Paul Roberts

Ugh, hate to bring this up. Line rating (i.e. lb test) is not a real standard. Diameter I would think would be the best standard. I see you did that for some lines that happened to be same diameter, but they should all be done that way. Frustrating thing about how lines are marketed.

Short rods can be an advantage when fishing from the shoreline, when you may be tucked/under overhanging trees.

Excellent. What you describe fits really well with the "natural lake" type waters (natural or not) I fish up N here.

Your smallies won't likely be eating goldfish, or stocky trout. They will eat the younger shad (yours will be gizzards which will likely outgrow SM gape size within their first year). There are almost certainly sunfish of some type -bluegills and/or pumpkinseeds perhaps. These, along with yellow perch and young crappies, will be primary forage. It’s also possible that they are on crayfish too, just depends on whether there’s a good popn there. I fish a pond (about 12 acres) that by looking at it would be LM water, and it does have them. It also has SM though and they are more or less mixed in. They all feed on bluegills in and on edges of primary cover -milfoil and coontail. There is a deeper dam end and a shallower weed and slop end. I find the SM all over the pond as SM tend to be more mobile than LM. I’ve even caught them in the slop on "frog" baits. They are generally more visible than the LM, often openly cruising where I can sight fish to them. Visibility runs 3 to 4ft in this pond. I find both SM and LM outside spawning bluegill colonies and interestingly, and typically, I find the LM hugging closer and "ambushing", the smallies cruising by and slashing. In general you can expect LM's to be more sedentary, SM more mobile. I also find SM along the weed walls, and in this pond there is an elongated hump away from shore that always holds some SM, and a few LM. I've caught a number of SM in the 18-20" range in this pond. I see two main scenarios for your water: -Shad in open water (if there are good annual hatches of them -but gizzards in small waters can do poorly so this may come to nothing) -Panfish prey around shallow cover, and over open water (bluegills being zooplanktivorous and insectivorous). -A possible third might be crayfish, esp if you have rock there somewhere but you didn’t mention that. You're lake is deep and steep -being such a small water- so I'd focus on the flats/benches. In my SM pond there are several such “benches” that the SM visit regularly. I see two such areas in your pond/lake. One is the point on the W shore and the wide point/flat and cove right across on the E shore. If water clarity is really never more than 2ft, you might actually be able to ignore the deep water. If your SM are piscivorous, (not keyed on crayfish) then you can expect them to be mobile and feeding higher in the water column. Here’s what I like in my SM pond: swim jigs, small swimbaits, tubes, lipless cranks, and top waters -in particular I, at times, do really well with a little 1/8oz Triple-Wing buzz bait. Good luck with it. Looks like fun.

For bass: Mepps Aglia #'s 2, 3, and 4. For stream trout: Roostertail, Panther Martin, Mepps Aglia. A North Korean "Terminator".

That is some heavy wind. Tough detection. Were you stroking that jig?

Prey fishes? Cover?: Vegetation? Wood? Substrate? Muck, sand, gravel, cobble, ... Clarity sounds on the low side at ~2ft. That's a little lake at 9.6ac. Are you in a boat? My guess this is less a bait issue -you've thrown plenty. This is a location and timing issue.

So sorry to hear, Catt. That is a lot of goodbyes. Here's to a brighter March.

They've been around a while, and a small outfit I believe. Probably not competitive with the network of instant shippers nowadays. Even Cabelas and BassPro aren't up to par with the likes of Tacklewarehouse and Amazon.

Feelin for you buddy.

That is a BIG pickeral! On tackle light enough to let them keep their fins in, they are speedy things! Never seen one that big though.

I need a weedless head too. The mushroom style, in light weights, does ok in live vegetation, but its all the dead stuff, the floating stalks, and detritus/muck/gunk that fouls me up.

What hooks will you be using?

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I've done a lot of looking for spawning beds. I actually spent several years observing and recording timing data on spawning activity. I am close to finishing up a video documentary on largemouth spawn season behavior. The beds can be tough to spot, even for professionals in scuba gear. LM's, bc they are often willing to spawn on soft bottoms (which they clear to something firm) can be lost in local cover/debris. A paper came out describing the challenges for researchers and managers in trying to identify beds. Being on shore, and low to the water, is doubly difficult. Your best bet is to hoof a lot, and look during peak spawn times for your area. Bass spawn in the same places year after year (even reusing the same beds) -something called "site fidelity", and they do so bc... it just plain worked. There are always adventurer individuals though. You'll likely need high banks, (I've climbed trees), and some good water clarity. Keep looking. I am going to take a stab... The bed is the pale patch just ahead of the female. Looks like possibly the male is down there tending it. Or, the bed is a short distance away and shallower. Either way, she's facing it. She appears to be in what I call "classic pose" -she holding just outside the bed, awaiting a spawning interlude. She is girthy enough that she is still carrying a lot of eggs. Here's a pair in "Classic Pose". Male on right, bed out of picture on right up on shallow shelf. Female on left, holding and awaiting a spawning bout:

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Wonderful! That is a happy boy.

Looks like a baaaaaad idea. I picture stormy seas ahead.

The fact that you are catching until the end of spawn, then only catching juveniles (it sounds like) is very telling, and common, even in small waters. Mature bass often move away from shorelines in summer. This is the norm, but there can be exceptions. If you are fishing from the shore, almost certainly there will be some catching opportunities from the shoreline, but you will have to look for them and they may be restricted in place and time,as well as approach angles. I have some long-casting rigs for fishing from the shoreline in mid-summer, when bombing out to distant targets can give you the best chances at getting bit. If you don't have a boat, consider getting a float tube or kayak. It will open up a water body to you like nothing else. Early in the summer period (post-spawn/early summer -when you said you lose contact with your bass) bass commonly collect up on prominant structure/cover pieces at the "first drop-off", outside weed edges, .... prominant features away from the shoreline. Seems they like a little 'elbow room' then. (What they are really doing is redistributing to summer haunts.) If there is a lot of good structure/cover available, the fish may be more distributed. If not, they can be more concentrated. I've seen numbers using single isolated cover pieces such as single weed stalks, a bush, or a prominant drop -out away from shorelines. Cover water then, keep your eyes peeled, cast and find them. Immediately post-spawn, bass can still be high in the water column, so don't fish under them. Food: Bass can usually adapt to -learn how to hunt- the most abundant prey fish in the lake. Find out the most common prey species in your waters (observation, DNR, other fisherman) as the bass are probably making use of those. The bass will know where and when they are most vulnerable, and stay on them. In my waters it's bluegills; Follow the appropriate sized 'gills and you'll be near bass. If there are lots of crayfish in a water body, it's likely bass make some use of them. Ways to search them out is to turn shoreline cobbles, strain vegetation, set crayfish traps, or search the shallows at night with a powerful flashlight. Keep in mind though that while crayfish can make up a large proportion of SM diets, this is more rarely the case for LM. LM tend to be primarily piscivorous. It's not so important to "imitate" prey, as it is to know where and when the most vulnerable prey is. Where are bass getting fed in your ponds? One thing I'll do before fishing is walk a pond shoreline and look for areas with concentrations of bluegills. I almost invariably find bass there. I also keep my eyes peeled while I fish for feeding bluegills and feeding bass. "Activity" like rising bluegills, and/or surging bass, is something to be watching for. As to timing, the "when"... some generalities (there are ALWAYS exceptions): -Bass are energetically most efficient between 50F and the low 80'sF. In most waters, bass are perpetually hungry in this range. But, in most waters, bass are not able to feed effectively whenever they want to. (There are some exceptions -Baccarac comes to mind.) -Increasing temps can be a turn-on, except at high temps. Dropping temps can be turn-on mid-summer on. What this means is that bass may have some "energy to spare" during these times. Energy = Food/Metabolism -Bass appreciate speed in your retrieve -often its required- in warmer water. Anglers often describe this as "Don't try to "feed" them, make them chase!" -Learn retrieves and manipulations that trigger strikes. Use them. Be "with your lure" at all times. Bring a good lunch. Being a predator is an energy-expensive lifestyle. Ask any lion. -In water <55F and >80'sF, bass may appreciate slower presentations, ones they know they can catch. (The latter -the high end of the range- often has to do with how much food is available to meet the bass's high metabolic needs. Otherwise they may lay low.) -When bass hunt often has to do with when prey is most vulnerable. -Bass are often most effective hunters in low light. They hunt by first getting into striking range. -Prey is most vulnerable when it's engaged in feeding, when compromised in movement by lighting, cover, structure, current...any boundaries or borders. Bass are expert at reading this. They both know opportunities when they see them and they become active when opportunities are most likely. In this way, you and the bass have the same job. -Bass are most effective hunters in broken cover -with room to run- but they are an adaptable species so can often get the job done in denser cover and open water too, both of which require more specialized fishing approaches. -Bass (all fish) are very spooky under high visibility conditions and require a specialized approach. Chuck-n-wind can simply scare everything away. Some stuff to chew on.

So you are asking about fishing rivers in cold water? You're still waters are all iced?

Hey, I was talking about fishing!

I want to know why they look fishy. It can be tough, to impossible, to get the info and there will be a whole lot of hypothesizing/guessing. But over time, experience and knowledge provide at least "educated guesses" and "best information". Let me follow up with the outing I described above, bc it was interesting, and relevant to the "data vs intuitive" apparent dichotomy T9 described... I was back at my hot-spot -a wintering hold that bass had yet to expand out of yet. Another angler -a good one by gear and mien (how's that for intuitive judgment! See I told you I probably use gut in my fishing too )- stopped to chat a bit and he commented that it's still February and the water's likely cold. I told him I got 57F skin deep on the N (incident) shore. He said, "You took the temperature?" "Yes, real number. The water in front of us here is probably 53 maybe 54. Cold front coming in though with snow (hence the wind), so enjoy it for the time being. The bass sure are." A few of the bass I caught were jumpers! A tad labored -couldn't quite get the air- but it was cool to see in February. The guy, was going on gut and assuming cold water. Easy enough to do. But, the story got even cooler ... Here's my take: There was a strong breeze blowing right down the pipe of that elongated wintering hole, bordered on each side by rubble berms. A wind-generated current set up, pushing down that “channel” and I found my fish in very specific locations. One was along the opposite berm in an “eddy”. I’m “guessing” the bluegills were corralled by the current in that eddy, their movements compromised, controlled, and readable as such by the bass. Those ‘gills were vulnerable and the bass took advantage. So did I. The second spot was a rubble hump and once I found it -bump, bump, bump, with my jig- I immediately fished the upwind “cushion” and the downwind “eddy” and it was Bam! Bam! Bam! in both those spots. I drew blanks when I got away from those kitchenette sized pockets. Now I have a lot of experience with current, being a long time fly-fisher and river rat. Also, I’ve seen, and taken advantage of, some cool current influenced things in my stillwater fishing too. I’ve had the appropriate rewards etched into my limbic system concerning current to say that intuition/emotion/gut was indeed at work, and… I could actually feel it in the moment -"Ooooooo!" And, at that berm eddy, I only got fish on long casts into that eddy. If they fell short, which often happened in that breeze, NADA! Here was the final piece of “data”. The wind died at sunset and the current stopped. I revisited my berm eddy (that had fish stacked in it) to do a final milk run. And it was DEAD. I cast and cast, and it was entirely shut down. Those fish were still there, I'm quite sure of it -they don't have a lot of options in that shallow pond; The whole wintering spot is not a large area. Funny thing, I’d been griping about that strong crossing breeze knocking down my casts and affecting my detection. But after the wind died and I could make long accurate casts and have complete detection, the fish were done. Could I be wrong that current was the big reason the biting died then? Absolutely. I can think of other possibilities, any or all of which could have factored in. But, I “believe” that current was the major factor. My gut told me so. So, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. It’s already in my journal, and will be made into a video journal. As I’ve said in the past, “I generally start writing history as soon as I leave the water.” Not sure how else to "make sense" of a set of experiences. I'm not so sure that "data" and "intuition" can be easily separated. I'm aware of the research T9 mentioned, and it's real stuff. But of course the two are, or end up, bundled together. A good (but in depth) book on the subject is "Thinking Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kahneman.

I try to hit my circuit of ponds at ice-out after heavy winters -much snow on ice- to check for winterkill. It's the shallow ponds with lot of vegetation that are at highest risk. I get there as close to ice-out as I can bc carcasses rot and sink very quickly. Th3e odor of a strong kill, and accompanying gulls, can be a tip off too. Some ponds have been devastated some years. When I see other fishers plying those waters I let them know. Sad thing is that large fish tend top succumb first. Fortunately, severe winters are not that frequent here. Kills aren't always complete either. Partial kills may only affect one end of a (largish) pond. And the culling effect of a partial kill can reduce competition and pave the way for rapid growth following. One devastating kill I experienced resulted in the culling of huge numbers of stunted bass -I had a 100 fish day there once, of gaunt 10inchers. Three or so years later it was giving up good numbers of chunky 15-16"ers. One year I came upon a partial kill that boded well for the coming years (and it panned out) but among the casualties of that partial kill was one of the few 20+" bass I knew of in my ponds. That hurt. That's an 8 to 10 year old fish here. When you do the math, it hurts even more. On to less moribund talk... I've fished and done well in algae covered ponds, like scaleface, using frogs and at one pond years ago, with a bucktail keel-hook streamer and fly tackle. That was FUN! The blow-ups left holes in the algae and I could look back across the pond at my backtrail and count the number of catches by the holes and drag lines.

That's algae. Probably a filamentous algae. Normal? Not really, this early in the year. It suggests to me that there was a runoff event that washed in a LOT of nutrients, as in fertilizers. Is there agricultural land nearby? Possibly a feedlot? Risks for bass? Probably not, unless it's shallow and you get a really hot summer, which could result in a summer kill by bacteria feeding on dead algae and depleting 02. Those mats will block light from reaching other aquatic plants in the pond. If this continues, winterkill could be a risk too, for similar reasons -02 depletion -feeding bacteria rather than fish.

I guess I'm not understanding the issue. Here's what I do: 10# braid is a "light" braid. I'd use it with 6-8lb leader. 15# braid: 6-12lb leader 20# braid: 8-15lb 30#: 12-20lb 50#: 15-25lb So, I guess I go "lighter" than the braid. Leader diameter is critical to lure/hook size due to break strength, and presentation due to diameter and stiffness. Braid is neither thick nor stiff. So I think of the braid as the delivery system and the connection from rod to leader. The leader "fishes".