How to locate the big bass?

[Pond]

What do you look for on lakes to locate the bigger bass? I catch a nice one here or there but mainly have been catching fish around 16" looking to start targeting the big girls. 

[Pond]

Anyone got any ideas based off the map it's multiple lakes some are connected 

[geo g]

If you can consistently figure that out from looking at a map it's time to put up some money and play with the big boys!  It's a lot harder then that.

[WRB]

Deepest water off any of those points.

Tom

[BassThumb]

It would be nearly impossible for us to help you just from looking at those aerial maps. 

Do you have any contour maps?

["hamma"]

The bigger bass are much harder to "locate" as you may think. They dont usually adhere to any prevalent "pattern", or seasonal "movement"  other than bedding. They tend to write their own rules the rest of the year. Days most fish are shut down say ,....in sept,or any other month for that matter... the only active fish may be the lakes biggest pig,.....and days that the whole biomass of bass in the lake seem turned on , she may be the only one buried down in tight to cover with lockjaw.

 If we all had the answer, the classic would be won by No.1 at takeoff every year,.. or the fastest boat close after

[WRB]

The lakes look like old pit lakes from the sat view. I will assume you can't fish from a boat, only from shore.

Big bass in this type of ecosystem tend to have a home location where the area provides a sanctuary and is usually deeper water. When feeding the big bass tend to roam areas hunting prey by swimming the perimeter looking in lieu of ambushing prey, they know every square inch of these small lakes. This is very established pecking order, biggest bass owns the best areas.

Use lures that represent the prey the bass are feeding on; bluegill, crawdads, worms, frogs, mice and rats. Jigs and big worms for deep water bottom presentations and bluegill slow sinking swimbait, rat wake bait and buzz bait should work.

Start by working those points making fan casts and keep a low profile and fish during low light periods.

Good luck.

Tom

[Pond]

Thanks that what they are old pits they hold nice size bass and pike I get one here and there but I would like to target the larger fish more frequently it's not to hard to hook into bass even tho it's heavy fishing pressure it's just mainly fish around 16" or less. I will hook up with a 20" or better on rare occasions I've seen bigger bass swimming in there as well 

[frogflogger]

Throwing a fairly big swimbait and retrieving it into the inside angles and on both sides of the points would be a technique I would give try for a big bass in that situation but I would also throw a big spook or some type of walking topwater.

[MIbassyaker]

On 5/16/2016 at 10:01 PM, Pond said:

Anyone got any ideas based off the map it's multiple lakes some are connected 

hey, neighbor

I haven't fished this place for awhile, but I've had the impression that the pits on the right are a bit more productive from shore than the one on the left and the one cut off below at the park. I've never seen any contour information about these lakes so they are a bit of a "black box" underneath the water; I don't know how deep they go, although most of the area of the left one, if I can remember correctly, can't be more than 10-15 feet (I think the connected section by the park cut off on the bottom left gets deeper in spots).  You can paddle into the lake on the left if you rent a kayak or paddleboat from the boathouse at the park (but the prices are steep and I don't think it's open for the season yet), but I don't know if you can navigate to the ones on the right.

When I fished it I did all right pitching senkos to shady areas, especially under the bridges and culverts, or running spinnerbaits along shoreline brush, wherever you see any.  If you want to fan cast the points and coves, use something weedless like a soft swimbait...there's more vegetation in there out away from shore than it looks like there is. Honestly, if you're catching 16" with regularity and you "hook up with a 20" or better on rare occasions ", you're already doing pretty well here. There's no silver bullet.

[Pond]

Have you ever fished the gravel pits in jenison? I do well at millennium but the largest I got so far this year was around 4lbs looking to hook up with larger fish more frequently 

[Red Bear]

1 hour ago, Pond said:

Have you ever fished the gravel pits in jenison? I do well at millennium but the largest I got so far this year was around 4lbs looking to hook up with larger fish more frequently 

move south

[Pond]

I went to Florida for a week got a 25" bass lol

[MIbassyaker]

4 hours ago, Pond said:

Have you ever fished the gravel pits in jenison? I do well at millennium but the largest I got so far this year was around 4lbs looking to hook up with larger fish more frequently 

This belongs more on the regional board, but no, and i would be surprised if they are any different than millennium. It's not like there aren't good-sized fish for our area (say, 4lb and over) lurking in the millennium pits, I just hear more 3rd and 4th hand rumors about them than I see evidence. The best chance in town of encountering larger fish with some frequency is probably at Reeds (not exactly a secret), which anyway is too crowded and nasty for my tastes. So I prefer to escape to....nameless elsewheres.

[soflabasser]

Nice bass! Many bass fishermen down here haven't caught a bass that size,even after 10 years(or more) of fishing.