RoLo

At the end of the day, I usually work a couple waypoints near the launch site. This way I can watch the boat launch and wait for a lull in ramp activity. On this day, I was heading back to the barn and there wasn't another boat in sight. Then as I was closing-in on the ramp, an empty trailer was backed down the ramp, right in front of my boat. I dropped Lois off on the bank, she brings the car around and jockeys the trailer in position so we're next in line. Next in line for WHAT? I'm the only boat in the bay, I'm floating 100 ft off the boat ramp, I'm staring at someone's empty trailer and I'm marking time. Then I hear the drone of an outboard motor in the distance, I turn around and see a boat way out in the middle of the lake, heading in the direction of the launch site. You know what that was all about, right? The guy in the boat phoned his buddy or wife on shore. The accomplice then backs the trailer down the ramp and has it waiting for the boat. Go ahead use the phone, but have the common decency to wait your turn at the ramp. Don't kill all ramp activity while the world waits for the messenger boy to motor across the lake. This actually happened twice to us! Roger

I thought only out-of-shape women use that hold

I throw a wide variety of lures during the post-spawn, but you asked for the 'favorite'. I'm sure the answer can vary regionally, so my response addresses central Florida. For the past 15 years, our most effective post-spawn lure has been the "Swim Minnow" (aka: soft swimbait & paddletail minnow). I've found that during the post-spawn, 'weedless', 'subsurface' & 'minnow-shaped' are 3 important lure properties. I doubt there's a soft swim minnow I haven't tried, but my first crush was on the Berkley 6" Hollow-Belly Swimbait The 6" Hollow-Belly is no longer available, but is still available in 5". Other swim minnows we've found very effective are the Berkley Split-Belly, Basstrix Paddletail, Lake Fork Magic Shad & Deps Deathadder Shad (sadly discontinued). My main squeeze today and the mack daddy of Florida's post-spawn period has been the Gambler Big EZ (forty niner). Roger

Oh yeah, that's a SOW Roger

Sorry to break topic, but that reminds me of the Atlantic Highlands Yacht Club in New Jersey, They provide an enormous multi-boat launching facility, but the ramp consists of continuous concrete slabs with no partitioning. On the ledge overlooking the boat ramp were a couple of park benches (may be gone today) I used to tell my friends that those park benches provide the best free entertainment in the state of New Jersey. Ramp antics provide the greatest show on earth. You can expect a good belly-laugh about every 5 to 10 minutes > Novice boaters zigzag down the ramp, occasionally plowing into an adjacent boat or trailer > Some boaters can't launch without two guide lines, which looks like they're playing double-dutch bus with a boat > Pretty common during the retrieve is an overzealous guy in the bow who steps into what he believes is knee-deep water, but winds up cartwheeling over the gunnel, face-first in the drink > Then there's the power launch boys. They back down at high speed, hit the brake at the bottom and the boat self-launches. Problem is, slippery moss is exposed during low tide. If you power launch at low tide, you will likely launch your boat, trailer and tow-car (saltwater soon trashes the tow-car) > The list is endless, and you'll see things you've never seen or heard of before. Roger

I just learned about this, and not sure if it's been posted http://sdfish.com/freshwater-fishing-news/3993-mike-long-admits-deceit-behind-bass-record Roger

My most memorable outings were centered on striped bass, northern pike and mako sharks, but some outings were memorable simply because they were comical. One that comes to mind involved 'summer flounder', which in Jersey are called 'fluke'. It was the early 70s and I invited 4 toolmakers (coworkers) to go fluke fishing. I took them to Flynns Knoll off Sandy Hook, NJ. Fluke are the toughest hombres to hook...let me explain. With porgies (nicknamed 'bait-stealers') you'll feel one rapid ratatat and the hook is stripped bare. When fishing for porgies, I used to say jokingly: "Set the hook right before they bite". Well...'fluke' are just the opposite of porgies. A fluke comes up behind a drifting bait and seizes the end of the tail far behind the hook. You're going to feel a series of sharp jabs but you need to refrain from setting the hook until it finally chomps its way up to the hook. I rigged everyone with a fresh belly-strip about 8" long, you might say I was fishing and cutting bait. The boys kept jerking impulsively after every bite, but could not put one fluke in the boat, we were all cackling like a bunch of hens, there were more laughs than fish. I put a few in the well so they kept asking me, what's the secret to hooking these things? There's no secret I said, just remember one thing: You can strike too soon, but you can't wait too long. That didn't do any good, and the more fluke they missed, the more impulsively they would strike. To reinforce my point I even drifted a baited hook in the rod-holder and it eventually caught a fluke. Long story short, we ended up with 35 fluke that day, and I put all but 1 in the box. That was not what I wanted and was not why I invited them to go fluke fishing. I said kiddingly, it's good that things went the way they did, because my cooler would never hold 150 flounder. Roger

A healthy bass will feed everyday, but not during the winter in northerly latitudes One large minnow can sustain a bass for many days during the winter. When living up north I used to ice-fish, but never seen ONE bass on the ice (mostly pike, pickerel & yellow perch) Roger

"Where Did The Bass Disappear?" I believe that's called the Carbonaro Effect Roger

How can you respect an opinion that you don't understand? You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. Roger

Between the lure and the delivery technique, I'd definitely give the nod to technique Two anglers in the same boat may be fishing identical lures, right on down to color, but at day's end, one of those anglers is going to have a heavier stringer than the other. The wildcard is 'execution', which isn't a single factor but involves a series of factors. For instance, an attempt was made to omit location from the equation, but location goes beyond 'boat location'. 'Lure placement' is one of the facets of delivery and it deals with micro-location (Pockets, Fingers, Holes ~). Presentation also embraces lure Depth, lure Speed and lure Motion, any one of which can make a big difference in results. Roger

You misinterpreted what I wrote. Dottie was only mentioned as an example of a fish with a conspicuous field mark which served to identify her the same as a fish tag. Dottie got her name from a conspicuous 'dot' on her tail, but I never stated that Dottie herself was a victim of delayed mortality. As most anglers know, Dottie was an unusually robust bass that was caught and released by 3 different anglers: http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2009/Feb/01/1s1outdoors214857-tv-looks-bass-legend-dottie/ Roger

Adding or changing a letter produces a new word with a new meaning: Intaxicaton The short-lived euphoria following a tax reduction Sarchasm The gap between the satirist and the reader who doesn't get it Ignoranus An uninformed person who behaves like an ass Osteopornosis Refers to the hardening caused by viewing obscene material Giraffiti Vandalous scrawling on public property, well above human reach Glibido The ability of elderly men to speak fluently about sex, after the desire is gone Roger

In post #31 above I stated: "Delayed mortality cannot be accurately assessed, but is generally worse than projected" Delayed mortality is tough to confirm because holding-tank studies usually don't run much longer than 72 hours, after which they become cost ineffective. There have been several instances however where tagged bass and bass with conspicuous field marks like Dottie had, were used to substantiate delayed mortality that ran into weeks. In the grand scheme of things, this is not recognized as a widespread event. Roger

I'm not sure what tourneys you're referring to Tom, but that wasn't the format employed in Florida's C&R tournament. There were no release boats in the pro-tournament held on Lake Istokpoga. Instead, a scale-bearing official was present in the boat of every professional angler. If the referee seen your bass so much as touch the deck, he imposed a brief time-penalty during which you couldn't fish. A penalty was also imposed for a broken line. To spice up the event, every angler was kept abreast of his current standing throughout the day, right to the ounce. http://highlandstoday.com/hi/local-news/americas-best-anglers-try-their-luck-at-istokpoga-544452 Roger

The token care given to bass is driven by pressure from concerned sportsman and groups. Indeed we do see a belated expression of concern, but their concern is driven by the profit motive. Regrettably, delayed mortality from traumatic degradation can occur several weeks after the release Roger

BULLSEYE! In today's computer age, there's no excuse for hauling bass several miles to a Bass Pro Shops photo-op weigh-in, showboating them in the atmosphere, then hauling them back to a random spot far from their home. Delayed mortality cannot be accurately assessed, but is generally worse than projected. Last year, Marty Stone hosted a unique tournament on Lake Istokpoga, FL, which I thought was the cat's meow. Every boat had a weighmaster, where each bass was photographed, weighed then immediately released. If the bass was permitted to contact the boat's deck, the angler was imposed a time penalty during which he couldn't fish. Add "barbless hooks" to this scenario and we're cooking with gas. Provided a rule applies equally to all participants, it poses no hardship or disadvantage to anyone. Roger

Like you Jeff, I've also caught more 9-pounders than 10-pounders, but the numbers between the high 9s and high 11s have been remarkably 'random'. In any event, the numbers are not mine, but are the result of a statistical array. While the individual angler is exposed to a limited number of waterbodies, the statistical array cuts across all boundaries. I believe that every waterbody has it's own personal weight plateaus which tends to muddy the waters, so to speak The first example that comes to my mind is Lake Okeechobee, which I believe was well-defined by the late Doug Hannon. Because of its deep southerly latitude, bass in the Big-O enjoy a rapid growth rate but die prematurely of metabolic burnout (like pushing a plant with grow lights). As a consequence, the Big-O is chockfull of 9-pound bass (trophy-class bass), but 10 pounders are far fewer and 12-lb bass (record-class bass) are like hen's teeth. Roger

When I was growing up in New Jersey, the state record largemouth bass stood at 8 lbs & change for many years (today it's 10-14). Needless to say, I didn't boat any double-digit bass in New Jersey, which didn't happen until we moved to Dixieland. My point is this, if you're interested in boating a trophy bass, due diligence should begin by selecting a waterbody that's a statistical powerhouse. Don't waste quality time fishing waters with low or marginal trophy potential. It's interesting to note that male bass usually don't grow much heavier than 3 pounds, where the heaviest buck on record weighed about 6 pounds. Consequently, female bass are the only bass that attain trophy-class, record-class, world-class and freak-class weights. "TEN" is a nice round number, it's the first double-digit number and the root of the metric system. Nevertheless, "10 pounds" is not the most accurate biomarker for a 'trophy-class' largemouth bass. Based on thousands of recorded statistics owing to professional tournaments, DNR electro-fishing, taxidermists and fishing contests, a largemouth bass attains trophy status when it reaches "9" pounds. The next weight plateau is 12 pounds, which represents 'record-class' and the bass of a lifetime. Realistically, the number '10' merely floats in limbo between the 9-lb and 12-lb sticking points, where the odds of landing a 9-lb 10-oz cow is surprisingly similar to landing an 11 lb 10 oz cow. On the other hand, cracking the stubborn 12-lb weight ceiling, that's a whole other milestone Roger

I've caught some pretty tiny runts over the years, but you're PB has got me beat Anglers are known for puffing the goods, now we will find out if this is a bidirectional tendency Roger

The first "website" I visit is my bedroom slippers

Adding or changing a letter produces a new word with a new meaning: Caterpallor The facial color caused by finding half-a-worm in your apple Reintarnation When a city slicker reverts back to his hillbilly roots Dopeler Effect The tendency for dopey ideas to seem smarter when they come in rapid succession Decafalon The event of getting through an entire week without any coffee Bozone The impenetrable layer that surrounds stupidity and deflects bright ideas Cashtration The act of purchasing a house that renders the buyer financially impotent Roger

I ultimately conceded to using tungsten sinkers, but cannot justify the cost. Tungsten carbide is a commercial metal that I used daily in my trade (tool & die). Used as a recreational metal though, it's a ridiculous price to pay just to reduce sinker diameter by 1/8". Anglers are a desperate lot Roger

SOME FAVORITES Lipless Crankbaits: Spro Aruku Shad - Jackall TN/70 Billed Cranks Bomber Fat-free Shad - Rapala DT Roger

Since we live in central Florida, we fish shallow weedy lakes most of the time and use straight braid ALL the time. If your lure gets hopelessly snagged (a rare occurrence), do the following: > First shorten the line by moving your boat alongside the snag > Point the rod directly at the lure so the fishing rod and fishing line are parallel and form one continuous line > Clamp your thumb down on the reel spool to prevent line slippage > Pull the rod backwards by withdrawing your elbow 'parallel' to the rod and line (this is key). This will exert tremendous pressure and cause one or more things to happen: > It will move the boat toward the snag > It will rip the lure free from the plant stem or peel open the cellulose cane > That failing, it will raise the snagged stalk upward toward the surface within reach of the angler. (if you dare using a polymer leader, the leader will break and you will lose your $20 swimbait!) It's normal to go for weeks on end without losing a lure, and common for braid to last several seasons on the reel. Roger