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« October 2009 | Main | December 2009 »

November 30, 2009

Words of Wisdom

I was filing through some of my notes the other day when I came across a short note I had received from Greg Mangus many years back. For those that don't know him, Greg is without a doubt one of the best bass anglers in the state - has been for more than two decades now. We've spoken numerous times over the years, and I've had the pleasure of fishing with Greg up on the St. Joe River. Lots of guys would love to know what makes Greg so damn good, myself included at the time, so I asked him. I've been sitting on this little piece of self-reflection for nearly six years now, so hopefully he won't mind me sharing with readers what he had to say.

"After some thought, I think that my consistency is mostly a result of my desire to learn and my on the lake observations. I am not sure I am a real competitive person. Not that I don’t like to win, I am just thoroughly involved in the moment. I want to know everything and every inch of a lake. I generally am not stuck in doing one thing in a few places. I want to understand all presentations and not limit a bait to a single way of fishing it. I also believe I pay more attention to the speed factor than most.
 
Good locations are not definitive. They are good one day or week and not the next or not even year to year. That is why it is so important to know every inch of a body of water and not just three or four favorites. Fish everywhere. Know all the possibilities – or at least as many as you can."

- Greg Mangus

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November 29, 2009

Superlines Go Head-to-Head On the Water

So I know the flame green Fireline has been walloping the bass and crappie for me this fall. I also know the new red PowerPro was doing a good job on the crappie yesterday. Only thing left to do was to compare the two against each other on my local bass lake. I got that done Saturday afternoon.

Only two rods in the boat today, both spinning outfits with the two lines mentioned spooled up and each tied directly to identical jigs. I ran almost all new water today so that any bass I encountered weren't already negatively conditioned to the flame green line from previous catches. Today's tough conditions: clear blue sky, SSW winds at 8-15 mph, water temp. at 48 degrees and very clear water for this reservoir, nearly 6' or better. Air temps in the mid-50's.

 

I started with the flame green outfit until I caught a few bass and would then set it down and pick up the other (red PP) outfit. I'd continue to throw the red PP for a few more fish and then switch off again. If I went for more than 15 minutes without a bite I'd automatically switch rods again. I counted total fish today, and paid attention to general size and numbers relative to line color caught on. This went on for the entire afternoon, fishing from about 1:00 PM until 5:30 PM.

Total bass caught for the trip today was 53, so I got a good set of numbers to base my opinion on. And the winning line was...

 

...A tie! In all honesty, line color and type didn't seem to make any difference. I caught just as many quality fish on both outfits, as well as many smaller fish on each. Overall numbers were very comparable also. I never broke off a single fish, so line durability was equally good. There is a definite visual advantage for the angler using the flame green line, but even in the clear water conditions with the sunny skies I had today, bass didn't seem to care about that extra visibility. The red PP could be easily seen against some backgrounds, but not so easily seen against others. Neither line seemed to confer any "feel" advantage, both being crappy when slack and great when taut.

So take whatever message you want from this little test. Nearly 200 bass in November on the colored super lines has me believing that at least on the limited lakes I've been fishing, bass could care less. If the superlines fit into your tackle profile, then go ahead and use any of them you want, and don't worry too much about their color or having to tie on leaders to avoid spooking bass.

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November 28, 2009

Decisions, decisions!

Let's see. The Friday after Thanksgiving and I have the day off work. I could get up early and do what everyone else is doing today:

  

Or I could meet Lee at the ramp and have to deal with this.

  

Decisions, decisions....

That's Lee getting the boat ready to roll.  We were the only boat in the lot today - man I hate when that happens. Actually, one other guy pulled out just before I arrived, having spent the past 3 hours chasing crappie and only catching 4 keepers. Perhaps a bad omen, but I still liked our chances.

Air temp was 35 when we launched at 11:30 and would never get above 38 degrees all day. Water color varied depending on where you were at and surface temps were 48-49 degrees. Lake still down just over 5 feet and winds were out of the west from 8-10 most of the day.

Lee and I ran some old holes and went looking for some new ones. Played around shallow and deep. Ended the day catching about 85 crappie, but no giants. A whole lot of fish in the 9"-11" range today, nothing better. Caught them as shallow as 6' and as deep as about 15'. Tube jigs and slider grubs did the damage today, and for the first time in a long time for me on this lake it was versions of white that were heavily preferred by the crappie over chartreuses.

As a side note, the new 10/2 PowerPro worked very well today. Threw it a lot more than the flame green Fireline, primarily as a test. I ran the micrometer on it the night before and it is really more like 10/4, as the diameter is just over .008" and my 4 pound Stren mono is .0078". The red color is harder to see than the chartreuse Fireline, but the fish didn't seem to mind. Am hoping to get to throw it at some bass in the next day or two to see how they react to it.

I also played around a bit with some 2# fluorocarbon. Talk about some sewing thread. This stuff handled great, but trying to tie knots with it is a huge challenge for the visually impaired. Interestingly, I caught very few fish on it today, so the verdict is still out on this one. It did allow me to toss 1/16-oz. jigs where I normally have to toss 3/32nds, and cut the wind like a champ. Diameter is something to the tune of .006" if I remember right. Still, you're not getting your jig back when you hang up with this stuff - it's breaking first. Again, I plan to toss it in the clearer waters of my local bass lake to see what happens soon.   

Back on the crappies, I think some of the really shallow fish might be starting to head back out to deeper water, but didn't mess with them too much. Caught a couple white bass also, but didn't run into any of the big schools like some guys have been hitting. Just another great day on soft water in late November with a great fishing partner.

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November 27, 2009

The Rhythm of Your Lake - Lake Secrets

Not to make a big thing out of it, but I've a radio interview coming up on Dec 2, 4:00 P.M. Eastern Time, where I'll try not to make too much a fool of myself teaching listeners how to find the basis of a lakes natural rhythm. This has not been done before on the scale as we present it. We will cover the how, why, and where of fish behavior and that of their prey items.

Dan Giffen, Brian Simon and myself, co-authors of a comprehensive study report, have over 50 years combined experience on the lake we’ve picked for illustration. The report is such that it can be adjusted to fit any lake. Bass Elite Pro Gary Klein agrees with us that “Fish are conditioned by their environment”. What Gary may not know until he reads our report, is just how greatly the evidence can add up to making everyone a better fishermen.

If interested, you can tune into Ohio Buckeye Sportsman by going to Dan Armitage's web site - http://www.buckeyesportsmanlive.com/ - first to search/find radio station affiliates which will carry the broadcast, and secondly, look for "Pod Cast" on Dan's site. If you can't get any of the stations directly, there is about a week delay before the entire recording ends up on Dan's pod casts. Take care and wish me luck. . . I'll need it.

If you or anyone else wants a full hard copy of the 29 page report, they can contact me at ; $7.00 shipping and handling.

-Rich Ziert

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November 26, 2009

Happy Thanksgiving - Pumpkin Pi

Since I forgot to post this back at Halloween, I'll post it today as everyone sits down to eat some pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving. Reader/contributor Rich Ziert's oldest daughter is the craftsperson behind this science based carving. Here's wishing all readers a happy holiday weekend!

 

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November 25, 2009

Remembering Ethel

Those that follow big bass will probably remember Ethel, the first ShareLunker entry and at one point the Texas state record bass caught by Mark Stevenson on Nov. 26, 1986. The fish was later donated to Bass Pro Shops where it lived a happy life as a tourist attraction for many years in the giant aquarium. Matt Williams writes a good piece on the catch in yesterday's Lufkin Daily News (see below).

My little personal link to the story comes from the fact that I drew out with Mark Stevenson at the B.A.S.S. Tennessee Top-100 tourney on Chickamauga Res. back in May 1990. Mark was still riding the wave of notoriety from the catch back then, and we got to talk about the big catch as well as many other things that day. Turns out Mark was pretty adept with a spinning outfit and graph, as he had a limit in the boat within an hour fishing a grub for schooling bass he had found at the mouth to one of the larger spawning bays that day.

Ethel: The fish that changed the scope of Texas bass fishing - forever

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November 23, 2009

The Other Superline

I posted some magnified pics (Leica MZ6 Digital Microscope) of the hi-vis Fireline I've been throwing lately back on November 18. Another line I use for bass fishing, almost exclusively on my frog rod is PowerPro. PowerPro is a very similar superfiber to Fireline, but with a different production process. While Fireline is a fused superline, PowerPro is a braided version of a similar fiber. That fiber is known by the tradename of Spectra, which is owned by Honeywell. Both lines belong to a family of fibers known as ultra high molecular weight polyethylene.

I just stopped by my local Dick's Sporting Goods store and picked up a batch of 10/2 PowerPro to try on my crappie and bass outfits. I haven't had a chance to mic the line yet, but I'll post some comparisons when I do later tonight. I did get to throw the new line under the microscope though and take a few shots. You can see these below. One thing you'll notice right away is the braided design of the many smaller fibers that are used to create a single strand. The benefit here being that you end up with a line that is more similar to monofilament or fluorocarbon in shape, that being "more round". As such it makes for easier handling in general, especially on a reel where the odd shape of Fireline tends to get wedged into itself when extra pressure is placed on the spooled line, such as from a good hookset.

The bright highlighted spots in the photos are probably from the coating which is applied in the production process. Fireline is very similar in this instance. This coating is what makes these lines a bit "stiff" though they really have no memory. Even under much higher magnification, the two types of line look very similar in regards to this coating. Only after that coating has a chance to get worn down do the lines begin to get much less stiff. Still, this stiffness is not to be confused with the "spring off your spool" type springiness you get with mono or fluoro.

Hoping to get the line spooled up and used over the holiday weekend. I'll give an update after I do get a chance to use it on the water. One other quick comparison I did already complete was a weight to length analysis. My Fireline came in at 7.86 x 10 -4 g/inch, while PowerPro came in at 1.27 x 10 -3 g/inch. In simpler terms, PowerPro weighed 16X more per given length than the Fireline for similar diameter line. I'm guessing both are still considerably lighter than either mono or fluoro based on parent material densities, probably at least half as light as mono and maybe 4X lighter than fluoro. These lines actually float due to their density relative to water.


 

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November 22, 2009

More of the Same

I saw this evening on the extended weather forecast that we'll be looking at our first shot at some snow showers beginning Wednesday night with the threat continuing through Thanksgiving evening. Highs are going to barely reach 40 on Thursday, and aren't going to be too much higher come the weekend. Water temps will certainly be headed down after this next cold front. That said, the nice weather continued for another day today.

Back out on the lake chasing green fish again, and another strong bite. Squeezed about 4 hours of fishing in this afternoon and brought 48 fish aboard the tin machine. Best fish went 4 pounds, but the rest were 18" and under. Won't hear a single complaint from me though. Water clarity is very good for this lake, now aproaching 4'-5' on the lower end but the fish continue to bite strong on the flame green Fireline. I'm fairly certain/confident that the line color isn't in any way negatively affecting the bite at this point. Have compaired notes with another Fireline user and he's certain he's seen it make a difference on some bodies of water, so I won't know more until I take it out on the road to some other lakes. That probably won't happen until next year.

Did do a little note taking today for you Paul. If you haven't seen his post over on Bass Resource, you might pop in and check it out. He's noticed excess reddening of the upper lips/teeth of bass, especially at this time of year. You can plainly see what I'm referring to in the picture at right. So I kept track of this phenomenon on every fish I caught. Of the 48 bass landed, 11 had "red lips" with a couple more just starting to show some partial reddening. Every other fish was normal white or flesh colored. Water temps were 50-51 degrees everywhere I fished, and I saw no obvious correlations to size of fish or locations where caught.

I'll try and keep an eye out on these last few trips of the year to see if the percentages change. I'm not exactly falling for the crawfish feeding theory that has been proposed by others based on what I saw today. I also found nothing specific in the literature for why this might be occurring. Will be interesting to see how the percentages hold up, especially back in the spring after iceout while we still have very cold water temps, and then follow on through spring spawn into summer.

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November 21, 2009

Heading North to Noblesville

Had to drive into Indy this morning for a meeting, so carried a few fishing poles along. I had received an invite to hop out to Morse Res. in the afternoon to chase after some crappie, so I couldn't refuse. The weather was great, too nice as usual for crappie. Almost no wind, blue skies and highs in the mid 50's. Water temps are running just at or under 50 also, and decent clarity. Not having to drag a boat along with a great bonus.

Hit the water about 12:30 and the news was bad. A couple reports from others on the water were that the bite sucked. One boat had already left and the other was struggling. We were hoping for better, but found a similar bite to start. Several small fish and pretty light biters. We hit about 3 different spots on or near the main lake with the same results, so we decided to make a change. Headed into the back end of a creek arm and started checking out a stump field we knew of. Picked up a couple more small fish, but also picked up a good fish or two. We decided to drop a couple buoys and tough it out.

Ended up identifying about 6 or 7 individual stumps on this particular drop, and just started rotating around for the next couple hours. Beat them from all different angles and using several different baits. Every 20-30 minutes we'd catch a good fish or two, then things would die off. Stuck with it though and ended up with a little over a dozen crappie, all over 11" and pretty chunky. The lake wasn't on it's best behavior, but the quality of fish made up for the lack of overall action.

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November 20, 2009

Bigger Isn't Better, Just Preferred

A new study out in the journal Physiological and Biochemical Zoology takes a look at mate selection in smallmouth bass. It seems female smallmouth tend to prefer larger males when it comes to spawning season, presumably because larger size suggested better fitness. But it turns out that isn't the case, at least from blood tests that showed larger males were in no better shape from a physiological standpoint. Kind of reminds me of my wife who is always telling me that just because I'm skinny doesn't mean I'm healthy :)

To read the writeup over on the Physorg site, see the following link:

For fish, bigger doesn’t always mean healthier

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