senile1

Nah. I just read too much into it.

Regardless, of the "magical" water temperature, at 50 degrees I would expect a bite now and then. Considering that you are fishing a pond, unless it is extremely large, you should be able to fish the whole thing in a day. And you would be fishing the location of the bass at some point during the day if you fish the entire pond. If your presentation is correct for the conditions you should eventually get some bites when the bass become active. It has to be one of three things: Your presentation is off, you are fishing when the bass are inactive, or you aren't fishing the whole thing and finding the fish. For me, the chances of having a magical day in the spring are better if I find where the fish are in winter. Then as the temperature warms, I can determine their paths to the spawning and feeding areas and I am more likely to to find their location. This is especially true for larger lakes.

Welcome back. I remember your signature! Or maybe someone else uses the same one. I don't know.

I have been wanting to get out there too, but my IT work has just been beating me to death over the past few weeks. Very frustrating.

Did you get her weight? If she was 25.5 inches she had to be a monstrosity.

This is one of those repeated subjects where too often we look it at with a human perspective, but we really don't know and may never know the answer to this question. We think if they are not scared off by hooks then they aren't scared off by line. But we don't know how the line sticking out of the front of a lure appears to a bass when compared to hooks. Maybe hooks could be seen as a deformity on a bait fish and the line sticking out is something else. Or maybe both are seen as something entirely abnormal, or then again, maybe the fish don't notice them at all. It could also be that some fish are spooked by both and those are the fish that never bite. Studies show there are some fish that will never bite a lure. Regarding things such as this, we may never know the answers but they always give us excuses to make when we are struggling to catch fish.

Congrats on the toad!

Very nice couple of fish there.

That's a nice group of smallies. Cool pic of the largemouth and all of the bronze fish in the net.

And the bass say, "Before you can read me you gotta learn how to see me."

What a tank! Congratulations!

I noticed that as well. A-Jay knows most of his months and he can list them in order too.

The Many Glacier Hotel in Glacier National Park.

My screen name was the name of a music project I put together on CD before the age of social media. I have played guitar since my teens, and on this project I played everything - bass, keyboards, drums, guitars, and even programmed some drum machine patches. (At the time, drum machine patches were pretty ugly, and in my opinion, most still are.) While I believe the music was solid and well-played for the most part, the recording quality suffered as my amateur abilities with the recording software of the time left much to be desired. I have thought about changing my name to something else (lucid1 maybe?) but since I am known by the "senile1" moniker I have been hesitant to change it.

I agree. I have witnessed a few small ponds that once had good fishing turn into dink waters. I may love catch and release but if I am going to manage a small water body for decent sized fish, it is highly likely that at some point I will have to perform selective harvest on that body of water. Not to mention that anglers have a right to eat what they catch as long as they abide by the creel limits set by their state.

That fish is a beast. Nice one!

Very nice fish!

Nice fish and good story!

My wife, two daughters, and I enjoying some class 3 and 4 rapids on the Arkansas River in Colorado, circa 2005.

@Burros I like the exquisite color of those fish!

You absolutely should pay to have it checked out by a mechanic. Better to spend $150 and not buy it, than purchase a huge multi-thousand dollar headache. There are lots of things to check and if you do an internet search you will find some good checklists. Also, do specific searches on the motor and boat models you are considering. You may find information such as recalls and such that could be relevant to your purchase decision as well.

That is a beast, indeed. Congratulations on the PB! Up next, a DD.

Like John and Dwight, I was falling for @OCdockskipper's post until about halfway through the second paragraph. The humor started to exude from his words at that point. Sorry to hear the OP, @redboat, is struggling on TB. I don't live nearby so I can't dispute his report directly, but it would take some kind of major event to take TB from the top bass lake in the nation to an also-ran in just one year. You can bet the bass are there though it may require a different strategy to find them, or get them to bite.

I thought about that when I posted the pic.

I haven't watched it yet but I have today's episode set to record.