5 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Made a long drive Saturday to a lake I've only been to once in my life and it was about a decade ago. Got a tournament coming up though and wanted to at least have some kind of idea what I was getting into. I was less than 10 cast into the morning when I had a big boil under a buzzbait. Couple cast with a wacky rig didn't produce the results I expected (first time in quite awhile I caught nothing on a wacky rig despite trying it quite a bit). Picked up the Popping Pad Crasher, sort of whipped it out there, had to clean a bunch of cotton off my line from the previous trip so the cast wasn't exactly accurate. I was actually past where I thought the bite would come when I got a pop and toilet bowl flush. Starting out the morning with a 20.75" frog fish always feels good.

I knew this lake had a few smallmouth in it, but didn't really expect to catch any, so I was pretty surprised when after missing another buzzbait bite, my follow up cast with a Ned found a scrappy brown fish.

Back up the spot I was on, switch to a different bait and made 2 or 3 cast, hard "tick", not far from my kayak. Wasn't really sure what to think at this point, maybe 20 minutes into the morning and my second fish over 20".

5 minutes later, I finally caught a "normal", sized largemouth that was about 15" on a beaver. Had a lot of the same looking stuff around, really thought I was going to wear some fish out. So about 2 hours later I was looking for my next bite. Got to the back of a small pocket and found a little mix of grass and some stumps. Put the Popping Pad Crasher in a gap and barely move it when it got rocked. Missed the hookset but I learned from the first couple missed topwater fish to just throw the same bait back and they'd come back. This fish was no different and it sure didn't miss this time.

I fished so much good looking cover, but bites were coming about a hour apart and they were small compared to my other fish, 1 15" largemouth was the biggest of them. No idea why I picked up my Ned rig, maybe I just wanted to make a couple cast where I could zone out, but I really didn't get the chance. I was zoned out enough that I was fishing the bait with my line wrapped around the rod at about the 3rd guide down. When the fish hit my Ned, it was a solid enough thump, that I felt something wasn't right about where it pulled on my rod and I was able to quickly fix the issue before setting the hook. The fish stayed down and stayed down, pulled drag all over (I would have been backreeling if I'd known what I had but I was sure it was a catfish or drum and didn't care if I lost it), it made hard charges for laydown, grass, the kayak, I never did manage to see it until it may a fast dart across the surface and I saw a bronze colored back but it registered as a big drum in my head. It wasn't until the dang thing was finally jumping probably close to a full minute into the fight that I realized it was actually a very solid smallmouth, which was in the net seconds after I discovered what it was.

That left my small fish as a 15" largemouth, and I'm pretty sure I caught one bigger in the morning that I didn't measure, for a total of 94.5" which is my new PB 5 fish bag from the kayak. Needed that 1 more big bite and it could have really been a special day. I wish I could say I learned something for the tournament day, but I really figured out was if I made enough cast, eventually I ran into a fish. 

Man, what a great day of catching! Those smallies are a great bonus. Hopefully, that continues over to your tournament.

11 hours ago, PhishLI said:

It was that kind of day. Maybe we should start a support group??

 

Where I fish, they dropped the water way down. That removes a bunch of key spots and causes an algae bloom that removes almost everything left ?

1 hour ago, CrankFate said:

Where I fish, they dropped the water way down. That removes a bunch of key spots and causes an algae bloom that removes almost everything left ?

The water is quite low on the island too, but not that low so quickly. Too bad. BTW, Blydenburgh is shut down for fishing due to a toxic algae bloom. Last night wasn't all bad though. My brother came out here from Suffolk and quickly picked off a couple on a G2 before I got there just before dark. As soon as the sun went down a bunch of local wannabee  Gruccis lit the lake up like the Normandy landing. I'm amazed I even got that midget before I called it quits. The aerial bombs were concussive.

 

I got a smallmouth today ?. Fishing on Oneida Lake. Also got one juvenile largemouth. This is my third ever smallmouth. They sure are fun. Had no idea a fish could jump so high. I don’t know why pic is sideways. Think of it as Pirates of the Caribbean. 

Back on the board  after a slow couple of weeks of not catching much. Only day off for the 4th was Saturday.  
 

Wife and daughter went to Frankfort while I worked.  I decided to go to Au Gres which, is on the west side of the northern part of Saginaw bay. spent 10 hrs and Fished in the cat tails mainly in shallow water.  All fish except the perch came on a wacky rigged maxx scent  baby bass general worm . the bowfin was also caught with the wacky rig.  The perch hit a crank which, ripped its gills up.  So I kept him and put him in my cooler. I Fillet him up when I got home. 
 

it’s been a rough year kinda.  So far I’m the king of 3.0 lbs bass.  Haven’t been able to get anything bigger.  

Got out for a little while before a thunderstorm came up… Got one nice fish on a senko…

Got around 15 Bass today and a decent crappie today at Eagle lake in Michigan! Lost a big one, which would’ve been my first fish of the day.

Took the boat out to Sutton Lake this morning. Saw about 20 pelicans sitting at the steam plant intake...(strange they were that far inland) That equals bait fish! Sure enough, the bait and the bass were in there. The pelicans were diving in about 10 ft from my boat, it was amusing to watch. Managed to pick up a couple of good fish. These two fish were some of the best fighting bass  I've caught. ( Truly thought they were 6lbs)They fought to the bottom and worked the drag on my finesse equipment. (8lb test/ med rod)

Nothing special today just a nice little chunky small bass, about 13-14 I am assuming didn’t take my measuring tape today. I am happy to catch something at least tried out a new style hook and knot and had success. I will say anything is better than Monday lol I got my new kayak out on a lake I have never fished before from 11:30 am till about 9 pm and didn’t catch a single thing, well if we don’t count a nasty sunburn on my legs lol. I just knew I should have put my deep cranking rod in the car on Monday, but that’s what you get for not doing your research on a new lake you’re going to.

The legal limit on walleye is 16” so it was that walleye’s lucky day. Water temp 66-67, making a cool looking fog 

Tried out some new tackle yesterday, really like the "Texas Eye" jig head , so did this guy! I removed the lead bait keeper after finding it to be a pain.  I also discovered a new worm color by accident, I put a pumpkin worm in a bag of red worms and dug it out after a few weeks... Nice color! 

Not too bad, figuring out my local pressured lake slowly but surely. 8 inch king tail in June bug with a rattle in it had to fight him through the salad lol..

The sun was high yesterday, and the heat was cranking at 93*, but a nice ocean breeze made it feel just about perfect out there. The bass were tight to pads, so we got them pitching jigs, but could only find a bunch of 2 pounders. Switched over to cranks that we chose for the depths we graphed, and they wanted them ticking the grass,. The 6th Sense Crush Flat 75X was gold in 6-8ft of water. More of the same 2 lbers though, but I managed to get a decent fish with the same bait. Threw a Magdraft at the end for the fun of it, and got one small dude to gobble it.

 

 

Not sure there is anything more "guaranteed" in bass fishing than a pond drain dumping fresh water immediately after a "frog-strangling" rain. Picked off a dozen from this pond, all "nose to the bank" in that fresh water, and all on a floating worm, so I got to see every bite 

 

 

 

 

 

56 minutes ago, Team9nine said:

Not sure there is anything more "guaranteed" in bass fishing than a pond drain dumping fresh water immediately after a "frog-strangling" rain. Picked off a dozen from this pond, all "nose to the bank" in that fresh water, and all on a floating worm, so I got to see every bite 

 

 

 

 

 

I almost feel guilty when it happens. Kinda like shooting fish in a barrel. I had to miss the opportunity today. They're talking about quite a bit of rain after tomorrow, though. If this summer is typical the ponds will be way down in the next six weeks.

2 hours ago, PhishLI said:

The sun was high yesterday, and the heat was cranking at 93*, but a nice ocean breeze made it feel just about perfect out there. The bass were tight to pads, so we got them pitching jigs, but could only find a bunch of 2 pounders. Switched over to cranks that we chose for the depths we graphed, and they wanted them ticking the grass,. The 6th Sense Crush Flat 75X was gold in 6-8ft of water. More of the same 2 lbers though, but I managed to get a decent fish with the same bait. Threw a Magdraft at the end for the fun of it, and got one small dude to gobble it.

 

 

I don’t know you ventured onto the water’s surface . Nice work and nice boat 

On 7/8/2021 at 9:18 PM, TnRiver46 said:

I don’t know you ventured onto the water’s surface . Nice work and nice boat 

Thanks. There's a no gas engine policy on this entire island, and there's a no boats policy in my entire county. There's only one lake locally that allows my yak, and it's meh. My brother and I have a 12' jon boat we're out on every other weekend in his county. We try to fish new-to-us lakes each time out. It allows us to launch in some super shallow spots, and my SIL owns the pictured Sun Dolphin. It's cramped at 8' long, but it's super stable, so it's very suited for standing to bomb cast, and for pitching. If he steps up to the 10' version I'll have to give him a kiss.

17 hours ago, Biglittle8 said:

Tried out some new tackle yesterday, really like the "Texas Eye" jig head , so did this guy! I removed the lead bait keeper after finding it to be a pain.  I also discovered a new worm color by accident, I put a pumpkin worm in a bag of red worms and dug it out after a few weeks... Nice color! 

 

Getting close to Redbug color, one of my favorites. 

Had another great weekend of fishing out in the boat. All caught on a mixture of topwater poppers and texas rigged missile baits d bombs in green pumpkin 

Really raised the bar today. Haven't caught a 7 for many years. This one hit a slow rolled chatterbait/razr shad combo. Will be hard to beat going forward.

25” x 9.10 on a glide. 2 weeks ago. Bloody tail too. Had to be a late spawner.

 

Edited July 10, 20214 yr by TravisVirginiaAngler
Trying to fix picture from being sideways

25" x 9.10 lb glide bait eater. 2 weeks ago. She had a fresh bloody tail, so definitely a late spawner. Heck of a fight.

4.19 lbs.