Pat Brown

3 things I contend with almost every time I go fishing regardless of body of water or conditions: Dirt Shallow Water - the bass on my lakes are heavily pressured and smart and have learned that they can mostly avoid anglers by occupying parts of lakes that will destroy your boat. I am not infrequently in 1.5 FOW casting up to 7" of water on a half mile flat and getting bit in 16" of water. It's not infrequent that I parallel a bank and my bait is in 1 foot of water the entire duration of the retrieve. This can really limit what works well and also make it kind of frustrating and scary to really commit to hunting the bass - especially when these shallow areas become over grown with vegetation or muck as the hot months settle in every year. Lake Size - another big time limiting factor that makes for challenging fishing is that the lakes and ponds I fish are very small. All the local sticks know all the spots. There's very rarely a population of fish anywhere on the lake that you run into that is 'yours' and hasn't been someone else's that day or that week. The fish get conditioned to things VERY fast and you have to be 1000% perfect with presentation to get the bites out of the schools you're around. Which leads us to #3 Fishing Pressure - the amount of great anglers out there hammering on fish in NC is staggering and the fact that our fisheries continue to thrive is a blessing but the fish that make it are educated and conditioned and completely aware of 'the deal' - that is - the whole 'people in boats trying to hook me and take a picture of me' deal - and they ain't fond of it! 😂🎣

Well @FishTax and myself and Jake and Josiah participated in a culling tournament amongst friends today and had a FANTASTIC time. We all arrived around 7:30 and Jake started things off with a solid 3 on a frog. Following his lead I threw a buzzbait and caught a couple and missed 7 bites - all short striking. I start seeing the bugs getting munched on the surface and tie on a spook jr and proceed to wax them pretty efficiently until about noon at which point a pencil popper/jerkbait/drop shot and pop'r caught some more. The wind picked back up and I tied the spook back on and finished the day with 20 bass - the biggest of which went probably 3.5 and had a fat belly! Between us all we culled over 200 bream/crappie/catfish/small bass! It was my best day fishing top water ever and it was so fun to see the boys showing such promise and independence! Josiah caught his first fish all by himself and Jake won the tournament with 80+ fish total (mostly on worms/shiners/plastics) We saw some big ones and lots of fat little bellies means next year will be even better! What a Saturday! Tight lines to all this evening and tomorrow !

White is really hard to beat. Blue glimmer is a good in between that zoom makes. Ham bone is good too. I find they work awesome in super dirty water.

This time of year large female bass are spawning. This means they are often cruising the banks looking for mates and open beds to lay their eggs. If I was you I'd double up on the cologne. And bring some flowers. Make sure you're freshly shaved and dressed nice etc. Imagine how you'd want to be greeted all full of eggs and eager to make babies. Definitely wear the cologne.

The spunk shad turns out is a phenomenal finesse jig trailer. Got my biggest jig bass this spring. 😎👍🏼 The little ones are definitely my favorite.

Jacob got a biggin tonight- 5 lber at the pond on his ultralight while panfishing from the fishing dock with 10 other people - complete with boom boxes and snack eaters and screaming children throwing stuff at ducks. It was a riot of a night and his fish was the talk of the dock. Proud of my little man. 😎🎣 Tomorrow after school we will probably hit it again before we do tackle prep and rest up for a small tournament/culling session in Durham! @FishTax will be there this year and we are thrilled to have him! Hoping to help my buddy keep his pond moving in the direction of being a giant factory. Can't wait!

Mostly in or around spawning locations since about January but we are finally starting to get some that are just cruising around eating stuff. It's nice to get back to that again.

Yeah the biggest ones are looking for an easy meal on the key pieces of cover and structure leading into the feeding bays. They don't waste time with the madness as often. I generally do pretty poorly when there's TONS of food around and better when there's a few balls drifting around in a bay getting stalked.

I like squarebills when the water is dirty and there's stumps or rock on shallow flatter banks. I also like fishing it above timber and wood and gently occasionally ticking the cover and letting it float up a bit then continuing the retrieve. It will definitely get bit on those floating pauses but also when it bangs into stuff and even just as it's moving. Main thing is cast it where you think they are.

Heck of a story and a great introduction to frog fishing. Congratulations on the beautiful bass! I agree with most here saying probably 5-6 lber! Killer! Now you need to find her granny 😎🎣

That's a biggin. Glad you found one and had fun! 😎🎣

Pre Work Froggin' Success! Pad Perch - gone. She hit right off a dock as the sun came up. Had little bass blowing up on my braid a lot this morning! Very weird and a new thing for me this year. Missed on that got the frog for a split second but I think it was small. Looking forward to hitting it after work for hopefully some more topwater action! Tight lines to all today.

I'm mostly 3 - big fish, and 5 - teach people to fish one. 2 Numbers is rare but I'm thankful to get a few in a day - I just don't set my goal at 20 fish a day because I think I'd be sorely let down around here. It's better trophy hunting water. Sadly these days 4 is basically not an option around here with the pressure fish receive. You gotta do what they'll bite. Number 1? Every day from when I wake up til when I go to sleep LOL

She gone. Went back after work and she had finished up and slid back out. Mega cool though.

Went to the pond after work and fished slow for a bit and got some nibbles but nothing solid. It went up to 86° today so I figured since the sun was setting, better grab the frog. Walked the bank hitting main structure and pieces of heavy cover trying to find post spawners and worked my way to a flat near a bunch of people pan fishing and having a big party complete with boom box and screaming children. I made a cast into the adjacent shade on a point away from other people's lines and walked my frog three times and this beautiful bass smashed it.....and my fantastic frog rod of 3 years. RIP frog rod. Saw a fish that was 27" long and 10" tall and 10" wide laying eggs today on the new moon. Snapped this picture.... incredible fish to watch. So much character in her eyes and face and such a beautiful animal. Hoping to get some more topwater action rolling tomorrow morning before work if the fates allow. It's more fun when fish bite stuff like this for sure. 😁

Yeah the spring time is wild and crazy here in NC. I'm just in awe every year of what I witness.

Found one that decided that the new moon was a great time to lay eggs this morning. 27" long and easily 10" tall and 10" wide. That's a special fish. Her tail is the size of my hand.

Yeah, hoping that luck leads to something extraordinary very rarely works out in life. Extraordinary things happen to people who push boundaries and take risks. That's just the way it goes. Same with bass fishing. Good point @Zcoker

I have often been known to take some fine grit sandpaper or Scotch Brite and take the shine down on a gold or a nickel blade. 🤫🤫🤫

If you're night fishing the bank wear some stiff boots. Ole Danger Noodle is fishing too almost every night.

Surprised a tiny bit to see the dropshot in here so much. But also I know what I'm throwing more this year. 🥷🏼

I'd rather get skunked on the water with my son than catch a 10 lber on the water by myself. There's going to come a day when I'm alone in the boat and it's going to come sooner then I'd like.

I've been sort of thinking more and more about this as I often do with each of the interesting philosophical threads that come up on here. I think that you're kind of at your best when you're covering water by picking areas apart at the same time if that makes any sense. It's all about being methodical and systematic, but also thorough both with speed and depth and variation of presentation throughout the day. And it's all about being intentional and aware of what's happening around you more than anything. I feel like the people who idle around for hours looking for fish under their sonar before they make a cast are on to something. Over time bank fishing without electronics at a small pond where I can see very well, I have learned that there's really no point in stopping until you can see something happening and learning how to see that takes a lot of time and patience. I think people mistake being thorough for making lots of casts in an area and I think that is incorrect. I think being thorough is evaluating an area very intentionally with your eyes and whatever else you have available to you as quickly as you can and then making a determination as to whether you should be more thorough or not. This intuition is probably what makes a great fishermen great and an average fishermen average and it simply takes time on your body of water. Basically you got to be around the fish on your water to see what they're doing and what that looks like and where it happens. And eventually you start to build a picture of how to intentionally and productively cover water and be thorough on your days out in ways that usually yield success.

Dislike: fishing the wacky rig. Can't feel bites. It's slow. It's snaggy. No thanks. Can't stand: ned rig. Shaky head or weedless neds only for me plEase. Don't understand how the originals got so popular. I've only lost them. Can't catch bass on: Ned rig. I've done fine with tiny bits of Senko or ned baits on weedless jig heads or small Texas rigs. Put those same baits on an open hook light wire Z Man jig head and call it a Ned rig and it magically will get stuck on the first cast and not catch me anything.

It rained for 2 days this weekend. The pond I fish does not have a proper pump system so it kind of floods a little bit for a couple days until the runoff subsides usually. It was pretty nifty this evening as the sun was setting. I could see at the outflow where the water was rushing out of the pond. The bass and sunfish were positioning themselves all directly facing into the current with their mouths literally gaping open. So that gives you an idea of what they're doing.