bass can't resist the tease of a soft plastic  

Downsize and slow down. Throw some 2" tubes on a 1/16oz jig if you have an ultralight rig. Jig as slow as you can, you'll be suprised at what you can catch. Bass won't pass up an easy 2" meal(snack).

As waters cool, I throw even bigger baits.  Find healthy weeds, find bass.  Give them a large, satisfying low effort meal.  They don't want to have to work for a meal.  Big cranks, jerk baits, spinnerbaits, jigs, all work.

go to walmart and buy yourself 24 canadian nightcrawlers for 2.98...i guarantee youll pull at least 2 or 3...too many people get caught up on the artificial stuff...lures are made to catch fishermen not fish.

(dont get me wrong i have a few secret weapons of mass destruction in my tackle box)

You must not understand, anyone can use livebait, you do not have to work the bait, the bait works itself. I can buy some live shiners, and set my 7 year old sister up with a bobber and a live shiner beneath it, and she'd probably catch bass, and she'd most likely have fun. And I could do the same, but there'd be no sport to it, because it takes barely any skill.

The fun in using a artificial is you work the bait, you control the baits movements. Fishing for bass with artificials is fun because you truly decieved the fish into biting a fake bait, in which the fish liked due to the way you worked it, and made it out to be life-like. When using live bait, the bait works itself, heck, you can put the pole down and watch some tv, the way I see it is the live bait did all the work, all you did was stick a hook in it...wheres the fun in that :-??

Don't get me wrong, when I'm fishing to eat this rule goes out the window, because sportsmanship is not my primary goal. So I will do anything in my power to get the fish to hit, and if live bait is the key, theres no doubt thats what Im going to use.  But for bass I only catch/release, so sportsmanship is the only reason Im fishing for bass and I feel if I use livebait the sportsmanship is basiclly gone.

If you still don't understand my point, next time you see a fly fisherman standing in a river fishing for trout, go up to him and ask him why he doesn't just use nightcrawlers, and see what he says.

go to walmart and buy yourself 24 canadian nightcrawlers for 2.98...i guarantee youll pull at least 2 or 3...too many people get caught up on the artificial stuff...lures are made to catch fishermen not fish.

(dont get me wrong i have a few secret weapons of mass destruction in my tackle box)

You must not understand, anyone can use livebait, you do not have to work the bait, the bait works itself. I can buy some live shiners, and set my 7 year old sister up with a bobber and a live shiner beneath it, and she'd probably catch bass, and she'd most likely have fun. And I could do the same, but there'd be no sport to it, because it takes barely any skill.

The fun in using a artificial is you work the bait, you control the baits movements. Fishing for bass with artificials is fun because you truly decieved the fish into biting a fake bait, in which the fish liked due to the way you worked it, and made it out to be life-like. When using live bait, the bait works itself, heck, you can put the pole down and watch some tv, the way I see it is the live bait did all the work, all you did was stick a hook in it...wheres the fun in that :-??

Don't get me wrong, when I'm fishing to eat this rule goes out the window, because sportsmanship is not my primary goal. So I will do anything in my power to get the fish to hit, and if live bait is the key, theres no doubt thats what Im going to use. But for bass I only catch/release, so sportsmanship is the only reason Im fishing for bass and I feel if I use livebait the sportsmanship is basiclly gone.

If you still don't understand my point, next time you see a fly fisherman standing in a river fishing for trout, go up to him and ask him why he doesn't just use nightcrawlers, and see what he says.

Now thats what I'm talkin bout! LOL