Bass_Akwards

Nice Paul! I've been out of town for a week, and came back to Boulder winter. Got to fish on Monday for a couple hours and did pretty well but haven't fished since. Now I'm leaving again tomorrow for a week but might fish today if the weather is halfway descent. Your post got me dying to get back out there. Awesome dogs! I can't wait to get a new pup myself. Had a 170 pound rotty that passed away last summer and I miss him dearly.

Love throwing buzzbaits in the rain. Rain stirs up micro organisms and other small edible life forms that live under mats and vegatation in the water. Bait fish like these as food. When bait fish get going and stired up, the bass get going and stired up. Fun stuff.

FishChris. RW. Glenn. Ike.

tight

Being a betting man, I'm guessing that the odds are probably pretty good that these guys have been getting away with poaching like this for years. The reason that they got busted like this and happen to be mostly in their 60's is because they've most likely learned over the years that as long as they don't get caught, they can take home as many fish as they feel necessary. If certain people know they can rob a bank and get way with it for 50 years because no one's apparently watching, they're going to do it until they get busted. Imagine how many bass these morons killed and froze over the years. Then imagine how many others are doing the same thing on lakes all over the US every year who most likely will never be caught. Punishment needs to be stiffer in most states for those who break poaching laws. Somehow anti poaching patrols and survaliance have to be strategically ramped up on lakes where fish and game might suspect poaching or want to stop it from happening in the first place. I love how the patrols did it on the lake these obtuse pieces of flotsam got busted. This kind of thing needs to happen much much more.

Stitching live crawdads. The absolute sickest finesse technique for hammering huge bass.

Frankly I'm killing it. I really am. My April was almost comical. I caught a TON of 3 pounders give or take a couple ounces. I've caught countless 1-2.5 pounders and a couple 4-5+ pouunders. In a state where the state record is 11-6, I really can't complain. Been working really hard on my game and it's paying off. I've been in Mexico for 7 days getting married and just got home on Sunday. Went fishing Monday night and caught 7 bass all bigger than 15 inches. One was almost 18 inches and full of eggs. It was 3.7 pounds. It got cold so i cant fish today. Boooooo! I'm leaving on my honeymoon on Friday for a week and will be trying to catch some Marlin or Rooster fish in Cabo. Never been fishing in the ocean before so it should be a kick in the pants. No bass fishing for another week though so I'll be jonesing when i get home big time. I plan on absolutely killing it this summer and deep spring with a few bass over 7 pounds!

Rig a sweet beaver with a 1oz t-rig bullet weight and punch that heavy cover. They'll eat that thing up big time.

Read the book "In pursuit of giant bass" by Bill Murphy. That should get you started. I read that book and pretty much all I do now is catch big fish.

First off, the answer depends on weather conditions. I'm throwing different lures depending on if it's windy, sunny, overcast, pre frontal, post frontal, day, dusk, dark or if there was a over night water temp change that might effect bass behavior. That said, if it's summer and I'm already on a lake I've never fished, without having done any research on it, I'm looking for the obvious. Cover like weed beds, lilly pads, rip rap, laydowns, docks etc. etc. I'm probably hitting them first with soft plastics. If I don't see any obvious cover, I'm hitting points, coves and rocky land areas that look like they might extend into the water. When I don't see cover, I'm ALWAYS starting fast. Lipless and lipped cranks, spinnerbaits(if it's windy) buzzbaits, swimbaits etc. Why start slow if there might be a fast bite on? You'll never know if there's a fast bite if you start off with a slow bait. If there's a fast bite, don't ever waste it, as you'll put way more fish in the boat then if you were fishing slow on a "fast" day. I'll work all levels of the water column until something works. If nothing works, for 15 or 20 minutes at each depth I slow it down a little. Perhaps fish deeper with a Carolina rigged lizard or other nice soft plastic. Fishing with a C-rig also allows you to feel the bottom and figure out where on a new lake there's humps, brush, saddles, dropoffs, holes, rocks and changs in bottom composition. It's a great bait to learn a new lake with if you don't have a depth and fish finder. I'll fish the C-rig in different spots for 10-15 minutes at each spot, trying to disect the spot the best I can. If that doesn't work, I slow down even more as well as downsize my bait choice. Usually I'm catching fish by then though. If I catch nothing at all after 3,4,5 or 6 hours I'd be pretty discouraged. I'd go to the lake again and if I caught nothing again, I'd probably be hitting another lake from now on, but that's never happened.

This particular lens Paul, was a 16mm. That focal length is the shortest lens, in my opinion, that still makes it's point without being over the top when you shoot a landscape photo. I do like how it can make a 5 pounder look like it's a 20 pounder if you want to have some fun with it. People really seem to hate it when others use a wide angle lense close to the fish. Sometimes my friends give me grief about it. I like it because, YES it distorts the bass making it look bigger, BUT it also gives way better detail of the fish than shooting it with other lenses. What bugs me is the lying. I have no problem with a guy "long arming" the bass into a short focal length lens if said person actually says "This is a 4 pounder!" when in fact, it IS a 4 pounder. Many people intentionally take fish pictures this way so they can say it was a 5.8 pounder when it was really 4.2. That ticks me off. It also drives me insane when people catch a big bass and take the photo so you can't really see the beautiful detail on the fish because it's to far from the camera. It's great that you can see the fish's size in relation to the person, but you cant see how amazingly gorgeous the bass is and all the details on it's body. I'm gunna start taking them where there's a happy medium.

Paul, this post had zero to do with being offended. Not sure where you got that from. It never even occured to me to be offended about anything you've ever said. Not sure how you made that correlation. I thought it was an interesting subject we brought up.(the fish/lens/being able to figure out weights from photos with different lenses and distances to the camera thing) I was simply trying to see how good people were at guessing when an extreme lens is being used. I was next going to make a post with photos of the same bass taken with three different lenses and see if people could guess if it was the same fish or not. I guess since I've gotten a few negative posts on this thread, I'm done with the whole thing. Sorry to have angered so many people. Also, trust me. If I have a problem with you or something you said. (and by "you," I mean anyone) You'll know it. I don't beat around the bush or make ambiguous posts to make my points.

standard operating procedure.

First fish is 1.14 and 14 inches Second fish was 4.11 pounds and 17 inches.

Maybe you shouldnt open them then. Just because you dont want to give input on it, that doesnt mean the rest of us dont want to. These threads are kind of like your posts, nobody really cares except the person who wrote it. Seriously. Get a clue. I love these mean people who do nothing but cry and moan and try to ruin other peoples good time. Not to mention, I DID WEIGHT IT MYSELF Mr mean guy.

Geeze! Tough crowd. Of COURSE they wern't taken with a fish eye lens. I'M THE NEW WORLD RECORD HOLDER! tHE FISH IN THE SECOND PICTURE IS 24.11 POUNDS!!! Can't you see the thing goes from my head past my hips! It's HUGE! Okay Okay so I'm being sarcastic. But still. TOUGH CROWD! I'm not posting them to show the bass off like they're close to world records or something. I'm trying to see if you can try to guess the weights and lengths of the bass even though the pictures are taken with a fish eye lens. I can imagine you sitting there thinking "Who does this bass_akwards guy think he's fooling?" Too funny. Anyway, there's been discussions on another thread about how good people can be at guessing weights of bass when taken with different lenses. Blah Blah Blah. If you want to guess, go for it, if not, it won't kill me although it might destoy me emotionally.

Guess the weight and length of two of the bass I caught today.

Getting a photo of a fish near a tape measure is asking to much? I really disagree. They make it a huge hassel for people to have a state record fish recorded by weight, and they should do the same thing with length records. If you dont have a tape measure with you, then you don't have a record period. If you forgot your tape measure, you lose unless you can get it to a person with a tape measure. Simple. Is that a pain in the butt? Maybe, but tough cookies. It's better than taking lyers words for it. You can't lens distort a fish laying next to a tape measure. I guess if you're really good at photoshop you can cheat your butt off but that's some pretty pro photoshop work. Regular pictures can be distorted, but not of the fish next to a tape measure. If you want a length record, then at very least have a tape measure and a camera with you at all times. I'd give 100x more credit and merit to a guy who has a photo of him and the bass as well as a photo of the bass next to a tape measure, than some toolbag who just says "I caught a 33 inch LMB here in Colorado" If I have to darn near kill a 13 pound bass to have it weighed on a certified scale by dragging it in a cooler to a local post office or whatever, then it shouldn't be that big of a hassel for a fisherman to at very least get a descent photo of his catch next to a darn tape measure. There's only a couple certified scales near every lake, that people traditionally go to get their fish weighed on if they happen to catch a monster. The same people with certified scales need to have tape measures to measure the bass as well. Lastly Paul, you had mentioned "On this board anyway, members seem to be pretty hip to the lens distortion in photos, and BS doesn't get too far. That in itself is pretty cool." From the sounds of it, this happens a lot on this board. Is that true? People on this board busting other people for purposly distorting photos and lying about weights? I'd love to see some of those threads.

The anglers who lie about their records are annoying enough, but the fact that all these departments actually just give the records to these morons without anything but their word is even more stupid. I mean guess what? I caught a 37 inch LMB out of a 5 acre pond here in Boulder, and that was just hours after I shot a 59 on the toughest golf course in Colorado. There, now that I said it, IT MUST BE TRUE RIGHT!? Gimme a break. You should never be able to have ANY record without SOME sort of proof to make it legitimate. This is why Guiness sends people out to watch record setters and attempters(not a word) do their thing, sometimes for hours on end. It's beyond me how anyone could ever own a "record", especially an important, documented one, without witnesses, pictures, etc. The whole thing is really dumb if you ask me. If we have to have a "weight record" weighed on specific certified scales, there's absolutely no reason we shouldn't have to have other potential records measured lengthwise by a certified tape measure. This way, whichever employee who measures it, can be another witness, just like with the person who weighs the bass on a certified scale. I mean how many certified scales can there be that people take monster fish to in their respective areas? Not many I'd guess. So everyone who has a certified scale should also have a darn tape measure too.

No way to tell by looking. Go fish it. Get some polarized glasses and walk around it too.

It's not just lures, it's everything. Confidence in your talent, confidence in a lake, confidence in a spot on that lake, confidence in your lure, presentation and retrieve. It all adds up. When you fish without confidence, you're not as focused as you normally would be. You get more sloppy. You don't care as much. You don't try as hard. You catch less fish.

Shweet sir. Darn pretty fishy.

What a sick April! Went to a pond I haven't fished yet this year lat night, but it's an old favorite. We're talking full moon during spawn. REDICULOUS! I Expected a great night and I had it. Caught a bunch of bass including this 20.5 inch egg filled TOAD. Definately in my top 5 all time Colorado bass if not top 3. I had no scale which makes me sick. Mine is broken. If you can guess the weight of the big one, let me know. I humbly apologize for the crappy job I did photoshopping the background, but I had to blur it to keep my spot safe. Anyway, water temps about 65. Full Moon. Sky's were overcast and air temps were nice. Around 70ish. I was hucking jigs, plastics and cranks including the sexy shad and red eyed shad. Large bass are staging on structure relating to their eventual spawning sites that have access to deeper water during this time and that's where I was fishing. Once again, it paid off. First two shots are of the 20.5 incher. The rest are some of the other fish I caught. All hawgs over 15 inches. This is a Boulder County TOAD!

Havent fished crystal but fish the original a lot when fishing heavy cover. Love the stuff. You can throw it on a spinning reel and still make long casts. It's smooth as butter and the 30# is only 10# Mono diameter so it's just sweet.

Water temps 61. Windy and chilly yesterday, Found a nice flat with deep water access to work and it paid off. Bass were in pre spawn mode, ready to bust. Fishing the full moon when bass are in pre spawn is the real deal. The moon triggers their response to have little babies and the bass come up shallow more than at any other time during spawn. Tonight should be on fire and I'm going to have a blast. Last night I caught 11 bass. Every one was 15 inches or better and 8 of the 11 were obvious females. I think this 18.5 incher might have been a huge male but I'm not sure. I'm fishing jigs slowly most of the time but I also tried to create a reaction bite with a sexy shad cranker, but only caught 1 fish on it. Here's a couple of Jig bass. This one is blind in one eye and still 18.5 inches long. Cool huh? 16 inches and FAT 18 incher with belly ready to bust