KenLattimore

Managed to get out to BH on Friday. A good amount of action with 4 fish, they were all dinks though with the biggest going 10". I went to pond afterwards which was completely covered with scum, but I did manage a nice 15" fish dragging a Senko across some pads on top. I've done this several times over there and just love it when they one through and just smash it! Going out early in the morning on Sunday and wanted to see if anyone has made it out to the canal over at Dickerson recently. Given my limited time I don't want to waste time going there only to find that it's overgrown with weeds and almost unfishable.

Welcome to the board sprirobass! I've been told that even though Lake Chrurchill is private the residents surrounding the lake do tolerate fishing. I've fished it once or twice and met a fellow angler who told me that he consistently catches 4-5 lbs bass there. That being said a trespassing ticket is probably not worth it. BMBass- I'm pretty new to bass fishing and bought a new rod this season. I settled on a 7' MH/F as an all-purpose rod. I love the setup, BUT miss my 6'6" rod on the occasions when I'm throwing a topwater or working a fluke. I'm short (5'6') so the extra 6 inches makes a difference when I'm twitching the with the rod tip pointed down. I'm been holding the new rod to the side and pointed down which I'm still getting used to.

Thanks Sean! Kevin (KingFisher) and I did manage to get out early Saturday morning at Black Hills from 6-10am over by the stickups. We didn't do too bad- I managed 3 and Kevin got 2. All were nice sized fish with the biggest going 3lbs 5oz on a scale- I would have sworn it weighed more given how long it was, estimated 19-20". The article Bass Resource has on removing the hook on gut hooked fish came in handy, as Kevin and I sucessfully removed hooks from two gut hooked fish who seemed to swim away fine.

Nice fish BMB! It looks like no fishing for me this weekend since I have to travel to NYC for a funeral. I might try to squeeze in a couple of hours at sunrise tomorrow at BH but it's doubtful. Been pretty quiet on the thread lately. Anybody getting any fishing done out there???

Drove into BH yesterday to see what the water looked like in the backwash area. Amazed at how overgrown it's gotten since I was last there just over two weeks ago! On that note it did look like prime time froggin territory. I may need to fill the other spool for my reel with some braid and try to catch my first fish on a frog! Or a super fluke over the tops of the submerged weeds... My wife dropped a bomb on me this morning when she told me she has to work from Friday-Sunday so it looks like I won't be getting out till the following weekend.

Hey Bill, depending on what time I get out of the gig I may drive over to BH. I don't have my fishing rods in my car, but it would be nice to meet someone else from the boards.

Thanks guys! I tried out a new area not far removed from the stickups and it paid off for me. I may have been able to get a couple of more, but my buddy was growing impatient since he wasn't getting anything. I should have ignored him and stayed considering we trekked back to the stickups before heading home and caught nothing. I guess I should have listened to that old saying, "Don't leave fish to find fish".

Here are a couple of pics of what I caught on Sunday.

Managed to get out this morning at BH. Got two blowups on a frog, but didn't hookup. Switched to a fluke and managed four, one dink and the other three all between 2-3 lbs. All the action was over by the stickups, not where everyone typically goes, but instead trekked over to the point. Turned out to be a good decision...

Good luck this weekend everybody!! I'm planning on heading out to Black Hills early Sunday morning if time allows. Hopefully the rains cause the water temps to lower a bit which will perhaps result in a little more action than what I've experienced on the banks.

Congrats FB!! I've been droppping hints to my wife about getting a boat similar to the one you have. All I have to do now is buy a SUV to tow it and another house with a garage big enough to out it in since the one car garage in my towhouse ain't going to do it. Congrats again, I'm sure you're going to have plently more memories with that boat under your ownership now.

Good luck tomorrow Brian! Let's us know how you do tomorrow. I'm giving it some thought about going out around 5:30am tomrrow and getting off the bank no later than 11am since according to my Weather Channel app it'll be 93 degrees at that point!!!

Sean, welcome to the boards! There seem to be a good number of us who live in Germantown. Thanks for the tip about Seneca Creek, I'll have to do a little exploring one day! I'm by no means a good angler like some of the others on the board since I've only been bass fishing for a year now, but slowly but surely getting the hang of it. I think most of us in Germantown have met up at some point, so perhaps we'll meet soon.

Thanks guys, I appreciate it!

I apologize first off if this is a stupid questions. I wanted to know if the Shimano Saros is braid ready, not needing a mono backing. I recently bought one and was thinking about putting some braid on the second spool when I noticed the spool spool wasn't smooth, but had lines in it. Thanks!

I will admit that one day down by the stick ups as I got to my spot there was a botater there and I casted in what I thought was the opposite direction of where he was going. He gave me the evil eye and realizing my mistake I apologized and let him know I thought he was casting in the opposite direction. He told he was there for the past 15-20 minutes, so I apologized again. This went on for two more exchanges with me apologizing until I finally told him I that I was only going to say sorry but so many times and if there was a problem he should do something about it. H eleft after that last comment. I actually felt bad, but I wasn't going to apologize over and over again.

Hey Sean! Glad to see you made it out yesterday. I plan on getting back out this weekend, most likely early Sunday morning to do a little topwater. Sorry to hear about your experience with that boater. Same thing happened to me a few weeks ago except this boater was even worse because he insisted on going back forth, repeatedly stopping in front of me! I was temped to yell something but decided it wasn't worth the trouble, besides the couple of fish I pulled out while he caught nothing spoke volumes.

Made it out at Black Hills today from 6am-2pm. Started off throwing a Pop-R and caught four. After the sun came up I caught one on a finesse worm. My last fish came about 1pm on a jig. All in all a good day with six fish caught with three different lures. Pretty good for just starting bass fishing last year. Happy Father's Day to all!

I plan on going out this Sunday from sunrise till about noon or so, then off to home to spend Father's Day with the family. If anybody is interested in meeting me there let me know!

It was definitely surprising. During the fight I even had a little crowd gathered around to see what it was. I wish I would have taken a picture. I did a little research on what kind of catfish it may may been and think it may have been a channel catfish. It was greyish black with a white underbelly. Good luck this Saturday and save some fish for the rest of us!

Managed to get out on both Saturday and Sunday morning, both days I fished from 6-11:00. Saturday was tough after the thunderstorms we had on Friday. The water was pretty stirred up. Met Kevin I. over by the stickups and we fished for a couple of hours with no luck, but saw plenty of carp spawning and splashing all over the place right up to the bank. We decided to go over to the tubes thinking with all the carp splashing around it might be having a negative effect on the bass bite. At the tubes I threw a weightless senko and got a nice hit. I set the hook and it felt like I had Moby Dick! It was heavy and took three good runs where it peeled a few feet of line, which really surprised me since the max drag on my reel is 11lbs. I didn't have it locked down, but estimate it was set somewhere around 8 lbs. I thought I had the bass of a lifetime, as I yelled to Kevin to see if he brought his net! After several minutes that seemed to last forever I finally was able to bring the fish up. It was a huge catfsh! It was at least 26-28" and probably 12-15 lbs. Kevin estimated at 20lbs, but I don't think it was that heavy. With all the excitement I totally forgot to take a picture. After all the excitement was over Kevin caught a small bluegill which I promptly livelined and caught a LM which was around 15". Sunday wasn't nearly as exciting. I caught a LM around 15-16" on my second cast and I thought it was the beginning of a great day. Alas, it wasn't meant to be because I caught nothing for the rest of the day.

Made it out to Black Hills today from 9:00 - 3:00. Spent the first 4 hours or so by the stick ups. Managed a couple a little over a foot or so. Bluegills are spawning everywhere so I was surprised there were no takers. I threw senkos, Rage Craws and Space Monkeys, and spinnerbaits. I saw some HUGE fish cruising but they weren't interested in anything I had to offer. I caught the other two over at the tubes, both around 15". Three of the four took a Space Monkey. This was my first time using it and just love the action they have! I'll definitely be using them more in the future. I also got to try out my new setup. I went with a St. Croix Premier 7' MHF with a Shimano Saros 2500. I couldn't believe how sensitive the rod was, I could only imagine what a Avid or Elite must feel like! Glad to have been able to break it in with some fish. Hope everyone has a happy and safe weekend!

So after alot of back and forth I went with the Premier 7' MHF and a Shimano 2500. I handled the 6'6" MF but was feeling it wasn't going to be enough for the cover and jigs if I wanted to throw them. Unfortunately they didn't have a 6'6" MHF but that was okay. One of guys who worked there was great with givin me different options and things to consider (thanks John!) I also handled the Veritas, Carbonlite and Carrot stick along with several others but I just loved the feel of the St. Croix! I almost bought the Symetre instead of the Saros but said the hell with it and decided to treat myself. Handled the Avids, whoa maybe next year! Thanks everyone for your help!

Hmmm...considering that I do throw into some heavy cover at times, lots of laydowns, stick ups and very weedy in some areas I'll still be looking at the Premier MHF. We'll see how it works out once I being to handle the rods. As it was ponited out once I handle the rods I may change my mind all together. The only things I think is a definite at this point is the Shimano Saros.

Thanks everyone for your input! Given the St. Croix rods seem to be rated a little higher than what they're listed at I may very well go with a MF coupled with a Saros 2500 or 3000. I'm headed out to BPS tomorrow after work and see how it goes. I'll be sure to post what i wind up buying.