No size to speak of, but my first fish on the kayak. Caught one other about the same size. Was hoping all the rain last week and some cooler temps would have them biting. Still tough but I’m also learning how to kayak fish and a new lake so I’m happy with a little success. 

Had the chance to get out for my first, and likely only night mission this year Saturday night. Water temps had already dropped to 71* much to my surprise and were much dingier than expected. Bite was pretty decent until it got dark, then the wind picked up a lot and made it pretty much impossible in the kayak. Finally found a nice one about 30 minutes before I called it a night. 

The cold front that happened in Kalamazoo, Michigan and the surrounding area a few days ago kinda messed up the fishing for me this weekend, but I ended up getting 4 bass, 2 on a wacky rig and 2 on a black buzzbait at night! Nothing huge, but it felt good to catch a fish for the first time in a week!

8 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Had the chance to get out for my first, and likely only night mission this year Saturday night. Water temps had already dropped to 71* much to my surprise and were much dingier than expected. Bite was pretty decent until it got dark, then the wind picked up a lot and made it pretty much impossible in the kayak. Finally found a nice one about 30 minutes before I called it a night. 

They always seem to choke on that blue bladed jig. That thing is 

My son and I got out on a small back lake Saturday afternoon.  It was a gorgeous day and I had a great outing, catching probably 25-30 largemouth on buzzbaits, popper, spook and a squarebill.  Unfortunately, my son struggled and had only a couple of hits but hooked nothing.  He was using the exact same setups as me (I’d catch a few, then we’d trade rods/lures… then I’d catch a few and him none, then switch again… ).  He got pretty frustrated and gave up a few times.  I tried not fishing a bit and slowly sneaking him around the lake coaching but the fish gods were just not having it.  Finally, after fishing from about 2pm-6:30pm he said he’d try from shore while I was packing up the gear (seems a 12 year old will do anything to get out of working. lol).  Lo and behold, he caught one - he was a very happy clam and I was very proud for him to have persevered and beat the skunk.  Oddly, he was fishing a buzzbait and had let it sink when he got bit - I guess he was just meant to catch that one.

 

So, I had a great day but it was a bit tarnished by my buddy’s struggles.  I was waiting for a “good” fish to take photos, but I didn’t get any over about 1.5# (the fish my son caught is pretty typical of my whole day, with plenty smaller).

3-5 Maine smallie on a bps bargin bin popper.

44 minutes ago, keagbassr said:

3-5 Maine smallie on a bps bargin bin popper.

 

Nice!   Interesting, because my biggest largemouth of Saturday (the "est" is key... "big", not so much.  lol) came on a BPS bargain bin popper as well - mine's gold and black, about 4" long.  Funniest part is it was my first cast after tying it on and I didn't adjust my brakes quite right, so I got a minor backlash and my cast got yanked at only about 20ft.  The lure sat for 5-7 seconds as I started clearing that, when the fish hit it.  I couldn't reel to retrieve, so I had to handline him in. lol

6 minutes ago, The Baron said:

 

Nice!   Interesting, because my biggest largemouth of Saturday (the "est" is key... "big", not so much.  lol) came on a BPS bargain bin popper as well - mine's gold and black, about 4" long.  Funniest part is it was my first cast after tying it on and I didn't adjust my brakes quite right, so I got a minor backlash and my cast got yanked at only about 20ft.  The lure sat for 5-7 seconds as I started clearing that, when the fish hit it.  I couldn't reel to retrieve, so I had to handline him in. lol

?ive got a few different colors. this one was whitish with a greenish back i think. I should note that i tie a hair tail (synthetic deer hair)for it as well.

Had our first two High School tourneys of the season this weekend.  Our boater had to pull out because he got covid.  We we fortunate enough to get a boater the night before the first tournament.  The Kansas Youth Director, and owner of Temptation Tackle, let us us his boat for the second tourney. 

 

On the first day we had bluebird skies and very little wind the first day.  I caught a smallie that was a hair short on my second of third cast.  Then we caught shorts till noon.  There were big balls of shad everywhere, but nothing feeding on them.  I saw a fish torpedoing around and jumping out of the water chasing a shad, right in front of the trolling motor.  I made a short cast with a DT-6 and caught him.  He barely kept.  

The fishing was very tough for everyone, only one full limit weighed in.  We took 33rd place out of 61 boats, with 1.96.  We had a ton of fun with our really cool boater.

 

The next day had 20-30 MPH winds and wind.  We caught a couple shorts pretty soon after we started fishing.  We ran a little ways up the lake and my partner caught our first keeper on a ned rig.  We then didn't get bit for a long time.  We ran to our next spot around noon and made a few cast and my partner got snagged.  He tried to get it out and handed it to me.  I handed him my rod with a tube on it and he made a cast.  He then reels a 3 pound smallie right up to the boat, I go to net the fish and the line get stuck in net and the fish is still swimming, after a minute or two the smallie is miraculously in the net.   We should've lost this fish.  

We then fish the rest of the day and catch 20 pounds of white bass.  We head into weigh in thinking we had a really bad day and are told the entire junior division blanked.  We were one of the 17 teams to weigh fish out of 58.  We took 9th place in this tourney with the two keepers my partner caught, with 4.96.

 

Overall the fish was really poor tourney wise, we caught a ton of fish and my first and second flathead, but we're happy with the 9th place finish.  We need another top 10 and we should go to state.  We've got 6 more tourneys left.

14 hours ago, Fishlegs said:

They always seem to choke on that blue bladed jig. That thing is 

The after it played a big role in my good finishes in a few of the last tournaments, including winning the championship for me in my kayak club, one of the guys asked "Why blue?" I told him and everyone else the same thing I tell everyone that ask, "Because it works". I have no idea why it works like it does, what the fish see in it, but it's a killer color in a bladed jig in the lakes around here. I've got so many pictures that look just like that one through the years, the thing just flat catches them for me. 

10 hours ago, HaydenS said:

...happy with the 9th place finish.  We need another top 10 and we should go to state.  We've got 6 more tourneys left.

 

Great job guys!  Keep grinding out those points. ?

10 hours ago, HaydenS said:

Had our first two High School tourneys of the season this weekend.  Our boater had to pull out because he got covid.  We we fortunate enough to get a boater the night before the first tournament.  The Kansas Youth Director, and owner of Temptation Tackle, let us us his boat for the second tourney. 

 

On the first day we had bluebird skies and very little wind the first day.  I caught a smallie that was a hair short on my second of third cast.  Then we caught shorts till noon.  There were big balls of shad everywhere, but nothing feeding on them.  I saw a fish torpedoing around and jumping out of the water chasing a shad, right in front of the trolling motor.  I made a short cast with a DT-6 and caught him.  He barely kept.  

The fishing was very tough for everyone, only one full limit weighed in.  We took 33rd place out of 61 boats, with 1.96.  We had a ton of fun with out really cool boater.

 

The next day had 20-30 MPH winds and wind.  We caught a couple shorts pretty soon after we started fishing.  We ran a little ways up the lake and my partner caught our first keeper on a ned rig.  We then didn't get bit for a long time.  We ran to our next spot around noon and made a few cast and my partner got snagged.  He tried to get it out and handed it to me.  I handed him my rod with a tube on it and he made a cast.  He then reels a 3 pound smallie right up to the boat, I go to net the fish and the line get stuck in net and the fish is still swimming, after a minute or two the smallie is miraculously in the net.   We should've lost this fish.  

We then fish the rest of the day and catch 20 pounds of white bass.  We head into weigh in thinking we had a really bad day and are told the entire junior division blanked.  We were one of the 17 teams to weigh fish out of 58.  We took 9th place in this tourney with the two keepers my partner caught, with 4.96.

 

Overall the fish was really poor tourney wise, we caught a ton of fish and my first and second flathead, but we're happy with the 9th place finish.  We need another top 10 and we should go to state.  We've got 6 more tourneys left.

Nice job! I wish there was a high school bass-fishing club in my school, but there isn't, and I don't want to do tournaments yet. And here is the one bass that wasn't under 8 inches that I caught yesterday.

11 minutes ago, TheBasslayer said:

Nice job! I wish there was a high school bass-fishing club in my school, but there isn't, and I don't want to do tournaments yet. And here is the one bass that wasn't under 8 inches that I caught yesterday.

You might be able to find a local club to compete in.  They are a ton of fun.  Our school doesn't have a club, but we compete in one locally.

Just now, HaydenS said:

You might be able to find a local club to compete in.  They are a ton of fun.  Our school doesn't have a club, but we compete in one locally.

I'll look around my area and try to find one.

My buddy took me fishing from about 6 pm til 11 pm and we got some poor man’s lobster! Also got white bass yellow bass striped bass smallmouth bass skipjack herring and of course a drum 

Hoping the pike bite continues, caught via Rapala X rap.

 

12 hours ago, HaydenS said:

Had our first two High School tourneys of the season this weekend.  Our boater had to pull out because he got covid.  We we fortunate enough to get a boater the night before the first tournament.  The Kansas Youth Director, and owner of Temptation Tackle, let us us his boat for the second tourney. 

 

On the first day we had bluebird skies and very little wind the first day.  I caught a smallie that was a hair short on my second of third cast.  Then we caught shorts till noon.  There were big balls of shad everywhere, but nothing feeding on them.  I saw a fish torpedoing around and jumping out of the water chasing a shad, right in front of the trolling motor.  I made a short cast with a DT-6 and caught him.  He barely kept.  

The fishing was very tough for everyone, only one full limit weighed in.  We took 33rd place out of 61 boats, with 1.96.  We had a ton of fun with out really cool boater.

 

The next day had 20-30 MPH winds and wind.  We caught a couple shorts pretty soon after we started fishing.  We ran a little ways up the lake and my partner caught our first keeper on a ned rig.  We then didn't get bit for a long time.  We ran to our next spot around noon and made a few cast and my partner got snagged.  He tried to get it out and handed it to me.  I handed him my rod with a tube on it and he made a cast.  He then reels a 3 pound smallie right up to the boat, I go to net the fish and the line get stuck in net and the fish is still swimming, after a minute or two the smallie is miraculously in the net.   We should've lost this fish.  

We then fish the rest of the day and catch 20 pounds of white bass.  We head into weigh in thinking we had a really bad day and are told the entire junior division blanked.  We were one of the 17 teams to weigh fish out of 58.  We took 9th place in this tourney with the two keepers my partner caught, with 4.96.

 

Overall the fish was really poor tourney wise, we caught a ton of fish and my first and second flathead, but we're happy with the 9th place finish.  We need another top 10 and we should go to state.  We've got 6 more tourneys left.

Great job young man… ??

2 hours ago, The Baron said:

 

Great job guys!  Keep grinding out those points. ?

 

10 minutes ago, GaryH said:

Great job young man… ??

Thanks guys!

11 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

The after it played a big role in my good finishes in a few of the last tournaments, including winning the championship for me in my kayak club, one of the guys asked "Why blue?" I told him and everyone else the same thing I tell everyone that ask, "Because it works". I have no idea why it works like it does, what the fish see in it, but it's a killer color in a bladed jig in the lakes around here. I've got so many pictures that look just like that one through the years, the thing just flat catches them for me. 

I always notice the pictures with the bright blue jigs because it looks so unusual. We don't have to understand why they bite it. We just have to keep throwing it as long as they do, right?

 

You should name that one the "blue flame" bladed jig because it's HOT!

3 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

My buddy took me fishing from about 6 pm til 11 pm and we got some poor man’s lobster! Also got white bass yellow bass striped bass smallmouth bass skipjack herring and of course a drum 

Looks yummy. I've got a bowl of crappie fillets in the fridge waiting to get fried up.

26 minutes ago, DitchPanda said:

Looks yummy. I've got a bowl of crappie fillets in the fridge waiting to get fried up.

I picked up a Storm Arashi popper today.  It’s only 3 1/8” but 1/2oz. so casts great.  It also has a walk-the-dog action if you fish it faster, so seems very versatile.  I snuck out for the evening and was fishing on one side of a small bridge on a minor road when I saw a fish swirl on bait on the other side, so I zipped over there and got hit on the first cast.?

 

Then I was flirting with max cast distance and lightened the brakes enough to enjoy some birds nest clearing practice before I ran out of light - always good to keep your skills sharp.?

 

 

Thought this joker was 7 lbs when it first jumped, fought like the devil 

Nice fish!

 

9 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

Thought this joker was 7 lbs when it first jumped, fought like the devil 

Beautiful smallie!