Andy C

You can fish anything that a person in a bass boat would be using. You just need to fish places that are applicable to the lure that you are using. Focus on lake spillways, riprap banks, creek mouth, etc. For example, I love to fish windblown riprap banks. These are some of the best places to fish crankbaits and jigs, and being shorebound can actually be to your advantage. When the wind is really howling, boats are having to focus on boat control or are blown off of the water. You can make repeated casts to any hot spots you find, and won't have to worry about the boat crashing into the shore. I fished from shore for years, and I have had some of my best fishing years stuck on shore.

Beast of a smallie!

I use them in deep water and areas with high current. Lighter jigs can get washed under rocks and such and get hung up, heavier jigs go straight to the bottom and don't get washed around.

Catching them down here in SO IL.

And don't be afraid to use larger lures. Smallies aren't shy about attacking a 1/2 oz spinnerbait.

Definitely a bullhead, looks like a snail bullhead to me. Was it caught out of a stream or river? http://www.dnr.sc.gov/cwcs/pdfhigh/ModOther.pdf

It would help if we knew which portion of the country you live in.

Change out hooks to one size larger for better hookups.

I doubt any lake can compare to LOZ on the 4th of July. Boat traffic has been horrible for me all summer on my favorite lake in southern Illinois. It is mostly just one long creek channel, so the wakes get bounced off of the bluffs and back into the channel. Stupid wakeboard boats don't even look where they are going and throw off those giant wakes that erode the shorelines like crazy. Anyways, I have caught fish right through the thick of it. It was not enjoyable. I have been sticking to smaller water until after labor day.

Buzzbaits and jitterbugs after dark. Deep crankbaits and slow rolled spinnerbaits in early morning/evening. Big worms and jigs work too. Sometimes it is better to go bigger in summer and other times it is better to fish smaller presentations. Keep changing until you figure out what they want.

It is depth of the fish. I will never use the fish ID mode, you will be able to better interpret what is beneath the boat if you get rid of the fish ID.

Public or private water? Sorry to hear about you loss. When it gets restocked it will be poor for a couple of years, but by year four or five it really makes a comeback. It won't see much pressure either, so if you are the first one to really hammer it then you can nail some piggies.

It is horrible to fish in, but I am loving this hot weather. Bass are schooling on shad all day long, even though water temp is 90 in the mornings and 95 by the afternoon. Numbers wise, this morning was one of the best days I have had in years. I found schools of 12-17 inch largemouth bass and white bass on deep water structure and slayed them on scroungers fluke combos. By 9am they were busting shad on the surface, I caught them two at a time on double fluke rigs. My thumbs are worn raw. In my experience, larger lakes fish better in the heat of summer.

Let me say-these things flat out catch fish. What sizes are you guys throwing? What trailers are you using? For fish head spins I have been using flukes and some hollow body swimbaits. Most fish have been caught by pendulum fishing them. I will make a short pitch parallel to bluff banks or deep points, engage the reel and wait for the line to jump. I used to do this with a lil george, but the fish head spin seems to select for larger fish. I have gotten a few slow rolling them over flats. Any patterns out there that I missed? Scroungers--I don't think there is a trailer that wouldn't work. I just started fishing them and I can already tell they will be a staple in my box for a long time. This is an incredibly versatile lure.

I guess I wouldn't have been as mad if it was a popular lake, or if there were more than 2 trailers in the lot. I would never try to escalate the situation. I just said--Would you have came back here to fish if there was a boat back here? There are plenty of other creeks to fish. He knew my spot was good and figured I was fishing for crappie or something since I was on shore. I left that spot to head to a couple of other creeks and landed plenty of 2-3 pounders. I came back to that spot just before dark and landed a 22 incher.