Big Indiana Bass

Trips: 83  Hours: 222.0   Bass: 898  No. > 5#: 1

Here is a piece I came across several years ago and saved. It seems appropriate since I just got my butt kicked by the fish out on the water today (I scrounged 2 dinks in 3 hours). It came from the gentleman who used to run a little bait shop (Castaic One Stop?) by Lake Castaic in California during the big bass boom out west.

"Fish are always catchable somewhere on the lake and not catchable somewhere on the lake. Phrases such as “the fishing rocks” or “the fishing sucks” imply that the speaker is some sort of prophet or at least a fortuneteller. Fish do what they want, when they want. They will bite out of hunger, fear, aggravation, or just because. Fish move sometimes and fish are still sometimes. Fish are caught with hand lines and with 400 dollar G-Loomis rods. They are caught from boats, rafts, tubes or standing on the shore. They are caught on plastic worms and live worms. They are caught on almost ever color imaginable in every type of weather, 365 days a year, at any hour of the day. From the tiniest dab of pink powerbait to monstrous trout imitations... they all have and will continue to catch bass.

The point is this:

The single most important factor to catching larger fish and higher numbers of fish is time on the water. Everything else is of limited, secondary, and minor importance, or is simply a case of marketing. Fishing is big business. Most fishing tips are massive generalities, regardless of what lure manufacturers, heavily sponsored patch covered pros, or bait shop guys might say. A single passing cloud, the smallest of temperature variations, minute barometric flux, current shift, and yes, even the whim of the fish itself, can turn the fishing from bad to good or vice-versa.

Time on the water.

Somebody else’s bad day could be your best day ever. Experiment. Trust your instincts. Be patient. Fish within your budget, and remember that you can't get 'em if you're not there. To most truly great fishermen, fish reports are little more than entertainment. They are going to fish regardless. Confidence and steadfastness is what makes them grow as fishermen. Become more versatile, experiment, and ultimately, it means that you will catch far more quality fish than the guy who decided to stay home because somebody told him that fishing was tough, or he's afraid the wind is gonna blow or the moon isn’t right.

Time on the water.

I think many fisherman have forgotten that fishing is a sport, and like all sports, excellence comes at a price -- one major price great fisherman pay is giving up an extraordinary amount of their time, which is one of the reasons why I myself will never be a great fisherman. Why do I write all this? Although I have enjoyed writing the fish reports these last three years, I have begun to loathe the question, "Howz da fishin!" I cringe because the question is absolutely unanswerable. Anything I could say about the fishing at any given moment could be completely false the next. Fishing really is a personal experience and the goodness and/or badness of the experience depends only on you, your personal skills, the fish, and his personal skills. '-) I understand why some publications simply list that Joe Shmoe caught a 10 pounder in their fish reports... it was something that I wanted to stay away from, but I have found this type of report almost inevitable. Why tell the angler about the 5 guys who said it was the worst day of fishing in their life when you can tell him about the guy who caught a 10 pounder on a waterdog! You want to try and boost their confidence, right? So many times in the back of my mind, as I am doing my best to describe the fishing at Castaic, I am thinking to myself... "Just go fish man. If you want to fish, then just grab your pole, drive up here and GO FISH. It doesn't matter if Jimmy and Johnny and Steve caught anything or not this morning, because it's not this morning anymore!" Have I simply grown cynical you may ask? Am I just burned out on the question? Perhaps. But I am still the kind of fisherman who, after a whole day of not even a bite, can still say "I had a great day!" because I got my time on the water."

I wanted to take a minute and expound a little before moving forward with the lure "reviews". There is a method to the madness. One idea, as already mentioned is the ability to actually compare baits side-by-side using known and measureable parameters. This allows for statements of fact and a basis for standardization. It becomes easy to define a "sparse" weedguard or a "fine wire" hook when you have numerical values for these things.

Another even grander idea though is to get you to think about all the components that go into setting the hook and landing a fish. One of the biggest complaints you hear from people on message boards is losing fish. Everyone likes to talk about line size and rod action and try and solve the dilemma. Some even suggest changing hook brands. In reality though, there is no one single answer to this problem. But part of figuring out an answer for your particular setups has to do with analyzing many of these attributes and how they affect the overall process of hooksetting. For example, thinner wire hooks are more likely to flex on a hookset and thereby not generate as much direct pressure at the point, yet that thin diameter can mean less pressure to puncture. The same can be said for different styles of hooks, with varying eye bends or hook configurations (sproat, widebend, EWG, etc.). Change any of these and you change the physical principals. Wide gaps versus small gaps, big barbs versus little or no barbs all come into play when putting together a system and trying to be as efficient as possible when it comes to landing your fish.

As such, I have several different articles to pass along that all deal with different aspects of the overall equation of hook-setting physics. After reading these, you'll have a better idea of why I chose to do lure reviews 'Big Indiana Bass" style:

• David Dudley: Heavy Rods
• Barbs: A Limiting Factor In Hook Penetration
• Steelhead Fly Hooks
• Saltwater Hook-Setting Basics
• Setting the Hook: How Hard is too Hard?

Just wanted to take a minute and pass along a few things of interest. First is a discussion going on over at the BFHP concerning Hydrogen Peroxide use as an oxygen enhancer to livewells. I've heard the story, know about it's use as a disinfectant in fish hatcheries, but have never seen a study verifying anything quantitatively about O2 levels in livewells. The thread has a post that gives the first actual use numbers paired with concentration rates and O2 measurements that I've seen. Would love to see an actual study in print delving further into this subject matter.

The second is a shareware program for converting about anything of mathematical significance. "Convert" was shown to me by a colleague at work last year and it is absolutely my favorite math item. Pop the icon onto your desktop and most everything numerically convertable is just a click away! And no need to worry, this program is "safe" and "virus free".

Finally, I've made a slight change to the lure analysis categories. "Barb Depth" has been changed to a single number that basically takes into account how far the barb sticks out from the hook wire as well as the wire itself. In other words, the minimum size hole diameter the barb will create when punching through fish tissue. The larger this number, the more force required to completely penetrate. I also added a "Wire Diameter" measurement so that you can tell fine wire hooks from heavy duty hooks. As you've probably guessed by now, I found my micrometer!