MIbassyaker

Green Pumpkin and Watermelon are great all-around colors here, especially around bluegill/sunfish forage. But what's really great is any color with green flakes, which includes Junebug, anything with "candy" in the name....and my personal favorite, Pumpkin with green flakes. Here's a good version by Berkeley, which the Chigger Craw is available in:

Probably the rivers actually -- but they're the least convenient, so lakes get the call more often.

Weak year. lower sizes and numbers than usual; no PBs. 30 trips, 105 hours, 190 bass; Largest was 4.18lb, 19.75" Visited 16 natural lakes, 3 river bayous, and 4 sections of three rivers. Top Techniques: 1 (Tie) Spinnerbait 1 (Tie) Stick worm 3. Buzzbait 4. jighead + swimbait 5. Fluke 6. Finesse worm 7. Popper Other techniques I used to catch bass this year: T-rig Creature, T-rig worm, underspin swimbait, vibrating jig, jig & craw, frog, in-line spinner, ned rig, slider

There are lots of lures I don't really like using, and don't catch fish very often with, But I can't think of any that I have really tried in earnest, putting in reasonable amounts of time and effort, and not caught something. Buzzbaits, frogs, jigs, walking topwaters, swimbait-underspins, lipless crankbaits, spybaits, jerkbaits, drop-shot -- all things I was unsuccessful with for awhile...until I wasn't. Some I kept using and still use, some I don't use much at all.

There's my problem -- I'm a little too employed this time of year. I can count on one hand the number of times I've ever fished in November, other than a random 1/2 hour walking the riverbank on the way home. Weather has been pretty cooperative -- I could still be out on kayak regularly this month if I had time. Alas... Best I can do is a pumpkinseed:

I too haven't dropped a shot in about 3 years. Good riddance.

1/16, 1/8, 3/16, and 1/4. 1/8 gets the call most often.

Well, i don't hunt. So...yeah.

I keep thinking I'll get into fly fishing someday, but everything about it seems so fussy and I'm not sure I have the patience. A quick search shows there are actually quite a few articles on Fly fishing for bass here on BR, but I'm not sure I've ever run across them, either in the home page or referenced in the forums. I've caught (small) bass on popper flies with a light spinning rod and casting bubble, but it's awkward, and not very effective. I've also tried a trailing a woolly bugger ~18 inches behind a Rapala floating minnow (used mostly for casting weight, with front hook removed), which I read about somewhere, but haven't been successful with it yet. Maybe one of these days I'll just bite the bullet and try the real thing....

I caught exactly one bass over 4lb this year in 105 hours of fishing. Last year I caught two. August 2021 was the last time I caught a bass over 5. Granted, I'm not consistently fishing the best waters for larger bass, but 2 and 3lbers are the foundation of a successful outing for largemouth in most places up here, most of the time. Whether I catch anything larger than that depends almost entirely on location and timing...and I don't always get much choice over when I'm free to go fishing, how long I have, and how far away I can go.

I'll have to get back to you. I may not learn anything this Winter.

I would submit that people who fish in bass tournaments do it because they like catching bass. It's not that they fish for bass because they like tournaments.

Bass are the Goldilocks Fish -- "just right". Among other things: -Size: They're not too big to handle, but large enough to provide some excitement. -Challenge level: They're easy to catch occasionally, but difficult to catch consistently. -Diversity: They inhabit a huge variety of environments, which require different approaches and yield different angling experiences. -Convenient access: They're everywhere; I'm always close to a body of water with bass in it -Resilience: They tolerate being caught and handled well, and survive release at a high rate; the perfect catch-and-release quarry.

Yep, that's what I'm shooting for. Got a ways to go yet. Just have to stay healthy enough to make it possible.