Pat Brown

I would try a finesse jig and a shaky head because it sounds like they're on the bottom and that should get you a bigger bite. I would go compact and shad-ish for the finesse jig and I would go green pumpkin or watermelon for the shaky head with maybe a little puff of chartreuse on the tail. Thin straight tail 6" worm. I would start with the lightest weight that efficiently gets to the bottom and if they don't like that I would try your heaviest weight to see if they react on the fall.

I feel like some days I'm in tune with the water and the animals and can do no wrong and some days feel like I'm fishing in a puddle at a gas station. Bass sure do keep things interesting!

I have been learning the more I bass fish, it's more about where and when you throw it than what you're throwing, IMHO. I wouldn't say I 'hate' throwing any lures because it's a fun challenge and the rewards are even more fun! But for the sake of this thread, I'll play along and my answers would have to be: Jerkbait Buzzbait Jig Jig, just really took me a while to get bit and have the fish hold on to it. I didn't throw it enough. I threw it in the wrong places. I didn't understand the nuance of presentation etc. It seemed like soft plastics were much easier to mindlessly throw and get bites on. I still feel this way. But what happened is I kept throwing the jig and learned where and when to throw it and started to catch my biggest fish consistently on it and then I started to catch numbers too. Now it's always tied on. Buzzbait, I just couldn't fathom a fish biting one of these things in any of the waters I fish. The fish are heavily pressured and learn quickly, so I was always reluctant to get the buzzbait out and scare a school off of a spot. Well, turns out, it's not nearly as noisy or predictable sounding as I figured and really it's pretty natural looking moving through the water. And bass of all sizes from all different levels of fishing pressure seem to absolutely hate them. Jerkbait, another one of those baits that didn't seem to make sense to throw for me for a long time. It seemed too slow to cover water and I figured my muddy Carolina water, it'd be a waste of time. Jerkbait was my best producer in the spring this year! I had days I caught 20 + fish in NC on one from the bank!!! Point is, most techniques will work really well if we put the time in and use our creativity to figure out how to make fish bite them.

'Im snagged, dad' is pretty high up there. Prop crunching into something. Actually not fond of the sound of a large bass splashing around on the surface on the end of my line. Lost plenty when they're doing that. Also caught plenty. It's stressful to say the least when they waller. Rod snapping always not fun. Line snapping not fun. Definitely when bank fishing in the early AM, ANY human sounds make my hair stand up for a second.

The gurgly squeel of a buzzbait being interrupted by the sloshing slurp of a large bass. The silence of a perfectly placed jig next to a laydown that you just know is gonna get bit. The *screeee* of a hookset on a sizeable fish The rattle trap *stops rattling mid retrieve* ???? A large bass exploding on a walking topwater never gets old. Bluegill popping in shallow water. Shad schools creating that gentle flickering sound right on the surface in the late summer. All the birds and insects and reptiles and amphibians filling the air with their song. Wind moving the leaves. Water gently slapping into the rocks. This stuff comforts me. I love bass fishing.

One in a million bass just about anywhere. Up in Maine more like one in a gazillion. *Takes hat off* *gives official bass master secret salute ?* I'd wager that is an 8 lber. I fully trust your hands to know the weight of a bass that size and I bet she's about as wide as she looks. Absolutely gargantuan fall monster. So excited for your success this year and to top it off with that absolutely incredible lady is just pure bliss. Such a great capstone for one of the best anglers in the US.

I guess I'll have to ask Santa for one of these. If Catt says 'this is the jig rod you want '......might as well see how it fairs. ???

Buzzbait/chatterbait/spinnerbait/Jerkbait/swim jig/crankbait/football jig/Shakey head/tube/wobble head/wacky rig/fluke. I really like using Treble hooks when fishing around rocks because I can usually get away with it and the clearer water usually around rocks makes reaction baits work great. A lot of times due to pressure, I do better with bladed jigs/spinnerbaits/jigs/plastics in general but windy days can yield some wild bites on treble hook presentations. I love fishing rock in the early summer/post spawn and in the early pre spawn/late winter but any time of year can be dynamite around rock.

I'm very fond of the Abu Garcia PLX Veritas 7'6 MHF and MHMF. I throw lighter wire hooks and lighter weights on the MHMF and I throw my heavier jigs that I may be fishing deeper or in heavier cover on the MHF. They're very sensitive and light and affordable and best of all they are able to tolerate my bank fishing abuse.

Awesome article and a great primer for my camp n fish on Lake James coming this weekend! ??????

Buzzbait has been my most productive lure for the past month. I've had success with every buzzbait I've used. I have caught them with a skirt and no trailer, a skirt and a trailer, no skirt and a trailer, 'silent' buzzers, clackers, squeakers, with and without trailer hooks and in white, black and even red. The secret seems to be a little ripple and a warm breeze and super super shallow water with hard bottom and random isolated pieces of cover. But I have caught them on featureless banks in slick calm conditions in the middle of the day and on very windy nights. There isn't really a wrong way to fish them but bass seem to either want a fast and subtle buzzer (1/8 oz) or a PAINFULLY slow retrieve (1/2 oz with skirt and big flappy trailer). I like black in the sun and white when it's dark. Yeah, opposite of convention. The only wrong way to fish it, would seem to be to not throw it.

This is good info. On rock, I almost always catch them on some kind of unique structure or cover within the rock. They just want something different from everything else that's prominent and featureless but often times it's underwater and hidden and easy to snag in. ?

Case study on why I use the first hook. I was using stretchy line and light tackle and these fish took forceps to unhook and were both hooked on the upper lips perfectly. I reckon those bass that pull ya into the grass might not unhook themselves so easily were you to use these more often ???

Katie I'm fairly certain if I only brought the same 3 lures every day of the year, I'd catch fish...but not these ones at this pond today ? Ironically, when I hit a big lake, I'm more prone to approach it with three baits I have a lot of confidence in. These pressured ponds are more like a chess match that unfolds day to day year to year between me and these big spooky bass. It always surprises me what new technique I try that they go bananas for a second over and then never bite again! ???

Really fun quick pre morning session. Trying out 'finesse' fishing with 8 lb big game/weightless fluke he and did alright with a 2.5 and a 5 lber. Missed a couple and then needed to retie but it was too dark for that light line and my clumsy fingers and I couldn't get a bite on my alternatives. Definitely gonna be putting more time in with the old soft jerk technique.

Yeah sounds like you're over culling in a big way and the bass don't want to play. Same thing happened to a few ponds I fish. Used to be bass fishing paradise. Live bait and meat hunters came in and went to town during bass fishing big resurgence. Now the bass won't even hit live bait or eat during the day hours. The smaller the pond and the more you fish it, the faster they will learn. Only a matter of time before they stop hitting the Rapala too and all that is left is stunted dinks. I'd maybe let it rest and find another spot and maybe only keep a couple per year out of small ponds.

I almost caught a giant on a swimming worm this past weekend but pulled me off in heavy heavy grass. I didn't even feel the bite. But I felt her dive headfirst into the slop and it was like setting the hook on a Mac truck. I saw her flash sideways before the dive and she was 20+" long and thick as a brick. My wife's long standing PB was caught on a floating worm in July.

I use that top one a LOT more than the bottom one. I like thinner worms and flatter beavers so it just works a lot better most times. I still use an EWG with a fluke or a buzz toad or weightless stick bait to help keel it a little bit and give it a tiny bit more castability. The tip of the hook on the offset worm hook is pointing up and out when rigged with plastic. The ewg is pointing at the eyelet. I find my hook to land ratio much much better with a offset round bend style hook like hook #1 but that offset bend is handy for rigging plastics etc. They make EWG hooks where the point is angled up and out a bit and also EWG hooks where the point is not in line with the eyelet increasing the bite gap. Haven't felt the need to mess with them since switching to the old worm hook.

Numbers and size on belligerent topwater lures from sun up til sun down. ????

This time of year bass kind of start to scatter all over the place, especially when the thermocline dissipates. My favorite way to target LMB in rock is football jigs, Texas rigs, shaky heads, drop shot, Carolina rig, crankbait, jerk bait, paralleling the banks with spinnerbaits and buzz baits and stuff like that. What presentation I choose typically depends on the conditions that I'm fishing at the exact moment I'm on the water. There's no one specific thing that works for rock. It's more like the same stuff that works on not rock also works on rock when the conditions are set up for it.

I like isolated shallow rock in the middle of deeper water in a steady breeze. I'll take any rock I can get in general though. Big largemouth love rocks.

A lot of fluorocarbon is more stretchy than a lot of monofilament. A lot of the slack line sensitivity is about the same. Monofilament actually doesn't float. It sinks faster than braid and slower than Fluorocarbon. Knot strength is superior to Fluorocarbon. Cost is much better. Abrasion resistance is as good or better than Fluorocarbon. Monofilament does get damaged by UV rays and needs to be changed fairly frequently even if you don't fish all the time. Line visibility only seems to be a factor on days with no wind or on fisheries with extremely clear water and highly pressured fish. I've caught a lot of big fish on high vis line and braid on pressured fisheries. Just kinda lower visibility due to stain on the water. Mono should be about the same in most water to most bass as Fluorocarbon in terms of *visibility*. In extremely clear water with very little surface disturbance and good cloud cover, you might have a day where line visibility plays. I'd worry more about line DIAMETER than clarity though because I think in general fish *feel* heavier line as it lays across the water and spook more so than see the line and spook.

Hey! Fellow NC basser here! I'm from Greensboro and fish the 3 major lakes here and some public ponds also. Lots of big bass in NC and lots of knowledgeable folks here that can help you catch em. It's been a wonderful community to be a part of. My catch rates and size have gone way up since hanging around here! -Pat

Fall tanks! Nice job Katie! All beauties and I'm sure all heavy for their length! Nice bellies and colors all around. Hope I can get out this evening after work for some action. Very excited because this coming weekend I'll be camp fishing for smallmouth and spotted bass in western NC. I'm nervous about a totally new body of water but I feel we should be able to find a fish willing to bite. Fingers crossed. Always an inspiration Katie!

As folks are pointing out, mobility is paramount. I want to cover water and be stealthy and accurate so my tackle reflects that. I typically have some different profile and action and color soft plastics, some hooks and weights. A few jigs. A few Buzzbaits. A few spinnerbaits. A few lipless crankbaits. Maybe a frog, a Jerkbait and a squarebill depending on the season. I like it when I have a pattern dialed in and I can leave my car with one rod, but I'm more likely to have a topwater rod (buzzbait), bottom contact rod (jig/t rig) and a moving bait rod (spinnerbait). If I'm going to skip one on small bodies of what it would be the moving bait rod. Keep it simple and focus primarily on covering water and being stealthy and making accurate casts and you should do well with these tried and true presentations!