Pat Brown

I think you've just had some bad luck? I've had menaces last 0 fish! 😂😜

It's okay - the bass don't care! Only the fisherman does.

Whatever you do - do not put the small spunk shad on a weedless ned head from @Siebert Outdoors and reel and shake it just below the surface around pieces of cover. 😜😜😜 Definitely do not do that - it's not fun! 🎣🎣🎣😂😂😂

With most soft plastics that are not a z-man plastic, I usually get about 2 to 3 fish per plastic if I'm lucky sometimes just one. I can't control how the fish are biting the lure and this time of year a lot of fish are nibbling at it because of fishing pressure and the fact that they're on bed. There's also a lot of sunfish around that will grab things and tear them apart before the Bass get to them. The good news is bass don't really care and will eat plastic even while it's a little bit torn up. I fish every piece of plastic until it doesn't stay on the hook anymore and I will bite it down until it doesn't fit on the hook anymore and catch fish with it. With a thinner profile bait it's going to tear a little easier but not every fish is going to nibble at it. Eventually you'll catch a few where it comes back in one piece. For me what really makes them not work anymore is when I set the hook hard and blow out the center of the bait and that just tends to happen with any plastic that's not elaztech.

I thought of another good one: I can make any technique my own and fun. I hear a lot of people say 'i hate fishing this way or that way' and personally, if something isn't feeling 'right' doing it how it's 'supposed to be done' I am fast to do it how I think it should be done and it catches me a fish. I think as bass anglers 'rules' cost us tons and tons of fish but more importantly - costs us lots of enjoyment and pleasure each time we go out!

Best : putting the bait where it needs to go. I pride myself on presentation with all lures that I have chosen to put energy into. I think it is presentation that truly allows anglers to separate from the herd and do something fish haven't seen yet. Lots of room for exploration here. Worst : staying cool and focused when fishing is good/bad. I get emotions! I try to stay dialed in and calculated but I love fishing and I hate not catching fish - both get me riled up in different ways and both can mess with the rhythm on a good day if I don't stick with the program.

I'd be willing to bet that your smallmouth and my largemouth are practically different species of fish 🙂🙂🙂

We met @IcatchDinks at the secret lil spot™ and we commenced to get learned by Jake on how to catch pond bass on a fluke at sunrise: Just a couple of his many catches including a giant snapping turtle - he really put on a clinic. Well when he stuck a fish on his first and second casts with a fluke I tied one on and fished it hard for an hour or so - never got a bite - Jake was doing something special they really liked! @FishTaxrolled up with a hot cup of coffee and a buzzbait that he claimed didn't run right and that he was having to reel too fast to get on plane......'here, lemme show ya' he says - 'yeah you show me, bud 🫢' I says Yeah he casts it out and it commenced to look quite tasty and got smoked on his first cast and nailed his very first buzzbait bass right before my eyes - on cue! That's a happy @FishTax Well Pat started to get antsy and jealous of all the action and wasn't feeling the fluke so went back to the car for Ole Scummy™ 🐸🐸🐸 Wind picked up and blew back into a drain and a nice pine straw mat formed. A few missed blow ups later I stuck #1 and #2 out of that spot on the shad scum frog: Feisty dudes! I tell the fellas where they're at and start walking the wind blown bank in search of another school to frog and run into @FishTax who claims it's nearly time for work and is feeling distraught with only one catch - he ties on his favorite swim jig with his secret sauce trailer and started doing a very subtle mid stroll technique and within minutes hooked a near 3 lber - the big fish of the day! I tell him about some blow ups that were incredibly subtle and required a very specific cadence to my frog. He asked me to demonstrate before moving on - I cast out maybe 30 yards and demonstrate a subtle twitch walking retrieve 3 feet off the bank and while talking to him my biggest of the day demonstrates the efficacy of my retrieve - on cue! 😂😂😂😂 Snapping turtle got scummys skirt and off to work I went but scummy is ready for some night fishing adventures with Josh and Jeremy and Jake (the three 'J's) - Scummy got a new skirt. Hoping for a giant tonight....stay tuned Bass Resource....🦉🦉🦉🎣🎣🎣

The crawler looks likely to get destroyed promptly! This should be fun!

D Bomb/Pit Boss/Rodent/Z Hog/Rage Bug/Palmetto Bugs/Beaver I like em all - they all behave a little different and all of them are capable of catching a bass that likes that profile. I tend to go for the D Bomb most of the time. I like it for the reasons you stated: nice subtle gliding action - the tails seem really 'random' and lifelike.

That looks like a big bass paradise (those caves) @king fisher

Well old froggy got me a big before the storm hit on the boat today. Scum Frog launch in shad. Woooooweeeee! Don't get better!🎣🐸 Hitting a secret little spot tomorrow with the boys from The forum and we got an 11° drop and temperature and cloud cover and I'm beyond excited.

I love a good worm bite. Sounds like the best kinda day!!! 🎣🎣🎣🎣

Agree. Taku is my other 'rooting for him' guy right now. I'd like to see either of these guys win this one - Taku maybe a little more even now. He's worked HARD for years and he's well deserving of a blue trophy.

I really hope Robert Gee wins. Agree with the sentiment that all of these folks are cool and I'm rooting for all of them but I just really like that dude and I really feel like he's working hard for it right now. 🙂

I usually don't make a big deal about tackle because I think most of it is pretty interchangeable, but I will say that the mayor is my favorite swimbait by a long shot right now. It's got great action and it's incredibly pretty looking in the water. Sorry to hijack the thread.

I've caught nothing enough times to know how lucky it is to catch a bass and I do a little dance *Every. Single. Time.* 😉♥️🙏🏼

Where do y'all like to set down and go to work with jigging spoons? I bought a few nice ones for Christmas that I haven't even cast yet. I feel like maybe they'd be solid right now on deeper structure with shad?

It's been fun lately! A nice little flurry of pond bass - missed some bigger ones this week but managed a few welterweights. Jake got an exceptional red ear (the same ones the 6 lbers we were watching were transfixed with!) Just your annual reminder to watch your step and wear protective footwear while night or bank fishing in the summer!!!!!! 💀💀💀 Things got pretty serious on the boat yesterday. Best ones pictured here all caught on the scum frog and the weightless fluke! This morning we had the privilege of sharing our time with fellow BR member @IcatchDinks! We had a splendid time watching the sunrise and Jake made us look good by keeping us skunk free while we chatted and watched bass pretend to be red drum (taunting us!) as the day broke! We are hatching plans for later this week 😎👍🏼 Hoping to get out on the water this afternoon with Meagan and Jacob to see if there's still a little frog bite on the little local lake 😉😉😉 Tight lines to all this weekend!

Do NOT put an eye on the underside of a frog or a buzz bait jig head. Nope. Don't do that. Unless you like getting your arm broken off by a big bass eating your topwater 😉🫢

Walking the dog is the deal - the tn shad color is the only color I use.

Maybe try a straight shank flipping hook. I have seen them bend but never break. Also I would think with good enough penetration, the fish would have a really hard time coming off regardless of size of the fish or density of the cover. Maybe a lighter wire hook would go deeper and make it harder for her to throw the hook when thrashing. Also maybe heavy mono instead of braid (I know breaking bass fishing rules) to help play the fish rather than tear a hole while she digs ( not ideal for vegetation but mono might help when she really makes a run for it at first and I use it for big drum in rock and shell and it holds up). You're really trying to hold onto her for that initial burst where she tries to get off and then you just need torque to get her in. Sounds like the torque to get her in is fine but maybe your system is not ideal for keeping them pinned when they first try to get off.

I doubt there is any correlation between size and having or not having these spots. Texas is doing one of the most comprehensive studies on large bass ever through their Sharelunker program and they are dealing with a HUGE sample of the largest bass caught every year and from what I can see - bass with no spots that get giant are plenty common/ probably the norm. I'd wager the spot is just an abnormality like a freckle or scar or something that can help identify a fish but is not inherited or associated with size.

I think that it's important to be observant of the forage in your lake and take your color cues from those things but forage - like bass - vary in color all the time. My son panfishes and net fishes a LOT in the summertime - bass fishing can be kinda slow on super hot days - so I get to look at a LOT of minners (that's minn-ows for the northeners) and bream. I'll tell y'all this much - bluegill aren't a color. They're more like 8 colors. Some are purple, some are green, some are white, some are blackish, some are blue, some are Chartreuse with bits of pink - pretty sure the bass like em all 😄 The shiners and shad - aren't one color all the time. Crappie - aren't one color all the time. It just doesn't really work that way or so it seems? Crayfish seem to come in all shapes and sizes and colors. They change through out the year and adapt to their surroundings. What I DO notice is the bass USUALLY go after a certain size class long before a specific color of forage. OR maybe they're always pinning their meals to ONE spot over and over all afternoon. Hmmmmmm....maybe that's important!?!? 🫢🫢🫢 All I'm trying to say is LOTS of other things come first when bass fishing - but don't let me stop you from experimenting! It's harmless fun and can lead to confidence - which catches the most fish. BUT I still care about color and I try to pick the color that seems to work the best! We all do. I believe when targeting the 1% of the bass that are the oldest and largest color is VERY important.

One thing I have definitely found with topwater is you really want to be moving and making casts to different pieces of cover every time and perhaps if you think there's an area that could be productive come back to it later with a slightly different topwater presentation and see what happens and usually that's better than hammering it. Topwater fish - especially big ones - seem to bite either close to instantly or very very early on in the retrieve. Something like 95% of the time. So you can save a lot of time every day on the water AND increase your odds of a bite when you're fishing topwater with that little tidbit of information. Also try to have a follow-up bait ready if you can. Because they really do work.