Team9nine

Definitely affects action on anything slow or paused - poppers, Spooks, Devil's Horse, etc. If you constantly reel baits in like buzzers or Ploppers, or have something underneath to support the bait (weeds, vegetation), you can get by with fluoro with few problems. Do whatever you want though...

1 - No 2 - N/A

The rivalry is real...

Still fighting tough conditions over here, with water temps hovering around 43 degrees, but had another enjoyable afternoon out on the water. Last couple stops saved the day for me.

Only the second trip with the boat this year, but everything running good. Needs a good cleaning when things warm up enough, though. Surface temps just 43 deg and change, but managed 7 bass in a little over 3 hours, so everything is good

Finally got to launch the boat again for just the second time this year. Lakes are finally starting to clear from all the rain, but cold weather still has water temps around 43 deg.

Yep ? though it's not terribly common, and it would be hard to say if, or to what degree it might occur in your waters.

Never heard of the stuff. Just looked it up and saw that it's not 100% fluoro, so it's out for me. Saw several people compare it to YZH, so maybe that's the niche. Can't be any worse than fluoroclear

For you history buffs, a peek inside Buck Perry's tackle box

I've dabbled extensively on the science end of things, and my recommendation would be to not put the science first, trying to understand everything and applying it in a practical way, but instead, use science to help explain and let you understand why something you observe or others might suggest (fishing wisdom or guidelines) might be happening. Seems to work much better that way. For example, it's much easier to try and come up with a good scientific explanation for why you see suspended fish on your depthfinder during the summer months, than it is to try and learn the science of limnology and develop effective theories and ideas as to where the fish might be based on your understanding of the science. Or, as 'deep' alluded to, become a Spoonplugger and never worry again about any of the details, theories, garbage and/or 'science' espoused by magazines, Internet angling pros and manufacturers

Zoom, NetBait and Zman

Haven't seen all the episodes, but the official rules do not list any criteria or restrictions as to multiple last minute catches. It seems if two anglers were to land a last second catch that cleared the gunnel, both would be weighed and scored appropriately, and that final weight for each would determine if there was a case where someone moved on or not over the other angler. It also states that the in-boat official makes all final calls in this case, meaning there would be no way for one official to judge whether his anglers fish came in before or after another in a different boat. Guessing in the Horton-Martens example, what they showed might simply have been editing and post tourney commentary, and the tie breaker rules would have been the determiner, if needed. There are tie-breaker rules for all situations in regards to who would "win" in case of a weight tie. I would assume this would apply in cases where any last cast catches allowed an angler to tie another for a position where only one could move on. Here is the official rule on landing bass and "touching." They clearly state that "slight touches" against the body are not a penalty, and that using forearms and hands to secure a fish is allowed. They make it sound like any carpet touching might be a violation though, but it has to be witnessed to be called, so I'm sure it is totally possible for an angler to occasionally "sneak one by" and avoid a penalty as you can't always get the exact line or position you'd need to make the call. I don't believe there's any "instant replay" available on the water.

There's another thread going on how overwhelming the "science" of fishing can be. Line color and its effects are no different in that regard if you dig into the published studies and written material. Unless you want to be changing lines constantly, literally by the hour and the water and weather conditions encountered and the techniques used, it's best to just pick something you're comfortable throwing in your waters and go with it. Like everything in bass fishing, there is no right or "best" answer (specific material or color in this case) that acts as an absolute on the subject.

Officials start counting down the seconds as a period ends. If you have a fish hooked, it must make it inside the gunnel of the boat before the official calls "lines out." If it makes it in, they weigh it and score it. If it doesn't cross that line in time, they just have to release the fish and it's not scored. You can still get a landing violation at this time which would carry over to the start of the next period (if there was one).

I've seen entire housing ponds nearly 100% killed out by heavy rains that came through shortly after farm field applications, as well as huge differences in algae volume based on home fertilizer use and runoff (frequently leads to summer kills).

I think you've touched on the most likely scenarios. Most subdivision ponds don't get "intelligent" stocking, intentionally done and planned by a biologist. Instead, it's usually an angler or two that live in the neighborhood and bring some fish back from another lake or river in their boat a couple times. Each lake ends up with a different starting composition, then add in factors like depth, bottom composition, cover, available food sources, fishing/harvest pressure, water clarity, volume of water throughput, chemical composition of runoff, treated or untreated (weeds and algae), etc., multiplied out over a period of time, and you usually end up with a wide variety of fisheries, even within the same housing addition. It has been the case with most every retention pond I've seen.

If it doesn't fit in my pockets, it doesn't come with me...and two rods is one rod too many from the bank

My favorite pocketguide booklet on fishing (about 4.5" x 5.75" and 32 pages) Easy to carry with you or store in a boat's compartment - lol

I backreel a lot with bigger fish on light line. Also "thumbbar" with my baitcasters quite frequently.

Ironically, just stumbled across this piece on backreeling in the Spring 2018 WesternBass.com online mag issue Backreeling article EDIT: Looks like this site won't let the link go through. Maybe search online for it if you want to read it...

Do it frequently....

Done this many times, and shared the results with several water biologists. Haven't confirmed completely, but all generally agreed diel movement of zooplankton as what we were seeing.

I think I get where you're coming from on this, so I'll add a bit more to the discussion. I've seen some incredibly passionate/heated arguments over the subject, but I'll throw this out there anyway. I don't think we can completely rule out that the fishes body doesn't come into play to some degree, especially with more sophisticated units now on the market, just that it's the air bladder that is the primary thing responsible for us seeing fish on our units. With that said then, it's not the actual thermocline (temperature gradient) we're picking up in most cases, but more often the things living and suspended in and around the thermocline instead (plankton, detritus, silt, micros, etc.). Let me explain... Water at its most dense (4 C) has a density of 1000 g/cm3. At 20 C, water is only slightly less dense at 0.9982 gm/cm3, about a .18% difference. But, 4 C to 20 C would make for a pretty significant thermocline. However, the average fish body has a density of 1080 g/cm3 (range 1040-1090 gm/cm3 @ 20 C), which is a significantly greater difference in density than the temperature difference mentioned above. As such, if it's not the fishes body we're picking up mostly on sonar returns, then it's also likely not the temperature/density gradient we're picking up in thermoclines either. The change in density (whether talking fish or temperature) changes the reflectivity of the water (the speed of sound increasing or decreasing with density differences, as well as the slight bending of the signal through a different density medium), and sensitive units might be able to detect some of this occurring, but in most cases with typical lower powered units, it's more likely the "stuff" in the thermocline we're picking up, "giving away" the presence of the actual thermocline itself. Hopefully that makes some sense.

I've read this at various times in a lot of places, so I don't know how true it is or not (I wonder). All I can add is that in my 30+ years of boating, 20 of which was tournament angling covering everything from flashers up to the current hi-def units, I've never turned a bow unit off when running and out of the water, and have NEVER had a unit/transducer go bad on me. Even left one or two on accidentally on the drive home and not noticed until putting the boat away. Makes me wonder if it's an old "wive's tale" repeated over and over, or if there is really something to it. Any electrical engineers out there with some insight?

They go on when I launch the boat and go off when loading out. They're never not running. Not too worried about battery conservation with them.