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Caught my PB last week while fishing the Bays of Grand Traverse.  Ran into KVD, who had Johnny Morris from BPS and Truex Jr from NASCAR in his boat.  

Everything was on fire today.

Fat Ika did most of the heavy lifting with a Ned getting top honors

 

 

Caught a few dinks burning a chatterbait back to me, so I stayed with that pattern and stuck this girl.  6/16/2019.

Edited June 19, 20196 yr by rtwvumtneer6
Added date

Got completely soaked in the rain but finally caught one after it stopped. @Bluebasser86's bladed jig again! 

The Ima Stick ruled the day with Fat Ika running a close second.

On 6/18/2019 at 9:15 AM, 8pt172 said:

Caught my PB last week while fishing the Bays of Grand Traverse.  Ran into KVD, who had Johnny Morris from BPS and Truex Jr from NASCAR in his boat.  

Great Smallie ! 

Congrats on the PB and the chance meeting with a Legend.

A-Jay

story time

 

went out on a local rezzie with my brother in law. it was my first outing with a new fish finder, chirp 54cv. the old one (which i kept on the boat) is a humminbird 100sx; it is quite the jump. i cannot believe the resolution of the new one it is kind of crazy to me.

 

so we started marking fish at a point that drops quickly to 40' and im pulling up smallies with drop shot at a decent clip and my brother is throwing squarebills and shaky craws to shore.  we are seeing them in the 10' to 15' depth range.

 

my drop shot rod is a fenwick elite tech with a 13 fishing prototype x 2.0 spinning reel. it is strung up with power pro 15lb main line and i use seaguar finesse fluorocarbon as a leader via double uni knot.  i have been using the 8.4 lb finesse line in this application without a problem for a good while now but recently wanted to try the 6.2 lb. it was apparent when tying this smaller line on as a leader that the fidelity and strength of the line between the two was very different.

 

in a moment i had a fish on that was easily the biggest fish i have ever felt on the end of my line in a fresh water scenario. in that same moment i did not recall the switch to lighter line.  it went something like, feel bite, set hook, got two or three cranks and the fish took off like a bluefish.  took some line, then some more, then broke off.  tears may have been shed and i told my brother that this incident would cause night terrors. in retrospect im beating myself up over not having the presence of mind to loosen the drag. 

 

i did check the drag before the very first cast and it felt fine. this reel however has a very unique brake system. i understand that im typing this out to cope and shift responsibility and accountability. BUT there really is something different about the drag on this reel than i am used to, coming from low end pfluegers and clearance combos. it engages on a scale, like it has more resistance as more line is taken. amateur but frustrating. and it hurts. i can see, feel and taste the awe of boating whatever that was. the excitement is all there but instead of reality it exists in an imaginary place and time that is hollow and empty. i never want to make a mistake like this again!

 

a moment after this ordeal (maybe a minute) my brother pulled this 4 and a half pound chain pickerel to the boat. i joked to check it for jewelry but i knew in my heart that was not the fish that was on my line.

 

somewhat slightly redeeming to get a really nice fish so soon after a heartbreaking loss. 

 

 

 

my nicest bass from the day, the smallies i got on the boat were just that, small

 

and a nice 3 lb fish from the other day

 

@teethmarks, try backreel sometime when you have a nice fish on. Cool write up minus the heartbreak 

Been a tough few weeks that culminated tues. When I dropped two 4+lb. Fish before I could boat them. Undeterred I headed out this morning knowing i had 2 hrs. Before heavy rain/t-storm threat moved through. Got 1 on a buzzbait and 5 on a spinnerbait  with the best at 4-12. Headed back out after the storm went thru at another spot for 3 more hrs. Got 5 with the best at 5-5 on an old school moss mouse.

Great Fish ! 
Congrats

A-Jay

Been a couple weeks since I was last out. Vacation. Crappy weather. Work. Park rangers.

Finally stretched the string a bit this evening though. 

 

Caught on a Stanley Ribbit in the grass today.Largest bass i caught in about three  years ,6.5 lbs .  . I was lucky to land her . My drag wasnt set correctly  and she was buried. Had another big one but I pulled the trigger on her a little to early .

Congrats @scaleface

A fine morning playing with SM on Squam....All on a fat ika

Pop . . . pop . . . pop . . . 

 

This smallmouth, a tad under 4 lbs., has got a Duo Realis Popper 64 hanging from its lip.

 

 

#lastcast #noskunks

 

Fished all around the tiny pond I was fishing for an hour or so without any luck, while a fly fisherman was camping out at the one corner- with all sorts of current, temperature and O2 breaks- that I really wanted to fish.

 

I decided to wait until he was done, and then I waited, and then I waited some more.

 

Finally got tired of waiting, so I went up and asked if he'd mind if I made a few casts. He didn't, so I made my five or six casts, caught and released this bass, thanked him, and left.

 

 

Caught my PB yesterday, 4.5 lbs

 

 

Also caught these two 3 lb'rs, and a handfu of 1-2 lb'rs.

Finally able to add to this thread, as today was our opener. Started a bit late, didn’t get on the water till almost 9:00 and were off by 1:00 but we still managed about 30 bass. Mostly smaller ones, but I did get one decent one about  3lbs or so. Almost every fish came on a frog, and they were choking it today! All in all, a decent start to the season for my son and I. This was a brand new frog at the start of the day ?. 

On 6/21/2019 at 1:44 PM, NHBull said:

A fine morning playing with SM on Squam....All on a fat ika

My new secret weapon this year for LM. Are you rigging it backwards? I cut a notch out of mine to give the hook point a little more bite.

I have been rigging upside down like a palm tree.  The back with Bl, is almost identical to craw that’s been regurgitated.  Been using a red standard Grammy 4/0 EWG offset with the working end bent slightly out so it is parallel the shank.  I have some owners and others on the way to experiment with.  The owner is slightly shorter and I am planning to add a nail in the summer 

One short of a dozen this morning. Most coming on hollow body frogs and h2o wake/crank.

 

 Sorry you lost that big un. At least you got some nice fish anyway. And your brother looks happy.?

First topwater fish of the year. 

 

 

Caught another Smallmouth then a Pumpkinseed swiped and foul hooked itself.

 

 

Switched to the Ned when the bite died down.