RoLo

I've been a Lowrance advocate for as long as I can remember (both freshwater and saltwater).. I must say though that their GPS device was my first and only disappointment by Lowrance. I've owned several Humminbird depth sounders and prefer Lowrance, but have no exposure to Humminbird GPS units. The reason being, I use Garmin hardware in conjunction with Navionics software. Roger

In a riverine situation, key locations often depend on current breaks that cause a neutral back eddy. In lakes and ponds though, the situation is quite the reverse. For the past ten years or more, the clear majority of pro tournaments on the Kissimmee Chain of Lakes have been won by anglers who exploited "water current", which comes in many forms. To answer your question, Yes, it's possible 'IF' the water current is persistent. Bass don't care if the source is natural or manmade, as long as it's reliable. . Why bass step-up their feeding during accelerated current has spawned a few theories. One theory holds that wind-blown plankton is followed by baitfish, which in turn is followed by bass. Another theory involves well-oxygenated water, but rip tides in the ocean are equally productive where oxygen is never an issue. I certainly don't have the answer, but I believe that the heavier, stronger bodies of game fish are better suited to strong current. Game fish may instinctively exploit their advantage over forage fish that are more easily disoriented by current. Roger

1, 2, 3 is like counting fingers and doesn't imply that finger 1 is more important than finger 3. Out of all the possible variables, one missing link can stop the show, so the criteria cannot be prioritized. It really boils down to the "Priority of Poverty", which is to say, no matter how insignificant the flaw, it becomes the most important thing of all. Actually, there's no need for any numbers or letters => LOCATION................(bottom contour - ambient cover) => DEPTH......................(water depth - fish depth) => PRESENTATION....... (lure depth - lure speed - lure action - lure shape - lure size - lure color) Roger

When I speak of heavy cover, I'm thinking more in terms of dense beds of pondweed, hydrilla or milfoil. What you have here is a scum pond, and their worst feature are the strings of slime and scum that cling to the lure. To each his own, but I would attack that situation with a topwater lure (solid toad, hollow frog, rat, etc), which will etch a visible path through the slime. Bass living under a cover of slime are usually very receptive to topwater lures because they're living in a dark world where beggars can't be choosers. Roger

Good point. As we all know, some of the world's greatest inventions were the result of an accident. With that in mind, the next time we get lucky and really hammer the bass, we always have two choices: 1) We can chalk it all up to "luck", thereby dismissing the need for junk science. 2) We can dissect that lucky day to determine which pieces of the puzzle contributed to our success. As KVD has shown, knowledge is more repeatable than luck, and the more we know, the luckier we get Roger

Color is determined by how much light an object reflects back to the eye. Roughly speaking, when all the light is "reflected", the object appears White. When all the light is "absorbed", the object appears Black. When about 50% of light is reflected and 50% is absorbed, the object will be in the green family (Mother Nature's favorite). Enter the Bugbear: As the light level is reduced, all colors progressively disappear, like switching off a lamp in a room. or walking on a green lawn at night. In murky and muddy water, color perception is poor to non-existent, therefore "contrast" steps up to the plate. The color BLACK provides the most contrast possible, against all other shades of gray. Colors that are closest to pitch black are right on its heels of black, colors such as Dark Purple, Junebug, Black Grape, Black & Blue, Black & Any other color. Roger

Given the same water depth, it hinges primarily on the subspecies of largemouth bass. As you'd expect, northern-strain bass are more adaptable to coldwater, while Florida-strain can be VERY insulted by a severe cold-front. When I lived in Jersey and fished a lot in Canada, the effect of a major cold-front was typically a 2-day affair. In central Florida, I've gone 3 and even 4 days without seeing a full recovery, particularly when cold temperatures persist Roger

Think of color as a tool to improve your lure's visibility, not as something that can improve your lure's appeal or flavor. When your location and delivery are incorrect, no color is going to produce a strike. When your location and delivery are correct, no color is going to prevent a strike. Roger

I'm a staunch advocate of braided line, but I totally agree with the above assessment. Like most things in life, we can't have it both ways so we need to choose one camp or the other. My next statement is sure to break from the herd, but I believe that instantaneous strike detection is overrated. Given a mouthable soft-plastic lure, I find that most bass tend to mouth the bait a while, and don't "inhale & expel" with lightning speed. When I finally get around to tightening the line, the bass will usually still be there mouthing the bait, at least it appears that way to me. To be sure, there are days when bass feed only halfheartedly, but on those days, even tight-lining won't improve my hook-up ratio. Roger

In really dense cover that I'm determined to penetrate, I'll use a 1oz Dirty Jigs No-Jack Punchin Jig I use jig trailers that generate the most pulse and throb, in other words, I use no product sold as a "jig trailer" Roger

1) LOCATION................(bottom contour + ambient cover) 2) DEPTH......................(water depth + fish depth) 3) PRESENTATION...... (lure depth, lure speed, lure action, lure shape, lure size, lure color) Not catching bass doesn't mean they are not there, it means you are not catching them Roger

The "girth" of a soft-plastic lure refers to its "circumference", but hook-size is determined by the "thickness" of the plastic. For example, the cross-section of many soft-plastic lures is Rectangular, Oblong or Fish-shaped. Before hook-size can be determined, you need to decide whether you're going to rig the lure through the narrow thickness or through the wide thickness (normally I skewer the lesser thickness). Additionally, many soft-plastic lures are equipped with a built-in hook-slot that has a direct bearing on proper hook-size. Last but not least, monofilament lines require significantly larger hooks than non-stretch braid, because the elasticity of mono provides little or no plastic compression (BTW: Nylon, Fluoro & Copolymer are ALL monofilament lines). Roger

In freshwater, I fish strictly with spinning tackle and for decades I've been casting with one hand. Then about three years ago I had an elbow injury, and to get me through the day I concocted a two-hand catapult cast. Strangely, I still use that cast to this day, because it takes so little effort and places no stress at all on the body. Oddly enough, I now have the same accuracy with my catapult cast that I have with the one-arm cast. Roger

Regardless of the water temperature, time-of-year or time-of-day, the very best time to topwater fish is when a bass is heard breaking the surface.. Whenever you hear the unmistakable whack of a feeding bass, you know the whereabouts of the most suicidal bass in the lake. Roger.

It's a "Depth Sounder" But when you enable the Fish Icon, it becomes a "Bubblegum Machine" :::::: Roger

Without a doubt, the lipless crankbait is a “year-round” lure, but they're at their best during Spring and Fall. They hit their stride during the pre-spawn through the post-spawn, which in central Florida spans from February thru June. They tend to fall out of favor during July and August, but come back with a vengeance from September through November. The lipless crank is my favorite plug, which is not a new phenomenon but started with the Heddon Sonic in the late 50s, ending up with the Spro Aruku Shad. Roger

The Rage Lobster by a long shot, it's been pure dynamite! We fish the Lobster as a standalone bait on an unskirted jighead (color has never seemed to matter). To be more exact, we Texas-rig the Lobster on an Owner 1/4oz type-Z bullet head. This is NOT the Owner jighead sold by Tackle Warehouse, which is a rubbery finesse version using a fine-wire 1/0 hook. We use the Owner “Type-Z” bullet head sold by Performance Tackle, which is built on a forged, standard-wire 3/0 Owner hook. Roger

I did a bit of predator calling back when Flemington, NJ was all farmland. My hunting was limited to gray fox and red fox, but since that time, coyotes have migrated into Jersey I used the old style Burnham Brother call, which used a rubber-band to create the squeal of a rabbit in distress. On some days the fox made fools of themselves, but today most of the vermin hunters are using outdoor DVD players. Roger.

I hear ya, I still catch myself calling them "rubber worms" now and then. I just learned recently that even the first worms were made of plastic, but they were so hard and heavy that they resembled rubber more than plastic Roger

I'M AMAZED! I thought I was one of the few waterfowling addicts around, but you boys are definitely talking turkey. Most of my fowling days were spent on Brigantine and Barnegat, and though baldpates and pintails were plentiful, my calling was geared mainly to black ducks, brant, snow geese and Canada geese (OLTS calls, now antiques). Most of my calling was long-distance, and as soon as they were whiffling on set-wing, I'd Shut Up Roger

Are you in the market for a spinning rod or baitcasting rod?

A-Jay, with a 10" Berkley Power Worm, I use an Owner 1/4oz Type-Z Bullet Head. The hook is an Owner 3/0 needlepoint, and solid hook-ups are the norm with braided line. Hook size depends a great deal on line material, because monofilament lines provide little or no plastic compression. Roger

I'll drink to that

Rather than use a loose hook, I Texas-rig a 10" worm on a jighead. Roger

I still remember when the first plastic worms were introduced (Nick Creme), they were usually called "rubber worms" at that time. During the 50s and 60s, a popular cliche was "Any color will work, as long as it's Purple". Today however, the color pendulum has swung to "watermelon", which sends a pretty clear message. Bass eat soft-plastics, they don't eat colors. Roger