RSM789

Glad you asked this because I see the same thing on my home lake. I have caught fish that were the same length & weight, but one will have a significantly larger mouth than the other. This seems most noticeable in fish in the 12-14 inch range. My two guesses were: 1) Male fish vs. female fish; 2) Different year classes, the younger fish having the smaller mouth. Have no idea if either of those two guesses have any potential to be true.

I thought that only happened in overpopulated Southern California - nice to know the rude & ignorant are spread across the country. On vacation in Phoenix, Arizona, I was bank fishing an area with multiple ponds (midweek). As I moved down the shoreline, I caught a bass about 75 yards away from these 2 guys who had set up camp on spot. Immediately, one of the guys picks up a rod & begins walking towards me. He makes a couple of casts in the area I am approaching, so I just walk around him & his buddy, not casting again until I am about 50 yards past them. The "approacher" then continues walking along the waters edge, occasionally making a cast, until he circles the pond & passes me for a 2nd time. He was obviously a very savvy fisherman, for he told me that he figured out the bass were spawning (it was mid-Agust and the water temp had to be over 85 degrees). I just walked up to the next pond & caught a 4 pounder...

16 lb Channel catfish caught on cut mackeral while teaching my niece how to catch catfish. She hooked up a 2 lb fish and was reeling it in, listening to my superb coaching when one of the other lines began zipping off. So I'm fighting this fish, telling my niece to just keep her fish close to the dock without reeling all the way to the hook like beginners love to do. Chinese fire drill... Most interesting was the 12 lb catfish who decided the small jig with 4 lb test would make a tasty meal. Dragged me & my little boat all over the cove for about 20 minutes.

I like Black Friday for a different reason. While others are up early fighting crowds for deals, I have the lake all to myself. Not only no other fishermen, but no pleasure boaters either. Yesterday was a beautiful day here in So Cal, high of 78 degrees and just an occasional touch of wind on an otherwise calm day & I was like the Omega man out on the water.

For me, it isn't insanity, rather a case of unbridled optimism sprinkled with Alzeheimers. There always seems to be a couple of times per year when conditions match the traditional scenarios for A-rigs. I just know the bass are suspended or feeding on schools of small baitfish, so an A-rig just HAS to work. I incorporate it into the days rotation and by the end of the day, wonder if bass can laugh at ones bait selection. Tom, you have fished many more SoCal resevoirs than I. In your experience, do you see A-rigs being as an effective tool here on the West Coast as they are in the South & Midwest?

Alabama rig, maybe because I am not in Alabama . I have changed the baits on it multiple times, so I am guessing that the clear water on my home lake combined with no shad as forage may be contributing to my failure. No bass on my home lake has ever seen a shad, much less a school of them, so I am guessing the A-rig looks like a UFO to them. They will eat 3" swimbaits in bass or bluegill colors when fished individually, but ignore the same baits when bunched together.

Never been cited for fishing without a license, but did get arrested once (and hauled off to Santa Ana jail) for fishing where I shouldn't. It was a small feeder resevoir above Lake Mission Viejo, loaded with bass and no signs declaring it to be offlimits. No matter to the rent-a-cop who called the sheriff and said he wanted to press charges for trespassing. Ironically, having purchased a license 2 days prior helped my argument to the judge that I believed the area was State water & not private property. Fine was reduced to $5 and the arrest removed from my record.

Raider, your selfie is confusing. How does such a baby face have grey hairs in its goatee? Are you Benjamin Button?

It bears a stunning resemblance to the skull of Sarah Jessica Parker...

For about 6 weeks after Halloween, it is roasted pumpkin seeds and leftover candy.

To perform at your very best at any endeavor that requires hand/eye coordination, there is a happy medium that needs to be struck. Your focus on what you are trying to accomplish needs to be sharp while your muscles need to be loose. Often when people focus, they tighten up, making it that much more difficult for the body to achieve what the mind is telling it to do. Think of when you have ever practiced something, you are often loosey-goosey and your body can perform quite well. Part of the reason is that you aren't focused, you allow your body to relax. Don't change your focus, change how you let you focus affect your body. The simplest way to do that is just take a breath & smile and then make that cast. It is amazing how well your body will respond.

In conjunction with those theory's, when I catch bass under docks in fairly shallow water (5 ft. deep & less), I have found they fit in 2 categories. The first is what I call dock fish, I believe they stake their claim under a certain dock and rarely leave for some period of time (I have no idea if it is hours, days or weeks). They are much darker in color than the other fish in the lake, their jaws are almost black, all from what I am assuming is staying in the darkened shadows of the dock. I never catch more than 1 of these fish under a dock, they seem to be solitary. The second group would fit the category of school fish. Their appearance is much lighter, more like you would see of an open water or suspending fish. Typically if I catch 1 of these under a dock, I can catch anywhere from 1 to 8 more. I believe these fish either are passing by the dock or have recently temporarily moved to it to feed. This all applied to fish under 6 lbs. For fish larger than that, they have been solitary (during times other than the spawn).

That is what perplexed me. There was no rotten egg smell, in fact no out of the ordinary smells. There was more debris on the surface than usual, but I wasn't sure if that was from the bottom of the lake or from the dying leaves of fall & an increase of waterfowl on the lake. Can lakes have some kind of water flipping or mixing without it being a full on turnover?

In the past, my home lakes here in Southern California were fairly deep impoundments and fall turnover was an easy enough thing to see happening and adjust to. However, for the past few years, the main lake I have fished is nothing like those lakes and I am not sure if I know when this turnover is happening. The lake is a shallow (11 ft. at the deepest) development lake, void of nearly any vegetation with about 2 dozen aerators placed throughout it. It is an electric motor only lake, but during nice days, there is a bit of boat traffic (people cruising in pontoon boats) that keeps the water stirred up and adds to the oxygenation. During the height of summer, the water surface temperature will top out near 85 degrees while the coldest I have seen it in January is 55 degrees. While our air temps can range from 100+ in the summer to mid 30's in the winter, the Pacific Ocean has a real moderating effect on the area so we don't get a lot of variance. Typical wind pattern is calm during the mornings with a 3-8 mph onshore breeze in the afternoons. Two weeks ago, the surface water temperature dropped from 72 to 67 in a week, even though we had sunny days with highs in the 80's & lows in the mid 50's (no storms) all week. The visibility dropped from about 4 feet to about 2 feet. Last week, we had cooler, overcast days for most of the week with rain one evening, but the surface temperature was still at 67 as of yesterday. The water had cleared up a little, but was still murkier than normal. Fishing wise, the bass made an abrupt change the week the temperature fell 5 degrees. The only active fish I found were on deep structure. Yesterday, the fish seemed to be in a post frontal condition. I found them in many normal shallow locations, but they were backed up into the darkest spots available and only biting if I was able to put a lure right on their nose. Only at the end of the day was I able to catch anything on a lure they had to chase (jerkbait), everything else was on jigs & plastics. I am assuming this is the typical two week funk that fish go through in a fall turnover, but am thrown a little by the differences that a shallow lake has in turning over compared to a more traditional impoundment. This lake is probably more similar to a Florida natural lake (without the vegetation obviously) and I have never experienced what those lakes go through in the fall. Has anyone else had experiences with shallow lakes turning over?

Rude, huh? By chance, the driver didn't drop a deuce on your bike, did he? There has been some of that going on recently...

One time, I noticed that I was getting some followers & bumps on a Zara Spook, but none would commit. I threw a Pop-R & had the same result. Wanting to still fish topwater, I took an older Jointed Jitterbug that had the back section torn off when I had a double (so it was now a 3/4 sized jitterbug). I put a screw eye in the back where the jointed section had been, tied about a 12" leader to it with a small crappie jig on it. It didn't cast worth a crap, but I ended up catching about 8 fish, all on the jig. I'm guessing the jitterbug got their attention and the crappie jig looked like a quick easy meal. Full of confidence, I used the same setup the following week. Not a single bite...

Come join us. 3,000,000 people or 3,000,001 people, doesn't make much of a difference really, just wedge yourself right in. I'm not sure if your current location makes you more of a 'Skins or Ravens fan, but there are plenty of both of them here to welcome you. The only sports requirement is pledging allegiance to the Ducks over the Queens...

That was smart to propose. Now you have someone to feed the dog while you are out fishing... Just kidding, congratulations.

You know, I ***** a lot about the negatives of living in an urban area with 3 million people, an area where being a fisherman is more of an exception than the rule. Than I read about you guys having to shut it down for the next few months while my only concern is if the water temperature has dropped below 65 degrees this week. Big whoop for me, I might have to wear a hoodie in the morning because the air temperature is a brisk 55. I should just shut up, take the negatives of living in Southern California in stride and be thankful that tomorrow when much of the country will be huddled in side, I'll be in shorts & barefoot still catching bass on baits that I don't have to drag around slowly. Thank you for the perspective adjustment...

It is curious the difference when baitfish are living in the pond or aquarium with a pet bass & when they are introduced. On a previous thread, I talked about the pet bass I have in my koi pond. The only fish in there are the bass (now about 15" long), six koi (most larger than the bass) and a hefty bluegill that is too large to fit inside the bass's mouth (for now at least). The mainstay of the bass's diet is nightcrawlers, but about every other week, he gets 10 large feeder goldfish. I add them to the pond at the waterfall and it is game on. The bass is a blur of motion, picking off each goldfish as quickly as he can, even coming out of the water when he is pinning them against a shallow rock. He typically eats all 10 in less than a minute. Rare is the goldfish that finds a safe haven, the longest I have seen one play hide-&-seek is about 5 minutes. Eventually, the goldfish wanders out from his hiding spot & wham, the bass comes flying in to hammer him. I can't keep any baitfish living in the pond because the bass eats them right away Unlike other peoples experience, my bass has never turned down food. Even with a belly full of goldfish, he will nudge the koi out of the way to slurp down some of their pellets. No matter the time of day, weather conditions, or solunar predictions, this bass will eat if there is food present. I thought I may be underfeeding him, but he has quite the beer belly going on. He continues to eat even with goldfish or nightcrawlers hanging out of his mouth & gills. I really should get his gene pool back into my home lake. One other note about the bluegill's behavior around the bass. Although the bluegill is too big for the bass to eat (he is about 9" long), he is wary of the bass. He usually positions himself on whatever is the opposite end of where the bass sets up. If the bass is cruising around, the bluegill will back up into the rocks as he nears. Maybe the sight of the bass taking out the goldfish has given the bluegill PTSD, but he is one cautious dude, not the happy go lucky bream that we usually see out sunning themselves all the time. If the bass continues to grow & gets into the 5lb class, I do expect to see the bluegill or smaller koi's tail sticking out of his mouth one day.

Yes they can, but the ice can really damage your trolling motor prop. The positive is the frozen surface allows me to skip a Senko about a mile & a half...

I am a scheduler, not just for fishing but in nearly all aspects of my life. Nearly all of my fishing trips are planned a week or so in advance. I enjoy the anticipation and spend the time prior thinking thru what the conditions might be & what my plan of attack should be The exception to this is during the warmer months if we get a rare storm to blow thru. Warm water & cloudy skies will get me to drop what I am doing & grab my gear.

In regards to revealing lake or honey hole information, I would venture that it often depends on where you live. In a rural setting with many fishing locations, you can be very magnanimous without creating much of a problem. However, here in Southern California, especially in Orange County where 3 million people are packed into an area under 950 square miles in size, such behavior can be a nightmare. The combination of a limited number of small lakes and a culture of aggressive behavior to combat the vast population is lethal to the person who lets the local fishing public know about his success. Your small water will soon be highly pressured by an army of folks with no fishing etiquette or qualms about boorish behavior. What has happened on Lake Mission Viejo since the 19lb. county record was caught in 2006 is a prime example. Don't get me wrong, I am not a scrooge. There are other fisherman on my lake who I have gotten to know & I freely share information with them. I'll chat with homeowners on the lake, people who I know have a sincere interest in the well being of the fish population on their lake. However, when I am at a tackle store or around folks that I don't know, not much information comes out of my mouth. I'd like to believe if I lived an hour outside of Austin, Texas or in the middle of Florida that I would be a bit more open, I just can't do that here.

The only backhanded cast I have semi-mastered is when skipping senko's or tubes. It is similar to a tennis backhand, but with your wrist turned the opposite way. I use it when I need to make a backhanded cast, even if I am just casting to a spot & not underneath something. I think using the water as a backstop helps balance out any inaccuracy from using your off hand. I get a big smile on my face when I make an accurate backhanded cast that results in a strike. Its like I know what I am doing...

When you discover later tonight that your wallet is missing, you will realize those were actually midgets, not children and you fell for the ol' "pretend I want to hold the fishing pole" scam. Did you push any of them into the water?