i had thought that myself (about the 25" bass being bad info.) but I have seen in person a 19.5" largemouth pulled out of there. But the guy was fishing in a boat and said he had never caught bass that big off the bank. THe 25" could have been a striper, but could have also been a lot of b.s. Where about on the refuge were you catching these bass? I've tried a few things, live crawdads, jerkbaits, all kinds of rubber baits along reed lines and haven't gotta one so far. But couldn't just been a bad day....