Pat Brown

So far, my experience has been that the ones suspended over deeper water are really hard to target or catch. I'd focus on the intersection of the depth of your thermocline and structure with good cover on it that also has baitfish in the area and you should do great!

Almost certainly somebody flipped a kayak by the looks of that find. Mark a way point and scan with 360 imaging for the tackle boxes ??

@T-Billy fairly certain the NC record is a farm pond Florida. Her lower jaw has that more exaggerated underbite and her proportions are more in line with her length. That OH record looks like a Smallmouth with a largemouth head, which to me isn't a crazy thought when trying to grock Northern LMB physiological quirks. NC record caught in 1991 at a farm pond on a crank bait. 15 lb 14 oz. Probably stocked in the mid 80s but who honestly knows?

This is completely speculation, but I think at a very basic level if you're fishing offshore for big schools of bait fish oriented bass, you're probably targeting predominantly northern strain. And if you're fishing for small wolf packs or individual bass that are holding to pieces of cover and ambushing, you're probably fishing for Florida strain. I can't back this up with science but it seems like on my lakes the Florida's like frogs and worms and usually you pull them off of their chosen cover and the Northern are more 'structure' oriented and key on baitfish and crawdads almost exclusively. You'll find them more on rocky ledges and humps and swimming in 12 ft of water around shad balls. I dunno maybe that's bunk juice. I'm not a fisheries biologist. Just my observations.

Yeah that was almost certainly a pure Florida strain. It has the uneven scale size pattern to its belly and tail. You can sort of see the graduation from big to small scales disperses itself relatively unevenly on her torso and also her head and mouth and eyeballs are all comical looking which to me are hallmarks of the Florida strain. Northern strain always look like football players to me. They have big shoulders, small heads and mouths that don't fit their bodies if that makes sense. When you say 'thats got a 5 lber mouth but weighs 8 lb' it's a northern strain. Their scales are more even and same size like. They tend to be 'prettier'. They can get huge though. I caught a 9 lb Northern strain in February that probably would have gone 10 if I had caught her before she made her bed.

Happy 80th Tom! Thanks for all you do and I hope one of your friends takes ya out for some fishing this week! -Pat

Awwww shucks y'all humble a budding bass fisherman with your kindness. I gotta give a special shout out to @Glenn for providing us with such an awesome place/resource to learn from one another and extra special shout out to @Catt and @WRB who basically taught me how to catch big fish over many years of posts that I dredge up with my absurdly specific searches as I get ideas seasonally! ??? Just know that the search feature has saved us all from 1.5 thousand bad 'what if I did xxxxx threads?' made by me! ????? Edit: just had to add some little Easter eggs for those who follow along: A- I was wrong. My big fish for the year appears to have come on a rubber worm, not a jig. The universe smiles at us when we think we have it all figured out etc. B- the pre spawn is NOT the only time you can catch a giant bass at ALL. Catt specifically would laugh at me for realizing this obviously true thing that we as bass fisherman collectively deny. C- I pegged my weight y'all ????. I was staunchly anti pegging. Just had to put it out there that I stuck to the challenge to myself to only peg my weight on my T Rigs for the rest of the year to see if my catch rates changed at all.....some of y'all told me to try it in another thread. I have gotten a few less bites but quality has definitely gone up with the pegged weight. Why? My theory is now I'm REALLY confident putting my worm in some really stupid places a jig or unpegged weight would foul in. Perhaps that's critical on my lake.

She had some of the usual spawn stuff going on but she seemed to be in tip top shape for a 6-10 year old bass that spawned from January til June this year.

I've been doing the same thing this summer and plan to continue the education during the winter. Congratulations on your new found success offshore. I definitely feel like to have a shot at fish that aren't absolutely hammered to death, it's an essential skill.

That lake sounds like all sorts of fun. I bet you'll find have a field day come winter. ????

Yes of course! I just needed a second to catch my breath and process the whole thing but here goes: Me and Meagan and Jake decided to hit the lake today and the wind was blowing hard into the rock wall near the marina so we new that was going to position fish in cover on drops near main lake structure and baitfish in that wind driven current. We fished the rip rap for a while and gave it our best for one hour and then the wind picked up around 1 pm. I decided we needed to make a move and figured we might as well try to fish some brush and submerged wood off of one of those deeper wind blown points. Jake got his lure hung in a tree on his first cast which forced me to move the boat in super tight to the bank in order to help him and when he had successfully retrieved the bait, I decided to take advantage of the casting angles that being in such close proximity to the cover gave me. On my first cast I dragged my motor oil power worm across some brush and felt it come down the steep bluff through the submerged thicket and when it came to rest at about 8-9 feet of water (a mere 10 ft from the bank to put how steep of a drop it was into perspective) I felt a subtle thump. I reeled down and set the hook and immidiately my rod doubled over and my line shot under the boat towards deeper water. My drag was screeching out and I was convinced I had a catfish that was about to break me off. Somehow I turned her head and up came the largest bass myself of Meagan or Jake have ever seen in our lives and it's up to Meagan to net her. Meagan misses the first try and then gets her and she BARELY even fits! ???? We quickly did some photos of the occasion and revived and released her. She was barely hooked in the skin in the top of he lip and swam away happily. New personal best and double digit bass achieved! 11 lbs 5 oz Can't even believe it happened in the dead of summer but I will take it! And here's some photos of her revival and release for all you's anglers! Had to of course give her the 'Jimmy Houston' send off. Ain't gonna go through all the trouble catching that beautiful fish and not give her some sugar to remember me by ??????

Surfacing around you/love to stay deeper???? ?????????? I'd be trying one of them walking topwater jigs I reckon if they was surfacing around me!

Well I'm speechless. I got a fishing story to tell but I'm sunburned and smitten with how happy I am. Double digit achieved. Middle of summer. 1:30 pm. On brush on a point. Motor oil power worm. Pictures and more to come later when I've processed what just happened y'all ??????

Honestly, a lot of their affordable workhorse reels are still kicking and catch lots of fish for me. I really enjoy the inception series. I like the way that they palm a lot. Drag is nice. For not too expensive and beating the bank in muddy rainy conditions, they're more than up to the task. Probably snag a few of these when they blow them out.

Caught many many very large bass on my MHMF (Frog) 7'6 Veritas PLX. It seems unbreakable and it fishes more like most brands MHF.

On lakes and ponds that I fish, I catch Northern strain in the winter and early spring and then I start catching more Florida strain in the summer and into the fall. But you can catch both all the time. It's pretty cool. To some degree, I think they've hybridized all over the lakes and you're probably dealing with 80/20 or 60/40 crosses most of the time in these lakes or something to that effect.

I'll tell ya what. The bass in my pond are wise to just about every presentation known to man but if they're around and mad/hungry, they'll hit a frog. You'd think they up and left on vacation and then you walk a frog through an area and get lit up. Definitely my favorite topwater for getting them to commit to the bait when they don't want to bite.

With my luck losing expensive baits and how long they last actually fishing them in the water before they're gone with the tricks I like to do to pull bites. I'll be fishing these Nessie baits a lot! I reckon that 9" is gonna get wore out during the winter months this year at the ole Pressured Pond ™. Hope the big girls are ready for soft glide baits. ??

I am sympathetically excited for you and personally excited to see all the double digit bass you're gonna nail with all that treasure! ?????? Gotta try some of those axle jigs. They look like a pretty brilliant design.

I've only ever tried the normal size and I can't buy a bite on it. So now I have to of course try the baby brush hog because everybody here says it's the one that catches the giants. What size hook and weight y'all? ????

She's out there. You'll get her. You know what she likes. I can't wait to see pictures. ???

Big ribbon tail worm with a very light weight. Walking topwater with less rattly stuff (zara spook). You could mod some lipless crankbaits so they don't rattle anymore really easily and those are deadly in ponds. Big blade spinnerbait is way way better than chatterbait in muddy water on fish that are highly pressured IMHO. Also definitely fish slow and use bright colors. Both help in mud. Even though it's a really muddy pond, there's probably a couple places where the water is clearer than other places on the pond. Maybe focus on those and see what happens if you can get a bait in those areas. I find clearer water near the bank away from the in flow usually/towards the 'middle'.

I think it's all about timing/conditions setting up right for a shallow bite on my lake but I agree it's always there. If you have shade and cover and structure, somewhere in any current what so ever they'll find it. But off shore, this pattern is purty consistent (at least where I'm fishin this past week or so ?).

Quick trip to the old Pressured Pond ™ and I stuck this doozy on a hack attack pad perch in white. By far the most productive week for frog fishing of my life and it's only Wednesday ????????? Got quite a few fish to swat at it this morning with one take where I pulled to fast and then right as my time was running out, I did the requisite 'circle back to the area you got the most/best bite and hit it before leaving' and she hit it almost instantly. I waited correctly til I felt her on there and then set the hook and in she came! I think I might be getting addicted to this whole summertime early morning topwater bite!

That's valid but if you're fishing from 10-2 in the winter you're increasing your chances plenty! Wear sunscreen and sun gear! Heat is annoying. Cold is annoying. I fish with folks who will do one but won't do the other. It's all good.