Jim Bridger

This is some really great feedback and I appreciate everyone's input. My take away from the responses is the following: - Photoperiod signals to the fish a type of behavior (seasonal pattern ie: pre-spawn, spawn, post-spawn) - Temperature seems to be dictated by comfort levels of the fish...when they're willing to spawn for example and we all know this is more of a range of temperatures (not exactly a hard and fast rule of a one temperature across the board but a range of 3 degrees or so, and different temps because not all bass prefer to do the same behavior at the same temperature). I was looking for a hard a fast rule to use, but it seems much more clear to me bass behavior is a little more difficult to understand from a single bit of data, and my best bet is to learn what it looks like when bass are in each seasonal pattern and to learn at what temperatures those patterns begin in certain regions/water bodies. Something else someone mentioned that had not occurred to me before was how photoperiod effects the plant kingdom which in turn affects the animal kingdom...I think there is more to this than we realize, perhaps increased oxygen in the water from the growing plants plays a part in this, perhaps its the increased forage hiding in these newly sprouted plants...it could be some of this or none of it, but something I thought was interesting and worth pondering. Again, thank you to everyone for throwing in your 2 cents, I thoroughly enjoyed reading all your posts! Respectfully, Jim

I'm converting my 14ft v-hull into a bass boat of sorts...just adding a casting deck up front and a deck lower down in the rear. I'm a fairly big guy weighing in at around 275lbs and I'm usually pretty hard on my equipment, I don't want to use wood 2x4's as support and framing for this decking. I'm planning on using aluminum square tubing, however, I need to know what the minimum size square tubing I need to use that will still support my weight. If anyone knows the answer to what size aluminum tubing would replace a 2x4 whilst matching support strength, please let me know. Also, I'm wanting to repaint the boat and make it purty...what brand of paint and primer ought I to use? Lastly, what would be the recommended as the best method for attaching the framing to the hull and the decking to the framing? Thank you for any and all the advice yall give.

I'm not sure that applies in my case exactly. I live in the UP of Michigan, we still have snow on the ground the lakes are froze up. Down south right now, bass are in the various states of pre-spawn, spawn and post-spawn. When the lakes do thaw in the next month I would figure the fish would be still in a winter pattern until may when the water warms enough for them to begin prespawn/spawn, cause I know in late May bluegill will be spawning and that's important cause bluegills use the bass beds when the bass are done with them. I can guess roughly, but I'm looking for benchmarks to determine these patterns for lakes and areas I am not familiar with...meaning not local.

How do you determine seasonal pattern?

When using water temperature to determine current seasonal behavior, is that surface water temp or temp down where the fish are? If the temp I need to know is down where they are, how do we get that? thank you for all the help!

I love catching pike, what I don't like is losing lures to them. Just over the summer alone I've lost 2 crankbaits, a handful of jigs, 2 spinners, a few craw tubes, some swimbaits, 3 poppers and theres more I know I'm forgetting. All in all, for a bass fisherman on a budget thats difficult to swallow buying replacements that often. I don't need to target pike, they're just easy to catch while fishing for most any other species, but I have noticed a definite uptick in pike strikes since I've focused on bass this summer. Needless to say, from ya'lls advice I've switched to a 15lbs fluorocarbon leader and that has worked wonders so far, its much more abrasion resistant than you would believe. I had previously always used mono, but on the advice of some in this thread I switched to 20lbs braid to test it out, I still lost lures, not as readily, but I still did. I also used wire leaders and I definitely noticed a difference in the action of some lures such as jerkbaits, crankbaits, and topwaters. Thank you for the advice, I firmly believe this will save me money, and I can attest that it already has! Very respectfully, Jim

I've only just begun seriously bass fishing this last summer and of course that took me out to the lake nearest me, namely Grand Sable Lake here in Grand Marais, MI. I immediately began to notice an expense I didn't figure on. That expense is losing lures on a regular basis to pike. Is it possible to focus on smallmouth bass while avoiding the pike or must I simply accept this as the status quo and try to find a lake with fewer pike?