Big Indiana Bass

Think you know knots?

Here is an interesting study that seems to refute what we tend to read in many magazines. Common perception is that knots frequently break, especially if tied incorrectly when line lays across or cuts into itself. This study, Localization of breakage points in knotted strings breaks down the actual stresses on a knot and reasons for breakage. Some of the more interesting findings:

• Knots break really fast. High speed cameras with 1/1000 sec. between frames couldn't capture a knot breakage in progress in fishing line.
• Generally speaking, the more complex the knot, the greater its (breaking) strength.
• Overhand knots, among the simplest of knots, were also the weakest knots tested.
• Highest forces on a knot are typically on the outside of a sharp bend frequently leading to failure.
• Friction and compression play a very important role in knot breakage.

Big bait/big fish commentary

While on the subject of big baits for big bass, Ralph Manns has posted another great overview concerning seasonality issues surrounding this concept. It can be found at this BFHP link.

New baits

Sorry about not posting for a while, but I have been swamped with putting on a Fishing Show this past weekend. There just wasn't enough time in the day to get everything done. But the show was a big success, and of course it gave me time to look around at lots of baits. I've picked up a couple new baits over the past week to mess with this year. Both are somewhat traditional when it comes to thoughts on bait size and big bass, that being they're both large.

The first new bait I picked up (actually 2) were a pair of Optimum Swimbaits. One in a bluegill color and one in a baby bass color. These are 6" long baits weighing in at over 2.5 ounces. A little larger than what I wanted (5", < 2.0 ounces) but I'm going to give them a try anyway. You can get a good review and look at them at the Calfishing link. Of course these are traditionally thought of as Cali baits used on the clear trout waters for big bass. I'm kind of skeptical of how well they will work around here, though many of the waters I fish are forage rich. I'm hoping that will make the difference. These are no bigger than many of the gizzard shad you frequently see around here. The key I think, will be fishing these more on specific structure spots as opposed to drawing fish in open water like they are frequently used out West. This has a lot to do with studies of how bass react to prey based on water color, something I'll get into in a future post. I actually picked these up at a Dick's Sporting Goods store in the muskie section. They looked pretty tame sitting against the pegboard next to the giant muskie baits, but progressively looked larger and larger as I carried them away from their home and down other aisles with more traditional bass-sized lures. By the time I had made it all the way to the checkout counter, these things were making me feel pretty unsure and uncomfortable, but part of the fun with this challenge will be trying some really different things for our waters. If they work, you'll hear about it on the site!

The second new bait I picked up came from the ISC Fishing Expo this past weekend. It's a bait called the TennFOOTER, actually a hand poured 12" plastic worm. Now we've all probably caught lots of bass on Berkley's 10" Power worms, but not many people around here venture up a notch into the 12-13" range when it comes to plastics. What I like about these is a couple things. One, they're actually a little skinnier than a typical 10" Power worm making them look not ridiculously large. Studies have been done testing a largemouth bass' reaction to different ratios of length to width with plastic baits and it definitely seems to make a difference (another post to come). They also are a straight-tailed worm that reminds me a lot of the style Bill Murphy used for the stitchin' technique. The vendor mentioned swimming them, but I'm thinking there are going to be several presentation options available for this thing.

So that's the report for now on the new baits. The Indpls. Boat, Sport and Travel Show is coming up next month. That will be another good chance to see what is available bait-wise that I might be interested in.   

A look at lure sizes

Lets start looking at some of the studies being done concerning largemouth bass and see what kind of information we might glean from them. For this post, I want to look at a study out of Texas Tech concerning lure size. You can read a quick article mentioning the study at Texas Tech's Newsletter. For the full .pdf report you can link to the original study titled "Lure-size Restrictions in Recreational Fisheries" at the link provided.

The basic premise behind this research was to see if restricting anglers to certain size lures could act as a way to substitute for length limits in certain cases. The thought being that even with immediate catch and release, there is still going to be a certain level of mortality placed upon a bass population. Could anglers who were required to use a minimum lure size actually avoid catching certain smaller sized fish, thereby effectively acting as a type of preferential size limit by default? Part of this is based on studies that suggest that as predators get larger, so do their gape sizes, meaning they can eat larger meals because they have bigger mouths. Theoretically, at some point you could make a lure large enough that smaller fish with much smaller gapes would for the most part be unable to swallow that lure, effectively discriminating the size of your catch.

The spring fed lake they chose had little fishing pressure or harvest, good water clarity and heavy weedgrowth. It also had a very large population of bass, making for a stunted population. The majority of the bass were in the 8-10" range with few individuals over 14". However they had documented the occassional fish up to 23" in the lake. It was felt that this extreme stunted population would make for a very rigorous challenge to their hypothesis that lure size could be used to effectively minimize the catch of smaller non-targeted bass.

The lures chosen for this experiment were Original Rapalas in 4 different sizes ranging from the smallest at 2.75" to the largest at 7.00 inches. They also tested for color prefernces by utilizing 4 different colored lures. To determine size preferences, all lures used were of the original silver/black back type. To determine color preferences, they used only 3.5" lures but in 4 different color patterns. They rotated lure sizes and anglers every 30 minutes until a minimum of 50 bass were recorded for a given size lure.

Results: Mean catch rates for the 3 sizes of smaller lures were not significantly different when taking into account every fish caught. However, there was a significant difference between the largest sized lure and its smaller counterparts. The 3 smaller sized lures averaged between 10-13 bass per hour, whereas the 7" Rapala only averaged 3.29 bass per hour. This generally fits in line with traditional thinking that when targeting larger bass with larger lures, the number of bass you catch will go down. Of course, the hope is that size will then go up.

For only bass caught over 10" long, there was overlap of significance. There was no significant difference in catch rates when comparing the 3 smallest sized lures. There was also no significant difference when comparing just the 3 largest sized lures. There was a significant difference though when comparing the largest (7") only to the smallest (2.75"). Here catch rates ranged from about 1.5 bass per hour (largest lure) up to 4.25 bass per hour (smallest lure).

When this size exclusion was bumped up to only include fish over 12" long, again the exact same overlap of significances occurred. Once again, catch rates dropped further still ranging from 0.0 for the smallest lure up to 0.4-0.5 for the next 3 larger sized lures. This is kind of interesting from the standpoint that the smallest lure used never caught a bass greater than 11" long. There are a couple potential explanations given by the authors for this, but again this fits common belief that micro baits will, for the most part catch micro fish.

When looking at average size of fish caught for a given length lure, there was a pretty straight-forward correlation. The 2.75" lure caught an average sized bass of just over 9". The 3.5" and 5.25" Rapala both averaged right around 9.5" bass. The average sized bass caught using the 7" lure was right at 10.5". Again, this generally fits the theory of using larger lures to catch larger fish.

On the color study they found that all 4 colors had a very similar size catch average, basically meaning lure color made no difference in average size of bass caught. However, lure color did have an effect on catch rates with firetiger having the lowest. They didn't delve too far into the numbers for color though.

So an interesting study that somewhat backs common perception to a degree. Bigger lures, bigger averaged sized fish caught but at a considerably lower catch rate once a certain threshold has been exceeded, and not much difference when comparing lures grouped by size classes against some target sized fish.         

Barometer Basics

There is an interesting post over on the BFHP web site concerning barometer pressure and bass air bladder myths. You can find the actual post titled Cold Front Myths - Busted at this link. It primarily makes the point that a bass actually has to move shallower during periods of high pressure and deeper during low pressure change, but only minimally and as the post originator argues, inconsequentially. Ralph Manns chimes in on this one, Ralph having written some extensive articles for In-Fisherman concerning the limited range of vertical movement a bass has based upon air bladder restrictions. In actuality though, this barometer/air bladder myth was busted quite a while ago by one Bob A Underwood. Bob wrote a book entitled Lunker! Bob was a bass angler and a diver, and spent over 1500 hours underwater watching bass and documenting his findings in writing. Though the book is now over 30 years old, written in 1975, it still makes for a very interesting read based on the documented science involved.

As for the BFHP post author, Terry Battisti is actually Dr. Battisti, holding a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from CSULB and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the Univ. of Idaho. Terry has written numerous articles on bass angling, many of which can be found over at Western Bass or on Gary Yamamoto's site. Here is a good one on jerkbaits as an example. Terry also keeps a good pulse on big bass angling. He most notably came up with a new statistical formula for calculating the weights of giant bass which has appeared on several sites. You can read that particular article "Estimating Weights of Giant Largemouth Bass" here. Another very interesting article concerning the blending of big bass angling with bass tournament realities has interviews with Mike Long and Bill Siemantle, both extremely well known trophy bass anglers, but also very acknowledged tournament anglers, too. The article, "Trophy Hunters and Tournaments" can be found at the included link. 

Fun with Google

I was sitting at the computer tonight just killing time when I came up with this brilliant idea. If you want to know more about big bass, what better place than an Internet search engine? But I wanted to really know the deal to figuring out these big largemouth, so I entered the following search term, "big bass love...". Suddenly I was whisked away down memory lane to an episode of 'Match Game' where i could just hear the host, Gene Rayburn, asking that question to the guest panelists and telling them to fill in the blank. And sure enough the search produced 94 results. After weeding out duplicates and tossing non-fishing related items out, here for the first time in print, I give you all the secrets to catching big bass in a single place. Keep in mind these all come directly from articles and information posted on bass fishing web sites through out cyberspace, articles that you've probably read at one time or another.   

• Big bass love big lures

• Big bass love the rocks

• It's because big bass love heavy cover

• Active big bass love a big meal

• To spell it out, big bass love to eat trout

• The pork trailers offer a soft natural texture and the salty flavor that big bass love

• big bass love a worm

• Big Bass Love a Leech!

• Big Bass Love A Little Lure!

• Big bass love to grab and crush things

• Big bass love a tasty craw!

• And, big bass love frogs.

• The really big bass love to hang out in the sun

• Big bass love the crustaceans,

• Big Bass Love Gizzard Shad

• Big bass love to hang around large trees

• Big bass love thick cover

• Big bass love to eat mice and rats

• Big bass love the deeper water

• big bass love to be caught from bass boats that sparkle

• Big Bass love these poppers

• The big bass love to eat the bar fish AKA yellow bass

Is it any wonder why so many of us anglers haven't figured out how to consistently catch big bass?

On another light note, looks like everyone is stuck reading my theories for the next year as my 30 day free trial website offer expired today. The credit card has been charged and the site is now permanent for the next 11 months. So sit back and enjoy the ride, things are about to get "deep". 

Additional reading material (moon stuff)

Since my post on moon phases and lunar theory (Original post link) I've come across a few more articles and such I found, both on the Net and in my archives. So, in the interest of journalistic integrity and fairness (LOL-no, I still don't believe) I wanted to post these for everyone to read as additional information on the subject.

• First though, a quick clarification on my belief. I do believe the moon and its phase has an affect on strength of the spawn based around timing. All other biological conditions for successful spawning being equal, I think you can get a larger "wave" of spawners around both the new or full moon periods. What I don't believe though is that your catch rates of bass will in any way be better than normal because you are fishing under a certain moon phase, at a certain predicted time of the day or that certain days of the week as "rated" by moon calculators or solunar tables are better because of some lunar influence...that's astrology, not fishing. Just wanted to clear that up.
• Ralph Manns had a great two part write-up on lunar influences in issues #105 and #106 of In-Fisherman magazine. These will take you back to 1992, so you might not find many of them laying around on your coffee table. However, if you can get your hands on them it is well worth reading. He actually applied statistical programs to large sets of catch data to base the article on, across multiple species of fish. Without giving away too much, I think Ralph wants to believe, but the data only hints at the slightest correlation.
• Speaking of Ralph, he does hang out at the BFHP regularly and posts frequently, also. Here are links to two historical posts where he talks about the study (or it is discussed) and article referenced in In-Fisherman: Moon Phase Post #1 and Moon Phase Post #2. Ralph has most articles he's ever written documented, so you might contact him through the BFHP if interested in getting a copy. He frequently offers to sell copies of those articles for a small fee to cover his time and expenses of duplicating and mailing. I don't know if he has these particular ones for sure though.
• Here is the link to perhaps one of the earliest and strongest proponents of moon phases. Doug Hannon, a.k.a. "the Bass Professor" still sells his Moon Clock calculator online and you can read a quick excerpt and purchase your copy at the link provided :)
• One of the more interesting articles I've come across from northwoods Big Fish fisherman Joe Bucher. He has his own theory and offers it up in the article The real scoop on moon phases.
• And finally, you can get free access to the FLW's online caculator. They take a nice neutral stance on the issue as you'll see by reading the brief news snippet.

Well, this wraps up the moon phase stuff for a good while, I hope. I'll still keep my eyes open and post if anything particularly interesting comes across my plate in the future though.