Snakemover

Thanks for the condolences and well wishes guys. I have taken measures to make sure it doesn't happen again. I bought a new storage box. But this one is the steel kind they use on construction sites. It's solid steel and locks up weather tight. You'd need a serious blow torch to get into it. It will be bolted to the deck to store my stuff. The new battery will be bolted to the deck with a steel strap that would take a good hour to cut thru. I'm also trying to get the other boat owners to force the HOA to set up security cameras and beef up police patrols. Wish I could rig up some small explosives to surprise the next thief that comes along. If a thief get's his leg caught in a bear trap or wire snare on my boat, could I be held liable for that?

I keep my boat on the lake in a neighborhood marina. The lake is open to the public. Someone less fortunate than myself came along and stole the battery off my boat! Now, I could have lived with that. But the slimy piece of scum also broke into the storage box on my boat and stole my tackle box and ,worst of all, my sons new rocket bobber fishing rod!!! What kind of person would steal a kid's fishing rod??? Obviously the guy has a boat and is into fishing. I could understand if he needed a battery and didn't have the money. That's a crime of need. But breaking into the storage box and stealing my tackle box and son's fishing rod is just mean and nasty. Hey thief, if you like fishing, maybe you're reading this. I hope the karma comes back to you tenfold. My kid is bummed out.

I work nights. I get off work at 10am Wednesday morning and don't go back until Saturday or Sunday night. Sometimes I go out right after work on Wed morning and have the lake to myself. Same is pretty much true for Thursday or Friday during the day.

I've got a tracker bass buggy 18' pontoon on Mt. Island lake. If Fay doesn't drop a bunch of rain on us this week, I plan on being out there during the day on Friday. Either of you guys available?

I'll keep an eye on the weather for this Friday and Saturday and let you know. Keep your eyes peeled for a PM from me.

I fish Mt. Island Lake all the time. Come on and join me some time. Den

The lake I fish as lots of freshwater clam beds. I see a lot of them look empty and eaten. What's eating them? Dennis

A friend got me into fishing. I bought a cheap little Zebco all-in-one pack and started with that. Just throwin real worms and hoping something would pick it up. After reading the articles and posts on this site, I still haven't caught a bass bigger than 12", but I've learned how to tie diff. knots and how to look for structure. I'm hopeful that I'll catch that lunker eventually. Thanks to ALL OF YOU who have posted your tips and tricks, answered my newbee questions and made this a great informative site. Posted by: Low_Budget_Hookers Posted on: Today at 8:03pm We are the best board out there, that's not my opinion, that's THE opinion. I didn't know there were other sites out there. :

Can I get that info too, please? I usually fish the lake below Norman, but I live 5 minutes from there.

Not getting involved in the legal side of things here. That being said, I've kept South American cichlids for several years. If bass are as aggressive as these guys, I would recommend only having 1 bass in a 55 gallon tank. That's too small for more than 1. Even with just two fish, they will fight for dominance as they get bigger. I've had 4" fish kill eachother before. Even a breeding pair will sometimes fight. With the male killing the female. Make sure you have lots of cover for it to hide in and around. This will also help give the fish some cover to hunt from. Don't be surprised when the bass starts moving plants and rocks around. Big, aggressive fish will create cover sometimes. If you're going to use a pleco to clean the algea, make sure it's a LOT bigger than the bass. And keep it that way. A pleco has spines that have been known to kill fish that eat them whole. You'd lose two fish at once. :'( I'm assuming you know about adding slime to the water to condition it. You might want to think about using some carefully chosen preventative medicine also. Especially if you're going to add fish from different bodies of water. It should be okay if all the fish, crawdads, plants and whatever come from the same lake or pond. If you're going to use fake plants, spend the extra $$ and get the silk plants. They look better and will eventually collect algea and act as a food source for the pleco and other fish. Good luck with this project. I'm looking forward to seeing pics.

A friend of mine told me that bass will not bite right before a front moves in and after it rains. Is this true? We've been getting thunder storms every afternoon and evening here. I don't fish while the lightning is blazing, :-/ but I want to go out after the storms end. Would this be a waste of time? What's the real story with fish biting or not before, during and after a rain storm? Also, what are the best baits to use if I do go out? Thanks for your advice and answers. Dennis

I didn't get bit by the fishing bug until 39. Now I think it was actually the bait monkey that got me. I love fishing! I'd probably love it even more if I actually caught a bass! But, even though I have only managed to catch one little 7" bass, I still enjoy being out there and trying new lures. I just bought my first spinner bait. Along with Yum frogs, a tiny torpedo and something called a zarra puppy. I'm hoping one of them will get me a fish, but it's still good to be out there watching those baits swim.

I've been learning how to read my depth finder to find structure, depth changes and other places like likely to hold fish and I've seem some things that I can't figure out what they are. Sometimes when I'm trolling around slow, looking for structure and depth changes, I'll see what looks like several fish arches stacked right on top of each other. There could be as many as ten of them. I see them at different depths down to 25 feet. Can someone tell me what those might be? Also, when I'm stopped, or just drifting real slow, I'll see what looks like angled lines across the screen. Like something changed depth while in the radar cone. The lines can be thick or thin sometimes and can go all the way to the bottom. What causes those lines. Thanks in advance for any help. Dennis

You could wait until after Christmas, go around and collect a few trees from the curbs and toss them in. I saw a couple of trees tied together with a cinder block in 3' of water. The lake is currently 3' below full pond. When it's back to full pond, those tress should be a bass magnet.

I was thinking about just sneaking up on them and diving on them with a net. A co-worker just told me that netting bass in NC is illegal. That true? Where can I get C4???

Cool! I'll have to try that next time. Now that I know where they live and the creek bed they use to get to that cove. I'm still bringing a gun, crossbow and speargun. Just in case it they don't bite again!

What's a fluke? Would using a little bluegill on a bobber work too?

Thanks for the replies and encouragement guys. I DO have to remember that I just got the boat and only got serious about bassin a few months ago. Hanging out on a boat with a cold beer and a smoke sure beats some other ways to spend a day! I have managed to catch 2 bass in the past month. But they were waht I think you guys call dinks. One was 6" and the other was barely a foot long. Maybe when the bite is hard to come by, I'll switch to cat fish. Drop a bait and wait while you sip a cold one. Would shooting a bass while sight fishing be considered un-sportsman-like??? ;D Just kidding! Hey Sarge, that club idea might be worth looking into!!! ;D Dennis

I had to change my name from SnakeMover. I still remove snakes, but I STINK at catching bass! >:(I've been reading the articles around here for a couple of months. I even print some out to study on the boat and try different things. Saturday morning I got proof that I am actually bass repellent. Picture this... I went out at daybreak. It was around 80 degrees and the water temp was around the same. I used my topo map and df to scout some coves and places that fish usually hang out or pass thru. Around 9:00, after getting no bites, I found a submerged creek channel leading into a big cove. The channel averaged 12-14 feet with the flats around going from 2-5 feet deep. I followed the creek bed into a smaller cove that had a couple of really old docks. The cove is about 100 feet long. Starts out 45 feet wide and narrows to about 15 feet. The middle is 4 or 5 feet deep and it just under a foot around the edges. I was using a pumpking green/red flake work c-rigged. I was casting under and around the docks when I happened to glance over to the other side of the cove. Sitting 20 feet away, up against the bank, were 3 LMB between 18 - 26". I tossed the worm over by them, but a little high. The worm got hung up on a overhanging branch. :-[ The weight slipped down and spooked the fish. They moved over about 6' and stopped. I couldn't free the worm, so I got out of the boat, slowly walked over to the bait and freed it. The water was 1' deep. One of the bass slowly drifted towards me and stopped about 8 feet away. I was thinking I could have dove on him. I slowly walked back to the boat and tried casting again. The worm landed in front of them. They swam over and went right by it! I tried again. One of them picked it up!. I went to set the hook and he spit the worm out! So, I figure, let's try a real worm. I tear off the zoom trick worm and set a night crawler on the hook. By now two of the fish have left and there's one left. He looks just under 2' long. I toss the worm about 3' in front of him. He darts over, looks at the worm twiching and swims away! I could swear I heard little fish bubbbles of laughter drifting up thru the water. Could they have been filled up so much already that they wern't hungry any more??? I thought bass would stuff their face when presented with a real live worm?!?! I don't get! Am I bass repellent? Should I sell my rods and buy some knitting needles??? Do bass have a sense of humor and like to tease people?!? Seriously, should i have used a top water bait or something else? I had a couple of small blue gill in my live well. Would that have worked? I can't believe I could be SOOO bad at something. I mean, how lousy can you get at fishing when you can see the fish 10 feet away and not catch em???? Any advice would be appreciated. If I cant catch them using a rod and reel my nexst move is to shoot them when I see the in shallow water. Or maybe get depth charges! Dennis

I've been using Google Earth maps for a few months. It really helped me find a few good farm ponds. You'd never know they were there just from driving by. Now that i have the boat i used the satelite pics to look for points and other features that can be seen from the air. The pics can be anything from 2 to 5 years old, but there still a great way to see stuff that's under the surface. especially if your dealing with clear water. Keep checking the pics every few months, Google periodically updates them with new ones.

I checked out some of the sites listed from here, but how do I find a good family friendly clun to join? I want to join a club that would have no problem teaching a newby. I want to catch bass, but I don't want to make it a serious career move, just keep it fun.

I had a similar problem. I got a Suntracker Bass Buggy. It's an 18' pontoon boat with room for the family. It's also got fishing seats front and rear and a live well. You can get one with a 40hp for around $16,500. If you want something bigger, they have a 21' model for around $20k. You can set them up with a trolling motor in front. You get to fish and the family is happy too. Worked for me.

As you can probably guess from my name, I remove snakes from peoples houses and other places they're not supposed to be. Most snakes are not agressive. Snakes rely on camouflage to keep from being seeing by predators and thier prey. To them WE are potential predators. They figure that we can't see them so they use the rattles as an audible warning. It's their way of saying "I'm here, so be careful where you step." You can step right next to a snake and just step away and MOST times it won't even strike. I say most times because it all depends on the temperment of that particular snake. If a snake is scared or in a bad mood, it will strike. Also, snakes are more likely to strike at ANY movement when they're at a certain point of their shed. When their eye scales are opaque, they can't see and they get nervous. As long as you're careful and don't actually threaten them, you can mind your biz and the snake will mind its own. Just my $.02 from experience with lots of snakes.

Thanks for the advice. I'll keep trying and keep reading these posts.

Yes, the school came close to the boat a few times. Little silver guys about 1.5 - 2 inches long. Also, I keep hearing about fishing deep for bass during the heat. How deep is deep? The lake I fish is 60 feet at its deepest. What depth is the best to catch bass during a really hot day?