Paul Roberts

Much of my tackle is "old". A favorite -been with me every year since I bought it new in 1981- is a Skyline 6005 6' med spinning. Although it's got a new set of guides on it now. Still LOVE that rod. I also still use a 6ft "MH" boron rod for jigs and soft plastics. Love that rod too. Short rods have some plusses: casting accuracy (the tip being closer to the eye), and when fishing from the bank a shorter rod can be easier to deal with when casting amongst shoreline vegetation. Taken together, shoreline obstacles and casting accuracy and shorter rods can offer a substantial advantage when fishing from the bank. I like as large a spool size as possible that still balances the rod. I would suggest avoiding small spool sizes for several reasons: retrieve rate, casting distance, line manageability, and fishable line capacity (the amount you can lose, wear back, before you need to re-spool).

I was thinking along the same lines, as to how the pros find fish in a range of lakes. There is a lot of pre-research -info available, esp on top lakes- done even before pre-fishing. If you know bass, get some ideas on forage base, peculiarities of particular waters, what's changed year to year, how things are doing lately, weather trends... and the rest is conditions and circumstances. Even then, no one wins, or even places, every time. I do know some consistent pros (KVD and Ike come to mind) are well connected and informed before they hit a lake. I doubt KVD needs the waypoints exactly, and if he got them he'd likely make better use of them than most, bc of his pre-knowledge, and experience.

Nice. Great photos too.

We absolutely prey on their weaknesses. Which is why we can't always catch them! Because they have strengths too. Conditions and circumstances (C&C) either aid or hinder them. And... they are all individuals -some more vulnerable than others. I have come to understand, in the small heavily fished public waters I frequent, that when we catch fish, the fish did as much wrong as we did right, and that the biggest factors are the current (and/or trending) environmental C&C. We capitalize on their mistakes. If we aren't in an ideal set of C&C (lighting obscured, vulnerable prey, actively feeding bass, known ambush points) we are left having to dupe, or trigger, them, or simply go home deflated. Some of my waters are as small as a couple of acres. On high vis conditions I'll walk these waters and tally mature fish sometimes as many as 40 mature individuals visible around the pond; And those are the ones I see. I can cast nearly to pond center. Yet some days I can have a heck of a time catching! My ego can proudly say that I tend to catch more bass than most guys on my waters, yet I've also had my hat handed to me numerous times, at times by some kid with only one mis-tuned lure to his name. Nature has a way of letting us know whose boss. And C&C, while a BIG part of it, is not the whole story. I've developed a healthy respect for those "instinctual traits" that are becoming recognized in the fish behavior world as something very much akin to "intelligence". Tom, thanks for firing up a good thread.

I understand what Tom's referring to. I fish small waters and often see anglers going right to the spots they caught fish from before, regardless of immediate conditions. In some waters, esp really small ones, this can actually work out well bc habitat is limited. Actually habitat is limited in nearly all waters, which is why "10% of the lake holds fish", and 10% of that gives up most fish. But, where it's a problem is when anglers cannot read conditions and don't know why fish were in a certain spot, or why they might not be there, be active, or require a different approach, now. Bass do move -use different locations- even in small waters. Then again, we can't always know and just have to check it out. In many of my small waters, certain spots always hold fish. I just have to figure out how to catch them, or take my lumps and try later. However, I don't think that spots, patterns, and memories need to be mutually exclusive. Certain spots do hold the majority of fish, or tend to have active hunters. Memories can help us very much in getting us there and understanding the layout. And patterns, in my mind, describe behavioral patterns based on environmental conditions and circumstances. I think we use all three.

That's pretty cool. Nice spot.

Ardito is a very nice fishable travel rod:

Man! It's hard to know anymore. There are SO many baits, and they change so often.

Similar but not the same. I have the same plug he's trying to find -a small 2" coffin-billed CB called the Lazer-Eye. Could be a good replacement though, if they have the 2" size. From the BPS website it looks like they don't make it anymore. Here's what's apparently replaced it: Bass Pro Shops XPS Lazer Eye http://www.basspro.com/Bass-Pro-Shops-XPS-Lazer-Eye-Hard-Baits-Shallow-Crank/product/51808/ Some good replacements (closest in design: 2", high floating, substantial bill) could be: Strike King Pro Series 1, Strike King KVD 1.0, or the Rapala DT4. The DT4 has a rounded bill but is buoyant and deflects through cover nicely. Good luck with it.

Bass are pretty much the same creature everywhere. But... conditions and circumstances vary. This can be hour by hour on a single water body, or across water bodies. I'd suggest you do some reading so you begin to know what to look for. One thing you can do, using the lures you already have confidence in, is to find similar water. If a water body appears very different (water clarity, cover type, depth, prey species) identify the particulars and apply appropriate tackle and techniques. Again, you'll want to get caught up on your book learning so you know better what to look for. Then you can ask more specific questions. While bass are bass (mostly), water bodies and conditions vary. There are advantages to fishing one water: building confidence, honing skills, keeping tackle investments down, learning bass habits, seasonal changes, etc... New water can be enlightening, expand your skills, find you better fishing under challenging conditions (some waters fish better in certain conditions than others), and possibly find better waters to spend your time at. New water can also be frustrating to figure out. Eventually -when you have some knowledge, experiences and versatile tools under your belt, such challenges will be exciting.

Awful nice work break!

Great fish! Nicely done. Funny how we just "know" it's a fish and not just hung. There's life down there -that's what it is. We know it before we think it.

Congrats. And welcome. I remember my first bass very well. It was 12" long and all day long I kept pulling up the stringer to ogle it -look over that amazing creature. You know, I still do that, some 45 years since -ogle 'em- although I let them all go now.

Not surprised at all, esp in cold water.

Time to start reading, and watching vids.

Not a dumb question at all. Confidence is nothing to scoff at. That's a BPS... something or other. I have one too, an XPS version (BPS top-o-the line: $6 instead of $3).

I have had epicondylitis in my right elbow. It was my doc's first case of "bass elbow". For most people it's golfer's or tennis elbow. Doc gave me exercises and a forearm brace, and he warned me to rest it before going back at it or I could have more permanent damage and surgery. So... I switched to fishing lefty. Man, that was a frustrating challenge at first. I had to train my well-honed arms and hands to switch jobs. That was back in 2008 and it took a year for it to heal entirely. Then I re-injured it in 2015 and have been fishing left ever since. Nervous about going back. But, I am now almost a completely ambidextrous angler.

Multi-species over my lifetime, but concentrating on bass now -for the past 15 yrs or so. Some -quite a bit- of trout fly-fishing mixed in there too.

Those Bagley's plugs were sure gorgeous. And I see some of Tom Seward's "Natural Ike" series in scaleface's pic. I have some of those too. One model in particular that is still a staple in my working CB box is a very well designed medium running flat-sided bait that is just killer in cold water. It's a slow riser, with a tight stuttering action that is unstable -being a flat-side- and so it kicks and hunts. Lost one a few years ago and... I'm still not over it. I have two left. It's a nice pearlescent crappie finish that I "bluegill-ized". CB's are cool to look at, fun to fish, flat out catch, and are much more versatile than a lot of fishers seem to think. I see that scaleface has slowed the rise on one of those Bagley's he has. Do that and a CB can be fished like a jig -and that's saying something a lot of fishers don't realize you can do with a CB -you can fish 'em slow: walk em, crawl em through cover. For many, the depths of "crankbait love" has yet to be discovered.

Knew the pics would start coming in. What's got me is that I don't consider most of these plugs "old". Old was made of wood, although I do have some of the first plastic plugs -my grandfather's. Will post when I get a chance. Gotta say, I do have a lot of love for those "old" plugs shown above. No one should be afraid to throw them, even now.

Bingo!

Dunno. But... I recently picked up a President LE and it is wonderful. I bring it up bc Cabela's has them on closeout right now for 49.99.

GREAT plug. I've used the 2" and 2-1/2" for years. They are still a GoTo.

Confidence can a weird, slippery, thing. I'd like to think I have some control (understanding) over that. And I wrestle with it when on the water. I often find myself being sucked into my history with a place, and must resist and take stock of what's actually in front of me -the immediate conditions. I do fish some plastic too -twister, flapping, and beaver types. But, NOTHING moves in the water like prepared pork. Can't say the bass actually hold pork much longer than other jig trailers either. IME, bass seem to drop jigs pretty fast period. Again, congrats on some awesome fishing. And thanks for sharing it with us. Nice to know there's some truly cool stuff is going on out there.

Not enough info. What line weights are you going to use? Lure weights and hook sizes? What kind of cover will you be fishing around? Open water? Vegetation? Wood? In general, for largemouth, and smallmouth in lakes and larger rivers, I'd be opting for M for my light rod. For smallmouth in "creeks" (little cover) I'd be opting for ML, L, or... I have often used UL.