UrbanRedneck

d**n dude, nice one. Very nice in flight photo of a common merganser. And yes, I have to scroll left and right to see your photo.

Ive got a quick question. How are you judging apparent growth rate? And you talk about age so how are you judging/determining age? Just wondering if you have come up with some sort of year specific/fish specific fin clipping scheme.

Once that heat really sets in I almost never fish during the day, physically I just cant do it. Howver, I love fishing at night in the summer and its a time that I look forward to.

Youve always got a home waiting for you in the world of big bass. Everybody needs a break every now and then. Excellent post, Im stoked for you!

Consistently catching large fish is not luck. Butch Brown gets my vote for best big bass fisherman of all time.

Yep, you learned the hard way as did I. Anytime Im using braid around abrasive cover, especially rocks, I use a longish leader of mono or fluoro.

If an expert can't tell you what it is, what makes you so sure its a fungus? Doesn't look like any true aquatic fungal diseases I've ever seen. Looks more like an encapsulated cyst (the dark center), and necrosis from secondary bacterial infection (the pink and white ring surrounding). The fact that it was in the same location is remarkable. I'll try to find some time, and look at my texts for anything in the ball park. it is weird stuff! I should have known better than to post this photo, sooo many experts here. The disease expert was my advisor from graduate school, hes a slacker and he only looked at the photo. He did not run tests on it, or try to key it out, or look through the multitude of text books he has. He said it was a fungus, which I agreed, the species of which was uncertain. d**n, you people make it so hard to write brief posts, always want the full blown explanation. Here, I know what it really was. The fish was caught in a lake in the middle of bigfoot country. I think that is a scar from bigfoot trying to grab it. Yeah, im pretty sure thats what that is. Maybe the infection was from a claw mark bigfoot left on that fish

What you see in the background is grass in a yard! No, this lesion was caused by a fungus. It was very common for bass to have this on one and sometime each of their gill plates. We saw this on bass for as many years as I was there (I moved away). Very strange because it was always in the same area of the gill plate and always circular. I had never seen this anywhere else until somebody started asking about it here. I even posted those photos on fish disease forums and nobody knew what it was. A fish disease expert at the local university couldnt tell me what it was (but, he only looked at the photos). Very odd stuff.

A while back there was a thread on here asking about an odd lesion on a bass gill plate. I took me a while to find this photo and it appears to be the same type fungus that was being asked about. This lake is the only lake Ive ever seen this, and it was only on the gill plates and always round. Very weird.

Skeptic or not, its well known and well documented through peer reviewed research that the smaller members of the sunfish family readily hybridize with each. For that matter, all closely related members of the sunfish family will hybridize with each. yeah but don't bullsh#&t with me, that is very rare. Unless your lake is "the SHIRE" my man. They don't seek each other out to breed. Thats a fact. I will leave the weirdos to you. LOL! Actually its very common. Whether or not they actually seek each other out is something only they know, and last time I asked I didnt understand what the fish told me.

If you lived in Alabama you might hear people tell you that you caught a green trout.

Skeptic or not, its well known and well documented through peer reviewed research that the smaller members of the sunfish family readily hybridize with each. For that matter, all closely related members of the sunfish family will hybridize with each.

That aint a bluegill.

S*** happens, and its probably happened to all of us. Some fish just up and die after being caught. Its never a good thing, but its especially bad when its a very big fish.

My gut reaction was 7 ish. Shes a deep fish, has a big head, appears to be thick, and we cant even see her belly. Nice avatar bizz. Youll be back.

Sorry to hear that. Ive had my stuff stolen before and it was the worst feeling ever. Its a good thing I never found out who did it, and believe me I looked for the person, otherwise I probably would be in prison. Chalk it up to experience and forget about it otherwise it will eat at you and tick you off for a long time. Karma will come back to that person 10 times worse than what he did to you.

d**n Chris, its about time you caught a fish on that Wake Jr of yours. Thats an awesome day on that lake, and a beautiful 8lber, congrats buddy!

Just when you think you have it figured out the fish usually show you that you dont! Ive always said that that particular lake can be one of the toughest there is even though its absolutely loaded with quality fish.

You got yourself. The NJ state record is 10lb 14oz, so I knew you were full of sh**, one way or another, before I ever opened your photobucket.

Must.....catch.....5 lb smallmouth......

Dont screw around and get off the water immediately, it aint worth it. Ive had a handful of close calls that were completely uncool. Remember, lightning can occur many miles in front of the visible part of the storm, as in it will come straight out of a clear sky. In other words, you dont have the time you think you have to get off the water safely.

Ahhh, Chris my friend, you opened a can of worms. Theres much more to the story than Chris is telling. Now, go out and bonk that smallie.

Ok, Im gonna get on my biology stool again here for a second. This takes a bit of understanding of the taxonomic ladder so if you dont know the difference between a family, genus, species and sub species it might not make sense. All fish species having the genus Micropterus are considered to be black bass, and of course the term black bass is sort of a collective slang (I hate when people refer to largemouth as black bass, or they say I caught a few blacks yesterday. Um ok, so which kind?). Spotted bass are of the genus Micropterus, the species being punctulatus. This species has three subspecies: northern (M.p. punctulatus), Alabama (M.p. henshalli), and Wichita (M.p. wichitae). So if you are paying attention youll note the first part of the scientific name denotes the genus, the second denotes species, and the third denotes sub-species. Just in front of the genus would be family, which of course is Centrarchidae for all members of the genus Micropterus. Most fisherman use local slang to describe a fish to species. For example, a rock fish in Maryland is a striper but in California its one of about 70 species that live in rocks in the ocean. Thus, local slang can be confusing and many times its tough to tell exactly what species somebody is talking about when they are using local slang. That brings us to Kentucky spotted bass. To my knowledge there is no such species recognized scientifically as a Kentucky spotted bass. "Kentucky" is local slang for one of the three sub-species of spotted bass. If I was a betting man I would say its slang for the Alabama spotted bass. Either way a Kentucky is a spotted bass. Suwanee bass is a separate species.

If you are looking for diversity as well as quality you cant argue with California. I lived in AL for a while and I can tell you those fisheries are a joke compared to California. But hey, if you like 2-3 pound bass then move to AL. Plus, their is no other state with as diverse fishing opportunities as Cali, the saltwater fishing is unbelievable. And trust me, if you want a government job in an environmental postion, Cali is the place.

Bass eggs are fully developed in late fall early winter. This occurs for several reasons. The eggs are develped while resources and metabolism are still fairly high, it would take too much energy to develop them in winter/early spring just prior to the spawn. Also, they are fully developed during this time period such that zero energy is expended just before the spawn and so that when conditions are right they can immediately spawn and not have to wait for eggs to develop. Hope that makes sense. IMO, another reason we get a great bite in the fall is because the bass need that extra energy for egg development (as well as put on extra fat for the cold winter period).