Artificial Lure here with your weekly bass buzz, coast to coast and straight from the boat ramp.

Notable catches first: Serious Angler’s “Seriously Western” just had Steve Jenkins on talking about a potential 16.57-pound Arizona largemouth that could challenge the state record. He credits big gizzard shad and a live sonar game on desert impoundments like Saguaro, Canyon, Apache, and Roosevelt—wild rebound stories after golden algae kills. If you like technical fly fishing, think long casts to bait-schooled wolfpacks and intercepting current seams off points with sink-tip streamers—fast strips, big profiles, don’t blink.

Tournament scene: AnglersChannel reports Kyle Kitts won the Phoenix Bass Fishing League event on the Arkansas River at Muskogee with 17-8, a legit summertime bag on a stingy system. That tells you shallow current, shade lines, and eddies are producing—perfect for a 6- to 8-weight with Clousers swung through seams at first light. Meanwhile, The National Professional Fishing League’s 2025 season is heading toward a Logan Martin stop in late September and a Lake Hartwell championship in October, so expect finesse and forward-facing sonar on roaming spotted bass to stay in the headlines.

Hot spots this week:
- Midwest river smallies: The Iowa DNR’s Aug. 7 statewide report says water levels and clarity are improving on the Upper Iowa, Turkey, and Cedar rivers. Smallmouth are fair to good in back eddies and current edges—textbook fly water. Toss buoyant baitfish patterns into soft pockets, then mend and let them swing.
- Okoboji chain, IA: West Okoboji is reporting good largemouth of good size with mid-70s water temps. Weedline edges are the play—work swim flies or deer-hair divers over the deep weed wall mid-morning when the sun pins bluegill.
- Lake Erie, PA: VisitErie notes it’s consistently ranked among top bass destinations in the U.S., and summer brings big bronzebacks along Presque Isle and main-lake humps. Go deep with full-sinking lines over rock in 20–35 feet, counting down to marks. Bonus: you can hop a local charter to learn the structure game.
- Georgia curveball: GON reports Lake Oconee’s cooler-than-normal August temps have the topwater bite firing—rare for this month. If you’re fly-curious, that’s your green light for chuggers at dawn along seawalls and shad spawning pockets.

News you can use:
- Fisheries management: Saving Seafood reports the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission advanced a new plan for Chesapeake striped bass rebuilding by 2029, with updated quotas and rec regs. If you’re chasing tidal largemouth in the Potomac or Upper Bay grass, expect more attention on bait abundance and heat-related fish care—good reminders to keep fish wet and shorten fight times.
- Hatchery boost: Florida’s Richloam State Fish Hatchery shared they’re raising hybrid striped bass for statewide stocking. While that’s not your largemouth or smallmouth, it juices mixed-bag urban and reservoir action—carry a sink-tip and a white-over-chartreuse baitfish and you’re covered.

Regional reality checks:
- Texas heat dome: The Victoria Advocate says August bass in many Texas lakes push deep. Fly angle? Go dawn patrol on points with bait, or night flies on riprap with black bunny leeches. Daytime, consider suspending gamechangers on long leaders and let them hang over brush in 20+ feet.
- Summer fish care: The NPFL has summertime fish care tips circulating—use them. Barbless hooks, keep-em-wet, quick photos. Hot water is unforgiving.

Fly-curious crossover kit for late summer:
- 7–8 wt rod, intermediate and type 3–6 sink lines.
- Clousers, gamechangers, deceivers, and small “Ned-fly” jig patterns for spots.
- Surface: small poppers and pencil-style sliders for surprise topwater windows like Oconee’s.

Thanks for tuning in—come back next week for more. This has been a Quiet Please...

Artificial Lure here, and if you’re a diehard bass fan, I hope you’re sitting down—because this week’s bass news has been enough to get even the laid-back fly folks buzzing.

Kicking things off, all eyes were glued to Saginaw Bay, Michigan this weekend for the Toyota Stage 7 of the MLF Bass Pro Tour. Tennessee’s very own Hatfield tore through the knockout round, yanking big largemouth out of shallow reeds and making the smallmouth bites look pretty meek by comparison. Hatfield even joked, “My hands hurt and my ribs hurt from setting the hook, but it’s awesome.” Imagine rib pain from big bass—now that’s a good problem to have! The MLF event has been a power fishing spectacle: swim jigs, bladed jigs and even some topwater getting brutal hits, with shallow cover and moving bass schools keeping pros scrambling minute-to-minute. If you’re looking to fish like a pro, Saginaw’s emergent weeds and offshore grass are the ticket right now—just bring some sturdy gear, and maybe a wrist brace, just in case, like Hatfield.

Over on the Bassmaster Elite stage, Trey McKinney grabbed the spotlight at Lake St. Clair, another legendary basin straddling Michigan and Ontario. St. Clair has a knack for producing monster bags of smallmouth, and this week has been no exception with the top sticks hauling in fat bronzebacks. The Elite crowd raved about how crucial forward-facing sonar has become for finding and following roving smallmouth, but don’t think you can’t get them with more classic presentations if you know the sweet spots—think drop shot, tubes, and, dare we say, a well-placed fly pattern that mimics a goby.

On the grassroots front, some seriously fun stuff is happening for “locals only” types and weekend warriors with the Bill Dance Nationwide Giant Bass Open. Here’s the deal: you don’t need a giant bass boat or a monster entry fee—$44.99 a year gets you in. Fish your region, log your best catches (by length or weight), and you’re in the draw for monthly cash and even a shot at a 21-foot Ranger and a Ford F-250 when the year wraps. Bill Dance is giving away a championship in Tennessee if 50,000 anglers sign up. Every entry is on public water, artificial lures only (hey, fly fans—flies count!), and there’s a bonus if you’re swinging for one of the country’s true giants in Texas, California, or Florida. If you’ve ever dreamed of that once-in-a-lifetime cast turning into something big, now’s your chance.

Out west, Colorado wrapped up its Smallmouth Bass Classic at Ridgway Reservoir. This event helps control the invasive smallmouth population, but the action is fierce with $20,000 up for grabs and the entire tournament open to anglers of all skill levels. There’s no entry fee, just a park pass and a license, and the word on the water is smallmouth there are stacking up in deeper water—a prime opportunity for anyone who likes chucking streamers or big poppers and watching the take.

Late summer is keeping the bite fired up all over—from the deep waters of Ohio to lakes across Iowa and Pennsylvania, where reports are rolling in of steady catches as fish chase bait out over structure. Illinois and Wisconsin anglers are also finding bass hanging around docks, weed lines, and drop offs—a little daytime heat isn’t slowing them down.

Keep your eyes peeled for upcoming action on the Connecticut tournament trail, with Lake Lillinonah, Lake Zoar, and the Connecticut River all hosting events in August and October. Local clubs are getting after it in a big way, so if you want to test your skills or just watch the weigh-in action, grab your coffee and come hang out.

That wraps it up for this week in bass country—thanks for tuning in with Artificial Lure. Come back next week for another dose of the best, weirdest, and wildest from the world of bass fishing. This has been a Quiet Please production—for more, check out Quiet Please Dot A I. See you on the water!

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Artificial Lure here, coming to you with the latest buzz from the world of bass fishing in the USA. If you think the summer heat is making the bass sleepy, think again—big catches and hot spots are popping up everywhere and the stories are just as juicy as a fresh topwater frog at sunrise.

First off, let’s talk notable catches. This week, Brandon Branham raised some eyebrows with an absolute tank out of Paintsville—an 8.56lb largemouth measuring a whopping 24.25 inches long. That beast was landed in late fall on the heels of a couple years of Threadfin shad stocking, and it’s got Kentucky anglers dreaming big for their next cast. Massachusetts is also putting up numbers in the Freshwater Sportfishing Awards, with recent leaders seeing a 23.5-inch largemouth caught in Cheshire Reservoir and a 23-inch smallmouth hauled from Assawompset Pond. These aren’t stories from some dusty record book—they’re fresh this August.

Now, if you’re looking for where to go catch your own bragging-rights bass, this summer is showing signs that the North is calling. Minnesota’s Leech Lake, Lake Mille Lacs, and Lake Winnibigoshish are seeing stellar bass action right now. According to Jeff Sundin’s latest Minnesota Fishing Reports, bass are moving deep, chasing cooler water and cover as temps rise. Weed edges, cabbage beds, and deeper humps are the local’s picks. Whether you’re working jerkbaits, soft plastics, or tossing a ned rig, the bite is consistent and the fish are feeding heavy after the spawn.

Out east, Saginaw Bay, Michigan just played host to an MLF Bass Pro Tour slugfest where Edwin Evers smashed 88 scorable bass (over 2 pounds) and stacked up more than 200 pounds over two days. What’s cool? He did it almost entirely on topwater buzzbaits, proving that fishing skill—not just tech—is what lands the giants. For those who love in-your-face summer action, buzzbaits and frogs around weed mats have been money from Michigan down to Georgia’s Lake Allatoona, where guides are shifting attention from main lake to those fall transition zones as bass start to move.

As for the pros, the top series have brought some unexpected drama in 2025. The National Professional Fishing League just went nuclear and banned forward-facing sonar (FFS) outright. Major League Fishing took a lighter approach, tightening restrictions rather than going full old-school. The result? Suddenly, the focus is back on fishing roots. Skill matters, and anglers left staring at sonar screens are now learning to read water like the rest of us diehards.

But not everything’s sunshine and lunkers. The cost of boats and basic tackle is sky-high thanks to tariffs and economic pressures. Local tournaments are feeling the squeeze, and participation is dipping with fewer boats on the ramps, leaving many weekend warriors wishing for a more accessible scene. MLF is shrinking its 2026 pro field to just 51 anglers, angling for exclusivity, but a lot of us are just hoping for a return to the gritty, fun fishing that got us hooked in the first place.

For fly fishing folks, this summer is primo: Deep weed lines, drop-offs, and shaded pockets are loaded, and poppers, streamers, and big bugs are triggering aggressive strikes. Even if you’re strictly fly, there’s no better time to experiment, especially as the heat drives bass to ambush mode in cover and cool water.

So, whether you’re pitching soft plastics in northern weed beds, tossing a frog into a southern cypress, or working topwater on a glass-calm morning, now’s the time. The big fish are biting, the scene is shaking up, and if you’ve got a rod, there’s a story waiting at your local spot.

Thanks for tuning in to this week’s Artificial Lure report—come back next week for more action, drama, and monster bass tales. This has been a Quiet Please production. For more, check out Quiet Please Dot A I. Stay hooked!

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