MIbassyaker

I've got nobody other than Card and maybe Whitaker on pace to fish tomorrow. ugh.

A. Hartman B. Whitaker C. Card D. Pirch E. Crews Had this team picked out a month ago, logged back in to bassmaster today to see if I wanted to make any changes, and......nah. I'll roll with it.

1. Stick worm, jointly held by GYCB Senko, Strike King Ocho, Berkley General, & Bizz Baits Sassy Stick. 2. ~4" Paddletail swimbait, jointly held by Keitech Swim Impact Fat, Strike King Rage Swimmer, & Biospawn Exoswim 3. GYCB Hula Grub + 1/4oz Title shot jig 4. Whopper Plopper 75 5. Bladed Jig: 3/8oz Jackhammer & Siebert Bubble Fogy Honorable Mentions: -Siebert Shot-Caller Swimjig -War eagle Double-Willow Spinnerbait -Booyah Pad crasher -Megastrike Cavitron Buzzbait -Charlies worms 8" Ribbontail Swimming worm

Be aware that you get what you pay for. I would generally rather buy one good spinnerbait or inline spinner for $7-10 than gamble on 2-4 for the same price. I only intentionally buy low-priced spinners and spinnerbaits if I expect to lose them to pike. Moving parts require quality. for a spinner, you need a good quality wire, a good hook, a skirt that won't disintegrate, and a swivel or clevis that will rotate the blade even at slow speeds.

Look for something in "Ghost Minnow" -- great translucent color. For approximate profile, have a look at the Lucky Craft Sammy or Gunfish, or the Ima Skimmer

Medium spinning rod works great for weightless plastics, including a senko.

Anything with the words "Pumpkin" or "watermelon" in the name. Anything with green flakes. Anything countershaded (darker on top, lighter on bottom) My favorite color is a light pumpkin or amber with green flakes, which is hard to find a good version of. Some of the better examples I know of: -the Berkley chigger craw comes in "Pumpkin Green" -Big Bite Baits has several baits in "pumpkin pepper green" -Strike king has "amber green" and "amistad special" in a few of the Rage and KVD perfect plastics series -Strike King also used to make the elaztech 3x finesse worm in "pumpkin green", but discontinued (however, I stocked up and it is elaztech, so I'll never run out) On the other hand, Zoom has "rootbeer pepper green" which is close, but a little too opaque orange for my taste. And GYCB has "pumpkin black & green flake" which is too reddish.

1. GYCB Senko 2. Berkley Power worm 3. Zoom Trick Worm 4. Rage Menace 5. GYCB Hula Grub 6. Rage Swimmer 7. Berkley Chigger Craw 8. Biospawn Plasmatail 9. Gambler Burner Craw 10. Rage Cut-R worm

Yup. Getting a kayak even improved my shore fishing -- by spending time physically on the water I got used to seeing angles and locations I just missed previously. Yup. Keep track of not just what you caught and on what lure, but what also what you tried, where you went, what didn't work, what choices you made and why. You will start so see which decision points may have been misguided, as well as which ones were borne out by successful catches. Yup. They look so dumb, and yet... I am constitutionally incapable of not having some with me every time I bring any rod, anywhere.

I found BFA shortly before it disappeared and really enjoyed browsing it; was disappointed to see it go away -- it seemed to be a real labor of love. BIB actually was... @Team9nine, no?

First time out in a few weeks, 3 hours during the first spare morning I've had in a while. We've been semi-steadily cooling over that time. Rained the last few days; air temp this morning in the low 50s, overcast. Had 6 swimjig-eaters show up (biggest was top left, 3.04lb): ....and now I need to get back to work.

I don't know about the big bite version specifically, but fluke-style soft jerkbaits usually move a little differently when twitched than a stickbait. This jerkbait profile gives it more of a gliding motion, while the stick bait has more mass on the posterior half, which makes it wobble and bend more. But that's just a generalization, and all companies baits are a little different.

I think the biggest factors are (1) Largemouths grow larger, and (2) Largemouths simply inhabit more accessible water in across most of the country than Smallmouths do. In places where smallmouths of decent size are highly accessible, they are often more popular than largemouths.

Yup -- bass pro has an exclusive deal to sell the rattling version. Do the rattles matter? I really don't know -- I have some of both, and but pretty much just treat them interchangeably without worrying about it.

That's fair. The book's reputation is such that it's easy to develop outsized expectations about what it is, and be disappointed to discover what it is not. It really is only partly about fishing. The Book's value, as far as I'm concerned, is that it is the definitive resource on many of the underlying factors about the largemouth bass species -- it's physiology, perceptual abilities, and response to stimuli as verified by experiment -- that we make assumptions about every time we fish, whether we realize it or not. To be sure, it does take some additional reflection and thought to make practical use of many of these details, though.

We had a thread on this topic not long ago: I am skeptical it will be broken any time soon. Never mind a 12-pounder, 10-pound largemouths are nearly non-extistent. In the thread above, I mention some recent records I looked through of bass catches in MI, and the only confirmed double-digit largemouth I could find was a 10lb 1999 master angler entry from a private lake in the Kalamazoo area. A 12-pound bass would be really really old. So the question is really: what would you need for a bass to grow fast enough to reach that size before the end of its life? You need good genes, a good food source for growth, and a low chance of getting killed or harvested. A carefully-managed private lake would probably have the best chance. To quote myself from the above thread: I think the stars would really have to align just right for a largemouth to survive enough seasons to reach DD level. The growing seasons are short, and there is always some risk of winterkill in many shallow, eutrophic largemouth haunts. It also doesn't help that the most of prime largemouth waters in the state are where most of the people live, as this means largemouth are probably more subject to harvest pressure from casual anglers than smallmouth are. Largemouth are probably also easier to catch year-round, as they tend to inhabit smaller, easier-to access (and easier to fish) waters. And a bass doesn't need to be harvested to have it's life shortened by being caught, if it is gut- or gill-hooked, handled roughly, kept out of the water too long, or otherwise mistreated in some way. But the smallmouth record is another story! It may be one of the most vulnerable state records in the country right now, and it has fallen twice in the last few years.

I would probably just use 6lb mono, and try to be careful about checking the line for nicks and scratches (and re-tie when necessary), as damaged line is often the culprit when a fish breaks off. Line wt. recommendations are really about line diameter, rather than strength, and they usually assume monofilament diameter unless otherwise stated. You can generally assume any braid strength is fine if its diameter is consistent with diameter of mono at the recommended strength. (10lb braid should have a diameter of about 2-4lb mono). The problem is that 10lb braid will likely wear out the reel and rod guides over time via abrasion, as spincast gear is not typically manufactured for longevity.

I expect you'll find that rod to be excellent for weightless and lightly-weighted plastics, e.g., light t-rigs, flukes, shakyheads, tubes, grubs, wacky worms etc.

I'm not a jerkbait master (to put it mildly...massive understatement), but the following rules have tended to serve me reasonably well, just based on seasonal activity levels: From ice-out to spawn: Suspending Postspawn through summer: Floating Late summer cool-downs, through fall: Suspending I think I only have one sinking -- an old Rapala Countdown I have had since I was a kid and haven't used in years. I seem to recall using it to troll for walleye (don't remember if I caught any on it)

Siebert Outdoors has a nice golden shiner pattern you can get on a jig, fogy bladed jig, or spinnerbait.

Spinnerbait all day long. No shad, no problem. Most of the places I fish have no shad either, but lots of bluegill and other sunfish. I like gold-bladed spinnerbaits with some chartreuse and/or orange on them for visibility and general sunfishiness.... although I don't know that colors matter very much when they're willing to chase. To be honest, I find fall to be very boom-or-bust. Boom-days, you'll get hit on every cast of a moving bait. Bust days...nothing happens, anywhere. Maybe one jig or worm fish. In fact, I got on my first spinnerbait bite in three months last week -- cooling trend, complete calm, bright bluebird skies....none of my other late summer "heroes" (e.g., frog, worm, creature) were getting any attention. But a gold double-willow War Eagle in a "sunperch" colored skirt did...

I use the Sammy and Gunfish in this color too.

I fished a spybait exactly once for about an hour. Caught one dink and thought, "OK, they'll bite this thing. Noted." And then I went back to fishing bottom stuff and caught a bunch more. Here's my problem: I never really encounter conditions where spybaiting is would seem to be better for getting bit than anything else, and most places I fish are either not deep enough, or too heavily vegetated to fish sinking trebles on light line effectively. Getting any use out of spybaits here on the west side, @Fishin' Fool?

A. Mueller B. Zaldain C. Paquette D. Crews E. Lowen

I had to think about this, as I wasn't sure at first there is any particular bait I always have tied on...but I realize I do have one: a Senko or other stick worm.