A-Jay

Thanks - Yes that is too bad. A-Jay

The pay-off for the long, hard & cold winters can be pretty good if one is willing to endure it. A-Jay

I certainly appreciate the 'earlier than expected' delivery. The dealer was Very Surprised. I will admit that I've been in Mercury Marine's 'hear' every chance I got. Don't know if that played a role but I'm going with the squeaky wheel got the grease. A 6 inch Sea Star manual Jack plate will be part of the deal as well. Can't wait. A-Jay

A-Jay

Got a surprise call from my Mercury Marine dealer today. The surprise is my New Motor Is IN ! ! ! Still ironing out some details but tentative plans indicate that by the end of next week the Pro-V Bass will be sporting a new power plant . . . More to follow. Who's stoked . . . . A-Jay

Got to the lake and up to my first spot right before sunrise this morning. Expected the water to have some color as a result of the two days of heavy rain this area received. I was pleasantly surprised to find the usual super clear deal with plenty of bait most everywhere I looked. Had rigged up last night with an assortment of topwater plugs as the forecast was calling for light & variable winds. Nope, there was wind and it was the in-between wind; where it’s too much for topwater but not really enough to give me a ton of confidence in a sub-surface horizontal presentation. So for the first couple of hours I was switching back & forth between a topwater and a few moving baits. Sexy Dawg and a spinnerbait both drew a little interest but not from the ones I was looking for. About 10 am, feeling a little frustrated (just a little) I went all in on an Umbrella Rig. Had a follow right away from a fat smallie which was a good sign and had me hurling that mess with a little more authority. Wished I gone to it earlier. After 15 minutes I had a 5-14 & a 5-9 in the pool. Both were very healthy & super hearty specimens. So I learned something today. Throw the A-Rig more. A-Jay

That's a grown one right there ~ There's always something special about the good ones at night. Mystical almost. Great Smile btw. Congrats A-Jay

Not to hi-Jack Check the reports thread for the summer months. My personal smb success is limited at best. Granted this year I didn't get out as much as in the past. The 'bigger' waters for me are 15,000 to 20,000 acres. Deep & super clear. 20 miles long and a few wide leaves plenty of places to hide. Early & late season I'm fishing spots. Mid season I'm fishing areas. Once they start to suspend - I'm usually hosed. Now back to our regularly scheduled program. A-Jay

Can't say whether or not it's good or bad. No evidence either way. Additionally, on that size body of water, and considering where all that water comes from, I do not agree with your guess. IMO you are not giving the general public (and all the guides) that fish it, enough credit. Everybody catches bass - some bigger than others, but there's plenty of catching. And not all of them go back like in the derbies. A-Jay

Well, right off the bat - "struggling to be consistent" is the very thread that binds us. And realizing you're not looking for advice I will not offer any. Instead I'm going to just write stuff below. You could read it if you want . . . Beginning to explore & fish a whole new deal during the warmest months can be a little tricky & somewhat unproductive. May be caused by may factors - we can pick any number of them. So cut yourself some slack. There's a reason BASS doesn't hold many (if any) dead of summer Derbies. When I'm looking to recon new water, (especially big water) I know going into it that it's going to be a marathon. I prefer to start looking at the maps during the off season (hard water). Pick some potential pre-spawn areas and once the water opens up I 'start my search'. The over all plan is to find pre-spawn fish, then spawning areas, and the post spawn deals. If I'm able to be on the water enough, I hope to be able to follow the basses movements and stay with then through the summer. Seems a bit easier (relative term) with green bass than brown bass as the later are serious roamers that are quite good at hide & seek. As summer ends and the fall deal takes over, often times what I've already located (hopefully), comes back into play only in reverse order. Instead of starting deeper and coming shallow to spawn, Bass will come shallow and move deep as the days get shorted, the weeds die back, the bait moves out and the water cools. None of this is breaking news. When I retired & moved to Northern MI, I fished small water from a canoe for 10 years. Not being from here I learned to do what I listed above on a much smaller scale but still basically the same deal. Worked out OK. Then a few years back I moved into the Lund Pro-V which allowed access to several big waters that I'd not ventured on in the Old Town. The above mentioned process has again worked for me many times over. What was beneficial was to think 'small'. Big water can be intimidating but instead of trying to fish the whole lake all at once, selecting areas I can cover & fish effectively seems like a better plan. Then I either duplicate or eliminate similar areas productive or not. Not that I'm offering any advice or anything . . . A-Jay

Mine is not ~ Greaseless AlumiBall - no need to lubricate tow ball and trailer receiver. A-Jay

I see I'm not alone on this one @Catt. I am also of the opinion that the largest fish are very effective feeders. Which does not mean lazy; Very Opportunistic perhaps but not lazy. Can't imagine any prey simply swimming into a big basses mouth at any point. IMO the #1 reason we as anglers struggle to catch the largest fish is we are not fishing where they are. When we do - we catch them. I say this all the time because I believe it to be true - put an average angler on water that holds above average fish, and Big things happen. A-Jay

Yup A-Jay

Hello Lloyd and Welcome to Bass Resource ~ A-Jay

Yea - after this weekend . . Good Luck with That ! A-Jay

Hi Robert ~ Great to see you here again. Good Luck on you search . . Loving my HawgTech handle btw - Super good ! A-Jay

Waldo in the late afternoon sun & wind today ~ A-Jay

Locked up in the late afternoon sun & wind . . . A-Jay

Classic ! I just sent that to 4 humans who Will Not like it . . . Mostly because It APPLIES ! ! ! A-Jay

@Fishingintheweeds Sure ~ Right here A-Jay

Yup. A-Jay

While I do not fish competitively, catching the heaviest legal limit has been my objective each trip for a while now. When I look back at my early years / stages of bass fishing and perhaps how & why I've struggled the most (even today) the reasons were many. Interestingly (but certainly not surprisingly) much of it was succinctly noted in a response by @Catt to one of @Alan Reed's previous posts ~ For me - these 9 ideas / concepts, that often take at least 1/2 a life time on the water to identify, sum up and answer the OP's question well. Get the majority of the below list right, and you'll be well on your way to where you are looking to go. A-Jay

Hello and Welcome to Bass Resource ~ A-Jay

Here ya go ~ The fit between the ball hitch and the trailer coupler should be tight enough to prevent a disastrous decoupling while on the road, but not so snug that the trailer will have trouble making turns. Here's how to achieve the perfect fit in just a few minutes. Step 1 Uncouple the trailer and insert a spare ball into the coupler (a). Close the coupler latch lever. If the fit is too loose, remove the ball, and tighten the spring-loaded nut (b) on the underside of the coupler. ** Step 2** Reinsert the ball and check the fit. Repeat the latter part of Step 1 until you get a fit that is snug but not so tight that you cannot move the ball by hand with reasonable effort. Rehitch the trailer. https://www.fieldandstream.com/articles/hunting/2012/04/fix-poorly-fitted-trailer-coupler-minutes#page-2 A-Jay

It may have less to do with the temps of water or air and more with the length of day. A-Jay