MIbassyaker

I catch them on white spinnerbaits too, I just never seem to encounter situations where white/silver is clearly better. I suppose if there are a lot of bluegill around, then "thing moving around in the shallows" kind of resembles a bluegill no matter what color it is.

I use gold and copper most of the time, any conditions. The main reason is that all of my waters have a lot bluegill and sunfish forage, while very few have any shad. Most species of sunfish have some gold/copper coloring, so I like some of the same color in the flash. Not that silver isn't good or doesn't work, the golds and coppers just seem to get bit more consistently. Not sure I've ever caught a bass on a painted blade, but I haven't tried them much. I also like sunfish-y patterned skirts, like this "pumpkinseed" one from Siebert:

I might be able to go out again Monday for what will very likely be my last time on the water this year. I just don't have time during this time of year. I'll probably do a few shore-fishing excursions but they'll be brief. It has been a weaker than usual year. I haven't been out as much, and haven't caught as well as is usual, for either numbers or sizes. According to my records, by this point i've been out fishing 29 times, to 24 different bodies of water, for an average of 4.5 hours per trip, most of which were between 3 and 6 hours. These trips were to 16 small natural lakes (smallest was 30 acres , largest was 2700), 2 free-flowing river sections, two impoundments, two river bayous, one flooded river mouth lake, and 1 gravel pit lake. (I rarely fish the same place more than once or twice, maybe 3 times, per year). Across all of these trips so far, I've caught 249 total bass, which is a lower number than the last several years. However, I didn't get skunked on any trips. I had one 30-bass trip, a couple more where I caught over 20, and three where I caught only 1. I caught only one bass over 5lb, a 5.5 that tied my previous PB.

A lot of our lakes in michigan have species of pondweed (Potamogeton) in them. Generally they hold bass, as well as lots of other gamefish, although some fish better than others. For instance the "curly-leaf" pondweed (see page 15 of the pdf you posted-- its unmistakeable) is invasive and has been steadily displacing some of the natives species in many lakes. Unfortunately, it's also less productive for fishing than some of the others. Around here the best is the "clasping-leaf" variety, which grows in the 5-15 foot depth and supports all levels of the food-chain, sometimes growing in big underwater forests: https://pondinformer.com/clasping-leaf-pondweed-potamogeton-perfoliatus/

This morning I got back out for three and a half hours -- the first time i've been able to do any fishing in more than a month. Went with an old stand-by strategy: "The 1-2 Punch": (1) spinnerbait the edges and lanes of remaining green vegetation, then (2) move in on the thicker spots and pitch to any holes. The tools of choice today were a Siebert Cosmic Compact double-willow Spinnerbait with a "Pumpkinseed" skirt, and a t-rigged Rage Tail Space Monkey. Hit four with the first punch, and two more with the second. Four of the six were 14"-15" pound-and-a-halfers: ...and two were around 18" that went 3.07lb and 3.34lb, one on each bait: All in all, a fine way to spend a precious few spare hours. I probably won't get to do this more than a couple more times before winter.

Yup. Countershading.

Yes, winters are bad up here. But Summers are just glorious.

Wait....you just had the wedding in Northern MI, right? I was going to see about rounding up @12poundbass @Mbirdsley and @A-Jay to crash it! Oh well. Bad timing for me anyway. Congrats on both your romantic achievement and new sonar acquisition!

The bigger problem is people describing a waterbody as "gin clear" that is definitely not gin clear.

?

The book is out of print. The author and publisher do not profit from the sale of out-of-print books, and are not setting the prices you see now. But it is still in high demand, precisely because there is no other book with the same info. That's why the prices you see are so high -- welcome to the out-of-print book market! I don't know who is shelling out $200 for a copy, but somebody must be for the market to bear these prices. Collectors, maybe? I bought a used hardcover copy a number of years ago for $20. The retail price listed on the dust jacket is $29.95, which what the publisher expected it to sell for new when it was in print. Pretty normal price for a hardcover.

I haven't thrown a spoon since I was a kid, when we caught pike with them. We would just cast and retrieve, or troll if we had a boat. No doubt they are effective, but I don't think I've ever caught a bass on a spoon.

3-4 hours on the water average for lake trips, but can range from about 1-6 hours. A typical trip sees me out the door in the early morning to get on the water before dawn, and I'm back home or at work in the afternoon. Longest trips are river floats which occasionally go as long as 8-10 hours, depending on the distance; more often 4-5 hours.

We have crayfish in almost every permanent body of water here, including waters where there aren't any smallmouth. They are in the mud, the rocks, the weeds, everywhere. All bass eat them when they are available. Associating smallies with rock and largmouths with weeds is a rule of thumb that, while imperfect, definitely shows a trend. Generally, smallies are better adapted to current and better adapted to rock cover than largemouth. That does not mean they require rock or current, only that a population can successfully spawn and thrive given the competition. Current and rock gives smallies an advantage over (or at least helps them compete with) other predators like Largemouth, Pike, and Bowfin, who are also very adaptable, but each prefer somewhat different conditions. In my area, smallmouth like fairly clear and clean water, whether in current or not. That's usually a river with some rocky/gravelly sections, or a moderately-rocky or sandy lake that doesn't have too much vegetation. Smallies like vegetation too when available, but they are outcompeted by largemouth, pike, & bowfin if there is too much vegetation. It's a balancing act. you need to have the right conditions. Smallmouth occupy a "middling" ecological niche that is fragile in some places. In my area, some small natural lakes that used to have smallmouth 50 years ago (according to survey results and reports from old-timers) no longer have fishable populations. What happened? Development. People built homes and fertilized their yards. The fertilizer ran off into the lake and made it much more fertile than it used to be. Weedbeds grew and expanded providing new habitat for largemouth, pike, and bowfins. As it died off every fall, organic matter piled up over the old spawning areas. Who benefitted? Largemouth, pike, and bowfin. Who lost out? Smallmouth. Last summer in one small (~60 acres) lake I fish, I caught a 3lb smallie: I had never caught a smallie here before, and have never seen, nor heard any other contemporary reports of anybody catching a smallmouth in this lake. I have scoured message boards, apps, survey data, and tackle-shop gossip and as far as public reports go, I seem to be the only one to have caught a smallie here in the internet era. (unlikely! but after spending some effort searching, I can't disprove it). However, I have located second-hand reports from old-timers indicate the clarity of this lake used to be about double what it is now, and much less weedy. I have also seen "smallmouth" listed from local homeowners as a possible catch in this lake (although homeowners don't always identify fish correctly, bless their hearts.). What seems clear is that this lake used to have more smallmouth-friendly conditions, but has has transitioned in the last few decades to an increasingly-weedy largemouth haunt. (For instance, much of the vegetation is the non-native invasive curly-leaf pondweed) Maybe my fish is the result of an unofficial stocking. Or maybe it is a 10+ year old survivor of an earlier age, and maybe it produced --and outlived-- some of the last smallmouth broods this lake saw. Maybe there's a healthy population in there nobody ever catches. I have no way of knowing. All I really know is that I have never seen or heard of any other particular smallmouth caught here. In any case, I don't hold out much hope I will ever catch another smallie here, although I will try, and will certainly report it on BR if I do.

I knew you wouldn't disappoint!

Paging @Team9nine!

? Summertime, and the fishin' is easy.... ?

I fish a lot of small waters that, while not really "secret", are a bit off the beaten path and not widely known except to locals who live close. A couple are even hard to see on satellite view. Some have a boat launch. Others require a carry-down or a paddle-in or a hike. Many have very limited parking. I keep the names and locations of these places to myself. I had to put in some time and effort to find them; so too should you.

If my Premier was falling apart, I'd go for that deal in a second. Congrats.

I have this rod and use it for senkos and other weightless and lightly-weighted plastics. It's virtually perfect for these applications, but I would expect the comparable power and action in the Victory line could be just as good or better.

If a ned rig gets hung up, try a 4" weightless t-rigged senko or other stick worm. Very natural, slower fall, no chunk of lead to get stuck in the rocks.

I prefer a Fluke, Zako, Blade Minnow or something similar.

Yes, absolutely, I love doing this. I find 3-4 new places to try every year and have to date fished a little over 40 individual bodies of water within an hour of my house (I have lived in MI 13 years). There are about 15 places I end up visiting every year without fail, and a couple dozen more I that rotate in and out occasionally. Over the last 5-6 years, i have also rarely fished the same body of water more than about 3 times per year, and most of them no more than once per year. For instance, since April this year I have been to 24 bodies of water in my area: 16 Natural Lakes, 3 distinct river stretches, 2 river bayous, 2 impoundments, and one gravel pit. Three of them were new to me, and none of them have gotten more than 2 visits from me this year. However, this is much easier to do if you have lots of smaller waterbodies around you instead of one or a few much larger ones. Fishing different coves or other regions of a big lake may be roughly equivalent to fishing distinct smaller lakes.

But is it really? Superstitions don't come out of nowhere -- they have their origins in past experiences too; in most cases, misinterpretations of chance events. I'm just saying...

Please post it if you find it. There has got to be a misinterpretation somewhere in the reporting about the results....there is simply no physical way something can move in the water without creating pressure waves. Maybe they can be too small for fish to detect. Or the wrong frequency, or something.