UPSmallie

Beautiful pictures!

Not sure if using a net or not but it would greatly help increase your landing percentage. Not much else I can think of

Aye that's what the shutter button's for I do need to start remembering to turn off my GoPro more often though

Once while night-fishing with my bro for freshwater drum we had a similar scenario happen. Just started wrapping things up and were putting what was left of the crayfish we had back into our minnow traps when we heard a klang and then a splash. We had bells on our rods to alert us of bites. We rushed over and the rod was gone. After 3 minutes of probing the shallow water around the shore we found it sitting on some underwater rocks inches from teetering into the drop-off. I picked it up, handed it to my brother, and he proceeded to land a late night 6 lber. Fun to catch but that's about it.

Right before lightning strikes I notice the fish seem to smash my lures a lot more. Falling barometric pressure maybe? If lightning is far away then I'll keep fishing, but if it is close by then I'll call it quits until it passes by.

I agree with everyone else on the location. Maybe just try some new spots up or downriver? For the kind of cover you are describing I would definitely look into a minnow colored Rapala X-Rap. Maybe some smaller spooks would work well in this situation too.

I'll be honest. 95% of all my bass catches are by-catches of when I am targeting different kinds of gamefish species. Usually it's "I want to catch a walleye... 7 smallmouth catch and released later I realize that's not going to happen.

I feel walking-style baits seem to produce best for me. My favorite smallie topwater would definitely have to be a bone one knocker spook. Landed a 3.24 lber on it last summer and was one of the biggest adrenaline rushes of my life. From shore to boot! Love me some topwater.

Little 1/8 oz Little Cleos in blue/silver color combo land plenty of legal sized smallmouth for me. Not a lure I fish very often though.

Look on your spinning reel underneath the bail and it will say what lb line is suited for it and how much of that line. Haven't had too many problems if I stick with what it suggests.

Had one of the best mornings spent fishing in my life. A friend of mine from church took me out to the local powerhouse chucking wire flies beneath bobbers and it was a blast! In 5 hours we hooked probably 27 fish and landed about 20 of them. Roughly 6 steelhead ranging from 12-18 inches, 9 whitefish ranging from 10-17 inches, 1 dink Atlantic Salmon, and 4 brute Atlantic Salmon in the 20-26 inch range. This guy has these fish dialed in! We threw all fish back besides two whitefish and my first true Atlantic pictured below. This guy weighed just over 6 lbs and measured 25 inches. Literally took 15 minutes to land this beast! Can't thank that guy enough for an unforgettable experience. Will definitely be back for more bobber take-downs in the near future.

I hear you man. I can usually stay interested in what I'm presenting so long as I'm getting some kind of action to pass the time. After about 2-3 hours of nothing I try and make some drastic changes or move on. If it's a slow day I'll usually try and catch one more of any kind of fish to end the day on a high note. Got to love the anticipation of the next fish though

From shore: Power-fishing and fan-casting jerkbaits like Rapala X-Rap From boat: Trolling plastic paddletail swimbaits like Keitechs. Usually 10X more productive than shore fishing.

I just use these Berkley weighted EWG Superline hooks texas-rigged usually in the 4/0 size, but 3/0 would work too. http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Berkley_Fusion19_Hooks_Weighted_EWG/descpage-FHWE.html Did buy these ones too. They'd probably work just as well. http://www.basspro.com/Berkley-Fusion19-Weighted-Swimbait-Hooks/product/2251540/?hvarAID=shopping_googleproductextensions

Well done man. Although I do love me some keitechs haha. What type of grub do you prefer?

Had a fun day yesterday trolling a keitech 4.3 inch pro blue red pearl. After hooking the second smallmouth on it, the swimbait got thrown off and that was the end of that. Tried different baits, but couldn't replicate the success. No complaints though. The chunkier one went 3.06 lbs at 17.5 inches (maybe prespawn at 54 degree water temps?) and the skinnier one went 2.86 lbs at 17 inches. Both were lowered back into the water after taking pictures and length/weight measurements. Fish on.

Bought two of their swimbait lures and was not impressed. The designs look cool, but the tail action imo is not good at all. I'd look to alternative baits in terms of swimbaits.

Those are some beautiful Michigan Bass. Well done

Thanks man @12poundbass The bay I fish is loaded with smallmouth so virtually any soft plastic minnow bait with a paddle-tail that you throw out of the boat will get hammered. Just drop the lines, hit the trolling motor, and wait for a rod to double over.

I've just been using the snipping tool. The photos do turn out a little bit poorer quality though

Got the motor fixed so hit the local bay after work. In total I caught a freshwater drum, two pike, and two smallmouth bass. All were released. This was the bigger of the two smallmouth at 16 inches. They really love keitechs.

You are a lucky man. On windy days my front and rear anchors just get dragged along by the waves and wind. The heavier of the two is 20 lbs and the smaller is 10 lbs. I primarily fish shallow water with a muddy bottom though so there's nothing to catch the anchors. Definitely an effective way to fish though.

Well done! Wishing I would have held back and saved for the 110 over the 130 I have. It works great, but is a little too big for the areas I fish.

Yes Sir. When fishing jerkbaits from the bank I power-fish them aggressively with constant twitches at a fast pace. I cover lots of ground doing this and crush the smallmouths. Sometimes slow is not the way to go.

Not off hand since the one I rigged got torn off by a smallmouth. Will post here when I try it again though. I've been fishing the 4.3 inch and 3.8 inch on 4/0's. Bought some 4.8's to try on 5/0 but haven't tried them yet. Biggest smallmouth have come on the 4.3 inch consistently in the 2.30 - 2.70 lb range. I've been trying different trolling lures lately since the keitechs have been taking a beating. Will have to keep at it though.