MIbassyaker

I'm sure this depends on lots of other factors, but here the presence of above-average size pike (not just a bunch of little snot rockets) sure seems to be related to better largemouth sizes. The reason is probably that they eat enough young largemouth to prevent the population from becoming stunted. Stunting happens often especially in small waters when there is overabundance of small bass competing for food. If your pickerel are large enough to thin out the population of smaller bass, it may have a similar effect.

Just sayin'!

Berkley. But I would dearly miss my Yamamotos, Zooms, & Strike Kings.

Keep trying it, especially as we start getting into fall. Pond bass love a spinnerbait.

Hi from grand rapids -- I fish several sections of the Grand to the west of you.

"They're boring" --more boring than not catching fish? "There are better options" --Sometimes, sometimes not, surely. Like everything else. "They gut-hook fish" --One of the reasons I don't wacky rig very often. 90% of the time I'm using them on a weightless t-rig. "They're a crutch" --You can use other lures too! "Too Expensive" --Fair, but when I buy lures, I'm paying to have a chance of catching fish, and in my experience they provide that experience at a competitive rate. "Too soft/not durable/they come off to easily" --Fair, but check out @Choporoz's suggestion of owner twistlock hooks. "They don't require skill" --They require the same attention to casting location, depth, rate of fall, retrieve style/speed as most any other presentation. Spinnerbaits are arguably no more difficult to use. Cast, retrieve, repeat. "No intense hookset satisfaction" --Lol! Is there a worse reason to chose one lure over another? "don't want to be seen fishing the 'idiot-bait'" --OK, we have a contender for 'worse reason'...

3/0 here too.

I keep obsessive track of numbers and sizes, but the dink patrol was out in force today. I counted 22 of the little guys, and I know I missed a few, but not sure how many. They're hard to find in that lake!

Another morning trip, 6:30-10:30. ~60-acre natural lake, narrow shallows with lily pads & reeds, some docks, fast-dropping slope to deep water all the way around. But the shallow cover in this lake is mostly a trap, and rarely holds anything bigger than 11 or 12 inches outside of spring. The better bass are a few feet out along the drop, and about 10-12 feet deeper. A jigworm ("Perch" colored Mister Twister Phenom) and a GYCB hula grub were effective at coaxing up these three today (3.36#, 2.95#, 2.15# respectively), just above a 14' thermocline: ...along with around two-dozen 10-11 inchers (I lost track of exactly how many), which in the end couldn't really be avoided.

Good point, Tom. I love old books --many of them are solid on the fundamentals-- but probably better off not looking to print media for in-depth treatment of the most current information.

There he is! is an old one! There are some good threads around here with book lists -- here's one: Many of the most often recommended books have sections that deal with plastics techniques, like the In-Fisherman Largemouth: A Handbook of Strategies and "Critical Concepts 3: Presentation, and In Pursuit of Giant Bass by Bill Murphy. For tips and tricks, Secrets of a Champion and Bass Strategies by Kevin Van Dam, and Tim Tucker's Secrets of America's Best bass Pros and More Secrets of America's Best Bass Pros have stuff about plastics. Also check out Slider Fishin' by Charlie Brewer.

You will all be relieved to hear that I'm willing to accept donations of any unused senkos you have, and are feeling too insecure or embarrassed to use.

I can't believe the mods allowed you to post this highly offensive picture...

Schmitt-Feider-Felix-Ito was awfully tempting, but decided to go lower %s: Greg Hackney Chris Johnston Scott Martin Keith Combs Micah Frazier

I few years ago I caught the same ~4lb largemouth a month apart, although I didn't notice until I was home comparing pics. Estimating from satellite map, the two spots are about 2000 feet away. Most of the places I fish are pretty small, so it's probably happened a lot without me noticing.

Indeed, my legs are very wide. ?

Postfrontal morning, 6:30am-11:30am, partly sunny, a little wind from the SW. Lake of choice today is a mostly featureless, but well-vegetated bowl. It has fished well for me with good sizes in pre-spawn and fall. But agricultural runoff and a curly-leaf pondweed infestation can make weedgrowth hard to negotiate in the height of the summer. It also leaves me skunked with some frequency -- if I can get to the bass I can catch a few, but I can't always get at them easily, so I haven't spent much time here outside of April/may and Sept/Oct. I found an area of sunfish surface feeding activity over 6', and noticed it was just off the deeper end of weedline running along a subtle drop from 4' to 6'. A buzzbait over this break got a couple good strikes, but no hookups. A spinnerbait was more persuasive, and immediately so: This pumpkinseed was a little too curious for its own good: (Can you guess why I like gold blades in this lake?) With the sun higher, I moved in on the arrowheads and pads with a senko and a t-rigged zoom lizard, working around the lake: In the end, 20 bass with the biggest one (on the board above) going 3.28lb. Additionally, the pumpkinseed and two 2-footer pike (one a little more, one a little less).

Nice! Growing up, channel cats in the river back home were the first fish I learned how to catch, although ours were more in the 2-4lb range.

? A tournament I should have entered -- I would have tied for first place!

When I drop a flaked worm in the water, I see the flakes light up as they catch the sun, flickering as the bait moves, winking and glinting through the gloom.... I can easily imagine bass registering flakes as baitfish scales, acting as a strike trigger. It's also possible flakes could turn bass away if they are associated with something negative....whether flakes are good or bad or neutral could depend entirely on the quirks of particular local water environments or conditions. Why should I prefer the green flake of Junebug over the blue of Black/blue? Ask my bass. They seem to like green.

Junebug, because of the green flakes

100% -- Seasonally, smallies are firing up in the rivers just as largemouth in the lakes are slowing down. The rivers here can be spectacular on a hot day, and a lot of them have stretches that are really underfished.

I count 6 species -- nice day!