senile1

A-Jay - As president of the Knucklehead Anglers Club, I welcome you!

Fishing for Redfish in any bay from Alabama to Texas would top the bill for me as well.

I agree with respecting all fish, no matter the size.

These people.

Come on, people. Show some respect for the fish. Hold them vertically or horizontally with both hands.

Nice fish.

Too bad. It looks like the Drum PB will have to wait but at least you caught some quality smallmouth. Very nice!

Very good. The idea about using neutral to pull you down a steep ramp makes perfect sense, but is something I really hadn't thought about.

I use the 2.5s a lot when cranking shallow as well. The 1.5s are fine but, in my opinion, they tend to draw a lot more small fish.

Congratulation on the new PB! That's a very nice fish.

I was using a slow-rolled spinnerbait, which at the time and on that body of water, was a lure that worked well under those particular conditions. Random selection of lures is not something that I practice. Even on a really bad day where I try a number of techniques, I will always try to think through what lure I am going to try next based on the current conditions.

Congratulations! This sounds like an exciting time for you raising your PB twice in two weeks.

So . . . . I want to apologize about the way my initial post above may have come across. I have a decent level of intelligence but I am not the sharpest tool in the barn. Like my fishing skills, I have had to spend a great deal of time and effort to reach the level I have reached in my career. It didn't come easily. My main point was about the dangers inherent in stereotyping any group of people, so I apologize if I came across as an arrogant cad. I did respond to the survey, btw,

Cisco. Jon, you and I discussed this a while back in a PM. I recall that your area of expertise is call center analytics, correct?

I know this was meant to be a joke and I know that as a general rule older people are less technically savvy than younger people. However, one needs to be careful how he or she phrases such sentiments as you never know when you are in the presence of someone older who might be able to put your "technical" knowledge to shame. At age 53, I'm at the highest level in my profession as a network engineer and earn quite a high salary as does my wife who is a SAN engineer. I design and configure converged voice, video, and data networks from the ground up for very large corporations, national and international. I also program call center scripting. I congratulate those of you who use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, forums, etc on your knowledge of how to navigate social websites. Below is my LinkedIn profile if you want to see my credentials. http://www.linkedin.com/pub/ed-groves/6/669/ab5

Good point, A.J. I should have clarified that I was speaking of largemouth lengths.

A healthy 18 inch bass will be in the 3 lb range and that is a good fish here. Twenty inches or so, again on a healthy fish, will be around 4 - 5 lbs. After passing the 22 inch mark or so, the fish exceed 7 lbs if sporting a healthy girth. As for a monster fish, that depends on your definition. I consider 7 lbs and up as fairly rare in northwest Missouri (typically 22 - 23 inches) but probably a true monster would be 9 and up. A 9 lb fish is very, very rare here.

I enjoy myself even when the bite is tough, or "hard." Regarding having a talent or knack, I think it is more about quality time on the water, learning from the experiences of others, and keeping the mind open to different solutions to obtain the bite. In my opinion, these things are more important for the vast majority of us in developing our fishing skills, than some inborn fishing talent. As for learning patterns and techniques, some come quickly while others take more work. Again though, the learning window is shortened by the three items I mentioned above.

That's a good point about the neoprene dry suits. I have thought about this but have never acted on the thought. All it takes is one fall into cool water, when unprepared, to end one's life. I don't like those odds.

For September, reports from Table Rock guides over the past week and a half indicate that the bass have still been deep (30 - 40 feet) and feeding on shad. Dixie Jet Spoons, spybaiting, and drop shots have been suggested as the methods of choice for these deep fish and they are being found off of sloping gravel points and bluff ends. There has also been a topwater bite on the gravel points early and late in the day. Keep your eyes peeled for groups of fish slashing the surface for shad. A couple of recent reports on another forum may indicate that the deep fish are starting to scatter. If that is the case the wiggle wart and jerkbait bites should start to pick up as some fish move up and into the creeks. For me, I would always have a football head jig and craw setup as well. I was at Table Rock the first week of September and my wife and I got in on a couple of feeding frenzies on the surface. She had a small 2 inch pepper spoon on while I was throwing a bigger shad imitating bait. The pepper spoon was killing them so I had to switch. I always catch some fish on football head jigs with craw trailers on drop-offs and on points as well. The key on a large clear lake such as Table Rock is to find the correct depth on the right structure quickly. When fish can be located 60 or 80 feet deep (especially in summer) that is a lot of the water column to cover on a 43,000 acre lake. I will be back out at Table Rock for a few days next week, so hopefully, I can get on some fish and give some more info.

Not all of us.

My personal best currently sits at 7 lbs 5 oz. She was 23.5 inches, and was pretty thin in the girth department. She was caught in August, 2008, and was released as are all of my big bass. I've caught a few 5's and 6's since then but nothing close to 7. It seems almost every year starting in Spring I have a big network project at work and I don't get to fish the prespawn/spawn period very much.

Very nice! With the length on her, she'll probably be packing well over 8 lbs in the spring, unless she is at the very end of her life. You need to go back and catch her again.

Largemouth - August, 2008 7 lb 5 oz Spinnerbait Released

Nice post, Matt. I like posts that make me think and this one does. I definitely have been slow in using bigger swimbaits, probably to my own detriment. I do use jigs with big trailers, large creature baits, big worms, and swimbaits less than 6 inches. Your post has me convinced I need to add bigger swimbaits to my repertoire. I do think that most of the people posting about location mean well. There are a lot of bass anglers who still fish mostly shallow areas and visible cover. The location discussions are addressed to them, or at least they should be. Catt makes a good point that the importance of location does increase the larger the lake becomes. This is a good thread and it has challenged me to increase my intensity for bigger fish.