WRB-2.0

The moderators can list links to threads on structure fishing on this site, lots of excellent information. You should also Google "Buck Perry structure fishing" and Bill Murphy "In Pursuit of Giant Bass", 2 books bass fisherman should read that fish deep structured lakes. WRB

Try wacky hooking, with o-ring, the worm with a Owner #5114, size 1 circle hook. Watch the line "V" in the water as the worm sinks for any movement, good strike indicator. Don't set the hook hard, just reel and lift the rod against the line pressure...no more gut hooked bass. WRB

Do you use needle node pliers to remove the hooks? Bass will freeze when held upside down, belly up. Grasp the bass with one hand over the back of the head, thumb firmly on one gill cover and two fingers on the opposite side on the other gill cover. The bass mouth will open and the fish will be motionless long enough to unhook. Large bass can be held with the fingers inside the mouth, the thumb on the outside lip ridge, lift with the belly upright, instead of the traditional thumb in the inside front of the mouth and jaw bent backwards. Bending the jaw back causes a lot of mouth/jaw injuries. Bending the hook barb down with a needle pliers helps. Try different lures like a weedless frog or soft plastic worm and your treble hook issues are eliminated. WRB

Excellent question! Determining where the bass are located is the key to constantly catching them. As mentioned several times on this site, Bill Murphy's book; In Pursuit of Giant Bass, will help to understanding bass location in deep structured lakes with pelagic and demersal bait fish. I relate location to seasonal periods; it helps me to survey specific types of locations where I have caught large bass. Open water bass fishing is definitely a frontier to be explored. Bass need food, safe sanctuary, comfortable water temperatures and DO levels. If any one of those elements are not available in that location, the bass may not locate there. If the location has everything and is being hammered by anglers, the safe sanctuary isn't there, so they move off and stop feeding at that location, for example. Bass need food and tend to prey on the most available food source for that seasonal period. If the lake has a big population of pelagic bait fish like thread fin shad and the shad are schooling near a good location, during the summer period, then you better be offering those bass what they are looking for, otherwise you may not catch bass on a that good location. It takes a lot of time on the water to eliminate non productive locations and find production areas. Next it takes time to determine what the bass on a good productive location want to eat at that time. Current is a major factor that activates bass into feeding, even very slight current generated by light winds. Big factor over looked by most anglers. In the old days before sonar units, angler relied on visual targets and trolling open water areas. We still rely on visual targets today, with the aid of sonar units, but few bass angler will troll open water areas for bass. Like Catt suggested; study topo maps and find your own honey hole. WRB

Trying to define something like a main point; major, primary, primary secondary, secondary or whatever you prefer, becomes complex when talking about large hill land or high reservoirs. Toledo Bend and it's neighbor Sam Rayburn, the area where Catt bass fishes are similar to other reservoirs of this classification. 30 to 70 miles long with several big creek arms, that have hundreds of points that could be considered main points. If these are the type of lakes you fish, listen to the local definitions. Each river arm or big creek arm is like a lake within a lake, some with completely different water clarity, depths and specific type of structure and cover. Lots of bass fishing occurs in smaller lakes, less than 10 miles long with simple shapes and only a few main lakes point areas to fish. If you plan to fish a big lake or reservoir, break it down into smaller areas and apply the "point" definition to that specific zone of the lake you plan to fish. Looking at Catts photo, the shallow sandy/rocky point that separates the 2 small coves with boat docks located near the bottom center; looks like a good secondary point to me. The point on the upper left where the land meets the main lake looks like a main point, from the photo, but it could also be a small area off a big creek arm and the main lake miles further away and still a main point. WRB

http://fishlab.nres.uiuc.edu/Documents/FME%202008.pdf This study goes against what I have experienced on the water the past 50+ years. My belief is animals are affected by both solar and lunar periods. Predators like LMB time their peak activity levels based on success rate and activity of the prey. Active ecosystem = active predators. Gravitational pull on water affects the tides and in turn the animals that live in or around the water. I have tried focus my trophy fishing timing around solunar affects; low light and the 5 days: 2 before and 2 after the full moon during pre spawn or 1 month prior to bass moving up on beds. I also prefer the moon phase at night. That being said; any day or night fishing is better than staying home waiting for the prime times. The balance of the year the solunar periods haven't proven to be any better, other than dawn and dusk low light times, during the summer and warm afternoons during the winter. WRB

Pike like faster moving, noisy, flashy lures, avoid those. Go with the earth tone soft plastics and fish the inside weed edges, avoid the outside edges where pike prefer to feed. WRB

If you want to catch larger adult size bass or trophy size bass, you should take the time to learn about their habits, where they live and what the big bass are feeding on, during the time you are on the water. Bill Murphy's book is excellent, however the majority of information is related to deep structured lakes, not Florida's small natural lakes or shallow reservoirs, rivers and canals. Outside of the spawning period, big bass tend to relate to deeper water sanctuary that have good prey populations and avoid high traffic areas and uncomfortable water conditions. If I was going to target trophy size bass in Florida; 1. fish during low light times, light rain or at night. 2. use lures that big bass are known to eat; 8" or 12" plastic worms, weedless swimbaits like Rago BV 3D in golden shiner color, double buzzers, big Spooks, weedless frogs like the Ish Phat and learn to fish heavy cover with lures that can penetrate the weed mats. 3. fish with live golden shiners and big night crawlers. I'm not a live bait fisherman, however big bass eat live bait. 4. use the proper tackle for the type of water you are fishing. No reason to finesse a big bass in heavy cover that is typical in the Florida area. WRB

Defining anything is bass fishing is a little difficult due to regional interpretation and lake classifications. Main point or major point is general thought of as main lake basin point that extends down to the river or creek bed, in lakes that are man made reservoirs. Some larger reservoirs the creek arms are like a lake within a lake and have main or major points. Secondary points are the smaller points located both on the main lake basin and within creek arms or bays. Natural lakes that are not man made; any main lake point is known as a main point, the points within larger bays are secondary points. Hope that helps. WRB

Contact; Roberts Fish Mounts, E-mail: trophyfish@gmail.com Robert Munoz Send him your picture and measurements and ask for a price. WRB e-mail correction; robertstrophyfish@gmail.com 626/222-1366

Fishing a deep diving crankbait from shore in rocky, brushy structure that these lakes have, it is very difficult not to hang them up and lose them often. Swimbaits that have similar profile and coloration as the baitfish work well in clear water and will get the attention of big bass. You are trying for a feeding strike with a swimbait, not a reaction strike that a crankbait triggers. I consider myself a good jig fisherman and don't fish jigs from shore on deep clear structured lakes, prefer T-rigs or finesse "slip shot" C-rigs; black brass Pro-Jo weight, glass bead, Peg-It to hold the bead and soft plastic worms or critters. Big bass often look up at the surface for prey and slower swimming surface and sub-surface lures work very well from shore. Slow down and saturate the area, before moving on. Make a fan casting pattern that over laps where you started. Try a few lures before packing up and moving to another spot. Steep banked deep structured lakes are difficult to move around on when bank fishing. If you can get out on a major point, that's the primary spot to start. Got my info from the DFG site in regards to what has been stocked into those lakes and have not fished them. Your bass are northern strain LMB, unless a bass club planted Florida's, the DFG didn't and I don't think anyone would in lakes without boat access. 6" baitfish is big for a NLMB, so I would use the smaller size swimbaits. Big worms will work and nearly everything else. Don't forget a double buzzer, good surface lure worked from shore. WRB

I'm not familiar with the Lagunitas chain of lakes? Are you fishing Nicasio, Alpine and Kent? These are all shore fishing only lakes, stock with trout and also have a LMB, bluegill, crappie and American shad population. If you are fishing from shore, then consider using a Lunker Punker wake bait or Matts lure bluegill or crappie swimbait, in lieu of a crank bait, if you want larger bass from shore. It's hard to beat a T-rigged or C-rigged 7" to 10" (dark colors for off color water) plastic worm for shore fishing and targeting larger size bass. WRB PS; also consider fishing at night during the summer in clear water lakes.

http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/scales/beaufort.html Some lakes still use small craft warning flags; 1 red triangle flag = small craft warning, sustained winds up to 20 knots or 23 mph. Every lake is different due to size and depth factors. Any inland waterway with wind generated wave heights of 1 meter or 40" is extremely dangerous for bass boats. Use common sense and be safe. WRB

Nearly every lake in CA below 5,000 ft elevation has a threadfin shad population, so I will guess you are fishing a higher elevation mountain lake. If that is the issue, then your lake is more than likely still in the spawning cycle;pre/spawn/post. Cranks work good during pre spawn, not so good until the bass recoup and become active again and willing to chase down a faster moving lure. I would stay with the deep diving fire-tiger and red-brown crawdad colors and keep them bottom bumping as much as possible. WRB PS; if the lake freezes over, your bass are northern strain and react good to cranks.

Posted this link a few times: http://iz.carnegiemnh.org/crayfish/country_pages/species_by_state.htm The best method to know what your lake crawdads look like is trap them. Catt mentioned crawdads molt and it's been my experience when fishing with crawdads years ago, the 3" size soft shell molts were by far the better for bait for bass. In my area the crawdads tend to be red-brown, the molts are more green-brown, however each lake the coloration varies. Some of the questions are; should we match the hatch or use more contrasting coloration? Does size matter when trying to use a crawdad replica lure? What about the claws; do they affect the bass? What type of bass prefer crawdads; smallmouth, largemouth or spots? My favorite crawdad lure is the jig & pig (pork rind trailer). Jig skirt color is a contrasting black/purple/brown. What is interesting is; never caught a crawdad in the wild that had all those colors! However the pork trailer is 1 solid color; black, purple or brown used on the multiple colored jig. I believe the jig colors get the basses attention and the trailer profile and movement initiates the strike. It could also be that critter with contrasting coloration don't survive long because they are easier for the bass to locate. Size does matter. I have also learned by experience that each lake has a size preference; a 3" trailer may work better than a 5" on certain lakes. I also learned that bass prefer crawdads without big pincher's and avoid those with big pincher's or claws. When fish with live crawdads we removed the claws by squeezing the arm joint with needle nose pliers. Largemouth bass tend to engulf the crawdad, crunch it and swallow it fairly fast. Smallmouth and spots tend to peck at the crawdad before biting down on it, then engulf it to swallow it. This different striking technique can require a different hook set timing. One fact; bass eat crawdads everywhere they live. WRB

You are not experiencing a "stratification" turn over this time of year where you live. As mentioned you could be seeing a water clarity change due to several factors; rain run off, algae bloom, wind, etc. Use the Internet and Google "lake turn over", more info then you will ever need to know. Bass anglers have a lot of excuses why the bass stopped biting and turn over is as good any. WRB

Good conservation practices along with common sense goes a long way toward answering your questions. Fish are food and a renewable resource, bass are not in any danger of becoming extinct. Sun protection is needed when in direct sun light for extended time periods; a combination of sun screen and clothing to prevent over exposure. Some exposure is needed for vitamin D. I suffer from skin cancer because of my own ignorance during my first 50 years of outdoor activity. In my opinion catch and release has gone to extremes and selective harvest is a better choice. WRB

Try Google threadfin shad or gizzard shad. When LMB transition from post spawn to summer period, they have a lot of young of then year bait fish to choose as prey. Bass targeting shad; use either live shad or reaction lures with a lot of flash that look like shad and you have hundreds of choices. Keep in mind that threadfin shad hide in cover during dark hours and move out into open water during the mid day. There isn't a panacea for summer bass fishing, everything may work and you need to first locate the bass and decide what method to use. WRB

The bass in a pond or small lake tend to roam the shoreline at night and weed edges looking to nocturnal prey like frogs and crawdads. Larger reservoirs the bass have a lot of options and places to feed at night. My advice; KISS. Keep it simple. Back double buzzer and black 7 1/2 to 10' ribbon tail Power worms, T-rigged with black 3/16 oz weight and 8mm glass bead. Use a premium straight shank worm hook like Gamakatsu #484 or similar hook, size 3/0 or 5/0 depending on the worm diameter. Go up, on line strength, 15#+ premium mono (easier to tie knots) is good for night fishing in your type of lakes. Sound and silhouette is important at night in off color water. Clear water is usually better at night than off color, if you have a choice. The transition twilight period you may want to add a weedless Spro yellow head black body frog. WRB

You can read articles by the experts at Berkley Fishing, their products are research based. The one thing I have learned over the years is; "don't mix scents", use one brand. WRB

There are several hundred variations of wild crawdads and crawdad change colors to match the environment. http://iz.carnegiemnh.org/crayfish/country_pages/species_by_state.htm Only way to know for sure is to catch crawdads where you fish and you can Google crawdad traps. In very clear deep water you may need the real thing or something very close; take a look at Huddleston Deluxe Huddle Bug. Fishing at night should work, then color or realistic profile isn't as important; several black soft plastic creatures or worms work good. WRB

Bass can be conditioned to different lures and at other times hit anything. How many times have you been to a weigh in where the top finishers were fishing totally different lure and different locations? the answer should be nearly every tournament. Various tournaments across the country will have a dominate angler or team in the that region. All the other anglers are trying to learn what secret lure they have and where they are catching the bass. The secret lure is usually something on the local tackle store shelf and more than often an older lure they have rediscovered that is working and other anglers have forgotten about. The new hot secret lure can be that 5 year old citrus fat free shad with no rattles or green weenie with blue flake spade tail. Whatever the lure maybe , the successful anglers are fishing what the bass want and where the bass are located...new or old. WRB

Sounds like copper sulfide (bluestone) from the water color. It's early in the year to have a algae bloom, some bass could still on the beds , bluegill should be bedding and lots of fry in the cover. The adult bass can move to water with better DO levels, the spawners and baby fish are not so lucky. If it's windy shortly after the treatment, the affects of decaying organisms are reduced, otherwise it may take a few weeks to return to normal. The damage to the fry and any eggs could be catastrophic to them. WRB

When fishing as a team, it should be a team effort. If you feel you are better at boat control, know the location better, like how to set up on the spot, then you should be up front. If you are both bank beaters and simply casting to targets of opportunity, then go up front and share the platform. The angler running the trolling motor, watching the sonar unit, controls where you both fish and has the advantage if skilled. WRB

FYI grocery market or post office have certified scales. The bass could have been as much as 10% heavier if handled properly, kept alive and weighed right away. Good story, thank you for sharing it.. WRB