Paul Roberts

Speedbead, was your fish on a bed? Looking at the trees behind you, and the fact the 'gills are bedding, makes me wonder if your bass spawn isn't over, and that's a well fed post-spawn female you caught. I follow a VERY consistent pattern on my bluegill waters. Post-spawn bass, esp large one, focus on the bluegill spawn. These are the mature 'gills spawning and are the largest in the system -so the largest bass are right there with them. In my waters, (ponds and small res), I look for and mark the 'gill colonies. They WILL have mature, often large, bass hanging out just outside. If you get a good view you can see bass lined up in a semi-circle around the colony. I'm wondering if that's what you caught a glimpse of. It's a very consistent pattern in my waters, and they are aggressive, feeding, bass.

I've not been on much of late. Where did the ability to click "all", to view a thread in it's entirety go? And, what about being able to click the various forum sections from a thread, rather than going back to the main forum? Just curious -guess I'm lazy

Record. Unless it regurgitates. Next question: Can you stuff the fair-captured and swallowed prey back in, and call it a record??

Sounds like Randall's done his homework, as usual -and remembers it! 8-) I always wondered about the bloody tail thing too. It's often been assumed to be spawn related tail wear but it never made sense that it's in the larger females that this mostly shows up. Only males make the beds, at least in Northern LM, and they mostly do it without their tails -from what I've seen. Tail wear (in males) could be spawn related on certain substrates, like Randall suggests. As to the weight distribution thing, I've not noticed gravid females dragging their tails. In fact, it's much the opposite. Some very gravid females appear to be very buoyant; looking, comically, like blimps as the males support and push them around as part of the nuptial ritual. Eggs are very oily, which is buoyant, so if ovaries were far enough back to alter posture, one would expect the opposite of a tail down position. Anyway, whatever causes bloodied tails in large bass in spring, it's not spawning activity per se. Just like the red tooth pads, fin bases, and throat and belly skin seen in very early caught coldwater bass is not from eating crayfish -although both can occur at the same time. This latter appears to be turgid (engorged) capillaries under the skin, and may result from a similar reason as Randall mentions. There is one place where tail wear comes in and that is fish that habitually hold in a specific location -often on bottom or suspended under a logjam. These fish can develop a habitual wear mark on tail bottom or top. This is pretty common in large brown trout in streams and I've seen something similar in largemouths. Last thing, body wear is apparent late in the spawn in the form of fungal infections on the body and fins, and can get pretty bad esp on the fins. This is undoubtedly stress related and was especially common in trout, but this year I saw it widespread in LM's -including those that weren't caught and handled.

Actually P. crispus is native to N America, but introduced in some States and parts of Canada. It's a coolwater plant that dies back early (esp in the shallows) as Marty mentions. I have a pond that is spring fed maintaining temps in the upper 50s in certain areas through the summer. These areas are densely rimmed in crispus all year. I have caught bass in it but in my area other plants (coontail and milfoil) are predominate, denser, and attract more fish.

That feels great from here.

Welcome back Roger.

Hey man, go to bed! This is what I look like right now . I'm toast. Glad to hear you are getting some fishing in. BTW: Was it a sunny day?

Some days you just know you're gonna kill 'em. OK..I couldn't resist..so I trimmed it up a bit, for those that might have missed the sign...

I've actually seen bullheads do it, hunting spawning shad on the surface under lights at night. They cruised the surface feeling ahead of them. They must be quick when the time is right!

Blind Female doesn't get the hint. Or...a blind bass goes a-spawning I got to see this bass a few times again this spring. She appeared on three of the four shorelines on the pond. I watched her interact with several bass, a large bluegill, and me. She is aware of what's going on around her but I couldn't determine how well she could see. When a fish approached her she'd turn slightly toward it when the approaching fish was about 18 away. It appears both sound and water movement were at work. When a fish turned away from her and pushed water toward her, she'd turn slightly away responding to the slight jet of water coming at her. At one point I saw her cruising a shoreline and it appeared she could hear me on the bank above her (20feet away). So I got out ahead of her direction of travel and waited. When she appeared I waved my arms and she turned out, but I realized I'd moved my feet on the bank so I tried again. This time I held my feet still and waved my arms above me and she came in straight at me and ended up right below me. Like other females that aren't already paired at the start of the spawn, she cruised close to the shorelines looking for males. I watched her at two bed sites. One already had a line up of four females ahead of her, three better than 18 inches. (She being about 14+"). She felt the presence of one big female and backed into a pondweed clump, and held there. At the second bed, the male had already received his eggs and, like other males in similar state, fended her off. The odd thing about her was that she couldn't receive the visual cues that said, "Back Off!" I watched as she approached the bed, and saw the male spy her coming at about 12 feet out. He left the bed to meet her face to face, flared his jaws, and she didn't bolt. So he tried again, and she just ducked to the bottom (like a bullhead again LOL). So the male attacked, flaring and biting at her, driving her into the bottom until a cloud of silt obscured them. He returned to his bed, and I stepped down closer to see if she was still there and she bolted out into the milfoil and wriggled in like a bullhead. Oh yes, one more thing that might indicate her vision ability: She's a dark sooty black in color. All the other bass are much paler in color with various markings (which I cannot fully decipher the reasons for yet). I seem to remember research out there that indicated blinded fish could not adjust their coloration to their surrounds. This appears to be the case with this bass. Brian, that's true, but there is likely a difference between bass blinded in the lab and those that gradually become so. I'd certainly expect compromised vision (and body coloration) to be a disadvantage, however it appears that this particular fish, and a few others I've seen do OK. Neat stuff to wonder about.

There should be fish to be found somewhere from shore on your lake. But, some waters offer more shallow, or shoreline oriented, fish than others. If you cannot find fish (during prime conditions), a new horizon might just change your "luck".

Hey Todd, There are a number of possibilities of course. The activity levels are part of the formula, but your job as an angler is to read the signs and be there when it's good, adapt, or take your beating. It won't always be "good". From what I've seen and read, bass cannot feed at will. Prey species are not pushovers -except at certain times of the year, and certain conditions. These conditions will activate bass and low light is a plus, if not a lot of the show. -Low light provides a hunting advantage to bass over prey. Bass see better than bluegills in low light (backed by lab studies). Add to this the advantage anglers have in duping bass in low light. It's really tough to catch shallow bass in bright light. -Unless we know just where the bass are and how they are feeding we tend to catch the really active bass. We rely on them. Also, we tend to find bass, or they find us, in areas (and times) conducive to our chosen (GoTo) techniques. It takes a real understanding of a water body to find the untapped fishing -at whatever level, or even if it exists, for that set of conditions. From the other direction, it helps to know what techniques and lures excel in certain locations and conditions. Combine the two and you'll be in the game more often than not, or have a pretty good idea why your not. It's not always your fault. -I've found sporatic fishing not just at dusk, but later too -depending on how late I arrived. (Although the dusk bite can be really good). After we've caught and/or pricked a few, they will likely shut down, or become harder to dupe. You can re-visit a spot after a half hour rest and often pick up a few more. Another, or additional, option is to switch lures as you fish an area. I often have three rods rigged differently (with appropriate lures) and fish them literally in succession, picking up fish that turned away from the previous. This is smart if you know there are fish in the area, and expect bites.

Yup. Will look into th new software -that, happily, plucked that trojan. Thanks, Glenn.

I've SEEN that! But only on one side of the pond it seems.

Nothing can keep me from talking fishin' -until your eyes are as bloody as my fingers! Well.. I've been set to accept cookies all along. Even have a list of cookies under BassResource. But, something's not right. I hate computers, I mean, when they don't do what you tell them. Am finally upgrading my main machine though. Due to be built next week. Now if I could only type as fast as it's quad-core MB can handle.

tyrius, No, but will check it out.

Good stuff here. Thanks for the wider context, Catt.

Thanks guys, but... it doesn't work. Even tried 24 hrs, then back to keeps. Doesn't work. Wonder what I cleared when I got rid of those cookies. I also had a trojan get in and cleared it with anti-malware software and it must have been linked somehow.

I seem to have lost the cookie that keeps me logged in. I thought it would be re-issued when I log in. But, I have to log in each time now. Any suggestions?

Ditto both of these. In my observation ponds males and females come in together. Males build beds and females are there within a day. These are very small ponds though so fish likely winter together and do not have to travel far. Realize that the beds you see may already have eggs in them and may or may not be re-visited by females. If a bedded male is close to substrate and locked on the bed, he is tending eggs. If he is above bottom and loose, mobile around bed, cruising a short circuit beyond, he is soliciting for females. Likely one or more are already aware of him. Females hold just beyond the bed, facing the male and, alternately, cruise a roughly 8ft circuit beyond. I've seen females cruise between two nearby beds too, as if torn LOL. They may spawn in each but an already present female might chase others off. Seems when a female picks a bed she may spend a couple days there. She seems to drop eggs under low light -cloud cover or evenings.

I've got a nice tan going -on my hands, neck, nose and ears! Fisherman's tan LOL. I keep forgetting to throw the sunblock in. In fact, I'm going to go do it right now! Thanks Dom.

steeljoe, was this this past weekend -25th/26th?

Interesting. Let us know how you make out, either way.