NEKvt

Don't limit yourself fishing only the top with the fly rod. Sink tip lines let you cover any water depth. You can tie, or buy flies to imitate anything you want. The only limitation I have found is that you can't get a fly quite as weedless as your soft plastics, but I am working on that.

Didn't think to look around that blog, thanks for the link again. That is really amazing. I have never thought of bass as being all that fragile, but fifteen minutes out of the water and no mortality astounds me. Been trout fishing for too long, don't give the bass enough credit. Agreed on the esophagus thing as well. After I thought about it more I figured having a fish on the end of the line yanking against a link to its vitals probably would injure it terribly regardless. These have to be great research projects to do, I need to get back in school for fisheries.

I am surprised to see that data I would have thought mortality, regardless of hook type, would be higher than it was. That high survival rate brings up a simple confound, how are you going to see a significant difference if that high a percentage are surviving? We don't see methods in these papers and in most cases can't tell where fish were hooked. This paper shows similar mortality rates to the above papers in fish hooked in the mouth but significantly higher rates in esophagus hooked fish. They only used barbed hooks (2/0 worm) it would be interesting to see if that gut hook mortality came down with barbless hooks. http://www.biol.ttu.edu/faculty/gwilde/Shared%20Documents/LargemouthBassModel.pdf Here are a couple other interesting full texts for those that like to read this sort of stuff. Tennessee tournament study http://www2.tntech.edu/fish/PDF/Blackbass.pdf I tried to find some papers on air exposure related mortality but could not. If anyone has any links to something like that I would be interested to read it. This one has brief air exposure but is mostly about cardivascular response to exhaustion. Seems bass bounce back better than I do http://www.carleton.ca/fecpl/pdfs/LMB_TAFS_CO_MS.pdf Note: I do not pinch all my barbs, just like a discussion that has a bit of science involved. Wish I was in school still so I could access the full texts easily.

Could you point us to some of those references? I would be interested in reading them. dman just stick some pliers in perpendicular to the hook and squeeze, barb goes flat.

I mostly fly fish for bass and trout an mash all my barbs. I do it for no other reason than that it makes it easier to remove hooks from fish. Situations like nymph fishing for trout, or carolina rigging worms where the hooks can wind up very deep are the reasons I started fishing barbless, it is just so much easier to get the hook out of these fish. For small dry flies, or crankbaits that wind up in the lip barbs don't seem to be so much of an issue in that you can usually get pliers around the bend and the hook out easy. The nice thing about pinching barbs is that the fish doesn't need to leave the water, if you are not fishing a tourney, or it is not a fish you need a picture of you can just grab the bend of the hook, turn it over and the fish falls off without leaving the water.

Genetic engineering at its finest. Could you make me a liger next? I am thinking something like this, in a topwater for muskie

TY TY

Its just a 14' jon boat I will be launching, pretty sure that qualifies as small. I sent you a pm. Thanks

Staying at the campground there in a few weeks. Anyone ever fished the area around the campground. Better places close by I should put the boat in? Good stories from days out there on the water?

I used to live out of my truck and trout fish everyday between semesters on the MO around Craig. Never even looked for good smallie fishing (might help that I was in school next to Champlain). NICE fish.

Could you maybe apply for some jobs with the Vermont fish and wildlife. Seems we can't get may trout to spawn except maybe brookies in the relatively undisturbed mountain streams.

Not sure if they ever stop completely, but there is a period of highest fecundity. Just found this about largemouth in Maine from an AFS Journal article: Ovum production appears to decline in fish older than 7 years. Regression equations are given describing the relationships between fecundity and age, weight and length. The correlation between fecundity and age is higher than between fecundity and weight or fecundity and length. Weight is more closely correlated to fecundity than is length. And this from some mixed references: Growth of largemouth bass in the Tennessee area averages better than 150 mm (nearly 6 in.) total length in the first year. Lengths reached after 2-8 years average as follows: 268 mm (10.5 in.); 352 mm (13.9 in.); 404 mm (15.9 in.); 446 mm (17.6 in.); 484 mm (19.1 in.); 539 mm (21.2 in.); and 579 mm (22.8 in.) total length (Carlander 1977). These averages represent a wide range of growth, with members of stream populations growing only slightly over 100 mm (3.9 in.) total length during the first year, while reservoir populations may attain 170-190 mm (6.7-7.5 in.) total length in the first year. The average maximum life span of Tennessee largemouth is probably 10-12 years. At 350 mm (13.8 in.) a healthy 3-year-old largemouth will average about 450 gr (1 lb); the rate of gain increases after that, with healthy 4-year-old largemouth weighing over 900 gr (2 lb). Larger individuals are generally females as males either do not live as long or undergo a sex reversal as they become older (Heidinger 1975). Females are generally larger in every age group and seem better able to survive adverse conditions (Padfield 1951). Should give you guys more to talk about. Chances are it seems if you have caught a lake record fish (on a lake where that is a double digit fish) it has done what it could for the gene pool over and over again.

Nice work with the fly rod. Thanks for not putting it in your mouth for the photo.

I meant I was overthinking it by thinking about getting strikes right where the hooks are located, not that the maker was just for the record.

ha ha right, overthinking it. Gotta remember those things have 6 hooks. Again, very nice.

Just started checking out this board and must say your lures are great. What is your thought process with the eye location on the bottom bait? Tying streamer flies I would put eyes near the hook bend occasionally with the thinking that that was the best spot to have the fish targeting the fly. Same thinking here?

You should get some with that list of flies keep at it. Presentation is big, they may want them dead drifted, stripped fast, or a mix of both. Keep at it.

Europeans keep pumpkinseed quite commonly. I had two rock bass in a 110 gallon for about two years, they were easy to keep, ate pellets or worms and got really used to me being around. Both would be a better option than one of the larger bass species. Everything said about taking care of the water, and feeding enough is true though. I trapped these two at about 1 inch and raised them to about 10 inches before putting them back in the small pond they came from.

I typically carry both. The flies you use will really determine what rod you are going to use. A good smallie is so much fun on the 6. Get some sinking tips so that you can get to the bottom when you need to.

C'mon you can see my whole boat in his eye, nobody thinks thats cool?

Above poster is right on about the moose, careful driving at night. My only experience there is trolling a wooly bugger around on a canoe trip that included some of the reservoir. Caught multiple nice smallies in the short time we were in the reservoir. On a side note if you are up for an adventure and the water is high enough the rapids through the town of Errol on the Androscoggin are great fun. The Androscoggin also has some good smallie fishing. Try right below the dam that holds Umbagog in.

Thanks guys. I am going to try to put the question in the most general terms I can. But please check above and answer those specific questions if you want to get into more detail. Do you find that fish with deep water (with rocks, timber etc.) nearby are more likely to use that for summer cover or do they head for the shallow weed beds and lily pads? I ask because I find that articles I read are always describing the fishing on southern lakes (Texas, Alabama, Georgia) and describe fish moving into the shallows during the hot months. I am wondering if this is the case up north as well. I am in Vermont but Minnesota, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, Maine, New York would all be similar I think. Or even folks that fish southern lakes that have deeper areas along with shallow weedy options would have some insight.

So, I have been looking around a bunch lately for summer techniques. It seems that a lot of what I see has bass going shallow to shade and springholes during the hot summer months. A lot of the articles are written about southern fisheries so I was hoping to get some info about the north. A lot of the lakes I fish have deep water nearby, fish don't necessarily need to head to the pads to find shade, they can just head to 20+ feet. In your experience are fish with deep water nearby more likely to head down or to the lilly pads around shore? Do you find that deeper lakes say 40+ feet have fish that are more likely to go deep? What of the thermocline?

Not much for the grip and grin hero shots myself. I have seen what I look like holding fish, its not pretty.

I ordered