Raul

Watch out my friend, lures n 'stuff stick to you as you walk through the aisles ( magnetism ? :-? ), every time I 've been there my wallet comes out pretty light :-/, ya know what I mean.

1.- Lake Baccarac 2.- Lake El Salto 3.- Lake Vicente Guerrero 4.- Lake El Cuchillo OOOOOOOOPS ! Sorry, wrong country !

I agree with George to a certain point, bass can be as stupid as a rock, but how stupid ? well that depends, fish can learn to associate events that can pose a threat to their survival, like boat traffic, during the weekends the boat traffic soars, the sound of running engines, anchors being dropped, lures being tossed at the water and seeing other fish caught ( or them being caught ) in the long run are going to cause fish to associate those events with danger, therefore on those days fish will develop shutmouthitits......to a certain point, some will some won 't. Certain baits do cause the fish to react negatively to them specially after being exposed over and over again to them, others don 't. How can I say such thing ? well, my experience is based on what I 've seen with fish in a more controled environment, irrigation ponds. At first when you fish a pond where fish have never seen a lure you will do a killing, they will hit everything you throw at them, if you continue to fish the same place for an extended period of time you will see that the lure that produced during the first 2-3 trips slowly but surely will diminish it 's effectiveness as time goes by, after a while the lure is no longer productive, specially if you keep on presenting the bait in the same way. Leave the lure at home and give it a break for a couple of months and it will be productive again. What are the key points here ? exposure and presentation, those count a lot on most lures with a couple of exceptions: jigs and soft plastic baits, there 's something in them that the fish just can 't seem to associate with danger, you may not catch the same fish on the same day but for what I have seen if you catch it in the morning you most probably won 't catch it in the afternoon, which doesn 't mean you can 't catch it tomorrow, I 've caught the same fish 4 times in the same week in the same location, with jigs and worms, this shows that fish can be as dumb as a rock. Now, fish just can 't be smarter than you are, the catch is to outsmart them, the way you can do it is by studying how fish behave and understand how they react, it 's easier for you to be in their place than it is for them to be in your place, THINK and be CREATIVE on your presentation, if everybody is fishing with spinnerbaits without a trailer then put a trailer on yours, the results can be completely different for you, it 's not if the fish wants to strike your bait, it 's that you are going to make it strike your bait. It 's not the same.

7 lakes and numerous ponds, most of them are 30 min away from my home, the farthest one is 2 hour drive.

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy !, those maps are a hidden treasure. Time to go out there and pinpoint the hot spots with your GPS.

If marriage or your job interfere with fishing quit them and go fishin.

I 've caught the same big momma 4 times in the same week in the same place, 2 times with a jig, 1 time with a reaper and 1 time with a worm so maybe she 's just stupid :, actually the truth is that fish and the others that live in the pond seldomly see a lure, they have the right genetics ( Florida strain ), lot 's of bluegills and tilapias to feed upon, warm water ( the pond is fed by a well ) and no fishing pressure except for my ocassional visit. Hey Vyron, I don 't see a problem with your avatar, nice lure.

Genetics are one of the three elements needed to grow big, the other two are nutrition and environment, in order for the genetics to express the animal needs the other two. For example, some sort of "geniuses" had the innovative idea to introduce pure bred Holstein cattle in Mexico 's tropical part to produce milk, Holsteins and any other dairy breed have the genetics to produce huge ammounts of milk; the animals were well fed so nutrition was optimum, however everybody scratched their heads when the animals didn 't performed as they were supposed to do, this only proves that the geniuses who had the bright and innovative idea are morons and a retards in all the extension of both words....... why do you think that the animals didn 't perform ? ........ Holsteins may have the genetics to produce huge ammounts of milk, they may have been well fed but Mexico 's tropical part is hot and humid, Holsteins do not have enough sudoriparous glands per square inch of skin to produce enough sweat to cool down their body temperature, they were literally cooking themselves ------stress due to high temperature and humidity--------NO MILK. They skipped one of the elements, the environmental conditions.

Old tires Ceph, you can build triangular shaped cover with them, just pour cement on one to make it sink and tie the other two to the base one forming a triangle, with them you can make a reef structure that will last forever.

That 's because you 're a good egg GLoomisman, good to see that you take care of your elders. I wish I could say my dad or my grandpa introduced me to fishing :-/, in my case such thing never happened, it was one of my dad 's friends the one who introduced me to fishing. This person is extremely wealthy and owns a ranch called "Santa Helena" in the mountains that surround the city of Tulancingo in Hidalgo state, he has dressage horses and raises prime quality Charolais cattle and Suffolk sheep just because, the ranch also has a small lake feed by a spring and since the temperature there can be quite cold he has the lake stocked with rainbow trout, that 's where I was hooked on fishing when I was 9 years old.

Anybody know if power lines have to do with the fight a fish puts out ? I don 't know if it 's me or if power lines actually have an effect on how hard a fish fights, the reason why ask is this: right next to my uncle 's dairy farm there 's an irrigation pond that belongs to a chicken farm, power lines run all along the pond above it and the fish there seem to strike and fight harder than normal, my uncle has also irrigation ponds in the farm stocked with bass not far from the pond I 'm mentioning but none of those ponds have power lines running above them, fish in his ponds put up the regular fight you can expect, it 's a mystery I still have to figure out.

We have both down here and what I like about northerns is that they make a big party when caught, they jump more, make more runs while floridas are more "pull me out if you can".

life is hard, and it must be even harder when you're stupid... OMG ! now that 's funny right there. ;D ;D ;D

Oh Ceph, do I have to choose between A and B ? :-/, can I choose both ?.

Never mind Peter. Moonphases have a direct impact in particular places subject to the influence of the moon, tidal systems and your success depend greatly on the tide which we all know is affected by the moon, something similar to what RW mentions, current, where RW fishes regularily current is everything, if there 's current then there 's good fishing. Certain activities of the fish, like spawning are affected by the moonphase like Basswest 11 pointed out, many fish, invertebrates, reptiles and amphibians spawn or are born during the full moon but the feeding activity is not regulated by it, that is regulated by the temperature of the water which in "cold" blood creatures like fish regulates the methabolical rate, the warmer the more active the fish will be because their methabolism is fueled by the warm temperature at a cost, the animal has to feed in order to gain the energy it needs to keep up with the demands it 's own methabolism is asking for. Barometric pressure, fish don 't feel a change in barometric pressure, water is 800+ times denser than air so a change in barometric pressure has little or no effect in water because the effect disspates in a denser environment, what makes the fish go nutz when the barometric pressure plummets is the fact that this change is associated to a drastic change in the weather conditions, if you hear that a low pressure system is moving towards you just be shure to be at your lake because you are going to catch fish specially if rain is predicted. Air temperature does not affect water temperature unless it lasts for several days, water traps heat, the same time it took the water to warm up a couple of degrees is the same time it takes for the water to loose those degrees. Cold fronts occur because they are cause by high pressure systems associated to cold winds, the direct effect is that the skies turn blue without a single cloud in the sky, the air temperature is low but the water temperature is not. What affects you directly is the increased light penetration cause by the lack of cloud cover. Most anglers unfortunately are sight oriented and bank beaters, they like to fish what they see and are uncapable of adapting to the conditions, the lack of success is because they are not fishing where the fish are, which in those conditions is in deep cover or in deep structure. Like Chris pointed out, if I can fish at night a full moon night is my choice, first I can see where I 'm casting my bait, also, the presence of the moon light extends the activity of the fish, so to a certain point moonphase has an impact, I agree on that......at night fishing. Now let 's see with an example why I say that don 't pay attention to moonphase, this weekend there was full moon, if I pay attention to the moonphase ( on which solunar tables and calendars are based ) I should have had a killer day on Sunday, the calendar marked the day as "EXCELLENT"..... I caught 6 fish and it took me all the day to catch them, last week the calendar marked the day as "FAIR" .....I caught 25 fish, the water conditions were pretty much the same, the water temperature was the same, the sky was blue and cloudless both weekends, the only difference between both weekends was that the previous weekend it was windy all day long while this weekend the wind didn 't start blowing until the afternoon, that 's when I caught the fish. What made the difference ? the wind not the moonphase. FOM, the conditions here in weather are very similar to Texas, you get a cold front there we got it three days before so we do experience cold fronts and whacky weather just like you Texans do, but I pay a lot more attention to the weather conditions and the water conditions. One of the Texan lakes I 've fished is Choke Canyon and man, if it 's windy in MacAllen it 's going to be crazy windy at Choke Canyon. The scariest boat ride I 've ever had in my life was at Choke Canyon three years ago in late July with my cousin.

Thanks for the link ! I 'm going to work on my boat this year to make it more comfortable, I burned my rear end enough for the last year to make me wish for a seat, the aluminum seat can get really hot ya know, and when you sit down again.....surprise ! >, definately not good for hemorroids, if you don 't have them already after a while of heat treatment you develop them.

Could be, some years ago I found a big bass ( the eyeball meter calculated around 6 pounds ) floating near the shore with a huge tilapia stuck in it 's wide open mouth, the bass was almost dead, I removed the tilapia and returned the fish to the water just to find it an hour later floating again dead and I have found dead fish in other ocassions with tilapias and bluegills stuck in their mouths.

Very nice jobs ! I specially like Low Budget 's one, good ideas that I can add to my boat because it 's pretty much like his, I like the seats but can 't use those in my boat, they need to be lower because I flip it around and cartop it.

Peter, don 't try to lecture me, in 32 years of fishing, and I 've read all the "thories", not once ever the moon phase has had anything to do on how much fish I catch in the lake in any day. Moonphase is important in tidal systems not in inshore systems.

Don 't pay attention to moonphase, solunar tables, tarot cards or fortune tellers, the only good thing I have to say about the full moon while fishing at night is that I can see where I 'm casting my lure instead of trying to figure it out. High pressure means clear skies and increased light penetration, depth, shade and cover play a big role in your approach, you have to fish deeper, slower, in cover on the shaded side. Cold fronts are associated to high pressure systems. Low pressure means cloudy skies and possibly rain, diminshed light penetration which will allow you to fish shallower.

Anything above Tijuana is the north. ;D

Oh boy, we are there ! ;D

That has to do with the class you are aspiring to. The only thing you know for shure is: the fish has to be at least 2 ounces heavier than the previous record to be considered a IGFA recognized record, 22 lbs 6 oz or more, anything else does not qualifya as IGFA recognized WR.

As long as you don 't live in gator country float tubes are a good option for the boatless one, wading is a good option unless you fish a lake with very steep slopes and know where the river channels and tributaries are located, I found a tributary the hard way while wading when I stepped into it. :

Hot glue. Melt it a little bit to take a pinch out of a hot glue bar, make a small stick with your fingers and insert it in the tip, heat the tip with a lighter to melt and insert the tip in your rod, any excess can be cleaned with the finger as long as it 's warm.