Found a Whopper Plopper 90 the other day and promptly lost it in some brush an hour later. However, I loved the action and bit the bullet and bought one yesterday(I’m rather frugal when it comes to lures). Took it for a test drive this morning and it didn’t disappoint. 6 in a few hours. Wasn’t the size I was looking for, but the topwater strike is fun regardless. 

 

Yesterday I went out to my sister from another mister's trailer in Bethany, La. where I used to live a few years ago. Got to fish for a few hours in the ponds by her trailer. They are the trailer parks ponds. They're not that big, but there's bass in them. Been fishing about 2 and a half hours before I found out she had a little john boat. Wish I'd known it was hers from the get go. I'd have probably caught more than just this one. Been out in the boat about 30 minutes casting chatterbaits, spinnerbaits and plastics with nothing happening. Tied on a 1/2oz green pumpkin Dirty Jigs swim jig with a Power Team Lures(guess that's the name brand) black and blue craw type trailer(one of the packs of baits that @A-Jay sent me, thanks again my friend). First cast with it was to the bank and I thought it had been hammered as soon as it hit, set the hook it was just moss or something. So I just started swimming it back to me and out of nowhere about 5ft from the boat this 1lb 6oz beauty did acrobats under the water and slammed it. I could literally see this happen. I set the hook hard, couple turns on my reel and it was in the boat. Not sure what the red reflection is in that one pic. My tackle bag is red, so I'm guessing it was a reflection of it in the glistening tail. It wasn't bleeding. Took my pics and set it free to go get bigger. Heard there's a 6+ and a 7+ lber out there. I'll definitely be back out there again soon. Next time I'll be in the boat the whole time...lol! ?

The Bass are starting to bed in my area. For the last few days I have seen shallow bass over the telltale circular patterns.

 

First day was easy I was able to cast a floating crankbait past the bed and retrieve it through to get a Bass to swipe at it.

 

Second day not so easy. Crank didn't work, Wacky rigged Dinger didn't work, weightless Fluke didn't work. Last thing I tried was a Berkley powerbait Pogy Swimbait firetiger color. When I swam that past the bed the Bass would grab the tail then spit it out. There is an exposed hook near the head of the bait but the Bass wasn't choking it. I stayed at it, casting and retrieving over that bed for an hour with swipes but no hookups. Finally I changed my angle and casting from the side rather than straight out and the Bass choked it! all in all I worked this fish for about 1 and a half hours with different baits before landing it.

 

I haven't seen any actual beds, but they're definitely shallow here. After failing to convince anybody to chase a chatterbait, I took a hint and switched up to a a plasmatail worm on a shakyhead. Found this one chillin' under a dock:

 

 

 

Nothing too big, but had a rare day where we could do no wrong. Caught fish all day. Here's a couple of them.

 

First Jerkbait Bass of the season. The frugal fisherman strikes again. Bought a Lunkerhunt perch pattern jerkbait for less than $3 from Field and Stream this week. Tied it on for the first time last night.

 

Patience and persistence pays off when Jerkbait fishing. Spent an hour walking the banks casting and retrieving with a jerk, jerk, pause, jerk pause method. This beauty hit it less than 5 feet from shore.

dodging tropical downpours here in the southeast but the fishing has been great here on Lake Norman. we caught 24 spots yesterday in the jon boat, and then 29 this morning in the Javelin. everything i have is waterlogged.

 

Best two from today's adventure ~

A 5-10 & a Fat 6-0 !

A-Jay

 

T rigged black/blue and Junebug Yum Dinger getting it done on a private neighborhood pond this afternoon. Largest went for 2.5. 

 

Lost my Whopper Plopper that was working so well. Buzzbait was getting slammed, but no hookups in the late afternoon. I can’t help but feel like if I had that WP, all those strikes would’ve been landed. Oh well. 

 

Caught my first Florida strain at Diamond Valley in Hemet, CA today. Not the size I came out here for but I guess that’s why they call it fishing and not catching. A 4.34 and a 3.0.

 

6 hours ago, A-Jay said:

Best two from today's adventure ~

A 5-10 & a Fat 6-0 !

A-Jay

 

Definitely picking up where you left off at ice out. Wowzers! Congrats my friend on some chunky brown footballs!

Caught my first smallmouth and striper out at Havasu and got into some largemouth as well! Night fishing with a jerkbait worked really well. 

 

me and my cousin hit the water around 7 this morning in the little johnny. skies were mostly cloudy and an easy SW breeze made for perfect conditions. we caught 39 spots and 2 largemouth.

 

 

Back to bank beating some bass now that I got my fill of bluegill bedders. This was the best of nearly 3 dozen yesterday. Finesse Worm

 

Out on the bass hunter today. Boated 19 bass, shallow cranks (bps the egg, h20 wake), 110 whopper plopper, Jackal Kaera frog doing the damage.

 

I couldn’t catch anything on the plopper today. Only thing I could catch them on was the ned rig, and that was pretty spotty!

 

Personal Best Brown Trout Today ~ 

A-Jay

Finally figured out why I hadn't seen any spawners yet - they hadn't actually started. Bluegill beat them to the bank which was a surprise. Saw quite a few today though. Picked up 30 or so, and I'd guess half were sight fish (bedders/cruisers). A lot of fun, and much better than I expected given the weather conditions.

 

Went out to give my lefty reel a try this morning with new handle. Used zoom Magnum Fluke got 3 bites and land only one 16 incher. As always the one that you lost always a giant, this one jump, and spit my lure made me screaming like those YouTube kids.

 

After the 3 day rainstorm ended I got out to the lake today. The lake was flooded and cold and I wasn't sure where the bass would be so it was time to throw everything I had. Only caught 2 bass and 1 pickerel. 

This little guy barely had a spiny dorsal fin and bad scars on both sides. I'm thinking Big Feets got to him.

 

The second bass of the day was a little better and gave a tough fight. 

 

Next week looks to be drier and warmer so hopefully that will mean better fishing. 

 

 

went out on the local rezzie today with my brother in law to test out a new piece of gear he bought. i dont think we caught one fish there the whole of last season and not for lack of trying. the fishing there is tough.

 

well today was a different story.  i hooked into five fish of five different species one after the other.

 

beautiful evening

 

not sure what was up with this guy, abnormal coloring

 

smallie up on the bank. if you didnt get your bait close in to the bank you didnt get a fish

 

this next fish i threw a morning dawn yum dinger wacky rigged up against a rock face near the bank. 

 

 

as you can hear my bro was amped. i was frozen in disbelief. did not end up landing the fish. we were completely unprepared for this guy. my wacky fishing rig is a 6'0 fenwick eagle medium-light strung with 10 lb spiderline braid and 8 lb super silver thread copolymer leader. it lasted much longer than i expected. he didnt inhale the bait i actually had him lip hooked with a 1/0 finesse wide gap. but he eventually turned and got his mouth around the line and sheared it off. was hard to fish after that, that was the first time i ever hooked into a musky.

 

didnt know what this was but im told it is a white perch. this thing inhaled a 4" cinnamon yamamoto, and took a dump on my leg

 

pickerel on the bagley minnow b took a swipe at it hooked him backwards through top lip

 

was pretty shocked to get 5 species like that in a row. managed one more largemouth before the wife summoned me home to help with bed time.

 

Cool musky. Those beasts are fun just to hook into but landing them can be tough if you don't have the gear for it. 

The thing that took a dump on your leg is a rock bass. I've heard them referred to as red-eyed bass as well. 

Hot on the dink bite...

 

Few days later the Dink Fest continues, and his first Snot Rocket...

Went back to the basics this weekend and caught about 50 dinks with a zoom curly tail grub on a jig head as well as a YUM crawbug.  The little guys were fun.  There's not much forage in this pond but some large cannibalistic females that will try to eat their babies off your bait, and the small bait for small fish to get the sharks hungry has become my go-to tactic.  This is the pond my 10 pounder came out of, and a 13.5 was caught out of it last year.  I'm after her.  I managed one good bass doing this, getting them close with the small fish and then tossing a jig and craw chunk in their face.  She's the one pictured with my Abu.

 

Then I found a savage staring down some bream beds and had the finesse rod in hand, and I'm so surprised the tiny hook held.  Penn reels have great drag.

 

 

I also caught what I'd estimate to be an 8 pounder on the same pumpkin jig with craw chunk, and my phone was on the charger at home.  She hit in about 2' of water early in the morning, I guess she was up there feeding.  The pond owner has me asked me to remove carp, so I was actually trying to snag what I thought was a carp when I casted to her.  She picked it up as soon as it splashed.

 

Here's Craig the Bass, who also happens to like to catch big fish.  This is his PB 4.5" swimbait.

 

I'm looking forward to taking the kayak out to the lake soon, beating the banks has made my legs sore on this Monday morning at work!