Ed,
I just got done baggin on you for bein a saltwater largemouth fisherman, and look who posts on the freshwater board... Largemouths and Calicos do have some similarities, but they are different in many different ways. The main difference between fresh and salt bass are that calicos you can usually throw plastic in kelp or rocks and catch em. Largemouth are more pissy, they have more moods, they require more patterns, they do different stuff depending on temp., clarity, weather etc. Calico do this to an extent, but it's much more dramatic in largemouths. And that's why guys fish solely for bass, because it's constantly changing and you constantly have to figure out what pattern will work in what color, what size, what depth and where the fish are at. Most of bass fishing is mental, once you know what works, you can't go wrong. If they only want to eat a jig with a three shakes when it hits the bottom, then one long pull and a pause and three more shakes, and you can figure that out, you'll slay. The problem is figuring that out in the first place. So, trying to relate calicos to largemouths is tuff. However, they are bass. We all know that bass are bad ass fish that often sit in cover and ambush prey. Under normal conditions, a largemouth will probably be in some cover waiting for something to swim by and then ambush it. Much like calicos, no? The tough part is figurin out what the Lmouth wants to ambush, a crankbait, a spinnerbait, a jig, etc. With calicos it's plastic, livebait or iron. That's pretty much the extent of it. Like I said before, Lmouths are much more picky. They've got the basic bass instinct of hide and ambush, most of the time, but they also suspend, go deep, go shallow, cruise around and basically be complex. I don't expect you to completely understand Lmouth bass, as I don't believe I completely understand them, but I hope I could relate them to calico bass the best I could. There's also individual patterns that work best on individual lakes, so there's a never ending quest in bass fishing. And that's why I love it. I can't help you with current productive patterns on your lake, because I've never been there, but hopefully somebody out there can. Phew, you may not have realized it, but that was a really good question. Really got me thinkin. Good luck.
-Brian