Largemouth Bass

Also referred to as black bass, wide mouth bass, green trout, or line side bass, can grow up to 4-6 inches their first year, 8-12 inches in their second year, and up to 16 inches in three years. Now of coarse these are just general figures, it can differ habitat to habitat. Their colors range from a dark green on the top side to almost white in most cases on their bottom side. Large mouth also have a black stripe horizontally on their sides.

Except for humans, adult large mouth bass are the top predators in the aquatic ecosystem. Fry feed primarily on zooplankton and insect larvae. At about two inches in length they become active predators. Adults feed almost exclusively on other fish and large invertebrates such as crayfish. Larger fish prey upon smaller bass.


Generally spawning begins in the spring when water temperatures reach about 60°F. This could occur as early as February or as late as May, depending one where one is in the country. Males build the nests in two to eight feet of water. Large mouth bass prefer to nest in quieter, more vegetated water than other black bass, but will use any substrate besides soft mud, including submerged logs. As in Guadalupe bass, once the female has laid eggs in the nest (2,000 to 43,000) she is chased away by the male who then guards the precious eggs. The young, called fry, hatch in five to ten days. Fry remain in a group or "school" near the nest and under the male's watch for several days after hatching. Their lifespan is on average 16 years. Large mouth bass seek protective cover such as logs, rock ledges, vegetation, and man-made structures. They prefer clear quiet water, but will survive quite well in a variety of habitats.

Fishing Rods

Fishing rods come in all different brands, sizes, stiffness, materials, and so on and so forth. Its really hard to find a fishing rod that has the right price tag and enough sensitivity or durability to make do. There may not be one specific brand that is right for all styles of fishing but I have a few that get the job done with a price that works for my fishing budget, which happens to be pretty small these days. Below I have listed a couple fishing rods that I prefer and they cover any type of fishing you may do. 

If you like the peace of mind of having a warrenty on your fishing rod i would suggest St. Croix fishing rods, the avid series and the mojo bass series. They are all durable rods with good price tags. I have broken two avid series fishng rods by my own stupidity. I told the nice people at St. Croix exactly what happened, not expecting them to uphold thier warrenty because it was not a factory defect. They took care of me no questions asked. The Mojo bass fishing rods come with a five year warranty. The Mojo series is priced anywhere from $100 to $130. The avid series rods come with over 20 different bass fishing techniqes styles. It comes with a limited lifetime warranty. The price ranges from $170-$230. Also in addition to the warranty, St Croix has an upgrade program where at any time you can send in your fishing rod ( as long as you are the original owner and warranty shows that) and pay only a few more dollars for a higher model. For example; I purchased a avid sereies drop shot rod. After breaking it by wacking it against the side of the boat i sent it in broken to be repaired. I pad only the difference from the price I paid orriginaly which was $120 and paid $75 to get the legend elite fishing rod that cost around $200 at the time. Plus shipping and handleing.

The newest fishing rod that I have started using is the Skeet Reese series fishing rods by Wright & McGill. Now besides being used by arguably the best fisherman on circuit, Skeet Reese, Wright and Mcgill have what they call Tessera S-Curve blanks and the Tri-Gressive S-Glass. The price of these fishing rods are priced at around $89. They are also technique specific. Thier crankbait rod is my favorite by far. To boot it has a limited lifetime warranty.i dont ows any of the finnese fishing rods from Wright and McGill but the crank bait rod and the jig rod are hands down best ive ever fished with.  I could spend $300-$400 and get the same quality but that dosnt make much sense.

Well this is just my two cents. Hope this will help in your endeavor to find a good fishing rod with a nice price tag.

Weaher Fades For Bassmaster Day 1 at The Delta

STOCKTON, Calif. — As 93 Elite pros idled away from the Weber Point Events Center in downtown Stockton to start the TroKar Duel in the Delta Thursday morning, the winds of change were blowing.
Or, rather, NOT blowing.
James Overstreet


Boats circle into position for their designated launch time.After three wind-blasted, grind-it-out practice days that featured everything from morning frost to 35-mile-per-hour winds, dawn broke clear and quiet this morning in northern California, the leading edge of a 24-hour forecast that calls for 63-degree highs, clear, sunny skies, and a not even a puff of wind.




It's a welcome change that the field hopes will shake loose the Delta's recalcitrant largemouth. Although fishing has been scratchy, enough big fish have been caught -- including a 14-pound fish caught by Guy Eaker on the first day of practice -- to keep the field's attention focused on the quality of the Florida-strain largemouth tucked into the Delta's sloughs and back bays.
"If it warms up enough, I think it could get nasty … good nasty," Delta veteran Dean Rojas said.
Now it's up to the field to decipher what exactly "nasty" means.




Cold, colder, coldest: With below-average water temperatures hovering in the low 50s at launch and pushing only to the mid-50s during practice, the Delta's largemouth are still on the cusp of moving up to spawn.




"It's dropped 4 degrees since we got here, and these Florida-strain fish don't like that cold," Mark Davis said as he prepared to launch. "The nights are still darn cold around here. When I left this morning to come in, it was 35 degrees. It's going to have to warm up pretty good for these fish to bite."


The prevailing school of thought is that the water temps and unsettled weather have spread fish away from the banks onto deeper outside weed edges -- 9 to 15 feet in most places -- but with morning sunshine soaking into exposed wood, rocks and heavy vegetation on the outgoing and low slack tides for the first 3 to 3 ½ hours of the fishing day, the field will likely have a better chance of fishing on pockets of slightly warmer water created by the ambient heat of that structure as the tide overtakes it.




James Overstreet


A late flight of boats idles past the morning boat inspection. "Half the reason they're not biting is because of the water temperature," Aaron Martens, the 2007 Delta winner, confirmed before take-off. "The grass gets a lot of heat, though, and (last night) felt 10 degrees warmer than it's been all week. Hopefully the water is 56, 57 at least.




"It's still one of those high-pressure feelings where it still doesn't feel right for the fish to bite well, but I'm thinking it might be pretty good in the afternoon."




Dirty, dirtier, dirtiest: The Delta's waters were already stained because of heavy rains the week before the tournament, but the clarity took another hit during the wind-blown three days of practice.




"Yeah, (the wind) tore it up pretty good," Davis said. "It's going to be harder to find cleaner water now, so a guy's going to have to cover a lot of water today and go back to places where he found some good water in practice."




Fortunately, the Delta is loaded with small hidey-holes which weren't likely as affected by the wind. Locating one subtle divot or break on the side of a protected bank -- especially if it holds the right kind of cover and water that's 2 to 3 degrees warmer -- might make a dramatic difference in the Day One leader board.




The same gnarly conditions that challenged the field early in the week will have killed and dislodged vegetation throughout the Delta, giving big fish fewer places to hide. And with a rising tide and high water combining with warmer weather the last half of the day, flipping or punching through matted cover could produce some of the biggest fish of the day.




"You're one cast away from a personal best, no matter where you are out here," Arkansas pro Stephen Browning said. "There are very few places you can go catch fish this big, so you just have to keep fishing 'em."

Bassmaster Pros Pick Cal Delta Winners

STOCKTON, Calif. — Surveying several of the competitors preparing to blast off Thursday morning for Day One of the TroKar Elite Series Duel in the Delta, you get the impression that the tournament is Ish Monroe's to win or lose. Of course, when the nearby Hughson, Ca. native is made aware of the fact that he's been singled out by several of his Elite peers, Monroe does his best to dodge that tag: "Oh, great, put even more pressure on the local kid. Thanks, thanks, I really need that."



Here are some of the Elite pros' picks:
Ish Monroe


"I'm going to pick Mark Tyler. He's also an old Delta rat like myself, and he's fished these conditions before. He's not the record holder (for the 14-9 biggest fish caught in a BASS tournament) for no reason at all. He knows this place, and knowing his style of fishing, he'll catch them. But that's only if I wasn't fishing the tournament, right?"


Kevin VanDam


"I think the guys from out here will do well. They know the fishery, they understand the tides. I'd expect Aaron Martens and Skeet Reese to be a couple of favorites, without a doubt. I wouldn't be surprised to see Greg Hackney and Denny Brauer do well, because this is flippin' country. Gary Klein should do well, too."
Greg Hackney


"Kevin (VanDam), man. Kevin's always the favorite, no matter where we fish. He's just in the prime of his career. He's always fished well, but nothing compared to the way he's going now. He had good tournaments before, but now he just flat out wins 'em. When you get in the zone like he is, you go unconscious. He just figures out exactly where to throw his bait, he makes the right decisions, and there's no doubt that, when he's out there, he has one concern: catching fish."
"A darkhorse might be Cliff Crochet, a kid who (lives) about 45 minutes from me. He had a good Classic, and he's a Delta fisherman. When he was growing up, the only place he'd fish was the Delta at home. He knows what to look for. This Delta is similar to the one at home, but it's deeper. He's never fished for fish this big, though — I talked to him before we came out here, he was asking me 'Man, when we're out in California, is it going to be BIG poles and BIG hook sets?'."
Denny Brauer


"Without a doubt the California guys: Skeet, Aaron Martens and Ish. Those three will do well here."
Mike Iaconelli


"Well, your first pick has to be Ish. He's the local guy, he has a lot of history and a lot of experience here. It'd be pretty easy to say another California guy, but I'll go out on a limb and say Matt Reed. He's a helluva fisherman as far as finding concentrations of fish. He'll get into an area, camp out and just fish 'em. I think he could do pretty good here."
Byron Velvick


"It'd have to be Ish Monroe. He has a lot of confidence and experience on this fishery, and he should: He has a lot of success on the Delta. If I had to pick a darkhorse, I'd say 'Me'. If I don't go out there believing I can win, I don't have any business being here. I haven't won on the Delta before, but I've had some good tournaments. A lot of guys wouldn't think of me as a guy to win the Delta, but I think I could go out, run some pretty good spots and surprise a few people."
Dean Rojas


"Ish Monroe has a real good chance of doing well or winning. Kevin will probably hold his own here — I think he'll probably finish in the top 20. I'm sure that Denny Brauer and Tommy Biffle are going to do well here because it suits their styles. It's the flippin' Mecca, so I think those guys will probably do well. I think those are a couple of guys who are going to catch them better than they think they are."
Gary Klein


"Everytime I make a prediction, these guys make me look bad. I've been to tournaments before where these guys were all crying the blues in practice and they go out and catch the heck out of them during the tournament. It's really hard for me to predict one guy. I'll tell you what, though: The guys that settle in and fish through the tides will figure it out."
Cliff Crochet


"The whole California gang. Outside of them, almost anybody can do it. Hackney, Tracy Scroggins, Kelly Jordan & all of those guys are flippin' guys. And Denny Brauer or Tommy Biffle. If it has anything at all to do with a flippin' stick, you gotta throw those guys in there."


Shaw Grigsby


"I'd have to give the nod to Aaron, not just because he won last time, but because he has a lot of (history) out here. Also, Skeet and the other local guys. When it's tough — and I consider it to be tough — then you have to give the nod to the guys who have that knowledge to fall back on. Where do you go, what do you do? Those guys know. And a darkhorse? I don't have a clue, buddy."