IcatchDinks

Yep. Went down to NC last summer and fished a lot with @Pat Brown, Jake, @FishTax, and @LrgmouthShad. Like Pat says, we're hoping to do more this September. I'm really loving the stories of BR member meetups. It's great when your virtual community can coalesce into present reality. It's a great community, and only gets better in person.

Indeed. Such a strange plant.

Short fishing trip to the pond before work this morning. Caught a nice one on the T-rig. Then a tiny one on the crankbait.

During the weekend, if I don't get out in the morning, my only time for fishing is in the heat of the afternoon while both kids nap. At its kind of brutal. Worst time to fish, imo. I spent two or three hours walking the riverside trails in town searching for a bite with a T-rigged soft crawfish, and a medium diving crankbait. I decided to experiment with the T-rig. I inherited a bunch of fishing gear from my Grandpa who has gone blind and is too feeble to fish anymore. He gave me a ton of egg-weights. I don't use them. Don't know what they're normally used for, but figured, "these could probably work for a Texas rig." I learned after three missed good bites (two of them I saw the fish take the bait) that the rounder, fatter weight was actually popping the bass's mouths open before the hook could sink home. This might have been different if I'd been using a standard offset shank, but I was using my go to EWGs. And I was watching the bait slip out of the fish's mouths like there wasn't even a hook there. I did manage one nice river smallie on the crank bait: and a plethora of rock bass that I'll spare you the pain of looking at. Later that evening, I took both the one year old and the 6 month old to the park and fished while I waited for my wife to join us. I had switched the T-rig back to the bullet weights I normally use and caught a handful of tiny smallies. Also, I mention it every year, but tubers are the worst kind of water-enjoyer. And I must have seen a hundred of them. A group of four even had the audacity to dismount their tubes in the deep hole I was fishing (about neck deep on a full grown man) and splash their way over to the steep, rocky bank I was fishing from. Directly where I was standing. The actually access point was about 20 feet up river. "We're trying to get out," they mutter without so much as an apology as they scramble up the rocks, scraping their knees and forcing me to move backwards. I've rarely been so ticked off at a stranger while fishing, but whether from good sense or cowardice, I just packed up and moved upstream with a bitter, "this isn't the access point for the river, guys!" Over my shoulder. Oh well. What did I expect going fishing in the middle of the day on a Sunday?

This just looks good too. I'm gonna have to write that down and pick some up next time I'm shopping for soft swimbaits. (Which will probably next year because I'm loaded with soft plastics.)

@Swamp Girl, we'll definitely miss your reports. But take the time to get better, don't push yourself, and hopefully you can be back at it before too long.

I spent a total of 3 and 1/2 hours out on the water today. 2 hours this morning before work, and an hour and a half wading the river after work. Only managed two bass between the two trips. Both came on two different homemade lures. This morning I casted poorly and got the treble hooks tangled in my line. As I was pulling the spiraling bait back to shore an ENORMOUS smallie followed it into a foot of water and ENGULFED it. But, thanks to my poor casting, he never felt a hook and swam off confused about what had happened to his meal. That's two possible PBs lost this year due solely to operator error. I caught a little one a few casts later: This evening a caught a very healthy smallie half an hour into my trip, lost two, and saw no other fish. I did let a little girl and her father see the bass. Neither the daughter or father seemed to know anything about fish, but they thought it was cool. I did see a turtle though: And a beaver, though I didn't get a pic. I also ran into a fellow angler on a work trip from Illinois enjoying some down time on the river. He seemed to be doing better than I, although I have a suspicion he GREATLY over estimated the weights of the fish he claimed he was catching. (If any of you are on a business trip from Illinois to Michigan and ran into a bearded guy with an orange backpack while fishing, I totally believe you and would never accuse you of exaggerating your catches. 😉)

TW Bargain Bin haul. Shoulda got more, but the dollars were adding up fast, and I figured I should probably quit before the Bait Monkey totally destroyed our monthly budget. 😅 3" SPRO wave tail grubs Missle Bait Craws Head Hunter medium diving crank Mustad Infiltrator underspins And a Bass Mafia plastics bag. I also ordered some lunker logs, but they're on backorder. They had a yellow and white Scum Frog trophy series that I really wanted, but I went out and looked at all the hollow body frogs that I don't use hardly ever, and decided against it. I went back again to look, and I don't see it any more in any of the bins anymore.

Congrats on the new PB, @MIbassyaker!!

This old Buck folder has been my everyday carry ever since my dad gave it to me two Christmases ago. His dad gave it to him when he was a teenager. I use it for everything a blade can be used for. When fishing, it usually just cuts line for me.

Friday I had a choice: go home and eat lunch alone. Or go hungry and go fishing during my lunch break. I chose the latter. One teeny tiny guy trying to eat a crank bait altogether far too big for him. And that was it. Didn't get food til dinner time at 6 PM. #worthit

Yep. I've also had quality issues with Rapala. Had the hooks on a 4 3/8" floating minnow break on the first fish I caught on it. Brand new out of the package. One treble was bent out, another one snapped in two. The fish was a 25" pike, and he fought hard, but I've had my own garage build lures fair better against tougher fish, and I use the cheapest of the cheap eagle claw trebels I get from Walmart. Such a renowned and storied brand like Rapala should do better. Especially since they have a bit of a brand name tax added to their price tag. Like @F14A-B said, "Great concept. Bad execution."

This is my second year after switching to backpack from shoulder bag. Highly recommend. I got a cheap Ozark Trail backpack from Walmart. It does the job, but I recommend something a little higher quality of you can swing it. That new box looks super slick, @Bluebasser86. My terminal box is about half that size. Occasionally the smaller hooks can worm their way (no pun intended) over top of the dividers. I just finished reorganizing it tonight, knowing full well it'll be a mess again within a week. 😆

My goodness, they processed yours fast. I submitted one last year in June and didn't get the patch until October. I'm gonna have to try to get me another PB this year, because the 2025 patch is way cooler than the 2024.

Psych! The rain lessened to a light drizzle so I went back to the pond and caught three bass so small, they might as well have been minnows, and then one average size bass. I watched a really nice bass, probably 17 or 18 inches take a lazy swipe at my bait right at the bank. But he totally missed and despite repeated casts in the general area, he never took interest again. @Pat Brown, save some for me! We're coming to North Carolina again in September. Looks like some great fishing right now.

Me too! I didn't even realize I had it till I was going through my camera roll to upload pictures.

My area is currently under a severe thunderstorm warning. I thought if I could get out early enough, I could squeeze in some fishing before the storm moved in. But, between a malfunctioning kitchen appliance and a crying baby girl, I didn't get out as early as I had hoped. As I parked my car the clouds looked deeply ominous. Regardless of the gathering doom overhead, I hooked into a smallish bass almost immediately, but he came free on one of the prettiest leaps you'll ever see. Soon after a caught another similar sized bass. Given the location I caught him in, I wouldn't be surprised if it was the same fish. As I tried to release him, he decided to absolutely douse me with a flick of his tail: That pond water shower was just the prelude, because not 3 minutes later the skies just let go without warning. It was almost a wall of water coming down. The worst part about trying to run to the car in a thunderstorm with two poles and a tackle bag, is that you have to store that gear before you yourself can get in. 😅 So, now I'm drying off in my favorite donut shop, huddled around a cup of coffee to warm up, waiting to go to work.

That's wild. Sorry you had to deal with that. I have yet to deal with anything like that, probably because I mostly fish public access shoreline from the bank. People get very strange when their land adjoins water.

Just scrolled through looking at everyone's lovely fishing spots. I love the beauty and variety of our country. Some truly incredible looking locations.

I managed to fit about an hour in before work at the local pond. I caught one very fat 15-in largemouth, and one very small dink. All in all, not a bad start to the morning.

I gotta say, this response made me laugh. And point taken. I find the urge within myself to often ask a question that, upon second thought, I realize is probably easiest answered by quick saunter over to the search function. Sure, I don't get the dopamine hits of all those little notification numbers in my inbox, but I get my question answered without starting a brand new thread cover a topic that's already been covered 1000 times. 😅

@gim, that looks super cool and ominous! Hopefully the storm doesn't cause any damage. We bought a minivan to accommodate our growing family. The Ford Focus is a tight squeeze with two child-car seats in the back row. This is the first time I've ever owned two cars at the same time. It's an odd feeling:

I just use EWG for everything. Probably user error, but my presentation always sucks with the standard. I've never had a problem with hook-up ratio. If a bass bites my T-rig, he might as well have swam into the net, provided he can't find cover to use against me.