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Ok, perhaps I am totally out to lunch here, but I have a serious question for all of the bass anglers out there. Is it just me and my friends, or has there been a massive sharp decline in large sized bass and even species over the past 2 years. Here is my hypothesis and supporting piece of evidence. Hypothesis: The record cold and winters that we had 2 years ago severly impacted the population of aging bass and in some northern locals nearly eliminated populations of largemouth bass. Or a natural culling cycle is occuring. -In the years 2008-2013...it went without question that in the Pointe Au Baril area, i could consistently catch largemouth bass in certain honey holes that I could frequent. No harvesting of bass was ever done in these spots, nor did I ever witness other anglers specifically targeting these fish in these locations over a 6 year period of time. That was until last summer where I became totally perplexed by the decline in the largemouth population in the Pointe Au Baril area. Last year I caught a grand total of 2 largemouth bass in an entire year. -The MNR was conducting a study in the Pointe Au Baril area of fishing rates and catches for the entire year. I routinely ran into the MNR every weekend I angled for the entire year. The one student (I cant recall his name now) was in the boat every weekend and by the end of the summer his weekly visit to my boat always included some additional fishing talk. I sure enough inquired to him about bass catch rates and he indicated that out of the entire year, he had a grand total tally of 4 largemouths being caught in the entire PAB area by all anglers over the course of the entire year. (incredible) -My main fishing homie has a spot on upper buckhorn. He consistently fishes every single weekend from bass opener until thanksgiving. Last year his largest fish was a 3.5 largemouth bass. The trailer record for the entire year was 4.5lbs and I would put their family catch numbers for the year well over 800. The pattern has held this year and he has yet to break the 4lb mark. In previous years it was without question that him along with with father and dads best friend would consistently boat 4lb bass with at least a few 5lbers all the way up to 7 lbers on an annual basis. - I spent approximately 45 hours this past week targeting smallmouth bass. I would estimate that myself along with my fishing buddy boated over 60 fish over the course of the week. Out of these 60 fish, the largest was 3lbs 1oz I was just reading a report and noticed that fisherpete said he fished rice this past weekend and caught 25 fish and the biggest largie he could muster was 3lbs...Ive also had some PM conversations with other members here that consistently boat big bass and they had indicated that the size of fish was way way down. so I put this out to all you bass fishers out there...is something going on? Is this just a natural cycle? Did those 2 unusually cold winters do something or am i just cookoo? Where the Nicklebass at Tho?! holla at me!