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Had my boss and his son over today . Primary goal was bream. The 2nd bream Alex hooked , as he had it almost to the dock , a bass clobbered the bream and he hooked the bass right in the corner of the mouth!! First bass ! 4.06 pounds…

So, I fished the quality bog this morning and there was a problem: I am old. I only got four hours of sleep and I was just off my game this morning. When I was young, I could fish morning and evening, seven days a week. Now a morning preceded by an evening might be too much for me. For those who are still young, fish hard while you still can! I did catch three bass, but lost five and one of the five was big, in the four to five-pound range. I saw her thrash at the surface and she came unbuttoned right beside the boat. However, one of the three I caught was 20" and 4.89 lbs., so I'm happy about that, but those big, lost bass stick with me like my shadow. Here are the three fish I caught with the big girl photographed twice. P. S. - Look at the shape and the tail of the last bass. She's going to be big one day. P. P. S. - All bass, caught and lost, came on a loon-colored Whopper Plopper. My swimbait, wacky-rigged Senko, and Rage Swimmer didn't produce.

Saturday my youngest daughter graduated from the University of Tulsa with a B.S. in Environmental Policy. Mom and Dad are very proud! This is Amy standing at the bell in the center of the university. The tradition is that only the graduating seniors get to ring it.

First bass of the day was a good one. 27 inches, 10.76 pounds. It was only the third time I have been able to go bass fishing this year. I tried to go last Sunday to the lake I was at today, but the road was closed to the lake because of a bad buss accident, so I had to turn around and go home. Four hours of driving and I didn't even get a line wet. I planned on going to Trigomil for three days this weekend, but work got in the way of that trip. Finally last night my wife told me to go before I drove her crazy. I left at 3:00 AM and was fishing by 7:30. I Started off fishing a large tree in 25 feet of water with some surface lures, but not much going on the top. Ran a square bill around the outside of the tree nicking a few branches, but didn't want to throw in the middle of the tree until I had tried some more tree friendly lures first. I tossed a T rig Magnum Trick Worm in the middle of the large branches. and Felt a bite on the first cast. I set the hook and instantly new I hooked a good bass, but as soon as I felt the fish, I was stopped cold by a tree branch. I assumed the bass was gone and I was now fighting a tree, but then the line started to give a little, and I was in a seesaw battle with the bass wrapped around one or more branches. I would free spool and let the bass take line hoping he would unwind himself, then I would tighten up and pull all the while feeling the line go back and forth across the tree wondering when the line would snap. I pulled the anchor and tried getting on different sides, at different angles, but after 20 minuets trying every angle, I didn't feel the fish anymore and was sure I was simply wrapped on the tree. I got straight over the snag, wrapped the line around my hand and started to pull hard enough to break the line. About the time I was ready for the line to break, the bass started moving and was suddenly free. I grabbed the rod out of the holder, and faught the bass to the surface. I was surprised at it's size. I have caught bass this big off of the very same tree at the the same water level before, but had assumed if it couldn't be much over 6 pounds or it would have broken the line. I am glad I had respooled my line the night before. I was back to trying floro again, after swearing I would never use it again for the hundredth time, but I will say the 15 pound fluorocarbon was up to the task. Now for the real test, how well it performs next week after being stressed to the limit. The pictures tell the rest of the story. I landed a few smaller bass on a variety of lures, but was forced off the water by 1:30 because the afternoon West winds were exceptionally strong today, with gusts well over 30 mph. I didn't mind leaving early because I was sure I used up all of my luck and them some for one day.

I had the best bass fishing weekend of my life. I didn't get to the lake until mid morning on Friday, but my first bass was a 7.5 pounder caught on a Pop R. starting the trip off with a bang. I ended Friday with two 7.5 pound bass and a few in the 4 to 6 pound class. The two big ones came on a Pop R, and the rest split between a Mag Trick worm, and a 6th Sense Magnum Square Bill. Saturday I got an early start, for the day with a 5.5 pound bass on a T rig mag trick worm. I lost a giant on a Bacca Burrito, then had a dry stretch for an hour with no action. I tried another spot, and had a good one miss a spook, but I caught it with a follow up T rig worm. I guessed the bass to be around 5 pounds. I have marks on the side of my Kayak, for a quick measure. Most days I only weigh the bass that make the 24 inch mark. So anything less is just an estimate. I left that place but decided to go back there in the afternoon, when the wind picked up. There was a shelf that I hoped the bass would move up on with the wind. There was 6 to 8 feet of visibility and the bass were spooky, I marked some fish on the drop by the shelf in 22 feet, but couldn't get them to bite. I went to a bay close by after checking some points while catching a few smaller bass. I managed to catch my first bass of the day over 7 pounds pitching a worm in to a tree. After spending an hour pitching to trees for no more bites I decided to give up on bays for the day. At 11:30 the wind started blowing so I peddled over to the spot I picked for fishing in the afternoon. The day before I had tried to fish some offshore structure in the wind and was not able to stay on the spot. I was happy to find a place I thought I could drift by and still be able to present a moving bait effectively. I fished that shelf with a variety of baits with only one strike on a top water that I missed. The wind kept picking up making it difficult to maintain position, but I wasn't going to give up on the spot. It was then I decided to tie on a 3/4 ounce spinnerbait. I had never had any luck at this lake with spinnerbaits, and I usually like to fish crankbaits on rock, preferring to fish spinnerbaits in wood, and grass. The crankbaits weren't working, and I just can't resist the urge to give a spinnerbait a try whenever the wind is strong. First cast I hooked a big bass. while fighting the bass I looked down and saw 3 other bass attacking the blades on the spinnerbait hooked to my bass. I maneuvered to the lee side of an island where I could drop my anchor, land, weigh, and take pictures of the bass. It was well over 24 inches, and 7.9 pounds on the scale. The wind was getting stronger, and I noticed some current running through a slot on the shelf I was fishing. I had hoped some bass would move up on to the shelf, but didn't notice there was a slot that concentrated the wind driven current, this was only getting better. The first cast in the slot produced my next bass that was over 25 inches and weighed in at 10.1 pounds. After getting back in position, my next cast landed another one over 25 inches at 8.9 pounds. I lost the next bass when it jumped and it was in the same class as the previous fish. Then the bite stopped so I started drifting by wind blown points, and managed to land an 8.2 pound bass, as well as lost two more in the same size class all on the same worn out spinnerbait. The wind died down some in the evening, but the spinnerbait still hooked one more monster bass, but as others had that day, the hook came out on the second jump. The bass in this lake jump more than anywhere I have ever fished. Most days I would be devastated to loose a bass over 7 pound's but It didn't bother me in the least. I also landed a few bass that didn't make the 24 inch cut, that I estimate were between 4 and 6 pounds. I went back to camp with a big smile, and memories that will last forever. Saturday's catch total. 7.9 8.2 8.9 10.1 7.6

Broke my PB this evening fishing that same little popper. Had tried several different baits but no interest until I tossed this little guy. 6.14 according to the scale. It tried to get underneath the pier to break me off but I grabbed the line against the rod and pulled it back 🤣 Put up one hell of a fight right up until I banked it. I’m really liking this popper!

Managed to get out for a few hours yesterday afternoon. Caught a few solid but not spectacular bass. Most were caught on a Jackhammer with a Pro Point Lure Machete Minnow trailer (really liking these). And then this huge carp took me for a 20 minute ride. There's some big muskie in this lake so that was my initial thought. It didn't take long to realize it was likely a carp the way it was fighting. Needless to say the Bill Lewis ATV 1.5 comes with some solid hardware! Snagged him in the back with my squarebill setup. My arms were tired after that fight! 😅 And my hands still stunk later that night after washing them I don't know how many times.

Tried out a new pond today, got a recommendation from someone who has caught a handful of plus sized bass out of it. Did okay numbers, but no size. Main producers were spinnerbait, jerkbait, lipless, and some senko fish. I made a promise to throw the spinnerbait more often this year and try to get some nice fish on it. Did decent numbers on it today but nothing sizeable. I did get some excitement when a hefty fish slammed my jerkbait and had the rod doubled up ripping some drag, but turned out to be...... A 4lb tilapia. Still a good fight but very disappointing to see when I thought I had a quality bass on at first. My biggest bass of the night was right before dark, 2lb 10oz smoked the chatterbait right up against the bank. Had a bigger fish follow me in not long after but spooked off when she saw me. Just nice to get out there, between work and weather the fishing trips have been a little less numerous lately.

Two weeks of cold, wind, and rain have 'em all messed up. Two weeks ago there were tons of fish shallow. Not so much now, but better weather is on the way. It was a grind this morning, with just two bites between 6:30 and 10:30. They got a little more cooperative as the day went on. Ended up with about a dozen. Couple two pounders and this 3.48 chunk. The rest were dinks.

Got out a couple times this weekend. First trip was Friday evening for about 1.5 hours to a local lake. This was primarily a big bait trip and was a lot of fun for a short trip. Not many big fish in this lake, but they don't seem to know that and love trying to eat big swimbaits. This poor guy ate the Chad Shad next to the kayak, I think just so I could remove the hook it had hanging from it because there's no way it was hungry. The wind was really calm and I was missing fish so I switched to a smaller Provoked swimbait, really seemed to fire them up and I got the biggest of the night right before I left. Sunday the wind was howling, so I fished a marina at a local reservoir I thought would be protected, it was not, at least not very. The fish were very cooperative and whatever year class these 16" smallies came from must have been a great spawning year. Most of my fish were on a Ned or split shot rigged Zman SMH worm. I had one point I probably pulled 12-15 fish off of in short order before I caught the attention of some bank anglers and the party was over. Once the wind got too strong I put it on the trailer and parked in a different lot. I'd brought my catfish rods and had caught 1 big white bass I saved to use for cut bait while I rigged my rods with the intention to go fish in the creek above the lake, I never made it that far. I'd never caught a blue from this lake before this day, sure was a good time. I was only batting .500 on hookups to bites too. Not bad for a couple hours from shore. Doesn't hurt that I caught a half dozen 16-17 inch smallies from the bank while I was waiting for those bites either. This guy had 2 hooks in his throat, I didn't even have him hooked. 2 trips and I removed 3 hooks from fish left by other anglers. This smallmouth somehow broke the space time continuum. Most of it's body was clear but it's tail is blurry because it flopped right as I took the picture.

My daughter just got back from college and said she wanted to break her PB this summer before heading back in a couple months. Well, that didn't take long...

Caught a nice one yesterday evening…

Good old Rage bug Smallies love em too

Day two was another blow day. No fishing. Day three was a small craft advisory plus wet & cold. We were limited as to where we could fish but we made the best of it. Total count for the day was 35 smallies. We had five over 5lbs & one 6lber. The bass were tight to the bottom. We caught all the fish on blade baits in 5-15 fow.

The whole fam headed north from Orlando and ended up in Tennessee. After a quick run to bass pro for some gear and licenses, my brother and I hit the little pigeon river this morning to try to catch some smallmouth. A species and style of fishing entirely foreign to us Alabama boys. Neither of us had ever caught a smallmouth over about 6" long, and those were caught on live worms bream fishing on Lake Wheeler. We seemed to figure it out though, catching 6 smallmouth, 2 rock bass, and a small sucker in just a couple of hours, all on a ned rig. Biggest smallie was 14.5”. Can’t wait to head back out and catch some more in the morning!

I hadn't done much since I joined the forum. I lost my last few really big fish honestly. One I truly belive to have been comfortably over 10. I know they all say that. Anyway, this weekend I got 2 big girls at 7 lbs 15 oz, and 9 lbs 2 oz. Both on Texas rigged gambler fat ace. Private lake in Central Florida. The smaller fish was sight casted amongst schoolers and the bigger was caught on the bottom in 10-15 ft. I release all my fish asap.

After three days of hard fishing we finally found some better fish down here in Orlando fishing canals. The first one we tried was real shallow and covered in fish, but they were all small. The second was deep and had much better quality. My brother caught a 19" and I got a 21" and another between 18-19". I think my scale is broken (It's a cheap H20 one) because according to it the big fish only weighed 4-7. I could see a 21" bass weighing that if really skinny, but this one was just average. According to the length/girth calculator on here it was 5.8. I've caught a 21.5" that was 6-12 (that was a fatty), so I'm fairly certain my scale is messed up and my fish was probably low 5's.

First couple nice fish on a glide bait yesterday evening and this afternoon and then a nice chunky fish on the Stunna before sons soccer game. Tight lines folks 🎣🎣🎣

I couldn’t fish Saturday because my allergies were epic. I thought I had Covid! I didn’t, and my allergy med finally got the upper hand. I told myself, “okay D-B, set the alarm for 3:30 am; and if you feel fine - go!” I woke up before my alarm and my cough was kinda gone. My eyes were red, but I figured I don't understand? I got eye drops from doc anyways. I drove and drove and got to the ramp. It was empty. I paid my fees and launched kayak. I cross the lake and got one dink. I came back across, and my instinct was, “why did I leave?” I went back. Water was super clear. I could see the lake bottom 11 feet down. I just started casting far. It was dink-fest but I stayed with it. The occasional 3lb fish would bite. I fished and fished. At 9:30, the dinks left and nothing but 3’s and 4’s were there. It turned on. I was catching. A couple of fly fishing guys were also catching. One of them yells. ‘Looks like we’re invited to brunch!” It was so fun. The bass boat guys didn’t catch. I think the fish were wary of their boats in the clear water. Dunno. at noon, I called it. The dinks decimated my bait supply anyways. I got them on creatures, cranks…and one jig fish. I think I got 10 3-4’s and countless dinks. Lake was en fuego. As a bonus, I was surrounded with a herd of 200ish elk. It was stunning. And some bird of pray kept dive bombing fish around me. It looked like an eagle. I loved fishing solo today. No pressure of hoping my friends catch fish. It was nice making it all about myself. :D

Took Mama out with Jake yesterday and got her on her first good sized jig bass. Jake and I also caught some chunky fish on jigs and I caught 6 more smaller fish on jerkbaits all on an offshore hump yesterday. Meagan got her bass near the end of the day around a bluegill spawn in a shallow pocket on a Siebert Brush jig with a Christie Craw trailer (she wanted that 9.4 lb bass Christie mojo on the jig 😎). Water temps were 78-80° in the major spawning pockets and 74-75° out on the hump and near the marina. Bass seemed to be mostly in that post spawn recovery mode around the lake.

Big Fish Jeff Making it happen Day 1 Fish Hard A-Jay

Had a few hours over the weekend to sneak in a post frontal solo trip. The hot spring bite wasn't happening, but I was still able to get quite a few by slowing down. Been fishing this lake regularly for nearly two decades and never caught a pikeminnow/squawfish. Thought I had a biggin' until I saw how long and skinny it was. Water vis was around 10ft everywhere I fished, but on my way back to the ramp I noticed a big mudline along the edge of an island on the main lake. Figured I'd make a few more casts with a spinnerbait and ran into a wolfpack of 2 pound spots that kept me entertained for about 20 minutes. Fun way to finish the day. This fella was either mad as heck or had bloodshot eyes from hunting in the mud. 😆

Man, there are times when I think I have my lake figured out and then there's these last 2 weeks. The cold air and rain left me finding only bucks on or near the flats for days with an occasional jig or jerkbait female off the breaks. Then yesterday, I made a daytime run to the S end and got into 2 groups of prespawners on a finesse jig, all good and healthy in the 2-3lb range, finally. So I went back S around midnight to the large weedy flat near there and found all the decent fish I'd been missing. Nighttime, bright moon, glide/twitch bait was getting destroyed, so much fun! scott

Got the mojo back after a tough trip out last time. Lots of eager bucks with some solid ones mixed in for a 60+ fish day. Didn't see any active beds but a bloody tail on this one. Love catching quality spots. Always a little extra angry. Double hookup and had to get a pic. Pops would have liked to have traded his in. 😆

6.2 pounds & 23" Caught it yesterday throwing a nearly unweighted black Ol' Monster at a steep bank into the narrow band of grass and swimming it back through the pads to the boat. It was the thing to do yesterday for both of us. And last week too.

It took about 10 minutes to land my new PB today. Caught it on a spook and it buried itself in some vegetation about 25 yards from shore on a ridge with deep drop offs on both sides. I had to go in after it with my jeans on in over a foot of mud and water to my waist. At first I thought about breaking off and figured the fish was gone but then it started fighting again. It was really tangled up and I had to pull it out by hand. Not a monster, but I fought for every 5lb 3oz of it.

My Father and I had a pretty epic day targeting brown bass on Mille Lacs. Not a ton of fish, but all quality ones. My Father tied a PB with a 21 incher, and I caught two over 20 inches. I weighed one of them just to see how much it weighed and it was 5.65 pounds (5th photo). None of the smallmouth we caught were under 18 inches. They were all prespawn females. We even caught three accidental walleyes, one of which just happened to be in the keeper slot which was a pure stroke of luck. This is a very big lake, and the wind rarely cooperates. I only have a 17.5 foot boat and I need it to cooperate in order to fish where and how I want to. For the first time in 3 years, that occurred yesterday and it paid off. A perch colored jerk bait did most of the damage. I feel very fortunate to have caught these fish. Here are a few photos. I'd like to thank @A-Jay and @Dwight Hottle for their advice, education, and inspiration when it comes targeting smallmouth on big waters. They are a big help when it comes to this specific type of fishing.

A-Jay

My second kayak tournament of the year was this past weekend at El Dorado lake in Southeast Kansas. El Dorado is Spanish for "The Big Wind". Okay not really, but I've never seen this lake without whitecaps I don't think and this weekend wasn't any better. It was super low, so the limited areas was even more limited than usual. I'd heard through the grapevine that my favorite areas to fish, the creeks, had almost no water in them and were a huge hassle to even try to fish, so I was going to focus on mainlake stuff. Like usual, when I got to the lake and was setting up my tent, I put out my catfish rods, which found a nice blue. I was excited about that, until it promptly removed a couple good sized chunks of skin from my hand as I tried to release it. Those spots would be sore and uncomfortable the rest of the weekend. I prefished for 10 or 11 hours. I started the morning by immediately dropping my pliers in the lake. I caught 4 or 5 little bass along with several accidental bycatches before I did what I told myself all day not to do, I went to the area I planned on fishing. I guess I was hurting bad to catch a fish, because I caught a 15" smallmouth pretty fast, then another, then this one. Kicking myself for leaning on this one, I was grumbling while I dropped my bait back in the water to fix a loop, and it took off again with a 17" largemouth. I finally bent the hook all the way in on my Ned rig and had several more swim off with it but not hook up. I decided to see if they'd eat a glide bait. Of course I couldn't protect them from the hooks, and yes they would literally try to eat it. So I knew they were there but I ended the night just fuming at myself for sticking a mid 80 inch bag in practice on a tough lake. Tournament day was blowing 25mph at launch and got windier as the day went on. There was white caps in the small marina I was sharing with 12-15 other kayaks. Took a minute to get my first bite, which was only 13". Second bite was 8 3/4". 3rd bite was 14", and I broke my brand new rod on the hookset, my first fish I got to catch on it. The day never got much better. I caught a small limit and culled up an inch here, half and inch there, but never caught any kicker fish like the day before. Finished in 9th with 77" and found out that 1st, 2nd, and 3rd all fished in the creeks, should have trusted my instincts there. I did catch all 3 species of bass, which is pretty rare in Kansas, so that was neat. Last night I got off work a little early and it was nice and cloudy with storms on the way, so I got the okay from Mrs. Blue and asked my boys if they wanted to fish the pond down the street for some bluegills for a short trip before the storms moved in. My youngest wasn't interested, but my oldest jumped at the chance. The only thing more eager than he was, was the bluegills. Not sure how many we caught before we had to call it because lightning started rumbling, but it was a bunch. I missed the first dozen bites I had on my flyrod before I finally looked at my fly, the hook was bent so awkwardly there was no way I would have ever landed a fish. My son was talking some serious smack with about a 10-0 advantage on me, but I made a furious comeback once I had a functioning hook. There's some huge hybrids in this pond. I caught one of the more average ones but she appeared to be about to pop with eggs. Ended the night on back to back doubles.

We got 7 today and I'm proud that the biggest one came off shore on the Berkley Stunna! 4.3 lb Jerkbait beast. She hit and I thought I was hung and then she proceeded to peel my drag and swim around the boat and into the trolling motor and she jumped 3 feet into the air 6 times (my son counted 😂) on the way in. She fought like a smallmouth and on the Jerkbait with the lighter line it was the best fight I've ever gotten out of a largemouth and the biggest offshore fish I've ever caught. I caught all of my fish today off the same offshore hump and Jake got all his off beds on the lizard. We saw a million boats just parked on the beds not catching anything and we joked that we would go back through there and catch em when they all left and that's literally what we did. Just cast from 50 feet back and dead sticked his lizard and caught every single buck those anglers missed. Proud dad! Best 5 just shy of 14 lbs with off shore kicker ain't bad for a windy day when the lake was getting absolutely hammered up shallow. Gonna keep trying to dial in my deep structure fishing and hopefully this windy front doesn't absolutely reck the fishing this week. Tight lines to all!

I caught 12 today, 10 spots and 2 Largemouth. Like Katie I only fished a few hours, then came home for a nap. I also "caught" a tiny shad. I gave it to a Great Blue Heron. They were working the bank, standing in the water, catching and eating shad. I held this one up and said "hey bird". One of them looked at me and started flying my way. I threw the shad in the water when the bird got close. It swooped down and got it. It made a big circle then flew over me squawking. I'm saying it was thanking me. LOL Most of the bass came on a bladed jig. A couple on a crank, and 1 on a t-rig. I also caught 4 White Perch on cranks.

This weekend I participated in my first small pond tournament amongst friends and I was able to get big bass with a beautiful 4.1 lb largemouth on the Siebert 1/2 oz dock rocker jig with a orange and green scounbug on the back. I would have won the tournament if I hadn't lost a good one on the lipless and two more on the jerk bait, but that's life. Thankfully my son walked away with it and the Bass Pro Shops $100 gift card so I'm a proud papa.

Much to my surprise I put a beating on 'em today. Dinks that is. LOL. Slick calm and bluebird skies behind nearly a week of cold wind and rain had my expectations low. I started out pitching pine laydowns and it was on from the start. Could hardly buy a bite pitching anything else, but the thick, bushy, pines who's boughs hadn't rotted off yet were loaded. There were fish shallow, but they were SUPER spooky. The fish in the pine tops from 8'-14' were chewing though. Caught a few dozen, but only two decent ones. Two best weighed 2.84 and 3.28. This poor little fish is off to a rough start. Looks like a heron recently had a go at it, and it's got an old scar clear down it's side. Fat, otherwise healthy looking little bass though. Highlight of the day was a lost fish. I pitched into a huge green pine top in about 13', let the 'ol Sweet Craw hit bottom, lifted up and there was a fish on it. Cracked the whip, and got stopped dead. BIG fish. Kept leaning hard on it and winching away, and when I finally got it up through that jungle it turned out to be a 40" ish muskie. Just as I got it pulled clear of the tree, it bit me off. Not landing it didn't bother me in the least. What an epic slugfest it was winching that beast up through 13' of gnarly pine boughs. Hopefully someone will catch it soon and get that 4/0 flippin hook out of it's yap. Twas a fun day on the water.

Put my buddy Ty on his PB largemouth today on a glide bait I gifted him at the beginning of the trip. Caught some nice smaller bass but this 4.25 lb beast was the highlight by far. Saw some 6-8 lb monsters that I plan to go back for this weekend 😉🎣

I have been so busy lately I haven't had much time to fish, but I managed to sneak in a couple of short trips. I had 15 minutes before picking up my kid when I got the dink, and the other came on my lunch break yesterday. The wind was blowing incredibly hard so bank fishing was tough, but I'll take catching one fish on my lunch break over eating a turkey sandwich at my desk any day. Hopefully someday I'll learn how to take a good picture of a fish. lol

Remember those who served 🇺🇸Be safe this weekend. Tom

The boys last day of school was yesterday. Mom had a girls night with the other teachers so we went to the pond and had a boys night. First time I've brought a frog rod out there. Caught a couple bass but there's about eleventy billion bullfrogs that chased it every cast. I finally let one eat it after constant begging from the boys to catch one. Then neither of them wanted to hold or touch it. With them out of school, I don't have the duty to get them ready in the morning, so I've got more fishing time before work. I took advantage of that right away and caught a nice one on a big crawler this morning. She looked to be recovering from the spawn nicely.

Been off the water most of the past week and a half. Finally pulled out a frog rod and hit a very slopped over pond the past two evenings before sunset. Cottonwood seeds almost made it not worth the frustration, but 2 dozen blowups overruled the headache of trying to keep the line clean and castable. Today, a different spot that was also getting out of control, but it’s obvious they’ve recently treated and everything is just starting to die and turn brown. NE breeze, but a jig to the outside weedline when it could be defined resulted in over a dozen bites, including one over 5 lbs. You can see the difference in weed/slop color between the two locations in the pics.

Didn't set the world on fire yesterday but I did connect with one heck of a bass on my 1/4 oz Siebert swim jig in super white with a white x zone swammer on the back. She thought it looked pretty tasty I guess. Slow rolled it over a submerged tree that was sticking out into wind current and she knocked slack in my line like a giant. I did get some acrobatics on the way in and I love to see them jump. Got a couple little fellas and missed a couple bites once I figured out the swim jig pattern for the day. Super fun 2 hour session from the bank. Tight lines!

Would have been an amazing day, but I had my first big fish (5lb+) get hooked poorly resulting in some bleeding. She absolutely choked that big 7.5" Shimano head first and that stupid treble went under the first gill slit. I was able to go underneath and remove the hook and the wound wasn't very traumatic, but you read stuff and some people will tell you it's a 100% death. It makes me sick, and I pray to God she lives. If I quit this awesome sport it's because of the guilt. Never felt this way growing up, but now I'm a bleeding heart. Sorry I had to get that off my chest. Caught a super healthy 6.6 on a buzzbait, as good of an explosion as the lost giant video I posted a few weeks ago, one that you know instantly that it's the right kind of fish. Stupid GoPro was filming upside down. I got to disable that rotate feature. Then I caught the 7lb fish on the Shimano swimbait. Lastly I caught a Warmouth which was magnificent, I love these little dudes. If they grew to LGM size, nobody would fish for LGMs.

I'll follow up @king fisher with this report....local lake...all caught on 6th Sense Crush 50x crank: 1. Pretty pink goggles...weight unknown 2. Carp, 2lbs-5oz. 3. 20" LMB, 4lbs-6oz.

Whopper Plopper bass this year. There will be hundreds more in 2023.

Big Fish Jeff put on a Clinic today ~ A-Jay

Finally had a drama-free session at one of my favorite spots. No Junkies, flunkies, or weirdos showed up to harsh my mellow. It was just the rain and me. Missed a few, but I got some too, so the action was good. The Black and Blue Zman Pro CrawZ loaded with a glass rattle rigged on a Gamakatsu 5/0-1/8oz/Owner Large CPS continues to get a nice amount of nighttime attention, and I've gotten more bites lately on the WP75 in perch than I have in a few years.

I fished a pond for two hours this evening. When I launched, it was whitecapping. I hoped to catch bass in the protected end, right where I launched, but I caught nothing. They were, as I feared, at the windswept end. It was tricky fishing at the windswept end and it took 20 minutes to paddle the length of the pond, but they were there and they were hitting. I caught 8 on a Rage Swimmer in gray and white on a swim jighead and a Blue Fox brass-bladed spinner. Then the wind died and I cast my beloved Whopper Plopper (loon/black) and a rival's similar bait (clear and chartreuse). Both caught bass and I caught another 7, for 15 in total. I did lose three on the Whopper Plopper after the Sun set. Alex told me to weigh some fish to get an idea of what they weigh. The fish I caught were all 16 inches and I weighed three and they weighed 2.41, 2.43, and 2.49 pounds. Usually I catch 16.5 to 17" bass in this pond. I don't know they were shorter tonight, but they were round. I'll be fishing a quality bog tomorrow morning, hoping for a big gal!

I didn’t get skunked at least, caught 2 monsters. I mean small ones. I got to spring valley today to see where they were at. I got there about 9am after dropping my daughter off to go to her soccer game invitational. I started with my custom skirted thunder cricket. I walked into the water and started fishing. There was a couple people out on it fishing in a canoe and a small bass raider. I wasn’t getting anything but neither were they. I kept fishing my stretch of the bank and trying different things and finally caught my first one, about the same size as the one I took the picture of. I was in the water and didn’t want to get out to grab my phone. I switched to a lipless and caught another small one. The reason I took a picture of the second one is because I needed to grab my pliers to remove a treble hook without getting stuck with one. The little fish still shoved one treble into my finger a little but that’s normal at times. I never saw the other guys catch anything. Spring valley is a very odd place to fish and you have to know exactly where to go otherwise you will just practice casting, I have learned that by experience lol.

Calm, cloudy and warmish day, and I went up to my favorite lake. Fish are still in a funk. Water temps still way lower than they were 2 weeks ago, 52-54°. I spent a lot of time pitching wood, but never able to get much going. This was the best fish at 3-9: Pitching the Siebert brush jig and Paca chunk into timber and watched her shoot out and inhale the jig as soon as it hit the water. Unexpected downpour chased me off the lake because I didn’t bring my rain gear so I wasn’t able to hit all my spots. Probably could have put something together had I been prepared for rain. I got to say hi to my loon friends, saw hundreds of rainbow trout gobbling bugs, with several of them going completely airborne, a bald eagle, and had the lake to myself.

Did a little creek fishing Saturday with my boys. Couldn't find any bigger fish, but the sunfish were willing. Tons of green sunfish and longears. Found a couple little bass right before we left. Sunday I took the boat out. I don't know why I do that anymore. It was the calmest day I've fished in a long time and I was in my boat instead of my kayak. I catch bigger fish from my kayak too I think. We still caught over 30 bass and I got to test out my new mini bladed jigs a little bit. I caught a little one on it this morning on a quick stop before work also. I was surprised I caught anything with all the spawning carp tearing things up.

Couple of extra pics from yesterday’s report.

Water's in the mid 70s finally. Having a hard time finding em but still managed to pull out this 3.8. The only calm spot with fish in it also had beavers in it, and they were pretty pushy about being where I already was so I left lol