10/17/04

"Developing a pattern that you can take around the lake and duplicate whenever you find a similar set of conditions is the ultimate deal in bass fishing.  It means you have figured them out and you have got them dialed in.  You're the daddy."

"Nothing ever stays the same, so besides figuring out what they are doing at that moment, when conditions change you need to be able to change with the conditions.  The process of figuring out a pattern begins with a good knowledge of what bass do on a seasonal basis.  The Spring is really three seasons in one, with bass behavior centering around moving towards the shallows for the spawn.  Knowing that the fish will be in some stage of moving shallow or moving back out again, the angler can begin his search with this knowledge.  The Summer allows angler to look shallow or deep with grass being the major shallow water attraction and a thermocline being the major deep water attraction for bass.  In the Fall bass totally key on bait fish are will move and even be nomadic depending on what the bait fish are doing, and in the Winter, bait fish in the main body of the lake will hold bass in predictable locations."

"We are always learning, and the more you fish, the better you get at predicting where bass will be during a given season.  Once you determine the season your fish are in, you can than begin your search for the exact pattern."  Once you begin your search, every fish you catch tells you something.  I don't believe in random.  If one fish did it, there will be others."

"I will be fishing the Busch Shootout at a lake that I have probably never fished before later this month.  It will be a Fall pattern which means going in that I will be using the presence of bait fish to help me refine my pattern.  The Fall also is a great time to use reaction lures because the fish tend to chase better in the Fall.  Bass fishing is like a four sided haystack.  When you go looking for that needle, knowing which side of the hay stack to start looking helps you eliminate 75% of the hay stack.  Spend time, learning bass tendencies during the various seasons of the year.  That is the key to figuring out patterns."