10 hours ago, NorcalBassin said:

Pops starting off the afternoon trip with an eager buck on the edge of the tulles.

 

Up to this point the best fish was an unexpected crappie 😆

 

Dinkfest for me this time

 

His best fish in years. Long arming so it's not quite as big as it looks, but it was still a solid 4lbs with an incredible amount of girth. Great afternoon!

Your Dad caught a bute, Clark! The writing on his shirt made me laugh.  I need one of them shirts. 

Short paddling session last night yielded only one tiny bass but lots and lots of skipjack. I posted their pics and video in the other species thread 

 

Well I caught 4 in a hour on 4 different plastics lol.

Nice ones, Murph. They sure have that river bass shape, long and lean and nothing but muscle. 

3 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

Nice ones, Murph. They sure have that river bass shape, long and lean and nothing but muscle. 

They sure are pure muscle, no doubt about it.

3 minutes ago, Jmurphy87 said:

They sure are pure muscle, no doubt about it.

 

The proof is in the pull. 

8 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

 

The proof is in the pull. 

That’s the reason why I love fishing in the river, they might be small but they fight like crazy. My 745c Kaden is a heavy rod and they put a nice bend in it.

Been coaxing a few here and there, even got a few pictures.

 

 

 

Congrats to @A-Jay and @T-Billy on awesome days!!!

24 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Congrats to @A-Jay and @T-Billy on awesome days!!!

Thanks Alex. A cold front passed through overnight. It was blowing 15-25 all day today. I went out for about 3.5 hrs  today and caught one 12" LM. Fargen fish are bi-polar I tell ya!!! 😂

I feel ya @T-Billy It wont dip much below 15mph winds here for the next several days with some storms expected. Stinks because I really want to get back out there. Anywhere over 17mph daytime or 13mph night is a no-go for me. The hobie is a beast kayak but at some point it ain't worth it.

No "latest catch pic" to share today because the only one I caught -- about 15"-- wiggled out of my hand after unhooking (you're not missing much)

 

First kayak trip today to "Lake 19", a 100-acre salad bowl that is kind of boom or bust, but can be good in the spring if I hit it at the right time. Today was mostly bust -- probably another victim of the cold front that swept through yesterday. Air temp was 43 degrees when I launched at noon, but 52 water temps.  Other than the one bite, nothing for 3 hours, and didn't see any other fish activity anywhere.

 

Also noticed a lot more particulate matter than usual for this time of year, and the invasive curly-leaf pondweed was coming in thick and high already, a couple weeks ahead of schedule. This stuff is a menace -- it makes parts of the lake virtually unfishable for awhile, and the bass don't even like it.  It dies back later in the summer, once the arrowheads are high, so I'll be waiting for that before I return. 

 

Think I'll try "Lake 11" next week.

Pops starting the day off with a nice one again.

 

Being a littlestitious, I shaved the poor excuse of the start of a vacation beard into a goatee figuring the bass clearly didn't know who I was when they hid from me the day before. First bass didn't help. 😆

 

 

The start of an accidental crappiefest.

 

Double hookup. And some mild trash talk of my crappie is bigger than your bass...

 

Finally got into a good one.

 

Incredible sunset to close out a great day.

 @NorcalBassin reports perhaps make me the most envious, what a special thing to share the love of Bass fishing with three generations!  

 

My grandfather apparently loved to fish, however my father doesn't.  I always hear my parents tell me how much me and my grandfather would have gotten along, as they say he was fishing any free chance.   He built a small pond on his property, but fished Lake Lanier on the weekends, and then had a Bertram sportfishing boat in Destin.   He might have been eaten up by it more than me.  

 

Many people say the fishing gene skips a generation.  I also don't believe you can convince, or slowly talk someone into loving Bass fishing.   Either you get it instantly, or you really aren't with it.    To love Bass fishing, is to love failure in some large part.    That rules out a huge part of the human population.   

 

Your fish are always fat and healthy, wherever you fish has a fantastic forage base 🙂  

 

I tried night fishing for the first time in about 20 years tonight. Caught one that shook off when I tried to flip it onto a bridge. Looking back, not my best idea. Otherwise very few bites if any..I was in New water and didn't see it before dark so that was a true adventure, both with almost falling in and having no idea how deep or what structure was there outside of trees overhead. On the duck topic, they can be very loud, or very quiet. They were both at times tonight! They crashed my spot twice, which didn't help any. Pretty cool hanging out with a mallard, staring each other down in the moonlight. 

Quote

@NorcalBassin reports perhaps make me the most envious, what a special thing to share the love of Bass fishing with three generations!  

 

So true, Alex. NorcalBassin has it made, fishing with his Pops and his kid. My dad loves to fish, but at 92, even walking with his walker is hard. He still wants to come fish my lake, but I just don't know how I'd get him in the boat without falling. The last time I took him to Canada, he fell into the lake and it was late October way north. I know you're not supposed to jump into water to help someone, but I did. No hesitation. I expect most of us would do just that for our Pops, brother, sister, spouse, or kid.

I'd rather scrub a gas station toilet bowl with a toothbrush than fish under a full moon, however, the forecast called for clouds by 10 pm, so!

 

A "real feel" of 28* was unappealing, but I wanted to try out a black 6^th Sense square bill before the clouds came in. I just had a feeling.  It actually worked. Nabbed a scrappy 16"er, but that's when I found out I took the wrong shoulder bag which did not contain my fish grippers, scale with grippers, and my needle nose pliers. Even worse, my safety glasses were left home too in the wrong bag. Getting impaled last year by crank bait trebles with a bass flailing on the other end of it is still all too fresh in my mind, so thankfully I did have my forceps. They're pretty sucky, so it took way too long to free the fish, but I spent some time making sure he was on his way in good shape. That was the first and last treble bait I was willing to throw.

 

Lost a Hazedong shad immediately afterward to a Pickeral. Didn't even get a chance to put tension on the line. It just cut right through, but that was straight 15lb braid. Clipped on a Miyagi Swimmer to 50lb braid and it got crushed on the second cast. Pure horsepower, so I was thinking new PB bass. Dark clouds had blocked out the moon by that point, so I didn't see that it was a monster Pickeral until I reached down to lip it. Had no choice but to swing it up on the bank in order to hold it down to unhook it. No way I was getting cut to the bone by this thrashing freak. My wading boot measures 13", so that sucka was 27"-28". I've already lost a ton of baits to these gators this year, so I've really had my fill of them, but the fight is off the charts when they're this big and while the water is still quite cool.

 

I'm with PhishLI. Big pickerel are fun and appreciated! I also caught a few in 2023 that I thought were big bass. 

I'd take a pickerel that big any day of the week.  When they take lures it's less fun but catching them is good stuff!  

 

I got some toilet bowls and toothbrushes here for ya @PhishLI, now can you point me to your fishing spots plz?  I am here for ya and willing to help during this time.  🤣🤣🤣🌕🌕🌕

18 minutes ago, Pat Brown said:

 

I got some toilet bowls and toothbrushes here for ya @PhishLI, now can you point me to your fishing spots plz?  I am here for ya and willing to help during this time.  🤣🤣🤣🌕🌕🌕

 

If anyone could also catch fish where Phish fishes, it's you, Pat. You both fish, activity-wise, in theme parks or shopping mall-equivalents. What Phish has that you don't are the 2024 Sharks and Jets. If only his gangbangers were simply snapping their fingers, singing, and dancing on the shoreline.

 

Yeah, I think you could catch bass anywhere, Pat. If @AlabamaSpothunter is Alexander the Great, then you are the mighty Achilles, but this might be your heel: We hit straight 27 degrees last night, mere days away from May, and I'll launch at 29 degrees tomorrow morning. So, I'll be dragging my canoe up and over the meadow on crunchy grass. I still prefer our weather over @thediscochef's 105-degree days. 

 

However, Monday, we're going to reach 66-degrees, which will be our high for the year so far...by far. Sweltering, huh?

 

However, in the 15 day-forecast, the other 14 days are all highs in the fifties with some lows in the twenties and thirties. 

 

 

 

Fished a clear water lake in WV and was very surprised to find the water temp at 49* but the lake does sit over 3000 ft elevation.

Caught only 3 fish, 2 on a square bill and my 1st smallmouth of the year on Zoom speed craw 1/8 Shakyhead.

Well it's been a bummer of a spring so far with work and life taking to much of my time. Can't believe we're heading into May and today was only my 3rd outing this month, all those in the last 5 days. With the last 2 trips being so-so and seeing ice in the birdbath when I left this morning I wasn't high with hope. But  l managed to catch 6 , 1 on a spinnerbait and 5 on a buzzbait( go figure) with the 1st of those 5 the best of the season so far weighing 5-4.

@keagbassr: I've wondered where your big girls were!!! So glad you're back on the board and dancing with the gals again.

16 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

@keagbassr: I've wondered where your big girls were!!! So glad you're back on the board and dancing with the gals again.

Me too @ol'crickety. got another stretch of work ahead starting tomorrow so im glad to have gotten this girl. 

First tournament of the year for Kansas Kayak Anglers and Kansas Bass Nation was this past Saturday at Big Hill Lake in Cherryvale Kansas. Big Hill is a 1,200 acre, timber filled lake with only 3 ramps, so it was a crowded lake with 41 anglers participating. It's the same lake we started the season on last April, it went something like this.

So I was cautiously optimistic going into the tournament, despite the fact that historically, Big Hill doesn't play very nicely with me. 

 

Prefishing conditions were very similar to last year, so I fished the same area as the previous year and caught several fish, as well as shook a bunch off. After just a few hours, I was off the water and went to a different lake where I caught my biggest bass of the year so far.

Tournament morning, I started on my best bank and planned on catching a quick limit and building on it from there. At the end of my best bank, I had absolutely nothing to show for it, not even a bite. I fished the little pocket that was magic the year before, it wasn't magic this morning. It took almost 2 hours before I finally landed a squeaker 13" keeper on a Strike King Rodent. The next 2 bites I had were dirt shallow, which surprised me because of the cold front conditions, I lost both fish. Next fish got yanked clear out of the water because of my trying to make up for the 2 lost fish, and it only being 12" long. Well past 2 hours into the tournament, and I was sitting at a whopping 25" when I was sure I would have been culling by now. I fished down a bank I'd had no bites in practice, but was quickly running out of ideas. I missed one and then quickly got another bite on the Rodent that was little more like I was looking for, a 16.5" fish.

There's a little pond attached to the lake I was hoping to maybe fill my limit out of. I don't normally fish it, but desperate times and all that. It wasn't much, but I found a 15.75" on a Ned rig and a 11.75" on a spinnerbait to fill out a very small limit. 

 

Cutting across the lake, I started catching fish fairly regularly, but they were very small culls. Instead of the 16-18 inch fish I needed, I was catching 13 inchers. I culled up to barely beyond the 70" mark, but it regularly takes 95"+ to win on this lake, I knew I had to make a change. I only had 2 spinning rods with me. Too much timber for the standard Ned, so I opted for the Big TRD on the weedless Ned head. I got bit by what felt like a good fish right away, but it came off. I caught what I thought was going to be a good upgrade, but it was just so fat it looked bigger, only a 13.75" fish, but I was getting bites and doing it behind people. Back to the bank I started on, fishing the big Ned along laydowns and stumps. It was after noon and things just weren't happening, I needed things to start happening, and this is when they did.

 

I pulled into what I thought was grass, then it moved a little. Hookset was solid, and it launched eyeball high into the air. I had a long battle through the stumps in the wind before she was in the net. The 18.75" fish was over a 5" cull at this point in the day.

I turned around and went back down the bank. Right in front of another laydown, I hooked another good one that was creating all kinds of commotion on the surface immediately. Another 18" fish hit the net and another big boost to my score.

A few cast later next to a log, a little "tick", and I set into another good fish. This one not quite as long, but the 16.75" fish was still about a 2" cull.

I could feel it now, I needed to get rid of one last 15" fish and I had a shot. My bank was suddenly crowded. No spot vultures, the lake was just busy and guys just happened to be working through at a bad time. I looked across the lake and one of my secondary spots was finally open after being occupied all day. It was almost 2PM, lines out was 2:30. I shot across, weaving through the timber. The wind was pounding the bank and the bait was hard to feel. I fired a long cast against the wind into a laydown. I worked the bait a little and by the time I got to it, I realized the line was headed out towards the kayak. I popped the rod straight up and it was on the top immediately and right in the net. I put the 17.50" fish on the board at 2:12PM.

In the last 2 hours, I rocketed up from the low 70's, to 87.50", all on a big Ned rig. 

I didn't think it would be enough, but to my surprise, I had it when I caught the 18 incher.