jtbassman

You're not crazy at all. I'd be doing the same thing if I was in your situation.

I call it "fish with ticks on their back". I love it when they get like that in the summer. They act like there is something wrong with them, but if you can be sneaky enough, toss a jig up on the bank and slowly bring it right in front of their face, you'll find out there's nothing at all wrong with them.

Just looking at the topo map I would say those steep banks near the dam. The creeks should also be good if there is a good current. That's a good looking lake, is it public or private?

A little finnese jig is always a winner in high fishing pressure situations. I've also found that the smallmouth like it on those deep rocky points.

I like to take old five gallon buckets, inside put your brush of choice, fill it up with Quikrete, dump it in. It's a fast efficient way of making brushpiles.

I live in North Carolina but id say its around the end of June.

I've got some public ponds near my area, fished like crazy. But you better bet I keep my eye on the weather channel (radar). Even with all the fishing pressure, right before a storm, (the bigger the better), fish just go wild, especially those afternoon thunderboomers, man they'll bite anything when they get like that.

My apologies. I was having a really bad day, got home from work, wanted to take my mind off everything, sat down to think about bass fishing.................................. it was not the right day for me to read about how one of my favorite fish are the scum of the earth. I went way overboard, especially on the IGNORANCE AT IT'S FINEST thing- yeah, pretty silly, My Apologies. :-[ But Senko you hammered me pretty well about my stupid quote. Yes you're right, I should always respond to posts in a nice way. But I think you responded to mine- THAT WAS THE STUPIDEST POST I HAVE EVER SEEN ??????????? Seems like you're kinda contradicting yourself, but I needed to be slammed, so I can't complain too much. Chris, we probably live in different areas- NC myself- I should not have entertained the thought of questioning you about big Florida Strain largemouth. But if we're talking about N.C. foothills or north I think I got you bud. But, once again, sorry for my immaturity and temper, thanx for helping me realize what an arse I was. Hope I can be forgiven.

Posted by: Fish Chris Posted on: Today at 11:21am Did you ever say a mouthful ! Those overpopulating, trophy-bass-destroying little pieces of #$%@ ! Spotted bass have ruined so many once great fisheries over here in California, its just sick Now don't get me wrong, in the right places, (and their are not really any hard and set rules, as to which places will be the "right places") Spotted bass can be great sportfish. They are pretty. They fight hard. They are agressive, and easy for the general bass angler to catch. The big problem with Spotted Bass is that in so many places, they will overpopulate, and the ravenous little juveniles will outcompete the juvenile Largemouths. Now, little Spotted Bass have no "direct" effect on adult Largemouths. In fact, if a 1 lb Spot got to close to a hungry 10 lb Florida Largemouth, it might even become dinner. However, ovbiously you have to have little Largemouths thriving, and surviving to adulthood, to replace the big trophy Florida bass, as they die off from old age, and of course sometimes, meat hunters, and wall hangers. With some research, I could provide you a mile long list of previously great bass fisheries here in Cali, which have been basically destroyed by Spotted bass, but just off of the top of my head, here are a few of the more well known places: Lk. Shasta, Lk. Oroville, Camanche, etc. My old favorite trophy lake San Pablo Dam Res. was invaded by spotted bass about 4 years ago also, and I personally believe the trophy Largemouths will be completely gone from there within 6 to 10 years. Remember, it takes a while for this to happen, because any Largemouth bass which are already 4 or 5 lbs will not be affected, and they will be able to live out the rest of there full life.... but when they are gone, they are gone. With nothing coming up behind them to replace them, that will be the end of the line. ......and once Spotted Bass have taken hold, there is nothing short of draining a lake, which can get rid of them ! IMPO, Spotted Bass are MUCH more detrimental, to a lot more lakes, than are the common Carp, which so many people complain about. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Now, if you had a lake with no Largemouths to begin with, which was managed well (Selective Harvest) and which produced a lot of nice 3 to 5 lb Spots, with the occasional 5 to 7, or maybe even larger, that would be all good. (except that you will always have some idiots who want to pretend like they are the F/G, and will illegally transport, and introduce Spots from one place to the other Urgggg.... Fish PS, Even completely aside from what Spotted bass often do to a trophy bass fishery...... Spotted bass tend to overpopulate really quickly, and you will end up with a stunted population of underfed little dinks. Unless the place has tons of good forage, and the anglers practice a bunch of "Selective Harvest" to keep the numbers down...... But heck, if you have a place like that, with no bass in it, why not put some REAL bass in it ? (Florida strainers of course ::)WOW IGNORANCE AT ITS FINEST. I used to think the same thing about spotted bass, I used to be just as (spot prejudice) as you. Then my dad and I weighed in 15 pounds of spotted bass a couple of weekends ago, take home a couple thousand dollars, I changed my mind. I know what you're thinking Chris- by god i'll catch 15 pounds of fish in one cast, because you've made it very clear that you are world friggin' renowned as far as catching big fish goes. But for the tournament fisherman, spotted bass can be a very efficient way of filling your limit and winning the tournament. Now as far as taking over the lake and taking all the food from the largemouth. Largemouth have just as much of a chance of surviving as spots. A largemouth is a very different fish and prefers different habitat and forage. I've seen (dead lakes) fill up with spots and all of a sudden the resident largemouth just boom, the reason- competiiton. The little yearling largemouth will fight just as hard as the little spots and they will find a way to make it through, after all, a largemouth lives longer and has a faster growth rate than a spot. So basically your big fish will be just fine, because they prefer forage bigger than most of those pesky little spots, and the little largies will find a way, because after all it is nature, and in nature they live together.

Rick Clunn- what a classy guy, you gotta love him

From my experience in small waters, if you fish them day after day, the fish will definitely become lure shy. If you fish hard a couple of days, take a week or two off, then come back, it's like the fish have never seen a lure. I've fished a small farm pond for five or six years and it's always been like that.

With cool cloudy conditions, bass are normally more active, spinnerbait, topwater should be good, that's about all I could understand out of that post, that you wanted to know what to throw in overcast conditions. :-?

Personally I think the best time to fish hard baits, cranks, jerks, etc. is in the winter. You can't go wrong with a deep crank in the summer though.

If anybody surf fishes they will know what im talking about, when you have three rods straight out, and somebody pulls up beside you, pulls his rod out and throws over all three lines and then some. Then walks back, puts his rod in his spike like nothing happened, then one minute and 23 seconds later he pulls his rod in, reeling with the guides facing up...........AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

It is fun to catch fish on live bait, feel the bite, fight the fish, that's what got me started on fishing, just catching the fish. If im trying to bring home trout to eat out of a river, you better believe I'm using a big fat nightcrawler. But the thing I find most rewarding about bass fishing is the challenge. The challenge of presenting your bait properly, using the right retrieve, the right color, finding the right depth, things like that. Bass are just little green fish, but why do you think there are millions of people all over the world who just LIVE to fish for them, It's all about the challenge, the competition, the SPORT of the whole thing. It is fun just to catch fish, but I'll take one smallmouth on a Sammy over 50 on a shiner or a nightcrawler, but that's just me. Like Dodgeguy said each to his own.

Like Cart said, dredge the entire pond with a C-rig, feel for any countour changes or cover, also a steep bank or incoming water would be a sure spot.