The Starting Spot: Ish Monroe Wins, a 9+ Pound Oregon Spot, and Smallmouth Getting Bigger

In case you didn’t know, these Starting Spot Daily Bass Fishing Headlines are the perfect way to start your day with some of the top bass fishing articles on the internet. As always, these go great with a hot cup of coffee.

Ish Monroe Wins BAM Pro/Am West at the California Delta

by Bass Resource

Per reporting on BassResource.com: The past three days were everything that pro angler Ish Monroe of Oakdale, Calif. could have wanted as the final stop of the BAM Trail’s West Division’s Pro/Am presented by Tackle Warehouse and the City of Oakley played out on his home water the California Delta at his preferred time of year. 

By scales closing on Championship Sunday, Monroe had bagged another 23.48 for the day, notching a tournament total of 62.79, hoisting the champion’s trophy and pocketing $9,250 including $250 contingence from Bass Boat Technologies for the W. Ish will also take home Skeeter Real Money, Yamaha Power Play, Power Pole Captains Cash and Costa bringing his winnings to $25k

My take: Ah, this takes me back to a simpler time. Ish Monroe, one of the great power fishermen of the sport, winning a tournament with a frog a punch bait and a ChatterBait on the California Delta. He says he didn’t even have a spinning rod in the boat. Honestly, I don’t have anything against spinning rods and finesse tactics, but personally I love fishing power techniques.

Find Out Why This 9.2-pound Spotted Bass Isn’t an Oregon Record

by Bob McNally -Wired2Fish

Per reporting by Bob McNally at Wired2Fish: Using a light 7-foot Daiwa spinning rod with matching Daiwa spinning reel and 10-pound-test braided line, Buller had to play the bass carefully so as not to lose it. Finally, he got the fish close to his bass boat, grabbed it, and brought it aboard.

“It was the biggest spotted bass I’d ever held, and I was freaking out,” he said. “I weighed it on two scales. My hand scale showed 9.2 pounds. My friend Stefan Zeltvay was on the lake that day and he had a hand scale that weighed the bass at 9.3 pounds.”

My take: If nothing else, go take a look at the photo of this spotted bass. It’s a super-plump beast! And I don’t want to spoil the story for you, but it isn’t a record because of a technicality with Oregon state officials. I’m not a biologist, so I’m not going to make a big stand against their policies. But, the fish definitely lived and grew in their state, so it seems kind of weird for them to act like this fish doesn’t exist. Anyway, the angler, 21-year old, Joshua Buller, seems to have a good attitude about it and congrats to him on an absolutely giant bass.

Why smallmouth bass are getting bigger in Michigan waterways

by Victoria Witke -Capital News Service / WCMU.org

Per reporting by Victoria Witke at Capital News Service | WCMU: Smallmouth bass in Lake St. Clair are considerably bigger than they were a couple decades ago, due primarily to the fact that more anglers release them and therefore they live longer.

My take: This is some pretty amazing news. While they do go on to say that there may actually be several factors which contribute to their growing bass size, like greatly improved water quality through reduced pollution, changing water temps, and the introduction of the goby, the popularity of catch-and-release for this species plays a huge role. But regardless of the exact cause, bigger smallmouth bass sounds great to me!