paul.

congratulations. look like good 'uns to me.

welcome. this site is great.

new here myself and these guys have been nothing but cool to me. you'll like it here. welcome.

the black spots are pigmentation marks. kinda like freckles on people. seems like i read somewhere that the condition is called "black blotch". it's harmless.

you'll like it here. i'm new myself and these guys have been nothin' but cool to me.

lunkers!!! congratulations on another good day. hope you get the other fish you need.

congratulations. sounds like ya had a good day.

congratulations on y'all's cold weather fish. sounds like ya had a good day.

what a day! that's awesome man. iknow of several cases where cameras, cell phones and other elctronics have gotten real wet. after a few days of drying, sometimes they are fine. i had a cell phone that was completely submerged 3 times and each time it worked fine after a few days drying time. like an idiot, i left our digital camera sitting on top of the truck and forgot about it a few months ago. drove off and ran over it. they DON"T survive that. > anyway, congrats again on your lunkers. that'd be enough to make me forget about the camera.

i have had too many probs with bps to fool with em via mail. now i do buy from their stores in person, but baits only - no rods or reels. i'll relate 2 examples of their excellent customer service : for the benefit of anyone it may save the same hassle. couple of years ago i got a reel from em. well i use braid which is notoriously tough on reels and the drag stripped out of it within a month. i called and complained. they nicely said, no problem we'll exchange. asked me if i wanted a reel like the one that tore up. 'course i said no, and chose another of the same price range. well it arrived about a week later, obviously a used reel (probably a return from some other unlucky customer) in a cardboard shipping box. no reel box, instructions, warranty. and the kicker was that i guess they decided to save me some trouble, b/c the drag was ALREADY messed up on this reel right out of the box!!! boy was i i called em back on the spot and just demanded they give me my money back. which they did and i have not bought one of their reels again - nor will i. speaking of their reels, i have a good fishin' buddy who showed up one day with 2 of their new johnny morris top of the line baitcasters. he oo'ed and ah'ed over them, and i bet him they'd tear up within 3 months. well, i was wrong. it only took one month. he told me he opened em up to see what the prob was and was so p.o.'ed to open em up and find plastic gears inside his $150+ reels. he got a rude awakening to find out what his high dollar reels were really worth. meanwhile my 60-70 dollar pinnacles are still alive and well, as is my shimano cardiff. to me, bps gives new meaning to the phrase "buyer beware!"

hmmm, bass on live mice. look out world record, i'm headed to cali with a towsack full of 'possums!!!!

i'd definitely give it a shot. if the water is murky, you may have to rely on something that makes some comotion, maybe like a buzzbait crawled as slow as you can and still keep it on top. maybe a popper with long pauses between pops. or a super spook walked a few feet then pause for a few secs. but it sounds like you are just hamering them on a trap right now, so i wouldn't try anything new for too long before going back to that. i never question success. if it works, keeps using it until it stops. i'll tell you another DEADLY cold water tactic. a shallow running crank with some suspend strips attached to the belly. crank it down, long pause, couple of twitches or cranks, long pause. i've caught em on this in 3 ft. of water when water temp was 36 degrees. good luck and i hope you keep on whackin' 'em!

That is a great report. I would be happy with the day you had all because of that 7.5 LB bass. Yeah I hate missing big fish... we all do but at least you were able to land a lunker bass and get a nice 4 LBer as well. I realy am suprised that you had a fish attack a top water at this time of year though. I thought once it started cooling down that the bass would not take a topwater bait anymore. Anyway I am sure you will get that first bass that attacked the topwater at some point.... thank you 5pb. water temps are actually not that cold here, about 55-56 degrees. granted, i'd rather fish water that has risen to 55 degrees (springtime), than fallen to 55 degrees, but 55 ain't that bad either way. for what it may be worth, my day debunks 3 commonly held myths about cool water fishin': 1. cool water fish won't bite topwater presentations. not true. the fact is they most definitely will, expecially in smaller waters where the temp is almost uniform throughout. i think it's always important to cover the entire water column in your seach for fish. never rule out or assume anything. 2. as the water cools, you must downsize to appeal to finicky lunker bass. wrong again. i think a big bait appeals to a big fish regardless of conditions. not sayin' you can't catch em on small baits, there's just no need to put up your big ones. 3. cool water fish retreat to deep water and stay there until spring. definitely false. i think a certain portion of fish remain shallow all year long. even those that do "go deep" will make brief forrays into the shallows to feed at times. well i hope this helps someone. that's the spirit i intend it in anyway. don't want to sound preachy or like a know-it-all, cause i sure ain't. i'm a new guy here and still learning a ton myself. i hope y'all catch some this week.

congrats on a great day. sounds like you whacked 'em.

bottom line, am i wasting my time from the shore in cold weather???? as opposed to what, sitting at home wondering whether you coulda caught one if you went? i do agree with road warrior though. hit the ponds if you can. even though i have caught cold water bass roaming the banks of big water, it can be like finding a needle in a haystack. as far as most bass going deep in the winter, this is simply not true. i have caught plenty in 3-4 ft. of water with 38 degree water temps. even if they do spend most of their time deep, they will still "move up" to feed periodically. but these windows can be very small and short -lived. i agree with raul though. sometimes it ain't all about catchin'.

hey y'all. went today for just a couple of hours to a little lake fairly close to home. it was raining off and on (mostly on). i started out chunking a big super shad rap (basically a saltwater version that's as big as my hand). started out twitching it on top. well, it didn't take long before i got an absolute MONSTER BLOW-UP, by far the best topwater hit i have had all year. i just about jumped out of my skin it was so loud, abrupt and violent. well, as luck would have it, the fish just flat missed the bait and try as i might, i couldn't get her to come back for seconds. i don't like to guess at fish i don't get a good look at, but i'm tellin' ya, the strike alone weighed 8 pounds ;D. seriously, i think it mighta been a double digit fish or real close. made se so mad >. well after i got my heart back in rhythm and stopped shakin', i started throwing the big shad rap again, this time working it like a jerkbait underwater (twitch, twitch, pause) hoping that they might not miss it like that. caught an ambitious 2 pounder in short order that was apparently determined to make that big plug the only meal he had to eat for 2 weeks. of course landed that dink with no problem, which made me even madder about missing the hawg. about ten minutes later a biggun' (probably 6+) swiped at the bait about 6 ft. in front of me, but missed it. but she came back the next cast and nailed it. had her on for a few secs, but she came unbuttoned and now i was really p.o.'d! . after that, i couldn't get another bite on the big shad rap. i decided to slow down a little and started fishin' a brush hog. changed to a spinnin' rod w/ 10 lb. test just for kicks. caught a 4 pounder pretty quick-like and released it. soon after, set the hook on another, and the drag started hollerin'. she did herself proud fightin', esp. on the spinning rod. she was a pretty good 'un alright - 7-5. got the pic below and quickly released her. called it quits after that. so i guess a pretty good day after all. but man oh man, i wish i woulda got a hook in that first one! i hope to meet up with her again soon. hope y'all are catchin' some too!

your list plus all these other suggestions sound like good choices to me. hopefully the fish will let you know pretty quick what they like. i hope you just slay 'em. good luck man.

congrats man. that's fantastic!

nice fish man! congrats. always nice to reach new milestones in your fishin'.

that's a real nice one. congrats big time!

since you don't have a fishfinder, might be a good idea to throw a searchbait like a rattletrap right off the bat. they sling a mile and you can cover a lot of water and maybe locate some active fish. since you were hoping for choices other than soft plastics and you already mentioned a crankbait, here's a good list to try. spinnerbaits, jerkbaits, and if the water isn't too cold, topwater. my strategy when i fish new water or water i haven't been on in a while is to always select an array of baits with which i can cover the entire water column - from surface to in your case 8-10 ft. i don't know if by plastics you mean all plastics or only plastics that are bottom-fished, cause a fluke or a trickworm would be an excellent choice. do you have any idea what the water temp will be? that would be helpful in narrowing down choices and presentation. it is entirely possible also that you will find the underwater vegetation to be not nearly as thick as it was during the summer. hope this helps. i hope to do some pond fishin' myself soon. good luck.

thank you ALL for your warm welcome and kind words. i am looking forward to some good times here. to answer your questions, the avatar bass weighed 14-2. caught in a watershed lake fairly close to my home in TN. that is the fish that changed my fishin'. have a good one y'all. good luck out there this week!

hey yall. another new guy here just wantin' to say "hi". i just started on this board a few days ago (registered in oct. but couldn't do anything for a while due to computer issues). i gotta say i'm really impressed with this board and the guys here so far that i've read. the site as a whole just plain rocks. i'm looking forward to learnin' everything i can about bassin' in general and it certainly seems that i've come to the right place. i am trying really hard to learn to become a better trophy lmb fisherman and would be really grateful to meet any others here who share the same interst so that hopefully i can pick up a trick or 2. here's to new friends. good fishin' to all of ya!

How cold is too cold to stop getting bit on faster presentations like cranks and spinnerbaits? interesting question. my 2 cents would be that these two baits do not have to be "faster presentations" - esp. in cold water. last winter, i caught plenty of bass in 38 degree water, only about four feet deep, on a shallow running crankbait. but i was not fishing it fast. i put suspendstrips on it. cranked it down, LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG pause. crank the handle a few turns. pause again. the hits would usually come on the pause, as the bait just sit there motionless. you can also catch plenty of bass slow rolling a s'bait. this is not to say that fish won't hit fast moving baits in cold water - it's just not your best bet.

just a thought here. i've learned there are three very important "W's" in bassin. what, where, and when. everyone usually wants to focus on the first, but i believe that where and when are far more important. anyway, it sounds like you have pretty much covered "what" as you have thrown everything but the kitchen sink it seems, using a variety of presentations. sounds like yours could be a "where" or a "when" problem. it could very well be that for a variety of reasons, the bass have moved offshore making them inaccessible to you. some good explainations have already been offered as to possibly why. another thing to consider is that you might be missing the prime feeding window, which tends to really shorten as water temps drop in the late fall/ early winter after the big fall feed. the fish you slayed all summer had jacked up metabolisms and were feeding often, maybe even for hours at a time. now, with dropping water temps, their metablolisms have slowed, and they do not need to eat nearly as often. ironically, the bass' metabolism which was working FOR YOU in the summer now could be kinda working AGAINST YOU. timing is at a premium as fishin' gets tough with dropping temps. there have been times with cooling water temps that i have fished all day with little or no success - but then the fish "turn on" and in areas where i had been hauling water, the fish seem to suddenly be all over the place, and very cooperative. you just whack em for a few minutes, sometimes on several consecutive casts. but then it's over just as quickly as it began. but that little flurry of activity can really make your day sometimes. you just have to be there when it happens. miss it by a minute, and you might as well have missed it by a week. there are many fishing charts and calendars which might be able to help you predict hot bites. but don't lose hope. they still have to eat. and they will still bite. you just have to be there when the dinner bell rings. well this turned out longer than i wanted, but i hope it helps you. good luck. there's no such thing as a bad fishin' trip, as long as you learn something.