I caught my PB last Sunday, 25 1/4 inches on a top water,  what could be better?  Two hours later landed one 25 3/4 inches on a spinnerbait that I made myself.  Even better.  Now I need to buy a scale   Previous PB was caught in 1977

Took my buddy Tony fishing with me Thursday. Tony has Asperger's, so fishing with him always has it's own set of challenges but he really enjoys going so we make it work. He wanted to go to a lake where he could catch a variety of species, there was good scenery, we could go fast in my boat, and wouldn't see a lot of people, so I picked one and it turned out to be a great choice. We caught fish start to finish (both caught a fish on our last cast of the day), he got to catch several smallmouth which he never gets to fish for, his first drum ever (and several more), a white bass, some bluegill and sunfish, and a bunch of largemouth with his biggest of the day on a whopper plopper, which he'd never used before. I added a channel cat and 4 sauger to our species list. My first bass of the day turned  out to also be the second biggest of the day at 3.91 on a Ned rig off a dock end.

I caught one of the most deformed bass I've ever seen out of the marina.

Big fish of the day was a smallmouth on a jerkbait. 81* water, jerkbaits don't work so just ignore that ?

5 minutes later and the next cast after catching the smallest smallmouth of the day, I caught another keeper that was 3.56 pounds on a 6th Sense Catwalk.

All 4 of my sauger looked like this and all of them ate the same Ned rig.

Tony's big one of the day. He was day dreaming pretty hard on the bite and I sounded like a dad watching his kids bobber when it ate the plopper telling him to set the hook.

Same row of docks and same Ned rig as the first one of the morning, just a few tenths of pound lighter.

Didn't get a picture of my last keeper of the day, phone over heated, but it was a 3.14lb largemouth that I hooked twice before finally putting in the boat. Crazy part was she jumped, I caught her in the net and I thought my hook popped out. Turned out, the hook actually broke on my Ned rig jighead after catching so many fish on it. The hook was still firmly stuck in the side of her jaw, got pretty lucky on that one.

 

It was a good day and glad we could get out. Been fishing together since we met as teenagers working at Cabela's in KC.

I was out at the crack of dawn. Coudy, slick calm and warm. Got 3 blow ups with the pad crasher in the first hour , but missed all 3. Had a nice fish to the boat on a small shiner swimbait, but it came off.

Then I got on a pbj senko bite, which I caught the biggest one on. I ran out of them , and started with the watermelon red dinger, and caught several more.Had to be in by 10:15 but I left em biting again. 

10 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Took my buddy Tony fishing with me Thursday. Tony has Asperger's, so fishing with him always has it's own set of challenges but he really enjoys going so we make it work. He wanted to go to a lake where he could catch a variety of species, there was good scenery, we could go fast in my boat, and wouldn't see a lot of people, so I picked one and it turned out to be a great choice. We caught fish start to finish (both caught a fish on our last cast of the day), he got to catch several smallmouth which he never gets to fish for, his first drum ever (and several more), a white bass, some bluegill and sunfish, and a bunch of largemouth with his biggest of the day on a whopper plopper, which he'd never used before. I added a channel cat and 4 sauger to our species list. My first bass of the day turned  out to also be the second biggest of the day at 3.91 on a Ned rig off a dock end.

I caught one of the most deformed bass I've ever seen out of the marina.

Big fish of the day was a smallmouth on a jerkbait. 81* water, jerkbaits don't work so just ignore that ?

5 minutes later and the next cast after catching the smallest smallmouth of the day, I caught another keeper that was 3.56 pounds on a 6th Sense Catwalk.

All 4 of my sauger looked like this and all of them ate the same Ned rig.

Tony's big one of the day. He was day dreaming pretty hard on the bite and I sounded like a dad watching his kids bobber when it ate the plopper telling him to set the hook.

Same row of docks and same Ned rig as the first one of the morning, just a few tenths of pound lighter.

Didn't get a picture of my last keeper of the day, phone over heated, but it was a 3.14lb largemouth that I hooked twice before finally putting in the boat. Crazy part was she jumped, I caught her in the net and I thought my hook popped out. Turned out, the hook actually broke on my Ned rig jighead after catching so many fish on it. The hook was still firmly stuck in the side of her jaw, got pretty lucky on that one.

 

It was a good day and glad we could get out. Been fishing together since we met as teenagers working at Cabela's in KC.

My God that bass looks like a science experiment gone awry lol! 

Day 2 of testing the new reel I got for Father’s Day. Using a Panther Martin Classic 1/4 oz lure on the river. Got a bunch of Smallmouth Bass all around this size.

 

 

 

I also brought a baitcaster setup with a Rebel Pop-R. Lost a big fish when he shook it. Makes me think about replacing those hooks. The stock ones are terrible.

Lake Kipawa smallmouth. Caught a lot of nice fish in the 18” range 

Slow morning again after the pond Rose about 5”-6” after the heavy rain earlier this week. But did catch 5 bass. Three were dinks, but one broke the ice on my new Daiwa Aird X MHF for Texas rigs. Almost decapited the poor guy (it’s ok). The other two were 2 lb’ers on a wacky rig. 

 

Slurped up my popping frog in open water and I barely noticed the take.  I had no idea she would go 21".  Best of the year thus far!

Thought this was a 3 pounder until she rolled over. Ended up being just shy of 5.75 lbs. 

Proud Papa moment. My son learned how to use a baitcaster and caught his first Whopper Plopper river Smallmouth Bass all in the same day.

 

 

I was throwing in-line spinners and the Ned Rig and got a few all the same size.

 

Killing time before I could go get the parts to fix my boat trailer. Caught 4, this was the biggest on a 3.5" tube with a custom homemade 1/32 tube head with a 3/0 hook.

I hadn't thrown a crankbait in several years but certain conditions called for one - and nothing else was working for me.

 

13 hours ago, Pickle_Power said:

Slurped up my popping frog in open water and I barely noticed the take.  I had no idea she would go 21".  Best of the year thus far!

Can't remember how many good sized bass took a topwater with little more disturbance than a bobber going under.

Got this over achiever on the mega dog. 

i went old school and broke out a bag of junebug Culprits this morning. this 4+ largemouth and 3 lb spot came off brush piles in 15+ fow. i lost another good spot right at the boat. but i can’t complain.

 

After losing a big Bass that shook my Rebel Pop-R I changed out the terrible stock ones. I used a VMC size 4 1x strong round bend short shank treble on the front and a VMC size 4 1x strong bladed hybrid short shank treble on the back. 
 

 

I think it works better.

 

Some of today’s fish came on the tiny child rig. The screw in 1/8 oz weight when superglued are working great

 

 

And the day would not be complete without a Plopper fish. Broke in the new Bone 75 with this nice Smallmouth 

 

 

 

 

Hadn't planned on going this morning, but it was cloudy and not terribly hot out so I couldn't help myself. Of course a hour after getting there my "Mostly cloudy", forecast turned into not a cloud in the sky ?, but it was good for the hour until that happened. Managed to find another good one in this really tough little city lake too.

I hit a nice electric-only spot with my brother for a super early sesh on our trusty old jon boat. He'd flexsealed it the week before, so i was hopeful that I wouldn't be on sponge bailing duty yet again, but I was. We were skunking for about two hours when I noticed my Plano boxes were floating at my feet, so I slipped on the gloves and went to work. Meanwhile he finally caught his first fish on his Bucca Rat, but his dollar store readers fell off his face into oblivion while he was trying to free her, so unhooking her fell to me. I got to hold her for the pic as a reward.

 

My first good one came on a black clacker Booyah buzzbait that I'd found in a tree the week before when my WP75 snagged some braid floating in the water.  Then I got another good one on the Livingston Bullnose. I'm starting to like this bait! It's definitely worth a look if you have the monkey tapping on your shoulder for something different. The G2 caught some, and a few more on a Little Dipper. No bigs, but we closed the show with 9 in total. Can't complain for a windless night.

 

 

This is the best I got in the boat.

 

lost what would have been a new “non-Florida” PB yards from the boat on a rat.  Time to add an extra o ring or braid to the hooks?

Well my buddy got lunker bass but I got lunker........ TN river redfish. I was fighting the drum when his bass hit the PoP R, BLAM! i set my rod down on back reel and landed his bass, then reeled in the drum. It was a fun couple minutes ! 

Took the family out for dinner on the boat and a couple hours of fishing. Gotta love it when the topwater bite cooperates, the girls get some fish, and you get quality screen free time together with teenagers.

 

Caught some nice spots on a Teckel topwater that I just picked up.

 

Still tough to beat the Rover lately.

 

My oldest with a nice spot on a Keitech.

 

My youngest with one from an underspin.

 

My wife on net duty and the girls kept her busy.

  I finally was able to get out on the water this morning, which at times is something that I would take for granted. Leaving the dock, the water was a balmy 75 degrees and change, a barely noticeable breeze wasn’t affecting the surface and was in the middle of an outgoing tide.  
  The topwater bite at first light was pretty good, I got on a plopper and buzz bait bite that produced some quality fish. I then picked up a crankbait rod and fired it out. Two handle turns, the rod loads and she starts digging for deep water. When I am able to end the battle and lip her into the boat I got to see she really wanted that particular bait. She weighed a healthy 5.4lbs, posed for pics and was released...
 

They were all over the poor mans ned rig this evening. Caught a little bit of everything from about 645-930, including a 20.5 inch smallmouth. Water temp just under 66 for all your northerners fishing 80 degree lily pads with frogs 

Couple of nice little keepers posing with my favorite jig and fluke combos