RoLo

Prespawn in 20 to 30 ft of water, wow. We're in the early pre-spawn right now, but our girls are only 3 to 6 ft deep. Don't forget, when you get the rig back in the barn, hook-up the charger and add a little Stabil so you're ready to blast off on Thursday Roger

Thanks WRB. I hope your back surgery proves to be a success, and good bassing in 2014. Roger

Chartreuse & Black Berkley Fireline Tracer Braid (no leader) The colors are alternated in 30-inch bands to help the angler see the ultra-fine braid (fish love this color-combination) (Line color is on my top priority list, just beneath my doomsday prepper list :-) Roger

In crystal-clear water, there are 4 ways to degrade lure visibility: > Smaller Lures > Translucent or Transparent Lures > Faster Retrieve Speed > Low-Light Periods (dawn - overcast - windy - dusk - nighttime) Roger

On balance, small lures tend to produce 'more' fish, while large lures tend to yield 'larger' fish. Small fish aren't intimidated by small lures, BUT a large fish may instinctively reject a small lure deeming the reward too small to bother chasing. Roger

Frankly Tom, I'm a little embarrassed because I see no need for any apology, where acceptance is a foregone conclusion. You and I both joined the forum in 2005, and since that time you've always been a good friend and someone who puts human spirit even before his own ego. I know how closely you covet the teachings of Elwood "Buck" Perry, so maybe it's me who owes you an apology for not being more tactful. Just for the fun of it, let's look at the vast differences in our fishing exposure: § You fish primarily in manmade impoundments § I fish primarily in natural lakes. § You routinely catch bass in 12 to 17 ft of water § I routinely catch bass in 2 to 6 ft of water (my favorite lake is only 9 feet deep) § 'Cover' in your lakes: Weeds, Stumps, Rocks, Manmade Structure (culverts, roadbeds, barns, gravestones, etc.) § 'Cover' in our lakes: Weeds (No stumps, No rocks, No manmade structure) In spite of the vast differences in our fishing exposure, you and I see eye-to-eye on the overwhelming majority of fishing techniques, which to me is pretty remarkable Roger

Rather than judge one's self, I believe the student is the better judge of the teacher, while the teacher is the better judge of the student. Roger

Thank you for sharing your story, it's a valuable reminder to all boaters. As far as motoring without a flotation vest, I plead guilty as charged (today in fact). About 3 winters ago on Lake Kissimmee, I was standing on the front deck while munching a sandwich. As a flock of sandhill cranes passed overhead, I rolled my head backwards to observe those beautiful creatures. When I realized that I lost my balance, it was already too late for readjustment, so I arched my back to roll into the drink. It seemed like forever before I rose to the surface, and in spite of a chinstrap my hat somehow wound up floating in the lake, my sunglasses were never recovered, and the water was 59 degrees. With no way to shinny up-and-over the freeboard, I had to feed my body hand-over-hand to the stern of the boat (a distance of about 15 feet). At the engine, I was finally able to use the anti-cavitation plate as a step stool, where I boarded the boat with a saturated cotton jacket that felt like a ton. I like to think of myself as super-human, but that illusion was rapidly replaced by building exhaustion (i.e. hypothermia). In addition to a throwable life-preserver, I now carry a rope ladder on my boat with plastic steps. Roger

Japanese lures are the creme de la creme, companies like Deps, Megabass, Lucky Craft & Jackall. Before he founded Jackall Lures, Seiji Kato worked for Lucky Craft where he designed the 'LC Pointer' and 'LC Sammy". It wasn't until 2007 that Jackall lures made their way into the states (The Jackall TN/70 has become my lipless plug of choice). Roger

Let the bass worry about color, you've got enough to think about: like water depth, lure depth, lure speed, action, profile, size, boat control, cast placement, retrieve cadence ~ ~ ~. Color is probably the farthest thought from a bass's mind...WHAT MIND? Roger

The Roboworm is one of my favorite bottom worms (I employ other worms for vertical deliveries & gliding deliveries). Be warned...the way I store Roboworms is very time-consuming, overdoting and complex. I tear open the top of the bag then pour the worms into one of the cantilever trays in my tackle box. Depending on forthcoming bass action, that's where they'll stay for the next 4 hours to 4 years Roger

OUCH! I have a sinking feeling that I'll be a poorer man by year's end...if you get my drift Roger

You are alive and well...I like that Why would I order from anywhere else? Would you like that list in numeric or alphabetic order? Roger

Tom, I believe there's a distinction between Migration and Movement. Generally speaking, a 'migration' is a change in location from one home range to another home range, while a 'movement' is simply a locational shift within the same home range. As you know, radio-tracking results are typically littered with a web-like network of home-range tracking. On the other hand, I've never heard of any telemetric study that suggested Daily Migration in which bass shuttled from deep-water to shallow water, then back to deep-water. Oddly enough, most radio studies usually reveal a couple nomadic bass that undergo a long, unexplainable migration, sometimes crossing the entire body of water (no one knows why). In every case though, the renegade bass will migrate laterally to maintain a relatively stable distance from the water surface. This stands to reason as it dovetails with the 'suspension theory' and also because fish with a swim bladder have to re-balance every time they undergo meaningful depth change (If they remain at that depth for any length of time). Roger

Not weed-friendly?? The 'Johnson Silver Minnow' rivals the most weedless lure in my tackle box. Roger

There is no 'best' superline of course, but my favorite superline is "Berkley Fireline Tracer Braid". I've used PowerPro for a couple years, but to make a long story short, I switched to fireline braid and it's the cat's meow. Roger

Buck Perry's book entitled "Spoonplugging" was published in the mid-60s, an era that preceded sophisticated radio-tracking. To my knowledge, the first publicized telemetry studies on largemouth bass were conducted in the late 70s by the In-Fisherman staff. Since that time, there have been dozens, actually scores of radio-tracking studies. I'm not aware of a single telemetric study confirming the existence of daily bass migration, not even lateral daily movement within the same depth (seasonal movement? YES). I shipped you an excerpt from my LMB file, written by Ralph Mann regarding radio-tracking as it relates to Buck Perry. Roger

It might loft slightly due to heavier water. Even so, if you're dealing with suspend dots and the jerkbait still rises to the surface, it's a sure bet that you have a 'Floating' model. Roger

So what if there were bats with a 10-foot wingspan, they'd be eating insects with a 5-foot wingspan Roger.

'Soft jerkbaits' are all sinking lures, but 'hard jerkbaits' are available in Floating, Suspending & Sinking models. If your hard jerkbait is a suspending model, you shouldn't have to do anything to get it to suspend in place. A suspender may rise or fall slowly due to differences in water temperature, but that's splitting hairs. Roger

One big advantage to hard jerkbaits is that the suspending models stay pretty much in place, without sinking or rising. But soft jerkbaits like the fluke have no Diving Lip, so they must be made of sinking plastic to reach their working depth. In any event, since you already have confidence in the zoom fluke, the hard jerkbait will have a hard row to hoe. Roger

I agree with Jerkbait If you're targeting chain pickerel, a 'Jig & Dead Minnow' would really be tough to beat (any species of minnow) Roger

If you move to rock-free central Florida, you can throw the same spoon all year long Roger

Frankly, that crosses my mind every time I make a post of that nature, but 'honesty' is always the best policy (in both the short run & long run). Roger

SEMANTICS The definition of words is not carved in stone, in fact semantics undergoes constant evolution. When the misspelling, mispronunciation or misuse of a word exceeds the maximum threshold, lexicographers move the original version backward in hierarchy, and replace it with the vernacular. The word 'vehicle' is a great example of rampant mispronunciation. The correct pronunciation is 'VEE-ikel' with a silent "H", but it's only a matter of time when it will be forcibly changed to "vee-HICK-el". Does this mean that "Ventricle" will eventually become 'ven-TRICKLE' and that "---------" will ultimately be called "Tess-TICKLES"? (let's hope not) STRUCTURE I bought Buck Perry's book entitled "Spoonplugging", hot off the press. Like everyone else, I too was excited by the concept of "structure fishing", but learning is an ongoing process that never stands still. For instance, Perry's daily migration theory from deep-water to shallow-water & back, has been repeatedly debunked by telemetric field tracking. Enamored with the concept of 'structure fishing', anglers took the word 'structure' out of context and maligned the original definition By the late 70s, fishermen were referring to water clarity mergers (mud-lines) as "structure", and Fishing Facts Magazine published an article referring to the "oxycline' as structure. That's all fine and dandy, but when you give a word the keys to the city, you destroy its identity. There's no magic in a word and no magic in 'structure', the only place we might find magic is between our ears. Ever since "structure" became a household word, I began to shy away from it, and now tend to replace it with words like Contour (terrestrial configuration) or Cover (weedy, woody or rocky), which removes any mystery and paints a nice clear picture. Roger