OCdockskipper

Considering how many folks claim 12" keepers weigh 2 lbs, 17" bass are 5 lbs and those largemouth that have their nose bumping the 20" mark are DD's, that claim seems right on... In fact, didn't George Perry but his World Record in his back pocket for the walk home?

For PB, I only count the bass that I catch when noodling, barehanded in the water, wrestling them out from under trees and docks. I believe that is the only fair & sporting way to catch bass. When the water is too cold or I realize that I can't swim, I will use a rod & reel. Too easy, not sporting, the DD fish nearly jump into the boat.

And I have seen him bite red crankbaits in muddy water...

By any chance does this 6 inch bass happen to weigh 9 lbs?

Yeah, we grow them big here in California. There aren't any trout in this lake, but the county stocks the area with swimming squirrels, which the bass love to eat. I put a long feather on the back of a whopper plopper and it sure looks one of those varmints trying to cross the lake. I have caught a few bass in the 20 lb range with bushy tails in their gullet.

My Lineup Martens Swindle Lefebre Card Morris My Wife's lineup B. Hite J. Lee Wheeler Poche K. Jordan

Were you tempted to break open the roll of quarters on his/her forehead? Wait, are you using the term "roll of quarters" as a euphemism? If so, you are a dirty old man!!

EG, congratulations on the new PB. As for the naysayers, pay them no heed. I received the same treatment here a few years back when I caught a bass I estimated to weigh about 30 lbs. It was mid January and I made about a 100 yard cast with a Whopper Plopper. The fish came up from about 40 feet of water, jumped over the lure & then landed on it, so I inadvertently foul hooked her. When I got her to the boat, she was too big to lift and since the foul hooking would invalidate any claims for records, I just unhooked her & let her go. I took a picture of her with my phone before she swam off, but then the next day I was at the airport & the TSA confiscated it. Oddly enough, the TSA agent who took my phone looked exactly like J Francho.

I have always thought highly of Christie's skill & determination, but the past 2 plus years have given him a few major punches to the gut. 2016, leads the Classic into the final day by 5 lbs only to have Evers go off with a 29 lb bag. 2017 loses AOY by a small margin with his worst finish being on a lake he had won on before (Dardanelle). 2018 Classic replicates 2016, except he falls down instead of someone else excelling. I was concerned about where his head would be at before Grand, so I didn't choose him. I still think those near misses are gnawing on him daily, I believe he will have to do something spectacular to shake it off. Once he does, look out, there will be no way of holding him back. I think Christie is in a similar position Edwin Evers was a few years back. Successful but missing either an AOY or Classic and then experiencing a series of near misses of those in a short window. When it happened to Evers, he stumbled for a few months, until finally he came back with the big bag at Havasu & a 3rd place finish, out-sprinted KVD at Kentucky lake for a win and then went back-to-back by winning on the St. Lawrence river. I believe that tremendous run removed any demons that had moved to his frontal cortex and paved the way for his Classic victory the following March.

The Moneymaker that I modify gives a little longer look than the Hula Stickz while avoiding bulk. The Roboworm Ned Worms have some poured colors that create a different look than the current selection of TRD colors. The color I used Tuesday was white on the bottom, silver & black in the middle & translucent on the top (Roboworm calls it "Hologram Shad, it is pretty unique). I chose that because it was a cloudy, windy, dark day and I wanted something bright that stood out. Like I said earlier, non Zman baits are a once every few month choice for me, 95% of the time I have an Elasticel bait on.

Exactly. You end up with slices & chunks torn where the hook exits the body. Thank heavens for Mend-It. It does make me wonder exactly what are those fish doing to that little bait. You would think they would just inhale it & be done, instead they are treat it like Hulk treated Loki in "The Avengers".

I use ZMan products for 95% of my Ned Rig fishing (TRD, Hula Stickz, Shadz, etc). The only non ZMan products I find myself occasionally using are Berkley Moneymakers and Roboworm Ned Worms. For the former, I cut off one of the round ends to get a longer, thin profile while the latter has some unique colors that I sometimes want. Since I use these others infrequently, I always forget how quickly they get torn up compared to ZMans products. I am used to glueing a TRD to a jighead and only needing to adjust it maybe once or twice while catching 25 to 30 fish. Yesterday, I was using a Roboworm Ned Worm and after 1 or 2 fish, would have to cut off the head and rerig it. After another 1 or 2 fish, I would have to replace it alltogether and start the process again. I don't glue these baits to the jighead, tbey don't last long enough to make it worth the time. I end up recycling all these baits using Mend-It, so in the long run, I end up catching a lot of fish per bait. But I do get annoyed constantly changing baits, I guess ZMan has spoiled me. I know I shouldn't complain about catching fish, just wondering if there are any tricks other than Mend-It repairs afterward to make these other baits not get torn up so easy.

^^This. Not only will your casts go farther, you will nearly eliminate line twist issues. I use Berkley Nanofil, but there are many choices.

Here are a few fun pictures to go with my post above: A fat cat pushing 13 lbs that grabbed a Ned rig on 8 lb test A 14 lb catfish that not only ate my crankbait, but also had another crankbait and a jig hanging off him from previous battles with other fisherman that he had won. A smaller catfish that really wanted a crankbait. These are the toughest for hook removal.

If I am correctly remembering BlueBasser86's comments from a previous thread about snakes, I believe he may have just quickly exited his chair and left the room... ?

If it is worth paying the deductible to have the insurance company do the leg work for you, go for it. Its no big deal for me to write a letter and if need be, file a small claims action. To each his own. As for your view of California, it's big cities are the same color blue as Chicago in your home state of Illinois. Where I live, Orange County, is very red. In fact, it has made headlines nationally and even was the subject of a presidential tweet for its choice to publically ignore California's sanctuary city laws. So your description and jab isn't really too accurate as it applies to where I live.

If it is a male, I'll treat it like any other fish I spot and give it a cast or two. If the fish doesn't jump on it, I'll just move on believing that fish is focused on something other than eating or aggressively defending the nest. I'm not fishing in a tournament, so just seeing the fish is a bit of enjoyment. The only time I have ever made multiple casts for a bedding fish for any length of time is for fish I estimate to be over 5 lbs. Those fish I want to see up close, but again, if they choose not to bite, at least I know there is one more big one swimming around. Spotting males on a nest is a sign for me that there probably are females nearby, typically deeper or hanging out in some cover like a dock or brushpile. If I am not seeing any nests, typically I am not running into any nearby females.

Naming that rod after Julie could be either an insult or a compliment, depending on her attitude or skill level...

Just because he doesn't have insurance doesn't mean he isn't liable for the damage. It may be too late, but rather than make the claim to your insurance company, you can make the demand for the cost of the repair directly to him (in writing). If he refuses to pay or claims he doesn't have the money, take it to small claims. His wages can be attached or his property (such as his motorcycle) could be forfeited. I don't mean to sound like a cold-hearted jerk, but it bothers me to see someone like yourself, following the rules and having done nothing wrong, be out $500 bucks and have your insurance rates increased. Meanwhile, he shirks the responsibility of his actions and then goes on to do it to someone else. At the very least, have him pay the $500 deductible. I'll get off my soapbox now...?

End of April Update With a 1/3 of the year wrapping up, 2018 is looking to be much more like 2015 & 2016 versus last year. Specifically, for the first four months of the year I have caught 554 bass on 17 trips. 9 of those trips produced 30+ fish, with the most being 52 (every trip in March produced 40 plus fish). Even better, the larger fish have returned, with a 5-2 and a 6-2 already being caught. For this lake, late summer and early fall produces a big majority of the larger fish, so to get a pair over 5 lbs early may be a good sign. The lures that are producing has returned to previous form as well. I have had multiple occasions where I work an area with a crankbait or other moving bait without a sniff only to switch over to a Ned rig or other slower moving bait and catch multiple fish. While the fishing pressure has increased (3 folks have purchased pond boats like mine since January), the skill level of those who are now fishing it as well is not so high. From what I have seen, two of the guys are always using moving baits and I have yet to ever see them hook up while they are in eyesight. The third is a guy I have gotten to know and he likes fishing senkos. He only knows how to fish around the docks, not under them or out deeper, so he is catching a few during the early hours or on low-light days. However, he does pay attention to what I do and after watching me skip a bait under a dock in his cove and catch a fish midday on a bright, sunny day, he came out on his dock and asked me a few questions on how to do it. I gave him some tips, he is a good guy and is interested in keeping the lake healthy. Since he likes fishing Senko's, I also showed him the trick on how to remove the hook from a gut hooked fish, which he seemed to appreciate. As DaveCon and a few others suggested, it may have been a 1 year aberration. Maybe a class a few years back that had lower numbers of fry survive, which resulted in lower numbers making it to keeper size last year and less competition for food for the larger fish. We'll see how the rest of the year goes and it will be interesting if the increased fishing pressure continues (or if they give up) and if it does, how that affects the techniques that produce.

We are at the end of our spawn, a few stray males still holding out hope, but all of the females seem to have already dropped their eggs and are in postspawn mode. The bass below was the 47th & final one I caught yesterday in about 8 hours of fishing. She hit a 5" wacky rigged Senko, color green pumpkin/amber laminate, skipped under a boat dock in about 4 feet of water. She weighed in at 6 lbs, 2 oz, 23" long. With her length & build, she may have pushed the 7 lb mark last month when full of eggs or next month after feeding up a bit. She was blind in one eye, so she now is nicknamed "Sami" in case I ever catch her again (short for Sammy Davis Jr.).

As an aside, California used to do a similar thing with trout. During winter, they stock them in lakes where the trout have no chance of surviving the warmer spring & summer water temps, so it was a 3 month rush to catch all of the stockers before they die. The only positive was they were unwittingly feeding the bass, creating world class sized fish.

Mike, I wasn't suggesting that you or all children who kill things will grow up to be serial killers, rather that that action is one trait that seems to be common among them. Kind of like saying that not all tall people are good basketball players, but nearly all good basketball players are tall. If you have or are close to a child who kills animals and seems unfazed by it, pay attention. Most likely, he is just a curious boy, however if that behavior manifests itself into additional sociopath tendencies, you have got a problem.

Nearly all serial killers have a history of animal abuse when they were young. No remorse is a sign of a lack of empathy, a trait of sociopaths.

1) Whopper Plopper - It was like a shark running down a swimmer; 2) Chatterbait - 1st cast ever with a Chatterbait; 3) Ned Rig - Have caught dozens with this, largest topped 15 lbs; 4) Senko - wacky rigged has caught 10 or so, including one that chased it to the boat & grabbed it with about 5 feet of line out; 5) Roboworm - Trigged has caught a half dozen; 6) Crankbaits - a couple, a real pain to unhook; 7) Jerkbaits - They grab them and run; 8) Red Eye Shad - one of which hit the catfish on the head on the drop, he pulled like a freight train; 9) Spinnerbait - The strike nearly dislocated my shoulder; 10) Dropshot - They end up getting all tangled up in the line & sliming everything; 11) Speed Shad - only one, but the fish breached on the strike.