MIbassyaker

Good point, Tom. I love old books --many of them are solid on the fundamentals-- but probably better off not looking to print media for in-depth treatment of the most current information.

There he is! is an old one! There are some good threads around here with book lists -- here's one: Many of the most often recommended books have sections that deal with plastics techniques, like the In-Fisherman Largemouth: A Handbook of Strategies and "Critical Concepts 3: Presentation, and In Pursuit of Giant Bass by Bill Murphy. For tips and tricks, Secrets of a Champion and Bass Strategies by Kevin Van Dam, and Tim Tucker's Secrets of America's Best bass Pros and More Secrets of America's Best Bass Pros have stuff about plastics. Also check out Slider Fishin' by Charlie Brewer.

You will all be relieved to hear that I'm willing to accept donations of any unused senkos you have, and are feeling too insecure or embarrassed to use.

I can't believe the mods allowed you to post this highly offensive picture...

Schmitt-Feider-Felix-Ito was awfully tempting, but decided to go lower %s: Greg Hackney Chris Johnston Scott Martin Keith Combs Micah Frazier

I few years ago I caught the same ~4lb largemouth a month apart, although I didn't notice until I was home comparing pics. Estimating from satellite map, the two spots are about 2000 feet away. Most of the places I fish are pretty small, so it's probably happened a lot without me noticing.

Indeed, my legs are very wide. ?

Postfrontal morning, 6:30am-11:30am, partly sunny, a little wind from the SW. Lake of choice today is a mostly featureless, but well-vegetated bowl. It has fished well for me with good sizes in pre-spawn and fall. But agricultural runoff and a curly-leaf pondweed infestation can make weedgrowth hard to negotiate in the height of the summer. It also leaves me skunked with some frequency -- if I can get to the bass I can catch a few, but I can't always get at them easily, so I haven't spent much time here outside of April/may and Sept/Oct. I found an area of sunfish surface feeding activity over 6', and noticed it was just off the deeper end of weedline running along a subtle drop from 4' to 6'. A buzzbait over this break got a couple good strikes, but no hookups. A spinnerbait was more persuasive, and immediately so: This pumpkinseed was a little too curious for its own good: (Can you guess why I like gold blades in this lake?) With the sun higher, I moved in on the arrowheads and pads with a senko and a t-rigged zoom lizard, working around the lake: In the end, 20 bass with the biggest one (on the board above) going 3.28lb. Additionally, the pumpkinseed and two 2-footer pike (one a little more, one a little less).

Nice! Growing up, channel cats in the river back home were the first fish I learned how to catch, although ours were more in the 2-4lb range.

? A tournament I should have entered -- I would have tied for first place!

When I drop a flaked worm in the water, I see the flakes light up as they catch the sun, flickering as the bait moves, winking and glinting through the gloom.... I can easily imagine bass registering flakes as baitfish scales, acting as a strike trigger. It's also possible flakes could turn bass away if they are associated with something negative....whether flakes are good or bad or neutral could depend entirely on the quirks of particular local water environments or conditions. Why should I prefer the green flake of Junebug over the blue of Black/blue? Ask my bass. They seem to like green.

Junebug, because of the green flakes

100% -- Seasonally, smallies are firing up in the rivers just as largemouth in the lakes are slowing down. The rivers here can be spectacular on a hot day, and a lot of them have stretches that are really underfished.

I count 6 species -- nice day!

I also use 4" stick worms pretty often for smallmouth on a weightless t-rig. In River and stream current, my smallies seem to get this size into their mouths a little better than the 5". I feel like any brand will do, but I particularly like the Strike King Ocho in this size. And a 4" power worm on a Slider, or other light head like the one below (an Owner bullethead), is pretty great for hopping along the bottom:

Two anglers in front of me. One reliably catches "pretty good" bass in a variety of waters, under a variety of conditions -- but has never caught a true trophy. The other has a few DDs to his credit, but doesn't catch much very often. If I know nothing else about these anglers, and you tell me, "One of these anglers is more skilled than the other -- who is it?", I'm going to guess it is the first one.

Just practicing my understatement skills.

Just for fun, I ordered an In-Fisherman "Gear Box", which I didn't know they offered until I stumbled across it on their website: Pretty good value for $25, actually.

Absolutely experiment with speed, but generally Fall and spring I want them going as slow as possible that still keeps the tail and blade going. Otherwise, usually just a moderate speed with occasional brief pauses. Sometimes they can be tricky to match hook to bait size. The one in the pic is 1/4oz 5/0 Owner Flashy Swimmer with a 4.3 keitech, which seems about right. Bass in my waters bass are predominantly bluegill/sunfish/yellow perch eaters (no shad), so I like the gold blades, but the Owners are super-easy to swap between gold/silver or colorado/willow.

rapa-LAH like' "Shangri-La" No, seriously, it's RAP-uh-lah. Finnish name, which, if you know any Finns, makes pronounciational* sense. *not a word, but still comprehensible. Suck it, English.

I don't, but if it might help you get bit, you should try it. Weightless trick worm at least is something people do pretty often.

Hmm. I'm going have to pay more attention to this as it relates to topwater. I've understood predatory birds generally to be a positive sign of fish activity, as birds are expert fishers and do not waste time and energy on futile endeavors.