Ozark_Basser

Depends on where you're fishing. Structure, cover etc.

On a body of water that has a bass population like Toledo Bend, I don't think it matters as much.

Mono for everything except frogs

You really don't have to get the double tube push applicator thing either. I have yet to mess it up just pouring each separate.

Things just off the top of my head. Make a fluid bed to powder coat your jigs. Much more efficient. Takes some tweaking though to get it right. If you want to know how I made mine pm me. You don't need a vice. I have actually found it easier and I can get them the way I want them better on a table. Wire tie your jigs. Makes them look a lot better and the skirt performs better. I use 28 gauge floral wire. Teflon base hole pins. I still haven't got any yet but I'm looking forward to using them. Metal pins can be cumbersome if you plan on painting them. While your pot heats up set your mold on top of it so it warms the mold. Your first one will usually come out bad if you don't. Keep your workspace as clean as possible. Lots of important reasons here. Don't put cold lead in the pot if the lead in the pot is red hot. It could explode everywhere. Build a small rack to hang your jigs after dipping in powder. Pliers that lock would be handy. If you like living rubber, biosilk is a good alternative and is much easier to work with.

The zillion is hands down my favorite reel I've ever owned, but it wasn't the new one. Super solid feel in your hands. A true machine if you ask me. I've owned multiple revos, curados, and some of lews stuff as well. They kind of feel like toys in your hand compared to a zillion is the best way to describe it. I haven't fished with the elite 8 though.

Of course.

Exactly. Seasonal.

Sounds a lot like the Arkansas River. Those lakes you are referring to are called pools. Usually named or numbered. Pool 1, Little Rock Pool etc. On a map they might actually be named as a lake. The Little Rock pool in Arkansas is called David D Terry Lake, but locally are usually referred to as pools. If you're going out on a warming trend, I'd just tackle shallow water cover the whole day. Shallow wood and grass I'd throw Indiana blade spinnerbaits and pitch jigs to the thicker cover. I would make sure I was fishing extremely tight to cover. This is probably the most important factor if you ask me. If your spinnerbait isn't really crashing into cover or your not casting it pretty much on the bank, you'll pay for it. Also if you have a lot of wing dams on your river, I'd be hitting those up with squarebills thoroughly. Cover both sides of the wingdam and see where you get bites then pattern that throughout the river.

They will work just as well as any other time of the year. The only bait I would classify as "seasonal" is top water.

If I had to pick favorites in that depth range, Rapalat DT series Sixth Sense Spro

Another thing people do not seem to consider is water is most dense at 4 degrees Celsius. So if there is ice on top, there will be water at this temp on bottom. The water that is a bit warmer is going to be off the bottom while ice floats. Water freezes in an odd manner leaving empty space between molecules causing its solid form to be less dense than the liquid. Hence, ice floating instead of sinking. At 4 degrees Celsius, however, the molecules are trying to line up to prepare for solidification so they are at there closest proximity; hence, most dense.

Me and Paul were talking about this last night. The deeper water under ice may not receive light. Light = photosynthesis for organisms that produce oxygen. So it pretty much boils down to bad oxygen levels in the deeper water.

Probably not I would guess. If you think about it in terms of the size of the lake compared to the size of the humps, they are pretty big. I could see a couple of brushpiles being placed here or there, but something of that size I would guess is natural. The humps probably aren't as defined as they seem on this map either.

I can do all of that with an 8:1 pretty slow if I have to. So yes.

Brand is really irrelevant to meme these days. I feel i end up overpaying with a lot of brands. I like a long well balanced rod wit a lot of tip. Mod fast is about right for the action for me, or something that feels a tad faster. MH-XH power. As high speed of a reel I can get away with that's lightweight. I've mostly been using heavy fluoro lately for the line.

Its really just for the look I guess. It sucks when you look upon your work and everything else is perfect except for that chip by the weedguard.

The only reason I use anything with that low of a gear ratio is for lures that have a lot of resistance. I don't see the point in fishing with a super low gear ratio with other applications unless you want your bait to go extremely slow which I never feel matters THAT much, and if I want my bait to move that slow I'll just use my rod rather than the reel. I prefer faster gear ratios for the sake of taking up line for hooksets on long casts and it's easier to keep the pressure on the fish when getting them to the boat.

Thank you. Should have figured that but I didn't order from their website. The eye after the head is painted measures in at 3\16" on the dot so 5\32 should work nicely.

I agree with and have some experience with all of this. I guess I shouldn't say that water temp isn't extremely important in finding fish but rather more active fish.

Zooplankton are more prevelant at the thermocline than ten foot above it????

Edit: Sorry. My last entry was for winter. Did you change that too, Paul? I still haven't been to sleep so it could just be me. For summer, my answer will change considerably. I choose my number one spots as the north and south ends of the lake solely due to the fact that is where I think the most bait will be with the best between the two being the one with the most cover. I still will consider the spot with two humps and two depressions as a good spot though along with the points especially if there is a good population of shad in the lake. I still say the shallows above all else due to the fact it's a small body of water where bass rarely ever seem to leave the shallows compared to larger reservoirs. That's my bet. Shallows. In particular, the shallows with the most cover. If cover is sparse, I'd bet money on the north flat adjacent to deeper water.

Photosynthesis for the plankton I'm guessing? I forget that plankton produce oxygen. As far as the thermocline goes, what keeps the fish there in the summer? I fish a lake that will commonly have a thermocline in the 30 ft range in the summer. Why are bass generally right at the thermocline and not ten foot above it usually? Oxygen would be good in both regions. Next on the list is food. I don't see why shad would find it necessary either. I guess it has to do with temperature. I have read that bass have a preferred water temperature in the low seventies. I would assume around the same for shad. Is temperature the deciding factor in this case?

This is pretty interesting. I understand that their metabolism slows down since the are cold blooded, but I never really considered that their brain slows down as well. This makes sense. I've had bass jump out of the water trying to shake a hook even though they had already come off a couple of seconds before. However I have caught a good deal of bass fishing relatively fast in the winter.

How would you go about finding which areas of the lake have good oxygen levels? All I know is that gases are generally more soluble in colder liquids. It seems as though colder water would only aid in stable oxygen levels.I guess a better question is which water could you eliminate due to poor oxygen levels. I would imagine water deeper than around 40-50ft would have poor oxygen levels. Anything else?