OCdockskipper

Just shows he is washed up (said with tongue planted firmly in cheek)... It has been an odd season on the Elite series. 1st four winners had never won an Elite event, and the winners of the 1st two events will most likely not qualify for the Classic. KVD wins three of the next four events and follows it up with a crash & burn. Winner of the 6th event & leader of AOY gets a days catch DQ'd in the following event. Just odd... When Lake Conroe was announced for the 2017 Classic, I really hoped Rick Clunn's win would help propel him to qualifying for it (he guided at Conroe in his earlier days). Unfortunately, he is in the mid 50's in points for AOY and hasn't helped himself much the past few tourneys. Maybe he can pull one more rabbit out of the hat in La Crosse next month.

Well, on Bigfoot Resource.com, there is a 18 page thread about a 30 lb largemouth bass caught from a farm pond...

My friend has a koi pond and he has kept a bass in there for a few years. The bass is slightly smaller than the koi, but he/she bullies them, not the other way around. It may be because the koi are domesticated and the bass is wild, but they koi just are not territorial like other fish. Carp are the Great Danes of fish, they have no idea how big & strong they are and typically are very passive towards others.

When I read that paragraph, it made me smile. I have made that skip cast with that rig (albeit a Senko) under similar docks on my home lake thousands & thousands of times. Each time the line moves off or I set the hook, I wonder if it will be a lake record (I doubt a California state record lives in my lake, unless someone snuck in some Florida strain babies a decade or so ago).

That was what caught my eye. My screen saver on my desktop is me holding an 8 lb fish and they appear to be the same length, but his fish just has so much more bulk for the entire body. It has the head & length of an eight pounder and the girth of a fifteen pounder (would that be correct WRB?)

As an aside to this, I wonder if any move to change limit sizes on black bass will make a difference? I would suggest that the majority of black bass caught are done by folks who choose to practice catch & release, or who just occasionally keep a few fish. Those who are out to catch as many fish as they can to eat or fill their freezer tend not to catch that many bass in the first place. It seems in our current fishing culture, as one acquires the skills to become proficient at catching, a switch kicks in to not abuse that skill. The attempt to force people to keep what they catch is a different matter. It is more dangerous & sinister, but may not be constitutional. If something like that passes, I see most bass anglers becoming extremely clumsy when attempting to land a bass...

I am going to go a different direction than the rest of the posters & tell you that yes, you are indeed terrible at fishing. My professional recommendation is that you take two weeks off & then quit. Please send all your gear & tackle to me, I will make sure to educate them how to properly catch fish... Seriously, take a step back & don't be so serious. Keep learning from people on this forum, keep trying different techniques and areas and enjoy the process. One day you will look back and smile.

I had a small sparrow or swallow do that to me about a month ago, except the bait he was interested in was a ZMan TRD. Smaller baits attract smaller birds. By friends sister told me that when she was a teenager, she hit a swallow mid cast with a buzzbait. She wasn't aiming at it, she just cast it toward a bridge and the bird & buzzbait collided. She didn't know what had happened at first, all of a sudden her reel backlashed and these feathers started floating down a short distance from the boat.

I agree and believe that is the case due to the size of their mouths. They can inhale a bait (especially a smaller finesse bait) and have it inside their mouth without it ever touching any part of them. A big bass eating a Ned rig to is similar to a baleen whale sucking in plankton. Compare that to a catfish over 10 lbs, who has to crush what he catches - there is no subtlety to one of their bites.

If I had to catch fish to eat & survive or just wanted to show off my catching abilities to the others stranded with me, I would choose a Zman TRD 1/15oz Ned rig in California Craw. If I didn't have to catch fish and just wanted to have fun throwing & retrieving a lure, then a Zara Spook.

While I enjoy the process of fishing, from purchasing & setting up gear to launching for the day and trying to figure out where the fish are, I enjoy catching more than fishing. I target keeper sized fish and above, I don't consider a legal fish a dink. On any particular day, I'll adjust my methods to those that are producing bigger fish, but if the choice is between 50 legal fish or 1 eight pounder for 10 hours fishing, I'll take the former. The eight pounder gives a great memory, but if it is the only action for the day, there are 9 hours and 55 minutes of boredom built in. Real world is that on some lakes, this isn't that black and white choice. i caught two bass over 8 lbs last month (July) on my home lake, one on a TRD Ned rig the other on a 6" Zoom Dead ringer. Neither of those are baits used by those who target large fish only. On those two days where the big ones were caught, we ended up catching 60 fish and 38 fish respectively, so we had the best of both worlds.

Excellent, keep it up.

I too prefer barbed hooks, although I am well aware of the caution you need to take to avoid getting stuck past the barb with them. When a big fish is near the boat, everything & anything will happen and I want every advantage I can. I believe that in close range, a barbed hook gives you room for error.

You are correct, I still have 2 of them left over from decades ago. Note the attachment off the rear treble hook for a rubber skirt, which puts alot of motion into the bait.

That's what I thought, the setting and cast reminded me of E.T. or Poltergeist where the main focus of the story is on the kids and the "mysterious others" as opposed to the parents or other adults.

X3 on the sweep. Most of my wacky fishing is skipping them under docks, so the sweep also helps lead them out from under the dock.

There is a proliferation of information available now that wasn't available decades ago. However, like anything else, not all of the information may be valid for what you are trying to do. This site is a great example. Whenever someone asks how they can catch fish somewhere, you get answers from people all over the nation, fishing bodies of water that vary as much as the answers to the question do. I know most people have good hearts in wanting to help others, but I always hesitate before giving advice online. Do I really understand the situation and area that the OP is talking about and can I steer them in the right direction? For me, most of the time the answer is "I don't know", so I hold off giving potentially conflicting advice. If you spend some time on this site and get to know various members through their posts, you will find people who you can count on giving you the advice on particular subjects that are applicable to you. The best example I can give for myself was when I was learning about the Ned rig. The best and most consistent advice came from Team9Nine and Bluebasser, not because they considered themselves experts, but because they had taken the time themselves to learn from those who could be considered experts and were able to apply the techniques. Best of all, they were able to explain simply what they had learned, which allowed me to learn a technique that is now invaluable to my fishing arsenal.

When I was a kid, we had a Samoyed that used to do the same in a large clay pot. The problem is that everything & anything sticks to this breeds fur, so the dog would walk around looking like PigPen from Peanuts. My mom ended up giving this dog to a woman who moved up in a mountain cabin and wanted a watch dog/companion. The first night, the woman let the dog sleep in her bedroom. When she woke up, she reached over to put her dentures in, but they weren't there. She looked over & the dog had the false teeth in her mouth, smiling like Jimmy Carter. This dog was a little off...

Not the craziest, but a memorable one was last year with 2 lb bass that was apparently trying out for Cirque du Soleil. His initial jump was a good 2-plus feet out of the water where he did a complete 360 degree somersault. Then after regaining his composure, he charged toward the boat, jumped again and landed in the boat, smacking me in the shin. Thank heavens I caught him on a Ned Rig and not something with multiple trebles, otherwise I would have had to have him arrested for battery.

Carp, they fight like a cinder block. Worse, when they are swimming around, they jump and thrash on the surface. When hooked, they just kind of mope around.

I have never had the opportunity to meet Mark, but had always wanted to in order to tell him something I thought he would get a kick out of. It isn't about fishing, but rather about his twin boys, who were the "guests" on one of his shows. If he is indeed lurking & reading posts, then I figure this might be the best chance to reach him. I also am the father of twin boys, albeit my sons are about a decade older than his. When I watched the episode where they were out drop shotting, I felt like I had been transported back in time to when my sons were in their mid teens. First, all 4 are all thin as rails, with shoulders that look like a coat-hanger is still in their shirt. Second, the shyness of each is uncanny. There are no wasted words when my sons or the Zona boys are around, chatting is something they leave to their fathers. Third, their speech patterns are exactly the same, quick with a little bit of some unknown accent. Lastly, the interaction between them when ever any kind of competition is present was predictable. Not much trash talking, just a quick verbal jab or wry smirk whenever one got a leg up on the other. Now I have never been to Michigan and my wife swears she has never met this non-stop talking Italian smallmouth slayer, so it appears what we have here are quadruplet brothers from different mothers Mark, it looks like you have got two great boys there, I bet you will really enjoy watching them become men. It appears they have kept their bond as twins as they have grown, something that will get stronger as they continue through life.

It does if you are really good at it or extremely blessed. Not that I would have any 1st hand knowledge of either...

I used to look at Roboworms the same way, I only used them for dropshotting. Then a couple of years ago, the guy I fish with alot tried them T-Rig with an 1/8 oz sinker and small Mister Twister keeper hook (so as to not tear them up as quickly). 1st time out, he outfished me 2 to 1. 2nd time, he caught his personal best (8lb) within 30 minutes of launching. I copied his setup before the sun had completely risen...

Is this one of the reason's why many bass head shallow for the fall? It would make sense that as dying weed beds in 4-8 feet of water start depleting DO, baitfish & bass would migrate to shallower areas, assuming that the DO level there are appropriate.

I have noticed that for me, some of the username photo's cause me to connect other members to things that may or may not have any bearing in reality. For example: Team9Nine - That scientist image makes me think that everything you post is 100% correct, backed up by years of research. I assign credibility to all of your writings based solely on the impact of that image. This was helpful when I learned to fish a Ned rig, for I just followed your instructions & recommendations to the letter and it has produced big time. ScaleFace - On her desk, my mom has a picture of me at a young age holding a stringer of fish, a picture that looks similar to your username photo. Therefore, I always think you & I are the same age and would be good fishing partners, even though I really know nothing about you. I don't believe we are related & I don't think I have any missing siblings. .ghoti. - The user photo looks remarkably like my high school vice principal, so I tend to avoid reading your posts. There is nothing wrong with you, the image or your posts, I just can't get by the resemblance and it brings up many memories of me getting in trouble. Definitely a "me" problem, not a "you" problem. Do any other username photo's illicit reactions for you? Don't bag on anyone for their photo, I don't want to get this thread locked.