WRB-2.0

You don't want to get too close to cruising bass, if you see them, back off; that is too close. Try using a surface/sub surface wake bait; a jointed floating 5" Rapala may work, for example. A swimbait like a (Matts) bluegill, crappie or shad should work for you. If those don't trigger a strike; try a jerk bait like a soft Fluke or Smithwick Rogue. The chances the bass are still in the areas depends if the baitfish are there. Good luck. WRB

The moon phase has it's greatest affect on spawning bass or bass staging to spawn (pre-spawn). One reason the majority of giant bass are caught during that time period is; they are more susceptible to being caught when the are feeding before spawning and up in shallower water spawning. How many Share A Lunker bass are caught during the summer, fall and winter periods during any moon phase? WRB

The use of legal live bait for bass fishing isn't cheating. The question is; does live bait give a skilled bass angler an unfair advantage? The answer is yes & no. Bass are very easy to catch using specific live bait during some seasonal periods and little to no advantage during other times. I stopped using live crawdads, mud suckers, large shiners and water dogs (tiger salamanders) during the pre-spawn and spawning periods about 35 years ago. The reason was using live bait, in the small high pressured bass lakes, were over harvested as a direct result of live bait fishing during the pre-spawn and spawning time period. It's hard to over harvest larger bodies of water and once the bass get spread out into their summer locations, over harvesting is less of an issue. Live bait fishing becomes a personal choice, it's not an issue of right, wrong or cheating, unless you are tournament fishing. WRB

pH is a measurement of how acidic or alkaline the water is. 7.0 is neutral, above is alkaline, below is acidic. Water temperature or dissolved oxygen are independent factors. WRB

I don't believe the water temperature has much to do with redness within the basses mouth. Colder water has to do more with what prey is preferred or available; crawdads etc. Bass in the warmer climates, where the water temperatures don't drop below 50 degrees, also have reddish color mouths when primarily feeding on crawdads or other crustaceans and this changes as more soft meat bait fish become the preferred prey. Just my experience, no study involved. WRB

The problem we bass fisherman face with fall cold fronts is high winds. The deeper outside bass are not affected very much by frontal conditions, the shallower shoreline cover bass can be, depending on the depth they are in. Wind makes if difficult to control the boat effectively, especially out in open water areas. If you are a good deep water structure fisherman, the cold front shouldn't be too much of an issue. If you are a shallow water cover fisherman, then you may need to use heavier cover presentations. Bass will eat regardless of the frontal conditions, keep that in mind and go fishing and be safe and warm. WRB

Misinterpreted bank beater for shore fisherman. You are not alone over 90% of bass fisherman can't get more than a cast away from the shoreline. Bass are predators and never far from their preferred food source. If the bank offers food and shelter, the bass may stay there. However in most lakes or reservoirs, the bank isn't where the food source or shelter is located, year around. I bought my first Lowrance red box, the unit that came out before the green box, in 1959. Being able to see the depth of the bottom and locate underwater islands or humps changed how I bass fished. Instead of fishing what I could see above water, I could now see underwater. The bass haven't changed much over the years, we just have better sonar to find them easier. Why handicap yourself and only fish shallow shoreline target? WRB

If you are shore bound you have very few options. The presentations will be up hill; from deeper to shallower water regardless of what you are using. The type of lake, pond or river affects where you can fish, due to the terrain limits your available shoreline. Bass can be in 20' of water and run up to the surface to strike a lure, without any problem, so the depth you plan fish isn't an issue. I would focus on soft plastics using whatever rigging you like, speed will not be fast, as you are walking. A good surface lure or wake bait is another good choice. Spinnerbaits or chatter bait and soft jerk baits can all be worked up hill without loosing too many lures. WRB

Bubbler, how about a response or update to your success. The bass in suspended about 40' now at Casitas. WRB

Sink or swim; bass have another choice, it can suspend, that is why they have air bladders and spend a majority of the time suspended. When the bass is suspended, neutral buoyancy at whatever depth is comfortable, resting and waiting for the dinner bell ring and it's up to the fisherman to figure out how to ring it. When the bass is swimming, it's on the hunt, patrolling it's territory or alarmed, definitely active. WRB

This thread started out with a ? about a specific lake, Lake Casitas in CA that doesn't have a spotted bass population. Casitas is a world class trophy bass lake with a population of Florida strain LMB. What difference does that have to do with suspended bass in other lakes around the country? Big difference. Lakes located within 50 miles of Casitas with northern strain LMB for example, the bass are easier to catch, much more aggressive with predictable habits. The FLMB are still adapting to their new environmental niche out west, although it's been several generations, it takes a long time to change genetic memory. FLMB prefer large baitfish over any other type of prey; golden shiners were the primary forage fish for FLMB for centuries. In Lake Casitas threadfin shad and planted rainbow trout became the baitfish of choice; both are off shore fish the majority of the time. The bass tend to roam the off shore areas targeting these bait fish and move up towards the bank during the night when both the shad and crawdads are located at that time. NLMB tend to be more shore cover oriented, preferring smaller young of the year pan fish like crappie, bluegill and crawdads, plus threadfin shad when they are near cover. It's been my experience that both spotted bass and smallmouth bass also like to roam, similar habits to the FLMB transplanted into deep structured lakes. WRB PS; note, before Casitas was planted with FLMB in '69, the lake was a very good NLMB fishery. I have fished Casitas since '58 and never caught a bass or watched bass chase or eat a trout and rainbow trout were planted weekly, until the FLMB were established. Now it's common to watch bass chase trout or see a tail in the throat. Threadfin are also fairly new out west, arrived in the early 60's at the Colorado river lakes and now are a primary baitfish everywhere.

Thanks for the heads up, I will look into it. Hope the FLW Stren series or western series is still alive, FLW reported they were supporting the eastern series last week. BASS has never been much of a west coast organization due to lack of support from everyone involved. WRB

PM me with the info. WRB

B.A.S.S. changed when purchased by ESPN, however B.A.S.S. is still the top bass fishing tournament organization in the country and isn't likely to go away anytime soon. FLW is very rocky at this time, loosing most of it's hallmark sponsors and may have crumbled this year without Cabela's stepping up to save the 2010 schedules. I wouldn't advise a life membership in B.A.S.S. or FLW, save your money. My life membership was a gift and it's been good to get free magazines for over 40 years, there hasn't been any other advantages for life members. WRB

I'm a charter life B.A.S.S. member since 1968. I believe ESPN ended enrollment for the life membership program when they purchased B.A.S.S. WRB

8" to 9" would be a gizzard shad, thread fin are about 1/2 that size. Gizzard shad will compete with the same zoo plankton needed for the survival of the young bluegill and bass and that is not good for a small lake. Zoo plankton tend to live within the cover where the fish fry live and make up a very important food chain. You may want to try a BBZ-1 4" swimbait in natural shad, slow sink or surface model. You also need to consider the fall turnover factor, Google; Islandnet, fall lake turnover. http://www.islandnet.com/~see/weather/elements/turnlakes.htm WRB

Your shad are more than likely threadfin shad that feed on phytoplankton. The phytoplankton rises during the bright sunlight hours near the water surface and the shad follow their food source. The reason this is important is to understand why shad school in open water during the mid day to feed and hide in cover during low light and dark hours. In a small lake predator prey activity is intense, survival of the fittest; the bass eat every prey fish available; shad, bluegill young bass and crawdads. Threadfin shad have low tolerant to water colder than 45 degrees and die off in colder water. Look for the bass to be tight to brush cover during low light hours and roaming the lake during bright sunny day light hours and being active this time of year during the mid day and afternoon period. A wide variety of lures should work. WRB

Lund Explorer gave you some good advice; work for someone in the business before starting out on your own. Good luck. WRB

Glenn's chart is good for keeping track of multiple lakes. I kept records for about 25 years, then stopped. Today my routine is to check the factors that affect my type of fishing in deep structure local lakes. 1. The first I do before heading out to fish is check the weather conditions and note the moon phase. 2. The next thing I do is determine the surface water temperature when I launch the boat. 3. Then determine at what depth the thermocline is and baitfish fish are holding. 4. Check what direction the wind is coming from and current weather conditions. 5. Based on the above information I have confirmed what the seasonal period should be, what depth I expect the bass to be at and what type of baitfish the bass maybe targeting. 6. Ready my tackle based on what I expect to start fishing with and head out into the marina and recheck the water temperatures, thermocline to make sure the life zone is where I think it is, look around for birds, fish activity and a general sense of how the lake feels this day. Then I go fishing. Back when I used a paper graph, I would make notes on the paper and save the rolls. Today I may make a few notes in a small ledger, if something note worthy happened. If you are a serious bass fisherman, keep a ledger; use Glenn's format and add the thermocline data, if you own baot with a good sonar unit. WRB

I think a 2 acre lake in Texas is called a tank, we call them ponds. Whatever you call it it's too small to have much of a bass population per acre. Think of the total water column when considering the effects of frontal conditions. Your tank will be affected by the cold front wind, then the falling surface water temperature, then the warming surface water temperature. Bass don't like fast changes water temperatures, more than a 10 degree change can kill them. The bass move into the deepest warmest water and tend to stay put for the remainder of the fall to winter period. The bass may move up to the warmest water in the late afternoon, during a warming period. WRB

Welcome. From the description your little lake is a reservoir from the lack of weed growth of maybe the weeds have died off from the cold water temperatures. Structure in the from of rocks and man made rock piles or docks and the dam should be your primary targets. Water colder than 45 degrees the bass tend to be less active, so a slower presentation with smaller lures that stay in front of the bass are good choices. If the lake has an aeration system, then fish around that area as the DO levels will be good top to bottom. If the lake doesn't have aeration, then fish the wind blown side of the lake in the deepest structure areas. Structure spoons, tail spinners, underspins, jigs and drop shot or split shot small soft plastics imitating shad and crawdads should work. If the shad survive, there must be 45 degree water somewhere, look for springs (early morning foggy patches on the water). Stay warm and fish slow and deep. WRB

Not much anyone can do fishing from shore under those conditions. My suggestion is move down to the lower 1/3 of the lake where deeper water should be available and fish the dam area and first major points. I would try a Yamamoto Kreature or Hula grub, C-rigged (slip shot) and cast at 45 degree angle, slightly up hill. This would be like fishing a jig slowly, except it shouldn't hang up as often and float off the bottom a little. WRB

What adjustments did you make for the conditions you were fishing? Location, lure presentation, tackle? WRB

We could do a new post on deep water vertical structure fishing for suspended bass in addition to the aforementioned scroungers, underspins and tailspins; 1. Structure spoons 2. Ice & airplane jigs 3. Buzz bombs 4. Doodling 5. Drop shot 6. Split shot 7. Bobber & jig (fly & bubble) 8. Dart jig 9. Deep swimbaits 10. Matty jig During the cold water period, in deep structured lakes that don't freeze over, all of the above can be very good presentations. It's not always about power fishing cover or bottom contact, or crank baits and jerk baits, the above mid water column lures work very well. WRB

Guidewear is on sale, excellent product and no BPS logo. WRB