RoLo

What I miss the most about the good ole days is the solitude. In years gone by, I had many lakes to myself, which felt like my own private waters. Today we are commonly circled by jet skis and other splashabouts, and find ourselves in 20-min launch lines that were non-existent in the good ole days. Roger

With most any soft jerkbait, you can get the falling posture and sink rate you're looking for by experimenting with different "hook weights" & "hook placements". Four soft jerkbaits were mentioned above: Yum houdini, Zoom fluke, Strike King caffeine shad & Manns shadow. Three other soft jerks come to mind that I like at least as much as those mentioned: Bass Assassin Shad, Lunker City Slug-go & Lunker City Fin-S Fish Roger

Roger, will you be throwing the split tail bait on the Owner SLED HEAD with Screw-Lock Shank, or do you have another rig in mind ? A-Jay Yes A-Jay, but we'll also be using the Owner Type-Z Bullet Head. The Z-bend shank works remarkably well in most cover, but in the real heavy stuff I prefer the screw-coil on the Sled Head. Also, the Sled Head is available in 4/0, but the Owner Type-Z Bullet Head is only available in 3/0. Roger

In saltwater, we threw Hopkins spoons till our arms fell off (bluefish & stripers) For largemouth bass though, my favorite spoon by a long shot is a "1/2oz Johnson Silver Minnow dressed with a Kalin grub" The magic of the weedless spoon is not the lure itself, but the fact that it can be fished in virgin and low-pressured places. The J-spoon has no equal in matted vegees and treads where buzzbaits bog down Roger

SURFACE> Stanley Floating Ribbit (sizmic pop'n toad) MIDWATER> Deps 6" Deathadder Grub (berkley power worm) BOTTOM> Gambler 7" Big Stick (zoom big critter craw) Roger

Over the last few years I fished nearly every weedless swimbait available. The action of the Basstrix Paddletail is the tightest and most stable I've seen. The Basstrix has the most natural swimming action. at least thru the eye of the angler. In any case, our most productive weedless swimbait over the past few seasons has been the Berkley Hollow-Belly Swimbait (tennessee shad). This spring however I intend to put in lots of time with the Berkley Split-Belly Swimbait The Berkley Split-Belly is a little more stable (less "tail wagging the dog"), and the slotted belly should provide a better hook-up ratio...we'll see. Roger

Florida Resident Senior: $0 Roger

As collectively mentioned above, wind produces three favorable conditions: 1) Wind blows phytoplankton toward downwind shorelines and baitfish will be in tow. Adult bass are not pelagic, but are essentially residential fish that lie in ambush. All the same, bass are opportunistic predators, and when a school of bloom-following baitfish enters their domain it'll typically trigger a feeding binge. Needless to say, this does not apply to riverine situations. 2) The light refraction caused by broken water surface downgrades the vision of game fish. In essence, wind offers the same benefit as dingy water or an overcast sky. 3) Warm water weighs less than cold water, so it naturally rises to the top of the lake. During robust and sustained winds, the warm upper layer is shifted toward downwind shorelines where it tends to build up. Meanwhile, due to the rotary action of wind on the lake, the water along upwind shores will be replaced by cooler water from beneath. All that said, I prefer to fish in calm water where I have better control and better feel Roger

The ole Color-C-Lector was based on the intensity of incident light at fish level. In my view, maximizing contrast is the most plausible approach to color selection. I believe the demise of the Color-C-Lector underscores the benign importance of lure color. I'm all ears when the man at the tackle shop informs me of the hottest color on the lake. What he doesn't realize however, is that the hottest color will probably be the only color I never use. Take a moment to recall the best angling days of your entire life. I'm willing to bet you were NOT following the crowd on any one of those days. One day last fall we found ourselves in a whitewater jump. About every 5 minutes of so, schoolies were balling bait on the surface. The baitfish were silvery 3 to 4 shiners, but oddly enough, the most productive lure that day was a 7.5 junebug' worm (clashing the hatch). Roger

Even that 1 to 5% of the time when color SEEMS to be the deciding factor, it's probably due to one or more of the other 843 variables ;D Realistically, it's not likely than any color will cause a sedentary bass to eat, or that any color would suppress the appetite of an aggressively feeding bass. On the other hand, in order to accept or reject an offering, the bass must first see the lure, and in a timely fashion. Depending on the current lighting conditions and water color, certain colors help to expand the bass's strike window, while others shrink the strike window. In my view anyway, lure color is important, but only insofar as it lends to lure visibility. Roger

To each his own, but I personally would never tote manmade noise into the great outdoors, where it would drown out the music of wildlife. I want to hear every kingfisher and osprey, the cry of bald eagles, the majestic sound of passing sandhill cranes, and also need to hear every feeding bass that breaks the surface (the easiest bass to catch). Roger

That is one super lunker! Roger

Excellent catch...and I like that outfit too Roger

In that frigid water, I'd say you boys did terrific! I'm happy with 3 to 4 lb bass, anytime, anywhere. Roger

Deps 6" Deathadder Grub Heddon Sonic & Supersonic (the first lipless crank) Roger

WOW...that's looks like a Salter! Roger

I agree. Kentucky Lake is associated mainly with largemouth bass but during a tourney, Rick Clunn brought two bronzebacks to the scales that both weighed 5 lb, 10 oz! Lake Pickwick is associated mainly with smallmouth bass, but electroshocking has produced some 'whopper' mossbacks in Wilson & Pickwick. (If the field were wide-open, I'd have to go with Falcon Lake) Roger

Makes sense to me. If you can still find them Chris, Deps 6" Deathadder grub and Manns 9" hardnose worm both stay active till near standstill. Roger

Due to regional differences and differences in soil content, it really depends on the lake in question (ain't no shortcuts). In central Florida, the plant hierarchy is crude and variable: Emergents> Spatterdock - Bulrushes - Cattails - Maidencane (aka: K-grass) Submergents> Hydrilla - Milfoil - Tapegrass - Pondweed (aka: peppergrass) Roger

Count me in Roger

Thanks Chris. I've used Canon 35mm SLRs most of my life, but have since migrated to Nikon D70s. The Nikon lens I use has optical zoom to 4x (400mm) and digital zoom to 16x. My problem I believe is reaching for the long shots with the digital zoom, which is bogus. In the future I simply need to get closer and stay within the optical zoom (400mm) At any rate, your preset shooting system is a clear winner! Like they say Chris, the magic isn't in the wand, it's in the magician. Roger

Boy, you said a mouthful Tom! Back in the 70s, Spruce Run Reseroir, NJ underwent a drastic drawdown (wing dam repair) I walked to all my favorite hotspots and was stunned by what I learned. Every holding site exhibited what I already knew plus a lot of stuff I didn't know and why. One of my old waypoints was chosen because of a steep but isolated bottom grade. In person, it turned out to be a small bottom crater with a large boulder forming the sidewall and an old rotting log laying along the other side. There was also a broken trail of chunk rock leading away from the crater. Even with today's esoteric electronics, I doubt that I could ever decipher the ambiant features of that site while floating 15 ft in the air on an opaque water layer. Even with the combination of side-imaging and 3D platinum charts, I'm afraild I'd be looking at a time-consuming isometric hodgpodge. Roger

Nice going The fellows I speak with haven't been doing much with snook. Don't tell me you're going after the Big Tiderunners with "SPINNING GEAR"!! just kidd'n Roger

Maybe it's my blind faith in Mother Nature, but I see events such as these as a blessing in disguise and a golden opportunity. The blessing in disguise': in a word pruning. When a herbaceous plant is cut-back to the ground, the short-term negatives are ultimately offset by long-term positives. Maybe the young fellows don't recall, but for years Lake Erie was dubbed the Dead Sea. The 'golden opportunity' is the chance to see and feel the bottom. I've been exposed to severe drawdowns too few times in my life. But the few times I have, it was always the same. Some crazy nut was trekking the lake floor with a handheld GPS and notepad. Yeah you guessed it, that crazy nut was me. A severe drawdown gives us the opportunity to quickly acquire valuable coordinates: > The steepest bottom drop-offs (A#1) > Changes in bottom composition (e.g. mud to sand) > Isolated cover such as blowdowns, brushpiles, gravestones, roadbeds, you name it. Roger

Way to go Chris, those are stupendous! I remember my first trip to Withlacoochie Backwaters, FL (1970s). It was chockful of fish-eating birds (we fished beneath a bald eagle eerie), I spent the week holding my camera way more than my fishing rod. Chris, how do you manage such remarkable close-ups? If I may ask, are you on a tripod and what power is your lens? Roger