These "things " as you call them are literally in every pond / lake in the willamette valley. Although TRs place is well extrordinary , with practice and persistance 4-6lb Bass can be caught on many baits in almost every body of water with any size, Jigs and swimbaits are the prefered big bass baits though. Things have actually been slow spring is taking way tooo long to get here, but the fish seem to be as impatient as the fishermen now they have to eat to gain energy to spawn . My advise search the threads for PDX locations and somegear advise then quit typing turn off the computer and put in some hours on the water throwing baits till your arms hurt , the more time with a rod in your hand the better you will become at catching these "things" we tend to call them and I quote LM bass , donks , pigs, tanks ,ditch pickles, bucketmouths. Good luck and also remember we generally dont take a bunch of pics of the 20-30 smaller bass we catch between each biggun.