MIbassyaker

Post frontal morning, foggy and calm. Launched at 5:45am, 30 min before sunrise. Stayed 4 hours. Three small buzzbait bass pretty quickly. Then things were pretty slow; just two more 12"-13"guys, a spinnerbait fish and a senko fish: Big fish was not a bass, but a channel cat. I caught one here last year too on the same bait, a Siebert Fogy, Today's was a bit bigger:

My favorite method is in the morning with nobody around.

Looks exactly like the type we have in the natural lakes here -- P. perfoliatus. Known regionally as "cabbage." The stuff can reach the surface in 15' of water, and bass could be hanging around at any depth.

This is a hill I will die on: There is nothing about baitcasting gear that makes casting inherently more accurate than with spinning gear. It is the angler who is more or less accurate with one than the other, not the rod and reel itself. There exists no great feat of accuracy one person can do with a baitcaster that another cannot do with a spinning rod and reel, given experience and practice.

I have a 7'0" MF Fenwick Techna (rated for 1/4oz to 5/8oz) that gets a lot of utility duty like this -- smaller squarebills and topwaters, smaller spinnerbaits, light t-rigs, finesse jigs. I also have a 6'6" MF St. Croix Premier that serves the same role for more close-quarters work, like when I'm floating a small river.

Well, if New York City can have a Naked Cowboy, then I suppose Kalamazoo can have a Naked Angler...

Very similar timing and situation on my lakes right now. The last few times out, a weightless Super Fluke has been good. Yesterday I got a few to hit a popper.

Pure Michiganᵗᵐ

Outstanding! What great news!

Unreal!

Got on the water at "Lake 28" for 3 hours, 6am-9am. Only my 5th ever trip to this place (less than 18 hours total, according to my records), so I'm still kind of figuring it out. I did catch a 4lber here last year. Nothing that nice today, but I got a few (9), including my first few topwater bass of the year on a frog Pop Max....and a few more on the obligatory Super Fluke: Biggest fish was 15", the rest between 12" an 14"

I think that's where I'm at too. As long as it bit. A freak snagging wouldn't count.

Sonar yes, but you don't really need it. you can use an open hook jigworm -- just a worm on a jighead -- to probe where deep vegetation ends, changes, thins/thickens...you count it down to get a sense of depth, see where and how deep it catches on weeds and rip it out. You are probing for any kind of deep edge or boundary. Ripping will draw strikes from active bass on the edges, then you can move in to thicker stuff for less active bass with something more weedless, like a jig or texas rig.

170 acres is especially large if most of it is habitable. You mention much of it is 5-6 feet deep, with a 10ft deep area? Is there anything like a deep weedline there? Fishing a deep weedline "Low and slow" with a jig or worm is a classic big fish presentation in the summer.

Yes, a bass of 20 inches can be 20 years old, but that does not mean it is typical for it to take 20 years to reach that length. 10 years to reach 20 inches is a pretty average rate for waters throughout the northern states That's about what it is here, too, except in places where there are exceptional forage, like gobies (there they can reach 20 inches faster). If your bass are thick and well-fed, it is unlikely you have a problem with growth rate. You should not worry. There are almost certainly larger fish in there that you haven't caught .

A day like that would be the highlight of my season. Maybe 5 seasons.

Pre-spawner. She probably is lean most of the year!

Shore fishing can be just as productive as being physically on the water, as long as you can access good spots. In the places I can access from shore, the key is often mobility, being able to work down a shoreline, going spot to spot, giving each one a couple different angles. The rivers around here tend to have more extensive shore access than the lakes and ponds I don't do it as much as I used to since getting into kayak fishing, but walking a bank somewhere is the perfect use of a spare hour. A couple of my better bank bass in recent years:

I haven't been following this event closely, but I see I have Ike, Arey, & Cobb fishing today. So that's something.

How far away are you from the Martiny Chain?

I've never had a bad experience with a dock owner. If they are out, i usually keep my distance, maybe just wave -- It seems like obvious etiquette to not roll up and start pitching sharp hooks at their stuff when they're standing right there. But they are often very chatty and want to tell me all about the best spots...so of course I let them (I think they just love their lake and are eager to show it off). Whenever a dock owner has seen me catch something near their property -- under a dock or boat or whatever-- they are always very excited, want to know what it is and how big, what I caught it on, and they are always happy to see me release it. Granted, this is usually morning, before they have had a chance to become annoyed by everyone else on the lake.

Well there you go. It's mostly about Time-on-Task: You don't catch any......until you do.

Hmm. I don't have a lot of complaints. Other than hard water in the winter, and shortened growing season, there isn't a lot that's really bad. And I'm too busy over the winter to fish anyway. Every other drawback I can think of is widely shared, and often worse, in other places. For instance, the best waters here are usually crowded and pressured, unless some effort and time are required to access them, but that's true everywhere.

Absolute masterclass in Minnesota humor -- water-related, indirect, sardonic, and pitch-black.