softwateronly

My limited understanding is that a fully healthy fish population in a body of water has a pyramid type relationship; phyto/zoo plankton as the base to the largest weight of the top predator after a mature life cycle at the top. Right now, a 14" bass is almost as mythical as the 20" bass shocked by dnr and yet 8-10" bass are everywhere. This could mean that water is not carrying enough overall food for all the fish that live in it; these 8-10" bass might be 3-6 years old where on a more even distribution/healthier body of water they are all 3 years old. So these 4,5, & 6 year old bass are not big enough to eat the 2-3 year old bass, bluegill, perch what have ya and are forced to compete with immature bass for insect, fry and yearling forage. The determined/lucky few bass who break thru will be rewarded with an enormous forage base if they get big enough. I read more of what you're up against, I like the deep water and off time plans by @10,000 lakes Bassin and @MIbassyaker and your "stubborn competitive determination." My only add is that if it's former mining pit and gets real deep, just worry about covering the first 30' of the water column. No need to bang a jig in 54' fow, but plenty of reason to run a swimbait 15' down over it. Good luck! scott

Numerous times when I’m chasing schoolies and catching dinks, I’ll switch up and throw a deep crank, large scrounger, heavier jighead minnow or a big flutter spoon below the frenzy and get rewarded with larger fish. When shore fishing for smallies on Lake Michigan if the wind picks up or shifts the mouth to my marina will start a swirling and swift deep water current as it’s the only way for water to enter or leave. Catching very often picks up within the first minute and can last as short as a cast or two or for 10-15minutes. scott

If I went back to it, I’d throw 6-7” lures. There could be a forage related bottleneck and that 4.5lber is eating dinks. scott

Not while fishing, but @MickD did me a huge solid taking care of a broken rod tip for me and then was kind enough to invite me for a quick little shore fishing test. A few bass later I was on my way home. A very talented and gracious human! Thanks again Mick!! scott

This is the most expensive forum on the internet. scott

The 3.3" kicker bug from evergreen is my current favorite, lots of very subtle movement. Gives me confidence in clear water fisheries. scott

With a plastic chunk you can have it sit in the bend of the hook like you described, but you certainly can thread it as well. Some people will thread a piece of worm or senko on the hook shank and place a chunk on the bend, that way when the skirt opens up under water, the profile stays intact and the chunk doesn't ball up on the hook. And you're correct that there's increased freedom of movement when tipping the jig compared to threading. I do both infrequently and personally use a beaver most of the time. This video is more info than I have. scott

Baitcasting only for me as well. I have a 7'3 ML bfs - salt rod with a solid tip that is my favorite, but have 2 M/F rods that do well for 6-7" jighead minnows and 2 other L/F rods that shake pretty good too. scott

I have some max cuatro (4 carrier) in 65lb on my frog rod. Everything else is 8 carrier. I love braid to leader when I use the quiet stuff. scott

Personally, my big worm rods are the PA 6'11M+ and Dobyns Xtasy 755. I usually worm in heavy weeds and prefer the shorter rod for working/easing it thru with my tip up. If I'm dragging structure offshore, I lean on the 755. I'm very happy with both of these in both sensitivity and action. scott

On my natural lake, it's getting close to the time when we get our first weed die back. Pleasure boat traffic and a phytoplankton bloom does a number on clarity; we've gone from 12-14' visibility to 4-5' visibility in the last 2 weeks, and I think this change in light penetration begins to signal when the panfish and therefore the bass begin to abandon a lot of the weeds. Only the deepest ones; 15-22' and the super dense and green shallow ones; sub 8' fow seem to hold fish consistently for the next couple months. There's also a thermocline setting up since it's been so calm with no wind/rain recently. I expect my entire fishing plan and success to flip very soon, maybe your water is slightly ahead in time. scott

It has floored me with how effective it is. Last year was my first year with it and I only free rigged it and beast hooked it. Since I started swimming it on the football; I haven't gone back yet. I throw it up toward the shallow; count it down 5-8' then start my retrieve. I continuously light pop it with very short handle turns and it seems to almost hover in place or slowly descend while offering a panfish profile. I try to trace the weedtops and the bass on my lake seem always willing to come up and get it. This morning it was the deal; about 8-10 more decent ones. scott I have boss wreckingball and stand-up football jigs. They are not heavy wire hooks; I'd guess it's a 5/0 medium wire. Today was a 3/8oz standup head. It's closer to fishing a jighead minnow than I previously thought. You can trace the bottom, but they have a lot of drawing power fished mid-column. scott PS- I think a 3/0 is worth trying. I'm not really setting the hook hard, I pop it from 2 o'clock to 1 o'clock; I feel weight, drop to 3 o'clock and start to reel into them and lift up to 12 o'clock. Really high hook up percentage so far. I fish it on a shimano PA 7'2H/F which is actually more moderate than it looks like on paper.

@HawkeyeSmallie is this a northern natural lake with very clear water that just saw a lot of boat traffic? If so, my suggestion is to change nothing from your usual successful colors. The quiet days after busy weekends here, can see the bass become very active. If anything think about bigger, faster, and covering water. scott

It got you in the store and kept you happy with them, seems like it's working for both parties; those are the best "deals." scott

Congrats @260Bass365!! Well done! That sounds like a perfect day. And heck of an assist to @Junk Fisherman scott

Kinda, yes. It's just the qualification of "big ones." I get antsy and impatient and almost prefer a skunk over sub 3lb bass. scott

Yes for both; Over 6lb smallie in Lake Michigan, IN in the last week of March 2025 Over 9lb LM in Lake Murval, TX in the first week of February 2022 ** 6lb+ NLMB in SW MI has been March, April, June, November** scott

I don't have ffs, but surprised no one talks about throwing a 2.75" tube in a smoke ish color. You could reel it straight, yo-yo it, or let the spiral fall do it's magic. scott

This is my favorite swim jig trailer, tons of roll and head wag and it lasts dozens of fish. river2sea D-walker scott

Laying in my boat somewhere. For shore fishing, I have 2 small little plano boxes with rigs already made up roughly segregated by bottom contact and minnow presentations. It works - ish. Not sure I recommend scott

@MiceNReets you probably know this already and this might not even help, but the 2 pieces of the side plate can get misaligned while opening. When it is, it never wants to shut correctly. I line up the logo parallel and the notch somewhere around 12 o clock. scott

I agree with you, I'm not a ned expert by any means, but a 1/10oz ballhead, #1 hook, and a 4" straight tail worm can fish and catch just like a ned. The slow fall and swim near the bottom is very similar to types of ned fishing. If your lake is weed choked, then there really is no difference at all because both behave similarly if and when they land on the grass. scott

It starts with where you're at, then what you're throwing, and finally how you're presenting it to the fish. Take a novice fishing and this becomes all too apparent. scott

@GoneFishingLTN I feel like at times I've hit a sweet spot regarding this. Here's a quick story from yesterday that didn't get results, but the process was correct. I was out in the early morning, fish were where I expected them; deep weedlines and transitions. Caught my 8 or 9 on a deep crank, burnerworm and bullflat before the skiers and tubers took over and the bite just collapsed. I had about another 45mins so I pulled up to a known big fish spot; it's a little shelf in about 17' fow that sits right out from a sharp cut choked with hydrilla and outside the shelf it drops to about 28' fow within a boat length. I surfed a big chicken jig down the break, tightlining thru the weedtops, blanked. Then swam a 4.8 bullflat both down the break and across the shelf; blanked. Worked a gambler burner worm thru what seemed like everything and all the way down to 28'. Blanked again. So now I used up close to 25mins and felt like I was still leaving something on the table. So I went back to my heavy swim jig, and methodically bulldozed my way thru the hydrilla with slow steady reeling and a sharp 1/4 handle turn to break it free. Near the edge of the shelf on the third cast, I was rewarded with tell tale thunk! I immediately set the hook and she shot straight up out of 17' fow and got at least 2 body lengths out of the water with massive head shakes in about 3 seconds about 6 feet in front of me. It was a big, healthy, and smart fish that threw my jig because I was lackadaisical in keeping up with her. An easy 5, possible 6lber definitely won that round. A few more casts of the swim jig resulted in nothing and decided I'd try one more thing before I went home. I had a 5" weightless worm on a M/F rod rigged up, I quickly switched to 3.5" deps cover scat and fired to the same portion of the first shallow break. I gave it a couple double snaps // slack line fall and the third fall had the same tell tale thunk. Instead of learning my swim jig lesson and fast reeling into her, I reeled down and went for power hookset. Well this fish probably hit the same way; coming up out of the abyss with speed. So my massive hookset, turned into a snap set with all the slack in my line and my 10lb floro couldn't take the shock as I just barely felt the weight. And a few moments later she came up to the surface about 15' away to throw the hook and line. Another picture worthy plus sized bass lost, when finding any fish was difficult. Long winded way for me to cope with my last hour of fishing for a few days and maybe a lesson that at certain times it can be the "arrow" or really the abrupt change of fast to slow; when trying to trigger a big bass. scott

Yeah sorry it might not be helpful. I have gizzard in my lake, but they tend to top out around 5", the preacher acts more like a panfish/crappie/juvy bass imitator and the 3/4oz outcast chicken gives me the most confidence. This is probably going to be the discrepancy in tactics. Big Daddy hair baits in gizzard is my most successful shad imitator, but that bite is even more fickle for me to find. I've probably caught less than 5-6 swimming/yo-yoing it mid-column; it's almost always been reel rips/tightline to the bottom kind of bite for me. Probably just my water though. It's a probably only second to a swim jig bite in terms of pure bass fishing hook setting joy though and it seems to naturally weed out dinks. So I throw it more often than it actually produces, scott ps - Forgot that in low 40 degree water on lake michigan that the vmc 3/4oz bucktail fished the same way gave me numerous chunky smallies. I think @Dwight Hottle crushed big smallies on a big preacher jig this spring too!