Paul Roberts

I'm a float tuber/yak'er too, and I like short crisp rods for jerks. Mine are 6fters, both cast and spin. And I'm building one for smaller lighter jerks now, starting with a 6'6" blank. It'll likely end up a bit shorter before I'm done.

Oh, Tom. I just saw this. Sorry to hear. Hoping for the best.

Drying up here too. I assume that all the on-line business has taken them out. I would stop by to grab something quick, but it's much more efficient to research and order something online.

Awesome. This is why I take temperature profiles, and have come to try to identify a "core" water temperature. When a pond is 40F, the entire pond top to bottom will be 40F. That's a mass of cold water, and the core temp is 40F. Anything colder or warmer will sit on top of that 40F core. Only thing that can change that to any measurable degree is incident radiation from the sun, which is now too low in the sky to affect water temps much, and on incident banks, and only skin deep. The other option is a heavy warm rain. But, my guess was it would have to be a lot of warm water to affect that core temperature very much. So, it would have been best to have a profile, or cheat and take a temp at ~4ft, to get an idea of what the mass of water out there, the "core", would be. That was a substantial change you recorded, +9F change at the surface. My guess the majority of that was at an inlet (?). Was it enough to draw fish up? Came and went so fast though, which is not surprising for January. Sounds like those last fish you caught were up in the inflow, which was not only the muddiest, but also warmest? I'm guessing that it was still the warmest water in the place, a bit above "core", and was warmer yet the previous days.

Yeah, I've found fish around inlets too, but it seems to be more about the structure of the spot that attracts. Then again, we rarely have ice here long enough for 02 issues to develop. The Ned Rig is a bass magnet. That along with hair jigs are my winter GoTo's, esp when searching for fish. Usually those two will reveal fish, if they are present. I do best with jerks early winter and very early spring. Maybe I'm just not patient enough! @Team9nine has done really well with small bladebaits. So far, they've only been sporadic producers for me. He's a darn good angler so I may simply be missing something. Although he appears to have been a relying on Ned's lately. Here's one of the videos I've made on winter fishing small waters. It doesn't advertise my channel so it should be ok to post: https://youtu.be/TH8AMqSTdFw

Yeah, I suspect the biggest culprit is available/vulnerable prey. If there is little to eat, or possibly even too much, the bass can get mighty quiet. I'd guess the former is more common than the latter. But, like you found, most of the real estate in my ponds have few bass. They collected in prime locations.

It's not -or shouldn't be- just that pond! It's location in each pond. Sure some fish better than others in winter. But, there should be fish to be caught in any pond. Trick is finding them. Even 8acres can be a lot of real estate to cover during a short winter day at winter speeds.

I break the "pre-spawn" down. Lots going on "before the spawn". The first window is what I call the initial heat-up, when the water starts taking in heat. I also call it the spring "feeding binge period", or "The Binge". First thing bass do, esp the females it appears, is to put the feedbag on. Heating shallows (both shorelines and surface) can draw fish of all types. Find cover and heat and you could find yourself in what I call a "Carnage Zone". As things shift closer to the actual spawn, spawning substrate in areas with previous spawning success, will become the draw. So... you are looking for cover, heat, prey fishes first. These may not be right at spawning locations, although having them close together helps. Your inlet sounds like a big flat. I could see that heating up as the sun gets higher, and that happens earlier than most people realize. Telemetry, and fishing, have shown that bass will start moving shallow a lot earlier than many realize, and in many waters, set up right, that movement, or migration, can be a beeline. Since there is little channel left, your inlet is probably inundated by silt. This is not a great sign habitat wise. Although, if there is some sharper depth change in places, and hard cover objects like wood, the lack of habitat could actually help consolidate fish that do use the area. If the place is poor enough in habitat, few, or small, fish may use it. You'll just have to get to know it, like any other location on the lake. The fact that a 6lb female was caught during post-spawn suggests that there may be some spawning habitat in there. Good luck exploring. Sounds fun.

Always worth a look. But, coves, backwaters, marinas -protected areas- may be a better bet. That said, if there is spawning substrate along the shorelines of that inlet, then maybe. I guess I'd check the inlet shorelines for spawning substrate, that they are not all deep silt and mud. Nice thing about channels is that they can really pack in fish. I used to fish an inlet channel that drew a lot of bass from the lake bc it warmed quicker than the lake. Not so sure many spawned up in there, although there were smallmouth too and they'd actually run up the creek to spawn. LMs, not.

What might hold them off, or is often a deciding factor, is how stable water conditions -esp temperature- are in those areas. This is why bass generally spawn in "protected" areas; Protected from wind and waves, siltation, and temperature up-wellings. Places that produce young bass get return spawners. Those that fail, not so many.

Excellent review of "reviews". And excellent advice on navigating them.

Hi, Joseph. I see fish yawning quite often in my underwater videos. From what I've read, and what I believe I'm seeing, bass yawn for a number of reasons: -They are known to do this under oxygen stress, to accelerate water over the gills. So... apparently they actually do yawn for oxygen, like other animals. -They've been observed yawning when becoming active, say, to feed. This increasing level of arousal may require a surge of oxygen? -I think, it looks like, fish will yawn simply to stretch those muscles. It sure looks that way. -Bass yawn during spawning, a sign of arousal/aggression it appears. They will signal to other bass to stay away by opening the mouth -not a full yawn though- and by making biting gestures. They've made biting gestures at me too, standing on the bank. I've also seen/video'd excited males fully engulf the head of a female on the bed. Your bass is most probably excited, anticipating food. Bass can learn, and even anticipate, food. Something anglers should make room for in their fishing lexicon.

Wow! Great thread.

Hi, Rick. You are on the right track. Here's my general breakdown —my way of organizing the search— for homing in on “excellent” spots, and hopefully, “incredible” spots —what I call “Carnage Zones”: The starting point in terms of depth use by bass is generally water clarity, as you suspected. This is bc light penetration determines the depth limits of primary production —the foundation of the food chain. The clearer the water the deeper livelihoods can be made. But not every species can make livings just anywhere, even within that photic zone. So… the next question is available forage. Each species has different requirements that may or may not jive with bass's requirements —at least all the time— although few predators are as adaptable/versatile as bass; They tend to make use of whatever forage is there. Here, water temps and habitat type at those depths determine who lives where. Next is vulnerable prey, something many anglers don’t fully appreciate the importance of. Prey is not "food" until it's been found, captured, handled, and ingested. Structural characteristics (structure, cover, objects), and existing conditions and circumstances, determine the likely result of predator-prey interactions —and the likelihood that bass will revisit an area, and how often. Bass both intuitively recognize, and further learn, where and when prey are most likely to be vulnerable. Finding Carnage Zones —the holy grail in fishing and, in fact, for each rung in the food chain— is a matter of location and timing —those same where's and when's the fish are looking for. This requires intimacy with the particular water body. As we narrow things down, in time and place, things get more chaotic —dicier. That’s fishing. In fact, that’s pretty much… everything. It appear to be the way of the known universe. Thank the powers that be for obsession —that is, drive and perseverance. Flirting deeper into the chaos, narrowing things down to the nub, is the proverbial “spot-on-the-spot”. Structural characteristics, from a fish’s perspective, mean two main things: -Large scale topographical structures of importance are the “food shelves” (depth of these functionally determined by water clarity). -Smaller scale “objects” which fish —bass esp— relate to, or are meaningful to the fish. Physical “objects” that fish can make use of to hide in or make kills off of: logs, rocks, weed walls, the bottom, the surface, current seams, turbidity lines, even shadows... “Structure” is the ballpark, the playing field. “Objects” are the bases (1st, 2nd, 3rd…), etc…, where things intersect —where the action is. I suppose we could see the ball as the chaotic “timing” element, if you care to follow my analogy. Hope this helps put things into perspective. It’s a big job. And we’re just the monkeys to do it! No wonder some love baseball almost as much as we love fishing! Notice I said "almost".

@.ghoti. Sounds wonderful. I bet he'll be happy with that one. I'm playing around with an idea I'd like to try. And I think I'll stick with graphite for it. But thanks!

Apparently, cabin fever is setting in. Happy holidays all.

I understand that!

You are going to LOVE jerkbaits! Warmer air temps this late, at our latitude, tend to slow heat loss, but don't do a heck of a lot for heat gain. Need direct radiation / sun angle for that. Only places open in my waters now are where waterfowl are keeping spots open, and a few incident (N) shoreline edges. Water beneath that ice is 38, 39F, so it's gnawing away. Needs some help though. Radiation is the workhorse. Conduction, not so much.

Last outing... until we get a thaw. Revisited my shallow "Jungle Warfare" pond from this summer. Yeah, it looks a bit different now. 41F core water. Few fish in shallows. Found my fish in two "deep" cuts/channels, taking a half dozen beautiful winter bass. All on a 1/16oz Ned/Slider Head. Those "deep" cuts were 5 to 6fow, surrounded by 3 to 4fow.

Just... Wow! Fish match their background. Fish in cloudy water will match that even "spacelight"; That's what your fish was responding to. Fish in open clear water, and away from bottom or objects, can be silver without markings, what I've called "pelagic silver". Fish near bottom or cover take on markings. This can be faded in cloudy water, or very intense in clear water. Fish also adjust color and patterning by mood, esp noticeable during the spawn. Many spring spawning species begin such activity in the fall, only to be held off until spring. Some have even been known to attempt spawning in the fall on warm years (yellow perch, chain pickeral, rainbow trout). Fish populations that must migrate a distance may begin that migration/run in the fall, and then winter over part way. This is why their are, or sadly were, year-round salmon runs in the Pacific NW, due to distance needed to travel to spawning grounds.

Great shot of a winter bass. Only water we have open now is where the waterfowl have congregated. I'm going to leave them be.

Thanks, DVT. I see that the lower mod blanks are pretty darn light in weight as it is.

@.ghoti. Thanks. I was hoping you'd pipe back in. I found the Rodgeeks blanks on the St.Croix site, without the blank John suggested. That RS blank looks to be the closest. Or the 7fter trimmed. Nice to know their blanks are a bit underrated in terms of power. Something to try anyway, as they won't break the bank either. I built a small stream dry fly rod from a Batson blank, RS I believe. I was looking for something special then too. I wanted a short XF 4wt. Batson was the only outfit that made such a beast. Talk about tight loops, and bow-n-arrow casting! Anyway, thanks for the advice. I suspect that strong Mod rods -along the lines of Kistler's H-Mod- could be popular workhorses with modern materials. I'm not likely going to be the one to do that work though.

Thanks, Tom. I've since been looking into popping blanks. "Looking for a parabolic bend without a slow tip is tall pole to climb." Ah, that's why I've been considering pruning the tip!

MH 10-20lb Moderate 6'6", one way or another.