Maybe it's because I hadn't been out in good conditions for topwater, but this fish on June 18th was my first of the season! It has a Duo Realis Popper 64 in its mouth.  

 

 

This smallie took a Z-Man TicklerZ on a 1/16 oz. mushroom jig cast from Do-its Midwest Finesse mold.

 

 

There was enough wind mid morning to rock the boat and I thought that might be enough to push a few smallmouth over a large flat to see what they could find to eat. I anchored over 12' - 15' depths for a couple of hours and fed them Duo Realis' Spinbait 80 and a Mudbug Finesse TRD on a 3/32 oz. mushroom jighead.

 

 

 

 

On 6/7/2021 at 5:31 PM, Team9nine said:

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.

 

 

Wow. That’s impressive!  How did you catch so many fish on one senko?

Man, the bite has really been off lately. Had two bites and caught both. Neither of any size. The pond exploded with duckweed and algae after all the rain followed by a week of sun. The breeze normally blows it to the west end of the pond by mid-morning but yesterday it covered the whole surface. A frog was the only topwater that would work but it was ignored. I caught one early on a Fat IKA and another later on a #901 watermelon/cream Senko. 
 

Good take-aways are that the Senko was rigged on a new braid-to-leader for me (Seguar Smackdown in flash green with a 6 lb mono leader) and the Fat IKA was still rigged on my new Daiwa Tatula and Dobyns Fury FR705CB. Having only used Sufix 832 before, I can notice a big difference in visibility (a no-brainer due to the color) but also in the smoothness of the line. But I am really surprised by that rod. I bought it as a crankbait rod but tried it last week with that Fat IKA and easily caught a bass with it. Same thing happened yesterday. I was twitching the bait in, skittering it across the bottom like a crayfish, when the bass hit it. I started to set the hook when it took off, and it basically set the hook itself, which IMO is pretty darned good for a 3/0 EWG. I know it’s not the application that rod was designed for as MF action, but I am pleased with the results!

 

Fat IKA

 

Senko

So far this is my PB 

8 minutes ago, ike8120 said:

So far this is my PB 

Pretty bass! 

10 hours ago, Crankin4Bass said:

Wow. That’s impressive!  How did you catch so many fish on one senko?

 

By not using a Senko in the first place - lol - that’s a “losing” game. Most days I fish “flick shake” or “jig head wacky” with Zman plastics and average about 25 bass per worm.

Yesterday went out and hit some ponds. This bass nailed a pop-r, but the topwater bite was all done by 8 AM when the sunlight came over the trees and hit the water. Bass was 4-06 lb.

Well, it’s Father’s Day and momma said, “Why aren’t you fishing?”  So, off I went. Got a late start and the bite was slow for the first 45 minutes. Then it picked up and I snagged 13 in the next hour and 15 minutes, most of them on the same Fire n Ice TR culprit worm. This guy, at just over 2 lbs was the best of the bunch. 
 

Went out about 2 days ago on the yak and caught a nice 4lb 12oz largie! This lake doesn't get much pressure so when hooked the fish fight like freight trains. Swam right under my yak and into a submerged tree, luckily my outfit was more than enough to winch er' out. 1/2 oz Green pumpkin jig with a matching rage craw trailer.

17 hours ago, ike8120 said:

So far this is my PB 

Congratulations on your P.B.

Got out on Father's Day for about an hour and a half mid-day during the 90 degree temps.  Wasn't expecting to catch much but the new 10" Berkley Power Worms slayed them.  I'll be ordering more ASAP.  Started off the day with a couple quick 2 pounders.  Then added a couple 1s before catching a 3-3.5er that took the hook deeper than I would have preferred.  Was counting down the minutes before we needed to get home to get my kids down for nap time and saw my line take off.  Set the hook into a brick wall and knew I had a new PB on the line.  She ran at me and I kept up and then worked her parallel to the bank to a spot where I could get down to her a little easier.  My wife took some great action shots lol.  Scale weighed this football of a fish in at 4lb 6oz with some help from her most recent meal and I was so pumped the family was there for it.  My 4 year old just kept saying it was the biggest fish he'd ever seen in his life like he's been around for ages ?.  Broken my PB 3 times this year and hit the 4 pound mark I wanted to so now I just need to keep raising that bar.  Won't be able to fish as much the next month or so but I'll get after um when I can.  Tight lines everyone!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4 minutes ago, hokiehunter373 said:

Got out on Father's Day for about an hour and a half mid-day during the 90 degree temps.  Wasn't expecting to catch much but the new 10" Berkley Power Worms slayed them. 

What a nice way to spend Father's Day....

 

Congrats on you new PB.

 

I caught my new PB on vacation in northern Michigan last week, a 4.54 lb / 20 inch largemouth bass! I got it on a 6th Sense Clout 5.4 in 'Watermelon Candy' rigged weightless. My previous PB LMB was 2.69 lbs / 17 inches from 2020. One of my bass fishing goals for 2021 was to beat that by ideally catching one at least over 3 lbs. Needless to say, I was beyond excited to get this one!

 

A small lake that doesn't allow boats was absolutely on fire this weekend!

Never put the topwater down and it was the best bite I've had all year for Largemouth

Congrats on the new PB.

Nice work guys!  Bunch of new pb's!

 

Hopefully I'm next! 

I finally made it out to a spot while the sun was still up, and found several carbon copy dinks set up in the pads. As usual, it took a few hours of darkness for them to begin roaming out into open water and down the bank. Got my next dinker of the night on a small soft swimbait, then finally hooked a decent girl on the G2.

 

Content with my outing, and fading fast, I was about to call it quits, but into my 5th or 6th last cast I hooked into something truly heavy on the G2. It felt weird at first, like I'd foul-hooked a carp. My rod bent to its limit, and all I could do was hold on as almost-locked drag slipped under my thumb. It dead stopped into some weeds, and now the G2 was engulfed by a mop of grass and a large fish. I finally jacked the whole mess up and over the weeds, and really felt the fight. The bass blew up out of the water and shook the mop, ran at me, went completely airborne, shook the G2, and that's all she wrote.

 

It was giant. 15 feet from everlasting glory. Oh well. I've landed a few good ones this year, but that one was different. I let my heart rate stabilize, but now I was wide awake again. I ended up staying another 2 hours chasing a ghost, and blanking, but no complaints. Good times.

 

 

9 hours ago, PhishLI said:

It was giant

You got a weight estimate?

1 hour ago, HaydenS said:

You got a weight estimate?

lost big uns usually go around 5-6 lbs in the north and 8-12 lbs down south.

4 hours ago, HaydenS said:

You got a weight estimate?

Sorry, but I don't do weight guesstimates. I leave that business to psychics, and to those with special access to high resolution spy satellites. All I can say, and as a first hand witness, is that several 7-8 pounders, one 8 1/2, and one 9.22 have been caught at this particular lake. It has tons of forage, and the gene pool exists there, so who knows? We've got some big ones in a few lakes around here, for the north.

 

 

 

 

On 6/21/2021 at 11:55 AM, BigSkyBasser said:

A small lake that doesn't allow boats was absolutely on fire this weekend!

Never put the topwater down and it was the best bite I've had all year for Largemouth

And no gators in Montana.

11 hours ago, throttleplate said:

lost big uns usually go around 5-6 lbs in the north and 8-12 lbs down south.

Can confirm the first big fish I ever lost I swore was 8lbs and a “whale”

Another haul from my recent adventures bunch of bass crappie and even a catfish!