IwillChooseFreeWill

thanks Mike!

I have been doing a lot of reading on this the past few days. It has been shown that most of the fish the scientists have checked have a 4th type of cone in their eyes that allows them to detect or see UV light. The largemouth bass we typically catch has not been tested (or the results not officially released), but other types of bass and sunfish have been, and since this is a common trait with fish in this family, it is assumed that the bass we catch also has it. One report I read says that it is possible that bass have a much stronger UV vision than other freshwater fish because they tend to stay deep and in "visibly" dark locations to you and I. Light visible to humans gets filtered out anywhere at the low end in the reds around 25 feet (which is where the red line and hooks come in) to the high end where greens and blues go as far as 700-900 feet. UV light has been detected even faintly well over 1000 feet below the surface although specific testing has not been done how this relates to deep water sea life. Another thing is that the blacklights we use only reflect the low end of our visible spectrum in the violet range, so these cannot accurately detect "UV capable" lures, paints or whatever. This requires special UV filters on the camera that always displays the pictures we see as black and white. So this is what a proper UV image comparison would look like and what many fish and possibly bass may see: Theres actually a decent story on this site, although they like to use blacklights to show off their tackle rather than use true UV filter cameras: http://www.uv-tackle.com/ultraviolet-wave.php My favorite part so far:

it depends on the level of FF you are looking for... for basic cheap one... you can run with something like this: They have these from the very basic 110 model (basic B&W display) up to the 140C (same size screen, color and more information available). Otherwise look for a "through hull" setup where you can just tape it to the bottom and use whatever FF model you want...

I am a Tshirt guy... the only Jersey I have is a Green Bay Packers Favre jersey from some years back and it just sits in the back of the closet unused with the rest of my dress clothes...

very cool!!! looks like pre-spawn has started there

Yes it was a good day just to get out for a few hours... still waiting for the water to warm up so I can get my canoe out there. Of course on this pond, with a 1/2 oz or better lure on a decent spinning reel and 7' rod you can cast halfway across from one side, and then go to the other side and get the other half ;D

agreed... no problems using Pline CX or CXX

thats it right there... I remember the normal cheeseburgers growing up were the size of the current quarter pounders (and even advertised as "the best tasting quarter pound cheese burger"). Then they switched everything around, and now the plain cheese burgers are the size of the kiddie burgers from back in the day. The super size/extra large drinks and fries from then are the size of the current mediums. So the "meat" of the meal is getting smaller and the junk of the meal is getting larger... thats why I order the double burgers with small fries/drink.

agreed

jigs or swimjigs usually work in the pre-spawn and spawn times here on the open sandy flats and beds, but those are hard to find since the lake bottoms are mostly covered with vegetation.

Went out to a small Florida pond Sunday for a few hours. This place is small enough you can walk around the entire pond in 5 minutes. They do have these stupid size limitations which has turned this into a panfish only pond. The bass are all 12" and smaller. The limits are 8" minimum to keep a panfish, max 10 keepers, and limit 1 bass minimum 24". No limits on catfish, and the turtles are illegal to keep which makes fishing even tougher because they take the bait sometimes more often than anything else. In the years I have fished here, I have never heard or seen a bass pulled out over 14" at this pond which means they are all stunted. I had my UL setup for bream sitting on the bottom with a piece of hot dog. Then I had the 2 bass setups, one trying a float 'N fly dropped 8 feet down which would be maybe 1-4 feet off the bottom at the deepest areas, I tossed it out 40 feet so the light wind and chop would move the bobber along the channel. Second I tried various dark jigs and senko worms which always produce well here. The water temp was 44ºF when I got there around 2PM and was 41º when I left around 6PM. First I tried off the dock along the channel bottom super slow retrieve for the black/blue jig. Hauled up dying/dead vegetation almost every retrieve so that stuff is sitting on the bottom, so usually the fish shouldn't be far away. Finally after cast #20 I got a small 12 oz bass... So I decided to run around the pond with my Strike King worm (watermelon/red flake) and see if I can get any reaction or feeding bites. I got up to the south end of the pond (dam at north end, feeder spring creek at south end) which has a lot of submerged stumps and got a few "grab and drops" but they were so subtle that if I had not seen the fish do it in the clear water, I would have thought it was a branch or vegetation. They would grab the last portion of the tail, move a foot or so then just stop, usually right up against a stump... they were not moving much and not eating much. So I tried the jig again and caught a few more small ones but nothing over 18 oz. Went back to the dock and caught my one and only keeper fish, a 8" bluegill so I tossed him on ice. Once the weather warms up and I catch more bass there, I may need to start keeping or killing some of the small bass when no one is around to help increase the size of the rest and to reduce the number of small bream here. During the warm months, you can pretty much put a shiny brass bare hook in the water and catch 3" panfish all day and night. Add some pieces of hot dog with a weight to get it down faster to the deeper bigger panfish (or else the tiny ones tear it apart before it ever gets down there) and it is fairly easy to catch the limit 10 panfish. I wish they would come in and take away a lot of the turtles, many days it seems there are more turtles than fish which is really bad for fishermen. These turtles bite anything: live bream used as bait, jigs, worms, soft plastics, hard plastics, cranks... pretty much anything you throw out there they chase after and clamp down on, many times ruining good hooks and baits. Thats why I like the winter and early spring, the turtles are not out so it is just fish you catch (if you catch anything).

I think the LMB here in the deep south are affected by temperature changes much more than farther north where they are used to ice over and super cold water. Typically down here, from late Jan to late Mar for pre-spawn and spawn, I found the best bite is usually 12-3PM. Now THIS year since we have had a much longer and colder winter, the prespawn fish have not even started moving yet in my area except the crappie in Lake Stone since the water is still in the low to mid 40s.

I have been reading reviews and comparisons between Kickin'Bass and MegaStrike and some others, and both of these seem to get the best reviews. Kickin seems to work well since it uses a fish oil base but I am not sure what MegaStrike uses, but it does work nicely from what I have read. I have been wanting to buy a tube of each, but neither seems to be available online. The BPS website says my local BPS store has a few bottles of the Kickin on hand... otherwise I cannot find the MegaStrike of any type anywhere, they all say back ordered or not available. Even on the megastrike.com website you click buy now and the next page does not have any available either. Just a simple single bass and/or crappie scent is what I am looking for since most of the local ponds and lakes have bream as the main food source (shad is non-existent except in 2 lakes) so I assume the panfish scent should work well for bass as well in these situations. Any reviews or information on the "crappie" scent of the Megastrike?

it has been warm enough down here that I think they should be at least in their pre-spawn feeding frenzy... so have fun!!!

Here in north FL, we do get somewhat of a winter, at least temperature-wise. Topwater along the gulf coast freshwater I have found works best once water hits the low 70s to mid 80s. For some reason during spawn they like to keep that closer to the bottom since most of the ponds and lakes are 20ft deep or shallower... I assume it may be because of the cold rains we may get in the spring that affects water temperature widely, some of these pond's water temps may go from upper 80s to mid 60s in a day or two after a heavy cold rain. In the summer when the water can get into the low 90s, they go deep again where the water temperature is cooler and stable, and come up at dawn and dusk for feeding on shallow bream.

Jigs are pretty much universal... they work well on small ponds, big lakes and everything in between as long as it has bass or crappie

with anything electronics related, always double check the connections, especially the ground...

I recently placed my order which was limited by price but of the reviews and everything else I read from pros, amateur tourney fishermen and weekend warriors the Pfluegers were rated very high across the board regardless of which reel... I myself bought the Pflueger Trion GX-7... I got the 4740GX rod and 7' Med rod combo ($70)

The only quantum that has ever failed me was a 20+ year old ultra light underspin reel when the trigger itself recently broke. Otherwise I know plenty of people that have bought new or had their quantum gear for a long time with no problems (mostly weekend warrior types).

I would think with a little work you could make almost any craw do this... just run the hook all the way through the tail side first so the line goes through it and along the belly, then just rig it normal (TR works better from what I understand) and if needed weight the head. I saw some local fishermen do this last summer and did decent

there is a "general" requirement for specific length and gap size, but you can compare hooks of the same "size" from different manufacturers and see several different length and gaps. One companys 2/0 may be another companys 1/0

usually TR or wacky senko, or for bream cut up hot dogs

I don't know if they were used or not but I understand that these Gloves are worn during colder events...

yeah even the local ponds and lakes are still shut down and not biting.... except the perch at Stone Lake are going haywire now

way down south here in the small rivers (and there are a lot of them), lipless cranks, charteuse spinner baits and 3-6 ft suspending cranks do well