I picked up a pack of YUM Ned Dingers at my local Walmart. They only had a weird color called “soft watermelon/red flake. I prefer a darker bait but was willing to give it a try. First time out I used them on a Berkley half head jig true Ned Rig style. All I got was a Rock Bass. 
 

They have a hole at the top of the bait that traps an air bubble to make them stand straight up. I found this interesting and when I decided to T-Rig them with a 1/8oz tungsten they really shined. That air bubble made the worm stand when hopped back or paused on the retrieve. 
 

The River Smallies ate them up.

 

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Had to augment my morning at the DMV with an afternoon on Lake Lillinonah. Caught a bunch of small smallies and one 4# LMB. It was an all drop shot endeavor w/4" Roboworms. Love the drop shot but catch a bunch of rock bass & sunnies, too. Gotta work on that ...

Got the family out for a few hours Wednesday afternoon. Fishing was a little slow with the dead calm winds and full moon but we still caught a decent number of smallmouth, a few largemouth, a couple drum, a couple channel cats, a white bass, and a crappie.

 

Thursday I went back to the same lake I fished last week hoping to repeat my jig bite and avoid the surprise thunderstorm. I did pretty well repeating the jig bite except I tried to force feed them a black a blue jig when I started out tearing them up on a Falcon Craw Trashmaster jig. One of my first fish of the day was a solid 3+lb fish that had another good fish chasing it. Grabbed another rod with a jig and dropped it behind the first one and got a solo double.

I didn't find any of the bigger fish that I found last week, a few over 3 but nothing over 4. A previous guiding client of mine had sent me an email of his report from the same lake the day before. He'd done well until getting stuck on a stump in his kayak and flipping it, in the process losing his Falcon Bucoo SR/Tatula TWS SV frog rod with a FishLab Rattle Toad. Well I got snagged in a cluster of stumps with my jig and when I went in to get my jig I saw a frog suspending 8" below the surface. So I managed to recover his rod and also got his whopper plopper back for him that he'd lost in a tree and couldn't reach, going to get it all back to him Sunday.

 

Friday I went to a small park lake to avoid the crowds, which didn't work, but I did catch quite a few nice fish and also finally got my first smallmouth from there, even though it was just a baby.

Flipping a YUM Wooly Bug in the grass was doing most of the work. Caught an even 20 and went over 1,700 bass for the year.

Digging the sweet gator shorts. 1700 bass? Jesus dude that's serious. Btw I've been watching your videos on youtube...it's criminal you don't have more views. Nicely filmed and edited...simple formula of just going fishing with no gimmicks or product placement...it's refreshing.

Finally got back out on the water this morning. I only had about 3 hours to fish so I was changing tactics often. We got abut 8 inches of rain on Tuesday and the lake has come up about 3 feet. I couldn't find them in the flooded grass so I moved out to the submerged bushes that are usually in about 2 ft of water but today they were in about 5-7 ft of water. Nothing on a soft plastic so I switched to a black/blue jackhammer and that was the ticket. I managed 2 good ones before I had to head back to the ramp. The first one I caught hit it pretty close to the boat and when I saw it roll I thought I had a good one. Well, it was long that's for sure. This thing needed a meal in a bad way. I should have measured it but I would guess it at 22-23" long and a measly 3-14 LOL. The next good one came right off a stump just like you would imagine in your mind. Perfect cast, slow rolling by the stump and BAM! Only 4-1 but a good one in my book.

Bite has been brutal for the past two weeks now. Don't know if it's the moon phases or the early transition that's in effect, hopefully time will tell. 

 

Here's one I got after 2 hours of nothing. 

So I roll up on a bank where I’ve been successful in the past, and the conditions seemed right to pick up a few fish. I commence to making multiple casts with everything on the deck....nothing. I started to wonder if they fed during last nights full moon or earlier this morning and pulled off. I began to think of where I should be headed next when those famous last words came to mind. “One last cast” as I cast my bait and began the retrieve. I couldn’t stop chuckling to myself as I welcomed a 4.9lb aboard a moment later

Went to Bon Tempe lake in Marin County CA and caught a decent one this week.

 

Was a good fight bringing him through some grass and weeds.  

 

 

Had a rough last couple of trips. Got a total of 10 fish. Yesterday was my worst day fishing the home lake in many years. Last saturdays trip wasnt much better.

Yesterday found me on the water before sun-up. Tried a frog for the first hour or so . 3 blow ups but couldn’t hook up. Next I went to a chatterbait( new in my arsenal). Nothing. Then I switched to a large shiner swimbait. Nothing. Then , a small shiner swimbait. Nothing. I finally caught this skinny fish on a new bait to me: A Lunkerhunt swim Bento.

Caught a smaller fish on a culprit worm. Tried the big  bites craw with no success. Lost the last 3 fish somehow that bit on a Bruiser curly tail worm.

It was hot and the fish just werent biting at any point all morning.

I did catch 1 on a frog the night before. Im about ready to go to live bait for awhile...

Managed to catch one good one before the wind got so high I just headed home. I think maybe the one I caught yesterday was so skinny because this one has been eating everything in sight. Just 4-2, but holy cow it was fat.

Got out for the morning today for some more smallies. 
Water has cooled down to about 67 at the surface, and it took a little bit to find the fish as they’d moved a bit from last week, but once we found them it was steady action. No giants, but plenty up to and just over 3lbs. 

Decided to give a smaller local lake a shot since fishing was tough on the home lake last week, and man did it ever pay off in numbers (70+) with some nice ones mixed in. Good news for my dad was he caught a bunch of fish, but bad news was he was living his own version of dinkfest Groundhog Day without a single bass being 12 or more inches. I almost started feeling bad when we'd be working the same water and he'd get a dink and I'd pull out a nice one. It quickly became a joke that ended up lasting the whole day, and I would have enjoyed it every bit as much if the roles were reversed.

 

First fish of the day that set the tone for the rest of it.

 

Dinkville.

 

En fuego.

 

My next cast right after taking that pic.

 

My four biggest of the day went 3.5, 3.8, 4.6, and 5.1. Of course what would have been the biggest of the day broke me off... immediately went deep and when it felt me she made a b-line for the surface. Figuring it was a giant I dunked my rod in deep to keep her from jumping, and then she changed her mind and took me into a brush pile I never saw until it was too late. I could feel the line rubbing on the wood as she went through it and back out while making the drag sing and I knew that gut wrenching "ting" you feel when you're broken off was inevitable. Fun while it lasted but now I wish I had at least gotten to see her by letting her jump. Live and learn!

 

These were some of the most football-like early September bass I've ever caught. Built like it was April.

 

 

On my last quest to Walmart for clearance section goodies I noticed they finally stocked some Ozark Trail lures. 
 

I picked up their version of the Rebel Crickhopper and the Whopper Plopper.

 

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This Labor Day morning I was able to catch some River Smallmouth on both.

 

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Not bad considering both lures combined cost less than half the price of a Whopper Plopper.

Best bass since I moved from Illinois to Indiana. Amazing story too. Caught her on this Labor Day about 90 minutes ago.

 

About a month ago I was fishing this 1/4oz Lipless Crankbait when I got snagged and broke it off. A week after that I somehow snagged it and freed it and ultimately retrieved it. I hadn't tied it back on until today.

 

So today started out as a nightmare. The 6 acre pond in a public park was absolutely packed. People to my left and to my right with lawn chairs and bobbers all the way around the open areas. Cookouts, games, picnics all around me. The Ned Rig accounted for 4 small bass and 3 crappie (2 of which were my second and third biggest slabs ever, so I guess it wasn't all bad, but I'm a bass only kind of guy). About 15 minutes before I'm ready to pack up and leave this nightmare I thought, "meh, I'll tie on that Lipless again, if I lose it, I lose it, maybe it can be a Hail Mary and haul in just one more." Reeling, reeling, reeling, BAM everything stops. Is it slop? Boom she jumps. My eyes must have exploded out of my head. I let off the drag, jumped into the pond about shin deep to fight her and keep her down and ultimately lip her. I'm getting her close and now she's finally to me and my heart sank. It felt like she had gotten off and all I can see is slop in her mouth and on her face. I hurry up and lip her. Fear was for nothing because the bait was still deep in her mouth with several hooks holding tight.

 

 

I'm retiring this Lipless now. It's too cool of a memory and a situation with how it all happened. How I lost the bait, got it back later on, and then caught this fish with it with basically all odds stacked against me and fishing pressure like I've never had before.

 

And besides, I threw it a few more times but whatever she did to it when she hit it made it not run right anymore.

 

 

She also played a part in ruining my $160 Brooks but maybe that's my fault for jumping into a muddy pond with expensive white shoes lol

2 hours ago, Glaucus said:

Best bass since I moved from Illinois to Indiana. 

What part of the state are you in?

4 minutes ago, The Bassman said:

What part of the state are you in?

Mooresville by Plainfield. Got this out of the pond in Sodalis Nature Park.

1 minute ago, Glaucus said:

Mooresville by Plainfield. Got this out of the pond in Sodalis Nature Park.

I used to wade White Lick creek. I haven't been to the west side much since I moved to the SE side of Indy years ago. White Lick used to (may still) produce some good smallmouth.

3 minutes ago, The Bassman said:

I used to wade White Lick creek. I haven't been to the west side much since I moved to the SE side of Indy years ago. White Lick used to (may still) produce some good smallmouth.

I drive by White Lick all the time and have always wondered about it. It's so unassuming. I apparently wrongly assumed it would be a waste of time.

 

2 minutes ago, Glaucus said:

I drive by White Lick all the time and have always wondered about it. It's so unassuming. I apparently wrongly assumed it would be a waste of time.

 

I used to park at Hummel Park and wade both directions. Have no idea how it is now as far as pressure. Four years ago I fished upstream from there in Avon and it was excellent. The next year I couldn't get in the creek without crossing paths with someone else. Interest ebbs and flows. Good luck.

7 hours ago, The Bassman said:

I used to park at Hummel Park and wade both directions. Have no idea how it is now as far as pressure. Four years ago I fished upstream from there in Avon and it was excellent. The next year I couldn't get in the creek without crossing paths with someone else. Interest ebbs and flows. Good luck.

Interestingly, the big pond at Hummel Park (Heron Lake?) had produced my best Indiana bass up until this point today. Caught on a weightless T-Rigged GP Senko. I wish I'd have gotten a better photo because the angle is an injustice to her.

 

 

I'm definitely going to hit up White Lick now. It's really clear water, at least over by Hummel. Last time I was there, there was a group of about 30 people swimming in it lol. This has been a couple months. I assumed it was being used as a pool since everything was/is shutdown for Covid. Probably a family gathering. 

 

I used to slay river smallies at the vermilion river in and around the Pontiac area in Illinois until moving here. I haven't had any opportunities for SMB since moving here, except when I travel back "home". Sadly this was the best SMB of the year for me so far, back at the old stomping grounds.

 

Got out today about 8-2. Boated 16 with 2 dinks on a buzzbait and 1 on a spinnerbait. But it was the double wide beaver that did the most damage getting 13 with a 4-7 and 4-2 the best of the day.