Fairtax4me

Awesome catch man! A look at the size of the fish compared to the hand that’s holding it gives the impression that she’s definitely a big girl! Congrats!!

It’s a 5lb bass with a 3lb a... nchor in its gut! Nice catch! And big congrats on the new PB! She’s a fatty for sure!

I tend to have better catch rate fishing upstream. Making a long cast and bringing the lure back with current or across current produces well for me. It’s also a lot easier to walk back downstream after you’ve fished a half day (or all day)! I try to remember places where I may have missed a fish or spots that look promising that I stumbled upon it but didn’t cast there. Hit those spots on the way back, or fish areas where I had followers or saw other fish chasing while one was hooked.

I’m 33 and have had issues with minor arthritis since I was a teen. Doctor said I’m a candidate for RA (sure makes me wanna live another 3 decades!) Ive had a few days when I can barely hold a rod after 30 minutes and just have to put it down. Couple things I’ve noticed are that hand positioning on the rod/reel and the size of the reel and/or rod will make a significant difference at times. Sometimes a 200 size reel is more comfortable to grip. Others a 75 size is best. I’ve returned one or two reels I bought that were horribly uncomfortable to hold. I also try to alternate grip between index, middle, and ring fingers on the “trigger” of the rod. This changes your hand placement on the reel. It may feel odd at first but after spending 30 minutes with one hold, then changing to another hold, it changes how your hand sits rather than leaving it in the same position for hours at a time. I have plenty of fishing days during the summer when I spend 12-14 hours in a single day holding a rod and casting/reeling, and making those change-ups front time to time make all the difference. Another thing that really helps is lighter weight rods and reels. Not necessarily lighter action, but less actual weight in your hand. They cost more, but they sure can make fishing a lot more enjoyable when your hands and arms aren’t tired of casting heavy gear after a few hours.

You could try a mega dawg. They definitely catch largemouth. https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Strike_King_KVD_Mega_Dawg/descpage-SKKVDMD.html I haven’t had fish knock a lure out of the water often, but I always feel like when they do it’s because they’re either hitting it to stun it, or they just got over excited and missed it. Usually if I can leave a bait in that same place near where the fish “tried” to eat it, they come back for it, or another fish grabs it. I’ve watched smallmouth do that. Largemouth and striper may not follow that same logic.

See, the fish just know when he’s around and they jump in the boat! Big time congrats, and heck of a job to both of them! Also great job to the captain, for helping put the boys on the good fish spots!

It’s football season! And the giants are playing!

Been dinkin it up lately. Not much time to fish either with strange weather and other goings on. Last weekend made a poor Saturday fishing trip into a decent Sunday on Briery Creek. Sandy Res Saturday did her typical Sandy disappearing fish act. Marked bait everywhere. I caught 2 bass in 9 hours. My buddy got a decent one kinda early but it was same story for him the rest of the day. Couple dinks was all we could muster. Briery turned the weekend around pretty well. My buddy snagged a 5lber right off the bat, too bad it was short of citation size by 1/2”. The rest of the day we found pockets of bass in some shallow coves but not in others. And a few scattered around in deeper water in main lake. Both of of us missed hook sets on a nice sized fish which we assumed to be the same fish since it was on the same tree. Ive been fishing a Keitech 7.8 for about a year now off and on and had yet to get a solid bite on it until a 3.5lber smashed it! First fish on the big ol paddle tail, had to get a pic of that. The bigger one of the day, 4.5lber, came on a 4” Keitech, along with most of my other fish that day. This weekend a friend of mine got married Saturday and that meant no good chance for fishing. Today around 4:00 I managed to ease off the hangover and waddled my way to a pond about 15 minutes walk from where I live. Caught a dink, then made a cast to a lay-down tree top out in a cove in about 3FOW. Tiniest little tick and then the line started pulling. Set the hook and knew it was a good fish but she was swimming towards me so didn’t get the full picture until she came up just in front of me and flashed that big belly! She made a run under a log and dragged the line around across it for a few very tense seconds! Then I almost fell in the pond trying to get closer to the grass line so I could grab her! 6.0 pounds on the nose and she went 22-1/4” Citation baby! Fall is here and I feel the big bass fever!!

What rod are you using? What is the length, action, and weight? No matter how hard you swing, you probably won't ever set a "regular jig" hook with a medium rod. On the converse, if you set the hook on a finesse jig with a 8' extra heavy rod with 65lb braid, probably gonna break the hook, or send the fish flying at the very least. For smaller jigs, 1/4 to 3/8 oz with a small hook, I use no less than a medium heavy fast 7' rod with 15lb flourocarbon, even then, it takes a good solid swing to get a proper hook set. I do use 20lb mono leader with 65lb braid main line for certain presentations, depending on water clarity. Usually for larger jigs I use straight braid. Finesse jigs I use 15-17lb flouro.

Had about an hour free today after getting the house clean and the car tuned up. Spotty rain showers all day here just on the outer band of the hurricane. The bass really weren't in the eating mood at all. Finally caught one about 6", then a few casts later saw some movement in the grass mat I was working across. Cast back in the same spot and saw a little wake from about 2 feet away, felt the thump and the line started pulling. My new favorite sound is the sound of braid screaming while dragging a stud bass out of a grass pile! Biggest fish I've caught in this pond! 4.5lbs and 20.5" long. Weightless senko. Owner twist lock hooks are friggin strong!

Been trying all summer for a decent top water bite. The bass just don't want to cooperate this year. Past few weeks I've been throwing a frog almost every evening after work. Finally managed to get a half decent fish late last week. About 2.5 lbs, which is a pretty solid fish for this pond. I caught three other smaller bass on the frog that evening. That's probably my most consistent topwater bite all year.

Nice catch! Top water has been very unproductive for me this year also. Have had a few bites lately on a frog, but all smaller fish. Even on days when top water should be the go to pattern, cloudy, rainy, etc., just can't seem to get a good top water day.

I'm no biologist either, and don't take my word for it! lt is something that I've observed from my own fishing experience. There are a few lakes in my area that tend to stay very silty or muddy throughout the year, and the fish I've caught from those lakes tend to be on the pale side. Some other nearby lakes typically have very clear water, and in those the bass are usually darker. I know there are many more factors than just water color, such as what type of cover they like to be in, what water depth they generally reside in, etc. And it's also true that bass have some control over their coloration. Smallmouth bass have a lot more control over that variation than largemouth. That can be easily seen in pictures of smallmouth that are caught and then put in a livewell.

Opposite of that. Those lighter fish probably don't get much sunlight. Bass tan just like people do. The more sun they get the darker they get. Catch a bass in early spring when they've been out in deep water all winter long, they're usually pretty pale. Catch a bass out of a clear shallow pond in summer, probably gonna be pretty dark. Water that stays murky or muddy all the time doesn't allow as much light to penetrate, so the fish are generally more pale.

Hoping everyone in NC and SC heeds those evacuations and gets out safe! Wind is one thing, storm surge and multiple feet of rain are an entirely different league of destruction. They're talking rainfall amounts like Camille dumped in central VA in '69. Literally wiped towns off the map. Be careful, be safe! I Wish you all the best of luck!

Congrats on the new PB! That's a heck of a bag for a slow day! Those big smallies do have an entirely different mindset when you're trying to get them in the boat! My PB smallie is 4.7lb 21", caught it on a shakey head in the James river. It was pulling drag on a 13 conc. A with 17lb flouro! That was my jig rod setup for clear water and finesse jigs so the drag was down pretty tight! Waiting for the day when I hook into one that size with a spinning rod and 10lb braid...

I think this is the first summer I've ever thought we DONT need more rain! Normally we're in a drought and waiting for some tropical storms to dampen things down a bit. Now watching a growing hurricane that might bring us yet more unneeded multiple days of heavy rain, and probably drown out my vacation plans!

My week in photos! Starting with the most recent and ending with last weekend. Lone smallie Thursday. Interesting color pattern on it though! Couple bites that day but they weren't having anything to do with eating. Wednesday, to' some fish up! Smallmouth were sitting on the edges of the fastest current, and eating anything that came within reach. Gar were doing the same, unfortunately, so I lost about 10 lures to those teeth. Feel the bite, set the hook, get half a lure back. Picked up a nice smallie on the second cast that day, and got that nice chunky 2.5lb largemouth which is the biggest green bass I've caught in this stretch of river. Weirdly enough... Couldn't see the fish, but I knew it was going to be a largemouth before I set the hook just by the way the bite felt, and the way the fish started moving with the lure. Caught another dozen or so smallmouth that day, some dinks but mostly 12-15" size. Tuesday had an average day. Different stretch of water, got 6 fish in about 2 hours. They were off in calm pockets out of the current. Monday was the same. Sunday... Sandy river res. Almost needs a whole page for itself. Bait fish EVERYWHERE! No bass on them. And if we found bass near them, they didn't want a lure. My first two of the day were a 3.5lb on a squarebill in 5 FOW. It was apparently sitting on a bed?! Second was a 4 and change that came in about 8 FOW on a ribbon tail worm. I caught three dinks the rest of the day. Had a couple better fish hooked but they shook off before they even got to the surface. Probably not as big as my first two. My buddy was working on a skunk until he picked up a dink about mid afternoon. His next was a 3lber off bottom in 22fow. Next was a 6.4lb 21.5", from some sort of rock structure in 10Fow. Caught on 1/2oz blade bait. Nice solid fish, but that was all he got for the day. One lure, one fish. No single lure produced a second fish for either of us, so obviously we were not on the pattern. The baitfish that were everywhere in main lake were shad about 2-3" long, and try as we did, we could not get a pattern going with anything we had that was that size.

Nice toothy fishes there! Had a similar day last weekend when the bait fish were stacked like I've never seen before, but the bass just weren't interested in eating a lure. At the end of the day shad were spread out as far as you could see across the surface of the lake. Lake was glass, flat calm, except for Millions of 2-3" shad making tiny ripples on almost every square inch of the water feeding on a massive hatch and die-off of tiny gnats that were all over the surface. Didn't see a single bass come up to feed on the shad.

I've hooked a few fish in the outside of the lip. Hook shank outside, hook point going in. The weirdest, was one poor dink that I guess spit the lure right before I set, I hooked it through the eye, into roof of the mouth and the back out its nostril. Ive managed to hook a few in the back with rattle traps. And hooked a crappie in the tail fin with a crank bait once. Seems like if you throw a hook around enough it's bound to happen at some point. What always surprises me is when a fish manages to shake a soft plastic lure off the hook, then re-hook the lure somewhere else.

Seems like there is a time and a place for the a-rig. It's certainly not a year round lure in my neck of the woods (at least not by my experience). I will say though, it's a lot less work to throw an A-rig if you get a light weight rig and use smaller lighter jig heads. Or even use unweighted hooks if the rig has a weighted head on it. It takes some work to find 1/16oz jig heads with a 3/0 or 4/0 hook for the larger profile plastics, but they're out there. It it also helps to remove one or two of the jig hooks and just use small willow blades in their place. You'll never catch fish that way! Fall and spring are probably the best times to use it. Run it anywhere from 3-10 feet deep wherever you find schooling bait fish. It goes over the bass' head, and they come up and crush the living snot out of it. They expect the little "bait fish" to get spooked and scatter, so they run it down at full speed and hit as hard as they can. Be prepared, it might take the rod out of your hand. Winter, slow reel it way down close to bottom in deep water. 15-25 feet or more depending on your lake.

Good times man! Always a blast when the kids are catching fish!

About 3.5-4lbs I'd guess. Brave man fishing from an inflatable boat!

It's been HOT, and my river cleared up enough to wade again, and it's been nice and cold until today. I think the water temp went up about 15° since yesterday. Felt like bath water. Three days, three adjacent sections of the river, maybe 1/4 mile each. Spent about two and a half hours each day after work before sunset. They were eating anything that moved yesterday and the day before. Monday Got 8 or 9 decent smallies plus a 17.5" chunker that came in just shy of 2lb. Lots of short strikes from smaller fish that couldn't quite eat a 5" senko in one gulp. Had tons of followers. Had one group of 5 other fish chasing one that was hooked. Watched one run up and steal the worm off the hook and swim away and the others chased off after it! Tuesday picked up another 6. Couple dinks and a couple 12-15". Nothing spectacular. They were sitting on rocks in current and would chase down a twitching senko or swim bait if it came within sight. Today only got three. If it was moving they didn't want it, and they weren't gonna chase it. It had to be on their nose and just drifting with current or rolling on the bottom.

Where are you fishing? I'm goin there next weekend! Try a smaller lure in shallow water or where the current isn't so strong. Ned rig, or a 3-4" stick bait near grass or brushy/wood cover usually works. Of course, I've had 5" smallmouth chase down and hammer 6" senkos twitching them in heavy current, so they'll try to eat just about anything.