senile1

The monthly winter deer conference in my backyard.

I didn't read anything derogatory in your comments, Paul, and I agree with your sentiments. I just meant that I never thought about using a screen name to hide behind on any forum I joined. I have even joined some forums that required your screen name to be something other than your real name. So, I just didn't think of it as anything other than a catchy name to use. Often, I have signed my actual name - Von Guttenberg Heffenfeffer - to correspondence with individuals.

The bass have left the lake and are down at the local bar doing shots. My apologies for not being helpful but I just couldn't resist, not to mention that the posts above pretty well covered it.

Hmmm . . . . never thought about that when I joined. By the time I started on this forum honesty was always a necessity for me. It didn't matter if my screen name wasn't my name.

That girl's got some length on her, Catt. Nice work!

Another nature pic from the mountains around Mt Rainier in Washington. It kind of reminds me of the weather we had yesterday.

I'm glad your money situation is solid. I hope that allows you to enjoy the time you now have to spend the way you want to. My wife is retired and I will be retired fairly soon. We did not have any disabilities play into any of our decisions so we should count our blessings. I am happy for you with the new boat purchase. Post a pic when you have it in hand.

Nah. I just read too much into it.

Regardless, of the "magical" water temperature, at 50 degrees I would expect a bite now and then. Considering that you are fishing a pond, unless it is extremely large, you should be able to fish the whole thing in a day. And you would be fishing the location of the bass at some point during the day if you fish the entire pond. If your presentation is correct for the conditions you should eventually get some bites when the bass become active. It has to be one of three things: Your presentation is off, you are fishing when the bass are inactive, or you aren't fishing the whole thing and finding the fish. For me, the chances of having a magical day in the spring are better if I find where the fish are in winter. Then as the temperature warms, I can determine their paths to the spawning and feeding areas and I am more likely to to find their location. This is especially true for larger lakes.

Welcome back. I remember your signature! Or maybe someone else uses the same one. I don't know.

I have been wanting to get out there too, but my IT work has just been beating me to death over the past few weeks. Very frustrating.

Did you get her weight? If she was 25.5 inches she had to be a monstrosity.

This is one of those repeated subjects where too often we look it at with a human perspective, but we really don't know and may never know the answer to this question. We think if they are not scared off by hooks then they aren't scared off by line. But we don't know how the line sticking out of the front of a lure appears to a bass when compared to hooks. Maybe hooks could be seen as a deformity on a bait fish and the line sticking out is something else. Or maybe both are seen as something entirely abnormal, or then again, maybe the fish don't notice them at all. It could also be that some fish are spooked by both and those are the fish that never bite. Studies show there are some fish that will never bite a lure. Regarding things such as this, we may never know the answers but they always give us excuses to make when we are struggling to catch fish.

Congrats on the toad!

Very nice couple of fish there.

That's a nice group of smallies. Cool pic of the largemouth and all of the bronze fish in the net.

And the bass say, "Before you can read me you gotta learn how to see me."

What a tank! Congratulations!

I noticed that as well. A-Jay knows most of his months and he can list them in order too.

The Many Glacier Hotel in Glacier National Park.

My screen name was the name of a music project I put together on CD before the age of social media. I have played guitar since my teens, and on this project I played everything - bass, keyboards, drums, guitars, and even programmed some drum machine patches. (At the time, drum machine patches were pretty ugly, and in my opinion, most still are.) While I believe the music was solid and well-played for the most part, the recording quality suffered as my amateur abilities with the recording software of the time left much to be desired. I have thought about changing my name to something else (lucid1 maybe?) but since I am known by the "senile1" moniker I have been hesitant to change it.

I agree. I have witnessed a few small ponds that once had good fishing turn into dink waters. I may love catch and release but if I am going to manage a small water body for decent sized fish, it is highly likely that at some point I will have to perform selective harvest on that body of water. Not to mention that anglers have a right to eat what they catch as long as they abide by the creel limits set by their state.

That fish is a beast. Nice one!

Very nice fish!

Nice fish and good story!