RSM789

That is one of the better maintained minor league parks...

I have over the years, but more so on my current home lake. Largest was 15lbs on a 7" plastic worm, but the biggest battle was the 12lb, 9 oz one on a setup with 4 lb mono & a small jig (picture below). Literally took me 15 minutes to land him, he was making runs like a tuna and dragged my little boat all over the cove. Also caught them on crankbaits, they seem to hammer them pretty hard, no subtle bite. The 2nd photo is a 5 lb catfish that really choked a medium sized live target bluegill. Every time I hook one & they start stripping line, I say outloud "PLEASE be a bass..."

I have 3 shirts I rotate thru, but one BassMaster camo hat that I always wear. 40 years ago when I first started bass fishing as a pre-teen, my younger sister & I always wore black cowboy hats with a B.A.S.S. patch sewed on to them. Kind of stood out on the So Cal lake we fished, but our mom could spot us from a mile away.

Noting that he is from Colorado, the self medication may be having an influence...

Actually that one is easier than you think, just move to Southern California. Every day is the same as the one before it On the other hand, if you did that, you would have to contend with way too many people, expensive real estate, Dodger fans, democrats and a whole mess of other unsavory things. Better to stay where you are and just fight the weather.

Why were you fishing with Adrian Petersons' kid? Lots of nice fish, congrats.

The Zara puppy's are available at BPS. They are 3" long & weigh 1/4 oz., I'm not sure how close that is to the pooches size.

In many threads, I see people talk about their fishing goals, whether it be a new PB or catching certain numbers of fish. Goal setting is second nature to me being that I own a business and need to do that to keep in profitable. I also am very competitive and a numbers guy, so goal setting & tracking of results when I am in any competition is done without any thought. However, when fishing, I find that I really don't make any measurable goals. Don't get me wrong, I don't just go out & fling any old bait at the shoreline. I have an analytical nature, so I enjoy solving the puzzle of what to do to both find & catch bass. I read & study about the sport, devouring as much information as I can. I also enjoy fiddling with tackle, working on my (little) boat, making accurate casts and learning new techniques. I do all this to catch more & bigger fish, but I don't believe that to be a goal since I don't have specifics of what I am trying to catch (size or numbers). All I want to do is catch 1 more, even after I have just released one. I may be a little disappointed on a slow day & run different scenarios through my head to try & determine after the fact what else I could have done, but I don't have the feeling of falling short or having failed. The entire process of preparing to go fishing & being out on the water brings me happiness. Now I will readily admit that if another fisherman passes by or a homeowner is out on their dock, I do have a goal to catch a fish in front of them, to show off if you will. That is more of a competitive & pride thing, not a goal setting dynamic. Especially if it is some dork that speeds across the lake to fish a certain spot ahead of me that I am moving towards... This by no means is a judgment on those who do set goals for fishing, more power to you. Goal setting is a powerful & important tool to be used in succeeding at any task. I am just wondering if there are others who choose not to set such goals for fishing.

I think the ratio must be less. In 10 feet of water with 80 feet of rope out, it would be as if you didn't have an anchor at all. Any minor shift in the wind would have you swinging all over the place. I don't believe a set ratio would work, it most likely involves the wind speed & weight of the boat. In my little pond prowler, I can't imagine having more than 20 feet of rope out in 10 ft. of water unless the Santa Ana winds have kicked up.

Yeah, I felt bad about it, but in typical Rock Bass fashion, he swam away like nothing much happened when I released him. I half expected to see a bass swim up and inhale him as he made his way back to the shoreline cover.

Probably because my first bass was caught on a Mister Twister plastic worm back in the early 70's, curly tail worms have usually been my first choice over straight tail worms. It is the old adage about catching the fisherman before catching the fish. Over time, I found that I used straight tail worms in certain situations, be it drop-shotting or skipping, but rarely did I choose a straight tail model when Texas rigging them to be fished around docks or brush. Mentally, the image of the worm "swimming" on the fall with the curly tail gave me confidence. On my home lake, I fish the docks (the most prevalent cover) 2 different ways when I am using plastics. I will cast a Texas rig with a 1/8" tungsten weight to the corners of the dock and skip a wacky rigged senko under the docks. Typically, early in the day or when there is a lot of cloud cover, the Texas rig outproduces, but as the sun rises and the fish move back under the docks, the senko catches increase. Probably 1/3 of the strikes on the Texas rig are on the fall, the remaining are as I work it back along the dock or out in front of the dock. Now a couple of months back, I was trying to better imitate a medium sized bluegill (the main forage) and I tried a 5" straight tail Roboworm Texas rigged. I immediately saw a huge increase in bites, probably 2 to 3 times the amount I had been averaging with the various curly tailed worms. Not just numbers, but size as well, including an 8 lb. pig the second trip I used them. This continued for the past 7 outings, which considering how stable our weather has been here, is not unusual (typical SoCal, every day is just like the previous). Water temperature have been within 3 degrees every trip and every day was sunny & bright, so once I figured them out, there were only minor adjustments to make. Now yesterday was the first day in nearly 2 months where we had any type of real cloud cover for any length of time (It lasted until about 1:00 pm). I noticed immediately that the number of strikes on the straight tail worm were way down. The number of strikes on the Senko were the same (increasing as the day wore on), so I tried a couple of different colors & sizes with out much difference. Finally, when I rigged up a 7" purple Berkley Turtleback worm with a curly tail, it was like a switch was hit. It was producing like the straight tails had over the previous trips. The real eye opener was after the clouds cleared and the sun stayed out, that the curly tail production slowed down. I went back to a straight tail worm & got the expected results for that time of day. So my fisherman's hunch is that in low light, when fish are scattered a bit more, not only are darker colors better, but more action makes the worm easier for the fish to find. When the light & the fishes visibility increase, the more natural & subtle presentation of a straight tailed worm will then win out (at least during the summer with 80 to 83 degree water temps, I do expect things to change as the conditions do). Has anyone else had similar or different experiences to this?

Not a bass, but one of his cousins with the same "I bet I can eat it" attitude. 4" Senko & a 4" fish

I found a plug that looks exactly like that last year. It was hooked on a branch that I snagged with a jig & pulled up to the boat. I have never used it, but now it has my curiosity up. Others have mentioned the old Heddon River Runts, I had forgotten about that lure. Another one I used to like, lost somehow and then forgot it existed. Maybe someone found my old River Runt in the same manner I found the MirrOlure...

While out fishing, I don't often think about what I would do if I caught a world record bass. However, when I have snagged a moveable object and am slowly dragging it to the surface, I have gone through the scenario of what I would do if that object turned out to be a dead body. Open the spool, let it sink, call the cops on my cell phone & wait. If I see any rough looking characters coming my way, take off as fast as my 46lb thrust Minn Kota will take me. What's really dumb about that is that I fish on a lake surrounded by million dollar homes in one of the lowest crime rated areas in the whole country. As if the Gambino family will suddenly choose my shallow home lake to start dumping their bodies when they have the entire Pacific Ocean just 10 miles away...

I think it is a bit more humbling to get skunked on your home lake. A new lake, sure, but on a place that you know well, that can be difficult to take. The closest I came to getting skunked on my home lake in the past couple of years was the day following a decent sized earthquake. No acorns were falling, but it affected the fish nonetheless. Since we really don't have seasons here in SoCal, the consistent weather makes the fish pretty simple to pattern if you know the lake you are on. I would guess that isn't the case in most other states or even in NoCal.

For texas rigged plastics, I use red hooks. The original thought was if it was shallow enough to see them, it may look like blood and if it was deep enough, the red couldn't be seen at all. Then I noticed after catching a lot of fish on the same hook, the finish wore off but my catch rate didn't drop. Oh well, at least it makes me feel special. For a reason I can't explain, I use camo green Owner hooks for wacky rigged senkos. I use those to skip under docks & get a lot of reaction bites, so I guess I never felt the need to rationalize green over red. I do prefer the red O rings for wacky rigging, again with the blood theory.

I snapped a BPS casting rod in the middle of a hook set last year, the rod was about 5 years old. I took it in not knowing their return policy & was told it was 1 year.

If the foreman & G.M. are as bad as you say, chances of getting a raise aren't good. Incompetent management tend to loses good employees, typically because they reward based on the wrong reasons (i.e., nice guy, fun to be around as opposed to valuable). Who makes the payroll decisions? Talk to that person & make your case based on the value that you bring to the company. As buzzed bait wrote, make it solely about yourself & not about others & what they are making. It also helps to give a specific amount you are requesting for a raise, not just "more" and base that amount on what you are able to produce. If you are making money for the company & have a competent person deciding on wages, they will want to keep you. While it is always nice for someone to notice your value & reward you for it without you asking, that is akin to getting discovered in Hollywood. More often than not, you don't "G - E - T" if you don't "A - S - K"

It's easy to go through $24 of Roboworms in a couple of good outings. No complaints, I'd rather be out the worms & have a torn up thumb than never having to replace baits & getting skunked.

I had a similar thing happen with a bag of goldfish. The goldfish sometimes get stuck to the bag if you try & pour them in, so I had the great idea of setting the bag in the water & letting them "flow" out. The bass immediately grabbed the entire bag & pulled it from my hand. Luckily he didn't swallow it & I was able to grab it from him and dump the goldfish out quickly. Now, I pour them into a bowl & pour the bowl into the waterfall at the front of the pond. This scatters the goldfish & gives them a fighting chance to find some place to hide. They never do however... Another time, I tossed a nightcrawler towards him, but it landed on top of a lily pad. He grabbed the entire lily pad in his mouth to get the worm, tore the stem from the bottom & was swimming around like he had a lily-pad-cigar hanging out of his mouth. He is a vicious dude.

The bluegill in my koi pond was a typical bluegill, he would eat whatever he could fit in his mouth & we didn't have to train him. He is quicker than the koi, so he beats them to the pellets. The bass seemed to learn the pellets were food by being around the koi. As I mentioned before, he doesn't hammer them like he does the goldfish & earthworms, rather he slowly goes to the surface and slurps them koi-like. He won't make the effort to eat one pellet, but if there are 4 or 5 stuck together, he'll glide over them & eat them.

I've found that Whale Sharks are fond of Zoom 4" Dead Ringers, best color is plankton pink.

Put another way, multiple rigs allow you different presentations to a target quickly. For example, the main cover at my home lake is docks. Often I'll make a cast or two with a topwater or crankbait along a dock to see if there is an active fish there. Then I'll throw a plastic worm or jig to the deeper corners to try to catch any bass suspending there or hanging off the edges. Finally, I may skip a wacky rigged Senko way back under the dock, to get to those fish hiding back in the dark, especially if it is midday & sunny. it is fun to pull multiple fish from the same cover with different techniques. Multiple rods allow you to do that.

My older brother enjoys saltwater fishing here on the west Coast, and has fished in various Marlin tournaments for decades. One of his sons was a fish hound seemingly from birth and would go out with him prior to the tournaments to catch the mackerel that would be used as bait. Every year his son would beg to be part of the team for the tournament and upon his 10th birthday, my brother decided he was old enough to suit up. So on the morning of that first day of that first tournament, they spot a couple of Marlin sunning themselves on the surface. My nephew & 2 of the other team members, grab their rods, bait up with mackerel & run to the front of the boat to make their casts. Just as my nephew fires his cast forward, his foot catches one of the cleats on the bow. He trips forward & the casting motion ends up making him fling his brand new rod & reel into the middle of the Pacific Ocean. it was an auspicious start to his Marlin tournament career & he was understandably dejected. As one of the other anglers began reeling his bait back in, he yelled up to my brother "I've got something, but it isn't a fish". He continued "I think I snagged your son's line", to which my brother told him there wasn't a chance in the world. They were in water hundreds of feet deep, miles from any landmark to know exactly where the lost setup was, there was no way...except that he had indeed snagged the line. The mackerel on my nephews rod had apparently decided to hang out with the other fisherman's bait, tangled the leaders together & enabled him to reel in the lost equipment. 20 years later, my nephew has that setup still and has caught many marlin & tuna on it.

While I can't help you in regards to spots or locations, I can tell you cut bait will catch larger catfish than stinkbaits, chicken liver, nightcrawlers or other well known baits. Out here on the west coast, frozen mackerel is amazing in attracting the larger catfish (as expected, the numbers drop). When I was a teenager, there was an old guy who always used bluegill & sunfish (alive, but cut, fished in the darkest, shadiest spots available) and he seemingly always came back with at least one 10 pounder. I don't know a lot about catfish, but it seems that they will scavenge when younger & smaller, but as they get older, smarter and larger, they key on other fish.