Scott Martin - The greatest warrior of bass fishing

 Scott Martin - The greatest warrior of bass fishing

Hector was the first-born son of King Priam and Queen Hecuba, who was a descendant of Dardanus and Tros, the founder of Troy.^[3] In some accounts, his father was the god Apollo.^[4] He was a prince of the royal house and the heir apparent to his father's throne. 

During the European Middle Ages, Hector figures as one of the Nine Worthies noted by Jacques de Longuyon, known not only for his courage but also for his noble and courtly nature. Indeed, Homer places Hector as peace-loving, thoughtful as well as bold, a good son, husband and father, and without darker motives. James Redfield describes Hector as a "martyr to loyalties, a witness to the things of this world, a hero ready to die for the precious imperfections of ordinary life."

Scott, you are our Hector. The greatest warrior of bass fishing

Fooled You, Sucker!

                       As its name suggests, the white Sucker is distinguished by its protuberant and downward-pointing sucker-like mouth. The mouth, located on the underside of a blunt, rounded snout, has thick lips covered with small fleshy bumps called papillae. The body of the white sucker is torpedo-shaped and cylindrical, with relatively large scales.

The color of the fish greatly varies—the color of its back and upper sides can be dark green, grey, coppery brown, or even black, while the lower sides are lighter and give way to the white underbelly. When spawning, these colors darken and intensify. Spawning males develop distinctly colored bands along the sides of their body as well as coarse bumps (tubercles) on the head and their anal and caudal fins. Young white suckers are lighter in overall color and have three very distinct dark spots on their sides.

Typically, white suckers grow to be 12 to 18 inches in length, but they can get as big as 25 inches long. They weigh anywhere from 2 to 6 pounds. White suckers have 55-85 lateral line scales and 10-13 dorsal rays.

Habitat

The white sucker can adapt to a wide range of environmental conditions and habitats including streams, lakes, and rivers but it tends to live in small/medium sized rivers and small creeks with cold, clear water. White suckers avoid rapid currents. They often move into tributary streams to spawn and tend to do so over gravel or rocky shoals.

Life History

From late April to early June (or more specifically, when the water temperature is warm enough), white suckers home upstream to rocky/gravely spawning areas with quick running water. Look for key areas in the lake where Bass will set up to lie in wait for preoccupied Suckers to pass by on their way to the creek inlets or outlets.

Once there, the female settles to the bottom and is soon crowded by males. Once two males find a place on either side of the female, the three fish begin to rapidly vibrate together, causing sperm and eggs to release. Once this quick spawning act is complete, the female continues upstream to find more mates. Over the course of an hour or more, a female may lay from 20,000 to over 100,000 eggs. No nests are built for the eggs—instead, they are scattered and eventually attach to the bottom. After a week or two, the adults leave the spawning grounds and return to where they originally came from. As for the eggs—after incubating for a week or two, the larvae hatch. The fry remain in the gravel for another one or two weeks and then migrate downstream. 

White suckers reach maturity in 3 to 8 years and then spawn annually throughout the rest of their lives. This species has a maximum life expectancy of about 17 years.

Geographic Range
For the most part, the white sucker inhabits the upper Midwest and Northeast of North America, but it has been found as far west as New Mexico and as far south as Georgia.

White suckers have a large variety of known predators. Its predators include muskellunges, bass, burbot, brook trout, and sea lamprey. Walleye and northern pike prey upon eggs and small white suckers. Bald eagles, herons, loons, and ospreys are known to prey on small white suckers as well. Other animals, such as bears, feed on white suckers during their spawning periods.

Conservation Status

White suckers are a very common and robust species with very large population sizes over a wide distribution. Therefore, the white sucker has been designated as a species of least concern on the IUCN Red List.

Fun Facts

• The white sucker goes by a number of other names—common sucker, coarse-scaled sucker, brook sucker, gray sucker, mud sucker, sucker, mullet, black mullet, slender sucker, June sucker, and white horse.
  

• The white sucker is commonly confused with the longnose sucker, another type of bottom-feeding fish. They look similar and both use their fleshy lips to suck up food. The main difference between the two is that the longnose sucker has grey or dark olive-colored sides.

A plain blue back Huddleston with spawning bands applied via black sharpie.

Watch Care

Caring For Your Watches

Crown Down
Place your watch crown side down on your night stand or dresser. You are less likely to scratch the side of your valuable watch with only the crown making contact with the surface.

Invest in Deployant Clasps for Your Watch Straps or Bands
Your watch strap will last 4-5 times longer if you use a deployant clasp to take it on and off. With a standard buckle, you must pull back on the strap to put it on and off. This daily pulling back wears (creases) the strap out around the buckle. With at deployant clasp you avoid this. And, it is easier to use and safer (you can't accidentally slip and drop your watch putting it on). A deployant clasp works much the same way as a bracelet does.

Store Your Watch Collection in a Watch Box
Rather than keeping your growing watch collection loosely arranged in your dresser drawer, invest in a good watch box that keeps your watches safe from scratches and nicely displayed. If you have some XXL or large dial watches store them on the end slots or skip a slot to keep the crown from banging into another watch in the box.

Use a Soft Watch Cloth to Wipe off the dust, finger prints, etc. 

A soft cloth or a micro-fiber cloth is what we recommend for keeping your watch clean and dust free. For tarnish or brightening up gold or gold plated watches, you can get a Jeweler's Rouge polishing cloth to restore the original luster.

Preserve Your Watch Straps in Hot, Sticky Weather

We all sweat in the hotter summer months. Watch straps can get sweat marks on the inside and this can degrade a strap with a soft leather lining quite quickly. You are better choosing to wear a water resistant strap or one made out of synthetics. You can also use special leather treatments and refined beeswax to keep your straps in good condition.

Rotate Your Watches and/or Invest in a Good Watch Winder
With self-winding and hand wound watches it is important to keep them running by rotating your watches. If a watch sits unworn, for a long period of time, the lubricant and clump up or pool and doesn't get evenly distributed. A watch winder can help keep your self-winding watches in good condition. For hand wound watches, wind them frequently to keep them running at their best.

Salt Water and Your Dive Watch
Just like it is a good idea to rinse yourself off after swimming in the Ocean, you should rinse your dive watch off too. Even though it is made from stainless steel, it is still a good idea to wash off the salt water when you get a chance.

Have Your Mechanical Watch Cleaned and Oiled on a Regular Basis
The standard recommendation for having your mechanical watch oiled and cleaned is about every 4 to 5 years. Like changing the oil in your car, you should keep your watch serviced to keep it running smoothly and in tip top shape. 

Invest in a Link Pin Remover or Spring Bar tool, if You would like to Change Straps or Size Your Watch Bracelet
A deluxe Link Pin Remover can save you a trip to a Jeweler and pay for itself in one or two uses. They are pretty easy to use and they will not scratch the watch.

If you like to switch out your leather straps on occasion, invest in a Spring Bar Remover tool. They are available for little money and they make quick work of changing your straps.

Never set day & date functions between the hours of 9pm - 3am

During these hours the day & date complications are doing their function and manually turning the crown during this time can strip the gear.

Avoid showering while wearing your watch.

The hot water and steam may compromise your watch's water resistance. It was not tested under these circumstances so its best to avoid unnecessary exposure. 

With proper watch care your timepiece can offer you a lifetime of service that can be passed down for the next generation to discover the study of time. 

Tips for a successful Seppuku!

So you've decided to commit seppuku. Now what? To help you with the task, here is a handy tutorial. Enjoy!

Step #1: Purchase a Sharp Sword!

A dull blade can lead to ragged cutting and the expenditure of much "elbow grease" during the ceremony. Therefore, it is important that the sword be razor-sharp.

Step #2: Find a Buddy!

One of the most important parts of seppuku is the kaishaku, or assistant. The kaishaku's task is to slice off your head after you have completed the ceremony, and should therefore be a close friend, family member, or crudely jilted ex-lover. The Kaishaku is also responsable for placing your remains in a sealed garbage bag, so you don't stink up the trash. 

Step #3: Decide Where to Die!

You only die once, so the location of your seppuku ceremony should be as pleasant as possible. I suggest a sunny field, a well-tended garden, or the pleasantly air-conditioned lobby of an upscale office building.

Step #4: Go for It!

Kneel down in your chosen location and slowly insert the sword into your abdomen. The desired spot is about three inches left or right of your navel, depending on which hand you use. Once the sword is inserted, gently slice it across your stomach, then upward toward your chest. Remove sword when finished.

Step #5: Inspect Your Work!

If done properly, most of your internal organs should have spilled out across your lap. If no internal organs are visible, repeat act until the job has been done correctly. Once finished, your kaishaku should then lop off your head in one clean blow.

Good luck, and happy cutting!

"Flippin' the Bird"

        With so many new realistic Hollow Body Frog Baits coming out lately, you might have forgotten about this frog bait with an attitude. No frog collection is complete without "Flippin' the Bird". It's really in a class of its own. 

In spring/summer wherever there's tules, you will see the easily identifiable Red Winged Black Birds. And Flippin' the Bird is a perfect rendition of these flying Mc Nuggets. I've had real RWBB's swooping down at me thinking I had one of there own on my line, more than once.

Casting into the tules, making a big commotion, and the baits tendency to right itself in the water is usually all that is needed to elicit a strike. 

It can be used at night to represent a downed bat. 

I like to trim the rubber strands to the shape of wings and a split tail to further its bird like appeal. 

This bait will stand out when the frog bite is in full swing at your local waters. It's definitely a classic!

Hudds don't just mimic trout

                When it comes to big swimbaits like the Huddleston, I notice people will say, "we don't have trout in our waters, so they won't work".

Just because there are no trout in your waters, don't let that stop you from throwing a Hudd. Whatever types of fish you have that grow to the 8" size can be mimicked or suggested. 

Bass are opportunistic feeders and if they scrutinized food by demographics, etc. before eating, they wouldn't be productive hunters. The "reaction strike" is what makes them productive and having a large mouth doesn't hurt. 

"Don't think too much". Whenever we start eliminating possibility, we do just that. 

Where I live in Ca. many of the tackle shops do not carry the perch color or version of lures because they don't nessesarily inhabit waters this far west, and through experience, they know lures of this type do not sell well. Common knowledge of local fish species has led to this belief. For this reason, I look for perch colored baits online and fish them knowing they're the least chosen out of all the color/paterns offered in particular baits. We do have carp, suckers, chubs, and Sac pike. And the perch color/pattern can pass for these other types of fish. 

In bass fishing, "match the hatch" is important when the bass are keying in on an abundant food source. A trout stocking, a Shad spawn, Crayfish mating ritual, or chasing a school of baitfish. The rest of the time it's a matter of opportunity and doesn't nessesarily apply.

I had noticed the suckers were spawning at a particular lake, so I thought about mimicking them. The males will sport a dark horizontal strip down their sides at this time. They flock to current, so I figured big bass would be ambushing them on their way to the creek inlets and outlets. After adding a stripe to match look, I set up near the outlet. Second cast, I swam it past a little rock wall and it got hammered. I don't even think the stripe was all that important. More so to me than the bass anyway. The key was finding an ambush spot where a big predator could lie in wait.

So what I'm getting at is, just because there are no trout in your waters, you can still throw a Hudd. Now if there are no 8" fish, then that's another thing. And if that's the case, I would look for better water to fish. 

The Long Nose Sucker bares a distinctive stripe during the spawn.

A black sharpie was used to add stripes on the top and sides.

Understandings crawfish patterns and coloration is key to big bites!

Understandings crawfish patterns and coloration is key to big bites!

I found this article by Jim Root on Bassmasters. It's a topic I been trying to gain a better understanding to form my own seasonal color preferences. (I added the pics and captions)

Early October pumpkin with orange tips.

There are very few people in the world who don’t throw jigs or other crawfish imitations when bass fishing. Some people have no less than three jigs tied at any given time on their boat. So what is it that makes them so deadly on bass, and how do you know what color to use? There has been a lot of research recently that says it’s not enough to throw a tube, you need to know the correct pattern.

Recently I came across a study which showed that 90% of the time bass will choose to eat crawfish over anything else because crawfish are extremely high in protein and very easy for bass to digest. So it’s not coincidence that people throw so many tubes, jigs, soft plastic baits with pinchers. This part is really not deniable. Anyone with a boat who’s had bass in their livewell will tell you that at some point bass have spit up crawfish. What gets tricky is when you start debating color, and if it matters.

Let’s start with what is universally true: craws do change color. In a study performed by the University of Michigan, Dr. Robert Thacker found that crawfish have red and blue photoreceptors. In lakes where blue-green light transmitted best, the craws were lighter in color. And in lakes where red light transmitted best, the craws were darker in color. There has also been clear data to support that swamp-like bottom composition results in very different coloration than rocky bottom lakes or tributaries. I’m not carrying around a spectrophotometer from lake to lake measuring the color intensity, but I do have a few traps that I’ll place at different points around the lake to collect samples of crawfish, which is ultimately the most effective way to match the hatch. This is really important to do because local bait shops often import what they sell from farms, where conditions can be completely different from what you’re fishing.

When they’ll change color is when they’re molting, or shedding their shell. This results from outgrowing the one they’d worn previously. This process has also been known to change the color entirely based on habitat. What researchers have found is that molting is initiated by a chemical that’s released in the body that’s been linked to the different phases of the moon. An article in Bassmaster Magazine had this to say about colors and moon phase: 3-4 days before and after a full moon throw brown and orange or olive and orange,black and red as you move further into the moon cycle, new moon nights should warrant dark brown and black, and to use black and blue as you move to a sickle moon.

So if you take all the data and combine it what you get is that crawfish are considered delicious by bass, they change color frequently during the different moon phases, with different color patterns per each section of water in each individual lake/river/pond. . go “match the hatch”!

        Full.                       Mid                             New.                       

Brown/Orange.       Black/Red.           Dark Brown/Black.      

Olive/Orange

    Sickle

  Black/Blue

This baby carrying mother had claws with bright red flake. (Early Nov.)