Paul Roberts

Neat. Always amazing to see bass hunt. I'm guessing though, that that bass was a fed/trained fish. The duck being alone was odd; it didn't act like a wild duckling.

Personally, the "33" (spin-cast) doesn't inspire confidence. I mean, it's a fine workhorse reel, for the beginner who is bait fishing; The 33 is just too slow for most artificials. I still pick up 33s at thrift shops, and use them for visiting kids, or pass them along after maintenance. Now, nostalgia I suppose is another thing. But, for me, I'd save up a bit and get a better quality rig that I need. In general, I'm less choosy about reels, and very picky about rod quality. If this rig is anything like the Mitchell 308/300 combos available last year, I would bet that reel will be serviceable, but the rod would be close to useless for anything the rod would need to do except cast and reel fish up. But that's not where most of the "fishing" is. There are lots of serviceable rods for surprisingly little money at almost any tackle store. But I'd want to get a good look at one before I bought it. My 2cents.

Yeah, I've been there. I peruse the hobby, craft, yarn, and fabric stores. And the beauty shops too... looking for nail polishes for fly-tying and crankbait accents -in case anyone is wondering. I now live in a town with a long-time fishing history -mostly trout and FF- so I can relax. The store staff tends to look at me and say, "Fisherman, huh?" But I haven't discussed my skirts slipping down, yet. Then again, this is a liberal town so nothing would surprise anyone here.

Still going with that minus1! Curious, as usual... So where are those fish? How deep is the spot? How far are those fish moving to strike? What are the prey fish in that water? Very curious. Thanks.

Some related asides... I read a study looking at trash build-up on an Indian reservation. The question was why would they "choose" to live that way? The study concluded that the problem was deeper than "choices". In light of poverty, choices were a luxury. They didn't have a trash collection system. They were too busy surviving to think about "aesthetics". Aesthetics are a luxury. I became SO aware of this living in the Philippines, just how lucky we are to be able to afford to appreciate the what we have, among these the luxury of choices and aesthetics. Another study compared city areas with trash and vandalism with those kept clean. Those with trash were not respected. Those cleaned up were respected. It was automatic. I have my son straighten up his room when he has friends over; He's less apt to have something messed up or broken if that space shows some self respect. It appears to work.

Still going with that minus1! Curious, as usual... So where are those fish? How deep is the spot? How far are those fish moving? What are the prey fish in that water? Very curious.

Wow. That's a nice portrait of you too. Might be one for the den.

Might that first bass be a spot? Just curious. Gorgeous walleye. They are beautiful fish. Thanks for posting.

I know what you mean about noodles and crispness. Milfoil stems are the noodles, but their leaves are pretty fragile. Those thick stems though are solid enough to "walk" crankbaits over, which is helpful. Coontail here can be so dense though I simply have to fish the outsides or tops of it. Guess I'm thinking cranking here. I don't have "cabbage" here. I fished it in a number of places in NY and it was a bass magnet. I have P. crispus (Curly Pondweed) here, but it doesn't seem to provide much fishing. This could be bc it dies back so early and is only around during the spawn, when the bass are occupied with other business. The other Potamogeton I have here is pectinus, which I call Threadleaf. It's awful: It doesn't interest the fish and is impossible to fish through, even close to.

I break presentations into two -vertical and horizontal. Which of these I choose has mostly to do with how far the fish will move. I think in terms of whether the fish will chase -how far they will move horizontally. Depth (proximity), and speed (trigger). It's possible (and neat) to do both with almost any lure type, and cover a lot of conditions. But, certain lure types lend themselves to certain scenarios. Texas Rigs and punch rigs lend themselves to vertical, buzzbaits and crankbaits lend themselves to horizontal. One reason I like swim jigs so much is that they can do it all, although I do have to change weights as I figure things out. I also appreciate lipless cranks bc they can lend themselves well to both horizontal and vertical presentations, without having to tie a knot (or open a snap). My first order of business is often finding out how much help the fish are going to be. Under good conditions I'll start out burning a lipless, or a buzzbait. I also start high the the water column; If the bass will meet me half way -Great! If they won't chase, I slow down (forward speed) when fishing horizontal any number of ways: by increasing stops, duration of pauses, decreasing plug buoyancy, to... going vertical. I like to fish horizontal, if the fish will allow it.

The two major fishing weeds where I live are milfoil and coontail. Both hold fish but milfoil is easier to fish, being more brittle and less dense. Milfoil also needs a lot of light (more than coontail), so milfoil tends to die back underneath leaving space for bass to move and hunt. When water levels drop in summer the milfoil canopy collapses creating great mat fishing. During dark overcast summers, milfoil dies back and coontail takes over. Coontail is denser and can mat too, but often too densely IME.

If you can find a copy, check out Ralph Manns article, "The Territorial Imperative" in one of the IF Bass special issues.

Also, you can see the little "teeth" on the leaves. Milfoil is smooth leaved, and much less dense.

I don't say anything. It can be offensive. I do carry out stuff I find though. I also will throw stuff out to trail edge so others might get the hint and help out too. Many do here. OK... got ahead of myself. Posted without reading. bassinhole nailed for me. Teaching is rarely effective by lecture. That's what I meant by "saying something" can be "offensive". Simply "doing" let's others do the thinking. Sometimes it's just plain obvious what the right thing to do is. In many cases people just never thought to... bend over and pick something up. Kudos to you bassinhole.

I just looked at it via satellite. Thanks so much for the location name. I have some experience fishing lagoons attached to larger lakes, although none so extensive; That's a big lagoon! And mine have all been in the north. Here are some thoughts: -IME, most mature (larger) bass are likely to be migratory and will leave the lagoons over winter -esp ones so shallow. In some I've fished, they leave during pre-summer. There will also be some mature resident bass in those lagoons, especially in your water owing to its sheer size. How big that population is likely depends on water quality and sheer amount of food. Fishing: If Catt says be thinking pre-spawn, you are in for a potentially great time coming up here. I'd suggest you start spending at least some of your time closer to the big lake. Think about a "spawning run", about fish entering and staging as they work their way up. There are stopping ("staging") spots along the way. I have seen BIG waves of mature bass come rolling into lagoons under prime conditions (temperature increases and possibly moon phase). They appreciate some depth, so be looking for holes -esp with much of the lagoon being so shallow. Right now, if there are many resident fish, I'd not worry about water temps too much -esp if they are above 50F. Drops in temp can slow them down, so you may need to slow down some too. But, mebbe not. A lipless and a jerk are great search baits in that you can cover water and still adjust how much you ask of the bass -how much you ask them to chase. Longer pauses with the jerks, or fishing more vertically with the lipless might be in order. Then I'd certainly have a dedicated jig or creature bait rod for crawling around good holes and prominant cover pieces. And, as usual, watch for prey fishes -get to know where they are collected up. This is how bass, and fisherman, make their livings, by being part of the food chain. Which leads me to my last comment: Walk that shoreline. Even leave the rods in the truck. 11 miles?! What a wonderful walk. Take the dog, take the wife. Get to know that water body, or chunks of it. Man, you are a lucky guy. Again, we don't know how big the resident bass population is. Talk to other fishers along the way. When you ask them about fish they've caught there, be sure to ask about time of year. Keep the "spawning run" potential in mind. Let us know what you find. Cool place.

Thanks, MFBAB.

Some thoughts: I suppose it depends on the water body. But also, BP, and BM (Murphy) were not tournament anglers. BP was a troller (for the most part) and BM was a big fish only guy and fishing deep CA waters. MLF scores the most scorable bass. A bunch of little ones can be tough to beat. As Catt mentions, certainly the anglers are aware of structural elements. The difference between many weekend Joe's and the pros is that the Joe's are more likely to fish shoreline objects without relation to larger structural elements. Pros are apt to consider larger scale structural elements at the get-go. They then fish the shallow objects. If fish are shallow, it's often quicker to catch them than deeper. I do remember one MLF in which Shaw Grigsby went deep to drop-shot a bunch of smallies in very clear water. I was impressed by how easily he shifted back and forth from shallow to deep options.

Here's a similar experience, although a bit further north:

Can't find any listings. Out of print, and... forgotten? Too bad. Ditto. Yes, my experience exactly. All I could think was, now here's a prime example of the reason to have training, and oversight by a competent committee and peer review. What a shame. Would love to have seen Ralph Manns attempt at making something of all that work. Then there's Bill Murphy's book. Great book, excellent illustrations -a lot of work done there. However, I had some difficulty with the 'voodoo' -ideas and conclusions drawn from low probability events.

We cannot know what the bass will be doing. You just have to fish. A guess: In small shallow waters it is more likely they will be able to move/be shallow. If the water is deep, and the majority of bass winter deep, it is less likely they will suddenly appear shallow -at least in mid-winter like this. I'd use regular cold weather baits -probably a jerkbait and a jig. But other options could work too. Let us know what you find. We've had enormous temperature swings here too . As much as 50F change in less than a day. There's a lot of warm air in the area, and then some arctic blasts barging in. The winds between these fronts have been... scary. We commonly get 50 to 70mph winds up here in the mountains, but we've broken 100mph a few times this winter.

I've kept... more of a journal... religiously since 1977. It's pretty much in narrative form describing the day. I started (and also keep up, for posterity) with handwritten in acid free sketch books, went to word processor, and started video journaling this past season. Some of my processor written journals have been shared on this site. The "data" I log (conditions & circumstances): -water body -weather trend for previous week and current weather -water temperatures; surface and profile. -water clarity -vegetation status -fish observations -other critter observations (relevant phenology) -catches: size, tackle, location, position, ... I may also do sketches, and I've always taken a lot of photos.

We don't, although they look too short and maneuverable to be pike. They could also be large Euro perch but I don't know those critters well enough to know whether they could be so aggressive. I looked the guy up, Simon Travassac, -and he's got a lot of bass shots on his page. Didn't know France had bass. The Rapala original is the first topwater I pull out in spring, but never at ice-out -yet. BTW, my comment wasn't a challenge in any way, just that, although we hear of exceptions, there are probabilities. I was thinking that I'd love to throw topwaters year round. Sure would simplify things.

Two points I guess: -When there is enough food in a specific spot, bass can be tight homebodies. If food is sparser bass can be travelers. -Then... bass are also individuals, so some are more mobile, others more sedentary than others. Now way to know for sure, so I defer to A-Jay's post.

No kids/grandkids around? My son has been my Tech for some time now. Mebbe a sketch? Thought it would be interesting to see how you interpret such a spot, and... where those bass boosted and hurt your ego.