shimmy

This is very true in my experience. For the summer time texas rig fishing vegetation, i have the rage craws first and when they run out i put on the pit boss. The pit boss has those 4 flaps but the bass always seem to bite off the outside flaps leaving just two or three left. While the body is more durable as mentioned, the flappers are fragile and that is what makes this bait amazing. Interestingly, my brother ran out of tackle one day on a lake and was down to one last pit boss. The legs were eventually bitten off, the jig had already lost all strands of the skirt due to northern, and he was still catching bass with just a weedless jig head and the body of the pitboss. I don't get it. But this bait is magic. But...still second to the rage craw and has not caught me bigger fish compared to the rage craw. Less expensive soooo, always a good second for me.

The lake is not a sick fishery and those bass are 5-6 pounds in the early spring. But postspawn they lose a lot. There are some bass that really just shut down after the spawn and it is not always that big bass are in a feeding frenzy to get back up to the right weight. You see it a lot in Florida lakes as well.

It depends. I have caught many bass in one particular lake that are 21 inches long and under 4 pounds. It will depend on the lake and postspawn conditions obviously.

Well, list what area you are fishing from and people will be able to provide you with more detailed information.

Yeh, just reading this you can tell that the mere fact that people are trying to force an argument about how artificials are just as good if not better than live bait is mind boggling. Fish are as big as they are because...they are eating live bait. That is what they eat. That is what they are looking for. That is what their instincts tell them to eat. That is what their little pea brains are programmed to do. Yes you can switch the ACTION of live bait. Make it very fast, very slow, eratic, tail hook em, side fin hook them, or just put on a big blue gill and catch a world record. I have just seen it personally too many times where live bait has caught the biggest fish i know of in a particular lake. I understand it that it may seem like in some instances that artificials may out produce live bait but you have to consider that a seasoned angler would tailor his live bait fishing to that which the fish want in a way that would catch just as much if not more than someone fishing artificials. The thing is, how often do you see an elite type fisherman apply the same theory of artificials with livebait? Very rare. I know a few on this forum that do so. It just seems like the artificial standpoint is too strained and that alone should tell you that you are probably just trying to make an argument for it, not necessarily being combative, but kinda reminds me of an old high school debate class we had to take. Live bait, that is what fish eat; are we really having a discussion that anything other than their 100% diet will catch more of them? I feel like i am taking crazy pills.

It is not always regulations like catch and release that hurt a lake. Some lakes i fish in MN have mandates to release every fish and they are some of the best 4+ pound and big bass lakes i fish. The problem occurs when you get a particular lake that starts to get a few too many 1-2 pound bass, not enough pelicans or other wildlife to balance them out, and then the 1-2 pounders get out of control. Once it gets out of hand, lakes like these need a regulation to keep every bass under 14 inches or something similar to better balance out the lake. Nevertheless, as someone else mentioned, if you are catching all of the dinks at the shore, go deeper and drag a carolina rig or do the old string and anchor to find different depths. But honestly, this takes too long, i would either wait to get electronics or go try one of the other 9,999 lakes nearby. Just looked at the topo map. The docks at the north to north east end seem to be the only ones closer to deeper water and would probably be the only ones i would waste my time with. The rest of the lake is extremely shallow close in to the docks and i would avoid that. Look at google maps and it gives you better contour lines than the DNR map which is surprisingly crap for this lake. At the google maps or Bing maps (birds eye view) i would hit the channel opening at the northwest side of the lake that looks a few hundred yards away from shore. After that, i would study the google maps for the different coloration showing the contour changes and map it out so when you go out on the lake, you are better prepared. At the south end of the lake, the dnr shows an underwater point and on google maps you can kind of see that as well. I would try around that area. There seems to be several pockets of deeper water all around that as well. If i were to see that lake online and on google maps, i would avoid the shore altogether unless it had some good froggin spots. Good luck.

that's exciting man. Hope you keep catching them.

oh boy, it was late at night and i was showing my late night IQ. I was thinking of Abel lake. They don't even sound alike. I have no idea what happened. Maybe we can all just forget this ever happened. I am doing the jedi mind trick right now and waving my hand. I hope this helps.

It is very clear water. The bass are very finicky and the lake is pretty long. There are tournaments on there occasionally and i have heard of 8 pounders being caught. It is also a deep lake and almost every spot has a ton of wood or nice rock drop off. It's a tough lake. I caught several at the grass point that comes way out after you launch and head to the main lake to the right. It seems like it would be a tough lake to learn and would definitely take a lot of time. I wouldn't hit it again unless i lived nearby and wanted to put my time in to it to learn. Otherwise, i think the lake will be brutal. Good luck.

Looks like a nice bass, well done.

Not too random. I think that 1.5 and 2.5 are candy to those nasty things. A few weeks ago, i caught 15 northern in less than half an hour on that crankbait. I was holding out for that big bass, but the northern just kept biting and getting bigger...

Awesome!!!! I had not scrolled down to see the picture yet and was enjoying the read. You give too much slack to those and you'll never get them out of the structure. Then you got to stroll over there and open up everything to pull the citation out and that just gets complicated, been there done that. You were still 4 oz shy, better luck next time. just one bottle of milk away, bummer.

He said it not me. I am not challenging the legitimacy of your profile picture and i never said you did not catch it or find it dead on shore. If anything, i'd almost say she's alive and in the middle of feeding?

i'll accept the wink, but i am going to have to say pbrussell, i do not think the picture in your profile is 7 pounds. The girth of the fish is bigger around the head than the belly, the smaller tail suggests that it just finished spawning; thus, 7-8 pounds during the spring, but in the photo around 5 pounds. Your fish is just slightly bigger than the original post on this forum.

I tried to exaggerate the "26 pound PB" status thing to the point where it was beyond ridiculous and recognizable that it was a joke but there are always those who just don't get it. You'd think having a world record was ridiculous enough, let alone a fish that is 10 pounds bigger than the state record...The whole point of my pb status is for threads where people exaggerate the size of their fish...

Fun diary, keep it up

I will say this, i did have my 6.7 largemouth = 103 ounces and the state record is 8:15=143 oz. So 103/143= 72.02% & for the 6.13 = 109/143= 76.22% and posted it in the fishing reports section on June 4th. I did sign up for this thread. But...i guess i forgot to post it on this topic! Besides, Speedy's plethora of 7 pounders should still take the cake. These are always fun threads.

man, i just can't put the jig away at this depth. First thing i'll probably throw even if there is no structure. I'm just weird like that!

I fished it once and by no means understand the lake. But i can tell you that there is some shore access. If you go to the DGIF website they have a map of the lake with contour lines and all with stocked structures that were still there when i fished it. The lake is pretty heavily pressured. However, there have been 11+ pound bass caught out of there. I can't tell you what works since i only caught a few on my one time excursion on the spinnerbait and jig and nothing over 3 pounds. The lake can be pretty clear. But according to the pictures online, maybe that lake is good fishing at night which you can always try. Good luck, give us a report.

none of us have EVER been kicked off a golf course pond by management...

this thread again. So man, get a scale. Not a state record. Looks higher 6's to me, maybe even a 7. Nowhere near what an 8.15 looks like. Many 7.5's look much bigger. Your hand probably wouldn't fit in his mouth anyways. Has the same size mouth as the other picture you posted but the pick on the 2nd is obviously much further away. I am still skeptical on how accurate your 24 inches was measured at. It's a great looking fish but to save you the suspense, no one here can tell you how big, and for the golden rule, when in doubt, it's not a state record. Great fish and i hope you catch another monster that you get officially weighed. Good luck.

posing with pictures and catching a ton (Minnesota) will take that skin right off your hand.

can always do the scrounger. I agree. I hate not being able to get cranks deep. Can always do the heavy sinker a few feet up and chuck it out, let it sink and crank it in. I have no idea how much that affects it though. I wish there was an easier solution. You can always make a long cast and motor down a ways and then crank it in when it is a few hundred feet out.

I always keep electric tape and superglue nearby. On long fishing trips, whether tightening the line lacerates your finger or the smaller bass (sharper teeth) are going nuts when you hold them, you are going to bleed in so many different places. Then the next day you will reopen the wound and get an even deeper cut on the same spot. Its going to happen if you are catching a lot of fish. Superglue the big ones, duct tape or electric tape the one's right below the thumb knuckle and suffer through the ones on the hand. People should shake your hand and know that you're a bass fisherman, not a wisherman.

However, from the reports i read, it seems more 7+ bass come from central MN than northern. The water temps are always a bit warmer year round then 3-4 hours north where i am at. I have heard of a few 8's being caught even north of where i am, but, it is no coincidence that central MN has the past few state record LM. As for smallmouth, well, i guess that's a different story and i don't understand that.