Bass on the Atkins diet?!?
 

I am seeing some big bass caught....length wise but the weight is not there.

Fish that have the huge heads and long length of 40's but weigh in the high 20's... saw a 53.5" fish ....weight 45

I miss the old days with "Overweight American" bass when the fish weighed more then its length ...by a lot!

Lack of menhaden is the problem, I think. I don't think any other forage stacks up to menhaden in nutritional (particularly fatty) content.

I thought that was typical for early-mid season fish. They have not beefed up from the spawn and migration yet.

I got a 48" Bass last week that weight in at 33.21 pounds??

Fishweewee is right. The bass that were eating pogies years ago were much fatter. They expend much more energy chasing 50 sand eels than one fat pogy.

the season started off good, with fish like RappinMikey's 38" 24# bass and a bunch with similar dimensions i caught back in early may. my last good fish came a few weeks ago whiched taped out at 44" and 27#'s. nice empty belly on her. :( the bass i kept last weekend had some small herring and mole crabs in its belly. i have seen way too many bass with crabs in them over the past few seasons. there just can't be a lot of nourishment in something with such a hard shell.

Toby I'm seeing the same thing... a few crabs or bugs in the last fish I've kept... and they were skinny.. on the flip side took a 39" 22lb fish two weeks ago... nice and fat:D

When I keep them for the table, I find Lots of fish with empty stomachs.

I agree on the Menhaden issue.