Chunky bass

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Comment by David, aka, "McScruff" on January 10, 2014 at 5:42pm

Yeah Jim, its my new courtesy alert. Glad you found it useful.

Ive dumped the smart phone and am back to a keyboard. This gives me ALOT more opportunity to ramble. Man, if I could only get paid by the word - -

Comment by Jim Gronaw on January 10, 2014 at 5:03pm

Great fish...did you get it today?

I held up at the WARNING...

Comment by David, aka, "McScruff" on January 10, 2014 at 8:04am

Ive noticed the chartreuse-white connection, myself.

WARNING - McScruff Ramble ahead. Proceed at your own risk.

Without having actual data to fall back on, i.e., relying solely on memory, I noticed this two seasons ago after moving near Lake Murray, SC. I had not been "bluegill style" fishing on my new home lake before then. I had been there, mind you, but we always drove up and used a boat once we arrived. We then headed straight for large holding structure where we dunked worms to catch bluegill and perch.

Effective? Yes. Especially after driving over an hour just to get to the boat ramp.

But these techniques are not imbued with the same grace and finesse as fishing light lures and flies in backwater areas. Once I lived near the lake and could go more often, I started flinging size 0 Beetle Spins and home made mini sliders into the coves and creek arms around the lake. And that's when I started to notice that chartreuse and white combinations were a winner here. 

Certainly the water itself is a prime reason. In the warm months, the backwaters of our lake are stained a greenish drab with micro plant life. Visibility is usually no more than about 2-4 ft. Also, in South Carolina, the sun is bright! Chartreuse and white are quite visible to the fish under these conditions.

All colors eventually become just shades of grey, anyway, as light is filtered by impurities in the water. First goes red and the warm colors, then the middle colors like green fall away and, finally, only blue is left. By the time you reach 10-15 feet in depth, everything ends up looking either dark... or chartreusy-whitish.

It's probably important here that the natural baitfish which the Closer imitates, in its native environment, is mostly light colored, too. Add to this the gliding and jerky movements we are able to impart to the Clouser style lure and its bound to appeal to something. Studies into fish vision strongly suggest that your lure doesn't have to precisely duplicate native forage - it just has to give that impression. The goal is to make fish think it MIGHT be food, something to which they better commit to before another gets it!

None of this scientific mumbo-jumbo is really new; it is available for anyone to find. I'm big on not re-inventing the wheel, so I'm always researching what others have learned before me. It's my curse, you might say. But, this season, I've vowed to actually take notes and collect data on the Where's, Why's and How's behind my fishing. Hopefully I'll gather some hard evidence of my own to support the theories.

Comment by Allen Morgan on January 10, 2014 at 6:36am

Nice one!

There's a really good reason why Chartreuse over White Clousers are classic.  They catch EVERYTHING!

Comment by carl hendrix on January 10, 2014 at 4:34am

that's a good one chris!! and the hat and shades! LOL

Comment by Leo Nguyen on January 9, 2014 at 11:52pm

Now I'm jealous..2wt..man.

Comment by chris kowaleski on January 9, 2014 at 10:17pm

I agree! The hat does the job quite well!

Comment by David, aka, "McScruff" on January 9, 2014 at 9:19pm

PS - I am so down with that hat!

Comment by David, aka, "McScruff" on January 9, 2014 at 9:19pm

Alot of fun, right there!