RenzokukenFisher

Been getting out on and off the past month trying new lakes and stumbled upon some nice catches! I lost the rhythm on lakes I was fishing during Spring as they grassed out, and decided to mix things up by trying to learn the many deep, rocky, and clear fisheries in my area. The highlight so far has been getting my girlfriend on a nice chunk of a largie, and catching my pb spot at 3lbs 10oz. On a 6ft ultralight! Let that 1/8th oz drop shot sit with a Zoom trick worm while trying to adjust my raft fighting off the wind. Picked up line and felt a little weight so set the hook. It didnt fight so hard at first but the second I brought it about 10ft under the surface it did the classic spot maneuver of diving straight down like a freight train. After two strong runs the wind had pushed me right over a thick and gnarly tree where the spot decided it had its chance to break me off zipping straight into the tree. Meanwhile the lady had pulled up in the paddle board and was trying to tow me away from the tree but by then that thing was all wrapped up and I could see it down there about 8ft. Told her I was gonna swim for it hahaha because with the distortion of the water that thing looked 7 pounds!! Thank goodness letting some tension off the line did the trick and it worked it's way out of the tree and it was pretty tuckered out after the ordeal. Got it in the raft took a breath and celebrated. It feels good giving largemouth a break and going after these hard fighters.

This is super true! Soft plastics can be so subtle and it takes time to learn that feel. So many times its the absence of anything that could be a bite. Once I commented on a Roland Martin youtube video asking him how he knows when to set the hook with the Senko. He responded saying even he cant always tell and just swings for the fences to see if a fish is there 😂

@hampter This is a relatable struggle for many new anglers, I like to agree with the folks that encourage to enjoy the process and simply invest time on the water. Ultimately catching bass is the byproduct of enjoying the process and keeping an open mind. Welcome to the forum the writing here will certainly accelerate your understanding. Read what's been said, and get out on the water and give it a shot, all bass need to eat eventually and when you finally get one you get your first glimpse into how they operate. The most basic start is to make sure the place you're fishing has a history of people catching fish. About every state has areas of "dead water" that may look like fish heaven but is just a snowmelt pond or something like that. My first fish were generally caught throwing spinner baits and buzzbaits around wood and grass, and pulling Texas rigged craws and creature baits in those same areas. Eventually I just happened to intercept a fish and overtime an intuition grows where you can predict where fish will be, its magical but it takes time. A final note I'd like to share is a philosophy for bite detection. Go beyond bites and learn what a bite IS NOT. Essentially use each cast to learn what grass feels like, what wood feels like, what rock feels like. What does a lures natural resistance in the water feel like? etc. Basically train your feel to know exactly how your lure feels as it navigates the underwater world. When that feel is developed bites become very obvious because you are so tuned into what grass, rock, and wood feels like that anything different at all means time to swing. Hooksets are free and don't feel a fool to go ripping the rod up at anything weird.

Recently returned from a two night camping trip at the gorgeous Lake Almanor up near Mt. Lassen in Northern California. Took a solo trip to get out, relax, and of course find some fish. I was limited to the bank this trip which gave me a good workout and made it a hair tricky to get on deep summer small mouth. I finally got on some good patterns with dropshot 4 inch roboworms in green pumpkin, and 1/16th and 1/8th jighead's and Ned rigs with a mini hula grub trailer; fished on rock walls and steep banks with chunk rock and boulders. Lake Almanor's smallies spawn early so by now these fish were DEEP! Tackle shop fella said bank anglers have been struggling so I'm glad to have pulled out three, biggest going 2.82lbs. Without electronics I narrowed in deep water bank access on the maps and was glad to stumble on some bait balls with smallies ripping through them, thank gosh for polarized glasses lol. After a slow day on Almanor I checked maps and found a lake only 4 miles away and much smaller, and with better bank access, Butt Valley Lake. Man now this pivot was a game changer! Its a few miles long and maybe a mile or two wide with plentiful coves and points to easily trek. Better yet the fish were still up shallow here so much easier to target. I believe the spawn was still going on and I was able to entice some roaming males into biting with craw imitations and pulled out some potbellied ones too! Biggest here ended up my humble new small mouth PB at 3.2lbs, and I think the trip may have convinced me bronzebacks reign supreme. I mean I don't know what mother nature thought when making these beasts because they pull ridiculously hard, and they don't seem to ever give up. That three pound smallies pulled like a 5lb largemouth it was incredible. Ultralight gear made the battle even more intense. This trip solidified the small mouth bug after my previous light river trips over the past year. More to come in the future!

Nighttime Bassin' is a blast and if your fishery is heavily pressured during the day you may be in for a treat with the night bite. The thing is every lake is different and the fish have their own culture so the only way to dial in is to get out there at night and learn the habits of the fish in your lake. I mean literally fish learn from each other and have tendencies towards certain lures so it may not be repeatable across lakes or even the same lake on different nights. For example: Are they eating on a rip rap bank, or cruising weed lines, are they lying in wait in a hole in some grass, or roaming and smashing top water, do they want something that tracks straight, or do they want something that dips and darts. These tendencies change lake to lake, and based on the moment to moment conditions on a given night. Methodically try these different things and let the fish guide you to what you need to throw. There are the general principles of dark colors, big baits, and lots of thump; think colorado blade spinner baits, wake baits, big jigs, chatter baits, big soft plastics, etc. But I always encourage to become intimate with the fish in your lake and be creative because formal rules don't always equate to best fishing. If you know these fish during the daytime, try a lot of the same lures at night in all honesty. My only take is I avoid finesse at night I just don't see the point in it since the conditions tend to make the fish more bold and willing to take on a lure with more presence. I've seen this across many different ponds and lakes. But who knows there could be a finesse night bite worth trying in your area so never have a limiting mindset. There's so much to this topic and folks responses so far are dynamite. Time on the water!

@GreenPig @Swamp Girl @Fishlegs @Eric 26 , Thanks for the good wishes and glad the pics could get some laughs!

The fishing has slowed down finishing school and landing a post grad job, so here's an AI bass from graduation for fun!!! Officially a Master of Social Work! Also a river smallmouth caught the day after graduation as well wading the American river, it was stunning I'll get more scenery pics next time. Going on a solo camping trip next week at beautiful Lake Almanor here in Northern California, on the hunt for some healthy Smallies. Hoping to stick them with rip-baits, crankbaits, 3 inch swimbaits, topwaters and jigs n dropshots. Thinking fish will be in post-spawn with maybbeeee a few spawning stragglers. Should be a blast with the view if Mt. Lassen in the background.

It's the Hiroshima Customs Shad Glide, that one was in a hatchery trout colorway. It is one of the custom glidebaits so it retails around $180 which is steep I'll admit, especially when a fish steals it lol. I know folks have different opinions on that with these expensive of baits, but this is honestly one of the best glide baits I've ever fished and completely find it worth the price. It's the cadillac of glides, it stays suuuuper level and stable in the water, and has a really tight and natural glide but can also swing wide when you kill it. 7 inches long so its the perfect snack and still has drawing power. My favorite part about it though is how thick of a bait it is, it puts alot of resistance through the water on the retrieve so you can feel every little thing its doing and I think for a nightbite or dirty water it helps the fish feel it more. Some glides are just real thin and its hard to really track the cadence without seeing the bait but this one you can feel suuuuper well. Imo the thicker frame also dual purpose matches a chunky trout or a bluegill so I like that about it. The bait monkey is whispering for me to get another one, we will see 🤣

Beatiful fish @Swamp Girl ! Some thick healthy fish :)

Was going to head to the lake spot related to the "Steep side Shallow side" post, but with limited time did night fishing at my local honey hole. Ended the night with a 21lb bag! I broke off on another giant though and this time got to see it wallow on the surface trying to shake off my 7 inch glidebait. I'm making changes to my gear, and to my hook set, this is the 2nd break off in about a month on these big baits on big fish. It's starting to shake my confidence. Going back to braid to a Maxima Ultra green leader, and switching from a San Diego Jam back to the Palomar knot. I'm also pretty jumpy on the hook set so going to try and slow down, reel until tension, and give a nice solid lean into the fish instead of a snap set. Checked the line after the break off and saw it looked curly so 100% a knot failure. While checking the line I heard the fish come up to try and shake the glide and saw a big hefty 7lb+ fish tail wagging on the surface so that stung a bit. At the same time I'm hooking these bigger fish pretty consistently now which is great! Figure once I can sort out these knot failures I'll be on better ground. Either way here are some pics of the ones that filled out the night! Also anyone who's gone through this and was able to sort it out please let me know! I'm about at a point I'll need to be admitted to the psych ward with this 😂

Oh this is a rabbit hole I love and I extensively went into for about a 2 year period, it was a blast! Overtime I've built a dedicated ultralight fishing tackle box full of finesse poppers, trout magnets, micro chatterbaits, and tiny crankbaits. Typically catches a smaller class fish but oh man those occassional 3 and 4 pound bass give you a run for your money on 4lb line. It really can up your numbers and honestly its just fun fishing. It gives a little bit of high stakes action on that light line and it makes reeling in even a 2lb fish a good fight. To me I use it to just enjoy myself and have the most fun possible during a trip. I'll even bring some night crawlers to mix it up and catch bluegill in between catching bass. Whats most fun is watching a bluegill hit your worm and immediately after seeing a maw open up behind it to inhale that bluegill! I've also learned more about fish behavior when ultralight fishing for some reason. Its helped me built trust that fish will find my lure no matter what, which gives me alot of confidence since I night fish alot of stained or muddy water. They can locate these itty bitty lures and nail them, and they can do the same even when they can't see well. It also gives more time to feel how a fish fights, what they prioritize when fighting etc. It gets put away when I get "serious" for a trip though. Thats when the big guns come out especially if I'm really trying to target a larger fish.

So much good stuff on here thanks folks. I'm going to look at my day Saturday and see if I can squeak in a full day instead of a half day, that way I can hit both sides. I am a bit more interested in getting that one big bite and I'm having a gut feeling to go on the steeper side to hit the submerged trees off points or poke around in the small flats. The Gent at the tackle shop talked about his buddy catching a 9lb fish in the back of one of the small cuts on the steeper side so that sounds tempting. At the same time the deep veins leading into the shallow side really have my attention like you mention @Tugg . The shallow side just looks fishy especially if the weather is warming up. Latest Catch Thread will reveal how it all went hahaha

Gosh that things a blast! Its my first year fishing it and I was suprised how subtle it really is and how slow you can work it. Can't wait to see what you pull out with it! Beautiful fish youve been posting

Hey Everyone, Curious your thoughts on this matter for hopefully a more successful trip coming up. For context I will be fishing from the bank probably throwing big soft and hard swimbaits, jigs, spinnerbaits, and drop-shot. Not familiar with the lake but my guess is fish are all stages of the spawn but leaning post-spawn. I'll be fishing a "highland" style reservoir with long creek arms and plenty of secondary points. I'll be choosing one main creek arm to fish and probably only have enough time to travel on one side of the arm. My dilemma is I see there is a steep side, and a shallow side to this creek arm. The steeper side has a sharper taper down to 40-60 ft of water and has sharper points with rockpiles, granite veins, and submerged trees. There are less major spawning flats, but some shallow flat spots still exists. Alternatively there is the shallow side of the creek arm. Comprised of sloping points and more gradual tapers down to about 20ft, and occassional 30ft deep channels into the shallow flats. Rockpiles and granite veins are present but less so than the steep side. The shallow side has a ton of submerged brush and trees however. What would your approach be considering the Spawn - Post-Spawn window? Travel up the steep side on the west, or travel the shallower side on the east?

Jealous of these smallies some of y'all are getting on! Waiting for my Cali river spot to open up for the season. Been getting on the largies night and day. Gotta squeak in time between work, school, and the pre-graduation job hunt. The bite has been especially hot at night and they are thumping anything from chatterbaits, to 8 inch soft swimbaits, to big wake baits. It amazes me how even the big baits will catch the smaller ones too. The fish have been changing their positioning by the day and water levels have been all over the place which keeps things interesting. Hopefully getting onto big water soon from the bank and seeing if any pre-spawn scragglers are left, have a feeling we are starting to shift into post spawn here but fish are still on beds at the smaller lakes so maybe the bigger water is warming up slower. We will see!

This is all really good info, and sounds a lot like the many dinky ponds/small lakes I fish when I don't want to go on big water. I actually hear a lot of juicy stuff when you're describing this, and my advice honestly would be don't overthink it and go back to the basics. Use your favorite confidence search baits whether its a spinnerbait, bladed jig, crankbait, glide bait, evening wake bait, whatever, and move around. Chuck and wind, start at the shallow end and work your way down to the deeper sections, try to hit the top and middle of the water column as you go by speeding or slowing your retrieve. At the right time that rock on the bank might become a pin point, if youre on the bank cast right up against it, if you're in a boat scoot right in and try to pull that bait like its escaping into the rocks. If you're really not buying a bite banging around shallow, then its time to grab that jig, drop-shot, or t-rig and start poking around off the bank. All it takes is finding that Christmas tree brushpile that happens to sit 1ft deeper or shallower than the others for the fish to use it as a waypoint/feeding zone, etc. If you see the slightest divet or protrusion on the bank cast and follow that "structure" out to see if theres anything to bump into. Theres been times I'm fishing a mud pit lake that gets overrun with weeds in the Summer, I'll go out into like 15-20ft of water no electronics and just drag a dropshot and get bit, To me it's no man's land but more than likely theres a bottom composition change or depth change I just can't see. Most lakes also have some sort of water supply natural or manmade. Identify the tiniest creeks running into the lake and start there where they pour into the lake. That's what I do half the time since I don't have electronics, but creeks bring nutrients, change bottom compositions, and create depth changes, they are fish magnets. Any grass in the lake?

The solidarity helps :'( Grateful to have connected with the fish though and put the puzzle together. Hopefully the fish will forget it ever happened by next week hahaha

Got on the water today around 4am and the conditions were perfect for a big bite. Water clarity around 2-3ft, barometric pressure dropping and there was a light rain with wind blowing in from the south, Moon phase almost full. This place is a small lake and very heavily pressured, but known for the occasional DD class fish. The fish have recently been spawning so I knew there were bound to be some prespawn females left. Tied on a 8 inch Magdraft with a belly hook on 20lb co-poly line and started throwing it out. Used it on and off for about an hour in between catching fish on a spinner bait. Then, between 5 and 6am, I was fishing the main big rounded and shallow point in the lake which divides two spawning bays. I was on the wind exposed side of it where there's a noticeable drop off from the shallow point into about 10-12ft of water. Chunked the Magdraft diagonal out over and past the drop off, let it sink a few seconds then slowlyyyy reeled in. Turn, turn, turn, and right as its coming over the transition there was just a solid and heavy THUNK. Not super aggressive but just one good thunk and then nothing. Second guessed for a moment reeled in some line and felt the aliveness of the fish and thennn. SNAP. My line broke off on the hookset. A heartbreaker for sure. I didn't use the chance to feel the line after because I was PO'ed lol. I don't know if it was a bad San Diego jam knot or abrasion after throwing the Magdraft around Rip-Rap earlier in the trip. I will not know how big that fish was but it felt like setting into an absolute unit. The line broke very early in the hookset so I'm kind of leaning towards there being some knicks in the line. Either way gonna be checking up more on my knots and line more often! Was able to still pull out some fun ones though to make up for the loss!

Great seeing folks out here crushing them, looking to a good rest of the year as well. Went out for more night fishing and throwing bigger baits. I just love the whole vibe of the experience, was able to lean into a few so that sent me to work a happy camper. The fish at this spot are starting to look pretty spawned out, but darn were they aggressive! Looking to get out tomorrow around 3am, should be a light drizzle coming in so fingers crossed it fires them up. The spot has a range of sizes and pretty good number so may all go well.

Randomly woke up this morning at 3:30am and like any sane angler I figured the time be better spent on the water than tossing and turning in bed. It's been unseasonably warm and I wanted to test how early I can get a night bite going. With that being said I am so happy to have gotten my butt out of bed!! Didn't get the weight on the first fish but man that thing was a meatball, my guess is 5lbs and some change, caught her pausing a wakebait for about 10 seconds before she decided to hammer it. The second came right before sunrise on a glidebait fished verrryyy slowly and came in on the scale at 6lbs. What's interesting to me is they had the length of say a 4 maybe 5lb fish but their girth was ridiculous! I love catching these Northern strain largies they get round like a basketball lol.

Interesting stuff here Pat and ideas I was also considering. The males "locked in" around the second week of march here this year, but truthfully I saw big females up shallow mid february, more so than I see them now. So it makes sense they come up before the males to scope things out. In fact my biggest fish was caught Feb 1st in about 3-4ft of water on a sunny Feb day. We will see if I even decide to chunk a lure at a big one on a bed anyways, it does feel a tad unsportsman like. But its been great learning this time of year, I normally fish Summer-Winter, school always steals my life in Spring 😂

A bit late posting these, caught both around late February! This is a pocket off the American river here in Sacramento. Water levels were high and the fish were posting up on river rock bars with a channel running through. Chucked a lil 1/4oz jig and either slow dragged it or swam it letting it bump up against the rocks. They couldnt stay off of it! Both ran around 3lbs

We are lucky dogs out here in the west and south hahaha, that ice better clear up soon for ya!

Hi Folks! Haven't posted in awhile I've been busy with school and finished nursing a shoulder injury. However, It's good to be back and I'm starting the year strong and catching some fat 3-4lb fish as the waters continue to heat up! I'm curious though when you typically see the big females finally push onto beds AFTER the males are locked in on their spots. I've been bank fishing a pond about 2 times a week to really learn the Spring season because surprisingly its been my least fished time of year. Been watching the males creep up and get pushed back with a cold weather push over the last month. Just yesterday though the males finally locked into their beds because of consistent warm days, and the next two weeks are projected to be stable 70-80 degree days. I believe I see some females suspending about 25-50 yards from the bedding males but they are inactive and wont sniff a Big Swimbait down to a Ned Rig. Curious about both how to zero in on those staging pre-spawn females, but also how long after the males lock in do the females tend to join them dirt shallow. I know bed fishing can be an ethical question but I figured to try for the first time this season and I'm meticulous with my fish care protocol. Curious everyone's thoughts and happy to be back on the page. Very sad to hear about two giants on the page, WRB and Catt, passing on. May they be slaying big ones on the other side. Eli - Sacramento, CA

Heres my 2 cents. I've been fishing for 5 years now with about a dozen 5s, some 6s and an 8lb 1oz fish as my PB. Not a DD catcher but I believe Ive tangled with one or two then lost em heres what I found. Zone in on maybe 2 to 3 small lakes or launch areas on a lake and fish them consistently for the next 2 years. This is important because you can see how bass operate based on the seasons. Use conventional gear and just get good at fishing. Get bites, feel bites, fight fish and learn what they are up to. Eventually start identifying "big fish zones" on your body of water. Cant catch whats not there. So look for areas of deeper water with easy access to a shallow flat or shalloe piece of structure with isolated cover. A big brush pile near a drop off into deep water, a rock pile on a flat near deep water. These are prime zones. Big fish are not like your 2 pounders, they are dominant in their areas and are not often aggressive so you will need to often camp out these big fish zones and fish in boring ways for hours before getting a bite. Keep an eye on how you catch and what time you catch a fish 3 or 4 pounds or bigger. This can clue you into the habits of a larger fish. It'll happen just keep fishing. Also a fair warning. Many say the effort and time to catch one of those giants isnt proportional. Think of it, people may spend a decade meticulously trying to get one and end up with one DD. Its sooooooo much work for just one of those fish. Dont let social media ool you, only a handful of men and gals can consistently catch these dang things 🤣 have fun!