Paul Roberts

So...what specifically is it that you are seeing that hold bass?

Go for as high a vertical resolution as you can afford. 640 beats 480 480 beats 320 320 beats 240 Etc... Color is considered better than B/W (This'll be my first year with color so we'll see). Using sonar is so much about interpretation of the returns you get. As you get better, you'll appreciate the resolution.

Love to see a pic of that homemade bait.

That's lower NE, isn't it?

LOVE the idea. I like challenging limitations and topwater only sounds like a great one.

;D ;D ;D

How do you do it with an UL spinning rig? You don't. There's fly-tackle for billfish, if you decide to do it. FFs come a long way.

I always hit H ASAP, but one year I went AWOL hit DQ and got my PB on a DD

Welcome Gosh...depends on what you want, and maybe your expectations, patience and fishing experience. If you are a complete novice and feel you need to have a certain catch rate and learn about bass fishing and keep up with the VanDams and ... then maybe not. But, if you don't mind a steep learning curve, as fly-casting is not intuitive and a real challenge, and carry some romance in your heart, FF can be just awesome. I LOVE it. It is limiting though, in terms of depth and distance (at first). But you can take it very far, if you decide to. Fly-casting is mesmerizing (once you get the hang of it and this won't be overnight), and fighting fish on fly tackle is "the best" there is in my book. Also, I think stillwater and warmwater FF is easier than moving water. DO take the lesson -best $35 you'll spend toward getting you going. If you have the bucks, you might also want a lighter rig for bluegills -they are a blast and catch rates are so high you learn more quickly.

Gosh! Speaking of Conesus I had a guy come into the shop once, and say, "Hey, wanna' show you something ." He climbed onto his boat, reached into his livewell, and a simply enormous bass head emerged from the well. "Holy ....." Then he laughed and pulled it all the way out. It had a HUGE head, biggest I think I've still ever seen, but comically short body, and weighed I don't remember, 5+ or something. Anyway, we both had a good laugh.

At "I"?? I'm certain you don't need to hear this, but, I'm so used to saying it: Don't believe everything you hear. There was a rumor from a very reliable source (I won't mention bc he really is a reliable source and good guy) that DEC had shocked 8 and 10lb LMs from a certain lake. This was published. I finally contacted the DEC and they could not substantiate it. It appeared to by another myth. ;DSo true. I fished with a really good young bass fisher last year who had one of those incredible stories (I won't bore you with). Anyway, we fished together and each caught a "big" bass that day. He was thrilled, and then he said, "Gosh that's gotta go 6 or 7". I put it on my calibrated Chatillon and it went .... 4#9oz. Mine went 4#14. I think to this day he doesn't want to believe it, and when I asked if it was OK, my weighing his fish, he replied "Yeah...I guesso...If you say it was calibrated...I guess..." Sure seemed to take some wind outta his sails -and truth be told, it was a very nice Colorado bass! It's apparent to me that a lot of anglers use what's called relative comparison, in which they compare their fish to others they've caught and those they've seen pictures of and read weights of in media. Add inexperience and excitement of the moment and numbers fly. It is a peeve of mine because it gives a false sense of what's really around, and what a genuine accomplishment a given bass might actually represent.

Same here. The dark ones are dug into substrate that has a layer of black organic (and I assume anoxic -by the smell) muck. The light ones are pale soils/gravel/cobbles that are just swept clean, exposing the pale substrate.

The original poster's situation might be infertility, or stunting, or he's just missed something -not all that hard to do in some waters. Here's an interesting story regarding stunted bass. The first pic is one of over 130 (stopped counting) I caught one morning from a particular pond. I did not catch one over 11 inches that day. The following winter the pond winter-killed heavily. The leeward shore was piled with thousands of dead bass. I pulled out the largest to look at, about a dozen that ran from 15 to 19 inches. The following year the bass fishing was very slow, but the bass I did catch were fat! Now, the next pic is from that same pond 3 years later. (WARNING to those who are squeamish! LOL Yes, they are dead and were eaten -not something we see much today. This was back in the day (70s) and I was the only one who had permission to fish this pond.) A great example of how quickly an over-populated pond can turn into a quality fishery -with a little help from Mother Nature or a thoughtful manager.

Great stuff -Both threads LOL OK first: Thanks guys for numbers on those fish and ponds. It would take too long to detail all the possibilities, but among these are: -Genetics -Age -Aggressiveness -Difficulty to dupe by anglers (bounces back to age) -Reproductive anomaly -sterile individual allowing growth to go into body size and not shunted off into gonad production. All this on top of a water body that can produce enough food in enough sizes, to support such growth from fry to MONSTER. Take the above list and imagine a bass that either outlives and outgrows it's cohorts. It jumped a barrier that keeps other bass from getting any bigger. That 9lber very likely was supported food-wise by other mature bass it had outgrown. Or, there are big bluegills in that pond that are just too big for the other bass to eat, 'cept for that one. Barriers are real and every pond has them. The waters in which many bass can leap them are rare indeed. Otherwise it's a rare individual that manages it. And I'm not convinced every pond has such fish -despite how much we'd like to believe it. Next: What's really interesting to me is: Where are the 8lbers??? I hear about them all the time. People reading BassMaster and not carrying a scale I suppose. Here's why I mentioned the Gulf Stream: The Gulf Stream (GS) is a "river" of warm tropical water that runs up the coast affecting the inland climate with it. The GS bounces off Long Island and turns east, toward the UK. Thus coastal waters off S NE can get summer influxes of tropical fish like false albacore, and the stripers grow big. But as you go into N NE the water gets cold, and the stripers in ME are known to be small. I'm wondering if there is a growth differential due to climate from the GS. The other thought could be overall productivity due to the marine sediments (lotsa limestone) in some of those areas. Anyway, somthin' is different along coastal NE.

I resemble that remark! PB is deeper than 12ft though. Seriously, is it not giving up good fish now? It used to. The back coves during the spawn we took some to 6lbs and saw one that was...bigger. Guess Sodus did have more larger ones even back then.

The male actually is on the job. But he is harried some. Neither the bass nor the 'gills are unfit for their jobs. I posted this photo once before in a 'strike zone' thread. Here's how I described what's going on in the pic: Here's a photo of a 15" male closely guarding a bed. There are 9 'gills in the image. However, none of the bluegills are in immediate danger, and they know it. Several are picking about the edges of the bed for loose eggs, or insects, off to the side and rear of the bass. The largest 'gill is in the most potentially dangerous spot, but he's too big to be concerned. The three bluegills behind the bass are in a very common arrangement, a semi-circular array directly behind the bass -the very safest location near that bass. Although the photo doesn't quite give the coverage in front of the bass, rest assured there are no 'gills within his strike window. It's pretty common to see 'gills move out ahead of a cruising bass, circle around behind, and watch it leave the area. Bass cannot catch 'gills at will, they must use honed judgment, appropriate actions and approaches, and take advantage of opportunities. As much as bass are "honed" to hunt bluegills, conversely bluegills are well honed to evade bass.

We know big bass can come from small ponds, but..the question is: Is there a depth limitation? Any more of you guys know of bass larger than 5lbs or larger from ponds less than 12 feet deep? Just want to see some examples.

Check out your weather history for those days.

Male is locked. Do you see the female? Typical pose, between mating bouts.

Dunno. But I watched one run down a burned Spot from behind and keep on going toward me. I could not catch up to that fish (5.4:1 reel) , and it spit the plug >.

I actually lived there for several years, ya know.

'Course! (PB is better).

Speaks to age structure really well. I like the Boom side of Boom & Bust cycles -for the sheer numbers. But this is a deathknell for "big" bass.

Nice morning, to give you something to think about while mowing the lawn.

It seems to me that there is a corridor of larger than usual northern bass growth up the eastern coast. It just seems that MA, RI, CT, E NY. and NJ, give up 8 to 9lb bass where more inland waters don't. The largest pure northern LMB on record (15.5) came from MA. I've assumed it has something to do with Gulf Stream effect that affects duration of growth. Anyway, I'm straying here... Back on topic...Can shallow ponds produce big bass?