Some fish are shallow ALL the time and during any time of the year.  This does not mean they are on beds.  There are thousands of studies on the web on bedding bass and they DO NOT spawn in 50 degree water, they can be shallow looking like they are on beds, but the science does not back it up.  Basspro and Flippin' Tech will not convince me of spawning fish in Potholes at 50-52 degree water, ever,  so we will have to agree to disagree.

Good Luck this week-end, Nick!!

Maybe you guys should be looking at all the fry at the holes right now that have been swimming around there for a few weeks.

Bass,

Just let Kirk keeping thinking that way so I can continue to stick more fish than he does at the Potholes open.

Russ

I am not too sure about you.  Can't have a decent argument/discussion anymore without stupid comments.  The fry that are generally present at Potholes right now are walleye and perch.  There was likely a decent spawn during the May moon phase and fast warming water temps during the hot spell two weeks ago and more will occurr in June.  I also mentioned that I thought they could be on beds at 50 degrees, but logically LM bass will not spawn until the water temp holds between 61-64 degrees and the moon phase is correct.  This science has been applied since the beginning of warmwater biology.  ALthough I did not fish the Potholes Open this year, I spent 18 hours pre-fishing for it and NEVER saw a fish shallow until the day before the Open.  I was catching all of my fish on jigs in the rough.  My guess is I would have caught at least 25 lbs each day based on what I was catching during pre-fishing.

For those "confused ones",
  Connor and I spent all day Saturday on Potholes. Both Smallie and Largie fishing.  If you guys want an "honest" fishing report, here goes.  We saw probably 25 LM swimming around in shallow water but not a single fish guarding a bed.  Connor and I didn't even catch a single LM and Con and I DO know how to catch bedding LM.  As far as the Smallies go, the spawn IS ON!  We saw dozens of beds and caught the fish off of nearly every bed.  We did NOT, however, see any of the "black pepper" in the water that IS SM fry.  So.......  There you go, don't care what you all read, that's what we saw and that's what I'd report if someone asked me what is going on at Potholes.  BTW, Scootney IS worth the extra hours drive!!!  Connor was catching LM's all day on a top water Lucky Craft.  I caught them on a Brush Hawg and down there, they were spawning!!!!!

Well, here is my recap from Potholes.
As for LM: Yes there was extreme amounts of fry in the dunes. Walleye, perch and BASS fry. I even managed to see a school of roughly 2 month old bass fry. There were Largemouths all over protecting fry, unfortunately, I did not find an effective way to catch them consistently and catch 5 a day, so I did not spend much time with them in the tournament. My backseater did catch a 2 lb. Largie back in the dunes for the 3 hours total we were there. Warmest water in dunes was 73-74F

As for smallies: I went after them most of the tournament. I did not find many productive areas for smallies in practice but during the tournament looked at some areas that might work. Caught a 4 pound smallie early sat. morning. After missing some bites (probably short fish) I was only able to come in with 9.25 for 4 fish, all on a Yamamoto DT Hula Grub and a dropshotted KGM Slinky w/ 3/16 oz Quickdrops. On Sunday, I just went fishing for big smallies in big smally areas, because I would at least need 23 pounds to win, I shot for the fences with smallmouth. I had a couple of rats in the morning 7:30AM on the rockpile with the grub and spinnerbait. Then I ran to some main lake bed areas later in the day when I could see them. Caught 1 fish on a bed, the rest were deeper, caught about 6 smallmouth and 1 largemouth. The LM was caught in 20 feet of water (WIERD????). They were on the Slinky and Hula Grub. I actually saw 1 school of fry, which I do not know if were walleye or what, but looked like smallie fry.
Lost one 2+ lb smallmouth, when I dropped the bait in about 5 feet of water over the side to get a loop out and I reel up a fish is on it and I lift up to bring it in the boat and it popped off. Could never get rid of that 1 last rat fish all day. Ended up weighing 4 smallmouth and 1 LM for 10.55 lbs. not bad, but not nearly good enough. It landed me with 19.80 lbs. for 2 days and 4th place, 9/100ths of a pound out of 3rd.

The tournament was won with 32 pounds. All Largemouth which included a 6 lber. Thank you everyone who helped me with some advice. Pictures to come.

Out on Potholes for a couple hrs. with a buddy yesterday on our way back from Banks. we caught two smallies mine 3.4 his 3.15, 28ft. draging tubes.... Tried for walley but they didn't want to play.. water temp 45.3*

Buddy and I were deer hunting around steamboat, took a long shot at one (went just over it's back), lotst of company.    We fished the rocks outside the day ramp for walleye for a couple hrs. hooked 2 lost the first one 10ft from the boat looked to be around 30inch, then broke another bigger one off. Looking at the line it looked like it ran me around a rock..   Still looking for my 6lber...