Big Indiana Bass

The Long Cast Caveat (or 'I get e-mail')

I received this e-mail discussion point yesterday from the David Dudley mythbusting post:

Brian,

I'm struggling to get my head around your long-cast numbers. It would seem to me that if two anglers are fishing a linear stretch, traveling at a constant and equal speed, at the end of six hours of casting, the long caster will have covered approximately 30 feet more distance! (The length of his longer last cast.)

I tried real hard to graph this and as best I can tell, the difference is not in distance covered, but rather in fewer casts and more TIME in the strike zone. That's it!

In the attached chart, the first angler is the location at the cast, to his right is his location at the end of the retrieve. Immediately below is the second cast (at the same location and point in time) etc.

If you add up all the lengths of strike zone (in red) for the long caster and the short caster, the long caster will total higher, because of additional shorter casts and the additional wasted curves in diving and returning to surface (in green) for the same TIME period. This difference in total length in the strike zone could be considered and increase in distance covered except much of it is overlapping coverage.

The point is, if they travel at the same speed, they will essentially cover the SAME amount of water. But the longer caster's bait will be "in the strike zone" a higher percentage of TIME.

See if you agree...

Rod

Rod is right, so here is the caveat to this being confirmed. The long caster will cover more ground (the extra quarter mile) only if he utilizes the advantage provided by the long cast to move along slightly quicker (~.042 mph faster or an extra 220 feet per hour) as he fishes the ledge while still effectively covering the same strike/depth zone area. If he moves at the same speed as a normal caster, he only gets more time in the strike zone but no more area covered (except the last cast as Rod mentioned).

Rod: But if he is moving at a faster speed... he is also shortening the retrieve distance, thus loosing his advantage. Right?

BIB: Not after he makes the starting cast from some stationary point before beginning to move down the ledge. The regulsar caster is also losing distance with every cast because of moving, so it's all relative. He only needs to travel .042 mph faster (220 feet per hour or ~4' per cast) to make up the extra quarter mile. If he travels too fast though, he'll cover more water than the quarter mile but at the expense of missing a little bit of the strike zone area due to his speed eventually catching and surpassing his extra casting distance "buffer" somewhere farther down the ledge.

Rod: I'm still not seeing it... Why does he get to move faster? Of course he will travel farther if he is moving faster. I'm not seeing the length of cast having anything to do with the speed the boat travels.

Do the boats move at a constant speed? Or cast... retrieve... move...
stop... cast... etc.?

If both anglers move at a constant rate but the long caster is moving faster, he will also need to be reeling faster to have the same lure action and because the boat is moving faster his length (distance) of retrieve is shortened by the amount of difference in distance the boat travels due to increased speed. In essence reducing the advantage of the longer cast.

OK... now I've got myself confused!!!  :)

BIB - He gets to move faster because he throws 30' further each and every cast.If you do the math, the average cast and retrieve speed is approx. 1.75 mph. Since he only needs to move forward at a rate of about .34 mph, his retrieve speed is approx. 5-6 times faster than his bait speed, so the net gain more than compensates for his loss of retrieve. His net effective cast length becomes ~120' once you add in his 'moving forward' speed, but it's still longer than the guy casting only 120'. Now the guy casting the shorter distance will take less time to retrieve his bait, meaning he can get his next cast off sooner, about 11 seconds sooner as it works out. But that translates to only an extra 10 casts per hour. Considering he's falling behind 30' per cast in length though, it still amounts to a net loss of about 390' per hour.

Mythbusting - David Dudley

If you saw the BassFan piece on David Dudley's crankbait rod, then you might have caught the kind of stuff we love dissecting on this site. In particular, I'm referring to the following statement made in the article.

"The thing is, if the rod's too limber, you won't have the backbone to get good casting distance. And let's say I throw 30 feet farther than you on every cast. That's 30 more feet of coverage on the ledge that I have and you don't. So over the hours of the tournament, I can cover a quarter-mile more with the bait actually in the strike zone. Even the camera guy couldn't believe how far I was throwing it. He was speechless."

Lets do the math: A mile is 5,280 ft., so a quarter-mile is (5280 x 0.25) = 1,320. The claimed extra distance is 30 feet per cast, so 1320 / 30 = 44 casts. Assuming an 8 hour tourney day where 6 of it is actually spent fishing, that means you'd have to make 7.3 casts per hour (44 / 6) or one every 8.2 minutes. To actually cover that extra quarter mile you'd have to work your boat down that ledge as you fish since you don't just automatically go to the spot where your last cast ended before you make another cast. Considering that a long cast is typically considered around 120 feet, if you add 30 to that you're making 150 foot casts. So you need to cover that 150 feet in 8.2 minutes which is 18.3 feet per minute or 0.2 miles per hour. Most anglers would typically be moving along that ledge until they hit a fish, so that rate of speed is very doable. Therefore, we at "Big Indiana Bass" conclude that the statement is CONFIRMED.

Wind From the East - Again

I'm not sure I've ever seen this much predominantly east winds in our area, or at least I don't remember when the last time was. Weekend forecast was looking pretty crappy, so it was a bit iffy about getting out. Finally decided to bite the bullet and went yesterday around 12:30. Weather pretty much sucked, but forecast for today was worse. So I braved the rain, the 15-18 mph winds out of the east and high temps that never did reach 50 while I was out there. Gusts were as much as 25 today. Not good for tin, but missing an entire weekend seemed worse at the time, so I went even though I didn't bring a rainsuit.

Bite turned out to be halfway decent. Fish are pretty well scattered and doing a bit of everything. Got the jerkbait bite going again, as well as a jig bite. Finally upsized on the jig with the water still sitting in the low 50's and fish activity increasing somewhat. No big fish today but quite a few solid "chunks" - just nice, fat 18" prespawn bass. Jerkbait fish were over flats and off points. Jig fish were on rock banks and around docks. Wintering holes were pretty sparse as fish are slowly working their way into more traditional transition areas as they forge shallower.

Speedway B/M Earlybird tourney out at Geist was today. Bite turned out to be better than last week from the early reports. Over 50 boats entered into this one with a sack just over 21 pounds taking home the win. Last money spot was in the 16's (the "Waltinator") so it was a pretty stout showing for the lake. Big bass was something at or near 7 pounds. Don't know much else yet, though I know plenty of keepers to be had on jerks downlake. I'm guessing that the big sacks probably involved some quality jig bites, but that is just a guess at this point.

"Big Indiana Bass" Interviews...Bill McDonald

 

One of the most recognized names in Indiana bass fishing circles, Bill McDonald has "been there, done that". In addition to his numerous local wins, along the way he has also won at the regional level (KY. Everstart) as well as competed successfully at the tour level (FLW Tour, FLW Series). We spoke with Bill to get some insight into how he approaches local waters, as well as what it takes to successfully compete at the higher levels of competition.

Q - How would you describe your style of fishing?

BM - I try to adjust to whatever the fish are telling me, but mostly I’m very slow and methodical, and very thorough.

Q - Would you classify yourself as a specialist or a generalist?

BM - I do a little bit of everything. My strengths definitely pitching and flipping and fishing a bottom bait, really picking targets apart.

Q - Have our Indiana waters made you fish that way or have you always been a thorough fisherman?

BM - I just like to be that methodical. For some unknown reason the Lord's blessed me with catching a lot of big fish and I think that’s the key. Being methodical with it and instead of just looking at it as a stump, or whatever it is as a one fish deal, I look at all different angles. And I use, it’s weird, people don’t understand it, but I go with my gut. If I feel that there’s fish there, I’ll beat it to death.  And 9 times out of 10 I’ll catch them doing that.

From doing goofy things, like getting hung up, going up to a stump to get your bait out and say that that stump is in just no water and you go bump it with your trolling motor or whatever, and all of a sudden a boil comes out from underneath it. Well that fish was there the whole time.  So by finding some of those things, I’ve learned you just have to really let the fish tell you what they’re doing, but if it’s that way, then you just got to slow down and really work it.

Q - In your 3 BFL wins you never had a limit. You won with 2, 3 and 4 fish bags. That means your quality was pretty darn good. Does your style just lend itself to catching quality bass?

BM - Yea, I target bigger fish. Like I say, we’re forced to live in a state where we’re not blessed with a lot of fish. And I’d rather catch 2 fish , 2 quality fish as opposed to catching 4 or 5 just 12-14” keepers.

Q - Do you spend much time fishing deeper water in our lakes?

BM - I like to fish deep water. I really do. But for the most part I’m a 10’ or less guy.

Q - What kinds of things do you look for when targeting better than average sized bass?

BM - I work hard to find isolated stuff. I don’t have a problem poling for a 100 yds. out onto a flat to fish one piece of cover. Everybody else would say well that’s too far, there’s no water up there, there’s no fish on that. I strongly feel you get out of it what you put into it. And my practice time, not so much here, my time restraints with work really hampers my practice time here, but when I do practice I’m usually first on the water and one of the last ones off. I feel I’m not a real good fisherman so I have to make up for it with extra time.

Q - In practice – stick’em or shake’em?

BM - Never set the hook . Never set the hook (laughs).

Q - Do you try and cover lots of water in practice or do you just go around and check specific spots?

BM - I look at seasonal patterns, and I try and pick an area and then...I’ve got a 250 and I like to run as fast as anybody, but I’ve never caught one with that motor running. So I take an area and then dissect it, just pick it apart and try to find an area within the area. I try to find any little depression, any little ditch or drain, something that’s different cause I don’t feel fish leave an area. They’ll change with the conditions but the whole thing is just knowing that area so that if they’re not there you’ve got some other options that you can go and scatter and try and put something together in that same area instead of vacating and running to the other end of the lake. I don’t think that’s smart tactics.

Q - What is your current outfit  for flipping and pitching?

BM - 7.5’ Kistler rod XH, Ardent reels, Gamma line 20-25# test. If grass is a factor then I’ll go with a braid. Gamma makes both a copolymer as well as a straight fluorocarbon line, and I’m just really starting to play with the fluorocarbon. I like it so far. I use it crankin’. I use it jerkin’. I love it for those applications. And I’ve got into it with flipping now. Four or 5 years ago I tried fluoro, another brand, and I didn’t like it. I snapped off on hooksets. So I’ve learned to adjust a little bit. That’s helped out. Back off the drag a little bit.

Q - And for baits?

BM - Jigs without a doubt. I’ll have my own jig out there in about 2 weeks, so looking forward to that. With plastics I throw a Tru-Tungsten weight and either, it depends. If I’m on the river I’m usually throwing a Zoom ultravibe speed craw up to a brush hog. I throw the big brush hog a lot.

Q - Do you downsize baits on waters with 12” limits?

BM - I catch a lot of 12” fish on 10” worms, so I don’t see the need. In fact, I think sometimes it helps me because so many people downsize and they’re (the bass) often looking for something different. They’re looking for a meal, too.

Q - As someone who has successfully competed at the national level, why don’t we see more Indiana guys on those circuits?

BM - The financial commitment is the biggest key. Not having the money. As for the fishing, you just have to look at that body of water as; I look at 100,000 acres just like I look at Monroe as 10,000 acres. I can’t fish 10,000 acres, nor do I want to practice on 10,000 acres. So I do the same thing.

There’s a lot of information on the Internet, and through fishing you meet a lot of people, too.  You get general information here and there. Then pick a creek arm. On a lot of reservoirs they’ve got creek arms bigger than Monroe. So you pick one of those type of areas and that’s where you go fish. Don’t try and fish the whole thing. Same deal, go spend your 3, 4 or 5 days of practice in that particular creek arm that’s got a little bit of all kinds of structure in it and eliminate it, learn it and go from there. I think that was the biggest key for me. When you try and fish 300 or 400,000 acres all you do is just burn a lot of gas.

Q - You mentioned the financial component. I don’t think people realize just how much money it takes to compete on a national level.

BM - The way I look at it, I fished the FLW Tour and the FLW Series, which is 10 tournaments. Say you’re lucky enough to finish in the Top-50 in all 10 and you make $100,000. To put it in perspective, by the time I come off the road I made $29,000 profit and I haven’t paid any bills, my own truck payments, insurance, mortgage on the house, nothing. So it’s tough to make a living doing it. And it’s harder work than any job you’ll ever have working one.

Q - What about the talk you hear of the pros using secret baits, or prototypes, or at least not the same stuff as the everyday angler buys right off the shelf?

BM - I roomed with Tommy Biffle, and I got to fish with quite a few of those guys in practice and what not. You just jump in one guys boat or the others and fish together. They’re no different that what we are right here.  They do nothing no different. The only deal is they’ve got more time to spend on the water. The biggest key is a lot of those guys don’t have the pressure of having to physically make a check to come back home or to go to the next one.  And that goes back to that financial commitment. They don’t do anything different. They don’t have special baits. I mean, yea, they might get prototype stuff here and there, but there are no secret baits.

Q - So your advice to someone wanting to move up from state level competition to regional or national competition would be?

BM - Put your family first (laughs), and if you can’t afford to do it, do not do it. Don’t chase a carrot. I love to compete more than anybody, but you can lose everything you’ve got real quick, too.. I know one guy for sure that won $100,000 and that put him back to $0. That was going to pay his credit cards off. There’s a lot of guys out there just trying to make a check to get even.

Q - What are you seeing within the industry given the current financial status of the economy?

BM - It’s as bad as what you’re hearing, and a lot of them (sponsors) have pulled back. For fishermen who are fortunate to have sponsors, it just means you’ve got to work harder for that sponsor to keep him. You’ve got to be willing to do a whole lot more than you’ve ever done before. It’s tough out there right now.

Q - Give us a few more details about your new jig coming out, and where people can find them.

BM - It will be called the B-Mac jig. You’ll probably be able to find it at the Outdoorsman first (Greenwood). We introduced a spinnerbait and a buzzbait at the Outdoorsman’s Open House and we headed out to the Boat Show and they sold very well. They’re the B-Mac Buzz and the B-Mac spin. D&S Lures is actually the one who’s manufacturing them for me.

Bill's Sponsors: Ranger Boats, Toyota Trucks, Lucas Oil

More from Bill McDonald:

• Gnarly Crankin'
• Frog Video Tip
• Angler Profile (FLW)

Site Search Feature Added

The site has been going now for over 2 years. In that time frame I've made nearly 500 original posts as well as having another 775 comments added to those posts by both myself and the sites readers. It gets to the point where even I can't remember everything we've ever written about or discussed. Additionally, the site continues to grow in readership, recently surpassing 40,000 page views and currently generating nearly 5,000 new views every month. So there's a ton of information in the archives that many new arrivees have never seen, yet might not have the time to browse through all the category pages to find. Or perhaps you're looking for something specific, such as the type of circuit breaker I used on my jon boat rebuild, or if I've ever posted a trip report from Lake Waveland, or the research discussions into thermoclines we've had.

If you'll notice near the top of the right sidebar, just under the Bio and the site feed links, I've placed a Google Widget that will search only this site. I've tested it out on several historical topics to make sure it functions properly, and everything looked great. Just enter in a word or two for whatever it is you want to find or see if we've covered on the site, then hit the search button. A new window will pop up with all the links to relevent posts that contain that search string. You can then cllick on any results to take you directly to the posts made on that topic.

Give it a try and discover the huge amount of material we've covered over these past 28 months.

The 3 (or 4) Keys to Big Bass Production?

A soon to be published piece of research sheds some interesting perspective on what factors might be the largest determinants of big bass growth. I use the term "might" because the research was actually carried out on another member of the sunfish family, the bluegill. The question becomes how much overlap in principle do you want to read into the study.

Examining Interpopulation Variation in Bluegill Growth Rates and Size Structure: Effects of Harvest, Maturation, and Environmental Variables by Hoxmeier, et. al. sampled bluegill across 23 small lakes in Illinois covering all latitudes from the Wisconsin border down to the Ohio River. Big bluegill populations are about as rare and delicate as big bass populations, and we think we know quite a bit about the basic factors that contribute to these bigger fish, but this study arrived at some different conclusions. Quite simply the 4 factors that were most responsible for quality populations and growth of large bluegill were:

1. Temperature (the most important, warmer being better)
2. Water transparency (clearer was better)
3. Prey availability (more of the right kind is good)
4. Size at sexual maturity (males only)

Could it actually be this simple? The warmer the water the faster the growth and the longer the growing season (sound familiar with bass, the South having larger bass in general). The clearer the water the more likely that a predominant sight feeder such as bluegill (and perhaps bass?) could feed effectively. Prey availability for adults was third most important. Juveniles can feed on lots of options, but for maximum growth high abundance of the right type prey is important. The last, size of males at sexual maturity is probably applicable to just the bluegill.

Interesting is that harvest and density dependent growth didn't factor high in this survey, though on an individual lake basis these factors can be important. The researchers summarized...

"Whereas harvest and density-dependent growth have been shown to influence individual bluegill populations, their effects across a range of populations appear to be mitigated by temperature, water transparency, and prey availability. Although growth of individuals can be influenced by a variety of factors, our investigation suggests that fairly straightforward mechanisms at broader spatial scales are responsible for explaining variation among populations."

Finally, A Jerkbait Bite

Had a couple hours after work tonight to get out and play around some more. Thought I'd try for one big bite by tossing a jerkbait for suspended females over structural elements. When I pulled up to the ramp, one of the best jerkbait anglers on the lake was just pulling out. I stopped and talked with him for a few minutes about the bite. Seems he only had about 6 or 7 bites today. He was also trying for big fish a bunch with jerks, but it never happened. Instead he ended up tossing traps to catch most of his fish. He said the jerkbait bite has been terrible on this particular lake this year.

Needless to say I thought my plans for catching a big fish might be shot. He had already hit the majority of the known big structural spots without luck. I figured no sense it running used water. So I ran across the lake to the somewhat calmer, though still windy side of the lake to fish secondary areas he might have passed up. Then the worst thing that can happen to a bass angler occurred. I picked up the jerkbait, made a cast out near the end of a dock and promptly caught a bass. Every basser knows that catching a fish on the very first cast of a trip is the kiss-of-death for any more action. So while I was happy I actually caught a jerkbait fish, I was afraid for what the rest of my time out there might become...nothing but a big practice casting session.

So I unhooked the fish, popped him back into the lake and threw back out to the same area - and promptly stuck another bass. Two casts, two bass! A double whammy.  Why were the fishing Gods out to ruin my afternoon? Why couldn't those darn bass have just waited for my 2nd and 3rd casts to bite? So I fished around and kept throwing the jerkbait and actually had a pretty decent day for a while. The curse was broken.

Part of the reason for tossing the jerkbait was out of necessity. The water has warmed enough that in many areas the 'green snot' has started growing. This makes fishing any type of bottom bait an exercise in frustration. The areas I've been targeting with a jig have been deep enough and steep enough that the slime hadn't really fired up yet. On some of these flatter, shallower areas that isn't the case. So I ended the day with 17 bass, about a dozen of those on the jerkbait. Never did get the big female bite, but I did get a decent jerkbait bite for the first time this year. It's always a blast to jerk that bait down and pause, and then watch your line just jump as a greenie blasts it.

Weekend Bass Updates

I've been getting some fishing reports from this weekend that I thought I'd share, along with a few props. On Saturday out at Geist they held the WRBM Cabin Fever tourney. Thanks to some nice weather they had right around 40 boats show up. For those in the know the bite turned out to be pretty good. "The Waltinator" cracked some heads with a 17.9# sack of bass for a tie on the win. Several 14-16# sacks also came across the scales. Word has it jerkbaits accounted for many of the better bags. Check out the weights for the top 7 teams out at the factory:

1st - Jeff Rush & Walt Wynn - 5 fish - 17lb 9oz
1st - Dave Coffing & Bud Smart - 5 fish - 17lb 9oz
3rd - Dave Harmon & Max Manes - 5 fish - 17lb 5oz
4th - Ed Scales & Steve Jones - 5 fish - 16lb 13oz
5th - ChipKallchak & Jeff Pope - 5 fish - 16lb 0oz
6th - TI & Kevin Voorhis - 5 fish - 15lb 6oz
7th - Rich Huffman & Rich Bitman - 5 fish - 14lb 7oz

From Patoka Lake the Indiana Bass Federation held their first event. Results can be found HERE. Several friends were fishing it, all from the Co-angler side and most held their own out on the water. Jamoni Harper took third with a 15.94 limit of bass ripping shallow cranks around grass. Not far behind was Jr. Champion Jacob Wheeler with a solid 13th place showing in his first ever IBF event. His 3 bass 7+ pound sack came on spinnerbaits and jerkbaits. Rumor has it that if he catches just one more bass in the next five tourneys, someone over at Honey Creek Tackle will be out $150 ;) Aaron McAlexander (former Purdue B/M) also had a top-25 showing with a nearly 6 pound pig.

From last weekend I got this report from Mike Axsom, West Boggs Park Superintendent:

The first official West Boggs tournament of the season took place on March 14th, as the Fishers of Men event. The results of that annual tournament indicate that the Largemouth fishery is going to continue producing some bragging sized Indiana fish this year. If you crunch some numbers on this early event you can see some impressive data. For example:

• 11 boats out of a 20 boat field caught 30 bass with a total weight of 126.68 pounds
• That shows an overall average bass size of 4.22 pounds.
• The big Bass for the event was 7.68 Pounds
• Four boats had an average fish size over 5 pounds.
• 1st place had 3 fish totaling 16.76, or an average of 5.59
• Down in 7th place was a bag with only two fish weighting 11.81, for an average of 5.91.

I couldn't get free Saturday, but did get out for about 4 hours today. I was back out on the home reservoir trying to track the fish down again. Not a whole lot has changed over the course of the week. Water temps have picked up slightly as expected. Winds were calm and the clouds rolled in a little after noon. Talked to several guys out on the water and the bite appeared tough for many. Spoke with one boat that hadn't been bit all day. I ended up catching 22 bass, continuing to throw Don's custom jig for many of them. Did get some decent action though on a shallow diving crankbait, probably catching 8 or 9 bass on it. I think that bite would improve with just a bit more water color though. We're still pretty clear for this body of water with visibility running around 3 foot or so. That might partly explain the tough bite for some guys. Did stick one real nice fish on the custom jig, probably a prespawn female just starting to make her way in. She went 4-06 on the Chatillon.

For Paul, I'm now seeing small bass stalking the shallows in just a 1' or two of water most of the way back toward the ends of pockets and coves. Saw two occasions where the water erupted in a small frenzy as little bass charged the minnows or juvenile sunfish along the shore. Also catching several of my bass about 3/4 of the way up the reservoir, so fish are definitely pushing shallow. The big girl came from a traditional pre-spawn/cold water bank no more than 100 yds. into the mouth of a cove.

Bass Haiku (or 'please pass the gray poupon')

Traditional Japanese haiku has focused on nature and the place of humans in it. Some of the more common practices in English Haiku are:

• Use of three (or fewer) lines of 17 or fewer syllables;
• Use of a season word (kigo);
• Use of a cut (sometimes indicated by a punctuation mark) paralleling the Japanese use of kireji, to contrast and compare, implicitly, two events, images, or situations.

In our never ending quest to raise the bar on the intellectual capacity of this site, I now share with you a haiku (poetry) that came to me while heading out this morning I call 'Prespawn":

"Prespawn"

Frost on the Ranger - 
My Yamaha fires first try
Sun peeks Bass await

Photo by Jennifer Simmons

"Big Indiana Bass" Interviews...Hank Parker

Hank Parker, 2-time Bassmaster's Classic winner and host of "Hank Parker's Outdoor Magazine" made a stop here in Indy at Ted's Open House. We caught up with him and captured his thoughts on some of the new technologies including Side Imaging, fluorocarbon and E/TECH cranking sticks.

ON SIDE IMAGING UNITS:

There’s been a lot of changes in the 18 or 19 years since I retired from tournament fishing. There’s been a tremendous amount of change for the better. If you use the technology right, it could be a real benefit to you. About 3 years ago, Anthony Gagliardi from South Carolina won the Lake Murray tournament. And when he won that tournament… I fish that lake a lot, and I said, “Where did that kid win that tournament?”

“He won it in Clouds Cr. on the left hand side”, and I said, “No, he might of won it out of Clouds Cr., but he didn’t win it out of the left hand side cause that’s a bare nothing bank.” I’ve never caught  fish on that bank, never seen anybody fish it.

There is no structure on that bank. And he said “I’m telling ya, that’s where he won it.  Clouds Cr, left hand side, going in.”

OK, I knew better. So when I saw him about 3 or 4 weeks later, I said, “Anthony, did you win that tournament in Clouds Creek?”

He said “I did.”

I said, “Did you win it on the right hand side going in?”

He said, “Nope, I won it on the left hand side.”

I said “You’re kidding, there ain’t nothing there”.

He said “I know it, nothing there.”

I said, “How in the heck did you win that tournament then?”

He said, “I fished hard all week, and I established a pattern. I was catching my fish on a brown/black jig in 20-30’ of water on isolated rocks. If I could find a big rock, I could catch a fish.” And he said, “so I was fixin’ to go in Clouds Creek and fish a couple of points in there and on my way in I thought well I’ll go ahead and tie some baits on cause I had taken all my baits off. So I’m going to retie and put some baits on for when I go in.”

And he said, “I got my Hummingbird Side imaging unit …”

Never used a side imaging unit. I hate technology. I hate computers. I hate all that stuff. You know, so I’m very resistant on new innovative ideas. So he said, “I have my side imaging unit on and I’m going through there and ‘boom’ there’s a rock.”

And this is slick. You can take your little cursor and run it over there and mark that rock. Never go to it and you’ve got a waypoint. He said, “I just marked it as a waypoint.”  He said, “I’m just going on up in there and again, in about 25 foot of water, there’s another rock.”  ‘Boom’, mark it, went on. So he goes and goes and goes and ‘boom’, marks another rock.  He marked 4 rocks. He won the tournament off those 4 rocks. He said when he got through he turned around and went back to that first waypoint and caught about a 9-pounder. Went to the next waypoint, dropped, caught about a 7-pounder and then shook off 3 or 4 and left. First day of the tournament he goes in there, going to fish those 4 rocks first, and he catches 2 off the first rock, biggest one about 8, smallest one about 6. To make a long story short, when he left there he had 5 bass weighed 33 pounds. Pretty sporty. There is no possible way he, or anyone else would have ever known those rocks were there without that side imaging unit. You wouldn’t have known.

So that changed the way I thought about side imaging. I said I’m going to get one. I’m going to get one. Now when I first got it, it wasn’t the miracle unit that I thought it would be. It wasn’t quit as simple to read as I thought it would be. But the more I played with it, and the more I started to understand it, the more I liked it. And the more simple it became and the more beneficial it became to me.

ON FLUOROCARBON:

When I fished, we didn’t know what fluorocarbon was. The only people who knew anything at all about fluorocarbon 25 years ago were people that fished for tarpon and bonefish. That’s how it kind of got evolved into freshwater. Let me tell you what I’ve learned about fluorocarbon.

If you’re using monofilament fishing line, and let’s just say you’re fishing a jig in 20 foot of water. And that ledge that you’re fishing is right out in front of you a ways. You cast and you let that jig fall to the bottom. When you start to fish it…monofilament line floats, so you’re going to have, if you could have an underwater camera, you’re going to have your line trying to float and its going to taper down to your jig. And that’s the way it’s going to look. And when you hop it, you’re stretching that line out and moving that jig and letting it fall back and immediately again it tries to float. If you set the hook, you have to get that loop out of your line. You’ve got to take up all of that slack from that line floating. If you get a bite, that signal has to be transferred through that slop in that line. People say, ‘man, fluorocarbon is a hundred times more sensitive than monofilament’. No doubt - That’s why. If you ‘re using fluorocarbon line, it sinks. It’s very dense, so you’ve got a direct link straight to your jig. You don’t have that loop, so you feel the bite more readily, and then you don’t have all that slack to take up and set the hook.  So your hook-up ratio and your detection in feeling a bite has just improved about 100 percent. It’s going to make a lot of difference at the end of the day on how many fish you realize you have a bite on and how many you catch.

Now, what’s the trade-off?  The trade-off is you feel that fish way more proficient than if you’re using monofilament, but he feels you way more than if you were using monofilament, too. So you have to be a little quicker on the hookset, or quicker to drop slack the second you feel that bite. You can’t be as slow and as deliberate as when using monofilament …you know, going on point…’there he is’ and let him pull your rod down. When you pull it up there with fluorocarbon and he hits it, you have to immediately drop some slack or he’s going to feel you. That’s why a lot of people miss fish with fluorocarbon, because that fish is in the process of spitting the bait out before you ever get the hook set.  But if you’ll do it and use it to your advantage, you will be able to catch fish that you are not going to be able to catch on monofilament fishing line.

A lot of people say I don’t like to fish fluorocarbon exclusively because I like for my line to float when I’m fishing topwater. I do to. I definitely want my line to float when I’m fishing topwater. If you’re fishing fluorocarbon and you want your line to float while you’re fishing topwater, take about the last 20 feet, 25 feet and put some Chap Stick on it. It will float just as good as monofilament.

ON CRANKBAIT RODS:

On a crankbait, I don’t know, David Fritts has got the reputation as being one of the greatest crankbait fishermen ever, and he probably is. Ricky Clunn is another guy that has a great reputation as a crankbait fisherman. Both of those guys use fiberglass rods. Absolutely will not throw a crankbait on a graphite rod. Why?

Graphite responds about two or three times quicker than fiberglass. Fiberglass is real lazy to respond. Well, that’s bad if you’re fishing a shakey head or a jig. That’s good when you’re fishing a crankbait. Two things happen. It gives you a better hookup because it’s softer and you don’t have to jerk. You just keep winding and that fish doesn’t feel resistance until that rod is already loaded and then you just tug it and you’ve got a great hookup. He ate the bait. Whereas with a graphite rod it’s really easy to take that crankbait away from him. So that is a big benefit. But the biggest benefit of all is the fact that it is lazy to respond when that fish jumps.

I don’t know how many people in here fish lipless crankbaits, but if you’re a Christian that will really give you a test on how long you can fish it before you curse.  I will lose about every third fish. It just won’t leave me.  Drives me nuts. I hate  losing fish, ya’ know. But a lipless crankbait is world famous for losing fish.  You put it on a fiberglass rod you’ll cut that down and you’ll start losing one out of ten instead of every third fish. So you’ll greatly reduce the number of fish you’ll cull. That fish uses that fast reacting fishing rod to his advantage when he jumps. He will jump and load that rod up and make that bait shoot out of his mouth. That fiberglass rod won’t load up, it’s just lazy to respond.

You can take a fiberglass rod and you can’t hardly cast a big crankbait. It’s very difficult because the rod itself is too limber. It absorbs, it really…it takes a lot of talent, and if you watch Fritts and how he casts , it’s almost like he’s underhand casting. If you take a big crankbait and load your rod, your rod is going to absorb about ¾ of the energy and your crankbait is going to go about 40 feet instead of a hundred feet. So you want to take that rod, come all the way back here (behind you), and you want to heave it.

Gander Mountain Greenwood this Saturday

Just a quick reminder that I'll be out at the Gander Mountain Greenwood store hanging with the Indiana Smallmouth Alliance guys this Saturday from 10-2 back in the fishing dept. If you're in the area instead of out fishing, feel free to drop in and say hi. I'll be glad to try and answer any questions or help you out in any way, or if you're into creeks, kayaks or wading (and smallmouth), the INSA guys will be there to pick their brains.

Singing the Praises (Again) of Water Willow

We're pretty fortunate here in central Indiana to have several bodies of water that are blessed with an abundance of Justicia americana, also known as water willow. If you only talk fishing lingo, you may have frequently heard it referred to as 'Geist weed' or 'rock weed'. We've spoken of it before a couple years back in THIS POST, but a soon to be published paper from some of those same authors came across my desk today and I thought it would be a good topic to revisit.

The research is titled "Effects of American Water Willow Establishment on Density, Growth, Diet, and Condition of Age-0 Largemouth Bass in Kansas Reservoirs", again by Strakosh, et. al. If you read his doctoral dissertation the first time around, you'll have way more details than the linked abstract will provide. If not, read the abstract and see if it sounds interesting, then revisit the links in the original post to get lots of good details, including a lot of practical applications to bass fishing if you 'read between the lines' like I do. After doing so, there should be no surprise as to why 'the factory' (Geist Res.) is such a good fishery.

At present on the lakes you'll only find a bunch of dead and brown weed stems left over from the winter. But within another month or so you'll start noticing some new root nodules forming, along with a greening of shoot tips. Then it's off to the races as the plant grows pretty fast and furious as things heat up. By that time though you should have already popped some nice sacks of bass out of this veggie.