Bass_Akwards

Start at the north west side of the lake, it gets the most sun, therefore will have more vegatation in general. Texas rig a Senko, watermellon w/black flake. Cast to cover or to the bank, and let it fall on a slack line. many times you'll get bit before the Senko hits the bottom, so pay attention to your line. If no strike on the fall, let the Senko sit on the bottom for about as long as you can physically and mentally stand it, or at least until the rings on the water die out. You can retieve it 3 nice ways. You can Pop the Senko all the way back to the boat/shore, OR S-L-O-W-L-Y reel the senko as if it's a real worm. Do this for 15 feet and stop for a sec, repeat, OR SWEEP the Senko, with 6'' - 12'' sweeps of your pole, pausing and sweeping the whole way back to the boat/shore. The ladder is the most popular. If you're not catching anything after a good 30 minutes, move to a different spot. T

Most of the time during spawn, I won't hit bedding fish intentionally though. I leave them alone and instead will push off the banks a little bit and catch pre/post spawners or fish that just won't move into the beds.

My friend joined a fishing club here in Colorado last year. The club is brand new. There's only 15 guys who fish this private lake, and they can bring guests. The lake is about 50 acres. He invited me tonight to go fishing with him for the first time, as we are kinda "new friends" He told me today, that Colorado Division of Wildlife just tested and shocked the lake. It has the best quality PH Count as well as other factors in Boulder County if not the state. They shocked it this weekend and found at least two bass that they feel are state records, as well as a few croppy they feel go between 4-5 pounds. I'll be fishing this lake 2 hours before sunset, and 2 hours after. What is the first lure/bait you guys would throw when you get out there? The lake has a channel that runs through it, and they burried many christmas trees and anchered them to the bottom for cover. Water is slightly stained and 70 degrees. Male Bass are just starting to make nests in some of the lakes I've fished in the past few days of the same size and within a couple miles of the lake ill fish tonight. Thanks!

Don't forget the ole Jitterbug

HOLY CARP! LOOK AT THIS!

When I'm bass fishing at my local ponds, just like many of you, I see fish jumping. The other night it was getting dark and I couldn't see what was going on, but it seemed like the pond was boiling. Fish jumping and splashing everywhere! Some of them BIG splashes. Does anyone know if these are carp? If these are bass? Is it both? Sometimes it's to dark to tell the color of the fish that's jumping. Do carp jump? If so, why? Are they bedding? I cast to the area where they jump, and many times don't get a bite. What gives? >

I find that reeling the worm in as slow as i possibly can, without stopping, all the way back to shore/boat, is a great way to crush them. Not sure if any of you others have the same experience, but it has worked great for me. I don't see or read people teaching others to fish plastic worms this way that often, and I do it when I'm not getting a bite by fishing it the traditional way. I'm not talking slow retrieve, I'm talking S-L-O-W. as in literally pretending you're a worm sloooooowwwwly crawling on the bottom. It's slow fishing, but it's exiting too. Anyone else do this with any success?

Thanks. Exactly what I'm talking about. I think I'm fishing it to fast.

When you guys are retrieving a floating jerkbait, how are you doing it? I'm most curious about the pause. If you go, "Jerk, Jerk Pause" are you pausing long enough to let the bait sit on the top water floating? How long do you let it float for? Are you letting the fish tell you how long you should pause it? Do you ever fish it like a crank bait with a steady retrieve? Saw a guy KILLING it the other night doing this. I've been trying different things but with little success. Help?

You say youre done with classes, but coming to this site is almost like going to Largemouth university. Prepare to learn a TON about everything you can imagine that has to do with bass and fishing in general. It's almost insane how much knowlege, info, experience, intelligence, and diversity there is here. So welcome and enjoy. todd

Boulder Colorado comin' at ya with a couple 5+. females. One is 19 inches and one is 18.5.

Post a good Bass Fishing Haiku.. Just in case you're not sure, a hauiku is a Japanese poem composed of three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables. I just thought of a few.... Calm, foggy, morning Throw my line in, I wonder What could be down there? ------------------------------------------------------------ WHAM! GOT A BIG ONE!! THIS MIGHT BE A WORLD RECORD! Oops I snagged a carp. ------------------------------------------------------------- Oh Great Bait Monkey It's all because of you sir, that I have no cash.

Whats the biggest test line I can still use with a spinning reel? What brand is best. I've tried a couple 15# tests and they're like piano wire.

I've been fishing this new pond. I've fished a bunch of different lures. The rattle trap has been the most sucessful. The problem is, I lose a trap every 10 casts or so. It's driving me insane! I asked a guy the other day, who was on his float tube with a depth finder, "what kinds of cover and structure are you seeing down there?" He said the over whelming thing he was seeing were sunken, fallen trees and timber. I've been losing jigs and traps at record pace on these trees. Does this mean I shouldn't be throwing traps and cranks anymore? Or am I just fishing them wrong? I like to let my trap fall to the bottom, and wiggle it a little, then swim it for a second, and let it fall to the bottom where I make it act like an injured or dying bait fish. The technique works, but it's costing me lots of cash in lost lures. I try to slam my cranks off the bottom and off the timber, but again, I keep getting hung up, same with jigs. This kinda sucks as it's a great Colorado fishery and all I can do is throw weedless soft plastics it seems. What do you guys do when fishing tons of sunken, fallen trees like this?

Fishing for Largemouth yesterday at a local pond. Would up fighting what I think was a monster cat before losing it after an epic 6 minute battle. This fight got into my soul. I'll never forget it. I want that fish. I want his dad. I want his Mom and I want his children. I want to catch them all. I want to lpick them up, look them in the eye, and let them know I finally won. I want them all to tell me I'm their daddy, and then I want to release them unharmed physically, but with their pride crushed. I have no idea how big a cat needs to be to fight with a 200 pound, in shape 39 year old, for 6 minutes on 10 pound test, maybe you guys would know, but someone PLEASE, tell me how to catch this monster and others like it. Circle hooks? Chicken Liver? What about the cat itself? Does it search for cover? Is it a cruiser? Do they hang deep? Shallow? Tell me about the channel catfish, and how to catch them please! The place I'm fishing is a 50 acre gravel pit filled with 1-8 pound bass, perch, crappie, bluegill carp and even trout in it. T

Snakehead. http://images.usatoday.com/news/_photos/2002-08-17-snakehead.jpg

Talked to some friends who have fished the pond longer then me by far. They told me there's huge catfish in there. I didn't know that. I bet that's what it was. Thanks for all your opinions fellas. I really wish I could have seen what it was. It's been killing me all day and night, and I know I'm going to have a hard time sleeping tonight. t

Why heavier line? The line didn't break, the lure came flying out of the water and almost hit me in the face. The darn hook(s) just came out. I had pressure on this fish the whole time and never was there slack line when it was on. I still literally can't get over the power this thing had, seriously unreal. I had to lean back and push the pole into my belly and the thing was still pulling me.

Okay guys I have a question that's kinda subjective and most likely depends on a few things, but I just want a general kind of answer from anyone who's landed a big bass or even a carp. The state of Colorado record LMB is 11.5 pds. I was just fishing a spot on the front range that is stocked with perch, crawdads, bluegill and other yummy forage for the LMB in there. I've heard of 7+ pounders come out of this place. Anyway I was just fishing with 10 pound test and a medium/heavy action rod and a pfluger supreme reel. I threw a rattle trap out and gave it a few quick jerks as it lay on the bottom. I felt a tap and set the hook. For literally the next 5+ minutes I fought this thing. It literally felt like a good friend of mine was under the water, pulling my line, as a practical joke. It bent my rod as far as it could be bent. I had to reset my drag even tighter as I reeled this fish in. I felt like I was deep sea fishing and had a huge marlin on! I'd get a few yards of line in and this thing would just pull as if it was a very large dog attached to the end of my line. After about 6 minutes, as I got this darn fish about 15 feet from shore, my rattle trap just shot out of the water and the fish was gone. I know there are gigantic carp in this pond, that grow to 40+ pounds, could I have snagged one? Is that likely? Would a 10-12 pound bass be this strong? I am 200 pounds and in shape and this thing was pulling to the point to where my biceps hurt. What does a 10+ pound bass feel like? ( I know, very tough to answer) Pleae tell me I probably snagged a carp, as I swear to god if this was a bass, I just lost the state record. I'm still shaking. T

I'm thinking the bass was already dead. Found by a couple 13 years olds, and they put the ball in it's mouth. I'm no tennis ball in fish mouth expert, but I love to gamble, and I put the odds at 3.5:1 against someone putting the ball in the fishes mouth, and letting it go. Just one fools opinion.

Completely depends on forage base and many other factors. I'm no expert either, but I do know that you can have two darn near identical ponds, 50 yards away from each other, that were stocked at the same time, (say 10 years ago) and have a different average size, as well as a bigger top end. 1 pond might average 1.5 pound bass and the other might average 2 pounds. One might have a class of 5 pounders as the heaviest in the pond, and the pond right next to it might have 6 or 7 pounders as the heaviest.

I think my weakness is not reazizing what my weaknesses are. It drives me insane. I have been fishing about a year. I've used everything from swimbaits, to Senkos. But how can you tell if you have a weakness for a certain bait? For example, I have used a crank bait about 200 casts. Never caught a d**n thing. I have read posts on this site on how to correctly fish a crank bait. I have made posts asking what the main weakness most people have using crankbaits is , and have tried to avoid those mistakes. Still, not a d**n bass on a crank bait. Do I stink at crankbait fishing? Is it a weakness? I can't tell. I feel like I'm doing most things correctly, but maybe i'm just terrible, ot maybe I'm just not where the fish are when I use my crank. Same thing with a jig. I read, study, watch, and learn how the pros and lots of guys on this board fish jigs. I've made 150 casts with a jig in various places and not a darn bass to show for it. Do I stink at jig fishing? Is it a weakness? Or do I just not have enough casts under my belt. Tough to say. It's very frustrating though.

Big Tom you should head to wood creek lake. Thats where your state record was caught in 1984. 13.10 is the record, so I'm guessing there's not a ton of 10+ in your state. Welcome to the club. Our Colorado state record is 11.5 pounds, I assume that's about the same size as the swimbaits "Fish Chris" uses to catch his monsters. T

I guess I should have asked "When is matching the hatch a good idea," and "when does it NOT matter." Seems to me after reading some of what you wrote, as well as looking at some of what KVD and Mike Ike have said, that matching the hatch is much more important when you're fishing clear water, or when the fish are feeding on a very specific bait, such as dragon flys, which was a popular dinner or lunch for the bass in Jersey where Icconelli learned to fish. Do the guys on this board who throw a lot of jigs care about matching the crawfish hatch in the lakes/ponds they fish or does it once again depend on water clarity, if at all? T

Instincts are huge and might mean different things at different times. And are difined by different people as different things. The example you used about the elephants and the tsunami isn't what I'd call instincts. The Elephants are reacting to the birds, who are reacting to the fish, who are reacting to what's going on in the water at the time of the tsunami. It's not so much "instincts", for the elepahnts as it is noticing small changes in the behavior patterns of individual animals around them, and acting accordingly. This could however, still be defined as instincts. I'm a professional poker player, and poker, just like fishing is a game of using your instincts to beat your opponent, in this case, a chunky, tournament bass. What separates the world class players in poker, and I have a hunch fishing as well, is the ability to draw on the millions of hands they've played (in poker) or millions of casts they have made, in fishing. Instincts come from everything that you've learned, seen, felt, and heard either consciously, and unconscious, in your given sport. Some people don't even pay attention to what is going on around them at the poker table, and their games suffer immensely. They're not paying attention to the way others at the table are playing, or what cards the others playing. They're not paying attention to their position, and many other factors that you need to be a winning pro. After a while, these people don't gain good instincts. They sit there and never get better, never learn, and never win money. Fishing is the same thing. The guys/women with the best instincts are the anglers who have paying attention for years and years. Who have cared about the game so much, that it hurts. Who have a passion for the game that has taken them beyond just a simple love for it. These people take notice of what other fisherman have done in the past, and what works and what doesn't. They have done their homework. They have studied the game. In the end, that passion, that love, that paying attention to details leads to a very unique instinct, and makes for a world class fisherman/woman, or poker player. Instincts might be something you're born with, but they can also be learned through years and years of repetition and passion, and I have a feeling that's why you chose that one specific downed log to fish. Something about that particular log, clicked in your brain, because of all the studying you've done, and all the casts you've made, all the research, and because of all the hard work you've put in over the years. It all comes together at one time to get you the perfect bass at the perfect time. A quantum physicist might look at it differently. They might look at it in terms of a more scientific angle. They might say that everything in this universe is made up of energy, and that we are all connected. People, animals, and everything else in the universe are all interrelated and are ONE! A quantum physicist might say that that no matter what any of us believe, you and that fish were connected, even before you caught it. Everything in the universe is connected, look it up, it's called "entanglement" and it's a beautiful thing based on scientific fact. A quantum physicist would say that because we're all connected, connected by energy, you literally "attracted" that fish into your life and you almost "Knew it was there." This is quantum physics in action, and helps explain, fomr a scientific standpoint why you chose that particular log, and had the "instincts" that you had. If you don't believe in quantum physics, go read a book called "the secret" or many other books on the subjest, or talk to your local Harvard quantum physicist. Whether you believe in that stuff or not, isn't important, what is important is that there are different ways of looking at "Instincts" Either way, instincts are very complex and come from different places depending on who you talk to. I found this thread to be very fasinating, thanks for makking the post. T