thoughts on what i learnedGoing into this project I wanted to focus on becoming a better fisherman and to further my knowledge about fishing. I felt like I had a good amount of it going into the project but I was completely wrong. I learned so much during this time just by reading and talking with my dad about fishing and about fish in general. Then when I got to apply all that I had learned into the field and actually use it fishing and to see it work it made it all worth it. thoughts on the projectI think that the genius hour project itself is a great thing. There is so much that can be done when you set out time to do something that you choose to do because you enjoy it and because you want do it. I also think that there are a few things that I could have done differently to benefit more from the project. I think it would have been helpful if I would have made a spreadsheet or kept a notebook in the boat with me so that I could have kept my data more organized. I also think if I can find a way to continue on with this project and give the lake some more time to warm up I would be able to answer my question better. thoughts on my dataI believe I didn't completely answer my question. The water temperature rose about 8 degrees of the course of the whole project and while the fish became a little more active I don't think that is quite enough time to gather all the information on whether or not they completely change their behavior. I think they would continue to become more active but I wonder at what temperature the water gets too hot and they become less active. This is something I hope to answer even after this project has come to an end. in conclusion
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what did i do differentlyFor this week's fishing trip I really tried to focus on the things that I had read in the articles and throughout the project. I decided that I was going to make my last trip count and get everything out of it that I could. I decided to use a Senko warm for most of the day and to target fish on beds because that will give me the most accurate data I could get. Overall I would have to say that this fishing trip was VERY successful. about the tripThis trip was the complete opposite as the last trip that I went on. We got to the boat ramp early and we were the first boat on the water at that ramp. There was hardly any other boats out on the lake so I could basically pick and choose where I wanted to fish. As I said earlier I already had a plan of how I wanted to fish going into the trip. We got to the first spot I wanted to fish and the first thing I did was check the water temperature. It was sitting right at 65 degrees. Immediately I spotted some fish on their beds. I caste right at them and caught each fish on the first cast that I took at their bed. I could tell that the fish were very active and wanted to eat that day. I continued to do this all throughout the day and continued to catch a ton of fish. I was so successful that I even caught my biggest fish ever which weighed in to be 5lb. 8oz. It was a monster fish and a fish that I won't soon forget. I caught around 30 fish today and got the most data I got all project. At the end of the day the water temperature was 68 degrees and the fish were very active. I will analyze all of that data on next weeks blog.
interesting blog titleThis weeks blog title may have caught your eye because it as nothing to do with fishing. If you thought that then, well, you were correct and incorrect. I have been doing a lot of reading here recently on the science of bass behavior and how they tend to act when they begin to spawn. The reason behind this is if I know how the fish are going to behave when they are spawning I can use lures that they will hit more often or I can target certain areas of the lake that the fish may be in. I have also been just talking with my dad about how I can catch more fish on my last trip to the lake to try and close out the data I have gathered over the course of the project for an accurate answer to my question on how the weather affects fish. wonderingNow you may be asking yourself what am I wondering about, you may not be as well and that's okay too. (not really you should be asking yourself what I'm wondering about) Well let me answer that question for you. I am wondering about several things related to this project. The first thing I am wondering about is how much have I grown in my fishing skills during the time that I have been working on my project. I would say I have grown more than I thought I would and it's not from fishing. It's from reading articles and reports on Lake Norman and studying fish behavior. I have also had conversations with my dad about fishing that I may not have had if it hadn't been for this project. I am also wondering what I could have changed in my project but we will discuss that on my last blog.
everything against meI finally got back on the lake this weekend but it seemed like everything was against me catching fish, here's why. When I first got to the boat ramp it was absolutely packed. There was a big bass fishing tournament going on that day that I did not know about so I would have to spend some of the time today competing with them for some of the spots that I wanted to fish. The weather was also perfect today so a lot of boats were out on the water. This made it difficult to fish because the lake was so choppy and it was hard to keep control of the boat in some of the tight places that I wanted to fish. With all that being said I was still able to gather some data and catch a good amount of fish. information and dataI fished from noon to about 6p.m. today to try and keep the time frame from last fishing trip similar to this one's. I caught 17 fish in this time period which was way more than the last fishing trip. I caught almost all of my fish in shallow water and on rocky banks, I believe this was caused by the water temperature and the fish beginning to spawn. The water temperature started at about 64 degrees but warmed up to about 67 degrees at it's max. I caught the most fish when the water was at it's hottest. This indicated to me that the fish had gotten more active with the change in water temperature. I caught all of my fish either on a Senko or a Creature bait. Both of these were used when I was flipping lures on beds trying to get reaction strikes. Today was a good day on the water and I was very satisfied with the number of fish that I caught. overallI was asking my self earlier on the way home from the lake what I thought this data proved overall with my project. I think the fish have began to spawn which shows how the warmer air temperatures have effected the water temperatures in turn causing the fish to become more active. I am not positive on that theory yet but I am beginning to come more sure of it.
mixing it upThis weekend I did some bass fishing but was not able to get out on the lake and fish for my project. I was able to get some fishing in though at a pond across the road from my house. It is a shallow water pond therefor the water temperature was way warmer then the lake water. I could tell the fish were more active and getting ready to spawn because the were hitting bigger lures and more aggressive lures. I could use this data to show how the warmer water was affecting the fish but I have not decided on that one yet. I caught about 20 fish in the span of about 4 hours. That's not terrible considering the size of the pond that I fished but I think those numbers will rise as the temperature does. did this prove anythingI think this may have proved a little bit of something on how the weather affects the fish. I noticed that on one side of the pond the water was about 4 degrees warmer than on the other side of the pond. The fish in the warmer section of the pond tended to be more active. Out of the 20 fish that I caught 13 of them were caught on the warmer side of the pond. Not only were the fish more active on that side of the pond, I could also see more beds that fish had made and were getting ready to spawn. There was even some fish sitting on those beds. When I saw those fish on the beds I decided to tie on a predator type lure, a lure that imitates a craw fish or anything else that likes to eat fish eggs. The fish were very aggressive towards the lures and protected their beds very strongly. I think that could be proof that warmer water makes fish more active but I am not sure yet.
campingI am currently writing this blog post from the kitchen table of my families camper. I am fishing this weekend but not the kind of fishing I need to do for my project, but fly fishing instead. I have been successful so far this weekend in catching some trout but really wish I was bass fishing on a lake right now. Trout fishing is fun especially on a fly rod but that is more of the type of fishing that my dad does instead of bass fishing. I like bass fishing more because you have to cover a lot more water which means you have to make every cast count. adviceWhen I first began this project I wanted to find someone who I could ask for advice when going fishing or someone who would hold me accountable. I decided my dad was the best option for that considering he goes fishing with me all the time. He knows a whole lot more about fishing then I do and I thought he could teach me a lot about fishing throughout this project. He also loves to go fishing all the time and always asks me to go with him. I thought that would be perfect considering I needed to go fishing in order to gather information and to actually do the project. He has blown my standards out of the water for a good accountability partner. He has constantly been on me about my blogs and when the next time we were going fishing was. He also helped me decide which lures to use on the days we were going fishing. timeThis weekend is a perfect example of things that have made this project difficult. I have constantly had things come up that canceled my fishing time or took away from the time that I was going to go fishing. Baseball has also done the same thing. Any time that we got school off during the week or on a Friday we always had baseball practice. This has made it very hard to find time to go fishing.
this is awfulAs you probably know from last weeks blog I am not going fishing this weekend. I am very bored and have absolutely nothing to do. I want to go fishing but the weather this past week did not get very warm so I don't think that the water on the lake as warmed up any. I don't think it will for about 3 more weeks but I am going to continue to go fishing and try and figure out the lake. I have also been reading a lot of fishing reports and articles on Lake Norman to try and figure out what the fish are doing. taking advantageI am also going to try and use this time that the lake is cold and slowly warming up to try and figure out where the fish are. Yes, they will move a little bit when the water warms up to go and make their beds or get to a more comfortable water temperature, but I can find some fish that are already moving into those spots and try to predict that more fish will come to that area. I think this will help me gather even more information and catch more fish because I will be spending less time driving around the lake and making a lot of cast in different areas trying to finding the fish and more time fishing specific spots. what i have learned so farwhats new?Nothing new to really talk about this week due to the weather not cooperating and not being able to go out on the lake this weekend. I did get to wash a bass fishing tournament on YouTube. The lake that the tournament was hosted on is the same lake as the one that I am doing my project on. I think I can use some of the tactics that they used on the lake to try and catch more fish or more bedding fish. I also learned where the water is cooler on the lake and where it is warm. I can use this information to fish at different spots to get accurate data on how the water temperature is effecting the fish. future plansAt this point in time I don't really know when I am going to go fishing again. I don't want to go next weekend because the temperature will not increase much on the lake in one week therefor I won't get any new information. I can't go the weekend after that because my family has a camping trip planned. I will most likely go the weekend after that. I think that will give the lake plenty of time to warm up and allow the water temperature to increase. This may cause the fish to get up and moving and become a little more active. I hope this will allow me to gather more information and hopefully see a change in the number of fish that I am catching. hardest part of the projectThis is the hardest part of the project in my opinion. There is not much going on and I'm waiting for the lake to warm up. This can be frustrating when you want to get out and go fish. Fishing is what I love to do and I love to go. So I am a little bored right now just waiting around for the weather to finally warm up and get the fish moving.
Time is finally hereThe best time of this project has finally come, I have now begun the fishing aspect of this project. I do not have much information to give this week due to the fact that the water is just now warming up enough. The water is still very cold however. There is some activity in the water but not too much. Fish numbersThis weekend I caught 5 fish in the time span of noon - 7p.m. I have no complete evidence of why the fish weren't biting, but I do have a theory. The water temperature was around 60 degrees around noon. The temperatures then rose to 70 degrees in the air toward the evening so the water temperature began to heat up. The water temperature at 6p.m. was around 63 degrees. In my opinion the water heated up which caused the fish to become more active. Fish locationI caught 3 fish off shallow water docks on a buzz bait. In my opinion this proved my theory of fish moving to the warmer water and beginning to make their beds for the spawning periods. They were very aggressive and hitting the top water as more of a reaction strike versus an aggressive feeding attack. Now all of that proves my theory but the other 2 fish debunked my theory. These fish were caught in deep water stumps. These fish were on the stumps at around 30 feet deep. This showed that fish were still down deep in the warmer water from winter. On my fish finder however there were many fish down deep. I saw most of the fish on the fish finder off docks. I am excited to get back out on the water and catch more fish.
Nothing to do!!Really didn't do anything this week on my project if I am being totally honest. I have already set up my boat to go out on the water and all arrangements are set, it is only a matter of time coming to go fishing. My project is to be studying the affects of the weather on fishing however talking with fellow fisherman and other reports the fish are basically not active. Tight spotThe current weather has me in a tight spot right now. Like I mentioned earlier there is hardly any fish active. I plan on going next week to calculate base line data but I do not plan on catching many fish. This was one of the things I expected to happen when I started this project. The fishing can be very good once the weather gets warm but that is the main factor. Heat. It did get fairly warm here recently but the temperature dropped right back down. The problem with that is that I am fishing on a lake. In order for a lake to heat up it requires the temperature to stay warm for a good amount of time. getting over the humpComing in to the project I knew this would be the most difficult part of the project. Finding the motivation to keep going even when I know I won't catch fish.
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AuthorChase Robertson is a high school student who loves to fish and wants to further his knowledge to help him catch more fish. Archives
May 2019
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