Paul Roberts

Yeah, rivers can get tough when its really cold. But if water clarity is ok, the bass are somewhat predictable. They're in the really still water.

Ditto that. Here are 2 videos I made last winter that you might find helpful for understanding just what's going on for bass during winter...

How bout in your rod guides? In case it ever happens to you, know that above about 27F the ice in the guides is still soft enough to fish through. Below that, or with wind chill, you gotta chip that ice out every few casts. I've fished for steelhead in super-cooled rivers in single digit air temps. I had to pop my flies, or bait, in my mouth to thaw them enough to get a few casts in. You make iced tea, we make lemonade up here.

Bass will bite at 50F, and below. But you most often have to s-l-o-w down. Jigs, Chatters/SBs, jerks will work, but... you've REALLY got to S--L--O--W down. Slower than you might realize. A bit too fast and the lake will seem dead. It's not, it's just now in slo-mo. Below 50F is when bladebaits, and lipless fished the same -yo-yoing- work really well. The trick is to minimize horizontal (forward) speed. That's why the yo-yoing. Locations may change too. In large waters, where bass may have to cover some distance to get to winter quarters, they may start heading out when water temps hit 50F. Many bass though, esp in natural lakes and ponds, may not have to move far. I commonly see bass in very shallow in low 40'sF water. In the small waters I fish, I find the bass are still surface oriented, as that's where the heat still is. By the time the water hits 40F though, my fish move away from the shoreline out to deeper, now the warmer, water. They like "inside turns" in structure or cover, that create a bowl shape. They do not like to fight current at this time. In my dishpan-shaped more cover-free waters, bass will collect up near any object, sometimes just a single cover piece. Bass are still interested in food, but they eat much less, and tend to shift to small prey items. For me, the Ned grubs, and hair jigs, are all need when the water is that cold. You don't have to throw in the towel. It's just a different playing field.

Came early this year. Really early. It'll bounce back a little bit, but it'll be more like a prolonged "late-fall/winter" kind of October here. Working on a video about it, since we don't often get weather changes so drastic. My question was: Will the October crankbait bite hold, or will it tank. Heck, it IS October... isn't it? I fish the first day fishing history -"October"; I fish the next fishing "conditions". The fact that I had to adjust the second day says a lot about what "Fall" and "Winter" actually are to the fish. Yeah, I'm a curious sort. And willing to be a pig for punishment just to settle that curiosity.

Looks like a milfoil. Which one, not sure. It's not Eurasian. Might be a native?

Yes, leucistic -no pink eyes, as in albino's. "Piebald" refers to a dark and white coloration -think Holsteins. I caught a steel blue LM last spring. Pigment expression gone awry.

With a BC rig??!! I've seen it done, and the tutorials, but I skip with spinning gear. Did a lot of that this past week -bass tucked tight to an incident shoreline, under overhangs and undercuts. And I mean tight! I had to pretty much hit the bank. Didn't get so much as a follow a foot out. Even when there wasn't overhanging cover to deal with, skipping was the safest way to get that bait right against the shoreline. I'm reasonably accurate just casting, but precisely controlling the speed of the incoming lure into those tangles of grass, sticks, and cattails, was difficult. Skipping slows the lure enough that it never gets hung in the cover. I used a light swim jig, but my best skipping baits are tubes, by far; Gotta actually be careful over-skipping those! I also find I get the best skips by throwing the lure under the rod tip, rather than trying to throw over the tip. Seems like a minor difference but, esp with the swim jig, it makes a big difference. Good luck with it. Sounds fun.

Well, your addiction is a healthy one. You won't find them at home. I fish small waters, so "finding them" is less an issue. So, it's activity/aggression level that I try to ascertain. Will they chase? Or do I have to... go in there after them??!! The latter doesn't always pan out. I rely on the fish at some level. Probably more than I would like to admit.

Not that I know of. I can only really know by seeing the bluegills -primary forage in my waters. Or by fishing, and catching bass. Then there's almost assuredly food nearby. The underlying structural arrangement -areas with notable depth changes can be a tip-off- can help narrow down places to spend your time on. In my waters, there are bluegills in just about every weed bed. But, it's the right size and number of 'gills that matter. And there are places where BGs are more or less vulnerable to attack -places where bass tend to get fed. Best guesses include beds with hard cover mixed in (wood, rock) that breaks up the beds, and broken/ragged weed edges where bluegills and bass have an opportunity to hunt effectively. Edges created by differing substrate, or changes in weed type, can create fishable breaks. When talking surface mats, the same stuff holds true, but... it helps to know whether there is space beneath -a true mat- for bass to move around under. Some "matted" beds are solid weed straight to the bottom. Matting often happens later in the season as the crown gets dense and the underneath leaves die back, esp so when water levels drop, collapsing the surface weeds into a mat. Just some thoughts. Will be curious what others say.

Yes, I've had silicone strands in ElazTech, just like scaleface's creations, and they are still aok -after a year.

"Winter" has come early! In the throes...

LOL! I think there are lots of threads on tackle organization. Yeah, I hear you, it's easy to get buried in stuff you'd LOVE to use, but... gotta mow the lawn. :)) We live in a consumer culture. And bass, being such adaptable generalist predators with a penchant for shiny things, doesn't help matters. Ray Scott, and Johnny Morris, were no fools.

You might be getting a bit ahead of things. I find a period in early to mid-fall where they simply need speed. Its easy to think, "Water's cooling, I better slow down." Uh uh. First, try picking up your speed, and I mean burning. If that isn't going to work, you'll know pretty quick. When it does work, and it is a good fall pattern for me, you also know pretty quick!

Rod holders are made with 1-1/2" ABS tubing. They just wedge into the well in the front of the V-Tube design. Sonar is a Lowrance M68c ~8yrs old now. Transducer is portable, mounted on a section of PVC electrical conduit, It attaches to the side of the tube via a large Velcro strip. This way I can also put it on my kayak. That Premier Plus looks good, very similar design to mine. V-Tube and a high seat. It'll be comfy. I use the well in the bow (behind the seat -everything is backwards in a float tube ) for the rod holder and as a live well to hold a fish or two I might want to take home. Although I'd be careful with large, spiny critters in there!

Interesting. I dunno exactly. The stunning thing sounds plausible, I guess, except that smaller fish are hooking up, and bigger fish are the ones trying to "stun" the relatively small lure. Like WRB, I have always seen those slaps, and tail slaps, as rejections. Trout do this too, as all dry fly fishers figure out. Fish focus with binocular vision and can only do so pretty close to their face. They may rush up, and then reject in an instant. They clamp shut, giving an apparent cheek slap. In some instances it's possible they are sampling with their cheeks and lower jaw too, when they do this. Most fish (bass, stripers, trout, pike,...) have very sensitive hair cells along their cheeks and lower jaw (a specialized part of their lateral line network) that are directly wired into the strike and feeding modules in the brain. The eyes often lead in the attack, but it closes with those frontal hair cell canals. I see cheek slaps, or rolls, often when trout reject a dry fly. Sometimes we cheek hook those fish. I've even seen this up close with wild trout I've kept in stream tanks. They get all excited at a prospect, only to reject it at the very last moment. And again, it appears they may also be sampling the object in the process. The end result is... something isn't right there. As to tail slaps and, possibly, lures sent flying (I haven't seen that much -then again, you're talking some pretty big fish there), a fish's tail can't help but follow its head on the attack. When coming fast and hard, the fish turn away at the last second and make a looping turn in regaining depth. This instantaneous "regaining depth" action is well known in the fish behavior world -called the Mauthner Response- and is actuated by specialized neurons that directly link the flanks and tail with the motor control areas of the hindbrain. It's an automatic flight reaction that operates much faster than a normal "decision" reaction that is processed in multiple brain centers before a motor response is applied. This response is commonly seen in many fishes; I've even video'd it underwater. I've recognized it as part of the rejection response to objects in my aquarium trout too. So... an aborted attack at the last second would involve a cheek, side, and lastly the tail that then powers that big body back into the depths, potentially throwing the lure skyward in the process. My other thought, that's pretty much linked in to the above, is that the relatively low density/high buoyancy of the lure is much more easily thrown out of the water, than real flesh and bone. This could even be part of the reason for the last second rejection. What to do? Find something that doesn't cause a rejection. And/or, add density to the bait. I like the soft plastic jerkbait idea. A big fluke, or Fin-s-Fish, or... something with a little mass and that sits just under the surface, rather than on it. Maybe even one behind a topwater, if you need to draw attention first?

I still fish from the bank. I agree with Catt that it is tougher bc of the access limitations. But as Mobasser said, those limitations can make you a better angler. There are real advantages to bank fishing too, and I try not to forget that as I boat fish. Boats simply give you access, and positioning advantages on any spot. But, sometimes the best casting angle is from the bank. At times I'll park my boat along the shoreline and cast out. I can fish an entire shoreline this way too, along banks that exclude bank fishers bc of brush and trees. I use a backpack that I keep packed with essentials -duplicate of my boat bags. That way I don't end up out there and realize I'd left something in another bag. I grab the detail stuff -lures and riggings- from "the warehouse" before I head out. This stuff changes all the time, with season, water body, and conditions. I use same rods I boat fish with, but find shorter rods can be a help bc of shoreline obstacles -high banks, and overhanging vegetation. If I'm checking out a new water body, I bring spinning tackle. It's much more "brush friendly" than casting gear. I also have a long range bombing rig -a large spooled, long, spinning rig- for mid-summer when there are a lot more fish away from the shorelines. I use the same baits I use from a boat, for the same reasons. They are still the same tools after all. The one thing I may use less of -or at least use more often from a boat- are crankbaits. There are places that cranks can be fished well from the shore, and I don't hesitate. A good pair of waterproof boots, with good traction, are essential. Ah yes, as scaleface reminds me, streams and rivers are great fun, and fishing current offers great lessons in how fish operate. My dad and I used to drive backroads and fish any little creek we came too. We caught many species of fish and always found some surprises too. Small stream smallies may just be my favorite fishing. Don't have that here where I live now.

Yeah, it's interesting how the mind works. The job of the brain -the central processing center- is to "make sense" of the world around us. And it's darn good at it, considering how much there is to parse through. But... the brain will also make sense out of precious few data points. ? The human mind has been called a "belief machine", which explains a lot of the really good, and really strange, ideas floating around out there. Added my share of both to the mix.

No idea, really. It's tough to decipher fish behavior through fishing; There are just so many variables. I have noticed that stream fish are not as affected by bright sunny days compared to stillwater fish. On brilliant blue sunny days, when I just didn't have the stomach to beat a dead horse on my bass ponds, I'd hit the streams for bass or trout. It's, in large part, the broken water that allowed me to get a lure to the fish without spooking the heck out of them. I've learned a bunch about fishing stillwater under brilliant blue since, but the option still holds.

That's interesting.

OoooK... Snow continues. I measured a pond yesterday: 52F top to bottom (9ft). Front supposed to sit here for another couple days. That ought to drop my ponds into the upper 40s. That's "winter" temps! I wonder how long my waters were in the 60deg range this fall? A week? Doubt there's much going back now. Will be interesting to see how much that low angle sun can heat things back up, when it does reappear.

You know, I've liked a lot of Berkeley rods over the years. I still have a few. In fact, the casting rod that has more miles on it than any other -and is still my GoTo crankbait and jerkbait rod- is a Bionix prototype given to me by a Berkeley rep back somewhere in the mid 80's. The graphite collet, he told me, could break if tightened too much on the reel foot. I've remembered that, to this day, every time I screw down a reel on it! By the time they went into production, they'd added an aluminum band inside to shore it up. Mine was a pistol grip model, and I stripped off the foam and added a full straight handle. Love that rod. It's still a starter for me.

I nearly always have, either a curly or paddle tail. But, they run the risk of destabilizing the bait, esp if you want to burn it.

Oh, I'll have "fall" alright. Just not the transition window I was anticipating. Seems like it was just in the 90s here. Too much going on here to stay in touch. Can't wait to retire.

I was planning to shoot a video on a fall pattern I enjoy, but a serious cold front, with snow, has rolled in, and is just sitting on us. The bummer is that it won't come around again until next year. Maybe I'll get lucky, next week, and catch a piece of it yet. But I think the slide has begun.