Paul Roberts

I will. As soon as this front leaves! It's been rather rotten out there the last few days. I'm chompin' at the bit. I guess the next best thing is blabbing on about it! ;D

It's kind of like when you go from gun to bow -you see and learn so much more when you slow down and make those limitations. Very powerful feeling.

Fun thread. Matt and paul, just great follow up posts on "the most important thing". Fishing sure can be an intricate game, highlighted especially well in sight fishing. Now...extrapolate this stuff to your blind fishing... fish that aren't necessarily tied down to a single spot, and you can't see their reactions. Sure puts some perspective on things!

Thanks Lucid, you hit me where I live. True! I enjoy that too. And I do have to be careful what info I share with whom. But our population is so large (doubling rate breaking 30 years now) that the pressure is relative. I suppose it's possible to over-fish and lose relative advocacy! There's an interesting issue brewing within resource management circles that was brought to my attention via a National Parks administrator. They are concerned that the advocacy for parks (and arguably other "natural" lands) is primarily maintained by suburban middle to upper income white folks. As segments of our population grows, notably urban and Latino popns (growing fastest), there is concern about advocacy -whether it will be maintained in the future. There is a growing interest in introducing people other than "white suburbanites" to participate in nature. In my experience, NOTHING beats fishing for building advocacy and future stewardship. I always told the academics and "bean counters" involved in nature advocacy programming: "If I advertise ecology lessons, I get the home school kids and professor's kids -and essentially preaching to the converted. If I advertise fishing, i get everyone." And it's entirely true. Angler's are an enormously valuable bridge to what I believe is a healthy understanding and relationship with the natural world.

Well, my unit isn't even wet yet but... the manual says my unit has a distance to target number available on the screen, and an alarm. Will know more after I've used it.

That may be stress related -not feeling they have time to "throw away". Yeah, that's been my general experience too. But fishing is not easy to learn, takes time, and if it doesn't come by osmosis -through a family member -it often just doesn't happen.

People's perceptions and relationships with nature really interest me. A chunk of my educational background is in natural resources management, and I've been involved professionally and privately for a lot of my adult life. I always thought anglers were an important bridge and spent a bunch of years developing and running angling education programs. I've also traveled some and always with an eye and mind for how different cultures relate to nature. In short, the world is modernizing (and becoming way more expensive to participate in) and values have shifted away from an interest and understanding of natural processes. It's become a common perception, and prejudice, amongst urbanizing (modernizing) cultures that things perceived as less "modern" are somehow less "sophisticated" and therefore banal. And it's sweeping the world of course. I've seen it in slightly different forms in SE Asia (China in particular), Native American communities (do I follow The Way, or a Waypoint??), in Europeans, and certainly in our own culture. In our culture, and related European cultures, I see this prejudice as a stupid assumption, and in some cases it's just plain bigotry -especially around consumptive uses like fishing and hunting, where the inexperienced and detached confuse their own emotions with reality. But is reality human culturally based, or nature based? These have separated it appears, a process that began long ago. It's apparent to me more and more that people need other people more than they need "nature" in their lives. When the social norm has no experience with something, that something will fall beyond understanding. To me, a nature lover, that's darn scary. Most of my traipsing grounds I enjoyed when I was young are long paved over, and being coursed by mini-vans full of Gameboys. There are kids that can look at a deer for the first time and actually shrug and go back to their toy. What kind of advocacy for nature are we developing, or maintaining? We are generations late in many cases. Adults have grown up in this and too often this is what their nature study looks like: I recently went to an in-field seminar for teachers on accessing public land for nature study. The leader had everyone stay on the path (never go off-trail she advised). She gave a beaver ecology lesson that avoided actually visiting the beaver pond on the property (to avoid disturbing the beavers). She told us that there were lots of interesting creatures under a rotted piece of bark she pointed to, but couldn't turn over because, it was akin to ripping the roof off of your own home. We left having never had an actual real experience with nature, with the firm message that it simply wasn't accessible to us. If I brought a class of kids to that place with those constraints and message, they'd need to be medicated. And those kids simply won't become advocates of something that isn't theirs. They're more likely to become the people you work with, who make jokes about how backward you are.

Exactly. I'm fishing shallow and clear water, so I need to stay back. I don't want to have to relocate with the graph either if I can help it. In many cases I need to stay a long cast away. I presently use marker buoys, but am limited in the number I can carry -and they are a pain. I was actually hoping to lose the buoys. I'm hoping a waypoint in conjunction with a line to a distant object will allow me to mark spots without buoys. Possible?? Is the accuracy (variability) of satellites going to allow this?

I believe I know, at least one, of your major sources too. And, like Catt's bound to say, "Don't believe everything you read." Or at least run too far afield with it. Nature is full of surprises.

Thanks John. I have the technical numbers, but wanted an idea of what to expect on the water. Your's and Tommy's experiences and opinions are just what I was looking for.

TommyBass, Thanks. That helps a lot. I've read the numbers, but didn't know how that might play out on the water -yet. I'll be sure to sit right on my target and just play with it and see what I get. -Paul

Say you mark a small hump or weed clump (say 10 feet across). How easily can you return to within a cast away?

Humminbird SmartCast: Pros: -compact -essentially a depth reader; will give you depths (+/- 2ft) -will read larger fish suspended well away from bottom or cover -reliable range of about 80ft; a med-long cast -If you have well contoured, hard structured water that you cannot see from shore, it will help you locate "hills and valleys". Cons: -Is really not much more than a bottom reader, or large suspended fish finder; Does not have a grayline feature (multiple shades of gray) so bottom hardness, or discerning anything within cover or near bottom is not likely. -Cone angle very wide which can read suspended fish but, esp without grayline, kills any hope of detail. Fish ID lumps all hard returns: rocks, large fish, bulk of weed clumps. -Sensitivity adjustment appears almost useless, considering cone angle and lack of grayline. -Even small waves cut the signal; must reel slowly -Transducer does not allow battery change and are $20 each -Must completely dry the transducer or battery will run out I use one occasionally to know actual depth and to get temp profiles. A C-Rig or heavy jig will actually provide you MORE info (except known depth number) and is FAR cheaper and simpler. My opinion after having one for three years: Save your money and get a small boat, or float tube ($150.00), and then a unit with gray-line, or better, color.

Nice to see a youngster learning about the outdoors. She's lucky to have a Pop like you.

I like the graphics. : Makes perfect sense if you need to reach for the legal limit. I especially like the mackeral graphic, where you have to distort the fish to eek the most out of it. I believe the AFS standard for total length is with mouth closed and tail open, and their weight charts, and mine, are derived from this. In the end, get a GOOD scale, and KEEP it CALIBRATED. If you REALLY want to know what your fish weighed. Many prefer a subjective weight.

Agree with others that 21 is about 5-1/2 for LM in good body condition. And that's a big northern bass. Now...if you "cheated" and ran your tape from the tips of it's folded tail to the end of it's pulled out lower jaw -I'd say that "21" is 20.25" at best and may be just hitting 5lbs. That is still a big northern bass btw. If you do use a scale, make darn sure it's calibrated, and check it regularly. This is something of a pet peeve of mine, as too often fish weights are overestimated and really skew people's expectations of what a "big bass" should weigh.

Very nice! Notin's bloomin' here yet.

Awesome! Yep!

Females get larger than males. I don't know your water, but I lived in NY, including Ithaca, for a long time. At 3-4lbs those would be the size range for older adult females in most waters. It's the same here in CO. There can be some bigger, but the common run tends to reach about that size. You can recognize older mature females in two ways: -They have swollen pearly white bellies. -They have large wide heads, especially noticeable when they swim toward you. I call it Bull-headed. In the waters I know, males are mostly 13 to 15 inch fish, and they are thinner and smaller headed than females. Larger males might be mixed in with females, until closer to spawn time, but I have no way of being certain. It's still early where you are I'm about two weeks ahead of you. I'll say this: If you've got a lot of males comprised of 3 and 4lb fish (18 and 19inches), then I would work my butt off to find those older females. My guess, though, is that those are mostly females, and that you have a pretty decent northern pond growth-wise. Just for shock value: I fished a small pond in NY that gave up two 5's (21"), a 6 (22"), and a 7 (23") in one summer! There is a large pond here in CO that has the common run of mature females at 6 to 7lbs, and has given up a 13 (25")! So...who knows what you've got. But, most likely, those bass you saw are (at least one group) of the females in that pond. Oh yes: Most "sun bathing" bass I've seen are much shallower as surface temps are only skin deep at this time. The fact that it was calm allows water to heat best. Look for these fish to move shallower, and the become more vulnerable, when the sun to gets lower in the evening, or clouds move in. Are there 'bluegills hugging the shoreline nearby?? They are the even more serious heat lovers than bass. It's a really great combination in bluegill/bass ponds in early spring. There is likely a scenario there that is holding those bass: heat and sunfish. I'd make a habit of fishing that spot blind (not sight fishing it), and others like it. A suspending jerk is just great for this. As is a Mepps Aglia, Slug-Go/flukes, or a jig -to give a spectrum of speeds. If you've got good warming, speed may be necessary. If it's cold, slower is better. Just some guesses from 1500 miles away LOL! But I think we are seeing the same stuff. Do let me know what comes.

My son and I hit a pond this evening; his first time this year. He's tagged along with me in the woods, streams and ponds since he was really tiny. I wore him in a sling, on my chest, my back, my thumb, and now he's a budding angler. Last year he learned to stalk, cast and catch his own bluegills with fly tackle. I've had high expectations for this season, but it's easy to forget how little 7 can be. Before hiking in I said, "Do you need to go? This is the only toilet. And this is a public park." "No." "Are you sure??" "Yup." I knew better...but, "OK, if you say so." Fool that I am. A half hour later, after a 15 minute walk (he stopping to make a gravel pile, poke a stick into a few interesting holes and crevices, and then watch that stick make drag marks on the path), "Papa, I've gotta go." We reversed our steps, and stick dragging and hole poking, back to the park bathroom. I was hoping he'd get some more casting in than he did, conditions were pretty good, but he kept himself plenty busy: There were holes to be dug at the shore, midges to splash water at, algae/mud pies to make, and plenty to watch and talk about. You know, it's darn tough to fish for bass in cold water, and follow a 7 year-old's thought processes. Since he was so engaged with things other than fishing, we moved little, and settled on a spot with a horde of bluegills crowded at shore. A bass ripped through them causing a series of boils from vacating 'gills, then a gull dropped in and picked up a cripple. My son was too short to see them, so I hoisted him up on my shoulders to watch for a bit man, he's heavy now. I managed only a single crappie, and a bass, on a free-falling Mepps #3 -something that often works really well in this very clear pond. My son talked to that crappie for a full minute before I suggested he send it on it's way. I then set the hook on the bass and my son was running over, "You've got...a big one??" "Pretty big. You want to wrestle him in?" He did, and it jumped! "Whoa!! Did you see that??! A rocket bass! Papa, what if there were giant bass in space..." "We'll send FishChris", I answered. "What??" "Oh...FishChris is this guy who chases REALLY big bass..." After the sun set, he was beginning to shiver (after nearly an hour wading around in 55F water), but he didn't want to leave. "Awww Papa!" "Yeah, it's time...We'll be back." We ended the day with pizza and ice cream an hour after his bedtime. 8-) On the drive home I thought to myself, "I just can't wait until he catches his own. But...It'll happen. No hurry." Guess he's still little, and a pond edge too big. It's easy to forget. I can wait. It's all good.

That is a big bass. I bet it towed you around some. How about some more details.

T-Rage, Those were a winter pre-spawn female group. How deep were these fish? Crestliner offered good advice concerning stealth. Also, they may be impossible with lighting you can see them in. Fish the area later after the sun gets lower, and/or pray for clouds or a rippling breeze. You may have to search the area for them. Do not let casts land anywhere near them. Plan your splashdown areas. Some options: -A small jerkbait (lots of options there). -A swimming worm retrieved above them. -A smallish jig (marabou or marabou) with a pork strip trailer. -A small 4inchworm on a jighead swum just over them -not through them.

-Sun brings heat. -Attenuated visibility gives bass an advantage over prey, and gives anglers an advantage over their prey by obscuring the inherent flaws in angling that put the fish off. It's a balancing act, only partially under your control, and changing all the time.

;D Hey, there's nothing wrong with focus! But if another two seasons go by and Kase is still willing to ignore other options, and the butt kickings that go with it, then I'd say it's slipped beyond good solid focus... If he starts wearing a black hoody with a centerpin embroidered on it, I'd start to worry. How many centerpin outfits does he have? Never mind, I don't want to know LOL. When drift fishing is the ticket (and it often is) conventional (non-fly) is almost always more efficient. What I meant is that, beyond drift fishing, there are times when plugs, spinners, or streamers, will kick butt on drift gear. Lessee...one shot wonders -I don't tend to remember them. But then again I don't see many 9lb bass . I will say this -and actually bring my FF rebuttal back into relevance: Having great conditions and active fish can make any appropriate lure a "one shot wonder".

I've put feather tails on cranks, but found no difference. Be aware that putting anything on some crankbaits will alter, often deaden, the action. Especially anything with mass, like pork.