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Didn’t even check the weather but ran in to this on the way to the lake: Sp we fished in the rain for a few hours this evening. I boated 7. Nothing big. Rain slowed enough to get a picture of this one.

Set a little bream out, and ended up with this …

Nothing but Ned? Getting ready for fall bites, ordered some more 1/15oz Nedlockz and TRD. Lucky to catch some.

It's been way too long since I've gotten out on the jon boat with my brother. We finally made it happen, and chose a spot we know is weedy, but it turned out to be crazy weedy right now due to the lower water levels here. Good thing we brought the oars because the trolling motor didn't stand a chance. Other than a section on the dam end, where there was maybe 6" between the surface and the top of the weeds, everything else was topped out. 45 acres of shore to shore monolithic astro turf with no breaks anywhere, or so we thought. One good thing about this place in normal times is there are isolated lily pad fields out in the middle that float about 18" over the weeds, but these aren't normal times. Now the lily pads have fallen flush into the weeds, so the gap which served as a great ambush point doesn't exist anymore. Nothing was happening in the pads at all. There were about a billion golden shiners skittering around everywhere, but it was tough to get anything through cleanly. After 2 hours of drudgery my brother was ready to quit. I convinced him to fight on. We decided to paddle as far north as possible into a watershed we've never been into. I was determined to find a break in the cover somewhere as I knew this was our only shot, and we found it. The much narrower northern-most end turned out to have a bare silt bottom of about a foot deep. The water was way colder there. We then doubled back and fished into the first wall of weeds and pads, and that's where the action was. I got one crappie on a small wake right on the edge of a weed line, then lost a tanker bass on a Keitech Noisy Flapper. I noticed small perch darting around when we were in the silt bottomed zone, so I tied on a Spro Bronzeye Shad 65 frog in Wicked Perch and chucked it into the first pads on that line. A few bass slapped at it, but finally a charged up chuck gobbled it down when I twitched it in an open gap. There's nothing better than playing a hunch and getting it right, especially when things seem completely hopeless. Kicking the skunk off the boat is a nice bonus.

Was out at daybreak. I connected first on a Big bites craw 17.5 inch fish. I switched to a fluke and got a 19 incher. Got 10 total but 8 in the first 1.5 hours. 9 of them on flukes…

I drove to a new bog yesterday afternoon, but there wasn't enough water to float my canoe. I could see water yonder, about a hundred yards away, but there were a hundred yards of reeds between me and it. I asked the folks at the nearest house what happened to the bog and they said the dam broke. Dang dam! So, I went to a smaller bog this morning and for the first 45 minutes, I only caught one bass. Then I switched to nightcrawlers and caught two more, but I don't like worm fishing. It's not busy enough for me. I was getting hits on my Whopper Plopper, but not hooking fish. The bite slowly increased and I landed a 17.5-inch bass. I also caught some chain pickerel and took a photo of one in case you southern fishers wanna a look. The wind blew me into some reeds. Just last night, I watched a YouTube video where an accomplished frog fisher said that we should chuck our frogs into places where we don't think there's enough water for fish. Well, I'd been blown into the big salad bar at Caesar's Palace, but there was about two feet of open water, so I cast my frog there and KERSPLOOSH! There was so much water moved that I was confused, but my frog was gone, so I set the hook and luckily, there wasn't enough water for the bass to put up a big fight. She was 19 inches, the size I love. I caught 34 in all and lost a BIG bass at the end that I just couldn't control, not even with my 17-lb. line and MH rod. I could see she was headed for reeds as thick as a man's thumb and I tried to stop her, but couldn't. Even in the reeds, I had her hooked for a bit, but by the time I dug to my lure, she was gone. Sooo exciting. The first photo is a typical bass for the bog. Then the chain pickerel. Then the big girl. Then some others.

Welp, I finally doubled up. Around 6/7 every night it seems the water boils with all the shad balling up at the surface. Thought I'd try a different approach and throw a kvd sexy dawg and caught 3 total by got my first double up. Small fellas but I'll take it!

The wife and I tried a new lake today. The black bass fishing wasn’t great but we did catch some stripers.

I caught 11 bass today between 9 and 18 inches. It's the first holiday (except Christmas) I've had off in almost 2 years. It rained off and on. I pretty much had the lake to myself. I kept having (longnose) gar follow my bait to the boat but no strikes. I'm not sure I wanted to deal with all those needle teeth anyway.

Our pup was sleeping so I snuck out to go fishing.

I set a goal this year for a 4lb smallmouth and a 5lb largemouth. They get bigger here, but not that much and not that many. Last year I had a 4-11 largemouth and another that was the same size in the same day (didn’t weight the second). I thought for sure I’d get there this year. i got the smallmouth in March as my first fish of the year (4lb3oz). April and may were shaping up with a bunch of largemouth in the 4 lb range but I just couldn’t get a step change to the 5 lb bucket. Then the heat and drought hit and the summer has been a mess. With the cool nights over the past two weeks, the water has dropped to the high 70’s and I thought the topwater bite might pick up. I went to the same lake as last years big bass. It’s a smaller lake (<200 acres) with an incredible forage base of alewife and bluegills. There are also a bunch of musky that keep the smaller bass population in check. So the ones that survive to 12”+ are good thick fish. I didn’t get out quite as early as I wanted so I only had 2 hours before the sun poked up and the topwater bite turned off. That was still enough. I landed 6 and had a few more blowups that didn’t take. I added two more on a jig in heavy cover on the way back to the ramp. The big fish barely sipped the buzzbait down but when the hook got home she took off like a freight train. A ton of fun in the dark. I knew it was big when it hit the net to the point I checked twice it wasn’t a small musky before I lipped it. I weighed it once, then re zeroed and weighed it again just to be sure. 4 lb 15 oz. Just an ounce shy of my target. It was 5:15 in the morning so I didn’t take a picture. Further down the bank I landed a 4-01 and 3-11, all in skinny water. Throw in a pair of 16” fish and a pair of 14” bass and it was a pretty good morning. It would have been 17 lb if it were a tournament or about 90” for a kayak tournament. pics of the 4-01 and 3-11. im heading out again tomorrow morning with another hope for a 5.

Went bass fishing last weekend and ended up catching a couple pike. The best part of this catch was my lure broke off on the hookset, so I immediately tied on a new jig and found my other jig hooked to its mouth! Took me a while taking 2 lures off this toothy fish so I didn't get a chance to weigh it.

Hope you all are enjoying the holiday today. It’s 84 now in the mid morning and will be over 105 by noon....hot, hot, hot! Tom

Well I only caught two fish today, tough sledding

This reminds me of when Chris Lane told me about when he decided to fish the Elites. He had been an outstanding tournament angler, winning local and regional tournament circuits as well as opens. He practically dominated them. So he decided to "go pro". His first Elite tournament, he slayed 'em. Caught a ton of fish and got a really good bag on the first day. He thought, "Man, I can DO this!!" as he was heading back to that first weigh-in. He didn't even make the top 25. He said it was at that moment he knew this was an entirely different ball game. Up until then, he thought the same thing many of you have articulated on this thread. But once he was in it, he realized these competitors were better than anyone he'd ever competed against, despite winning so many tournaments previously. So unless you've been there, it's super easy to be an armchair quarterback. Also note, there are several top pros that post regularly on these forums. They just hide under different aliases.

Got some bream this evening…

Hi gents, so there are 4 lakes around that I fish that have good musky populations but two of them are smaller and have really good populations. I’ve had follows before and even had one hit a buzzbait once that didn’t get hooked. I see multiple 40” fish every time I go to todays lake in particular. Finally today was the day. I was fishing a buzzbait for bass across some shallow eelgrass. When it hit the water I saw the fish make a wake as it turned. I immediately knew what it was so I gave the reel a couple extra quick turns and that was enough to get the musky to jump on it. It only got the trailer hook in the roof of its nose, so as good as I could have hoped. It wasn’t one of the big ones that are in there, but you have to start somewhere. 27”. I threw in a couple 2-3 lb bass for the day also.

Meanmouth, smallmouth, largemouth?

When I grow up I wanna be as awesome as ol'crickety!!!

Fishermen say his kind of stuff all the time. It’s good for the ego, just like holding that bass a certain way to look bigger or adding a few pounds to the fish story. The reality is most anglers who post here couldn’t hang with the best sticks in the local clubs. A handful might have a chance in a 1 day tournament on their home lake but the VAST majority who think they can hang with the pro’s are delusional.

Nice job, you can surefire always tell who the real fisherman is when the skunk is on board......to a real fisherman that only means they are gonna fish harder, they get more stubborn, more determined.

The pros dont know much more than we do Yeah but they do it a lot better than we do!

I think I’m getting dumber, but I can’t look away…

Mid 70's. Just got home from the carnival.

It’s easy . Use a 3/0 wide gap hook and T-rig it. I use no weight because I primarily fish in less than 6 f.o.w . Let me clarify- I use zoom SUPER flukes, rarely the smaller flukes anymore. I catch a lot just deadsticking or pulling it over weeds and letting it drop into holes, also skipping around brush piles or under docks. Another method is finding a weed line and skipping the fluke parallel to the edge. I have never done well twitching it like so many people do.

Woke up to a fresh 46 degrees and it's currently 66. I like it. A-Jay

Only way to know is to just fish it. It definitely casts and fishes differently with a longer leader, which may or may not benefit you depending on the lake and cover. The great thing about a longer leader is it just takes a couple seconds to cut it and make shorter if that ends up being the better setup 😎 Much faster than starting over and retying everything to make the leader longer.

Prayers sent for you all. All you can do is what you can do and lean on those who really care. We’re here Mike

From shore I use a 20 " leader, if to short the bait will sit on the bottom due to the angle of your line. Use a pencil weight, less snags vs a teardrop weight.

They are good at selling you two different color frogs because now you don’t know who’s right

How much you wanna make a bet I can cast over them mountains? I've never had a Daiwa or Shimano reel that I couldn't set to cast as far as I could ever possibly need to cast. Casting distance is never even a consideration when buying a reel because they will both cast as far as I feel comfortable setting the hook. It shouldn't be an issue when using appropriate weights and rods.

Thank you all, I am a big time internalizer when it comes to coping skills. May not be the best but it's how I do it. Eventually the overwhelming reality busts through and it just hurts. I'm ok, but truely hate the feeling. Every chance you get, Hug your love, hard. A-Jay

Yesterday's trip to the Pamunkey River. Made a long run to a creek that I've wanted to try. Very shallow with and filled with grass. This fish weighed in at 4.12#. A great day indeed. I owe @Catt a big thank you for posting pictures of a couple of his johnson silver minnows with skirts and trailers installed on them. The silver minnow lure truly does work wonders in grass. @Glenn did a video demonstrating how the minnow has a 'cacheing' action as you retrieve it. I would highly recommend checking that video out of you fish grass! Here a some better pictures of my recent post just resized

Looking at the lures that the top ten pros used at the recent Mississippi river tournament in Wisconsin . Gerald Swindel used dark frogs for dark skies , light frogs for bright skies . Chris Johnston , on the other hand , used light frogs for dark skies and dark frogs for sunny skies . Just goes to show it wasnt the colors but the people throwing them .

Lately the fishing has been S.L.O.W. I was talking with a ranger while fishing this forest preserve and he said the animals are totally messed up due to the insane weather we've had all season. He pointed out that half of the deer were a couple months late having fawns and he personally saw a fisherman pull a bass guarding fry at the very end of July! That's way out of bounds here. I was glad to get this 3-2 off of a rocky point. Mostly I'm just digging 1 and 2lb-ers out of the brush and very few in a day.

This thread reminds me of a saying I read somewhere…. ”One man with conviction will overwhelm a hundred who have only opinions” If you’ve never competed at the highest level, you’ll never fully understand what it takes to succeed at that level. The End Mike

There are a lot of reasons a body of water can be on fire one year and tough the next. Weather, aquatic vegetation growth, pressure, different class of spawned fish, and finally, it’s pretty accepted that bodies of water go through natural cycles and fluctuations that affect angling. You just have to keep at it.

Certainly not to offend or detract, but... When the topic came up on TKF, everybody lauded the toughness of inflatable boats for abrasion and even oyster shell. However, the two boats that popped, both were sitting in the summer sun, rigged and waiting to be floated. The sun and heat did it before the boats could get wet.

This is what someone who used to fish B.A.S.S told me. He said "Nate, you have no idea how good these guys are." And I respect this man very much as a fisherman, so I took his word for it. I was blown away by some of his stories of fishing with Randy B. and Woo Daves. He was often co-angler. Whomst do you speak of? @ol'crickety? @T-Billy? Dare I say.... @TnRiver46?

I use a drill and wire from a clothes hanger to mix my plastisol.

Plastic frogs have more wind resistance than most other bass lures. I can chunk a 1/2 oz. Rattle Trap clear across most golf course ponds. When I attempt to do the same thing with a plastic frog, it gets a lot trickier. Add some wind and you are in for some fun times. Take it easy. Accuracy is more important that distance. Reminds me of the 500 pound gorilla on the golf course joke... ☺️

I would throw a gray frog. Checkmate

@Deleted account knows everything. It's his biggest secret. He'd be a pro but then everybody else in the field would be relegated to handing out french fries.

Thanks for all the advice. The more i think of it, i think abrasion played a huge factor. The bass was caught up in something and i waited it out before reeling in. I ended up getting a PB today. Got a 22 inch bass, but my scale ended up not working so i have no idea what it weighed.

Never had a Palomar slip with braid in over 30 years.

We may know as much as a pro on our home waters, or waters that resemble the water we usually fish. Pros on the other hand, must fish all types of waters, from shallow weedy bowl lakes, to deep reservoirs, to rivers with running water, and big northern smallmouth lakes. So much respect for the guys that have some success under all these conditions and always in contention to succeed! These guys are in the zone, and in another level then your local weekend guy! The cream always rises to the top!

Sure you can; I do that all the time. Shimano, Abu, BPS reel, unknown Chinese brand, a pencil sharpener... I put that on everything.

Yes. Sure is.

Time….on…..the…..water.

A new PB white bass on a Cotton Cordell lipless crankbait.