Searching Out Those Zones Of Carnage

[Paul Roberts]

April 4^th, 2013

 

Brilliant blue. High 70F. Great heating day between cold fronts with snow.

 

Warm fronts have been short-lived this spring. Some years things warm quickly, while in others winter and spring duke it out a bit longer. This is one of those years where winter is just not rolling over and dying. At least it would appear that way by looking at the land. Looking at the water however, esp with a thermometer, shows a different and common story. There’s nothing like having several inches of snow dump on your parade to make you think “winter”. But the sun is high in the sky now, and has been that way long enough now that those dark water ponds have indeed been soaking up heat, and holding it stingily. Things are progressing along fairly normally although, in terms of fishing action, I’d like a few more heating days popped in between cold fronts to liven things up.

 

Each spring, I target rapidly heating days that warm the immediate shallows; heat that sucks bluegills in like metal to a magnet, with the bass hot on their tails. The more intense the temperature difference from the surrounding depths the more confined these “hot” shoreline areas tend to be, resulting in, if things set up right, what I call “zones of carnage”. This period, or these periods, are fleeting, but worth looking for. At this time of year I actually pray for cold fronts, on the heels of which come rapid heating on those bright blue post-frontal days. Frigid cold fronts followed by rapid heating is ideal. Imagine, targeting post frontal conditions! In fact, the more of them the merrier.

 

Then there is a point in the season when this yo-yoing temperature pattern erodes, at least in terms of intensity, as heat seeps deeper and further from shorelines and the zones of carnage become less confined. I describe this as “things relaxing”, with predator and prey less apt to be compressed together into narrow bands of heated shoreline.

 

What makes this a pattern worth following is the heat loving bluegills –the prime forage in the waters I fish. While bass do love heat, and I’ve seen them obviously sunning at times, they are more about following bluegills than heat per say. Bluegill size matters too, so during prime heating periods I target waters and areas with larger bluegills, as these are what attract and grow the larger bass.

 

Bass size has a bit more to say too as it appears that as soon as the shorelines “relax” small 8-10" 2-year old bass fill the shallows where prior, earlier heating periods bring only mature bass. At least that’s the way it appears to fall out. I’ve been at this long enough now that although I don’t get the time to fish I used to I can drop in on a given water armed with recent weather trends gleaned from the internet, a thermometer, an eye for wind direction, and some exploratory casting, and get a pretty good idea of the tempo of the day. The rest is “fisherman’s luck”. Sometimes I hit it right, other times I have to pick away at fragments of the "carnage".

 

Today I had nearly brilliant blue (some light cirrus), and an E breeze interspersed with flat calm periods. Mid-day water temps hashed out this way:

 

E shore:

57F@ ST

48F@ 9ft.

 

W shore:

63F@ ST

57F@ 7ft.

 

The E breeze piled the lighter, warmed surface waters onto the W shoreline, and cover strewn W shoreline areas held large numbers of large bluegills, carp, and both small and mature bass. By contrast, only some small bluegills and 8-10” bass were found along the cover strewn NE corner.

 

The breeze was also instrumental in terms of presentation today. While brilliant blue skies makes for great heating, it also makes presentation in such shallow water a bear. Under a flat calm surface, the lure flying overhead, even the line landing on the surface or flashing in the air, puts entire pods of fish down instantly and synchronously. At one point, and I’ve seen this before, a light airplane flying overhead (and not all that close to the ground) put down a pod of large carp in a violent synchronous surge. Luckily I only had to suffer a few flat calm, and relatively fishless, periods. When the breeze returned and put a nice ripple on the water’s surface, I caught fish. Only at near dusk, when the sun drew low in the sky was I able to catch some decent fish with flat water conditions.

 

I did not find a tight zone of carnage to speak of, the shorelines had "relaxed" some, and I had to pick away at loose groups or individual, and spooky, mature bass. A small hard jerk, and a jig-n-pork, took my fish today, many smalls (8”-10” 2-year olds) and several “good ones” from 14” to 18”. The jerk was new and I’d forgotten to mash down the barbs and a couple smalls took the brunt of that, so I mashed ‘em down so as not to brutalize any more. Yeeeeesh, I hate that! What’s a largemouth without its’ mouth? Ugly at best, skinny then dead at worst.

 

The W shorelines collected the warmest water, and carp, mature bluegills, and mature bass.

 

Surface conditions mattered.

 

I used a small subtly colored jerk bc of the bright conditions.

 

As is often the case, a jig took the top fish -17 to 18”ers.

 

 

[A-Jay]

Very Nice Paul ~

 

A Great Read and Stylist Photos ~

 

Thanks for taking the time.

 

A-Jay

[Tuckahoe Joe]

Nice fish man!

[Will Wetline]

This is an exceptional post re fishing knowledge and writing and photography skills. Thank you. 

[AK-Jax86]

Nice fish man

[Siebert Outdoors]

Very nice!!  Congrats on the good fishing.

[Big-O]

Great post and photos Paul

[Dwight Hottle]

I agree that was a great write up Paul.

[gallowaypt]

I learned a lot from this post. Thanks, Paul.

[senile1]

Paul, you should wright a book.  When I was a teenager I had a book about upland bird hunting.  In fact, I think the title was something to that effect.  It contained stories about hunting upland birds, but with an eye for detail like you provide for your fishing excursions.  I love reading hunting and fishing stories in that vein. 

[hookset on 3]

Paul, you have acute situational awareness. It's an innate sense of one's surroundings. I've been reading  a lot of your fishing and other outdoor adventure stories for a few years now.  Great attribute for fishing and hunting sucess.

 

Were you in a branch of the military?   You've got that "Jerimiah Johnson" thing going on!

[Paul Roberts]

This is an exceptional post re fishing knowledge and writing and photography skills. Thank you. 

Thanks, Will. And you're welcome. Happy to share and have the chance to talk fishing.

 

Paul, you should wright a book.  When I was a teenager I had a book about upland bird hunting.  In fact, I think the title was something to that effect.  It contained stories about hunting upland birds, but with an eye for detail like you provide for your fishing excursions.  I love reading hunting and fishing stories in that vein. 

Ed, I’m moving overseas this summer, and a chunk of my plan is to get some writing done. We’ll see what comes. Yes, narrative form –story-telling– may be the pinnacle of communication. My left brain gets in the way a lot though.

 

Paul, you have acute situational awareness. It's an innate sense of one's surroundings. I've been reading  a lot of your fishing and other outdoor adventure stories for a few years now.  Great attribute for fishing and hunting sucess.

 

Were you in a branch of the military?   You've got that "Jerimiah Johnson" thing going on!

Jeremiah Johnson, huh. I’ll stick that one in my hat.

 

My university advisor once quipped, “Paul may not be the best academic I’ve ever met, but he’s probably the last rabbit choker I ever expect to meet.” A “rabbit choker” is someone so adept at the ways of the woods he can pluck rabbits from their forms under the snow and strangle them. Now, I’d never done any rabbit choking, but I was so pleased with that title I didn’t really mind the part about my academics.

 

No military time. Just a lot of field time. Oh, and enough formal education in biol/ecol/physiology to know what’s important. So… I wouldn't say it's innate exactly, as much as learned. HD Thoreau said it well (paraphrased):

 

“There is only as much beauty available to us (in nature) as we are prepared to appreciate. And not a grain more.”

 

You know, I watched a number of other anglers that day. I often do that, even with binocs sometimes (not to ferret out a secret lure but bc other people’s fishing is just more information to plug into my mental computer –I can’t be everywhere). And some people are more interesting to keep track of than others.

 

A couple of older guys picked a spot and stayed put, just “fishing” –one I could see was repeatedly casting a Senko. There was another, a young guy fishing a large popper aggressively, moving quickly around the pond. These three anglers reminded me of the guy I used to see here every now and then -fishing their GoTo's. He fished a small buzzbait before or after work all through the open water season, saying, “Sometimes they bite, and sometimes they don’t.”

 

A group of four other anglers, fishing together, jumped around to seemingly random locations around the pond, probably fishing spots they had previous experience with, but not necessarily timely experience that jived with the current conditions. A “last summer I got a nice one right here” sort of thing. I too feel that pull as many spots hold magic in the mind. But you have to get trained out of it. Inexperienced hunting dogs will do that too. Let ‘em out of the truck in a familiar spot and the fools will hightail it to the spot they got that last pheasant or grouse from –leaving the gunner behind! Eventually they get savvy, understand the partnership, and expend energy appropriately. I love the look of a mature experienced hunting dog in the field. Love that assured look; they belong, and they feel it too.

 

What each of the anglers appeared to be doing was “fishing history” –fishing what they “knew”. There is nothing wrong with that –in fact we all do that– unless your history doesn’t include inputs that jive with current conditions, or allow you to read and interpret conditions. They are like young hunting dogs, lots of energy, and all nose and no brain, so to speak. The reason to understand bass, water, weather, land, and other critters, at a more basic biological / physiological / ecological level is bc that type of “knowing”, that information, is exportable and adaptable. I’m fishing history too. I’m certainly not randomly casting. But my history weighs the parameters in front of me that day, that hour, that moment, and I choose locations, tactics, techniques, lures, and casts that fit.

 

There was another guy there too. I immediately labeled him as potentially “dangerous” –my term for someone who can catch fish –dangerous to the fish and may even put a dent in my catches for the day. He wore dark clothes, and moved calmly –it was hard to see him along the shoreline– and he fished methodically and patiently. His body language echoed the tempo of the season. And he had a dog with him too –a Lab –who also knew the ropes. I bet that dog can HUNT. In contrast, the others clumped right up to their spot and started flinging. They probably do that year round. I saw this guy catch a mid-sized bass from some submerged brush I often hit. I do not know what he knew, what his “history” was, how deeply he could tap into the day. And what tools were at his disposal. My guess is he does some things a bit different from me. There are many ways to catch fish. But first you have to find, or create, biters. Every day is different and there’s a lot to notice.

[paul.]

another phenomenal write up.  and more great photos.  I always like it when I see the bass rise up in the water column and start sunning themselves in that warmest top layer of water.  when this happens, barring crazy weather changes, an attempt at spawning is usually only days away. 

 

looking forward to some words of wisdom on the spawn. 

 

great stuff from you as always.

[hookset on 3]

Paul, that's a very meaningful Thoreau quote, as it relates to your observational skills.

 

Some people go through life with blinders on. To them a fish is just a fish or a bird is simply a bird.

They don't think twice about it and unless it is directly in their sphere of influence, the world around them is not the countless miracles of nature that we see.

 

You, like myself and many outdoorsmen, take it all in and really feel alive when we're out there fishing.

 

Like that old saying if you have to ask a fisherman why he does it, they'll  never understand.

[Paul Roberts]

another phenomenal write up.  and more great photos.  I always like it when I see the bass rise up in the water column and start sunning themselves in that warmest top layer of water.  when this happens, barring crazy weather changes, an attempt at spawning is usually only days away. 

 

looking forward to some words of wisdom on the spawn. 

 

great stuff from you as always.

Thanks, Paul.

 

Yeah, I too see those visible females, holding high, either cruising or affixed to some cover piece –sometimes only a single weed strand or a stick. It appears those females have adjusted their buoyancy for the very shallows, and really cannot go back deep again –at least very quickly. They’re committed to the shallows, at least for the time being. That is a telling sign.

 

It seems to me that the spawn is imminent when things "relax", that the depths have heated sufficiently as not to be able to chill out again very easily. This period might end up being my definition of the start of  “prespawn”. A couple years ago there was a discussion here about spawn timing, in fact there’ve been a few every year (lol). … Here it is:

http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/81078-triggers-for-pre-spawnspawn/

 

Paul, that's a very meaningful Thoreau quote, as it relates to your observational skills.

 

Some people go through life with blinders on. To them a fish is just a fish or a bird is simply a bird.

They don't think twice about it and unless it is directly in their sphere of influence, the world around them is not the countless miracles of nature that we see.

 

You, like myself and many outdoorsmen, take it all in and really feel alive when we're out there fishing.

 

Like that old saying if you have to ask a fisherman why he does it, they'll  never understand.

Yeah, I’ve always liked that quote. Tells me he was a true naturalist. Not just a writer.

 

It's hard to blame people nowadays for not being deeply interested in nature. We're social and now mostly urban critters, and nature moves at a snail's pace most of the time. But there are those of us that still get that fire lit, and just have to be there. I really like seeing the posts of kids catching their first. I love the looks on their faces, from thrilled to just proud. Pretty cool. It’s a darn complex puzzle nature is though.