MIbassyaker

Just one from a brief wet-wading escape today:

K&E "Bass Stopper" worm, looks like!

Nice! You were due!

A few things to think about as you try to puzzle-out what might be going on: -Location: Are you really fishing the same spots? or just "pretty close" or "similar" spots? Could he be making more precise casts than you, or making different judgments about where to cast? -Depth and speed control -- how deep is your bait and how fast/often are you moving it? Is it possible your fried is experimenting more than you with presentation details, so he's more likely to end up finding what they want? -Strike detection: Is it possible your friend is detecting strikes that you would miss? Could he be a more attentive line-watcher, or more willing to set the hook when unsure? -Random chance: Could it be that there is no actual pattern, and just by chance he's out-fished you a few times? That you perhaps really have just been "unlucky" and there isn't any deeper reason; Perhaps if you keep at it things will simply even out in the long run, as they tend to.

Back at it this morning for 3 hours, after a couple weeks of doing other things. Lot of water lilies. Wonder what's in there? Oh hello Best of 10 -- 3.30lb:

A forage size bottleneck is very possible -- there may not be very many bass over 14". There are multiple lakes in my area where I catch mostly undersized fish, and very occasionally a big one, with very few in-between. Have you tried going early morning or late evening? Low light topwater over submerged weeds could be productive for larger fish. Reeds are good habitat -- look for a patches of thicker reeds next to, or on a depth change, even as little a a foot. The place where the weeds start to thin out is probably a change in depth, or change in bottom composition, either of which could be a good holding area for bigger fish. You might try slowing down and fishing the edge of this area vertically with a jig or worm. Lift and drop, shake gently when you catch vegetation. 10 acres is the perfect size body of water for curing impatience with a slow presentation.

The only time I fish holiday weekends is when we're doing a family vacation thing at a lake. Otherwise, I stay away from the crowds. I don't even fish regular weekends most of the time. I'm fortunate enough to be able to make my own work schedule over the summer, and usually go weekday mornings.

I don't think you're atypical at all. Although I kind of think anybody who spends time on a forum like this is more serious than the average angler. For my part, I suppose I'm a mix of the serious and non-serious -- as are most of us on the forum, I expect. I have quite a few more setups than I need, and many technique-specific, but most are "decent" at best -- no real high-end gear. I don't have or even want a boat, and I fish out of paddle-only kayaks light enough for car-topping, which arguably makes me less "serious" than most of the folks I encounter on the water. Sometimes I fish from shore or wade, but I probably bring too much tackle when I do. I always hope to break my PB, but I don't go out with that as the main goal (i'd fish a lot differently, at different times and places, if that were the case). I do take measurements and keep records of everything I catch, but that's mostly because I'm data-obsessive and I can't stand not knowing....it's more of a nervous tic than anything.

hungry little guy lol

Oh yes. Quite a few lure, rod, reel, and line recommendations turned into purchases. And I try out things from sponsors periodically. The forums turned me on to Daiwa reels too.

Well done!

My last 5 PBs - two prespawn, two postspawn/summer, one fall: 5.97lb - 6/24 5.73lb - 5/2 (Prespawn) 5.50lb - 8/10 5.50lb - 5/7 (Prespawn) 5.24lb - 9/17 And 6th place bass was an October fish. I fish many more postspawn/summer days (late May-Aug) than prespawn (Before mid-May) or fall (Sep and later), but summer accounts for only 2 of my top 6 fish. If I had a cooperating work/life schedule, I'd concentrate 2/3 or more of my fishing in March-May and Sept-Nov.

Things I focus on in summer: -Low light topwater (night/dawn/dusk). -Deep weedlines -Shallow heavy cover, especially overhead -- docks, pads, slop -Cool-water inlets

There isn't a single answer to the question of whether scents "work". First we should break down a few of the ways a scent might help: 1. A scent trial might help bass find a lure it wouldn't otherwise find. 2. A scent may make a bass strike a lure it wouldn't otherwise strike. 3. A scent may make a bass hold on to a lure longer than it otherwise would. 4. A scent may mask noxious odors or flavors that would otherwise turn bass away. As far as I know, the evidence for #1 and #2 are very limited, at least when it comes to bass. Berkeley has been pretty clear in their claims about powerbait that it's supposed advantage is mostly #3, and possibly #4. They have amassed years of data from their experimental laboratories to support this, some of the methods and results of which are reported in Keith Jones' book, Knowing Bass, based on his time as director of their labs. One problem with the Berkeley data though is that they are proprietary, and weren't submitted for peer-reviewed publication (of course that wasn't the point of those studies -- the point was to develop lures). Another problem is whether the effects are big enough to be noticeable to an angler, or it's just a drop in the bucket compared to the other things that affect your fishing success more. Josh Alwine's book High Percentage Fishing was mentioned above (He's a BR member -- @jpurdue) His discussion of scents is minimal, but his conclusion is not quite as simple as "no evidence" -- he merely says observations from his own catch rates and those of others do not clearly show an effect of scents, but he also admits these observations are not scientific, and hasn't found any available data set that could resolve the question. He does acknowledges the Berkeley studies show enough evidence for #3 that we could expect a slight positive impact for some lures under some conditions (e.g. plastics fished slowly). He also agrees scents may be useful for #4. The question again, though, is: is it worth it, and will you notice? I come down mostly on the skeptical side when it comes to practical effect of scents. I rather like powerbait plastics, especially power worms, the chigger craw, grubs, and tubes. But I've never experienced an obvious advantage over non-scented lures of simliar kinds. I also don't know if the stuff in the bottle works as well as the plastics (again, at least for bass -- I can almost imagine squirting powerbait on everything might just attract more catfish...).

Just for the record, I paddle only and have no trouble building useful, reliable maps of areas I fish at low speed. I just leave Garmin quickdraw on as I go, whether fishing a spot, moving, or whatever. Not going to map the whole lake, but I don't really need to.

Depends a lot on where you fish. In some places I fish -- especially shallow weedy lakes/ponds or shallow rivers, I don't find it very useful. But anywhere that has a lot of depth changes, I find it really useful to see drop-offs, offshore humps and bars, thermoclines, deep weedlines, submerged objects, bait balls, and such. Even just knowing depth itself is useful.

The same scale always says "2-point blah, blah, whatever" any time I think a fish is definitely over 3...

Our several-days-long heatwave should be ending tonight. I've been off the water, but this morning went out to "Lake 19". A few 2-something lb-ers around sunrise on buzzbait, flashy swimmer, and flipping a Gambler burner craw. I snapped a pic of this one, probably the biggest -- given how the last few trips have gone and the time of year, I figured this fish would likely end up the best out of however many I'd end up catching before going home. Turns out it was not. By the time the sun was up and over the trees at 8am, I was at 8 fish. Bites on moving baits evaporated, so I stuck with the burner craw, pitching it into any gaps in the spatterdock i could find. An hour later, Number 9 hit. It was much bigger at 19", probably pushing 4lb, although it wriggled off the measuring board and over the side before I could get a pic. Another hour later, Number 10....and for the second time in two months, I have a new Largemouth PB: SO close -- one of these days, I'm going to break six....

Flooring is done! (and not by me). just a little drywall repair and painting at this point.

Yup, we're getting Domed this weekend. I'll be downstairs in the relative cool working on my guest room reno.

yeah, they say allow 8 weeks on the form, but this one took only about 2 weeks from when I submitted. Qualifying length for both Largemouth and Smallmouth is now 21". LM used to be 22" a couple years ago.

Best of 17 over the last two trips, 16" and 17". Lots of two pounders around, but anything larger than that has been hiding: In other news, got a 2025 Michigan Master Angler patch in the mail for entering the 21", 5.73# largemouth I caught last month: This one:

I call into the existential void, to ask the question troubling my mind: "Would using only one lure improve my enjoyment of fishing?". Silence. A moment passes. Then, ever so faintly, the yawning chasm before me breathes its reply: "No."

Wow, what a weirdo. If she wants privacy, she should put up a fence.

Looks like it's there but I don't see anything in stock to buy other than the mystery tackle boxes: https://shopkarls.com/