PhishLI

Sorry, but I don't do weight guesstimates. I leave that business to psychics, and to those with special access to high resolution spy satellites. All I can say, and as a first hand witness, is that several 7-8 pounders, one 8 1/2, and one 9.22 have been caught at this particular lake. It has tons of forage, and the gene pool exists there, so who knows? We've got some big ones in a few lakes around here, for the north.

I finally made it out to a spot while the sun was still up, and found several carbon copy dinks set up in the pads. As usual, it took a few hours of darkness for them to begin roaming out into open water and down the bank. Got my next dinker of the night on a small soft swimbait, then finally hooked a decent girl on the G2. Content with my outing, and fading fast, I was about to call it quits, but into my 5th or 6th last cast I hooked into something truly heavy on the G2. It felt weird at first, like I'd foul-hooked a carp. My rod bent to its limit, and all I could do was hold on as almost-locked drag slipped under my thumb. It dead stopped into some weeds, and now the G2 was engulfed by a mop of grass and a large fish. I finally jacked the whole mess up and over the weeds, and really felt the fight. The bass blew up out of the water and shook the mop, ran at me, went completely airborne, shook the G2, and that's all she wrote. It was giant. 15 feet from everlasting glory. Oh well. I've landed a few good ones this year, but that one was different. I let my heart rate stabilize, but now I was wide awake again. I ended up staying another 2 hours chasing a ghost, and blanking, but no complaints. Good times.

My next reel.

Steez A TW, and a few aftermarket specialty spools. Why? After living with my JDM Catalina for a season, it's clear that the Mag Z Metal Zillion platform reels are in a different category compared to the Tatulas, and even the previous gen Zillion SV TW. If I want to plop the Catalina on a light rod with light line and chuck a small bait easily, no problem. If I want to upsize and throw a 3 oz swimbait halfway across the lake, no problem. No fuss either, but not over braked at all. Truly rock solid. The Steez A is smaller, lighter, and by all accounts as smooth as anything out there, and it's salt rated.

Fat IKA, 5" SK Caffiene Shad. Shallow wake crank like a Mann's Baby 1 Minus

The OP was reasonable and measured, yet once again, thread crapped!

Where I fish I have to deal with the triple whammy of excessive weeds, standard Lily pads, and leafy plants standing above the surface. Pockets in and around these spots are prime bluegill bedding areas where bass wait in ambush. They're also super tough to get a jig with a weed guard through, or much of anything else where weight is biased at the head. Weeds alone are typically doable using those types of baits, but where the weeds are draped with filamentous algae it just doesn't work. Even if I make a perfect pitch into a hole with nose weighted baits, it'll come out with a 5lb green wig of algae. This pretty much spoils the fun. My solution to this has been to throw plastic creature baits rigged on belly weighted hooks in these spots. They do not penetrate as deeply as I'd like, but I'll take what I can get, especially because they come through the muck far more cleanly. I've tried a bunch of different baits combined with different weighted hooks with mixed results, but I think I've found a combination that's pretty versatile, and it works for more than just pitching to gaps. I really like the Owner Twistlock Light 6/0 3/32oz weighted hook for my slender profile 5" paddle tail swimmers. One of the last creature baits I tried on my list for the rigging explained above is the Bandito Bug. I'm not sure why I ignored it, other than that I viewed it as strictly a trailer. Instead of rigging it on my usual choice of a beefier small swimbait hook, I rigged it on the aforementioned Owner 5167W-706. What I ended up with is something pretty special, IMO. This bait rigged this way comes through just about anything that's green. It picks up little to no muck, and slides through pad fields great. I've been getting most of my bites by swimming it over pads, then letting it drop into holes and gaps, but I've also gotten bit by swimming it just outside of pad lines. The swimming action is what separates this bait from some of the others I've tried, and I believe this is due its shape and this particular hook. Depending on retrieve speed, this bait/hook combo will swim in a number of ways as its attitude in the water remains horizontal, meaning it falls flat on the pause and doesn't nose down. When it falls on the pause, it does it slowly, and the appendages flap subtly. This offers a lot of control over my presentation whether I'm using a steady retrieve or a jerk-jerk-pause. One bonus is that it can be fished as you would a subtle buzz toad. Another is that due to it's shape, and when combined with this hook, it's also a really good finesse skipping bait. Perhaps there are other baits and riggings that may perform just as well, and in as many ways, but if you already own this bait, this is worth a try.

OK, but give us more. If you're stuck on the bank, or are able to wade out a bit, what's the depth of the water within a cast's length? Is it mostly shallow, but deep in the middle, or is the 11' zone an isolated hole? Do you fish during broad daylight, or during low light periods or at night?

Mattlures Baby Hard Gill

Describe the lake's features. Depth, weeds, pads, bottom, etc.

Another guy who fishes on the equator??

I'd be pleased if all of my reels weighed 5 ounces, and all of my rods weighed 3.5 ounces, but I'm not bothered in the least by 8oz reels and 5oz rods. Not even a little bit. I know what I like or dislike in a rod's taper/action, and have had the good fortune to fish with a few of the best. There's nothing not to like here. Still, I'm perfectly happy fishing with a $150 rod that suits my taste. Same goes for reels. I have a bunch in the $100-$200 range, and several north of that. I understand the differences between the price points, but I'm not suffering with the performance of my mid tier reels. They do more than just get me from point A to point B. The braking systems are all unique, and I use them within their respective wheelhouses. Because my fishing buddy is a Loomis nut, and buys new Shimanos constantly, short of the Antares, I get to play with those too. Once again, there's nothing not to like here, but I'm not suffering one bit fishing with a $159 Quantum Vapor, or a $119 Quantum ICON, right alongside my JDM Daiwa Catalina or Shimano Chronarch. My Loomis buddy's a gear junkie, but he's not a snob. He owns lots of models across all major brands. One night he focused in on my Vapor, then asked me about it. He had one a week later. Oddly, he doesn't talk much about gear, but he waxed on after I asked him a few months later if he'd gotten the Vapor dialed in. He said it was a breeze, and that he loved the reel, quite enthusiastically. I suppose one could conclude that he isn't that discerning, or it's possible that if you choose wisely, $159 could buy you something quite good these days. Next up for me is the new Zillion, just because I want it, but I'll be fishing a Fuego or a Lew's Tournament Pro right next to it on any given outing.

I'd show it here photoshop'd with a moonscape for a backdrop lest one of the locals recognizes the landscape. I was PM'd by someone who identified one of my spots after I'd posted a good fish. I was too dumb to crop out the scenery back then, but I've smartened up a skosh. No way would I certify that catch. What's the point of being a one hit wonder? Butch Brown has caught a ton of DDs on film, and he's still doing specialty drywall finishing. One lucky catch wouldn't change a thing, and perhaps for the worse. A couple of attaboys from my clique, and from my BassResource brethren would suit me just fine. Then I could go back to getting skunked for a week, which mysteriously seems to follow most of my really solid catches.

What type of line will you be using?

If you don't mind looking goofy, and you're a ball cap kinda guy, this one's my fave and works great. https://www.columbia.com/p/schooner-bank-cachalot-iii-CU9108.html

Watching our grand daughter sleep

The blazing temps we had here have been gone for over a week now, and it's June again, but while they were here they supercharged the weed growth. The chilly air sent the flying insects packing along with any surface activity whatsoever, and the fishing's been slow. Lots of short strikes using small plastics once again made me give in to treble baits, which meant picking off gobs of weeds after every single cast. They wanted small swim baits though, so that's what they got, and I ended the night with a few tugs.

I was alone for this one, and had two barbs of a good sized Berkley Fusion treble nicely buried. I was able to cut downward toward the barbs with a fresh X-acto knife blade. It took a few minutes, it sucked, but it worked. Poured alcohol on the cuts, smeared some neosporin on, gloved up then went back out. Now I always have a X-sacto knife blade in my kit.

Since it's known that bigger bass will claim prime ambush spots, perhaps they also claim prime bedding areas, so the smaller class fish are the only ones I've been able to spot more easily while on foot or while wading. I've done a few night missions where I was able to graph out a few prime lakes and found beds out in the middle of them on shallow humps/flats There's plenty of territory I'll never get to see otherwise, so who knows what's actually what. I spoke to a fisheries biologist when they were shocking Ronk, and we talked about this subject. He said the average for males on the island is typically 2 lbs, but some lakes are an exception. As he explained, the nutrient composition combined with the gene pool in some places is reflected in the size of the fish. When I mentioned one place where I've pulled multiple bigs from, he went on to tell me that they're well aware of it's propensity for producing outsized fish of all species, but are unable to isolate the precise reason why.

I caught a slew of them a few seasons ago at Mahopac Lake. On that day they'd hit hard, fight for a second or two, then pancake. Like reeling in a potato chip.

I don't fool around with the sun at all. Long sleeve UPF 50 shirts. UPF 50 pants. UPF 50 fishing gloves. UPF 50 gaiter/buff. Both my finger tips and face get treated with Neutrogena Clear Face SPF 55 oil free sunscreen for when the buff comes down to drink or eat. Sun reflecting off the water will get you too. If you hate having the oily stuff on your face the Neutrogena oil free is great. I used to use Aveeno Baby, but it was oily. I wear a few versions of Columbia sun hats.

The vast majority of males on beds that I've observed here were between 1 1/2 and 2 lbs. I've spotted a 3lber only a few times.

Just Chillin'. Snapped at an outdoor show. German Pointer

Can you feel it in your Shimanos that also use it in the same positions for years? They're even using a plastic worm gear now in some models.