WRB-2.0

Threadfin shad and small shallow reservoir with managed water quality. Lime is rarely used to manage algae water quality, it's more than likely copper sulfide (blue stone). The lake may also have an aeration system if being manage for water quality. The aeration system should also be located near the dam basin. There is usually a pump house with pipes running out into the deep water. The aeration system is designed to minimize the thermocline affect during the warm water period and turns the lake over to prevent oxygen robbing organic matter from decaying on the bottom. It's the cold water period transitioning to pre spawn nearly everywhere the next few months. If the surface water is already near 50 degrees, the bass should be fairly active. The threadfin should also be the primary baitfish along with crawdads in this lake. Threadfin shad use cover during low light and night time. Cover is anything that provides a place to hide; under docks, underwater structure, any shoreline brush or trees. Weed beds are not available until the water warms and the days get longer, when the weeds develop the shad will hide in them. When the sun raises the plankton the shad school up and follow the plankton to feed on and the bass feed on the shad. Classic cover/structure patterns during the low light and down wind structure pattern during the mid day. Both shad and crawdad imitating lures will work, a lot of choices. I would stay with the 1/2 oz size structure spoons and tail spinners, 1/4 -3/8 oz size jigs and crankbaits that dive around 7 to 12 feet; Bomber 7a and Norman DD14, original Wiggle Wart and traps in shad and crawdad colors. Spit shot rig should also work very well using 4 1/2 to 6" finesse style worms. When the water warms up to 55-58 degrees the bass should migrate towards any spawning areas and you should follow them. Increase the soft plastic to bulkier creature type baits or 7-8" worms in green/brown colors, put away the spoons and tail spinners and use soft or hard jerk baits and small (5") swimbaits. Buzzers and Popper (Splash-Its) can also be effective during low light hours the balance of the year. Good luck. WRB

Earthen dams with broken rock faces typically have steps that are very similar to what you are describing. The step creates a break line, a zone where the bass can coral baitfish like shad. The fact the dam area is located in the deepest part of the lake makes this a good cold water period area. Not knowing where you are located opens the type of shad to both threadfin and gizzard. The threadfin are smaller and feed on phytoplankton, the gizzard are larger and feed on zoo plankton. If you have threadfin, than lures 3" t0 4" in shad colors work well when the sun is over head in down wind areas. Gizzard are big bait fish and lures up to 8" can work good in shad colors, anytime of the day. Tail spinners like the Little George and structure spoons are excellent when school size bass are actively chasing shad. Letting the lure free fall through the bait fish to the larger bass is a good presentation. Thee are a lot of lures that can be used to free fall that have shad type profiles, all should work depending on what the bass react to best. Select a lure that covers the water column and the bass will strike. Under the conditions you describe my first choices are the spoon and tail spinners, then single spin spinnerbait, soft jerk baits, scroungers and small swimbaits. If the bass are not actively feeding, then the soft plastics and jigs are a good choice to saturate the area more thoroughly. Good luck. WRB PS; take a look at Revenge structure spoons and tail spinners. Owner feathered size #2 treble hook works good with a 1/2 to 3/4 oz spoon.

If the weather changed dramatically the next 2 weeks, say sunny 75 degree days, would that change your plans? The bass only know that the water is cold and cold water slows down their egg development and need to eat a lot of food. 2 weeks of good weather may warm up the water 5 degrees; at 45 it's still cold water. If you are planing to catch bass on the banks, then extending your trip by 1 to 2 months is a good plan. If you just want to bass fish and catch bass where they are located, then it really doesn't matter. Dress for the weather and fish where the bass are located with what they want to eat. We haven't found a way to predict weather beyond what we can see and measure via satellites and pressure zones. In the middle of the country, you can see weather systems approaching for about a week, anything longer is guess work. Predicting 2 weeks of continued similar weather is within reason for your area. Long range weather forecasting requires a lot of guess work. WRB

That describes about 90% of the shoreline on a typical highland reservoir. It's a normal steep bank, nothing to indicate that bass would be there, unless baitfish and bass are in the area. Describe where in the lake this bank is located and why you think bass may use this area during the cold water period. WRB

The value of big bass goes far beyond the value of catching numbers. If you are a tournament bass angler and numbers are important to the sport of bass fishing, then the top tournament where the highest number of bass was caught would be well known. The heaviest weight and biggest tournament bass is well known. We all like to catch bass and nearly every bass angler knows their personal best bass, few remember their highest number of bass caught. I was trying to remember and can't recall ever counting average size bass caught during one day. I do remember every detail when catching several big bass on a given day. WRB

Amazing how vivid our memories are when it comes to fish that got away. Over time the one that got away tends to grow in size. I have one such bass in the closet that haunts me and remember the details like it happened yesterday, it actually happened back in May, 1991. Fishing with my friend Gary and back seating, something I rarely do, I hooked a big bass on a customized scrounger lure. The strike was in about 30 feet deep, fishing parallel to a long major point on lake Castaic. The first thing you do when hooking a big bass is get the fish into deep water if possible and that should have been easy as we were fishing in the main lake and only needed to move out into deep water. The bass was a giant and came up about 10 feet out and 5 feet down, so both Gary and I got a good look at the bass. The problem was Gary was standing next to me and not up front controlling the boat, he was holding the net. About the same instant I realized Gary wasn't keeping the boat in deep water, the bass made a hard run for the ridge of the point and managed to get over the top and dive down the opposite side. All I could do was raise the rod as high as possible and hope the line didn't find a sharp rock. The line broke, the bass of a life time was gone. How big was that bass? easily over 20 lbs and getting bigger with each passing year. WRB

This link may help you: http://www.aafp.org/afp/2001/0601/p2231.html Over the years I have manage to hook myself or others in my boat have hooked me, several times. I use a net whenever fishing with multiple treble hook lures. I was fishing with a business associate for big bass and he caught a 14.2 lb bass on a deep diving crankbait. I don't like to use nets on big bass, so going agianst my normal net the bass with treble hook lures, I lipped it. I always remove the lure before taking pictures or weighing the bass. This time John had his camera ready as soon as I grabbed the bass and wanted to get a picture of it being landed. Without thinking, I put the bass back into the water, John got ready and I lifted it out so water would splash with the bass. John got the picture, the bass slipped out of my grasp and the free treble hook caught the top of my hand. I still have the scars. We cut off the treble hook at the split ring and weighed the bass before releasing it. The weight of the bass and thrashing around caused the hooks to bury deeply into muscle and tendons. Sometimes we get careless and accidents happen. WRB

1,097 + 65 = 1,162

Started fishing as soon as I could walk and was water safe. Our cabin was only 50 feet from the shoreline and boat dock. Can't remember not fishing. The editors of Outdoor Life (Robert Page) and Sports Afield (Jason Lucas) where my bass fishing mentors. I bought my first bait casting reel a Langley Lure Cast at age 9 from money earned doing chores and the Connolyn rod was my birthday present. I still have the reel and wished I kept the rod. I caught old Moses the summer of '53. It took me over a year to catch that bass and learned a lot about bass habits watching Moses an trying to figure out how to catch this big 7 lb bass. I caught her on a small live crappie and was so excited, took the bass home and we ate the fish. Moses would be the last trophy bass I would intentionally kill the rest of my life. I learned to bass fish walking the shoreline and rowing a small wooden boat. My tackle was the rod & reel mentioned, braided Ashaway line and 3 lures; jointed Pikie , Jitterbug and Hawaiian Wiggler #3. It wasn't until a family vacation to Shasta lake in '55 that I discovered Creme rubber worms, the rigged worm with 2 hooks , bead and small propeller. I had already learned about Doll fly jigs and black pork rind by then. On another vacation to lake Havasu in '58, learned another lesson; live waterdogs catch big bass! While waiting for my brothers to buy gas, I caught a big bass under the gas dock on a water dog the old man who owned the bait shop gave me to try; 11 lb lake record that still stands today. I was now obsessed to catch the next world record bass, an obsession that continues to this day. WRB

there's rarely a picture that let's you accurately see these things though... unless someone actually gives measurements. Plus sizing references will be skewed depending on how far the fish is held from the body, angle of the picture, closeness to the camera, etc. but, if they had the measurements, they wouldn't have to post up to see what people thought they weighed 8-) btw, which pic are you talking about? 3rd down from the top is the only photo that has enough details; your index finger and bass profile, to make a guess. 3.3 lbs = 3.5 oz. WRB PS; how hard is it the use a length of line, then measure the line when you get home. A good scale takes away the guess work.

The factors anyone needs to know to calculate a bass weight are; length of the bass, laid flat with it's mouth closed, to the center of the tale and the girth measured around the bass at the widest area with the dorsal fin compressed. Your pictures do not allow those factors to be accurately estimated, we can only make a WAG. For example your index finger is bent; could be about 3.5". The bass appears to be about 5 X longer than the index finger or 17.5" longer. The bass is skinny, maybe the girth is around 75% of the length, maybe less; 13" L x L x G/1200 = 3.31 lbs and that looks a good ball park weight. WRB

Being an old timer we have some sayings about bass fishing; spring up & fall down, 2 angles the are migrating during those time periods. When you look at a bass, the eyes are located to see best in front, upwards, sideways, slightly behind and not directly down. A bass must roll to one side to see what is under them. Bass also use the surface to trap prey, little chance for prey to escape once it on or near the surface. You move a lure from deep to shallow and shallow to deep by casting over a long point, sideways. Just a few random thoughts. WRB

Bass are active feeding about 10% during any given day or night, the balance of the time they are moving, suspended resting or positioned to take advantage of prey or escape into a sanctuary zone. The angle of the lure path makes almost no difference when bass are actively feeding. 90% of the time it can be critical. Bass positioned to ambush prey get spooked easily when something lands behind them and approaches from behind. They become alerted by conditioning when a boat approaches and learn to leave of hide until the boat passes. For both of those reasons it can be far better to approach the bass from an angle they can't detect you and the lure approaches the bass from a natural angle or towards them. WRB

The difference in memory and learned condition is a grey line when thinking in terms of fish behavior or animal behavior in general. We humans believe that we alone have the ability to reason. The truth is we are still developing our learning skills. It;s not too far fetched to believe that bass are developing learning skills in environments that require new skills. Animals can't reason, then Alex the African parrot comes along and changes our perception of avian intelligence. Keep an open mind, it may help you to be a better fisherman. When basses environment is quite, loud unusual noise may alarm them, however the same noises around a marina may not. I prefer the quite approach, but that doesn't mean it's always the best technique, it's what I'm conditioned to believe. WRB

The clearest fresh water lakes that I can recall fishing are both natural lalkes; lake Tahoe in California and Crow lake in Ontario Canada. Tahoe you can see pine trees laying on the bottom 75 feet down, same in Crow lake, if the water is calm and no wave action to bend the light. Lake Mead has clear water at times that allows you can see the bottom at 50 feet, DVL is similar. Most of CA's clear reservoirs you can see the bottom clearly at 15 feet or more. I still think 10 feet is a good general depth for clear water. How bass see is anyone's guess, at this time we don't know for sure, lots of different speculation and science that contradict each other. We do know that bass use all their senses to detect prey, sight being very important based on the size, shape and location of their eyes. How far will a bass travel to strike a lure in clear water? at Lake Mead it's common to have bass travel over a hundred feet to hit a surface lure, you can see them coming and get ready for the strike. WRB

Activity level may not have anything to do with memory, but it can over come the sense of fear. The late Tom Mann has a chapter in his book; Think like a Fish, where he relates to stirring up wed beds to generate bass feeding activity. Tom would run his big engine through weed beds to chop them up and get the baitfish hiding within the weeds exposed so bass would start to feed on them. Clever concept that works very well. Bass became active and over came the fear of noise and boats to take advantage of an easy meal. WRB

The standard outside of regional bass fishing jargon is the use of a secchi disk. Everyone has a little different idea of what clear, off color, stained or muddy water is. For example there is gin clear, you can see down more than 50 feet. Related to bass fishing, I believe you have it about right. I like to use a spinnerbait and drop it straight down to determine how far I can see the blades reflect light. I have fished some lakes where the water is stained from vegetation and it's clear, but tea color, and you can see the blades down to 10 feet. You can have very clear water with an algae bloom and that doesn't affect the depth of light a great deal, but looks off color. Rain run off with a lot of suspended dirt particles; muddy water and the blades disappear within a foot. Interesting topic, hard to standardize on. WRB

It was said earlier that fishing is simple when they are biting and complicated when they are not and I agree with that statement. My problem is trying to forget what I know the bass should be doing and just go fishing. Should I try a spider jig, a football head, living rubber skirt, buck tail hair, pork trailer, soft plastic craw, swim the jig, hop the jig, flip the jig, cast the jig, use purple, brown, black, green, blue, red, chartreuse, white, 1/8 oz, 3/40z, deep structure, shallow heavy cover...darn, just can't make up my mind what type of jig, then there is the 20 worm boxes and all those crank baits, spinnerbaits, swimbaits, frogs, buzzers, spoons... oh what rod and reel and line type???? and haven't even got out of bed yet! Didn't someone say MMIII dropshot in 20' on the steep side of the secondary points??? WRB

What happened to...spoons, creatures, jerk baits, tial spinners, in-line spinners, swimbaits and (livebait).....just pulling your chain! WRB

KISS; keeping it simple takes a lot of skill and time on the water to be consistently successful. Knowing exactly what lures you know will catch the bass you are targeting requires knowledge of what the bass are feeding on and where they are located. A good friend* of mine fishes with a small tackle bag and the minimum of outfits, he owns a garage full of tackle and dozens of rods and reels. *Don Iovino, hall fame pro bass fisherman. Don almost always is fishing something new he has developed, a specialized presentation for a specific lake and seasonal period. The fact he only needs a small bag of what he knows is working is a tribute to his dedication to tinker with new techniques until he discovers what the bass want at a certain lake. Don fishes dozens of lakes and sets up a minimum of tackle for each lake and focuses on specific presentations. I only fish a few lakes and tend to start with the lures and locations I have the most confidence with and try a few new lures and presentations during the outing to keep up to date. I may only use a small bag of lures and a few outfits, but my boat is fully stocked with more tackle then I could ever use. I'm comfortable taking most of what I own on the water when fishing in my boat and taking a small bag and about 4 outfits when fishing with someone else, especially if it's Don and he knows what the bass are doing. WRB

I'm in the camp that believes fish are animals and are directly affected by their environment. We don't know it all yet and still learning how magnetic fields, sun light, darkness, solar flares and gravitational pull, weather affects everything on this planet. With that said; if the solunar tables gets you out on the water and you are focusing on your fishing presentation more due to your belief that it's a good time to fish, you should catch more bass. You can't catch them pounding keys on this computer. WRB

There are wary bass and aggressive and the same bass can be both, depending on it's activity level. If any animal doesn't learn from it's life experiences, it doesn't survive very long. Anglers can confuse bass behavior with human behavior, big mistake. Spawning bass for example don't eat while spawning. The male bass may not eat for several weeks, females a shorter time period while laying eggs, up to a week or so. The spawner strikes anything that is perceived by the bass to threaten the nest. The bass knows you are there, but goes against it's learned instinct and leave,the bass stays to protect the nest. You can easily catch a spawner several times because it must stay and protect the nest site from egg eating predators. Normally the bass would leave immediately when ti detects danger. WRB

Define "good water"? WRB

I mentioned that I don't flip or pitch due to the type of our local lakes; steep rocky banks and off shore structure. When I get a chance to fish the delta area that is primarily bank cover a mats, then you better know how to at least pitch into small heavy cover pockets. I can loop or roll cast very accurately using standard jig rods, but you can't get behind standing tulle's unless you flip or pitch using a long rod. Where do you fish? Where there is current and baitfish. Bass don't need to hold tight to cover to protect their eyes! Down wind blown areas where debris is piled up or natural cover and water is pushing in bait. Transitions where change occurs; rip rap wall changing to cover and any soil change like clay to sand, gravel to rocks, pilings, docks, culverts, bridges, trees, brush, cuts, channels, drains etc, that intersect heavy cover. You can fish a lot of this type of cover using a loop cast, but you can't lift a good size bass out of the cover unless you have a heavy flipping or pitching rod. If the cover allows me to use my standard jig rod, that is what I prefer to do. WRB