MN_Bassin

I'm with Bluebasser, those Zman plastics are virtually untearable by those pesky sunfish and dink bass. I always hated burning through plastic trailers so durability is a must.

In my experience, certain conditions must be in place to use topwater. It will always catch fish, but there are definitely special days where it out produces everything. About a month ago, I had a crazy day with hollow body frogs. Light wind blew a thin film of scum into a little back corner of a bay on a sunny day. I heard sunnies popping bugs, and heard/saw bass explode of those sunfish. Anyways, everything was set for topwater for that specific day. I went back the next day, expecting to pound the bass again, only to find that the film blew away. I still caught some fish, but subsurface lures would've been a better choice.

In Minnesota, there's no way that I'd get away with throwing an expensive bait. Too many pike, especially the little buggers, that'll cut your line without you feeling a thing.

I'd stick with a frog. Why change if you know the bigger bass are blowing up on topwater?

Without a doubt, skipping docks with swimjigs.

A white skirted black jig, with a chartreuse paddle tail. The white and chartreuse combo is a killer up here in stained water.

I use jigs 90% of the time, because of their versatility, and they catch bigger fish. You can skip them, swim them, hop them, flip them, drag them, etc. all in one cast!

Caught my second personal best bass today! It was also my first fish on a baitcaster. She was 21" and I didn't have a scale, but I'm gonna guess around 6lbs give or take a few ounces.

Try skipping under docks, the shade during the heat of summer is like a magnet!

In 7 hours, my friend and I caught well over 80 bass, while there was a club tournament going on. I was trying to give a team tips and I caught one while talking, they still didn't listen. It was to the point where we were both laughing everytime we caught one!

This... This is the truth... My legs once looked like Neapolitan ice cream. Knees down was tan, lower thighs were strawberry, and the rest of my thighs were vanilla!

All you guys telling these stories sorta scares me! I only seem to burn the first few trips of the year, but once I get tan, I don't burn again. However, Minnesota is higher in latitude than southern states, so we get less direct sunlight...? if I can recall junior high science class correctly. Anyways, wear whatever it takes to get to those big 'uns!

Pretty much all I ever fish are swimjigs, and I was eyeing the heck out of those the other day!

In a kayak, it's much, much easier to fish shoreline cover. Not that fishing deep can't be done, but you would need Navionics or a depth finder unless you know the lake extremely well, or there are tell tale signs. I skips docks 85% of the time with my friend, and we each put 3 or 4 skips into a dock, and drift down to the next.

Weather Bug or some other weather app. They aren't fishing apps, but definitely will come in handy while on the water.