Finally got out this morning with a friend after it rained hard the first hour of daylight. Got 13 total, mostly on watermelon seed super flukes, and a few on dingers.

These were the 2 biggest. 

On 8/28/2023 at 11:20 AM, ol'crickety said:

I turned 67 today

I haven't been able to get on here much this week, but I'm trying to catch up. A little belated, but Happy Birthday @ol'crickety!

Four this morning at the "tough lake" which has good-sized bass for this area, but a low catch rate, and gets a lot of bass fishing pressure for its size.  Today they were about average. Here are three:

Bass on left is not orange, just reflecting the sunrise -- it was very long and skinny, nearly 18". I should have taken the pic on the measuring board.  The other two were 15". a fourth that I didn't take a pic of was 16".

 

All were caught on a spinnerbait along the edges of pad fields. 

 

Spinnerbaits seem very popular with the bass in my lakes this summer. Maybe they're  just sick of chatterbaits...

2 minutes ago, MIbassyaker said:

All were caught on a spinnerbait along the edges of pad fields. 

Well duh

Finally made it down to lake #2 this morning. Launched at about 01:00. Figgered I better go catch some bass to maintain my membership here. ? The muskie addiction has been getting the better of me lately. 

The plan was to chatterbait some weedbeds that have been good to me over the years. That changed in a hurry. They NUKED that place. I haven't been there since June. Whole lake is baren of weeds except for pads in the upper end, and a little patch of pondweed here and there. 

So I decided plan B would be chasing the shadows cast by that big blue moon overhead. I ran down to mid lake and got on some dark chunk rock banks. It was on from the git-go. I had a pair of 2.5# chunks within ten minutes, one LM one SM, and so it went until daylight. Chatterbait the whole time. I caught a pile of em, and there were quality fish up on that shallow rock. Average was around 2#, and my best five would go right about 17#. Mixed bag, about 3/4 SM. Best two pictured below. I also lost a really good smalljaws boatside. Heck of a fun night.

3.69# 

My kicker. 21 1/4" and 5.67#. My new all time #3 SM, and this fish will bump my all time best 5 smallies up over the 28# mark to 28.24#. 

Tomorrow's dinner bit a little after daylight. 

Picked up a few more LM after daylight, pitching cattails, biggest was just shy of 3#. Called it quits on the bass and went chasing muskie for a few hours to finish out the trip. Zero luck with that. Back to lake #1 chasing muskie with the wife in the morning. I'd rather go back down chasing those big smallies in the wee hours, but I think she might have the muskie bug worse than me, so that's what we'll do. Lol.

2 minutes ago, T-Billy said:

my best five would go right about 17#

 

Whoa!

 

3 minutes ago, T-Billy said:

My kicker. 21 1/4" and 5.67#. My new all time #3 SM.

 

Double WHOA!

 

4 minutes ago, T-Billy said:

Tomorrow's dinner bit a little after daylight. 

 

Yum.

 

4 minutes ago, T-Billy said:

Back to lake #1 chasing muskie with the wife in the morning. I'd rather go back down chasing those big smallies in the wee hours, but I think she might have the muskie bug worse than me, so that's what we'll do.

 

Whadda woman!

Tank @T-Billy  I'd LOVE to catch a 5 lb smallmouth end of this month when I fish/camp Lake James out in Western NC.  Not many pure SM left in James but I'm hopeful.

 

It'll at the very least be the first time targeting smallmouth since I was a teenager!

Pat, have you ever been to Lake James?  I caught my PB smallie there when I was 18.  (6 lbs)  The 12 year old kid I took with me caught on that was 8 lbs 3 ounces.  He was hooked on fishing for life after that.  

 

Anyway, look on your maps.  The Linville side is good for Smallmouth with the Catawba side being good for Largemouth.   I haven't been there this year.  I went once last year (during January) and caught 3 smallies including a 4 1/2 pounder and 3 largemouth.   I didn't catch any spots, but I've heard they're there now.   My Grandfather had a cabin on the Linville river just above the lake when I was a kid.   I've hunted and killed bear and deer in the mountains above the lake.   It's pretty country up there.   There's some Walleye's there.  I've caught some in the past.  I've been told there's a few Northern Pike and Tiger Muskys too.   

This is my first trip @Woody B

 

We researched places we wanted to check out pretty extensively and this fishery looks incredible.

 

It's on top of a flooded city complete with remaining submerged architecture!

 

Max depth of 50 ft in some places.

 

I'm just beyond excited to hit it.

 

If I caught an 8 lb smallmouth I'd probably fall out of the boat and drown from shock.  ????

50 minutes ago, Pat Brown said:

If I caught an 8 lb smallmouth I'd probably fall out of the boat and drown from shock. 

It was 40+years ago.  It was during the spawn.  There's a section of the lake near the Linville River that's called James bottoms.  It's a big flat, with huge smallmouth spawning everywhere.   I had taken a 12 year old kid with me.   I pointed at a big girl on a bed.  He made a perfect cast with a t rigged lizard.   The water was clear.  We could see her pick it up by the tail and move it out of the bed.   I grabbed him basically in a bear hug to keep him from setting the hook.   He made another perfect cast, same thing, she picked it up by the tail and moved it.  His 3rd perfect cast she clobbered it, nearly jerking the rod out of his hands.  She put up a heckuva fight, like you'd expect from an 8 pound smallie.   He kept it, it's on his wall.  It weighed 8 pounds on my old "de liar" scale.  It was 8 pounds 3 ounces on a grocery store scale.  30 minutes later I caught one that was 6 pounds on my scale.  I released it.  The kid that caught the 8 pounder is a heckuva bass fisherman now.  He sold his Ranger, and now has a super nice Vexus boat.   I call him my "mentor" now.  When I'm struggling to catch bass I call him for advice.   

 

 

Sorry for the hi jack everyone.   I get excited, and feel like a kid again talking about this.   

Ok, another pB, this is officially the smallest fish I have caught in here. I didn't even know I had a fish on, thought I got some eel grass and was dragging it. It didn't fight one bit, not a single tug. I pulled up on my line and boom, on the new rod and reel. Have to admit, really liking the Metanium, wow.....so smooth its insane. 

 

Fish off a zoom speed worm, junebug and I dipped the tail chartreuse. 

1 hour ago, Woody B said:

The 12 year old kid I took with me caught on that was 8 lbs 3 ounces

That’s absurd

 

4 hours ago, T-Billy said:

Tomorrow's dinner bit a little after daylight. 

Found another floater did ya

41 minutes ago, Woody B said:

It was during the spawn...

 

He kept it...

 

It's great to change a kids life like that, that's awesome! I just need some clarification. It already spawned and was guarding a bed or it was pregnant and ready to spawn?

Sorry for the hijack.

Tied up all day, but probably didn’t miss much with continued blue skies, a high just over 80, and light SE winds today. Did sneak out right at sunset for a quick shot at a bite, and temps had already dropped to the mid 70s . Was surprised to find some surface activity when I arrived around the weedline, so that’s how I fished, and quickly got bit. Stuck with it for about 35-40 minutes until it was well dark, and managed 6 bass. Been a while since I had a good topwater bite, so it was a fun change - and only burned up one Robo in the process.

 

 

 

Caught a couple on top yesterday.

My scheduled eye exam this morning got cancelled so I made it out for a few hours before the lake got crowded.   I caught 8 cookie cutter spots, all between 13 and 16 inches.   I bragged on myself for being good at landing fish a while back and it got me.  I bet I lost 15.  Most were caught on cranks, and were barely hooked in the edge of this lips in the rear hook.   I got a bunch of hits on a bladed jig but couldn't hook any.  They were short striking.   The ones I lost near the boat (on cranks) were barely hooked.   I slowed down, tried rattles and no rattles ect but still go short strikes.   I caught a couple on a shaky head and lost a few more in it as well.  They weren't short striking it, they were slamming it from behind coming toward the boat.  It was hard to keep up to get a good hookset.   The lake was crazy crowded by 9am.   Picture is the last one I caught, similar to the other cookie cutters.  I caught on small blue cat.  I shook it off next to the boat to avoid the slime.  

 

I wasn't intending to go this morning, but a line of thunderstorms just to the north of the lake created a nice cloud deck until about 9:30am, so I went with my Father for about 4 hours.  We caught 20 largemouth and 4 northern pike ripping and yo-yoing chatter baits through the weeds in shallow water.  It was a really aggressive bite.  Didn't catch any 20 inchers this time, but a pair of 18's about 15 minutes apart was the highlight of the morning.  Many of the largemouth were jumping this morning when hooked.  My Father got sheered off by a sizable pike on his second cast lol.

 

And, as you can see, @Woody B, I got a haircut so I'm back in compliance.

Yesterday we decided to close up the shop early, so I found myself with a couple hours of spare time. Decided to scope out a new spot.

 

I caught a donkey in the process. Things got a little dicey when it made a run for the logjam, but it all worked out. 

 

27 minutes ago, gimruis said:

I wasn't intending to go this morning, but a line of thunderstorms just to the north of the lake created a nice cloud deck until about 9:30am, so I went with my Father for about 4 hours.  We caught 20 largemouth and 4 northern pike ripping and yo-yoing chatter baits through the weeds in shallow water.  It was a really aggressive bite.  Didn't catch any 20 inchers this time, but a pair of 18's about 15 minutes apart was the highlight of the morning.  Many of the largemouth were jumping this morning when hooked.  My Father got sheered off by a sizable pike on his second cast lol.

 

And, as you can see, @Woody B, I got a haircut so I'm back in compliance.

 

18-inchers are a ton of fun. And your two are Yankee footballs! You and I have had wonderful bassin' this summer, huh? My next fishing is Monday morning. Sunday will be unseasonably warm and Monday will be calm and cloudy. I'm returning to my big bass bog where I lose much more than I win, but it only takes one win. Fingers crossed!

19 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

You and I have had wonderful bassin' this summer, huh?

 

If you look closely at the second photo, you can see how close I am to shore.  There is a shade line from the trees and I had to cast into the shade to get bit once the sun came out.  When the clouds were overhead earlier, there was no shade line and the fish were biting just about anywhere.  They became far more concentrated along that shaded area near shore as the sun began to come out.

Good catching y’all! Who’s headed out tomorrow or Monday? I’m thinking of trying a new lake tomorrow and then Stillhouse Monday

Fished last night bout 7-8:30, got 3 lost a few. Yachts were ridiculous, took a massive wave over the transom 

1 hour ago, gimruis said:

 

If you look closely at the second photo, you can see how close I am to shore.  There is a shade line from the trees and I had to cast into the shade to get bit once the sun came out.  When the clouds were overhead earlier, there was no shade line and the fish were biting just about anywhere.  They became far more concentrated along that shaded area near shore as the sun began to come out.

Works the same way under a bright moon.