Team9nine

Sitting on a small ridge between a pair of low pressure troughs. Made for no wind, but lower dew points, so a decent trade off in the comfort category. Clouds eventually moved in making conditions even better. Ended the afternoon/evening with 23 bass today, all on Ned. Quality was better than yesterday, too. Also, including another random iPhone photo from today’s trips. Is it a cloud cover shot, or maybe the inside of my pocket …who knows - lol.

I’ve always been a huge “crossover” fan when it comes to fishing (and learning). The walleye guys were way ahead of the curve in regards to electronics compared to the bass guys. I was making my own 1 ft contour maps of my local lakes years before any of the big companies came out with their hi-def mapping courtesy of following the walleye tourney trends. Similarly, the professional crappie anglers/circuits were Livescoping years before the bass guys finally caught on. Multi-species is where it’s at ?

Hot, sunny and very windy (15-25) when I took the dog for a walk yesterday after lunch, so I rigged up a jig on a casting outfit. Between chasing and thinking about it, I ended up not getting out before a line of storms blew up and moved through the area around dinner time. After that, the sun popped back out, but there was no more wind - dead calm. So I grabbed the finesse rig instead and headed out after eating. Bite was slow but steady. Ended with 24 bass and a nice sunset. Size continues to disappoint from what used to be the best quality pond in the system. But the evening wasn’t without entertainment. I had hooked a bass and was reeling him in when I hear a loud, “hell, yeah” directed at me. That was followed up by, “nice one” after landing it. Turns out a guy is standing on his 3rd story apt. balcony watching me, and either overly friendly or a little drunk - lol - as he is a good 350 ft away from me on the other side of a field. I hold the fish up, along with a ‘thumbs up’ and yell back “thanks!,” then continue fishing. A few more minutes pass, then he yells out again; “there’s some activity. Throw to your right.” I look up and to my right and see a slight ring where a fish surfaced, so throw my Ned rig over there to appease him and catch a bass on the first cast - lol - which prompts an “I told you” bellowing out from the balcony. “Lot of activity over there.” This went on a few more times as I circled that end of the lake. At one point I hook a fish on the opposite side to where the ‘coaching’ started, and get a “told you. That’s a good spot” yelled from the 3rd story ? It was all pretty entertaining. My view of the sunset over this small lake, with the apartments in the background where the 3rd story coaching took place - lol.

The way I like to fish, I could live with one outfit (ML spin) and be fine. Add in a second outfit (MF baitcast) and I’d live “happily ever after.” Anything beyond those two would be specialized for specific presentations, some of which I really enjoy doing, but wouldn’t be overly disappointed if I couldn’t do them. The fact that I own about 35 combos is irrelevant to this topic ?

Busy all day, so went out about 45 minutes before dark and stayed about half hour after. Slight frontal line had moved through midday, and skies had mostly cleared. Ended the evening with 11 bass, all on Ned and one hybrid gill with the fattest belly I’ve seen. Not sure if she was a late spawner or had eaten a plastic worm or two it couldn’t digest. The bass were pretty healthy also.

Yeah, when you asked if I only ever catch just one bass, or blank, and I replied both happen, but very rarely. That’s a sure setup for either or both to happen to me soon ?

Stuck in low pressure la-la land today, the day after a storm system came through and dumped a bunch of rain on us. Some sun and some clouds, a WNW wind at 10 mph, and a little high and stained water. Caught my first bass on the second cast, and then a second one a few minutes later. Once I got past the threat of the potential “ @ol'crickety curse,” I was able to settle in and just fish without worry ? Ended the afternoon with 21 bass, all on finesse jig and trailer. Most were out a little deeper and off the bank, and while bites were aggressive at times, the fish showed very little sign they were in any mood to chase. Best fish of the day had a pretty sizable mouth, but not the body to match. Might have been an old fish past his prime, kinda’ like me ? Last pic is just one of those random shots the phone decides to take on its own every now and then, usually when getting taken out, or put back into my pocket

If I could only pick one - Junebug - all day, every day. Just seems to work better in nearly all water clarities. Maybe a nod to B/B at night or in muddy water.

Part of the system is carrying and using different baits - give the fish a choice; it’s more about the profile options though, versus any specific appendages or lack thereof IMO.

Nope, but I also don’t believe the reverse either; that someone with a single trophy/giant to their credit IS a very skilled angler. Let me see numbers either way (relatively speaking)…consistent multiple big fish over time, or lots of fish consistently.

Tried to dodge the rain cells today with just partial success - lol. It meant waiting a couple out under a tree or in the truck, and waiting a couple out at home - so several repeat trips. Caught 16 bass on a mix of Ned and finesse jigs, but never got to really focus on good areas for any length of time due to the weather, which is a shame, because the bass were biting pretty decent.

Stuck between two low pressure systems, and afternoon popup storms were the norm. Got out just before the worst of them came though late in the afternoon. Water is showing signs of a light algae bloom, so a little more stained than usual. Bass were biting though, as I got 26 total, all on finesse jigs. Good numbers, but nothing of signifcant size.

On the backside of a low pressure system today. The rain ended by Noon, and the clouds were still thick, but the wind had already rotated to the NW, and the air temps stayed in the 70s. Numbers wise, it was a slightly above average trip, as I was able to catch 18 bass, but the size wasn't there except for one nice bass I hooked and had on for a good 15-20 seconds through several head shakes, but then lost him when he went airborne. Other than being disappointed, the first thing that popped into my mind was all the recent threads on how to help prevent losing bass when they do this, many of which I chimed in on, which made me chuckle to myself about the irony of the whole situation…and I caught another bullhead, which always makes me smile - lol. He even had “the mark of the heron,” which I thought was rather interesting. Lucky guy to survive both the bird and I ?

I’d open the gap just a little bit. I do it on most jigheads. You might also try the opposite approach on a jump - lower the rod tip, but not into the water, then sweep hard on the fish as soon as his head clears the water, pulling him back over. Both options (“giving” to the fish, pulling him over) work well at times, so experiment with both and see if one works better for you.

Yes - no need to limit your options, baits or rigging styles. Going lightweight (1/16, 1/32 oz) also works well at times and improves casting distance and accuracy.

Have you graphed that area at other times of the day (mid-day, late afternoon esp.) to see what it looks like? If it looks the same, it might be a cold water spring and you’re seeing the temperature difference. If it doesn’t show up later, it could be zooplankton layer.

Fairly slow afternoon today with just 9 fish. Starting to see a lot of juvenile largemouth showing up in one particular pond. Thinking they got off a good spawn there this past year.

Congrats! Bass’n Gals put on a great kids event down there. Used to be on Lemon a lot.

I usually tend to just find soft plastics at the micro lakes, torn and tattered, but every once in a while stumble across s good hard bait, and today was one of those days A little cleanup, and some new rings and hooks, and I’ll have a nice mid diving Flat A that even has Bill’s autograph on it ?

Weather forecaster surprised us with rain threats and related cloudiness, along with decent winds and slightly cooler temps - so out I went this afternoon. Ended the day with 11 bass, a few on swimbait and the rest on Ned or weighted wacky. Size was a bit improved, though still no big fish.

Totally possible it could be either scenario - lol. I just know I’ve caught the same 4-5 lb. bass now at least 14 times over a 4 year period from one specific small pond. Catch and immediate release works On the report side, I’m not going to lie. The first trip after @ol'crickety asked about blanking and one fish catches, I was a bit nervous when I first got out on the water. I was happy when I finally caught that first fish, and even happier when I caught the second ? All the pressure being off after that, I went on to catch 8 this evening running the same timing, bait and location as last night. High was 90 today, and forecasted for 91 tomorrow, so any trip I get in might be an evening one again.

Could be quite a few, especially if you don’t catch many small bass, or might only be one or two that you keep catching over and over ? true story. Start looking at your catch pics really close trying to find identical markings or defects/anomalies.

It happens, but fortunately pretty rare. According to my logs for this year, I catch fish 97-98% of the time. That’s based on ~125+ trips so far this year. Those trips are often short and under the worst conditions “just to see if I can catch one.” One fish trips are also rare, maybe a time or two all year. I’ll have to check my averages, but about 12-15 bass a trip is a close average across all those trips. Update: @ol'crickety Just got home and pulled the numbers and ran some stats on them from this year. I have had 3 trips of just one bass, which is about 2% of my total trips, about the same as the blanks for this year. As for the rest; 1-9 bass: 30% of trips 10-19 bass: 44% of trips 20-29 bass: 18% of trips 30-39 bass: 6% of trips 40+ bass: 2% of trips My average is 15 bass per trip, and my median is 14, so the distribution is pretty good.

Based on the pics, I’d wait to go until you have a good windy day which should blow all the crap into one corner of the lake, freeing up much of the rest of the water…and I’d revisit the frog until then ?

As you can see, totally mixed and opposite opinions on this subject. Throw me in the camp of ‘braid doesn’t belong on a baitcaster unless it does, and those few times never require a leader’… but the only way you’ll find out what works for you is to try it.