Bass_Fischer

Why? Not criticizing, just curious.

First outing of the season on Wednesday, on Lake Waconia. Water temp was 64-66, bluebird skies and no wind so I was prepared for a grind. Turned out to be a busy day. Beds were mostly empty and there was good drop shot action deep (weed edges, 16-17'), keyed on bluegill schools nearby. Most were 12-14", best was an 18".

Counting down to the 18th and out of storage. It'll be Jackhammers and Zakos up skinny until they tell me they want something else ☺️

Happy 2024 season, all. Any recent lake temp observations in/around the Twin Cities?

@papajoe.. When you say offshore structure, do you mean past the outer weed edge? If so, how far out/deep do you go in our northern natural lakes? I've read and watched a bit on the Buck Perry structure fishing philosophy but the times that I've ventured out past the weeds I've generally gotten skunked, which quickly gets me back to believing that up north they (largies) are generally only catchable in or around cover. If you've had success out beyond the weeds I'd be very interested to learn about your technique, especially location.

Decided to expand my cartographic options this season and invested in Navionics chips for my 2 H'birds (998 & 958). I've been exclusively a Lakemaster guy for a while now and have often wondered if the Navionics maps available from their website are the real deal. Well, outing 1 is in the books - a couple of hours last Thursday idling and cranking on Minnetonka (Wayzata Bay) and I do hope the Navionics experience gets better! I checked out at least 10 obvious structure spots from the sonar charts option and only a few were even remotely close to the actual bottom shape. More testing to come, of course, but I was wondering if anyone in this forum has has used Navionics in Minnesota and what your experience and opinions are. I'm still hopeful but it's never fun for a new toy not to work well ?

I'm up in the Twin Cities, looking for spring largemouth on natural lakes. How important is it to find weeds when investigating potential spawning flats and bays? I know that harder bottom is important at all times but it's never been clear to me how much bass prioritize proximity to cover when they spawn. Thanks for any feedback.

Trying again..

Yup, Tonka. Primary LMB forage is bluegill and crappie, with a few areas holding craws but the smallies have been steadily taking those areas over. MN Fisher.. That best LMB last year, you'd call that a point fish, yes? Were you just probing that southern (depth) breakline when you got her? 10' in that bay had to be pretty weed-choked, yes? Was that a factor in your location strategy? And since we're sharing, my best last year came here, near the main body on a dropshot. She was up near that mini-hump (13/14') on this pretty saddle. Not too weedy but still seemed to have all the needed ingredients including depth and some interesting contour irregularities nearby..

When chasing LMB in large weedy natural lakes with tons of structure across all depth zones, are there any 'old reliable' rules of thumb that can help differentiate good breaklines (depth) from excellent breaklines from incredible breaklines? I've wondered about correlating water clarity to depth (perhaps adding some consideration of weather?) or maybe a specific size of drop from/to certain depths but haven't come up with anything good enough to qualify as a ROT. Any suggestions? Rick

For those who throw them what's your preferred presentation, crawled along the bottom outside the weed edge or up in the weeds, with a snap and drop? I tend toward the former (usually with a 1/8oz mushroom head) but I have friends who swear that you have to get that worm up in the stuff to get the big'uns.

Thanks for the replies TX, JF and MN. Re: the map snap I'd immediately wonder which bay. Given the hump shown is in the 11-12' range it'd need to be in a pretty fertile bay for that depth to be outside the weedline. If that's the case here, thanks for the fine example and my question to you - do you regularly find fish on it? Here's another example from Tonka, a nice little deeper point in a pretty clean bay (weedline ~14'). My question is whether a point like this, too deep for weed growth (assume no rock) but excellent from a purely structural standpoint, would be a check or a pass. Opinions, anyone?

Good day natural lake fisherfolk, a question.. On grass lakes with good deep structure how common is it to find fish out on/along that deeper structure, beyond the deepest vegetation? I'm wondering if it's purely a transitional thing, where the deep fish are only moving through briefly on their way up to feed, or if that deeper, more barren structure (maybe with some rocks, on occasion) is actually a place where they set up. I virtually never venture out beyond the vegetation and am wondering if that's a mistake. Thanks.

I've been delighted with my Loomis E6X 822S DSR. Super sensitive (it's a Loomis), the 6-10 length is just right to me and the magnum taper combined into a medium power rod gives a sturdy response when I want to lean into one. It runs $50 more than the IRod genesis II, for your budgeting consideration. Good hunting.

Thanks for the link TB. Juuust a little to digest in that one!

Thanks MN and TB appreciate the replies and the welcome. So with structure as the first priority, how important is it to also find cover? I've seen many a drop and point that are absolutely bare-bottom (although many are typically hard-bottom). Do you spend time working structure that's otherwise empty? I've heard it said that structure is the neighborhood and cover is the house. It would seem pretty unlikely to find many residents in a neighborhood that doesn't have any houses in it, if you're in agreement with the analogy ?

Greetings northern natural lakes bass chasers, a question.. Depending on your information source, fish location in milfoil/coontail lakes is either first (and often only) about the outside edge OR it's about figuring out the depth that the fish are holding in that day. These seem to be contradictory ideas, although I guess I assume that different populations might be on the weedline while others are stacked up in some *magic* depth. Does anyone have an opinion on what is the better use of one's search time - going straight to the weedline or searching for that depth-of-the-day?

Greetings Tonka aficionados, question for you.. I've long known that the foil holds the better fish (largemouth). What I don't have figured out is how (if at all) structure fits into bigger fish location on northern foil lakes like Tonka. Does the proximity of the milfoil to deeper water, points, drops or humps matter? If so, how much does it matter? And when starting a search for fish, do you begin with good structure and then secondarily look for the foil, or is it foil first and structure secondarily? Thanks in advance for the feedback!