punch

I only got action last night on a spinnerbait (white w/ gold blades). I caught a really nice 30" pike, and a few smaller bass. Seem's were in a bit of a downswing, I havn't had great luck in the last two weeks in the north metro.. on lakes that were actually pretty hot all spring and into summer. The water temp was down to 70. Hurry up fall bite! Square bill, xrap prop, sexy frog, xrap, DT4, and the swim jig AND buzzbait didn't get a single bite. It was a bit too windy for me to toss bottom contact stuff. Ah well, just keep at it. Fall bite's gotta kick in sooner or later.

This thread was started May of this year, the KC thread was started in 2006. I'd guess that's why! haha I'm going out tonight in the north metro. Not confident on a specific presentation because of my last two trips being ehhhh. I tied on a white/silver swim jig with a paddle tail, white/silver spinner, wacky senko, x-rap prop, and a squarebill. SOMETHING's gotta work.

I like using live bait when taking young kids out. Slip bobbers and fathead or crappie minnows will bring in largemouth.

I've been out a couple times this week in the north metro. The water was 79 on Monday night and dropped to 74 yesterday. Monday was awful fishing! The lake I was on was hammered with pleasure boat traffic, nothing was biting. I only boated two fish. Last night after the storm front I figured the topwater bite would be on like donkey kong. I went out on the lake, it was calm, no boats, dusk... nothing was biting. I tossed the kitchen sink at them. I did manage to boat 3 fish but it was hard. Only thing that got strikes was a popper. The bite is stingy for me up in the north metro right now, i'm ready for the fall feed to kick in! It should be soon with water temps droping fast.

Nice fish!

The water temp sure dropped fast. Was low 70s in the north metro. It was in the 80s a week ago. I had a hard time locating the bass the other night. They weren't hitting deep or shallow for me. Only boated 2.

Awesome! I'm still on the quest for a +6 pounder. I've gotten so close with some high 5's. Spinnerbait action eh? I'll have to give the spinnerbait a whirl this week. I fished for a few hours Saturday morning on a local metro lake. I was expecting a nice topwater bite because it was calm, overcast, and the fish have been shallow in the early morning. I had a little action on the chug bug, but they wernt hammering it like i expected. I gave up and switched to a t-rigged biospawn craw and tossed it around 6-10 foot weed lines and hammered a really nice 4lber. It was a tough morning but I boated like 3 good fish.

oops double post

I fished the Ned this past weekend pretty heavily on a deep, very clear lake in Northern MInnesota. I tossed it from 15' down to 30' and caught quite a few fish on it. Easily 20. I was using the TRD and the mushroom head. The one thing I noticed though was the size of the fish were on the smaller side. I fished the same area's with a t-rigged biospawn exo stick worm and caught less fish than the Ned, but they were overall bigger fish. For some reason the little bass were destroying the Ned, while the bigger fish wanted a bigger presentation. I still had a lot of fun fishing it. It's something I found you can fish vertically or cast it out and hop it back in. Either way is pretty fun. I was using a Veritas medium light spinning rod with 6lb line. I only lost rigs when the occasional northern pike would take a swipe at it. I'm definitely keeping the Ned in my rotation for my finesse rod. Nice change up from a shakey head and drop shot.

Have you tried going deep with drop shots and ned rigs? Texas/carolina rigged craws and bigger worms down deep too. Also, try a popper over the weeds late in the day or early instead of frogs. I slammed bass on poppers early and late last weekend in like 8-10 feet of water over weeds. I've had luck with DT4's lately too, casting and trolling them on the deeper side of the weedline. My point is I think you're probably going way to shallow for this time of the year. Start in the 10' range with bottom contact stuff and work deeper. I was catching bass in 25 feet of water just a few days ago with t-rgged worms and the Ned rig. I caught fish with wacky senkos in like 8-12 feet too. Letting them fall all the way down then twitching them in. Nothing shallow.. all deep sides of weed edges and points.

Leech Lake is about as good as it gets. Trophy fish across many species, there's lots of amazing lodges, and it's not over populated or dense so you get that real sense of being remote (like up in Canada).

Ooooh fancy.

Agree, the Berkley hardbaits look pretty interesting. Flicker shads are a hit, and are CHEAP so expanding the line has some promise.

Random question, do any of you guys have experience fishing Lake Carlos up by Alex? I've just fished it once but we're going to be staying 3 nights next weekend and I'd like to pick someone's brain who's had some experience on it. Thanks!

I fish a lot in the evening so my #1 producer this year has been the chug bug. My #2 producer is a tie between a weightless senko and a rapala DT4

I hit Lake George in St Francis last night. Water temps was about 80-83. Fished from about 4pm till sundown. Bass were NOT shallow, which has been the theme for me the last few outings. Once the water temps in the metro tick above 80 I've always found that there's a point where the fish head out to 10-15 feet and hang out there all the way into mid August. Anyways, we trolled and casted DT4's up and down the outside weed lineds and absolutely hammered pike & bass. We put about 20 fish in the boat, best bass was a nice 3lber. George isn't really known for big bass (in my experience at least) so I was happy to pull out one nice one. The pike action was off the hook though! I was surprised how many fish we were catching in flat bottom open water in about 15'. On the electronics I was picking up a lot of fish hanging out 7'-10' deep and they had no problem running down crankbaits last night. I would have liked to slow down and toss some shakey heads but we were having too much fun blasting the pike. Try crankbaits outside the weeds fellas. That time of year.

I love watching his challenges and youtube video tips. What I like about him is enthusiasm for everything he does. He's like a little kid when he's fishing, but then he can flip a switch to being a total professional when he's trying to teach and explain a technique or bait. I don't follow the bass tournament circuit, but i'm really happy to hear he's having success.

I'm a big fan of topwater fishing personally, and the best tip I can give is to NOT quickly react to a topwater hit like you would a bottom contact bait. Let the fish slam it, pause, then set the hook. When i fish with people that are new to topwater the rookie mistake is to set the hook to quickly with too stiff of a rod. Sometimes the splash comes before the actual bite, so if you're jumpy on the hookset you'll pull the bait right out of their mouth before they take it. Like Sea Salt said, early morning and before sundown are great times to toss topwater. If you got calm water through the day, don't be afraid to toss topwtaer all afternoon. I've caught plenty of topwater fish all throughout the day. Morning/evening is just a suggestion, not the rule. When i'm topwater fishing I start shallow and work my way out. If i'm getting strikes in 1-2 feet of water, i'll stay shallow.. if i'm getting nothing I'll work my way deeper. Fish will hit topwater in 5+ feet of water. I've gotten topwater strikes in 10 feet of open water before. My "method" is to stat at the shoreline and work my way out. Ripping topwater baits over points or weed beds is always a winning formula for me.

The topwater bite was still hot this weekend but there were a lot less fish shallow. Temps are now in the low 70's in the metro. I got out Saturday & Sunday morning, and Sunday Evening. I had a 4.5lber smoke my xrap prop bait in about 4-5 feet of water, and pulled in about a dozen fish off a popper. I think next weekend I'm going to start cranking and tossing plastics in the 4-10 foot range outside of weedlines and see if the fish have started to move off the shores a bit. As long as they keep hitting topwater tho that's what I'm gonna toss.. it's way to fun to stop.

Yea, this is a pretty good video. I love fishing this way. I would also suggest that you don't always HAVE to toss a plastic at fish that you're sight fishing shallow. I've had luck switching it up and going to a topwater bait that i can work slowly such as a popper. Fish that were not interested in plastics I've been able to boat with a really annoying topwater presentation. Just because they don't want your jig/t-rig/senko doesn't mean they wont bite. Sometimes you need to make some noise to get their attention.

I've fallen head over heels in love with the Storm Chug Bug. i'm a big fan of poppers and I've had like a 98% hookup rate with the Chug Bug vs other poppers I've been using for years. I should have gotten on the Chug Bug bandwagon a long time ago. My other popping baits don't hold a candle to it.

I'm seeing the same thing Tlauz! I spent 7 hours out fishing today on a north metro lake and temps seem to be hanging around in the mid 60's and the bass are still REALLY shallow. I've been catching them shallow for the last two weeks and they just don't seem to be moving anywhere. I'm doing damage in like 2-3 feet of water with wacky senkos and topwater. The advantage of the bass being so d**n shallow is you can basically sight fish them with frogs and poppers. My chug bug got HAMMERED today. I caught 8-9 bass on the ole chug bug, most of them I could see hit the bait all day. If you're getting out I still suggest going very shallow and working your way out. Wear your polarized glasses and zero in on the big ones. I don't even need to zero in on docks because I can see them patrolling around the docks and I've been able to get them to strike being very slow and methodical with topwater. Buzzbaits don't seem to get any action and working frogs & poppers fast hasn't been getting strikes. I've had to work the baits really slow. Fish just don't seem to be out chasing food down yet here in the metro, at least the lakes I fish.

I picked up the Topwtaer/jerkbait version of the ZX this year and I've been using it a TON. It's a fantastic rod for spooks/walking baits and popers. It's honestly become one of my new favorite rods.

Nice! I did some remodeling at my hosue over the weekend, but I did manage to sneak out tonight for a few hours with my 5yo daughter. We hit a north metro lake by my house at about 6pm. Water temps were mid 60's and the lake was dead calm. My daughter literally caught 19 bluegills.. she was hammering them. Once I let her have her fun I hit a few points on on lake looking any signs of life. One point had a lot of minnows & bluegills flopping around on the surface so tossed a storm Chug Bug (a personal fav topwtaer) and started drilling bass. I caught like 6 fish over one point in about 30 minutes. All 1-3lb fish, in about 2-5 feet of water. Then one of my final casts this guy absolutely hammered the chug bug. Great way to end the weekend.

I got out three times this weekend in some north metro lakes. I seemed to only find bass really shallow. When the sun was out I was able to sight fish some pretty good sized fish in like 2-3 feet of water. Some were right on their beds and some were protecting (moving off the bed to chase bluegil away) I was able to hook up with a couple with a t-rig craw.. others wanted nothing to do with me. Effective sight fishing on beds takes a lot of patience and boat control.. both of which I don't have! Yesterday I got out early in the morning and was ONLY able to hook up with 3 or 4 fish super shallow with a rebel pop-r. I'm talking like 2 feet of water. I've been cranking and getting nothing this past week, the fish do NOT seem to be chasing. I've tried shallow with squarebills and outside weedlines with DT's.. nothing. They seem to be lethargic and really shallow with temps being in the mid-low 60's. I'm assuming they are spawning and haven't moved out to the post-spawn patterns yet. I guess all I can suggest based on my 4 outings in the last 10 days is if you're in the metro, go very very shallow and work your way out. I've been getting no action on frogs, but i've had action on spooks and pop-rs.