Needemp

Hey Joe. I finally caught ya. You fought harder than most bass we catch. ;D

I met Joe through this forum and he has never joined. He is a great guy and is about to become a daddy for the second time . I know he learns a lot from this forum and has a big passion for bass fishing. He told me the only reason he has not joined is that he just hasn't got around to it yet. So let's all encourage him to sign up. He has a lot of information that he can share on this site. By the way, he might need a few suggestions for names, but maybe not. Come on in Joe, the waters fine ;D 8-) :

Both! I use my depth finder to search for brush. Even if I am fishing that area and accidently come across a brush pile, I will make a note of it and fish there. And if I notice you catching fish in a spot, I will check it out sometime after you are gone. Out of curiousity, how big is your nest and where did you place it?

Morning Cart7. Well I posted this thread just because I was curious as to how many people went without getting skunked. I did not even state the fact that I have not been skunked all year anywhere in this thread. I didnt ask the question to try and breg on myself. I figured I would be blanked at some point this year. Low and behold i had no idea that this post would bring me my curse. Cart7 and I went to Gillespie Lake in Illinois because of the reputation it has for big bass. Niether of us have ever been there. What we didnt know before we got there was that the lake had dropped two feet and spooked the bass. WE GOT SKUNKED >. It was 9 to 10 hours of frustration. We fished everywhere, threw everything and caught zilch. There was a tourny last weekend there and out of 20 boats, only four returned with bass. When I posted this question, I mentioned that no other species counted. If you go bass fishing and dont catch a bass, but you do catch bluegill, you got skunked, IMPO. I did catch an 18" drum on a Crawbug, but no bass . Lesson learned: from now on- call for an updated fishing report.

I am just curious as to how often do you guys get skunked? I know some guys on this forum keep track of these types of records about themselves. If you dont keep records, in your estimation how often do you think you get skunked. For this question lets eliminate any trip that was less than an hour or maybe two. Also, I include any size bass, but not other species.

How do you fish your swimbaits WhopperStopper? Speed, size, depth, location, etc.

I like your response ouachitabassangler. You bring up some good points

Well, I dont think you found Nessie, but it appears you found Elvis! :-/

It could be nessie. I volunteer you go under the water and tell us what you see!

I have always noticed that too and I have recognized that a lot of times it is related to a creek channel, but not always. I think it does have something to do with whats under the surface because it doesn't matter how hard the wind is blowing, it stays at the same spot on the water. BUT I can not explain it :-X Hopefully someone reads this and is knowledgable enough to explain it ;D

You said that there were shad playing on the surface. The fact that they are changing direction is just shad being shad. There might not have been any bass feeding on them at that time or there might have only been a few bass and just by coincidence everytime you casted your lure you might have missed where they were at. But your best chance of catching bass feeding on shad is a lure that is as close to the color, size and speed of the shad.

Roadwarrior, when you say suspending fish on cover, what do you mean exactly? This is an area that I am having trouble visualizing. Is this an example of what you mean; a ledge that is in, lets say, 30 feet of water peaks at about 5 feet. That leaves the top of the ledge in 25 feet of water. Are you saying bass that are over that ledge, but are suspending 10 feet above that ledge, (which actually puts the bass in 15 feet of water) are relating to it? Is that one senerio of a bass relating to structure? Is that the kind of thing you are talking about? I really want to fully understand this concept and up to this point I do not.

This is the area that I am familiar with. Its not so much the releasing of the fish that dooms you, all though that can have a negative effect too. What happens to me in small waters like that is the actual catching of a fish. That disturbance is what turns off the bite. The only real exception is dinks. 10 to 12 inch bass can be real dumb. You might catch a few of those in a row from the same spot, but not real often (atleast for me). What I do is as soon as I catch a decent bass from a spot, I move away from it. I believe a bass that is atleast 10 to 20 feet away from where I caught one, might have heard the disturbance, but is not necessarily spooked. Then I go back later to that spot. I disagree that quality bass dont have a memory. Go fishing on a heavily pressured pond on a Sunday and see how well you do. Then go back on Wednesday and you will catch more fish. Just my experience!

CJ, I know your not being a smart a**, just having a healthy discussion. But I do believe that bass will eat while suspended. It may not be a huge portion of them, but at times I believe that might be the best way to catch quality bass. Like I said before, I am talking about pressured lakes that are 100 acres or less. At Tablerock, Kentucky Lake, Lake Ozarks, big resevoirs I know it is easier to fish text book areas, but small lakes that have been pounded to death, the only unfished areas on Sunday afternoon that aren't pressured are open water areas. If you havent had this situation too much, then I appreciate what you can offer, but I was kind of hoping to find someone who has experienced this and been successful. I do know about targeting structure that has baitfish, that has cover and all the right situations, but when those areas are non-productive, thats when I want to try to catch suspenders (and no- I don't mean Dockers brand either. I don't have any idea what they eat. Ha Ha!)

CJ, I understand what your saying. How often do you target the suspenders? And how long do you fish and how many, on average, do you catch in that time frame? I do believe that most of them are in a nuetral state, but on days that they are not hitting anywhere else due to pressure, etc., I want to target structure like you said in 10 to 30 feet of water. I am starting to realize that bass may be on certain structure, say that is in 30 feet of water, but be suspended 10, maybe 20 feet above it. Those are the goobers that I want to catch. BassSnatcher, I also am a fellow Missourian. What do you mean by decent fish? Over 3 pounds? 2 pounds? Where do you fish? Does the water clarity play a factor? Thanx guys!

I fish a lot of pressured lakes, and I know one thing you can do is to target shallow structure. They are suppose to be easier to catch. But everybody is targeting those fish. I believe that after a little while those bass in the shallows become even harder to catch, especially quality fish due to the pressure. I have heard that catching suspended bass is from difficult to impossible. For some reason I don't want to totally believe that. In your experiences, what is your most productive way of catching these suspendies? Please include times of year(especially summer) and conditions (if possible) and if you have several techniques. Or let me know if you have spent a lot of time targeting suspendies without any luck. I would definately appriciate it!

I dont know if this question can be answered over the forum or not, but I need help in reading a depth finder. I lost my book for mine and I also fish in other peoples boat and watch thier depth finder. Do most sonars read the same? How much can a depth finder tell you?

Habitat for the Great White I guess.

Thats good you'll be able to get back at it that soon. Joe and I are going to fish all the points, structure and cover and try to stay away from the aerators unless we cant locate anything. We are going to fish it in a way that will help us in tournaments down the road. The deep structure and cover around those aerators ought to be pretty productive. I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow evening.

Hey Glen, that sucks about your finger. Let me know if there is anything I can help you with. Give me a buzz when you can go again. It was definately a good time. To be honest with you, I am not that experienced with depth finders so I had not noticed bass. When you pointed out the balls of shad near that aerator and on that hump, I only noticed the forage and some structure. I just need to learn how to read one better. As far as the spoon, I thought that was pretty much a cold water lure. If that would work, I might give it a try on Sunday. Joe and I are going to fish it in the morning. You know, if had a really nice wife, she could cast for you and then you real it in I'm sure she would love 6 hours of that ;D

I like the c-rig a crankbait idea, drop shotting might not work because they were nailing a fast retrieve. In fact, as I was reeling it in I could feel it bumping off the shad and the shad bumping it. When that happened, thats when those bass would crush it. I have been finding lately that the most realistic looking lures are the most productive. LighteningRods idea was a good one, but I wonder how well it matches the shad. I could be crazy or it could be just luck, but they seem to destroy realistic cranks and swimbaits.

Last saturday I went fishing with cart7 and we located balls of shad in 1 to 10 feet of water. These bass were very picky about size of lure, color, and retrieval speed. I started cathing them on a rapala diver that dives about 6 to 8 feet deep. It matched the size of the shad and the color. I also tried throwing a deep diving crank that did not match the size or color and caught no fish. Cart7 tried a chartruese lipless with no fish, and a rapala almost exactly like mine with the exception that it was dark blue on top and caught no fish. He then tied on a smaller version of my lure that was the same shad color that I used and started catching them. With the pickyness of these bass, my question is how do we target those bass that are feeding on schools of shad that are 17 to 25 feet deep, usually 5 to 10 feet off the bottom? Its likely that they will be that picky about our lures down that deep as well. What lure besides a swim bait will match the 2 to 3 inch size of these shad and look like one of them? How do I get that deep with a small crankbait? I need help!!!!

Just my 2 cents but I had a post about line breakage a couple of weeks ago asking how often does it happen to others. A lot of people said they don't have fish break off at all. Even in my experience this year I have caught over 200 bass and only lost one (2 to 3 pounds) to a broken line. He wasnt very big, but it was at the begining of the year and I was just starting to apply the things I have learned about taking care of my line. If you change it often and check it for nicks and crimps, you should be fine. I have landed an 8, two 5 1/2's and atleast 6 or 7 over 4 pounds without losing them. Trust me, I used to lose a lot of fish, but now I guard against it.

I had one this year. I hooked one on a crankbait that was about 13 inches long. It didn't put up a fight at all. When I landed it, it just laid there. The fish was very skinny. I took it off the hook and kind of felt bad for it. I let it go and continued fishing. A minute later, I noticed the bass came to the surface on its side. It moved every once in awhile then drifted out of sight. I pictured it on its last leg, starving to death. Finally a meal passes right in front of its nose, only to be fooled. After he realized that he was hooked he just gave up on life. :'(

I have only been on this forum for a couple of months and I already have a fishin buddy that I fish with atleast once a week. I also fished with another guy yesterday, and I am hitting a lake on Saturday with another guy I havent met yet. Its been a great experience so far!