Team9nine

Guilty - usually when it fails to start, that’s my first clue 🤭

Bass aren’t perfect predators. So many variables at play that could make for a missed or partial strike. A certain percentage of strikes will fail. A bait is usually a moving target - often randomly. Sometimes it moves right as they get ready to strike. Add in visual hindrances, cover, retrieve speed, fish disposition, and on and on. Missed or partial strikes usually aren’t intentional, but they happen.

Finally got back out for a few hours after several very hot and humid days, along with over 4” of rain. Found a few keepers moved out into 15’-20’ of water, including my second smallie from a res that you almost never hear of one being caught from. Just a Menderchuck reject, but a cool catch for me.

Oddly, I tend to correlate the size of my frogs with the size of the waterbody. No good explanation why - just a general rule of thumb I follow. So the Pad Crasher Jr. was my favorite when fishing the smaller HOA ponds I frequented, but I use more traditional or larger sizes when I get on larger reservoirs (hundreds or thousands of acres). I downsize equipment slightly, too. I run 40# braid to a M/MH F/XF shorter rod 6’10”-7’0” for the Jr sized baits, and run 50#-65# braid and 7’0”- 7’4” length MH/H rods for the std./larger sized baits.

Proven? Maybe anecdotally, but I would think it is the rare exception instead of the norm, possibly a learned behavior unique to a specific fishery. Hard to prove anything out in the field, but in the lab, you get some more defined answers that would suggest a more benign answer than an intentional stun or slap when talking about largemouth bass. For example, in the case of frog fishing: Jimmy (Fish Code Studios) has some of the best slow motion videos with scientific analysis behind them. Worth taking a few minutes and browsing the old video list (there's not a ton of them, and all are short).

Not sure about Einstein, relativity and fishing, but I’ve used this great Lindner algebraic equation often over the years: F+L+P=S 😎

For me, Neds out fish tubes 100:1 because I never throw tubes 😛 In reality, I think the two probably fish about the same for most people. Any losses with either probably boil down to personal equipment setups and style among anglers.

This is what the late Ron Lindner posted several years back. I’d change a couple of those faces. So many you could make an argument for, but I’d lean toward’s Ron’s original list of influential persons: Buck Perry Carl Lowrance Bill Binkelman - though he might have to be taken off if this is strictly a “bass” mountain - lol Al Lindner …and I’d have to debate with myself long and hard about not substituting Rick Clunn in there for one of those other names - perhaps Bill’s? I can also see the argument for Ray Scott, though my personal thoughts are that he caused as much long term damage to the sport that offsets the fact that he largely created/defined an entire industry (professional/competitive bass angling) and organization (B.A.S.S.) we still belong to, follow and uphold largely unchanged to this day.

Not many people do any more, and that’s fine. I’ve also adopted your longer leader approach (usually 15’-18’) with spinning on my bass outfits. Took a little bit of playing with connecting knots because of the line wanting to catch that knot lying on the spool, but I’ve mostly got that worked out now.

Have always paid ramp fees on many of the lakes/reservoirs I’ve fished both in IN and now SC. Closest IN reservoir was a city lake, but over 1,000 acres and hp restricted. Annual launch pass was ~$55 last year. Here in SC, the 4 closest reservoirs are all city owned water supply lakes. Believe all are hp restricted to some degree. I have to buy two different boating permits to fish all 4 which totaled around $100, plus pay a $5 fishing permit fee at 2 of those. Only thing stocked at these lakes is grass carp as best I can tell. There are other similar lakes within half an hour or so of me, but those would require another permit or two, $100 each or $175 for both. They are further away, so I wouldn’t fish there enough to get my monies worth - so no go there.

There are still quite a few of those places out there as you can tell by many of the reports on the site, but none are close to me, and I’ve become much less a fan of long trips as I get older 😉

I’ve never met/caught a bass I didn’t like 😉 Been the ultimate “numbers” guy for most of my life, but have slightly shifted to a better appreciation for a quality bass bite these days, so I’d say I’m up to a “3” at this point. On the crappie front, I shifted from a “1” to an “8” or a “9” almost overnight last year. If I found a local lake that supported such a shift in bass, I might move higher up the scale.

Have fished a time or two over the years on lakes under similar circumstances. From what I recall, they always corded off the section of the lake where the search was being held and where they believe the body(ies) are located, so while a bit eerie, I wasn't too worried about running across one of them. It was a much more common thing to hear of finding a body in our major river flowing through a large metro area, and I was always more concerned about accidentally hooking or finding someone out there than on the lakes. Have had a friend or two that that happened to. Not sure how well I'd handle that

First guess - Some variety of pitcher plant, perhaps?

Was able to crop them out of 3 of the pics, but if you’ll look closer, you’ll see the fringes from another hole in the left knee, also. I’m a big fan of symmetry 😉

Same basic weather pattern as yesterday - maybe a bit more hazy and a little cooler. Very light NE breeze. Changed lakes to a bit more stained reservoir. Caught about the same - 9 keeper bass - but overall quality went up. Ned and jig for everything today.

Sunny, light north wind, air and water both 80-82 today. Water vis almost 9 ft. Ended the afternoon with 10 bass, including the first smallie I’ve seen since moving here. Wasn’t big, but the surprise factor made up for that 😎

So this is also tied to your comment about their ability to learn or associate with very specific food items, but it’s not absolute, and sometimes works in reverse. I lived at a small reservoir with a marina that sold bait, including minnows. Twice a day, they’d gather all the dead ones in a pail, walk out to the dock, stomp their feet a couple times and then toss the dead minnows into the water. An immediate gorging by the bass that lived under the dock ensued. The catch being, these bass wouldn’t touch a live minnow unless it was tossed in during the immediate feeding frenzy and not given a chance. After about 30 seconds, the only minnows the bass would come back and eat were the dead minnows that drifted off. You toss a live one in and he’d just swim away unscathed. Toss a dead one in, and a bass would rise up to just underneath, inspect it for a few seconds, then slurp it under. Zero movement by the minnow was important. All kinds of anglers would fish there during closed hours trying to catch these bass, but they rarely bit. I figured out how to trick one or two every once in a while by fishing a weightless fluke or similar style bait wacky rigged…but the key was toss it in, and never move it. Give it slack line immediately and just wait while it slowly sank to the bottom. Often you had to wait until it reached bottom and just sat there for a while. These bass learned that anything that moved even the slightest wasn’t a hand fed dead minnow - lol. It was pretty fascinating.

Please report back if he replies. Will be curious to hear what he says. Thx

Likely not from the physical activity of nesting itself, but the stress and hormonal changes combined with typically increasing water temps often make fish more susceptible to a host of diseases and/or infections (parasitic, red sore disease, or others). Hard to say for certain without pathology, but you should see it clear out over the near term as fish finish spawning and recover.

Doesn't matter to the fish most days, IMO, to the point that I now pretty much just bring and use one style/color of trailer more often than not. Some days by luck or coincidence, I match baits & trailers - some days not so much. Most days I always catch at least a few, regardless

Tom Landry - same demeanor; always wearing the same hat; and have that same “smile” in all my pictures 😉

Still finding a few nice crappie here and there. For a post spawn fish, this 1.7 lb. girl was in great looking shape, the best of around 10 or so today.

I’ve had both happen this month and I’m still undecided - lol. First was a 5-6 lb. bass. Been fishing Ned on a stump flat, occasionally hanging up and having to go unsnag. Bait stopped and line tightened right by a stump, so I hesitated instead of swinging. Bass took off and immediately went skyward, throwing the bait in the process. Just lost the one good bite I came for 😮‍💨 Then earlier this week, a big fish follows my bait to the bottom (FFS). Line immediately tightens, I swing. Heavy pressure for a couple seconds, then nothing - the bait just popped out. Was it a bass? Lots of fish had followed the bait like that already and never bit. Also lots of catfish and carp in this lake. Did I just briefly snag one of those curious bystanders? I actually felt better about not knowing on the latter, vs. knowing I blew it on the former

I’m guessing we’ve all lost a big fish or two over the years. Some you lose on the jump, or maybe near the boat, just out of reach. But others, you set into, the fish doesn’t move - maybe just a hard long run or a couple big head shakes, then she’s gone. But you didn’t see her, so she was probably a big bass, but maybe not. So the question…when you lose a big fish, do you prefer to at least see it and know exactly what you just lost, and how big? Or would you rather not see it at all, and maybe live with the thought that perhaps it wasn’t actually a big bass? Maybe you briefly snagged a big catfish or drum, striper, etc., so you don’t feel quite as bad, ‘cause you’ll never know? I’ve had my share of both, and think I lean slightly toward the latter - rather not knowing.