Caught on a zoom 10.5 inch sapphire blue ribbontail worm. 

About 60 bass in the past two days from a couple different ponds in the area. Post frontal cool weather seems to have helped the bite, along with the cooler water temps from the accompanying rain. Everything on Ned rig using the newest outfit. The YGK SS112 continues to impress and has been flawless when combined with a Stren leader.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Seeing Deep having a blast on Lake Faraway I thought about going there today, but decided against that since we just got smacked hard with a cold front and a lot of cold rain. Figured the bass there would be Po’d for a few days. 

 

Back on the james river today not with huge hopes, but I was in a very promising area that I’ve never fished from the kayak but have seen monsters there fishing it from the bank. 

First fish of the morning on a whopper plopper 130, easily 4lb smallie, mitt have been close to new PB territory. After having it pull me Upstream against heavy current I get it over to the kayak and INCHES from the net it backflips and shakes the hook. Gaaaahhhhh!!! 

 

Fish two I hook on a 4” swim bait and gamakatsu I think jig head hook. Solid 2.5lbs, It jumps three times, I get it to the kayak and somehow it shakes the hook under water. 

 

Fish three within a 50 yard stretch. Different swim bait, VMC jig head. Nails the thing, hook set, fish immediately goes airborn like a rocket and as soon as it’s out of the water the bait flies over my shoulder.

 

That was all the excitement of the morning before 7am. I didn’t get bit again until after 11. Finally caught my first of the day on a small jerkbait. Spend another hour chucking that with 0 takers. Time for lucky ned! 

 

Noonish I Found a submerged log that produced three small brownies, and a flathead! Not that big, but was a really fun fight on the ultralight! Another hour later I got one more good brown fish on the ned rig, and it made the drag scream on the ultralight! Thought I would never get it to the net!  Something like 2.5lbs. About 4:00 I got one more maybe 1lb, and an itty bitty smallie on the ned rig on the way back to the ramp to head home. 

Well, certainly not the size I was hoping for, but dad gummit that's a smallie, and I got pictures of me catching it, one species technically off the list, though I obviously hope to do much better soon lol

low clouds and a pesky NE breeze kept temps in the 60’s all morning. what a relief too! in fact, swt’s had fallen a good five degrees, down to 79 degrees. it took me a good hour to locate some fish/bait pods, and i did manage to put things together, enough to boat a dozen bass. this lone largemouth was caught on a 5” Zoom lizard in 15 fow. life is good.

 

 

Three generations of smallmouth hunters, the youngest got this one on a drop shot while drifting along and reading a book at the same time. 

I’ve skipped a lot of docks with plastics the last several years and seems that the bite is usually quite consistent.  Not this year with the super late Spring in Minnesota... been hit and miss..

 

Until this past weekend... it really picked up.  I visit a certain lake a couple times a year that has 7 boat lift/canopies in a row (a small private marina).  I skipped under each dock and caught 7 fish including these two.    

 

Never caught more than 2 fish off those docks before - Shoulda bought a lottery ticket on the way home so I could retire and do this every day

 

Got out for my only short little trip this weekend (which got cut even shorter by a bad storm that came ripping through). Started out with a bang, right off the dock before I even parked the truck on the FishLab Bio Wake Gill.

Got a couple on the FishLab Rattle Toad, the bigger one about took the rod away from when it bit not far from the boat right before I reeled in to make another cast.

 

and my biggest one of the day ate one of my homemade bladed jigs right before the storm really let loose and I had to break the no wake rule for the lake ?

 

Hammered them pretty well today finally, after a couple days of them being “off”. Caught over 50, landed multiple 3-4lbers and lost several up to 5lbs. Found a calm spot where we crushed them on topwaters then in the wind hammered them on spinnerbaits and a strike king rage swimmer. 

tough fishing on the watersheds. still getting used to sonar. twice now at sundown see what look like fish at depth on ride back to the ramp. the smallies seem to be deep, not sure where the largies are.  last two are same fish. second fish had black specks around lips and strong, foul odor. possibly parasites?

 

 

 

 

 

Made  a lot of casts for not a lot of fish today. But they were all decent. Got a 3-7and a 5-7 on buzzbaits and a 3-6 punching. Also dropped 1 about 3.5 punching when it cleared the weeds. Here are the buzzbait fish.

Testing.... Testing 1-2..... Green sunfish from northern Ohio farm pond 

 

Also helped this youngster catch her first ever bass

 

Special thanks to @N Florida Mike for the help with posting pics when youve reached your Max on attachments

Caught this one up in Canada today.  36" and 20+lbs.

 

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48662470208_257549c620_c.jpg

Great Pike - Congrats

btw - how much did that thumb weigh ?

A-Jay

I know! Right?  Was my brother in law's father taking the picture.  Guess I'll have to get a bigger one tomorrow.

They were biting good as the hurricane looms... It was warm and windy . Ended up with 21 , caught all of them on various color zoom flukes. If the sun popped out, I used those with gold sparkle. They really liked the gold sided ones with sparkle and red top. If the sun was in I switched to watermelon seed, or watermelon red. I fished the middle of the day , which I rarely do in summer.

These were the two best.

Managed 75 bass total over the long weekend walking various ponds for a couple hours each day. Ned rig did the most damage over all 3 ponds, but had a good day with Sliders on the one pond I threw it. One of the ponds is unique for this area as it has a sand grass perimeter underwater. It makes for the most unique bite when you intentionally hang the bait on the sand grass then either tease it or rip it out. Lots of times they simply grab the bait on ‘the tease,’ otherwise ‘the snap’ off the grass gets ‘em .

 

 

 

These were just a few of a few days. All on the same wacky worm. Than a northern ate my wacky worm that I was going to put on my wall. It's so fun kayak fishing. If you are top water fishing, the bass love to hit RIGHT at that last second and scares ya. Get pulled when they fight. Uffda, nothing like it.

 

Also, props to BassResource and the users who gave me help and words that my grandpa would tell me.

 

 

 

Caught this one today. 33.5"

 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/SFDdmodpehmNJZmb9

Had a great weekend with the family on Table Rock. We camped at the favorite camp ground of my wife and I (Aunt's Creek) and it was the first time tent camping for both our boys. They had a blast and everything went as well as we could have hoped for. They got to swim in the lake, which they loved but had us on edge the whole time. They both loved going fast in the boat. I brought a tub of red wigglers and they caught approximately a million bluegill and sunfish (give or take 1 or 2, I was too busy unhooking fish to keep exact count). They both also got to catch/reel in a couple bass in the boat also with Finn taking big fish honors with a really feisty smallmouth that was giving him the business for quite a while. I also got to sneak out for a few hours Sunday afternoon while everyone was napping and got on a hot deep water drop shot and jigging spoon bite on some deep trees. Not my strong suit, but I was making it work for me for a few hours pretty hot and heavy until I got the call that everyone was awake again and wanted to go back out in the boat, of course that bite was over by the time I got them back to that spot. I wrapped up the trip by catching the 3rd meanmouth I've ever caught. It was my last fish of the trip and really gave me a tough time getting it out of the deep trees on a drop shot.

 

After the Labor Day weekend, I figured it was finally time to get out on the water and do a little fishing. I wasn’t the only fisherman with that idea, and we only had to contend with a couple of yachts heading back to their berths signaling the end of their season.

 

I got bit on pretty much everything I threw, breaking off a good one on a senko. I’ve had everything to throw a Neg rig in the boat for a couple of years and decided to break it out today and go for some numbers. I just find it ridiculous how that thing works, and coupled with light tackle it sure is fun! Here’s my best Ned fish of the day, a pretty little river bass.

Lost a few, but caught this little fatty, in the 4 hours I had to hit one of the Finger Lakes (Seneca Lake) my whole three day stay there. The weather really messed up my fishing schedule (especially our Cayuga day), but hey was still a great time. Not used to the crystal clear water, scared off alot of potential bites.

Got a 3-15 yesterday and a 3-14 today both on a double wide beaver.