lipped and lipless, a lot.

Family, job (love it but man it can eat up my time LOL), home/farm, community (strong advocate of children, parenting, and public education). After that I'm a naturalist first, and fishing, hunting, birding, botany, entomology, herpetology, .... are all part of it. I am fascinated with the natural world and my life, outside the above priority list, revolves around it. I try to stay connected. And it's tough to do.

Don't mind you at all. The devil's in the details. Jeff, nice post. It doesn't seem to be where I live. In most waters where I'm at it eeks out a short term living and is most prevalent in pond basins (silty bottoms) in large part bc the shallower stuff dies back as temps rise. Right now individual plants are thick in some of my ponds, already reached the surface and drooping over. They'll die back and leave sparse beds just outside (deeper) the milfoil beds. The progression from shore to depths in my ponds is: milfoil, curly pondweed, thread-leaf pondweed, Chara. I don't notice substrate being involved. Again, the spring-fed pond has the densest beds I've seen and they don't die back until fall there.

I assume that's directed at me. I finally got tired of hearing a lot of supposition about the spawn so I've spent the past three spawning seasons not fishing but observing and documenting the spawn on 4 to 6 ponds. I've observed and followed about 200 beds in that time and have NEVER seen a female involved in nest construction. This isn't to say it doesn't happen somewhere -like California?? Florida LM females are supposedly more involved at the nest site, but it's in egg protection from what I've read. I wouldn't know, I have no experience with floridanus. I also never see 36" beds either. Beds in my ponds are indicative of male size, being from from 1 to 1.5 times the tending male's length. To say that those red tails are from females digging beds is flat wrong, at least in my neck of the woods. Something else is going on there.

All I have are a pamphlet offered by Cooperative Extension in my old home state of NY on aquatic vegetation management, and an old lab manual from a limnology class I took 30 years ago LOL. There are a bunch of internet sites full of photos and more info than you'll care to read. You can even print out your own book I suppose. Google: aquatic macrophytes, or Potamogeton, and click away. Then look for sites from a university in your state. One will almost surely have material that pertains to your region.

Fun post. I like the 'Day on the Lake' articles. ;D Sometimes I just give the whole list -just to show it's not some magic lure operating all on its own.

I see. Hmmmm...I just plugged in my spanking new PC and can click the forums. My old machine was...old -about 8years. It was a beast in it's day, but has been disintegrating daily it seems. Thanks.

Yeah, she sure has quite a belly, is in beautiful condition, and vent doesn't look distended. It's possible she spawned early and even be carrying another batch of eggs she'll resorb -mebbe. Just curious. When I heard "dark shapes around a bluegill colony" I immediately thought of the great post-spawn/pre-summer pattern I see here.

Roger, I stand corrected. Thanks good to have you back to help keep me honest . It appears there has been some confusion in the literature about it. It is considered invasive and introduced in most states and Canada, but believed to be native to some areas. http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=POCR3&mapType=nativity&photoID=pocr3_002_ahp.tif ... This plant is introduced to some part of the PLANTS Floristic Area, though it may be native in other parts. ... http://www.invasivespecies.net/database/species/ecology.asp?si=447&fr=1&sts= ... Geographical range Native range: Eurasia, Africa, Australia and North America (Global Compendium of Weeds). ... But, the paper most cited, Stuckey 1979, states it's a Eurasian species introduced to NA in the early 1800's. I didn't find any rebuttals and am not going to look any further LOL. http://www.nysgextension.org/glhabitat/epacd/pages/plants/PDF/pondweed.pdf ... Curly pondweed, Potamogeton crispus L., is native to Eurasia and apparently was introduced into the United States in the mid 1800's (Stuckey 1979). Prior to 1900, the distribution of P. crispus was the northeastern United States. By 1930 curly pondweed had spread westward to several states of the Great Lakes region. The species has since spread across much of the United States ... http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a908426785~db=all ... Potamogeton crispus (Curlyleaf-pondweed) is an exotic macrophyte which has been introduced to the North American continent in the last century. P. crispus often grows to nuisance proportions at the expense of native macrophyte communities. ... I wonder if its exotic status might contribute to its lack of fish holding ability (if that is the case) as it's possible it doesn't attract native insects (??). Interesting thought, anyway.