waskeyc

I will have to give these Z-Man ElaZtech worms a try.

I’ve been puzzled by the scarcity of floating plastic worms on the market for bass fishing. There are a few, mostly marketed for topwater, but the vast majority of plastic worms sink. Add the weight of a hook, and they sink even faster. Now for putting a worm on a jig, a Texas rig, wacky rig, or whatever, having sinking worm is just fine. But when it comes to Carolina rigs, doesn’t a floating worm make a lot of sense? Cast out, wait for the rig to sink to the bottom, but the worm floats up a few inches, right in front of the bass’s face. Reel in, and sinker drags through the bottom debris, attracting attention, while the worm floats along just above, in plain view. Is there a tough bite leaving the bass hidden in bottom rocks and roots after a cold front? Just let the worm sit, floating just above the bottom, tantalizing the slow-moving fish. As has been mentioned on another thread, people have been trailing crankbaits behind Carolina rigs for years. We have lures for a wide range of depths from the surface down, and weighted lures for bottom fishing. Since most fish orient to the bottom, rather than a specific depth (open water thermocline excluded), having a lure that could be fished at “bottom plus X” makes a lot of sense. So why does this not seem to be common practice? Is it difficult to make floating plastic worms? Does it turn out that a worm laying on the bottom is just as effective? Are people already doing this and the lure makers haven’t caught on yet? What do you think?

The nearest BPS store to my home is over 100 miles away, but I've done some traveling over the past year, and visited BPS stores in at least 3 different time zones. One thing that has struck me is the success the stores have had at attracting the upscale clientele that don't appear to be the outdoors type. I think it may be that having a BPS logo on your clothing has become trendy in some circles. I don't begrudge those people shopping there, and I'm glad that BPS is doing so well, but I do worry that they may lose their focus on providing a large selection of fishing and outdoors products in favor of trendy clothing and knicknacks. Then again, I bought my 4 year old son a 42" LMB pillow from BPS, so I might be part of that same customer base? On a separate topic, I welcome the knockoff lures and fishing products, because without them the name brands will increase their prices even more. I'm amazed that people are paying $7 and more for a 3" piece of balsa wood with some hooks hanging off. And I'm pretty sure that the fish can't read the logo as the lure swims past them.

Do you know about the Virginia Outdoorsman Fishing Report? It covers Smith Mountain Lake, and is updated year round, though less often in the winter. Here's the link: http://www.virginiao...ent/report.html

It looks like that bass won't be hungry for a while!

What's the water temperature? That is the temperature that the fish feel, rather than the air temperature. In my experience, the fish don't really become active until the water reaches about 50F, and that is certainly months away. However, many articles are available that provide evidence that smallmouth can be caught year round if open water is available. Studies have shown that, even in Wisconsin, wintering SMB still make daily movements, presumably to feed. The trick, I think, is finding them, with a little bit of luck on the timing. But if you find a big concentration, there should be at least some of them feeding almost anytime. My advice (and I have been unsuccessful at catching winter bass so far) is to keep moving until you find fish. Chances are, the fish are congregated in only a few wintering locations, and the rest of the river will just be empty water. If the river freezes, they may even have migrated out of the river altogether, to a bigger river downstream. Good Luck! And let us know how you do. (http://archives.in-f...ver-smalljaws/3)

OK, I give up. How do I catch these Mid South VERY AGGRESSIVE smallmouth? I've tried a number of techniques (hair jigs, split shot plastic grubs, float-n-fly) in as many small stream locations as I can imagine to find fish (calm eddies near shore, behind bolders in midstream, around brush piles, in deep pools with moderate current, under ledges brushed by current) and NOTHING. Granted, I've not fished many hours, but I have tried on numerous days in a variety of weather conditions, specifically targeting the last day or two of a winter warm-up and toward the last few hours of daylight, when water temps are at their maximum. Interestingly, the primary reason my interest in fishing was stoked about a year and a half ago is because I wanted to figure out how to catch fish in winter - it has become a technical challenge that has led me to read every fishing book I can get my hands on. So far this winter, and also last, no luck. Although I did catch a few bluegill in late November on two nearby ponds using nymphs and a fly rod. So far as I can tell, the fish just disappear when the water temp drops below 50F, and magically reappear in spring. I don't believe they migrate, but I just can't seem to find them. Chris in Virginia

No one has read it?

There is currently a great thread on the best bass fishing books (http://www.bassresou...-fishing-books/). Rather than hijack that thread, I wanted to start a new one to see if anyone has read Craig DeFronzo's e-book, available from his website (http://micromunchjig...com/ebooks.html). Craig has posted numerous articles on bassresource.com, and has registered the username "earthworm77". It appears that he has not been active on the forums since 2008 however. Many of his articles are enjoyable to read, and he seems to have had great success with his techniques, although I get the feeling that the articles don't tell you quite enough to fish like him. So I'm wondering, does his book answer the questions that his articles raise? What do you think?

Based on my observations in small creeks near me, the bass are usually either holding position in slack water, or roaming around. Many times I have observed fish just hovering in slow to moderate current, sometimes behind an obstruction, sometimes just near bottom. These fish are usually harder to catch, especially if they can see you, so this may be their "resting between meals" habit. One of the few times this year that I targeted a specific smallmouth, he was cruising. At the tail of a fairly large pool, just above some rapids, I saw him swim by in shallow water, then dissappear in the deeper water further up the pool. I thought I had spooked him, but I just sat on the bank and watched. A minute or so later, he swam by the same path again. I watched for about 20 minutes before casting, and he was making circuits about every 1 minute 20 seconds at the lower end of the pool. Once I was confident I hadn't spooked him, I waited for him to pass, then dropped a nightcrawler at the bottom of the pool where he had been passing. When he came around again, he picked it up, then broke me off. I got another nightcrawler and waited for him to pass by again, then dropped it in the water behind him. When he came by, he picked up my second nightcrawler and I was able to land him. It was very obvious to me that this fish was on the hunt.

For fish I'm going to keep, I bop them on the head with a sawed-off broom stick. I drilled a hole in one end and put a string through it, so it's easy to attach to my backpack tacklebox and it's always with me. I call it the "mercy stick", others have called it "the priest". I've found that I have to hit them pretty hard though, otherwise they are just stunned, and after a few minutes they'll come too and continue flopping around. I usually will put the fish's chin on a large rock, then hit them on top of the head, just behind the eyes, hard enough to crush their skull. Then I throw them in an ice bucket and keep on fishing. When it's time to go home, the fish are still very fresh.

Here, here. I agree with the rest of what you have to say as well. Great post.

Great post. Although I've never used sonar for fishing, I have used ultrasonics at work for performing inspections. Before I read up on sonars a bit, I always assumed "fishfinders" used a phased array of ultrasonic transducers to create a 3D map of the bottom. It appears however, that phased array technology has not made it to the bass boat. In the mean time, this sideview stuff is great. Without it, it seems to me that a sonar is little more than a fancy depth finder. Having to pass directly overtop of an area in order to see it on the screen seems like a huge drawback of single-sensor units. What do you do when the water is shallow? How do you keep from spooking the fish? How can you tell what's under a dock or downed tree? What if the item you're looking for is small, but your beam angle is wide and the water is deep? Sideview provides a great benefit to sonar users.

Sam, I always look forward to reading your posts. Thanks for the article. Yes, but... Let's look at a typical cold front. One passed by here last night in central Virginia. Looking at the local weather observations from the NWS over the past 24 hours (http://www.weather.g...story/KLYH.html), I see that the maximum barometric pressure was about 30.15" Hg yesterday (12/22) morning around 10am, falling slowly throughout the day. At the minimum (meteorologists call this "frontal passage", and generally coinsides with lowest cloud heights and most rain; also, a change in wind direction), the pressure was 29.8 in the wee hours of the 23rd. The latest pressure (at 9am on the 23rd) is back to about 30.10. I expect it will continue to climb slowly for most of the day before leveling off this evening. Now, I didn't go fishing yesterday, and haven't yet been today, so I don't know for sure what the fish are doing. But let's assume they are currently in their typical post-frontal funk, even if only mildly. We are talking about a pressure change (max to min) of 30.15/29.8, or about a 1.2% change in atmospheric pressure. While true that this air pressure does push on the water surface, let's not forget the substantial weight of water itself. Water weighs about 64 lbs/ cubic foot, so the water pressure (ignoring the air pressure on the top of the water) at 1 foot depth is about 0.4psi (64 lbs/ft3 / 12^2). "Normal" air pressure at sea level is 14.7psi. If this changes by even a radical 5%, or 0.7psi during a weather change, a fish can totally neutralize the effect of the pressure change by merely changing his height in the water column by less than 2 feet of depth (0.7psi air pressure change / 0.4psi per foot of water depth). Clearly, most bass have access to greater than a 2 foot column of water with which to neutralize their swim bladders and other organs. So I don't buy the barometric pressure explanation. And, the pressure changes are identical for moving water as they are for still water, because the same air is pressing on the surface of both. On the other hand, I don't have a better explanation, as I think "loosing their teeth", "rapid temperature drop" and "too much light" aren't good explanations either. So this discussion is free to continue

This was sort of what I was driving at with my comment about whether he copied some chapters from his previous book(s) without revising. Clearly, our understanding has improved over the decades, and even since his "Wisdom" book in 2000. Being a technical person (engineer by profession), inconsistencies and unproven folk-lore bother me, but I haven't found a fishing book yet that didn't have some. For the lurkers, please don't misunderstand: Homer's "Bass Wisdom" is one of the most enjoyable books on fishing I've read, and there is plenty of useful and scientifically accurate information within. Don't let a few quibbles on the forum keep you from checking out this book.