Paul Roberts

Not likely heat -yet. Probably post-spawn. You'll probably need to slow things down as post-spawn fish are often less willing to chase. Also, depending on water body size, many could have moved away from shorelines. Might need to move away from shorelines, or find smaller water bodies. Is the wheelchair a permanent thing? Boat? Shore?

First, know that we don't catch most of the bass down there. That's a given. In the spring when fish are visible along shorelines this can be a shock and frustration for anglers. It's not just you. You are probably somewhere at the beginning of the spawn. Bass often feed heavily before that actual act. Feed little or not at all during the spawn and then feed heavily again (females) after but are a bit low energy -not so willing to chase. You'll need stealth, knowledge of and ability to read conditions, and be versatile in methods and technique to be catching consistently. Consistently does not mean every time you feel like it. Everyone gets their butts kicked at times.

Hmmmmm.. lotsa questions in there. No. Fishing pressure will not completely kill the bite. It will influence it though. If you know how to fish, you can work around it. Best advice, beyond your re-visiting this question in a few years, is to take advantage of low visibility sky and water conditions -clouds, chop, turbidity, cover. Also, learn about speed control as this can matter a lot and will vary with conditions and fish mood (and season). Then add versatility. Hey, it takes time. Enjoy the journey.

I have had two fishing dogs. One was a corgi that LOVED to hunt and fish. But she was rather mercenary about it. It was all about free on-the-hoof vittles for her. I had to get to the squirrels, grouse and pheasants first or there wouldn’t be much left of them. That’s one thing about corgi’s –they love to eat and they can hold an incredible amount of food, or garbage, whatever comes first. One day she disappeared on trash day and I had just weighed her at 22lbs. She reappeared an hour later with her belly dragging on the ground, and could scarcely breathe. I re-weighed her at 33lbs! She had a full pure breed show name "Mar Howie’s Harlequin Fox", but we affectionately called her “Hoover”. She loved to fish and one day I visited a small pond to do some culling of stunted bluegills. They were too small to eat so I unceremoniously pitched each into the woods for the raccoons. Then I started hearing loud crunching sounds coming from the woods. She was eating them! And she ate too many and then threw them up. It was pretty disgusting. But, she developed a taste for raw fish that day, and became an ever more inspired fishing companion. She took to retrieving fish then, but for very selfish purposes. One time I was on the Lake Ontario shoreline and catching big brown trout. My dog would wade out and grab hold of those big trout by the tail or by the dorsal fin and haul ‘em in. I’d had to get to the fish quickly before the carnage began however. She’d retrieve other people’s fish too so I’d have to warn ‘em. “Oh, I like dogs,” was the usual reply. “Hmmmmmm…”, I’d think. “Just let me know if she bothers you.” What ensued was rather comical. I’d have to separate the dog from the fish and accept the looks of shock and horror on the angler’s faces. She was obedience trained so I could take her anywhere and we wandered ponds and streams together often. She’d sit on the bank and watch each cast like a hawk, licking her lips all the while. If I wasn’t catching I’d turn around and she’d be gone. I’d wander up to the next fisherman and there she’d be, watching his casts, her head swinging like a pendulum following the lure on each cast and retrieve like she was watching a tennis match. One day, on a good pool on a small warmwater creek another fisherman appeared next to us. “Good morning.” “Good morning. If my dog bothers you, just let me know.” “Oh, I love dogs. She won’t bother me at all.” “Hmmmmm…. Just let me know if she bothers you.” The guy hooks a walleye and as he’s trying to beach it, the dog is right there with him, and lunges! The man pushes her away and her teeth clack loudly in the air. A miss! She lunges again! He shoves her away. Her teeth clack again. Suddenly there’s a fight for the fish, the guy shoving, jaws snapping, mud flying. It didn’t help that he was something of a newb and not very smooth in his fish handling technique. I finally went over and scooped that muddy little pig of a dog up. The guy was red-faced -a bit out of breath- and I apologized but was dying laughing inside. It was such a funny scene. Loved that dog. Would share photos but they’re not with me right now. We did an awful lot together.

Don't wait for any moons. Go! You're on! Also, large individuals tend to spawn first.

From what i remember toxins can be lost by adulthood. Look like aquatic worms.

Ditto.

This is an interesting topic. I've seen it go both ways. Ground vibrations can definitely be transmitted into the water and fish may react negatively or learn to ignore it. I know one thing is for certain, they are highly sensitive to it. I used to take new anglers to ponds or trout streams and challenge them to approach without alarming nearby fish. It can be utterly impossible, especially where the ground is soft/wet. How fish react to disturbances varies a lot however. Fish can and will filter out regular background noise, (and many other types of stimuli), essentially ‘normalizing’ it. Catt’s artillery example is a good, yet not unprecedented, one. Also, his comment about “waking them up” is not a joke. At times, such disturbances can turn sleepers into biters. Stealth can be smart and is my default position, but one should be aware of the range of possibilities out there. I’ve added rock-throwing and other aggressively invasive tactics to my bag of tricks. As to lights at night, I used lights very little when bass fishing, but when trout fishing along Lake Ontario I used lights, or was around angler’s lights, a lot. Interestingly, lights didn’t bother some fish –especially those in spawning condition in which the fish’s fright responses took a back seat to other matters. Domestic rainbows were less apt to spook too. But anadromous origin “steelhead” would freak out at light and leave the shore on a dead run, I watching the wakes make beelines for the horizon and disappear into the gloom. I finally stopped using lights and avoided the lanterns of other anglers. The biggest issue with lanterns was people walking in front of them throwing a shadow, which could clear the area of trout. How bass response to lights, and sound, most probability varies with circumstances and their experience. As to the orig topic: I only night fished for bass in summer. I find others comments interesting; appreciate your sharing them. Telemetry and other research shows highly variable activity by bass at night. There is no one way bass respond to darkness. If there is a key it lies in the balance for food and security. Food availability and vulnerability are key and vary across waters. Night fishing comes into its own for me on highly pressured waters and when day time temps get high. The difference in fishing results can be like ... day and night.

Some tadpoles carry toxins in the skin. Toads do and toad tadpoles have been used in fish behavior research on fish learning. I've heard of bullfrog tadpoles being toxic at some stage, but am not certain of it. I did look into it a while back but don't have those files available to me right now. I have been surprised to see numbers of bullfrog tadpoles in my bass ponds and wondered why they seemed so nonchalant. As to frogs, yes bass do eat frogs but not as often as one might think. "Frog" fishing in slop with weedless frog-shaped topwaters is not as much bass targeting frogs as it is bass hunting prey fish -sunfish mostly- under dense vegetation.

First, look at it by stripping away the weeds. What's underneath? That will be the first step. After that things get more specific to season, temperatures, and food chain events.

Can't quite see well enough. If it turns out to be leeches you'll probably do well with a small marabou or plastic swimming tailed jig, or a small worm. But... that looks like a pretty small bass and bass that key on leeches are going to remain small. Piscivory is what grows bass. You'll want to be homing in on what the larger bass are eating, and it isn't leeches.

Forage? What do your fisheries people have to say about it? That's where I'd start.

I remember mine very well. I was in a canoe with my dad and brother on a large marsh known for its bass fishing. I remember seeing an angler in another boat catch a large bass and saw a blue plastic worm flash blue as they netted it. I caught my bass on a bobber/nightcrawler on a Zebco 202 outfit. I was about 8 or 9 years old. My bass, a largemouth, was exactly 12" long and I was enamored with it. We put it on a chain stringer and every few minutes I'd pull it up to ogle. And then, at one point, I pulled up on the chain and the chain had broken and the fish was gone. My dad thought a snapper had got it. I was crushed.

A bank fishing tip: One thing I do when I arrive to fish, esp on a new water body to me, is to walk the bank before I wet a line. So worthwhile. This has saved me from tons of unnecessary casting, from spooking fish I could have been aware of, helped me get a bead on conditions, identify best locations, and home in on most appropriate lures. Fish are not randomly distributed. Here's a pithy example: I used to drive around a lot knocking on doors asking permission to fish anything I saw that looked interesting. One day on the way home from a bit of pond-hopping with a buddy we stopped at a farmhouse that had a tiny little pond out back. It had nice water color and the owner was out putting a tractor away. Easy stop. “Sure!" he said. "Just put ‘em back. There are 5 bass in there; my son put ‘em in last year.” We went down to the water and my buddy immediately set out to casting. I walked. From the pond’s high side I spotted 4 dark shapes in one corner of the pond –something like a little cove with some emergent vegetation and overhanging shrubbery. There were 4 of the 5 bass in the pond right there -each about 13". My buddy was not aware of them and was still a third of the pond bank and 20-some casts away. To my left was a darker colored corner so I walked down there and found a deep pothole, obviously dug when the pond was built. I tied on a small twister jig (Phenom worm tail on a jig head) made one cast and caught bass #5 from the depths of that pocket –a good 18” 3-1/2 lb fish. Walking costs nothing but time, and it’s time well spent.

I've seen this too -bass obviously hunting behind carp and catfish -like egrets following cattle and gulls following tractors. I've caught the bass too a few times, by throwing a worm or jig in their path.

Hair jigs ARE great baits, and not just in cold water. I've also liked marabou, which few people use it seems. Only drawback to 'bou is it has a tendency to pick up algae and detritus in weedy places. Although not needed I often use a trailer -pork chuck, strips, or plastics. I also have clip-on overhead spinners in my hair jig box which can slow speed and add flash, motion, and vibration. All jigs are great -plastic, hair, or feather. They'll teach you to fish any bait better.

Originally -glacial melt waters explain fish distributions. More recently -flooding, and humans. If you were to research old stocking records you'd be shocked at what has been tried and how much of it there has been over the decades, even centuries probably. Then there's unofficial me and Joe stocking. Birds doing the stocking is almost certainly a myth.

Here's a bit on my FishCat. It's been a good boat: http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/24424-float-tubes-catching-on-slowly/

Definitely. I've thrown every type at one time or another. As in boat fishing, positioning yourself can be key. The shore is more limiting but when you see the possibility, go for it. Cranks are just fun to fish.

Yep. Once, quite a few years ago, one of my beats was a particular marina and one Saturday morning a "big bass" tournament weigh-in booth was set up right there. Although I wasn't registered for the T I weighed in the 2nd place fish, catching my entry from a dock pile within sight of the booth, while contestant boats roared out into the lake. Such is bank fishing. Some -many- spots you just can't hit. I do carry nippers with me, but you should check regulations before going hog wild. Forget the chain saw and ropes and get a float tube -which is getting off topic. Brush and steep shorelines are one of the reasons I always have a spinning rig with me, and is my GoTo rig when exploring new ponds. Boat or bank, lures work the same. I may have to use lighter weight lures at times due to the near-shore shallows, but otherwise lures are best matched to sky and water conditions, depth, speed, cover, and prey type, more than they are to water body size. My bank GoTo's are pretty much the same as my boat GoTo's.

I don't know about weird, but I think it would be pretty sad if one couldn't possibly enjoy fishing without all the 'stuff'.

Good point. I too fish many popular public waters and they've taught me a lot. (That said, those barrels don't come along all that often and worth protecting.)

36F is enough to bunch those fish up pretty good. C&R might educate them some, but intense C&K could alter things for some time to come. Hopefully most of those floaters will lose interest. That's an advantage die-hards have over the rest of the crowd lol. Neat there are LM there too.

Yes, if it's a hurricane. I like to say... "Hurricane from the east; no good for man or beast."

Ouch! Hate to say this... be the proverbial messenger and all... but winter habitat can be especially sensitive to over-fishing. In some river systems, one such hole could represent virtually all the winter habitat there is for a surprisingly long stretch of river. Bass are habitual and if there were large ones there, they may owe their existence to that one hole. Hope it's a good sized river with good winter habitat throughout, and your winters aren't too severe. I see you're in AR; guess winters won't be too harsh there. Still... best to be extra careful when fish stack up in places, and winter in moving waters is one of those times and places.