Jar11591

100% normal. YCB are usually 1-fish baits.

I rigged up a rod with 30 lb Berkley braid over the winter. I haven't been able to use it much yet, but from the few casts I made, it is really smooth. No backlash problems. Seems good to me.

Yup, good point.

Yep....when you're not fishing, read read read and read some more. BassResource also has a video for almost everything. When I'm not fishing, I'm reading this site, magazines, books and whatever I can find to better educate myself on bass.

Not so much a fear of lures, but like Avery said a conditioned response to avoid a certain type of bait/forage until there isn't enough food that they haven't been conditioned to ignore. I know it is probably not true, just something I was thinking about based on a number of theories.

I think bass "smarts" need to be taken out of the equation here. A bass is in no sense of the word "smart". Everything it does is an instinctual reaction to its surroundings and situations. It does not think, or decide. Bass do become active before a thunderstorm, almost predicting it, but again it is not attributed to the bass brain power. It's all instinct and environment. Salmon and trout return to the stream or tributary that they were born in to spawn, sometimes hundreds of miles away. It's not because they are "smart", it's because that's how they are wired. It's purely instinctual.

This might be the greatest post I've read. :laugh5:

A good day of fishing is such a a satisfying feeling. I usually sit out on the front porch, have a smoke and something cold to drink and reminisce about the day with whoever I fished with.

I always considered this, but I just keep a little piece of paper with the depth on it in the same slot with my crankbaits.

The more I think about it, the more I believe that for this to be possible it would have to be every time the bass attempted to eat like you said. But in that case it would just die of starvation before the "conditioning" happened.

Conditioned response...Thank you, that it the term I was looking for. I guess not so much instinct. I should have used that term in the original post. I re-read my last response to you, sorry for the way I worded it. Not my intention, all good natured.

What I'm saying is, just like a bass can develop the instinct to avoid a certain bait, could it eventually do the same to enough forage similar to lures it's been caught on that it has no food source? I don't know if it could, but it's just something I was pondering over.

It has nothing to do with a bass being smart, because obviously bass are not self-ware, nor can they feel pain or make decisions. Read the post again. You obviously missed that part. I'm talking purely instinct, exactly like a bass can get wise to a certain type of bait.

I guess what I'm saying is, would a bass become so picky due to being caught on so many different things so many times, that his instincts tell him to pass up all the available forage until he eventually dies during the search for food? I'm not talking fishing pressure and how that effects it physically. Again I don't believe one way or another.

High school back in the day....wouldn't even begin to know where to find it now.

Lol that is only fair, but unfortunately it was a high school thing. But I will direct you to this magnificent website that might solve your doubts. www.google.com

That's where it gets good. Think of a bass living in a heavily pressured lake, and over a span of, say, 4 years it gets caught dozens and dozens of times on every lure and live bait possible. I'm still not sure either way but it's definitely interesting.

Beginning of last summer, 20 sunfish and crappie took me 20 minutes of hacking, sweating and gagging. By the end of the summer I could filet 20 in a couple minutes. Like everyone else said, practice is most important. Now I I feel like I could filet a fish with a butter knife.

That is what I thought, until I read studies about mammals who exhibit this exact behavior. They will eventually starve to death if they entirely associate eating with physical pain. They are re-conditioned basically to where their instincts tell them eating causes pain.

What does everyone think? Say a bass lived in a very pressured waterbody, and he gets caught by fishermen routinely. Do you think it could ever get to a point where the bass begins to associate the act of feeding entirely with getting hooked, so he stops feeding altogether until he starves? I know this is true in some mammals, if they begin to associate eating with pain then they eventually will not eat. I know bass are not self-aware and can't feel pain, but I'm talking purely instinctual. And I'm not talking about a bass getting wise to a certain bait, because I know that can happen.

Thanks for the info guys. I think I might give this reel a shot. I like the price and if it is as good as advertised then it will be just fine.

I have hooked big Northerns that don't really fight, just kind of pull until they see the boat, and then its on. I have also hooked big carp that nearly strip me of all my line as they go for 4-5 powerful runs. But it could have been a big lethargic bass that wasn't in a fightin' mood.

Zero bit I've had 2 hits! Water temp is still in the 30s...

The strength of the braid isn't for the fish, it's for what you might have to pull the fish out of. That being said, I personally have no reason to go over 30 lb braid. It still allows me to throw in the really thick cover and rip it out. I won't go over 30lb braid unless I am given a reason too. (Musky fishing maybe).

Dead pumpkinseeds probably = winterkill unfortunately. We just lost our ice about a week and a half ago so up here the spawn is still a ways off.