WRB

I agree with the 10% weight gain/loss for spawn to pre spawn bass. 10% of 7 lbs is .7 lbs gian or loss, in this fish it's gain; 6.7 +.7 = 7.4 lbs. as an estimate with eggs. Good size northern strain largemouth bass. Next time measure the basses length and girth; mouth closed from tip of jaw to center of tail and around the widest area, dorsal fin down. L x L x G / 1200 = weight, should be very close. note somewhere this has gotten reversed; L x G x G /1200, incorrect. The IGFA was L x G x G /800, good for marlin, not bass. WRB

Your tackle is OK for the worms you ae fishing, the hooks are too small for Texas rigging. The hook gap needs to be 3X the worm diameter for the T-rig. Try using a Gamakatsu Wide gap weedless finesse hook size 1/0 for the 5" to 6" Senko type worms and nose hook or wacky hook the worm. If you plan on T-rigging, then use a 3/0 wide gap G-Lock style hook and texpose the hook point. The old cross their eyes hook setting will not help, try reel setting and sweeping the rod back for better hook pentration with the weedless hook rig. The heavier the hook wire the more force is required, that is why it's important to expose the hook point, then pinch the worm at the hook point location to cover the point slightly. Give the weedless finesse rig a try, you can get a good hook set with 6 to 8 lb mono, with 12 lb and med/hvy fast action rod,you shouldn't have any problems. Good luck. WRB

The time of day is only one factor to consider, the most important is the seasonal period and weather conditions for artifical lure fisherman. My top 5 bass, 17 lbs to 19 lbs were caught between 8A to 11A time period, pre spawn, cloud cover with slight wind or light rain. Mid day blue bird sunny days with calm conditions may favor the live bait fisherman, not the lure fisherman, we need help with low light conditions. WRB

Once you know where the bass are located and what they are feeding on, catching them should be simple and some times it is. If you fish only one lake and fish it regularily, determing where the bass are located and what they are eating shouldn't be a big challenge to anyone, some times it can be. However if you don't accept the fact that bass locate at specific areas and feed on different prey based on the seasonal periods, you may never become consistant at catching bass. Some science is a good thing, too much can become an over load, there is a balance for each individual to achieve. My routine when launching my boat is to check the weather, look around the dock, check the water temperature, then meter the marina to determine if any bait or bass are there and at what depth. With the marina information and knowledge of the seasonal period, I will have a good idea where the bass should be located, what they should be feeding on and at what depth to start fishing. Scientific, yes to some degree. I have used this technique for at least 35 years and fished in nearly every state where bass live and caught bass successfully on lakes that I have never fished before. You can rent a tin boat, go out on the lake and catch bass without any knowledge, some of the time. With the basic knowledge of bass behavior and seasonal periods, you can up the odds and catch bass the majority of the time, anywhere you fish. WRB

Basser89 I fished out of a aluminum boat for years that had a home made 80 quart Colemen cooler for a livewell. I installed a PVC pipe that ran across the top edge with spray holes to aerate the water, using the same pump that filled the cooler with a valve to switch the water flow. However I also made a 8 foot stringer with safety clips that holds 2 bass and a weight to keep the bass in the lake water, down about 7 feet, as much as possible, using the livewell to transport bass in lieu of keeping them in the livewell. I still use the stringer to this day for keeping big bass alive until I want to release them. Some southern lakes with alligators you wouldn't try the stringer technique. I keep a simple pool thermometer in the livewell and keep the water about 70 degrees during the summer, using chlorine free ice to cool it. WRB

See http://www.outdooralabama.com/fishing/freshwater/fish/bassblack/spotted/ The best method to determine if the bass is a spotted bass and not a largemouth bass is to feel the tongue. Spotted bass have teeth on their tongue, largemouth don't. The connected dorsal fin can be difficult to confirm on some spots and coloration changes with water chemistry. If you are fishing in Texas, the Guadalupe bass also has teeth on it's tongue, looks like a spot, but this bass isn't a common fish. Basically if it fights like a smallmouth and looks like a largemouth; it more than likely a spotted bass. WRB

The fact is most tournament fisherman believe putting bass in the livewell and recirculating water on a timely basis keeps the bass alive and in good health. As the senario points out there is more going on in a live then recirculating water. Understanding that bass breath dissolved oxygen in controlled levels; must higher than 3 mg/L and lower than 12 mg/L of DO is important during the warm water summer period. Cooler water holds higher levels of DO and when the water temperatures exceed 75 degrees the DO dispurses quickly. Because of the 2 factors; low DO and high water temperatures, it is very important not to add 80 degree surface water to the live well, you may be killing the bass, not helping them. Every tournament bass boat should be equiped with an oxygenator pump that adds DO to the water, not hot water. Adding ice to the water is OK if the ice was frozen using de chlorinated water or frozen water bottles that contain the water. Adding with ice with chlorine is OK if other live well additives like Catch & Release are added. During the summer warm water period it is essentail that the live well water is kept in the low 70's and DO levels around 7 mg/L. No matter how well you manage your livewell a percentage of the bass will die of post stress. If you have a bass that has rolled over, don't toss it in the lake and let it die later, keep it. For you night tournament fisherman; the DO producing weeds are comsumming DO at night, lowering the surface DO levels. Do not recirculate warm low level DO water into the live well at night. WRB

Before I try to answer to your question about females moving to summer patterns, let me ask this; what do you believe a summer pattern is where you fish? The bass calendar is made into the following; winter cold water period, transition to pre spawn, spawn, transition to post spawn, summer, fall periods. 6 baisc periods, all with a different patterns inter mixing on a daily basis. Bass spawn at different times around the lake, it's natures way to prevent a catastrophic loss of all the spawn. Big females bass may spawn several times at different nest sites before releasing all their eggs, they don't dump everything onto one bed. However it takes a bass one annual cycle to develope mature eggs. Most larger lakes will have 3 spawning cycles lasting about 3 months depending on how stable the water temperature remains. To answer the question; like most things in nature there is a pecking order, the most successful survive. The female spawns over a week or more period, then moves off to a sancturary place to rest and recuperate for about 5 days. Following the recuperation period the bass move to start feeding and continue the hunting and feeding cycle until the next spawn period in about a year. Summer period patterns vary greatly from lake to lake and bass to bass, they are not all the same. Big bass tend to move to deeper cooler water during the warm summer period and move to shallower water to feed at low light periods, like night. Young adult bass tend to stay close to the young of the year baitfish and prey to feed. Whatever patterns these feeding cycles take is a puzzle we all try to determine every time out on the water. WRB

You got a lot of conflicting info on this post. Smallmouth have connected dorsal fins and their jaw to eye alignment is similar to the spotted bass. The spotted bass has a patch of teeth on it's tongue, all bass have fine teeth on the roof of their mouths. Coloration changes with locale, however similar to LMB. You are more then likely catching smallmouth or northern strain largemouth bass where you live. Smallmouth are brownish and largemouth greenish color. http://www.outdooralabama.com/fishing/freshwater/fish/bassblack/spotted/ WRB

The topographic map uses lines every specified feet of evevation; 5 foot elevation means each line represents 5 feet of vertical change. The best fishing maps will have 1 foot elevations, then 2 foot up to 20 feet. The closer the line are together the steeper the elevation is changing. So, first look around the terrain the lake is located in to determine what the terrain under the will be like. Bass like fast changes in elevation; areas like ridges, ravines, stream beads, river channels etc. The first type of structure you need to learn are points that run the furthest out into the lake. Study your map and high light the points, then go fish them. WRB

If the bass have teeth on it's tongue, it's a spotted bass. WRB

Wind is sort of like saying deep water; it's a realitive term. Everyone is tired of my saying "it depends on the type of water you are fishing", however the lake classification is extrememly important in regards to both wind and deep water, they go hand in hand. Wind above 30 mph is a gale, stay off the water. Wind up to 15 mph is generally safe to fish in, depending on the lake size, shape and depth. Wind generates waves, that create both current and DO mixing the water. Waves create light defraction where light beams are going in several directions at once. The combination of refracted light, added DO and current usually activates the predator fish into feeding. Active bass: use reaction type lures or lures that represent what the bass are feeding on at that time, in your particular lake. All fish prefer to swim into or face the current, so wind generated current positions the bass into facing the current, ready to ambush whatever comes thier way. The wave action also stirs up soil, creating mud lines that the bass use to thier advantage. The moving light beams help to breakup the basses profile, it also breaks up the prey and your lures profile, so the bass don't get a good look and must react to determine if it's real or not. The waves make background noise that helps to deaden your presence. All these things are what make bass fishing in the wind an advantage. The big dissadvantage is boat control, casting accuracy and strike detection. WRB

With the surcharges today; the airlines are charging some healthy prices for tackle tubes. Delta; $150 each way for a 8'+ rod tube. You must check all the metal items. My suggestion; UPS the tackle to your friend at least a week in advance to the trip, don't plan to take anything but clothing on a plane. WRB

Fisrt there are several classes of record bass; state record, line class, all tackle and personal best records. From a hypothetical perspective it's the expected norm today the release bass, even record size fish. The question with C & R is always about survival percentages, which are less the bigger the bass is. The value of big bass is high in the bass fishing community, to catch big bass is an important goal. When it comes to the moment of truth, so to speak, every angler reacts differently. The excitment of the moment, the desire to do the right thing, whatever that maybe, drives us to a decission; keep or release. The vast majority of bass fsiherman, that I know, kept thier first big personal best bass. The reason that most big bass are kept is they were in poor condition after all the handling, photographing, measuring, weighing and generally bragging about the catch to other anglers on the water. Releasing a big bass, after all the extra handling will more than likely lead to the bass dieing from stress. My advice; handle these special big bass carefully and release all that are healthy, with the exception of potentail record bass. If a bass has grown to record size, it is at it's peak weight condition and will only get a older and less healthy, keep it. The reality is; you may never get another chance to validate the bass was in fact a record fish without keeping it. I released a potential world record bass simply because of being caught up in the moment and not validating the catch properly and now realize that was more than likely my only chance, record bass are very rare. WRB

The basics; reaction baits trigger strikes from active bass, slow soft plastics work well for bass that are neutral or less active and when bass are are in a negative mood, they don't react to anything you offer. The key; located active bass by fishing in areas that bass feed. I have long stopped bait fishing, however you may want to determine if the fish you see moving under the pads are bass and not carp, catfish, gar, pike or something other than bass. The easiest way to do that is fly line a big 8" night crawler. Collar hook the worm with a Gamakatsu weedless wide gape size 1 hook, no weight. If the bass react to the night crawler, then you know for sure what you are dealing with and those bass are catchable. The best night crawler imitation is a nail weighted plastic worm wacky hooked with the same hook as the real worm. Cinnamon with blue neon works very well when bass are targeting real worms. Suggest Roboworm blue crawler or peoples worm in 7" straight tail. 3/32 oz lead or tungston nail weight inserted into the worm nose, cut about 1/4" off the worms nose to make a flat spot to insert the weight into. The flat spot allows the worm to stand up and float the tail upright, which helps to trigger strikes. The hook places about 2 1/2 inches back. Don't remember if you tried a weedless frog? if not you should. Spro's Bronzeye frog a good choice; natural green. Cut the rubber strands to about 1 1/2 long, then 1/2 of those to about 3/4 long. Fish the frog in straight pops & pause until you reach open water pockets, then switch to a dog walking retrieve. Give both of the above a full days workout; from dawn to dusk. Work the frog, then follow up with the worm until the bass react. Also try looking over your shoulder out to deepr water and try the dam area. Those two presentations should work all summer. Good luck. WRB

Lizard in bass fishing jargon comes rom the south where a "spring lizard" is a salamander. Bass will eat or at least try to eat anything they consider prey. WRB

Don't push the hook through and cut the barb off, you can do more damage that way. Take a shoe lace, if you have on shoes, or the heavest fishing line and double it. Tie the strong line or cord into a loop about 18" long. Place your free hand through the loop and hold the open loop between your index finger and thumb. Drop the open look over the hook eye and slide it up to the hook bend. Now with your other hand , press down on the hook eye and forward towards the hook bend. The tricky part is now; while pressing down and forward, snap the cord loop that is around the hook bend hard away from the hook eye and the hook will pop out without any damage to your tissue. DO NOT TRY to remove hooks NEAR YOUR EYE!!! Go home and get professional help. WRB

The key to what has been said is "control" the bass at all times. At night it is very difficult to keep bass over 8 lbs out of trouble, becuase they are up in shallow water where all kinds of brush, weeds, trees, tules or what have you to get the line wraped in. Make no mistake, bass wrap your line as a means to excape. I have caught hundreds of big bass and wouldn't even think of using light spinning tackle intentionally. You land big bass with 10 lb mono and I do it all the time, but not at night and not in cover. You must either increase the line strength and rod to match or loose big bass at night. WRB

Post spawn bass move back to where they staged before moving up onto the spawning sites. Depending on the lake classification, river or pond the bass live in determines where the staged and where they will locate during post spawn. You are from Tennessee, so your TVA lakes are highland type impoundments with a lot of creek arms. the smallmouth bass tend to spawn near the main lake or just inside those creek arm on small flats with gravel and wood cover wind protected coves. The post spawn smallies are usually on the first break with wood or rocks near those coves. The largemouth bass tend to move further back into the creek arms seeking larger wind protected areas. The LMB post spawn sites are what is known as primary secondary points with some wood cover. A primary secondary point is the point that divides 2 or more creek arms back inside the larger creek arms. The bass move into the smaller wind protected creeks to spawn, then move back out to the nearest primary secondary point and recoperate while holding close to wood cover if availble, if no cover is available the bass will hold tight to structure elements. WRB

In regards to plastic worms and jig on some locals, the vast majority of the bass fisherman fish the same basic colors with the same presentation along the same banks, then wonder why they can't catch more and lager bass then the other fisherman. Bass may have the brain the size of a pea, but after seeing green pumpkin with red flake most of the lives, even the most aggresive bass will associate green pumpkin red flake worms as being something to aviod. Jigs that are black with blue claws is about the same in popularity. How many aggressive bass can be in any lake that hasn't already caught or watched another bass get caught on those 2 lures? The banks have been paved with the same lures and anglers still fish them regularly. Amazing, just amazing! When a school or group or pack or bunch, whatever you think more than 1 bass is called, gets hooked, the other bass nearby can see, feel and smell, that one of their kind is acting differently. If the bass are in a negative or less active mood, the hooked bass activity can alarm them and send the bunch into hiding. On the other hand, an active feeding bunch of bass will take little notice or even become more aggressive in order to get to the feeding bass quickly to take advantage of a meal. Do you change lure colors or lures when you catch 1 bass, no! keep fishing and let the bass determine if they want more of the same. If not, then try something that is different. If you are catching an occasional bass, then make a small change; like the color of the same lure to determine if that improves your strike ratio. If you insist on fishing the popular flavor and lure of the day, then be prepared to compete with other anglers for the same bass. I have been tinkering around making my own lures and modifing others to improve my strike ratio for about 50 years. The fact that I can still catch big bass on the same lures for decades should indicate the bass haven't learned to avoid them, because they don't see same lure often enough to be conditioned to avoid them. My advice; tinker with your lures, try fishing new lures & colors and areas that have less traffic. WRB

Here is my spin on this question; Don't believe everyhing you read on the internet. The topic of conditioning; bass can be trained to aviod items that harm them, however in the wild they don't get the opportunity to make mistakes often and continue to survive. Soft plastics look, taste, smell like real prey and it's very difficult for a bass to avoid them. Bass pass on genes that allowed them to survive. The more aggressive bass don't survive very long making repeated mistakes, it's the more wary bass that tends to live longer, therefor passing on it's genes through several spawning cyces. A percentage of bass you catch don't survive, even though you handled them carefully and released them. The most aggressive bass get caught more often and their chances of survival is low. Not many aggressive bass live to grow up to be big bass, where fishing pressure is moderate to high. Bass can't learn or be conditioned to aviod live bait, they must eat to survive. Bass can learn to aviod boats, line, hooks, noise, shaddows, odors and people fishing with live bait or lures, that alarm them. WRB

When talking in general terms you can interpret whatever fits your needs. A good location; one that has baitfish or prey can and does attract several year classes of bass, however the bigger bass usually show up at the prime time period or activity level. That is why when fishing patterns for example, it's a good idea to revisit areas where you catch smaller bass, becuase the bigger may show up on a different time schedule. It had been my experience that bass activily feed in about 4 hour cycles during the day light period. If you are camped out on one area long enough, the big bass may show up and start feeding at a good location that has everything needed for them. That technique is what most bait fisherman use, anchor and wait. WRB

Before anyone can access the harvest issue on a pond, the population density and size distribution needs to be evaluated. Reacting emotionally will only get into trouble. If the people harvesting the fish are doing it illegally, let the authorites resolve that problem. Same lakes and ponds usually need some the bass to be harvested to prevent them from over populating the available food source. If you are not catching bass over 3 lbs for example, it may be due to over population and stunted fish, the guy keeping the small bass was actually doing you a favor and helping the ponds balance. Catch & release taken to extremes isn't any better than over harvesting a fishery for food. Fishery management promotes selective harvset and slot limits to protect specific year classes of fish. Regardless of how well you handle bass and release them, some will die as a result of being caught. It's better to keep bass that are mortally hooked and bleeding, then to toss it back and hope they survive. My advice; find another pond with better fishing and blow the whistle on anyone who is breaking the law. If the pond is public water and everyone is within the state regulations, they have as much right to catch and eat fish as you do to catch and release them. WRB