Paul Roberts

Nice to see your smiling face, Paul. Nice fish, and great hats too.

Gorgeous fish! Nice photo too. Love the snow. Great way to start the year.

Jacked up over signs. I guess that sums it up for me. I hate to tell you this, since you're all iced up there, but... it's relevant to the topic... We've had an early ice break here and I'm into fish. Yesterday, if I'd fished "gut" I'd have failed. Despite the spring-like weather (60s and 70s), the bass are still in winter mode. Mature bluegills have come shallow the last few days to soak up the first shards of heat offered by that winter sun. But not the bass. I found them in winter holds, stacked like cordwood -(and they had the red teeth of winter bass). It was really fun. I knew what to do (from experience) but had forgotten! What corrected my course was walking the banks to observe, and taking some temperatures. What I found was the usual pattern here: Mature bluegills in but not the bass. So when I came to choose water to fish I spent about 10 minutes fishing a great shallow S-facing flat that boiled with the ripples of fish. I could not see in there due to the low bank, but I knew that those were all bluegills. They'd bite at my jig -hard! Pop! Pop! And Grab-n-run strikes. They were aggressive enough it felt like I was missing bass, or bass that were short-striking (not uncommon in cold water). But I KNEW better. They were bluegills and not bass. Someone not in the know could spend some time casting there and end up frustrated with all those fish rippling, boiling, and nipping on that flat. I got outta there and went to a wintering hole and... Pow, Pow, Pow, Thump, Thump, Thump!... those bass were stacked in there and they were thumpin'! I used my eyes and head, not my gut. I'm sure there's plenty of "gut" in there; I've been fishing for a long time. But there are enough variables that I like some hard info, when I can get it. In this case, on my small shallow waters, my eyes are my sonar, and a pocket thermometer my ST gauge.

Fun thread. Good stories. I esp like Catt's story -the way its written. Storms n such -It pays to be aware. Or know what that is you're hearing.

Man... no! Hmmmmm.... depends on what you consider "gut feeling". If you mean "fishing history"... I actually have to squelch that some. I guess over time my "reading conditions" has become somewhat second nature, or at least knowing what to do in a lot of circumstances. Guess I tend to be pretty intellectual though. I want to "understand" and be able to explain -put language around- what I'm experiencing out there. I've done so much of that -experiences are always going through the mill- that... I guess I agree with Jaderose: Ah! But I can tell you about gut feeling in other ways... hunting in particular. Lots of stories there. While hunting, if my heart starts to beat -an uptick- I make myself freeze and go hyper-aware. It's become VERY useful. One example is in my snowshoe hare hunting. Every once in a while I'll get the uptick, and it comes from either approaching a real potential hot-spot -just the right combination of topography and esp cover. Sometimes its more accurate then that... like I'll freeze and suddenly a hare materializes, white on white, holding and waiting for me to pass. Sometimes it's a tiny patch of lemon yellow -the coloration of the foot hairs of a hare. My brain has processed it before my conscious mind can catch up. Interestingly, that color gets my heart going, esp in context. I've developed many such "signs"/tip-offs for many creatures. What I believe is happening is I see it via "blindsight", that is, the brain's processing mechanism is faster than the conscious mind. The trick has been to know this, and be ready to -actually develop the habit of- freezing and becoming hyper-aware. Oddly, I don't think of fishing that way. Although it must happen there too?

Right now Cabela's appears to be operating at half mast. Catalogs are smaller, a lot of typo's and even outright errors, shipping is slow, and website is not being kept up to date. I just returned some cranks that were a different marketly color than shown on-line although the name and stock numbers were the same. Somewhat minor irritation, but considering the competition, its apparent that Cabela's is running behind right now.

Years ago I had a Berkley rep tell me that the then $40 Lightning Rod cost $0.39/unit to manufacture (in Korea, I believe). The rest was eaten up by a long list of expenses, advertising being a large one.

Might your markets be bigger than for most fishing lures? And how often do your products change over time? Lotsa lures -and good ones- come and go. I bet we all have quite a few that don't get tied on anymore. What's the "shelf life" for a given lure, that is, how long does it stay popular? Is it a reliable product for a manufacturer? I'm guessing that putting out a new lure is riskier than for products with larger and more stable markets.

I used to carry a broken piece of a file -just couldn't throw em away. Now I have a shiny Nicholson #111 affixed to my Orvis lanyard.

Yes, kudos to Glenn and the whole crew.

Hey! That was the "Paul Rig"! I did the same -too cheap to chuck old plastics. Some of it came in handy for grubs and trailers, or melted down and made into weird stuff that caught fish. However, I caught my first bass of 2017 last week, during our first thaw, on a Zinkerz (soaked, squeezed and stretched, then carefully cut with scissors) on a 1/10oz mushroom head. I have to say though, with that cold water the bass appreciated the slow retrieve of that buoyant grub. Back then I had to use a hair jig with a clip-on overhead spinner to slow things down enough to catch when it was really cold. Grubs came on a bit later.

Yeah, it was pretty cool. The "thump" from the strike is audible in the vid. Entirely true! I call it "sampling" a term I first used to describe drift-feeding trout. But bass do it too. They don't have hands. In this case however, that was a male bass with fry defending his territory. It was a comical, or maybe tragic, scene. The big female shad was hoping to spawn. They do so by broadcasting eggs rapidly over cover, with a herd of male suitors giving chase. But this female had no suitors. There was a mutual attraction going on: The shad was excited by the rapidly cruising bass willing to chase her, and the bass was excited too but with very different intent.

Thanks, all. Last question... do the first person GoPro views work for you? Some people have complained in the past about such views as feeling claustrophobic or dizzying. I try to keep the cameras steady and edit out excessive movement. AOK?

The weather is essentially unprecedented here. We're breaking records here -(again). My question is: Were they stacked in wintering quarters or had moved into a prime feeding location? It would be interesting to know what the water temps were in your hotspot, and compared to the "main pool". Was this in a "protected" cove type situation? Was it on the North (S facing) bank by any chance? Or was it more "main lake"? Anomalies are always interesting.

Here's a screenshot from some video I shot earlier this year. That's a 16in bass.

I've bought 100 bags of the Mr. Twister. Still make them though.

Just goes to show, bass are where you find them. How big a water? How recent was ice-out? Curious. This is from Bridgeport, WV area. Looks like two very unseasonable events:

Different animal.

@Catt, I'll fish either. I bet I fish a swim-jig and swimming worm more than anything else, all told. Since most of my waters are shallow I often fish a swimming retrieve first, and up high, asking fish to come to me, to see how aggressive they are. If no go, I go deeper (more weight), often still swimming. If no go, I go "reaction". If no go, I start to go vertical. Another important piece: You gotta boil the tails of those worms. They have to writhe at very slow speed. Hmmm... dunno how that @ thing works.

I guess you found the proverbial "honey hole". They are out there, here and there, on and off. So... what "rules" were you referring to?

I've happily fished both. The Mr Twister Phenom was a GoTo for me years ago, either swum or fished on the fall. Then there's the ribbontails... That lower photo says it all! Man, my heart is thumping just looking at it. I fish a ribbontail as a swimming worm often. I swim it by cover and ambush spots and inside weed edges and... come to think of it outside weed edges too. I fish them for peri-spawn females, and for post-spawn females, and... gosh, I fish a swimming worm a LOT. It's simply a GoTo. I most often fish it T-rigged with light weight (Brewer Slider Head Pro, or 1/16oz bullet), high in the water column -not bottom-crawling, although they'll work there too like any other worm. Swimming a ribbontail is a big fish producer too, and it doesn't need to be a big worm. I actually like the Mr Twister 6" "grub" -it's actually a worm. See that lower picture? Killer.

I love it. That's another good color story.

Tommy, I'll have to take your word for it. And will. To tell you the truth, there are colors I wouldn't tie on if my life depended on it. What's up with that?? I've never liked Watermelon. I don't know why. I don't get that feeling I'm going to crush em with it. I like to feel all shaky when I tie something on.

I'm guessing they do know who's who. But things probably get messy down there when a bite is on or competition is high. I'm guessing that if they were much different in size the smaller might have acquiesced. Size, and capabilities, generally rule in the fish world. Fish aren't "stupid" when it comes to feeding, which is what optimal foraging theory is about. And if you get outcompeted enough, you are gonna wind up on the dustheap. I just wonder who "owns" the critter in such a scenario. The whites speed and eye-sight vs the bass's belligerence and maneuverability. More nerd stuff. Did I mention what a truly gorgeous bass BB86 had there. Truly, that is one healthy big bass.

I dunno what to say about color... OK, I take that back. I could say a LOT about color. But in terms of conclusions around why bass bit or not, with all the possible variables and the general inefficiency of angling at shedding light on those variables, I tend to put color well down on the list. This is not an opinion as much as a decision. I've seen too many well thought out color theories crash. I remember that phrase! I like your use of statistics there. Now we're putting our heads to it! Alright, I don't want to be color bashing. Truly. I simply do not know, nor feel I have the power to discriminate at my disposal. I will say this: Like everyone, I have my favs. I just like to think that I know that it might just be mostly in my head. Did that make any sense?