My friends iPhone 11 has the best camera!  
 

 

Was bummed that I couldn't be out in the boat during this stretch of nice weather as I'm still waiting for my truck to get out of the shop after hitting a deer last week.  But stopped to take a few casts before work today managed 2 on a Spinnerbait with this one weighing 3-11.

After some poor results recently, we decided to change it up and head to the mountains today. Glad we did! Got several largemouth, a few smallies, perch and a walleye. I finally got to try out @Bluebasser86swing heads and they were thumping it pretty hard! I put an ultra vibe speed craw on it, seems like one heck of a combination. The top picture and the bottom picture are the same fish, I just wanted to display the swinghead. I tried to catch a trout with a jerkbait (perch color husky jerk) in some swift water, ended up with a bonus walleye and then a bass ate it in the current. One yellow perch hit a marabou jig and the other hit the husky jerk 

Took my first full day trip in the new kayak Friday. Weather was chilly in the morning but really nice later on. Wind was pretty good with just enough to put a ripple on the surface. Post cold front conditions had fish kind of nipping at the bait. Had a lot of them swipe at the jerkbait right next to the kayak. The lake I went to is known for numbers of smaller fish, but I always seem to find a bigger one when I'm there, this trip was no exception. Broke my previous kayak PB by .02 ounces ? . There's a good population of spotted bass also, one of the few lakes in Kansas that has them in fishable numbers. They were running larger than normal, which was a nice bonus. Lost a couple hard pullers I would have liked to have seen.

 

We finally had some weather come in, water levels have stabilized, water temps are down to 60*, and things almost feel normal out there after a hot and dry start to fall. Bite wasn't hot by any means and we didn't find any wolf packs, but the quality of fish seems to be ticking up and it's always fun getting a chance to catch fish on an empty lake. 

 

 

 

 

 

Last weekend I was down at Gaston for a 2-day club tournament, where we had 7 hours of fog delays...2 hours on day 1 and 5 hours on day 2.  I've never seen fog hang around so long as I had on that 2nd day - It was bright sun and hot by like 10am but the fog persisted right near the ground/water...We could actually see the clear sky just above our heads very close but without horizontal visibility we were stuck.  Been in a lot of fog delays over the years but never one lasted this late into the day.  

 

When we got to fish, we caught good numbers of spots but very tough to find them bigger than about 1.5lbs.  I had a good LM pattern at the very end of the days where and caught decent LM (up to about 3 lbs) each of the 4 days we were there - Had to leave them biting to get to weigh in on the tournament days.  Caught the spots on jerkbaits and fishing vertically with sonar and the LM were on lipless cranks.

 

 

This picture was taken just before noon on the second day, right before we officially launched (my Co was clearly thrilled with sitting the boat for 5 hours before doing anything).  

Snuck out for about 2 hours at lunch today. After a 25 min idle to the back part of the creek I was able to fish about an hour. Only one to show for it, 3-02

I was fortunate enough to be able to move the family back home to NY for the summer due to COVID and telework.  It also gave me the opportunity to fish with my old man a lot more than the I have in the last 5 or so years.  While the fishing was a bit off this year in many of our home waters, we finished the summer with an absolute BANG!  Stuck a 27.91lb sack of northern largies out of the 12ft tin boat.  Second biggest largemouth bag we've ever gotten.  Most were caught flipping various heavy baits in grass, with 2 coming off the drop shot.  The biggest of the bunch went 6.5.

15 minutes ago, RichF said:

I was fortunate enough to be able to move the family back home to NY for the summer due to COVID and telework.  It also gave me the opportunity to fish with my old man a lot more than the I have in the last 5 or so years.  While the fishing was a bit off this year in many of our home waters, we finished the summer with an absolute BANG!  Stuck a 27.91lb sack of northern largies out of the 12ft tin boat.  Second biggest largemouth bag we've ever gotten.  Most were caught flipping various heavy baits in grass, with 2 coming off the drop shot.  The biggest of the bunch went 6.5.

Nice SACK of Bass !

A-Jay

On 11/15/2020 at 12:17 AM, Bluebasser86 said:

Took my first full day trip in the new kayak Friday. Weather was chilly in the morning but really nice later on. Wind was pretty good with just enough to put a ripple on the surface. Post cold front conditions had fish kind of nipping at the bait. Had a lot of them swipe at the jerkbait right next to the kayak. The lake I went to is known for numbers of smaller fish, but I always seem to find a bigger one when I'm there, this trip was no exception. Broke my previous kayak PB by .02 ounces ? . There's a good population of spotted bass also, one of the few lakes in Kansas that has them in fishable numbers. They were running larger than normal, which was a nice bonus. Lost a couple hard pullers I would have liked to have seen.

 

 

Niceee..

How do you like the whole kayak thing?

Looking into starting something new

1 hour ago, Last_Cast said:

 

Niceee..

How do you like the whole kayak thing?

Looking into starting something new

Really enjoying it. The new kayak helps a lot with having so much more control and being able to stand and fish is great. Just a whole different experience from boat fishing. 

1 hour ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Really enjoying it. The new kayak helps a lot with having so much more control and being able to stand and fish is great. Just a whole different experience from boat fishing. 

Seems like its a lot less to worry about as well..any recommendations? ?

1 hour ago, Last_Cast said:

Seems like its a lot less to worry about as well..any recommendations? ?

As far as what kayak to get? 

I also started kayak fishing this summer and so far I really love it. Here's my first two smallies from a yak (not my fishing yak but mine isn't much nicer lol) 

9 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

As far as what kayak to get? 

Yeah.. I've looked at a few online. Ill have to take a trip out to a few places but id rather get some input before

18 minutes ago, Last_Cast said:

Yeah.. I've looked at a few online. Ill have to take a trip out to a few places but id rather get some input before

Well, a lot of variables went into my decision. In the end, I wanted something stable enough I could stand and fish in, pedal drive for hands free fishing, and something that had those features without being a huge boat that was difficult to get around or carry if I wanted to. There's good options out there, and I'd suggest you look around to see what would suit your needs best. I ended up going with the Old Town Sportsman 120 PDL because it had what I wanted, plus their drive system switches instantly from forward to backwards just depending on which direction you pedal. The amount of control I have now is amazing. It's not on the level of having a trolling motor on the bow of a bass boat, but it's really good for a kayak. I love being able to put it in the back of the truck and just go without worrying about having batteries charged, gas in the tank, is this the trip a tire blows or wheel bearing spins out, none of that. It makes me fish more thoroughly also like when I was a kid in my 2 man, which I think makes me a better fisherman than when I can run around and search for fish. It's still plenty mobile though, that if I want to make a decent run, holding that 3-3.5mph peddle speed to get across the lake or around a bend is no big deal like when I was paddling.

10 hours ago, clickityclack said:

I also started kayak fishing this summer and so far I really love it. Here's my first two smallies from a yak (not my fishing yak but mine isn't much nicer lol) 

 

That first smallie must be a new species, Ive never seen one with blue streaks like that.....LoL?

3 hours ago, Bluegillslayer said:

That first smallie must be a new species, Ive never seen one with blue streaks like that.....LoL?

?? Yes, I forgot to mention I also discovered a new species in the kayak. 

 

I didn't even notice that until you pointed it out. I think my phone was trying to "help" me out there unnecessarily. 

So I bought a new all purpose rod during the Veteran's day sale, and took it out this afternoon to try it. It's a 7'6" MH fast Ark Lancer Pro. I'm amazed how far $100 rods have progressed even in the last 10 years or so.

 

Also fished a Pointer and a Flashminnow after a looong time. With all these fancy jerkbaits I now own, I sometimes forget how I learnt to catch jerkbait fish with Pointers, Slender Pointers and Flashminnows, mostly walking the banks.

 

Caught a nice one, and then 4 or 5 small fish and a crappie. Then the sun went behind the hills, and all of a sudden it got really cold.

 

On 11/18/2020 at 7:37 PM, clickityclack said:

?? Yes, I forgot to mention I also discovered a new species in the kayak. 

 

I didn't even notice that until you pointed it out. I think my phone was trying to "help" me out there unnecessarily. 

That’s the reflection of the kayaks color on the Bass scales.

Got this one with a live bream just as the sun went down...

Got me a nice 4 lb 10 oz largemouth on a jerkbait in swift water. 6 lb line on a spinning reel! I had to backreel a ton of line when the current caught the boat, thought we had a huge trout or walleye 

3 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Got me a nice 4 lb 10 oz largemouth on a jerkbait in swift water. 6 lb line on a spinning reel! I had to backreel a ton of line when the current caught the boat, thought we had a huge trout or walleye 

Thats a beautiful fish!