awohlwend

The wife and I are spending some vacation time in California in August this year. I would love to spend a day on New Bullards Bar or a similar lake where I can catch some big spotted bass. Looking for suggestions on a guide or somebody willing to let us join you. Thanks in advance for any help!

Hard to pick just one but this one is tied to a pretty awesome memory. @micahthorlawson and I caught a 20lb 13oz limit in just under 3 hours of a weeknight club tournament in KS. Anchored by Micah' s 6.5lb PB. A day I will not soon forget.

I have bank fished Remembrance quite a few times. I live in Lees Summit and it is probably one of my more favorite lakes to bank fish in the area. Tons of access and a decent population of bass. Haven't caught many over 3lbs though. The jerkbait bite in the spring and fall is usually pretty awesome. It gets tough to fish from bank once the grass gets higher in the summer. Still fish to be caught but your presentations get pretty limited. It does get fished pretty hard for panfish and catfish and I have seen a number of bobber fisherman take larger bass home in buckets.

Similar report from @micahthorlawson and I on Saturday at Stockton. Lots of smallies on jigs and shakey heads. We had a great shallow bite going on a flat, windy point in the morning but an angry smallmouth broke the only color of spinnerbait they would eat. We each caught a black bass slam by the end of the day. It was my first time on the lake and Micah's first in several years. Definitely will be returning.

Sounds like a typical day at La Cygne. I've fished up the river multiple times and never really done any good. It all looks so good up there it's hard to not want to fish it.

Welcome to the group! if you do a quick search of James A Reed and Jacomo you'll probably find some old posts on this page that might give you some insight into the lakes. I have spent a considerable amount of time fishing several ponds at James A Reed with very similar results. I haven't been back in well over a year. There is not a ton of bank access at Jacomo other than what you have mentioned. I have only bank fished it once and caught a 3.5-4lb fish on a spinnerbait then left. The west side of the lake around the dam is where I fished. That side of the lake has a lot of bluffs the further away from the dam you get and makes it nearly impossible to bank fish. I'm sure some of the better parts of the lake aren't accessible from the bank but I'd focus your efforts there rather than James A Reed.

Maybe talk about the 3 classes of baits as they apply to the water column (bottom, middle and topwater) and finding which one is the most effective when/where you are fishing. Awareness of whats around you when you cast. This may coming in handy during the 1/2 hour of teaching. Don't toss used plastic baits into the water.

The Sprinker sounds like a 90 size plopper. What's the tail made out of, does it seem to hold up pretty well?

Fished Mound City Lake last Saturday with @micahthorlawson. Had an okay day, no real big fish to speak of. Fish were blowing up all over the place when we pulled up to the ramp. It looked like something out of a dream. There were 3 boats ahead of us at the ramp at 5:30 in the morning. None of which were in a hurry to get in the lake so we fished from bank while we waited. Caught my first fish on an MS Slammer and Micah had a good one come unbuttoned at his feet on a Whopper Plopper. By the time we made it in the water the topwater bite had stopped. Almost snagged a herring that took off from the bank and flew under my line. I've heard guys tell stories about doing it before but never had it happen to me. My line got wrapped in its wings as it took off and it crashed into the lake and luckily shook free. We've had better days out there before but felt good to get back on the water. It had been a while.

Might have to take you up on that sometime. The place we rented from only had 1 sit on top available but I think was already out for the day. Also, my feet were really sun burnt from the day before so I was kind happy to have them under something.

Spent the week up on Lake Michigan with some family last week. I was excited to try and get on some smallmouth but never could get them figured out. Caught a truck load of big drum off the pier by our house and a handful of largemouth. Finally was able to sneak away and rent a kayak to fish a better area. First time fishing from a kayak, it was pretty fun but as you can tell from parts of the video, I didn't have all the logistics down and did a lot of fumbling around. If I wasn't saving for a house and a bass boat I'd contemplate buying a yak. I liked the added challenge and could see it being fun on some of the smaller lakes around here.

Thanks! Glad to know we didn't just suck the day we went. The lake looks great, lots of stuff that looks like it should hold fish.

Fished Prairie Lee with @Doc-Drew earlier this week after work. Neither of us had ever fished it. Fought wind and green sunfish the whole trip. Must have had 100 sunfish bites, they wouldn't leave anything alone, as evidence from the video. Caught them on everything we threw. Few small bass mixed in. It was a pretty cool little lake. Not sure I'd buy the Jackson County permit to go again though.

Yep that's the one. Muskegon was the only other lake in the area I could find that seemed to be worth the trip and was still semi close. Thanks for the tip. I'll check out White lake as well.

Taking a trip to Michigan with the family mid June. We will be staying at Pigeon Lake. Hoping to sneak away for a half day and get on some smallmouth unless there is enough action on Pigeon Lake to keep me occupied. Any suggestions on lakes close by that have a decent population? My internet research has been somewhat inconclusive. Looking to stay within an hour or so of West Olive. Also looking to rent a boat for the day if possible so if you have a suggestion I'm all ears.

Taking a trip to Michigan with the family mid June. We will be staying at Pigeon Lake. Hoping to sneak away for a half day and get on some smallmouth unless there is enough action on Pigeon Lake to keep me occupied. Any suggestions on lakes close by that have a decent population? My internet research has been somewhat inconclusive. Looking to stay within an hour or so of West Olive. Also looking to rent a boat for the day if possible so if you have a suggestion I'm all ears.

Short video from Gardner last week. Everyone in the group caught fish pretty well with a few nice ones mixed in. We caught them on variety of baits, the big fish was caught on a jig and was just shy of 4 lbs.

I have found that I don't catch a ton of fish on the plopper but when I do they are good ones. Unless I am around smallies then I can catch numbers. Bass seem to be very particular about size and color when they eat the plopper. I've had buddies outcatch me 10 to 1 because I had a different size or color. I'd say keep throwing it and they'll pay off soon enough.

Nanofil. Seemed strong enough when you could keep it from fraying, but that seemed to be a rare occasion. Tying a leader on that stuff is an exercise in futility.

Had a week night tournaments at La Cygne last night. Typical evening at swan. Fished pretty slow but cracked a couple good fish. Biggest was 4.40lbs and was caught on a shaky head 15 min before the end of the tournament. @micahthorlawson caught just about every species in the lake on the ned including a good fish right away in the first spot. Some day well get that lake figured out.

Once in a lifetime fish for Kansas. Congrats man! Good thing you went back and pulled the net out before your first cast, boat flipping a DD on 10 pound line might be a little risky!

They are a lot of fun. Definitely a great learning experience. I have done them in the past and kinda a got away from them. This is my dad's first year of doing them and he was a boater so I went done with him to walk him through it. Made me miss fishing the bigger tournament trails.

Fished Table Rock the last 2 days. Today was the first BFL of the season in the Ozarks Division. Prefished Friday and had a pretty good day. Today not so much. Cold front and high blue skies made the bite extremely slow. Caught some fish today but nothing big enough to weigh.

Here she is.

Never been myself but catching a magnum spotted bass in Northern California sounds pretty awesome to me. Who knows you might just break the record again. I think it may be tough to find good info on the lakes where the recent big ones have been caught. Seems like most try to keep it a secret to keep the fishing pressure down on those lakes but with all the records coming from up there lately its tough to keep things under wraps.