RipzLipz

I like Dirty Jigs Scott Canterbury Flipping Jig for about anything including & especially wood. Was throwing their Tour Level Football Jig on a lake with lots of laydowns, stumps & rock & losing 2-3 per trip. Tried the Canterbury Flipping Jig & rarely lose any now. Probably the angle of the lie tie & shape of head made the largest difference for me. I would recommend starting with the basic colors (orange/browns, black/blue & either Definite Watermelon or Dirty Chartreuse which is shown below). Other than a spinnerbait & chatterbait, this is about all I've thrown this year so far (spawn has yet to occur in the lakes I have fished).

This. I love bacon cheeseburgers, prime rib, pizza, etc. On occasion I don’t want any of those to eat but want something different. Fish & and other animals are probably the same but more opportunistic. I hand feed fox squirrels peanuts off the back deck - right now most around here are going crazy for those "helicopters" that fall off the silver maple trees & aren’t as crazy about coming up & getting peanuts.

Wind, rain & cooler temps didn’t keep me indoors for long. Got out Sunday on the public lake with my son dragging jigs once again. More males moved up shallow & water temps were warmer than air temps. Managed 12 to 15 fish total with the kid catching the biggest of the day, a nice fat 4-12 off of a shallow rocky flat: My dad & I returned the next afternoon & managed another 15 with me catching a nice fatty that went 4 even. Cooler weather seemed to delay the rush to the shallows a bit. More small males than previous outings but no sightings of beds nor irritated tails. My bet is the next full moon will be it. They’re close.

Jig, jig, jig, jig, jig, spinnerbait, chatterbait, lipless & square bill crankbaits, jerkbait.

Went back to the same strip pit Sunday afternoon - was a bit windy but manageable. Dad wasn't in the mood for waiting so one lap around the place was all I got in this time. Had 2 bites on a jig but both were dropped before I could set the hook. Water didn't feel much warmer. Friday night storms probably still had them turned off. Probably wasn't on the water for much more than 2 hours. Warmer weather coming this week & I expect to see fish on beds before the end of the month if the 10 day forecasted temps hold true. Haven't had a chance to get back to the public lake an hour south of me yet. Will be the first year I've fished it the whole year - will be interesting to see how the fish behave & when & where they spawn.

Congrats on the PB - nice fat girl!

Nice pigs Dwight!

Made another trip over to the strip pit early Sunday afternoon & upon arrival, was a bit breezy & water was stained from the 3-4" of rain we got over the previous few days & nights. Water temps still cold to the touch. Started out throwing a 1/2oz jig getting a bite & drop in the first dozen or so casts. No more takers so after hitting a few key areas, I switched to a bluegill colored chatterbait with a paddletail Keitech trailer. Still no takers. Threw out a white & chartreuse single Colorado blade spinnerbait with a Zoom twin tail grub trailer & had this 5-5 beauty absolutely crush it right off the end of a laydown in about 5 FOW. She also had a bluegill tail just barely sticking out of her gullet - gluttonous hog, but that’s the way we like ‘em, don’t we? My dad had a smaller fish on a spinnerbait as well but it came unbuttoned. I only saw the head of it & was guessing it was probably under 3lbs. Only 3 bites for the day but always worth the trip when the bigger gals are hungry. Overall the fishing was slow but the big gals are chewing right now, which is why I love fishing this time of year.

I've not been regularly posting in here either. Have been out three times so far this year, one Sunday in Feb, then the following Sat & Sun right after a hard Friday night rain where we got 1.5-2" overnight. First trip out, I caught 5-6 under 2lbs & lost a 5-6 lber at the boat at a small public reservoir. The following weekend after the big rain the small reservoir was chocolate milk at the upper end & had leaves floating all around the best stretches which would have needed a 1-2oz punch weight to get through but cleared off near the lower end of the lake, where we caught all of our fish. Caught 7-8 under 2lbs, no big ones. Next day went to a private strip pit over near Terre Haute & the only bite we got was a 4-13 that my step son caught & up to this point is his PB. All fish were caught on 1/2 oz. Dirty Jigs flipping jigs with Rage Bug trailers. Pic of the 4-13:

Haven’t posted in quite a while - haven’t had great success with LMB fishing at my usual honey hole for the past couple of years. It’s an old coal strip pit with very clear water (10+ feet visibility during the dog days of summer - we typically fish evening into the night due to the clear water & very, very wary fish). 20 minutes into an evening trip on the 4th of July resulted in this 6-6 beauty. She came up from a deep weedbed to smash a single Colorado blade Booyah spinnerbait, which I’d rolled & ripped over & through the weeds about a dozen times prior. Was lucky to hook into her before the sun went behind the trees - got to watch her fight & dig for the depths in that clear strip pit water. Love watching bass shake their heads underwater. Pretty rare that we catch any this size during daylight hours this time of year at this place in Clay County. The best part was that my 70+ year old dad was with me, watching me do what he taught me & having some success. Thanks, dad. Fish was released to fight another day & keep the gene pool going.

Was pretty nice out yesterday and yet again today though a bit more chilly. Saw a couple of guys fishing a high dollar neighborhood main lake in Columbus yesterday while driving around after lunch. Would have liked to have been out there hitting it with them - some monsters in those lakes. No immediate plans for me unless dad and I get a wild hair and take off down south while I'm off during Xmas shutdown. Pretty nice - we usually get a full week off paid and I always roll over 5 unused days to tack onto the end of that. Depending on how the holidays fall, I might end up with somewhere around 12-15 days off. Won't have to be back until the 10th this year. Booked a June trip up to Rainy Lake this year so will have that to look forward to in 2019. Hope to put a beatdown on the smallies and hope the fishing warrants several return trips. Always used to do a week-long canoe trip in the BWCA/Quetico lakes back in the 90's - definite bucket list trip if you've never experienced it. Lots of work but defintely worth it in the end.

Hi guys, I'm from around central IN, 20 min. south of Indy - mainly fish strip pits around Brazil and Linton areas. Would have been posting here more frequently but didn't know this thread existed until today. Have been mostly lurking for the past couple of years. 2018 was mostly a down year for me - a few 3-4 lbers on jitterbugs but nothing on jigs during prespawn this year. Lost access to a 20 acre private strip pit - owner passed away - but waiting to see what happens with the property. Not putting much faith in that panning out but one never knows. A week-long smallmouth trip in June to Waterfalls Lodge around Spanish, Ontario resulted in a dozen or so 2-3 lbers but nothing about which to really brag. I was recovering from corrective laser eye surgery so that made things a bit more difficult than usual and impacted most of my fishing season. PRK surgery isn't fun when you're over 40 to say the least. My dad & I went in together on a 2008 Ranger 198VX with a 200HP Merc Opti about a year ago and didn't use it much this past year - went to Patoka once after the water got back down and completely struck out due to fish still not settling down from early high water levels - but is always nice to get out in the big boat when we can. Just got new Solix units installed & working around October - looking forward to using those and learning how to chart private lakes/pits if I decide to mess around with that - can fashion an out of the box transducer into a portable one fairly easily just not sure if I want to drop the $500 on the 'ducer, software/chip, etc. Just returned from a trip to Lake Seminole in GA - weather wasn't in our favor and of course the damage from Hurricane Michael was still affecting things - fishing was slow for us. Fished mostly deep divers in the wood and caught 6 total (in about 3 days total of fishing - dad is getting up there in age and can't handle sitting around just fishing - they have to be biting) but managed to stick 3 at 3-13, 1 at 4-5 and dad had an 8-0 grab his crank. I don't hear much about Seminole and it's full of wood, at least in the area where we were, and is full of hydrilla that received a "haircut" from Michael and overall, I was quite impressed with the quality of the fish we caught. Sure, we could have had better numbers but not bad compared to what I'd expect from a public lake in IN. Seminole is not for the novice boater - one of the more potentially dangerous lakes I've been on. If you got out of the marked running lanes, you'd probably be getting a shiny new lower unit due to all the standing timber under the surface and that timber stands right at the old channel edges (along the running lanes). Anyway, will try to contribute to this thread a bit in the coming season - have a bit more than 2 weeks off starting on the 22nd so might have time for a quick trip down south somewhere maybe. Will post some pics of this past year if I get the chance - particularly from the Seminole trip. That 8 was a pig. At work right now and need to get back at it. Take care all.

Nice fish - I'm very familiar with where you're fishing. The big gal in my profile pic as well as my PB were both caught within 7 miles of the Chinook pits. That clear water and green vegetation makes those bass coming from the pits look almost perfect.

^^^This. Complete slob. Well done! The others are great catches as well, just not fish I target.

Both are just tremendous fish Dwight. Did the smallmouth put up a great fight?

Good looking fish - great job!

Congrats!

Yeah, we're getting hammered here as well. Cool temps, wind and rain mixed in aren't very conducive to bringing up the big bottomed gals.

In addition to any of the above, an A-rig might be worth a shot if you've got lots of open water and little timber or laydowns.

Love the diamond shaped black markings. Nice pig. Congrats!

Well done. Love those red lips & crushers this time of year.

Strip pit bass can be almost perfect in every way, regardless of size. Nice coloration, awesome build. Well done.

Nice fish, ski. I've travelled down there stayed over at Blue Cypress and drove over to Fellsmere and fished that lake many times over the years. Stick Marsh used to be FULL of trees and stickups but those are all broken off and submerged for the most part. We never had much luck for bass but knew it was a gem of a place with a great chance at a DD bass. Kind of gave up on it after one of the bigger hurricanes hit FL and really tore the lake up - some locals were claiming all the grass was pulled out somehow. Nice to see that the marsh still has some nice ones in it. From what I've read on other forums, those fish are known to turn on and off in a heartbeat.

Nice first outing of the year. I got skunked today on my first trip to the strip pits this year, so glad to see some fish in IN are biting.