Hi Ryan! I enjoyed your fish pictures! To answer some of your questions.... The largemouth bass and smallmouth bass you caught are both in a category commonly referred to as "black bass." My favorite place to fish for them is in the California Delta, where I like to use floating bass bugs so I can see the explosive strike and spray of water -- very exciting! If you can make it out to the Delta during the summer and fall and work a topwater bass bug along the edges of thick weed mats (on the side bordering deeper water), you can have a blast catching largemouths fairly consistently. Believe me, you won't have to be "really good" to be successful. A very effective way to do this (there are others) is to cast a topwater bass bug to the edge of the weed mat, wait for the water rings to disappear, and then pause for a moment. Then make the bug "pop" by very quickly pulling on your line and then, once again, wait for the rings to disappear and pause for a moment. Then give the bass bug a good double "pop" (in other words, two quick pops in a row) and then pause. If a bass hasn't hit it by then, pick up the bass bug and cast it to a different spot and repeat the pause/pop/pause/pop, pop/pause retrieve. If you keep moving and don't stay glued to one spot, you will catch one or more bass in the Delta just about every time you go with this strategy. I can't guarantee you'll catch a big bass but you never know and you will have fun. Of course, there are other retrieves that can be very effective too and other types of cover (besides weed mats) that attract bass. Sometimes, the bass are more interested in a fly retrieved underwater, like your woolly bugger or a Clouser. In any case, if you fish a certain local water most of the time, keep notes on "what" (fly, retrieve) worked "where" (specific cover, water deth, etc.), "when" (time of year, time of day) and under "what conditions" (weather, water temperature, etc.) You'll figure out that certain pieces or areas of cover will always hold bass and what APPEARS to be identical sections of cover won't. But patterns generally repeat themselves and you will eventually figure out your piece of water like putting together pieces of a puzzle. Good luck and hope to see more pictures of your results!
-- Mike
Chuck Norris has already been to Mars; that's why there are no signs of life.
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