Monthly Archives: September 2015

How Bass Fishing Can Be Extremely Frustrating?

Bass fishing can be extremely frustrating! It never fails, when I think I know what to do to catch fish it doesn’t work. And when two days in a row are completely different because you are on two different lakes it gets crazy.

Last Friday I left at 4:00 PM to go to Lake Demopolis in west Alabama to do an article for Alabama Outdoor News magazine. The 200 mile drive was supposed to take about four hours so I went on Friday since I had a tournament at Oconee on Sunday and didn’t think I could drive eight hours and fish several hours on Saturday.

When I was about 30 miles this side of Montgomery on I-85 I passed one of those trailer signs that said “Wreck Ahead – Slow Down.” I knew it must have been bad if they had time to get a sign beside the road.

Sure enough, about two miles later I came to a stop. Traffic was backed up as far as I could see. To make things worse, I was low on gas and had been planning on stopping at the next exit to fill up.

An hour later I got to that exit, one mile from where I had stopped. And it looked like half the people on the interstate had the same idea as me. It took me another full hour to get off the interstate, get gas and get back on the interstate. The gas station was so crowded half that time was just trying to get out of the parking lot!

Back on the interstate I never saw any sign of a wreck. And I got to Demopolis in six hours, not four, so I didn’t get as much sleep as I had hoped.

I fished with local angler Corey Smith and he knows Demopolis well. This lake is really a river with a dam on each end. The downstream dam is just past where the Black Warrior and Tombigbee Rivers join. You can go up either river more than 50 miles.

We caught about 15 bass and two of them were nice. Corey caught a three pounder on a spinnerbait and a five pounder on a swim jig. I caught several bass on a jig and pig.

Fortunately, the drive home that afternoon was uneventful and took only four hours. I got up at 3:00 Sunday morning and headed to Oconee, confident I could catch some bass.

At blast off Jordan and I headed to a lighted dock where I had caught two keepers two weeks before in the Sportsman Club tournament. All we caught there was a short bass. Bass at Oconee have to be 14 inches long to keep and weigh in.

We spent eight hours fishing every kind of cover and structure I could think of to catch a fish. All we caught were fish under the size limit. I did have one that looked like a keeper when it jumped threw my jig head worm. It was a very frustrating day.

In the Flint River Tournament nine people fished eight hour to land six keeper bass weighing about 11 pounds. There were no limits, two people had two each and two people had one each, and five of us did not catch a keeper.

Chuck Croft won it all, first place and big fish, with one weighing 3.27 pounds. Niles Murray came in second with two weighing 3.05 pounds, Phil King was third with two at 3.03 pounds and Dan Phillips came in fourth with one at 1.89 pounds. That was it. Nobody else had a keeper.

Thank goodness fishing will get better around here soon. Highs are supposed to be in the 70s and low 80s this week, so lakes will start cooling and bass will start their fall feeding spree.

I am back on Oconee today with Cody Stahl, a local high school fisherman, doing an article for Georgia Outdoor News. I hope he can show me how to catch a bass there!

Are Shark Populations Improving off U.S. East Coast?

2015 Coastal Shark Survey Reveals Shark Populations Improving off U.S. East Coast
from The Fishing Wire

Cutting the line

Cutting the line to release a tagged white shark. Credit: Joe Mello, NEFSC/NOAA.

The longest running coastal shark research survey along the East Coast has completed its 2015 field work, capturing and tagging more than 2,800 sharks, the most in the survey’s 29-year history. The results are very good news for shark populations.

“We caught fish throughout the survey,” said Lisa Natanson, a scientist at the Narragansett Laboratory of NOAA Fisheries’ Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) and leader of the coastal shark survey. “Sandbar sharks were all along the coast, while most of the dusky sharks were off North Carolina. We captured a bull shark for the first time since 2001, and recaptured 10 sharks previously tagged by our program and two sharks tagged by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science.”

The survey began in 1986 and is conducted every two to three years. It covers coastal waters from Florida, where coastal shark species concentrate during the winter and spring, north to Delaware, where many shark species migrate during spring and summer as more northerly waters warm. Following this migratory route, at this time of year, makes it easier to survey the whole population.

tagging a shark

Lisa Natanson tagging a shark. Credit: Joe Mello, NEFSC/NOAA.

The last survey was in 2012, during which 1,831 sharks were captured and tagged, compared with 2,835 in 2015. Sandbar, Atlantic sharpnose, dusky, and tiger sharks were the most common shark species captured this year. In all, 13 shark species were among the 16 species of fish caught. The three non-shark species were remora, cobia and gold spot eel.

“Sharks are very vulnerable. Even though they are at the top of the oceanic food chain and can live for decades, they are fragile in the sense that compared to other fish they grow very slowly, reproduce late in life and have only a few offspring,” said Karyl Brewster-Geisz of NOAA Fisheries Office of Highly Migratory Species. “An increase in the numbers caught and tagged during each survey indicates a slow climb back. It is very good news for shark populations and for the ecosystem.”

This year, the survey was conducted aboard the 100-foot charter fishing vessel Eagle Eye II from Port Royal, South Carolina, from April 4 to May 22, and from just south of Ft. Pierce, Florida to North Carolina. As in 2012, poor weather and time prevented sampling further north. The surveys are conducted in the 5-40 fathom (30 to 240 feet) depth zone with most sampling between 11-20 fathoms (66 to 120 feet deep) and use commercial Florida-style bottom longline fishing methods to standardize survey results. This method uses a long, or main, line with baited shark hooks spaced at regular intervals along the line.

“The number of fish this year was amazing. We captured and tagged more fish than ever before, but once again weather was a factor. It started off nice, but conditions worsened as we headed north,” said Natanson.

sandbar shark

A sandbar shark is brought aboard for tagging. Credit: Lisa Natanson, NEFSC/NOAA.

Most (2,179, or 77 percent) of the sharks captured were tagged and released, 434 (15.3 percent) were brought aboard, and 222 (7.8 percent) were released untagged or lost. Researchers record the length, sex, and location of each animal caught. Environmental information, such as water temperature and ocean chemistry, was also obtained at each station.

Researchers do not intentionally kill any animals for their studies. However, some sharks do not survive capture, and these are carefully dissected at sea to obtain biological samples important for studies on shark age and growth, reproduction, and food habits. On this survey, reproductive information was obtained from 170 sharks, backbones were removed for age and growth work from 109 sharks, and stomachs were examined in 82 sharks. The scientists also collect parasites, DNA and blood samples.

Among the catch this year were three white sharks, which were tagged and released; all were less than eight feet long. No white sharks were captured during the 2012 survey, and only one white shark was captured during the 2009 survey. The largest shark captured on the 2015 survey was a tiger shark, 12.5 feet in fork length, off North Carolina.

Natanson said the survey’s primary goal is to gather information about the distribution, abundance, and species composition of sharks found in these waters. Survey objectives also include tagging sharks for migration studies and collecting catch-per-unit-effort data.

tag a tiger shark

Lisa Natanson (in yellow hard hat) and the ship’s crew tag a tiger shark. Credit: Cami McCandless, NEFSC/NOAA.

“All the survey data are provided to NOAA Fisheries managers to monitor the health and abundance of shark populations in the Atlantic,” said Natanson. “We’ve seen an increase in the number of sharks in every survey since 2001; that reflects management efforts to conserve the populations of various shark species.”

NOAA Fisheries is the federal agency charged with managing commercial and recreational shark fisheries in U.S. waters, including the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. The United States shark management began in 1993; currently 42 species are managed.

In addition to Natanson and colleagues from the NEFSC’s Narragansett and Woods Hole Laboratories, researchers participating in the 2015 survey came from the Southeast Fisheries Science Center, Florida Atlantic University, and the University of New Haven.

Another memorable tale from the 2015 survey
In addition to the record number of sharks caught this year, which was itself cause for excitement, the team aboard the Eagle Eye II also rescued five people off Oregon Inlet in North Carolina during the survey. Their small fishing boat had experienced engine trouble and was adrift in the Gulf Stream. The boat’s mayday signal was not received by the Coast Guard, but was by the Eagle Eye II, who came to the rescue. After determining that everyone aboard was okay, they contacted the Coast Guard and towed the vessel for a few hours closer to shore, where the Coast Guard took over.

Where and How Can I Catch Bass in Georgia In September

Bass fishermen have something to look forward at the beginning of September each year. It will only be about another month before fishing gets good again after a long hot summer. September can be a mean month for catching bass, but they can be caught even now. Yes, you can catch bass in Georgia in September

Our Georgia lakes are as hot as they get all year in September and oxygen content is at its lowest level. And there are more baitfish making easy meals for bass, but shad and herring draw them to open water, making them harder to find and pattern.

Fortunately, there are three patterns that will usually pay off in September. You may be able to find bass on all three on some lakes but at least one or two will work on all our lakes. You can fish at night, go deep or find moving water.

At night many bass move shallow and get more active. For years fishing early in the morning and late in the afternoon has been known as the best time to catch bass in hot weather. Extend that and fish during the dark. It means adjusting some of the things you do, and works best on clear lakes, but you will be more comfortable and catch more bass after the sun goes down.

Fishing deep it a traditional way to catch bass in hot water and bass are schooled up and holding on deep structure and cover. It takes special techniques to find and catch them, but once you find a school you can often catch large numbers of fish in one spot. And bass often come up from deep cover to hit baitfish on top, opening up an exciting way to catch them.

Current turns bass on and finding moving water usually means catching bass. Everything from natural current way up rivers and creeks to water moving across main lake points from power generation at the dam will make bass feed. Look in the right places and you can find active bass in current in most of our lakes.

Each of the following lakes has its own characteristics that fit some of the above three methods of catching September bass:

Thurmond (Clarks Hill}

One Labor Day weekend several years ago I was staying at my place at Raysville Boat Club on Clark’s Hill and woke up very early Saturday morning. I was too excited about an afternoon dove shoot to sleep, so I got in the boat and idled across to a brush pile I had built in eight feet of water. The full moon was beautiful and lit the lake brightly enough to throw shadows.

A bass took my Texas rigged curly tail worm in the brush and jumped twice when I set the hook. It looked to be well over eight pounds, but it threw the hook on the second jump. Two weeks later, just before the sun rose over the trees, I hooked and landed my first nine-pound bass from that same brush pile, on the same kind of worm.

Fishing at night is very good at Clarks Hill and you can catch bass from sunset until sunrise in shallow water. There is a full moon on September 23 this year and there is no more exciting way to catch bass than running a buzzbait or Jitterbug over shallow cover in the moonlight. Fish a topwater bait slowly and steadily to give the bass a better shot at it.

Riprap is always good on Clarks Hill at night but shallow hydrilla beds are excellent, too. Start fishing as the sun sets and keep fishing topwater as long as there is any light, working around the outside edges of the hydrilla and through cuts in it. It is best to locate the beds in daylight so you have an idea of the area to fish. Keep at it until the sun rises.

On dark nights work a Texas rigged worm on a light lead or a light jig and pig around riprap and the hydrilla, too. Crawl both baits on the rocks and drop them into holes and cuts in the hydrilla. You can use a black light to help you see the cover and your line, but this is a great way to learn to feel what your bait is doing.

Moving water is hard to find on Clarks Hill but you can run up the Savannah River to near the Russell dam and catch current flowing both ways. When power is being generated at the Russell dam strong current flows down the river. At night and early in the morning when the Corps is pumping water back into Russell current goes up the river.

Get out on main lake points and work a big crankbait or big Carolina rigged worm with the current. The bass will usually hold on the break on the downstream side of the current, so their position will change depending on which way the water is flowing.

On most of the lake, current is not a factor and bass hold as deep as oxygen levels allow. One year in late August I was playing with an oxygen monitor and discovered there was not enough oxygen below 11 feet deep in the Raysville area for a bass to survive. Further down the lake the depth of good oxygen got deeper.

Ride over deep points and humps watching your depthfinder. When you find fish, often holding near stumps and brush on the steepest drop on the structure, back off and make long casts with a big crankbait or big Carolina or Texas rigged worm. Bass will usually be holding from 18 to 30 feet deep on the lower Savannah River and Little River areas of the main lake.

Watch for surface activity in these same areas. Largemouth will come up to the surface to hit blueback herring and shad and will fall for topwater plugs like Spooks and Sammys. Work these baits over the deep cover even if they are not coming up and you can sometimes draw them to the surface.

Lanier

Lanier means spots and herring in September, and night fishing is usually best on this big, heavily used lake. At night you can actually hold your boat on points on the main lake without getting thrown out by the wake of passing cruisers. And it is a lot cooler.

Lanier is so clear and busy with pleasure craft that bass usually hold deep even at night. You can fish the same places and patterns day and night to catch them, and use the same baits.

Laura and Trent Gober fish many tournaments on Lanier and often finish high on the list. Laura fished the Women’s Bass Tour before it closed and did well on that trail, too. Lanier is her home lake and she loves to go after the big spots there.

Find brush on a deep hump or point and you are likely to find big spots holding there day and night. And think real deep. Bass on Lanier often hold 30 to 60 feet deep. It is harder to fish that deep but it pays off in bigger fish.

Laura likes to throw a Texas rigged Senko on light line and work it through the brush and any other cover on points and humps from Brown’s Bridge to the dam. Ride over the humps and points watching your depthfinder carefully for cover. Sometimes you will see the fish in it if you have a good unit. When you spot a likely looking place, throw a marker out a few feet from it so you can stay on it. At night you can attach a small glow stick to your marker so you can see it.

Back off and make long casts. Feed line out so your lure sinks straight down. When fishing extreme depths, if you don’t let your lure sink on a slack line, the lure will swing way off the cover as it sinks. When you hit the cover, work your bait in it slowly, twitching it in one spot. Yo-yo it on limbs in brush piles, making it dance up and down in one spot.

The same deep places hold bass day and night and the Texas rigged worm works well, but blueback herring offer another option during the day. Bass holding 30 feet deep in brush and tree tops will come to the surface to eat herring that swim near the top on bright, sunny days. During the day, find deep cover, back off and cast a topwater bait like a Spook or Sammy over it. A Fluke can be worked in the same spots in the same way.

Make long casts and work the bait fast, making it look like a bass chasing a herring across the surface. Be ready for a smashing hit when a big spots comes rushing up for an easy meal.

Finding current on Lanier means running way up the Chattahoochee River, and you need a shallow draft boat to be safe. You have to be very careful in any boat, but if you go up the river far enough you will find moving water. If power is being generated at the dam you can find current further down the river.

When you get to moving water fish any cover you see with a Texas rigged worm. Most cover this far up the river will be shoreline rocks and trees in the water. Pitch your bait to the upstream side of the cover and let is wash downstream with the current in a natural movement.

You can also keep your boat downstream of the cover and cast a small crankbait up past it and work it back. Make it look like a baitfish being moved down the river, making it an easy meal for waiting bass.

Oconee

Lake Oconee is unusual for its strong currents that flow both ways. Power generation at the dam creates current all over the lake, and the pumpback moves water back upstream far up the Oconee River and main creeks. That current makes the bass feed heavily in September.

Terry Adams lives near Oconee and fishes it often. He won the BFL and an Oconee Marine tournament on Oconee two years ago with five bass limits weighing over 17 pounds in each. In 2006 he and one of his mentors, Jack Brown, won the Berry’s Classic on Oconee and Sinclair. Terry has won several other tournaments there including some of the old JR Tournaments.

Docks are a key to Terry’s fishing and he looks for docks on deep water. He wants to find a dock with at least ten feet of water in front of it. He pitches a jig and pig to the dock posts, lets it sink to the bottom, strokes it up off the bottom and lets it fall back, then hits the next post. He does not try to get his bait way back under a dock, he says too many fish get tangled up and break off. He looks for active fish on the outside posts.

Current running by the docks makes them much better and pulls the fish out to the outside posts. Waves from passing boats can do this, too, so Terry likes boat traffic. Docks from the Highway 44 Bridge to the mouth of Richland Creek are his favorite ones.

Docks are good at night, too. Terry will look for a lighted dock and run a crankbait under the light if he can get an angle on it. He casts a Shadrap or other small crankbait in shad color. He will also pitch a big worm to the lights. Dock lights are inconsistent on Oconee because they get turned on and off. The best bet is to ride the lake and hit any lighted docks you find.

Fishing a big crankbait 12 to 20 feet deep on points and humps is a good way to catch quality bass on Oconee, too. The bass will hold on the drop on the downstream side of the current, so that can change between generation current running downstream and pumpback current running upstream. Find the drop with your depthfinder then make long casts to get your bait down to the bottom.

West Point

Although the Corps of Engineers seems determined to remove as much shoreline cover as they can pile up and burn every winter, night fishing around blowdowns and stumps can be good at West Point. Brushpiles are also good in the dark and any wood cover you can find will produce bass in the dark.

Find blowdowns during daylight hours and learn how they lay and how to fish them when you can see them. Also find deeper brush on points and humps and mark it. Work a Texas rigged worm through all the wood cover. A big worm, from a Zoom Mag 2 up to an Old Monster, in dark colors, will draw bites from fish holding in the wood.

Look for blowdowns from Highland Marina up Yellowjacket Creek and the Chattahoochee River. From Highland Marina down, much of the shoreline cover has been removed so look for brush piles in 10 to 20 feet of water to fish. If you ride almost any point or hump you will find bush somebody has put out.

During the day bass really key on current moving across the humps and points on the main lake. Week days are best by far since power generation is stronger and more consistent than on weekends. Current moves schools of shad across deeper cover and bass feed heavily on them.

Look for roadbeds, humps and long points from Highland Marina to the dam. Bass will often feed during the day from 12 to 30 feet deep as current flows across them, and they will usually hold on the downsteam side, where there is a drop. Cover like brush and stumps make it even better.

Big crankbaits like Mann’s 20+, Fat Free Shad and Norman DD22 Ns work well to imitate the shad the bass feed on and get down deep enough to catch them. You need to fish them on eight to 10 pound line to get them deep, and fluorocarbon line is best since it is thin, sinks and does not stretch much.

Get on the downstream side of structure and cover and make long casts upstream. Stay close enough to the cover to get your bait down to it. It takes 20 to 30 feet to get a big crankbait down 20 feet, so you have to cast that far past the target to hit it.

Reel your lure steadily with a medium speed. When you hit cover, pause it a second and let it float up, then jerk it so it darts away. Check your line on every cast since it will get frayed hitting the cover.

You can catch bass right now. Try these tactics and adapt them to the ways you fish, and you won’t have to wait another month to enjoy successful bass fishing!

What Is Being Done for Endangered Salmon in California?

For Endangered Salmon in California, a Very Measured Sip of Cold Water

With Chinook salmon facing lethally high stream temperatures, scientists deploy a new device to help manage the dwindling supply of cold water that the fish need to survive.

By Rich Press, NOAA Fisheries Science Writer | Follow Rich on Twitter: @Rich_NOAAFish
from The Fishing Wire

Chinook Salmon

Chinook Salmon. Credit: Michael Humling/USFWS.

The State of California, now in the fourth year of a historic drought, is parched. But in the north of the state, at the bottom of the reservoir behind Shasta Dam, lies a big drink of cold water. For salmon in the Sacramento River, especially winter-run Chinook—considered by NOAA Fisheries to be among the eight endangered species most at risk of extinction—that cold water is a lifeline. Water managers tap it to cool off the river in summertime, when streams become hot enough to kill developing salmon eggs and newly hatched fry.

The cold water flows in from the mountains as snowmelt. But with winter snowpack at record lows, the supply of cold water is dwindling. If it’s not managed carefully, winter-run Chinook might be lost forever.

So last month, scientists from NOAA Fisheries and the University of Nevada, Reno, installed a new system to measure the temperature of the water behind Shasta Dam. The temperature profiler, which is based on fiber optic technology, will allow scientists to accurately estimate how much cold water is available so it can be used as efficiently as possible.

“The big question we’re facing, especially during this drought, is how much of the river can we keep cool enough for salmon eggs to survive?” said Eric Danner, the NOAA Fisheries biologist and salmon expert who is leading the project. “And can we keep it cool through October without running out of cold water first?”

Measuring the Vertical Temperature Profile

lower a fiber optic cable

Cherisa Friedlander and Skip Bertolino of NOAA Fisheries and Scott Tyler of the University of Nevada, Reno, lower a fiber optic cable to the bottom of the reservoir behind Shasta Dam. The fiber optic system will provide a continuous, real-time temperature reading at every depth of the reservoir, allowing for more efficient management of the dwindling supply of cold water that endangered salmon need to survive. Credit: Rachel Hallnan/University of Nevada, Reno.
Cold water is heavier than warm water, so when it flows into the reservoir, it sinks to the bottom like hidden treasure. The agency that operates the dam, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, manages downstream water temperatures by mixing cold water from the bottom of the reservoir with warm water from above before sending it through the dam.

Until now, technicians from the Bureau of Reclamation measured the cold-water pool manually by going out on the lake every 2 weeks and dropping a temperature probe at various locations. That method is time-tested, but it left a lot of uncertainty in the results.

At the heart of the new system is a fiber optic cable that runs from the surface of the reservoir to the bottom. Photons are shot through the cable, and the backscatter can be interpreted to measure the temperature at every point along the cable. This will provide a continuous, real-time temperature reading at every depth.

The temperature data will be freely available online. In addition, water managers will be able to run computer simulations to predict how long the cold water will last, and what stream temperatures will result, given different scenarios of weather and dam operations.

Surviving in a New Environment

install a fiber optic-based temperature sensor

Scientists from NOAA Fisheries and the University of Nevada, Reno, install a fiber optic-based temperature sensor in the reservoir behind Shasta Dam. Credit: Rachel Hallnan/University of Nevada, Reno.
Before Shasta Dam was built, Chinook salmon traveled far upstream to spawn. Today, the dam blocks their passage, forcing them to spawn downstream, where water temperatures are higher. Because they didn’t evolve under these conditions, Chinook and many other species are not adapted to the hot water they find themselves in today.

Winter-run Chinook are especially vulnerable because of their timing. As their name indicates, they swim upstream in winter. Most spawn in late spring, and their eggs and newly hatched fry—the life stages most at risk from high temperatures—must survive the heat of summer.

“If the water gets too warm, the eggs are stuck in a tomb under the gravel,” said NOAA Fisheries biologist Garwin Yip. If high temperatures don’t kill the eggs outright, they can cause higher rates of disease. And even if the young fry do make it out of their nests, they face long odds as well, as high temperatures make predators more voracious.

The goal of water managers is to keep the average daily stream temperature no higher than 56 degrees Fahrenheit through October. Last year, due to imperfect estimates of its volume, the cold-water pool was unexpectedly drained by mid-September, and stream temperatures soon shot up to 62 degrees. Scientists estimate that only 5 percent of winter-run Chinook eggs survived as fry in the upper Sacramento River, compared to 25 percent survival in an average year.

Chinook Salmon

Chinook salmon. Credit: NOAA.

“We don’t want a repeat of what happened last year,” Danner said.

Hopefully, with the new fiber optic temperature profiler in place, water managers will be able to take very controlled sips from the cold-water pool, and make sure it lasts until the salmon are out of danger.

Do Lakes Go Through Fishing Cycles?

If you have been bass fishing for very long you have seen it. For some reason a lake gets “hot” and bass bite like crazy. Suddenly, fishermen are catching more and bigger bass than they have for years. Our Georgia lakes go through fishing cycles, but what causes a lake to produce better bass fishing than normal?

We all know the bass spawn makes a difference in bass populations, but it is not felt for several years. The success or failure of a few bass does not change the long term effect. It is not how many eggs are laid and hatched, it is the survival of the little bass that matters.

In Georgia lakes most bass spawn in April. Some spawn earlier, especially way down south in Seminole, and some spawn later in northern lakes, but the bulk of the spawn is in April. So what happens on our lakes in April and May this year may control how many bass you catch in three to five years on that lake. It is definitely a delayed reaction.

After bass spawn the male protects the fry for a few days but then they must fend for themselves. Everything in the lake, from bream and blueback herring to papa bass, wants to eat the tiny bass. So they must hide while finding enough food to grow big enough that they aren’t near the bottom of the food chain.

Walter George, usually called Eufaula, is a good example of the cycles our lakes go through. There is a lot of very shallow shoreline cover that is perfect for baby bass to hide in and eat as they grow. But if the lake drops a foot or two it leaves the grass they need to hide in high and dry, and many baby bass are eaten.

For some reason the Corps of Engineers seems to drop Eufaula in April after the bulk of the spawn, at the worst time possible. Although there are extensive lily pad fields and deeper grass on some areas of the lake, the very shallow shoreline cover the baby bass need is unavailable to them. So the numbers of them are greatly reduced, all over the lake.

If the water at Eufaula stays high in April and a lot of young bass survive you will see the effect in a couple of years. It will seem you catch throwbacks everywhere you fish, and you will catch a bunch of them. Your bass fishing skill didn’t suddenly get better, there are simply more bass to catch.

The bass hatch is considered a year class and it includes all the bass spawned in a year. As that group of bass grows you can follow their year class and see the ways it affects the catch rate. After three or four years you will catch a lot of keepers, then after five or six years you will start catching more quality bass. That is when it seems it takes a 20 pound plus stringer to win every tournament.

It would seem that a large year class would produce more and more bass every year because the higher numbers produce more young bass, but just laying eggs and having them hatch does not affect the future numbers. What makes a difference is the numbers of fry that survive their first few months. Since each bass produces hundreds of eggs, it does not take many to produce all the young bass needed. What matters is how many survive.

While our lakes were low the past few years lots of stuff grew in the exposed bottom. This cover runs way out so, even if the lakes drop after the spawn, there will be shallow cover for the fry. This spring should see an excellent survival rate in most of our lakes, so our fishing should get better and better for the next five years. That gives us something to look forward to!

Stupid Criminal Tricks from Texas Game Wardens

Stupid criminal tricks from Texas game wardens field Nnotes

Editor’s Notes: After chucking through a book called Bear in the Back Seat by Kim DeLozier and Carolyn Jourdan telling the real stories of a wildlife ranger, I realized- again- that there are more stories from game wardens, rangers and conservation officers than we ever see. With that in mind, I wanted to share what one sample week from the Texas Game Warden’s Field Notes really looks like. It’s true, you really can’t make this stuff up.

The following items are compiled from recent Texas Parks and Wildlife Department law enforcement reports.
from The Fishing Wire

Paper Shuffling Pays Off

An individual stopped by the Brownwood law enforcement office asking for information on his boat so he could report it as stolen. Office clerks were helping the customer when they realized the boat had been registered the week before in the customer’s name but with a different address. The clerks showed the paperwork to a game warden, who began a search for the stolen vessel. When he found the boat, the suspected thief admitted partial guilt. Other suspects were interviewed, but the vessel was returned to its rightful owner.

Turn Around, Don’t Drown

A Brown County man ignored warning signs, drove his pickup truck across a flooded roadway and was swept away. A deputy saw the pickup floating downstream with the man on top of the cab, until at one point the water became too strong and the man fell in. The deputy observed the man being washed downstream with a blue bag in hand until he was out of sight. Two wardens launched their boat and began a search and rescue, which continued for several days with no luck. Eventually, they found the blue bag, and then recovered the body of the 61-year-old disabled vet from under a pile of logs.

The Disappearing Child

Small children standing up in cars tend to attract attention. A small child did just that when a Williamson County game warden passed by on his way to Austin. The warden waited for the car to pass him so he could get a better look, but by that point, the child had disappeared. When he passed them again, he looked into the back seat and could not see the child or a child seat. He pulled the driver over and found the kid hiding on the back floorboard and the driver without a license. When asked if she had ever been ticketed for her lack of license, the lady replied she had been ticketed a couple of times and even had a warrant for her arrest. The warden instructed her to find licensed drivers who could bring a car seat, and she said her sister would be there in 20 minutes. But almost 45 minutes later, the sister arrived on foot to drive the car back, but without a child’s seat. The warden called for a wrecker who took possession of the vehicle, and the driver was placed under arrest for her warrant and was issued two citations: one for driving without a driver’s license, and one for the child not in a seat.

Two are Better Than One

An overturned yellow kayak caught the attention of two Bexar County game wardens on Calaveras Lake. While navigating the choppy water to examine the kayak, the wardens observed another kayaker waving his arms to get their attention – with good reason. His 80-year-old friend had flipped out of the upturned kayak and had been floating for several minutes, exhausted. The wardens were able to get the elderly man and his friend out of the water and into their vessel. Both were taken to the bank where the San Antonio Fire Department was waiting to provide medical attention. Both of the friends checked out fine after some rest.

A Reason to Sweat

A red passenger van was driving slowly on the shoulder of the road near Dumas. A warden stopped the van and noticed a white crystal substance on the driver’s shirt and a loaded syringe on the floorboard. The driver was confused and profusely sweating. The warden found 2.7 grams of liquid heroin in the syringe on the floorboard alongside .30 grams of methamphetamine. The driver, who had an invalid license, was arrested and taken to the Moore County Jail.

Uniform Doesn’t Match the Badge

In Lubbock County, a man wearing a McDonald’s uniform and claiming to be a police officer, was flashing a security guard badge as he asked for gas receipts for tax write-off purposes. A warden tracked him down, and he insisted, “You know me, I’m one of you, I’m an officer, too.” He said he worked at the Lubbock County Sheriff’s Office, but he had left his badge at the office. In reality, he was a volunteer in the ministry for the Lubbock County Sheriff’s Office and possessed an expired security officer license and badge. An arrest warrant was obtained and he was booked for impersonating a public servant; as well as, a security officer.

More than One Reason

Two men with their watercrafts were stopped by wardens on Lake Georgetown for safety violations and expired licenses. The wardens were escorting them to their truck to retrieve their identifications, but after a brief exchange between the boaters, one of them took off at high speed. A white Ford F-350 was found waiting at the ramp with its trailer in the water. They immediately loaded up their watercraft and drove off. After the warden notified the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office, the vehicle was stopped and the driver was arrested for driving with an invalid license. Both boaters were arrested for evading detention, lack of boater education, expired registration, lack of fire extinguisher, no sound producing devise, and failure to obey a Marine Safety Enforcement Officer – a full package deal.

Dove Shooting Memories

Did you get a chance to shoot at some doves yesterday? Opening day of dove season was always a highlight of my year while growing up. Although it was bittersweet, since it always was about the time school started back, I really looked forward to trying to hit the little gray birds. Opening day always bring back greet dove shooting memories.

Dove shoots were a big family affair back then. My Uncle J.D. always had a field and I got to go with daddy from the time I was able to walk to the blind and stay still. I was daddy’s retriever and I prided myself on never losing a bird he hit, no matter how thick the briars were where it fell.

I finally was allowed to carry my .410 shotgun on those shoots when I was about eight years old. On the first hunt that I was allowed to have my gun Uncle J.D. gave me an old army surplus gas mask bag to carry my shells and other supplies. Although that was almost sixty years ago I still use that bag when deer hunting.

I had a tough time hitting doves with my .410 since I didn’t get much practice shooting at flying birds. I was deadly with it on squirrel in trees but hadn’t learned to hit moving targets. And I didn’t shoot much since I think the adults put me and my cousins my age in blinds out of the main fly routes.

Sometimes I shot five or six times all afternoon, and didn’t hit a bird for the first couple of years I tried. I still remember the first dove that actually fell when I shot. I was very proud of it!

Daddy was the Agriculture teacher at the local high school and knew all the farmer in the area. So he got invited to many shoots and there were very few Saturdays during season we didn’t go after I proved myself at Uncle J.D.’s farm. On one exceptional shoot, when I somehow ended up in a good blind, I actually killed five doves. And it took only one box of .410 shells.

Back then most people didn’t pay much attention to the limit on doves and would kill all they could. Time were different and the doves provided good eating for the family, but you needed a lot of bird for a big family.

On one shoot when I was about 16 years old I killed a lot of birds. I was shooting a 12 gauge shotgun and it was more efficient, but at the end of the day I had shot five boxes of shells! Even on my best day I missed about three out of four shots!

My uncle Adron shot a 16 gauge shotgun and was deadly with it. I watched him many times in amazement. He almost never missed a bird – you could count on one dropping when he pulled the trigger!

Dove shooting is expensive, especially if you try to have your own field. It is bad enough shooting up several boxes of shells to kill a limit, but that is cheap when you consider the cost of plowing, planting, fertilizing and taking care of a field.

When I moved to Griffin in 1972 I wanted to go to a dove shoot that first fall but knew no one with a field. I saw an advertisement for pay shoot in the paper and went to it. Some farmers set up a dove field and charge people to hunt it to recoup their expenses.

That was my first and last pay shoot. I didn’t really pay much attention to the field, just watching the doves flying around when I checked it out. The day of the shoot I set up on a fence line and had killed two birds when I saw two game wardens coming across the field, checking each hunter.

I wasn’t worried since I was doing everything legally – I thought. But when the federal agent took my license and put it in the stack he was carrying I knew something was wrong. He said I needed to take my stuff to the parking lot and wait there for my ticket. The field I was on was baited.

The field owner had a legal field and sold all the spots on it he had, and had more people wanting to pay him to shoot. So he spread wheat on a nearby hay field and sold shooting spots on it. There were about 30 of us that got fined in federal court for being on a baited field. Each hunter paid a $75 fine and I heard the field owner had to pay a $2000 fine!

If you have a place to shoot doves, enjoy it. Make some great dove shooting memories! Just follow the laws. Don’t get that sick feeling I had when the game warden took my license! It is the only time I have ever gotten any kind of fine for anything related to hunting or fishing, and I never want another one!

What Is the Fall Kokanee Salmon Run?

By Dan Johnson
Fall kokanee salmon run offers fine fishing

Kokanee Salmon

Kokanee head to the shorelines and inlets to spawn in fall, providing good targets for anglers in many areas of the northwest.

Autumn is a time of plenty for anglers, as cooling water temperatures spark feeding binges among a variety of gamefish. For some species, however, fall ushers in an equally primal urge, causing fish to migrate en masse toward spawning areas.

Such is the case with many members of the trout and salmon family, including the kokanee salmon. A downsized freshwater version of the Pacific sockeye salmon, the kokanee is nonetheless hard fighting and great tasting.

Plankton eaters that mature in four years, kokanee salmon can reach weights of 3 to 5 pounds, but 1-pounders are the most common catches in many waters.

In states where stocking efforts produce fishable populations, the fall kokanee run is a huge draw for anglers. “It’s a really fun bite, there’s nothing not to love about it,” says veteran fishing guide Bernie Keefe of Granby, Colorado.

“As water temperatures fall into the 55- to 60-degree range, usually sometime in September in Colorado, salmon begin migrating from their summertime haunts in the main lake toward the spawning grounds,” he explains.

Normally bright silver in color, kokanee undergo a dramatic transformation as spawning draws near. Both sexes develop reddish sides and green heads, but the male’s red caste is most pronounced. Amorous bucks also develop a humped back and hooked jaw—also called a kype.

Spawn makes the fish change

As the spawn nears, male kokanee develop a humped back and extended jaw.

As schools of fiery red salmon gather in predictable places, the fishing can be nothing short of amazing. “You can get into some pretty fast action,” Keefe grins.

Kokanee spawn over rubble, gravel and sand in tributary streams and along lake shorelines. This narrows the search, but Keefe adds another nugget of information on their whereabouts.

“They typically return to the area where they were stocked,” he says. “Inlets and boat ramps are two of the most common areas.”

To pinpoint the best lakes and stocking points, Keefe recommends contacting local fisheries biologists and bait shops. “Most lakes are a little different, so pre-trip research can really pay off,” he says.

On the tactical front, Keefe offers two surefire plans of attack.

“One great option is to get on the water before sunrise and quietly wait for the fish to start porpoising,” he says. “As soon as it’s light enough to see where they are, use your electric trolling motor to sneak within casting range. Just be careful not to crowd them or it’s game over.”

Salmon often school close to shorelines, making bank fishing a great alternative. “You don’t need a boat to enjoy the action,” he says.

When fishing the morning bite, Keefe wields a lightweight spinning outfit armed with either a bobber rig or small spoon.

Given the kokanee’s soft mouth and spirited fight, he typically spools up with a forgiving monofilament mainline like 6-pound-test Berkley Trilene XL. “You can use superline with a fluorocarbon or mono leader, but set your drag really loose or the fish will tear the hooks out,” he cautions.

The bobber setup includes a 1/16- to 1/8-ounce micro-jig tipped with a 2 1/2-inch Berkley PowerBait Power Tube, positioned two to six feet below a small float.

“Either slip- or fixed floats work in early fall, but fixed floats are the rule once temperatures drop below freezing,” he adds.

Keefe avoids adding split shot for ballast. “Don’t expect the fish to pull the bobber under,” he notes. “A lot of times they just lay it on its side, so you can’t have any extra weight on the line or you’ll miss fish.”

He does sweeten the jig with bait, however. “Two or three waxworms work great, as do kernels of shoepeg corn,” he says.

To fish the float rig, he lobs a long cast past fish dimpling the surface. “Let it sit a minute,” he says. “Most mornings there’s enough breeze to ripple the surface and work the jig just enough to attract nearby salmon.”

Surface feeding salmon

Afoot and afloat, Keefe casts to schools of Kokanee dimpling the surface.

After the initial pause, he pulls the rig about six inches, lets it sit again, and repeats the process until his float is out of the strike zone.

Spoons are another productive presentation. Keefe favors something long and slender, like an Acme Kastmaster or Johnson Splinter, in the 1/16- to 1/8-ounce class.

Retrieves are slow and gently animated. “One rotation of the reel handle per second is fast enough,” he says. “Spice it up by raising and lowering the rodtip six inches to a foot, reeling the whole time. Most fish hit when the spoon begins to fall.”
Keefe cautions that once the sun hits the water, salmon sound and the near-surface bite dies. “Wind, clouds and waves can prolong the action a little, but not for long,” he adds.

At that point, he recommends trolling small willow-leaf spinners 1.5 to 2 mph in the top 10 feet of the water column. “The fish will move around the immediate area, so you have to go looking for them,” he explains.

Keefe says the fall kokanee bite typically lasts from September until ice covers the lakes, usually sometime in November or December.

“Kokanee are great table fare,” he adds. “But they die after spawning, and by the end of the season are looking pretty rough, like the swimming dead.”

As a rule of thumb, he says, “As long as the meat is orange, it’s good to cook. Once it turns pale, however, put it in the smoker.”

How Can You Catch Suspended Bass?

If you ask most bass fishermen how to catch suspended bass, don’t be surprised if the response is: “you can’t.” Suspended bass present fishermen with one of the most difficult problems to solve and many just give up and go look for easier fish to catch. But there are ways to get them to bite and tactics that will help you land fish that others give up on.

Bass suspend away from structure and cover for a variety of reasons. One of the most common is when lakes stratify, forming a thermocline between hot upper oxygenated layers of water and cooler, deeper layers with little oxygen. Bass can’t live in the cooler waters so they get as close to it as they can, suspending over deep water at the level where they can still find enough oxygen.

Suspended bass will often be found holding off points and humps at the most comfortable depth to them. They will be over a deeper channel but not far from the rise in the bottom where it meets the depth they are holding. That allows them to run in and feed, then move back out over deeper water.

Some lakes present a special situation where standing timber under the water rises many feet off the bottom. Bass will often use these trees as cover, relating to the trunks and limbs while holding well off the bottom of the lake.

The best way to find suspended bass where you fish is to ride the lake and watch a depth finder carefully. Follow channels and ditches while watching for fish holding between the bottom and the surface. Riding back and forth over a point or hump, not turning your boat until well past the drop of the bottom contour, will show you schools of bass suspended near them. And moving slowly over standing timber will reveal bass suspended in it if your depth finder is a good one.

Depth control of your bait is critical to catching suspended bass. They are holding at a set depth and will not move far up or down to take a bait. So finding the bass and knowing what level they are holding is just the first step. You must then find a way to put your bait at the level where they will see it.

A crankbait is a good way to catch suspended bass but you must make it work at the dept the bass are holding. There is an old tried and true method of doing this that has fallen out of favor. Trolling it a great way to get your crankbait down to a set depth and keep it there while covering a lot of water, but it is against the rules in bass tournaments so many bass fishermen have abandoned it, but it still works.

Most lure companies have designed a variety of crankbaits that run down to a set depth. For example, a Bandit Series 400 will run 12 to 16 feet deep and a Series 700 will run 14 to 18 feet deep. A Bomber Fat Free Shad will run 14 to 18 feet deep while a Fat Free Fingerling will run eight to 10 feet deep.

The depth varies depending on factors like trolling speed, line size and amount of line out, so you need to experiment to find out the exact combination to produce the exact depth you want. Mark a set depth on a point then troll over it varying line size, length of line out and trolling speed until your bait just ticks the bottom at the depth you want it to run, then troll through schools of bass at that depth.

You can do the same thing if you are limiting yourself to casting, but line size and the distance you cast are even more important. And boat position becomes critical. When you cast a crankbait like the Bomber or Bandit it will dive to its maximum depth as you start your retrieve then rise when it gets near the boat.

Since your crankbait will stay a the desired depth for only a short distance when casting, you must locate the schools of bass then position your boat near them so you can cast past them and work the bait back, keeping it at the critical depth as long a as possible.

Some newer baits on the market make casting and controlling your depth easier. Both the Swarming Hornet and the Fish Head Spin are lead-head baits with a small spinner under the head. When you attach a Roboworm E-Z Shad or other shad looking plastic bait, it imitates a baitfish.

Tie on one of these baits and vary the weight of the lure and the line size to match the conditions like wind, water clarity and depth you want to fish. Smaller diameter line helps keep the bait at the depth you want to fish and you can get by with lighter line since the bass are away from cover.

Position your boat near the school of suspended bass and make a long cast past it. Feed line to the bait as it falls so it drops straight down and count it down. Figure one second per foot of drop, but to be more exact cast to a known depth and count it down to make sure your are accurate.

When the Fish Head Spin or Swarming Hornet reaches the correct depth, slowly reel the lure along. A slow, steady retrieve keeps the spinner turning and keeps the bait at the optimum depth. You can cover much more water at the best depth with one of these lures than with a crankbait since the lure drops straight down to the correct depth then stays at that depth all the way back to the boat.

One of the easiest and most effective ways to control the exact depth you want to fish is by using a drop shot rig. A drop shot rig is one where the lead is tied to the very end of your line and a hook tied on up the line. Special hooks and sinkers are designed for drop shotting and make it a more efficient way to fish, but you can use any sinker and hook as long as the hook is very sharp.

Gamakatsu hooks are known to be super sharp and they make a Drop Shot/Split Shot hook that comes in a variety of sizes and you can choose red or black hooks. These hooks are relatively small and are perfect for nose hooking small plastic bait like a Slider Worm, Roboworm or Gulp Minnow Grub.

A soft, straight worm like the Slider or Roboworm is the usual choice for drop shotting, but experiment with other shapes of baits, too. Some days the bass might like a fat Gulp Grub with a quivering curly tail over a thin straight worm.

Choose one of the plastic baits that match the size of the baitfish the bass are eating, and use a color based on water color. Clear water is usually best for drop shotting so line choice is critical, too. Fluorocarbon line is the standard for drop shotting and Sunline is invisible in the water and holds up well. The lack of stretch of fluorocarbons like Sunline also help with hooking fish on light line.

You can drop shot at any depth you find the fish holding. If they are three feet off the bottom, tie your hook three feet up the line. If they are 15 feet off the bottom, tie your hook 15 feet up the line.

This may sound strange but, since the sinker is at the end of the line, when you hook a bass and reel it in, there is nothing to get in the way of landing it. You may have a lot of line trailing the bass but you can land the fish without reeling it all in.

Get your boat right on top of the school of bass and hold over them watching your depthfinder. Let the sinker on your drop shot rig hit the bottom and you know your bait will be at the exact depth you tied it above the sinker. Twitch your rod tip, making the worm or grub dance right in front of the bass’s mouth.

Drop shotting is the best way to catch bass suspended in timber, too. For these bass, tie a hook a few inches to a foot above a sinker and get right on top of the fish. A good depth finder will allow you to watch your bait as it falls and you can stop it right in front of the bass and shake it. You are usually targeting a single bass in timber rather than a school. A drop shot rig moves the sinker away from the bait while still giving ou exact depth control.

Don’t let suspended bass ruin your day. Try these techniques to land them when others are just shaking their heads.

Fishing Was Tough At Lake Oconee

At Oconee last Sunday 15 members of the Spalding County Sportsman Club fished for eight hours for our August tournament. We landed 20 14-inch long keepers weighing about 38 pounds. There were no limits and four members didn’t land a keeper.

Jay Gerson won with two fish weighing 6.35 pounds and his 3.57 pound largemouth was big fish. Kwong Yu came in second with four at 5.42 pounds, John Miller placed third with 3 weighing 4.97 pounds and my two weighing 4.04 pounds was fourth.

We started at 5:30 so we had about an hour to fish in the dark, and I caught both my keepers before 6:30. They both hit a Texas rigged worm near two different docks. After that I fished all over the lower end of the lake, trying many different kinds of structure and cover at different depths, and caught a few short fish. It was a very tough day.

At 11:00 I heard thunder rumbling back to the west and I looked at the radar app on my phone and saw a line of red headed my way. So I ran the five miles back to the ramp, tied the boat to the dock and sat in my van until noon when the lightening stopped. I will not stay on the water when it is lightening.

After it stopped I fished for another hour and a half and caught a throwback but that was it.

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