Paul Roberts

Homer Circle, for Outdoor Life (2007): ... One morning, after donning earphones and submerging the aquaphone receiver, Lembeck listened for a while until he signaled me that he heard a beeping signal. Then he looked at his stopwatch to measure the time between beeps so he could identify the fish transmitting the signal. He gestured toward a small treetop that had collected windblown debris in its branches. It was several yards away, but within casting distance. "The signal I'm picking up tells me it's 'Mabel.' She's five years old, weighs about six pounds and probably never will be caught, but not because fishermen don't fish here. "My test shows that either Mabel is well educated about angler sounds and ignores any lures, or she is just one of those fish that takes off for deeper water whenever she suspects a dangerous intruder is in the neighborhood." Tempting Mabel At that point I decided Mabel had to be caught and I was the fisherman who would do it. Fishing around in my tackle box, I rigged up with a plastic worm and told Lembeck my plan. "I'm going to try something tricky that maybe Mabel hasn't seen." I cast the worm about 10 feet past the woody cover, reeled it slowly back until it was just outside the pile and let it sit there, doing nothing. It was only a matter of time before the curious bass came out from her hiding place and inhaled the worm...or so I thought. At that moment, I saw the aquaphone rod in Lembeck's hand turn and move toward open water. "There she goes, about a hundred feet down the shore and still going," he said with a grin. "I told you, if anything comes near her hangout, big or little, Mabel takes off like a scared rabbit. She is a survivor, like a lot of bass on heavily fished lakes. Probably, she never will be fooled by a fisherman." ...

Hmmmm... Not sure. I can't see the bass usually, so it's tough to say. I think there is "more to" a deer than a bass. Deer can definitely know they are being hunted. Not so sure bass can. I could be wrong but I suspect the bass Tom mentions in Lembeck's study that used a protected area during fishing season, may simply have coincidently used that closed area as its summer home range. If it was avoiding fisherman, it would probably have been bc it was a shy individual. I can say though, that I agree with Tommy that mature deer are, or can be, WAY more capable at evading hunters than younger ones. Among many such experiences, I'll describe a big muley buck that I watched through binocs from my front deck a couple years ago. It was fall, pre-rut, but he was keeping track of a group of does. All the other deer, including some smaller yearling bucks, were quite active, moving about, and quite noticeable, for deer. But when that buck materialized, he moved very little. He stood statue still between movements, for up to 20min at a time. I thought, if I were still-hunting that mountain side, his "patience" would have had me pegged. Big bucks are particularly vulnerable to mountain lions here, so I can understand his caution. Big whitetails too, can be very difficult to see too. And, it's not just the bucks. There was a doe I got to know during a season, years ago, who, once she saw me for what I was, she could recognize me, instantly, over surprising distances, anywhere: Inside a blind, even melded into an old tractor that had been in the woods for years. She simply knew who I was. Can older bass do this? It's suggested that bigger bass see better than smaller ones, bc their eyes gain more vision cells as they grow. And, cognitively, they have more experience. And, it's known that bass can become much more difficult to catch after they gain experience with fishing. But, can they put 2 and 2 together, like that doe appeared to be able to do? At this point, I kind of doubt it.

Homer wrote a couple articles about Lembeck's study for Outdoor Life. He fished with Lembeck for one of them, when he fished to Mabel. I think the article is still findable. I never have found Lembeck's published research though.

A chunk of my latest documentary, on the development of behavior in LMB, flirts with this... conundrum. While all livings things may be considered "robots" at one level or another, they are all mighty sophisticated ones. Took a lot of that "yearly learning" to reach such levels. That kind of "smart" runs through populations, to be tinkered with by individuals. They called her Mabel. Homer Circle threw her a finesse worm on 6lb line (knowing her position), she spooked and withdrew. Lembeck said he expected she would never be caught. Studies on personality in bass and other fishes, have shown that their are "types". Two frequent ones are "bold" and "shy" individuals, and each tend to have different tendencies when confronting novel objects, and in their hunting styles. This is true of just about any living thing you can name.

The fact that the majority of anglers do not target big bass, but go for numbers -that is, they take what they can get- means that those trophy bass are simply caught more or less at random, along with a lot of smaller ones. This does not mean that there aren't anglers who can up their odds of catching big bass. As @WRB suggests, this is a narrow road that most anglers are unwilling to take. What the study suggests, is that BIG bass may not be inherently harder to catch, just that they are MUCH rarer, and... few people target them effectively. Guess that's my take.

I think so too.

A-Jay... you still look the same! How could that be? Gotcha beat. We ate a 7lber, 23" long. Yeah, it tasted terrible. Maybe that's why C&R is so popular with bassers.

Looks like we crossed in cyber space. My above post was very generalized. But, casting into a few pockets in an entire pond certainly qualifies as random. Dense cover can be esp tough, both for bass to capture prey, and for us to get lures to them. During summer, you may need to up-size your gear and give those bass a chance at finding your lure. I'd suggest: "Flipping"/Punching" with heavy tackle. Flip, splunk!, mind your fall rates, then shake and jiggle and be patient so bass can find your bait. Early AM esp, a weedless topwater is worth a go. Also, a weedless wacky'd stick-worm (both 5" and 4"), in those open pockets, has a lot of drawing power. If you catch one or two, and no more bites, wait a bit before re-casting. And you can also switch colors at that point. This kind of thing can make a difference. That said, I think the dense veges are the biggest issue.

I'm guessing that you are describing "random" catches, which comes from random fishing, which consists of... random casting. If you are casting, hoping the fish will come to you, you are going to get random results. The realized number associated with "random", varies with water body, season, skill, and effort. Another factor can be how apt you are to spook those fish in front of you. An analogy would be rabbit hunting by randomly firing shots out in front of you. Versus, doing the work to recognize rabbit habitat, finding where within rabbits are, and figuring out an appropriate approach to actually get shots. If you can think of casting this way, you can see the problem a lot of anglers face. There's really a lot of real estate out there, even in a small pond, when it comes to "bites". And, unlike with rabbits, we can't actually see what's down there! The long-term fix is in your head, and it takes research (communicating with other anglers through conversation and media) and experience. Buck Perry said it year's ago: "Knowledge is the key to fishing." What you are after is being able to pull the curtain back on the water in front of you -be able to see underneath, and understand what those fish are relating to, and doing. Then applying appropriate techniques. And no, it doesn't always pan out. The conditions and circumstances present have a lot to say in the outcome. Some short-term fixes: -Start searching out waters that offer better catch rates. They exist. They could: have more fish, more vulnerable fish, or fit your fishing style best. -Change locations: Bass, in general, often move to shorelines spring and fall, and away from shorelines summer and winter. Maybe you need to fish deeper. -Mid-summer can be tough in many places as water temps peak. You may need to adjust your fishing times to very early morning, late evening, or at night. Might have to seek deep shade in heavy cover, which will require up-sizing tackle and learning the techniques. Depending on the water body, might require going to finesse gear (See Team9nine's latest fishing reports). Hope this helps head you in the right direction.

Exactly. I figured you must do it too. Becomes second nature. And I hear you on losing the handle when under load. It's rare but I've had it happen. It's not like a casting reel though, easy enough to re-catch the handle before anything too crazy happens. Nice pic btw. You have a buddy who can compose a photo! ?

I let go often. I just keep fingers on the rotor. How else could one lip a fish?

I see. The shoreline is probably the safe haven for eating-sized bluegills. If some can get big enough to counter most of the bass, though, those individuals can then roam open water, and possibly get bigger yet. I have a few ponds like this, where nearly all the activity is along the shorelines. On one, I watched as a couple DPW techs pull a gill net from pond center. It contained one crappie. I have estimated 50-60 adult bass are in the pond. In your ponds, with those temperatures, early morning could be wild. Since you are in such a heat wave, just for curiosity sake, if you have any ponds with dense vegetation, give them a shot. I'm guessing the results will be different.

I'm a back-reeler. Always have been. Never used drag on a spinning reel. Lock it down, and forget it even exists. I go pretty tight with casting gear, with bass. There's the hook-set, then pulling them out of trouble. Can always back off if needed.

One thing is for certain, there is a reason to be there, and that has to do with food (being outside the spawn) and with such high water temps. So... outside of the treated pond, how dense is the vegetation? Is it all Chara? Or milfoil/coontail?

Brian, you'd mentioned a bit ago that you had found some bass inside the weedline in a pond. Are you still finding bass on the inside edge now, or are they outside?

Many, many many! They just seemed to stick. My very first bass was a 12" LM I caught from an aluminum rowboat, rowed by my dad. His dad had introduced him to bass fishing, so my dad was passing it on as the natural course of things. Oddly, I don't remember what I caught it on -probably a bobber-n-worm. But I do remember we put it on a chain stringer we then clipped to an oarlock. I was thrilled with that bass, and I kept pulling it up to look at it. At one point, I pulled it up -again- finding the chain had broken and the bass was gone! I was crushed. I remember my dad saying that a snapping turtle had probably got it. Been keeping a narrowed eye at those snappers ever since. I bet I remember every bass I caught, or even saw, for the first decade I fished. I can picture them now.

I'm sitting on that fence with you, buddy. (Thanks for giving me a slight pass on that one. I will admit that I am at least peering over that fence. ) I'm certainly not qualified to assess what fish think (or sees... or smells.... or feels....or likes....or tastes...). But... I'm given it hell. My next documentary is on the development of behavior in LMB; Behavior being, how living things interact with their environment. If there's one place I'm headed, it's why bass strike lures, or -more often- why they don't. "Why" is the toughest question. Ask any parent of a 2yr old! I guess I just never could succumb to... "Why ask why". In the process of researching for this coming doc, I ended up conversing with experts in the field of comparative cognition. Really fun, and part of that conversation ended up orbiting around my using the word "think" (as in the common phrase, "How fish think..."). Each expert, except one, shied away from the word "think". It's just not known how that works in humans, much less animals. Since evolution is a continuum -that's agreed upon- the problem becomes, when and where does cognition leave off and "thinking" begin? Fascinating question and that's in the field of comparative cognition. I took the safest and, I feel, the most penetrating tack, sticking with the better-defined "cognition", and then, looking at what is most important to fish. I argue, that is what they "cogitate/think" about. Doc is slated to be released in the next week or two -finally! I haven't fished since April! I'm ready to relax and get some fishing in.

Now this is my kind of fishing report! It offers great info on the water, fishing, and how you approach things. Wish more fishers would put together reports like this. Kudos. The thin fish might be due to water temps, as well as competition.

No! ... Until I go to choose one over another to tie on!

Bluegills are the top forage in my waters. “Imitation”, though, is in the eye of the beholder. So, we’d really have to try and put this through a bass’s cognitive filter —underwater. That’s a complicated and elusive subject. In my mind though, other things trump color/finish. But I like to try just the same. So I like to at least visually suggest “bluegill”. And… I'm not all that sure how much this really matters. That said... I've gone to some pains to "suggest" "bluegill" to bass. I'll “bluegill-ize" (repaint) hardbaits, look for certain plastics colors, and have looked at a LOT of skirts over the years. I've yet to find what I would consider the perfect BG skirt. Although I’ve been a long-time fly-tier, I’ve not yet bothered to make my own, although I’ve considered it. First, we have to define what a BG looks like; they change by age, and seasonally. Most “BG” colors from manufacturers look like they are trying to suggest BG to people, rather than bass. Most are highly colorful, like spawning BGs. But, much of the year, and esp smaller BGs like our northern bass target here, are not highly colored or patterned. The “BG” color I try to mimic is that pale golden-green. I’d prefer a contrasting pale belly and darker back, and some reflectivity on the sides. When I see such skirts, I grab them, bc skirt colors come and go. All this said, the simplest approach, and the one I generally adhere to, is to use dark opaque colors in low visibility conditions, and lighter -esp translucent- colors in more high vis conditions. So, my standards are black, and a pale Pumpkin color. Much to be said for… not trying to say too much, when trying to communicate with wild critters. I’ll almost certainly go to my grave looking for the perfect “bluegill” colors, despite a friend’s sobering comment: “You know, I started catching more bass after I stopped trying to feed them. Reaction strikes are my bread and butter.”

That fish cannot be understood.

Well... I've always gone to thrift stores to find the lightest weight cotton pants I can find. $3 a pop.

That's about the growth rates we see here in CO too. It takes about 8yrs to grow an 18"er here, in public -not intensely managed for growth- waters. In the far S, with ample appropriate forage, bass are known to reach 15" in their second year! What's amazing is how variable growth can be, given enough appropriate food. Tough job though, playing god, as a manager.

Thanks! My next doc is on the development of behavior in LMB over their first year. It's finished; I'm just getting ready to release it. It's about tiny baby bass. However, it sets the stage for future docs about the nature and behavior of bass of all ages and sizes; They only fall so far from the trunk of the tree.

Hi, Hewho... Just saw this. The duration of the Bass spawn is longer in subtropical waters -as much as 6months- and shorter as you go N -can be finished in a month in the far north. In a far S water you could see 1.5" fingerlings from, say, Feb into July, although there are peak spawn periods when most are produced. Bass grow faster in the S too; Takes 2-3 months for bass to reach 1.5" where I live (N CO). S fish might be able to do this in a months time. Tom @WRB would be able to talk about S CA waters best. I'll guess that you are into Summer by now, and that spawning has ended.