Aug 11, 2002 By Rod Schoener 4 min read

It’s that time of year when fishermen should seek out largemouth bass. While not as abundant as smallmouths, largemouth bass are great battlers and can be found on many area impoundments, especially farm ponds.

They feed at most any time of day, but fishing in the early morning and early evening hours is most productive. Fishing late into the night, or even all night, is most popular this time of year.

Live bait, such as minnows and soft-shell crabs, can be very productive, but my choice is crankbaits, especially topwater crank baits.

I try to find a spot that is shaded from the sun, enticing baitfish to congregate.

Then I start throwing topwater lures at them, hoping to find one that gets their attention.

I think largemouths bite as frequently out of sheer aggravation as they do from hunger.

My favorite topwater lures are Tiny Torpedoes and Sputterbuzz when fishing open water. I also have a collection of stick baits from various manufactures in many colors with one and two propeller blades.

Not only do I have many different types, but I also have various colors. I start with light-colored lures in the morning, go to various color patterns in the afternoon and fish dark-colored lures such solid black, red or dark green at night.

These lures seem to get the attention of largemouths.

When I find bass in areas with thick vegetation, especially lily pads, I sometimes throw weedless imitation mice and frogs onto the lily pads and pull them off into the water.

Frogs jumping into the water, or a mouse just falling in, are too much temptation for a large bass to pass up at times.

One trick I read about years ago was to put a mouse on a piece of wood and float it toward that spot where you suspect, or know, largemouths hold while waiting for a passing meal such as a stickup, a dock or some submerged structure.

When the log floats over the bass’ lair, pull the mouse off the piece of wood and start a slow, but erratic, retrieve to attract the bass’ attention and give the impression the mouse is in trouble.

I use live bait when fishing with my son or daughter, but when fishing alone, I prefer to use artificial lures. However, one sure way to get a bass’ attention, especially in a smaller impoundment, is with a minnow or shiner.

The ultimate killers are soft-shell crabs, which can be seined from local creeks or purchased from your favorite bait shop, when available.

Locally, Dunlap Creek Lake, Virgin Run Dam, Green Lick and Mill Run Reservoir, Duke Lake and the Waynesburg reservoir are excellent largemouth bass fisheries.

Cranberry Glade Lake, which lies just across the Fayette County border in Somerset County, was considered southwestern Pennsylvania’s premier largemouth bass fishery when I was a youth and still ranks up there with traditional bass anglers.

The 112-acre lake has standing timber in the water and a good population of largemouth bass.

Cross Creek Lake in Washington County was built as a walleye and largemouth bass fishery. The 258-acre 1ake is owned by the county, and a county boating permit is required. For information on Cross Creek Lake call 724-228-6867.

Another Somerset County fishery, which the Fish and Boat Commission says could become the best bass lake in the state, is Quemahoning Reservoir.

The lake was opened to public fishing in 2000 after being a private preserve for decades.

I have yet to fish at Quemahoning, but we used to check it out when duck hunting in the area when I was a youngster.

We couldn’t shoot any ducks there, but the ducks on the lake were always tenfold over what we saw the rest of the day in all our stops combined, including Cranberry.

If the bass population mirrors the number of ducks that used to stopover at Quemahoning, It should be worth checking out. The PFBC does have big bass and panfish enhancement regulations in effect at the lake.

If you get a chance, check out the largemouth bass action. It usually just gets better as fall approaches.

DOE LICENSES: Pennsylvania county treasurers began accepting antlerless deer license applications last Monday. If you’re like me and haven’t purchased a license yet, do so soon before antlerless deer license allocations begin to dwindle.