MIbassyaker

Summers in Michigan, on the other hand, are glorious.

Grand Rapids resident reporting. Lots of good fishing in the area, for lots of species. Very affordable, city is big enough to have plenty to do year round, but is not overwhelmingly huge. We do get a lot of snow, but winters are not THAT bad (not as bad as A-Jay's place at least; hes a couple hours north). Like beer? We have beer. A lot of it.

I wish I had been into bass fishing during the 6 years I lived in Northern CA, within 1-1.5 hours each of Clear Lake, the Delta, and Berryessa.

I've had fewer outings than usual so far this summer, but lots of action when I have been out. A sampling of the better fish from 4 morning trips to different lakes over the last month-- all cookie-cutter 2 and 3lb-ers, but they just kept coming: Buzzbaits and texas rigged worms (mainly power worms and the Zoom speed worm in bottom middle) have done almost all the work.

Three 3s this morning were the best out of 11 total (middle was this biggest at 3.38): Cavitron Buzzbait, Rage Swimmer, and a Senko, respectively. I haven't fished much this year; numbers of bass have been good when I have been out, but haven't had anything over 2lb until today.

Finally on the board for 2022. Last time I made a cast was October, so it was satisfying at long last to get out this afternoon for 3 hours and tool around a neighborhood lake down the road. Of the 13 I caught --all in the 13"-15" range-- I think these were the best two: All were caught on a 4.3 Keitech with a 1/4oz owner flashy swimmer. I like the gold Colorado blade in these bluegill/perch lakes:

I usually fish alone and by kayak, and lakes are much easier for me to get in and out of. So I fish lakes most often. But I always make time for some river float trips each year because they are always an adventure, and in the middle of the summer, they often outfish the lakes. Also, if fishing from shore, the rivers in my area are much easier to fish than the lakes, as they have more public shoreline, while the lakes usually have just one public access point, with the rest privately owned (except for a small park, in some cases).

I fish a rotation of small natural lakes, impoundments, gravel pits, bayous, and stretches of 4 rivers within about an hour's drive of my house. Currently there are about 40 on my list and I add a couple new ones each year. Most I visit only once per year and rarely do I go any one place more than 3 times per year.

Around here, until it starts getting warm overnight, 8:00am is too early.

I have a record of every fish I have caught over the last 10 years or so, its size, location, lure, day and time, some basic weather information, and other environmental details like weed growth, clarity, water temp, and such. It's much easier to do this if, like me, you don't catch very many. ? I use those data, not so much to help me fish better, but to to keep track of differences between the various waters I visit, and track changes in their productivity throughout a season. A few years ago, I started also including a short narrative description of each trip, where I went, what locations and presentations I tried and didn't try -- What I discovered was that this was actually the more insightful information for helping me fish better, because it helped me understand both my successes and failures.

Lets go!! Lake Fork! [hurriedly scans through available anglers in each bucket] [frantically looks through previous results on Lake Fork] [starts stressing about who to choose] Hey, when is this event anyway? Oh.

I don't have any lofty reasons other than its a fun challenge in which I can encounter more fresh air, scenery, & wildlife than people.

Christie comes through! Points usually settle a little differently than the immediate returns, but this event looks to have bumped me up about 12-15%: In DTL, I cracked the top 300:

Almost forgot about this event after being checked-out for a couple weeks. A. Lester B. Martin C. Felix D. Christie E. Foutz DTL: Gross, Mullins, Lester, Logan, Foutz, Huff, Felix, Loughran

The only two chatterbait colors I fish are "dark" and "light".

I watch MLF, but don't really follow it. On the other hand, I follow BASS but don't really watch much of it. I don't have any attachment to the "best 5" format, and I prefer immediate release over a weigh-in. I'd also like to see BASS adopt something like MLF fish-handling rules. After watching some MLF, It's hard to see BASS anglers dropping fish all over the place. But I find MLFs event structure and rankings incredibly confusing. I can't ever remember who qualified for what, or what the stakes are. And nothing MLF ever does will replace the Bassmaster Classic.

So just an ordinary everyday DD, then! in 1986 I was 10. We had a subscription to IF around that time, which I pored over every month. It's possible I even saw and read your article at the time, wondering what it must be like to chase giant bass like that.

I found this not long ago -- from an In-Fisherman issue, 1986: Was the fish in the pic one of your top 5, Tom?

Sitting at 67.1% in regular Fantasy, 97.1% in DTL. Santee-Cooper...subject to revision as we get closer, but as a first pass I'm thinking: A. Mullins B. Powroznik C. Herren D. Ike E. Jocumsen

Regardless of how "finesse" originated, or of the plain meaning of the word, as with most other things it's use as a marketing term seems to have taken over entirely -- "Finesse" now seems primarily to be a category of things you buy, not a set of techniques you use.

As far as I can tell, the only consistent meaning of "finesse" is light line + light tackle. Always seemed to me like "Finesse" should be about making precise presentations regardless of setup and gear, but that's not how people usually mean it.

A little over 4 months since I made a cast into open water. In some years, I'm able to do that again by the first week of March, so Saturday I made a recon trip to three of the smaller, faster-warming lakes near me. Alas, not quite yet:

I don't think there's anything I have actually cast 1000 times before getting a bite. There are plenty of baits I've never tried, and plenty more I have tried a little with no success, and others that took a lot of practice to figure out. But after maybe a couple hundred casts with a bait, I've either caught something or I've given up on it.

Depends on time and place, but usually I can bank on a senko, finesse worm or hula grub.

A moment to rethink my team... A. Feider B. Ito C. Kennedy D. Mullins E. Rivet Nope. Gonna roll with this crew as originally planned.