On 7/24/2022 at 1:14 PM, MIbassyaker said:

A sampling of the better fish from 4 morning trips to different lakes over the last month-- all cookie-cutter 2 and 3lb-ers

"Show me the fool who doesn't like cookies." Nice fish!

22 hours ago, Woody B said:

I caught 6 this morning.  3 on a devils horse, and 3 on a t-rig.   This particular spotted bass was 18 inches long, but only weighed 2 pounds 1 ounce.    I don't think the weight is a scale malfunction.  When I got home my 10 pound weight weighed 9 pounds 15 ounces on it.    Lake Wylie has plenty of forage.  Most of the bass I catch are fat.   I wonder if this one is sick, or just thin.   

 

Beautiful markings on that fish.

10 hours ago, Choporoz said:

Fished a 45 yak tournament yesterday

These kayak tournaments are fascinating. @Bluebasser86 often tells his experiences in them here too.

50 minutes ago, gimruis said:

These kayak tournaments are fascinating. @Bluebasser86 often tells his experiences in them here too.

I really like the Catch, Photo, Release aspect.  Not having to worry about livewell management or culling.  The apps cull automatically.  The fish are back in the water after just a minute or so.  Of course there have been some low-lifes that have cheated and the rules are continually adapted.   The boards have improved over the years and the judges can see the meta data on the photos (time and location), so I'd like to think I can trust the system. 

Cast a jig + pit boss in the brush during the heat of the day. Didn’t weight but it was definitely 2-2.5lb at least.

Had an excellent day today. Started with the first pic, a 4.4 which is as big as I've caught since April. I had to work this morning and was killing a few minutes before I needed to show up. Took a few casts in a suburb park pond that I've never bothered with, having only noticed carp jumping. Well after only a few casts buzzing a Z-Man GOAT I got quite a wake up call.

Second pic represents six over three pounds that I caught this afternoon at one of my usual spots. They all came on a Mini Max chatterbait.  Cloud cover and a good breeze was icing on the cake after so much heat here.

11 hours ago, Ski said:

Had to call a trapper this weekend to catch this little guy walking down our street Yesterday.

8 foot 3 inch but still caused concern for children and pets. 

8 foot ain’t small! I’ve fished around 12+ footers a lot but 8 is still long enough to………. Bite the fire out of you hahaha

It’s a 10lber!! ?

 

Couple other small ones today. 

1 hour ago, LrgmouthShad said:

It’s a 10lber!! ?

 

Couple other small ones today. 

You found a fun way to remove lily pads from the pond.

Couple on a Swim jig:)

Been a slow summer so far. Finally caught a decent largemouth. He had a nasty cut on his side. And several previous wounds in his mouth from being caught before. Made me feel bad for catching him. I wish people would be nicer to the fish they catch. 

 

Also caught a beautiful little smallie the day before. 

 

 

 

Nothing special from me, got out yesterday and caught probably 10-15 small bass this small sheet of paper being the longest. He definitely needs to eat more.

Finally getting some rain today. Had to stop before work and see if it was getting them moving a little bit. I was moving slow getting ready, so I only had 30 minutes, but managed to get 1 on the FishLab Rat and one on the Fishlab shad.

Crazy heat lately with zero wind, even when some wind was in the forecast, so I took a hard pass since Wednesday. Yesterday was the hottest day of all at 97*. My neighbor's Koi didn't make it through the day. They were crushed. I've been feeding it forever when they'd be away. Sad.

 

Finally got some real wind late in the day, so I had to give it a go. I'm beginning to get very concerned about the water levels here. I've never seen them like this, and haven't ever been able to wade out so far out. A few places dried up completely about 20 years ago and needed to be restocked once they'd refilled. I think I'm gonna have to start doing rain dances soon.

 

I somehow picked the correct location right off the bat, and hooked up on my 1st cast, but it shook off. This happened four more times in a row. I sat on the couch for a few days and forgot how to land a fish. Finally, a squeaker was kind enough to thoroughly hook itself on a Rat 30. I kept doing my best Chuck Knoblauch imitation afterward, but managed a few more slims in between yips. I was expecting a screaming skunkfest, so I wasn't mad at all. This all made me laugh actually. The raccoons must've thought I was nuts. No bigs caught or lost, but better than a kick in the beans.

The heat has made the fishing trips sparse, but I snuck out for a brief trip to one of my favorite bank spots. The wake boats, & jet skis had the water churning pretty good. I threw spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, swim jigs, 10" worms, topwater, & a Ned rig without so much as a nibble. My last option was the wacky rig. I got this 20 incher on a watermelon red Yum Dinger. The bite was not subtle. She smoked it. Good fighting fish.  She didn't jump until I reached to get her, but it was pulling drag the whole time. This is my first fish over about 2.5 lbs since April so it was a good trip even though I only got one fish.

 

It may be hard to see with the BR logo on the pic, but the tail was pretty beat up. The top half of the tail was practically gone. Any ideas why it would be like that in late July? Late spawner? Slow healer? Also, it's not easy for someone with t-rex arms to get a selfie with a long fish. ?

 

8 minutes ago, Fishlegs said:

The top half of the tail was practically gone. Any ideas why it would be like that in late July?

Spawned twice maybe?

1 hour ago, PhishLI said:

Spawned twice maybe?

Interesting. That would be good news for the future of one of my favorite spots.

Regarding her worn tail, she was possibly sitting up underneath a ledge @Fishlegs

Little frogging with the Nephew

Caught a handful, one on a buzzbait and a couple on a double willow spinnerbait. Also caught this one on a red chrome rat l trap. 
 

Temps have dropped the last two days from 90+ to low 80’s, along with clouds and some rain (it rained lightly all day until I got out there……figures) 

 

They didn’t seem too interested in a chatterbait so I threw the spinnerbait, retrieving it pretty fast maybe a foot under the surface. One I think would have hit anything, I basically dropped it on his head.

 

Tied on a Rat-l-Trap, because I was fishing a pond where I could actually use it (very little to no grass in this pond, I’m convinced it’s because of the fountain). Picked up the one in pic after letting it hit bottom and steady retrieving back to bank from about 10 ft of water. Have never had much luck on lipless cranks, so it was nice to catch one lol.

Still playing with the split shot rig. Another dozen tonight despite some pretty stained water following a weed treatment. Just a couple small bass from a local reservoir on it yesterday, so need a bit more time to get things dialed in based on water type and cover/structure conditions.

 

36 minutes ago, Team9nine said:

Still playing with the split shot rig. Another dozen tonight despite some pretty stained water following a weed treatment. Just a couple small bass from a local reservoir on it yesterday, so need a bit more time to get things dialed in based on water type and cover/structure conditions.

 

Whats your rig consist of?

57 minutes ago, Team9nine said:

so need a bit more time to get things dialed in

Looks like you dialed in the jeans. No more holes!!

2 minutes ago, gimruis said:

Looks like you dialed in the jeans. No more holes!!

I'll give it a week...maybe two...then his jeans will be back to 'normal'.

Slow Going but no skunk. My buddy got the LM on a frog in milfoil, pretty fun sound when it hit