WolfyBrandon

Largemouth Bass 4lb 04oz - 19 & 1/2'' (October 22, 2014) Luck "E" Strike RC STX (Secret Night) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Smallmouth Bass 2lb 09oz - 16'' (July 01, 2014) [Texas Rigged] 6'' Zoom Trick Worm (Watermelon Red Flake) WolfyBrandon

August 12th 2014 Headed out fishing after work on what looked like a nice day. Headed north away from the marina fishing my way up the shoreline (the fishing wasn't the best so I kept pushing further). I was at the furthest point north than I had ever been before when over my shoulder I heard the first sound of thunder. I looked behind me to see a major storm moving in. I instantly dropped fishing and headed back at full speed but sadly was a good half hour away. Needless to say I got caught in a major wind/rain/lightning storm. Spooky stuff, I hope to never make that mistake again. WolfyBrandon

Many thanks for the link Slonezp! I took a bit of the information from the videos and was able to confirm it (twice) when comparing it to my fishing logs for last year. WolfyBrandon

Just like Sam mentioned, a Swimming Pool Thermometer works great. I picked this one up at Wallmart earlier in the year (very cheap). Takes less than 30 sec to get a accurate reading and it even floats. (Took this pic today, water is getting cold... ) WolfyBrandon

I've been wondering the same thing. All year long I've been catching a ton of Smallmouth Bass, and hardly any Largemouth. It wasn't until October 07, 2014 I finally hooked into a 3lb 3oz Largemouth. The following days I managed to catch a few more around the 2lb range, and on October 22, 2014 I caught a 4lb 03oz, and a 4lb 04oz Largemouth on the same day. The water temp around this time was in the 62F-56F range. All of the fish caught where in the same area, and I believe this was when they moved up for the fall bite because 1) I haven't caught any Largemouth out of that area all year long, and 2) I could see 3 other Largemouth follow in the first one I hooked to the dock, so they were in a school together. That was the last time I caught anything, and it is now November 08, 2014. I still have seen fish active in the shallows however, I could see one nip at my jerkbait softly but failed to get hooked, and another one was interested in it but wouldn't bite it because I believe he caught sight of me (my fault) and knew something was up. I was out yesterday (November 7th, 2014) but only managed to see two bass follow in my bait, both small (inches in size). The water temp is now in the 52F-50F range, around 7ft clarity, and ~3ft below normal summer level. I've tried fishing some deeper water with no results yet. I'm still at it though, if the weather stays nice I might get lucky, otherwise I'm going to try some different baits and see if that helps. If not, then they probably moved out of the location I can fish. November 07, 2014 WolfyBrandon

Bass # 56 - 62 June 26, 2014 (~3:30pm - 9:00pm) WolfyBrandon

Bass # 51-55 June 25, 2014 (~3:30pm - 5:30pm) WolfyBrandon

Bass # 37 - 50 June 23, 2014 (~3:30pm - ~9:30pm) Wow... It doesn't take long to remind me why I love topwater baits! I first started fishing with the T-Rigged Lizard, Bandit Squarebill, and the Bomber Fat Free Shad, but found my success with that combination has slowed down a bit. I changed from the Bandit Squarebill to a Heddon Super Spook Jr and the fish just came Alive! I found multiple casts with the Fat Free would yield nothing, and only a few walks of the Spook Jr. would get an instant surface strike. I would do a "One-Two Punch" tactic where if they missed the spook I would toss the T-Rigged Lizard and let it sink to the bottom. Twitch it a few times and usually they would have it. This worked several times, but if I ever followed it up with the crankbait they would never touch it. Soon it wouldn't matter though... because I ended up making a bad cast when trying to launch it out there... The crank somehow hit the side of the boat around 100mph while casting, and spooled my baitcaster to the point where it was out of action for the rest of the trip. It hit so hard it chipped a large piece off the bill of the crank. Oh well, a few casts with the spook, fish or two later and I was over it. Sometimes I found the fish would completely ignore the Lizard too and only go for the spook. Things I noted while on the water were that I found a small frog swimming on the surface which could hint to the topwater bite, as well as on my last trip I found multiple fish with a throat full of bugs. A few of the fish I caught during this trip however had baitfish in their throat (one looked like a blueback) so it's interesting that I got 0 hits on the crank (only managed to fish it probably 1-2 hours though. When eventually the lizard got chewed up, I changed to a T-Rigged Fluke (thinking of the baitfish) but had no luck on it (by that time it was already getting dark and didn't have much time to fish it.) Probably my best day fishing so far this year, caught a few decent smallies on topwater, and fish # 48 had beautiful color to it.... WolfyBrandon

Bass # 26 - 36 June 19, 2014 (~4:00pm - ~9:00pm) WolfyBrandon

Bass 24 & 25, June 16, 2014 (~4:30pm - ~6:00pm) WolfyBrandon

Bass # 13 - 23. June 05, 2014 (~3:30pm - ~8:00pm) I had a long work week and only planned to fish for a few hours... I fished around the marina till about 5:30pm and only managed to catch one small Largemouth bass that was 7 & 1/4'' 04oz... I knew the fishing should be better... so changed my mind and decided I would head out in the boat. (I needed to test it out anyway after painting the bottom to fix some small leaks.) I didn't think much on where to go, It was bluebird sky with minimal clouds & wind so I decided to hit up some docks that I haven't fished yet this year. After just a few casts, I hooked into my first fish... and seconds later... I GOT MY FIRST EVER DOUBLE UP! I managed to find a good school of Smallmouth, and was catching them on every cast. Once I stopped getting bit, I changed to a Jig & Trailer and picked up another nice fish close by... I kept fishing with the Jig & Trailer and hooked 3 more nice fish before it got dark and I decided to head home... Then just after my best day fishing so far this year, as Murphy's Law would have it, I had vehicle problems that put it in the shop, which prevented me from fishing for an entire week+ after that day. lol WolfyBrandon

8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, & 12th Bass, (1) May 20, 2014 - 11 & 1/2'' 10oz Smallmouth, (2) May 29, 2014 - 8'' 04oz Largemouth, (3) June 03, 2014 - 10'' 08oz Smallmouth, (4) June 03, 2014 - 11 & 1/2'' 11oz - Smallmouth, (5) June 03, 2014 - (Unknown Length & Weight) Smallmouth. WolfyBrandon

Well, I don't know if this one counts... lol May 15th, I was using a plastic lizard and only managed to catch two Northern Pike on it. I have seen a large school of baby crappie hanging around the marina and wanted to see if any bass were near. Long story short, I had to wacky rig the lizard (because of the pike) and was burning/twitching it on the surface like a top water bait and this tiny largemouth bass came out of no where and attacked it. I managed to catch him, but didn't really hook him... lol Fishing has been tough lately (at the marina). "Common Theme" I've seen is minnows / blue herrings in the shallows but no bass of any size anywhere... only a few large pike (which might be taking over), and with 5+ ft of visibility believe me I have looked! WolfyBrandon

6th Bass, May 05, 2014 (~6:45pm) 12 & 1/2" 1lb 0oz Smallmouth WolfyBrandon

Brian, Interesting post because 2014 is also the year for me where I plan to heavily document my fishing experiences in great detail. I started back in 2008, by simply taking pictures with my digital camera and organizing them on my computer into folders sorted by date. It wasn't really a log so much as just documenting fish I caught and taking scenic pictures while out on the lake. I've always had a love for fishing (any species), but Bass Fishing was something I took up on my own and was self-taught (for the first few years) pretty much the hard way through trial and error. Since I live up north, I have a long winter period where I don't fish, and when I became serious about bass fishing I started to use my winter "down time" to do a lot of research. I found myself looking back on those logs from years ago to try and learn from my past experiences, but it lacked a lot of useful information that I wanted to know this last winter. I also didn't log much of anything in 2011 & 2012 (I had other things going on in my life). So this year I plan to make up for it and have overhauled my system to the point where it has become almost a second job for me (which is ok, I have free time). I'm going to put in the hard work this year so that I have a solid foundation to look back upon, then next year I will take a break and go back to fishing just for fun with hopefully more knowledge that will make it even more fun, at least... that is the plan lol. Anyway... brace yourself, this is my log... On my PC I have a folder structure of the following... /Fishing 2014/ - /01. Research & Gear Stuff/ (Misc Information & Pictures) - - /01. Fishing Videos Research/ (Saved Videos with Useful Information) - - /02. Fishing Information & Documents Research/ (Various Text Documents of Articles and Useful Information. Diagram Pictures/Charts, etc.) - - /03. Weather & Environmental Research/ (Weather Front Diagrams/Symbols, Moon Phase Information, Aquatic Vegetation, etc.) - - /04. Lake Information/ (Information on Types of Lakes, Seasonal Effects, etc) - - /05. Fishing Tackle Research/ (Color Charts of Various Lures and Baits I'm researching/Interested In using) - - /06. Catalog PDF's/ (2014 Tackle Company Catalog PDF files, "bait-monkey galore" 0_o) - /02. New Tackle for 2014/ (Consists of pictures of new tackle I've purchased for/during 2014) - /03. Weather Forecasts & Radar Images [2014]/ (I take 3 images per day & name with date & time, [my 5 Day Forecast + Doppler Radar Widget of WA State & West Coast US/Pacific (Infrared)], ["Current Surface" Image of the entire USA for Front Symbols], and a [Weather Graph Image from the station closest to where I fish]. I also have quick links to websites to quickly get the images/information.) - - /01. March 2014/ (Images for the days of March) - - /02. April 2014/ (Images for the days of April) - /04. Order & Total # Of Fish Caught Pictures/ (I have one picture (best) of each fish I have caught numbered so I can see them all & the order in which they were caught.) - - /01. Fish Maps/ (heh, I have a 500x500 image cropped of a fully zoomed in google map of the location where I caught each fish & marked it up in photoshop with my location, my casts line, and where about I hooked each fish.) [This Is Where My Log For This Year Begins] Example: - /Folder Number - Month - Day, 2014/ (I make one of these folders for every fishing trip, and this is where I store the hundreds of pictures I take during each trip.) I also have the same following 8 items in each of these logs... - - /01. Preview/ (This is where I have selected 10 - 50 good pictures (out of the hundreds) that I can put into a slideshow with music to remember / re-live that day's fishing experience. This is where I also keep a filled out Bass Resource's Fishing Log for each bass I catch.) - - /02. Notes.txt (This is the meat of the log for each day, where I list all of the information) --------------Notes.txt-------------- Date: ? Time: ? Conditions: Water Temp - ?F Water Level - ? Than Normal Summer Level Water Clarity - ? Water Current - (Direction/Speed) Sky Conditions - ? Wind & Direction - ? - From The ? Moon - ?% Notes - (This is where I type out everything I can about my experience on the water that day.) Summery - (This is where I summarize the days events.) Future Goal - (This is something I put notes in on what I plan to try and accomplish on my next trip or a goal to try and achieve as quick as possible.) Updates - (This is where I put in any notes "after" my last trip and "before" my next trip.) Lures & Techniques Used - (This is where I list all of the lures & colors I used that day along with the techniques I used to fish them.) Lures Note - (This is where I put in any notes relating to baits I am currently using or plan to use in the future.) - - - - - Fishing Results - - - - - Number Of Fish Caught: ? Number & Fish Species: ? - ? Fish Specific Details: Species - Weight - Length - Lure Type - Name ? - ? - ? - ? - ? (per fish) /End of Notes.txt -------------------------------------- - - /03. Day's Moon Phase.jpg (This is a picture of the moon's % for that day) - - /04. Month - Day, 2014 (Time) - Forcast & Radar.jpg (5 Day Forecast + Doppler Radar Widget of WA State & West Coast US/Pacific (Infrared)) - - /05. Month - Day, 2014 (Time) - Surface.jpg ("Current Surface" Image of the entire USA for Front Symbols) - - /06. Month - Day, 2014 (Weather Graph).jpg (Weather Graph Image from the station closest to where I fish.) - - /07. Hourly Weather History & Observations.ods (This is a spreadsheet consisting of Temperature, Dew Point, Humidity %, Wind Direction, Wind Speed MPH, Gust MPH, Barometric Pressure, Precipitation in Inches, for every 5 minutes for the 24 hours of that day.) - - /08. Weather Summary.txt (A simple text document that has the summary and averages of the spreadsheet above for quick reference.) End Of /Fishing 2014/... [This Is Where My Log Ends] Now a bit of a Disclaimer lol: I have purposely gone out of my way to setup my system of doing logs to contain the maximum amount of information possible. I'm someone who loves taking a lot of pictures, is blessed with computer skills, and is a fairly fast typer. Believe it or not, with my shortcut links I can pretty much get all the information/pictures required within a few minuets time. It's the Notes.txt that takes the longest to fill out. To help with that, my solution is I have a digital audio voice recorder that I can talk into and record all the information, then come back to it at a later date. I could just use the audio voice recorder by itself, but personally I like to have it in text format. Its about as technical and in-depth as you can get. Most of the work just consists of going to a link and saving an image, or copy/paste -ing information. Then I work on the Notes.txt on the days between fishing trips. So that's how I'm doing my logs for this year... if anything I hope this helps give others "idea's" on making their own if they are interested. WolfyBrandon

Congrats! Nice Fish. WolfyBrandon

3rd, 4th, & 5th Bass, May 02, 2014 (3:30pm - ~6:30pm) (1) 12'' 13oz Smallmouth, (2) 12 & 1/2" ~1lb? Smallmouth, (3) 13" 1lb 0oz Smallmouth. WolfyBrandon

Yes! first fish of 2014! April 18, 2014 (~5:45pm) - 13'' 1lb 05oz Smallmouth WolfyBrandon

Hi All, While I checking the current state of a local lake recently, I managed to find a lure that I haven't seen before. It doesn't have any information on it, but doing some online research the closest looking thing I could find to it was a brand called Adam's. The one I found has a little different belly to it I think, possibly a different model. It's some type of suspending jerkbait, just curious to what it is and it's details. WolfyBrandon

One of my favorite spinnerbaits to throw, 0 problems so far. WolfyBrandon

Spokane, WA

;D Im 100% sure its the line doing it cause ive gone through three rods now and there is nothing else that could cause this other than the guides being cheap. (sorry my dad called them eyelids since I was a kid ) I just don't know what else to try since ive gone all the way up to stainless steel and its still happining. Ive already talked to the guys in the fishing department at sportsmans warehouse and they told me if it happend on my last rod I could take it back and return it which I probably should of done. I guess I could just buy an expensive rod and keep taking it back every time this happens but then I would have to restring line and go though the mess of having birds nests with new line. ugh :-/ ( I photoshoped a pic to show what I mean but I cant post it till I have 10 posts...) :-[ Wolfy

Id be more than happy to take a picture with a digital cam for you but sadly I broke my camria while out hunting last year. Fine, so maybe I caught a few large Northen Pike Largemouth and Smallmouth Bass last year that pulled hard enough it helped wear the grooves? but seriouslly, I'm hoping to pickout a new rod sometime next week, maybe I should ask the question differently, how about recommend me a fair priced good rod with eyelids that you say won't get worn out by monofilament line and ill see if I can prove you wrong this year. Anyway, believe me when I bought that last rod with stainless steel eyelids and began to feel my line get frayed up I checked the tip of the rod I couldnt believe the line wore that out as well. EDIT: As far as the braid question, no I only used braid on my first rod and I didnt like it because of the memory it has. Never used it on my last two poles I prefer to use monofilament. Wolfy

Nah its not that, though I do use a snap swivel a lot of the time when I pulling various crank baits I never reel the swivel up to the tip so that cant be the problem. I can tell its the line because the wear spots are either right at the bottom or to the sides where the line rides. As for the plastic you mentioned it very well could of been but I cant really tell the difference between the two they look similar to me. Wolfy