NoBassPro

I'm in far southwest Michigan. Do most of my fishing close to home, too many small lakes to name within minutes of me, most are decent, but travel north from time to time.

Nice Michigan bass. 5.5 - 6 lbs on that scale.

Going to add some detail. On the lakes I fish bass have been gorging on shiners at dawn and dusk. Best baits have been anything that approximates 1 to 4 inch shiners. Numbers have been really good, hes the best so far. Inside weed edges, in particular if they transition to a sandy bottom have been best, since thats where the bait is.

Caught this one today fishing with my boys. Hit a spinnerbait.

Its not just the eggs, the fry themseleves stay in the river for close to a year I believe. I know it is one of the reasons given for limiting shoreline access on the Kenai, but I'm no fisheries biologist either. As far as the commercial fisheries go, I remember this type of thing going on at one time I was out there. http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19970730&slug=2552078 I don't know the current status, but it is a high tension area.

I consider over 6 lbs a trophy, but I wouldn't put one on my wall. Anything over 18" is decent around here, and there aren't that many legit 5+ lbers caught in the lakes I fish.

Salmon fry tend to stick close to shore and would be the primary concern. Honestly, over development is probably to blame for recruitment issues far more than other species of fish, but this is a conveniant way to make it sound like they are doing something without costing them as much short term money as say, limiting development or removing dams would. Having fished the Columbia, I will second that the smallmouth and walleye fisheries are excellent, and Banks Lake is a good LM and SM lake from my experiences. Its not a place I would go for the salmon or steelhead, though. They will never have the fisheries they once had again, and BC and AK will always be superior destinitions imo. Its always about the money, and if you can show them they stand to lose more money by harming the bass fisheries than they would gain by whatever increase they hope to see in the salmon population, it would be beneficial to your campaign. The major issue will be combatting both the hardcore recreational fishermen and the commercial industry, even if it is fairly limited off the WA coast anymore.

I have 4 lakes within 5 minutes of me. They may not be great, but I'd rather be fishing than driving when I can go out.

That was a healthy 19" fish, probably in the 3-4 lb range. I consider that a quality fish, but thats about all, he did get released after showing mommy and lil bro. Doing well considering I am sticking with the dink factories to keep my oldest boy busy. And although I want to make a jerk comment about using anything that looks like an easy meal, like a plastic worm, when the bass are keying in on baitfish, I will leave it at that. I am sure you could get something on one now though.

Fishing has been pretty good. Lots of numbers and some quality aswell. Heres a decent one from today. Only three biats I've needed are a spook, spinnerbait, and 2.5 squarebill. Flats close to main basins have been best, with most of my fish coming out of 8 fow or

I know I've read numerous studies back in the day that indicated a plastic worm is one of the hardest lures for a bass to learn not to strike. Its not just that it looks like a meal, its that it looks more like a meal than many of the other presentations we use. There aren't many constants in fishing, but plastic worms and jigs have continued to be reliable producers of decent to large fish for quite some time, the same can't be said for many other lures. I, and I doubt anyone else here, really knows how a bass perceives its world, and how the lateraline, vision, and whatever other senses it uses really work. I have always been under the impression that the lateral line was useful to make it aware of movement in its area, kind of an early warning system, but it still relied on vision before deciding to strike. I cannot say that is true, however. What I am certain of, is that bass can not only learn to avoid certain things, but at times will selectively feed only on certain items. I don't care if you're talking about smallmouth during a hex hatch or largemouth keying in on shad, there are times when its useful to know what you are trying to represent. That doesn't mean you need an exact replica, but something close enough for the fish. And as far as wacky rigged worms looking like a dying minnow, drop some half dead shiners down a hole when you are ice fishing and watch their action, or look at the unhealthy alewifes near the pierheads sometime. Getting into what a bait represents to bass and what will trigger it to strike are two different subjects, I've watched bass ignore live crawlers more than once just to hit a finesse worm. Surely the crawler represented "food", it just didn't have the right characteristics to trigger a strike at that time. My point is, saying a worm looks like a "meal" is a bit of an oversimplification, same as saying bass strkie out of curiosity or whatever. I happen to believe there reaches a point in a bass's life where it pretty well knows what its looking for in a meal, and a worm still works at that point. But, personally, I'd rather kick my trolling motor on high and chuck spinnerbaits or cranks all day, simply because that's what I happen to enjoy. I know what I've read and observed, and what has worked in the past, though. I also believe the average fisherman would rather just buy cool new stuff than give any real degree of thought as to what is triggering the fish to strike.

If, for whatever reason, you are stuck on trying to get into oilfield work and can't find anything in TX, look into Wyoming. You might end up with a fly rod and elk hunting, but they were adding quite a few jobs out there last I knew.

Outside of the dropshot/finesse presentations which do a decent job of imitating small minnows, I don't think worms are supposed to imitate anything in particular, they just have a natural profile and action that bass like. I'm sure bass will eat leeches, mudpuppies and whatever else they can find that will fit in their mouth, and a long skinny thing slithering along fairly well fits that profile of other things they eat imo. Thats not to say they don't mistake them for a minnow or crawfish, cuz I really don't know what they are thinking, but thats not their entire diet. To me a wacky rigged senko would most closely imitate a dying fish slowly falling, but, again, who knows.

I will second this. Well except the flouro leader part. Go way too heavy and you probably won't have any bite offs. Its a trade off, and I will stick with the lost baits for more hits.

They've got good action and enough bulk they can be cast easily even without weight, comes in handy when you're looking for things to swim over shallow weeds amongst other things

I'd forgotten about SCOTS.

spottail shiner I think

I have been on that one. The fishing was nothing special, but they did have a no wake past noon on Sundays rule that was strictly enforced. Might have changed by now.

Same here. The one thing I will add is the not so great ones I've had were always part time guides. They had good references, but I felt like I was paying them to fish.

To me the mount isn't so much the fish itself, but the story behind. I kind of prefer skin mounts just as a nostalgia thing. I spent most of my summers when I was younger in various camps in northern MI mainly, and there were always old faded mounts of something. They didn't look perfect, or always even good, but those were good times. And even though some of those old timers I fished with had some crazy ways of fishing and some strong opinions on some of the stuff we use now, they did teach me alot about fishing.

Ours has gone through several changes over the past couple years. They've increased great lakes fishing stuff, taken that out and added some musky stuff, and now just seem to be in general decline. Honestly, from the people I've talked to, its not just B&M retail stores, but businesses of most kinds have never really recovered from the decline of a few years ago, and if I had to guess they are making the changes to find a niche in a stagnant to possibly decreasing overall market.

We had solar hot water for our entire house in Michigan as a kid. We did supplement in the winter with heating coils that ran thru a woodstove, it worked well enough. The solar panels themselves were just used as a roof for a greenhouse type area we added on to our house to start a few plants. I've also used solar powered hot wire fencing. It never had the kick convential did, but they keep improving the technology.

Yea I know most bass fisherman look down their noses at trolling, and I've never trolled for bass, although I have done alot of trolling. So here's some of the drawbacks as well. You are going to have a hard time in shallow cover. Outside of contending with weeds and snags, you'll often spook fish. The you have to mess with planer boards. 2. It takes a team effort often. Particularly in heavy water, you need at least two people that know what they are doing. 4. All those bass guys will thumb their noses at you. Beyond that , some other advantages are 1. if you take someone who is more into a boat ride than fishing with you, with a little teaching they can usually help set and clear lines. 2. Often, after a fish or two they get hooked on fishing as well. 3. In heavy waters it can be the only way you will effectively be able to present a bait at times. Maintaining boat control on small lakes is when its windy is one thing, in heavy waves and current its another. 3. You can learn a body of water quicker, and with multiple baits out might be able to put together a pattern quicker. 4. You can more effectively cover deep water.

Here are some tips : it easiest if you can plot some way points on your gps and plot a trolling route that way. For bass your probably going to be looking at deep weedlines, rocky humps, and specific depths/contours. 2. Cranks will run at different depths trolling than casting, experience will tell you or there are some books out that can help you with this. If you wish to get shallower baits deeper various three way rigs are probably the way to go, don't think you'll be needing leadcore or downriggers for bass. 3. Linecounter reels are essential for depth control, or counting the passes on your baitcaster if you know how much line comes off each pass. 4. try spinnerbaits over weeds,. 5. Different baits work best at different speeds, if you are running a spread make sure all the baits will work properly at the speed you are going. 6. When you turn your outside baits run faster and your inside baits slow down, with cranks this means the outside baits will speed up and maybe dig a little deeper, while the inside baits will slow down and maybe rise a little, with spinners the outside baits will usually rise a little and the inside baits sink a little, With a little time and practice, it can be a very good way to cover water and target precise depths and structural elements.

I do believe this is true. I know if I go too long without getting out my wife will start telling me I need to go. As a kid I got in trouble numerous times, as an adult never. Heck, we had the whole neighborhood looking for a friend of mine and I one night when we got into a good bite and just couldn't quit.