shimmy

Haven't been out for over three weeks. Time before that, just couldn't get into bigger fish on local lakes. Such is life sometimes. Stuck this nice one in southern Wisconsin last weekend on a getaway camping trip with the fam. Way too crowded on the lake for my liking, but still paid off. Had another big one on I had stalked for a while. Kept missing her as she kept nipping my bait for a while but not committing down 20 feet. When I finally got her to commit to the full bite off of a boulder, she was heavy on the hook set, but unbeknownst to me, my drag had been loosening up over he past few hours. Unfortunately, she budged just enough on the hookset and caused that dreaded slack. Missed her after a few seconds. Was a grind out there, but got lucky with one bigger one. Big fish came on a jig in 15 feet. Faster and heavier jigs could not get bit.

A-Jay, question on the plane. Do you bring out travel rods (3 piece) still or a regular rod? What is the rod situation when you fly out there on those chartered planes? Price of the charter plane? Like I said, one of these days I will join you. Looking to go next year as well!

Do you know what action they have? Moderate fast or fast? Thanks FYI

I see a bunch of options for a medium heavy travel rod. What I see less often is for a heavy. Anyone have good recommendations for a heavy travel rod? Preferably nothing really high like $500+. I see some cheaper versions of heavy travel rods online, but would love to hear some feedback. Would like to hear options for one for pitching and flipping and another for heavy swimbaits. Thanks for anything on this!

I fish in Otter Tail County. Less boat pressure obviously due to more lakes. Generally a lot of shore fisherman with buckets. I will say this though, most of the lakes we fish are unique in their own way. Some are great for 5 pounders, others are incredible for 4 pounders, but terrible for 6 pounders. The main thing I need to get better at is finding the right lakes that can produce more 7s...Still a young grasshopper when it comes to that unfortunately. Anyone wants to steer me in the right direction, feel free!

Went out for my summer trip the first two weeks of July. Was definitely the hottest and sunniest I can remember. Oddly enough, our best days came on days where the fishing was bad. We had a few bags over 25 lbs. We tried a bunch of new lakes in the area and everything just seemed to be the same. Most of the lakes were a few feet shallow and weeds choked the shoreline. Side thought if anyone knows, there were some lakes where the lakes would be swamped with grass and then, all of a sudden, the grass would be gone at the same depths. Was curious if this was because the ground was less muddy? More gravel? From the boat, we could not tell. Just curious why that would happen. Either way, only kept footage of the bigger bass. Couple highlights of the trip were seeing how trailer speed made a huge difference with jig fishing. It is hard because if you are by yourself, it is very hard to rule out. Makes me even more amazed at professional fisherman that can figure this out quicker by themselves. Caught one over 6+, which was a surprise on that particular day. We had caught 3-4 bass in 4 hours. Just on the struggle bus. We miss one bite on a short stretch that was 100 yards (still didn't catch any) and immediately decided to go back up the stretch, but this time up the wind. Casting the same lures, I quickly caught a 6 pounder and then we continued to catch a 25 lb+ limit in 30 minutes. Crazy how fishing a different angle changed the bite. Perhaps it was because we slowed down or maybe a few fish stirred up the others. Regardless, it amazes me at how often we miss good stretches of water without realizing it. Here were some of our big fish of the trip. We had caught a really high number of 4 pounders over the 2 weeks. We had a good amount of 5 pounders. I tried swimbaits and did terrible. I tried jointed glide baits and did terrible. Jerkbaits, did terrible. Whopper plopper did better. Fluke did well. 10" worm, brushhog, and jig were to go to baits. Light jigs with fast trailers for the win. Aside from the fluke or senko, any other rigging techniques or baits you all like that fish through jungles of weeds well without pulling out every single weed it looks at in the lake? I liked the screw lock and getting the fluke really close to the tip. Just curious if there are other setups on grassy areas where the grass comes up very easily.

I have never replaced my bearings. I have thought about doing so on a few reels. I am looking for a couple things here. 1. What are good bearing replacements? Not looking for ceramic since I don't want the noise 2. For my Shimano Chronarch CHMGL 151XG, how do I tell what size they are? I can find the actual replacement bearings, but was wondering how I find out their size. I was looking on Smooth Drag and struggled to know what my bearing dimensions were. When it lists 3x10x4 on the size, which one is the distance in the middle hole? This guy lacks experience and wouldn't mind an edumacation on this. 3. Anyone ever grease their tension knob bearing and side plate bearing? If so, any good tool recommendations to do so? Several reels I have have a metal shield and I am not taking that puppy off. I prefer silence on my reels and would rather grease them than oil them. Not talking about the spool bearing though. Thanks! Shimmy

I have talked a lot with Vets over the years. I cannot emphasize enough how inspiring you all are. Close friends of mine have explained the chronic stress of being in a combat zone even without being in a fire fight. Very grateful for servicemen like you who deploy so I can have my freedom. You sir deserve a big bass. Feel free to contact me anytime my friend!

What a great idea for a thread. Really neat to see several jobs where even in the job description, I still don't have the intelligence to understand what the job entails. I went to school for a million years and got my doctorates in clinical psychology. Been working in a prison for 6 years. Not dull to say the least. Do private practice and contract work on the side.

Might be the first post where someone is asking if a bass is 10 lbs where it actually looks like a giant and over 10 lbs. Nice fishy!

Agreed. My guess is you are towards the tail end of the spawn there. It is amazing how every lake in the area spawns completely differently based on depth. Might be mostly post-spawn, which makes a tough bite. Any bait that sits longer than usual will be beneficial. Just make sure it is a good area.

Thanks all. Went out again to Fox Lake this morning to try my luck for a few hours. Caught a couple more nice ones. The second the sun came out, the bite died for me. The lake is very interesting. I am curious if anyone else fishes this lake. The fish go shallow in the morning, but as the sun comes up, the fish have a loooooooooooooong way to go to get to any deeper water. Curious what these fish do during sun up. Do they just travel a long ways away to get away from the sun? Curious if bass ever stay in 2-3 feet of water without vegetation during sun up. This lake is about to get very very green. Once again, missed my fish on the senko today. My wacky rigged senko game is terrible right now! I also am setting he hook too quickly like it is a jig...Need to slow down. Tried a glide bait, but only got northern followers. I also feel like this is a lake that bass fisherman can get away with straight braid on every reel. There are a cajillion northern in this lake. Someone said there are musky in here too? And smallies? Don't know.

Got out a couple times this past week. Been getting some decent ones. Attached is one pic with my biggest bass of the week. The other 4 pictures are from Fox Lake today. Did not take long to realize I do not know this lake well at all. Eventually, I was able to find a pattern, but my lack of knowledge cost me a lot during the day. I also really tried to force a dock bite, but that was not happening. I cannot for the life of me figure out why the dock bite was off. Overcast is the only thing I can think of, don't know. I ended with a 5 fish limit over 20+ lbs though which was nice. Missed my biggest fish on a senko. Caught a half the good ones on a jig and the other half on a swimbait. Most fish caught were post-spawn. I am not fully certain though I was looking in the right places. Will have to explore that lake more.

1/4 ounce jig with bigger trailer. After reading previous reviews of the 853c, that seemed to be the ideal weight. I am curious though if anything changes with this new model where it is less flimsy

Ok. So my question is, do I go for the 853c or 893c? I am curious if this update will improve the 853 at all? It seemed like the 893c was the apex of sensitivity in the rod lineup. Any thoughts?

Caught this 5 a few weeks back. 2 feet of water feeding. My goal is to keep hitting new water and get lucky. The kettle moraine area is gorgeous, but pretty tough to find consistent size. Or, maybe I just haven't figured it out yet.

Tried Chute Pond for the first time this week. Was pretty cold with that arctic wind. Caught almost a 20 lb bag so it seems like it has a lot of potential. Bass were fat. Ended up catching a musky...Had no idea musky were in town. Musky was not big. Cheap suspending jerkbait did most the damage. Got two lures snipped off. There are some toothy critters in this place. Judging by the weeds out there, I bet this place gets very very weedy, perhaps unfishable weedy in the summer.

Boat ramps were packed so you had to launch at the overflow parking on weekdays. I would love a big smallmouth, but I would rather put the time in to catch largemouth. Which is a shame because it is such a world class fishery.

Next month or next week? Apparently that crazy prespawn smallmouth bite is supposed to happen around early to mid may. I have never had the boat to explore out there safely so I generally don't bother. Gave it a shot last year, but did not do too great. The boat traffic there was insane.

The wind and temperature drop have been absolutely rediculous. Have hit a couple lakes recently (Lake Bernice and Wolf Lake) and have done terrible. Slow bite and nothing over 5. Caught a 5 a couple of weeks ago in Fond du Lac and have done absolutely terrible ever since. I also find myself forcing a jig bite when it is not on. Such is the burden I create for myself frequently. Water temps have dropped 5 degrees the past 2 weeks for me. Driving on the highway is just dangerous with this wind the past while.

Not quite sure there are too many of us out there...I figure if there are any, feel free to post a report of your trip. I'll be doing more camping this summer and plan on hitting new lakes constantly. I will post my outings here and there. I imagine I might not do too great on new waters, but I enjoy the challenge.

Hey all, I have been getting stir crazy recently. The wait is real. Just decided to clean up room on my computer and uploaded some MN bass fishing. If you are bored and looking for a pick-me-upper, enjoy. Here is one with a bunch of 6 pounders. Here is a Fall weekend in 2019 Some fishing from 2020 And a 28+ pound bag from last fall

Jeez!!!! In Kansas I presume. That is awesome to see a fish roughly 3 lbs from the state record. Just a giant. Congratulations. What an awesome fish.

More importantly, a man that respects the 10 pound mark and does not lie about it!! What an awesome catch.

Oofta! That looks like a long fish. Congratulations!