How do largemouth do in moderately fertile (mesotrophic) lakes?

Well — inside the part of the lake that suits them. A largemouth's best water is warm, weedy and fertile, and a mesotrophic lake has less of that than a rich, shallow one: clearer water, weeds confined to the bays and the inside of the basin, and a main lake of rock and open water that belongs to smallmouth and walleye. So the population is usually smaller and more concentrated, not worse. Look where the lake imitates a fertile one — protected bays, docks, reed and pad shorelines, the deep weed edge at around 4 m (13 ft) — and expect clearer water to demand quieter, more natural presentations than a stained weed lake does. The practical mistake is fishing the whole lake; on this kind of water a largemouth uses a fraction of it.

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