Bass_Akwards

Just to clarify, setting your ASA to 1600 has absolutely zero to do with opening your aperature to a wide setting. They're two completely different things. Your aperature is controlled by turning a dial on your lens, or turning a dial on your camera that does the same thing as turning the dial on your lens. With newer lenses, you don't even have a F-Stop dial anymore. In any case, your ASA setting should generally be set something like ASA 100-200 for outdoors in the sun, or when shooting with your flash. ASA 400 should be used when your're not using your flash, perhaps at dusk, when there's still some descent light but not bright sunlight, and speeds of 800 or more should be used for things like shooting concerts where you're not using your flash. You can get away with 400 at a concert if you're very selective and wait for nice bright light on the subject. You don't need anything higher than 400 when using a good flash. On digital cameras the higher the ASA/ISO setting the more "noise" you'll get. "Noise" was called "Grain" in the old days of film cameras. The less "noise" in a photo, the better unless you're purposly trying to get a grainy image for a specific reason. Your F-stops are completely different. Your F-stop is one of the ways to control the amount of light that hits your sensor(or film back in the day) The shutter speed is the other. The lower F-stops like F 2.0 allow more light into the camera, therefore allowing you to use a faster shutter speed if you desire. The higher F-stops like F22 let very little light into the camera, therefore forcing you to shoot in much brighter light, or forcing you to shoot with a much slower shutter speed. Also the lower the f-stop you use, the less depth of field you're going to achieve. So for example if you want to take a portrait of your dog and there's some bushes in the background, use a longer lens, and a lower F-stop to purposly blurr out the background so your subject, the doggie, stands out more and doesn't get lost in the background. With shorter lenses like anything from 8mm to around 50mm you'll have trouble blurring out the background by using lower F-stops. The longer the lens, the less depth of field you're going to have in general. F-3.5 on a 135mm lens will give you much less depth of field than a 35mm lens from the same distance, with the same settings.

Thanks alot Bass_Akwards Here is one i actually caught today. I want the picture to focus more on the fish and make it show its true size. This fish was a monster but it doesnt live up to its size in the pic. The quality too is not that great. I had it on AUTO setting and it was somewhat cloudy out. On a cloudy day like that, you want to think about using your flash. This will give you better color saturation. It will also take the shadows out of play. As you can see, your face is nicely exposed, but the basses darker colors get lost in the image. If you had a flash this wouldn't happen. When you set your camera on auto, your camera has to make a choice on its own what part of the picture it wants to expose for. In a contrasty image (lots of highlights AND darker areas in the same photo) like the one you posted the camera gets fooled. It doesnt know if you want it to keep the shutter open longer, to expose the darker areas of the image more, or if you want it to close the shutter faster, so it doesn't "burn out" the highlighted areas of the image and make them all over exposed. When you use a flash in a photo like the one you posted, the camera exposes for the flash on auto. Or at least it should. This means the camera reads that you set it to auto, it reads that the flash is on, and it exposes the photo for the light from the flash, not from the sun or other lighting source. Some cameras do thjs and some don't, but I think yours does.. Secondly, the flash will help you see the bass against the dark background of your shirt.(or dark background trees and other dark stuff) If there's a sunny day and you dont need flash, always be paying attention to your background so you don't drown out the bass. Dark fish against a dark background it not good. Third, use your zoom lenses to get a tighter shot of yourself, or move closer to your camera when taking a photo like you posted. This way you get a better idea of how big the fish is. Fourth, ALWAYS, take a few shots and not just one. I dont care if it's a fish or a baseball game or family portrait, always take a few shots, with different angles and different positions. In other words, hold the fish vertically and get a couple pics. Hold it horizontally and get a couple, hold it so the tail is in the lower right of your image and the head is in the upper left. Shoot the fish with a regular 50mm lens and shoot it with a shorter lens. Hold the bass close to your body, and hold it further away from your body. Experiment! It might seem like a lot, but you can take a handfull of shots like this with different angles and lenses and poses in under 60 seconds once you know what you're doing. After you get home you'll be glad you snapped off a few different ones you can show off to people. After a while, you'll start to get it dialed in so you only have to take a couple shots because you know exactly what you are looking to do from looking at all the past pictures you've taken. Also, go to a local camera store and have them teach you how to use your camera on manual. Have them teach you what your ASA, your F-stops, and your shutter speed are and how to use them together to make the camera work it's magic. I had to go to school for 4 years to learn how to take nice images and use a camera properly, so don't get discouraged at first, you'll learn it soon enough and be kicking axss with it soon after that. Lastly, I really really suggest you go to the store, or look on the net for fishing magazines. Look at the covers of the magazines. Look inside the magazines. See how pro photographers shoot shots of KVD or other anglers holding a fish after he caught it. Notice the angle of the fish in the image, notice how close or far away the fish and the angler are from the cameras lens. Pay attention to these images, study them, and remember them for when you catch your next basszilla. Hope this helped a little. If I didn't do a good job explaining something, just let me know and I'll try and explain it better. If you have any other questions, or if there's something I didn't answer, again, just let me know.

If you want to post some of the weaker pictures you've taken with your new camera, or PM me with them, I'll be happy to tell you exactly what you did wrong, and how to fix it so you can learn from it, and do better next time.

Bass Pro Shops 7.5 inch Tournament series Watermellon W/bl flake Stick O Worms. The secret is I get an exacto knife and make a 3 inch slice down the long way of the tail. Basically cutting the tail into two sections This way you get two "tails" instead of one hanging off the worm. Then, I take the exacto knife and cut each of the two "tails" right down the middle the long way. Now I have 4 "tails" about 3 inches long that wisp and wiggle around in the water as it moves. Small twitches and short drags, mixed with longer pauses has been a great presentation for big bass. I caught a 6 pound 3 oz LMB on one in May.

Use Google Earth to locate smaller ponds within 15 minutes of your house. Most of smaller fisherys won't allow boats. Also call your local fish and game guys and division of wildlife as well. With those three sources you should have plenty of fishing ahead of you.

"In Pursuit of Giant Bass" by Bill Murphy

James Hall Bassmaster Editor, and Chris Horton who is BASS Conservation Director are trying to achieve this freakish feat in, LOL, five days. Hurts my heart that I can't try do it here in Colorado. What I've tried to do for the past 4 years is my own Colorado slam. This consists of catching a Smally, a LMB, a Walleye, a Croppy, a Brook Trout, a Rainbow Trout a Cutthroat Trout, and a Brown Trout. Last yar I got all of them but the Cutthroat. If you achieve this feat of the Black Bass slam you HAVE to let us know bro. GO FOR IT AND GOOD LUCK!!!

You might have had some great times, but how can any angler say he/she had a successful fishing trip when he/she didn't catch anything? That attitude has never made any sense to me. It's almost like a copout. It's kinda like an excuse to NOT catch anything. It's like when you catch nothing you can just say "Who cares, I'm just out here to enjoy the birds and relax." I mean I've had some great times when I've been skunked, but "success?" No way man. Calling a fishing trip where you catch no fish a success, is like getting shutout in a football game and calling it a victory. Im just gonna say you'd have to know me to not make a comment like that, When life happens to you and you see how fragile it is, one day ya here and the next your gone, then you'd appreciate your time here, the rest is grasping for the wind. Not really sure what you're saying as your writing style is really confusing. If you're saying I don't appreaciate my life or my time on Earth, I just have to laugh because you have no clue what you're talking about. In any case I stand by what I said. Anyone who thinks a successful fishing day is when you don't catch anything, has a very unrealistic way of looking at things. Can I go out and catch nothing today, and have an amazing, fun, awesome time? Of course! Obviously! Could I thank God for me just to be alive and have a shot of going fishing today? Of course! Obviously. Can I see how lucky I am just to have a chance to be out in nature, wetting a line, enjoying the day? Of course! Obviously. But to call it a "Success" when I don't catch anything? That makes ZERO sense. The whole reason we fish, is to catch fish. Otherwise we could just go on the boat and not bring any fishing gear. We could jump off the boat and swim, and eat food on the boat, and waterski behind it, but that's not FISHING. When you are FISHING and not catching anything, you're not having any success. If you're not catching any fish 4 days in a row, while everyone around you is catching fish every 10 minutes, you HAVEN'T had 4 "successful" days of fishing. You've had 4 successful days of fun in the sun, but that's about it. If you're out there 4 out of the next 7 days and catch nothing, you can't honestly look your girlfriend or Mom in the face and tell them "I'm a successful angler." Not without being dishonest anyway.

First things first. What you saw was NOT a "He." "He" LMB don't get that big, only "She" LMB get that big. Secondly, you mentioned that "You can't get the big pigs to bite on anything." Then in the very next sentence you say a giant bass swallowed a 8' bluegill you were reeling in. How can you say you cant get the big pigs to bite, when you supposidly got a big pig to not only bite, but swallow a bluegill that was on your line? How do you even know the bluegill was 8'' long if you never got it to shore? Weird story bro. Anyway, why not learn from your experiences? If you really did have a monster LMB crash a live bluegill, then fish live bluegills!!! If you're not allowed to fish live bait, then look on the internet for a beautiful 8'' bluegill swimbait :

You might have had some great times, but how can any angler say he/she had a successful fishing trip when he/she didn't catch anything? That attitude has never made any sense to me. It's almost like a copout. It's kinda like an excuse to NOT catch anything. It's like when you catch nothing you can just say "Who cares, I'm just out here to enjoy the birds and relax." I mean I've had some great times when I've been skunked, but "success?" No way man. Calling a fishing trip where you catch no fish a success, is like getting shutout in a football game and calling it a victory.

If I'm not catching a fish about every 15-30 minutes on average I feel like I'm not doing something right. So basically, if I'm out there casting for 4 hours and I only catch 3-5 bass or whatever, I come home and tell my wife I had a slow day/night. The only way I feel differently, is if I catch something out of those 3-5 bass that was 19 or 20+ inches or 4-5 pounds Then I feel pretty good. When I go out at night from 6:30-9:15ish, I fully expect to catch 10 fish on average, and a couple of those should be 3+ pounds for sure.

Sam I'd like to read the article as well. Send it on over if you can. Thanks!

I have an idea. For starters, how about starting out with a little, or <cough cough> a lot better attitude bro? It doesn't matter what bait you throw, or if a cold front moves through. The fact is, if you have a cruddy attitude, you're going to struggle in your tourney. If the little voice in your head is constantly saying "I hate this lake. " or "I never do good on it." you're just giving yourself an excuse to lose before you even make your first cast. Don't even plant that seed in your head. It leads to lack of confidence and once that enters your head, you're done. Confidence and fishing go hand in hand. When you're confident you're going to put more fish in the boat in the long haul. This goes for most things in life. If you walk around with a lousy attitude, you're going to get lousy results in your life. If you think you're going to stink at something, chances are you'll find a way to stink at it. After changing your attitude a little, realize that pretty much everyone hates fishing after a cold front. If/When you aren't catching anything, understand that lots of opther anglers are probably not catching anything either. Let THEM be the ones who worry about YOU catching bass or not catching bass. Not the other way around. Let THEM be the ones who spend the energy freaking out about how tough the bite is today, not the other way around. IN GENERAL, when fishing after a cold front you're going to want to down size your offerings and you're going to have to SLOOOOOOW DOOOWN. You can try to start out fast to see if somehow the bass are on a faster bite by throwing spinner baits on the tip tops of the weeds you were talking about(especially if theres some wind) and hucking deep diving cranks into that killer structure but if they're not on a fast bite, pick apart that awesome structure like the barges and factory equip with jigs and t/rigged plastics with some weight on them. Once you get your limit, heck, start throwing some big ole swim baits on those barges and try to get a tourney busting 7 pounder and cull a nice 4 pounder! Do some research too. Find out what's been working lately. Talk to locals and see what they catch 'em on after a cold front. Find out what has won tournaments in the past for others on this lake. Read some articles by the pro's on how to fish after a cold front . You say you can "never do ok after a cold front." Well if that's true, you should have googled "How to bass fish after a cold front" after the first couple times you did poorly after fishing a cold front.

Ask Mr. Kurita, I bet he has a good answer.

Awesome advice! Just caught three huge bass that I honestly don't think I'd have caught without your post. Not sure what I'd do without you Raul. :-)

I'm starting to throw the ole C-rig more now. What's your absolute favorite bait to Carolina rig with and why?

The fish will tell you on any given day what they want. Each presentation has it's benifits and drawbacks depending on what conditions you're fishing in. I've had a few days where I'll fish weightless and not get bit. Then I'll add weight and get a faster fall and get bites much more consistantly. It also depends where you're throwing as well. For example, If you're trying to punch mats or get through thicker vegetation in the middle of the water column, so your bait can get down to the bottom, then a weight is needed. Also, you said "using a bullet weight when you're using soft plastics.." That's kind of vague because there are lots of ways to use a bullet weight when you are bass fishing. There are times when Carolina rig will work much better than a Texas rig and vice versa. Go check out some of the great articles on C- rigging and T-rigging here on BR. Good stuff fer sure.

http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1158577137

http://www.bassresource.com/fishing/seasonal-fishing-articles.html#summer

Like I said Paul, I JUST fished with the guy. The water temp was 71 degrees and people,swimming comfortably in it. Bass are still spawning in 71 degree water, and this girl was fat with eggs so I'm not sure where the bright red teeth came from in this case but it sure wasn't cold water that did it.

Just bass fished with a man who is 74 years old, my friends father from Indiana who's in town visiting. He's been fishing since he was 7. He still gets all the fishing magazines and keeps up to date with everything bass fishing. He's retired and goes fishing on his boat back in Indiana all the time. Great guy who has more experience bass fishing than anyone I've ever met. While fishing with him, I caught a couple 16 inch bass that looked nice and healthy but had white teeth/gums. Then I caught a 20.5 inch monster that was full of eggs. I noticed she had red teeth. I showed the basses mouth to my friends grandfather and said "Do you see how her teeth are red?" Before I could even ask him "Why do their teeth/gums get red?" he responded with "Yea, that's all hormonal, their gums get red when they're in pre spawn mode." I found this to be an insanely interesting point of view, true or not. I should have asked him where he gained that bit of info but I didn't.

Lake Fork Craw Tube

Usually it's because there's something just a little off. The color of the bait, the presentaition, SOMETHING that's making them not commit all the way. Change sizes, profiles, colors and types of baits till you get them to swallow it.

Tons of tests have been done on this. Letting bass go away from the nest has zero negitive effect on a fishery.