Thoughts

[John Bales]

Many think that FFS is so easy. Just find a fish on the screen, cast a bait and get near the fish and they just eat it every time. Happens less than 5% or maybe less than that. One of the best uses of FFS is it lets you know what is happening very quickly. A fisherman who has good knowledge of structure situations can look around, shallow, deep or in between can pretty much see first of all if the fish are there at all and if they are present plus know how they are positioned(on the bottom or suspended), then choose a few baits which will put the lure near the fish and then do the depth and speed thing and maybe you catch a fish. All summer, I had schools of bass(adults), in and around the deepest water in the area and you could say that it was a constant pattern every single day. Within a week of our very first cool down, those schools were totally gone. So this is a month later and those schools never came back. Not even seeing any adults near the outside weedline with the exception of one spot and there are 3-4 good fish(3-4 pounders), that are near the outside weedline but not on the outside. Some of my buddies give me heck for fishing my lake so often but I feel like there is a lot to learn about how weather and water controls the movements of the fish both daily and seasonally and I can't go to a different lake every day and see the total story. I doubt if this timing and change will be exactly the same in all the other lakes. I can barely keep up with what I see happening in my own lake let alone all the other lakes. It seems like every year is different as far as adult bass locations and where they decide to want to be for an extended period of time in the summer from post spawn to early fall when it all changes from the flatter areas to the structures that are steeper and closer to the deepest water in the lake. When I say things can change in their summer spots, I mean that my best spot last year had no fish using this spot this year. Not all year. My second best spot last year got very little use but they were close by and were there at times. My conclusion for the change in location was the early season spray was way over done, almost eliminating all the native weeds from 7 ft all the way to the bank in over 90% of the lake. In short, the adult bass do not want to be near dead decaying weeds where that area does not have sufficient oxygen. That is a changing condition and unstable. They stayed in and around the deepest water in the area and did not venture past the very outside edge of the weeds. Most of the time, they wanted a cleaner spot completely free of weeds but not too far away. They were in the exact deepest water in the whole area. Not exceeding 18-19 feet. We have two holes that are deeper. One at 24 feet and one at a little over 30 but the fish did not choose to be near those deeper sections. I never expect a different lake to be the same as the lake I live on, not even remotely the same. A fish is not smart but they have an ability to adapt to the conditions for survival. My over all catches have not really sky rocked like you may think since FFS. Actually it's about the same. Adult catches are less this year everywhere, I believe that there are actually less adults due to the spraying. Yes it does kill fish. I don't care what the people in charge say about it not harmful to the fish. We have way less frogs, fish, turtles, crayfish(the crayfish are all gone), and have not seen one of those lizard like creature with gills about a foot long for a long time. I really feel like FFS is now more of a study of what the adult fish do, not just a new video game, a cheaters box, while also trying to put some fish in the boat, while taking in all the information shown as knowledge. And again, Buck got it all right and kept the guidelines simple for anyone who puts in good effort can see success. I still give him all the credit. John