RSM789

8-0 on a 6" Roboworm, color Aarons Magic, Texas rigged with a 1/8" tungsten bullet weight.

This story was told to me by a friend, so while I can't account for the accuracy, it is interesting nonetheless. My friends father-in-law & a friend were fishing Big Bear Lake in the San Bernardino Mountains the morning of June 28th, 1992. That date is significant because a little after 8:00 am, there was a 6.5 earthquake centered at the lake. The two fisherman were near the middle of the lake when they saw the trees shaking, dust & dirt flying off of them. The guessed it was an earthquake and about 30 seconds later, they saw a game warden boat fly past them at full speed, headed away from the dam. The father-in-law happen to glance down at his depth-finder and noticed that it read 45 feet, when just a minute prior they had been in 60 feet of water. He now focused on the depth-finder and was amazed to see the depth quickly changing. 40 feet, 35 feet, 30 feet. He suddenly thought "Oh crap, the dam broke & the lake is draining". He yelled to his buddy to start the outboard (pull start) as the depth-finder continued to drop 20 feet, 15 feet, 10 feet. In the panic, they can't get the outboard started, so both anglers just grab hold of the sides of the boat, bracing for impact. As the depth-finder reached 0 feet, all the water around the lake began bubbling. What had happened wasn't that the dam broke, rather the earthquake had shook loose all of the sediment & methane from the bottom of the lake & the depth-finder misread the rising bubbles as the bottom. The two fishermen returned to the dock, presumably to get a change of underwear...

I went with $150 in gift cards & credit - 2 Christmas BPS gift cards, one BPS card from cashing in my Discover card points & the credit I had accumulated on my BPS credit card. Was able to slide in just under the total credits, as well as having another $10 in rebates coming in from Berkley rebates. More toys and nothing out of pocket!!. Now I have to wait a couple of months for more BPS cards (birthday) & building up the Discover card points again.

I have heard of bass fisherman so good that bass literally tremble in fear of them, but now are there lures that do the same thing?? Senko's kind of tremble when they fall weightless, but I don't believe they are scared of being eaten...

Push comes to shove, I prefer Senko's. However, I do use some of the Stik-O's that come in particular color/size combinations that I can't find anymore with Senko's (mainly 4" red shad laminate). They will catch fish & they do last longer. I noticed they are a little firmer than the Senko's, so they shimmy a little less when falling weightless wacky style.

X2 It would have been best to do that when you were there originally, but after the fact may work as well. No need to say how unhappy you are or that you may take your business elsewhere, that is understood already by most managers (& few people respond well to threats). Keep it positive, tell them what you want and let the manager figure out a solution for you. If you let him/her get a little creative, I'm sure you will be satisfied when all is done. When dealing with most floor people at most retail outlets, no matter how nice they are, remember that they are most interested in not getting in trouble with their boss. Making you happy is number two behind that. Managers have different goals, usually involving beating up the floor people...

Shows you how little I know about deer. Nice to know I didn't need to worry about being gored, just kicked to death . I was concerned about that homeless guy, mainly because I was kind of cornered if he would have become aggressive. Had he come at me, my choices were to beat him with some combination of the 4 rods I was carrying or show off my swimming skills. Maybe if I had one of those old Budweiser lures that looked like little beer cans, I could have cast it to one side in order to distract him. I am not sure I could have reeled him in with my 10 lb. test, I have heard those homeless are brutal on a drag system.

Best of luck, but as far as a future fishing partner, it may not matter boy or girl. Although they are adults now, we had 3 kids (twin boys & a daughter). While the boys did fish with me a few times growing up, it was never something that caught their interest (I blame it on the genetics introduced by their mother). However, when my daughter was about 8, the two of us went catfishing just her & I. After catching a couple of bass & catfish, she ended the day with a 9 lb. catfish. This locked her in big time, to the point that she asked if we could go the following day. We did & she topped her day old PB catfish by catching an 11 pounder. For a week, she believed it was normal to catch your biggest fish ever each time you went. Being a 20 year old, her interest has waned slightly over the years, what with boys and becoming an adult, but she will still join me a couple of times a year. It was actually good all the times we went fishing when she was a preteen, it removed any of those "daddy issues" some girls get when they are dying for their fathers attention.

They look like a cross between the old Norman Little N's and the Bagley Killer B's. Really nice.

2 instances that were more startling than scary, each at the opposite end of the spectrum as far as being close to nature. The first was when I was visiting my sister in Texas, I had gotten permission to fish a ranchers lake (much bigger than a pond). At one point, I cut across a flat area with knee high grass to get to a particularly good looking spot. I am approaching the shore, maybe 40 feet away, when suddenly the grass starts moving and this fawn pops up out of the grass maybe 2 feet in front of me. Startled the heck out of me as it ran off & then I started looking around to make sure daddy buck wasn't coming back to see who chased off his baby. Second, last year we were in Phoenix for a few days & I fished a few of their urban lakes. There is a nice one just behind the Phoenix Zoo that consists of 3 connected ponds. For urban lakes, these are pretty rural, & I was cutting through the brush to an opening to one of the lakes. As I pop thru the brush, I suddenly see a homeless guy laying on the ground about 10 feet in front of me, covered with newspapers & sleeping. I startled him, he startled me and then not knowing what to do, I said "Good Morning". He responded "Glibnat santo framly doog frampy catters!!" or something along those lines. I assume it was a friendly greeting because he didn't shank me.

No, because the boat sank, it went down faster than the Titanic. Ish had to quickly inflate a dingy, throw his gear in it & abandon ship. He went over to Poches boat to calmly ask what happened when Keith stuck a jerkbait into the dingy, deflating it. As Poche danced around his deck yelling "I'm the Cajun Tom Brady", Ish put on some water wings & swam towards Keiths boat. As he climbed aboard, he saw a grape soda sitting on the deck. He & Keith wrestled for control of that soda for about 3 hours, until they both fell into the water exhausted.

At the risk of sounding like a brown noser, I have found a majority of the mods here to be very fair & reasonable. I guess I am just surprised I haven't been banned yet...

So since I am on the over side of the median age of this forum's posters, are you encoraging me to post more? I could always start a thread on Tom Brady's lack of ethics and watch Deaknh's head explode as he calls me every name in the book...such fun!!

I can layout 6 setups on my Pond Prowler where they are easily accesible, won't tangle and aren't in the way (2 on each side & 2 in the middle). Nonetheless, the night before when I am getting the gear setup, I always seem to compromise what will go on that sixth rod. If I could just comfortably fit a 7th setup...

Like Catt, you seem to believe that I don't fish during the spawn. That isn't true, I do, although I don't specifically cruise around targeting bedding bass. I'm not trying to stop anyone who does, rather just pointing out the error in justifying it as nothing more than "just another pattern".All sport fish have certain traits & actions that define their species. Typically, these traits are what attracts or repels people to fish for them. During the spawn. it isn't just that a bass behaves differently, it is that they nearly behave like a completely different species. If that is something you like, cool, target bedding bass. Just don't pretend that it is no different than when you catch a non- bedding fish.

How ironic that you demand I read my answers again when you are the one having issues comprehending them. I never said I was against bed fishing, you are the one jumping to that conclusion. My point, as I wrote before, is that fishing during the spawn is unlike any other time of the year because the bass are biologically driven to stay in an area despite the presence of a threat (an angler or predator). During all other times of the year, survival is the number one biological driver but during the spawn, it becomes number two. Again, this doesn't make bed fishing wrong, it makes it different. This was a response to all of those who are incorrectly claiming that it is just another pattern or no different than any other sight fishing. A bass at the time of spawn will react to a threat differently than the rest of the year.

Are you sure they were largemouth or smallmouth? I ask because most of the surface activity on Mead is from stripers. I don't have near the experience on Mead that many others do, but the times I have caught boiling stripers, most were on lipless crankbaits ripped through the boils. I have caught a few on top waters, usually a spook, but the lipless cranks were much more productive. Mead can be a bear to fish from shore, not real easy to get around.

Now exactly where did I write that I thought bed fishing impacted the spawn? Please be specific because I can't find the post where I wrote that.

Correct. However, when the female is on a nest, she will stay there or return shortly after being spooked away by an angler. My point was that during the spawn is the only time that bass will do this, continue to stay or return to an area after being aware that an angler (predator) is present. This doesn't make bed fishing inherently bad, it just illustrates the difference between it and how bass react the rest of the year. To attempt to defend bed fishing as just another pattern or compare it to other times of the year is incorrect because this is the only time that bass survival instincts get overruled by other biology (spawning instinct). The rest of the year, survival is the top priority.

The man made a great athletic catch on of the biggest stages in the world, something Wes Welker couldn't do. Give him a little credit.

A little homophobic huh? Guess again, I never dated boys, apparently that must be a New Hampshire thing. Let me put it into fishing terms to keep it in line with our host website. Patriot fan pulls up to the final day Bass Master Classic weigh-in and takes the lead with one angler to go. As that last angler comes on stage, he mentions that he caught a 5lb. bass with 2 minutes left to go. As the last angler places his sack on the scale, he drops one of the bass out of the bag & kills it. The 4 oz. dead fish penalty gives the New England fan the tournament win by 2 oz. Now does anyone in their right mind believe the Patriot fan should be jumping around the stage celebrating or should he be oh-so-thankful that the other persons stupidity let him take the win?

Don't judge the Thanksgiving meal before the turkey is done cooking.

Bigotry? Spitefulness? Hatred? Now who isn't acting so friendly?? Your comments are prime evidence of why so many people dislike Boston area teams & their fans. It has nothing to do with a teams success, it is how you carry yourself in both winning & losing. After all, the Oakland Raiders haven't won anything in over a decade and they are still universally disliked. Take your win in stride knowing how close to suicidal you could have been today...

You are correct, it is difficult to point out that a team would have won if a certain play hadn't been made. However, it is easy to point out a particular play that ends up costing a team a chance to win. Kind of like the first day of a bass tournament. Rarely can you win it on day 1, but you certainly can lose it.

If you get as close to a post spawn fish as many do to bedding fish, his natural reaction will be to swim away. Bedding fish are locked into staying in an area, a trait that does not occur the rest of the year.