MIbassyaker

I don't take pictures of every fish (it's inconvenient in a kayak, and it consumes time out of water), but I do look at every fish. You never know when you might get a clue from body condition, scars, sores, recent meals, parasites, etc. Perch Eater = Gold-bladed spinnerbait. There: I just broke your spinnerbait block.

Well, I'm not sure how successful you'll be avoiding people-- staying away from the dams is a first step, but If you want real solitude, you may need to look farther north, away from the population centers. The Portland State Game Area, between the towns of Portland and Grand Ledge is pretty quiet, but you may encounter some kayaks on the weekend (I don't know what either of those towns have in terms of accommodations, but Lansing is just to the east, and there's a modern campground at the Ionia State Recreation Area, to the West). I'm not sure what the Kalamazoo is like out by Battle Creek. Good luck.

Gallant Palaniuk Hackney Mueller Pipkens (probably not the final draft)

Return trip to "Lake 19". Last time I was here was April. Discovered a small crack in the hull of my main kayak, so until I get a chance to repair it I'm back on my old orange Tarpon 100. At the lake I found the curly-leaf pondweed fully died back, as hoped. Also found a whopping algae bloom and visibility of a foot or less, down from about 4-5 feet in spring. With no deep weedline to speak of, I just ran around the deeper edges of spatterdock with a double-colorado spinnerbait and t-rigged power worm. Both were occasionally effective. The fish were much paler than usual, despite being fairly shallow (4-6 feet), as befits the low-vis situation. Pair of 17"s: Pair of 18"s: Plus a few dinkosaurs. I just know there is a 6-pounder in this lake. One of these days...

What a trip!

That'll teach you to take 2 months off!

In fact, there is no single definition of species that captures every distinction. Ability to interbreed is a good rule of thumb, and one of several factors that is often considered because it works pretty well most of the time. But it isn't completely consistent. Consider for instance Ring Species: Several populations with ranges forming a geographic "chain", that can interbreed where there ranges overlap, but the populations at the ends of the chain cannot. A famous example occurs in Gulls of the Larus genus, in which there is a chain of populations forming a "ring" around the Arctic. Interbreeding is possible where each range meets, except at the ends of the chain where you end up with two species which do not interbreed with each other-- the Herring Gull and and Black-backed Gull. Genetic studies have recently cast some doubt on whether the Larus gulls are true ring species....but that's only because the genetic data show their relatedness is even less clean cut than we used to think, rather than more Genetic definitions are widely considered nowadays to be better in defining species, and that's the one used in the research behind this bass species change. But still, it comes down to at bit of a judgment call -- look for specific genetic markers found in different populations of bass, and figure out where there is more vs less gene flow between them, and identify which groups have likely diverged from which other groups, and when. The ultimate problem here is that concepts like "species" and "subspecies" are human categories we impose on the natural world in order to make sense of it. Unfortunately, nature does not always obey the neat, cleanly-divided categories we prefer.

I collect books. Quite a few times I have bought a used copy on an online marketplace, and it turns out to have been signed -- Denny Brauer wished a previous owner best of luck in the inside cover: Tony Bean apparently signed the front cover of this one: I believe the Lindners signed all copies of thier re-issue of "Catching Fisn": Bill Dance: Best wishes from Tim Tucker:

Brian, when I saw this thread, the first thing I thought of was the long series of female angler profiles on your site: https://bass-archives.com/category/lady-anglers/

Best of 6 from "Lake 5" this morning In other news, the Rage Tail Space Monkey tops my list of most underappreciated creature baits. Nothing else looks quite like it, and they wouldn't eat anything else today.

If Michigan is within your range, there are some very nice rivers for smallmouth on the west-central lower peninsula. For wading specifically, the the best resources tend to be fly-fishing guides and publications, but these waters are all open to conventional tackle also: -- Kalamazoo River above Allegan, --Grand River, middle & upper reaches and tributaries, upstream of Grand Rapids. For tribs, the Flat, Thornapple, and Looking Glass are very underestimated. --Muskegon river, especially from Croton Dam to Newaygo By late August there is even a chance of encountering early steelhead and salmon in those stretches of the Grand and Muskegon.

Bass strike so willingly and often that we sometimes forget about all the Toothy Beasts -- they are around too!

I am resigned to the fact that almost any spinnerbait will get lost or destroyed sooner or later. Although I probably actually lose as many to break-offs/bite-offs as wear out. I'll keep bending them back until they stop running properly, and then replace. Which could be after one fish or 30.

My summary is: Few Outings, Elusive Fish, Small Bass. Not a very productive season for me. It happens. I get to fish a few hours at a time, usually morning. According to my records I have fished for bass 19 times by shore or kayak this year, for a total of 125 hours. Been skunked once, had two 1-fish days, and only 3 days where I caught more than 2 per hour of fishing. I can count the number of bass over 3lb on one hand. While there is more to go, I'll be lucky to fish 10 more days before winter. Just too many other things in the Life Queue this year.

For t-rig? GYCB Senko Berkley Power Worm Zoom Lizard Rage Tail Space Monkey Missile Baits D-Bomb Colors: anything with (1) green flakes, or (2) the words "pumpkin" or "watermelon" in the name.

In the summer, I'm always looking for pods of sunfish dimpling the surface...sticking their fins up out in open water, usually just off a weedline or drop off. Or sucking insects around surface vegetation with little "pops". Bass are almost always nearby.

Lots of old threads around with recommendations if you use the search bar up top to search for "books" I like this list:

River float. A pretty-popular five-mile stretch that gets a lot of tubing, canoe and kayak traffic on weekends, but today the only other person I saw was one guy fly-fishing. I have never seen the water lower or clearer here -- bottom visible everywhere, mostly 1-2 feet deep the entire way, with an occasional 3ft hole. I found myself passing areas where I was sure there had been deeper pools in the past, and wondered what happened to them -- surely it wasn't always this shallow? And I realized it was probably a little deeper my previous visits, but also not as clear, with the bottom simply less visible. It was a little intimidating, to be honest, so I downsized, and swapped out a whopper plopper for a tiny torpedo, and a 5" senko for 4". And with that, the dink-fest was on. After my eighth or ninth 10-11-incher, I thought, "well may as well get a picture of one in case these are all I catch": The next fish was finally a satisfyingly-sized 16": ...and then it was back to the dinks, one after another, until take-out, 27 in all. Oh, and a few of these guys, who can virtually never be avoided: Predatory birds were also out in force, not passing up such a feeding opportunity with the low, clear water. I saw an osprey, at least two, possibly 3 eagles, several kingfishers, multiple blue and green herons.

The orange Black Fury is one of my all-time favorite lures, since i was a kid. I always find it a little hard to target bass specifically, though, because everything in the river wants to eat it.

Lovely looking place!

Friendly heads-up: Drop-shotting isn't legal in rivers and streams in MI: "Drop-Shotting: The practice of having a weight suspended below a single-pointed hook that is tied directly to the main fishing line is lawful on inland lakes, drowned river mouths (see p. 18), Great Lakes and Great Lakes Connecting Waters only. This gear may not be used on rivers or streams." (p. 10) https://www.michigan.gov/dnr/-/media/Project/Websites/dnr/Documents/LED/digests/2024_fishing_guide.pdf?rev=49da29dcbc97409aafc8427f19fc0943 My understanding is that this is to protect salmon and steelhead from snagging during their spawning runs.

Hope you were careful not to remove the slime coat! Could be, but in my experience, small waters can vary pretty widely in frequency of bycatch. In some places I fish, when I target bass, i just catch bass. In others (river spots especially), it's like spinning a roulette wheel every cast in terms of what will bite next.

Just the ones I can think of from the last several years: -Northern Pike on Spinnerbait, buzzbait, Senko, jerkbait, t-rigged lizard, t-rigged craw, shakyhead worm, ned rig, drop shot -Rock Bass on in-line spinners, spinnerbait, grub, senko, drop shot, jigworm, ned rig -Bowfin on Senko, jigworm, t-rigged worm, buzzbait, spinnerbait, frog, crankbait -Crappie on crankbait, bladed jig, jerkbait, grub -Channel Catfish on a bladed jig, spinnerbait -Warmouth on t-rigged creature, ned rig, shakyhead, senko -Perch on a crankbait -Pumpkinseed on a spinnerbait -Creek Chub on in-line spinner -Drum on a flipping jig -Coho Salmon on a keitech swing impact

Wow!!

I like many colors, and use a variety of them. But there is one color that is my favorite of any company that makes it -- a light brown pumpkin base with green flakes. A number of companies have a version of it, and give it different names, with some variation in how dark and how much orange-red the base color has. Unfortunately, it can be hard to find as it is not always stocked, and even companies who produce it only make it available for one or a few baits. I would buy every plastic bait in this color if I could. The "type specimen" for my taste is Berkley's "Pumpkin Green fleck", available in the Power Bait chigger craw: Other companies with something highly similar -- these would all have to count as my favorite color for each company, in the baits for which it is available: Strike King Rage Tail: "Amber-green" (Rage Craw) Strike King Perfect Plastics: "Amistad Special" (Game Hawg; Ocho) GYCB: "Rootbeer Black & Green" (Hula Grub). They also have "Pumpkin Black & green", which is a bit too red for what I'm looking for. Zoom has two: "Rootbeer Pepper Green" (Tube, Brush hawg, Z-craw, Double-tai) & "Gourd Green" (Lizard, Trick Worm) Big Bite Baits: "Pumpkin Green Pepper" (Squirrel Tail worm, Lizard, Tube, others) Mister Twister: "Pumpkin Green pepper" (Phenom worm, Grubs) Chompers: "Rootbeer Green Flake" (Double-tails) Kalin's: "Pumpkin Salt & Pepper Green Flake" (Grubs)