Best Layed Plans and �Cinder Blocks With Fins�

[Paul Roberts]

The Weather:

Nailed this one, weather-wise. Strong front coming in tomorrow with plummeting BP today, promised active bass today. The day (a Sunday) started sunny in the AM, giving way to increasing overcast, then passing storm cells that brought heavy wind. The front descended early the following morning bringing an expected 55F high, and rain. This front brought the first snow at my place -3000ft higher in elevation.

There's some missing data in early part of day (Sunday), but see the low BP. And look at those afternoon wind speeds -40 to 50mph! The top two graphs promised a great day fishing; the bottom one nearly dashed it.

Water temp'd 72F at the surface (open water not shoreline) and 68F at 10feet -at 1:30pm. The strong wind in the afternoon eventually mixed it up and the surface eroded to 68F by 6pm.

The Pond:

A pic of this pond, from earlier this year.

I call this pond the pond that kicks my butt (actually it's not the only pond I use that label on lol), and it's got some of the largest bass in the area in it. I call it that because, come mid-summer, it's a tough nut. It's also heavily fished and it's quite obvious that it's not just my butt that gets kicked. It's fished all day by locals in spring and fall. By early summer the ranks have thinned and interestingly they only appear in the early AM and late evening. By the time the sun is up, the place is vacant with only me out there at times, either working darn hard for a few (often nice) bites or getting my butt kicked.

I've tried the early morning stint in mid-summer, and it does indeed make a big difference. It can be fast and furious, until the sun hits the water then, like elk, they disappear into the forest in this case it's a forest of dense milfoil. This early bite is indicative of one important thing: Despite the pond's black anaerobic mud and peaty water that makes me and all my gear smell like a swamp, it's not suffering an oxygen deficit, which would plummet overnight as plants quit photosynthesizing, killing the early bite. Anyway, for whatever reason, the daytime bite in summer can be tough.

Butt kicking's can be worth the pain however, as this pond has a decent popn of 4 to 5lb bass in it. Most of my ponds top out at something shy of 4lbs in many it's 3lbs. This pond, and a handful of others, have the potential to produce a 5 fish 20lb sack, which I've managed on occasion -but only in the coolwater seasons. And fall is HERE -today -along with a nice front rolling in! Now if I could only make good on it.

The cool, dark, weather this year in general has brought many changes to my ponds, most notably besides water levels (up as much as 4feet in many ponds), is in the plant life. Milfoil, needing lots of sun, did miserably in all but the shallowest clearest ponds. Curly Pondweed, Threadleaf, and Coontail all mostly northern species took over many milfoil areas. In this pond, it was coontail that had taken over.

Screen shot of dead milfoil clumps. That's silt covered rubble on bottom.

Coontail in hand.

Coontail forked whorls, and the tiny spikes that line the leaves. Milfoil whorls are multi-branched and feathery.

Screen shot of Coontail. Note just how dense it is. The bottom shows rubble on a break (I'm following a contour here) little silt build up. This particular spot gave up the largest bass of the day.

Fishing:

I fished from 1:30 to 7:00pm. I expected that this day was going to offer a classic early fall shallow bite, so I rigged accordingly: shallow, both fast and slow: a buzzbait, a medium crank, 1/8 and 1/4oz jig-n-pork, and a 1/8oz swimming worm. My plan was to first hit the immediate shallows, against the flooded shorelines, because the shoreline acts as a barrier that can concentrate them. The shallows were also still heating, when I arrived, which can be a draw or activator. And when I first arrived I saw an angler carrying a stringer of 4 bass, the largest about 16". I called out, "What are you using..." (more curious HOW he was fishing, rather than what) and he replied, "Watermelon worm", which meant he was likely fishing the shoreline, relatively slowly. But the morning's heating, and calm weather, didn't last as the afternoon storms cells descended shortly after I got on the water.

At the first point/shelf I hit, it was no go on the buzzbait which maintained itself all afternoon. In fact, no bass were caught against the immediate shorelines. But something else did, and it turned out to be an interesting scenario if you like to catch big fish regardless of species.

On the first cast with the jig, Whap!, came the first of a half dozen youngish bass I'd earn for the day. I say earn because best layed plans don't always pan out. I was almost drooling when I read the forecast for the day, but several things reared up that quashed my 20# expectations:

Wind! I kept checking the wind around my chosen pond on-line, deciding whether I dare steal a day, and quite possibly end up fighting white-caps in my float tube. It remained calm until a half hour after I got there! Then it all rolled in like a freight train.

Coffee! I am one high-energy guy; I do not need coffee in the morning. Although I love it, I learned long ago I cannot drink coffee and perform in the real world woods and waters. I didn't decide to steal the day to fish until I saw the weather shaping up. By then I'd had more than my normal share of caffeine made by a guest who loves coffee you could stand a spoon up in.

Now presentation is all about control; knowing just what your lure is doing down there: depth, speed, action, and detection are the big four. The rest is fluff. Take a caffeinated fiend , in a wind storm, with a rubber arm OK I'm getting ahead of myself:

WHOP! The next fish bolted at the set and I was suddenly back-reeling madly Holy Moly!! After a few more holy-moly's, the thing stale-mated me under the boat, and I knew just what I had a cinder block with fins a big cat. Bummer > I was really hoping it was going to be the first third of my 20lbs.

I call em cinder blocks with fins (CBWF we'll need this later) because unlike many fish, cats are both laterally compressed at the flanks and shovel headed. Both they can use as hydrofoils to hold position and stymie our attempts at moving them. When they get below you, they can simply swim figure eights, and feel for all the world like a CBWF. To move em you need to lift em, or drag em from a low angle to net or hand. To handle a CBWF from a float tube, what with all those spikes that could literally sink me, I finally just towed the beast to shore. There I was able to get some footing and be done with it.

The result was a 7¼lb cat, and a rubber arm! After fighting it on a short handled spinning rod from a tube (unable to tuck the rod butt against my body, and no torque in the reel) my right arm had turned to jelly. And I developed the adrenaline/caffeine jitters. Two hours later, my rod tip was still shaking when I tried to swim a jig or worm on my spinning rigs! The strength just wouldn't return to that arm! Couple this with the boat dancing to a 30mph wind and I was a fishing basket case. > I found it simply impossible to maintain control and feel.

Make Lemonaide:

I stashed the spinning stuff, grabbed a casting rig and crankbait and kicked over to the next point. I dragged an anchor and kicked (fought) to hold position and ... WHOP! Another CBWF! I immediately and unceremoniously kicked straight to shore, just dragging the creature with me, popped off my swim fins and released it. Luckily the plug was barbless and release was cake cats have a lot of soft tissue up front. This one I guestimated at 6½. Somethin's up with these cats today, I thought. Wonder what's turned em on? I was to discover later, just what it was.

As the wind peaked I moved to the lee shoreline, which allowed me to relax a bit, eat something, and explore a shoreline that in the past has mostly given up smalls. Turned out there wasn't much to find there, and it gave up its usual smalls. It was 6pm by the time the wind finally let up. I noticed I was feeling much better by then not shaking (or having to pee every 20 minutes lol).

With the evening approaching, and the strength back in my right arm, I kicked over to one of my better known locations a shelf with a steep drop and weed wall in close proximity to some of the most varied bottom contours in the pond. Interestingly, this year it was coontail instead of milfoil, and I finally found a good bass there.

Unmeasured, unweighed, probably 3-3/4lbs.

Just before taking out I re-visited the first point I'd caught the first cat at. WHAP! Another cat; this one at 5lbs even. Since I was headed out I took this one home, and I got to look in its stomach to solve a mysteryWhat was up today with those aggressive cinder blocks?? Crayfish? Wave beaten bluegills? Nope. The stomach was full of the fruits from the Russian olive shrubs along shore. I had noticed them floating across the pond surface and collected against windward shorelines just where I'd caught all three.

What's interesting to me besides this little bit of insider info is that those cats were made so aggressive by a ready food source, that they uncharacteristically smacked lures too. While matching the hatch here would have likely yielded the best cat-fishing action, the range of acceptable presentations was pretty wide with these cats today. Now if only my day had panned out that way for the big bass that lurk in this pond.

[Dalton Tam]

Id say you had a successful day beens how the weather conditions were. With those conditions around here you couldn't buy a bite.

[looking4structure]

Id say you had a successful day beens how the weather conditions were.  With those conditions around here you couldn't buy a bite.

x2

[skillet]

 Great play by play! THANKS...

skillet

BTW snow this early

[Sfritr]

Great Post.

makes me feel like I am in the tube myself.  Excellent read  Thanks

[Paul Roberts]

Id say you had a successful day beens how the weather conditions were. With those conditions around here you couldn't buy a bite.

Fish were happy; I just had a bear of a time making good on it. I could've gotten the heck outta my tube and fished a jig from shore. Probably would have done a bit better. The wind and those cats kept bringing me to shore -Guess I should've taken the hint!

[CWB]

Great read.

Love fishing from a tube. Your rig puts some boats to shame.

[RoLo]

Wow, another comprehensive report.

Boy, that's an all too common scenario...a pond with high trophy potential that's characterized by slow fishing.

I remember catching a similar catfish (7lbs even), and can appreciate both the fight it put up

and the disappointment that only a target angler would feel.

Hey, how can you be sure that's coontail without having the taproot in your hand (okay, bad joke) ;D

Roger

[Paul Roberts]

Hey, how can you be sure that's coontail without having the taproot in your hand (okay, bad joke) ;D

Roger

I think I get the joke -coontail doesn't root? Or did I mis-ID -again! Nice to have you on board to keep me on my toes Roger.

[RoLo]

Hey, how can you be sure that's coontail without having the taproot in your hand (okay, bad joke) ;D

Roger

I think I get the joke -coontail doesn't root? Or did I mis-ID -again! Nice to have you on board to keep me on my toes Roger.

It's coontail as you stated Paul, but every time I see a lush bed of that stuff,

I find it hard to imagine that it doesn't produce a true root system (certainly no "taproot").

After a bad windstorm, a coontail bed may possibly be relocated

Roger

[Fishing Rhino]

Here's something to try in the coontail that I discovered this year while experimenting with a fluke type bait, a Strike King Caffein Shad.

Normally they are rigged with a straight, or as straight as possible back.  I fooled around with the shape and discovered that if you hump the back a bit, when you give it a quick "pop" and then quickly give it slack, it will initially dart toward the surface, but as soon as it has slack, it will dart downward, into the coontail.  If you offset the skin hooked tip, it will put a bit of sideways action into the darting motions.

You don't have to bunch the bait up to make the hump.  Give it a little extra, then slide it downward a tad on the bend of the hook, and you'll have the hump.  A little experimentation will determine just how to get the action you and the fish want.

I fished it on an Owner Twistlock 4/0 hook with no keel weight.  Buttoned the nose of the shad tight to the eye on the twistlock, and it passed cleanly through the densest coontail without grabbing even a strand, nine casts and retrieves out of ten.

Had been getting no action until I put that hump in its back.  I ended up catching over a dozen.  Nothing of size, but a good learning experience nonetheless.

It worked great in the lily pad beds as well.

[retiredbosn]

congrats

[RoLo]

Here's something to try in the coontail that I discovered this year while experimenting with a fluke type bait, a Strike King Caffein Shad.

Normally they are rigged with a straight, or as straight as possible back. I fooled around with the shape and discovered that if you hump the back a bit, when you give it a quick "pop" and then quickly give it slack, it will initially dart toward the surface, but as soon as it has slack, it will dart downward, into the coontail. If you offset the skin hooked tip, it will put a bit of sideways action into the darting motions.

You don't have to bunch the bait up to make the hump. Give it a little extra, then slide it downward a tad on the bend of the hook, and you'll have the hump. A little experimentation will determine just how to get the action you and the fish want.

I fished it on an Owner Twistlock 4/0 hook with no keel weight. Buttoned the nose of the shad tight to the eye on the twistlock, and it passed cleanly through the densest coontail without grabbing even a strand, nine casts and retrieves out of ten.

Had been getting no action until I put that hump in its back. I ended up catching over a dozen. Nothing of size, but a good learning experience nonetheless.

It worked great in the lily pad beds as well.

Humph...I'll have to give that a try

[Paul Roberts]

Here's something to try in the coontail that I discovered this year while experimenting with a fluke type bait, a Strike King Caffein Shad.

Normally they are rigged with a straight, or as straight as possible back. I fooled around with the shape and discovered that if you hump the back a bit, when you give it a quick "pop" and then quickly give it slack, it will initially dart toward the surface, but as soon as it has slack, it will dart downward, into the coontail. If you offset the skin hooked tip, it will put a bit of sideways action into the darting motions.

You don't have to bunch the bait up to make the hump. Give it a little extra, then slide it downward a tad on the bend of the hook, and you'll have the hump. A little experimentation will determine just how to get the action you and the fish want.

I fished it on an Owner Twistlock 4/0 hook with no keel weight. Buttoned the nose of the shad tight to the eye on the twistlock, and it passed cleanly through the densest coontail without grabbing even a strand, nine casts and retrieves out of ten.

Had been getting no action until I put that hump in its back. I ended up catching over a dozen. Nothing of size, but a good learning experience nonetheless.

It worked great in the lily pad beds as well.

Nifty. Love to hear of your experimentations Tom.

[Fishing Rhino]

What is really neat about the fluke thing is when it has dived into the coontail, seeing it emerge cleanly from the mass of vegetation.

If it does snag a stem on the tag end of the knot, the eye or the bulge of the bait's nose, the quick "pop" usually clears it, and the bait flutters away, leaving the piece of vegetation behind.

Even when a retrieve does not produce a strike, it's neat watching the bait disappear and then cleanly reappear.  

BTW, I love your fishing rig.  I'm glad you posted it because the image I had in mind was that you fished using a float tube, and I could not understand how you could have a fish finder, a camera and all that paraphernalia stowed and stored on what I envisioned as an inner tube with a seat.

One of the things I like about the canoe is that you are right there, on a level with the fish.  Get the fish to you, and there are no gyrations required to grab it.

How often do you have fish run into your legs when they dive under your "boat"?

The poles on your rig look like they are part of a drawbridge.  

[Paul Roberts]

...BTW, I love your fishing rig. I'm glad you posted it because the image I had in mind was that you fished using a float tube, and I could not understand how you could have a fish finder, a camera and all that paraphernalia stowed and stored on what I envisioned as an inner tube with a seat.

One of the things I like about the canoe is that you are right there, on a level with the fish. Get the fish to you, and there are no gyrations required to grab it.

How often do you have fish run into your legs when they dive under your "boat"?

The poles on your rig look like they are part of a drawbridge.

Tom,

The design is called a U-Tube. It's open at the front and has high flotation for a tube, that seats my butt just above the waterline.

Here's a pic of my boat w/o sonar. Sonar unit sits on front of left pontoon.

It's not difficult at all to deal with most fish. They rarely move me, but I purposely rotate a lot with a large fish to keep "leading" it. This helps a great deal in keeping hooks in as I get the fish into position to lip 'em. Cats are different in that they don't have ready handles. I will lip mine but you have to hold the jaw wide open where they lose the strength to clamp down on your thumb -that hurts. They are slippery, well muscled and with those spikes I don't want to wrestle with one in my tube. It's not a dangerous situation, as my tube has 4 bladders -just would be an major inconvenience to lose one. So I just kick to shore with a big cat.

It's pretty easy to keep my legs out of the way. I can move them remember! I always worry a bit with my anchor down, but haven't had a problem. I can steer fish and I can reposition the boat relative to the fish easily. That's one beauty of a tube, you can maneuver so deftly. My anchor was out with the two largest cats the other day and it was no problem, although I did worry about a tangle.

One thing I can't do is tuck a short-handled rod into my gut to relieve my arm, and still steer the fish well at boat-side. I'm sitting, as in a chair, so there isn't much room in my lap for the reel, with the rod butt lengths I own.