Paul Roberts

Great stuff here. I'm a small water angler and think this is great.

In the Colorado ponds I fish it takes about 4 years, same in NY ponds.

I never did anything fancy -there is a commercial rod sling out there -holds one rod. I just stuffed a rod in each hip boot, and one in my hand. A bit awkward, but it worked.

Your in MN. My guess is you are post spawn? The big ones are the females. Fish slow for them, near spawning banks. They'll reappear in your catches soon, when they get more aggressive again.

Spawning should be done there. The answer is probably the additional (and clueless prey) added maybe along with additional (and clueless) bass added creating high competition. Ten feet from the bank might mean the easy prey is taking refuge along the shoreline. There are my guesses. Was it a sunny or overcast day? Overcast is easier in terms of not putting fish off.

How do you adapt in your fishing?

Just curious why you ask. Were you catching mostly smalls? Was this a poorer showing for you on this lake?

Fun thread. I'd love to hear more on how you guys fish your topwaters -specifically. Bass_Fanatic, when you say high noon, is that ever under bright sun? I tend to fish "in the box" then. Am I missing something? With the Pop-R, how do you adapt to condtions? Or what have you seen? Thanks!

No sympathy here either ;D. I don't think that "someone" fished any better than you. It's just the numbers fell on his side. You're splitting hairs here. Your rollin' dice at that point.

This sounds pretty normal. No, your deep fish will not likely move up shallow. But, as Catt and CJ mention, shallow fish may become more willing to hunt during daylight. The reason, as CJ mentions, is that bass and most other warmwater fishes cannot adjust the amount of air in their swim bladders quickly enough to adjust for the pressure change associated with rapid depth change. How far can they move vertically? There doesn't seem to be much direct information out there, but observations by anglers show bass can move as much as 15 vertical feet to chase prey, but this is for short duration and they must move back to their acclimation depth. I'd have to double check what I have, (as I collect this sort of stuff), but anglers report swim bladder distention in bass when bass are caught deeper than 25 feet, although this varies with how long they are held, and, the difference in water temperatures. However, the two big factors will be presence and availability of prey (affecting bass activity and vulnerability nothing new here) and sky water conditions (affecting your presentations nothing new here either). If you've got bluebird skies and calm clear water, you may not be able to get close to shallow fish. You can adapt to this, or you may be better off staying with your deeper fish. If you can find lotsa active prey in the shallows and visibility is not crystal, or you can adapt, you may find a good bite shallower. Might be good time to try flippin' or froggin' in the shallow heavy stuff -if you have such places.

That's the game. There are no hard and fast rules really, but there are things, like those details I mentioned above, that can sometimes squeak out more fish for you. Varying the retrieve, with any lure, can make the lure seem more alive, exciting, and vulnerable. The key with a Jitterbug, or other topwaters, is often the pauses, and you may have to figure out what works best on a given day. Here's how I look at it: If they'll take it well with mostly retrieve, and short pauses -great! I can cover more water and catch more bass. But sometimes a longer pause works well. At times, a Jitterbug can catch fish with a steady cadence, like a buzzbait, but unlike a buzzer, a treble-hooked lure can't pass over weed clumps, free-floating weeds and algae, or bounce off logs and twigs, like a buzzer can. If you've got really active bass committing suicide in front of you, a faster topwater like a spinnerbait, buzzer, or jumpbait may catch more fish in a given time. But when things are quieter (and fast stuff isn't blowing over) you may have to tease up some hits. A slower presentation may pull some bass up, and Jitterbugs shine here.

Yes! Ditto, Raul. Big ones will find weaknesses and those old non-free-swinging hooks are just that.

I used to love saltwater fly-fishing, pitching streamers n such to striped bass, blues, and false albacore on the Atlantic coast. Still love it, but she's long distance affair, and just memories now. One time I and some friends (a fishing/environmental education program I co-lead) were guests of a fly-tyer of some re-known off the coast of RI Little Naraganset. We were ferried out to an expansive sand flat off a small sandy island (Sand Island) in the bay. As the boat approached the little island (really just a spit of sand and grass) I stood up on the foredeck and saw groups of gunmetal schoolie stripers scattering ahead over the pale sand in gin clear water. Oh man, I can smell that salt air right now. The fishing was just wonderful: Stripers from 4 to 6 lbs all around us. We could blind cast, sight fish, (some tailer's), and catch em. In that warm shallow water they were very speedy. Basically, we followed them out with the ebbing tide, where they piled up at the first drop-off, intercepting sand eels that were sucked off the flat with the tide. Terns told us where the concentrations were. It was great! Then, well before our appointed pick-up time, a HUGE black cloud appeared to the south. We kept out eyes on it and it soon became apparent it was bearing down on us. It was truly a scary sight: huge, towering very high above us, and absolutely black. The wind picked up (we had to pocket our caps) and lightning began to show in it, big thick jagged bolts, and soon they seemed almost constant. As we realized it was going to engulf us I had everyone stack the rods at the highest point of the island, (really just a mound of sand and grass) and then get flat down in depressions away from our makeshift lightning rod. I quickly tallied the rods and noticed one was missing. I set off around the island looking for the missing boy. I made full circle and when I returned the boat was there, everyone was in it and Paige was waving me on frantically. I walked, a bit too leisurely for Paige, and when I boarded she seemed really ticked at me for my nonchalance. On the run back it rained so hard it hurt. Paige was a minister and prayed all the way in. By that time I wasn't nonchalant about storms. I guess I felt so relieved the boat was there, and everyone was accounted for, and the speed of the storm, that I was comfortable with our run time. Back at John's tackle shop (Cove's Edge), we all sat around sipping coffee and hot cocoa and listening to Paige tell the story of the hurricane of '33 the very one that severed Sandy Point, leaving Sandy Island orphaned in its wake, and 600 dead. She had everyone's attention, and we all felt a very real connection to it. Sometimes very intense storm cells, often the worst of them, have very calm conditions around them. And lightning can discharge well ahead. I remember watching a huge black mass to my east while I fished in sunshine, and I later heard that storm took a life. A man was watering his garden, in calm conditions, when he was struck by lightning, and I as I heard it, the bolt blew his arm off as he held the hose. His wife called the EMTs. Gosh I felt for her. Oh yeah, one more not me this time. Some guys came into the tackle shop one day and told me what happened out in the lake. They were in a fiberglass boat and saw an approaching storm. As they fished they said they could hear ticking sounds coming from their graphite rods. They said the clicks seemed to rise up the musical scale. Then, when they looked at each other, they saw each others' hair was standing on end! They got off the water. They said that an engineer friend told them he thought that they, being in a glass boat and holding graphite rods and the approach of that big electrical storm, had become a giant electrical capacitor, and that they were lucky. I don't know electricity very well to verify if this could be so. But if I ever my graphite rods ticking I'll be outta' there if I can. I have enormous respect for lightning, and it scares me, I suppose because I really know so little about it.

Bass can adjust amount of patterning and lightness/darkness to match surroundings, or likely to communicate. Bass are also individuals. Some are unique. I saw a female on a bed this spring that was unique. She had four stripes, alternating with pale ones -she looked like one of those small round striped watermelons! She was so gravid she was nearly round, and very buoyant, the male could push her around like a balloon. Also, there are some notable regular color pattern changes I see during the spawn that must mean something, but I'm at a loss to explain what .

Great lure -night or day, but best in low light -overcast, early, late, after dark. I tend to fish it this way: Cast. Wait after splashdown. Twitch. Wait. Then start a slow gurgling cadence. Then pause. Then retrieve some more, then pause, etc... Here's why the above: Wait immediately after splashdown because aggressive bass can see lures in the air and will chase after it (At least under low light. In bright light and clear water they usually bolt away from the lure). Sometimes they meet it right at splashdown (that's how these hits happen, btw), or shortly after. Also, aggressive bass some distance away will investigate the sound of the splashdown, so I give 'em time to get there before I start the retrieve. The twitch takes bass that might not commit otherwise. Often they'll zoom up, then hang below and watch. An aggressive retrieve might put them off. The twitch can be deadly, and is less apt to put a tentative fish off. If no strike, I start the retrieve -taking the plug into new water. Blub, blub, blub, blub... then pause. The retrieve is again an attractor, then I play with pauses. Often they hit on the pause, a twitch, or just after it starts up again. Sometimes it's a long pause that works. Makes 'em sweat! I don't tend to fish it with a continuous retrieve because there are faster, more weedless baits for this -like a buzzer. It's disadvantage is that it is a slow lure. Other topwaters can cover more water and catch fish -jumpbaits, buzzers. But the Jitterbug WILL draw fish, and big ones too -this last is a particular advantage to the slow speed. This is a lure that is capable of taking the biggest bass in the pond. I actually have my grandfather's Jitterbug -about 60 years old now! The first bass I ever saw, and many others after, fell to it on my Dad's rod. Eventually he gave it to me. I've caught a lot of bass on it, but it's now hanging over my desk, waiting for my son to come of age.

Yeah, it takes some time to get used to it. But they'll take you to fish, albeit relatively slowly.

I make my own. I use an Eagle Claw L42, put it in my fly-tying vise, and tie on a loop of stiff 20lb mono (XT) that sticks out forward past the hook eye. I make the mono loop of proper length to then fold back over the hook point. The mono loop is pinched at the apex so it stays in a V-shape, that will fit over the point. Whip-finish then apply a thin coat of 5-minute epoxy. Easy to make, weed guard is virtually invisible (I use green XT), the hook has good hooking qualities, and the rig is very weedless. If fishing in brush I use .016 tempered wire -leader material (saltwater tackle shops).

When did your spawn end? It was proabably at least 3 weeks long, with fish coming and going. Afterwards, they do go back to summer locations. But, not all fish do the same exact thing. I think from reading about fish habits (through the fishing filter -looking for patterns) we get the idea that all fish move en masse away from spawning sites to "summer haunts". The reality is that individual fish start the spawning progression at different times, then drop back to their summer location(s). Some likely move rapidly, others hang out around spawning sites, others probably filter back slowly. And I said summer "location(s)" because not all individual bass have the same habits. Telemetry studies often have individual bass that are home-bodies and others that are roamers, that cover large areas. Where they do though is pretty consistent: They go for the food. In natural lakes post-spawn is a prime feeding time when vegetation is still developing and small fishes still exposed. Your scattered fish may mean that there aren't areas that are excluding fish -yet. Too hot in the shallows, too little O2 in the depths. That may come later.

That was my first thought. We call it Threadleaf pondweed. But, I'd have to see a photo, and I don't know Georgia.

Some are obvious, like lightning. Others one may not expect. We often here about waders filling up and taking people down. This is B.S. But, there's something you can do that really is dangerous in waders -wade out into soft bottoms. There is a spot on a popular steelhead river I used to fish that captured and killed more than one angler. It's a tall clay bank that erodes into the stream and creates something akin to the storied "quicksand". If an angler gets a boot stuck, and falls over into the water, he can not right himself, and drown. I had something like this happen while wading a bass pond. I stood just bit too long in one soft spot and my boot stuck. I realized what I'd done, for what it was, a really dangerous predicament, looked around and there was no one around. I eventually pulled free, but it scared me. I continued my wade fishing by avoiding larger cattails and wading where the reeds grew (n harder bottom). Watch out! Think ahead. You'll catch more fish, and bigger ones too, with the rest of your life than you would in that potentially dangerous moment. Hmmmm...This maybe should be in the Everything Else section.

GatorBK, Wow. DO you use bait or snag them. I would think you'd have to hook them up front, in the snout , to get any control. Do you wear a harness?

Roostertails, I never thought of those things then like I would now. I have a little boy now and I guess things sink in a little deeper now. In fact, I have dreams about my little one (6 now) getting hurt or worse at least once a week. Maybe it's a payback, or readying me for things to come :-/. Speaking of rocks reminds me of doing pirouettes on diatom-slick river bottoms. They are like wet ice. I can't ski or ice-skate very well, but put a nice drift in river center and I'd get there. And the most amazing thing was how I could chase a big one downstream, slipping and sliding, doing some fancy ballet, and not take a dunking. I never fell. I even carried an SLR camera around my neck and thought nothing of it. Then, one day, after a dozen years of this supernatural footwork I stumbled on a boulder in mid-stream chasing a spicy buck 'bow and dunked my camera -ruined it. It was like waking from a 12 year stupor -how stupid of me to carry an expensive camera in the middle of a freakin' steelhead river! I guess I grew up just then because I never carried another camera into the big rivers again. And I got married shortly thereafter. Risking one's life for steelhead somehow seems to make some sense. But for bass? Maybe smallmouth. Oooooo -here's one that really scares me, to this day. My friend Craig and I hit the Genesee River for smallmouths. Our plan was to float a stretch in a canoe. As I remember, we put in at a town called Portageville, and floated on down stopping and casting to anything that might hold a bass. If the spot wasn't so interested we'd just cast as we drifted past. Now, I have a habit of not being able to pass up anything even remotely fishy. At one point we came into a flat wide and shallow riffle and I spotted a small log sticking into the water on the left bank. I told Craig I was going to stop and cast. We beached the canoe and I waded over. I realized the log was too shallow and then noticed the unusual make-up of the bottom. It was flat slate, like a billiards giant table. Instead of continuing the drift, intrigued Craig and I waded downstream a little ways and the riffle ahead just seemed to vanish. We continued on, and came to the very lip of one of the big falls of Letchworth Gorge! The current was fast but shallow and smooth and we were able to look over the edge. I remember there were tourists down below and they looked like ants. If I hadn't stopped to check out that log, the would have seen a red canoe and two idiots (who never bothered to look at a map) go over the edge. I still shudder when I think of that. (If anyone is from that area, I'd like to know how high that falls is). You know what, I wasn't die hard, I was just plain stupid. And there's more, but I think I ought to shut up now while I still have some semblance of respect around here.

Development depends on temp. I don't have the figures in front of me, but it's about a week to hatch at "normal" temps (low 70s) and a bit less to "swim up" -that is, to absorb the yolk sac and start swimming and feeding. The male abandons them shortly after this, although I've seen males swimming with them and apparently still guarding.

Thanks, Catt. What line do you use? Braid, mono, fluoro?

Oh man...many times! Don't get me started... I used to steelhead fish regardless of weather; Steelhead will do that to you. More than once I had to take a frozen reel unscrew it and pop it under my armpit to thaw it. I'd regularly pop frozen egg-sacks into my mouth to thaw them enough to fish with. Single digits and anchor ice make things challenging. But the steelies were often willing, especially when there ain't no one else out there. We had a dynamite spot below a power station that required a wade, sometimes at literally the very brim of my Xtra-Long waders in 31F water and single digit air. Sometimes I did it alone. That is not smart. I used to (before I had a family) fish sun-up to sun-down, and the Earth always turned too fast. When a buddy joined me, after we'd pulled on the neoprenes at 5AM I'd quip, "Catheter's in! Let's git on 'em." You should've seen our waders more Goop and Duct tape than neoprene. I sometimes spent Christmas or New Year's night laying on my back listening to the Lake Ontario surf while waiting for a steelhead to celebrate with. My buddy, Manny, used to say "Fish on -Good Day." That's about all he ever said that made any sense anyway. I once hooked an early king salmon at midnight, on a 5-foot glass light-action spinning rod and 300 yards of 8lb. (I was fishing for trout). I had no control like fighting from a foot-long section of broomstick! I saw the knot at the bottom of the spool several times that night. I was not going to lose that fish. When you see the knot you stop pulling and pray they next run is back at you. I discovered that night, that after you fight a salmonid for a long time they, unlike warmwater fish, can deflate their swim bladders. Then you are fighting weight, as well as body depth and fins. He would then sit on the bottom and both he and I would rest (silly of me, but I was very tired after consecutive nights of nighttime trout fishing, and working during the day). But I was not going to lose that fish Who knows how big it is! In the end I finally had to set the rod down, wrap the line around my hand and pull him off bottom, and basically hand-lined him to the net at 5:20AM. It only weighed 24lbs. My friends were not happy with me. My reel, a Mitchell 300, was toast. Believe it or not, I even back-reeled to Chinooks! I'd vowed never to use drag, and still haven't with spinning gear. I went to work that day and was literally delirious from lack of sleep. You know, if you do something very important very intensively for some time you begin to react to ghosts. This would happen from goose hunting For weeks afterwards, any remotely goose-like sound would make my heart skip a beat music in a car next to me, children's voices on a playground,... . I was at work (security guard at a public museum) after catching that salmon and every time someone walked by and rattled change in their pocket I would leap to my feet! (We used coins to pin the line on the spool of our reels, and act as an alarm Hear the coins jingle and you've got trout from 3 to 18 lbs, or salmon from 15 to 40.) At one point a women walked in front me (slumped at my post) and all I could make out was someone walking in front of my fishing rods in moonlight! I leapt up and shouted, Lady! Your in my lines! You IN my lines!!! My boss sent me home. Neat guy we had an understanding. OK, I'm started... I fished out in the big lake too, mating on big boats, and in little, even tiny, boats too. Little boats and frigid Great Lakes are a bad risk. But, we'd fish thermal bars so far out you couldn't see shore in an open 16-footer. We once found a non-import Molsen bottle floating by! We wondered then if we were too far out. Nah!!!! One April morning my friend Tim (a leathered biker who looked like a real bad ***, but was sweet as can be) showed up at my door with a cheap 9-foot inflatable raft, and a little Sears 3hp motor. As we left the ramp, other anglers just stared. One guy shouted, Are you stupid?! We waved. Luckily it was too early for offshore thermal bars and we started finding fat football browns about a ¼ mile out. Those browns could tow that little airbag until it threw a wake! We did wonder what might happen if we hooked a King. (Since then, telemetry has shown salmon to cross the lake (40-some miles) on a direct bee-line.) But a salmon wasn't needed. There was a strong south wind, and we planned to stay inside the lee of the lake's south shoreline. But, the browns moved out, and then, the motor didn't start, and we began to skate like a cork out to sea (This was not the first time a little Sears motor had tried to kill me; The first was the only time I was picked up by the Coast Guard. I was 12). Tim pulled and pulled, more and more frantically, on that cord, and land got farther and farther away. It was the first time I'd thought about the 42F water all around us no PFDs of course. Tim put a foot up to kneel into it, and he gouged a big biker boot onto a valve, and air started to hiss at an alarming rate. FIND THAT VALVE!!, I yelled. And Tim found it. But the boat sagged and the motor was tilting over on its mount. Tim then began to babble and then giggle in a weird sort of way. I said, Tim, pull it together, grab that paddle and don't stop. Don't think, just paddle. We dug and dug and dug and it seemed as though we were not able to beat the wind. Those cheap flimsy plastic paddles would curl away from our work and we'd have to flip them over every now and again, but eventually we started making ground, got into the lee again, and then were lying flat on the beach feeling like we could just kiss Mother Earth. I think we actually may have; I have a recollection that sand never tasted so good on my lips and tongue. The next morning, when I woke, my arms were so sore I couldn't raise them more than a foot or so. One more story, this one was not me. I worked in a large tackle shop and often fished before I came in to work. One morning I was double-hauling to pods of rainbows and little coho's from the rocks when a guy in a very small flat-bottomed jonboat left the little harbor. He had an electric trolling motor. I almost shouted, Are you stupid! But I knew I was equally stupid and knew he planned to hug the shore for a couple hours till the trout and salmon moved off with the rising sun. The following day I heard the story in the shop. A guy in 10-foot jonboat and electric motor got line tangled in his prop and was located from a Coast Guard helicopter 15miles out at 1AM. That one still gives me chills.