Nitrofreak

Thanks to all who have contributed to this thread, I went back and re-read this for what I hope is a much clearer picture, at least I feel like I have a much better understanding. If I am starting to understand then may I ask a question or two? I would like to use the saddle in the above picture, when we hear about the occasions of fish coming shallow to feed and returning deep, is it most likely that areas like these saddles may be used as reference? They may or may not be directly in the saddle itself, that they may position themselves on the point or on the ledge or elsewhere, but where they position themselves has more to do with time of year? does anything seem to determine where they will most likely position after coming shallow to feed or, because each body of water is different we need to explore all the options?

IKR !!! What a great looking photo !!

As spring is approaching here in the Va. area and we can start to see the days becoming longer, I am super excited about this coming year, it should yield a lot more time on the water than in years past for me, I am looking forward to hopefully having even a few of you along with me once again, although sadly it will not be in my ever faithful Nitro, I have and continue to read my maps and I am now ready to explore some new water in places that I have fished for years with a brand new understanding, ready to try and perfect some new techniques as well as knock the rust off of some of the more common ones, this year hopefully yields some truly great learning experiences and some memorable fish to boot, I am also looking forward to aiding our veterans with their road to recovery with the hopes that we can have a positive effect on many this year on lakes from all over our great state. Any of you guys excited about this coming season and are you gearing up for something new? Good luck and be safe !!!

My youngest daughter fosters cats, gives them a temporary home until they are able to be adopted, she has done tremendously well with the program but gets emotionally attached to each one of them, she has adopted 4 herself and has fostered many that have gone on to hopefully loving and caring families, between our 3 families we have 8 dogs, 4 cats, plus we have 5 cats that are fosters, not a single one of them is not without their own personality, none have provided the same smarts as your cat bigbill although a lot of them have the same pink nose LOL !!

I have learned from these guys and gals that it's more important, far more important, to let the fish tell you what they want and fish accordingly no matter the phase, if they are all suspended, use your experience to fish that way or at least learn as much as you can from that, it is far better to gather your experience from such a day and post your questions with as much useful information as you can offer, in turn you get informative and useful advise that you can apply toward your next outing and you are also able to give back to others, fishing is complicated enough, in it's simplistic way LOL !!

We got above 30", thankful we didn't get the high winds, we did get gusts upwards 20+mph but mostly 8 to 15, lost the high side of my gear box in the ol' 2010 John Deere, time to retire that ol' girl.

As always it's great to hear from you as well my friend and will do, say hello to your family as well from us !!

Got the snow they were calling for but thank goodness we didn't get the high winds, we did get some 20+ mph but never saw the 50's, it's pretty and all but I can't wait for it to be gone. I took several pics but for some reason I'm having trouble getting them to the required posting size on my iPhone, I will post those tomorrow when I can get to a laptop. hope everyone came through with no harm and no damage.

Yes, It's a Chevrolet dealership, Joe Bowman Auto Plaza, what's your brothers name? ill figure out why it didn't post and try again, it didn't give me any messages that said it couldn't post or anything.

I don't or can't see it for some reason, did the video post ?

Short vid of my ride home.

Just now started in my area, going out now to pack all the cars we can into the dealership and we are heading home, thoughts and prayers for everyone, stay safe and warm peeps !!!

Just got an update this morning, now predictions are at 2-3 feet of white stuff for my area, sustained winds at and around 20mph with gusts possibly reaching 50mph mark... UGH !!!!

That's not what you said on that last excursion you and I took on the res, meh, people change I guess LOL !!

Well, he put his heart into that one for sure and I think he covered all of the necessities too, right down to the crank up radio !!! Good job brother !!!

Really tired or really bored ?? LOL !!! I'm sure there is some sort of similarity, there are many articles and discussions on the basses sight found in here and around the web. Here is just one link of many that may help, http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/166461-light-waves-underwater/?do=findComment&comment=1889184

Generally speaking the fall bite is much like the spring bite, the fish move and gear themselves up for a pending event, they fill themselves up for the upcoming winter, in the spring they fill themselves up for the upcoming spawn, their metabolism slows way down in the colder months so it is much like their way of storing energy to be used sparingly throughout the winter, in the spring they fill themselves to use the energy for work. The spring and fall are much the same in aspects of being able to get by with using similar baits, just as some of the same can be applied for the winter and summer months as well. Good luck and be safe !!!

What an ordeal, glad to hear that all is well, best wishes and prayers sent for continued recovery and good health !!

My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family my friend, may God bless and be with you all.

I am a firm believer in "we get what we get when we get it", like the rest of you I like being prepared for the worst and hope that we get the least.

The most challenging thing is myself, breaking the molds of fishing visual objects or once productive areas, forcing myself to move away from things that I know will work to explore something that I know may very well not produce results, do I want to catch some fish? or do I want to expand my horizons and learn more about fishing? Every outing can be a hit or miss adventure, "they were here yesterday", "they liked this color bait yesterday" we waist a lot of time and money fishing yesterdays, for me the challenge is fishing today and becoming more open minded about knowing when to change and what to change and to what extent, it is simply a hunting trip to find the right spot that gives you the most bang for your buck, or is it...

Who needs magazines when you have Bass Resource ? LOL !! I usually tend to read articles in here because I can ask questions and get some truly great feedback, something you cant get from a magazine, I used to read a bunch of them until it felt more like to me that I was paying to read advertisements and just a couple of articles, not that those articles were not helpful and not that there are not any good magazines out there, I prefer a more interactive approach that allows me the opportunity to give back as well from what I have learned.

2015 only yielded a dozen trips, worked really hard on my crank bait fishing, at least as hard as I could, for what I have learned I would rate it pretty good, for what I have caught during the learning curve I would rate that pretty poorly, 2015 did yield 4 outings with warriors, there is no grade for that other than to say it's always a great outing, 2015 also gave me a hit with the Nitro going down with a blown engine, but then again it also brought me a newer larger boat with some updated electronics, all in all it's been an up and down year, I would give the fishing a C+ the rest was pretty spectacular, looking forward to 2016 !!!

The stir crazy thing happens to me a lot, I pass the time the same as you in some ways, I practice my pitching and flipping, there is not a whole lot of need for the flipping but it's still good to keep up with it for when its needed, I usually just study lake maps for new places I want to investigate on the next trip out, no matter how well you think you know a place or how often you frequent a body of water there is always something new to find. Hope you get out soon and have some fun, good luck and be safe !!!

WOW MAN !!!! Thank you for this, what a truly great read !!!