CoBass

Sounds like you had a great time. Who was your guide? Deckers is a great area to fish for trout, lots of big fish come out of there. If you decide to take another trip out here pm me and I can give you info on other great trout waters to try.

Are and our. More and more I see the word are used in place of our. As far as texting goes, I won't even read texts I receive that are written in "text speak." If you're too lazy to type an extra letter or two don't bother texting me. You won't get an answer.

If the land is privately owned, why not just contact the owner and ask them if the ponds were stocked. If it's public land, contact the county and ask the same. But like Bassn Blvd said, sometimes the best way to find out is to just go there and spend an hour or two fishing. I use google earth a lot to find little, out of the way ponds and go fish them. Some of them turn out to be a bust as far as bass fishing goes and some of them produce some really nice fish. Very few of them are completely devoid of fish.

There is a big, dead tree about 20 yards from shore at a local lake. It collects a lot of gear from shore fishermen and once or twice a month a buddy and I will stop by in the boat while fishing and collect whatever is stuck to it. We collect a good $30 - $40 worth of gear on average every time we stop by. I've pulled some nice stuff out of that tree.

The side effects you mention are the most serious possible side effects and occur so rarely it's ridiculous. Tetanus is way worse than having some lock jaw for a bit. It affects most of the muscle groups in your body and you wind up hospitalized with excruciating muscle spasms that could even include muscles used to breathe. That means you wind up breathing through a tube on a ventilator until you either recover or die. I've only seen one case of tetanus but it definitely wasn't pretty. Guy was in the hospital for a little over a month and spent most of that time sedated and on a ventilator. By the way, he was a construction worker who contracted the disease from a minor little cut he got on a job site.

The days of drug companies giving "kickbacks" are long over. It is actually a felony for them to do it or for a doctor to accept them. I've worked in many medical offices and when the drug company reps come in to discuss their products they will occasionally bring lunch for the entire staff. Doing anything more than that can get both parties in a lot of trouble. As far as the whole tetanus thing goes, if you get a shot every ten years during a regular physical you will have nothing to worry about and if you have insurance they will cover it at no additional charge to you. It is rare that someone actually comes down with tetanus but if you do you're in for a lot more pain and expense than getting a shot every ten years.

Most folks around here (Colorado) are into trout and walleye fishing so I've never had a single coworker who was into bass fishing. One of the guys I used to work with asked me what kind of beer I drink while I'm sitting on the bank waiting for the fish to bite. I told him that's not the kind of fishing I do and that if I drank beer every time I went fishing I'd be an alcoholic for sure.

Just last week I caught the same fish with a very distinctive mark on its gill plate three times in two days all within a fifty foot section of shoreline. Two of the catches were only a few hours apart. I think it happens a lot more often than we realize but you only notice when the fish have a distinguishing feature that you remember.

I tried it once last year with limited success. We found a big stack of walleye hanging on the bottom in forty feet of water. We used slip bobbers to put crawlers and leaches about a foot over their heads and were absolutely slamming them. I decided to put a perch colored hair jig on one of the rigs and while I did get a few, the crawlers and leeches were way more productive. The few I did get hit while I was just letting the waves provide the action, no additional jigging or working the jig required.

I know it will be tough, but don't try to come back before your rehab is complete, even if your shoulder is feeling fine. I know a lot of people who have re-injured their shoulders because they thought they were good to go even though their docs told them they weren't.

One of the guys on our local fishing boards is an avid all species fly guy. His go to set up for all species when fishing lakes and ponds is a clouser minnow on sinking line. He ties them by the hundreds in all sizes and colors. He catches tons of fish of all sizes on them too.

I agree with J Francho. Sometimes finding the info online can be difficult, but you could always go to the county tax assessors office in person. They will have detailed maps showing all property lines as well as contact info for the legal owner of each parcel of land. If it is public land, have them print the info for you and keep it on you while you're on the property.

I'm not using Roadrunners but I did get into some very fat, egg laden female perch last week using a 3 inch curly tailed grub. Lots of fun on the light tackle.

Small ponds are my bread and butter. Most of the waters I fish are 10 acres or less, usually quite a bit less. With a small creek running into it there is a good supply of fresh, oxygenated water that probably carries a nice little food supply into the pond too. Only way to be sure is to fish it, you could be pleasantly surprised.

Shimmy...I am planning a candle light vigil for Stiller this Friday at midnight. You should attend, it really helps the grieving process. Just remember, he will never really be gone, his 16 posts will live in your heart forever.

Walleye spawn at night. If you are fishing during the day look for deeper water adjacent to the rip rap, they will probably be holding there during the day. Spoons and blade baits can be very effective. Make sure they hit the bottom then rip them up a few feet and let them flutter back to the bottom. You can do this vertically or cast out and hop the bait back to the boat. Most hits will occur on the fall so make sure to not keep too much slack in your line when the bait is fluttering back to the bottom. Good luck, Walleye can be a blast when the bite is on.

I agree that it would be nice to be able to do all of the necessary verification without killing the fish but in a lot of states it's just not possible. Here's a link to the verification process for Oklahoma http://www.wildlifedepartment.com/fishing/recordrules.htm It would be pretty hard to keep a fish alive especially if they decide they want tissue samples. A friend of mine caught a state record channel cat a few years ago and we have the same requirement that a state biologist must examine the fish. It was several days before a biologist was able to do his examination so there was no way to keep the fish alive if he wanted to claim the record.

Hypodermic needle. I work in the medical field so they're easy for me to get ahold of but I know some of the walleye guys around here say they can go to their local pharmacy and pick up the small diabetes syringes/needles without needing a prescription or anything.

Weird weather patterns here too. Record low temps all of Feb followed by record high temps in March. One of the local ponds I fish went from 39 to 55 degrees in a little over a week. The past 2 years it has taken until the second week of April to reach that temp. Last week was great fishing with the water warming up but we now have a cold front rolling in. Next few days are supposed to be in the 40's for a high and lows in the 20's. Not looking forward to what that's going to do to the water temps.

Ouch, that had to hurt. Totally agree with the sunglasses comment too. I once pulled a lipless crank free from a snag only to have it shoot out of the water and hit my shades dead center on the right lens. Could have been a very bad way to end a day of fishing.

Largemouth bass right between the eyes. Big hookset on a small fish in shallow water at night. Launched it right into my face.

Senko style baits are a really good beginner bait. The biggest problem most people have at first is fishing them too fast, especially at this time of year. Most of the local waters are just now thawing out and some still have ice on them. Water temps are still in the low 40's and the bass are pretty lethargic. If the water you are fishing is clear, use natural colors (green pumpkin,watermelon), if the water is stained, use darker colors (junebug,black). I prefer fishing them weightless and Texas rigged. With the water as cold as it is, throw it out, let it sink to the bottom and let it sit for 30 seconds or so. Drag it a few feet with maybe a small hop and let it sit again. In the summer when the water warms up you can speed that process up but right now with the cold water temps, slow is the key. The one good thing about bass fishing in Colorado is that not a lot of people do it. There's a lot more folks out there targeting trout and walleye so the bass aren't nearly as pressured as they are in other states. Another thing to remember is that we have northern strain bass here. They don't grow as big or fast as the Florida strain bass but they do tend to be more aggressive and a little easier to catch. Experience will be your best teacher, so don't get frustrated. Keep at it and keep trying different techniques and before you know it you will be catching more and more fish every time you go out. On a side note, I think you have to have a certain number of posts (10 or 20) before you can send or receive PM's on this site. When you get there PM me and I can give you more info on the local bass scene.

Hey Rookie...What part of Colorado are you in? I'm in the Denver area if you want to PM me I might be able to help you out. Colorado might not be a bass hot spot but there are plenty to be had around here. My first advice to you would be to stay away from the higher pressured State park lakes and concentrate on smaller neighborhood ponds. Pretty much any small ponds you see while driving around will hold bass. They don't see nearly as much pressure and are great places to learn. Some buddies and I were even able to pull some through the ice on the smaller waters this year.

Colorado regs define a hook as any hook or multiple hooks sharing a common shank. A treble hook would be considered 1 hook even though it has 3 points. A standard crankbait with 2 treble hooks is not considered 6 hooks, only 2. An Alabama rig can be used but only 3 of the 5 baits can contain a hook.

Semi-legal here in Colorado. You can use one but only three hooks can be used. You can put five baits on the rig but only three of them can have hooks in them.