everythingthatswims

@A-Jay calls it "mojo"... I'm not sure what it is, but crazy things frequently happen to me when I fish. Today I took my kayak to Deep Creek Lake in western MD, because my friend found a fun pickerel bite this weekend in really shallow water and had caught a largemouth too. We started out fishing a big weed bed in 5FOW that had some serious vegetation going on. I tried fishing a lipless over it, but the weeds were too big and I couldn't rip the bait out. On my last cast, a bass followed my lipless up and boiled right as I pulled the bait out of the water beside my kayak! I couldn't tell the size of the fish because it happened very fast, but it left a fairly large boil when it bolted away from my kayak. I retied with a chatterbait, paddled backwards a couple times, and cast over to where the bass came from. Early in the retrieve, it got mushy but felt like weeds. I then felt a couple head bobs but didn't feel anything when I set the hook. Fairly close to the boat after resuming my retrieve, I got thumped and gave it a nice side sweep. Instantly the fluoro started making that lovely sound as the fish dug sideways. I got a glimpse of it and was shocked by its size, right as I saw my bait pop out of the corner of her mouth. In a futile attempt to get the fish to bite again, I quickly set my chatterbait rod down and flipped a jig over to where I last saw the bass. My chatterbait was hanging 2 or 3 feet down under my kayak, and it got hung up in weeds so I picked the rod up to pull it out of the grass. But it was that big bass! I set the hook, she rolled, and came off. I knew I blew it at this point. I backed up with the paddle again and began making short casts at the spot where the fish was. As with every time before, I got thumped on the very end of my retrieve, almost beneath the kayak. This time the hook held, and after a few surges, I got my hand on the fish's jaw. 22.5" and probably in the 6/6.5lb range, I think this bass genuinely wanted to be caught by me. I spent a ton of time fishing the spot after this fish catch and did not get a bite. I am fairly confident that this was all just one big bass thinking it was in a feeding frenzy!

Well I wasn't planning to fish today since it was rainy and in the low 40s (which I guessed would shut them down after a warm stretch). Little did I know that today I would be busting some fat girls in 1-2' of water on a jig! I don't know what these WV bass are thinking, but I'm okay with it. The rain we've gotten over the past week must have warmed up the water really fast. I fished some brand new water today, and it was a good choice! I was feathering a 3/8oz flipping jig through emerging lily pads and I was watching almost every fish that bit come out and smoke the jig. I discovered the bite by complete accident as I had been focusing my efforts out away from the shallow water where I assumed the bass would be. I like it when they prove me wrong! I also caught several flipping the jig in the flooded field pictured below, it was a very unique situation.

The only time I have ever been diligent enough to tally fish for an entire year was in 2013. I caught 446 largemouth 116 smallmouth, 659 crappies, and 557 bluegill. With all other species, the total came out to be over 3500 fish. That was back before I even started bass fishing, I think it's safe to say I catch a few more than that now

My lab ended early today and I already had my truck packed just incase. Fished a pond/swamp and had an awesome time! Fish were up in 2FOW which shocked me, (stuff was frozen over less than 2 weeks ago) I had one blow up on my chatterbait as I pulled it out of the water. I also watched one come up out of the grass in 2' and eat my chatterbait close enough to me that the hook set was a boat flip. Also got to cross a couple eyes with a jig on 20lb fluoro which always feels good. Ended up landing 7 bass and they were all over 14" so in WV that is a darn good day. Looks like 2-3" of rain on the way, should be an interesting weekend of fishing for sure

Saturday was a fun day back at home on the power plant lake! Air temps stayed in the 30s but the fish don't know anything about that. My little brother and I caught fish on; swimjig, chatterbait, jerkbait, flipping jig, wiggle wart, bandit 300, 4" line-thru swimbait, shakey head, and a ned rig! Ice appears to have checked out here in WV so I will be back after it in the kayak starting about.....NOW

That was a puddle on a gravel flat where the water had flowed in and the silt had settled, I kept her there while I took photos. The actual river probably had 6"-1' vis. Muddy but certainly fishable, and it's what made that big girl let her guard down!

Wasn't actually planning on fishing today, I was home for the weekend from school but had an hour or so of free time before I needed to get on the road and decided to take my kayak out. I made a good choice! Yesterday was my first time fishing a wiggle wart, I was on a power plant lake with a ton of fish so the bites were guaranteed. I guess I learned enough from that to put it to use in the cold muddy water today! She went 7.01lbs and was a very healthy fish, I've never had one fight that hard in the cold. I really did think I had a carp for quite some time until I saw the fish!

Try one out! What depth do those optimum swimbaits run at?

I just went with a 4 because the bait came with one, I don't have any experience with line thrus but it does seem to be too small from what I'm hearing and reading. I'm gonna bump it up to a size 2 but I think I'll stick with 12lb line. It's a pretty small bait and relatively light so I think going much heavier could hinder its action, 15 would probably be okay. I have hooked plenty of fish on a deep diving crank with a size 2 on 10lb line so I don't see how it could be much different, especially because the force is only being distributed on 3 points instead of 6.

I recently started experimenting with the little line thru swimbait that osprey makes. It is a phenomenal bait, tracks well, runs at a perfect depth for fishing around shallow cover, and the fish love it. My issue is the hookup ratio I am having with the bait. Honestly it seems like I'm batting about 30% with the bait. Sometimes I'm seeing the fish inhale the whole bait and I'm still missing them. I have tried delaying my hook set as well, no dice. I am in a kayak so an upward hookset is often my only option and this could be an issue as I may need a side sweep, that is also something I have considered. I am using a #4 gamakatsu round bend as my hook, it is the same size as the hook that originally came with the bait and seems plenty big enough. Maybe the round bend isn't the best choice or I need to go to a #2, although that would be a little big for the bait. I have been fishing it on a 7' medium action rod with 12lb fluorocarbon, my rod choice is based on the hook, I highly doubt the issue is not having enough power to hook the fish. Anyone with suggestions or experience with the bait, send it all my way! Today

I am fortunate enough to get to fish one of the coolest places in the entire world as far as I'm concerned. Snow on the ground, ice in my guides, and I'm watching them chase bluegill up on the bank, while sight casting to cruisers. I even got one to eat a frog but I missed him!

Fat winter build on one of our southern ones is still probably skinnier than one of your fish would be post-spawn. I'm surprised you were able to identify it.

My buddy who catches a lot of big fish on Pickwick says they spit up catfish pretty frequently, the spines must not bother them

This is a photo from back before I left for Toledo Bend, but I think it's worth sharing. Living the dream!

How are they being prepared

It was ALWAYS better back in the day! Well you know about the one I found over there once upon a time , guess there are a couple in there

So you found the 2-3lb big girls instead of the usual 0-1lb boys and girls?

In 2017 I fished VA, WV, NC, TN, AL, MN, IN, OH, PA, and MD. The combination of living at school relatively close to several state borders and fishing college tournaments gives me a chance to fish in a lot of different places! But my goodness is that a lot of $ in licenses. Just added LA and TX to my bass state list last week

I had a great time at Toledo Bend, but boy was it tough! My partner and I couldn't get locked in on anything consistent. We were getting 13-15lbs worth of bites a day, which we figured would be flirting with the cut line, but they were never in the same place or on the same baits. Our main two "patterns" were steep humps and points close to a creek or river channel in 15-25FOW with a c-rig and football jig, and a ratltrap (ONLY 1/2oz chrome 1 knocker, they wouldn't touch red or rattles) on banks that had 7-10FOW where the boat sat, with a creek channel behind you. You also had to be in the outer 1/3 of the creeks for that bite to happen. The issue was, the fish weren't really following a pattern, you would find a good stretch of bank or two, try to duplicate it in 10 similar areas, but would never find them again! Same with out deep, we would fish 3-5 spots for every one we found fish on. We had 4 deep spots that produced multiple fish in practice, two stretches that had been decent with a ratltrap, and one small spot where we found some schooling fish. They were all spread out, so the plan was to just make a big loop throughout the course of the day hitting all of the spots. We had a 2 hour fog delay on day one, which gave us less time on our spots, but we still had plenty of time to be thorough. Stop number one was on our spot with the strange schooling activity. It was a very small spot in 1-5FOW, in the back of a pocket, unlike anything else we found all week. It was the only place we got them to eat a jerkbait, but since they were schoolers it made sense, and that's what I started with there. I quickly put 3 keepers in the boat, all in the 2-2.5lb range, we caught a couple shorts too, but that was all. We figured we would maybe get one fish there so we were way ahead of schedule. Deep spot #1 didn't produce, and neither did 2, 3, or 4, but we still had a couple spots for the ratltrap to pick up a keeper. First shallow spot produced a keeper for me, and 4 shorts (14" limit), which got our confidence back up. At this point we were no longer concerned about a 4lb+ bite that we had gotten every day, we just needed our 5th fish! No more ratltrap fish in those areas, so we headed to our starting spot with about 20 minutes left to fish. We put 5 in the boat there, but none were big enough! We were pretty bummed, because from what we did in practice, even though it was tough, 5 should not have been a problem. We sat in 69th place out of 248 with 8lbs 8oz after day one. Day two we decided to completely abandon the deep bite, and try to expand on the shallow stuff, even though finding areas with fish was really hard to do. We started again on our schooling fish spot, and we didn't get bit when we made our first pass, which was disheartening. But we knew they were there, so we put our heads down and stuck it out. I saw something break out behind the boat, it didn't look like a bass but I threw out there anyway. A few seconds later I popped a 16"er which went in the well. On the very next cast I leaned into what ended up being a 5+lber, our biggest of the day and of our whole trip! 5 minutes later my partner stuck a 4, and then a chunky 2lb+ fish. That spot was super strange, it was very shallow, and you had to just keep casting, but when they turned on, it happened QUICK! We stuck with the jerkbait for several hours, finishing out our limit and then culling our smallest with a 3.5lber. The jerkbait bite died once the sun got up, so we went and ran some dirtier water with ratltraps, where I was able to make one more small cull. That was it for the day, we caught a lot of fish, but none that would help. Our bag went 17-0 on the scales, which jumped us from 69th to 37th place, missing the cut by a mere 13oz! I sure which a little spotted bass would have latched on to one of our baits on day one, or any keeper for that matter! I was very pleased with our work, after a tough practice we were left scratching our heads, but we used what we learned on day one of the event to turn things around and give the guys in the top 30 a scare. We still have another chance or two to qualify for the BASS National Championship, and you can bet we will be giving it our all!

Toledo is throwing some serious curveballs. My spot that was stacked with fish yesterday was vacant today. I tried it multiple times and I searched around nearby to see if I could find where they went to. On the bright side, I did discover a couple deep spots. Not a ton of fish, but some bites, and "some" is about all I have been finding, and from what I've heard, that is the case with most at the moment. I caught one really nice fish today on a spot that has serious potential, but it was the only bite I got there. I am hoping that some more fish of that class move in!

Toledo has been tuff. Today was my second day on the lake. We put about 15 in the boat, which was a significant improvement from day 1 when we boated 5 and only 2 were over the 14" mark they need to make for the tournament. Very strange place compared to anything I've fished. Most places you can find a couple trees on the bottom to fish, but here the whole bottom is trees! The areas I've gotten bit in are extremely small, and it's weird because the fish seem extremely active and cooperative in those places, but you can't pick off one or two anywhere else. Mainly have two "spots" at the moment, and it's like a 3-5 casts per fish guarantee there, I caught fish on back to back casts a couple times! But then you run all over the place trying to find something similar and won't even get a sniff. Size is my main concern right now. I was worried that the fish I am on aren't big enough, but today I pulled a 4lber off of a place that had been kicking out fish that were only flirting with the 14" mark. The other area I found produced a couple 2.5-3lb fish, so I'm hoping there are a couple big girls nearby. Only way to find out if the size is there would be to open fire on them and I'll save that for tournament day. I like playing the numbers game anyway, keeps my confidence up. On the bright side, the small fish I am catching are shaped like absolute footballs so they do weigh a little more than an average fish that length would. The bottom photo is a 14&1/4"er. Please no specific info in responses, we have a no information rule.

Next week, there is a BASS College Series event on Toledo Bend, and I am departing from WVU tomorrow to make the journey down south to see what I can do. I am extremely excited. College bass fishing is so cool, it gives me an opportunity to go fish world class places like Toledo when I may never have the chance to do it again in my life! My professors are all awesome and have been very helpful in terms of sending material to me and letting me know what I need to do in order to stay on track, I am very thankful for that. I will be practicing Sunday-Wednesday, the tournament is Thursday-Friday and Saturday is cut day, hopefully I will be fishing then too! It took 28lbs to win the Texas Team Trail event there on the 13th, 2nd was 27lbs, 3rd was 26lbs. 19lbs was sitting in 18th place The forecast shows a stable warming trend, and I am really hoping that these fish are ready to chew since they've been cold for a little while now with this crazy weather. I will do my best to post a couple reports from practice, although I get really into it so I may forget. No specific info in the comments please! There is a no information rule this year, which I am a huge fan of

My mom made my brothers and I do swim team for 3 years when we were younger. We hated it, but her reasoning was that if we were going to be spending all of our time on the water, we needed to be very good swimmers. The endurance obviously is all gone but I'm pretty darn confident in my swimming abilities. Thanks Mom

No but the 4lber did come from the secret hole. Did you lose a tipup out there?