Team9nine

Speed control - at times, ripping or swimming spoons, blade baits, or even Jigging Raps can trigger a lot of bites that slower, more subtle/natural presentations can’t match. Jigging spoons were one of my more consistent bites in late spring/early summer this year. I prefer them in warming water, and blade baits in cooling water.

Science suggests ‘No’ (at least several studies I’ve read); many professional bass anglers say ‘Yes.’ It’s one of the more interesting dichotomies in the sport.

Ditto this ^^ The Lund 1600 rocks. It was my first choice when I went aluminum Deep V. Too bad the local dealer wouldn’t budge a penny on his price. I’d go tiller, also 😎

The ‘spinning worm’ catches were legit, as was his use of live bait as @king fisher mentions. Those two accounted for the vast majority of his DD bass according to all the historical research I’ve done on him.

Thanks, but I never made it back to fish that one before moving. I did, however, do a post similar to that one that started these type reports involving a brand new pond I was fishing for the first time, which you can find here: https://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/218591-scoping-out-a-new-pond/

Here's an old post I did giving you an idea of what might be around...

If it is truly void of cover and uniform, then likely any bass in the area are just cruisers or opportunists, and you can fish through the area rather quickly. The trick is figuring out if it is truly void of features that will hold fish. Riprap is pretty straight forward. You have the first couple feet out from shore (an edge or breakline) that is always high percentage, and you almost always have a depth at which the riprap ends - it doesn’t run out underwater forever. That is also a critical breakline. Fish those two stretches thoroughly. The rest (the in-between stuff) you can quickly cover with search bait until you determine specific anomalies that will regularly hold bass.

Covering water from shore isn’t that much different than being in a boat. Start with a single presentation that will allow you to effectively fish the predominate cover and depths available. Moving distance depends on a variety of factors, but generally the more open the shoreline, the more likely I am to just move 15’-30’ down the bank at a time while making a few casts ahead of me to high percentage areas. If you catch a fish, take a few extra exploratory casts depending on the situation; otherwise, keep moving along. You can always return to productive spots, or make a second or third pass around the place with a different presentation each time. Eventually, you’ll learn the high percentage areas and options at each body of water, and can fine tune future tackle and tactics.

Accent Wheeler ‘Game Changer’ Buzzbait - skirt is included as an option, but not installed.

I'd have to try and dig up the original study. You can find it referenced in this more recent paper, which also took an interesting look at net captures of different species, and comparing things like mono vs braid-like nets, etc. MN Net Study

And interestingly, a study done in the late 1970s showed that significantly bigger largemouth bass (statistically) were captured in yellow gill nets compared against 9 other color options, including white.

Tommy Biffle has won a staggering amount of money throwing a black and yellow (not chartreuse) jig during the course of his career.

Mike Whitaker Bill Taylor Ron Shearer Bill and Billy Schroeder Terry Bolton Mark Menendez Kathy Fennel

Exactly - where I got mine 😉

Since @Mike L brought it up, I’ve come full circle. As a little kid, a big treat was visiting my grandma’s house and getting to cut her tiny yard with her reel mower. It’s now well over 50 years later, I’m retired in a community that does all the lawn cutting, trimming, edging and fertilization as part of our HOA dues. But, since the heat can be so bad down here limiting my fishing, and budgets are also limited, I took an early interest in yard maintenance. Since we have Bermuda, I finally bit the bullet and bought a reel mower, and have been doing extra cutting, fertilizing and weed control 😎

Ditto ^^ ...and I like a shorter, slightly stiffer spinning rod, something around 6 ft or just over and MF for lighter spoons (<= 1/2 oz).

Caught a bunch of bass this year post spawn casting jigging spoons to groups of bass roaming a roadbed and adjacent flats. Very effective at triggering a bite when slower presentations don’t seem to be doing the trick.

Have caught a TON of bass on small bodies of water throughout winter over the years from the bank. Top 3 “must haves” for me would be small (3/16 - 1/2 oz) blade baits, Ned, and a jerkbait (Husky’s have been good). Follow the wind with the jerkbait for a shallow bite, Neds any depth, and the little blades for mostly deeper offshore work. One of those three will always produce.

No. 3 for the win…

Fun baits, though I’m a bit selective on what I keep on hand. They pretty much all work, though.

I think just about all fish pics are flawed. By focusing on one aspect (the fish, the angler, the size, the color, the environment, etc.), you inherently detract from the others. Plus, half the time, we’re dealing with poor light conditions that make great shots difficult. Trout anglers (like what you posted) go out of their way to get artsy/fancy shots. Bass anglers…not so much. Just put the fish on the ground next to your shoe and ‘click.’ 😏

Guy’s channel is ‘Get Ur Fish On’ and he credits a guy named Joseph at FLW for getting him the data. Should be easy to find. Short video that literally just explains the data in the screen shot… Yeah, ‘BJ’, the other guy mentioned, was my tourney partner and fellow club member (“Bryan and Brian”). The shoutouts are always cool when they happen 😎

Just came across this vid (no idea who he is) that has the numbers supposedly provided directly by MLF and introducing a new category - “FFS on and used.” Might be interesting to compare to your stats. Just screen shotted the pertinent part.

Randy Dearman, Texas pro and guide, is credited with putting modern braided line on the map in the world of pro bassin’ when he won the Texas Invitational (1993) using an early version: Dearman - braided line