OCdockskipper

He got DQ'd because he used the smaller outboard to attack Ish Monroe...

I hear you on that. Although it wasn't a bank fishing experience, i had a run in on July 3rd that exemplifies what fires me (& I assume you as well) up. I was in my boat, it was about 10 am & I skipped a weightless Senko under a dock, only to get hung up on the bottom. As I moved forward to try to retrieve my snag, there were a half dozen Canada geese near the dock to my left (25 feet away). They got a little concerned as I got closer, but because I was moving slowly & not at them, they never panicked, they just swam off. As I am trying to loosen the hook from the snag, the homeowner (a guy in his 60's wearing a Covid mask) from the dock to my left comes down from his porch and addresses me: Him - "What are you doing?" Me - "My lure is snagged, I am getting it back" Him - "Well, stop bothering the geese" Me - "I'm not bothering the geese, I am just retrieving my lure" Him - "No, you are bothering the geese. Stop it" Me - "I'm not bothering them, I just came over to get my lure" Him - "Well stop bothering the geese. I like to feed them off my dock" On our lake, it is a rule that homeowners are not suppose to feed the migratory birds. The swans & coots that live here year round are okay to feed, but the HOA doesn't want to encourage migratory birds to come here and it is actually an issue to feed a protected migratory species because it changes their migration routine. So after being accused of doing something negative by someone who admitted to breaking the rules, I went on the offensive: Me - "You aren't suppose to feed the Canada geese" Him - "Says who" Me - "The HOA. They are migratory birds & you aren't supposed to feed them" Him - "Oh, BS, thats not a rule, you're lying" Me - "No I'm not, you aren't supposed to feed the (expletive) geese. Him - "Nobody tells me what to (expletive) do" Me (laughing) - "You are wearing a (expletive) mask in your own backyard, yet no one tells you what to do?" Him (tearing off mask) - "(expletive) you. You want to come over here & say that?" Me - "Yeah right, I'm going to get in a fistfight over stupid birds" I messed up by allowing the frustration to incite me to say the first curse word, between that & me laughing at him really set him off. The conversation disintegrated into a series of F Bombs back & forth, with him telling me 3 or 4 times to stop bothering the geese and me responding that he wasn't supposed to feed them. I saw his wife come out on the patio and call him back up to the house. As he turned to leave, he fired a final volley: Him - "I've lived here a long time. I'll find out where you live and come get you" Me - "You do that & I'll beat your (expletive) head in" So I didn't handle it in the best possible manner. Before leaving the water that day, I did go over & talk to the HOA ranger, to let him know I had gotten into a verbal altercation & that I was guilty of letting the first curse word rip. The ranger listened to what I said & his response was "I have told that guy before to stop feeding the geese" ? I haven't seen that man since and part of me wants to be the bigger man the next time I do, to stop by his dock if I see him, apologize for cursing during our conversation & let him know I was out of line. The other part of me says you can't reason with an unreasonable person and I am concerned that I will allow myself to get dragged into another dumb conversation about the stupid geese. Now that the geese have all left for their northern haunts, I'll probably get blamed for scaring them off. ?

The flip side of that is how many people take up a sport or activity without even wondering what the ettiquette is for that activity. Further, when informed about the ettiquette, a good percentage act as if you have just insulted them. It is enthusiasts job to inform newbies as to how they should interact with others in a manner that is friendly & pleasant. It is newbies job to realize they are ignorant & need to shut up & listen to someone who knows more than them.

It may indeed be spirogyra, the images I googled looked similar to what we have. Many of those images showed the spirogyra in huge mats in shallow areas, we don't have it that bad. The bushy pondweed I refer to is actually Southern Naiad, coming from Lake Havasu & the Colorado river.

My home lake is a HOA controlled lake and for the past decade had a pretty competent guy in charge of weed & vegetation eradication. He would typically focus his eradication efforts on anything in 5 feet of water or less, so the homeowners would think it looks nice, yet let some of the bushy pondweed in the 7 - 10 foot depth areas grow over the summer for the fish. This year, we have a new young man in charge of weed eradication and the end result is different. All of the bushy pondweed is gone and the only vegetation is what I would classify as snotgrass. In the shallow areas, it grows in a thin strand with a bubble holding it to the surface. In the deeper areas, it kind of blooms not unlike other vegetation. When your lure comes in contact with it, it engulfs the lure with green slime. It hasn't taken over the lake, but there is alot of it covering the shallow areas and blooms of it in some of the deeper areas. This is the first time I can ever recall having this much of this type of vegetation in our lake & I have some questions about it. With pondweed, the bass would cruise above it or on the shallow edges in the low light and then swim through it or park themselves in it as the sun got higher in the sky. That hasn't seemed to be the case with snotgrass. I am struggling to figure out how the fish relate to the snotgrass in various conditions. It does seem like they will swim along the deep edge during low light conditions, but it almost seems like they don't like to sit or swim in it like they do with pondweed. I don't know for sure because of how difficult it is to get a lure through the gunk without ending up with a string of salad hanging off of your lure. For those of you who have to deal with snotgrass on a yearly basis, how do you find it affects the bass compared to other types of vegetation?

Considering that carbon is the universal building block for life & it is the 4th most abundant element in the universe (behind Hydrogen, Helium & Oxygen), it would be statistically unusual if there isn't other intelligent life besides ourselves.

How about the "Washington Thinskins"?

I'm having doubts that those sports are going to finish the season or that the NFL is even going to start. There have been so many hurdles (road blocks?) for these organizations to jump through and they don't have the commitment from all of the athletes to continue, I see it easily turning into a mess. I wouldn't be surprised to see those organizations start back up only to have players or teams back out of the competition once some positive tests start turning up. I believe that would hurt viewership for say, the opponent of the Lakers in the 2nd round of the playoffs back out because of player concerns or tests, so the Lakers get a bye that round. There will be some inequities that pop up, and since it is different than what folks have been used to (& waiting for), I think they will just turn it off. I don't know about anyone else, but for me, it feels like the NBA & NHL have already finished the year.

Administrative question - Since when is "road block" a banned word? The censor allowed the "ro" and then blocked "***" when it was used as a single word

The 8 foot boats are tight for two people. Remember that each of you are sitting 18" -24" from the bow & stern, which only leaves 4 to 5 feet for both of your seats and the space between you. If the 2nd fisherman is a kid under 10, it might not be a big deal, but two adults in an 8 foot boat is like 3 men in a tub. I'd highly recommend the 10 ft models.

I haven't followed BPT as closely as the Elite series this year and I just went on their website to check out the results of the Sturgeon Bay tournament. The first article was about Jordan Lee winning the points championship for 2020. There aren't any other events scheduled for 2020 and no mention of an attempt to reschedule cancelled events. This surprised me, especially when contrasted to the hoops B.A.S.S. has jumped through to try to make the Elite season a full year. I spoke with Trip Weldon at Eufaula last month & he said it was like trying to schedule 2 years worth of tournaments into 1 year, difficult but doable. I would have thought the process for BPT would have been easier being they don't have to contend with weigh-ins & crowds. My question is how much does the angler-owned aspect of BPT have to do with them giving up on the rest of 2020? I would have thought many anglers just wanted to get out to fish, but maybe I am wrong. Are the BPT anglers creating a ro*** for scheduling events for the rest of the year? With it becoming obvious that none of the big 4 sports will be doing much for the rest of 2020, sports networks like ESPN are starving for content. B.A.S.S. has taken advantage of that, first with Eufaula back in June and with the 2 upcoming New York events, all broadcast live on ESPN2. I think BPT is missing a huge opportunity for their organization & their sponsors by not finishing out the year. Ironically, I would suggest that for live TV, BPT's format would draw a larger audience, more people who don't know much about fishing, but understand basic scoring in competitions.

One thing I found when marshaling is that different anglers care about the fish differently. It surprised me that some pros really don't care what happens to the fish they are catching as long as it doesn't cause them a penalty and they loose money over it. Most seem to be sportsmen and do what they can to treat the fish properly. A few don't.

It is true, a Ned rig will catch anything!! ?

This works. An acquaintance of mine heard one of the board of directors of the HOA saying they were considering spraying chemicals into our lake to kill off zebra mussels. He told the board member that there was a more "green" solution, that they could release a couple of hundred pounds of crayfish in the lake a couple of times a year and that the crayfish would eat the zebra mussels. The Board ate up the idea (pun intended), I think because they thought it made them look like they cared for the environment. Of course, the fishermen on the lake kept quiet as the bass & catfish fattened up on the crayfish stockings every few months...

I agree with those who say humidity can be the deal breaker. When I visit my sister in Georgia, I am amazed how hot it can be in the morning if the humidity is high. Last month when I was there, every day topped offed between 88 - 90, but each day felt immensely different based on the humidity. I have lived in the Southern California my whole life, we get afternoon breezes off the ocean that keep evening & am temperatures in check. Without that onshore breeze, places further inland like Lake Mead easily reach 115 or higher in the summer with the temperature never dropping below 90 during the night. The lone saving grace is the lack of humidity, it makes it bearable if you can be in the shade. To me, Georgia at 90 degrees and 90% humidity is worse than Vegas at 110 degrees. However, Vegas at 35 degrees in the winter with the desert winds blowing, seems much colder than being somewhere on the East Coast when it is snowing.

Speaking of OCD, when I ring someone's doorbell, I automatically begin counting down from 30. If no one answers by the time I reach zero, I repeat the process.

When I first read that, I thought "wow, less than 200 bass and 8 of them are over 10 lbs". Then I read it was your second year and thought "Either he is a fast learner or his scale is broken". Then I read it again and saw that you were talking about double digit numbers... I'm still kinda asleep...?

Faking dementia can work wonders...

Let me second the need to brace it. It gives you a sturdy surface that doesn't flex. It may be difficult to have both a light boat & a deck, you may need to choose between one or the other. I chose the latter because I don't take my boat out of the water, I added a ton of mods. If you are going to launch out of the back of a truck & need as light a weight as possible, I'd recommend keeping it as simple as possible.

I always thought ultra light was 4lb test line or less, probably because I use 8 to 10lb test for a majority of applications. For 4lb, it was a 12 lb catfish that grabbed a small jig. Took about 15 minutes to land her (no net). For 8lb, a 17lb catfish from under a dock on a weightless Senko. The docks on my lake have no pilings and the bigger fish tend to head for deeper water when they feel the hook. Decent reel with the drag set properly and don't try to horse them.

Yesterday was the last time this month I am going out, so my home lake total for the 1st half of the year is 793 (I didnt count the ones I caught in Georgia). That is an above average number compared to previous years, but not the best ever. Three 50 fish trips in May helped bump up the first half numbers. So far , Ned rigs & Sluggos/Flukes are the leading baits. As summer & fall come, I expect the latter to drop off and the former, along with plastic worms to increase

Bernard? Louis?

I use Zara Puppies more than the other Spook models, I find they walk best with 8lb mono on a spinning rod. All the ones I have walk the same as their bigger brothers, if yours isn't, it may have a defect like TNRiver said.

If you are in Conroe, Texas, north of you in the Austin area are some rivers and creeks that have Guadalupe bass (or Guacamole bass as the Elite series anglers called them). They are similar to Suwanee not physically, but in that they are a smaller river fish that is very good fighter. The Blanco river consists of quite a few "swimmin' holes" and I found that the largemouth would stay in the middle to lower end, where the water was deeper and slower moving, while many of the Guadalupe would hang out in the upper stretches of the stream.

It is connected to a small stream that still flows through the man made lake. Not sure if the fish were there originally and just got trapped when the dam was built or if the previous owner brought them in. I find most of the Suwanees hang out in the old creek channel which parallels one side of the lake and part of the dam. The property is in Georgia, but literally sits on the Florida border and the creek that feeds it empties into the Upper Ochlocknee river. I didn't take a picture of them, it wasn't until I was done fishing the last day I was there that I put 2 & 2 together. Their mouth size is similar to largemouth, and I had noticed the unique coloring on the undersides of a few, but still didn't even think about them being a different species. It really was numskull of me not to consider it, for my other sister lives outside of Austin, Texas and I have caught Guadalupe Bass in the Blanco river that runs by her house. Those fish were really unique, looked much more like smallmouth so it caught your eye. The ironic thing is although I had thought the bass were stunted, it turns out it is an extremely healthy little lake. The Suwanee out-compete most largemouth their size, so they keep the largemouth population in check, the very few largemouth that are able to make it to a larger size (like the behemoth that I hooked & lost) most likely feed on the Suwanee, keeping that population in check. As I mentioned, all of the fish I caught had full bellies, pretty good for being post spawn.