shimmy

Well done! What tournament group do you fish with? Ever fish around Fond du Lac or Oshkosh?

The question is not IF there is a 9 pounder, it's just where and what area that holds a higher percentage of big bass. There was a lake nearby my place that had (so the rumor goes) a state record sampled by the dnr. Problem is, it's a numbers thing and you will have a higher number of big fish down south. Jig and buzzbait.

5 inch senko Texas rigged. Any color. Go on google earth, look at lakes that have a culvert, or an inlet or outlet to a lake and fish the senko. Weightless

Central to southern. It's a numbers thing. Much higher percentage of 21+ inch largemouth in these regions. I have seen and heard of more 8 pounders coming from such regions. Size of lake? Probably smaller like a 250 acre lake. There is such a big difference from a 5 pound bass and a 6 pound bass. I believe there is a HUGE difference between a 6 pound bass and a 7 pound bass. There is even a bigger difference between a 7 and an 8 pound bass. Now, an 8 to a 9 pounder??? So many crazy and unbelievable circumstances must play out for a bass to hit 9 pounds in this state. I wouldn't mind catching one but know the areas I fish don't have that potential.

While I agree it is pretty much impossible for a bass to reach that size there, I will say, that may be the only state in the country it is possible. If I am correct, I believe Massachusetts' state record was the biggest northern strain largemouth bass ever caught. Now, to have an extra 4.5 pounds and assuming the old record was measured accurately, it would have to come from Massachusetts to reach that size. Ain't happening though!

Shimmy, Ol' shake'n'bake moves i put on defenders during my Division 1 football stomping days. When i didn't successfully shimmy, i got hurt since they were all 5 times my size.

^^^^^ this!

That was my experience with money minnow. That is why I stopped buying them. So many better options ?

We always have a good system. When 2-4 in a boat, the person getting the first cast has a better chance of catching a big fish or more fish. Obviously, big fish are caught from the back of the boat, but this seems to hold true in general. Don't believe it, watch some FLW tournaments with the guy in the back getting destroyed in nearly every boat. What we do is every 4 pounder that is caught puts you in the back of the boat and everyone just moves up a spot. This has worked real well for us. When the bite is offshore and someone is not getting bites, give them some of the stuff you are using or if it is a presentation thing, fill them in! Very simple formula. The boat rotation is fun and has worked perfectly for us.

I remember seeing a fishing report from el salto where all the anglers were struggling to catch an 8 to 9 pounder and this one group was only throwing jerkbaits that hot summer week and had an absurd amount of bass over the 10 pound mark. Apparently, this group did well year after year sticking to jerkbaits in the summer. To each their own.

Hey, figured I would upload some pics from the week out in paradise. As previously stated, most fish were on the jig, swim jig, and S-Waver. The S-Waver was a fun bite. On some of our lakes, a lot of the weeds had not come up that high and i could let the S-Waver just hover in one spot for 4-5 seconds and then they would slam it. Was a fun bite. It was interesting to see how the bite changed throughout the week. The swimjig was hot the first half of the week, but after a nasty cold front came in, that bite died and the jig and S-Waver did well. Will say that one of my favorite days on the water involved catching close to a 100 while throwing nothing but the 2.5 square bill. That bite was hot. No giants that day, but was a fun switch up from the other baits. Had one bad mishap, during a picture time, my tackle box fell on my 723 powell endurance rod and broke it. At least that's what i think happened cause on my next cast, the rod snapped at the half way point. So, i am doing the trade in. Love those powell rods. Unlike other trips, we didn't catch any 25+ pound bags. Top 3 limits throughout the week were a 24 lb 13 oz, 24 lb 9 oz, and a 24 lb 2 oz bag. By all means, nothing to complain about and every day was awesome. Here are several fish in the 4-6+ pound range. I upload photos to photobucket. I then copy the image from the "IMG code" option. It can be stubborn sometimes, but i will click the image and eventually it will let me copy the image. Then just go on your post here and copy and paste. Maybe there are other ways but this is what works for me.

No doubt people still have to catch fish on private lakes, but it is extremely discouraging for beginning to moderate anglers fishing their heavily pressured or unproductive public waters and watch videos from guys that fish private reservoirs and then expect to get some kind of similar results. Bamabass has every right to do what he does and i wish him luck. He is doing great with his business approach with it and there is nothing negative to say towards that aspect. Furthermore, I don't think he ever says that only this ONE lure will work and that is why i have respect for him. I just think that the people who watch the videos should be aware that he is fishing private and paid for waters for a reason...I take a lot more stock from people who fish public waters and catch big bass than those who do not. I have a youtube video of catching big bass on Lake Baccarac and i would never consider it a go-to video for how to fish a reservoir. I am fishing a lake that is world class and requires a plane ticket and a guide. Sure i had to work to catch the bigger fish and understand how to fish structure, but the big fish being caught are not indicative that I am teaching the most important techniques and fishing the best baits for big bass.

Bamabass pays a yearly fee to fish the private lakes he has access to. Learning about lures from him is as useless as learning about lures from Bill Dance on his stocked ponds. Why people follow him for advice blows my mind.

Hmm, fast moving, slow moving, and hybrids. Fill in the blanks for any brand that fits your fancy. Hybrids (I consider a paca craw a hybrid), is nice cause you can fish it slow without the craws flapping too much and then as you switch the speed up every other cast or are reeling the bait in, the fish will tell you if they are looking for that speed or not. I usually have a quarter ounce on one pole and a 3/8 or 1/2 on the other and then have about 8 jigs sitting on the deck that are slightly different (a light jig with a fast trailer which is great for shallow water or rising weeds with just a few inches of water between that and the top; heavy jig with fast trailer; light jig with slow trailer; heavy jig with slow trailer; and then the different colors with the same variations). Then there is the buck tail stuff but I have not fished it enough to feel like I am confident enough with it or need it.

It happened on multiple occasions last week. On one, the fish pulled off the bank after 9 o'clock, but then around noon, I moved more carefully, took longer casts, and used the sun to help me find the dark cover spots in the shallows. I caught less numbers, but most of my 5+ lb bass came around 11-1. If I was better, I am sure i could have still caught numbers during those hours, but I stuck to the approach I was confident with to catch bigger fish (using jigs, swim jigs, and S-Wavers). I have read from many here on the forums who are much better than i ever will be who swear by the 11- 1 bite. I truly believe the biggest deterrent for big bass at that time frame is the fisherman's frustration and/or mindset (too hot, not enough bites, hungry, less focused, fatigued, etc.). On one occasion, the jig bite slowed down real fast and the worm bite picked up and was out fishing the jig 4 to 1. The worm was catching more 3 and 4 pounders as well; however, tempting as it is was to switch; especially with it getting close to noon and getting more sunny and hot, with that much vegetation, i never feel like it is a smart move to go away from the jig in MN. While i got outfished in numbers and 4 pounders, I ended up catching the top three fish that morning/afternoon and i was in the back of the boat with the last cast.

I think the mindset to have during this time is that the bite doesn't stop, it just changes. While out in MN last week, i had my biggest bass during those times. The bite had slowed down (the pattern changed), and it was bright blue bird with no clouds. But then my buddy and i had back to back 5+ pounders. Safer to just assume it is a bite change and not the time of day. That mindset will help you stay motivated and fish with more confidence and stick a bigger fish than being hesitant and fearing the time of day.

Heading out there this weekend! So very excited. Haven't wet a line since my October trip there. From what I hear the water temps are 58ish in Ottertail County. While it seems the fish have not fully committed to the shallows, there will be some. I hope people are throwing jigs up there! I am reading about all these crankbaits and various baits mumbo jumbo...put those down! It's big bass time. Tie on that jig, sacrifice numbers, and catch that giant this spring. Hope to see some more pictures from everyone.

Atta boy A Jay!!! That is an incredible day! You are the man. Take me with you...

my 27.5 inch length and 19 inch girth was still barely over 10 pounds. Projected weight would have been much higher. Stop using the online calculator since they are stupid and made to inflate your ego. Call it a 10 when you weigh it over 10! Aside from all that, awesome fish! You can tell it is at least in the 8 pound range and i would take that fish ANY day of the year!

Summed up better than I could have said it. For me, I have experienced too many times on a body of water 100-200 acres where we were the umpteenth boat there and it was obvious people had fished/spooked the bass there all day. I know Catt likes to say how open he is about sharing info, but it's another thing on a giant body of water where even if 100 guys read your post and tried to fish your spot that day, you have a 1,000 other spots to fish. Perhaps the rebuttal is, "well if your good enough, It doesn't matter if people fish your spot...you can still catch the ones they miss." Sure, but even a blind squirrel finds a nut and if you get enough blind squirrels, we'll that would make a funny looking forest and some strange tree climbing in your neighborhood AND your chances have drastically decreased for catching your big fish; especially on smaller bodies of water.

0. Still working on building my boat. I do have a MN fishing trip in 3 weeks though. I am dying to get out. Counting numbers is always fun. I usually find myself counting numbers until I have a few big number days, mistrack the amount caught, and then give up counting. But, I do count the amount of 4+ lb fish in a year. That has always been fun.

Awesome write up man! Really cool to see you get into college fishing. The FLW college national championship will also be placed on the youtube. Will be fun to look for you guys. Keep it up.

Great job Dwight. Fun to see you get back in the action. Keep it up.

Great write up. Fun to see how the tournament goes. With so many boats out there, that would be a nightmare.

Awesome write up. Great job. Tournaments like that are a blast. Definitely something that should happen more on these forums.