WRB-2.0

isnt yours 18 or 19 something pounds!?!? great fish man! 19.3 lb, 1994, Mar 5, 11:A, 29L, 28G, hair jig, lake Castiac 18.8 lb, 1981, Feb 9th, 9:30A, 28.5L, 28G, hair jig, lake Casitas. WRB

See "who thinks they have the biggest bass" thread. WRB

I haven't taken the time to read the entire thread, just some of the early stuff. Back in 70's, when I was doing seminars, water temperature was a big factor in bass fishing for a few anglers in the know. Dark Industries made a good thermometer with 50 foot cord probe on a reel for fisherman to use. I kept logs for several years on the bass caught year around, measuring water temperature and the basses body temperatues by inserting the probe down the throat. Based on this information I was able to publish a bass calendar* based on water temperature. In-Fisherman used some of this information in their early publications and the terms pre-spawn, post spawn came from that original calendar have become standard jargon in bass fsihing today. We may debate the seasonal period temperatures by a few degrees, however it's generally accepted that water temperature controls the basses annual life cycle. Today bass fisherman should always be asking the most important question of all; what is the water temperature at the depth you are catching bass? Most bass fisherman don't know, they have surface temperature gauges only and rely on sonar to determine where the bait, bass and thermocline are located. Good sonar units can easily determine the thermocline depth and that is suffiecent for most bass fishing presentations. Winter; 40** to 54 degrees. FLMB lower limit is 45 degrees. Pre-spawn; 55 to 60 degrees Spawn; 62 to 67 degrees Post spawn; 67 to 69 degrees Summer; 70 to 80 degrees Fall; 70 to 60 degrees *1974 "The Cosmic Clock and Bass Calendar". ** water colder than 39.4 degrees floats then freezes. Where seasonal periods have gaps, the bass are in transition. The above is the basic bass calendar and seasonal periods. WRB

Lake Cachuma board voted today, 25 March, to keep the lake open to outside boaters with restrictions and inspections. Details to be posted on the lake Cachuma web site. WRB

Southern California, charter life BASS member, tournament fisherman back in the late 60"s & early 70's, trophy bass fisherman forever. Fished nearly every state, Mex and Canada that have fresh water bass. Wrote a few early In-Fisherman articles. Marlin and tuna fish on occasion, love to musky fish. Grew up fishing and working at marina's. Aerospace engr by trade, about to retire soon. WRB aka; Oldschool

The FLMB stocking program in California's San Diego city lakes back in 1959 was planned by Orval Ball to improve the over bass fishing success and provide anglers with a larger average size bass. The FLMB introduction into San Diego's lakes has proven to be a boom to giant bass populations, however it never achieved it's goal to improve the over all fishing. The man hour per bass caught went down dramatically, however the average size went up, becoming trophy fisheries. The Mexican lakes were first stocked with northern strain LMB and some of the fisheries have FLMB from Texas. The majority of Texas strain are intergrades, few if any are pure Florida strain. The big factor with Mexican bass is the low fishing pressure from rod & reel fisherman, the pressure comes from commerical fisherman using nets. There isn't much selective harvesting or catch & release to educate the more agressive individual bass. In California, you can go to a FLMB lake or a NLMB and you will know the difference without anyone telling what type of bass the lakes have. The northerns are so much more aggressive striking lures and react to much wider selection of lures. The FLMB are heavier bodied bass that are more difficult to catch. WRB

Having secret spots is a big part of bass fishing, keeping them a secret is another subject altogether. You can talk about what the presentation is, the lure, the depth, just not the exact location becuase that will happen in time anyway. My best kept secret spot was called the old folks home, for good reason. Someone finally figure out where it was located and that spot today you can't catch a cold on. However the old folks home is where I once caught a 68+ lb 5 bass limit. I would never volunteer the location of a secret spot. WRB

Every once in awhile a tournament fisherman will contact me to help them with the subject question of where to start to fish because they never have fished a particlar lake before and don't have the time to pre fish. 1. The fisrt thing you need is a good topo map or electronic GPS Navonics map. Then you need to survey the lake via sat maps. 2. To determine where you plan to study the map, you need to know the seasonal period the bass are in on that particular lake. 3. You need to determine what classification the lake is and the map should help to solve that issue. 4. You should try to determine what the primary prey source is and the lake classification and regional location should help. 5. The type of bass the lake has; LMB, FLMB, spotted or smallmouth bass. The regional and lake classification information should help with that. If the question was asked today, the seasonal period would depend on the lake location; more than likely pre-spawn, spawn or post spawn periods. This would allow you to focus on where the spawning flats are located and the likely staging areas near those flats. The bass should be located either on the first deep breakline or up on the spawning flats. Study the maps, the sat over head views, starting on the northwest central area of the lake and work towards the areas that should be wind protected with access from deeper to shallower water. Each seasonal period has it's specific migration zones and prey preferences. This is the reason why you need to learn about seasonal periods, before you can become a successful tournament angler. Fishing skills require knowledge along with the lure presentations, tackle and lure selection to catch bass consistantly. WRB

Florida verses Notherm strain largemeouth bass behavior differences are both genetic and regional. Florida LMB living in their natural range are conidtioned to servive in the shallow rivers and natural lakes, plus have adapted to similar environent of the lowland reservoir and interconnecting canal system. Florida's prefer larger bait fish than NLMB as a result of golden shiners and other larger prey are availble. FLMB in their natural habitate appear to be more of an abush feeder and wary of other large preditors in their environment. FLMB that have be transplanted into California reservoirs have kept their genetic preference for larger prey fish and their wariness, however have adapted to the deeper cooler highland reservoir habitate. Large bait fish in the highland reservoirs live in deeper cooler open water and are school fish. The FLMB can't rely on ambushing a passing golden shiner and must feed on open water baitfish, therefore tend to rely on other large bass grouped up as a small school to effectivily capture large prey fish. The nothern LMB is common everywhere bass live and are very adaptable to whatever enviornment they can survive in. NLMB prefer smaller prey fish and other creatures than FLMB. NLMB tend to prefer ambush site feeding, similar to FLMB in their natural habitate, however have adapteted to feeding on open water bait fish like shad working in schools. NLMB rarely eat bait fish larger than 6", where FLMB will normally eat bait fish over 8". There will always be exceptions to prey size preference and where FLMB and NLMB spawn together creating a mix or F!, F2, F3 generation of intergrades that have behavior traits of both species. The bottom is NLMB are more agressive feeders the majority of the time when compared to the more wary and larger size FLMB. Studies have proven that NLMB catch rate per man hour is about 3 to 1 when compared to FLMB. WRB

Personal choice to lip or net. Bouncing is another issue altogether. The boat carpet and the fish banging into hard objects is diffinately harmful to the bass, regardless of what type it is. Knotless nets are the type to get, the rubber nets are too heavy to handle IMO. If you are fishing with multiple treble hook lures, net the bass and save your hands from hook injury. BASS needs to change their rule about nets. Check this net fish; see Butch Brown's 19.3 post. Not a smallie!!! WRB

Butch is a CA trophy bass fisherman and has been vedio taping his trips for sometime in the event he catches a world record bass. Keep in mind when you view this tape that Butch's goal is to catch the bass and put it the boat as quickly as possible to prevent loosing the fish. http://www.huddlestondeluxe.com/generic75.html You may never see another bass this big on video agian, unless Butch catches a 20+ giant bass. It's very rare for a trophy fisherman to tape what they do. Thank you Butch for sharing this vedio tape for everyone to enjoy the experience. WRB

Florida strain LMB; 5 over 17 lbs; 17.4, 17.4, 17.6, 18.8 & 19.3. BP northern strain LMB is 12.4 lbs. Stopped counting 10 lb+ bass back in 1971 with 100 recorded and can only guess at somewhere around 300 today. WRB

You are or yoall from Texas. Bass jargon differs regionally, just as you have taken the time to nit pick this thread with term staging. We call a double digit bass a donkey out west and lunker, sowbelly, hawg, pig, toad and several other names. The best example is the term grass instead using weeds or aquatic plants, bream for bluegill, specks for crappie. The original question was simple and I hope it was answered; the bass are staging before they move up to spawn, out west. WRB WRB

It's possible that someone other than the person who ask original question may beneifit from a broader answer. Your opinion and my opinions are just that; opinions. If you add factual information to back up what you are saying, then they become facts. Regional terminolgy differs from state to state, however I read read anything in this thread that has been so different as to argue over. Take what you agree with, disregard what you don't. WRB and disregard the rest.

What region is the lake in? It sounds like a lowland reservoir. Lets assume your are asking about largemouth bass, the lake is to shallow to have smallmouth or spots. LMB tend to move from the deeper lower 1/3 of the reservoir where they spent the cold water period or where the deeper water is located in a natural lake, then migrate towards the northwest protected bays or coves first and other areas and stage at the first break in depth that has some structure and wood cover or weed line. Structure and cover are both terms to debate; IMO structure in permenate lake bottom features like rocks, humps, islands, benches or saddles, dams, bridges, pilings or cribs holding up docks, roads, culverts, ledges etc., cover is someting on top or growing in the water like weeds, trees, brush, floating docks etc. A small ditch 6" deep is structure in a lake that only has slight changes in bottom contour. A small hard bottom patch like a clam bed can hold staging bass, especailly if a bush or rock is nearby. Following the spawn period the lake should warm up and develop a weed line or may already have a weed line if far enough south, like florida. Bass will use weed lines a break line and stage there, before moving further into the flats or pockets to spawn. This is why it's important to know what type of bass and lake classification to determine how to answer questions effectively. WRB

Add temperature breaks and current breaks. You call it staging, I'll called migrating, schooling and holding...and agree to disagree on staging. WRB

Not open a can of worms, IMO bass stage as a condition of the their developement during the spawning cycle. The females group together outside the spawning areas and the males roam the flats to locate potential spawning sites. It's been called the staging period as long as I have been bass fishing, about 60 years. Daily movement of schools or groups of bass is generally are known as migration, as in migration routes, from variuos locations to another location as part of their normal life cycle. Whatever it's called where you fish, stage or migrate, bass change locations as the seasonal periods change. When bass stay at a particular depth, we call that holding; for example the bass are holding at 15', just above the thermocline. The one thing about bass fishing is the regional differences with terminolgy. This can and does cause some confusion and the end of the day, it's still bass fishing. WRB

Staging is a term used for bass that gather up is a specific area following the cold water period before moving into wind protected bays or coves to spawn. Pre-spawn is the condition the bass are in before spawning or making nest (males) and laying eggs (females). The type of area the bass choose to stage on differs for each type of bass; LMB, SMB or Spotted bass. Bass prefer structure near the spawning fats that have either wood or large rocks that hold prey fish and crawdads. WRB

BASS just added the following to their conservation page; http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/bassmaster/conservation/news/story?page=b_con_news_calif_casitas For details see the western forum. WRB

Thanks, corrected the error, it should be Casitas. Castiac was on my mind because of Butch Browns 19.5 caught on Mar 4th. Yesterday, Mar 6th, it was announced that the Cachuma board will close the lake to recreational boaters, Mar 11th, following the Casitas boards move and the rumor is lake Piru may follow also. WRB

The 1 year closure allows the community and public time to accept the fact the lake may remain closed indefinitely without the termoil of stating that fact up front. This is a policical issue, water is big business out west and recreational fishing is a side beneifit, that appearently is expendable. WRB

For those of you who havn't followed the Caifornia Quagga mussel issue, lake Casitas*, a world class bass fishery, closed recreational boating for 1 year, effective march 4th, 2008. Lake Cachuma, near Santa Barbara where Jay Yelas learned to bass fish, plans to close March 11th. This is bad new for bass fisherman, as other lakes will follow. WRB * corrected the error, thank you.

Lake Cachuma, following the Castias closure, plans to close March 11th. Both lakes Casitas and Cachuma are excellent bass fisheries. Jay Yelas learned to bass fish at Cachuma. Casitas has world record class bass that are just starting to move up and the spawn is about 3 weeks away. Butch Brown caught a 19.5 lb. bass at the lower lagoon at Castiac March 4th. Castaic and Diamond valley lakes havn't decided yet what their plans are, but they can't be far behind in closing and fishing is good and news is bad. WRB

The March 4th meeting was held and the lake Castias will be closed to recreational fishing for 1 year. Rental boats, resident stored boats and shore fishing will be allowed. This bad news for bass fisherman in CA, as several other lakes may follow. WRB

http://www.State.tn.us/twra/fish/Reservoir/blackbass/livebass2.pdf The above article is a good reference, Gene Gilliland is well know biologist. Basically bass start to stress about 1 minute out of water. Air temperature has an excellerated affect. The problem is bass can't breath air, the breath dissolved oxygen within the water. If you put them in a bucket without a DO generator, the bass will use up the DO very fast because they are stressed and the water may be a different temperature. WRB PS; try holding your breath for 1 minute on the clock, it's a long time and takes pratice to hold your breath longer.