OCdockskipper

I'm not sure but Buddy the Elf told me they smell like beef & cheese...

I would suggest the ramp. I tried to launch once up at the clubhouse & I ended up dropping my boat on a squirrel. Another good location to launch from is that island out in the middle of the lake. What you do is hire a helicopter to lift your truck & boat out to the island & then launch from the north shore. Don't try to launch from the south shore, it too is infested by squirrels.

While we are not as cold compared to most of you (high 40's to low 70's), here in Southern California, he have been getting hammered the last 24 hours with Santa Ana winds. These are winds that originate in Utah & Nevada and pick up intensity as they head towards the ocean. The direction of our daily breezes are offshore, from the ocean to inland, so these Santa Ana events flip everything around. Worse, we actually had a full day of rain on Friday. Softens up the ground, so when the Santa Ana winds blow, a bunch of trees fall over at the base. One fell on top of a wedding party at a park as they were posing for pictures (not a good ***...).

Keep in mind that you can catch bass with the "wrong" lure in the right location, but you can't catch any with the "right" lure in the wrong location. For me, when I am starting the day, I am switching up lures & locations at the same time pretty quickly. As the day progresses and I have figured some things out, the process changes. I typically will have lure selection down to one or two and will move away from locations if they don't produce.

Congratulations!! You know Finn will be an easy to get along with child, he chose to come into the world in time to still let you grab dinner later and then get a good nights sleep as opposed to making you stay up until 3 in the morning for his arrival. Plus he is giving you a full years tax deduction for 2 weeks worth of care. Very thoughtful child!! Best to you & his mother.

I am not doubting your experience with Nanofil, but something doesn't sound right about it. I use 8 & 10 lb Nanofil with Pline Flurocarbon leaders on all of my spinning setups. The leader knot is the Crazy Alberto & I put some super glue on it to lessen abrasion as it goes through the guides (many other people on this site believe that step is not needed). Not only do the knot & line hold on hooksets, they have held up landing multiple bass over 7 lbs and a couple dozen catfish over 10 lbs. I'm not trying to get you to rethink your line choice, just letting you know that what you experienced is not the normal for Nanofil when used correctly.

I actually did that last Saturday. My right wrist was a little sore, so I removed the handle from one of my spinning reels & switched it to the other side. I still casted it with my right hand, but like a baitcaster, I then switched the rod to the left hand and reeled with the right. Did it for about 20 minutes, it felt a little awkward, but it was doable.

"See this scar on my chest. Mary Ellen Moffat. She broke my heart". - Matt Hooper, Jaws At 53, I am a little younger than some of you and am fortunate to not yet have some of your struggles, but I do often think about things like balance. Particularly when I am on the dock getting in & out of the small Pond Prowler an hour before sunrise. I imagine not paying attention & stepping between the dock and the boat, how that kind of a fall would really do a number on me. I'm not so worried about drowning as opposed to getting a limb in an awkward position as I went down. I would think that would lead to a nasty bone break. Worse of all, it would mean I couldn't go fishing that day...

I do glue my braid to fluorocarbon knots, not for added strength but to protect them from repeatedly going through the guides. I use superglue (Home Depot HDX brand, 4 small bottles for under $2), but I wouldn't suggest trying to drop glue onto the knot. Instead, I pool a small amount of glue on something it won't soak into (paper plate, cup, lure package) and then roll the knot in glue. I prep my rods the night before fishing, so I typically don't have to do that process out on the water. I know some believe it doesn't make a difference, but it gives me peace of mind & I haven't had a leader knot break in the years that I have been doing it.

I already use various Ned rigs (TRD, Shroomz finesse jig, hula stickz, TRD tubez) every trip, they typically produce the most, & often the biggest, fish. Finesse is my go to method because while this lake doesn't have much fishing pressure, it does have alot of human presence. In addition, the forage is mostly small and the water clarity is pretty clear (5 feet). Typical Southern California lake except for the lack of depth, so finesse tactics tend to win out. It is interesting you mentioned jerkbaits. In previous years with very little weed growth, jerkbaits produced consistently in the late fall & winter. Last Fall, with the weedbeds becoming the predominant form of cover and the water temperatures dropping, jerkbaits became THE ticket. Working them over the tops of the weedbeds produced multiple 50 fish days, they outproduced everything else including Ned. This year, it is amazing how few fish I have caught on them. The spots where the weedlines were now are completely barren, not even sparse grass, so the fish aren't hanging out or even passing by. Like most bass fisherman, I am so conditioned to looking for fish based on structure & cover. It may be worth spending a day having the mindset that I am chasing stripers out in open water with no relation to either. What just really baffles me is what has stopped more fish from using the docks as cover, like they did in prior years before the emergence of the weedbeds. Then again, for many of the fish that are 2 or 3 years old, their entire life consisted of hanging around weedbeds, they never were "dock fish" to begin with. Maybe it will take a generation or two of bass living in an environment where they have never seen weedbeds and spent their entire youth around the docks for those areas to once again become the predominant places they congregate.

At the end of August, the HOA did a weed abatement program on my home lake via some kind of chemical dump. The fishing slowed for a week & then went back to normal until the beginning of October. However, since the start of October, fishing has really slowed & my catch rates have been off well over 50% (compared to previous years). It has me scratching my head as to what is occurring, so I thought I would lay out the details and see if anything like this has ever happened on your home body of water. As a background, my lake is a small 100 acre development reservoir completely surrounded by homes. It is bowl shaped with a retaining wall completely around the lake, with depths ranging from 2 feet to 12 feet out in the middle. The coves are shallower (7 to 9 feet max) and with the vegetation now gone, the predominant cover is the hundreds of boat docks. Prior to the weed killing, there were weedlines in 3 to 7 feet of water both in the main lake & in the coves. These weedlines are now gone, as are also the few lily pads near a couple of peoples docks and a few Christmas trees I had sunk over the years (I don't know if the chemical disintegrated them or if they have just rotted away on their own). There are multiple "bubblers" throughout the lake, helping keep the water oxygenated and moving. Boat traffic is limited to electric boats, paddleboats & kayaks. Water temps get as high as 85 degrees in the summer and as low as 54 in the winter. The lake is inhabited by bass, bluegill, green sunfish, channel catfish, carp & some various minnows. What is puzzling to me is comparing what has changed as to what has stayed the same. As before the treatment, there are still thousands of bream fry & small minnows living tight up against seawall (in the undercuts & broken portions). The bass I have been catching are still healthy, not only in appearance but in fight. There has been no change in fishing pressure (I am it for all intents & purposes) and the other wildlife around the lake seem to be acting the same. The coots are still eating moss from the bottom of the lake & the Canada geese are still using the lake as a stop over during their migration south. In addition to the eradication of the vegetation, the only other difference from the past few years has been a pair of cormorants that have taken up residence here (despite my efforts to chase them off). They have been here for about 9 months and look big enough to eat a 10" bass. I don't know if the lack of weedbeds helps the cormorants catch fish and I am not sure how many fish these two are eating. The presence of the cormorants may have changed the basses behavior and where they choose to live, but I can't be sure since the weed kill was done not long after the birds arrival. In past years before the weedlines grew, the basic behavior of the bass was to cruise the shorelines during low light times and take cover under docks or in deeper water (often near the bubblers) during brighter times. This altered a little when the weedlines grew, as many of the fish would cruise the weedlines instead of the shore & would hole up in the weeds during the middle of non-cloudy days. Now I don't have much of a clue what they are doing. There are almost no fish under any docks at any time. The deeper areas have no fish that I catch or see on my depthfinder. This is all opposite of my experiences during the same time of year over the past decade. Further, this goes for the larger catfish & bluegill that used to occasionally intercept my offerings as well, I have found next to none of them. My only theory is that this major change in habitat in such a short time may be causing the forage & predators to suspend out over the deeper areas of the lake like a more pelagic kind of fish. The bass are obviously eating, because those caught are healthy & there has been no evidence of a fish kill. I haven't seen any suspending activity, but since the lake is so shallow, I don't think I could meter over them if they were suspending without spooking them. I am kind of hoping that when the prespawn starts in about 6 weeks, it resets the lake and the fish get back into being able to be patterned. So back to my question - Has anyone else ever experienced a body of water changing this fast and if so, what did you figure out was going on?

R.I.P. A quick John Glenn story. Back in February of 1980, my girlfriends parents invited me to join their family on a trip to Hawaii to celebrate their 25th anniversary. We flew out of LAX on a DC-10 and a few minutes after takeoff (while we were over the ocean), there was a loud BANG and the plane dropped what seemed like a couple hundred feet before the pilot stabilized it. Turns out the engine over the tail section blew, so we returned to the airport and ended up on another plane about six hours later. I called my mom while we were waiting for the replacement plane & told her the story. The following week when we returned, my mom had cut a story out of the LA Times documenting the incident we went through. The headline of the article was something along the lines of "Flight carrying John Glenn loses engine". Turns out Mr. Glenn was on the plane with us. In the article, he said it did shake him up a little, only because he wasn't in the cockpit. After all of the flights & space mission's he did, it would not have been appropriate for him to have been in a commercial airline crash.

I blame the fish. If she hadn't been so darn slippery, you never would have needed to jump in the water. I would hire an attorney and sue the bass for loss of consortium. Start wearing a neck collar when fishing to gain sympathy from the other bass.

This^ brings up an interesting point. I remember when Diamond Valley Lake (DVL) was impounded, there was quite a program run by Dave Guisti . As the dams were being built (yes, dams - this lake has dams on the front & rear of the lake...Only in California), Gliebe built a small pond in a low lying area. Fry of bass, bluegill & other species were introduced into this pond. A year or so later, the impoundment was filled and this population of warm water fish were already available to roam the new reservoir. http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sdut-diamond-valley-lake-bass-anglers-delight-2003sep29-story.html So although the fish were not native to the tributary that created the impoundment, they were there before the impoundment. Therefore, largemouth bass are indeed native to DVL. Right?

For weather, I want want easy - overcast days with occasional sprinkles. Not only does it tend to make the fish more active, it keeps a majority of people off the water. For location, I will pass up an easier, high pressured lake for a slightly tougher one with less folks around. I'm not looking for a challenge, just the opportunity to fish someplace without rubbing elbows with other anglers. I know it sounds like I am anti-social, but I live in a county that is 948 square miles with a population over 3.1 million people. Do the math, that is over 3000 people per square mile. I interact with people all the time, part of my fishing enjoyment is having at least a little solitude.

That is a point that is often overlooked. I happened to look at a list of the heaviest bass caught in Texas and all of these over 15lb fish were in the 24" - 27" length range. Having caught a couple of 8 lb fish that were also 24" long (and were not skinny), it really drives home the point on genetics where the really large fish grow wider & taller once they pass that 2 ft. length mark.

Well, the old baitcasters were known as "Knuckle Busters" because the handles would not disengage when casting. So I am guessing that if you gripped them like our current reels when casting, the handle would bounce off & bruise ones hands & knuckles. That said, the reel in the advertisement looks relatively new, so it is as if they are marketing a product to fill a need that no longer exists. The grip in the ad would force you to completely rotate your hand under the reel, saving the knuckles, but probably breaking your wrist on a hard cast...

I have used the BPS versions for about a year now and they have become my go-to swimbait. The 3" & 4" models work well on my lake. I fish them on an exposed jig head (Picasso Smart mouth), I don't have a need for them to be rigged weedless. Although I have thrown the Keitechs a couple times, i didn't use those enough to notice if there was a difference between them.

Unless she has a hump on her back, a lazy eye & asks to be called "Igor", marry that woman immediately...

I found that the 4" Zoom Dead Ringer is pretty comparable to the 4" Rebel Ringworms. For some reason, Zoom made the 6" models with a longer tail, so it is nothing like the 6" Rebel's. It is a good bait, just not really a replacement for the original.

Mister Twister Slither. It was the first plastic worm I had confidence in.

I have houseboated on Mead 6 or 7 times during the summer and while you can indeed chase largemouths, I would suggest you consider stripers instead. Bring your bass gear with topwaters, lipless crankbaits & jerkbaits and get out early looking for the boils. The stripers will continue to hammer shad at the surface until it becomes too uncomfortably hot to continue fishing. If you don't have access to a boat, get a guide.

Good news, there is light at the end of the tunnel and it isn't an oncoming train... As much as I enjoyed my kids as children, I like them more as adults.

Compromising pictures or texts of him with someone other than his wife or girlfriend. With that info, I could probably "persuade" him to take me out fishing with him a couple of times a month.

4 days on Missouri waters, 57 days on my home lake in Southern California. Most trips were 7+ hours with a few summer afternoon trips thrown in. With the holidays and a friend visiting in December, I expect to add in another 6 full day trips.