MFBAB

Here ya go: BREAKLINE — A line on the bottom where there is a definite increase or decrease in depth, either sudden or gradual ­such as the edge of a channel, hole, or gully; the "wall" of a weedline, brushline; where two bodies of water meet which differ in temperature, color, or movement (current). You're basically right, grass will tend to thin out at a given depth based on water clarity and light penetration.

For the sake of consistency, Here are some of Buck Perry's definitions: BREAK — Where structure is no longer uniform due to dips, or a quick drop in depth, rocks, stumps, bushes, sunken objects, etc. BREAKLINE — A line on the bottom where there is a definite increase or decrease in depth, either sudden or gradual ­such as the edge of a channel, hole, or gully; the "wall" of a weedline, brushline; where two bodies of water meet which differ in temperature, color, or movement (current). BRUSH LINE — The edge of a line of brush. CLEAN BOTTOM — Bottoms free of debris, muck, moss, etc. CONTACT POINT — The position on structure where contact is first made by fish on their migration from deep water. DEEP WATER — Water that has a depth greater than eight to ten feet. DIRTY BOTTOM — Bottoms covered with debris, muck, moss, etc. DROP-OFF — The place on structure where there is a sudden or rapid drop into the deepest water, such as a hole or channel. FINGER — A projection or extrusion, in a lake bottom forma­tion (structure). HARD BOTTOM — Bottoms with a firm condition, usually associated with sand, clay, rocks, gravel, etc. HOME — The deep water areas where fish spend most of their time. MIGRATION — Movement of fish from one section of water to another. Normally used when speaking of a depth change. MIGRATION ROUTE — The path fish take as they move from deep water to shallow water, or vice versa. MOVEMENT — Closely associated with migration, but also meaning when fish become active (opposite of dormant). OPEN WATER — Water free from vegetation growth, and away from shoreline. POINT — An extrusion in the shoreline that extends into and under the water. PRESENTATION — The way lures and bait are presented or displayed, to the fish. SCATTERPOINT — The depth, on the bottom, where fish start to separate and scatter and are no longer grouped together. SHALLOW WATER — Water less than eight to ten feet in depth. SHARPER BREAK — A more rapid increase or decrease in depth than the surrounding area; steeper, more acute (see "breakline"). SOFT BOTTOM — Bottoms covered with soft silt, mud, muck, marl, etc. STRUCTURE — The bottom of the lake with some unusual features that distinguish it from the surrounding bottom area. WATER COLOR — The degree of clarity. WEEDLINE — The edge of a line of weeds.

Ha ha, I don't know him personally, but I understand what you;re saying I like that article and the pictures because he labels all of the spots well. I thought it would add a good visual to some of the terminology for people.

Richard Alden Knight (originator of Solunar Theory) wrote in his book that lab research showed all sorts of ocean creatures reacting to the solunar periods, rise and fall of the sun and moon. The point is, they weren't in the water or experiencing high or low tide, they weren't even exposed to light, but they still kept on the schedule. Having said that, there is nothing I've seen on the water or read, and I've read a lot on it, that convinces me that there is anything more than a marginal advantage at best to fishing during certain phases or solunar periods...except, during the spawn. Everything in the lake hits the bank during those full moons in the spring, the timing varies by species (white bass, then crappie, then bass, then bream in my area), some spawn earlier than others, etc...but don't take my word for it, get a list of full moon dates for this spring and see if it isn't true

As far as the moon part, I think it is really important around the spawn. Other than that, I've never been able to find any sort of meaningful pattern regarding the moon phases or solunar periods, but not for lack of trying. Pretty much the same goes for the barometer. I prefer fishing in lower light (early, late, or cloudy), stained water, at least some wind (more the better), reasonable water temps, basically I prefer fishing in conditions that allow for better odds on moving baits or power fishing presentations. The conditions I described above are more forgiving than the opposite: Bright Light, Clear Water, No Wind, ultra cold or hot water. These conditions will probably dictate a total 180 on the bait selection. These conditions are heavy on the finesse end of the scale, and would dictate smaller more realistic baits, lighter lines, longer casts, slower presentations and generally more stealth required, at least as a starting point, perhaps even deadsticking. It is also worth a try to experiment with heavy but compact baits in this scenario, baits that look like finesse baits, but are heavy enough to be cast a long way and worked fast can sometimes generate reaction strikes and still allow you to cover some water (Tail Spinners, KVD Rocket Shad Spinnerbait, heavy Jigs with finesse trailers, etc). Most of the time the conditions you find are a mixture of these 2 examples, but the point is, you need to evaluate at least all of the variables mentioned above each time you go. If you rig up Big Jigs, Spinnerbaits and Squarebills the night before, expecting the breezy, stained water conditions that favor those baits, but you get to the lake and find falling water with less stain than you want and no wind, you better start re-rigging and re-evaluating your game plan or you're about to waste some time-regardless of the barometer reading or the moon phase I think probably the first thing I want to look at is the water color (the clearer the deeper, the dirtier the shallower), then second, is the wind blowing (the windier the shallower, the calmer the deeper). I won't say my mind's totally made up after observing those 2 things, but every other decision on how to proceed is secondary. There is a percentage move for every condition you might encounter, the trick is being consistent and making all of the observations all of the time-and being flexible. If things aren't working, you need to make changes, but they need to be made based on the conditions, using logic. You can have all of those power fishing conditions going for you, but if you didn't notice that the water is falling, that can destroy a shallow water bite faster than anything else I know of, and it's an easy one to miss! Every day of fishing is an opportunity to learn something, whether you catch them or not, try to take something away from it, and write it down! Keeping a fishing journal is one of the best things you can do, because it forces you to evaluate yourself, but more importantly, it forces you to evaluate the conditions from each trip. This is where trends start to emerge and a lot of the mysteries start to get solved.

Do any of y'all seriously think that if they had SI and 1' contour maps on the boats in Buck's day, that he'd have ever invented the Spoonplug? He made those things to drag around and map out the lake. It's already done for us today. Basically every pro out there and a lot of serious recreational fishermen have 2 large units at the console these days, 1 for mapping and 1 for sonar/DI/SI-and then another 1 or 2 units on the bow that are synched up with the others. Perry just had his Spoonplugs to map out the lake bottom. He had a few pre-lake contour maps but there wasn't any such thing as GPS then so they weren't much good. The point is, he had to do it the hard way, and Spoonplugging (the green book and the additional materials) was revolutionary material at the time, and for most who read it today IT STILL IS!! I just read it the first time maybe 10 years ago, and it changed my life as far as fishing goes. I think you need to at least read it to really be able to participate in the conversation when it comes to the structure topic, it's pretty much the 101 course; and I don't mean that in a demeaning or basic way, I mean it to say that it lays out the language and organizes the framework for us to move forward from and build on. Was it perfect? Nah. But it's still far ahead of what the majority of the fishermen you meet at the lake know today. They mostly just know how to copy or imitate what they see other guys doing, try to get on a bent pole pattern. Only a handful know (or even want to know) the why's - like why are the fish at the depth they are at? Why are they doing this or that? They just want to know what bait so and so is throwing-like that means anything. Have you ever tried to read a fishing report in the paper and then go do what it says to do and actually catch fish? It doesn't happen often. You have to learn to read the current conditions and make the percentage decisions on your own. Today, we have this huge head start over what Buck had. Today, A guy can map out, study and waypoint an entire lake from his computer at home before he ever even launches a boat at a given lake for the first time. Human beings amass knowledge over time, from generation to generation. Almost all of the answers are out there when it comes to fishing these days, fortunately for the fish though, most of us don't read the books and learn from the past. As comedian Chris Rock famously said: "Hide your money in your books!" I say, read Perry, read Lucas, Murphy, Hannon, read all of the classics on bass fishing, there are many good book lists discussed here. Also, spend some time with the search function here, they don't call it bass resource for nothing. Then, spend time fishing and testing what you've learned, and not just bass fishing. The idea is to always ask questions and always go in with the attitude of trying to prove something you read wrong (test it), not right. Sort of like the Scientific Method. That is how you learn. None of this stuff applies universally, every lake is a little different, but trends will emerge the more experience you get. Structure, water clarity, weather, seasonal trends, how to select baits based on these factors and more, this is the knowledge you are seeking. Also, read that manual that came with your Humminbird or Lowrance REAL good too!! If you study all of those famous books, and famous threads here, and famous magazine articles, and watch all of the tourneys and fishing shows, and mix that in with all of your own personal experience (which should be logged in detail after all of your trips), and then put all of that knowledge up against what that sonar and your baits are telling you on the water today, you still get skunked a lot of days :):) J/K, the picture starts coming together faster and faster the more good sources of info you put together, and the more questions you ask. Half the time, when I set out to find the answer to one fishing question, I almost always find the answer to a couple of other ones in the process. The learning curve today is so drastically reduced from what it was even 15-20 years ago. The answers are really all out there, but you still have to put in the time. The advantage today is that it's really hard to get off on a lot of dead-end tangents if you're doing your homework. You don't have to learn too much from trial and error nowadays if you've got google and like to read books. Here's a good article on structure: http://rbbassfishing.net/bass-fishing-tips/bass-science-whats-the-point/ Hope this helps someone. The article originally had some great diagrams that don't seem to be included in this link, so here they are:

Cool. Go over there and bump a spinnerbait off of it a couple of times, might have a bass on it :):)

I really like this format. I think it's pretty tough for anyone to fake it under these circumstances. I also like the fact that they try to show the fish a little respect, no contact with the boat (no slinging them) and no throwing them back in the water either. The fish handling on BASS is pretty horrible. At least most of the FLW fish are netted, not slung, but they could both do with some adjustments like what MLF is doing. It sets a bad example IMO. Having said that, I'm just a fun fisherman, I'm not against tourneys but I don't really love what tourneys do to fish either. I'd rather see a marshall and scale system implemented for all of the national stuff. It would help the coverage too, you would have real-time real weights as you watched it. That would be a HUGE improvement to me. Just look at how much more suspenseful MLF is than Bass or FLW, a lot of that is because you are seeing the actual fish weights in real time. You would lose the weigh-in, but this is a lot better format for TV. Also, T9 I think you are right about the mapping stuff, I'm pretty sure Ike got a penalty one time for looking at the map b/w two periods, just during a break. I think they can only use the maps during actual fishing time. teamnine, are you saying that this is actually all filmed on the same day but on different sections of the lake? I always just assumed that they were going on separate days, I never really thought about it.

Those neckdowns can be great. A lot of the oxbows have them, whenever you get a little wind or current running through there the bass will school pretty good. You can flat hammer them in spots like that with wtd or buzzbaits and stuff like that if you hit it right! My grandpa used to have this old fly rod with an automatic reel on it. He would just use a little bream cork and a cricket with no weight, and he could roll cast that thing anywhere he wanted in those trees. He probably caught several truck beds worth of bream on that thing in his lifetime, we had a lot of fun over there in those cypress trees All the way down the lake on the far west end (way past the neckdown) you would hit a gravel road, across the road there was a little borrow pit they dug out while building the levee. It's actually connected to the lake by a small culvert and of course it is all connected when the water is up too. Anyway, we used to keep a jon boat over there, he and some friends had a hunting lease on the property. That little pit was so full of crappie, I've never seen anything else like it. We used to throw this little jig called a cutie-pie. It was a lead head with a little prop on the front end and a hair body tied on the hook, with a curly grub trailer we added. If the wind blew you could destroy crappie on that thing over there, just cast and retrieve. here's a pic of one:

I agree. Dale Hollow in summer with no practice would be tough sledding. If they had some practice days they would all scan every inch of structure and the deep bite would probably play pretty strong. It's a clear highland reservoir, they are deep and not really too active most of the day. Night or even super early in the morning might be a little different story, but during normal tourney hours they've got it tough. I think most of them have just been targeting max shade (Marinas and backs of creeks), bream beds, a couple of guys have found a few on structure but nothing to brag about. The thing about a clear lake like Dale, I think even that shallow bite takes a little time to refine-you're not going to just go crush them on a lot of moving baits that allow you to cover water in that clarity-not in the summer at least, you have to slow down and downsize a little and that is a huge killer in a 1 day no practice tourney!! There have been 4 heats so far (6 guys per round), and each one has played out pretty much the same way so far. I'm pretty sure each round has been won shallow to this point, right?

That is really sad. I obviously already knew that it had been closed to the public for a few years now, but if it was funded w tax dollars that is truly appalling. I grew up fishing that lake as a kid. My grandfather grazed cattle on the levee about 4-5 miles west of where the old bait shop was, so we had a little private lake access there, I can't even guess how many hours we spent fishing (and hunting) there. This was just west of the neck-down area in the section everyone used to call Mud Lake. That thing was loaded w Bream and nice bass, you could run all the way to the Miss River from there too. I still love fishing cypress trees more than just about anything except maybe willows

The best rudder system I've found for pond boats (I've used this on several Bass Hounds and Bass Tenders) is just to hang an old outboard motor off the back-either running or broken, doesn't matter. It provides a counter-balance if you're fishing alone in the front of the boat, and it really makes the boat track well and drastically reduces spinning issues in the wind as well! You probably know someone who has one taking up space in their garage, you're almost doing them a favor by taking it

It was the year of the buzzbait for me: Cavitron, Strike King, Lunker Lure, a couple of homemade ones, they all have their day

CONDITIONS: Rained for 24 hours previous day, stopped raining during night. Cold front coming in tonight Fished noon to 4 pm 54*, partly cloudy Fairly Windy pond water very muddy, looks like milk chocolate Pond is narrow and fairly shallow No real structure but a lot of cover - With the Muddy water and assuming this is COLD muddy water, along with the fresh rain, I would definitely expect them to be up against something HARD, like a concrete wall, timber, the first shallowest break on the shoreline, etc...And probably down on the bottom. They just get really object-dependant in these conditions. A good Cold & Muddy Water analogy - I think this is from Guido Hibdon: "Think of it like you are in an empty room at night with the lights off - 9 out of 10 people are going to head for the corner or at least to a wall...This is what fish do when the water gets really muddy as well, they will put their nose right against something solid" TECHNIQUES Finesse on spinning reel - watermelon senkos on wacky and t-rig - Too hard for the fish to locate in these conditions. This isn't finesse time, you need to be thinking about helping the fish find your bait in these conditions, appendages, thick ribbed baits that displace water but that don't need to be worked quickly to do it. Swimming and structure jig with trailer - Again, probably not moving enough water. Think Colorado Spinnerbait Slow Rolled with a craw trailer or Rattle Jig w a water-displacing appendaged trailer soaked at the base of tree trunks Tried top water but with wind and water rough and it was chilly and I didn't stick with long - Not a good muddy water option Tried 6' suspending jerk bait last 15-20 minutes in deepest par - Not a good muddy water option I agree with the guys saying Jig, but for sure mine would have a rattle and some scent on it, and a big-honking trailer with some appendages!! Probably a little chartreuse dip on the trailer as well. Soak it next to those HARD objects or shallow breaks, and I mean you can't get too close to the object, often they will be sulking right at the base of the tree or whatever it is in shallow water in these conditions. After all of that, cold and muddy is tough fishing though. If you've got another pond that is normally super-clear, a lot of times going in right after a rain makes those type of ponds pretty "get-able" because it stains the water but not chocolate milk dirty, and puts the fish on the bank and shallow, where they never are in that sort of pond. Just a thought Don't be discouraged though, in tough conditions like this all you can really do is try to play the odds as best you can. Nobody is going out in those type of conditions in January expecting to knock their lights out, at least in areas with actual winter temps anyway

Awesome year!! I got my 10th consecutive **AOY award** This season. **Disclaimer: My "league" consists of just me, my wife, our 3 yo daughter, 1 dog and 2 cats

I found this article in (of all places) the BassResource.com article section It references a similar study to the one I mentioned above. http://www.bassresource.com/fish_biology/angling.html An Excerpt from the article: Largemouth Bass Catchability Researchers at the Illinois Natural History Survey completed an interesting study on this topic. First, let's look at their study design. They used three ponds, all about 0.2 acres in size. All ponds were stocked with the same number (420/acre) and the same sizes (9-13 inches) of largemouth bass. After bass were stocked, anxious samplers waited 2 weeks before fishing began. They varied amounts of fishing pressure at each pond (low, moderate, and high). All fishing was catch and release. At the end of the 3-month study, only two bass had died. One was lost in the low-pressure pond, and one in the high-pressure pond. Figure 3. Largemouth bass caught per hour of angling related to total hours fished in three small Illinois ponds. Each pond contained 75 bass per acre and each was fished 23 times over 49 days. In the low-pressure pond, fishing amounted to 170 hours/acre, and anglers caught 3.0 bass per hour. In the moderate-pressure pond, anglers fished 340 hours/acre, and caught 1.2 bass per hour. In the high-pressure pond, angling was 680 hours/acre of water, and they only caught 0.4 bass per hour. The more experienced bass in the higher pressure ponds certainly learned, and were less likely to bite. In the second part of the same study, researchers stocked each of three small ponds with 75 bass per acre. During the next 49 days, each pond received 23 sessions of catch and release fishing. Each session. Pond A was fished for 0.8 hour. Pond B for 1.6 hours, and Pond C for 3.3 hours. Figure 3 shows what happened. As fishing pressure increased, fish became harder to catch. Near the end of the study, no bass could be caught in Pond B or Pond C. The best bass fishing occurred and catch rates of bass persisted throughout the study period in Pond A. which had the shortest fishing sessions (0.8hr/ac). Bass seemed to learn more from the length of fishing sessions rather than the number of times the pond was fished. Again the more experienced the bass became, the harder they were to catch.

ha ha, I knew the TN handle would have some supporters I never tried it, but it's pretty popular with the Slider fishers in Middle and East TN for sure!!

Also, some of the fish are just more aggressive than others, or more likely to hit artificial lures. Every time someone removes one of these "biters", which are obviously the most likely ones for people to catch anyway, the pond tends to get a little tougher to fish because the fish that are left and their offspring will tend to be of the less aggressive variety. This was proven in a study conducted on multiple closed (controlled access) ponds. I've seen the study referenced in books, and also here before but I can't recall where or by whom it was conducted.

I don't remember BP saying that specifically (about not fishing top-middle-bottom in deeper water), but I can tell you that deeper fish that are glued to the bottom are almost always feeding fish, whereas suspended fish off shore are generally A LOT tougher to trigger. - An example of this would be summertime fish that pull up on structure at the depth of a thermocline to feed, but suspend adjacent to the structure at the same depth when they are inactive. - Another example would be in river run reservoirs (TN River for one, which BP loved) where the bait and fish go tight to the structure (current break) when the water is running hard=CHEWING, and then tend to suspend adjacent to it when the water flow is reduced=NOT CHEWING. As far as why BP would have been targeting those fish on the bottom in deeper water and ignoring the suspended ones: I think his generally philosophy offshore was targeted more towards covering a lot of water trolling at high speeds, somewhere around 5 mph +/- in an effort to locate active feeders on structure, then to kill the motor and cast to the school. Then repeat.

The trouble with golf courses is getting permission. It's going to be nearly impossible if you don't know someone who works there, there's just nothing in it for them to allow people to fish there. From their viewpoint: At best you might only be a nuisance to the paying golfers....at worst, it could become a big liability issue if someone got hurt or drowned. Fortunately, there are plenty of other public pond options in this area. There is a ton of free and completely public water in Shelby county, and most of it is hardly touched.

The biggest largemouth I've ever had on the line came on a chrome/blue back original rattle trap on a pumping retrieve, in a small pond on Plantation golf course down in Olive Branch-in January, around 10 years ago. My buddy had a house on it and we could fish it in boats I didn't land that bass but it was all of 11 lbs......I shoulda changed out the hooks on that plug!! That was also the ugliest live bass I've ever seen, it looked like a 50 year old wall-mount like you would see in a bait shop somewhere, it couldn't have lived for long after that day.

Nice! A lot of people call traps an "idiot Bait" because you can just chuck and wind it, but I also heard a pro say once that he calls it that because you're an idiot if your not throwing one when the water's cold

Those are handy! They are a good way to add weight to a spinner bait or to make a homemade keel-weighted hook as well!!

There's more than one way to skin a cat Sorry some people felt compelled to make fun, welcome to the forum!! Also, check out the Tackle Making forum, there's lot's of great DIY stuff over there. http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/forum/9-tacklemaking/ BTW, what you are doing is probably how lead head jigs were invented in the first place!! There wasn't always a Bass Pro Shops or Tackle Warehouse, all of these ideas had to come from somewhere and I can guarantee you, the bass have never heard of either of those anyway

For me, as others have stated, the lists of challenging/exciting are basically the same. There are dozens of examples: Finding the fish Maintaining your equipment, boat, tow vehicle, electronics, tackle, how are those bearings holding up on the old trailer? probably better find some time this w/end to slap some grease on there... The expense Staying informed Finding the time and balancing the fishing addiction with your other responsibilities, work, family-and justifying it to yourself Being organized/efficient and getting the most out of your time on the water etc.... But at the end of the day, all of the things you are challenged by are what really make it interesting and rewarding when you do collide with success. Like most addictions, it's a love/hate deal. Ask any gambler or alcoholic what they love about their addiction, and if they are being honest, many will say that it is finding "rock bottom", not "winning" or just "getting drunk". In other words, the worst day of fishing, the day where everything breaks and the fish don't bite, you get soaking wet and catch a cold, maybe lose something valuable, make your wife mad at you for going that day in the first place, you name it, you're supposed to HATE that day, but you really LOVE that day.... because that day is what makes you appreciate the really special days where everything goes right! That day provides context!! If it went right every day, most of us would get bored and find another more challenging "hobby/addiction". I would suggest golf for the truly masochistic among us. There's a saying "if it was easy, everyone would be doing it". but I think if it was really easy, no one would be doing it. I think most of us humans find more motivation in failure than we do in success.