Fried Lemons

Seems there are mixed opinions on the taste. Largemouth bass is considered a delicacy in Chinese cuisine. They are farmed for food and can be found live in some supermarkets here. I've eaten a lot in the past and find them generally good but with a lot of variance. I've eaten some muddy tasting ones from canals and some really good ones from clear mountain lakes. Smaller ones have better taste and texture and coincidentally are the ones that usually need culling. I haven't kept any in years but plan to start again this summer when the season opens.

There has been much discussion as of late about the benefits of harvesting and problems caused by pervasive catch and release mentality. I’m curious if any of you guys have started or are thinking about starting to harvest bass.

I was hoping to see some shad spawn activity but it was slow. I did get one good bite on a 7” paddletail as the moon popped over the trees. She was short but had a nice build.

Big soft swimbait. There’s just something therapeutic about fishing one low and slow, bumping into rocks and anticipating that tick. Every time it happens the anticipation that there could be a giant on the end is there, even if that is often not the case. It works well in the cold months but a weedless bait thrown into grass is also effective in summer, so it can be a year round deal.

Got a solid one to come out from under the dock, working a glide in and out. The ensuing fight was chaotic-the extra rod was getting in the way and being on a paddle board I couldn't just power the fish in like I would from shore. Luckily she was hooked so well even after the 4th jump she couldn’t throw the bait. Definitely need to start packing a net. Fish was 21” and didn’t quite make 5. Post spawn blues.

Looks like it has potential based on your description and pictures. If you’re really curious you can start recording length and weight of every fish you catch and calculating relative weights. That’s what I did when I was eliminating lakes from my rotation. I’d also try some baits that cull a lot of smaller bites in favor of big ones. Recently I went for a short after work trip with a buddy to a lake I was convinced was a dink factory so I packed accordingly with regular baits. My buddy, completely naive to this lake was throwing a Deps 250 and stuck a 6. Turned out I was the naive one.

Funny you mention this, last year I started going out on a canoe with a buddy and this year I got a paddle board to get off the bank with minimal hassle. Don’t get me wrong, I strongly prefer either of these modes of fishing over bank fishing but I still have way more success chasing big fish from the bank. Part of it is the learning curve of controlling my position from a floating object which gets pushed around by wind and current and even the resistance of a lure. This isn’t that big an issue fishing moving baits but when I want to slow down and work the bottom I find myself often wanting to beach or tuck up right against the bank to fish uphill. Also sitting unsupported all day is murder on my lower back.

One of my lakes suffered a major drawdown and I was able to recover some stuff off a certain long rocky point. This bait was only gone for a week, snapped her off on a fish. Still good as new. This one I broke off a year ago. Covered in algae, cracked and dried out. After a good wash, a long soak in some bang spray and copious amounts of mend it, she’s back in action. Also found countless jigs and worms that were lost off that point. This was an interesting one someone was throwing.

I primarily fish 3 lakes which I determined through lots of trial and error have big fish potential. In my state I found the best lakes have either gizzard shad or rainbow trout forage. The trout lakes are small and fly under the radar for sure.

Carrying on with the theme last time I found them even hotter on the same pattern. Got a couple dinks and was getting swiped and slapped at every 5th cast. I’ll only bore you with one of here. Reached a spot with immediate access to the deepest water in the lake and had another small fish miss on two consecutive casts. On the third I felt the bite and swung. Imagine my shock to find two fish on! The small one that had been missing and a much bigger one! They had a combined weight of 9lbs which is more bass than I’ve ever gotten in a cast.

Went to the lake this morning to tune a friend’s bait and couldn’t keep the fish away from it. Got four in total with these two being the better ones, 4-8 and 4-0. Not big but they were angry. I’d be too if my lake looked like that.

4 and 3 from a quick shorebanging session. They’re already starting to look thin. This years spawn might be in trouble with how fast the lake is dropping. Seen one bed in like 6” of water that will be on dry land soon. If they refill the lake the beds will be 6’ under.

This thread really speaks to me. I've personally been on this grind for a good 8 years and it's mostly in the last 2 that I feel I've really made strides so I'll share what I have learned. The most important thing is to be fishing the correct body of water. Back in 2016 I caught my first fish I would consider giant for my state - 7lb 4oz. Since then I was striving to beat that fish, but my approach was all wrong. I was hopping around to probably about 20 different bodies of water, most of which simply don't hold that caliber of fish in catchable numbers. Over the years I started eliminating bodies of water that I felt were hurting my chances. Not that these places aren't fun to fish or good for numbers with the occasional big one. Eventually I narrowed it down to just two lakes that I fish on almost exclusively. Sure, it got repetitive but I learned a lot more about these lakes by fishing them exclusively. I also saw my numbers of 5+lb fish increase dramatically on a year by year basis. I'll also make a note about location. All of the biggest fish I've caught were on very obvious prime cover/structure. There's a particular tree on my home lake that has produced two giants for me in the last two years. This tree doesn't really fish well - those two fish are the only fish I've ever caught off it. I never see or catch small fish on it. My belief is that the big fish dominate the best locations which is why some of these spots are overlooked or considered beat to death - the small, easily caught fish aren't present. Last and probably least is throw baits that target big fish. Don't think of it with the mindset of a tournament angler that has to catch a limit within a small time frame. Be patient and accept that you will get fewer bites and skunk at times. Look at it instead on a year by year basis and you will see a difference.

Found a few on a pattern I've never seen before. They were hunting trout in open water, not relating to any particular structure or cover. Every now and then I'd see a trout frantically trying to escape being pinned against a steep island bluff bank but for the most part I was seeing these massive explosions out in open water and occasionally against the bank. There wasn't really a way to target these fish other than being in the right place at the right time. Ended up with 3 at 4-5, 4-11, 6-0 on a deps 250. Only thing I figured out for certain was that they wanted an uphill presentation. Cast out into deep water and retrieve toward the bank and they'd pin it against the bank like they'd been doing to the trout. There were definitely bigger fish in the mix, I missed out on a large part of the bite window before I realized what was happening.

Today I caught my first 8" hudd fish... after over 100 hours fishing it over the years. I've caught fish on bigger baits but for some reason I could never get them on the traditional slow bottom crawl. I was retrieving it mid column and watched this fish engulf it near the end of my cast. A new personal best!

Solid one on a suspending tiny klash. Air temp 35 water felt low 40s. Fish were surprisingly shallow on rocky banks and bluff walls. The key was suspending baits fished with long pauses.

First fish I caught this year was a pb, 7lb 10oz on a tiny klash Most notable bycatch, 31” striper on a tiny klash Walleye season is just starting, biggest so far this year 23” on a tiny klash

Nice one today on the ol reliable

Couple post thanksgiving fish, all on a suspending TK. Twitches with 1-2 second pauses.

I’m a big fan. Yeah it’s wet and uncomfortable but it gets the big ones eating shallow.

The fish in my avatar ate a rainbow trout hudd 68 rof 12 and came from a waterbody with gizzard shad and no trout. The rof 12 is good if you want it to hit bottom and stay there on the retrieve. The rof 5 would be more versatile if you also want to throw it in ponds, but you may need to add nail weights for fishing deeper on the big lakes. Rod depends on your budget and how much you want to get into it. The 68 isn't a big bait, you can throw it on a flipping stick with braid if that's what you have.

Got on some good quality today. Bluebird skies, flat calm, lake turning over. I found the fish in chunk rock in 4-8ft feeding heavily on craws. Got one on a swing head and three on a football jig. 4-13, 5-0, 3-0, 5-5.

For shallow shaggy areas with not great clarity I recommend wakebaits and softbaits over glides. Working class zero citizens/battleshads are the best on the market for your application. For wakebaits pick your poison, they all work. MS slammers are relatively inexpensive and easily obtainable.

Reading through the spinnerbait section of Bill Murphy's book and I found it interesting that he recommends downsizing the blade and running a single blade vs the usual tandem blades. Most of the baits pictured in the book have small single french/colorado blades somewhat reminiscent of a beetle spin. Completely contrary to the large double willow that is currently popular. Has anyone had success applying this tactic?

I got into it this summer when I was really struggling. I was using heavy 1oz weights with magnum worms and dragging rather quickly to cover water and gain an understanding of the bottom composition and contours. The key for me was finding hard spots. Any time I would be dragging sand or mud and suddenly hit rock was when I would get bit. I am assuming you fish from the bank like I do. I would rig it heavy and work it quickly to prospect the main lake. Don't just cast it wherever, search off the points and the deepest parts of the coves. Assuming your lake isn't completely silted in, you are bound to find some hard spots. The spots situated on points or the mouths of coves or other such areas will be key spots. Then just keep revisiting these spots at different times until you find the fish.