WRB-2.0

This was directed to Catt and is a Toledo Bend specific question, so Catt is the perfect choice to answer it for you. My 2C worth on nightime spinnerbaits; Use a single or a twin spin in lieu of a tandum blade. Use larger blades to slow the fall and retrieve speed to create more underwater pulse or vibration. Use copper or black color blades. Use black, black/red, black/chartreuse combination skirts and trailers at night. If that doesn't work try the opposite; white with white blades, white skirt & trailer with dark contrasting color highlights. Your average size bass should be larger at night, if you are fishing areas where big bass move up to feed. Keep in mind that the strike window is reduce at night, the lure needs to be close to the bass. A fast moving lure outside of the strike window, more than likely the bass will not chase down. WRB

I would set up the catfish outfit with fresh fish chunk like mackerel or whatever oily fish you can find, sliding sinker rig. For bass get yourself Berkley Power works; 7 1/2" or 10", black and Texas rig it. You will be able to add a bell to the rod tip for the catfish rig, while you walk the area worm fishing. WRB

You are obviuosly fishing from the shore, casting out and retrieving back to where you are standing. Every fishermen who has fished this small lake or pond is doing exactly the same and the bass are conditioned not to respond. What can you do differently to get the bass to bite? 1. Do not use the same lures that everyone is using. 2. Do not present the lure in the same manner as everyone else has. 3. Do not fish at the time as everyone is. Can you fish from a float tube? at night? different than everyone else! Does everything include; broken back floating Rapalas? wake bait?Frogs?, Buzzers? Do you cast parallel to the shoreline a few feet out from the bank? 10 feet out? fan cast? ever tried a slip shot reaper on 6 lb fluoro? 10" power worm at night? big 8" live night crawler nose hooked and fly lined? Just a few ideas to ponder. WRB

Are you fishing from a boat or shore? Catfish and bass are two very different fish, requiring different techniques and tackle. WRB

You will lose some of the spawn, but high water tends to flood areas that have good recruitment for the surviving fry on natural flooding waterways. When a reservoir drops the lake levels 50 to 100 feet during the spawning season, that lakes year class gets nearly wiped out. This is exactly what is going on at Castiac this year. WRB

Trolling gets a bad rap from bass fishermen because B.A.S.S. outlawed the presentation method to even the playing field. Some tournament bass fishermen tend to stretch that rule by strolling, moving the lure with the electric trolling motor. Drift fishing is allowed. Buck Perry opened up bass fishing to outside or main lake structure fishing. Bass fishermen, like Jason Lucas wrote about trolling deep diving plugs, now called crankbaits, before Perry popularized spoonplugs. Perry's books are excellent history and a must read. I troll to teach new bass fishermen to learn about deep diving crankbaits, how they run and feel when a bass strikes. Great learning tool to teach electronics and surveying techniques on unknown lakes. Don't turn your nose down at a time proven fishing technique, just because bass tournament fishermen can't utilize it during a contest. WRB

If you catch a bass deeper than 35 feet, then it may be a candidate for fizzing for a tournament fishermen. Bass roll over for various reasons. Loss of equilibrium is also a sign of severe stress and fizzing a severely stressed bass will not save it. The fizzing method shown by the video is good. Fizzing kits are available for tournament fishermen where deep water mortality rates are a common problem. Don Iovino products sell the kits for example. Bass can come from deep water and moved up from 50 feet to 20 feet and you catch them at 20 feet thinking everything is OK. The bass actually had a 50 foot depth change and needs fizzing very quickly. Don't wait more than a few minutes, if the bass is trying hard to right itself or the air bladder is protruding out the throat. WRB

It's a choice to continue to fish the muddiest water or move to where the water is less muddy and the bass are more active, can see a little better. You don't need to stay in the cellar or move to another lake, the back 40 may be were the bass are grazing. Good article Catt. WRB

Your area has what we call flatland large power generating reservoirs. These lake are not typically steep banked, but wide bodies of water with long creek arms and a major river at the head waters. The head waters should have the most muddied water and as the water gets closer to the dam it should be less and just off color. Bass tend to move out of silted water as it's not easy to breath and locate where the water is less silted. The smaller creeks arms tend to have a more gentle run off and could have clearer water. The high water brush also tends to collect silt and clean up the water. I would look for the bass to be anywhere that offers slightly clearer water, transition areas. Mud lines from wind tend to suspend more than rain mixed silted water. The bass will not go deeper than the thermocline, if a thermocline exist. The bass should be up tight to cover, near deeper channels or ditches, this time of year. Try the same lures you normally use at night, except with highly visible contrast colors like chartreuse or orange belly, tails or skirts. Dark basic silhouette with high light colors. WRB

I try to keep things very simple after dark. T-riggged plastic worms jig & pig deep diving crankbait single spin spinner bait Swimbait * top water wake bait To start with use a 1/2 oz black single spin and use the 4" end of a ribbon tail power worm for the trailer. I use my old T-rigged black/red 10" power worms for spinner bait trailers at night. Target the points with both rocks and wood, fish the prime areas within a few miles, so you are not running around the lake in the dark. Fish slowly and thoroughly. Bottom bump the deep lures in 1 to 10 feet of water, unless you meter deeper bass. Retrieve the spinnerbait slow and steady, cast at 45 degree angles to shallow water for a slower decent into the deeper water. The angled casts cover more area. Good luck. WRB * if see or hear active surface fish, I like to use a big wake bait at night.

The proof is in the pudding, if it taste good to you, then it's good. If you put gasoline and motor oil on your soft plastics and fish with it, your strike ratio could be affected negatively. Most bass fishermen agree that both gasoline and motor oils are negative odors and avoid those two common compounds from getting on their hands and transferred onto lures. If the bass respond negatively to some odors, then it makes sense that a positive response is possible to odors that represent the prey the bass is eating or mask the negative odors. There isn't a simple answer, however the Berkley Corp has performed thousands of hours and a invested lot of money odor response testing their products. We know from experience that salt, anise oil, cod liver oil and garlic are not negative odors to bass. We also know that bass eat; shad, crawdads and other baitfish, therefor oils from those sources tend to get a positive response from bass. The one thing that I can share from experience is; do not mix natural attractant scents with (the exception of salts), artificial scents; example don't add a natural scent like anise oil to Berkley Power worms, as that tends to get a negative response from bass, IMO. WRB

Catt, you have a well established population of giant bass similar to Fork, Falcon and Amistad at Toledo Bend by now. What is the current TB record? WRB

Bass have their eyes placed near the top of the head for a reason; to see what is going on around them and above them. How well bass see above the water is a question that can only be answered by the bass. Keep in mind bass act differently during the spawn then any other time, so don't judge the basses reaction based on the spawning period. I fish a few gin clear water quarry lakes sometimes and those bass are extremely wary of any movement above the water surface. The bass will dart to deep water when a lure is cast over their heads or a bird flies over head. The lakes are down in pits, so when you walk anywhere near the edge, the bass dart away from shore and you will see bass darting away at least 100 to 150 feet away, if there isn't any wind to ripple the surface. Waves, even small ripples will bend the sunlight rays and obscure the objects above the water and creates shadows of less light intensity below water. The waves helps to camouflage the bass, but reduces their sight above water. Bass eyes are not designed to see out of water, what they see is anyone's guess. The major concern is survival and out of water the bass can't breath and struggle to get back into water so they can breath. WRB

Good info, didn't know that LA was stocking FLMB back in the early 80's, or just forgot. CA DFG shocked up a 17 lb bass in lake Perris, the bass was caught a few weeks later in the same cove. Keep in mind that SoCal lakes are tiny, less than 3,000 acres, a creek arm in most Texas lakes. Northern CA has larger lakes and the Delta area where the bass populations can spread out over a vast area. Perris was the lake that held the world record spotted bass (Alabama spot), today Spots are rare or gone at Perris. This brings up another factor about bass, spotted bass also have 2 strains; Northern spotted bass and Alabama spotted bass. The Alabama strain grows to over 10 lbs; 10.27 world record from Pine Flat CA. The Northern or Kentucky spotted bass is much smaller, less than 5 lbs. Bass are bass, but very different when it comes to various strains of the same species. The thought that a northern strain LMB can exceed 17 lbs isn't based on facts. For example the CA state record LMB before FLMB were introduced back in 1959, the record was 14.7 lbs. FLMB is the same lakes grow to 18 lbs. FLMB are a very different bass that look very similar to NLMB, but prefer different prey and deeper water sanctuary's , when available. NLMB are far more aggressive, easier to catch than the FLMB transplanted into deep reservoirs. WRB

back in the late 80's, Fork had FLMB strain in Texas as I remember Teledo Bend Rayburn didn't. The kids more than likely shocked up a few 11 to 12 lb bass at night and thought they were records. The FLMB act the same in CA, love deep water sanctuary's and move up at night to feed. The big bass may cruise a little deeper, then rush prey towards to bank to trap it. Agree the 4' to 8' depth zone is best at night for big bass. The big bass also cruise during day light hours, except deeper; 35' to 15' and push prey against structure or the surface to capture it. WRB

Toledo Bend in a border lake between Texas and Louisiana, maybe they met LA instead of Texas. Agree with the assessment that big bass move up shallow at night and roam, not just shoreline, but any shallow water zone near deep water access. Big bass moving deeper in main lake areas is also a fact I agree with. The big bass move deeper after the post spawn and stay deep until the next pre spawn period, unless hunting for prey. How deep depends on the lake classification, thermocline level, good DO levels and available deeper prey. WRB

Yes; Paul Elias did just that, he put C & R chemical directly on a bleeding gill raker to one of his largest bass during the falcon tourny he set the weight record at. This was also a tournament that had a high post mortality rates due to warm water, big bass crowding the livewell capacity and poor livewell maintenance, resulting in low DO level and high stress level to the bass. It's up to each tourny angler to learn how to handle bass properly. Read and listen to the Hydrogen peroxide thread on this site by Doug Hannon for Sure-Life. WRB

You must be very cautious about getting anything that is concentrated on the basses gill rakers, as it may suffocate them. Also keeping a bass out of water more than a minute can be fatal, try to put them back in water every 30 seconds. Trying to get a deep hook out in less time is difficult and a bleeding basses survival rate is low. The bass may look good, swim around the livewell upright and die within 24 hrs after releasing it. Just because it's out of sight, doesn't mean the bass is OK. WRB

During the spawning season you can tell by the seminal fluids (milt) sacks in male bass. The milt can be squeezed out by handling the bass (white fluids). A biologist looks at the fine scales around the vent and the shape of the vent to determine gender, I can't see any difference, other than during the spawn. My largest male NLMB was 7.5 lbs caught at lake San Vincente back in 1969, verified by DFG biologist Larrt Bothoff. Larry told me that was the largest male he had examined to that date. The 4 to 5 lb mark is a good general weight max for male bass in most lakes, IMO. WRB

Rarely do adult bass mix with juvenile "dink" bass. If you are catching bass under 12", you are more than likely fishing an area that the smaller bass schooled. Keep in mind that bass tend to school by size; juveniles 6" to 12" are basically less than 2 years old and stay together for both safety and feeding. Larger bass live in the world of pecking order; the biggest most aggressive eat first at the best places. That doesn't mean a big bass won't be in the area, they could be close by and feeding on the smaller bass or a different prey source the dinks can't eat. Usually the larger bass are deeper, so change lures, slow down and fish deeper or move away from the dinks. WRB

Bass are cold blooded, not a warm blooded animal. Catch & Release from Sure-Life works OK to help stop bleeding, if you are a tournament fishermen, you should always have it on board. Keep in mind, some bass are going to die as a result of hook damage, put the bass on ice and take it home, it's not the end of the world to eat a bass. WRB

FLMB are genetic wired to feed on larger bait fish like golden shiners. Since your pond doesn't have large bait fish, the smaller bass and bluegill fill that void. Sooooo....use lures that represent those baitfish or whatever else the bass may have grown up eating. Crawdads and frogs are normal prey for pond bass, so they are another good choice. I would start with 4", 6", 8"" wake baits; BBZ-1 4" floater, Triplefish floater, Lunker Plunker 6" floater, Huddleston weedless 6" floater, in baby bass color or Matts lure hard bluegill floater. These are all serious big bass swimbaits that should produce any big bass in the pond. If these are too expensive, then get yourself some big live night crawlers and fly line them using a size 2 weedless Gammy finesse wide gap hook. Every bass in the pond will eat that crawler, so you will need to be patient to get a big bass. Big plastic worms, 10" to 12" will work. Fish the big worms with a 1/8 oz bullet weight the same color as the worms; cinnamon brown with neon blue strip or black grape with neon blue stripe work good. Keep low profile, like you are hunting a trophy buck, big pond bass are wary. Try to fish at dawn or dusk. WRB

Rick Clunn. We older folks have learned at 19 we knew it all and as we aged we realized we know a few things. WRB Larry Nixon whose hometown is Bee Branch, began guiding fishermen before he was in high school. He joined the professional bass fishermen's ranks more than 30 years ago. He's had 89 top 10 finishes with 16 wins, including Bassmasters Classic. Nixon became fishing's first million-dollar winner and was named Bass Angler of the Year in 1980 and 1982. Only angler to win 4 Megabucks tournaments including 3 in a row. He is a member of the Arkansas Outdoor Hall of Fame. Interesting and listed on the Arkansas site as Nixon. B.A.S.S. however listed Clunn. Could it be that Nixon was the first million winner for one tournament? or BASS was in error. WRB

It's about promoting and selling the sponsors products, catching bass may help to land a sponsor. There are a lot of good bass fishermen who can catch bass and never be able to make a living bass fishing. WRB

JJ, do you have any burning questions about bass fishing that we may be able to answer for you? As you can see, we have all the answers, just need questions. Does knowing what the environmental impact on evasive species like grass carp help you to become a professional bass fishermen? Answer; yes & no. If you asked the top Elite BASS pro's that question, a few could give you song & verse, however they will know what a grass carp is. WRB