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An interesting study out of San Diego State University concerning the negative effects (mortality) of cigarette butts on fish life:
SDSU Study Says Cigarette Butts Kill Fish
Fortunately, if you do the math, at a rate of 1 cigarette butt tossed per liter of available water, even our typical sized reservoirs such as Geist, Morse, Cataract, EC, Raccoon, etc. would require about 23.8 billion butts each to become toxic enough to kill fish. Still, don't be a butthead and toss them in the lake.
A few weeks ago, KVJ was hanging out at the qualifier on Brookville when one of the better sticks on L. Waveland ran into him and got to chit chatting. At some point he looked in KVJ's box and saw a certain colored Poes crankbait and mentioned that that particular bait was the "hot" bait over on Waveland right now. When KVJ told me that I just had to laugh. What are the odds that an 18 year old kid just happened to have the "hot" Waveland color of a particularly old bait? Pretty good if he fishes with me a lot - LOL.
Bass fishing is a funny sport. We all like to figure out a secret bite, or a hot color that the competition hasn't quite dialed into yet. I'm no different than anyone else and that mentality is a big driver for why I still fish as seriously as I do. When we do figure it out, however that comes about, we'd like to believe that we've found something new. In reality, much of what we do is nothing more than the old coming full circle and being "new" again.
I started fishing tourneys on Waveland about 20 years ago, and began to get really dialed into the bite out there a few years later. Back when KVJ was celebrating his first birthday and still crapping his Pampers, my partner and I were whacking the competition on Waveland in the days of double team limits and a declining fishery. We were often accused of cheating, but we simply put in our time and figured out a couple bites that the competition hadn't. We also learned the lake like the proverbial "back of our hand".
One of those bites was the deep crankbait bite, and we threw those exact same colored Poe's baits back then. They were the "hot" baits at the time, but others before us that we learned from did very well deep cranking with a particular color Mann's 20+. We were just more specific with our presentations, trying to replicate the approach of one deep cranking newcomer to the national tourney scene, David Fritts. Having been tipped off to this bite last year by others who've fished out there with me, guys getting on Ebay and buying up these "hot" baits now as well as using other deep cranks aren't doing anything but replicating what us old timers knew was a "hot" bite out there over two decades ago. And, of course newer baits like the Strike King series of cranks and Rapala's DT series work well too, it's just that everyone has those baits because you can get them right off the shelf of your local tackle store, and they're new and they're popular. That's one reason why some guys are taking these baits and getting custom paint jobs on them. Still, they do catch a lot of fish right out of the box "as is". I guess my only gripe is with those out there now pretending to have discovered this "new" bite.
The cool thing to me is that the crankbait bite is still just as "hot" in 2009 as it was in 1989. Even cooler is that the specific holes, or more correctly the "spot on the spots" haven't changed over that same time period. Guys try and get all secretive and place brushpiles out there now days, but those brushpiles really just get in the way and detract from what is actually holding the fish there. Fortunately the brushpiles break down and disappear after a few years. In the mean time, they're easy to find and I'll gladly add them to the GPS unit and fish them for bonus bites while they're still attractive to fish.
My long time tourney partner, Bryan Johnson, and Jim Huguenard, his draw partner for a tourney on Waveland today just reiterated the above point. Jim caught his first ever Indiana limit and Bryan was right there with him, the boat combining for nearly 22 pounds of bass today (2nd and 3rd place respectively) fishing some of the same "20 year old holes" I showed to Bryan. The best part for Bryan due to his work schedule is that he didn't need to take any time off prefishing or burn up any weekend time with the family. I simply gave him some lineups and marked a few spots for him and the two went out there and executed. BTW, Josh McDermott ended up popping the boys for the second year in a row out there ;) I showed Josh a few spots out there last year, but from the sounds of it he didn't need much in the way of deep spots as the shallow water morning bite was on, and Josh is a shallow water specialist.
Speaking of shallow water, a lot of guys don't realize just how easy it is to figure out where you need to concentrate your efforts when hitting a lake. Everybody gets all wrapped up in the dock talk and the patterns and get to hopping here and there, but 10 minutes with a graph would be so worth their time. The screen shot to the left (click to enlarge) is one from Waveland today and is pretty self explanatory. When you see shad schools balling up and trails of marauding bass sitting out over the drop and in intercept position, good things begin to happen. The key though is focusing on the depth of all this activity, in this case 6'-8'. Fish aren't pinned down on the break, or slid down toward the bottom of the drop. They're all up and active. This shot was from late in the day when the boat traffic had the shad pushed down, but you can bet it was an even shallower zone of activity first thing this morning before the boats started piling in. Bottom line is that within 10 minutes of hitting the lake, you could have easily determined that most all the good stuff was going to be coming from shallow water today and then adjusted your game plan appropriately. It would have been really easy to fish too deep today and miss out on all that activity if you weren't paying attention. Take home message is time spent idling is time spent wisely.
By Richard Ziert
“Heavenly shades of night are falling – It’s twilight time”. – Circa 1944
This endearing melody has been recorded again and again by such as The Platters, Anne Murray, and Andy Williams. It is a love song. Its lyrics give support to those who fish late afternoon into evening. The song speaks of the mist of evening with purple curtains, deepening shadows, a rendezvous beneath the blue. Hum along with me as we grow nostalgic; as we see ourselves at these times.
There’s something here that goes beyond face value and into the night. Common knowledge tells us both the break of day and the approach of night are twilight time, and prove productive times to fish. The nuances of such conditions can further our catch.
WW2 - Bomber Command was tasked with the night bombing of Germany , and wore red-lenses in goggles for about an hour before flying a mission to provide night adaptation of vision. Submariners switch to red light before opening the hatch at night. Because white light briefly degrades night vision, these goggles or lights are designed to reduce the adaptation time from light to dark.
But what of this transition period for fish? Most experienced anglers notice a complete bite shut down after twilight for about an hour? Coincidence? Not hardly. These fish are adapting to their own form of night vision and are temporarily vision impaired. Timing and our place in the moment is everything in life. So it is with fish and fishing. For greatest percentage bets, fish shallow initially at twilight. Then as the black of night approaches, fish somewhat deeper, or more shaded areas. These fish who were never shallow and have the foraging advantage of less light penetration, have already adapted to the light change. After about an hour, go shallow again if you wish.
“Together at last at twilight time.”
My wife and I just got back in from an extended weekend trip down to Lake Barkley, Kentucky over the Father's Day weekend. I had purchased and set up a guide trip for my father, and it was a good excuse to make the long drive down to visit family. We went out Monday morning from the Lake Barkley State Park Marina where I met Dave Stewart of Bass Buster Guide Service. The following are some comments and observations from the trip.
The first thing I noticed right off the bat was how incredibly quiet Dave's 200hp Evinrude E-Tec was. I've always been a fan of Johnson/Evinrude engines, and when Bombardier bought them out and retooled the line up, I paid extra to make sure I got one for the Triton. Dave was in a 19'10" Ranger and that Evinrude was a heck of a power plant. I never actually GPSed his running speed, but needless to say it was a very impressive ride. I'd certainly be looking into one myself should I ever decide to get back into a larger boat.
One of the next things I noticed that I thought were really cool were the rod sleeves Dave used on his outfits. I'm not sure if his Ranger rod lockers had built in rod holders at one time or not, but if so they were removed. The brightly colored sleeves were actually called "Stick Jackets" and worked like a charm. They're extremely flexible and no-hassle when it comes to sliding over your rod blank, and affordable on top of it. Again, another item I'd be looking into should the need ever arise.
On to the fishing. We were the recipients of a blue sky, 97 degree day with barely a breeze in the air. On top of that, we never had the Corps pulling water while we were out, so as you can imagine, the ledge bite suffered. The fish were definitely there as witnessed by Dave's Lowrance 520c, mostly grouped up in about 16'-20' of water, but they certainly weren't in a feeding mood for the most part. The one good side to that, if there is one, was the lack of wind and current meant the lake was nearly dead calm and made running everywhere a pleasure.
We started out fishing some main lake and secondary points adjacent to creek and river channels. I got to throw a super-sized shakey head setup to begin. This was pretty cool as the custom 5/8-oz head had a built in 6/0 hook and was rigged with a straight tail worm of about 10" or longer (I didn't actually measure it). Unfortunately a problem quickly surfaced as Dave told me to slow down and stop moving that worm so much - fish slow!
Anyone who has ever fished with me knows that fishing slow really isn't my style. It's the reason I almost never fish worms in the first place, though I've gotten a little better at it over the years. Still after a couple reminders on the first spot Dave took away the shakey worm from me :)
So on the next spot I get to instead throw a football head jig. Sweet - this I can do. "You need to slow down. This is the draggin' technique", Dave quickly scolded me. Now in all fairness, Dave just wanted me to catch fish and was being helpful, and perhaps this was one of those "when in Rome, do as the Roman's do" kind of things, and I swear, I tried to slow down, like painfully slow for me. So we were both trying to do the right thing, but me and slow just don't go together. Call it a character flaw. If Dave got to collect a dollar for every time through the trip he reminded me to slow down he would have made a nice little pot of money on the side.
After the first several ledge spots it was obvious that bite wasn't happening, so we moved into some creeks and fished worms around some isolated cover areas for late post-spawners. This garnered us about 8 or 10 fish, but they were all small. We moved around trying to find some larger fish but it just wasn't happening, plus Dave was probably getting tired of me getting hung up in the brush from fishing my Texas rig too fast in the cover :) So we rolled back out onto the main river to see if they had staretd pulling current yet. Nope. Damn!
Back into another creek, but this time we started checking out ledges farther back into the creek but that wouldn't necessarily be reliant on any current generation. With about 2 hours left in the trip, Dave finally triggers a bite on his super-size shakey head. The fish actually bit half the tail off. Good sign.
Dave rerigs and throws back in and gets bit on the drop. Very good sign. I'm no dummy and immediately get the lineup down and wing the football head jig to the ledge. I get to move it a few feet when I get popped and set the hook into a decent fish. Now we've got something going, a group of fish that has decided to move up and feed. Finally.
Dave's job of finding and triggering the bite now done, he puts his rod down, keeps the lineup and lets my Dad and I have at it. My Dad is chunking a Carolina rig while I stick with the football head. My Dad gets one, then I get a couple more, then we double up. This is what I was finally waiting for and was the kind of bite I was hoping I could get my Dad into. We work the spot for nearly an hour, but the bite dies down about 30 minutes in. Still, it was a frenzied half hour and really lifts everybodies spirits up after toiling for 5 hot hours in the baking sun. As we head in it's all smiles after that flurry of activity that boats about 15 or 16 decent bass between us.
At dinner that night, plans are already being drawn up for another trip with Dave, this time in late spring when the big females are up and the weather is a little cooler. Stories of big fish and lots of them when they move into the "yellow flowers" has the wheels turning, but for now I'll just sit back and enjoy what was a great way to spend a couple days of "down" time.
I've been playing around the last few weeks with football jigs, and I'm beginning to really like them. I've never been a huge plastics fan, so I don't do a whole lot of Carolina rigging. That said, the football jig seems to be the best alternative to that presentation from a jig fishing perspective. I love the jig and usually keep one tied on year round, especially for heavy cover and murky water shallow presentations. They will also work well in deeper water in place of a worm, but the worm usually gets more bites. I think it has to do with either a.) the fish by summertime have gotten pretty accustomed to seeing jigs and worms are just something different, or b.) their dietary preferences have changed and the long slim profile of a plastic worm is a much better representation of that diet than a short, bulky jig.
Either way, I've fished some Booyah's, Eakin's and Last Cast Baits football jigheads and they all seem to work similarly. Different hook styles, different skirt designs, etc., but same basic concept and what seems to be equal bites at the moment. I'll probably have more to say later in the year after fishing these more, as well as trying a couple other brands and trailer types, but for now I'd say if you haven't tried them yet, grab a couple the next time you're in the fishing dept. and throw them a bit on your water and see what you think.
Like many anglers, I don't get in too many weekday trips except when fishing from the bank. I catch my fair share from shore, but I am obviously limited to particular spots that I just have to try and make the best of while maximizing whatever potential they offer. Today however, I was able to sneak out in the boat to the local reservoir for about 3.5 hours this afternoon. Conditions were pretty conducive to catching bass, at least most guys would tend to think they'd be biting. Heavily overcast with the threat of rain, just a light breeze, warm and muggy. Combine that threat of rain with a weekday traffic pattern and things are pretty good from an anglers perspective. We saw two jet skiers, one panfisherman and only one other bass fisherman. This meant we basically had the lake to ourselves, along with all the "good" holes.
The end result was a pretty decent day with about 30+ bass including several nice fish and one real solid one. This is a lake I fish regularly, have caught hundreds of bass from there already this year, and yet have only caught one other fish of this quality from it in 2009. They are obviously in there, so was it just my time? Were weather conditions just very amenable to a good fishing day regardless, or does the lack of pressure put good fish biting on good spots, only to change feeding patterns when the typical weekend traffic hits?
Inquiring minds want to know....
Briefly Revisiting the Inherited Traits LMB Study
Back on the subject of bass catchability as an inherited trait for a moment. We also covered it HERE. I came across this posted editorial yesterday in the Outdoors column of The Washington Times by Gene Mueller and thought it rather entertaining. Click the link and take a quick read for yourself.
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