Bass_Akwards

EL SALTO - I've fished El Salto and it was hilarious. I was smiling and chuckling like a school girl for 8 hours. Caught 3-8 pounders every 10 minutes or less all day. There was one time during the day there was a 20-30 minute lull between fish but it was usually something like, catch a 6 pounder, throw it back, wait 7 minutes, catch a 4 pounder, throw it back, catch a 5,7,7 in three casts, throw them back, move the boat to another spot, make 6 casts, catch a 8 pounder, rinse and repeat. To be there when it's pre spawn would be epic, especially if the El Salto cycle is on the rise. According to my guide, some years it's down, but most others the place fishes like magic. If I go again, I'm telling my guide to not worry about numbers, and put my on a 13+ Don't care if I fish all day for one bite. Lake Zaza in Cuba (obv not in the USA) - Supposed to be completely insane with potential world records swimming around. 25 pounders have supposidly been caught by accident in local fishermans nets. Falcon and Amastad - If you watch the Bassmasters Elite series you have to love 'em right? Castaic Lagoon - If it's good enough for Butch Brown, it's good enough for me. But my true "dream lake" would be the one I build if I ever win the lottery and have a few million to toss around. You'd all be welcome to fish it, but you might get bored to death catching over 100 6-20 pound LMB's every time you fished it. ;D ;D

When I was in Cuba some of the locals in Trinadad talked of 25 pounders being caught in fishemens nets. Once Castro dies, it's gunna be open season down there for true genetic miracles. Lake Lebrije has supposidly produced a 22.5 pound bass and a 22 pound bass on the same day. I also heard it was confirmed that at least a dozen bass larger than the world record that were caught in Cuba, but not one was caught legally. Experts say that Lake Zaza in Cuba may be Cuba's finest bass lake. A website I saw said it once produced 31 bass over 10 pounds, 202 between 8 and 10 pounds and 608 bass between 6 and 8 pounds during one 5 day fishing experience.

Yep. And dont forget about what Bill Murphy calls "prelude spots" These spots are locations where the bigger bass start their transition from their winter homes to shallower water to spawn but still remai deep. Theyre the furthest structural areas the bass associate with their eventual spawning areas. The bass hold to these spots for a while to climatize. This happens before most anglers even want to start fishing because they think it's still to cold and not worth it so they wind up missing out big time. Even when many anglers DO fish at this time, they're concentrating on the shallows. Thats fine but when many bass are hitting the shallows to spawn, the big mamas are still hanging out in those pre spawn edges/prelude depths just waiting for your jig to twitch by.

Every home run hitter strikes out once in a while. Bass sometimes swing and whiff as well, especially with fast moving baits like buzzbaits. Once in a while however, I swear it seems that it could also be the basses instincts taking over at the very last second as it senses something is "wrong."

Lucky Craft Pointer 65XD and Pointer 78XD Lucky Craft Flat CB D20 Or RC 1.5 DRS Sexy Chartreuse Shad for shallower

I was watching the 2008 bassmasters this weekend. I forgot who it was, but some poor pro angler, forgot to cull a fish after he caught a MONSTER. He had to drive directly to the start and have a rep from the tourney toss his biggest fish back into the lake. He basically lost the tourney because of it. Just sick. It got me to thinking about dumb stuff I've done on the water. Like two summers ago when I lost four expensive crank baits in 4 casts because I'm so d**n stubborn and kept casting to the same spot thinking "I'm not gunna get hung up this time." Or when I didn't turn the cap enough on my pontoon boat after filling it up with air. Real fun getting halfway across the lake when I hear the cap pop off the pontoon and a rush of air shoot out. Not as much fun however, as when the boats right side started sinking and I realized making it back to shore, a dry human being just isn't gunna happen. Any of you guys ever do anything super dumb or funny while you're fishing?

Im a firm believer that once you FIND the fish, pretty much anyone who's halfway descent at bass fishin' can catch them. Especially once they throw enough at them. For guys like me it's not the fishing part that's difficult, it's understanding the fish's behavior(thus where they are located) based on time of year, water clarity, water temps, the thermocline, barometric pressure, structure, cover, food source and every other thing that makes them behave they way they do. I hear pro anglers all the time talking about what the shad do when a certain lake starts getting more current at a specific spot, or what the females do when the water hits a certain tempurature, or where the spawning routes and other routes are and how the fish use them to spawn and move around a lake to hunt. That knowlege is invaluable and I don't seem to have it yet. I think for the pro angler, the hardest thing about bass fishing is different than what guys like me think of. For the pro, I guarentee the toughest thing for them is all the time they have to spend away from family and friends, being on the road. All the travel, and driving the boat across country back and forth, and then to find time for their sponsers on top of all that has GOT to be a gigantic pain in the butt. Spending half the time on the water, and the other half at bass Pro Shops, boat shows, lectures, designing lures etc. etc. is a monster grind I just don't know if i could handle.

First off, the 2 oz rule is as stupid or more stupid than the "tuck rule" in the NFL Secondly, there's no way Perry's bass ever existed imo. I'm sure he caught a giant bass, but there's no way it was 22+ pounds according to everything I've read. Unless my information is wrong Perry's bass couldn't have been 22+ If it was, can anyone PLEASE explain this discrepancy. Kuritas bass = 27.2 inches long and a girth of 26.7 inches. Perry's bass = 32 1/2 inches in length and 28 1/2 inches in girth. Both fish supposidly weighed the same. Isn't that kinda, physically impossible?

Nice Glenn! I have a stupid question/request. If you get a chance to talk to Rick Clunn, could you possibly ask him what he feels the relationship between quantum physics and bass fishing is?

Considering you wrote "A 10-11 pound northern strain is a really big northern, while a 10 pound Florida is barely a "good fish". That basically means a 6 pound LMB for you is a "dink." If that's really your experience where you fish, I don't know whether to feel amazingly sorry for you because you can't fish, or call you amazingly spoiled. Either way, you're one lucky dude so don't feel TO bad.

A 10-11 pound northern strain is a really big northern, while a 10 pound Florida is barely a "good fish".

Again, I asked this a few months ago, but there's a lot of new members, and old one's that have new strengths. So..... What are your fishing strengths? Some of mine are: 1. Patience. I can work over a spot until my fingers bleed(sometimes a weakness) 2. Finesse fishing 3. Intuition/Being in the zone - Many times I can almost "feel" where the fish are going to be. 4. I'm a good teacher. I enjoy and am good at teaching rookie anglers how to catch bass. 5. Top Water. I simply crush it on topwater baits. 6. Accurate casting. I can throw a lure 50 yards on a dime. 7. Catching bigger bass. I consistantly catch bigger bass than all of my friends and other anglers on the same ponds and lakes I fish. 8. Desire and Passion. I have a "Mike Iaconelliish" passion for the sport. When I talk about bass fishing or hear a lecture on bass fishing, I "Glow." 9. Fighting with the Bait Monkey. I've gone many rounds with this beast and I admit, he's beaten me pretty bad at times. Mostly however, I have him under control. 10. I'm smart enough to have found my way to Bass Resource

I have tournament ***. Each and every one of you anglers who attends this thing has GOT to pay massive attention to everything that goes on so you can give everyone here a full report. I wanna hear about everyones adventure! Glenn are you going to do any of those famous interviews this year? I love watching and listening to them.

I asked this a bunch of months back. But now with lots of new members, as well as old members who might have NEW weaknesses (and/or hopefully fixed their old weaknesses from a year ago) I thought I'd ask again.... What are your bass fishing weakneses? Some of mine in no particular order are... 1. I stink at reading the electronics I have for my pontoon boat, I could be float over a shell bed or just mud and I couldnt tell the difference. 2. I'm not good with a spinnerbait, swimbait or Jigs. 3. Stubbornness. If I feel there's fish on a spot, I won't leave the spot even though I'm not catching anything with lots of different lures in different levels of the water column. Instead of staying for 30 minutes at a dead spot and then moving to another area, I might stay for 90 minutes or even more. 4. Fishing deeper water 5. I stink with a baitcasting reel. Maybe if I ever buy a nice one, I'll get better. 6. Finding patterns. Just haven't gotten good at it yet. It's tougher finding patterns being a shore fisherman 80% of the time. 7. I'm semi cheap. I never buy the good stuff when it comes to rods and reels and baits like high quality cranks and swimbaits. I feel this makes a difference sometimes. All my gear is so..... Average. 8. I have more weakness but I'm starting to depress myself

Looks like canadians should be okay however.

I disagree. I feel like I've accomplished something more when I catch a 18" wild Brown Trout, in its natural habitat, than when I catch some genetically mutated 5 lb. Rainbow trout in a stocked pond. And trust me, the wild Brown Trout is much more challenging. I do agree that in bass fishing bigger is always better, but that isn't the case with every species. Genetically mutated in a stocked pond? Okay, well I guess I wasn't thinking about bizzare scenarios like that. The point I'm trying to make is that everything is relative. I feel like you and others who say numbers are more important are kidding yourselves. You can prove me wrong very easily. Just tell me that when you're fishing for wild brown trout you'd rather catch 12 wild brown trout in the 12-16 inch range, than you would ONE 40 inch wild brown trout at some point during the day, and thats that. Same with the steroid genetically mutated pond. If you happen to one day get the itch to go to said pond, and you can tell me you'd rather catch 13 genetically mutated 17 inch fish or ONE 49 inch genetically mutated fish, then once again, that's that and i'll believe you prefer numbers over weight. I just can't see how that's possible to want to catch numbers over a potential state record sized monster. Either way, to each his/her own and I hold nothing against you numbers guys. If there are truely any numbers guys out there.

People who say they'd rather catch "numbers" than catch that Rhino make me laugh so hard! I'd take getting skunked for an entire spawn just to catch and release a fish with that relative size from ANY species. LOOK at that thing!!!!!! I can't stop staring at it. What a preditor!

To say "bigger isn't better" is the craziest thing I've ever heard. If you're one of those guys/girls who says he/she would rather just catch as many fish as you can on any given day, compared to catching weight, I tend not to believe you. Let's say after fishing 6 hours in a day, you catch 37 bass in the 1-2 pound class, then in the last 5 minutes of the day you catch a 13 pounder. You're telling me that when you go home you're gunna feel more exited about catching the 37 than you are about the 13 pounder? Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. People who say numbers are better than weight are just saying that to be different or get attention IMO. Millions of people catch good numbers every day, but only a select few, are nabbing the biggest fish in their respective ponds/lakes/steams/rivers on a regular basis. that's because over the long haul, catching bigger bass is a much bigger challenge than catching MORE bass IMO.. Why get into something, whether it's chess, poker, football, or fishing if you're not going to want to be challenged? The biggest challenge, and the biggest feeling of self achievment in fishing, is catching the monsters. Period. Is catching 100 fish in 8 hours super fun? Duh! Of course it is. It's about as much fun as you can have in a day. But I'd rather catch a lake or state record this spring, than catch the "most fish I've ever caught' at the same lake.

Very cool stuff. I wish this post didn't get moved here and was allowed to stay in the General bass fishing section. I think we'd have gotten a TON of responses and learned about a lot more people.

Never seen one before but HOLY MAMA! Peackock bass are absolutely beautiful! I'm blown away! http://www.mexico-bass.com/images/g31.jpg

Just curious how many of you are pulling a "Tiger Woods" and have affairs with other fish species besides LMB. SMB don't count as I already know many of you fish for them. I'd also love to know how fishing for, and catching your "other fish" compares to fishing for and catching LMB specifically. Is the other species as fun to hunt for and catch? Does the other species fight and attack like a LMB etc. etc.

Who taught you how to bass fish and what lake(s) did you learn on? Personally I taught myself how to fish when I was 10. My Dad wasn't into it as much as teaching me hoops, baseball, basketball etc etc. I'd fish this small lake in Illinois that you couldn't even bring boats on. It was down the street from where I grew up and it was called lake Elenor. I'd walk the 4 blocks with my bucket of nightcrawlers and ugly stick just hoping so hard to catch a bass. I used nightcrawlers exclusively and had no idea what the heck I was doing but I loved it. I stopped fishing when i was 15. I rekindled my love for the sport 3 years ago when I was 38 and learned how to be a GOOD bass fisherman quite quickly. That was thanks to all you guys here at bass resource. So happy holidays and thanks to all y'all here at BR. Without you, I wouldn't know a Senko from a Jerkbait or ever had a shot at the bigger bass I consistantly catch. (Sorry for rambling)

Interesting WRB. I grew up thinking the opposite. I never believed that story or the picture that has surfaced in the past couple years. Never made any sense to me. I wonder what % of the people on bass resource believe Perry's fish was the "real deal" and what % don't. For a day or two, Raul had me thinking Perrys bass was 22+ and the "real deal," but I just can't wrap my mind around it being so. Has to be bogus.

WRB, when you say "fiction or non fiction" are you refering to the actual size of perrys bass, or the fact that he even caught it, or just the story surrounding HOW he caught it?

Rick Clunn is my answer. He is the only fisherman I've ever heard that has talked about the relationship between quantum physics and fishing. I have studied quantum physics for a few years now and find it completely facinating. I've always seen a relationship between fishing and Quantum mechanics, and to hear an actual known pro agree with me is super cool. I'd love to pick his brain about this.