RSM789

Best believe him, its true. The odd thing is that he wears both of those on his head, so he kind of looks like Bain...

Fair enough, that is an excellent point. Making rules that are unenforceable weakens the rest of the tournament structure. Enforcement would not be easy, but if it was tied to some kind of major punishment for violation, you would see competitors making darn sure there wasn't even an appearance of impropriety.

A couple of years ago, a big catfish grabbed the jig I was fishing and began dragging my boat all over the cove I was in. It was mid-afternoon and a couple sitting on a nearby porch watched as Mr. Catfish gave me a tour of his home. After a 5 minute battle, I wrestle the catfish out of the water to the applause of the couple. The husband yelled out "How big is it?". I grab my Rapala digital scale, hook Mr. catfish under the gill and just as the scale reads out "14 lb., 3 oz.", the catfish gives a major tail flip, ripping the scale out of my hand. Catfish & scale end up in the water. I can only imagine the catfish swimming up to his friends, showing off the digital scale & saying "Look what I caught..."

I visited your fair state last August and you aren't kidding about the 120's. I fished in the mornings & by 8:30 am, it looked like I had gone swimming. One place I did fish that seemed to have a few fat bass was those 3 "urban ponds" back behind the Phoenix zoo. At the top pond, the one closest to the canal, I caught 4 bass over the 4lb mark, including one that just missed the 5lb mark. All 4 came on a KVD squarebill in bluegill color, they all hammered it as it bounced off of the rocks on the bottom. The water in that top pond has much lower visibility & appears to be healthier. It also seemed to get less fishing pressure than the other 2 ponds. I found the middle pond to be the least productive (& highest pressured) and the bottom pond to be fair to good, probably due to its deeper water on the outlet side.

The week before last, we heated the house by opening the windows. By 2;00 pm, it got too warm, so we had to shut them & turn on the AC. You asked...

There will always be people who cheat. I'm not, nor is anyone else, suggesting that Casey Ashley cheated. We are just pointing out a loophole that for the integrity of the sport should be modified to keep information about the condition of the playing field available for all. Plant brush piles to your hearts delight, heck you could even plant them in bad areas in an effort to throw your competitors off. Just make your actions public knowledge. On a completely different subject, but still pertaining to the Classic (albeit it last years), remember when Randy Howell caught that 6+ late on day 3 & it had those leeches stuck to it? His natural & normal reaction was to pull them off & throw them in the water. If someone wanted to be a jerk, could have they claimed a rules violation of chumming? Probably not, since the food source originated from a fish you caught, like shad thrown up by a fish, but I am glad that it never even came up.

I'm not saying outside information doesn't happen, I am making a suggestion as to what standard the competitors should be held to. In your example, i don't believe the ladies should have been disqualified, rather they should then be obligated to notify the tournament directors (who can notify the rest of the field) that some drunk guy told them that most of his fish came on sourgrape zoom lizards. Everyone will have the same information, what they choose to do with it is their decision.

No one said anything about unknowing what you know or undoing what you have done. If he finds cover through the methods every angler has access to (fishing, maps, electronics), there is no need to share that information - everyone is on equal footing. If he has altered the playing field, then he doesn't tell one competitor, he should make it common knowledge for the entire field. To not do that allows for insider knowledge that the rest of the field is not privy to in the manner that you learned the info, which is exactly the same as getting information from a local. A person who lives on the lake a tournament is held will always have a home field advantage, that is known & accepted. No different than a basketball player being more familiar with his home court. However, if a basketball player alters the playing field (loosens boards, changes the shape of the rim), he has insider knowledge that the other competitors don't.

If no one else knows the locations of the cover you planted, wouldn't that be considered secret? Not "secret" in that you are trying to hide that you did it, rather "secret" in that you are not disclosing the location.

I would say that needs to be disclosed. Any information given to one angler should be available to all anglers.The reason for a touranment is to see who is the best angler on a body of water over a certian time period. The skills that are being tested include the ability to find structure & cover that may hold fish. If someone else is supplying that information to an angler, then it is defeating the purpose of the tournament. Back to a competitor planting brushpiles, is there any other kind of competition where a participant is allowed to secretly alter the playing field without the fellow competitors being aware of the actions? I can't think of one.

Yes, Spotted bass were caught & weighed in.

I said it before, but the reason that a competitor planting brush piles feels "off" is because it is like insider trading. Everyone has access to the same maps, electronics, lures etc. You choose what you believe will bring success & everyone is on equal footing, because everyone has access to the same information. How they process & what they do with the information makes the difference. How hard they work to find brush piles or other cover is part of that process. Now, if one competitor alters the playing field in a way that the other anglers aren't privy to, that is an advantage. It is insider knowledge. It may not be useful to win the tournament, but it is still insider knowledge. It really is no different than 1 angler having a Marshal who tells him otherwise unknown information about the lake while the other anglers have Marshals who don't say anything. My suggestion would be if a competitor is allowed to alter the playing field, he should have to make that information public knowledge with the other competitors. Ethically, if he sees someone planting a brush pile, he should make that public knowledge as well to avoid the appearance of impropriety (paying others to alter the playing field) If he finds brush piles, no need to make it public, everyone else had the opportunity to find them as well. Do you really want fishing tournaments to be largely determined by who can secretly tilt the playing field in their favor or even destroy other parts of the playing field to hurt other competitors prior to or during the competition? This is fishing, not Death Race 2000.

If you are fishing a tournament in Texas & come to the scales with 5 Guadalupe bass, odds are you won't win. Unless the tournament is on some little stream system with no largemouth or smallmouth, then you have a good chance. Fun little fish to catch on the right tackle.

X2 I keep a much more generic log, mainly because I don't like to stop fishing to write stuff down. I keep a running total in my head all day of the number of fish & what they were caught on. All of the other info (time fishing, water temp, weather conditions) is readily available and can be written down later. At the end of the day, I enter in that basic info as well as what I believe was happening with the fish (prespawn, lake turnover, etc.) I don't keep specific info on every fish caught (exact size, exact location), I want general info in order to apply it for the future. I do jot down oddities, like if a big channel cat happens to grab one of my crankbaits. In addition to giving you a starting point for a days fishing, I found it aids your memory in recalling other details about a fishing trip. Being a math guy, I do enjoy doing year end statistics as far as fish per hour & fish per trip for each month.

With our ridiculous real estate prices, horrible traffic, way too many people living here who believe a Holiday Inn is roughing it and a general lack of lakes & drinking water, being able to fish in non-freezing water year round sometimes seems like Orange County's only salvation.

I'm pretty sure the answer is either 48 hours or 9 days. The past two Saturdays, the prespawn bass were doing a number on the 6" Roboworms I was throwing (color Orange Crusher). Typical of any good day with T-rigged plastics, I had a few fish rip the tail off the worm (I assumed it was bluegills) and a few other completely remove the worm from the hook while munching on it. Yesterday, my sister was in from Texas, so I played hookie and took her fishing. Of course we had a mild post frontal condition, so a few of the prestaging bass backed up in the darkest corners under docks. The best way I found to get to them was skipping a 4" Senko under the docks and dead-sticking it for about 15 seconds. As I was landing one of the bass who couldn't resist the do nothing stick worm, I saw something hanging from his underside. At first I thought he was just happy to see my sister, but when I looked closer, I realized he was pooping out an Orange Crusher Roboworm. No damage, no bite marks, apparently it went through his system faster than a Taco Bell dinner combo. After taking the picture below, I pulled the remainder of the worm out - it was the bottom 3" of one of my worms. I don't know if he was the original short striker or just happened upon the little nugget, but he obviously found it very tasty. Interesting his palate, he likes both a 6" skinny brown/orange worm & a 4" fat black/red worm.

I learned that when push comes to shove, deep down I am rooting against the person with homefield advantage and insider knowledge. Ashley seems like a great & humble guy, but I found myself disappointed that he won. A win by Bobby Lane or Dean Rojas would have been more satisfying for me.

Does that fisherman you know regularly try to communicate his fishing skills & experiences to others in writing? If he does & has chosen not to learn how to do so effectively, he is going to struggle (BTW, a formal education is not a prerequisite for good writing skills). If you are a lousy fisherman, should you just accept that fact & not try to get better? Just keep throwing that 1 oz buzz bait on a Zebco 33 filled with 4 lb monofilament in the middle of January when the water is 37 degrees? Most people would suggest that learning and applying what you learned is the better road to take compared to the blissful ignorance of incompetence. No, we shouldn't bust this kids chops about his grammar & writing skills, but if he is going to try to communicate to others, HE should have the interest in learning how to do it well. What better time to do that than when you are a teen, as opposed to later as an adult when you would have to unlearn a bunch of bad habits.

I just had one of those magical days on the water. I hope this doesn't come across as bragging, it is actually nothing more than enthusiasm. After weeks of warm weather pushing our water temps into the upper 60's on my home lake, we had some cloud cover this morning in Southern California (with some rain to follow the next two days). Many male bass had already started moving shallow earlier this week, with the females staging just outside the coves & spawning flats. With the cloud cover, I started the day seeing if I could get any interest on a top-water bite, using a Rebel Pop-R. In the first 45 minutes, I caught 8 bass and had another half dozen swipe at it and miss. The action continued like this all morning & by 10:30 am, as the clouds started to break up a bit, I had caught 23 keepers on top (a one day top-water PB) with probably 15 additional strikes that didn't hook up. I was comfortable with that ratio, because the strikes were ranging from a few that choked the Pop-R to those that were annoyed with it and did a drive-by swipe. I was able to catch 4 of those misses with a followup plastic worm, but the Pop-R was definitely the fishes choice of the morning. Now I know many of you fish on lakes where this kind of top-water action is not unusual, but on my home lake, this was an anomaly. My lake has no shad and there is never a time when the bass are boiling, feeding on bait fish on the surface. It takes the right kind of circumstances to get any kind of sustained top-water action and today was one of those days. As the sun popped out, the action switched back to more conventional for this lake, T-rigged plastic worms being the ticket. Over the next 6 hours, I caught an additional 36 bass, most on a T-rigged Roboworm (29), with a few on a Senko (4) and a crankbait (3). Total for the day was 63 bass (another daily PB), with the largest going 5 lbs., 2 oz. on the Roboworm. My thumb is shredded & I am grinning like the Cheshire Cat. Take heart those of you in the North, your spring is coming soon.

When I read that, I am imagining the most flamboyantly gay superhero the world has ever seen. "OK boys, gird your loins, Super Nancy is here to save the day!! Aren't my boots just fabulous!!"

I have always felt a responsibility when writing to do the very best to properly communicate the thoughts or ideas I was trying to get across. I believe not only is proper spelling & grammar important in achieving this, but also brevity & humor. If a reader is going to commit their time reading what I write, I want to make sure they feel they got their monies worth when they are finished. BTW, this concept was instilled in me by an excellent 9th grade English teacher at a parochial High School. Thank you very much Mr. Eccleston.

A man is walking down the street and comes across a young boy walking a dog. The man asks "Does your dog bite?", to which the boy answers "No, he is very friendly". So the man reaches down to pet the dog, who promptly growls and bites down on the man's hand. The man stumbles back, hand bleeding and in astonishment says to the boy "I thought you said your dog doesn't bite?". The boy replies "This isn't my dog".

I would suggest it is like insider trading. If a brush pile is planted by someone not associated with the tournament, then all competitors are on equal footing as far as being able to find it. If a competitor plants it, he has insider knowledge that gives him an advantage over the rest of the field (in theory). That said, I believe most of the guys in the Classic have the talent to beat another angler who has that kind of knowledge. if it was a bunch of yahoos like me fishing, then planting brush piles would be a distinct advantage. Look how often guys with home lake advantage don't win tournaments in the Elite series. It has to be a real unique fishery like the Delaware river for the hometown guy to dominate.

That ratio is way off, especially on older lakes or ones with very little cover on deep structure. I'm sure if you dropped brushpiles in a lake full of standing timber, then your 1 in 50 number might be true. In every other body of water, unless you are planting them nowhere near structure, then the ratio will be much, much higher. My personal experience is closer to 90% consistent production of fish, on a lake devoid of any natural deep water cover. Depending on the exact location, they may be more productive in certain seasons, but they are very predictable places to find fish for years.

OK, I'm in. I extend an invitation to DeakNH & AJay to come out to the West Coast & join me on my home lake. The bass began moving up to spawn last week, so they better knock the snow off their laptops and book their flights ASAP. I will even let them bring their Tom Brady blowup dolls with them so they don't get homesick. Please don't be disappointed by the lack of Dunkin Donuts out here...