So the last 3 trips to lake pat have produced 22,12, and 13 fish but only 4 keepers and only 2 fish over 3 pounds... I feel like I've got the numbers game figured... 42 of the 47 fish were caught on the same 2 patterns but anybody have any ideas on how to upgrade the size of my fish?

use a larger bait or get back a little further into some deeper water, i would try the deeper water first

The bad, jokes are swimming in my head! seriously, Moore1 has it right. If you have a hard time working the depths, go into the deepest weediest creeks you can find and hit cover in the very backs. Some large fish will stay in the backs of creeks. I have found that depth is a relative thing to fish. The ones that stay way back in the nasty areas, will move from 2ft to 6ft, if that is what they are used to and they have adequate oxygen.

Change your screen name to LunkerSlayer...you just never know...

lol...hmmm the screen name might work... I did catch a catfish 2 of the last three bass tourneys I fished. power of positive thinking idk lol

get some magnifying reading glasses and an ultralight pole... then at least they will seem bigger!

Just kidding, when im looking for the bigger bites i slow down, upsize my lures (sometimes), find key areas/structures etc... that are known hold bigger bass. I also concentrate more on deeper water but I agree with dreamer and i dont ever pass up good shallow water spots either, sometimes the big girls stay shallow or at least close to shallow water.

My guess would be post-spawn has shut down the patterns your accustomed to fishing (at least for the bigger fish) and the big ones are either in lockjaw mode (they havent started feeding up following the spawn) or they are deeper than your fishing??

And this brings the problem to the top. I still need to learn how to fish deeper water. I've been fishing shallow most of my life. The whole process of using electronics to find humps, brushpiles etc. to find fish in 10-25 feet is a huge learning curve. Fishing to something you can't see in the middle of the lake is strange! I'm working on it though. If it will help me go from 1-2 pound fish, to 2-5 pound fish, (with an occasional bigger fish I hope) I'll keep trying to learn.

Hire a guide who can show you how to use your electronics. While there are some always shallow, your bigger fish will generally be off-shore on harder to locate structure.

Pull off where you're catching the little ones and zig zag out deeper to see if you can locate a secondary ledge or drop off. I've been getting results using big jigs this year with craw trailers. If you locate a drop-off, throw a marker or 2 out and fish it slowly. You won't get near as many bites but the ones you do get will likely be much better fish.

I have found that after you find these offshore structures (a good topo map and a navionics chip help A LOT) that laying out a marker buoy hleps me to stay confident. I am a visual fisherman and it sounds like you are as well. A marker buoy helps me to stay oriented(sp) all the way around the hump, not just in one area. I have three and put them all around (but not on top of) the structure. Hope this helps.

Alec Cochran

Inject the fish with HGH and watch them grow before your very eyes...It works for Baseball Players IE Barry Bonds

Serious, I suspect your are using a finesse bait. And with those kinds of numbers the fish seem to be more active than you think.. I would try bigger baits and deeper. Slow Roll a Spinner Bait works everytime..

I FOUND a big one... in the working man tourney last night at lake pat I hooked a fish that was 5 easy... When my partner reached for him he did a little wiggle and chunked the hook right into my partners nose... Would have been in the money if I coulda got her dang it... and I agree SoCal Tom the deep water learning curve is STEEP

Fishing deep water is not always the answer for finding bigger fish. I would suggest to really pay close attention to detail on the bigger fish you catch and try to duplicate the "pattern within the pattern". Alot of times the bigger fish will be shallow, but in the nastiest and most heavy cover they can find, sometimes the stuff you dont even try to fish because its so thick... Thats why they get big, half the time you cant even get a lure to them.

big lure=big fish