WRB-2.0

+1 You will also catch the smaller bed guarding males. The females gain their heaviest body weight during pre spawn; egg weight plus body fat gain to sustain them during the spawn when they don't eat. I also agree it's about a 10-15% average weight gain from eggs + body fat, depending on the health of the bass. Tom

You may be refering to fingerlings or young fish about the length of a finger, whereas fry are tiny baby fish about 1/2" to 1" long. The time difference is about 3 months from fry to fingerling. Sunfish ( bass are a sunfish) spawn more than ounce, usually about 3 times within a month period each year, the spawn can last up to 3 months. Nothing in nature is exact and there may be a minor late summer spawn in some lakes. Bass fry are rarely stocked due to the extremely low survival rate of baby bass, they part of the food chain. Tom

I went back and reread all the posts and didn't intend step on anyones input. I refering to articals written over the years regarding bass becoming conditioned to lures they see a lot and the angler believes the bass will not strike them anymore and stops using the lure. Every lake will have a population of bass that may never respond to lures, new or old designs. Some of these bass may be caught only during the spawn off of beds when the bass strikes anything to protect the bed site...it could spark plug. These bass leave the nest site and knowone see's them until next the spawning season. Other bass are caught several times each year, some each month and other can be caught within a few minutes after being released. In general a new lure that the bass have never seen appears to get better results than lures the bass are subject several times a day. I believe it can work like this; 10 bass in an area, 1 of those bass is more aggressive than the others. If you catch that 1 aggressive bass and the other 9 did not respond to that lure, yet 1 of the others may rspond to a differnt lure. It's not that the other 9 bass learned anything, they just didn't respond to the lure you presented or the way you presented it. If you put the lure away, the bass can't strike it. Tom

The bass don't get conditioned to lures, the angler does. No lure can catch bass unless it tied on and fished. Todays hot lure becomes tomorrows forgotten lure. The Alabama rig is the hottest lure around, try to order it and it's back logged, everyone must have it now! The old lures still catch bass, they work better with upgraded sharper and stronger hooks. The thought that bass somehow inherit memory genes from lures that caught past generation bass is difficult to understand. It's possible for the most of aggresive bass to be removed from the lake, not the entire gene pool. I still fish with the same jig style made from a mold that is over 40 years old. The hook has changed from Eagle Claw #630 to a Gamakstsu #114 and tied with the same deer hair. The hair jig still works because I still fish with it. Tom

Bass are like any animal, they can't determine their own size verses other fish until they get very close. A defensive strike is different from a feeding fish, you increase your odds with a swimbait that closely looks like the prey the bass are eating. Lake Casitas for example the DFG has stopped stocking rainbow trout the past 2 years. The bass no longer strike swimbaits very often and you can go weeks without any trout swimbait strikes. The big bass are also straving without trout plant every week. It appears the big bass year class that grew up eating trout will not adjust and eat smaller threadfin shad or pan fish. The 7 to 9 lb bass year class may have adjusted to eating juvenile bass; 6" to 8" baby bass swimbaits work better now than trout colors at Casitas. Tom

Bed bass are not eating; they are killing or chasing away intruders. I believe Dottie was hooked on top of the head in front of the dosal fin, not on the side of the face from the eye withness reports. I don't target bed fish intentionally; it's possible for a bed to be out deeper structure where pre spawners are located. Mike Long caught Dottie on a swimbait off a bed. Tom

During the 50's I worked at Holloway's marina at Big Bear lake located at 7,000' altitude. Big Bear had a good NLMB population, however due to the short growing season, the lake freezes over during the winter, the bass rarely grew over 8 lbs. Like most marina's there were usually a few big bass living under the docks. The DFG would plant rainbow trout near the marina and the big would go look at them but I didn't see any chasing the trout or eat any. One reason may have been the planted trout back then were at least 12" or 1 lb. the average size stocked. Big bear tried to plant FLMB during the mid 70's and the Florida's did survive the winter. BB water is in the low 60's during the summer, FLMB couldn't survive water lower than 45 during the winter. Fast forward to the mid 70's when several SoCal lakes north of San Diego stocked FLMB. The DFG had changed the average size planted rainbow trout to 3 per pound or 7" to 8" with a few 12' to 14" in the mix. NLMB may eat a 6" trout, however the FLMB preferred the stocked trout. The bass at Casitas would wait for the DFG truck to plant trout. Threadfin shad were also introduced in the 70's and both shad and trout are pelagic fish, the FLMB adjusted to feeding in deeper main lake water faster than the NLMB that prefer cover and dermersal bait fish that live in or near cover. The threadfin shad had a major impact along with the planted trout in the growth potential of FLMB in SoCal lakes. It's never one factor that allows bass to grow to giant size. I fish both 6" and 8" huds and other swimbaits year around. Larger 12" swimbaits work OK at times. My preference is the smaller sizes. Unlike most trophy bass anglers I also prefer fishing jigs during the pre spawn period when a high % of giant bass are caught. Tom

In California we have had the opportunity to fish lakes where both pure Florida strain, intergrades FLMB/NLMB and pure northern strain largemouth bass. I will use lake Casitas as my baseline. Prior to the induction of FLMB into lake Casitas the NLMB did not target planted rainbow trout during the 30 years of stocking them. Large size hard lures 8" or longer rarely caught any bass. Hard lures 6"Long or less worked well. 9" to 12" soft plastic worms and 9" pork eels did work. My PB NLMB from Casitas in '71 was a jig fish 12 lbs 4 oz. and caught several 40 lb 5 bass limits at Casitas prior to FLMB being introduced. When the FLMB reached adult size over 5 lbs in Casitas they started chasing the stocked trout and it was common to see trout jumping out of the water with a big bass in pursuit. It wasn't rocket science to start hand painting muskie size lures in trout colors or using 8" to 10" soft plastic salt water sassy shad type calico bass lures in trout colors to catch these trout eating FLMB. 1981 I caught 18 lb 12 oz FLMB at Casitas, also on a jig and several 50 lb, 5 bass limits. The bottom line; NLMB may strike large lures, rarely 8"+ hard baits and don't prefer large size bait fish like planted trout. FLMB will strike large size hard baits over 8" and prefer larger size bait fish that resemble slender bait like their native golden shiners; planted rainbow trout filled that need. All big bass will strike long thin bottom bumping soft lures and lures that resemble crawdads and tend to avoid thick or wide bodied lures. Tom

You are in the late fall to winter transition. This signals to me that the weeds in the lakes are turning brown with a few deeper weed lines still green and that is where I would start. The type of baitfish the bass are feeding on becomes important during this period (every period). Demersal bait fish that live in and around cover are affected by the change in cover; young of the year bass, walleye, crappie and perch, plus chubs will leave weed beds and become a food source. Pelagic baitfish like herring or alewife, minnows, crappie, perch, juvenile white fish already school up and use the deeper water areas. Crayfish or crawdads migrate to areas where they can hide in rocks or burrow in clay or mud. Lots of prey choices for the bass and you need to determine what they want and where they are located. Mid water column lures like crankbaits, jerk baits, traps, structure spoons, swimming jigs, dart heads, Senko's all work, Bottom lures like jigs and worms that target bass feeding on crawdads work. Good luck. Tom

The navionics map posted is the best available; 1 foot elevations with up to date surveys. Navionics also offers paper maps, hot maps http://navionics.com/LakeFeatures_HMPaper.asp Yes, the purple line indicates the approximate creek channel path that feeds into the main river channel. Excellent map features posted Rhino! Tom

I agree with Catt on the subject. We often like to blame the bass for not striking the lures of our choice instead of figuring out where the bass are located and what the bass pefer to eat at the time. High pressure isn't one skilled angler fishing a pond for 10 years. More than likely the majority of adult size bass in that pond have never been caught because the skilled angler fished a few lures and colors that target bass of his choice. Broaden your presentation techniques and use lures the bass will strike where they are located; only you can make that choice. There isn't a panacea or magic lure, there are some high percentage lures and live bait that big bass will tend to strike if you present them to the bass properly. Spend some time talking to the successfull angler and ask what the bass eat in this pond, what was found in the stomach for example. Catch some of the bait fish and crawdads and determine the size of the prey and color when alive and wet. If possible fish during the low light hours or at night. The pond being shallow (8 feet deep) allows the bass to roam the entire water column; bottom to surface year around. Find the all the structure elements like isloated rocks, posts, stumps, small sharp depth changes, ditches, channels and any dam building materials (if there is a dam) that can provide places for prey to hide and bass to eat. Learn all you can about this pond, it's small and shouldn't take too much time. Any cover elements like weed edges located near an isloated structure is a prime target. Tom PS; Anglers fly fish because they enjoy they it.

Catt I agree. Sometimes words need to be put into proper context. A river (stream of water) flowing into the ocean (standing water) can be taken out of context when being used to discribe a feeder channel in a bass fishing forum. I believe fisherman often corrupt the english language; using the word grass for aquatic weeds for example. I don't intend to make any judgement to whom is right or wrong. Tom

Roadtrip are you confused yet? As you can see fisherman use lots of terms loosely depending where you are located. One mans creek is anothers brook, stream, or glen. Trying to define a feeder channel without knowing what region of the country the term came from is difficult. In fishing terms a feeder channel generally means a canal channeling water from one location to another. Tom

Catt tried to make it simple; anyone can take a minute to look at the moon phase and determine it's location in reference to the horizon. Does the position of a full or new moon make any difference? It's a factor to consider when trying to be at the right place at the right time. The full moon phase is so important to me I take time off work to fish the 5 day periods around the full moon during pre-spawn transtition to spawn. I plan my night fishing for the same 5 day full moon phase. Tom

The full moon has a direct affect on tides and nearly every living creature on earth, including fish. bass (LMB, SM, Spots) time the start of major spawning activity with the 1st full moon phase, so it affects the pre spawn and spawn periods. The light the full moon adds to night affects the insect and other animal activity during the summer period. I haven't experienced any positive affect the full moon has during the cold water or winter period, the sun warming the water has a much bigger affect during the winter. Tom PS; DVL is still in the late summer early fall transition (70 degree water)and targeting threadfin shad. Shad hide during the low light periods in cover and move out into open water during the sun light periods to feed on phytoplankton. Shorter days = less light, the shad stay deeper. Tom

It's hard enough to comprehend regional differences with terminology with bass anglers, adding ocean dynamics maybe interesting, it's also comfushing. The majority of bass anglers fish man made impoundments, therefor the majority of wriiten bass fishing articals use terms defining reservoirs and the underwater topography of a flooded river valley; the main river bed or channel and the canyon streams or creeks feeding into the main river, now the main body of the reservior. Natural lakes have few channels, unless they are man made or carved out by glaciers centuries ago. Rivers have feeder creeks and streams, plus man made channels. Tom

Fishing terms are regional and can have different definitions depending where you fish. I would say in general terms a feeder channel is creek channel that intersects a river channel. It could also be a man made ditch or channel or a cut....all these can be breaks. Tom

When I statred bass fishing back in early 50's catch & release was very rare, catch and eat was the goal of 99.9% of every angler. Jason Lucas the editor of Field & Steam changed that concept for me, he was the first national fishing editor to promote what has become known as selective harvest; releasing the big bass and keeping a few 2 lbers for the table. I became and advocate of C & R and agianst live bait fishing for bass with crawdads, waterdogs and large bait fish like shiners and (planted trout) during the pre-spawn & spawning periods in our small local lakes; bass fishing was closed during the winter back in those years. I still feel the same in regards to fishing small local trophy bass lakes with live bait. I base this on my success during the 60' and early 70's catching hundreds of DD bass using live bait; it was too easy and believed it was damaging the big bass population. The C & R anglers today take killing a bass for any reason to extremes. When someone catches a big bass and kills it the catch treated like a crime. If the big bass was caught on live bait, it's a bigger problem and one reason the current world record from Japan is frowned on by some anglers. The logic that if it's legal it's OK and I agree as long as it is done with a spirit of good sportsmanship. Anyone chastising a 12 year old for catching a record bass with live bait is either jealous or stupid.

Wow...that point area has all the structure elements you could want, thanks for sharing it. With the low water conditions around the country, everyone should be looking at their lakes and taking advantage. Tom

Over head sat maps like google maps are a good tools to help you evaluate your lakes topo maps. The sat maps may have been shot with the lake at low water levels or show underwater structure, docks and weed beds not available on the paper maps. Tom

I highlight the structure elements important to me at the depth I intend to fish and leave the rest blank. Depending on the season and the depth the bass are located it only takes a few minutes to study what I have marked, makes it easier than trying to follow contour lines I don't intend to fish. I usually on use 2 colors; hot chartruese for larger elements and hot pink for isolated elements. Tom

Don't believe a magic hot lure is the panacea to solving your problems. Lures come and go; todays hot lures are tomorrows clearence items. Believe in mastering a few lure types and presentations that work well from fishing the shoreline and determine where the bass are located. Soft plastics work everywhere, year around. The presentation or rigging technique allows you to fish where the bass are located without snagging or hanging up all the time. If you present a soft plastic worm, craw, tube, senko or creature to bass, they will strike it often enough that you should be able to catch them. Colors; too many choices available to suggest, ask around the local tackle shops. Tom

Frsh water shouldn't be rusting your hooks, you apparently fish brackish water. Try putting luandry softener cloths (used or new) in your tackle box trays. WD-40 will also help to prevent corrsion. Rust is the iron oxiding and pitting the hook which weakens and dulls the hook. Dull hooks is a problem trying to hook and keep bass hooked. Hooks are not expensive and I would change the crank baits with VMC trebles, the spinnerbait you can only clean, resharpen and use WD-40. Tom

Fishing from shore reduces the lake to a casting distance from shore around the lake where 90% of the fisherman fish with boats. This also means you are fishing up hill most of the time. There is an old saying in bass fishing that is worth considering; spring up, fall down. This discribes the direction the bass and prey are moving during these time periods. Fishing from shore is difficult, you can only fish water you can get to from land. Have you considered a kayak or float tube? My advice; put all your tackle away except your worm rod. Learn to fish the Texas rigged worm, finesse or standard Carolina rigs, split shot rig, the drop shot rig is difficult from shore, except in the spring. Use high floatation worms, worms that can float the tail sitting still. You will catch more bass from shore fishing with soft plastic then all the other lures combined. Divide the lake into 1/3rds; dam area, middle area and upper end. Start at the dam area, deeper water is better during cold water periods, then work the middle area. These areas are easier to fish soft plastics from shore. During the spring the upper end should be good, summer the upper and middle areas. The dam area usually has some bass yeat around, except during the spawn. Tom