MIbassyaker

You're having trouble catching fish on soft plastics in clear water northern lakes? I'm having trouble wrapping my head around that! If anything, I have the opposite problem -- I have a lot of hard baits I've never used, and some days I don't tie any hard baits on at all. 1. since you can rig worms and craws weedless, be sure to get them down into cover, rather than just running them past or over it. 2. In general, I find its better to work worms and craws too little than work them too much. Don't be afraid to just let it sit for a moment -- or a few moments-- before moving the bait. 3. When you do work the bait, try to make it spend a lot of time falling. 4. spend time working on learning a few rigs well -- basic texas and wacky rigs first, say. You can T-rig almost anything and throw it anywhere. 5. Time on task -- don't get impatient and switch lures too quickly. If you haven't been bit, its probably because you haven't found any active fish yet, not because your fish don't like worms and craws. 6. Work on your strike detection. Glenn did a good video on how to practice this: http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-videos/feel-bite.html 7. Color matters less than other things, but in clear water try natural colors (e.g., black, pumpkins, watermelons). I kind of feel like if I had every soft plastic lure in green pumpkin, I'd never need another color the rest of my life.

Yikes, Catt! Take care and get well soon!

Mostly quieter and out-of-the-way natural lakes and rivers in lower peninsula Michigan. Like CeeJay, I also use only spinning tackle and a small variety of hard and soft baits, but never go anywhere without a light t-rig of some kind, or a simple worm on a jighead or slider head ready to go.

Behavior changed as a result of the chemical action of the pill, not experience, therefore: not learning! Also, presumably, unless the pill caused lasting damage, once its effects wear off, I will be back to normal, so not "relatively permanent" (possible headache notwithstanding!) But definitions aside, the experiment pretty clearly shows reduced lure-striking behavior with prior experience. So it seems it does happen, whether or not you agree with calling "learning".

Human learning is not limited to behavior modification, but that doesn't mean behavior modification and conditioning are not learning! The accepted definition of "Learning" as used in the behavioral sciences is very broad, and boils down to "a relatively permanent change in behavior resulting from experience". Now, regardless of whether you think that's a good definition or not, whether bass have a lasting change in behavior from experience with lures is the thing at issue, and that's what these studies show. Jones is not simply proclaiming bass learn to avoid lures; he is reporting the results a experiment showing they avoid a minnow lure. The bass stopped hitting the lure as often -- that's simply a fact about what happened in the study. Of course, the study doesn't show all bass learn to completely avoid every lure, always, under all circumstances, in all waters. the particular experiment used a minnow imitator. They didn't test other baits; maybe spinnerbaits, say, are different. We also don't know how well their learned avoidance to the minnow bait generalizes to other lures that are similar but not the same thing. And the bass didn't stop hitting it completely, just greatly reduced.

Of course it is -- that's how it got away!

Lost an (approximate) 3-4 pounder on a weightless fluke around 7:30 this morning! Did a head shake at the side of the kayak just as I was trying to lip him, broke off near the hook and got away. Damaged line? Bad knot? Should I have had a net? All the above? Either way, totally avoidable. Arrrgghh.

Finally, clear scientific justification for buying new lures!

The answer is, they don't have a "30 minute memory span". They have --like all organisms-- some basic learning abilities, including habituation, reinforcement, and other kinds of adaptive conditioning. The time it takes for learning to extinguish (essentially, to "forget" -- keep in mind, concepts that apply to human memory may or may not be meaningful when applied to other species), is going to be variable depending on the strength of the learning experience (i.e., how much was a behavior reinforced or punished), how often it is repeated, and how flexible the behavior is to be modified by experience in the first place (that is, some instincts are more receptive to modification through learning, and some are more rigid). The behavior in this case may be a prey-hunting strike or a reaction strike, or possibly something else. As the article by Keith Jones linked above shows, bass can learn to avoid at least some lures after being caught a single time, and can retain some of this avoidance over weeks or months, possibly more. But it almost certainly depends on the kind of lure, the nature and variability of the bass's usual forage, exactly how aversive (painful, stressful) it was to be caught...and also on the bass itself (individual differences in the general catchability of individual bass have also been documented).

And I don't even care about the top lakes! What I love are the tons and tons of little underfished lakes off the beaten path with public access.

2lb largemouth? Largemouth a pound and under where I fish have zero problem getting a 5" senko in their mouths. If anything, they're a little too good at it. How often are you checking your mono near the bait for nicks and scuffs? Check it frequently and be liberal about cutting off any damaged portions you find and retying. Be especially sure to check after each fish and after getting hung in cover.

Yup, Michigan has one: http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7-153-10364_52261_10948---,00.html You can get a snazzy muskie patch.

I fish out of an older model tarpon 120 and I like it quite a bit, especially for the slidetrax mounting rails. I can stand on it if I have to but it's awkward, so I don't bother. I don't usually feel like I need to. However, it's very stable; I've never flipped it except on purpose. Seat is very comfortable. I'm guessing the 140 is a little faster but a little less maneuverable, and I think it's a couple inches narrower. Ask if you can take it for a paddle and see if you like the stability. There are nicer SOT fishing kayaks but generally the Tarpon series is solid all-around value for price, and a 140 for $550 looks like a good deal if its in good shape.

Either your son is tiny, or that is a huge pumpkinseed. Looks like a great time.

Scouting missions to two new lakes for a few hours each this week. The first has a reputation as one of the few close to me that gives up bass 4lb and higher with regularity. Had an 18"+ wiggle out of the kayak before I could get a pic, and the only other one I snapped was of this skinny 16"-er who gobbled a trick worm. Caught a couple more below keeper size. I'll be back to that lake. The other lake I knew almost nothing about. Turned out to be a massive dink factory. Absolutely loaded with bass, and lost track of how many I caught, but nothing over 12".

Yes! Actually, a lot of people here fish from kayaks...they're easy to use, easy to transport, and they can open up a ton of water for you compared to fishing on shore. You can also get into and through narrow, shallow places that other boats can't go. It's easiest to fish from one specifically made for angling, and most people, including me, prefer a sit-on-top rather than a sit-inside (although, honestly, I tend to think almost any kayak is better than no kayak...except maybe one that leaks...)

I fish a lot of small clear water lakes up here. In general, I have a much easier time with plastics than hard baits. Downsizing to 2-4 inch baits seems to help a lot. Long casts do indeed seem to matter. Topwaters I usually have to work faster than in murkier lakes. Reduce line visibility if you can. Cast toward shade if there is any, but avoid fishing toward your own shadow.

Hannon didn't catch all those fish on the snake; I think that's his total lifetime tally of DDs. But he was a well-known big bass expert based in (or near) your area -- maybe you're in a posiiton to get more out of this lure than others.

I eagerly await your next fishing report on the effectiveness of The Snake.

Alternate top 3: 1) Banjo Minnow 2) Dancin' Eel 3) Hannon's Original Fishing Snake

Well, frankly, the fact that some people catch otherwise normal-seeming fish with one eye does not mean putting an eye out is no big deal. There is still a risk of mortality from infection, for instance, as there is with foul-hooking generally. And, of course, you're only catching the fish that, in the end, find your bait -- any that don't, you won't know about because you won't catch them. There are two issues here: first, there is the question of causing injury to the fish, and second, there is the question of what you do with a fish that is injured. Taking measures to avoid foul hooking and handling fish in ways that minimize injury speak to the first issue. The decision to release vs. harvest speaks to the second issue.

in-line spinner (it's on everbody's list for a reason -- optional swivel, walking sinker for walleye, and wire leader for toothy critters) Plastic curly tail jig on a round jighead Jigging spoon

1 minute to tie on a bait x 6 baits = 6 minutes, during which time you could catch another 8# fish.

Most ethicists consider Ethics to be a matter of degree, comparison, and calculation. All else equal, it's more ethical to not injure a fish's eye than to injure it. It's more ethical to kill a dying fish quickly than to let it suffer. If the fish is not dying (or likely to die from injury), and you aren't harvesting for food (in which case the use of the fish as food balances the cost of its death, weighed against the effect of the loss of the fish to the fishery), it's more ethical to release it and let it live. Again, all else being equal. If you're concerned about ethics, weight the costs of each option (to all involved, including the fish) against the benefits of each option (again, to all involved, including the fish), and compare the net balance of the two.

lol...I noticed your last couple posts on the other thread really put the "small" in "smallie".