WRB-2.0

Flash IMO is only a factor when trying to create a reaction bite. Vibrations that bass hear with the lateral line is low frequency so they can detect a bait fish swimming from a long distance. The bass also has ears that can determine higher frequencies and used for close encounters with crayfsih etc. The bottom line is bass can hear a plastic worm with a tail that waves going through the water. We call this pushing water and lots of lures do this and make slient sounds to us, but bass pick up the low vibrations of moving water. So a paddle tail, or curl tail worm works better in low light conditions than a straight tail worm for example. Adding rattles will help the bass when the worm is close. black grap with blue neon stripe is an excellent choice of color for your water clarity conditions. Glass 'N brass, a bead between the weight and worm is a good finesse rig, same set up, except a slip shot rig. Sworming Hornets jig with a Tiny fluke, or their Swingblade hook with a soft jerk bait are few finesse presentations to try. WRB

Ok, we don't have a pond or a natural small lake, it's a small hill-land reservoir with a dam. This makes a lot of difference how you fish or what you can fish with. Before this little valley or revine was damed, there was a stream meandering through it. The dam was built at the deepest point, unless there was a pond before the dam was made, then the pond area may be a little deeper. What is important to you as a bass fisherman is the water enters this lake at the stream end and exits at the dam. This indicates that a creek channel of some type exits and structure along this creek channel may be there; rocks or boulders, undercut banks, tree stumps or trees, humps, and a few points. The dam area or the lower 1/3 rd of the lake will hold the majority of the bass as the water cools below 55 degrees. I would concentrate my efforts by the dam area. and any point nearby or structure. Black 1/8 oz hair jigs or Skinny Bear jig with size 101 black pork trailer should be very effective. You can use a slip bobber set at various depths to cast further out into the channel area from shore. You should be trying the slip shot rig or the Texas rig down sized with 1/8 oz weight, 1/0 size hook and 6" curl tail worms. Avoid the larger lures until the pre-spawn period. WRB

The last round reel made in Sweden for Abu-Garcia was back in 2003. If you want a Swedish made ambassaduer, you need to buy the legacy reels manufacturered before that date. There is a growing market for the Swedish made reels today. Don Iovino buys and rebuilds the legacy reels; http:www.iovino.com/ WRB

Depth of light can be decieving and my guess is your water clarity is better than you think. Take a white spinnerbait and lower down until you can't see it at all, should deeper that 12". Contrast can be more important than color in low light or muddy water. The greatest contrast of "color" is black & white, the extremes. When you start to add color spectrums using the prime colors, then try to stay as far apart with two or more colors as possible; black and chartruese for example. Black or dark colors create a dark profile that contrast with both the waters surface and bottom, so bass find the profile of the lure first be using thier sight, however they locate the lure with the lateral line sense of feeling vibrations before seeing the lure in poor light conditions. Using lures that move at a steady pace and move a lot of water to create vibrations, plus have a profile that the bass sees as prey is what you are trying to do with lure selection. WRB

You are located in NY, the small lake is a little less than 3/4 mile long with a natural dam, beaver dam? or some type of non man structure? Your successful lures are targeting active bass and bass are only active less than 20% of the time. The flukes can be slowed way down to target less active bass, but still a reaction bite type lure. The weeds should be dying back as the day light hours reduce and water cools. You may need to down size and go to the soft plastics and presentations recommended to continue catching those bass unitl the lake freezes. After the lake reopens the same soft plastics work well, rattle traps, small crankbaits and inline spinners should be a little better then spinnerbaits until the weeds reappear. Buzzers will always work if the bass are up and active. I would think a 5" swimbait that runs from the surface down to about 5' in bluegill pattern should be a good choice. WRB

There was a time period that I would have recommended the Abu-Garcia Ambassadeur reels without hesitation, not today since they are made in China with inferior gears and bearings. Your best buy IMO is Okuma Induron IDx-250 reels and Okuma 7'10" heavy action casting rod for both musky and pike fishing, if you are casting 1 to 5 oz lures. The Okuma products are now offered under their own name, they made reels for Cablea's and BPS for the past 10 years. Both the rod and reel are under $100 each and Tackle Warehouse ships free for orders $100 or more, with tax you make the free shipping. WRB PS; this is a great swimbait combo.

Thanks for responding. It's not what I wanted to read after spending several minutes trying to resolve your initial question and educate you a little on the pond bass habitate. You are happy with the fluke solution, so good luck and good fishing. WRB

Everyone has a diffierent opinion on knots and line, here are my choices for bass fishing; Mono & fluoro-hybrid: tying hooks or small lures without treble hooks, Palomar knot, spinnerbaits and crankbaits tied direct; Uni-knot. Fluorocarbon; Uni-knot Braid; direct to lure use the braid knot or Uni-knot, Mono/fluoro lline to braid use the Uni-knot. Superbraids can have a Teflon coating and this can cause a Palomar knot to slip if tied to a heavy hook or lure with .046 diameter wire or greater. see http://www.sportsmanschoice.com/terminal_tackle_knots.htm for a good knot tying reference source. WRB

See the "Fishing deep open water " by Davis, post. Pond bass tend to roam or patrol the shoreline because thats is where the majority of the ponds prey source is available. WRB

The term pond means diffiernt things to people, how many acres is this "pond" and does it have a dam or is it natural? Consider ponds to be like a small natural lake, unless there is a dam. Bass will roam the the shore line along the inside weed line during low light hours and tend to position temselves to ambush prey fish like bream; pumpkin seeds, bluegill, crappie etc., so the outside weed line pockets become a good location. Crawdads are a good prey source and any rocky, wood or clay area that gives the crawdad a place to hide is a good location. The deep water basin area will hold bass during the colder water periods and may hold bass during the summer warmer water periods if the DO levels are good and/or some type of structure or cover is available. The ponds food source is primarily around the edges, so thats where the majotity of the bass should be, unless they must relocate due to hot water or low DO levels. Keep in mind that adult bass have spent their entire lifetime in that small ecosystem and know everything that is going on in and around it. You must be very quite and keep a low profile so you don't alarm these fish. The basin bottom is more than likely muck or very soft mud and decayed vegeation, so any lure that is on the bottom works poorly. If you want to explore the basin bottom , I would suggest you do that with a slip shot rig and a high floation curl tail worm like a 6" Roboworm in Aarons Magic or Bold Bluegill. You could also drop shot the same worms in a straight tail. The big girls should be around the springs, if this is a spring feed pond. WRB

When water temperature reaches 39.4 degrees F, it becomes less dense (lighter weight) and floats to the surface and continues to cool unitl it freezes at 32 degrees F. Bass; northern LMB, smallmouth bass, and spotted bass can not tolerate water below 40 degrees, they die. Florida largemouths lower limit is about 45 degrees and is one reason they do not survive in colder climates. During the cold water period the bass go deeper to find the warmest water traped by the colder heavier water above. After a few months of very cold weather the upper colder water layers may over whelm the warmer deeper layers and turn over. Turn overs usually happen on lakes that freeze or are very windy. This is why you fish deeper during the colder water periods or where the warmest water layers maybe. It doesn't matter where the bass are located, in south America or north America, bass are bass and cold blooded. The water temperature combined with the day light hours controlls their calendar. I have been bass fishing all over the US and Cananda during the past 50+ years and collected lots of water temperature data from bass with a thermometer placed down the fishes throat just after catching them. WRB

More questions than answer to this inquiry. You are metering fish at those depths, do you know what they are? First, do you know about thermoclines? and how to determine at what level the themocline(s) maybe? What type of lake classification is this reservoir, a TVA high land power generation impoundment? Lets assume the lake is a Highland, power generation reservoir with threadfin &, Gizzard shad, largemouth, smallmouth and spotted bass. What type of bass are you trying to catch; LMB? If so then a few presentations work well down to 80', but you need to know how to deflate the basses airblader if fishing deeper than 30'. As mentioned structure spoons work well if the bass are targeting shad. Drop shot works well for most soft plastics and you can double up by adding a spider type jig for the weight. Spider jigs work well vertically jigged, however takes more practice to learn. Rapala ice jigs work good in the deeper water vertically fished. Bass are rarely deeper than the deepest shad schools you can meter, because both shad and bass require the same DO (dissolved oxygen) levels. Weed, grass or whatever you call it where you are located can not grow below the depth of light and 30 feet is about the limit. Bass tend to suspend in deep water and those bass are not active, unless feeding on schools of deeper shad. Look for breakline like under water islands called humps and creek/river channels and long major points that intersect the deeper channels. Drop shot; use a 1/4 to 3/8 oz drop shot weight, size 1 Owner or Gamakatsu drop shot hook and 8# fluoro-hybrid line like Yo-Zuri. The weight to start with is about 12" below the hook. Nose hook a 4 1/2" to 5" striagt tail finesse in shad colors; Roboworm baitfish, blue crawler or oxblood w.lt red flake works well for all the species of bass. Drop the weight down to the bottom where you metered bass, then lower your rod tip about a foot, then raise it back until you feel the weight and repeat until a bass strikes it, then reel set. Structure spoons; Kastmaster 1/2 oz blue/chrome, 3/4 oz Crippled Herring, 3/4 oz megabait black shad are good spoons. You drop the spoon vertically down to the bass and watch for the line to jump or stop and lift and reel, if nothing is their you continue to drop and lift the spoon through the depth you metered the bass. Good luck WRB

This may sound harsh; "to catch big bass you must fish for them". Anyone can catch big bass on rare occasions, but you must fish where the bigger are located to have any chance at catching them consistantly. This means you need to take the time and learn about bass habits, seasonal or calendar periods and what the bigger bass are eating for prey at the locations where they are holding. Over 90% of the bass fisherman always fish the banks of a lake and big bass are not usaully near the banks the majority of the time. Here is a thumb nail on seasonal periods; Winter; cold water period, water temperature between 40 to 55 degrees in most regions. Bass are located in the warmest water that has good DO levels and prey available. Usually main lake deep breaks. Pre-spawn; cold water transition period, water temperature 55 to 62 degrees, bass are staging on deep breaks near spawning areas. Spawn; warming water in the shallow flats, water temperature 62 to 67 degrees. Bass are in pairs, spawning in wind protected areas. Post Spawn; water temperature 65 to 68 degrees, bass move back out to pre-spawn areas and hold on secondary breaks with structure or cover. Summer; warm water period, water temperature 70 to 80 degrees, bass scatter and locate in areas that provide good opportunities for easy prey ambush and move deeper as the surface water continues to warm. Big bass prefer 70 to 75 degree water with good DO levels. The bass will move up to shoreline cover and roam during the darker light periods and at night. Fall; cooling water period, 75 to 62 degrees, bait fish school due to shorter light periods and cooling water and begin to migrate to zoo plankton rich water if shad are the baitfish and the bass follow the bait fish and crayfish. Water temperature may very slightly and are the temperature at the depth the bass are holding, not surface temps. Learn to fish outside structure, break line, current breaks and use electronics to locate the bass on those areas. Fish lures that represaent the prey the bass are targeting. Adult size bass prefer crayfish, pan fish, shad if available. Northern strain LMB prefer large bait fish up to 6", Florida LMB prefer baitfish up to 12", smallmouth and spots prefer crayfish and smaller baitfish up to 5". All adult size bass will target crayfish when available. The above is a very compressed statement, post any specific question regarding the above and you should get an answer. Good luck. WRB

The value of big bass to the bass fishing sport is almost impossible to calculate becuase they are so important. Every fisherman or fisherwomen dreams of catching bigger fish, it's a basic goal for all of us. Using live bait puts a strain on smaller lakes with big bass populations, regardless of C & R. Most fisherman keep their biggest fish for mounting, even though plastic replica is readily availble. The big bass may be eventually released after extensive handling, showing off to freinds and photgraphing, ending up as post mortality death. The only issue I personally have with fishing big live golden shiners is they target big bass, usually a guide fishing for clients. Fishing live bait anywhere during pre-spawn and spawn should be outlawed IMO. I agree that bass are a renewable resource and should be selectively harvested if the populations need to be controlled. Remember every big bass taken out of a lake is one bass that the other bass fisherman will never catch using lures or bait. Our sport should recognize that bait fishing with large bait fish is killing their most valuable resource...big bass. WRB

Structure by definition is anything that is permanent and covered by water including the bottom from shoreline to shoreline. Isolated structure is structure elements that are part of the main structure; like a rock pile on the bank, point, hump, island, creek or river channel, rip rap, wing dams etc. Trees, weed beds, floating docks, etc, are generally considered cover. During the fall the bass migrate along the bank, over and around points, along creek and river channels, around and over humps and islands, anywhere were baitfish or other prey is available. Schools of bass will attack schools of bait fish in open deep water away form any cover or structure or near cover and structure. Bigger bass prefer the bait fish to be trapped between the structure and surface of the water. WRB

What is met is bass will never be far from prey. The concept that LMB need something to orient themselve to, like a structural element or cover is false. Bass don't need cover or structure, but they prefer it because most of the time they are not feeding and prefer something for a sancturay like cover or structure. Fall is a transtional period between the warm water period and cold water period. The bait fish schools of shad for example are relocating and the bass follow. Not all lakes have shad but they will have bait fish that are also moving to the cold water locations which will be the warmest water available with a food source for both the prey and predator. Bass prefer breaks, however current and temperature changes are also break lines that bass ssek and if cover or structure is nearby, thats where they hold waiting for prey. Make sense? if not please reply and I will try to explain, it's a complex topic to answer is one short thread. WRB

If you are right about the size of pits being 10 to 30 acres and more than like much deeper than 18 feet for bass to survive in Colorado, consider this; The shorter days of the fall cool the water very fast and the bass need to relocate to where they spend the cold water period in that ecosystem. Pits are usually spring fed and that is where the bass are going to end up for the winter, because it will be the warmest water available. You don't have shad in those ponds as the water is too cold during the winter. What bass (LMB or SMB?) are feeding on is minnows, suckers, pan fish, frogs and crawdads. Down size your offering and try slip or drop shot with 5" Roboworm oxblood w/lt red flake and Aaron's magic worms or Yamamoto double tail grubs in watermelon w/red/blk/purple flakes. If you don't use those brands find something similar. The original Rapala broken back F11 in black back/silver is also one of the best pond lures. A small buzzer works in the afternoons when the bass are roaming around. You can locate the springs by finding circular patch of fog coming off the water very early in the morning as the air temperature warms the water surface. Good luck. WRB

Excellent points, good post. I think the focus should be on bigger fish, the rare ones not the common gamefish in a healthy environment. Creel limits are designed to promote the species. Still, I just can't bring myself to keeping smallmouth. I admit, I'm bias! This may not be the right forum for the C & R topic and doubt that many activated the link posted. The fact is anyone who bass fishes kills bass. The issue is what do you do with them? toss them back and watch it slowly swim away, out of sight out of mind. If you are holding a bass by it's mouth, the bass should have it's dorsal fin raised and tail fanned out trying to swim, natural defense mechanism for bass. If the bass has the dorsal fin flattened, limp tail, that bass is severely stressed and more than like not going to survive. The bass should be "hot" racing around in the live well and difficult to handle. If the bass is bleeding out the gill covers, it more than likely a dead fish. If you place that bass in live well water over 75 degrees for more than one hour, it's survival rate is very low. Most tournamnet fisherman pump surface water into their live wells and the bass become severely stressed. Everyone kills bass like it or not, it's what you do with them is the issue. The statements ;" I never kill bass" are fisherman who needs to educate themselves. WRB

You should keep and eat a bass that is going to die, or let it go and the gulls, turtles or whatever will do that for you. Take a look at http://www.State.tn.us/twra/fish/Reservoir/blackbass/livebass2.pdf This is wriiten by a well known and repsected biologist is the fishing industry. The point is C & R is a good practice, however not all the bass survive that you release. About 1 out of 4 tournament caught bass, that have been placed in a live well, may die as a result. The only way to reduce that number is to improve your handling of the bass; 70 degree cool water in the live well, oxygenation pumps to keep the DO levels up and salt water solution to reduce stresses. If a bass rolls over and can't keep upright, it may die. If you keep a bass out of water for more than a minute it may die. If it looks in poor condition, loss of irridesent coloring, fins not extended or very sluggest behavior it may be over stressed to the point that it may not recover regardless of the attemps to do so. Take that bass home and enjoy what nature has provided, a good meal. Release the healthy bass and improve your handling of these fish so they can live after C & R, it's in your hands. Large bass over 24" long are the most affected by stresses of being captured and require the best possible handling. Avoid putting them in a live well and taking several pitures requiring the bass to be held out of water for more than a minute. If you must put them in a live well, try to reduce the amount of time and be sure to keep the water cool, add ice if needed and keep well oxygenated. About 50% mortality rate of big bass when handled poorly.

If you "cross their eyes" your ratio may drop zero. Just reel set by cranking and snapping your tip up. By hook setting with your rod you may move the spoon about 12" at 20', by cranking your reel you will move the lure about 12" the fisrt turn and 24" or so with each turn after the fisrt and the bass will be hooked better than trying to rod set. Bass ofter just nip at the spoon and most are hooked lightly in the soft tissue of the mouth. The bass that woof the spoon are not coming off regardless how you hook set. If you have a good sonar unit you should be able to see the thermocline near the depth you are catching the bass on outside structure. At 20 feet this time of year the water is more than likely in the upper 70's and is the reason the baitfish and bass are down at that depth. If you are keeping these bass in the live well, put ice in the water to lower the temperature into the low 70's and fizz those bass if deeper than 30'. WRB

Bass vision; do you have any sceintific data to supports your statements? or just your opinion? Just because the bass has cones/rods in their eye make up doesn't factor in how they process light waves. Have you ever considered that bass may not see color as we do or at all? The evidence that bass may see in the ultra violet range vereses the color spectrum is interesting. The colors we select definately has a major impact on our fishing success, but is it the color or the contrast to the color? Contrast is very important factor at very low light conditions, like at night or deep water. Have you ever wondered how a bass can see a translucent smoke color 4" worm at 50' during an overcast day, when the diffifence may be blue flakes verses red flakes or no flakes? I can't see them laying on the boat carpet or down 3' in gin clear water. WRB

Verticle jigging spoons. Use sharp good quality treble hooks like Owner, Gamakatsu or VMC. The rod is very important and you want a 6 1/2 to 7' medium fast action, not too stiff. Set the drag with a scale at about 2 to 3 lbs using 10 to 12 lb mono or fluor-hybrid line. I prefer white chicken feathered hooks like Owner size 2 for 1/2 to 3/4 ox structure spoons. Just lift and reel set and keep the line tight and rod loaded all the time. WRB note; remember to fizz your bass or slip a 8 oz torpedo weight in its mouth and lower the weight and bass back down to where you hook it, then retrieve the weight.

Actually the photos are not all that good. You shouldn't bend the basses mouth open and should turn the bass upside down or belly upwards if the bass is good size. This does two things, the bass freezes and stops trying to flip around and it prevents bending the lower lip excessively. Supporting the bass by it's under side for a photo is good, just try not to bend the down. Lay the bass on a wet towell and use your rod if you need to take a photo for size reference. WRB

Both bass look like northern strain largemouth bass, big heads and little bodies are common when prey fish cycles are up and down. For a bass to have a long frame it needs the genetics, just lke all animals no two are exactly the same unless they are twins. Different yes, freaks no. Both bass look very healthy and where feeding well in the latter part of their lives and possibly not too good a few years back. WRB

Fall transition is more than colder air, it's shorter day light hours and signals the bass to migrate to their winter locations. The bass should be following and looking for baitfish and beginning to school up on outside structure. If your lake has shad, then target the shad schools. Crawdads are also migrating to deeper water and make good bite size meals. The key to fall transtion is cover water and targeting the middle to lower 1/3 of the lake in general. You might want to look back over your shoulder and fish deeper water and along the banks on the windward side (down wind) between points, the points and anything along creel channels like humps that hold bass. Crank baits, spinner baits, jigs, soft plastic all work well. Frontal conditions are a normal season factor that doesn't bother the bass a much as the fisherman. WRB