Team9nine

The key factors to catching fish, whether boat, bank, or otherwise, have always been, and will always be (IMHO); 1. Depth control 2. Speed control Beyond that, successful fishing is; > Being in the right place (location) > At the right time (timing) > And fishing in the right manner (bait presentation) ‘Bait type’ and ‘bait color’ are somewhere down the list after all the above.

Here’s a definition I like: “An expert is somebody who has a broad and deep competence in terms of knowledge, skill and experience through practice and education in a particular field.” How exactly that translates to bass fishing in a social media world, where 90% of all content has been generated in the past several years, is a topic for discussion/debate. After a while, I think you form your own ideas on who these people might be, including forum content providers. I know I have ?

May simply be the best they got. Telemetry studies show largemouth overwinter in areas of zero current and that have decent oxygen. Usually this is a feeder creek off the main river, but some rivers may not have that option readily available.

Kinda', sorta', but not really - lol. My first introduction to Texas-rigged worms for bass was in 1976, Lake of the Ozarks on a summer vacation using spincast outfits and Knight Tube worms along with a package of purple with white ct 6" worms we got in our B.A.S.S. renewal pkg. My Dad lost a big bass when it jumped and broke his line, and the bass bug was set in me from then on. We did end up catching several other bass on those worms, but never hooked that big one again. Ironically, Creme ended up buying Knight Mfg. many years later, and the Tube Worm with it. I believe they are now discontinued from the lineup.

This ^^ I never change out my braid unless it gets so low that I have to, though I will reverse it after 2-4 years.

Gave up on morning fishing when I stopped tourney fishing over a decade ago. Now I never hit the lake before lunch. Get all the sleep I need, still catch plenty of fish, and most of the early crowd is usually off the water by 3:00, leaving me plenty of water to fish. The early evening bite is nearly on par with the morning bite, and sunsets are just as impressive as sunrises.

They suck - lol. I won't buy a spinning reel that has one.

Nothing ALWAYS works, but the traditional/original “Ned” rig is the closest thing I’ve thrown yet, along with a small black marabou or hair jig.

Lol - I don't want one, at least not to fish with. How you catch them matters

LiveScope If you can't afford that, then do what Catt suggests

Just depends on what you like throwing, I guess. My buddies in the northern third of our state (the natural lakes section) have been killing it on cranks and spoonplugs this fall, especially trolling. Happens every fall here once the thermocline gets eliminated.

One rod and reel covers it all for me. Much easier to carry a few extra lures instead of a few extra rod/reel combos from the bank. I use a ML Shimano Clarus to throw traditional Ned, weedless Ned (VMC Rugby), jighead wacky, weightless wacky, jigworm, small swimbaits, small jerkbaits, micro jig-pig among others. Could easily do dropshot, too, though I don’t usually from the bank.

Didn't like braid on most any baitcast application except frogging and punching. Run fluoro on nearly all baitcasters, but braid on nearly all spinning outfits.

The smaller the body of water, the more frequently I believe this occurs. It kind of just makes sense. In the case of smallies, I know tagging and movement studies they have done here show that most smallmouth stay in the same pools year round in our smaller rivers. They move more in our larger ones on a seasonal basis. In green fish, the ongoing study in Texas currently has less than a 3% recapture rate of the same fish by fishing even though they pretty much know exactly where that fish is sitting. I know I've had several instances this year of catching the same fish. The pic below is just one example of the same fish caught 22 hours apart back in January.

Actually...ummmm, no, I don’t think I ever really have, exactly ? Have spent a lot of time researching Optimal Foraging Theory, though. The game isn’t always as easy as it might seem for bass.

My question is: Before freezing over, do ponds ever become completely unproductive? Usually not, unless they are also very muddy at the same time. Usually cold water means clear water, and the fish bite even with ice on parts of the pond. Do bass still bite when the water is 33 degrees? Yes, though technically you almost never see 33 degree water except in rivers. There is a phase where water switches between states rather easily and quickly. If you go out on a partly frozen lake and take water temps, you often have about 38-39 degrees in the open water away from the ice, and about 36ish degrees next to ice sheets. The only water close to 33 degrees is usually immediately under the ice itself once froze over, and that is a very thin band. I've heard that extreme cold weather can kill bass. How cold does the water have to get before the bass are killed off? If the pond is too shallow, a hard winter with a lot of ice could freeze out the pond, or extended ice and snow cover could create a situation where all the oxygen gets used up and the fish die off (winterkill). The cold water temp itself usually doesn't kill the bass. Does this every occur before ice-over? No, after...see above comment.

Around here, on our reservoirs, the white bass move very shallow for a stretch as water temps drop into the 50s, especially if you have super windy conditions. They gorge on shad on windblown flates and bars at the mouth of coves. Once water temps drop much below 50 degrees though, they start moving deep, and by the time we're fishing low to mid 40s, they are often down on main lake creek channels in 20'-40' of water. In our natural lakes during those same time periods, they'll often sit in 50'-75' of water. At those depths, every one you catch goes in the well, and you stop fishing once you have your limit because nothing survives the return due to barotrauma. As for baits, blade baits and jigging spoons do most of the deep work here. Need something to get down to those depths fast and still have some feel. Bladed jig might work if it was heavy enough or wind was light and you could stay vertical. Same with other types of small soft plastics on plain jig heads.

Historically, yes, they keep going down the list. Also, if someone declines the invite, they have kept going down the list until they have the full field number filled. But, they technically don't have to, so it would be wait and see. My guess is they would want another full dozen anglers added to the field next year, especially if several of those names are already well recognized. It is also possible they could designate one of the lists as the priority list and fill unused/unaccepted slots, say from the two Opens standings, with more from the combined AOY standings. Haven't seen anything that would suggest that would happen this year, but it is a possibiity.

Winner of each Open gets a Classic berth assuming they fished all 4 events in their division. Elites Series invites go to the top 4 in points in each of the 2 Open divisions, as well as the top 4 in overall/AOY combined division points for a total of up to 12 invites.

There have been quite a few studies done recently on plastic ingestion in bass. Overall, the amount and frequency is pretty low, ranging from 0-3.4% in the studies I’ve read. Additionally, and somewhat anecdotally, it is rare to see a soft plastic listed/found when diet studies have been done, a much more common research effort. The other good news is that these studies have also found that the large majority of the time that ingestion occurs, the bass expels the plastic, typically within 7-14 days. It might temporarily slow feeding since the plastic doesn’t break down, but no long term effects have been noticed. As such, studies generally conclude plastic ingestion isn’t that big of a deal at the moment. From a tourney standpoint, I’d be much more concerned over schedule timing, livewell holding and transporting/relocation, as well as the use of tools such as ‘floggers’ or even LiveScope as having a much greater potential for harm to the population.

Senkos are the “standard” to compare to when talking stick worms. I have seen numerous “lab tests” comparing things like mass, fall rate, gravimetric salt analysis, etc. people have carried out over the years comparing them to other similar brand baits. No idea though at what rate they catch bass when compared to other similar baits. I’m not certain you could create a valid study without a lot of time and effort. That said, I haven’t thrown one in 15+ years...not because they don’t work, but because they are built to be lost, by design - not on purpose, and I catch plenty of fish with similar type presentations at a much more cost effective rate. I fish a lot of wacky presentations with Zman baits (jig head, Neko, etc.) and average about 25 bass per bait with reclaims. I just stocked up again at Discounts $3.59/pkg sale, about half the price of a pk of Senkos. At 10 baits per package, that’s 250 bass, or about $0.014/bass (1.4 cents). If you add in Ned style presentations, the average catch rate goes up to over 50 bass per bait and brings the cost down to well under a penny per bass. That adds up considering I catch over 2,000 bass per year, and at least half of those fish are soft plastic “finesse” caught bass. If I was in a tournament and had money on the line, and could win money back, I’d certainly consider throwing Senkos in certain situations. Burning through $20 or $30 worth of baits to win hundreds or even thousands is a good gamble. But, from a recreational point of view, given the numbers of bass I already encounter, and being on a somewhat fixed income, I can’t justify the cost for my fishing situation. YMMV.

Haven't used that specific color, but a similar one, #031 blue pearl (glimmer) with lge silver flake in various forms has caught me hundreds and hundreds of bass when used as a trailer.

Zman ZinkerZ could have caught all 68 bass on a single bait, and would still be good for a few more bass in the 2nd round He could get through the entire tournament on a single pack

Just stocked up myself on Zman stuff from Discount this week. Sale prices were all cheaper than TW, most even below what you’d pay with their (TW) 15-20% holiday discount. Bought just enough to grab free shipping, and it arrived very quick. They were out of a few colors, but TW often is, too. Happy customer here...

Lol, probably Tectan by DAM Damyl (Germany). I had the exact same problem with it when I tried it. Poor impact resistance, and it seems to not play well with certain type knots. Much thinner due to a different rating system. More like fly fishing tippet material than traditional nylon we’re used to.