Big Indiana Bass

It's Almost 'Crappie Time'

Regular readers of this blog will know that one of the things I look forward to every fall is chasing crappie. It is a great way to learn about graphing, open water boat positioning, maximizing equipment setup, and just a fun way to get a lot of bites after a year of mostly bass angling. So it should be no surprise that the following newly published study caught my eye:

Crappie Hybridization in Southern Minnesota Lakes and Its Effects on Growth Estimates

Some of the cool findings and notes from the study include:

• Out of nearly 2100 crappie tested via micrsatellite loci analysis, about 58% were pure blacks, 34% were pure whites, 5% were F1 hybrids and 3% were Fx hybrids.
• 20 of the 22 lakes sampled contained hybrids
• When biologists were asked to identify a crappie (unknown to them as an F1 hybrid) as either a black or white, about 80% of the time the hybrid would be identified as a black crappie
• 'Hybrid vigor' applies to crappie also. F1 hybrids were found to grow faster than most all other black crappies and at least as fast or faster than half of the white crappies
• The majority of backcrossing with hybrids occurs with black crappies (>60%)
• In lakes that support a population of both black and white crappies, odds are that there is hybridization occuring to some degree. Previous studies have found the rate to be 55% in Douglas Reservoir, Tennessee, 21–29% in Weiss Reservoir, Alabama, 23% in Lake Blackshear, Georgia and 15% in Lay Reservoir, Alabama

Re-examining "Holding Your Breath" Guidelines

I've come across two truly fascinating studies concerning largemouth bass and hypoxia. One was published a year ago, the other is set for publication very soon. In both cases they studied varying amounts of air exposure after exercise/angling that a bass could be subjected to. One was done in the lab, one in the field. Both have reached the same basic conclusion. Check these out:

Behavioral and physiological responses of the congeneric largemouth (Micropterus salmoides) and smallmouth bass (M. dolomieu) to various exercise and air exposure durations

This is the lab test comparing largemouth to smallmouth. Bass were physically exercised to simulate angling and then held by the jaw ("thumbed" just like most every angler does) for a randomly chosen amount of time up to 10 minutes out of the water and exposed to the air. Afterward, fish were placed back into a holding tank and observed and tested for some chemical parameter monitoring, then ultimately placed back into a raceway for 24 hours to observe for delayed mortality. Water temps ranged between 18-23 deg. C. in this test. Largemouth recovered faster than smallmouth as expected, but there were no documented mortality cases after 24 hours.

Physiology, Behavior, and Survival of Angled and Air-Exposed Largemouth Bass

In this test of largemouth bass only, bass were angled from the lake and then held out of the water for a varying amount of time that ranged from 0 up to 15 minutes. Tests were conducted during two specific environmental time frames, once at 15 deg. C. water temps and again at 21 deg. C. Bass were also tested for various bodily (chemical) parameters and were then placed in a holding tank for 30 minutes of recovery/observation. During this time they were fitted with an external transmitter and then released back into the lake and tracked for 5 days. Again, no delayed mortality occurred for any of the fish including those held out of the water for the maximum 15 minutes. Fish held out of the water longer took longer to recover, as well as longer to leave their release area in the lake (at higher temps vs. short duration cooler temps, but not significant).

We've always figured "bass aren't trout" and could be subjected to greater stressors (i.e., air exposure) and still come out OK. That bass could be held out of water for 10-15 minutes and returned relatively unharmed was a bit of a surprise to me. That is a rather lengthy bit of time even for the most unpracticed of bass anglers. I am actually quite shocked at the result, but certainly love the practicality of the study. That said, keep in mind that all testing occurred at water temps at or under 75 degrees F., the temp. threshold that has long been thought to be the dividing line between safe and unsafe when it comes to fish care handling practices. Both studies warned of possible high mortality if repeated in these warmer water temps. The general rule of thumb that you'll hear bass anglers espouse is to hold bass out of the water no longer than you could hold your own breathe. While this still remains good practical advice to follow, we now have some concrete evidence to actually make specific statements concerning this subject. 

Another Fun Day on the Water

Another good day on the water. Met the "Big Dummy" himself around 10:30 this morning, loaded everything up and hit the water for a few hours. Had a light NNE breeze, temps in the high 80's, plenty of sunshine and a little bit of boat traffic. Water temps were running between 82 and 83 degrees. Was perfect conditions to run around in the little jon boat today. Did a bit of graphing and spent most of the time hopping from spot to spot. Kept the tackle on the light side and just threw worms, jigs and crankbaits. Managed to put a good triple limit of keepers in the boat averaging about what you see in the picture size-wise. We had a few bigger and a few smaller, along with 3 sets of doubles today. The bite wasn't fast and furious, but we managed to catch fish off most every spot we pulled up on, many times several fish.

Got a few graph pictures to show everyone what we were seeing and fishing most of the day. In this first pic you can see a nice aggregate of bass sitting off a hard bottom transition as we slide down a sloping break. Lots of bass roaming in small groups from what we could see on the depthfinder. That was also how we tended to catch them. It seemed if you could get one triggered, by repeating the cast we would often end up catching 3 or 4 fairly quickly. This was most likely why we ended up with several doubles today.

In this next pic, you'll see a nice group of shad starting to show on the depthfinder as we come off a little break. You can even see what appears to be a bass at the leading edge of the school. You'll notice the shad schools are sitting at about the same depth as the bass in both pics. There are a lot of shad moving around and a lot of bass sitting on these areas waiting for shad to move in. We saw a lot of isolated dead shad floating and they were all about 2" long.

On a little sadder note, there was a club tourney out on the water today. Water is fairly warm and when you're out there for 8 hours or more, it can definitely be stressful on the bass. Livewell maintenance is at a premium in hot water conditions. Turns out it took just over 11 pounds to win today, so there weren't any jam packed livewells out on the water. We had much more than that in the 4 hours we fished. But when I came in today about 45 minutes after they weighed, I saw several dead bass just laying on the bank next to the ramp. These were freshly killed fish as you can tell in the picture, which I'm certain were from the tourney. Dead fish are going to happen in tourneys, sometimes there are just no good ways around it. But if you're going to run around at 65 mph on a little 300 acre lake acting like Pro-feesh-ionals, at least deal with your dead bass in a professional way also. Let someone take them home and fillet them, plant them in your rose garden or dispose of them in a trash receptacle. Leaving them dead on the bank is not the impression you want to leave for all the recreational people using the lake that day.

Juniors at it Again - Glenn Flint

As I type this, the Junior bass anglers are fishing their state championship out on Glenn Flint Lake. Not sure which division this is (BASS or FLW), but I was thinking the Federation Nation. I'll find out for sure later today. Glenn Flint has been a bit stingy the past couple years. A few guys have been catching decent sacks, but the majority of tourney results I've seen have been well below average. Jacob Wheeler and I spent a couple hours out there earlier in the week putting in some final practice time in preparation for this tourney. We were able to get on one fairly solid crankbait bite, so fingers are crossed again. Fishing slower with jigs and worms has been very hit or miss for us. You might only get one or two bites a trip fishing that way. We're getting a dozen or more fish on the cranks. Also heard reports of a decent spinnerbait bite first thing in the morning. We tried a variety of topwaters when we were out there and never got the first bite. This included frogs, buzzbaits, Spooks and Pop-R's. Weigh-in is later this afternoon, so I might try and sneak out there to check it out. I'll give a further report once I have the details. The two fish Jacob and I are holding in the pics are from our practice trip this past Thursday.

UPDATE: Tough bite - only 2 fish weighed. 2-02 won. Lots of short fish caught. Jacob and his boat partner both blanked. Also lots of stories of good fish or numbers in practice, just didn't translate into fish in the boat today.

The Relative Accuracy of GPS Units

Most serious bass anglers now days have some type of GPS unit on their boat. Whether a hand held unit or a more robust built-in model, largely gone are the days of bank triangulation. One common question though is just how accurate these GPS units are? How close can you get back to that underwater stump you marked last weekend? Pat Hahs from Kentucky HydroGrafx has a pretty good idea.

Check out the following graphic: GPS DRIFT On the high end of things are the 'Submeter' units. You're not likely to find any of these on your buddies boat. These very expensive but accurate units are used by farmers or surveyors. Anglers simply don't need that level of accuracy. But with Selective Availability (SA) turned off and many units featuring WAAS enabling, how close are we getting to marked objects? As you can see from the graphic, on the better units you are most likely getting within 15'-20' on most days. Considering that the average length of a bass boat is now somewhere in the area of 20', you're probably within a boat length of that object...not too bad. On the less accurate units, something more to the tune of 35' or so seems to be the norm. Still within about 2 boat lengths and probably close enough to cut down your search time tremendously.

And on the subject of GPS accuracy, this little piece on GPS Bearing vs. Direction of Travel. So the bottom line seems to be that while we may not be quite as accurate as some people seem to think, we're well within a reasonable distance than can be relied upon to get us back to a particular honey hole. Just heed the warning on the screen when you turn your unit on, and don't rely on the unit for navigation purposes where your boat or your personal safety might be involved, such as when running through boat lanes, at night or other low visibility situations. 

Back Out on the Water

Sunday I got back out to Waveland for the first time in about a month. Weeds have been knocked down pretty well. Water had a decent stain to it, probably from a lot of organic matter with the breakdown of plant material from the weed treatments. Saw lots of shad schools roaming and graphed a ton of fish. Lots of activity up shallow but very little if any schooling activity out in the open water, though we did have pretty sunny skies and very little wind. Probably kept the schoolers down if they were out there.

Thought I'd try one of the new baits I've recently picked up (above left). I've never been much of a fan of shad colored baits. I don't mind throwing them in topwaters, but cranking with shad colors has never been a favorite of mine. Seems like something with chartreuse in the way of cranks has always served me well. Much of that may be personal preference, and there might be a little something to it considering all the stain in most Indiana reservoirs. Ultimately mixed it up quite a bit catching fish on several cranks, plastic worms and jigs. I didn't get to stick around for the evening bite, but my friends caught a few on topwaters after I left. We managed to catch bass about everywhere we went. Had a few areas where they seemed grouped up a bit, but other areas were just a fish or two. Largest bass (above right) did come on my little custom shad bait, so that made me feel a little better. I think it will be a great little bait in somewhat clearer water. Turned out to be a fun trip - shared a boat with a couple good friends, everybody caught fish and had some great weather to boot.

Take a Kid Fishing

In keeping with the youth theme from yesterday's Jr. Northern Divisional, my 11 year old niece is visiting us over the weekend. It just so happens she likes to fish, so we loaded the boat and headed to the lake. We stopped off at the marina and bought 3-dozen crickets and a box of crawlers. I rigged the spinning rods up with simple slip bobber setups, changed the reel handles around on a rod or two for her, and off we went in search of big bluegill. She grabbed her own crickets and hooked them up herself, even removed a few of the fish on her own. We found 2 good areas holding respectable (7"-9") gills and basically stayed busy on the catching end of things. We used our entire supply of crickets up and a few of the worms. She even caught a pair of channel cats for a bit of variety. Even after more than 20 years of tournament bass fishing, high dollar bass boats and custom tackle, there is something inherently mysterious and exciting about watching a little slip bobber get slowly pulled under and away from the waters surface.

Jr. Northern Divisional Results

I just got off the phone a bit ago with one of our Jr. anglers representing Indiana in the Northern Divisional. The good news is that Jacob Wheeler survived a scare or two but came out on top of the older age division to win with a sack of smallies weighing 13-06. His driver was Indiana's top angler Brian Hensley who was on a really good tube bite for smallies. Jacob said they caught fish all day, but had to struggle decision wise with the Wisconsin no-cull rule. After boating 4 solid keepers he kept tossing back 2 pounders waiting for the big one to bite to seal the deal. But another big one never did bite again and the bite shut down in the afternoon. With just 4 fish in the box, a last minute scramble to box that 5th fish was on, and he had to settle for a 1-1/2 pounder. Would throwing back those 2 pound smallies cost him the tourney? It was close, but his weight was enough by just a single ounce over the 2nd place finisher.

Unfortunately, in the younger division the results were turned around on Indiana's Brody McWilliams. His sack of smallies weighed over 11 pounds, but in the end he had the heart-breaking second place finish, missing the win by just 2 ounces. Regardless, both anglers did an awesome job representing Indiana. Brody will have lots more opportunities in the future due to his young age and will only get better and better. For Jacob, it's now on to Kansas in November and Milford Lake! You can read the first ESPN write-up HERE.

Zen and the Art of Angling

BassFan just put up a new article on Rick Clunn and his holistic approach to finding and catching bass. You can find it under "Senses Can Lead You to Winning Fish". Rick is typically thought of as being 'on the fringe' when it comes to his mental outlook of fishing and catching fish. He'll be holding another of his 'Advanced Angling Schools' this November down at Lake Amistad. What a unique and interesting week that must be. I've studied Rick and his approach for nearly 20 years now and have utilized much of his thought process and outlook in my own approach to angling. You can find out more about 'momentum fish' and his One Rod Approach at his website, along with more information about the Class. Here is another interesting article on Clunn's approach to spectators from the ESPN site. The picture of Rick to the left is one of my favorites, dating back to his 1984 Classic win on the Arkansas River at Pine Bluff. 

Newest Patoka Lake Survey Published

Along with the really cool Monroe reports form the IDNR I posted earlier this week, they have also published the newest (2007) Patoka Lake survey including the tourney catch data. Lots of great charts and tables along with some very interesting changes in the fishery. Check it out online at:

Patoka Lake 2007 Fish Management Report

The Role of Timing in Bass Fishing

Here is one you may not have thought much about. Just how important is timing in a day of fishing? Sure you've got your high dollar rods and reels, your secret custom painted baits, the brushpiles that only you know about - but does that stuff take a back seat to other variables? How important is it that you have an early take-off number, and why? It is a subject I've studied quite a bit, and so I thought I'd share a bunch of quotes from many of the bass pros concerning the issue:

  

"Really I didn't do anything different the last 2 days, my timing was just off on that first day," he said. "Everything about this lake has to do with timing. If you start running your spots and you hit them wrong it can be really slow. And that's what happened to me on day 1." - Tim Horton

"This was one of those examples where local knowledge on the lake was huge. Also, running and gunning (was critical). I think it was a timing thing, and you had to hit some areas at certain key times of the day." - Greg Bohannan

"I just kept moving. It's a timing deal on this lake. I'd run most of my points six or seven times a day." - Casey Ashley

"Really, this lake's about timing. You have to get your timing down. I know there's some good fish where I'm fishing, but my timing just has to be better." - John Murray

"Tomorrow I'll pretty much do the same stuff in the morning, then probably change my timing around on some of my stuff. You have to fish in the right type of water for the weather conditions you have. Today was a lousy day to fish shallow on the main lake." - Jay Yelas

"I really like fishing in Florida," he said. "I've never really broken anything wide open down there, but I've been pretty consistent. The thing about it is, it's such a timing deal. Florida fish don't seem to feed all the time. Usually you're around a lot if you're catching any, but you're not going to sit there and catch them all at once." - Luke Clausen

"I don’t know about tomorrow – it’s too easy to blank here if your timing is off." - Jarrett Edwards

The reason, he says, is that in hot weather bass often suspend, and "when they move up, they move up to eat – and remember it's a big timing issue. When they're suspended, they're bulletproof." - Homer Humphreys, Jr.

"If you don't have current on the ledges, then you need to be able to run a rotation," he said. "You need six to eight places and you have to get a timing thing going. That wasn't going to be possible with so many boats and so few ledges." - Kevin Wirth

"I landed on the right spot at the right time. It was a timing issue the whole way around. You just run from place to place and then pull up and catch fish – just instantaneously." - Peter T

"The fish bit better (that day), but this thing was all about timing. If you pulled up on the right dock at the right time, or the right stretch of docks, you caught them."  - Scott Rook

"If there's anything I can look back on and say I could've done a little bit better, it was that my timing was off on my moves today. I was missing it by about 20 minutes." - David Dudley

"It's just one of those deals where I have to keep moving and keep looking. It's a lot about timing and a lot about boat-positioning, and I'm just trying to get fish to react to several different baits." - Kevin VanDam

"Once in a while it's your timing," he added. "I pulled into one area where I felt like I could catch some good fish, and (Duckett) was already in there and had worked it. I pulled into another area and Ish Monroe was already there. Sometimes you get on the wrong timing, when you're following people. Maybe more of that went on today than I realized." - Denny Brauer

"I don't think sun will help me at all – I'd prefer to have 2 more days just like today. It's such a timing thing here and the sun might reposition the fish, so I'll have to keep my game face on." - Cliff Pace

Because he's only fishing small areas, he typically spends no more than 30 minutes fishing them. "If I can't make them bite on the jig or a crankbait, I might jig a spoon a minute, and then I'm gone. But I might want to return later in the day. You really don't know what timeframe is best in deepwater spots. It can be noon or early morning. You just have to go back until you get the timing down." - Larry Nixon

"I know I'm a long way from greatness, but I am beginning to come at it in my own way. I can go through the basic motions pretty well, don't rely quite as religiously on specific fly patterns as I once did, have worked out ways of compensating for some of my most egregious weaknesses and have come to count heavily on timing because it's a hell of a lot easier to catch fish when the fish are biting." - John Gierach

Junior World Championship

Many of you probably didn't realize it, but the B.A.S.S. Junior World Championship was held this weekend and two of our best young anglers did a fine job of representing Indiana. Brody McWilliams (grandson of Terry McWilliams) was the 11-14 year old representative and Jacob Wheeler was the 15-18 year old division angler. You can read a brief write-up HERE as to how they made the cut to represent Indiana. Scroll down the right side under 'Recent News' toward the bottom of the list until you hit the 3rd and 4th from the last stories if you're not directly taken there.

The results for the tourney can also be found on the ESPN website. Jacob, who caught his fish on a mix of baits including frogs along grass, docks and overhangs, finished in 20th place with a 5 fish limit weighing 10-08. Brody, a tube fishing expert, landed 2 bass going 4-04 for a 26th place showing.

Jacob now turns right back around and heads up to Wisconsin this weekend to compete again as the 15-18 age group winner for Indiana in the Junior Northern Divisional to be held on Lake Winnebago near Oshkosh, WI. Word is this lake is a great grass/frog lake. If so, Jacob will be a force to be reckoned with. Congrats again to both anglers on a fine job this weekend!