TheKingFisher

Nice find! I've been looking to pick up some of these. Going to stop in and check this morning.

Be careful out there Ken!

Thanks for the well wishes guys! Last outing for the season for me, I certainly hope not! I've got unfinished business now. Went for a MRI today, they're having trouble figuring out what exactly in my knee is fubarred. The x-rays haven't been too clear. All I know is my right leg below the knee wants to swing out sideways like it's on a hinge. That ain't right!

So Ken and I went out early Sunday morning to throw frogs lures at Black Hills out near the stickups and had what I'll call an interesting morning. Around 7:15 I hooked into a decent fish and threw it back in but it didn't clear the mud near the bank. So I went to find something to push it out and couldn't find anything on the ground that wasn't brittle. So I decided to jump for a branch in a tree I figured I could break off and use. Long story short, I mis-gauged the jump, barely grazed the branch with the tip of my fingers and overshot the landing and plummeted down an additional 4-6 feet, pile driving my own leg. Yeah I broke it! Bad thing is the emergency team had a hard time finding us and ultimately ended up having to get me out of there by boat over to the ambulance waiting at the boat ramp. It was a mess! Worst part is I felt like we were getting ready to have a good day after that first one. So my apologies to Ken for ruining his fishing day and also a big thanks for helping me out in a very sticky situation! Oh and I guess I'm missing fishing night! d**n!

Sean I saw your truck out there when I was leaving. I spent a few minutes throwing at what was left of some mats. The wind, rain and high water pretty much ruined the ones I was going for. The water was pretty murky too. Didn't catch anything.

Hey all, I haven't been out in awhile, it's just been too hot. Yesterday was the first time I'd been over to Black Hills in a couple weeks. Didn't have a lot of time so I only got in about 30 minutes yesterday evening over at the backwash. I didn't catch anything, but man that thing sure is overgrown now! I was fishing wacky rigged senkos but with the short time I really should've been powerfishing; probably should have gone with a lipless crank to try and cut through some of the green. Ken I can see you're probably out for this weekend, I may go out Sat or Sun morning. Let me know if you can do tomorrow AM.

micorps and basser89, You guys are getting me pumped to start throwing lipless cranks again! micorps it sounds like you've got all the good stuff. I love those one knockers and had loaded up a bunch in my cart for the cabelas sale but forgot about them and ended up missing out. I also like the yozuri rattle n vibes a lot. This year I lost a lot of crankbaits after Ken turned me on to the stickups at Black Hills. d**n him! That's a definite high risk fishing spot as far as lipless cranks go! Oh yeah Ken, I did say that catfish was between 15 and 20 pounds. I knew he was into something big, because I've never heard him ask for a net before! I swear he must've dragged that thing across the bottom as it never surfaced and we didn't see what it was until he landed it at his feet. What a ugly sucker, I can't mess with those things. The skin is just too wierd!

Hopefully this is a link to a video of the last ambush I saw before I left Black Hills this past Wednesday. So I don't force others to have to go back and read the post, largemouth bass were ambusing baitfish in the shallows. Enjoy! https://picasaweb.go...feat=directlink

I've been out a few times lately and have lost a few good ones (a couple brutes lost due to butterfingers) and landed a few ok ones. Today I went to BH over by the stickups near the beaver dam and the largemouth bass were going nuts ambushing baitfish in the shallows. I hooked up with one by swimming a craw near the surface but as soon as it hit I got hung up in cover. There was a lot of stuff on the surface in the shallows and you could almost follow them as they made trails in the debris as they were hunting and when they boiled up they'd create a clearing and I could see some big shadows under the surface. Add to that when they went in for the kill often there were fins flying everywhere. The bass were leaping over cover and everything to get those bait fish! What a thrill! Hopefully this is a link to a video of the last ambush I saw before I left. https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/aLC63S_aOsJeCuH3cC2HnBuQspP_UHFPnxRswqs7lnY?feat=directlink

Hi DewWhat! basser89 is right there are several of us around Germantown including many bank fishers and I think we're all kind of running into each other here and there. So far everyone I've met in person is top notch. I think fishermen in general are a very friendly bunch, there's something about being one with the land that seems to bring out the best in people. I love it! It seems like you're getting out to the right places which means you'll probably start running into us of course you might not even know it. I've started to make a point to throw the forum into conversation if I hit it off with someone just to make sure I'm not talking to someone in the flesh I sort of know online. A lot of guys will also post when they go out and some of us even have sort of a regular frequency with which we go out. I've only fished Gunner's Lake a couple times when I barely knew anything about bass fishing, but I've heard there are bass in there. I drive by there often and I've noticed a lot more people spread out around the lake fishing than I'd ever noticed before. Lastly welcome to the boards and I hope to see you out on the water some times!

Bill that boat looks like it'll make for a great set of waders! Good score from a very nice friend.

Hey guys, I've been out a couple times lately for an hour or so and have managed just a few dinks, I know the fish have started spawning and I'm not really wanting to pull any fish off their beds, but what typically happens to the bite during and post spawn? Also how long does the spawn usually last? Also, a big welcome to Jay and GOFORIT.

WV, nice heads up on the eagle cam. Very cool! As for the eagles at BH, I've heard of them but never actually seen them myself. Oh and I never sweat losing a fish too much. Although I will say I don't always realize exactly how much fun I've had until I reflect on it a bit later regardless of the tally at the end of a trip.

Nice fish Bill. That's the first smallie I've actually seen in picture or in real life. I'm actually kind of surprised it looks so different from a largemouth. I went out to the stickups yesterday early afternoon and could see bass spawning in several places. First time I'd ever seen them spawning and initially I wasn't sure what I was looking at. I saw the first couple no more than 10 - 15 feet off the shore hanging out near some cover. The water was fairly clear and they looked to be decent sized. So I threw everything I had at them and they literally were not taking the bait. Hell I practically dragged lures across their backs and they hardly budged. I swear if everything I was throwing wasn't weedless, I would have foul hooked one of em! That really had me scratching my head for a minute. To top it off there were smaller fish all over the place even right on top of the pair I was throwing at. I said to myself they must not be hungry. With a little more observation I figured out that while they weren't trying to eat the smaller fish they were intent on keeping them at bay. The smaller fish were hovering around the bass stationed just out of reach or with a branch of the cover in between them and the bass which were mostly swimming in circles and when any of the other fish got too close the bass would chase them away. The smaller fish would high tail it out of there and then close back in and the dance continued nonstop. That's when it clicked in my head that the bass must have had eggs and were spawning. I left them alone once I had the epiphany. Heck, I want those little bass to become bigger bass! So I moved on and saw a few others I figured were spawning as well. I decided to try to avoid the shallows and loaded up my last shad patterned spinnerbait casting out a pretty good distance. Landed a dink on the first cast. I thought, this is going to be a good day after all. A few casts later I hooked into something big, I was pumped. Started reeling it in and it felt heavy, and when it flashed was definitely a LM. It was reeling in fine but all of sudden it just stopped and my reel seemed to seize up and as I was trying to figure out what happened I watched the fish rush to a piece of cover that I'd been able to see in the water when the sun was peeking out from the clouds that was no more than 15 feet out and it broke my line off. That hurt! There was a guy down a little ways from me fishing and all I could do was turn to him and shrug my shoulders to which he said, man that looked like it was going to be big! I didn't stay too much longer after losing that one due to hurt feelings. I was planning on going back today to look for that fish, but I got rained out. That fish really lucked out today! Side note...The park police came flying around the bend in a boat as I was fishing and stirred up a pretty big wake. So much so that it caused a brown frog to high tail it out of the water. It's body was about 3 inches long while resting, not stretched out. Anyone ever fish frogs lures over there? Sorry, didn't mean to write a book. I learned quite a few things yesterday including the fact that I'm now definitely a believer in spinnerbaits.

Allen, 20 sounds like a pretty good day. I wondered if they were already beginning to spawn, the bite seems to have changed over the past couple weeks.

Hey thanks BIll! I only started fishing as an adult and going out to Black Hills last year and in between now and then I've lost a lot of money in lures. Yeah, my tackle addiction is strong! But it's starting to sting a bit!

Went over to Black Hills yesterday morning for a couple hours. I was over by the stickups and just couldn't get a bite going period. Lost at least $25 in lures, you know it's bad when you start keeping a running total and that was just two lures. Finally packed it in and got the heck out of there. My new rule for the stickups is don't throw anything higher than a $5 lure. I'm currently in the market for a new batch of lipless cranks that are less than $5.

Nice find Mike, I saw Bass Pro has similar items and both items have 40 or more reviews should anyone be interested. Hope the links work. http://www.basspro.com/EZ-Lure-Retriever-Kit/product/52869/118222 and http://www.basspro.com/E-Z-Lure-Retriever/product/44428/133047?cmCat=CROSSSELL_PRODUCT I'll probably pick one up at some point. If it works 2 or 3 times, it's paid for itself!

Latest reports... This past Sunday - Went out early around 7 or so to BH and fished until about 11:00 and got skunked! I also lost a lot of hardware to the cover in the stick ups. Met up with Ken who also had it rough. I'm not sure how he faired after I left? Went back out to the stickups yesterday with my son around 4PM for probably an hour and a half. It was windy and lightly raining when we decided to pack it in. Caught a dink on a t-rigged lizard and a slender 14 incher on a lipless crank. Yawn!

I went out to BH today around 7am and stayed until about noon over by the stickups. Caught 6 consisting of 3 dinks and 3 a bit bigger but all less than 15 inches I would say. Caught the first on a spinnerbait, second ever and the rest on what had become my trusty one knocker lipless crank. I say had because sadly it didn't make the trip home. After several saves from getting stuck in cover, I finally wasn't able to recover it. After I lost it nothing else produced any bites for me. I hadn't been fishing too long this morning when Ken showed up and I fished with him the rest of my time out and he was planning to stay longer. Don't know how he made out. It was a decent day out. Still looking to land a monster.

@Kevin W. Wow, what a great post and great time out on the water! I want some bass thumb! I checked out the blog also and there's some good stuff there. I've bookmarked it. Thanks

Thanks Traveler, I'm going to look for something like you've described. Allen, I actually picked up a few but will pick up more now that I think I've gotten a little better at working them. Thanks Kevin W, I love my crankbaits. For somebody as impatient as me with working lures, they keep me busy. i spent most of last fishing season using crankbaits almost exclusively. But I'm very happy to be adding spinnerbaits to my arsenal.

I love it Bill, picture and all! A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do!

Hey guys, here's my latest fishing updates. I hope it's coherent. I got out this past Saturday morning at about 9 and went to Black Hills over by the stick ups and the tally for the day was 6 hooked, 4 landed and all on a 5/8 oz One Knocker lipless crank. The first two hookups were the ones I lost and were easily the biggest and looked like they were going to be pretty good size. But I forgot to set my drag on one and the other threw the hook just when I got him close but I probably had a bit too much slack on the line. I lost a couple of spinnerbaits Saturday to what I think was cheap line (beware of the Vicious brand of line at Walmart). It was supposed to be 15# test line, but somehow the shock of a 3/8 oz spinnerbait was blowing the line out on cast sending the lures sailing overhead and into the water. 5 of the fish were bass but I also caught my first crappie ever on the same lure! It looked like he'd had his mouth sewn shut as he had two separate hooks from one treble in each lip. I looked at it and said how am I going to get this out? I eventually did and got it back in the water and it swam away. The bite was picking up during my last hour there but I finally had to scoot around noon. A little later in the day I met up with Ken and his buddy at BH and I also met Dave "301" from the forum here. It was just a social visit for me though no fishing since I'd gone earlier and couldn't stay. Today I went back out to Black Hills from about 10:30 - 12:30 again by the stick ups. I stopped by Dicks first and picked up a few more spinnerbaits and went back to give spinnerbaits another try. I was armed with braided line today hoping to keep them on the line. I still had the lipless crank from before tied on so I threw that for about 30 minutes and hooked into what was going to surely be my personal best. I'd never felt this heavy a mush after it hit the line. I got it as close as 20 feet and it flashed itself and went back down and threw the hook. Soon as it got off I realized I never actually set the hook. Big downer! I eventually got caught on a log and ended up breaking one of the hooks on the rear treble so I took it off and tied on one of my new spinnerbaits. I'd only taken one rod down to the water with me today which forced me to stick with fishing the spinnerbait which turned out to be a really good thing. Outside of fishing wacky, I don't think I've ever spent as much time as I did today working with one specific lure. I fished that thing all over the place and was really having a good time watching it and feeling it come through the cover in the water. I had already decided I was having a blast and then I actually hooked into one, fish on! It wasn't big probably a few inches over a foot, but what a reward for my dedication and patience fishing the spinnerbait! Of course it wouldn't be a complete fishing day had I not paid necessary tribute to the fishing gods, so my new spinnerbait eventually got hooked into something and I wasn't able to get it back, but at least I wasn't launching them like cannonballs never to be seen again. I feel like I learned a lot today and may have even leveled up a bit!

Welcome Pescado, way to jump right in! This is an excellent forum with great participants and a few weeks ago it dawned on me having joined awhile ago but only recently becoming active, that I'd already encountered several members out at the fishing holes.