3 hours ago, PhishLI said:

Last year I couldn't crack the 6lb mark at my favorite local spot, but came close with two confirmed 5-13s. Rang the bell tonight with a 7-6 chunk and my new PB for this place on a Zman Freedom chatter bait in Threadfin with a 5" Diesel Minnow Bad Shad trailer. My camera got soaked from splashing, headlamps were blaring, pictures are a mess, but I did my best to salvage one with color editing. My brother ran back to get his phone, but couldn't get his flash to work until right before I needed to release her. It took a minute but she bolted off. He was way late for a date and needed to tear out of there. I'll get a look at his tomorrow as long as his phone doesn't spontaneously combust before he hits "send". Hopefully I'll get at least one solid picture from his roll. Aside from all of  that fun, 4 more fish came on medium sized wakes! Good times.

 

 

Great Bass !

And I'd agree that this shot doesn't do this toad the real justice she probably deserves,

it's still a Very Cool Pic.

In a "Dreaming of Night Bassing" sort of way . . .

Congrats . . .

A-Jay

 

1 hour ago, A-Jay said:

Great Bass !

And I'd agree that this shot doesn't do this toad the real justice

Thanks! Added a better pic.

On another note, I'd never gotten a sniff on this Bluegill Freedom chatter. Yesterday I repainted the head silver with gold accents, added red gills, stole a skirt from a Megastrike chatter, then added the 5" Diesel minnow. It's probably dumb luck that a big ate it, but I can pretend it was because of what I put together.?

 

I thought about your flippin' hook mod while I was working on it, so I tried to install one, but it was really tough to thread it onto the head's keeper. Not in the mood to perforate myself trying harder, I gave up and stuck with the original hook. I'll try to find a lighter gauge hook and try again. I had several misses before I hooked up. Might've been the stock hook.

 

Congratulations on your PB!

Do we think this guys been busy? lol. Warmer weather but mid day and the bass weren’t having it. Only one in a few hours but I had my kids with me and didn’t switch presentations as much as I wanted 

9 hours ago, PhishLI said:

Last year I couldn't crack the 6lb mark at my favorite local spot, but came close with two confirmed 5-15s. Rang the bell tonight with a 7-6 chunk and my new PB for this place on a Zman Freedom chatter bait in Threadfin with a 5" Diesel Minnow Bad Shad trailer. My camera got soaked from splashing, headlamps were blaring, pictures are a mess, but I did my best to salvage one with color editing. My brother ran back to get his phone, but couldn't get his flash to work until right before I needed to release her. It took a minute but she bolted off. He was way late for a date and needed to tear out of there. I'll get a look at his tomorrow as long as his phone doesn't spontaneously combust before he hits "send". Hopefully I'll get at least one solid picture from his roll. Aside from all of  that fun, 4 more fish came on medium sized wakes! Good times.

 

P.S. Added one normal pic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nice fish phish. I’m from eastern suffolk. Been fishing LI 30 plus years and ran into a few of those size fish over the years, what a rush! 

24 minutes ago, jcjunior said:

I’m from eastern suffolk.

Some great spots out east. I have a relative who's a resident in a resident's only township out that way, so I get to play there. Fantastic spots with 25 bass days and lunkers. Paradise compared to my Nassau puddles. My SIL got his PB 7.5 out there last summer, and we've ogled pics of 8s and humongous Pickerel. Love it out there.

13 minutes ago, PhishLI said:

Some great spots out east. I have a relative who's a resident in a resident's only township out that way, so I get to play there. Fantastic spots with 25 bass days and lunkers. Paradise compared to my Nassau puddles. My SIL got his PB 7.5 out there last summer, and we've ogled pics of 8s and humongous Pickerel. Love it out there.

Ugh nassau county!!! Some big ones there tho at the right place and times. And yeah  I’ve personally caught fish up to 8.6lbs and have lost two fish that were bigger that still haunt me today. Oddly enough a week after my 8.6 my daughter was born weighs 6.8 lbs lol

They keep getting bigger. I like this trend. 3.6lbs on this one. Got two others and a crap ton of pickerel. Hopped around ponds a bunch and let somebody take my kayak out while I bank/wade fished. Nothing really new going on. More fish on swim jigs. My hookup ratio improved a little since switching to my jig rod for the swim jigs. 

    I went to Tepic Lake on Sunday.  I hadn't been their in over a month and was expecting the water to be down a couple feet more than it was.  Last year at this time the water was lower, and the bass were schooled up on some offshore structure.  The fishing for lots of big fish was incredible, and I was hoping the same on Sunday.

       I was disappointed when I saw the water was down considerably from a month ago, but not as much as I had hoped.  I had already tied on cranks, C Rig, swimm bait and A rig.  Anticipating a great off shore bite.  I tried a couple of my favorite humps and ridges, but no fish to be found. 

      I changed over a buzz bait, and started to work with bank.  It wasn't long before I hooked one that ended up weighting 6.9 pounds and measured 23 inches.  It hit the buzz bait, as it deflected off a mostly submerged fence post in 4.5 feet of water.  Instantly I was wrapped around the post, and barbed wire.  I gave the bass some slack, and peddled in to hopefully get the line off the fence, but instantly realized there was no hope.  I was about to break the line, when I herd a splash directly behind me.  It was the bass flopping on the surface trying to break the line.  I managed to grab the bass off the surface, catching the bass and saving by buzz bait.  It was a brand new bait, but will take a little work getting it bent back to shape. 

      submerged fence lines in 4 to 5 feet ended up being a pattern.  Only caught a few more baby bass on a buzz bait, but a seven inch Senko caught some bigger ones, along with a 5.8 pounder, pictured in my post.  I lost a few baits, because barbed wire fences, are not the easiest cover to fish, but still had a great day.  The bass were still very thin, from the spawn.  I hope to be able to find the time to fish for them in a few weeks.  Hopefully they will be schooled up offshore, gained back some weight, and nowhere near fences.

    

My wife's away for a long weekend, so I get to fish daily more or less from Friday to Tuesday. Unfortunately we had a stormfront come through Thursday so Fri/Sat/Sun were all clear, cold nights and high bluebird skies.  The wind calmed down Sunday finally which at least made it less miserable to fish.

 

I fished last year's favorite lake Friday afternoon.  The water was at 52-54 so I thought for sure I'd be able to pick a few bass.  Its a small lake at ~120 acres, almost a perfect oval, and grasses up pretty heavy in the summer in anything less than 10' deep (which is a lot of it).  Last year this lake produced 15+ lb bags for me a couple times with two bass just under 5 lb but I only fished it from July onward so I was excited to fish it pre-spawn.  The excitement is waning and the skunk is to blame.  Not sure why I couldn't find them, probably because they had pulled back into the thicker deep grass that remains and weren't interested in coming out to chase anything while I was also not interested in diving into it.  I eventually called it when I was tired of looking. Skunk day one.

 

Saturday I went to a new lake that I tried to fish last year but couldn't get down to the water.  I should have taken better notes and had a longer memory because it still sucks.  The parking lot is ~50' of elevation above the water.  That wouldn't be bad if it was a winding path, but its a short path with 5 or 6 steps that due to washout are ~18" high with a steep gravel/dirt path between.  This year I had a kayak cart so I loaded up the boat (about 230-250# fully loaded) and wheeled it down.  At each step I just lifted the wheels down the step.  At the bottom, the state put in a floating kayak launch dock which you could walk out onto from the last step.  Unfortunately, it was broken away from the shoreline so it meant a 2' step down on rocks that you then had to lift and drag the boat over.  PITA but I eventually got launched and underway.  This lake supposedly has a great population of smallmouth, so my plan was to entice some up with a sexy dawg, throw around some crankbaits and chatterbaits, and if I really needed to I could throw some finesse baits.  Unfortunately, the water was barely over 50 degrees so that scuppered my plans.  I still fished the moving bait route for a while, but then the wind kicked up so I figured at least get a good motor around the lake and see what's going on.  Its a 650 acre lake and almost 3 miles from top to bottom so it was a long ride up.  In that time, the wind picked up even more and the ride back down got hairy with 25-30 mph sustained gusts and whitecaps pushing from behind.  I could have spotlocked in and fought it while fishing, but the cold and wind made it pretty miserable and my dogs needed to get out at home.  I made it back to the launch but now had to reverse course.  Of course the wind decided it was time to stop and the sun was as intense as ever.  After a couple trips unloading every last piece of weight on the boat, I finally muscled it back up the steps to the top.  I'm never doing that again, even if I was catching 3lb smallmouth on every other cast with topwaters.  At least the view was good and there wasn't much of anyone around.  Skunk day two.

 

 

 

For Sunday I changed plans from a big, deep windswept lake to a smaller one that's half the distance away.  The weather was another cold night and bluebird day, but with less wind.  I figured if I was going to get skunked I might as well save some gas getting there.  I fished this lake once, late last year when the water was dropping and around the temp its at now.  I semi skunked (caught some pickerel and a big crappie but no bass) but I know there are bass in there as there are a couple tournaments there each year (I tried to fish it 3 weeks ago and there was one) and it takes 12-15 lb to win them.  The water was surprisingly warm (56 to start) and warmed through the day.  Despite that, it was a rough going for the first 4 hours with zero bites and only 2 pickerel follows in the 10'+ clear water.  I did manage to see some small bass and a bunch of bluegills cruising the shore though, so as a last resort I did one of my least favorite techniques and pitched docks.  I'm still trying to skip with the baitcaster and Sunday just wasn't my day so it was mostly pitching the edges and supports with a bluegill looking swim jig.  I figured the high sun and crystal clear water would push a few bass up under the docks where the bluegills were hanging out.  Sure enough, I managed to scratch out two 2-2.5 lb bass and a hammer handle pickerel in a 100 yard stretch.  Getting the skunk off was enough for me so I called it a day.

 

 

 

 

Today's looking to be a much better day.  Overcast and foggy/drizzly all day, zero wind.  I'm going to hop up to a local largemouth lake that fished well for me last year.  Now that I know where they hang out in the summer (this lake is a big flat bowl, 6' max depth, with no noticeable structural breaks anywhere), I'm going to target those areas now as there must be something pulling them there.  Being shallow and after the past two days of sun I'm thinking 56-58 degrees is likely and this overcast might get them chasing a little.

 

thanks

rick

I've done a bit of boat fishing lately, but it was back to the bank for me on Saturday. I started out testing a large squarebill that I recently got. It's fairly heavy so it will cast a mile. After I had some fun seeing how far it cast I wanted to see the action. I was walking around on a dock, dragging the lure just under the surface so I could see it, and wham! This little greedy fish jumps out from under the dock and grabs it. The lure is listed at 3.1 inches. The bass probably wasn't much more than 10 inches. It always amazes me what a bass will eat.

 

 

In the evening the rest of my crew went to a show that I wasn't interested in so I headed to a friend's pond. It was nearly dark by the time I got there, but I wanted to try. I'm not used to fishing after dark, but they were biting so I stayed for a while. Everything was under 2 lbs, but it was fun. Taking pictures of fish in the dark is tough. I tried several times, but never did manage a decent picture. I didn't want to let any of the fish die because I couldn't get them in the frame, so I settled for this one. TX rigged trick worm in junebug with a chartreuse tail was the lure of the evening.

 

Got the timing right this morning.

Ended up with a 27.92 lb bag.

Anchored by two over 6 lbs.

A first for this guy !

Report (with video) in the works . . .

A-Jay

A-Jay that's phenomenal. 

30 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

Got the timing right this morning.

Ended up with a 27.92 lb bag.

Anchored by to over 6 lbs.

A first for this guy !

Report (with video) in the works . . .

A-Jay

I've never even heard of catching that many lbs of smallmouth in a bag. That's just awesome. 

 

I notice you don't have a whole lot of rods on deck. You must've been fairly dialed in. 

1 hour ago, A-Jay said:

Got the timing right this morning.

Ended up with a 27.92 lb bag.

Anchored by to over 6 lbs.

A first for this guy !

Report (with video) in the works . . .

A-Jay

Holy crap dude

@A-Jay  Id be happy with of them, wow!

Made it back out tonight like I noted above. I didn’t have a ton of time so went to the closest lake which is still a pretty good lake. Water is up to 56-57 so getting there. This lake has no contours at all.  It is a flat slope from 2’ in the top end to 6.5’ at the deepest.  That’s all over a mile and a half span, so it’s a pretty soft, flat bottom. It weeds up in the summer and gets some heavy lily pad patches so those areas concentrate the fish in the summer, but this time of year it doesn’t seem like there is any particular thing holding them. The fish are where you find them so cover water. A chatterbait is my best producer on that lake but it wasn’t doing anything today.  Lipless and shallow cranks are a good choice when the grass isn’t thick, so I went through a couple until I found the right combo of diving depth and rod/line. Turned out to be a bomber model A tonight. Managed a bass, a perch, and a pickerel on it plus a bonus jumbo perch (13”) that inhaled a chatterbait. That’s a 1/2 oz chatterbait plus a zako in its mouth. Not sure how the pickerel didn’t bite me off.  It hit at the boat with 4’ of line out and I boat flipped him straight in before he could saw though it I guess.

 

 

Also forgot this picture. First one I’ve ever broken.  Dt fat3 

3 hours ago, A-Jay said:

Got the timing right this morning.

Ended up with a 27.92 lb bag.

Anchored by to over 6 lbs.

A first for this guy !

Report (with video) in the works . . .

A-Jay

 

 

Absolutely phenomenal, A-Jay.

On Saturday something made me think I needed to try a drop shot the next time I got out to my favorite pond. Of course I was stubborn and the first 10 mins there tonight I wasted throwing around a fluke and a jig. Finally made myself switch to the DS. 1st or 2nd cast with the roboworm I bombed it deep and missed on a bite right as I saw a good fish swim in front of me. I reeled it in real quick and let it settle right in front of the fishes face. Gave it a twitch and got to watch him open his mouth and inhale it. Freakin awesome! I don’t know if it’s the same fish I caught last Tuesday or not but it seemed exactly the same and weighed the same. 3-9. So fun. 
 

Of course my next catch on the same lure was this big ol sunny. That cracked me up. What a contrast.  

 

Caught 4 more pretty dinky bass before finishing the evening with another 3 pounder on a 10” power worm. 

I heard I could post photos of dinky bass here so I'm doing just that

11 hours ago, hokiehunter373 said:

On Saturday something made me think I needed to try a drop shot the next time I got out to my favorite pond. Of course I was stubborn and the first 10 mins there tonight I wasted throwing around a fluke and a jig. Finally made myself switch to the DS. 1st or 2nd cast with the roboworm I bombed it deep and missed on a bite right as I saw a good fish swim in front of me. I reeled it in real quick and let it settle right in front of the fishes face. Gave it a twitch and got to watch him open his mouth and inhale it. Freakin awesome! I don’t know if it’s the same fish I caught last Tuesday or not but it seemed exactly the same and weighed the same. 3-9. So fun. 
 

Of course my next catch on the same lure was this big ol sunny. That cracked me up. What a contrast.  

 

Caught 4 more pretty dinky bass before finishing the evening with another 3 pounder on a 10” power worm. 

Hey! I guessed right! ?

16 hours ago, A-Jay said:

Got the timing right this morning.

Ended up with a 27.92 lb bag.

Anchored by two over 6 lbs.

A first for this guy !

Report (with video) in the works . . .

A-Jay

Man, that’s a day! Good Lord Almighty! 

20 hours ago, A-Jay said:

Got the timing right this morning.

Ended up with a 27.92 lb bag.

Anchored by two over 6 lbs.

A first for this guy !

Report (with video) in the works . . .

A-Jay

Wow! Great fishing. I think I saw some spinning outfits on the deck. Were these caught with spinning rods?

29 minutes ago, Robert C. Gates said:

Wow! Great fishing. I think I saw some spinning outfits on the deck. Were these caught with spinning rods?

Thank You ~ And Yes

Some on spinning and some on casting gear.

Usually the case for me depending on the presentation.

You can watch it happen here . . . .

A-Jay

 

One of my buddies is just getting into bass fishing so I've been tagging along with him to help him out, and the company has been nice. Pond has potential for some real giants IMO, been there 20 years, full of hydrilla, lots of quality forage. Been a dinkfest the last couple times I went, but today I managed some better ones. Handful over 2lb with one just barely breaking 3lb. Very skinny postspawn fish but she was still able to bulldog me down into some hydrilla for a second. Gives me hope of finding some big mommas lurking around. 3lber was caught on a lipless, rest were all on chatterbait.

 

Not pictured, but my buddy was able to set his first official PB at 2lb 3oz, so I was glad to be there for that. Might not be a big trophy bass, but his excitement over it made the day for me. Hope I get to be there for the next one, too.