Brew City Bass

Report that SOB. Give his name, address, phone number, and hull number to your game wardens and give them a thorough account of what happened. People like him have no respect for fish, or the people who work their butts off to catch them legally. He can pound sand and I hope the wardens throw the book at him. I respect you keeping a level head around your kid. If it was me, it'd be hard not to toss his sorry butt in the lake.

Same here in Wisco. This past week has been nothing but rain and cold nights. This next week is supposed to be back in the high 70's / 80's. Which is hot for Wisconsin. Really has the fish scattered here I think.

Never had much luck on chartreuse. I have my best luck on extremely natural colors.

The reason I don't believe our record will be broken anytime soon, or believe the current record is because our lakes are not managed for bass. They seem to only care about muskie or walleye up here. If taking out a good bass lake means more muskie, DNR is happy to do it and all the locals support. I have no idea how Il. manages their lakes. Wisconsin has big beautiful lakes capable of harboring records, but we seems to not give a flying crap about bass. Most lake associations have no problem killing every weed in the lake and killing any type of bait fish in the process. Then they stock walleye, pike and muskie to the max and that takes care of any remaining bait fish. Only lakes I've ever caught trophy bass in were lakes that were never stocked with muskie and walleye. Those lakes are becoming rare now. Every lake they've stocked those predators in the cisco population has been killed and any other medium to large baitfish as well. Bass are left to feed off of bluegill or crappie, and I've been seeing less and less of those recently in some lakes too. Everyone who fishes for panfish here will bring their son, brother, uncle, and sisters dog and all keep their limit of undersized to trophy fish. We are not a sport fishing state unless it's for muskie. Even then I've seen some aholes kill and keep those. I've seen amazing lakes get fished out in a few years once word gets around there are good fish there. We have many lakes, but not a whole lot that are big. It's extremely easy for a 100-500 acre lake to get fished out or too pressured. I've seen it happen before my eyes. And yes, we do have good smallies, but they suffer the same fate of the largies unless you're in greenbay on The Big Pond, or on the Mississippi.

I find lakes to be more difficult than rivers. In rivers if you find the current, you find the bass. In lakes, they seem to either chase baitfish (which always is moving) or they're holding tight to some type of structure. Problem is, structure is everywhere. So how do you know which piece holds fish? I haven't figured it out much. I've been on lakes my whole life and some times I nail em, sometimes I don't catch a one. My best luck has just been trying to follow seasonal patterns and try to figure out where the majority of them hold pertaining to the time of year. Right now on my lake it appears the fish are still rather deep. Being pretty lethargic. I can always find a few on points and stick some on a drop shot or carolina rig. But it never seems consistent enough to be confident it's a pattern. But anytime I hit the river, I know they're gonna be in deep pools right next to current. Don't think I've ever been skunked on the river I fish occasionally.

C'mon now, you guys are making me jealous! A 4lber is considered a big bass in Wisconsin, 5-6lbs is a giant and 6-8lbs is a trophy. Our state record is 11lbs, but that was way back in the 40's and there is really no proof of it. I am skeptical it was even 11lbs. I've never heard or seen one in this state that broke 9lbs with proof. Just a buncha "my buddy caught a 10lber last year!" with no pics.

How would you compare this to powerpro?

I'd love to support local tackle shops more, but they seem to always be so overpriced and have very little in-stock of what I actually need. I get it's super costly to have a ton of overhead in having every bait in every color, but how can I shop there if they don't even have the basic's that I use at a reasonable price? I don't mind paying 50c or $1 more for a lure or some plastics, but the one shop by my house is selling most plastics at a $2-3 mark up and they only have one or two colors. Forget actual hard baits. Like you, I just go there if I am taking a cousin out and need some worms or shiners for her.

It's a rather small lake. 80 acres I believe. I can fish pretty much the whole thing twice in one night. I first hit the banks and docks 1-4ft and got 1 or 2 out of that water. Then I hit the 4-10ft range, but with the same baits. For the last hour or two I worked 10-20ft and didn't even get a hit. I am going out this Thursday night and I think I'm gonna hit the shallows again just to make sure they aren't there, then start working the 4-10ft with a jerkbait like you suggested. I'll be sure to give a spook a try in the shallows like you mentioned. Like I said, I've been pretty one dimensional so it can't hurt to star trying new baits. Thank you for the suggestions!

I put notes in my phone, same concept. I don't go into massive detail, and I don't do it for every bass. If I catch what I consider a decent bass for the body of water I am fishing I'll usually jot down the length, weight, water temp, time of day / day / month, and weather conditions. I haven't been doing this long enough to really "refer" back to my notes, but it takes such a short amount of time I figure it can't be worthless to do. Come next year I'm sure I'll be looking back on them and try to put together a pattern before I even hit that lake.

I really appreciate this advice! I guess I never made the connection with night fishing and weather. I just kind of always assumed they ate at night no-matter the weather. Didn't even take barometric pressure into account! Cheese hat! How could I have forgotten to wear my cheese hat when fishing! I'll be sure to bring that next time. It has to have the anti-effect of a banana in the boat, right? haha. I can honestly say I've never tried finesse baits at night. This lake the water has closer to 20ft clarity. I just assumed bass go mostly off sound and vibration at night and wouldn't be able to really see a drop shot or the something similar. I've also yet to try an all yellow bait, but like you said, I have dipped my trailers in some chart JJ's magic. GO PACK GO!

I'd be more concerned with the hell saltwater will wreak on a freshwater reel.

I'd guess a flat 3lbs! Nice fish!

Okay, cool. Use whatever works then!

Bring out your dead!

So I've been night fishing a lot lately and have been doing pretty d**n good. Using the usual baits (spinners, ploppers, chatterbaits). Month of August I don't think I had a night out where I caught less than 15 fish, up until this week. Past 3 nights I only caught 4 fish each night. 8 hours a night and only 4 fish. Bleh. It did rain a lot this past week and dropped the water temp 3-4* But the weather has been fairly stable. I've fished the same baits in the same spots I always nailed em in and just didn't produce. I probably should have been less stubborn and started trying different things. I did try slow rolling deeper up to 20fow but still no real luck. Seems like every fish I've caught this week was a fluke. Do you guys think it was the change in water / air temp has em lock jaw? Or should I be doing something different? I feel pretty one dimensional sometimes when this happens.

I usually am in the 1-10ft range with these lures, but it's gonna be different on every lake. For speed, there is slow and then slower. lol Like barely crawling it on the bottom.

I've stocked up on some Hudd 68's and a few Savage Gear 8" baits. I love the action on all of them. Can't go wrong for the price. They're painfully slow to fish, but if there's a giant in the lake, it will want em. Only a matter of time.

I'd definitely bump up that line. It sucks losing a $15 lure. I throw all my ploppers on 50lb braid. I've broken off branches before I snapped the line.

Bottom line, no reel bearings will rust if you take proper care and maintain it. Oil it two or three times a season, especially if it gets extremely wet in rain or goes for a dunk in the lake. I've got $20 reels that I've had since I was 5 that feel like new because they've been maintained.

I have a 130 in frog color, It's alright. I love the Loon color in the 110, especially at night. But my go-to is Munky Butt

Ultimately, a boat is worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it. If your area is flooded with good shape bass boats, they can be worth well below nada. If there are only a few bass boats in town, the street value is naturally gonna be higher than nada.

Totally agree. It's like going to Advance Auto and asking for mechanic advice about your car. Sure, some know what they're talking about, but the majority ask you what year and make your car is if you ask for windshield washer fluid. I've gotten workers at those places to look for blinker fluid for me before haha.

Holy crap, that sounds terrible! I definitely am happy with how easy the operation was. My bottom left one isn't gonna be as easy. The roots are all wonky. He said it still shouldn't be terrible. Just a little more wrench time under the hood for that one.

Yeah, I told him I vaped and he told me if I must, inhale gently or through the nostril haha. I think I can hold off on it for a few days though. The bleeding has stopped so that's good. No pain either! I am all good for fishing tonight. Gonna be a lot more enjoyable than last night..