Any largemouth guys here?

[Zeal]

I know we don't have a freshwater forum but I started to take my yak out on the local lakes and honestly I have to say that even though largemouth and stripers aren't related, they have way too much in common to ignore.

I can't help but wonder if anyone else that fishes for both species uses their knowledge of one to catch the other.

What do you guys think or incorporate with the 2? Has it been advantageous combining knowledge of stripers to catch largemouth and vice versa?

[DZ]

Yep - my late surfcasting partner Zeke Silva was instrumental with incorporating lots of striped bass tactics to largemouth and largemouth tactics/techniques to striped bass. I was the benefactor and have kept them alive.
Senkos for instance.

[Ed B]

Certainly, There's a LOT less difference between gamefish species response to conditions and stimulus than many would think and not just largemouths and stripers. I try to largemouth fish almost every week. What's nice about largemouth fishing is you know the fish in your pond are there somewhere. Now you have to figure it out. No blaming ASMFC, NOAA, the boats on the reef poaching, or guys at the canal. If your not catching it's because of you and you have to figure out the best way to get a hit with the conditions you have in front of you.

And as Zeke Silva used to say, "There's something to be learned from every fish."

[DZ]

Originally Posted by Ed B

And as Zeke Silva used to say, "There's something to be learned from every fish."

And no fish was safe with him around

[ProfessorM]

Oh fish. Never mind
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[Ed B]

Keeping up with what's going on in the FW Bass world is pretty relevant to striper fishing. All the best tackle, lures and soft plastics get first developed to chase the money which is spread around the entire country and certainly Japan for largemouth fishing. Looking at any tackle, lure or soft plastic lure company catalog and the amount of choices of really neat stuff for Largemouths is enough to make your head spin. And the lures and techniques work real well on stripers too.

[Ed B]

Originally Posted by ProfessorM

Oh fish. Never mind
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Good One

[ProfessorM]

Figure I would beat Numbskull to pointing out my faults.
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[BigFish]

I yak fish for both and employ many of the same tactics! Love my striper fishing as well as my largemouth!

[afterhours]

Love both..always have. Lucky to have a nice pond at rod & gun club with some nice bass in it. I've made a few plugs just for them.

[Rob Rockcrawler]

I think a huge tube 6-8" or so with a 2 oz head would be killer in the surf. They are my favorite LMB lure during the summer and imagine stripers would love em.

[Got Stripers]

In the early 80's I was a club and mass federation bass tournament fisherman and wasn't fishing the salt at all. In the mid to late 80's it became too crowded and too much of a job and I started to transition to striper fishing. I was in love with sluggos and jig fishing and back then I used a larger plastic jerk made in Abington called a wide body and marketed under the name Carty's Critters. The logical next step for me was to design my own baits to add some things I saw missing from the typical sluggo, which was primarily more meat at the head so they fished better behind a jig and harder plastic to last.

Finesse fishing a jig in fresh water has served me well when it comes to putting anything in the boat, but I love targeting tog on light jigs.

[puppet]

I feel trout are more similar in behavior than largemouth.

Largemouth seem be more loners and territorial, where trout
will group and pack up on structure. In still water trout will
hunt in a pack....like a school of striped bass.

I feel that trout have similar picky characteristics as striped bass, where
largemouth are rarely as picky. You can drop the same senko in its territory
every day and lift that fish out.

I am not saying that largemouth bass fishing is easy,
I just feel its easier than striped bass fishing.

[Raider Ronnie]

We got some good lakes in my town (Wrentham) my son's take the 12 ft aluminum skiff on quite a bit with the fresh water gear but mostly small mouth bass.
Sometimes I prefer it over saltwater.
Can go right down the street from my house and launch in minutes and it cost me next to nothing to go. 6hp 2 stroke burns nothing for fuel and 50lb thrust electric motor, only need to charge a battery once a week or so.
Lb for lb, smallmouth hit & fight the hardest of any fish !
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[Got Stripers]

Love SM, but I think I'd still rather catch a nice 5 lb tog, bulldog fight and I can invite her home for diner😜
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[Raider Ronnie]

Originally Posted by Got Stripers

Love SM, but I think I'd still rather catch a nice 5 lb tog, bulldog fight and I can invite her home for diner😜
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Tog is just ok in my opinion to eat.
Black Sea bass is 100x better
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[Got Stripers]

Originally Posted by Raider Ronnie

Tog is just ok in my opinion to eat.
Black Sea bass is 100x better
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Agree on that one, BSB is #1 on my eaters list, but love catching tog. Smallmouth have one thing over most and that is the aerial nature of their fight.
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[Fish On]

Largemouth fish story. Now that I’m married and have a little boy I’m relegated to lake fishing at our cottage in New Hampshire. I only dream about the ocean and live vicariously through you guys and the posts I read here which are great. Our lake (Mendums) was drained 30 feet last year to fix the 175 year old earthen dam which they did an awesome job on. Lake was completely full this year. I was very worried that a lot of the fish would have disappeared downstream with the big draining in the fall of 2015, but the fishing this year has been one of the best year’s I can remember. Lake is mostly a large and smallmouth fishery. We used to have chain pickerel but I haven’t seen one in several years. We did catch a first for us in 50+ years (owned the cottage since 1965) when we brought in a black crappie this summer. I had to look it up to be sure. It was quite large and a very good fight.
I’ve been teaching my son to fish on the lake and he loves to troll. He is constantly asking me to take him out trolling. He’s developed a really good cast with his mini-rod (Zebco type real) and to my astonishment he landed a nice size largemouth this summer all by himself. He was dragging a jitterbug in the middle of the day while I was giving a couple guests a tour. I was popping the boat in and out of gear to reduce the speed (Jitterbugs do best for us at a VERY slow speed) when he got a big hit. Here is the video of the catch. At first I thought it was a smallmouth because of the frequent jumps. Please forgive that this is a bit of a brag post, but I’m sure all the Dads out there understand how proud we are of our kids. He is just 4 years old. Try to ignore how excited I was for him. I definitely got a little carried away wanting him to land it. Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/UGd3_Xn5n2Q

[Ed B]

Great story and photo Fish On. Landing that fish is pretty darn good for 4 years old.

[piemma]

Originally Posted by Rob Rockcrawler

I think a huge tube 6-8" or so with a 2 oz head would be killer in the surf. They are my favorite LMB lure during the summer and imagine stripers would love em.

Rob, Tim Coleman wrote several articles back in the late 80s and early 90s about using freshwater rubber worms for Stripers. I tried it with big black worms back in the early 90s just as we came out of the moratorium.

One night my then partner and I absolutely crushed fish at Watch Hill Light. Nothing huge because there just weren't any huge fish then. Minimum size was 36", then 34" but we each had 30 or 40 fish in the 20 to 30" range on very light tackle. We rigged then "Texas style with the hook buried in the body of the worm to make them weedless.I am sure it would still work.

[FishermanTim]

Both species act / react to bright light and sunlight in similar manner....they avoid it when possible.
They both LOVE to hunt at night.

As for cross-species tackle and tactics, my personal favorite is using small freshwater lures for stripers, specifically when the bait is small. That means having a selection of 3" storm shads, 4" slug-gos and 3 & 4" Mr. Twister grubs. The Slug-gos and grubs are rigged on 1/4 oz jigs.

Sure, it looks like I don't know what I'm doing, but after extensive research (many, MANY outings) I found that "matching the hatch" with stripers can sometimes mean drastic methods that you might not think would work.

I can recall some years back catching a 37" bass on a 6" slug-go on a 1/2 oz. jig, and at the time I thought that was radical....but I found I was really just starting to learn that you never stop learning, and just keep on catching fish!

[Zeal]

DZ what size hook is that and what weight for that senko setup? I actually have a similar way but not quite.

It's funny because I dug through my tackle box when I got my kayak and found a bag of long jelly worms, they still work!

I'd love to see a striper crush a frog
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[DZ]

Originally Posted by Zeal

DZ what size hook is that and what weight for that senko setup? I actually have a similar way but not quite.

It's funny because I dug through my tackle box when I got my kayak and found a bag of long jelly worms, they still work!

I'd love to see a striper crush a frog
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Zeal - this setup was 3/4 oz worm weight, 7/0 or 8/0 Mustad jig hook used with the largest size (7 inch) Senkos or Bass Pro knockoffs called Stik-Os. Black or purple.

[bobber]

a big tube bait would be a great squid imitation.....

[chris L]

Originally Posted by Fish On

Largemouth fish story. Now that I’m married and have a little boy I’m relegated to lake fishing at our cottage in New Hampshire. I only dream about the ocean and live vicariously through you guys and the posts I read here which are great. Our lake (Mendums) was drained 30 feet last year to fix the 175 year old earthen dam which they did an awesome job on. Lake was completely full this year. I was very worried that a lot of the fish would have disappeared downstream with the big draining in the fall of 2015, but the fishing this year has been one of the best year’s I can remember. Lake is mostly a large and smallmouth fishery. We used to have chain pickerel but I haven’t seen one in several years. We did catch a first for us in 50+ years (owned the cottage since 1965) when we brought in a black crappie this summer. I had to look it up to be sure. It was quite large and a very good fight.
I’ve been teaching my son to fish on the lake and he loves to troll. He is constantly asking me to take him out trolling. He’s developed a really good cast with his mini-rod (Zebco type real) and to my astonishment he landed a nice size largemouth this summer all by himself. He was dragging a jitterbug in the middle of the day while I was giving a couple guests a tour. I was popping the boat in and out of gear to reduce the speed (Jitterbugs do best for us at a VERY slow speed) when he got a big hit. Here is the video of the catch. At first I thought it was a smallmouth because of the frequent jumps. Please forgive that this is a bit of a brag post, but I’m sure all the Dads out there understand how proud we are of our kids. He is just 4 years old. Try to ignore how excited I was for him. I definitely got a little carried away wanting him to land it. Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/UGd3_Xn5n2Q

AWESOME !!! It is good to be proud ! I have some of the best memories of my girls fishing and catching large fish . They are now older now 19 and 23 but I do get to fish with each of them a couple times a year .

He is hooked for life !

[Zeal]

I'd be interested to see an underwater reaction stripers and a shaky head setup.

I've always toyed with the idea of using the carolina rig but the amount of weight to put as a slider sinker would be nuts

[Fish On]

Chris/Ed, thanks so much. I never understood what it meant to be a Dad until I became one. So much fun seeing him enjoy and discover new things especially with fishing.

So let me take largemouth back a generation. Here are two photo's of my Dad (my original fishing mentor and hero) with his two biggest largemouth bass. As I remember, one weighed 5 3/4 lbs and one was 6 lbs. Both of these are caught at the same lake as my son's recent largemouth but almost 45 years earlier. The first, I believe was the smaller of the two, was caught in 1973. It was caught on a yellow flatfish visible in the picture. There is a second photo of it being measured at almost 2 feet. My Dad released this fish and it swam away to spite having been out of the water for quite a while. Largemouth are so resilient. I can remember my Dad saying that we should have eaten that fish, but I think he felt good that he let it go.

The second, I believe is the larger of the two, but I have no picture of it measured. It was caught a year or two later. This one was caught on a rebel and it was cleaned, frozen and served as the main course of a big sunday dinner later that fall. I can remember everyone saying how good it tasted.

Both fish were caught on 6 lb test and on the troll. My Dad always liked a light line for casting and feel.

I've seen many largemouth caught at our lake and heard of many others since but have never seen or heard of two bigger largemouth bass than these that have come out of this lake. He was quite the freshwater fisherman.

[Zeal]

Originally Posted by Fish On

Chris/Ed, thanks so much. I never understood what it meant to be a Dad until I became one. So much fun seeing him enjoy and discover new things especially with fishing.

So let me take largemouth back a generation. Here are two photo's of my Dad (my original fishing mentor and hero) with his two biggest largemouth bass. As I remember, one weighed 5 3/4 lbs and one was 6 lbs. Both of these are caught at the same lake as my son's recent largemouth but almost 45 years earlier. The first, I believe was the smaller of the two, was caught in 1973. It was caught on a yellow flatfish visible in the picture. There is a second photo of it being measured at almost 2 feet. My Dad released this fish and it swam away to spite having been out of the water for quite a while. Largemouth are so resilient. I can remember my Dad saying that we should have eaten that fish, but I think he felt good that he let it go.

The second, I believe is the larger of the two, but I have no picture of it measured. It was caught a year or two later. This one was caught on a rebel and it was cleaned, frozen and served as the main course of a big sunday dinner later that fall. I can remember everyone saying how good it tasted.

Both fish were caught on 6 lb test and on the troll. My Dad always liked a light line for casting and feel.

I've seen many largemouth caught at our lake and heard of many others since but have never seen or heard of two bigger largemouth bass than these that have come out of this lake. He was quite the freshwater fisherman.

Those are absolute MONSTERS. Can't believe people actually eat them though

[Tattoo]

Bumping this to see if anyone knows of local builders making swim baits for Largemouth. I've recently becoming infected with swim bait fever.

[Higgie]

Chef Chris makes some sick looking swimbaits for lmb
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