Cdn Angler

I am Northern and fish clear water mostly. Or around shallow vegetation. I probably caught 30% of bass last year on them SMB and LMB. I can pretty much try every time out with a good chance of some success. I think water clarity is biggest variable. They can see it.

Natural lakes vs. reservoirs impacts a lot of things, like water clarity and vegetation. So does the size of bass, what they eat etc. So different approaches are needed to optimize, but there isn't going to be a lure that one will bite and the other won't.

To me the main variable would be water clarity. If clear I'd go topwater, spybait, jerkbait, wacky worm, ned, small swimbaits etc. If murky: spinnerbait, crank, also topwater (always), bigger/brighter swimbait etc. If they are blowing up bait, topwater seems to get it done, more so than LMB even.

Canadian for reference: 6.2 LMB - Duo Realis Rozante Jerkbait in Perch 5.1 LMB - 75 Whopper Plopper 4.8 LMB - Keitech Crazy Flapper The last two were in super shallow and both times the fish beelined from like 10 feet away to destroy the bait, with a big wake and everything. Super cool.

That is a good observation. That's been my experience.

I, slow witted and slow of foot, have as recent as one month ago, caught a crayfish with my ball cap and another with my bare hands. In most clear water lakes around here, especially those with big bass, you can find crayfish in shallow just standing there. When you go to grab them they just scoot back into my fat. They aren't geniuses.

There are few waterbodies up North with an abundance of 6 lb smallmouth. Even 5 lbs is big. They can gorge and get bloated more than LMB IMO. My biggest SMB is still only about 4.8 lbs, but I've caught 30+ over 4 lbs. And I've caught probably 2500 up here in Canada over the last 3 years. I don't fish the Great Lakes / St. Lawrence, where gobies/zebra mussels have created giants. Some lakes have giants, others just don't.

River2Sea rover in bigger size is great if you want a larger profile and a while lot of ruckus. Walks with ease. Loud.

Large mouth bass up here that are big (5+) are an extreme rarity. Only certain water bodies produce them. I've been trying to figure out what that is. The main conclusion is that they are large, but shallow. And when I look around, there are just lots and lots of fish. Minnows, perch, crappie etc. I caught my PR out of season. I was pike fishing a jerk bait. I shouldn't have weighed her, but I had to know. 6.2 lbs. I don't know how a bass can be like 13 lbs as 6.2 seemed insanely big. Same lake and the bass tour, nobody even caught one over 5. Lots of luck up here to get a giant. Pretty d**n cool what you've caught so many giants. That's a lot of hard work and brain power. Not easy to always land those giants too. Whatever bait/technique, it was something that worked well and you can be awfully proud of IMO.

Aside from senko/whopper plopper, which are perpetual champs. I did well with the Jackall Rerange 110 in Perch colour and the Ima finesse popper.

I put every trip on fish brain with just a couple pictures of main fish caught. Restrict viewing to myself only. My main reason is to keep track of seasonal variability at different lakes and rivers. There are over 2000 options within 5 hours of me so it is good to keep track. If I can see the exact date that muskies were going crazy I can narrow my timeline the next year. Likewise some lakes are great until too many weeds grow so it is nice to have a yearly record of when that happened. Others improve so if i look at the map and my comment from june 17th 2018 is "minimal weeds"...that's helpful. Next year try to go around July 1. There's one lake, for example, where you can catch fish near the launch but as summer progresses they move to the other end of the lake. I kayak so that's a 1 hour paddle. I want to remember roughly when that happens. Also helps keep track of all the lakes i went out of my way to get to and the fishing sucked so I know not to return. Jogs the memory. I "remembered" pretty good fishing on one lake waaay out of the way but when i looked at the log it showed my largest bass was only like 2.5 pounds and i was kinda sour that day catching all dinks. If I fished one big lake most the time as opposed to 100 different ones I would see less need to write this all down.

I've noticed lately that overnight when it is super cold the fish are moving off shallow cover/flats to the nearest deeper water. As the day heats up they move back in shallow. In talking +2 C overnight and 20C during the day. Also are you seeing baitfish? Do they start blowing up fish at a certain hour? Many of my home lakes this time of year there is a feeding frenzy about 1.5 to 2.5 hours before dark. Try and see if you can pattern this maybe?

I'm a huge fan of the Rattling Roumba wakebait. This one runs side to side on / just under the surface with a lot of action, but must be retrieved fairly slowly. This is my go to topwater in clear water for smallmouth when the surface is like glass. Caught 2 4 lbrs like this yesterday. I think the more subtle action and slowness helps generate bites whereas a spook or whopper plopper might be too much. I often notice that the roumba will get bit deep into a retrieve whereas louder options tend to be shortly after hitting the water or not at all. Also seems to get bit more when they are chasing bait for whatever reason. Because it has a ton of action but is "slow" and doesn't spit water, it also seems like the entire bait gets engulfed whereas other topwaters often only a single hook. So I land more fish. So yeah I'm a fan, at least in that scenario.

Understandable and over the winter in Canada I do the same thing as bored silly. But in summer I get crazy busy and for me it is mentally best to just hit the water with what I got sometimes. I have too many summer hobbies. I think whatever works for you is the correct answer. To some I'm totally nuts because I own multiple rods and a hundred lures. I can't go fish with substandard line or reels as they drive me nuts, but for others the minimum is top quality hooks. I think people get confused when pros or YouTube ppl say to do XYZ. Usually good advice, but need to view it through your own lens. I often wonder how far to go down the rabbit hole. If you have competing interests you can't go down all of them. For example, I'm a better runner than most fishermen, and a better fisherman than most runners, but I'm average at best at each. What's better? Jack of all trades or master of none? I don't know, but I think for me it is the later.

I keep it simple: - Keitech swimbaits - Keitech crazy flapper around moderate vegetation - man bear pig around thick vegetation - TRD on rock - senko 5 inch green/white deadsticking any place/time For trailers I'm not too fussy. Grub, swimbait, craw. Whatever. As long as it matches and has some action I'm good.

I've got about 100 hardbaits so yeah I'm not going to for the most part, especially with baits from manufacturers that have decent stock hooks. If it is a lure that I fish A LOT then I consider switching the hooks over time as they get dull or what have you. Or I sharpen them. I feel like jerkbaits are one where super sharp hooks matter. The fish is often biting a lure that is just sitting there and you may not feel it so can't set the hook ; so the hook needs to be sharp to penetrate. If I've got a crank bait moving, even a more dull hook is going to be aided by its own momentum. I'd say bigger muskie/pike can be a problem, but usually if I'm fishing smaller bass baits they tend to engulf the entire bait/trebles so they aren't coming off unless they break my line. If I'm targeting them I'm not using those lures. So I'm kinda in both camps. For me if a big fish comes off, it sucks. But I'm not willing to put the time/effort/$$ to have every single variable in my favour. I found that obsessing over perfection was ruining fishing as a hobby for me and actually led to less fishing as I wouldn't go unless I had everything "just so." I ended up in the basement fiddling rather than fishing. Sometimes I just need to chuck all my gear in the car and hit a lake. I'm never getting paid for this and nobody but me even cares what I catch. I could catch a 20 lb bass and my wife would say good job the same as if I caught a 3 lb bass.

I have not, but the Ima Finesse Popper has been lights out for me and is incredibly easy to walk, even for a rube like me.

Some great responses. Thank you for the input, lots to work with here. I think I'll try fishing it more like a Senko/dying fish as opposed to a fleeing fish that then dies. I've got a couple bags of caffeine shads too and hopefully the faster sink rate will make this technique less painful. Or keep adding nail weights or split shot as recommended.

Just that fish are seeing it more as people have access. Here in Canada the WP was/is hard to come by and crazy expensive >$20, but the choppo is everywhere and 9.99.

Small for most areas I fish, especially SMB. I'll try downsizing. I was mostly using something a bit bigger than your average local minnow.

Clear water smallmouth like you mentioned come unglued for that thing, though I've caught a lot of LMB too in the same scenario. Also pike/musky. I did notice it working a bit less well this year, which I attribute to the arrival of the choppo, which is widely available here in Canada whereas the WP is not.

Hi all. I've tried fishing a fluke this year as I hoped it would be a good way to catch fish that are noticing a topwater, but weren't committing. But I've only had a couple catches and it was basically a time when a bass would have eaten anything. I don't understand how I'm not getting bit as it looks a lot like a baitfish and causes a ruckus. It looks like it absolutely should work. I've tried a few retrieve options, none with any success. The main go to has been to twitch it fairly fast on the surface and then kill it, but nada. I've tried twitching it subsurface slowly. I've put a nail weight in and twitched more aggressively subsurface. I've nose hooked it, run a hook through the bait. I've used the super fluke, the super fluke jr, the caffeine shad and a caustic version that looks so good I'm tempted to eat it. Still nada!! What am I doing wrong? Or is this just a temperamental bait? I've mostly thrown this in semi open water as opposed to in vegetation. For both SMB and LMB. Usually on 12 lb flouro. Thank you!

I've changed a lot this year compared to last. I was fishing spinnerbaits, rattle traps, whopper plopper, keitechs, spybaits 90% of the time. This year? Senko in green/white, jerkbaits, keitechs, whopper plopper, ima finesse popper, keitech crazy flapper or other t-rigged creature baits 90% of the time. I also went from covering water to working over areas more thoroughly. I've barely thrown a crankbait, spinner, frog, tube, spybait etc all year. I've thrown but had marginal success with flukes and chatterbaits (zero fish caught). The senko has been the only bait that has gotten hammered all year at different lakes, basically no matter what. As you'd expect.

My area in Eastern Canada is probably unique as we have LMB/SMB in sorta equal numbers and sizes. Both top out at about 6 lbs. Bigger SMB tend to be in big water whereas you can find big LMB in average sized bodies of water (5 lbs +). I'd rather hook into a big SMB, but I probably spend more time targeting LMB as they are easier to find. And if I can find them I can potentially catch a giant, which is the main goal. I fish out of a kayak and the SMB move around a lot. It takes a lot of paddling/time sometimes to find them. LMB are shallower and near cover. Much easier. All that said sometimes you are targeting one and catch the other (or a pike or muskie). The annoying thing with SMB is that on many fast stretches of river you only get ridiculously small dinks. Zero chance of a fish even over '12. You can catch a million of them, but it gets old.

I've gotten bites on buzzbaits, but I have done WAY better with walking baits, poppers, wakebaits and whopper ploppers. I think it must be regional as that's the consensus up North, but down south they work better. Go figure.