treble_hook_smile

Nice..Congrats on your PB

Nice fish..........and avatar!

Lots of good fish. Thanks for sharing.

Some sort of infection that may be due to increased viral/bacterial/fungal activity in the cooling water. Fish should be ok as long as it doesnt affect its gills. May want to do some research about local diseases in your water systems.....LMBV, VHS. ect..

The best thing to do in situations like this is to make sure you are organized and prepared. Its great that you are concerned about the fish so make sure you know how to operate your scales before hand and that you have everything in a designated spot. If you have issues with your scales (as most of us do from time to time) walk over to the bank and hold the fish in the water while using your free hand to set up your scales.

Get on your electronics and find the bait. Drop a small wacky rigged senko right down the middle of them. Also may want to try a blade bait or jigging spoon through them.

Hmmmm... looks healthy despite its defect.

Smaller bass I just lip them. Larger fish I will belly land or lip them but will support the weight of the fish with both hands for the photo. Just try to take the stress off the jaw.

Might try dragging a senko like suggested. That has saved my tail a time or two. Also may want to fish a hair jig tipped with pork. Very subtle action in colder water seems to be key.

Very nice fish. Glad to see the C&R going on too.

Yep, I get that feeling. Some days its wrong and some days its right. But you have to have some sloooowwww days to appreciate the good days. Besides, you cant really learn anything if all our days fishing are good days.

I try to stick to what the conditions are calling for. But these baits will most likely be at the end of my lines: Spring - prespawn-lipless crankbait, jig, and crawfish pattern shallow crank, basstrix - spawn - tube, stick worm, shallow bluegill crank - post spawn - lipless crank, senko, jig Summer - Big worm, Jig, Spoon, frog, deep crank Fall - cranks of all kinds Go to, or confidence baits, are 10" worms and cranks.

This is a good observation. Do you think maybe a changing barometric pressure could have a similar effect? My new Humminbird unit can monitor ATM pressure. Ill start watching it when the bite picks up under frontal conditions.

24" L 14.9" G 7lb 3oz Caught late summer 2007 Small lake in Indiana 10.5" Zoom ol' monster. This is my PB that I have weighed. Caught a larger bass in the fall of 07 from the same lake. Took pics but didnt weight her.

If you walk around that pond and see frogs, then fish with frogs. The bass are used to seeing them and eating them. Having cover is better for locating the bass but frogs will be all along a shore line.

Adding to what these guys have said; you can always work top water baits along a shady bank or along boat docks.

You have a good ideal on what to do. If I am fishing and dont know about the forage then I start out with white or a silver/blk back. I also throw a bluegill pattern up closer to the bank. The deeper you fish, the brighter the baits.

Yea, I noticed this also. It'll be interesting to see what you have come up with on this.

Big bulky baits in dark colors for pitching/flip. Throw right into the stuff. Colorado blade spinnerbaits or wide action cranks. Lipless cranks work if fished slow enough for them to key in on it. In muddy water you gotta hit them in the head with it or drive them nuts with vibrations and noise.

I agree you should buy the real deal. I havent had knock-off LC's or Megabass but I have had replica Zip-Baits. They wasn't even close. Ended up giving them away. If you want LC and dont want to pay $15 - $20 for them then look on eBay. I have bought dozens of them off there are most of them only cost me $8 - $10.

Yea, these baits work well. I started using them last summer in the same places I would fish a swimbait. Did very well and they cost a heck of a lot less then basstrix and other paddle tails. I did really well with white trash and bad shad.

Rapala makes some cranks with a red bill. Never seen the blue though. Best bet is to try spike-it. That way you can always neutralize it and return your bill back to its normal color. Another thing that has worked for me is taking model paint and painting your rear treble a light blue. If you fish in a lake where bluegill are primary forage this works well. Gives the hue of the blue in their tail.

In my local lakes its lipless cranks and shallow cranks during the pre-spawn. Jigs and plastics for the spawners. Deep cranks, jigs, and big worms for summertime post-spawners.

There is a guy up here in Indiana that manufactures knock-offs. He mostly pushes them on eBay. Not sure if its what your looking for though.

The image on the screen is constantly moving because data is constantly being sent from the transducer (thing you are towing behind your boat). This happens even when your boat is sitting still. The transducer will be sending the same reading over and over again untill you move the boat. Once you start moving the data being sent changes and new information scrolls across your screen. Hope this helps you out a little. Being able to understand your depth finder is huge key to finding fish that other people are missing.