Yooper Needs Bass Tips

[catch2288]

Howdy All,

It's been approximately 30 years since I last fished. I recently got the itch to start fishing again and purchased a 12 foot jon boat with a trolling motor. I live in the Upper Penninsula of Michigan and there are 222 lakes in the county that I live in. I launched the boat for the first time last week at a relatively small lake and everything went great. It was a sunny hot humid day (90 degrees) which is unusual for the U.P. where the average summer temp is more like 70 degrees. Anyway, the lake has approximately 30 feet of thick lilly pads that surround the entire shoreline of the lake. There were smallmouths and largemouths jumping out of the water along the edges of the lilly pads like mad. My daughter and I were on the lake for approximately 3 hours during the late evening hours. We were casting jointed rapalas (J7) along the edges of the lilly pads and caught a total of 15 bass. It was an absolute blast. My only beef would be that all the bass were small in the 10-12 inch range. The little fishing experience I had as a youngster was primarily walleye fishing which is completely different than bass fishing. Needless to say the action was great enough to where I'm hooked on bass fishing now. The only cover on this particular lake are the lilly pads. There are no stumps or logs in the water. My question is what types of lures/baits and methods should I be using to entice some of the bigger bass that I'm certain are in the lake? Any tips would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.