Got out this morning about730-12. Boated 6 bass, 1 on a buzzbait and 5 on a frog with the best of the day a 4-13 frog fish.

14 hours ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

 

I have no idea if this is a small copperhead or a rat snake, but you better believe that was my last cast LOLOLOL.   

 

I always try to look for the head if possible (and safe). If it’s diamond shaped(poisonous ) I’ll back off immediately.

 

Went back down to the pond again around noon and caught two before the thunder chased me away. One on a 6th sense 50x crush in black n blue craw (pictured) and my first ever on a buzzbait with a blue/black goat trailer (no pic as I was on the phone at the moment). The one on the buzzbait blew it up right as it crossed a small fallen tree. Water is maybe a couple feet deep there. So I have a few on a whopper plopper and one on a buzzbait now for top water catches. ? The one caught with the square bill weighed just shy of 3lbs. Thinking things may be picking up with the warmer temps here. May try some night fishing to see if they’ll tend to hit more then.

 

1 minute ago, ScottW said:

I always try to look for the head if possible (and safe). If it’s diamond shaped(poisonous ) I’ll back off immediately.

 

Went back down to the pond again around noon and caught two before the thunder chased me away. One on a 6th sense 50x crush in black n blue craw (pictured) and my first ever on a buzzbait with a blue/black goat trailer (no pic as I was on the phone at the moment). The one on the buzzbait blew it up right as it crossed a small fallen tree. Water is maybe a couple feet deep there. So I have a few on a whopper plopper and one on a buzzbait now for top water catches. ? The one caught with the square bill weighed just shy of 3lbs. Thinking things may be picking up with the warmer temps here. May try some night fishing to see if they’ll tend to hit more then.

 

Nice one, all this rain is going to fire up the fish I think.   We desperately needed it.

 

We've got penny sized hail hitting right now.

3 hours ago, PhishLI said:

Very soon for you.

Alewife (ct.gov)

 

Get one of these in Ginrin :Bull Nose – Livingston Lures

 

 

 

Thanks, Phish. I need a lure that runs at 1' to 2'. 

I didn’t have to go to work today, wife had a biopsy scheduled for today. I got to go fishing after the hospital came out of lockdown and they took her back for the procedure. First cast caught the 2.16lb smallmouth again in a different spot this time. Cast up along the rocks with a 3/8 oz bullet weight and a jackal chunk craw 3.5 in black and blue. Working it back and felt the tap and set the hook and landed it. I wonder if it is the same one from Saturday. 
 

I then headed to the pond without my steel leader attached and caught the small large mouth on the same bait. I had a different hit and reeled down and swung hard. I heard the line snap like a gunshot and knew that I hooked a pike. I then tied on my leader and caught the tiny pike on a lipless crank popping it out of grass. It went dead after that. 
 

I think that they are getting wise to moving baits now and I seem to get more hits on slower presentations it seems, overall it was a good 2 hours in the end.

Way to go, Murph. I'm thinking a good thought for your wife.

 

Scott and keagbasser caught some beauties too!

2 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

Way to go, Murph. I'm thinking a good thought for your wife.

 

Scott and keagbasser caught some beauties too!

Thank you, I greatly appreciate it. They definitely did get some nice ones that’s for sure. 

I admire you the way you fish, Murph. You're a scrapper. You don't have a $100,000 bass boat. You don't have Livescope. Heck, you don't even have a canoe or the freedom like I do to rise early and fish for four, straight hours, but you're still out there, catching fish, and having a blast. Go, Murph, go! 

1 hour ago, Jmurphy87 said:

I didn’t have to go to work today, wife had a biopsy scheduled for today. I got to go fishing after the hospital came out of lockdown and they took her back for the procedure. First cast caught the 2.16lb smallmouth again in a different spot this time. Cast up along the rocks with a 3/8 oz bullet weight and a jackal chunk craw 3.5 in black and blue. Working it back and felt the tap and set the hook and landed it. I wonder if it is the same one from Saturday. 
 

I then headed to the pond without my steel leader attached and caught the small large mouth on the same bait. I had a different hit and reeled down and swung hard. I heard the line snap like a gunshot and knew that I hooked a pike. I then tied on my leader and caught the tiny pike on a lipless crank popping it out of grass. It went dead after that. 
 

I think that they are getting wise to moving baits now and I seem to get more hits on slower presentations it seems, overall it was a good 2 hours in the end.

Sending a prayer for your wife friend!   Nice SM, wish I had them down here.  

Hoping for the best with the biopsy @Jmurphy87 and nice fish you caught 

Thank you for all the prayers, good thoughts for my wife. We both are very grateful and thankful for all of your awesome support, thank you. I saved you guys from having to see the pictures of me in my boxers lol. I have not gotten new waders yet and am tired of my pants being soaking wet after I go in to get a lure back.

 

 I don’t know what happened but last year something clicked with me catching smallmouth, before that I never had luck catching them. As of lately the bigger largemouth have been hiding from me. I like the change and variety of new places that I am fishing though.

 

my grandpa was a big influence in getting me started with fishing as a kid and I miss him dearly. Although I feel like he is still right there with me when I am fishing all the time. I learned early to never give up and keep persevering and to learn from my mistakes and constantly improve. There is so much uncertainty in my life at this point with everything that is going on in my families life, but when I get the time I am going fishing to find my peace and pass on what I can to my wife and kids.

 

thanks again everyone it means the world to us ?

Congratulations ol'crickety.  Keep catching.

Had 20 minutes before work to make a few cast and got one on the homemade mini bladed jig.

 

Thanks, @Alex from GA!

 

Great photo, @Bluebasser86. The colors are so vivid. It reminds me of the photography in Gray's Sporting Journal. 

Spent a few hours at Big Pine Island Lake, notable for being where the MI State Record largemouth of 11.94lb was caught........in 1934. 

 

Like everyone else who has fished Big Pine in the 89 years since, I did not catch a state record. 

 

Still, as lakes for the area go, it fishes OK.  I caught nine, including this 3-pounder as the sun had just begun peeking through trees:

 

And a couple of not-yet-3s:

 

A weightless Zoom super fluke did most of the work.

You guys are nailing the photos...and the fish! I go fishing again on Friday morning. The wind right now is 18 mph and tomorrow morning's temps will be in the mid-thirties. C'mon, Summer! 

Very pretty 20.5" fish I caught on Monday during a 4-day/3-night River Camping Adventure.

 

There's no better bed than a riverbank and no better bass than a river smallie.

1 hour ago, Jeff Zurawski said:

Very pretty 20.5" fish I caught on Monday during a 4-day/3-night River Camping Adventure.

 

That’s a beauty Jeff. ?

I do believe summer is arriving, neddin on the rip rap bringing in some bass. Will be hitting the night fishing up soon. 

A-Jay

 

Had a really fun and interesting day on the water yesterday and felt like it might be cool to relay the info to you all!

 

Yesterday Jake and I put in at about 3:45 after he finished his homework and chores after getting home from school.  We only had about 3 hours to put something together having to be off the water at 7:30 by lake regulations.

 

The wind was blowing out of the southwest into the rip rap and it was mottled sun/clouds.

 

Probably my favorite fishing conditions.  I have done amazingly well on jigs and on moving baits on days like these so we left the marina with Jerkbaits, crankbaits, swim jigs, pencil poppers and lots of other 'windy sunny' baits tied on.

 

We fished the rip rap with squarebills and jigs and jerkbaits and didn't get bit and decided to make a bee line for a new hump I had identified earlier this week on Google Earth.

 

The hump held less fish than I expected, which looking back, doesn't surprise me.  Seems like more of an ideal winter hump being that it's very far from spawning locations and near the deepest water in the lake.  We couldn't get a bite and made our way to the adjacent mainlake point.

 

The point sticks out into the wind and the wind was blowing a healthy current through all of the flooded cover and immidiately I could see shad schools glowing just beneath the surface in the waters just off the cover all along the bank.  Then I started to see bass come up out of nowhere attacking the schools like tuna in the ocean!

 

I informed Jake, it was go time and be ready.

 

We threw swim jigs, underpins, little swimbaits, crankbaits, jerkbaits, walking topwaters, poppers, Texas rigs, glide baits....worked them fast and slow.  Could literally see fish eating around the boat.

 

Then it finally dawned on me.

 

Windy day.  Sun.  Little schools of shad.

 

Spinnerbait.

 

THIS was where the day began.  With 1.5 hours left to go, I tied on my beat up Siebert Cosmic double white chartreuse willow spinner 1/2 oz where the skirt came off so I have to rig rage bugs to keep it planing straight up and down and I pitched it haphazardly to the nearest laydown.

 

I SAW the bass ANNIHILATE the bait.  First bass.

 

Nice chunky 2 lber.

 

Toss my spinner bait to the next piece of cover.  Slowly rolling it by.  BOOM!

 

Same thing.  Nice little 1.5 lber.

 

We went down the bank in the wind where I saw boats and kayaks and all sorts of fishing happening and we got bit on EVERY single piece of submerged wood we brought those Spinnerbaits by.

 

I jumped off more fish than I caught yesterday but boated 6 in one hour before we had to leave.

 

It felt AMAZING to figure out the magical bait for the day and pattern it and catch a limit all in one hour.

 

I even threw my spinnerbait at a stick that had washed into the rip rap that was just isolated and sticking up near the marina to see if I was crazy and caught one more before we packed up.

 

Once we were on the pattern I tried to put other baits that theoretically should have worked into areas that I was getting bit over and over and over again on every cast and they wouldn't touch it and then I'd put the spinner bait in there and get bit again.

 

It was the ONLY bait they would touch.

 

Didn't catch any fish over two lbs and it only lasted an hour before I had to leave but I had an absolute ball!

 

Well done, Pat. You observed. You deduced. But most of all, you persevered. 

1 minute ago, ol'crickety said:

Well done, Pat. You observed. You deduced. But most of all, you persevered. 

 

 

I think yesterday was one of those days that really really hammered home something you hear all the time but it's hard to internalize and practice with discipline:

 

Throw what THEY want, not what YOU want.

 

I am very guilty of the age old bass fishing act of hubris: 'oh yeah today is gonna be a jig day 100%' ....... aaaand skunk. ??

 

I am trying to be more 'fish the conditions/read the fish' and less 'oh yeah, I just KNOW this will work' about my approach and I never in a million years thought 'Im gonna whack em on a spinnerbait today...until the lake sorta showed me the clues.  I had to be paying attention and looking for them though for SURE.

Stole a couple hours this morning to putter around. Caught me a dink.