Update: This 2.7 pounder was a fitting end for this great weekend of fishing! Only had an hour, and the Wakebait worked! Edit again: I think my scale was actually right and this fish was a high 2 because it was so skinny, and it is probably skinny because in Michigan the spawn just happened. It’s a 4 pound frame if it was fatter!

Well no pictures of my latest one I caught, I was wading at a park of one of my old local haunts before I moved to Kalamazoo. I showed up and it was busy like I figured it would be with 90 degree temperatures here in Michigan today. I saw maybe five or six people all with rods but nobody was fishing. It was windy like I figured it would be, luckily I brought my spinning rod with me ? I have a metanium dc but I have been killing it lately on a weightless trick worm and felt like fishing more than trying to fight the wind with a light lure. I made 10-15 cast and caught a 17 inch largemouth, left my phone in my car to keep it from getting wet. I didn’t want to keep it out of the water any longer than I had to, so I didn’t grab my phone. I also didn’t want anyone asking me to give them the fish either, I just let them go. It was comical watching everyone wade out to where I was fishing afterwards to try and catch a fish though lol. I accomplished what I wanted to I caught my fish and went back to spending time with my family, it was a good day ?

10 hours ago, DitchPanda said:

UFO above your head in that top pic

I was pointing that out to my wife Saturday! After further examination, I think it's now been identified as an insect.

Caught this 2+ pounder over the weekend.  Noticed some damage to its anal fin.

Nothing real note worthy.  Put 12 in the boat, half over 3lbs…..What was note worthy for me is that they were all on the Dark Sleeper!  Out fished my partner in numbers and size.  I am a believer…

Finally made it back to a large pond I hadn’t fish yet for bass this year. Bluegill are still bedding heavily, but all the bass appear done. I went wacky again as this is my favorite post-spawn technique in clear water. I started with the same worm I used and reported on back on May 30 (two pages back). That day, I used it to catch 16 bass. I simply retied since the outfit hadn’t been used since that trip; same exact worm. I was able to catch another 27 bass on it before I had to retire it because it was so torn up. That makes 43 bass on a single wacky worm...so I just chuckle and shake my head at the Senko rigging threads - lol. Ended up with 40 total in under 2 hours. Here’s what that worm looks like after 43 bass, along with the best fish of the trip.

 

 

12 minutes ago, Will Wetline said:

Fishing my favorite pile of rocks, I couldn't find any post spawn smallies who'd take an interest in a 1/2 oz. tandem willow spinnerbait or a 4" Jerk ShadZ at an 8' - 12' depth. The wind calmed and I moved out to the end of the hump where I found several decent fish hanging in 15' - 20'. These fish, as well as a number of others the previous two trips found a TRD TicklerZ on a 1/16 oz. Midwest Finesse jighead to their liking.

 

 

 

 

After this bite stopped, Moved to an area that had a very steep drop into sangrass. The night before I had put together a Tiny Child rig and this proved its worth on the first cast.

 

Nice! 

52 minutes ago, Will Wetline said:

Fishing my favorite pile of rocks, I couldn't find any post spawn smallies who'd take an interest in a 1/2 oz. tandem willow spinnerbait or a 4" Jerk ShadZ at an 8' - 12' depth. The wind calmed and I moved out to the end of the hump where I found several decent fish hanging in 15' - 20'. These fish, as well as a number of others the previous two trips found a TRD TicklerZ on a 1/16 oz. Midwest Finesse jighead to their liking.

 

 

 

 

After this bite stopped, Moved to an area that had a very steep drop into sangrass. The night before I had put together a Tiny Child rig and this proved its worth on the first cast.

 

I caught a few s allies while stationed at Ft. Devens, MA. They were exceptional fighters. Congrats. 

Been pretty off the grid the last several days. Went on a camping/fishing trip to a lake in Kansas that's about as middle of nowhere as you can get and had zero service, which was pretty nice except for during my kayak tournament on Saturday there. My wife and kids went with me and got to experience it a little bit too of what all goes into prefishing for a tournament and trying to breakdown a lake, but we made time to have some fun swimming and relaxing around the campsite also. Little bit of everything out there. Caught my first striper I've ever caught in Kansas, and my first ever white perch (no picture since they're not really that exciting of a catch). Caught my first several bass on a Tiny Klash, really had a solid pattern down, and then it got completely ruined by wind and waves stirring up the water Saturday. That's the way it goes sometimes. 

Finn accidentally poached this smallmouth from me when he was reeling his Ned rig in right behind my swim jig. I missed the fish with my jig and it honed in on his Ned when it came spiraling by, his first fish by himself.

There was a ton of walleye boats out practicing for a walleye tournament that was on Sunday. They were all complaining of how difficult the fishing was. I guess they were fishing too deep. I couldn't get them to leave a jerkbait alone. I took Lake out one afternoon because the guys in the campsite next to us that were also in the kayak group, said they wanted some walleye if I could catch them some. One of the few lakes in the state that still has a 15" length limit so getting good keeper sized fish is much easier. Tied on a Rozante for Lake and showed him how to fish it and we never had to move the boat to catch a 2 person limit of walleye, although we didn't keep that many. He caught a really nice one that we released also. Lake also caught a couple nice smallmouth and several white perch and white bass. Wore himself out so bad he fell asleep on our run to the next spot ? Had a walleye boat watching it go down came up and talked to us when we were packing up to move. Said he'd caught 1 all day and couldn't believe how we were catching them so easy like that. I told him what we were doing. Last I saw before we took off he was digging out a jerkbait from his box. q

21 minutes ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Been pretty off the grid the last several days. Went on a camping/fishing trip to a lake in Kansas that's about as middle of nowhere as you can get and had zero service, which was pretty nice except for during my kayak tournament on Saturday there. My wife and kids went with me and got to experience it a little bit too of what all goes into prefishing for a tournament and trying to breakdown a lake, but we made time to have some fun swimming and relaxing around the campsite also. Little bit of everything out there. Caught my first striper I've ever caught in Kansas, and my first ever white perch (no picture since they're not really that exciting of a catch). Caught my first several bass on a Tiny Klash, really had a solid pattern down, and then it got completely ruined by wind and waves stirring up the water Saturday. That's the way it goes sometimes. 

Finn accidentally poached this smallmouth from me when he was reeling his Ned rig in right behind my swim jig. I missed the fish with my jig and it honed in on his Ned when it came spiraling by, his first fish by himself.

There was a ton of walleye boats out practicing for a walleye tournament that was on Sunday. They were all complaining of how difficult the fishing was. I guess they were fishing too deep. I couldn't get them to leave a jerkbait alone. I took Lake out one afternoon because the guys in the campsite next to us that were also in the kayak group, said they wanted some walleye if I could catch them some. One of the few lakes in the state that still has a 15" length limit so getting good keeper sized fish is much easier. Tied on a Rozante for Lake and showed him how to fish it and we never had to move the boat to catch a 2 person limit of walleye, although we didn't keep that many. He caught a really nice one that we released also. Lake also caught a couple nice smallmouth and several white perch and white bass. Wore himself out so bad he fell asleep on our run to the next spot ? Had a walleye boat watching it go down came up and talked to us when we were packing up to move. Said he'd caught 1 all day and couldn't believe how we were catching them so easy like that. I told him what we were doing. Last I saw before we took off he was digging out a jerkbait from his box. q

Some great fish! Looks like you'll have some competition soon!

Did a  little canoe fly fishing last night 

Got to fish a private farm pond I haven't fished in 13-14 years last night.  Planning to go there with my dad this weekend so I figured I'd stop by and see how the access is from the bank, what the algae is like, how the fish are acting right now, and just how much has changed there.  We had scorching temperatures this weekend and the fish were AGGRESSIVE! I showed up with a frog, a bluegill squarebill, and a wacky rig.  First cast I caught a 2 pounder and I knew I was in for a special evening.  I made the most of 2 hours and caught somewhere around 12-15 fish with most being in the 2-3 pound range.  All of them were spawned out as I expected but one was still fat.  They were all shallow, assumingly feeding on the bluegills that are up spawning.  I didn't switch any of my baits out because of how frenzied everything was but I'm assuming they would have bit anything last night.  Most fun I've had in a longgg time and I really needed it after dealing with some personal stuff lately.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And all of that doesn't even include the absolute behemoth I lost 6" from shore.  The bank has a bit of a drop off that you need to walk down to get to the water.  Not to mention, there's a bunch of farm cats that wait by your side to try to attack the fish you land lol.  She blew up on my frog about 5-7 yards from shore.  Swam parallel to the bank in front of me and I about lost my mind when I saw how long she was.  She barely even swam to fight me just leaned all her weight against me.  Biggest fish I've ever hooked so I can't say how big she COULD have been but I know without a doubt she was over 5 and I wouldn't be surprised if she was pushing 7-8+.  I'm guessing I tried to muscle her a little too much in all the adrenaline and dealing with the cats and the drop off and she got off before I could get down to her.  Legit had her at the bank but just didn't have myself there in time.  Absolute heartbreak and I may have said some words loud enough to get the cows mooing but I'll be back for her til I get her.  This is what my frog looked like after I lost her.

 

 

And the sign of an awesome day!

 

Had a couple great days fishing over the weekend. Saturday I took the bass raider out on a small Texas lake (200 acres) and caught a little over 20 bass and a couple crappie. At first I thought I wasn't going to even catch a 14"+ bass. They were all dinks. I was fishing a tx rigged worm, then a tx rigged fluke, and then a finesse jig with craw trailer and had caught about 16 bass, all small.

 

Different times all throughout the morning I had threw a loon whopper plopper because I had a good feeling about it but hadn't had one taker. Then all of the sudden while bringing along side a patch of grass it got sucked under. I set the hook and tried my best to turn her but she swam directly into a tree and wrapped up. I gave my rod to my BIL and I all but dove under water for it. Some how it manged to stay on and I managed to untangle her and get her in the boat. 

 

It's the biggest bass on a public lake that I have ever caught. 7.25 lbs and 24" long. 

 

I ended up switching over to a black Cavitron buzzbait and caught 4 more for a total 5 fish weight of 17.25 lbs all on topwater. 

 

 

 

32 minutes ago, Bassin' Brad said:

It's the biggest bass on a public lake that I have ever caught. 7.25 lbs and 24" long. 

 

Great Bass & on Topwater to Boot ~ !

Congrats

A-Jay

45 minutes ago, Bassin' Brad said:

Had a couple great days fishing over the weekend. Saturday I took the bass raider out on a small Texas lake (200 acres) and caught a little over 20 bass and a couple crappie. At first I thought I wasn't going to even catch a 14"+ bass. They were all dinks. I was fishing a tx rigged worm, then a tx rigged fluke, and then a finesse jig with craw trailer and had caught about 16 bass, all small.

 

Different times all throughout the morning I had threw a loon whopper plopper because I had a good feeling about it but hadn't had one taker. Then all of the sudden while bringing along side a patch of grass it got sucked under. I set the hook and tried my best to turn her but she swam directly into a tree and wrapped up. I gave my rod to my BIL and I all but dove under water for it. Some how it manged to stay on and I managed to untangle her and get her in the boat. 

 

It's the biggest bass on a public lake that I have ever caught. 7.25 lbs and 24" long. 

 

I ended up switching over to a black Cavitron buzzbait and caught 4 more for a total 5 fish weight of 17.25 lbs all on topwater. 

 

 

 

I might need to get me one of them thar whopper ploppers ?

 

Nice fish.

1 hour ago, Bassin' Brad said:

Had a couple great days fishing over the weekend. Saturday I took the bass raider out on a small Texas lake (200 acres) and caught a little over 20 bass and a couple crappie. At first I thought I wasn't going to even catch a 14"+ bass. They were all dinks. I was fishing a tx rigged worm, then a tx rigged fluke, and then a finesse jig with craw trailer and had caught about 16 bass, all small.

 

Different times all throughout the morning I had threw a loon whopper plopper because I had a good feeling about it but hadn't had one taker. Then all of the sudden while bringing along side a patch of grass it got sucked under. I set the hook and tried my best to turn her but she swam directly into a tree and wrapped up. I gave my rod to my BIL and I all but dove under water for it. Some how it manged to stay on and I managed to untangle her and get her in the boat. 

 

It's the biggest bass on a public lake that I have ever caught. 7.25 lbs and 24" long. 

 

I ended up switching over to a black Cavitron buzzbait and caught 4 more for a total 5 fish weight of 17.25 lbs all on topwater. 

 

 

 

Congrats, man!  Seeing your fish makes me all the more confident that I lost a 7+ pounder last night ?

I hadn't planned on it, but last night looked so juicy during the dog walk that I just had to go. I've been cursed with nothing but 2lbers on my newest swim bait setup, so it was nice to land a good hard fighter with a bit of weight finally. It shook off of the Shellcracker G2 on the first attempt, but bit hard on the very next cast to the same spot way out there on a weed clump. My trusty Nories Spoon Tail Shad got alot of attention too, and found the bigger of the two. Good action for a short sesh. 4.53 and 4.22.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1 hour ago, A-Jay said:

Great Bass & on Topwater to Boot ~ !

Congrats

A-Jay

Thanks man! It was thrilling! 

1 hour ago, gunsinger said:

I might need to get me one of them thar whopper ploppers ?

 

Nice fish.

Believe it or not that's the only fish I've ever caught on a whopper plopper. I had just bought it here while back. 

 

52 minutes ago, hokiehunter373 said:

Congrats, man!  Seeing your fish makes me all the more confident that I lost a 7+ pounder last night ?

Ugh that's always sickening!

Best night of bass fishing this year so far with me catching a solid 2 and a bunch of other fish all on a texas tig ribbontail worm. The 2lber hit the culprit worm on the fall and I saw a flash dart out towards the bait lol. 

So after enduring and somehow surviving a 21 day stretch where i couldnt get out in the boat i hit the water today at 7 and fished til 1. I caught 11 total , 1 on bladed jig and 3 on a buzzbait but it was a choppo 120 that did the most work catching 7 including the 2 best of the day at 3-9 and 4-5 both of which came in the first 15-20 casts with the bait.

Bass are CRAZY. I was reeling in my Gantarel Jr thru an open lane, and about 6' away from a stand of Lily pads when I saw this guy shoot out and T-bone my bait. He missed, then shot back into the pads. I got the bait back to within a rod's length of where I was standing when I saw a flash from the same spot he'd ran to just seconds earlier. He actually got between me and the bait, then headshotted it. He was totally driven to eat it, and it might just weigh more than him. Nutz!

 

I caught a few smallies while stationed at Ft. Devens, MA. They were exceptional fighters. Congrats. 

On 6/7/2021 at 7:08 PM, Will Wetline said:

Fishing my favorite pile of rocks, I couldn't find any post spawn smallies who'd take an interest in a 1/2 oz. tandem willow spinnerbait or a 4" Jerk ShadZ at an 8' - 12' depth. The wind calmed and I moved out to the end of the hump where I found several decent fish hanging in 15' - 20'. These fish, as well as a number of others the previous two trips found a TRD TicklerZ on a 1/16 oz. Midwest Finesse jighead to their liking.

 

 

 

 

After this bite stopped, Moved to an area that had a very steep drop into sangrass. The night before I had put together a Tiny Child rig and this proved its worth on the first cast.

 

So, it’s been raining cats and dogs for a week. The yard is flooded so I can’t get my boat out without tearing up the grass. I decided to drive over and walk the dam at the lake just to relax. Caught this guy and 4 of his brethren. First time I’d fished off the bank in a while. 
 

Couple of good sized males that were protecting a cloud of tiny fry that was about 25 feet wide, 3 feet across and around 2 feet deep. Most I have ever seen. They were spaced out about 5 feet away from each other along the big cloud. There were smaller clouds around, too. Nice to catch fish breaking in the new setup. These jerkbaits work.

 

 

Ya gotta love it when things work out as planned. Last time out, fish were swiping at the buzzbait and would pull it down just missing the hook. I figured I’d try a trailer hook and see if it would solve the problem. This 5.4lber slurped down my buzzbait and definitely made for a great morning on the water…

13 hours ago, CrankFate said:

Couple of good sized males that were protecting a cloud of tiny fry that was about 25 feet wide, 3 feet across and around 2 feet deep. Most I have ever seen. They were spaced out about 5 feet away from each other along the big cloud. There were smaller clouds around, too. Nice to catch fish breaking in the new setup. These jerkbaits work.

 

 

What model levante is that??