Pat Brown

Maybe. Maybe they was over working the bait trying to get paid. I have no idea. I'm sure there is a lot of truth to what your saying in general. Norman seems like an odd lake to say the least and fairly unique in our state. Popper and floating worm are proven techniques but a far cry from the intense level of finesse we have achieved in the past decade or two. Both are still 'topwater' which is hard to call finesse but I agree those are on the finesse edge of that spectrum for sure. I'm sure DNR/WRC had to swoop in and try to resuscitate the lake back then with all those environmental issues compounding the poor tournament results. I'd be curious to see some real shock study data from that era. If the lake was doing that poorly, surely they'd have it somewhere. @Team9nine welcome to NC! I'm in central NC and if you ever wanna beat a bank somewhere let me know. ??

I think it's basically hard to see through the film of stuff on the surface and that throws people into thinking their lure is hard to see. Fact is, the fish have no trouble seeing and identifying lures in our lakes because it's actually pretty darn clear water. There are clay banks that stain up more on a windy day but in a lake where 17 ft is deep that has an average of 4 feet of visibility means bass can basically see from the surface to the bottom anywhere on the lake, especially if you consider that the dirtier water is extremely shallow. @WRB that's interesting information regarding the Fla Bluegill. Probably going to be a clue as to how things may eventually play out. I wonder if there will ever come a time when stocked LMB interbreed so much with invasive spots that a true 3rd species emerges.

I have some opinions on this I might be able to offer based on my experience fishing North Carolina the past few years. I think anglers in NC think of NC a muddy TVA river system type state and you CAN find water like that on some parts of some lakes but in actuality, the water here is a lot clearer than people think it is. I think bass fishing culture in the 90s was heavily geared towards power fishing and lots of stained water techniques popularized in places like Florida and Texas. You can definitely still catch bass power fishing in NC, but if you start to pretend you're fishing clear lake in CA or something to that effect and adjust your presentation, you'll actually do much better in general. I think NC is a lot like a clear water Western US state in terms of fisheries that identifies as a mud puddle but actually isn't. The fish benefit tremendously from this confusion and we fish over a lot of fish every year fishing dirty water techniques when all along it should be treated more like clear water. Just my 0.02 I know there is muddy water you can catch bass out of in NC, but that's not how I'd characterize the majority of our reservoirs here at all.

The bladed jig minus the bladed part is the greatest lure ever invented. But I do like a jig with blades. But the ones that spin or buzz are more fun than the ones that chatter. Aren't these all jigs with blades? I think therefore I fish.

Picasso has some great black and blue flake spinnerbaits as does Nichols. Both incredibly high quality brands and catch fish. @Siebert Outdoorswill hand tie you any skirt you can imagine and his spinnerbaits are second to none!

Good info @AlabamaSpothunter I got a couple to try this year and blade baits of course ?

@thediscochef making it look easy on a date ?? That's how we roll. BR style.

A couple highlights from the past week. Nothing super wild but I did catch some bass from the bank at Lake James. The nicest came early in the morning on a Manns Jelly Worm in grape fire tail. The water there is so clear it is mesmerizing. Successfully caught bass on the 'poop baits' I got to try out. Definitely looking forward to throwing these in the winter. Seem like they'll be incredibly useful for bomb casts to deep fish that normally don't see lures. Caught a nice one on the micro chatterbait with a fluke jr and the buzzbait got the biggest of the day yesterday out of 9 small fish on the boat. Fishing has been awesome but I gotta figure out how to catch a big fish here soon ?? I feel like all the swings and misses have been the really big fish and it's getting to my head!

Get your rabies shot. ???

I actually just found one of those booyah spinnerbaits with 4 blades in the slop on the lake and the hook was rusted but it gave me lots of blades and spacers to play with. I took my 3/4 oz hog snatcher Spinnerbait and made it into a 3 small willow leaf blade using the 3 smallest blades from the salvage to make my first 'burner' and I'm excited to try it tonight! Thanks Glenn and Jason!

Gonna be very hard to beat Florida.

Also also also: just because people aren't catching double digit bass in lake Norman doesn't mean they aren't there and even a good number. I fish at a pond 'thats been fished out and is dead.' that's loaded with 6+ lbers. They're just not stupid.

Solution: feed baby LMB spotted bass fry at the hatcheries ? Start em young. Give em a taste.

I like 3/4 oz jigs with the skirts thinned out a fair bit with a trailer that doesn't create much drag when I want to get cooking on the bottom. Stroke it and hang on tight!

Probably gonna be a new Maine state record come lunch time. I mean if we're speculating. ???

I know the lakes and ponds I fish pretty well so I usually cycle through a few pre selected for the conditions baits in an area every couple casts because I know how productive that can be. If I feel like they're on a bait I'll keep it locked in my hand til that bite dies or I change areas.

Weightless zoom super fluke jr on light line. Deadly. Catches giants.

I'm a jig addict and I have caught big bass on all manner of type and price point of jig but the ones that I keep coming back to: Siebert Shot Caller swim jigs: just fantastic skirt and weight options and I love the hook. Caught many giant bass with these. Siebert Dredge Brush jig: my favorite all around jig out there. I like the living rubber ones and I use the 1/4 and 3/4 oz the most! Siebert G2 football jig: when I'm really working rock exclusively and dragging this is my go to. Barely ever hangs up and catches hawgs. I basically only use the 3/4 oz. Bizz Baits Skip n Flip Jig: North Carolina made horizontal line tie arkey style. My favorite jigs for wood. Great hooks on these and some neat skirt options. Dirty Jigs Luke Clausen compact pitching jig: fantastic compact pitching style jig with a really nice smaller lighter wire hook and horizontal line tie. My favorite finesse jig for wood. Strike King Bitsy Flip: the king of cheap compact jigs. Caught my first giant jig bass on one of these and I've had a jig tied on ever since. Strike King DB Structure Jig: my favorite over the counter heavier/bigger hook jig. Love Denny and I love this jig.

Poop n' shad. Finally got on the poop wagon and hopefully I'll catch a turd hog™ soon. Really liking this glacier color I got to try on the Siebert silver shiner swim jig. I have been getting more bites on finesse jigs in shad colors than swim jigs overall during the cold fronts this past week. The swim jig bite should turn back on this week!

I think size, profile, rate of fall and presentation (depth and speed) matter a lot more than color at night and in the day time both....except for when color matters. I find if color matters a lot in the day time at a certain body of water, those colors are also important at night. Most days I only tweak color if they're hitting a bait constantly but not committing. I try to also be a little bit clever by varying my colors across my bait selection and sometimes that gives me a clue as to whether color is playing at all.

I find your sense of humor....most impressive. Have fun lord Baiter ???? Looking forward to stories!

I think less is more in the fall. After the summer the fish seem easier to either finesse or power fish but little profiles seem to win over larger for bites both big and small.

I definitely feel like junk fishing is where I find my best success in the fall and it's definitely areas not patterns. I often just rotate back and forth between feeding areas switching baits and those tend to be days where I do the best which is super confusing and frustrating to a pattern fisherman. Winter is coming soon and that will be absolutely fantastic. I can't wait to apply all the knowledge I learned in the late spring and summer fishing offshore and hopefully finally crack the NC winter bass at my lakes code. Last winter was incredible but I never got into the big schools like I see some of you guys do and I plan to try to figure out how to really get on them. That's at least the plan ? Still loving fall though. Topwater has been the most fun part this year for sure!

I like lighter colors because it always seems like no matter how dirty the water looks to us, it's clear to bass.

That looks hella juicy. ???