Pat Brown

@LrgmouthShad it's almost always a milk run kinda deal on my lakes. I find that I can sometimes catch 3-4 fish off of a school, but more often I'm looking for one or two bites per key area and I'll kinda rotate the good spots because I find that letting them rest and coming back almost always works better for me than sitting on the spot. Another thing is big time weather/time of day. Shade and other things make certain areas key at certain times of day and most of the rest of the day they're dead. All I know is fall lets hurry up where's them deer at? Make the boats and people go away. I can't wait. ??

You guys with your fancy secret spots on your big fancy lakes. ?????? The only thing anywhere close to that we have is offshore structure and honestly it's like anyone with electronics finds it in like five minutes. I always marvel at lakes that have creek arms that are the size of my home lake.

I catch my biggest fish in general stalking them from the bank. Get on in there and show em what you learned out there on the water. ?????? Bank fishing is the same as boat fishing but you don't scare fish as much if you can learn to be sneaky. Go very early or late right now IMHO.

I find that 90% of my bites on a jig come on the initial fall, so keep casting and learning to feel for that bite! If you're catching fish, swimming it back. That's just one of the many ways that jigs perform well. So good job and keep it up!

Black and Blue/Junebug and green pumpkin/White. I use these colors in pretty much any water clarity.

I don't set the hook hard but I do throw my baits into some serious cover. I generally use a San Diego Jam which I have never broken at the knot in my life on a hookset. These were clean cuts up the line from BIG fish pulling into thick brush. Fluorocarbon is great stuff but I generally don't flip with 15 lb unless it's what I have tied on and that's what I had. Not because of strength but because the line diameter doesn't lend itself to coming through super heavy cover as much as I'd like. I went home and put 20 lb big game on and when I hooked that 8 lber the next day that nearly broke me off, my line looked like she drug me through an underwater thorn bush or something. Not all heavy cover is created equal on any given lake in my experience and this girl was in something dense and sharp. There are some folks who believe I may have found some gar or pike on my lake that afternoon also and I wouldn't completely rule that out.

Here are three things that you should probably care more about if you like to preserve bass: How long was the fight? People who enjoy the fight and try to play the fish longer actually aid in the buildup of lactic acid in the bass's muscles and some times the older ones don't make it after a really long fight in the hotter months. You're also way more likely to lose a big fish that you play...so...get them in as quick as you can if you love catching em! How deep did you catch the fish? If you caught the fish out of deep enough water fast enough, you could be causing a buildup of CO2 bubbles in the fish's bloodstream, which could immediately be fatal. Learning how to fizz your fish is very important if you fish in deep water a lot. This is often a problem in the deep winter and summer when fish are often caught deep. Where did you hook the fish? Yeah those fancy sharp treble hooks with really good barbs and EWG bends sure do have good hook up ratios, but a couple of those hooks in the tongue or in the back of the throat can mean certain death for even the toughest specimens. I rarely opt for this type of bait in general and typically only use it when they're nipping at my baits or when I can't catch them other way. Weightless Texas rigs are also dangerous for gut hooking fish, but you can learn some simple techniques that can dramatically increase the survivability of fish that you have gut hooked. Gently turning the hook with forceps through the gill has saved me some bass. To the OP's initial question: Dottie was a 25 lb female that probably lived over 12 years. Most Bass don't even make it past the fry stage. Dottie was never harmed mortally by being caught, she was a morbidly obese sedentary ANCIENT LMB. She lived a year after her last time being caught which is NOT delayed mortality from being released, sorry. If you're going to hold them by the lip, hold them completely vertically do not hold them at a angle greater than 90° without supporting their belly. (If and when you ever catch a giant bass you will see how absurd it would be to try to hold a bass like this anyway. But I guess some people are still going to do that sort of thing).

I still have my original Storm Magnum Wiggle Wart in the rainbow color and my original Hot N Tot in a spring craw pattern. Had some Rapala jointed minnows from that era also for years but they're gone. My fondest memory is the grape fire tail manns jelly worm that is no longer available. You can buy almost them, but not exactly the grape with the firetail that my dad loved so much. I can smell the packaging in my memory.

I hear a LOT on here that big fish don't hang in the same areas as small fish and vice versa. The Nature of Fishing and The Bass Fishing Life clear a lot of that up in there YouTube underwater footage for me. If anything, lots of smaller bass means an abundance of nutrients in the area and you can almost guarantee the giants are lurking around picking up the scraps and picking off the weaker ones. Smaller bass live on the same things as crappie and sunfish and shad (as do bigger bass) which is WHY we look for signs of life in an area in the first place. If I'm catching fish, I know it's just a matter of making the right cast at the right time to the right area on the structure/cover. To me, big fish baits catch small fish and small fish baits catch big fish, so I just stick with things that historically catch lots of fish and go. You dial in your presentation and fish the conditions and the cover the bass are relating to. THEN maybe you can play with trying to weed out small fish with presentation and OFTEN times it doesn't work.

@LrgmouthShad Pat Cullen, old school double digit hunter extraordinaire, claimed that for over 1100 double digit bass, only one type of lure was required. A buzzbait! He claimed he had 7 that ran at different speeds and sounded different and he could eventually figure out which one they wanted with a swivel while night fishing by rotating them frequently. He would then fish them aggressively in areas where big fish lived once he knew the preferred cadence and flavor on the body of water. Kinda brilliant. But that's basically why I got 'one of each' of a bunch of random ones that are different weights and styles. Pat Cullen ???

1/2 oz Picasso Rusty Squeaker 1/2 oz Hog Snatcher 1/8 oz boogerman in black and white 5/16 oz Accent finesse 5/16 oz Accent original 1/8 oz Buckeye 1/2 oz Buckeye 3/8 oz Bizz Baits stealth buzz 1/2 oz D&M Easy Roller I went shad skirt for all but the black boogerman because all my waters are loaded with shad and shiners and minnows and crappie. I typically fish them with a skirt and a plastic. I like a lot of lift so I can move it slow and the bulk seems to get them to bite it more than just a skirt. I will also go trailer only and remove the skirt when the water is clearer or it's calm. As far as making them squeak, if they aren't squeaking I consider them a stealthier one and if they do it's my noisy one and I think both play sometimes.

I caught an 11.5 lb bass in July off a main lake point during a may fly hatch that seemed to last for a week or more on my home lake. I obviously spent as much time fishing this area during this unique opportunity as I could during that window. I went back to the quieter side of the point a couple days after I caught her and started flipping the heavier brush that sat in 1 ft at the base, near the bank and also in 10 ft of water where the limbs extended out near the boat. My first pitch, I feel a tremendous thump and see the line moving with fervor INTO the wood. I reel down and set the hook. Immidiately snap my line. 15 lb fluorocarbon. I think, hey it happens. Get my rigging stuff out and redo my Florida Rig/Punch Rig with all the tungsten and bobber stops and this and that and move 10 feet further down the bank and start pitching into the next juicy spot. My first pitch, I feel a tremendous thump. I reel down and set the hook. Immidiately snap off. Well. I went home and put 20 lb big game on and came back the next day and caught an 8 lber that did what? Dang near snapped me off on the hookset but didn't. Thanks 20 lb big game. ??

I just ordered a lot of buzzbaits. This was either a very smart move or a very dumb move but it's gonna be gurgly and clanky and spitty in these lakes for the next couple months ?

I'm a big fan of 10.5" and I bite them down when fish want a smaller profile! I peg my weights always because when I'm throwing a t rig it's gonna be in the nastiest stuff on the lake.

@WaterOtter so what you're saying is it's perfect? ??

Floating worm/ frog in the heavy stuff maybe swim jig or spinnerbait or buzzbait on the edges where it's sparse. Popper in the big holes.

The popper is the best hookup ratio topwater for keeping in place IMHO. Glad to see it performed well for ya. Don't give up on the floating worm ? You'll get the timing down on the deal. You certainly seem to have PLENTY of opportunities to practice every day ☺️☺️☺️ I betcha bigger weary old gals who know a treble hook when they see one are the ones slurping your worm.

@WaterOtter that's a cool one. Looks like it's a design that's along the same lines as the Berkley Frittside and other flat side lipped cranks which always felt like lipless/lipped crankbait hybrids to me.

I have caught fish on every color worm but when I catch big fish the worms always seem to have some red in them. Gonna have to go with Junebug on this one, but I'm really into 'Blue Fleck' (purple with blue flake instead of green) which is essentially the best of both worlds of black and blue flake and purple with green flake. It's my dirty water confidence color. For jigs: I'll throw a black and blue jig in gin clear water up to mud. That's the color you need for a jig.

I'm a man that loves to see results. I have been greatly rewarded for committing to the buzz bait this week with this beautiful, five and a half pound chunk that I caught on a 1/8 oz white lunker lures with a double tail zoom split tail trailer which feels about as old school and cool as it gets when it comes to bass fishing clout. She was a heck of a bite and a heck of a fight and look at the bucket on that beautiful fish. I wish I could tell you guys how thick she was from side to side. guess I'm gonna have to just keep on buzzin' ??????

I don't judge people who fish....fishing is for fun and we all have different waters and goals. I am even learning to be more tolerant of people who catch and keep fish. It's all just part of what makes fishing special and it's all fun. I enjoy days where I catch nothing. I enjoy days where I catch numbers. I enjoy days where I catch a giant or two. Seems like there's more important things to judge.

I really do love your thread titles. They're so specific and thorough. You can't go wrong with some flap when they're wanting a slower fall or when the bait is more active in the area IMHO. I like less flap when fish are inactive.

The only time I like to Heron is when I see 4 or 5 in a small area. That's when it's go time in my experience. That means there's a whole lot of bait fish in the area and I can catch a few bass in that area when it gets like this often times.

Sweaters and frog bass to start out a day in August in NC!?!?! Well how about I'll take some more of them please!?!? That white pad perch is going on the mantle and I'm ordering 3 after this summer SHEESH!