On 8/15/2021 at 7:18 PM, Mbirdsley said:

Dickerson lake Montcalm county.  First 3 photos:  came while punching pads with my handmade/home made jig with 6th sense stroker  craw green pumpkin burst  for a trailer.  Fish were 15,15, and 16 inches 

4th picture is my punch jig I make.

 5th photo is my jig next to a dead craw dad that the 3rd fish  ( biggest fish) fish puked up,  match the hatch!!!!

Photos 6 and 7 are fish I caught while dragging the drop offs with a green pumpkin 
 Arkie jig that I make .  Also used a 6th sense striker craw trailer in color green pumpkin burst 

Last photo is a pike I caught while punching the pads
 

punching pads is probably one of my favorite things to do while, bass fishing 

Ha, you were right across the road from me! I’m on the lake just north of Dickerson. There are some decent walleye and perch in Dickerson if you can find them. 

I am fishing between Tropical Storm Fred and Hurricane Henri. Henri is going to dump more rain, that we don’t need tonight into tomorrow. The river is very high right now and that makes for good fishing in the shallows out of the current.
 

Got some nice river Smallmouth including a chunky 15” girl on my $39 Black Max. That reel has been lucky for me. Still no backlashes and I hooked a plant on the back cast. Ripped the leaves right off and no birds nest. 
 

Got out before storm came in. Did really well for numbers. No big ‘uns though. 15 on spinnerbait and 5 on buzzbait. Here’s a sampler of five of them

On the 1st fishing trip in 4 days because of my Cross-Country camp, I went to the crystal river in Glen Arbor and caught this river smallmouth, the 1st one since may!

 

The Tokyo rig struck again today. Same spot I caught a 4 lber a month or so ago. This girl went 4.63 lbs and 22” long. Sad how skinny these fish are but that’s what you get fishing glorified mud puddles aka retention ponds. Figure she would be close to 6 lbs in a normal body of water. Looking forward to getting my kayak so I can hit some new waters.
  Reading the threads about Skill detecting bites and Intuition helped with this one. Never felt a thing, just something different so I took up slack and set the hook. So cool. 
  Also caught a couple little guys but not picture worthy

Another Maine smallie. 3-8 on a spinnerbait.

Saturday I was running a guide trip at the power plant lake, same one I struggled to catch 40" of bass from in a tournament the week before. Nearly full moon, the water dropped a foot in a week, then we had big storms Friday that dumped a few inches of rain that brought it back up a few inches, didn't have high hopes. These guys really just wanted to learn the lake for an upcoming tournament and had caught a grand total of 2 bass in 2 trips to the lake. Good dudes that came with a positive attitude and ready to learn with the understanding that catching was secondary to learning, which makes it go so much smoother for everyone. They got the grand tour from way up the river to the dam and every patch of grass, log, or rock pile in between that I knew to regularly hold fish. We even caught fish off some of my spots and they left with a lot more confidence and a game plan on how to attack the lake.

 

Sunday I drug my kids out of the house for about 1.5 of spillway/creek fishing. We found some extra bitey green sunfish and little largemouth piled up in the corner of the spillway and they put it on them with inline spinners and roadrunners. 

5 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Saturday I was running a guide trip at the power plant lake, same one I struggled to catch 40" of bass from in a tournament the week before. Nearly full moon, the water dropped a foot in a week, then we had big storms Friday that dumped a few inches of rain that brought it back up a few inches, didn't have high hopes. These guys really just wanted to learn the lake for an upcoming tournament and had caught a grand total of 2 bass in 2 trips to the lake. Good dudes that came with a positive attitude and ready to learn with the understanding that catching was secondary to learning, which makes it go so much smoother for everyone. They got the grand tour from way up the river to the dam and every patch of grass, log, or rock pile in between that I knew to regularly hold fish. We even caught fish off some of my spots and they left with a lot more confidence and a game plan on how to attack the lake.

 

Sunday I drug my kids out of the house for about 1.5 of spillway/creek fishing. We found some extra bitey green sunfish and little largemouth piled up in the corner of the spillway and they put it on them with inline spinners and roadrunners. 

Couple of nice fish! I like the looks of that place. 

It looked like fishing was off the table this weekend with the hurricane set to sweep over Long Island, but the forecast changed, and Saturday was good to go on the east end. My SIL called, and I was ready to roll.

 

It was actually quite calm by the time we got in, but our tried and true spots were devoid of baitfish for some reason. We hit the pad lines and were able to toss the skunk overboard using finesse jigs, but the bass were only 1 1/2 pounders. Couldn't get them to touch ribbon tail worms, and those are money in this joint. Even though they seemed to be mostly locked down and unwilling to chase, I managed to get a few bites and caught one ripping a Project Z weed-less chatterbait in open water over weed beds.

 

Finally, we hit a cove where my SIL hasn't caught a single bass in 35 years of trying, and found some weight. Without warning, an Instant-On heavy rain dropped on us out of nowhere, but then it stopped just as quickly. Pitching SK Bitsy Bugs with Christie Craw trailers got it done with the best fish clocking in at 6.1 lbs. Black skies rolled in again quickly, so we knew what was coming, and it did. It was mostly a grind, but it's a beautiful place to be. We scooted out of there soaked and happy. 

 

 

17 hours ago, Biglittle8 said:

Couple of nice fish! I like the looks of that place. 

Thanks, it has a reputation as one of the toughest lakes around to get bit but it has some of the biggest fish around too. One of the only lakes in Kansas with a legit chance at a DD fish every time you go. 

12 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Thanks, it has a reputation as one of the toughest lakes around to get bit but it has some of the biggest fish around too. One of the only lakes in Kansas with a legit chance at a DD fish every time you go. 

Good to know

 

what is name of it again?

Last couple of days fishing have been cruel to me, I think I keep catching the same 2 fish over and over. I hooked and lost two decent fish in a a 10 minute span. Finally, caught a nice 3lber that I had to quickly remove and ditch because my friend Albert the alligator showed up again :-( he may end up being a suitcase next time we meet

5 minutes ago, Biglittle8 said:

Last couple of days fishing have been cruel to me, I think I keep catching the same 2 fish over and over. I hooked and lost two decent fish in a a 10 minute span. Finally, caught a nice 3lber that I had to quickly remove and ditch because my friend Albert the alligator showed up again ? he may end up being a suitcase next time we meet

Gator is some of the finest meat I’ve ever had. August is the open season in some states! 

Just now, TnRiver46 said:

Gator is some of the finest meat I’ve ever had. August is the open season in some states! 

It is good! I'd probably have to use a sneak attack on him being as it's in my neighborhood.

On 8/22/2021 at 5:42 PM, Holetail said:

The Tokyo rig struck again today. Same spot I caught a 4 lber a month or so ago. This girl went 4.63 lbs and 22” long. Sad how skinny these fish are but that’s what you get fishing glorified mud puddles aka retention ponds. Figure she would be close to 6 lbs in a normal body of water. Looking forward to getting my kayak so I can hit some new waters.
  Reading the threads about Skill detecting bites and Intuition helped with this one. Never felt a thing, just something different so I took up slack and set the hook. So cool. 
  Also caught a couple little guys but not picture worthy

Looked back through my notes last night and saw that I caught 4.63 lb fish a month or so ago in the same spot. Didn’t measure length on that one but I am definitely thinking this is the same fish. Ate a Tokyo rig with a trick worm then as well. Go figure…

8 hours ago, Biglittle8 said:

It is good! I'd probably have to use a sneak attack on him being as it's in my neighborhood.

11 hours ago, LrgmouthShad said:

Good to know

 

what is name of it again?

La Cygne, or the The Swan as we affectionately call it (Le Cygne is French for "The Swan"). 

 

The lake record was caught just a few years ago during a tournament.

 

Finally got a decent day to fish in between all these storms. Bite was tough, but once I got some cloud cover they started feeding pretty good, blowing up on shad schools on the surface. I couldn't get them to hit topwater weirdly, but I got a handful running a lipless crankbait through them. On the walk back to the truck I saw a massive bass up shallow in the same pond I've caught a few 6s and an 8 out of, but she spooked off when she saw me. Made a dozen casts in the area just in case but nada. Next time, baby.

 

Biggest of the day went 5lb 14oz, not a bad little day for August.

Did a little prefishing for some local Wednesday Nighters.  We destroyed them, but only caught one 15+ inch fish.  Caught a couple smallies out of the lake, which is pretty rare.  

 

Fished the Wednesday nighter tonight, and my partner caught the only keeper.  The fish spit a lot of lures tonight.  I missed a big fish flipping that would've give us the win, but we got second... out of 4-6 boats ?

Caught another smallie too, except this one was not much bigger than the bait.

Well no bass for me today while testing my new curado bfs xg on my zodias bfs ml rod. The rod does really well even below it’s 3/16 rating, handles 5 grams just as well as my other reels distance was good, around 3.5 grams it did ok I was happy. I still need to try 1/16 oz on it but I don’t expect much as that’s 3 grams away from the lowest rating. Now onto the fish, using a 13 fishing magic man micro 40 in cosmic perch weighing 3.5 grams we have a decent little sunfish. I tried for the 9 inch bass I saw with a 1/8 oz roadrunner. He looked at it and all the small gills chasing it, checked it out and gave me the I am not having any of that stare lol. It was fun either way ? I didn’t get skunked so that is good. If I am honest I sort of wanted to catch a small bluegill of sorts with my bait caster and I did ?

My buddy got a nice one with a popper
I got a couple monsters like this 

Best bass day of they year as far as size and weight. Fished little field lake in Isabella co Michigan.  I think this lake was a old gravel pit the drop off goes almost straight down like a cliff from 2ft to 30 ft of water. Water very clear can see almost 16-18 feet down.

 

   Caught a 4lber on a strike king 5xd ( forget the name but pictured).  The rest came on a arkie jig I make with a googan summer craw bandito bug for a trailer.

 

  Glad I took a half day off from work to come up here 

 

 

8 hours ago, Mbirdsley said:

Best bass day of they year as far as size and weight. Fished little field lake in Isabella co Michigan.  I think this lake was a old gravel pit the drop off goes almost straight down like a cliff from 2ft to 30 ft of water. Water very clear can see almost 16-18 feet down.

 

   Caught a 4lber on a strike king 5xd ( forget the name but pictured).  The rest came on a arkie jig I make with a googan summer craw bandito bug for a trailer.

 

  Glad I took a half day off from work to come up here 

 

 

 Nice green fish!! I can see that drop off in the photo behind the scale

1 hour ago, TnRiver46 said:

 Nice green fish!! I can see that drop off in the photo behind the scale

That was the most intense drop off I’ve fished.  Probably went around at least half the lake.   All The fish except the last 2 which,  were shallow were caught in 10-12 ft of water.  If I could find a like 10-15 step midway down the  drop off before it went deep I could mark and catch fish.  Didn’t even mark any thing on the drop off that went right to 30ft  

4 minutes ago, Mbirdsley said:

That was the most intense drop off I’ve fished.  Probably went around at least half the lake.   All The fish except the last 2 which,  were shallow were caught in 10-12 ft of water.  If I could find a like 10-15 step midway down the  drop off before it went deep I could mark and catch fish.  Didn’t even mark any thing on the drop off that went right to 30ft  

That’s how almost all the water is where I live