| __________________________________________________ JULY 9, 2002 - VOL. 3 NO. 24 __________________________________________________ EDITOR'S LOG Kindly enjoy today's editorial. It's a wry perspective...on color. With all the worldwide wisdom corroborated upon web forums...with all the collective experience shared on rivers and lakes...the time spent together in bass boats, jon boats, canoes, float tubes and leaky wet-butt waders...so many expert articles divulged in monthly fishing magazines, and discussions at club meetings, over fresh coffee at the local bait shop, chatting during long drives to faraway fishing destinations...as deep as we are steeped in bass fishing information, we still face a conundrum, a riddle thus far unanswered, "Does Color Matter?" Some say it does, some say it doesn't. Does color matter?...in a lure?...to a fish? Well, does your playful dog care if the frisbee you toss it is green or pink plastic? Does your housecat paw a grey fuzzy catnip toy more excitedly than it swipes a blue fuzzy toy? When a bass pounds your bait the instant it hits bottom, does it care if you tossed in a green or pink worm, or a grey or a blue one? Or was it a hint of red flake...or a few faint flecks of purple that excited the bass? To me, my answer is that color does NOT matter (and here comes the tricky part:) as long as I am tossing a color that is catching fish. It's a twisted answer I give you, but if you follow the banks and turns below, then lure color should never really matter to you again, you'll never need a confidence color nor choose a favorite. You won't have any. I got a clear and refreshing reminder of this two weeks ago. Please follow me here. Envision a clear, deep ledge (25 feet deep, 150 yards offshore) that forms the main channel (the original river bed before impoundment) and tapers up to a second ledge (15 feet deep). Beyond this, spaced several hundred yards apart from each other, picture three formidable reefs of rugged, uneven rock jumbles and raspy wirebrush jutting out from shore, with sand beaches strung between these three craggy tors. With absolutely no wind at first, fishing was not fantastic (not yet), but it was good! The fish that nipped were predictably tucked up under the eaves of the offshore ledge; or you could barely glimpse them skulking 25 feet deep in the crystal agua, skirting the lips of giant tongue-like imprints pressed in the ledge; or patrolling the berms of sunken wash gullies grooved into it. Suddenly, without a hint of its coming, a solid 20 mph breeze forced itself out of the sky, piling sheet after sheet of wind-driven waves directly up onto the three shoreline reefs. As fast as the breeze was born, smallmouth immediately rose to the occasion! A procession of smallies emptied out from under the offshore ledges, and marched up onto the three shoals. For the next two hours, I reaped the bounty of this windfall by capturing over 70 smallmouth, all good ones that moved up into the shallows because of the breeze. Now the crux of today's editorial...that color does NOT matter (and the tricky part:) as long as you are tossing a color that is catching fish. You see, in this gale, I tried every color in my bag, a diversity of them. With an army of aggressive, wind-charged smallmouth beneath the boat, I could catch a fish on any color I tossed at them. That is, I could catch a smallmouth, within 3 or 4 or 5 casts on any color tone. However, the two hues I originally started with that day? I could catch a fish on every cast with those two! Indeed, those two tones had been preferred by fish on previous trips. Now, the wind was reinforcing proof that bass preferred those two colors above all others - on that day. No other color I tried would work as well as those two! Indeed, those two colors are still catching best for me about two weeks later. So far this season since starting in March, I have fished through six distinct "color bites". What do I mean when I say that? I mean I've used colors that definitely caught more bass (for a time) better than any other colors. Other than that, there's not much more to say about it. I have no solid reason why bass preferred those colors nor can I say what natural fodder (if any) those colors represented to bass. Indeed, they didn't represent anything I've seen swimming in the lake lately. But I do know that catch rates increased using a certain color - for a few days, for a few weeks, a month or longer. So that's what I mean by a color bite, and I can't say I've ever heard anyone else describe one in print. Five of the six color bites I've seen this year have ended, fizzed out, and I have no firm plans to toss those colors at fish again any time soon. I am not partial to any of them. They aren't my confidence colors nor my favorites. I haven't any. Every year I go through color bites, and in several decades, I've not seen the color patterns repeat themselves much from year to year. The twists and turns are never quite the same when it comes to color. It's July. We're over halfway through the 2002 calendar now. Days are getting shorter. Just as always, I expect I'll fish through several new color bites in the second half of 2002. I have no idea (nor do I care) what these color bites will be, because color doesn't matter to me, nor should color matter to you, as long as you are tossing the color that's catching the fish. Your wry friend, Russ Bassdozer Editor, Gary Yamamoto's Weekly News __________________________________________________ SPECIAL OFFER FROM BASS WEST MAGAZINE...FOR YOU! This promotion is a special offer from Bass West Magazine to Gary Yamamoto's Weekly News subscribers. 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Bass West is your entrance into the dynamic Western fishing world. It's the most in-depth Bass fishing magazine from the West. Read and learn about hot techniques developed out West such as drop shotting or sight fishing with monster 10" tube baits. Learn the secrets of Western Pros on how to catch trophy bass on huge unique swimbaits. Be part of the select group and learn about the newest Japanese baits and custom plastics. If you want to find out what they are using in the West=85then you need Bass West! Subscribe to one year of Bass West magazine and get an additional second year absolutely FREE. But hurry! This is a limited time offer available to you now at: http://www.basswest.com/catalog.html?c=3D13 __________________________________________________ THE NIGHT THE GREEN GIANTS CLOBBERED THE ABA We're not talking night of the iguanas here. That was a Hollywood movie. This is real life bass fishing where huge green-backed monsters clobbered the living daylights out of anglers on Lake Casitas in the American Bass ABA Southern California Division night event Saturday, June 15th. Lino Jubilado fought back, capturing a 15.54 pound mogambo. Todd Holder held on for dear life, besting a 13.84 pound toadzilla. The winning team of Mark Taylor and Frank Annunziatta had an 11.43 anchor for 5 bass averaging 9.24 lbs. Ray Rodriguez & Daren Cliff hefted a heavy 10.94 pound gargantuan over their team's gunnels. Larry Reed had an encounter of the closest kind with a 10.28 lb. Casitas beauty. Numerous nines and eights looked like guppies in their livewells. It was a once-in-a-lifetime night of big bass team tournament fishing. Fortunately, none of the ABA anglers were pulled overboard or eaten alive by the mean green monsters that came out to hunt hapless prey on Lake Casitas, California on Saturday night June 15th. For photos of the giants and the giant-catchers, please visit: http://www.americanbass.com __________________________________________________ PIX OF THE DOZER AND FRIENDS Well, if you care to see what I look like, I've put a few photos of me and two of my good fishing partners at: http://www.insideline.net/ez-forum/ez-forum.pl?read=3D7308 I'm the guy in the goofy hat, and that's Team Yamamoto's Capt. Chris Cliburn (upper right), and Jamie Cyphers (the chap in the blue-mirrored shades). But the real camera stars are several southwest desert largemouth we took off (and returned to) beds this spring, using GYCB lizards. __________________________________________________ HOW ABOUT YOU? I know you've got your own moments of fantastic fishing fame...and the photos to prove it! Send in your stories and photos to: Rcomeau@baits.com I'll publish as many of your photos and stories as possible on our BassTalk forum at: http://www.insideline.net/ez-forum __________________________________________________ HEARD ON THE FORUMS AT NYBASS.COM Say the heck to honey-do's this weekend, this makes more sense: "Three-fourths of the Earth's surface is water. Only one-fourth is land. It is quite clear that the good Lord intended us to spend triple the amount of time fishing as taking care of the lawn." If you yearn to learn more about bass fishing in New York, then there's no better bunch of helpful New Yorkers dangling and angling online at: http://www.nybass.com/forums/ Tell forum moderator and head honcho John G. that the Dozer sent you! __________________________________________________ HOW TO MAKE OUR GOOD BAITS EVEN BETTER FOR YOU! Stay well informed! The information we give you is the secret ingredient we add to make our good bait even better! GET QUESTIONS ANSWERED Got a question about bass fishing? Get it answered on the BassTalk Forum at: http://www.insideline.net/ez-forum GET NEWS AND TIPS EVERY WEEK Want timely bass fishing tips to try each week? Sign-up for your free Weekly News delivery at: http://www.insideline.net/ezine GET 200 ARTICLES ONLINE Read over 200 articles by Team Yamamoto writers at: http://www.insideline.net/articles __________________________________________________
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