Paul Roberts

Love the "Here Kitty, Kitty...". That comparison was never lost on me! :)) Interesting take on the subject. Once upon a time I adhered to that 'never touch the line' thing, -no let me say this right: "NEVER TOUCH THE LINE!!" :)) This was bc I'd lost fish that way -once upon a time. I blamed it on the "short line thing", the loss of stretch that can give, at the hook point, to a fish's weight or exertions. But I came to realize this was most an issue with small hooks, and esp small short-shanked hooks, and esp up-eye hooks! In that last case, "DON"T TOUCH THE LINE!!" In fact, lose those short-shank up-eyed hooks altogether, or snell them! That's the way they were meant to be used in the first place. And, of course, make sure your line can handle the weight of the fish! This seemingly obvious one I mention bc of the following painful episode that's still fresh in my mind: While visiting family near Erie, PA, I watched a man on a Presque Isle pier try to lift a good 3lb smallie 6ft up the pier wall, with 4lb mono! Feeling the gravity of the situation (!), I thought, "No! no, no-no-no... Don't do it!!" But I kept my trap shut, and let him do his thing. I glanced around for the closest net to borrow, but the line snapped, and the bass was gone. The man then turned and cussed out his wife! Somehow I don't expect to see that between Glenn and Keri, for technical as well as civility reasons! But, who knows what gets edited out?! ? ? More to the point, fish are essentially weightless when in the water, but touch terra firma and they instantly have weight! I've watched many a steelhead break off as anglers try to beach a fish. I now will grab the line, without hesitation, even with a fish in the water. And gosh, I've never considered the loaded rod thing... I'll pay attention now as I land fish. I think... the rod is always pointed up and away, esp with longer and faster rods. But, I'm not sure that's always going to be the case. Something like that only has to go wrong once, for it to be significant. I think we all learn not to pull at a snag, straight in! That's asking for serious trouble. Hopefully, we sense the building tension pointed right at us! Reminds me of the time, as a teenager, I lined up square to a cinder block with a .22 rifle. I almost pulled the trigger, but sensing the potential, I made one step left, and the bullet snipped the grass right next to my right leg. I'm in a float tube, yak, or on the bank, a lot. On a larger boat, high enough off the water, I simply like a net with non-tangling mesh of some type. I've never been a 'flipper', except for small fish, that won't over-stress the rod (that's all about the rod angle), or let the fish beat about the floor of the boat (I'm a fan of that MLF rule, if not for the fish's health but the respect it shows). I've not grabbed the line as you and Keri do however. Will consider it, and see if I can shed some of that remaining automatic bias I acquired -once upon a time. If anything, I've come to... landing fish, and indeed fighting fish, is all about keeping smooth and appropriate (firm) tension on that hook -keeping them swimming, lulling them into submitting- however you choose to get them to hand.

Yeah, forecasts are just that, a forecast, a prediction based on a bunch of variables. Either way, they gather up the probabilities, and make an educated guess. Pretty much like we do in fishing. It's a wild a woolly world out there.

Yeah, well... whatever. I'm pretty nerded out after my last post on the first-cast superstition . Interesting topic here, not so much the reasons for the red teeth, that's been discussed a bunch and the bottom line is the real work hasn't been done to explain the physiology behind it. I'm more interested lately in how "information" gets believed. Keep going back to a buddy who once said, "A little information can be a dangerous thing." Then there's Occam's Razor (the elegant answer), Cooper's Law ("Don't assume conspiracy for what can be better explained by ignorance", and Carl Sagan's, "Opinion is easy; Knowledge takes work.") At least in fishing, little harm can come beyond an ego bruise. And we all get used to that.

? warning... This is a natural statistical error. We don't weigh events evenly. And we come by it honestly, bc to ignore the power of possible events could be disastrous. But we don't always have a good handle on weighing the relative power or significance of things. And we tend to err on the side of caution. Thus... measurement! As things get complicated though (inc number of variables at play), we end up measuring probabilities -the world of statistics- and spend more time refining questions than expecting pat answers. Even though pat answers are expeditious, and/or comforting. So... the first cast (of the day) seems to be given some kind of extra weight over all other casts. Understandable. Don't know about you, but I've often got pretty high expectations at that point. And, subsequent casts after a catch -anytime- are most often a let-down. Unless, you've hit the mother-lode!! Which... can happen. That said, there can be some truth to the power of the first cast. Repeated casts can spook fish, so it often pays to make that first cast count. If you've ever raced the crowds to be first on a good steelhead run at the crack of dawn, to hit that very real "first light bite", you'll have this driven into your bones. What was it steelhead sage Lani Waller once said, "Be first. Or be different" (another kind of "first"). And there are many other first-cast scenarios that are known. But there are also repeated-cast scenarios with power too. Yeah, it's just not a simple answer. K.I.S.S. is a great, and comfortable, idea. If you've done the work to make it effective -if effective is what you are after.

I guess if I had to ask one question it would be: What line weights will you be using? 8-14lb (monos) I'd go M; 12-17lb, I'd go MH.

Yee-ha! Nice camera set-up. Are you using a wireless lavalier?

Both, depends on where they need to go. Through dense cover, or in deep water, I've most likely got weight on. In shallow open water I'm more apt to be weightless; But not always. Lots of space in between those extremes.

And then factor in the functional (biological/ecological) of these areas, under the -albeit potentially broad- filter of the species you're targeting. Map areas can best be considered zones where biological activity takes place. Also realize that bass, esp LM's, are "object-oriented" critters, so learning a lake really must happen at a much finer scale than almost any map out there. Until you make your own by drawing in the details of what you learn. And, as the lucid1 mentions, things change over time, more so than many might expect.

It's always been a click-bait world, even before there were "clicks". Drawing an audience is what media must do. But, it has got out of hand, or has been taken advantage of, in some despicable ways. The "free world" was, and is, an experiment. And we're obviously experimenting away! I find it hard, even impossible, to monitor everything my child was able to see. My wife, being an elementary schoolteacher, hears this from every parent. My son's take (he's 19 now, and pretty media savvy -he's grown up with it) is "let the chips fall". People are responsible for their own actions. However, he's not quite able to factor in how much parenting went on in his life, and how much processing he's received of all that "viewage" he's been exposed to. My thoughts exactly. I understand it, my mind is racing with anticipation driving to a fishing spot. But what's much more interesting is the drive home. Or, even better, after I get home, when I can collect my notes into something... that doesn't waste everyone's time, including my own. The one thing I cannot do it make a 10minute video though. Be glad you don't have to hear me rambling away in my truck! Marketing your videos (getting attention, meeting the ravenous YT algorithm), and selling products both lead you into doing things, and spending (everyone's) time toward things that are not education content focused. If you are not independently wealthy, or have backing up-front, you are not part of the business side of fishing that could support a channel. I guess you have to decide what it is you want to spend your time doing.

Tons of great rods out there. And all with likely do the job. Best bet, for the subjectivity involved, would be to go somewhere you can see them for yourself. Bring your favorite reel with you. Otherwise, you are relying on guesswork, or here, someone else's guesswork.

I own two, I bought at end of year clearance. I considered those expensive. One is... 10yrs old or more. I can't imagine a rod having to be any lighter or more sensitive.

Hmmmm.... fast-trending and back to normal. Who woulda thunk? I mean it coulda just gone back to fall! Unlike John, I eat a lot, good year or bad.

@Catt LOL, You realize we've been at this for... what, a dozen years now? Seems we're on the opposite side in some ways of an invisible fence, that strikes me as what can be known. Not sure if this is a glass half empty, glass half full, or... cup runnith' over thing! ? Beyond my wife, at times, pointing out my glass half empty tendencies, when it comes to fishing, and other "in the wilderness" stuff, I admit that my cup runnith' over with expectations. Realize, though, that I was once a 6-yr old who looked up at the "Nature" shelves towering above me in a (tiny) local library and said to myself, "Someday I'll know it all!" I've been tempered some over the decades; Time has a way of 'wounding heels'. But... I'm not dead yet! Yeah, that we know... Then what? Maybe, and sometimes, or... depends on conditions, just doesn't cut it. Yeah, I'd love to be able to see how this Spring comes into fruition this time around? How will the weather vs climate battle (environment vs endogenous rhythm) play out this year? Which means measurements -something most fishers would rather not spend their time doing. Don't blame them. Unfortunately, I'm going to be out of commission for the time being. Will pick this life-long quest back up when things settle out here. And it'll likely be in another part of the country. That will be interesting. I'm educated-guessing (remember that 6yr old, 50-some years later!) that I'll recognize what's going on with those same critters pretty quickly. Worked for me so far, as far away as The Philippines. That last one was a bit of a stretcher though. But, not out of the ordinary for LMB in the sub-tropics. Just had to know that, or learn about that, going in. Otherwise, yeah, it could be , where anything might be possible. "Anything" and "everything" are not real possibilities.

Complicated world for sure. And a big broad stroke of a comment, Tommy! I hear you, though. Thanks for stirring the pot. I'll respond this way: Without seriously rigorous attempts at fathoming the nature of things, there's not much we can say about anything, much less everything. I guess all we could say is that there are... differences. Trying to shoehorn a complicated critter (that has evolved from a complicated environment) into anyone's understanding is a huge task, bigger than any one of us. Yet, not everything is possible. There are limitations that define the species. Short of writing (or finishing!) a (never-ending) book, I'll say most simply, that there are things all LMB bass share, and some things they don't. And there's a ton of knowledge that's been gained by teasing those things out, helping "us" (a collective) developing a better -not complete- understanding of them. One interesting thing is that the basic metabolic engine of LMB runs at the same temperature range across its range, even for FL LM's. Why would this be? It's suggested that it's bc the last glacial period "wiped the slate" for LMB, and then... we began stocking LMB" all over the place. This does not mean that there are not local adaptations; There certainly are. But they all "make sense" when their history in their respective environments are understood. What that exact sense is varies to some -but surprisingly small- degree. I'll give an example: South FL bass spawn over a nearly 6-month period. Canadian bass may be done with it in a month. That's a difference isn't it? One is the FL LMB, the other the "Northern LMB". Interestingly, take northern LMB and bring them to the sub-tropics; It's been done. And those N LMB develop 6 month long spawning seasons. They are also short-lived, owing tho their very real physiological limitations. So, I would say that the bass in my CO ponds do share a LOT with bass... the world over. Therefore, none of them should be waved off as simply "different", and therefore of no use to someone elsewhere. Yes, it's a big story that can be tough to follow. Environments certainly differ, yet experienced bass anglers can recognize the LMB's "fingerprints" in any water. Surprises? You bet. There's a reason for that, it's called genetic variability, the evolutionary responses to... surprises. From this variability we fishers get our "versatility" and "adaptability", both in tackle and mind-set. This is what is so inherently cool about fishing!

Thanks for the head’s up, Brian. From what I've been able to gather, John and Brian hit the gist pretty well. (Apologies, I haven’t read all the posts.) Winter is most generally a time for energy conservation. It’s been found though, that even when bass are in energy conservation mode, basic metabolic requirements are high enough to cause the loss of valuable tissue/weight. So winter bass must continue to feed. How much depends on how much they need and whether they can get it. I guess I'd add that there is evidence that bass may be happy to feed anytime, when they can, even in winter. "Can" is a matter of conditions & circumstances, and there are a lot of potentials/variables there, esp as you start looking across different water bodies. Bass come through winter better in some waters than others —even waters sitting right next to each other. And in some years better than other years. I guess a bottom line may be: If prey is vulnerable to attack, bass are apt to attack —provided that they are are feeling OK (water chemistry, esp O2 at times and places that are only a common problem in some waters), and not already full (lower digestion rates playing a role). But bass have been found to feed surprisingly heavily in very cold, often unseasonable, conditions; Shad die-offs being the prime example I'm thinking of. On the flip-side, and the default for most waters, esp so farther north, is longer periods with less feeding. So, wherever you are, your bass are likely to be happy to feed if given the chance. And that chance, in my mind, has to do with vulnerable prey. This is true throughout the year, but in winter things are generally more challenging for the fish. Getting to the OP’s question, I’m not aware, off the top of my head, of research looking at what’s called “compensatory growth” in adult bass coming out of winter. But CG is a known thing in the development of young animals including fishes, and bass specifically. I would not doubt that bass coming out of winter on the thin-side would “seek” to regain weight. But then, that’s what spring bass do anyway, it seems, esp the mature females. Whether such a “desire” can be realized is another story, depending on what that water body in its current state can offer. If there isn’t enough to go around, then chasing everything that moves could make things worse. There’s a real check and balances thing going on out there. Those rising temps in spring (with possibly an endogenous rhythm kicking in), though, do appear to give bass (and other fish) some serious wiggle room in terms of metabolic effectiveness. Problem is, water temps don’t rise really well until the sun is high enough, and that’s at a climate scale, larger than weather. Last spring, we had a late frigid cold blast hit. And the talk started going around… What will happen to the spawn? I predicted, and then measured, that the sun is too high for “winter” to hold on. And indeed, in my ponds, the initiation of spawning occurred within days of when normally expected. In fact, it was the focus of one of my video fishing journals (VFJ#30). I’ll post the link here. (If Mods feel it’s not appropriate, remove it or ask me to.) This smugly said, if the current Arctic-cap/jet-stream de-stabilization thing were to continue… who knows how long “winter” weather might extend.

Most concise thing I can say is that bass, LM's in particular, are "object oriented". Doesn't mean they can't traverse open water, but objects act like magnets. Second, follow the food. That's what the bass are doing.

Yeah, only Derik seems to be able to get away with it without potential ridicule. Now, look in the mirror, put the hat on, and try not to make 'squinty eyes'! It's not possible.

Do you mean kindof like this? Funny how, whenever men put on fur hats or cowboy hats, they git them slitty "I's"! What is that? I notice the models wearing them in photos sometimes don't. Wusses?? Is this a real man thing? This one's beaver. My wife gave it to me for xmas one year, for me to hunt in. But I don't wear it hunting; Too close to elk-colored. Nothing is warmer than these fur hats with the fold-down rim and ear flaps, though, called a Trapper or Trooper hat. Nothing. My wife has a synthetic fur one that she loves. But it's not as warm as the real thing. This is Derik, a neighbor up the mountain a ways who my wife bought the hat from. He's a blacksmith with no findable address, no phone, but does have an email account he checks whenever he comes into town. He can be found at various rendezvous' though. One of his claims to fame was to take-on challengers in a bare-knuckle contest. If you could make him bleed, you won. Proceeds went to a kids charity. Despite the rough exterior, and "them squinty I's", Derik is a sweet guy. Truly. Wish him well always. Here's the maker Derik gets his leather and fur goods from. They aren't cheap but are very well made: South Fork Traders Terry Conn is the maker of historical leather and fur goods. Please contact Terry at 970-484-6668 Yes, I know that end! :)) With a clearer view it's a pink pucker with two little spouts that extend out... towards your eyes!

Both fire suppression and excessively intense fires can both be bad news, and both often come together. That's been the case here, at least in the populated areas. Wilderness fires are let burn, but monitored. The incredible fires this past season were due to very dry conditions with intense winds. Pray for rain. But not too much! That's the other side of it here. We've learned that those awesome canyons did not take "thousands" of years to form. Instead it was the "500" and "1000"yr floods that did the work! Yes, with the juncos gone there's more for the mice. But we feed birds every winter though. We've never had this many mice. Interesting thing is that even people living a canyon or two over are reporting the same thing. Seems to be a pretty widespread thing. Dunno what to make of it. We have a lot of predator species here. Can't imagine anythings hit them all. Unless it's the lack of species that take the most mice, like foxes and owls perhaps. We had no new fox litters that I've been aware of this past year. And, I've heard fewer owls this breeding season so far, Jan/Feb. Best guess there.

Thought I'd share my latest trapping adventures... HUGE mouse/rodent year. No idea why (and that doesn't set well with me ?). Foxes were low, though, with few dens and pups seen this year. That could be part of it. Not sure about the owls, hawks, weasels, etc up here. Regardless, the chipmunks returned this summer, after many years. Odd thing about the chipmunks is they disappeared before the big local wildfire here in 2010. I assumed it was a disease running through. Anyway, they were back this past summer after a decade of absence! Happy to have them back. Big fire year this fall too (2020), but locally we were spared. What we were not spared was the dense smoke from all the distant and not-so-distant fires. Wild fire smoke is toxic, and we've all been suffering some respiratory issues since. Can't really escape it either, although N95 masks helped. What this smoke appears to have done is wipe out huge numbers of birds -canaries in the coal-mine apparently. Estimates are 100s of thousands to a million have died. Our bird feeders have seen much fewer visitors this winter. It's downright eerie. The scariest thing has been the loss of juncos. We have 5 varieties that flock together and are the most abundant birds here. But this winter -not a one. Not a single junco. They are ground feeders and mop up all the seed that falls to the ground. This winter, the seeds are just piling up on the ground, uneaten. It's sad and scary. I'm sure they'll come back, but there's another fire season coming. It's getting scary. Fires last summer and fall were unprecedented. One fire, due to 1000's of acres of dead trees due to an enormous beetle outbreak, drought, and big winds, ate 100,000acres in 24hrs! WT...??? Big sigh... Apologies for the digression. But when I wonder about the rodent populations here, I can't not help but think about the fires. Apparently, it's not just rodents that get hit. Radio-tagged elk were found to evade the hot zones in one fire, but still stayed in their home ranges. So... BIG rodent year. My wife took over half "my" shop for a yoga/exercise studio. She wanted to carpet, so we compromised: We can carpet with low pile foam squares, but may have to put up with some wood and metal dust. I never have trapped mice in there, bc they aren't a problem. But, for her uses of the space, they had to go. And as I posted... well above now... it's lethal snap-traps all the way. Here's the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd nights catches! Now, a couple months later, it's one or two a week. These are P. maniculatus (deer mouse). You can tell by the strongly bi-colored tail. Their look-alike, P. leucopus (white-footed), has a less marked tail. They are very different in habits though. I got to see this years ago in a mammalogy class field trip in which we live-trapped a whole range of mammals. We then put these look-alike mice into a gallon zip-lock with UV-active dust, and... shake em up to coat the mice. Then release them in the dark of night, wait a half hour, then track them with a black light. The deer mice would stay on the ground running under fallen branches and the edge of logs, being entirely ground oriented. The white-foot's, being arboreal, ran the tops of logs and branches, and soon climbed a tree, until the glowing trail was out of sight in the canopy. Very cool to see. OK, I guess that's story time for today. :)) As I remember it, the event I described was in fairly warm weather. There was no snow then. But I really don't remember the time of year. Setting traps outside to remove the parade of males is a great idea. Would have told him if I'd known.

Seemed the worst time of it was when skunks seemed to have a territorial dispute going on. At least that's what I was guessing it was. Do you think this is a possibility? One guy had a particularly bad time of it. Seemed his house was worth fighting over. The whole area around his house stunk. He said it had happened before and asked if I was interested in removing them. I said, No. That I was working on a raccoon study and was avoiding skunks if at all possible.

Hmmm, I've caught quite a few in live traps. No worries there. They don't like to spray, esp in such closed quarters. Seems like a last resort thing. I think I'd have to grab one to make it spray. In a box trap: 1). Move slow. 2). Ignore the butthole pointed at you. The toughest part. 3). Open the door. 4). Pin it open with a stick. 5). Let em leave. Sometimes they just curl back up and sleep until evening. With a leg-hold trap? Only had two. The first leaked about a minute or so after it died. Kinda sneaky of him I thought. The second I had to shoot with a blow-gun (Was out of .22 shells). Peeked around a tree, put one in the brain, and a second between the shoulder blades. It never sprayed.

Yeah, by the time the equinoxes and solstices come around, all the action's long begun. The groundhogs, and other critters, seem to have a better handle on this stuff nowadays.

We're dropping to below 0F here. But, yes, the days are noticeably longer. In fact, we just hit peak daily rate change -what I came to call the first day of spring at this latitude. And the start of the winter to spring transition. First male finches singing a few days ago (when it wasn't 0). And we had our first cumulus clouds forming too. It's comin' fast now!

Saturday is AOK for me.