JonB2

Another thing you can do is simply undersize your estimations. That’s how I typically approach fish size, I’ll guess low just to be on the safe and humble side of things. You simply have to remember it’s modern society and it’s the internet; both full of ish!

@BluegillsTightlines Don’t even sweat that at all man, seriously. It happens and look at the bigger picture; you’re still getting excited and having enjoyment. All I can really say is **** that dude, he probably doesn’t even catch fish. Plus, the biggest talkers are the smallest walkers…

I mostly fish my mood, and what sounds fun that day. I also fish midday a lot, so I’m usually pretty methodical. That being said, I generally get what I get and move on if no further action after a few more casts, unless it’s a really good spot and I strongly feel a change up will get a couple more. I also fish rivers and my spots aren’t big and gonna hold 10-20 bass. I remember one morning in June I pulled 5 nice fish off one log and thought “that’s a money spot”, and it was for awhile. Weeds have made it logical to keep it moving atm unless warranted otherwise.

No down time here in Michigan, but I’m always…always playing with my fishing stuff. Nearly every day. I’ve had rods rigged for a trip a couple days in advance only to change them twice before settling on something before I actually go haha!

Love it! When I got into bass fishing hard this spring, I went right to the (to me@43) “classic” “old school” 7” Berkley powerworm. It’s gotten plenty of nice, solid bass this summer. I grew up in the 90’s and the power worm was a staple then. I started this season with the black and Motor oil from my youth, but ended up settling on two colors; Electric Grape and Blue Fleck. Purple is my confident, go to color with soft plastics for largemouth I’ve found. It works nearly all the time and very, very rarely doesn’t. So purple power worms it is for me

@Dwight Hottle I can agree with this 100% I also approach plastic worms and creature baits similar or Texas rigged senkos. Smaller hook is more action. A standard 4.2 sweet beaver creature bait is a 2/0 ewg for me where I see almost everyone else using 3/0 and even some guys using 4’s! A 2/0 ewg or screw lock hook is perfect for t rigging standard senkos imo. Good bass don’t play games generally, so if I get a solid thump..I don’t wait too long and a smaller hook is plenty to grab them in these instances and reduces gut hooks. I do feel many people are a little worried about missing fish or skinning them and play it safe with a larger hook. A 2/0 is a standard for most of my soft plastic fishing; An exception is when they’re really eating senkos, I’ll drop to a 1/0. Full sized brush hogs and 7” senkos I use 3/0; 10” worms 4/0

I killed big, prespawn smallies for awhile on paddletails this spring. Jigging started slowly, but a 4” white or natural colored paddletail on an 1/8oz(3.5g) tungsten round jig was money. I got incidental post spawn walleye too, but they don’t count. Those bass would mow those paddles right down and were often a quick “tick” and you better react! The quality of fish was superb

Some real nice bass being caught all over looks like; change is happening! @bp_fowler Nice mouth shot with the spinnerbait; I take shots like that as well, but haven’t used them much lately. Shows size well in your case In celebration of “finally, YOUR last weekend up here in force” Day, I had an alright bass, but fun bluegill trip. I really love good sized, clear water bluegills around weeds. Rive rgills especially can be so beautiful. An 8’ light action rod with straight 4lb and reds/1” gulp minnows took mostly 8” fish with maybe an 8.5” or two in there. The real thing about these fish is their impressive girth. A good fish here is seriously stout and thick. I have a 9” hand span which is pretty big for a skinny guy, so it takes a nicer gill to fill them. For the record, I didn’t keep any of them

I just use a classic tube head and have no issues running braid/leader on my 7’ MF spinning rig. I haven’t thrown tubes much since spring, but did get a 20”+ smallie on one the other day. That was after we saturated that spot with what had been working well previously

@Lottabass Nice bite my man! I always have so much respect for you old hats that still have that drive and consistency. When I was a kid and learning fishing, aside from my dad…I wanted to be like the old boys I’d see on the river always catching fish lol

You think eh? Something tells me there will be multiple 16-18” green mean bass posted tonight. You know it, I know it, bass resource knows it lol! Be safe little lady, and “have” luck

Nice fishing Swampy, I wouldn’t complain either when you can get green/brown together! This may seem weird, but I can almost tell by the way your largemouth look…they fight well. Bass in northern latitudes seem to consistently have great color and markings

I don’t fish lakes in my kayak, but mostly float a small river. I don’t have much kayak experience, but I’m very physically capable and bodied @43 to handle this type of thing no problem. I prefer paddling quietly back up and into position versus gliding down and doing the same. I have an anchor, but the weeds are too much right now. I typically beach and bank bust, hang myself up in shoreline reeds, slop piled shallow flats or use my brush grabber. I’ve thought about other stuff, but honestly I’m a simple man and my kayak wasn’t bought to deck out like a boat; buy a boat for that. Kayaks are made for simplicity and that’s how I’m using mine. I’ve found maneuvering pretty easy; you can quietly do a tiny circle to swing back and position better. I watch others fish and they’re way louder, more clunky and make way more commotion. I’m naturally a predator as God intended, and I fish like one…

I couldn’t ever be a “pro” like these guys. I believe in God and there is no way I’m selling my soul for money. People who behave like this have a love of money and money is evil. No one has the best baits, styles or colors. Lots have good stuff, but no one is the best or perfect. One of my biggest pet peeves is the mindless following of “pros”, “experts”, “best ever” etc. There’s no such thing, it’s all human created and human maintained for money. You have to have a deep, open mind to truly think out what humans are capable of when consumed by greed. I buy baits if have they look, feel and action I desire. That’s it…I don’t care about pro anglers and the things they say

I have to agree 💯 with this. I have never been a baitcast user despite being heavy into fishing. I’d tried them very, very sparingly when I was a kid, but would say I’ve basically never really used one. I had almost no trouble picking one up, spooling up braid and slinging it around this year. I didn’t even really know much about tension or brake settings. Despite that, I didn’t backlash like crazy, but did have some and got a couple “respoolers”. However, it didn’t take long to feel right and atleast be reasonably competent. Me in June to me now with my bait caster is quite different. I like low-stretch mono on my casting rigs mostly. For the record, I use cheap $70 Lews reels If you’re getting wind knots with 10lb braid, you’re trying too hard to throw too light a lure(likely into wind) or have gotten significant twist into your spool which is a killer with braid

I just started using a kayak, but so far I’ve only brought two. Might do 3, but it makes little sense to deck out like a bass pro on the little weedy river I fish. While smallies are seasonally available, it’s mostly largemouth right now, so often I bring a 7’ MHF casting rod with 14lb mono and a 7’ MHF spinning rod with 20lb braid and 12lb mono lead. I throw casting jigs, t rigged worms/creature baits, and senkos on these. When smallies are mixed in heavier in spring and cover is sparser, I bring my 7’ MF rods in both casting and spinning. I’m going on a bigger fish only mission in the junk soon and will be bringing my 7’3” MHF and 7’3” HF for big worms, 7” senkos and bigger beavers. Feel like that’s gonna be kinda fun

Man, they’re the worst by far. Always just seem to be the most ignorantly selfish people we have around. They crawl up and through any bit of water and rip all around places that just scream “don’t do that”. I just don’t get it at all… Did a relaxed, peaceful kayak float in the stubborn WNW winds. Man has it sure switched to fall feel. Been looking like it for a bit, but this last week has that sky and feel. I typically kind of skim my way down and fish back up. I tried to stay with a t rigged creature and worm, but it was really off feeling in that wind. I did stick a good fish on a pit boss right off the bat, but the back fish with ol’ stinko senko was good and just made sense. It clouded up shortly before I began fishing back, and like usual it sparked them. I landed 11 good, solid keepers and maybe 3 dinks. Most fish were 14-15” with 3 good fish @19”, @19”, @17”. I alternated between my 7’ MH spinning rod and caster. Was glad I had both to switch up with. The second good fish was mean and waked out from some wood after my senko and bit as soon as I let it fall. I could tell by the wake and bite it was a good one

I have some non kinking, tieable wire, but cannot remember the brand. I haven’t used it much because I’m stubborn and iffy about it. I’ve been bit off a whole bunch this season, well over 20x. Casting jigs, creature baits(like CRAZY!), senkos a bunch, paddle tails early and even 3.5-4” tubes for early smallies. They’re native, belong and are simply part of the game for me. Good ol’ northerns man…good grief

Whew, rec traffic has really increased again lately and it’s so sad how people treat our waterways. I’m stubborn and punished myself a couple trips, but it was a really tough grind. Couldn’t fish more than five minutes before some uncoordinated tourist comes flopping around in a kayak or a boat blowing through full step. These hard, frustrating days make me so eager and ready for a good bite day. The wind has also been a huge pain in recent days. I did get some beautiful, quality fish, but low low numbers. Bass around 16-17” for big fish, so nothing major. Also a few good 8-8.5” big river gills on one of my favorite big gill baits; 1” gulp minnow

That’s pretty much how I approach bait selection for bass, aside from conditions. That’s why creature baits work so well and fish don’t condition as easy to them because they look like so many different prey items. I really love beaver baits, you can burn one and they flap and sputter across the surface pretty solid and everybody knows their effectiveness on bottom. I caught a bass the other day on a sweet beaver that I was buzzing in to recast again. It got blasted five feet from shore as it came across some heavy pads in a foot of water. I actually had turned and looked away and simply heard “suck-sploosh” and set the hook on automode. Can’t argue with that lol

Just a little late add on to this interesting and quite opinionated thread. I think going forward, all bass pics are to be taken under some kind of duress lol

@Swamp Girl I’m not sure we have rivers in Michigan that don’t have hordes of tubers, kayaks or canoes during summer lol. People from downstate and out of state invade and ruin our vibe in the northern parts of the state

Wet waded a river for smallies a few days ago and had a nice run. That late afternoon into evening has been good for me on bronze bass. I had to do a little dialing, but just goofy subtle changes that fish do. Nothing tells you “right call” then a solid fish immediately after switching up. Fish weren’t hot to trot, but bit steadily once I threw what they wanted. I have a feeling a few things could likely get me more numbers as this stretch has them. At the same time, I can’t argue with the average size I’ve had in 3 smallmouth trips. I landed an 18.5”, 19.25”, and 20.25” for big fish; all soft taped in the water(difficult at best!). Fights were just great fun man, hard…dogged power in current. A bitsy bug/craw did best by far, but a ned head/craw got a couple and the ol’ football jig/hula grub got inhaled on the drop by the 18+. There’s something I just love about setting the hook into a good river bass in some flow with a bait caster

I like it Pat. Couldn’t have said it better! I’ve literally started out with likely what was working at the end of the last trip and nada. That’s when the mind starts winding…”hmm, just don’t want the green flake today? It’s darker sky, maybe they want a little touch of orange with their crawfish instead of just dull, natural brown?”. Imo, if you feel good and are just not getting bit…switch up until you hook up. It can be an honestly simple thing. Last week I was smallie fishing and throwing a green craw bitsy with a 3” gp finesse trailer. Nothing in my first spot. Before I just wrote off the jig or the spot being “off today”, I put a 3” gp chigger craw on and first cast 17” bass. After that, the chigger hooked the majority of my fish that day and all, but one of the big ones(hula got inhaled ). If I wouldn’t have been disciplined and open in my thinking, I could’ve possibly messed up my day by being lazy, complacent or stubborn. I mean, how can a smallmouth bass turn down pumpkin brown/light brown and a small, subtle 3” trailer for a completely nice looking, very natural bait? Because it wasn’t what they wanted in that moment, that day, etc. I’m gonna get annoying around here with this constantly(probably already am lol), but be confident and stay HUNGRY!

Photography is something I truly enjoy. I will simply say, you have to have an “eye” for good photos. As simple as that sounds, it’s just true. Some have it, most don’t. You have to care and enjoy it to really bring out your pics. I don’t do selfies or hero shots, but instead…I focus and highlight the fish. I have my methods for my pics and they’re authentic and real. I do touch them up with the available editor which is used to simply enhance what is already there. We have all taken a pic of a brilliant marked or colored specimen, only to be sorely disappointed when the pic reflects a much duller, less beautiful shot. You can fix that and make it right. Don’t over do it and create an over polished…fake scene though. Angles and lighting are paramount, but so is your vision. I leave my phone set on “live” for my pics which allows a frame by frame choice of what looks best. This has caused many a victory when I initially thought it was a bad shot, but nope…there’s the frame I thought I had! Pics are an absolute part of me and my fishing. Almost have to take some shots, I just love it! This is an Atlantic salmon and steelhead being released last fall in Michigan…these would be run of the mill, average shots for me