MIbassyaker

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)

Haven't been out for 2 weeks, until this morning. Went to "Lake 6", perennially one of my better spots -- a murky, 30-acre hole-in-the-ground, out in the middle of nowhere: The locals, i have heard, are not super-enthusiastic about the place and claim it has a problem with parasites. But the bass here have always seemed plenty healthy to me, and there are a lot of them. Although I'm not sure where they all were today. Here i am with one of five, all "meh"-sized: Of course, what would have been big fish of the day got away due to user error. Might be able to go out again next week. We'll see.

Sweet collab.

I got Ito and Huff going into the final day - lets go. Wow, top 4 separated by less than a pound. I haven't been following this one at all -- preoccupied with preparing for an in-law visit on the 4th. I'll have to try to catch some of BASS Live tomorrow.

I use 1/16oz gamakatsu wacky finesse jigheads for wacky rigged stick worms; actually, i don't think I've thrown a wacky worm without one in a few years. For fishing a stick worm weightless, i rig on an EWG, texposed instead of wacky.

3 techniques: 1) Cast and retrieve 2) Pitch to visible targets 3) Hop/shake/drag on the bottom

Do you have information indicating this is actually what they will do to existing LMB records?

"When non-bass pictures are outlawed, only outlaws will have pictures of fish other than bass." --Cicero, probably.

Well, if we're going to split hairs about it, not even the "black basses" are bass. They are sunfish. Actual member of the Bass family:

I use junebug pretty often, but not for the usual reason cited: the purple/grape base color. I use it because it is one of the most easily available sources of green flakes, which are money here, for some reason.

Another vote here for the Owner twist lock light. I've been using either a St. Croix 6'8" MXF mojo caster with 12lb big game, or 6'8" MXF Avid X Spinning 15lb power pro to 10lb PLine CXX leader.

A good 'un too! Congrats, and here's to many more going forward.

This is how I would do it. In fact, you have now inspired me to try it, Pat. I use 1/8oz barrel weights with exactly this setup for other finesse-y plastics a lot -- not sure why I never thought to try it with a fluke. One rubber stopper above the hook, weight above the stopper. A lot of people like to peg the weight completely, but letting it slide freely above the stopper allows the line to pull through the weight on the strike, which I feel helps a bit with detection. My biggest problem with these rigs has always been a higher than usual rate of bass swallowing whatever chewy, delicious plastic thing I've got on there. I haven't found a better hook for fluke-style baits than the 3/0 or 4/0 light wire owner twistlock. I could use that hook with this rig.

First, we should understand that the notion of a "hard summer bite" is really more about angler success than about bass' actual feeding behavior. Bass tend occupy locations in the summer that are simply more difficult to get at than in spring and fall -- they may scatter, or go deep or bury themselves in heavy slop. The bite may seem difficult because presenting lures to them successfully is more difficult. In the southern parts of the country, water temperatures during the day regularly exceed optimal temperature feeding activity and growth, which is the low 80s farenheit for largemouth. Levels of dissolved oxygen may also drop, especially in stagnant areas, which further suppresses bass activity. Thus, anglers who live in the South and fish during the day will likely experience some reduced angling success. Meanwhile, the bass may be feeding mostly night on the abundant summer forage, when it is cooler and they have a hunting advantage. In the Northern parts of the country, our water temps do not get far above optimum level in most places, and for very long. As long as one can present lures properly to high-quality shallow cover (like pads and docs), and to the deep weedline, one can experience a consistent bite all summer (although larger fish are still a challenge to find consistently). And in rivers where there is consistent current, the bite can be positively on fire during the hottest times of the summer, especially for smallmouths. So there isn't really an inconsistency, there are just mitigating factors.

Like the fish version of a Mafia thug. "Nice spinnerbait you got there..."

I'll take your word for it.

I grew up fishing a river for channel cats, and still have kind of a soft spot for them....as long as they don't bite too often. The seem to like bladed jigs. Crappie are generally welcome, when they're adequately-sized: I do not really enjoy pike and bowfins. Agents of pure chaos, especially from a kayak. Lure destroyers and thieves, thrashing everywhere, knocking around everything that isn't tied down. They don't come out of the water if I can help it.

3/4 of the places I fish are very similar to your lake and have a nearly identical situation. @softwateronly's response about the jigs and jigworm are very similar to what I would have said. although I haven't tried a preacher jig or strolling thing yet.

I try hard not to have go-to lures. While I own many individual lures that I don't use, or have never used, there are no lure types I own that I don't find at least semi-regular use for. I fish a variety of different waters that can have very different environments and that present very different presentation challenges. natural lakes of glacial origin, swampy bayous, flooded gravel pits, river and stream impoundments, and free-flowing sections of several rivers of different sizes and grades... Even the types of lures I don't use much have a time and a place. While there are some I use quite a lot -- senkos, hula grubs, jighead worm, paddle-tails, spinnerbaits, buzzbits -- I can't think of any single lure or even any list of, say, 5, that I could limit myself to and be truly satisfied fishing everywhere I like to go these days.

Rented a pontoon for a few hours tonight on Gun Lake with Wifey for our Anniversary. Less a fishing trip than a cruising-around trip, but I brought some rods and got a couple on the Ned rig: