Paul Roberts

Bob, excellent post! No surprise there. Great game plan for turning that pond around, and would be well worth the effort to have a quality water that close to home. Your baby, so to speak. Here's some encouragement that shows how quickly bass can respond to "management" -in this case by the hand of nature: I used to be the sole fisher of a large pond close to my home. The first day I fished it I stopped counting the bass at 130 -every cast, every lure. Not one broke 11inches. That very winter we had huge snow and a catastrophic kill resulted. I continued to fish it and the growth was impressive. Here are some photos documenting those very fish: One of 130+ caught the summer prior to the kill -10inches. Four 14"-16" taken four years later. (Remember, I was the sole angler on this 100acre pond, and the vast majority of fish were released).

Amongst friends, and ethical regulars on my waters, I have no secrets. I've found that when I share good info, I get it in return. I have a lot of waters to available to me and I can't be everywhere, so shared info is valuable. I'm not a tournament fisher so I don't have competitive needs. I'm more a naturalist that focuses a lot of time on aquatic systems. With the above "shared info" idea in mind, I try to keep my competitive urges (and resulting stinginess) in check. I do control the information I possess though. I have places, spots, timings, etc... that I may be currently working on and don't want added interference, that I share after I've gleaned what I'm looking for. I don't share specific locations on open on-line forums, or just anyone on the water. I have been burned, but rarely. I'm pretty open with newbs on the water, if they ask, but usually it's the more important basics, the WHY of a certain pattern or scenario, rather than the specifics like exact location, bait, and retrieve. It's like the adage, "Give a man a fish..." In this case it's more like, "Give a man a fish, he'll tell you what you already know. Teach him the why's and he'll come back and tell you things new to both of you. I really value all the extra eyes and ears on the water.

How do you use water temperature specifically? Say it's pre-spawn, on a given day. How do USE water temperature?

Guess I should elaborate: I almost never hear water temperature (the numbers) as part of people's fishing reports, planning, or discussion of patterns or results. It's like everyone knows it's important, but it's not mentioned, beyond, "Tough day! I nearly froze my bits off!" I've actually NEVER yet met a bass angler, on the small waters I fish, with a thermometer (in 40 years)! It's regular gear on trout streams (although few seem to really use them). Maybe it's only the big water guys with an in-dash surface temp gauge using temperature? So, how does water temperature work in to your plan of action on a given day -specifically? How many actually take temperatures? What does that look like?

Does water temperature matter in bass fishing?

Several ways I think of off the top of my head: Gently turn rocks and look. Look for burrows in mud shorelines and offshore humps. Look for broken claws in shallows. Gently squeeze fish bellies to feel for craws. Seine or better, a baited crayfish trap. Walk shallows at night with a flashlight. You may be shocked at how many craws are there!

I start fishing immediately after ice-out. Shallow ponds warm fast.

Oooops! Sorry Bassackward, confused you with another "BassAckward".

I hate it when I damage the fish I catch, which can be a common thing with soft plastic baits. Also, I get to do a lot of sight fishing in the clear shallow ponds I fish, so I'd ended up with a problem at the other end of the spectrum missing fish. What I suspected was happening, and my response to it, has been born out from research on bass feeding behavior. Bear with me; It's interesting, and practical: Bass mouths are adapted to suction feeding. Suction feeding is a two-part action: Water, with the food, is sucked into the mouth, THEN the water has to be expelled out through the gills. This is important in people missing strikes I believe. I know it has been for me. The trick is, you have to wait for the bass to expel the water before you set up. This can be less a problem with fish you don't see take because by the time you've detected, the deed is done especially with larger fish. But on a short line, when detection is instantaneous, and on sighted takes, this becomes a key issue. There's a third part too called handling time how long it takes for the bass to get control of the prey before they ingest it, or spit it out. Handling may involve further suction (gobbling) and crushing bites (with tongue against pharyngeal teeth). Handling time is important for anglers when we use a long lure like a plastic worm and is dependant on the size, and aggression, of the bass. I've noticed that with a 5 Senko (a bulky worm), a roughly 15 bass often takes a couple gobbles to suck down such a worm, which you feel as multiple taps. With really small fish you may feel rapid multiple taps as the small fish attempts to gobble up the length of the worm. I often gently pull the bait away from such fish. With large bass handling time is minimal. Line watchers will see the suction events as a flicks' in the line. On the dead weight' feeling, the fish has already engulfed it. When the line skating off, the deed is done and he's moving off with the bait. Usually the complete action, with a say 15 bass, is like this: Suck, getting half the worm in, then suck once more to engulf it, then expel the water, then bite down. If I set up anytime prior to the water being expelled, I'll likely pull the bait from them. I have to wait until the bait is in, and then allow them the added second to expel the water. They then bite down on the bait, which is the optimum time to set the hook. Again, the biggest problem, for me and I assume others, has been when sight fishing (seeing the bass take), or on a short line when detection is instantaneous. You have to wait until they go through the process: inhale, and expel the water. This takes a good full second, or two. If I don't see the take and it's a ways out I may miss the sequence and simply feel weight, or see the line moving. Deep hooking appears to be part of the game with soft plastics. Often, if the bass don't feel you or the weight of the line, they choose to ingest. I don't know any sure way around it. Sometimes you don't detect in time. Sometimes it's a very aggressive hungry fish that ingests right away. Sometimes it's a big one that needs no handling time you can't always tell whether it's a 14 incher or a 20 incher. Salted and formulaic (PowerBait) baits are more apt to be ingested, in my experience and others. (See this particularly interesting post: http://www.bassresource.com/fish_biology/skinny-fish.html) Some waters in Colorado even have a ban on salted lures like Senko's. I feel somewhat responsible to be careful in fishing with soft plastics, especially the new salted and formulaic baits, (which we can't seem to get away from). I went barbless with my soft plastic baits last year. Studies have indicated that barbless hooks do not always save fish that are deeply hooked (see discussion at: http://www.bigindianabass.typepad.com/big_indiana_bass/2007/10/ But I counter that barbless hooks decrease time spent trying to extract any hook, especially important with gill or esophagus hooked fish. Anyway, glad you're interested in the issue, as I know we share water here in Colorado. That simply gorgeous 5lber you took last week deserves to swim again. You'll see her later, I'm sure.

Hey Todd, That's a big bass, and in beautiful condition! Was that from a public or private water? Size your images to 500pixels wide -then they'll fit. Paul

Finally got out to bass fish two days this past week the 11th and 14th Each very different days weather-wise, and very interesting days to test an idea I've held dear for a long time about fish activity and their response to lures. Both days were spent on a public pond that has a good population of bass of various sizes. The 11th was a nice fairly rapid heating day, sunny and high in mid 60's. I watched water temps go from 47F to 55.5F in 3 hours. When I first arrived, and temp'd 47, I thought, Ooooh, still cold. So I started fishing slow: a slow-rolled SB, a jig, and a tube. Nada! At one point as I picked up my tube to make another cast a small bass chased it up quickly. Not too fast for you! I thought. Ok, you want speed, you got it! I switched to a hard jerkbait and began an aggressive retrieve and started getting hit. Ended up with 9 in an hour-and-a-half from 12 to 14.5, and 10 of 8 to 9 (bodes well for the future). I then quit this pond about 1PM. Contrast this day with the 14th: Same pond 3 days later during a cold spell, and a descending front. In general, I target heating days and tend to avoid the cold days. This time I purposely chose a cold day that wouldn't heat the water, to see if my avoidance is only due to my own ideas, not the fish's. As a long time trout angler I'd long ago convinced myself of the importance of temperature trends in fishing quality, and this has carried over into my bass fishing. Fish are fish I figure, although their engines run at different temperatures. But I don't want my pre-conceived ideas getting in the way of the truth, so I decided to return to this pond and fish the same way, but on a cold, non-heating day. The 14th ended up a great day for this, ending up at a miserable 38F with rain and sleet by late afternoon. The pond was 49.5F when I started, warmed to 51F in three hours, until the front descended and it fell back to 49 and 47 (at different shoreline locations). I went through exactly as I had on the 11th, using the same aggressive jerkbait retrieve. Nada! I followed up with a jig fished in slow pulls and got bit. I then went through again with the jerkbait, this time fished very slowly and subtly, and got bit as well. Ended up with 6 from 12 to 18 and 7 from 8" to 9". Two best were a 16 and 18, on the jerk and jig, respectively. (The 16 was fat yea!) The two days were very different in bass' response. The fishing was tougher on the cold day (in terms of catch per hour), but both days would have been a skunking if I'd not adjusted. I believe the difference between the two days had to do with the bass' willingness/ability to chase -not to be confused with the given temperature at the moment. 16" -nice condition 18" -a tad thin for pre-spawn 14.5" -Glorious condition! Look at that beautiful fish!

Are these lures very weedless? They all seem to have wide football style heads. Do they shed weeds easily?

I'd be very interested to know what specific baits those were. Right now there's a controversy in Colorado over salt impregnated baits -they are illegal in many waters here due to the concern that fish will ingest them too deeply. I've found that bass can deeply ingest any soft plastic at times. But there appear to be differences in soft plastics. I used to fish for lake-run trout and steelhead and occasionally killed a fish or had them regurgitate. When Powerbait hit the market I began finding various Powerbait trout products in the trout stomachs. Interestingly, I never found a regular plastic egg, wiggler, worm, or hair or feather fly in a stomach. Now trout have relatively small mouths and key on small baits in streams, so impacted stomachs are not likely to be an issue. But with bass, this is an issue. Anyone know how to find out what baits these were? Regular plastics (if that even exists anymore), heavily salted (like a Senko), YUM, Moloko, Powerbait, Gulp!, ...? I wonder if they were all of the same formula. And how many other fish this was found in.

Now that was a good. ;D Now does that mean that C&R is akin to blasphemy? Does that mean I'm headed straight to hell??? 'Cause I'd rather eat perch, 'gills, cats, walleyes, trout, and .... Will those save me???

Some thoughts: There are better tasting fish, and those that grow faster, than bass. Most ponds are stocked with bass and sunfish. Some have the addition of channel catfish. If there are cats, I'd target them for eating! How many and what size bass you take depends on the pond, and the year. Populations commonly fluctuate in such small waters. In general, I'd keep a few of the sizes that appear most abundant, realizing that such a small water most certainly won't produce good fishing down the road if you take too many. You'll want to get an idea about how many other anglers are fishing, and keeping, too, when figuring your take. Not sure where you are, somewhat south I assume, but bass grow relatively slowly. Those 17s you caught would most likely be 7 or 8 years old where I fish. Most certainly, there are not many 17s in such a small pond. So, I'd release the larger ones, as they are harder to replace, the most fun to catch, and proven spawners. And, in many waters this can be very important: For every bass better than 12inches I take out, I'd also take out at least 10 sunfish.

WRB is right on. I don't think you could keep more than one or two mature bass in a 5gal bucket in warm weather for very long. Not sure what the set-up for this contest is but if I had to hold fish for very long (especially during warm summer weather) I'd have a cooler with a bubbler attached, or not participate.

Get the In-Fisherman Largemouth Bass Handbook of Strategies. It categorizes lake, pond and river types in language commonly used in fishing.

Some studies have shown that it takes very few successful nests to make a strong year class and that other factors cause poor year class success. Some northern studies though have indicated that bed fishing is very deleterious to potential hatch years. I have a friend who is a fisheries biologist in NY and he says he's has seen some serious impacts on smallmouths in the St. Lawrence River from bed fishing for males. From what I've read, in some of the big productive reservoirs in the south, bed fishing may not be as potentially deleterious as it in northern natural lakes, or in small waters I fish. For myself, I've chosen against fishing for male bass on beds for a several reasons: YOY bass are important food for larger bass I've seen this myself. If it were to be a good survival year for young bass then I see that surplus of young bass as a boon for larger bass. Food availability is often a limiting factor for bass growth. In the small waters I fish I'd rather have more fish contributing to the populations than just the few that happened to be lucky or less accessible to anglers. Male bass have a hell of a long arduous job. It is possible to be merciless with vulnerable males, and it seems many people are on the public waters I fish. I've too often seen males caught repeatedly, to exhaustion. Most male bass I see or catch have hook wounds, damaged jaws, even hooks or lures left in them. I personally do not want to participate. I leave bedding males be. I will fish for females though. They are much less vulnerable to repeated capture than males, being generally less pugnacious. They can be especially tough to catch when actually dropping eggs, but I leave these fish be regardless. Females don't hang out for a month guarding eggs and then fry either at least in the north where I fish. I am careful not to re-catch the same females repeatedly and if I see ones that look worn I leave them be, regardless of size. Since I fish small waters I can generally find such fish earlier and later in the year. I do a lot of observing during the spawn, a great time to assess a water's potential for bigger fish. For myself, I don't wrestle anymore with the ethical issue of whether my beliefs can hold up when money, or more accurately, ego, is on the line. I don't NEED a quick limit, or a kicker. I work within the ethical and sporting limits I've set for myself. This works best for me. Every impulsive thing I've ever done has left whatever victory I had, hollow.

Interesting BassChaser. Thanks for the details. I'd heard of cirrus clouds coming ahead of fronts but never really knew what they were about. Thanks.

I'm not a tournament fisher, it's more about nature study for me. Man, I'm just fascinated by it all. My Dad was a professional illustrator and he loved to go sketching. He also loved to fish too, so we did both together. I eventually went into the sciences so my journals are part data to answer the "burning questions", and part romance.

Please, bore us!

Sorry I don't fish down there. There are public ponds and reservoirs of various sizes around there though. Check the Colorado DOW (Division of Wildife) site and search Colorado fishing and check for public waters around Castle Rock and South Denver.

Sorry Muddy. Been there done that. I write for myself now. But...if you can teach me how to measure color penetration and the bass perception of it with my finger, I'll make an exception!

I've kept a fishing journal for a long time now. My first entry was in May 1976. Wow, I guess I've broken 30 years. I wouldn't have noticed if it wasn't for the 9 volumes on the bookcase and the graying hair in my mirror. I also wouldn't remember half of what actually transpired on all those fishing days. Memory, it turns out, is really a lot of subjective mush not unlike dreams. Here are some suggestions, through my filter: There are lots of recipe book type logs out there that offer a list of things to fill in. I think these simply leave too much out and lack the flexibility and space for the information that really fleshes out a day on the water. There are also on-line databases you can buy, which I think is overkill. I just never record enough actual data, and there are so many variables to be considered. Things like weather trends, fish behaviors, and presentation details are rarely cookbook enough to fit neatly into a field, either digital or on paper. My journals have been kept in archive quality (acid free) 8½x11 artist's sketchbooks that start as just blank pages. I write sort of the way I'd tell a friend about how the day went; what worked or didn't, and what was interesting. More recently I've begun using word processing software on my computer to create entries, which helps a lot in organizing and editing. I then transfer this to my bound journals. Not everything is in prose though. I dutifully keep some data that are important, and these lead off every entry, following the date: Bod(ies) of Water: This is made obvious (in brackets) at the top of the entry so I can later refer back to specific waters easily. Weather: The trend over the last few days is critical, as well as through the day as I fish. Sky, water surface conditions, and water clarity (they are related in effect): changes through the day as I fish and how I adapted to them. Water Temp: I always record surface temps when I arrive and when I leave, in roughly the same location usually right at shore somewhere that gets direct sun representing the upper limit of direct conduction. I try to take the temp at exactly the same depth (4) because it can be cooler at say 8 as heat does not penetrate far the depths are warmed over time by convection, and mixing. This recording is a benchmark telling me how rapidly the day is able to heat or cool the water. I also record surface temps out over open water in several places as I fish. Then, I record temps where it might be different: windward and lee shores, sheltered coves, inlets etc. I usually record a couple profiles as well, to keep track of convection. I've always done this for trout religiously but only relatively recently for bass. It has proved worthwhile, helping me understand and better judge how weather, temp, and fish relate. When I trout fished a lot it got so I could put my hand in and judge temp accurately sort of like Muddy can do with color . But I don't fish that much anymore. Wind: Wind affects water temperature distribution which can affect fish distribution. Wind also affects surface and water conditions which affects fish spookiness, and their response to lure types and finishes. Biological activity: I may describe any interesting activity: Insect emergences (Yes for bass too bc insects are preyfish food midge hatches are worth fishing!), plankton blooms, flowering times, even snakes in the road or frogs on the shore sunning. I record when various fish are spawning and where, any observed behaviors, size (for age) classes of fish seen, etc... . Doing this I've been able to discover strong hatch years of bass in my ponds and follow up down the road with satisfying results. Presentation: I usually highlight lure configurations, and relevant tackle choices, and how and why they worked, or didn't. Catches: Size (actual) and numbers. I try to tally every fish. I keep a little notebook in my pocket for notes. Don't trust your memory it's very subjective, and this gets worse the more time has passed from the event -and I mean days, even hours. It seems I begin re-writing history almost immediately! Sketches: I'll diagram (sketch) the ponds, lakes, or areas in lakes, recording locations of interest. I download aerial maps of these to get the shape and locations right. I sketch in bottom contours and cover, my positioning, and use symbols for wind direction and fish locations and catches. I may also sketch insects, fish, fish colorations or markings, or lure configurations anything of particular interest. I try to journal that night when I return home. If I don't a lot of the day is lost, and I end up with mostly some hollow data. It's the thoughts, impressions, and ideas that flesh out the day. The data is important, and is the bare minimum. A really good journal entry though reads like a good fishing article, and focused on your very own piece of water. Sounds like a lot, and can be. But it gets easier when you are in the habit. It also helps if you are fascinated by now nature works and love to write too wish I had more time for both. Some example pages: