"The lake has marginal water quality, so the milfoil doesn't grow very deep," Savik said. "This concentrates the fish in the milfoil that stretches from the shoreline into about 8 feet of water. Some of the best bass fishing can be where the downed timber on the shoreline meets the thick milfoil."

Often described as "toe-to-toe" bass fishing, you need a stout rod and heavy line. Combine this with a 3/4- to 1-ounce live-rubber jig tipped with a scented plastic trailer and you have the perfect combination for big O'Dowd largemouths.

"O'Dowd is not a deep lake," Savik said, "so there's no cover in deep water to concentrate on. Just start working the cover around the islands and all of the visible milfoil. O'Dowd has an impressive population of big bass, and they do like their heavy cover."

The access can be found on the west side off County Road 79, but get there early on weekends if you want a place to park. For more information, call MK Fishing at (952) 447-6096.

LAKE ANN
Just south of Howard Lake in Wright County is a small -- 380 acres -- body of water that gets plenty of back-trollers because of the large numbers of walleyes. Lake Ann doesn't see many bass anglers, and Savik is just fine with that.

"It's the perfect lake for a jig-worm," she said. "The vegetation settles down in about 10 feet of water, and there are a lot of bass in this zone. It's a lake where you can catch some big ones, too."

The jig-worm is simply a 1/8- to 1/4-ounce weedless jighead that is tipped with a scented plastic trailer.

"The jig-worm is so easy to use," Savik said. "You just cast it out to some cover, let it settle to the bottom and then drag, hop and swim the jig back to the boat."

Savik even rigs the worms sideways on the jig at times, where she inserts the hook about halfway down on the body of the worm so the plastic trailer runs perpendicular to the hook shank instead of parallel.

"You don't add any action to this presentation," Savik said. "Just cast it to the vegetation and let it slowly sink. The bass hit it as it drops."

For more regarding Lake Ann, contact the All-Season Sports at (763) 972-3112.

LAKE WASHINGTON
Matt Pretzel has a theory that besides the additional cover that milfoil provides, the reason that milfoil-laden lakes are productive big-bass fisheries is because not too many anglers are good at digging big bass out of this slop. He said Lake Washington just southeast of Litchfield is a good example.

"This lake was a decent bass lake with lots of smaller fish." Pretzel said. "Then along comes milfoil and now we're catching some big fish there. When you're on Washington, you see many boats working the deep edges of the points and inside turns, but no one is working right in the middle of the slop where the big fish are. That's where you need to be."