senile1

What a cool place to fish! I love the gator pics and redfish are the bomb. We caught a few in Baffin Bay, Texas in 2009. Three were 30 - 35 inches and they definitely bring the fight. I can't wait to go saltwater fishing again.

So I'm reading about Classic practice today and I find the paragraph below at the following link: http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/tournaments/classic/news/story?page=b_classic_11_suchan_wed_practice. That's almost a 23 degree change in just two or three days. Does the water temperature in the Louisiana Delta really change that fast? I actually find it hard to believe that water temperatures were as low as 37 degrees down there. Did someone stick a thermometer into a puddle on a cold day or what?

Agreed.

If both waters have similar populations of bass in quantity and quality, I would probably try the ox-bow first due to the reasons already indicated in the posts above. In my state, most of the ox-bow lakes do not support good bass populations so I would take the clearer lake here.

The wind moves the plankton and the baitfish follow, thus, positioning the bass to feed. There's no mystery there. This is why a windblown bank can be good. However, there are more factors to consider. If one is fishing deep and the wind and boat traffic create waves that are high enough to pitch the boat up and down, lure depth control can become a real problem. As has been already stated, boat control can become a problem as well. Generally though, I like wind if it isn't too blustery.

Welcome to the Bass Resource community. I do believe this forum and site will help you improve your angling skills. Just jump right in and ask questions. And remember that the only stupid question is the one you don't ask.

Nice. It's only going to get better as Spring will be here soon.

In Missouri it costs $12 for the year as a resident. If you purchase the license online there is a $2 convenience fee added to it. Daily permit is $7 and a non-resident permit is $42. If you purchase the combined fishing and small game permits the price is $19.

Very nice post, CJ. To be versatile you have to acquire the knowledge to know why one presentation gets bit under specific conditions while a completely different presentation works under another set of circumstances. And you have to acquire skill in at least enough presentations to cover all conditions.

Even if one believes that bass become conditioned to a particular presentation that just means you have to change the presentation, somewhat, to something they haven't seen. Eventually, you can change back to the presentation they stopped biting to begin with because they will have forgotten it. However, I suspect this isn't what you are experiencing. In the post above you state that you fish the last hour or so before dark. Do you fish well into the night or just for this hour or two? That's not enough time to say the fish aren't biting or the fish are conditioned to a lure. And that's not enough time to give a slow finesse presentation or a slowly fished jig or t-rig the time to fully produce. Fish the pond all day or at various times during the day and fish it for at least 4 - 6 hours at a time if not more. I believe if you would fish the pond all day there would be a period or two where the fish would become active and you will get some bites. Add a little patience and more time to some of the techniques suggested in this thread and see what transpires.

Welcome to the community.

That's definitely something to be proud of, Bobby. How many lure makers can make the claim that one of their lures was voted among the best of all time?

Deja Vu. Those are some excellent weights. What's the latest on fishing the Mexican side of Falcon?

You Kansas guys are making me jealous. I think I'm going to have to get a non-resident license for Kansas for the year so I can fish these power plant lakes in the Winter. All of my waters have been iced over or the ramps are iced over. I hope this warming trend softens some of this water in a week or two.

From running aground to running out of fuel, it sounds like practice hasn't been too productive for the Classic field. A warming trend this week could improve things, hopefully. See the Bassmaster link below. http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/tournaments/classic/news/story?page=b_classic_11_Russow_Classic_Practice_Wrapup

Welcome to the forum.

Welcome to the BR community, Brandon.

Nice picture and nice fish, Chris.

Nice fish whether its 5 lbs, 6 lbs, or whatever.

Welcome to the BR forum.

Welcome to the community.

If the lake in question has a decent number of 14-19 lb'ers in it, yes, I think within a few weeks or months, I would see enough big fish with my own two eyes to put together a solid rout. And once I had done that, I'd start sticking them regularly. You and I are saying pretty much the same thing then. Without aquiring expert knowledge in some form or fashion such as spending the weeks and months to locate the fish, you wouldn't be able to stick the fish. Electronics helps to shorten this period in my opinion.

No, but you might learn something new. You bring to the table a stubborn unwillingness to change or try anything new because what you did worked so well. I think if you add a few things, you'll slowly figure out the why's of your success. I mean no disrespect to you, Chris, as you have proven you are one hell of a trophy angler and your big fish skills are well beyond mine. I ask this rhetorical question only to make a point about the average angler. Hypothetically, do you think you can stick 14 - 19 lb'ers on a regular basis in a 50,000 acre lake without electronics and without expert knowledge of that lake? I would think you would be very inconsistent under those circumstances. Granted, you could make a number of trips to learn the lake and talk to other anglers to gain knowledge and maybe then you might become consistent. In my experience, it takes a great deal of time and effort to learn a really large lake and electronics allow us to decrease this time by quite a bit. Missouri has Lake of the Ozarks (55,000 acres), Truman Lake (55,000 acres), Table Rock Lake (43,000 acres), Stockton Lake (25,000 acres), Mark Twain Lake (18,000 acres), etc. (And these are nothing compared to some of the huge lakes in other states.) I would not attempt to fish any of these lakes without either electronics, or expert knowledge gained from some source or my own time on the lake. But that's just my opinion.

I don't think there is a dollar amount for the advantages that would apply to everyone. It all boils down to personal preference. How much is it worth to you to have the majority of your baits running true right out of the box?

1b