WRB

What we is a failure to communicate. Structure is any element under or above the water that is permanent; dams, rocks, pilings, islands, humps,saddles, channels, points, bridges, cribes, breakwater walls,rip rap,posts, foundations, road beds, culverts, etc. We can argue about trees, docks, stumps as being cover or structure, but for now lets call them cover like; weed beds, floating docks, trees, brush, bouys, etc. The breaks you are fishing are structure, isolated structure would be a rock pile or just one rock. The prime area of a channel is where the channel starts to bend facing any current and where it stops and straightens out. Check both the inside and outside transition areas of the bends for any active feeding bass. Transitions of soil types like mud to sandy areas or sandy to gravel areas, these are all structure elements that bass will use to feed on prey that live in those areas. WRB

I don't know what the depth limit is for crayfish (crawdads), it's over 100 feet in lake Tahoe for example. Depth isn't an issue in a river environment. Found this information on crayfish that should be of interest. http://www.unionsportsmen.org/index.php/fishing/category/crayfish_school/ WRB note; look at archives, Dec 22, 2007, crayfish school.

The bass you are targeting and catching are young adults that prefer smaller bait fish as prey. Your success shows that have mastered finding those bass and catching them consistantly. As bass grow larger and get to be adults, they add prey to their diet such as crawdads and larger bait fish. Bass are predators and like all predators there is a pecking order where the best locations are dominated by the fittest. Study your river and look for areas that provide current breaks in locations where both concentrations of prey and structure elements are present. Wing dams, bars, submerged trees, stumps, pilings, rock piles, anything that provides slack or slower moving water where biatfish and crawdads can find shelter. The bigger bass will nearly always be close to their food source. Deep diving crank baits and jigs should be a major part of your lure selection. Reaction lures like spinnerbaits and buzzers are OK during the very active periods, otherwise it's the bottom bumping presentations that will trigger strikes from the big bass. WRB

Bass will eat a free floating or suspended soft plastic bait and the plastic doesn't digest, it must pass or be regurgitated so the bass can continue to digest food with value. Bass fisherman should retrieve and keep used worms to put in the trash at the marina. If you see floating worms where another fisherman is catching bass, it's a good idea to pick up any of those worms to see what they were using successfully. Most pro's pickup any floating worms for that reason, they don't want other competitors to learn what they use and want to learn what others are using. So not only can it be harmfull to the bass, it can give away a secret worm color and style. Birds will also eat plastic worms and it has the same affect on them. Don't toss your used worms in the water and try to retrieve them if you can. Dead sticking or fly lining soft plastics works well at times, as the bass are trying to tell you by eating free floating worms. WRB

Have your back seater fish the deeper water with a C-rig and soft creature. Instruct them make long cast out away from where you are targeting the bed fish and slowly retrieve the C-rig, stopping for a minute to let it rest, every 5 feet or so. This not only keeps you back seater busy, he may catch the big females holding in deeper water and/or discover another deep bed fish. WRB

http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/tournaments/elite/news/story?id=3383737 Hope this works for you. Paul Elias is one of our sports legends, a true sportsman and deserves the win and record at Falcon. Paul credited Catch & Release and adding ice for saving his 8 lb bass the final day that helped him win and set the record. For those of you who have never caught a big bass and wondered if they jump or fight hard...watch and enjoy the action. For those skeptics who believe bass don't school or group up on one isolated spot, listen carefully just how small the area was Pual caught all his bass over a 4 day period. Thank you Paul and god bless. WRB

Why do you think this is a female bass? Big head and skinny body could indicate an older male bass. Fish, like every animal, have different body shapes for various reasons, they don't necessarly come out of the same cookie cutter. Bass don't loose a lot of body mass from spawning, maybe up to 10% of their overall weight. The bass in the picture has lost or never had any body mass and that would indicate a heatlh issue, eating disorder or a fish just getting old and ready to die. WRB

You need to contact the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and they will stock the pond and recommend what the forage base should be. Generally you stock bass fingerlings after everything else is established. WRB

Read "Quagga Mussel Update", Western Bass Fishing forum. Lake Casitas is reopening to outside boats starting 5 May, with a new plan. Almost all the Caifornia bass lakes have some type of inspection program and clean & dry routine, so it's important to call the lakes before you hual your rig. WRB

Lake Casitas starts their outside boat inspection program today, 5 May 2008. The lake ranger set a priority list based on people that had dry storage first, the outsiders given a number based on the date they called. Basically you take your boat to the lake for inspection and if you pass the clean & dry routine, your boat is locked onto the trailer with a sealed lock. You return home, no fishing allowed until a 10 day period. After 10 days you can take your rig back to the and fish "if" the seal isn't broken. When you leave a new seal is attached. You can return whenver you want as long as the seal hasn't been broken. The lock and seal is $50 in addition to the standard entry fee. lake Cachuma is inspecting boats upon arrival, washing the hull and trailer in a hot pressure wash, then you can enter the lake. All the SoCal lakes are now on a inspection routine of some short, so be warned and call before you hual. The NorCal lakes are using your zip code for validation to enter some of those lakes. If you are from SoCal, it's a 14 day waiting period. WRB

Here are a few good bass books that I recommend; Book of the Black Bass, DR. Henshaw Lucas on Bass, Jason Lucas Black Bass, Robert Lincoln Buck Perry's Guide for Fishing, Buck Perry In pursuite of Giant Bass, Bill Murphy Sowbelly, Monte Burke Think Like a Bass, Tom Mann Big Bass Zone, Seimantel Finesse Bass Fishing & the Sonar Connection, Iovino Big Bass Magic, Doug Hannon You can go to Bassmaster and most of the active pro's write books. The above list are some of my favorites, you may need to go to Ebay to find some of those older books. WRB

The teeth that are unusual that spotted bass have is on the "tongue". The dorsal fin is connected like a smallmouth. Kentucky spotted bass are smaller and only grow to about 3 lbs., the Alabama spotted bass grows much larger; up to 9 lbs. Spotted bass get their name from the 3 or 4 rows of black dotted scales under the lateral line. WRB

First determine if the lakes you fish have northern ( Kentucy) spots or Alabama spots, big difference in the size potential. Aviod the Kentucy spots as they rarely grow over 3 lbs., and target the bigger Alabama spots. Spots are very similar to smallmouth bass and like the same type of water, deep with granite rock, slides with broken rock and ledges with rock piles and isolated stumps. Forget about the shoreline, you will be fishing main lake deep outside structure. In the spring the spots follow the baitfish into the river arms, so look for inflows of running water occurring that draw schools of baitfish. Spots also are crawdad eaters and love smaller size spider jig; 3/8 oz. football (green) head with plan green Yamamoto twintail hula grub is a good choice. Iovino 6" straight #111 smallmouth killer worm, split the tail about 1" and rig on a 1/4 ozshaky head jig is also a good choice. Good luck. WRB note; there are some newer "triple" fish type 4" & 5" shad swimbaits and Huddlestons 6" swimbait is ideal for big spots under the right conditions; light wind to break up the surafce and early or late in the day when the shad are moving toward cover.

Please remove your pesonal information from your post and ask to be contacted via PM personal message. Do you know which tournament circuit, B.A.S.S. , FLW or whomever? You ask to be a non-boater or co-angler and sing up with tournament cooridnator or director. WRB

Don't get too hung up with the water clarity if that is normal for the pond or lake. You are used to fishing in drinking water reserviors where the water clarity is 10 to 25 feet, so 2 to 3 feet seems dingy to you. How deep can you see a white spinner bait dropped straight down by your feet on the tube? Remember the bass are totally conditioned to live in the off color water. You are either catching spawners next to the tules or bass hunting crawdads, bluegills or other baitfish. Find out what the bass are targeting, then use those colors and profile lures. Spinnerbaits, chatterbaits and crankbaits are a good tule edge lures, when the bass are active. Go to 10" to 12" worms for a big profile and creature baits when the bass are tight or in the cover. Get yourself a musky size black Jitter bug for night fishing and change the hooks to size 2/0 premium black nickel trebles. Good luck. WRB

Pale color bass normally indicates they were or are from deep water. Bass in off color water or stained water are usually dark color, not pale. Bass can also loose coloration during post spawn recuperation. Bass, like other predators can change coloration, in time, to help blend into the back ground. WRB

Bill Murphy's* 72+lb, 5 LMB limit from San Vincente back in the late 70" is the heaviest 5 bass limit in Califronia to the best of my knowledge. My PB 5 LMB limit is 69 lbs, Castaic lake, March 3rd, 1991; 11.3, 12.0, 13.2, 15.1, 17.4, reported in WON. The top 5 bass limit for a WON (Western Outdoor News), team tournament is 62+ lbs, lake Casitas, Dana Rosenberg and ? partner. WRB * Bill's book; In Pursuit of Giant Bass, has a chapter on this catch as I recall.

* Gene Gilliland article; http://www.State.tn.us/twra/fish/Reservoir/blackbass/livebass2.pdf WRB

The misconception in regards to delayed motality and survivabilty was well stated by the club tournament TD. This was also a common statement in regards to the Falcon tournament when B.A.S.S. stated 158 big bass died. Dead bass defore they are released isn't delayed mortality, those bass died during the event, not later after they were released. Consider that during the average summer tournament 28%* of the bass thought to be healthy died of delayed mortality. The bass looked good and swam away, then died. Most of these bass don't float on the surface, some do and are usaully eaten by birds or turtles before they can be detected by other fisherman. Most large reseviors can handle the harvest rates of both weekend fisherman catching bass for the table and tournament bass fisherman lost through delayed mortality. However during the pre spawn, spawn and post spawn months when big bass are grouped together and catchable, overharvesting or high motality rates can be very detrimantal to the bass population. WRB *study by Gene Gilliland, biologist OK.

The following suggested instructions should be followed whenever a bass tournament is scheduled where big bass are known to be caught during the event. http://www.sure-life.com/pdf/bass_champs_falcon_tips.pdf WRB

The old rule was no longer than you can hold your breath is about right. Warm air and water temperatures, over 75 degrees, then no longer than 40 seconds before putting back in the water to refresh them. Here is some good bass handling information, go to the bottom of the webb site page and click on "additional information". http://www.sure-life.com/pro_catch_and_release.html When measuring a bass, use a wet towell to lay the bass on a flat surface. The simple way to determine the basses weight, if you don't have a scale is to measure it quickly with your fishing line; mouth closed measure tip of lower jaw to center of tail and cut the line to length. Then mesaure around the bass with the dorsal fin flattened at the widest area and cut that length of line, tie a overhand knot in the middle to indicate the girth measurement line piece and save the line. When you get home use a calculater with the following formula; L X L X G /1200 = weight in pounds. Length times length times girth divided by 1200 equals weight in pounds. Example; 20" length and 16" girth: 20 X 20 X 16 = 6,400 divided 1,200 = 5.33 lb bass. Same bass with 15" girth; 20 X 20 X 15 = 6,000 divided by 1,200 = 5.0 lb bass. Measure carefully and the formula will be very accurate. WRB

The tournament TD's should be handing out simple easy to read livewell operating instructions that you have developed. I'm sure the tournaments that you are directly involved with, the contestants have the needed information. Your Catch & Release product has been around a long time and is the best IMO, however Please Release Me and others are also being used in weekend and club tournaments. BASS should print the instructions in Bassmaster magazine for those who don't know that their livewells need some special care for the bass to survive in them. A lot of weekend bass fisherman catch bass all day long and copy the tournament pro's by filling the livewells with warm surface water and keeping the best 5 bass, then release them at the marina after showing off their catch. The bass appear to be OK as they swim away and about 1/3 may not make it during the summer months. The more information available, the better it is for our sport. You are doing a great job, thank you. WRB

Lane, the real problem is in the education of the tournament anglers. Most will argue that they achieve 100% survival rates and that is nearly impossible if any number of bass are caught. Few tournament anglers are familiar with their livewells and don't understand the basics; how many gallons of water doest it hold? You can't proplerly maintain the livewell without knowing that basic fact. What is the top end temperature the water can be in the livewell and still keep the bass from being over stressed? Most tournament anglers don't own a digital livewell thermometer or even have a simple swimmng pool thermometer to check the livewell water temperatures. Gene Gilliland suggests to keep the live well water below 70 degrees, the mid 60's(65 to 68) being ideal. Your C & R formula requires knowledge of the livewell capacity to properly mix the chemical. Nearly every tournament fisherman loads the livewell with water at the marina and they shouldn't do that. Clean water is essential. Education is a big part of catch and release and handling the bass properly. Thank you for all you have done in this regard. WRB

When you are fishing your home lakes you should know the weather patterns and listen to weather reports to determine if severe or light rain is predicted. Somwtimes we all get caught out in bad weather. Falling barometer a low pressure sytem moving onto an area will nearly always increase predator activity and bass feed by ambushing prey, taking advantage of low light conditions. I have caught my PB bass during light rain, it's the best chance to catch a bass of a lifetime. However use caution, safety first. Fishing on unfamilar water you need to be extra carefull. I was fishing up in Ontario Canada for musky with my in laws on Lake of the Woods, nice day cloudy conditions, light wind, when my father in law said we go to head for shore and cover now! I couldn't tell what the problem was and asked, he pointed to the clouds and said heavy hail is coming, see those green streaks in the clouds. We ran the boat to shore, covered up with a tarp and golf ball hail came pounding down. It helps to know the local weather signs. WRB

If the beds were dinner plste size and within a yard of each other, they were blue gill beds. Blue gill spawn after the LMB, about a month, or when the water temperatures are around 67 to 75. LMB beds are usually bigger, about 18 to 30 inches or so and spread out several yards apart and close to some type of cover on one side. WRB