WRB-2.0

You should be able to determine the color of the jumping fish. Fish jump for a variety of reasons, bass jump to catch the prey they are chasing, it's usually momentum carrying them out of the water. Carp make a load water slapping jump, bass don't. Carp are light brown to golden color, LMB bass are green, trout silver. Watch closely. Sammy's, Spooks, Splash-Its, Pop-R's work for surface feeding fall bass. If the splashes are reoccuring in the same area, there is a school of active fish in the area. Try a 1/2 oz structure spoon at various depths, they cast a long distance and most game fish will strike a spoon. Tom

What Catt said is exactly the right thing to do; bass move following the same breaks that you see up on dry land where the bass used to be to where they are now located. You can still fish your jigs, just need to cast and retrieve like a T-rigged worm or craw, instead of pitching to open water without visual targets. Learn to use your sonar unit and mark the spots with a weighted marker buoy off to one side if you need a target to cast to; like a under water stump or rock pile. There will be structure out in deeper water until the lake dries up; low water is a good time to make a note of the locations. Tom

Gain weight! When bass die from bleeding out, or over stressed they loose body fluids, they don't get water logged from osmosis. The reason you find dead bait parts in the livewell the bass released those contents and water doesn't replace it. Tournaments penalize dead fish to encourage proper handling to insure higher % of survival rates and discourage cheating. The IGFA does recognizes fish like tuna from long range trips with fish put into salt water chillers (freezers)as long as the body cavities are validated not to contain added heavy objects. World record tuna are often weighed up to 2 weeks after being caught. The next time you have a bass die; weight it immediately, then put it back in the livewell or a bucket of water and weight again 24 hours later and see if it gained weight via osmosis! Tom

You mentioned 18 degree water temperature change (*) with no explanation of the *. The fall transition period is all about changing weather & water temperatures; the bass are moving. If the * met surface water temperature at 1'; no bass live at that depth with the water temperatures dropping 18 degrees, they can't tolerate more than a 10 degree change within a short time period. The bait and the bass moved to warmer water; usually deeper this time of year. While I agree with fishing tournaments with your strengths is essential, you should fish where the active bass located. Fishing too shallow or too fast is a common mistake during the fall. My advice is fish with your electronics to locate the bait and bass, before trying to determine what lures to use. Ounce you know where they are instead of where they were, then use lures you have confidence with. You did this pre fishing, but didn't make the adjustment when the tournament started. It's very hard to slow when under the gun during a tournament and take the needed time to relocate the bait and bass. Tom

They can loose up to 10% within a few hours due to lose of body fluids and stomach content, unless packed in ice right away. Tom

The cold front isn't the biggest problem; you go deeper (15' to 40') those bass are not dramatically affected by cold fronts. The problem with high winds is another issue on a big open water lake; fishing deeper water can become boat control problem. Second option is to go deeper into cover; up under weed mates or very tight to wood cover; these bass are less active and may require precise presentations like flipping & pitching. Tom

When the water is iced over. Tom

Your location, not the exact name, what state would be a help, plus what type of bass; smallmouth or largemouth? The water only being a few feet deep, the bass don't have a lot of choices where to locate. Start at location that has cover and current breaks. In-line spinners like a Mepps is always a good choice and a jointed floating Rapala should get you started. Tom

Sounds like your river is a stream or a head water area. Rivers or streams are all about current. Bass, like all fish, try to locate where the current brings prey to them and where they can face into the current with a minimum of swimming effort. Current with seams and eddies are called current breaks created by faster moving water adjacent to slower moving water; lay downs, boulders, sand bars, shallow transitions to deeper water etc. Largemouth bass like shaded areas and slower moving current than smallmouths. Tom

Bass will hit faster moving baits when they are actively feeding, slower when they are less active. If you prefer using spinnerbaits, try a chatter bait and work it deeper for example. Doesn't matter how slow or fast you fish; it's where and when you fish that counts. Doesn't sound like your weather has changed enough to slow down the basses activity level. The days are getting shorter so the bass should moving, if the bait is moving. Find the bait, then try different presentations or techniques to get the bass to strike.

Back in the early 70's bass were considered trash fish in the state of Washington everywhere except the Columbia river area. It was common for anglers to tell you to kill every bass. Time tends to change how anglers think about one species verses another. Today in California it's lake Tahoe experiencing smallmouth bass and the trout fishing community is going nuts...kill those dam bass. Tom

How many bass tournaments have been won on the last cast before time runs out? Hundreds! A good friend of mines nick name is "last cast". You know you must leave, it's getting late and just 1 more cast, the last cast often ends up making your day. Tom

The Texas rig worm has also generated an industry of worm hooks, unbelievable amount of different designs have been developed. The basic straight shank sproat hook; like the Mustad 3/0 worm hook being one of the first and still very popular. Eagle Claw was a big worm hook company back in the 70's and came out with several off-set designs, followed with round bends. The Japanese hooks like Gamakatsu introduced premium sharp hooks and it just keeps on expanding; the KVD Grip Pin off-set EMG being one of the newer offerings that looks a lot like the hook posted in this thread. Why so many hooks designs for the Texas rig? It's a combination of worm body diameter, soft plastic, line strength, rod strength and hook setting technique and timing. With everything said and done, the original straight shank sproat sharp worm hook, size 3/0, works great for the average 6" to 7 1/2" soft plastic worms today. In todays high speed world it's hard for many anglers to start the day off slowly and the Texas rig, like most under water soft plastics, is a slow presentation. Like todays top water lures are fished fast, yet can be extremely effective fished very slow like we did in the past; let the ripples fade before moving the lure. Slow works about 80% of the time any given day on the water. Tom

Nice shoal bass! Http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoal_bass Tom

On highly pressured lakes the direction you approach a point can be critical. Bass get conditioned to boat traffic approaching a point from the deeper water, stopping and start casting towards the bank. The bass may simply swim out under the boat and suspend waiting for the boat to leave. Under these conditions it can be better to approach the point like you are walking along the bank quitely and casting parallel, then fan casting out into deeper water. You can cover the entire point as you work out into deeper water and return on the opposite side of the point. A major point is a main lake point that intersects the river channel in a man made lake and will usually hold some bass year around. Tom

+1 Catt, good history. Also google "The Lowly Worm". Nearly every bass angler has fished with the Texas rig worm. I can still remember my first encounter with Creme's rubber worms. Fishing lake Shasta in NoCal back in '57, two old timers came off the lake with a stringer of big bass and I asked them what they caught them on and they said rubber worms. Being a curiuos teen ager they gave me a packaged pre rigged rubber worm with a small metal propeller, red beads with 2 hooks molded into the worm on a mono leader. They also showed my how to add a sliding egg weight, like a trout rig and told me to drag it down a steep bank. When I got home and wrote to the Creme company they sent me instructions how to rig their worms Texas style with red painted bullet weights which I ordered. 54 years later I'm still catching bass on the Texas rigged worms...thanks to Nick Creme. Tom

The direction you present the lure is important. Stand behind the bass and cast upstream past the log and move your lure towards their heads. Yes bass see up extemely well, so a small jerk bait would also work under these circumstances for smallies. Tom

15 years on this or these small natural lakes you should know them well. The structure features in meters (40") is decent enough to make some basic observations. This looks like 1 lake separated by narrows; the south end being Beaver the north end Elk. Features I look for are isolated flat zones on otherwise steep drop offs at the depth the bass are usually holding. Another feature is irregular twists or turns, cuts or channels, rock piles on otherwise featureless terrian. Funnel zones between island and humps near deeper water with a steep breaks. Elk lake; has 1 small reef/island located near the narrows with a hump (2m) on the south end. Another similar feature as the lake widens near the S/E where an irregular drop/cut is loacted on the 6m line. Following c-clockwise east to north the N/E corner tapers into the 6M zone, the north shoreline has a good looking cut with isolated flats, the north shoreline has a sharp break just west of the cut mentioned that drops into the depest part of the lake basin. The north corner transitions onto a cove or inlet. The west bank is steep and swings around to cove with a few small isolated flats on a rounded point that looks good near the 6M line. The island is obvious with a good features on the south corner. Beaver lake; the structure features are the islands and funnel zones where the narrows open up, a few isolated breaks near the outlet and the deep water zone breakline at 4m. This lake looks to be more weed bed fishing punching the weed breaks where the isolated breaks are located or frog/surface fishing pockets etc. I believe the majority of the bass population spawns in Beaver or the narrows, then transitions into Elk during the late summer/fall. The east irregular/cut point and around the cup to the west on Elk would be a good pre spawn and fall area to target. Tom edited; didn't realize that N was rotated 90 degrees from 12 o'clock.

Your bass were reacting to a faster retrieve, no reason to change what is working. Next time rig a stinger hook or change to a shallow running crankbait with treble hooks. Bass don't have hands; if you feel the strike set the hook, if you only see the strike then wait until you feel it...keep on reeling to load the rod up.

As Catt said tongue in cheek, spend a day learning this little lake. You have 2 points that separate small creek arms, both look good; fish all the way out into the deepest water on both sides. There is a small point by the dam that looks good...same thing, fish all around it, including the dam where it meets bank. By doing this you should know this little and can apply what you learned to the rest of the lake. Tom

Crappie, like shad, are pelagic fish and fill that niche for off shore bait fish. Bass in natural lakes behavior is different; they are more shoreline oriented due to the majority of prey being dermasal or near shore species. There will be migrations from shallower to deeper water seeking warmer water as the lake cools. Think movement, ambush spots and as mentioned greener weed beds. Lakes with reeds or tules and off color water; black colors with blue , red or orange highlights often work good for jigs and soft plastics. Baby bass and fire tiger crank baits or spinnerbaits. A wake bait like U2 plastic shell cracker should be good for larger size bass, worked along the weed breaks. Very active bass will react to nearly any type of lure movement, however you may be better off fishing with lures that have similar profiles of the prey the bass are targeting. Tom

You could measure the tail race water, or use temperature probe with a long enough wire. It's possible for lakes that freeze or lakes with very cold water during the winter to have that cold water sink during ice out or late winter during the initial warming period. Water is most dense at 39.4 degrees F, so in theory 39 degree water could be trapped deep. In Canada it is common for lake trout to hold at the 50 degree F thermocline during the summer on clear lakes usually about 100' with depths over 300 feet. Lake Casitas where I bass fish most of the time develops 2 thermoclines; 35' and 60', the 35' is around 70 degrees, the 60' is about 60, both have good DO levels. Casitas does't have any water drawn to generate power, so the lake layers tend to be well established.

Within bass natural range the coldest the water will be near a lake bottom is about 60 degrees F, the same temperature as the earth surface that holds the water. The surface water is affected directly by the air temperature, water is thermally conductive. If the ambient water temperature is about 60F and surface water is warmer or colder, then the water column temperature will form layers; warmer less dense or lighter weight water suspended on colder more dense water. Wind or current tends to mix the water layers. The mixing of water temperatures doesn't happen quickly, it's a gradual change unless severe weather occurs to speed up the process. Lots of things are going on at the same time; longer days warm the surface water, aquatic organisms grow and die out, sinking to the lake bottom. The dissolve oxygen mixed into the water is a higher percentage in colder water and less in water above 80 degrees. As organic materials decay on the lake bottom, the process uses up the DO and drops below 3 mg/L and without current to mix the deep water, the deep water becomes void of most game fish. Most lake will layer during the summer and create a thermocline where the water changes rapidly within a few feet. Bass preferring good DO levels and 65-75 degree F water tend to suspend just above the thermocline depth. Bass can easily move up and down within 35 feet, this becomes the water zone where most activity is during the summer. The fall brings colder weather and shorter day light periods cooling the water surface every day. The fall turn over happens when more colder water out weighs the warmer water below it and the lake turns over. The turn over brings the bottom decaying material to the surface. Wind and cold weather mixes the water column. The bass during the cold water seek the warmest water they can find. Tom

Dink, Don't let anyone spoil your passion for the outdoors and fishing. This coach doesn't see the world as you do and you don't see things his way. The lession to learn is agree to disagree and move on. Unfortunately you are going to run across people like this more as you continue your education. Tom

Catt's reply defines the nuances of Texas rigged worms, Gelnns video shows how to rig and a picture is worth a 1,000 words. The Texas rig worm goes way back to the beginning of organized bass fishing in the mid 60's and is a must learn technique for any serious bass angler. Unlike some lures, you need to go through trial and error to learn what works for you. For example; I prefer using a glass faceted bead between the bullet weight and worm and shake the weight between moving the worm. Lots of ways to fish a T-rig.