WRB

How do you know what type of fish your are meterimg? Set your sonar unit on manual mod. Adjust the sensitivety to the point you see the screen become cluttered with background dots, now reduce the sensitivety until there are still a few background dots. If you see a dark line or heavy dark zone about 1' thick somewhere between the surface and bottom, that is the thermocline layer and few bass will ever be below that depth. Now that your sonar is set for the water density at the moment, you can see your lure falling when you drop it under the transducer. The next manual mod you need to set is the lower depth limit, set that about 10' below the marks (arcs that indicate fish) or deepest bottom in the area you are fishing. Go find the fish marks and drop a 3/4 oz structure spoon down the the depth the fish are holding. A Chrome Kastmaster or Crippled Herring work well for this. Once the spoon reaches the deth the fish are holding or fit the line stops, lift the rod up about 2' and lower it and then repeat until one of those marks bite. All types of predator game fish will eat a spoon and this is a great way to target suspended bass. WRB

It's always a good idea to talk to the living. Tell your family what you want done with your personal items before you (or they) are gone. Better yet give things to the people you want to have them, while you are above the grass. More than likely the things you charish may have little real value, unless you let them know why it was important to you. At the end of the day it's important that your loved ones don't need to go through the suffering of disposing all your stuff. WRB

Back in the 70's several CA lakes were planted with Florida LMB due in part to the success that San Diego was having at lakes Otay, Miramar, San Vincente, Hodges, etc. Big Bear was one of the lakes the Florida's failed to survive due to cold water temperatures. Big Bear freezes over for a month or so. Considering Big Bear already had a good population of both smallmouth and northern LMB, the die off was a good indicator that Florida LMB have a lower thresold to cold water. The Florida's did extremely well in lake Isabella where the core water temperaures didn't drop below 45 degrees, doesn't freeze over, however has a tremdous amount of snow melt run off. Florida's definately have a lower stress tolerance to extremely cold water. Gillihand is one of the most respected biologist in the country and has written papers on tournament bass survival that every bass fisherman should read. WRB

The issue of bass survivabilty in cold water is somewhat complicated by the bass species. In general we think of largemouth bass as bass. Ther are several however, but lets just discuss the northern strain largemouth bass. The survival issue that kills bass fast is the improper level of dissolved oxygen (DO). Water can hold a maxium amount of DO verses temperture. Bass need a saturation level somewhere between 7 to 9 mg/I and can tolerate a wider range depending on the activity level; 5 to 12 mg/I is gennerally considered the limits for a short time period. Lack of DO is in warm water is the primary reason bass die in live wells. Water at 4C or 36 degrees is highly saturated with DO well above 13 mg/I and the levels decrease as the temperature increase to less than 3 mg/l at 85 degrees, without wind or vegetation adding DO. Yes a bass can survive 36 degrees and above 85 for vey short time periods, if the DO levels are OK. Some lakes can be frozen over a long time period, the ice prevents new DO from entering the water and the colder water under the ice draws the DO up from the warmer water ,plus the fish comsume it, then winter fish kill occurs from lack of DO. The ice factor limits the basses range and some bass are more tolerant to cold water; smallmouth bass and others are less tolerant; Florida strian LMB, for examples. The bottom line; cold water is the reason they go deeper to survive, during the winter where lakes form ice and hot water is the reason they also go deeper in the summer periods. WRB

For some reason I thought we discussed this issue. The physics involved with water are interesting. Water becomes heavier as it gets colder until it reaches 39.4 degrees, then get lighter or less dense and floats upward until it freezes into ice at 32 degrees (fresh water). If water continued to get heavier as it cooled below 39,4 degrees the lakes would freeze bottom to top, instead of top downward. Bass being a cold blooded and sun fish family animal will seek out the warmest water availble during the cold water periods. Lakes tend to layer, the upper layer is called the epillimnion, the middle layer mesolimiom or thermocline and the lower layer hypolimnion. All fish need dissolved oxygen (DO) to breath and both weeds and wind produce DO in the upper layer where bass live during the warm water periods. The lowest layer is cold (50 degrees or so) water that is viod or very low of DO. The fall transition to winter cools the upper layer as nights get colder and days get shorter. The cold surface water drifts down through the upper layer compressing warmer water through the thermocline until both the upper and lower layers are equal. The fall turnover can occur when windy conditions mixes the layers and you smell a rotten egg odrer of sulphurus gases at the surface and there is no thermocline layer. The bass will seek the warmest water availble, springs are about 50 degrees and deepr water stays above 40 degrees or all the bass would die. This is why bass go deeper in winter to survive. WRB

It wont let me search unless I register. That is something I would like to see though. There is a tutorial on how to post pics on this forum. If the pic is saved on your computer (which something that big ought to be), just click the "browse" button and it will allow you to attach your photo. Wayne Thanks, it was a scanned photo that a passerby sent me and need to rescan it on my home computer. TBH site is free, good information to check and a few In-Fisherman articles on lake Isabella and jig fishing several years ago that may also be of interest on giant bass fishing. Tom

Both the 18.4 FLMB and 8.5 SMB are giant bass that you should be proud of and few bass fisherman will ever achieve, congratulations. My PB LMB is few ounces heavier and the picture a lot worse and PB smallie isn't worth mentioning. To see the LMB you can visit TBH site, search "monster" under general discussion, "Oldschool's MONSTER largemouth. I don't know how to post the picture. WRB aka, Oldschool. TBH http://www.thebass-holes.com/ (deletet the -) bassin-forms/index.php?topic=1681.0 appologize if this link upsets anyone.

Todays high quality bait casting reels have extremely good drag systems and handle 6 lb mono well. You can locate a 6'6" to 7' medium/light very fast action bait casting rod and easily cast lures weighing 1/8 oz. The issue is spinning reels can cast lures down to 1/32 oz and handle 2 lb line, so when you are bass fishing with 5 to 8 lb line and lures under 1/8 oz, spinning tackle is a better choice due to lower cost rods and reels availble that perform very well casting into the wind. For light weight 1/8 oz lures like; jigs, drop shot and slip shot presentaions, both casting and spinning becomes a matter of choice. WRB

There is a thread on this topic; see "Bait Fish" on this page. The TVA lakes are "High-land" class power generation reservoirs with three bass species; northen strain largemouth, smallmouth and northen spotted bass. LMB tend to stay shallower than the smallmouth or spots, however all the adult size bass tend to stay deeper than 3 to 5 feet unless spawning, actively feeding. We have 6 basic seasonal periods; fall, winter , pre spawn, spawn, post spawn and summer. Water temperatures are the governing factors, the basic are; fall = 70 to 60, winter = 58 to 40, pre-spawn = 55 to 60, spawn = 62 bto 65, post spawn = 67 to 70, summer = 70 to 80. The water temperatures are at the depth the bass holding, not the surface and transitions occur where you see missing temperatures and may vary for diffirent species. So water temperature is very important to bass, along with DO (dissolved oxygen), shelter and food. The primary food source in your lakes are thread fin shad, silver sides, chubs, bream, crappie, shiners, crayfish, frogs, salamanders and worms. Bass do not hibernate and can not survive in water temperature lower than 40 degrees. The prefered temperature is between 65 to 75 degrees if availble and the DO levels are good and food is availble. During the cold water period the bass will seek the warmest avialble water and that is usually deep water during the winter period. In deep clear water high land reserviors bass can and will go down to 80 feet or more if the DO levels are good. Bass have swim bladders so they can only change about 30 feet in upward depth before the bladder expands and pushes the stomach out the mouth and must return back down into deeper water. You need to read up on the basic bass habits to learn where they locate during the variuos seasonal periods. The general rule is "find the bait and the bass will be close by" applies the year around. WRB

The reason I prefer to use lake classifications is to group lakes into categories that apply to where ever bass may be located. Natural lakeas and rivers are very different from man made impoundments. The vast majority of bass fishing occurs on man made impoundments, followed by natural lakes and then rivers. The lake classification is generally based on the geography ot topography of the region the impondment is located. Examples; hill country with low elevation rounded mountains and wide rivers valleys are call "Hill-land" and regions with more rugged steeper mountains and long deep river valleys are " High land", flat plains with wide meandering river valleys are "Flat land" and coastal river valleys "Low land", deep long narrow river valleys located in the west are "Canyon" reservoirs. The one thing every reservoir has in common is a dam to back up the impoundment and control the water use. Each classification can be very big or small and the bass that live in each class of reservoir generally have similar behavior, prey and habitate. Turnover is a very misunderstood term and few reservoirs below the Mason-Dixon line experience cold enough air temperatures to cool the surface water fast enough to create a turnover. It can happen, but you need a combination of freezing or near freezing nights and windy days to create conditions where the upper warm layer of water cools so fast it out weigh the lower deep heavier cold water and turn the lake over. Turnovers usually occurs following the winter ice out on northern lakes where cold water conditions will turn a lake over. What most southern and western reservoirs experience is the weed cover dies due to cooler nights and shorter day light, sink or suspend and decay. The cooler surface (Epillimion) water slowly drifts downward mixing with the deeper (Hypolimnion) water and disrupts the middle (thermocline) layer for a few weeks until the system stablizes and thermocline rebuild IMO. It is common to have gas bubbles stream upward cuased by the decaying weeds and the water becoming off colored. Bass tolerate a wide range of dissolved oxygen (DO) and don't require a oxygen rich layer, the ideal is 7 to 9 mg/I and can tolerate about 5 to 12 mg/I for short time periods. Looking at the photos you attached indicate that the lake may have a alge condition that is depleting the DO due to warmer than normal conditions causing a bloom and may leave with windy colder conditions. Bass are cold blooded animals and need less food as the water cools, however bass can not survive water colder than 40 degrees, so the shallow lake must have warmer water somewhere like a spring for example or they move to the warmest water availble. I wouldn't bother with cold water bass in a shallow lake enviornment, try to locate a deeper lake where the bass should be a little more active. WRB

Keep in mind that you are reading surface temperatures, unless using a camera with a temp probe. The reason the bass and bait fish go deeper is because they are seeking warmer water just at the thermocline where it will stay throughtout the cold water period. Find the thermocline and bait, the bass will be there, in lakes and reservoirs. Rivers will not have thermoclines due to the current. Power generation reservoirs may have mulitple thermoclines layers. Good luck and stay warm. WRB

It doesn't mater if the lake is up in Main or down in Mexico, if the lake is a same classification, same type of bass and similar bait fish or prey, the bass will respond to the changing conditions in a similar manner. Texas for example will have hill-land and high land class reservoirs used for water storage and power generation predominately. High land and hill land reservoirs are planted with thread fin shad and sometimes gizzard shad, along with bream, crappie etc., that are all baitfish targeted by largemouth bass. The key to locating bass is locating the bait fish and thermocline layer in these reservoirs. If the bait is there, the bass are close by. Keep in mind that small bait fish like shad survive by schooling during the day light hours, hiding in cover during the darker hours and transitioning from cover to open water schools. Bass target the shad in all three places that allow the bass success. Any lure that doesn't miminc the shad in the location the bass doesn't expect to find shad may not interest the bass. During the warmer water summer periods the bass are more scattered and tend to ambush bait fish of opportunity. During the colder water periods they school up to be more effective at feeding on schooled bait fish and no longer hold at ambush site for long periods of time. The key during the fall transition and winter periods is locating the bait fish and the thermocline level so you don't fish at depth below it, using lures that mimic the baitfish and the bass will respond to those presentations, regardless where the lake is located. WRB

Whatever you end up buying the reel needs to have metals that are compatible to the corrosive salt water environment or you will have severe corrosion problems. Wash the reel after using it in fresh water, do not use high water pressure, just run it under the faucet or take in the shower with you. Shake off the excess water and let it dry, before putting it away. Okuma mid and upper price range reels are very good and should perform well for several years with care. The Okuma products are very popular with the west coast salt water kayak fisherman. WRB

The depth range on most crank baits will not run the depth advertised when cast and retrieved. Trolled with 10 pound line they will get down deeper because you can let out whatever line needed to get them down to the max running depth. You fish on flat smooth bottoms very often, the bottom is usually uneven or tapered banks that change depth. Use the deepest running crank bait you have and if it starts to bump the bottom, slow down the retreive and rise the rod tip until it stops and then lower the rod and continue. If the deepest ctank bait is digging into the bottom all the time, change to the next depth diving lure. Remember the bigger the lure and longer the bill, the more pressure the lure requires to get down deep. You basically two choices with crank baits; lower the rod tip down towards or even below the water surface to get the crank to dive deeper or add weight. The alternative is use a different type of lure. For example a Scrounger head jig with a soft plastic trailer can be "cranked" down to 40 feet, depending on the jig head weight. Check http://www.aaronmartenslures.com/ WRB

It may also be a jointed Pikie by Creek Chub. WRB

Bobby Garland was the fisherman and lure developer, as best that I can remember. The Garlands went through a lot of termoil, Garry Garland is with Canyon-Plastics and they own the Gitzits name. Tom

Depends what you call big. the majority of my big bass 15 to 19 lbs were caught on hair jigs with pork trailers. I would say around 50 or so between 8 to 12 lbs on spider type jigs, that mimic shad colors. WRB

The original Gitzit and spider jig were Bobby Garlands inventions, not Garry Garland. Garry is with Canyon Plastics and currently mfr's several good west coast style products including spider jigs, Tora tubes and a good swimbait called The Doctor. Bobby passed away last year after moving back to Arkansas. The spider jig is basically a soft plastic spider skirt made from a crappie tube jig skirt with both ends cut. Chompers, Yamamoto, Canyon-Plastics all work well on any good stand up style jig head and all 3 make good products. WRB note; the spider jig dates back to the mid 70's.

Agree with a few statements, however not some. The only reason to use pork instead of todays soft plastic trailers is the big bass like the texture, taste and feel of pork better than plastic. The fact that a big bass will hold pork longer, allows you to detect the strike and get a hook set. If you are targeting big bass, you need to consider using a pig & jig. The keys to a good pork trailers for use on jigs are; Flexible, the pork should move on it's own when moving through the water colum. The movement indicates to the bass that this is something alive and resembles a crawdad. Flotation, the pork trailer should float upright on the jig when still in the water. The pork moves while moving and raises upward when sitting still. The upward rise is very important as the continued movement at rest look like a crawdads defense. When buying pork trailers look for jars that have all the rinds floating. Color; not too critical as long as it is similar to crawdads in your lake. Black, brown or purple works well everywhere. Uncle Josh pork rinds are OK, but not the best* available. You may need to tenderize the pork rind to make it more flexible. The messy method is pounding the fat side, not the skin side, of the pork rind a few hits with a meat tenderizing hammer. This releases the fatty tissues and salt, both are good animo acids for scent and tenderizes the pork. Use a flat board and do this before going fishing. Do not add fish attractants to the jar of pork trailers as most will harden the pork and make them heavier so the will not float well. The best method to add attractant is adding a few drops of pure anise oil to the jar. To add attractant you use a 3/4" piece of plastic worm on the jig hook shank and add scent to the worm section or use a scented worm. The worm piece will also prevent the pork trailer from sliding up the hook shank and fouling the hook point. Pork trailers will dry out if kept out of the water and dry out. Either purchase a "pig blanket" or use an old wet hand towel wrapped aroung the jig & pig when not using it. Triming the pork frog head does help hook sets, but it takes some practice. A fillet knife works well; cut a slice off starting at the thick head area at the rear and tapper down to about 1/8" at the front. This is optional and may not be needed. To remove the pork rind hold the jig so the hook bend is facing away from you and the barb is facing towards you. Slide the trailer around the hook bend until it get up near the barb, then rotate the pork rind toward you so the front is agianst the back side of the hook pointing away from the barb. Pull the pork rind downwards while raotate the pork and the barb shouldn't snag the elongated hole and pop off. This also takes a little practice. If you can't pop off the trailer, then cut it off, don't let it dry onto the jig hook. WRB * Superpork is a high floatation and soft flexible pork ring out of the jar. http://www.superpork.com/ note; PM and I will email you a pig & jig article for giant bass called Horizontal Jigging.

The first thing you need to ask is what is the difference between fishing spots verses a pattern? Spots are spots or known areas that hold fish seasonally and making a milk run from spot to stop isn't a pattern. A pattern is when the bass are relating to specific prey on the same type of cover or structure. It is not unusual for larger reservoirs to have several patterns occuring at the same time. For example during the fall transtion period it is common for lakes with threadfin shad to have bass targeting the shad in brush located near deep water breaks, then the sun rises and the shad move off shore and school. You are fishing a pattern when going from one brushy area to another and catching bass using shad type reaction lures early during low light hours, then switching to targeting school bass later in the day. You would be pattern fishing if you watched the shad school approach a major point and went there and started to catch bass feeding on the shad school as it approached the point. If you ran from point to point and hoped the bass were their feeding and fished every point until you caught bass, then you are spot fishing because you have no idea why the bass are on some points and not others. Locating the thermocline at 20' for example, then metering under water structure that intersected 20' and seeing fish on that type of structure would also be a pattern, if the next structure at 20' held bass. It's not uncommon during the fall period for bass to be targeting crawdads migrating from shallow cover areas to deeper areas with rock, wood and clay. You could located points with rocky clay and some brush and find bass feeding on crawdads at 8 feet, then find similar locations and catch bass at 8 feet on crawdads type lures. These are examples of patterns. Fishing a row of boat docks isn't a pattern unless a specific type of dock held bass and others didn't and if you can determine why, then fish that one type of dock and repeat a pattern. WRB

Exactly the way you are holding the bass in your photo, two hands one in the mouth and the other under the anal fin. To get the mouth open look you can place your thumb inside the mouth and finger on the outside on the back side away from the camera and hold the mouth open about 1". There is no need to bend the mouth wide open. Also practice holding your breath and not breathing while you have the bass out of water and return the bass when you are out of breath, because the bass can't breath air either. WRB

If you are fun fishing and using a lure with a single hook, landing the bass by it's opened mouth is the way go IMO. Treble hook lures; use a knotless landing net. Avoid letting the bass bounce around on the boats carpet or bouncing them in the boat. Getting treble hook in your hand trying to lip land a bass is dangerous, painfull and may end your day quickly. Turn the bass upside down or belly up when removing the hook, this will calm them so the bass doesn't flip around. Also avoid bending the lower lip down, this isn't necessary and may damage the fishes mouth. When lip landing a bass, follow the line down with your thumb and keep pressure on the line with your rod. When your thumb touches the basses mouth slip the thumb inside and pinch the lower lip between your thumb and index finger. Grip tight, then rotate your hand unitl the knuckles on the hand are upright, then left the bass out of the water. This method prevents bending the mouth down and allow you to calm the bass. WRB

Take a minute and read reply #6 to "a little help please" below this thread. The fall transition means the bass are moving from their summer locations to the winter locations and feeding as they make the transition. Cold fronts are common during both the fall and spring periods and the bass react exactly the same; move deeper. WRB PS; a 7 lb bass is a trophy size in PA, congradulations.

If you are fishing ponds and smaller lakes, they more than likely do not have shad. The bait fish like pond smelt, shiners, chubs and young of the year bluegill/crappie (bream), frogs, salamnaders, crawdads, etc all hide in the weed beds. The fall transition starts when the weeds die back and all those creatures must find a new home to survive. Wood, rocks and deeper water become the hiding places and the new location for the bass. Locate the brush, rocky areas near or in deeper water and continue to use down sized soft plastics, crank baits, jigs, jointed Rapala minnows etc. If shad live in the small body of water, they will die off as the water cools below 50 degrees. Shad eat zoo plankton, not insects or tiny creatures like all the other prey fish. The shad tend to hide in cover only at night and school in open water to eat plankton as the sun light brings it up in the water column. This the reason why the bass target shoreline ambush sites in low light and open water during the fall period, on reservoirs that have shad populations. WRB

Welcome to CA. Being new to bass fishing is good, no bad habits to over come. My suggestion is buy and read Don Iovino's book Finesse Bass fishing and the sonar connection; http://www.iovino.com/donbook.htm This little book has a of of very good information you can apply to western bass fishing. WRB