1 hour ago, TnRiver46 said:

My thoughts exactly 

True friends will step up to help out with even with the most arduous task.

Biggest bass of 2022! I caught it in a new spot, which is a small pond by my friends house.

21 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

My buddy was replacing the axle on his boat trailer, said he needed me to baby sit his boat all morning. It was snowing and the fish were chomping. Nothing big but I got to set the hook over and over and over. I lost several fish in trees, finally decided to switch to baitcaster for more winch power 

 

 

 

Tell him the boat catches fish just fine.

Decided to cast out this evening with an hour or so of light left, managed to land these two nice examples. First bass thrashed around and ripped the worm off...in the water of course so I could not recover it ? (was a 4" junebug yum dinger, junebug seems like a color that always does well). The second was really nice, easily 18" - 20", felt like 4 pounds easy or close to it. exploded on the surface as the finesse worm was starting to sink. I also saw a 3 foot snakehead try and ambush a fairly large bird down by the water! ? It never occurred to me they would leap out of the water to kill birds..

2 hours ago, TheBasslayer said:

Biggest bass of 2022! I caught it in a new spot, which is a small pond by my friends house.

Nice catch! ?

20 minutes ago, BassSteve said:

Nice catch! ?

Thank you!

1 minute ago, TheBasslayer said:

Thank you!

No problem brother, keep it up 

I hit my spot super early this morning. It was cold and the water was dead flat at 3 am, but thankfully the flock of swans were on the other side of the lake. The water is so unusually clear from the colder temps and wind, and none of my trusty shallow areas are working yet. I finally found some bait pushed hard to the shoreline inside an emerging pad field just as the wind kicked up at 4:00, then got some bites right away. Got a few midgets on small wake cranks, missed something heavy that wouldn't let go but was never hooked on the Zman Texas Eye/Diesel Minnow, then finally got a decent fish on a NorieS spoon tail shad.

 

My buddy, who was at another spot on the lake right after dawn, had snagged his crank in some weeds. He's shore-bound and I was in waders, so I met him over there and saved his lure. He was done for the day, and since I was already in the water I asked if I could take a few casts from his spot. A few casts later I hooked into something with some nice horsepower. Carp were jumping while I was saving his lure, so I thought I'd snagged a carp at first, but that's because it got wrapped around a new pad stalk just as soon as it bit. She jumped about a foot out of the water and unsnagged herself and my diesel minnow just like that. "That 'aint no carp!", my buddy cried when she flew. 4-12lbs. Good way to end the session.

 

 

Got out for a couple hours yesterday afternoon. Winds have been crazy lately and yesterday was no different. Could make some headway during the sustained 10-15, but the gusts of 25-30 made it a struggle to not go backwards. Only managed two fish but had several pickups that I couldn’t get a hookup. Guessing it’s bed fish mouthing the bait to move it off their bed? Been happening quite a bit lately. Got one on a new Fogy and had another slash at it right at the kayak. 
  Did get this 2.5 on a Tokyo rig when it just slammed the bait. I did everything possible to lose her including snagging line on the bow, letting her jump 4-5 times, missed with the net and she bounced off the hull, hit her with the net… HAHA. Somehow managed to land her eventually. Super skinny fish so I’m thinking postspawn?

Had my first kayak tournament of my circuit this year at Mined Wildlife Area in Southeast Kansas Saturday, it was ungood for me, just short fish after short fish and lost every bigger one I hooked. 

 

Prefishing went pretty well though ?

Prefishing was super windy, sleeting, just as nasty as it could be. Tourney day was calm, almost hot by the end of the day. My pit I was planning on fishing was small and shortly after I got there, a whole group of otters showed up and started wreaking the place, fish heads all over the bank. Can't imagine that helped me any. I tried to move to a different pit but they're mostly very clear and deep so with that high sun by then, it was pretty much game over. I did get one to try and add another to my bag, but of course it flopped off my board and back into the water ? Momma said there'd be days like this I suppose. Finished right in the middle of the 62 person field with 3 little fish. 

 

 

So this is the meager catch this evening, not much but I tried lol. Of course lost another hook and worm to a snakehead....starting to worry soon all that will be hitting my lures are snakeheads ? Caught a decent peacock and good size Mayan cichlid ?

9 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

 

 

That is some gnarly looking habitat.

15 minutes ago, gimruis said:

That is some gnarly looking habitat.

All I'd load up for that would be wacky and jigs...and a pitching I would go.

17 minutes ago, gimruis said:

That is some gnarly looking habitat.

I agree but a great maze of underwater branches for the bass, they must be everywhere in there ?

1 minute ago, MN Fisher said:

All I'd load up for that would be wacky and jigs...and a pitching I would go.

They were killing a jig, and every one was 12" or less.

Caught my third Bass of the year while jigging a spoon for Trout.

 

 

The Bass bite has never been this good for me in April. Oh and I did catch my intended species.

 

 

Caught 5 LM on flats with a chartreuse Trickworm weightless early and 16 Spots on humps. The Spots were loving a 3/16 wobble head Sukushi Bug and 1/8 tungsten T - Rigged Nikko Hellgrammite on a 2/0 EWG. Water temp 62.8, Air 44 - 74

42 minutes ago, GreenPig said:

Caught 5 LM on flats with a chartreuse Trickworm weightless early and 16 Spots on humps. The Spots were loving a 3/16 wobble head Sukushi Bug and 1/8 tungsten T - Rigged Nikko Hellgrammite on a 2/0 EWG. Water temp 62.8, Air 44 - 74

That Sukushi bug has been a great Ned rig bait for me, especially early in the year when the baby craws are all over the rocks. 

I have been sitting out for a bit with some back trouble. Finally got it worked out, finally back to catching black bass at my normal water. Nothing big today but a couple of nice 1ish lbs spotties, a wiper, and an interesting little guy with some cool markings. I catch fish that size out there all the time but that's the first one with those marks I've seen. Maybe a lmb/spot hybrid? Or maybe just lmb. Idk. You decide. 

Back to Lake Whitney tomorrow with a buddy for dam fishing. Probably gonna catch a bunch of little stripers like I have been. That said, even little 3-4lb stripers and wipers are tons of fun on lighter gear. We'll keep throwing until they stop biting or until we have to leave. 

36 minutes ago, thediscochef said:

I have been sitting out for a bit with some back trouble. Finally got it worked out, finally back to catching black bass at my normal water. Nothing big today but a couple of nice 1ish lbs spotties, a wiper, and an interesting little guy with some cool markings. I catch fish that size out there all the time but that's the first one with those marks I've seen. Maybe a lmb/spot hybrid? Or maybe just lmb. Idk. You decide. 

Back to Lake Whitney tomorrow with a buddy for dam fishing. Probably gonna catch a bunch of little stripers like I have been. That said, even little 3-4lb stripers and wipers are tons of fun on lighter gear. We'll keep throwing until they stop biting or until we have to leave. 

Nice! I think your little guy is a standard LMB. I’ve never heard of them hybridizing with spots but SMB hybridize with spots regularly 

 

I can’t catch a striper to save my life the last two years, granted most of ours are 20-50 lbs  so I guess they are not as numerous and/or smart 

4 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

It’s very peaceful to reel in baits super fast and not get hits .

I think you should try bobber fishing.  Its even MORE relaxing and peaceful.  You don't even have to cast or reel more than once every so often either.  You just kick back, put your feet up, wait, watch that cork, drink beer, and turn on some tunes.  Then you wait some more.  Don't fall asleep though.

2 minutes ago, gimruis said:

I think you should try bobber fishing.  Its even MORE relaxing and peaceful.  You don't even have to cast or reel more than once every so often either.  You just kick back, put your feet up, wait, watch that cork, drink beer, and turn on some tunes.  Then you wait some more.  Don't fall asleep though.

Ironically, I hate bobbers ! My least favorite thing in fishing history. I can put on a small jig and catch bluegill about anywhere. Hang the jig under a bobber and I’m guaranteed to get skunked 

Just now, TnRiver46 said:

My least favorite thing in fishing history.

I hear ya.  Its not really my thing either.  I find trolling to be just as bad except that you burn fuel while doing it so its more costly lol.

Fished duck lake in Montcalm county mi.  Between my buddy and I we caught 10-12 bass. I caught more he caught the biggest.
 

 We were both using chatter baits.  He was switching up between differnt ones I kept the zman stealth jack hammer rigged on with a Berkley ayu paddle tail swim bait as a trailer.  Caught one bass on a jerk bait.  However, we were on a chatter bait bite.  We took 4-5 bass out of one spot.  
 

Duck lake is a large shallow and weedy lake.  Average depth is only 4ft but, the water temp where we caught the fish was 51.8 degrees.  this was probably one of the warmest lakes we were going to find for the year. Every where else the temp was 48-49 degrees in the lake and didn’t do squat.

 

Beautiful spring day in Michigan and on the board for 2022

 

1 hour ago, TnRiver46 said:

Nice! I think your little guy is a standard LMB. I’ve never heard of them hybridizing with spots but SMB hybridize with spots regularly 

 

I can’t catch a striper to save my life the last two years, granted most of ours are 20-50 lbs  so I guess they are not as numerous and/or smart 

I've just never seen one with such a scattered lateral line

Either way that was cool.

Stripers are fun, none of mine are big like that, my best was like 7.5lbs and that was years ago. The striper fisheries where I'm at just don't support as many of the bigger fish. But the ones I've been catching are just tons of fun. Hence why we're making a day of it tomorrow