23 minutes ago, WVU-SCPA said:

We were prefishing for a tournament this weekend so after a quick photo she was quickly released to the depths.  The next few hours I kept wondering what was all in there....could she really have eggs in July? Did she swallow a plastic and have blockage?  If she spent the next few hours in the boat would we be cleaning 8 oz of shad out of the livewell?  Hopefully she keeps here eating habits through Saturday. 

Nothing more yummy than opening your livewell and smelling half-digested crawfish and shad!!!!

Took the boat out on the lake this past Sunday, it was to nice not too.

 

 

 

Bit of a frustrating day. Hooked up on a few, but my hookset game was not strong or my luck was incredibly bad. Time to trade out the value H2O Xpress hooks and go with a new brand. 

 

Anyhow, I pulled in this 4lb. He seemed a bit oddly shaped...big shoulders(?). 

 

 

I haven't fished much in the last 2 weeks, but made time for a short river float today.  A bunch of little smallies showed up, the best of which was this 15-incher:

 

 

On 7/8/2018 at 5:43 PM, CybrSlydr said:

Well, today was a good day. Went fishing at Burr Oak for a little bit and caught my new Personal Best Bass. Granted, those of you that have seen my previous bass, you'll realize it doesn't take much to break it. lol

 

Hard work and time-on-task pays off -- congrats!

4 hours ago, WDE said:

Time to trade out the value H2O Xpress hooks and go with a new brand. 

I use the H20 EWG and straight shank flipping hooks all the time and they work well for me, excellent for the price. 

51 minutes ago, Bluebasser86 said:

I use the H20 EWG and straight shank flipping hooks all the time and they work well for me, excellent for the price. 

I recently swapped 5/0 H20 for Mustad 4/0(LTB freebie) due to missed hookups. Had success on the 4/0, so I decided to go with the H20 version...and today was just madness with losing fish. 

1 hour ago, WDE said:

I recently swapped 5/0 H20 for Mustad 4/0(LTB freebie) due to missed hookups. Had success on the 4/0, so I decided to go with the H20 version...and today was just madness with losing fish. 

Haven't ever used the 5/0 size, maybe that's the difference? The 2/0, 3/0, and 4/0 EWG's have been everything I could ask them to be though. 

Noting like Ajay puts in the boat, but 4 like this on chatterbait and Craws.

My buddy was lighting it up on wacky rigged trick worms

8 hours ago, WDE said:

I recently swapped 5/0 H20 for Mustad 4/0(LTB freebie) due to missed hookups. Had success on the 4/0, so I decided to go with the H20 version...and today was just madness with losing fish. 

I know it's a pics thread so trying not to get too far off topic but what line and rod are you using with those?

I can get a 5/0 hook set with a medium rod and 10lb flouro but it's gotta be just right. I usually use 15lb flouro and a medium heavy fast rod at the least for good hookups 4/0-6/0 EWG hooks. 

On 7/11/2018 at 11:26 AM, NHBull said:

Noting like Ajay puts in the boat, but 4 like this on chatterbait and Craws.

My buddy was lighting it up on wacky rigged trick worms

 Nice Bass ~

And it's Much Better than anything I got today 

A-Jay

air temp was 95 degrees water temp was 93 degrees. Still managed to catch my Largest bass of 2018, from a tough Kansas power plant lake, that has skunked me more than once.

21 inches 5lb. 12oz.

8 hours ago, Fairtax4me said:

I know it's a pics thread so trying not to get too far off topic but what line and rod are you using with those?

I can get a 5/0 hook set with a medium rod and 10lb flouro but it's gotta be just right. I usually use 15lb flouro and a medium heavy fast rod at the least for good hookups 4/0-6/0 EWG hooks. 

Medium, 12lb mono. I had at least 3 take the bait, set the hook(or so I thought), and they spit after a few seconds of running with it. One thing I did overlook is that perhaps my hook had dulled, even though it still looked and felt sharp. They weren’t small fish, so I don’t think they were just taking the worm. 

 

Just bizarre that I had no problems with the 4/0 Mustad and minimal with the 5/0 H20 previously(until I started hitting this particular pond frequently). 

Bass fishing was fairly lackluster today. After 5 hours in the sun with only a couple 16 inchers and a boatload of dinks, I had enough of it.

 

So over the course of the next hour, I first reranged and then plusoned a bunch of crappies. Just glad that I released almost as many as I kept. I forgot that cleaning fish isn't half as much fun as catching them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

3 hours ago, WDE said:

Medium, 12lb mono. I had at least 3 take the bait, set the hook(or so I thought), and they spit after a few seconds of running with it. One thing I did overlook is that perhaps my hook had dulled, even though it still looked and felt sharp. They weren’t small fish, so I don’t think they were just taking the worm. 

 

Just bizarre that I had no problems with the 4/0 Mustad and minimal with the 5/0 H20 previously(until I started hitting this particular pond frequently). 

I think You're probably sticking the fish with the point but not getting it to drive in. The stretch in mono combined with the flex in the rod just isn't enough to really drive that hook in past the barb and get a solid set. 

Flourocarbon or even braid will help, but you also need to start using a medium heavy rod with those sized hooks. 15lb flouro or 40lb braid on a medium heavy fast rod will certainly drive those home. 

 

Staying with the medium rod and mono line, downsize your hook to a smaller size and/or finer wire size. 

Mustad hooks are incredibly sharp. Talking almost molecularly sharp. Sharpness on a level that we can't feel with our own sense of touch. To us a mustad feels just as sharp as an eagle claw snell hook, but they're on entirely different levels if you put them under a microscope. The mustad also STAYS sharp for longer. 

 

The water levels were low so the fish were extra spooky but I still managed a few. This was the nicest one at 2.5 on a wacky GP 3” Dinger. Saw several 3-4 pound fish but I spooked them and they got tight lipped ?.  

Caught me a butter balling ditch panda on a tiny swimbait today.

 

 

 

 

Pandasaurus rex is a strong animal, and tried to get away by bending out an ST-36. Not on my watch, not today though!

 

 

Apparently catfish like Keitechs as well...

 

After the disappointment of this catfish I also unfortunately caught a carp on a senko that was 30+ pounds and wouldn't even fit in our net. Thought I had a PB Clear Lake giant until about 10 seconds into the fight (no pic).

 

Pops with one of the nicer bass of the trip.

Got another nicer one from the creek. Was having trouble fooling them again but saw a pair chasing a bluegill at the surface and casted over towards them with the Keitech and this one hit it before I could even engage the reel. 2.93 lbs. Definitely one of my luckier catches. 

Then I got this guy in the deepest pocket. @NorcalBassin I feel your disappointment ?.

Took my nephew out  3.3 trolling with a chrome and blue back rat trap

Caught a catfish on a Keitech as well a few weeks back. It flopped out of my hands and over the side just as the pic was being taken. Seems like I've seen a lot of catfish caught on swimbaits this year. 

 

Got it out for an hour or so this afternoon and managed a couple smallmouth on senkos. No pics of those, they were all under 10", but did manage to haul in this beauty with 10lb braid on the spinning rod. Less fight than I thought it would be... It flipped out of my hand after the first pic and then I dropped my phone in the dirt. Need a felfie stick for this bank fishing stuff! 

So got 2 hours of late afternoon fishing in. Too burning hot. Had some 12” class fish following my worms one short lined my crank in a hole so I tried to just fling the little guy in. Turns out it was a big one that rolled upside down and wiggled the whole rod back and forth to freedom as it hit the surface. Nothing else.  My son was busy trying to catch crawfish, but kept losing them. As soon as they were gone, he wanted to go home. As we were leaving two young guys started setting up asked if we got any so my son was telling them about the crayfish. The guys started going nuts, saying they never saw one here and asked what color they were. My son said they had dark orangeish red tails with black stripes and blue claws. Go figure. Never seen one at this place before, but I’ve seen crawfish before zillions of times and they were all treetrunk brown. So since I already knew everything there is to know about fishing, I wouldn’t have even asked him what color they were......

 

facepalm.  

A few from the weekend. Still able to sight fish several of these fish in the ponds which is always interesting...and fun. Got to watch a big bass corral and annihilate a bluegill just 10 feet from me today - it was pretty awesome to watch. You can learn a heck of a lot about bass behavior by just sitting in one good area for a while, being quiet and just watching.

 

 

 

 

Finally, having predictable results with the craw.  Best Summer in several years

Wife and I got our first double together this evening. Surprised it's never happened before. Was a memorable one. We were sitting down talking for awhile, dead sticking 4 inch Senkos, with the occasional twitch. My line got tight and started to run, so I laid back and set the hook real good, and before I could stand up to fight it, my wife got one too. What a joy.

 

Been a week or so since I've been able to get out and do some fishing. Was able to get a couple hours in before dark tonight. Only caught this 1lb 1oz bass on a weightless Texas rigged green pumpkin Rage Craw. Really sucks that it had my hook a bit far in his mouth and wasn't easy to get out. Unfortunately it also snapped about an inch or so of my spinning rod tip off in the process. Only have baitcasters to do any fishing with now. Either gotta learn to cast weightless and/or lighter weighted baits with them or hurry up and replace my spinning rod. Something's gotta give. ?