Today the winds died down somewhat and I was able to get out to do some fishing with my brother in law. There was still a stiff northerly breeze when we dropped in at the Tract, water temps in the low 60’s, tide had been going out for a couple hours to start the morning.

 

We got to our first spot, and I pitch my Senko up into a shallow pocket in the grass. I start to pick up some slack in the line and all of a sudden my rod starts to load up. I set the hook and the battle begins. She shows me her flank and I now known it’s a good fish as she plowed into the grass. I was able to turn her towards deep water and after a few runs was able down to welcome a beautiful 8.7lb hawg aboard. 

 

We had a pretty good day on the water, unfortunately there was no encore to besting the first fish of the day...

 

Good Fishing all, JB 

  

On 4/10/2018 at 8:29 PM, N Florida Mike said:

Got done eating supper and went out back to cast a little. On about the 5th cast or so I got this 6.3 , 23 inch tank on a spinnerbait. She was full of eggs.

Shout out to @Fishing_FF for giving me that bait when he was up here in feb.

dang!! nice one , I am also envious of the warm looking weather , they are saying we could get snow again mon 

New PB for Iowa 6.19 lbs (6 lbs 3 oz) and first Iowa Master Angler Bass. Got this jetty giant on a flat-sided squarebill on a wind blown jetty in 47 degree water.

 

I don't what the bass wanted yesterday. Big gizzard Shad dead and floating all over the lake. 67° chocolate milk water. Tried everything I had that made noise, couldn't buy a bite. I was working on being skunked. My buddy had a few on traps, and one on a jig out of a brush pile, but nothing big. 

 

Finally I decided noisy and flashy wasn't working, I said screw it go big or go home. Started throwing 8" megabass swimbait and very quickly had a 3lb bass follow it right to the boat, but it wasn't going to commit. An hour or so later have a solid 4-5lb do the exact same. Inches behind the bait just following it. Changed up to an s waver and in 5 casts got my only fish of the day. 5lbs on the dot. 

Needed a little rain to pump some fresh water into the ponds and put a stain in them. Didn't get as much as I wanted, but got enough to get them biting better. Managed 31 in a couple hours walking banks in 57-59 degree water. Surface temps had jumped about 7-8 degrees, helped by both a warm rain and a few days late in the week that topped the 70 degree mark. Last pic is my standard tackle when banking it: One rod/reel, a small box with a couple extra baits tossed in my pocket and a pair of pliers.

 

 

 

 

10 pounds, 5 ounces on the scale beating my personal best by a lot.

 

Booyah Bankroll Jig in Money

YUM Craw Chunk in Craw

That’s a pig for sure! Congrats!

21 minutes ago, Hook2Jaw said:

10 pounds, 5 ounces on the scale beating my personal best by a lot.

 

Booyah Bankroll Jig in Money

YUM Craw Chunk in Craw

Congratulations on your new PB! And that gut looks like she swallowed a softball

The week before I had big girls chasing smaller bass to the bank, and one actually hit a dink in the face and knocked the hook on through her mouth, leaving her on the line and got hooked herself.  Two bass, one hook.  It'll never happen again like that, I bet.

 

So my toad could have very well swallowed a ball of the football largemouth variety.

 

Thanks for the compliments, guys! 

First day on one of the smallmouth lakes of the year for me on Monday. It was a grind like I expected, but still managed to catch some. My biggest of the day had a sizable crappie it was working on digesting.

 

 

Started a new job so been too busy to fish lately. And when I have it’s been for crappie.  But, Went tonight and got this ~3.5# to swipe a white grub on an under spin. 

That's a good looking smallie, BB86.  Also a solid lmb by Dorado.  I've still never caught a fish at night.

Had a day that will go down in history for me. Found my new favorite lake inSouth Central Iowa. Caught 52 bass. Best five were 26 lbs 2 ounces. 

 

Started the day off with a 3lb and a 4lb on consecutive 1st and 2nd casts, respectively.

 

I was wearing a GoPro so I wasn’t taking pictures. Then I realized at some point that the GoPro was in camera mode and not video mode. I also got hooked past the barb over the top of my thumbnail and after a small amount of wiggling it just came right out!!!

 

I’m still not sure if I was dreaming.

 

Here’s one of the many 5+ I caught. They were all munching on crappie in brush piles next to jetties as you can see by the crappie tail down the throat of this 5.31. They kept moving up on to the rocks on the jetty and I was whacking them with a 6th Sense Flat 75X in wild Lava Craw color. Water temp was 47.

 

47!!!!!! They were jumping on the retrieve like it was summer!

 

 

Edit: When I downsized the image so I could upload it, it lost the resolution to distinguish the tail in the back of the throat. That dark spot down in there is the tail.

 

I've had a few setbacks this week fishing . I lost a huge bass the other night ( don't want to share what happened yet ). So Today I cast my new favorite spinnerbait, had it literally inches from pulling it out of the water and a big fish came up and swallowd  it , and it surprised me so much I didn't respond properly and ended up breaking the line. NOOO !

SO I quickly caught a little bream, and hooked it on in an attempt to catch the bass and  recover the spinnerbait, and ended up with this 5 pound 11 oz fish but no spinnerbait.The fish was another 23 incher.

 

Nice fish @N Florida Mike, looks a bit windy on the Home waters 

Thanks. Yeah, it was around 20 mph yesterday. Didn't go out in the boat.

Found the smallies this weekend beating the bank. Landed 9 fish, with 4 fish over 3lbs, biggest at 3.57. Another was very long but skinny, wish I had gotten a measurement (over 20" if I had to guess). Got a couple on a keitech + jig head and then switched to a jerkbait and it was on. Next day, same spot, very similar conditions, same tactics and not a bite....go figure. Oh well, was nice to be out in this great weather.

 

 

 

 

15 minutes ago, tcal4404 said:

Found the smallies this weekend beating the bank. Landed 9 fish, with 4 fish over 3lbs, biggest at 3.57. Another was very long but skinny, wish I had gotten a measurement (over 20" if I had to guess). Got a couple on a keitech + jig head and then switched to a jerkbait and it was on. Next day, same spot, very similar conditions, same tactics and not a bite....go figure. Oh well, was nice to be out in this great weather.

 

 

 

 

Nice Smallies ~

Congrats

A-Jay

Nothing special besides the four hours I devoted to this fish in the morning slinging the Booyah Bankroll Jig in Money once again.  I got her to look at the YUM Craw Chunk in Craw quite a few times, but she never committed.  Returned that afternoon and slapped on a Christie Craw in Watermelon Red Flake and she hammered it on the first cast.

 

Picky girl.

23" at 5.2lbs The picture doesn't do it justice, this fishes mouth was enormous! 

Got this one on a shaky head. 

Seemed like most Bass were on beds up shallow and I can't be sure but this one came out of about 7 fow. No real signs that it was a bed fish, but it wasn't fat and fed like some of the smaller fish I caught out on timber in deeper water. It didn't have the shape of a big spawned-out female. Kinda thinking this was a BIG male bass and was guarding a bed that I couldn't see. I cast into a spot between two trees and when the lure hit the bottom it thumped and line started moving. Set the hook and it had carried it off under a branch. After a VERY tense 5 seconds of feeling flouro strain across tree trunk the fish shot straight for the surface and went 3 feet in the air. Back in the water, then it ran around and drug the line across another tree and jumped and tail walked into the net. All of this happened with 10 feet of line out.  Good thing it was 17lb P-Line. Really impressed with the VMC hook! Hooked it well in the fat part of the lip and didn't bend at all. 

 

Caught a handful of other 2-3 pound fish through the weekend, and also landed a nice 4lb honey dragging a lizard through her bed. Water was murky and the wind had it choppy so beds were hard to spot, but when we found cleaner and calmer water back in some of the coves we could pick a few bass off beds if they were willing to hit the lure. 

Was able to get an hours worth of fishing in a few days ago, this guy was a fun little catch! Nice way to break in the new set up ?

 

 

 

While I’m at it I’ll throw in another one I caught on my first outing of the season. Chunky little guy came off a fallen limb up shallow.

 

Did my first Kayak Bass Fishing tournament this passed weekend at Lake Berryessa. I placed 49th out of 138, I just couldn't get rid of my little guy! Oh well, it was a great experience and won't be my last.

Here is my best from tournament day. She smacked this itsy bug swimming over vegetation!

 

Finally!

 

Warming trend, at long last + free afternoon = first bass of the year!

 

2 hours on the riverbank, 10 fish total, some brown, some green...biggest one (bottom pic) went 2.34lb:

All damage done with 3.5" cane thumpers and 4" swing impacts

The weather up here in New Jersey has been pretty inconsistent but a string of a few warm days has turned the bite on. I’ve only been able to catch them on jigs and t-rigged senkos worked really slowly the last couple weeks. Today was no different. Really windy day and I was not expecting to do well. Barely felt her bite. I think the light tackle helped me out in today’s conditions. Landed about 10-12 fish, and was lucky to get some pictures of this girl before my phone died. No scale or tape measure, but I’m guessing she was approaching 4 lbs.