RoLo

Without actually putting a fish in the boat, it's usually a guessing game. Large bass tend to be solitary, and typically produce an explosive sound exceeded only by an alligator. Schoolies (juvenile bass) are normally responsible for those whitewater jumps that come and go. but a school of adult crappies can create a surprising amount of surface commotion (They've fooled me more than once) If white bass reside in your lake, they typically create even more whitewater than bass. commonly attracting feeding gulls and terns. Roger

It really depends on your perception of a “jig”. If your idea of a jig is a silicone skirt, then limiting yourself to jigs would be painting yourself into a small corner. If you perceive jigs as I do, then a jig is simply a “weighting system” where the hook and weight are unitized. In that context, limiting yourself to jigs would not be a great hardship, in fact, most of the soft-plastic lures in my tackle box are rigged on a skirted or unskirted jig. Roger

If he's convinced that it's not rocket science, why didn't he buy a rowboat instead of a rocketship? Roger

Right on Bro There is another approach Mike. Let's say you've got a nice wind-drift going. Use the electric motor to position the boat so it drifts Stern-Forward. That way, the bass will think that the lures coming from the stern are in used water. Roger

There are four sides to every boat, yet I never know in advance which side is going to produce the next bass. 'New water' versus 'used water' is the obvious, but consider all the variables that may override the obvious. No two casts land precisely in the same spot, and even if they did, a bass may have moved between casts. No two retrieves follow the exact same path, and even though they may appear identical, there will be variations in lure depth, lure speed and lure action. As though that weren't enough, there may also be differences in lure type, lure shape, lure size and lure color. Roger

In my opinon, K_Mac's reply is spot-on. I am by no means a fussy eater, but the highest rating I'd give carp flesh is 'so-so' (give me a bass, any day) Any sportsman who's never engaged in underwater archery is depriving himself of a very fine sport (why limit your recreation?). Unlike deer archery, the stumbling block to underwater archery is "refraction", where you need to aim well below your target. It's highly unlikely that fish archers alone could put a dent in the carp fishery, but I'm sure many conservation officers wish they could. Roger

Hi JT, I was just thinking about you the other day. It's good to know that you're still out there and still kicking Roger

When I used to bluewater fish offshore, an EPIRB unit and WX Station.were part of my permanent boat gear The WX Receiver is a little single-band radio that's tuned to NOAA Weather. Marine forecasts are broadcast 24 / 7, which is toggled On & Off by a press-bar. In landlocked waters though, I'll use whatever household device happens to be in front of me, the PC or the TV: COMPUTER AccuWeather http://www.accuweath...ast-details.asp The Weather Channel http://www.weather.c...her/today/33898 Weather Bug http://weather.weath...z6286&zip=33898 TELEVISION (central FL): Channel 63 ……."The Weather Channel" - Doppler radar (Local On The 8s) Channel 9 ………“Bay News 9” - Klystron radar Channel 629 ……“AccuWeather" Unfortunataly, no weather station can boast reliable accuracy. I normally take a consensus of several forecasts, but still watch the sky all day. Roger

Well, the soft-plastics will be fine, but the hardware will be scrap metal by next year Roger

Way to go fellas, those are some real fine Chunks, Especially from your northerly latitude Roger

That's funny right there Tony, you've got me revisiting my northeast roots, if only in my mind. I often made length comparisons between yellow perch and the lure, and it commonly ran between 50 and 100%. As you eloquently put it, they are "ballsy" critters for sure.. Roger

Getting hung-up in cover is the result of a hook that broke out of its plastic cocoon, exposing the hook-point. A lot will depend on the type of cover you're working, for instance, "bulrushes" are among the least forgiving plants. A lot also depends on the 'stretchiness' of your main line. I use Superline braid (Fireline Tracer), so I bury the hook-point as deep as possible and rarely Texpose or Texskin anything. Another important factor for negotiating dense cover is the toughness of the plastic. For instance jelly-like plastics such as ElazTech, are an accident waiting to happen.. Prove it to yourself: rig a 3X plastic worm on your favorite hook and bury the hook-point as deep as possible. Now press your finger down over the hook, and you'll be amazed at how little pressure is needed to get pricked by the point. That's a simple yet direct way of assessing your lure's "weedlessness". In brief, spool up with Superline braid, select a lure made of tough plastic and bury the hook-point in the core of the lure. If there's only one guy on the lake who's able to fish in the heaviest weed-beds, you will be that guy Roger .

The only sure way to distinguish a northern-strain from a Florida-strain is by way of "Scale-Count". There are no reliable distinguishing field marks, however the lateral line of Florida-strain bass is typically but not always darker and blotchier than a northern-strain bass. Unfortunately, that's an unreliable field mark easily skewed by water clarity.. Geographic latitude is another approach, though equally sketchy.. The overwhelming majority of bass caught south of Ocala, Florida are Florida-strain bass. But any bass landed north of Ocala, FL may be a Florida-strain, northern-strain or intergrade (mixed strain). While the world-record from Japan is a Florida-strain, the Georgia world-record is believed to be an intergrade, Roger

Never be insulted if someone reminds you to “maintain constant line tension“, because even seasoned pros continue to make greenhorn mistakes. It only takes a microsecond of slack line to lose your trophy, for example, swapping rod sides that momentarily points the rod-tip at the bass. Normally I want my bass to jump, and will often use the Bill Dance high-stick to encourage a jump. But for now, let's assume that we're in a tournament or battling a personal best. Smallmouth bass usually jump early-on, and usually leave the lake entirely. Largemouth bass are a little bit different. First off, they usually need a moment before they decide to jump. When a fat sow decides to jump, she’ll usually roll on her side then use her broad tail to pry her heavy head above the water. Although the head seems to emerge in slow motion, the next thing you know she’s standing on her tail while shaking her head violently. This is the moment when we sometimes find ourselves ducking the treble hooks that are speeding toward our head. Oddly enough, I’ve found this to be a vulnerable moment for the bass. Admittedly, I’ve never found a way to stop the jump but I’ve often prevented the gill-rattling, which IMO is even more important. When it’s clear to me that the bass is about to jump, I’ll actually ease up on the rod pressure but maintain ample preload, which allows the jump to take place as planned. Then precisely as the head emerges above the surface, I yank fiercely back on the spinning rod, parallel to and just inches above the waterline. When it works, this will knock the bigmouth off her tail and in some cases, skate her across the surface. As insane as that may sound, I've aborted more head-shaking with that maneuver than with any other. Try it…it works and it’s a blast too Roger

Don't get me wrong, I think the world of plastic worms, and would be hard put to name a greater bass lure. However, if you're fishing a combination of emergent and submergent vegetation, a stick worm isn't the best choice. 1) An unweighted stick worm has very poor weed-penetration 2) Bass have limited vision in heavy cover, where noisy lures have the edge over quiet lures (bulkier is better too) 3) Compared to buzzbaits, weedless spoons and solid toads, a stick worm offers very slooow lateral coverage If a stick worm is fished as a dropbait with no added action, an inserted rattlebox wouldn't get much chance to rattle Roger

Yes and No. Thanks to the intuitive master plan of Mother Nature, the eyes of game fish adjust more rapidly to light changes than the eyes of baitfish. Bass instinctively exploit their visual advantage by stepping up their feeding during dawn and dusk, which have come to be known as the Magic Hours. Based on the weight of the evidence though, a bass ultimately loses this visual advantage as it ages. In my view, this helps to explain why such an unusually high percentage of record-class and world-class game fish have been taken during "midday hours". As an old bass loses its visual advantage over prey fish. it must rely more-and-more on the visibility provided by full sunlight. This is only conjecture on my part, but I believe that on balance, twilight is best for numbers of bass, while full sunlight is best for trophies. Roger

In a weedy lake with lily pads on top and submerged weeds underneath, I'd stick with the "most weedless” lures in my box.. Getting the lure to the bass is more important than brand, shape or color, especially where visibility is obstructed by plant-life.. For example, a solid toad, a Johnson weedless spoon or a T-rigged paddletail. Unlike the consensus though, I wouldn't choose a Stick Worm, because noiseless lures aren't the best choice where bass vision is limited. Roger

I've often had the same bass hit 2 or 3 times, but in every case they were “clean misses”. In my experience, once the bass gets stuck, it'll promptly lose interest in the lure. From the angler’s point of view, once you feel the weight of the bass, the odds of a comeback strike are slim to nil. As for best follow-up lure, I’ve never found any solid pattern. Sometimes the same lure will generate another strike, other times "any other lure" with a different shape or speed will rekindle a strike, Roger

No question is stupid...just some of the answers :D Swimbaits are usually categorized as 'Hard' or 'Soft", but I like to think of them as 'Weedless' or 'Non-Weedless. Living in central Florida, hard swimbaits with exposed hooks are pretty much out of the question. During 2009 and 2010, our most productive weedless swimbait was the "Berkley Hollow-Belly". This year I began pitching the "Berkley Split-Belly Swimbait", and like it even more than the Hollow-Belly. Among the solid swimbaits, my favorite is the "Gambler Big EZ". Compared to the skinny dipper a close competitor, the Big EZ has a noticeably larger Tail Lobe. In our tannin-stained lakes, the more vibration and throb the better. The Big EZ also has a significantly larger profile than the Skinny Dipper, like comparing the rage Lobster to the rage Craw. IMO the color selection of the Big EZ is unremarkable, but I don't place that much importance on color.. Incidentally, the Big EZ used Sunday is called "Not So Sexy" (blue upperside / white underside). Roger

Realistically, it's not possible to expound on a "favorite summer technique" without first specifying the Lake-Type. If no distinction is made between a Natural and Manmade lake, the answers will be a litany of contradictory techniques over a diverse cross-section of home lakes. Summer Dog Days (real or myth?) Fishing on a sweltering midsummer day with high humidity can be mighty oppressive for the angler, but has little or no bearing on the comfort of bass. Cold-blooded creatures have no free will, and their body processes are dictated by water temperature. In high water temperatures, bass have good fast-twitch muscle response, their forage is rapidly digested and they need to feed more frequently. Unlike spring and fall, the "summer season" is long and stable, a time-of-year when fishing patterns are more definable and reliable. Recently I read a BR post stating that low oxygen levels drive bass to deeper water, when in fact the reverse is true. In the throes of a summerkill caused by oxygen depletion, bass are forced into shallow water where they seek lush vegetation and cruise close to the surface. Hypothetically speaking, the Coldest Day of the year is January 25, while the hypothetical Hottest Day is July 25. A post I made just 2 days ago in "My Outings" forum, underscores several elements of the summer period that in my opinion represent the norm in natural lakes as far south as Florida. DATE:......................................July 17 (8 days shy of the hypothetical zenith) TIME:.......................................1:15 pm SURFACE WATER TEMP:......90 Deg F. WATER DEPTH: ....................4 feet LURE DEPTH:........................4 inches (estimated) Roger

Thanks everyone for your kind words. Mrs. Matstone, I'm hoping you get a chance to post another "monster" Pocono Pickerel. A chain pickerel you posted last year was among the largest I've seen! You make a good point Dwight. Lois generally catches more bass than me, so I get more time behind the camera. She ain't bad for a part-time photog Steve, I'd just like to mention that in 2011, the Rage Lobster has been our best producer. I realize that I'm hijacking my own post here, but I doubt that anyone minds Roger

For a change, there were no building thunderheads this Sunday, so we headed out to the lake. Lois was fishing a Deps Deathadder Grub and broke the ice with a bass just under 4 lbs. About an hour later, my Gambler Big EZ got walloped hard! I had to drag the little lady through the pads with spinning gear, fortunately she didn’t wrap up in the stalks. She went 9-lb 10-oz. Roger

It's not the difference between 13 inches and 1 yd, it's the difference between pegging and not pegging (as per topic). My post was meant to enlighten those who may not realize that T-rigging is possible with a jighead and doesn't require a loose hook. The upshot is twofold: 1) Permanent union between hook & weight 2) Never a need to peg Roger

Right On What Wayne stated is especially true in dingy water that's caused by suspended sediment and not algae. Roger

The answer is Yes, you could get by with just 3 different lures, but the odds are not in your favor. Tourney pros realize that they're toting far more tackle than they'll ever need. Because on any given day, it's usually just a couple of lures that do the most damage. If you had that information going into the tournament, then you could get by with only 3 lures. But since you don't have that information at the onset, I'd suggest you bring 4 or even 5 different lures Roger