WRB-2.0

The topographic map uses lines every specified feet of evevation; 5 foot elevation means each line represents 5 feet of vertical change. The best fishing maps will have 1 foot elevations, then 2 foot up to 20 feet. The closer the line are together the steeper the elevation is changing. So, first look around the terrain the lake is located in to determine what the terrain under the will be like. Bass like fast changes in elevation; areas like ridges, ravines, stream beads, river channels etc. The first type of structure you need to learn are points that run the furthest out into the lake. Study your map and high light the points, then go fish them. WRB

If the bass have teeth on it's tongue, it's a spotted bass. WRB

Wind is sort of like saying deep water; it's a realitive term. Everyone is tired of my saying "it depends on the type of water you are fishing", however the lake classification is extrememly important in regards to both wind and deep water, they go hand in hand. Wind above 30 mph is a gale, stay off the water. Wind up to 15 mph is generally safe to fish in, depending on the lake size, shape and depth. Wind generates waves, that create both current and DO mixing the water. Waves create light defraction where light beams are going in several directions at once. The combination of refracted light, added DO and current usually activates the predator fish into feeding. Active bass: use reaction type lures or lures that represent what the bass are feeding on at that time, in your particular lake. All fish prefer to swim into or face the current, so wind generated current positions the bass into facing the current, ready to ambush whatever comes thier way. The wave action also stirs up soil, creating mud lines that the bass use to thier advantage. The moving light beams help to breakup the basses profile, it also breaks up the prey and your lures profile, so the bass don't get a good look and must react to determine if it's real or not. The waves make background noise that helps to deaden your presence. All these things are what make bass fishing in the wind an advantage. The big dissadvantage is boat control, casting accuracy and strike detection. WRB

With the surcharges today; the airlines are charging some healthy prices for tackle tubes. Delta; $150 each way for a 8'+ rod tube. You must check all the metal items. My suggestion; UPS the tackle to your friend at least a week in advance to the trip, don't plan to take anything but clothing on a plane. WRB

Fisrt there are several classes of record bass; state record, line class, all tackle and personal best records. From a hypothetical perspective it's the expected norm today the release bass, even record size fish. The question with C & R is always about survival percentages, which are less the bigger the bass is. The value of big bass is high in the bass fishing community, to catch big bass is an important goal. When it comes to the moment of truth, so to speak, every angler reacts differently. The excitment of the moment, the desire to do the right thing, whatever that maybe, drives us to a decission; keep or release. The vast majority of bass fsiherman, that I know, kept thier first big personal best bass. The reason that most big bass are kept is they were in poor condition after all the handling, photographing, measuring, weighing and generally bragging about the catch to other anglers on the water. Releasing a big bass, after all the extra handling will more than likely lead to the bass dieing from stress. My advice; handle these special big bass carefully and release all that are healthy, with the exception of potentail record bass. If a bass has grown to record size, it is at it's peak weight condition and will only get a older and less healthy, keep it. The reality is; you may never get another chance to validate the bass was in fact a record fish without keeping it. I released a potential world record bass simply because of being caught up in the moment and not validating the catch properly and now realize that was more than likely my only chance, record bass are very rare. WRB

The basics; reaction baits trigger strikes from active bass, slow soft plastics work well for bass that are neutral or less active and when bass are are in a negative mood, they don't react to anything you offer. The key; located active bass by fishing in areas that bass feed. I have long stopped bait fishing, however you may want to determine if the fish you see moving under the pads are bass and not carp, catfish, gar, pike or something other than bass. The easiest way to do that is fly line a big 8" night crawler. Collar hook the worm with a Gamakatsu weedless wide gape size 1 hook, no weight. If the bass react to the night crawler, then you know for sure what you are dealing with and those bass are catchable. The best night crawler imitation is a nail weighted plastic worm wacky hooked with the same hook as the real worm. Cinnamon with blue neon works very well when bass are targeting real worms. Suggest Roboworm blue crawler or peoples worm in 7" straight tail. 3/32 oz lead or tungston nail weight inserted into the worm nose, cut about 1/4" off the worms nose to make a flat spot to insert the weight into. The flat spot allows the worm to stand up and float the tail upright, which helps to trigger strikes. The hook places about 2 1/2 inches back. Don't remember if you tried a weedless frog? if not you should. Spro's Bronzeye frog a good choice; natural green. Cut the rubber strands to about 1 1/2 long, then 1/2 of those to about 3/4 long. Fish the frog in straight pops & pause until you reach open water pockets, then switch to a dog walking retrieve. Give both of the above a full days workout; from dawn to dusk. Work the frog, then follow up with the worm until the bass react. Also try looking over your shoulder out to deepr water and try the dam area. Those two presentations should work all summer. Good luck. WRB

Lizard in bass fishing jargon comes rom the south where a "spring lizard" is a salamander. Bass will eat or at least try to eat anything they consider prey. WRB

Don't push the hook through and cut the barb off, you can do more damage that way. Take a shoe lace, if you have on shoes, or the heavest fishing line and double it. Tie the strong line or cord into a loop about 18" long. Place your free hand through the loop and hold the open loop between your index finger and thumb. Drop the open look over the hook eye and slide it up to the hook bend. Now with your other hand , press down on the hook eye and forward towards the hook bend. The tricky part is now; while pressing down and forward, snap the cord loop that is around the hook bend hard away from the hook eye and the hook will pop out without any damage to your tissue. DO NOT TRY to remove hooks NEAR YOUR EYE!!! Go home and get professional help. WRB

The key to what has been said is "control" the bass at all times. At night it is very difficult to keep bass over 8 lbs out of trouble, becuase they are up in shallow water where all kinds of brush, weeds, trees, tules or what have you to get the line wraped in. Make no mistake, bass wrap your line as a means to excape. I have caught hundreds of big bass and wouldn't even think of using light spinning tackle intentionally. You land big bass with 10 lb mono and I do it all the time, but not at night and not in cover. You must either increase the line strength and rod to match or loose big bass at night. WRB

Post spawn bass move back to where they staged before moving up onto the spawning sites. Depending on the lake classification, river or pond the bass live in determines where the staged and where they will locate during post spawn. You are from Tennessee, so your TVA lakes are highland type impoundments with a lot of creek arms. the smallmouth bass tend to spawn near the main lake or just inside those creek arm on small flats with gravel and wood cover wind protected coves. The post spawn smallies are usually on the first break with wood or rocks near those coves. The largemouth bass tend to move further back into the creek arms seeking larger wind protected areas. The LMB post spawn sites are what is known as primary secondary points with some wood cover. A primary secondary point is the point that divides 2 or more creek arms back inside the larger creek arms. The bass move into the smaller wind protected creeks to spawn, then move back out to the nearest primary secondary point and recoperate while holding close to wood cover if availble, if no cover is available the bass will hold tight to structure elements. WRB

In regards to plastic worms and jig on some locals, the vast majority of the bass fisherman fish the same basic colors with the same presentation along the same banks, then wonder why they can't catch more and lager bass then the other fisherman. Bass may have the brain the size of a pea, but after seeing green pumpkin with red flake most of the lives, even the most aggresive bass will associate green pumpkin red flake worms as being something to aviod. Jigs that are black with blue claws is about the same in popularity. How many aggressive bass can be in any lake that hasn't already caught or watched another bass get caught on those 2 lures? The banks have been paved with the same lures and anglers still fish them regularly. Amazing, just amazing! When a school or group or pack or bunch, whatever you think more than 1 bass is called, gets hooked, the other bass nearby can see, feel and smell, that one of their kind is acting differently. If the bass are in a negative or less active mood, the hooked bass activity can alarm them and send the bunch into hiding. On the other hand, an active feeding bunch of bass will take little notice or even become more aggressive in order to get to the feeding bass quickly to take advantage of a meal. Do you change lure colors or lures when you catch 1 bass, no! keep fishing and let the bass determine if they want more of the same. If not, then try something that is different. If you are catching an occasional bass, then make a small change; like the color of the same lure to determine if that improves your strike ratio. If you insist on fishing the popular flavor and lure of the day, then be prepared to compete with other anglers for the same bass. I have been tinkering around making my own lures and modifing others to improve my strike ratio for about 50 years. The fact that I can still catch big bass on the same lures for decades should indicate the bass haven't learned to avoid them, because they don't see same lure often enough to be conditioned to avoid them. My advice; tinker with your lures, try fishing new lures & colors and areas that have less traffic. WRB

Here is my spin on this question; Don't believe everyhing you read on the internet. The topic of conditioning; bass can be trained to aviod items that harm them, however in the wild they don't get the opportunity to make mistakes often and continue to survive. Soft plastics look, taste, smell like real prey and it's very difficult for a bass to avoid them. Bass pass on genes that allowed them to survive. The more aggressive bass don't survive very long making repeated mistakes, it's the more wary bass that tends to live longer, therefor passing on it's genes through several spawning cyces. A percentage of bass you catch don't survive, even though you handled them carefully and released them. The most aggressive bass get caught more often and their chances of survival is low. Not many aggressive bass live to grow up to be big bass, where fishing pressure is moderate to high. Bass can't learn or be conditioned to aviod live bait, they must eat to survive. Bass can learn to aviod boats, line, hooks, noise, shaddows, odors and people fishing with live bait or lures, that alarm them. WRB

When talking in general terms you can interpret whatever fits your needs. A good location; one that has baitfish or prey can and does attract several year classes of bass, however the bigger bass usually show up at the prime time period or activity level. That is why when fishing patterns for example, it's a good idea to revisit areas where you catch smaller bass, becuase the bigger may show up on a different time schedule. It had been my experience that bass activily feed in about 4 hour cycles during the day light period. If you are camped out on one area long enough, the big bass may show up and start feeding at a good location that has everything needed for them. That technique is what most bait fisherman use, anchor and wait. WRB

Before anyone can access the harvest issue on a pond, the population density and size distribution needs to be evaluated. Reacting emotionally will only get into trouble. If the people harvesting the fish are doing it illegally, let the authorites resolve that problem. Same lakes and ponds usually need some the bass to be harvested to prevent them from over populating the available food source. If you are not catching bass over 3 lbs for example, it may be due to over population and stunted fish, the guy keeping the small bass was actually doing you a favor and helping the ponds balance. Catch & release taken to extremes isn't any better than over harvesting a fishery for food. Fishery management promotes selective harvset and slot limits to protect specific year classes of fish. Regardless of how well you handle bass and release them, some will die as a result of being caught. It's better to keep bass that are mortally hooked and bleeding, then to toss it back and hope they survive. My advice; find another pond with better fishing and blow the whistle on anyone who is breaking the law. If the pond is public water and everyone is within the state regulations, they have as much right to catch and eat fish as you do to catch and release them. WRB

What we is a failure to communicate. Structure is any element under or above the water that is permanent; dams, rocks, pilings, islands, humps,saddles, channels, points, bridges, cribes, breakwater walls,rip rap,posts, foundations, road beds, culverts, etc. We can argue about trees, docks, stumps as being cover or structure, but for now lets call them cover like; weed beds, floating docks, trees, brush, bouys, etc. The breaks you are fishing are structure, isolated structure would be a rock pile or just one rock. The prime area of a channel is where the channel starts to bend facing any current and where it stops and straightens out. Check both the inside and outside transition areas of the bends for any active feeding bass. Transitions of soil types like mud to sandy areas or sandy to gravel areas, these are all structure elements that bass will use to feed on prey that live in those areas. WRB

I don't know what the depth limit is for crayfish (crawdads), it's over 100 feet in lake Tahoe for example. Depth isn't an issue in a river environment. Found this information on crayfish that should be of interest. http://www.unionsportsmen.org/index.php/fishing/category/crayfish_school/ WRB note; look at archives, Dec 22, 2007, crayfish school.

The bass you are targeting and catching are young adults that prefer smaller bait fish as prey. Your success shows that have mastered finding those bass and catching them consistantly. As bass grow larger and get to be adults, they add prey to their diet such as crawdads and larger bait fish. Bass are predators and like all predators there is a pecking order where the best locations are dominated by the fittest. Study your river and look for areas that provide current breaks in locations where both concentrations of prey and structure elements are present. Wing dams, bars, submerged trees, stumps, pilings, rock piles, anything that provides slack or slower moving water where biatfish and crawdads can find shelter. The bigger bass will nearly always be close to their food source. Deep diving crank baits and jigs should be a major part of your lure selection. Reaction lures like spinnerbaits and buzzers are OK during the very active periods, otherwise it's the bottom bumping presentations that will trigger strikes from the big bass. WRB

Bass will eat a free floating or suspended soft plastic bait and the plastic doesn't digest, it must pass or be regurgitated so the bass can continue to digest food with value. Bass fisherman should retrieve and keep used worms to put in the trash at the marina. If you see floating worms where another fisherman is catching bass, it's a good idea to pick up any of those worms to see what they were using successfully. Most pro's pickup any floating worms for that reason, they don't want other competitors to learn what they use and want to learn what others are using. So not only can it be harmfull to the bass, it can give away a secret worm color and style. Birds will also eat plastic worms and it has the same affect on them. Don't toss your used worms in the water and try to retrieve them if you can. Dead sticking or fly lining soft plastics works well at times, as the bass are trying to tell you by eating free floating worms. WRB

Have your back seater fish the deeper water with a C-rig and soft creature. Instruct them make long cast out away from where you are targeting the bed fish and slowly retrieve the C-rig, stopping for a minute to let it rest, every 5 feet or so. This not only keeps you back seater busy, he may catch the big females holding in deeper water and/or discover another deep bed fish. WRB

http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/tournaments/elite/news/story?id=3383737 Hope this works for you. Paul Elias is one of our sports legends, a true sportsman and deserves the win and record at Falcon. Paul credited Catch & Release and adding ice for saving his 8 lb bass the final day that helped him win and set the record. For those of you who have never caught a big bass and wondered if they jump or fight hard...watch and enjoy the action. For those skeptics who believe bass don't school or group up on one isolated spot, listen carefully just how small the area was Pual caught all his bass over a 4 day period. Thank you Paul and god bless. WRB

Why do you think this is a female bass? Big head and skinny body could indicate an older male bass. Fish, like every animal, have different body shapes for various reasons, they don't necessarly come out of the same cookie cutter. Bass don't loose a lot of body mass from spawning, maybe up to 10% of their overall weight. The bass in the picture has lost or never had any body mass and that would indicate a heatlh issue, eating disorder or a fish just getting old and ready to die. WRB

You need to contact the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and they will stock the pond and recommend what the forage base should be. Generally you stock bass fingerlings after everything else is established. WRB

Read "Quagga Mussel Update", Western Bass Fishing forum. Lake Casitas is reopening to outside boats starting 5 May, with a new plan. Almost all the Caifornia bass lakes have some type of inspection program and clean & dry routine, so it's important to call the lakes before you hual your rig. WRB