Patterning Bass With a New Online Database

Just wanted to make a quick post about a website I ran across the other day. I received a flyer in my Vicious Fishing line order about a website called FindtheBass.com. The idea of this website is to create a searchable database of seasonal patterns soley from the contribution of members information.

The way this database works is by allowing members to catalog their fishing trips and make notes about water temperature, structure and cover fished, lures used, fish caught, etc. This information then becomes part of a large database that is searchable by as many as 15 different criteria (including body of water, state, water temperature, etc.) as well as a few sub-catagories. There is also a section for private notes which is apparently not available in the database - just for your own use.

Right now, it doesn't seem like there is much information available - I only searched Vermont and New York and there wasn't anything, but there may be for other states. Anyway, the first 500 members get a free one-year membership, so it might be worth checking out for, at least, a year - could produce some good information for you.

UPDATE: I received an e-mail from Keith Harnish, the owner of FindtheBass.com, and he provided me with a little more information about how the site works and how it should be used:

I wanted to give you a little more info on the site and how it works. We’re only two months old, so you are correct in that there is limited information available right now, but the beautiful thing about bass is they don’t know what state they live in.

To better explain my point, there is an article in the “Featured Article” section titled “Did you FindtheBass in April”. In that article I wrote about a generic search I did for reservoirs in April. The results were pulled from states as varied as North Carolina, Alabama, Arizona, Missouri, Tennessee, and Illinois. The really cool thing shown by that search was as long as similar water temperatures were used, the patterns in every one of those states were nearly identical.

The most productive pattern in April involved minor creeks in the upper third of the lake with only 12.5% of entrants fishing below 8’ deep. With this info, if I’m heading out on a lake I’ve never fished before in April, I know where I’m going to start my day. Is this the only place fish can be caught? Absolutely not! But by utilizing this information, I’ve eliminated about 90% of the water and can now focus on fishing and not spending time second guessing where I should be. That’s the entire premise of this site.

There are already a handful of sites that offer a fishing diary and allow entrants to post generic lake info and what they caught, but FindtheBass.com is the only site that is designed to make you a more efficient and productive bass fisherman by establishing patterns. With the other sites, if your lake isn’t listed, you’re out of luck.

With FindtheBass.com, as long as there are entries for the type of water body you are going to visit (i.e. reservoir, natural lake, tidal river or river) and the correct water temperature, you will be able to establish where on that body of water you should be fishing and what presentation you should be using.

Keith Harnish