This is the earliest I've found gills on beds. They were everywhere. Zero clouds, but I finally broke my full moon curse with this Shell Cracker G2 eater.

On 5/21/2024 at 2:45 PM, thediscochef said:

I spent almost nine hours on Lake Fork with a guide today. The end.

I've had a couple bad guide trips, it sucks but it happens. Worse one was on the White River in Arkansas. We wanted to catch browns on artificials. Guy had us fishing dead  sculpins. I caught 1 sickly looking brown at the first spot while a nearby boat landed big browns one after the other. Each time we moved, he reported we were less and less likely to catch any browns, which of course we never did. A few little stocker rainbows ate our baits, but we had zero interest in those. The guide did have a ton of interest in the rod and reel combo I'd bought for the trip, so much so that after I offered to let him try it for a couple cast, he confiscated it for most of the remainder of the trip while I was stuck with his provided South Bend combo. On the way in, he hit a rock with his motor and the whole thing jumped off into the river. I caught the fuel line and hauled his motor up into the boat for him. Afterwards, my buddy and I dragged him and his boat for nearly 2 miles against the current back to the ramp, where he asked if we were going to pay for the remainder of our trip by cash or check. I told him we could call it even after we had just saved him a few hundred dollars at least in a tow back to the ramp, or I could shove him and his boat back into the current and he could figure it out for himself, we decided to call it even. 

@Bluebasser86: That is one sad story. You saved his motor. You rescued his boat. A South Bend combo? That must have set him back about $20. 

8 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

I told him we could call it even after we had just saved him a few hundred dollars at least in a tow back to the ramp, or I could shove him and his boat back into the current and he could figure it out for himself, we decided to call it even. 

Kudos to you for standing up for yourselves after an awful "guided" trip. Incredible he was thinking he should be paid after all of that instead of just apologizing and saying how thankful he was for the help.

Solution or suggestion for your next trip:  https://www.hotdawgguideservice.com/

5 hours ago, roadwarrior said:

Solution or suggestion for your next trip:  https://www.hotdawgguideservice.com/

Hotdawg is who we got to watch put his clients on a bunch of fish at the first spot just down from the launch at White Hole. We didn't have the money to hire him that trip and it was truely a case of "You get what you pay for".

On 5/22/2024 at 11:11 AM, bp_fowler said:

Made it out to the Clouse Lake Wilderness area this morning as planned.  There are two manmade lakes here St Joesph and the titular Clouse which was first up.  It’s the smaller of the pair and it is also shallow, dirty, and weedy.  But, every time I fish it I see large bass jumping tantalizingly out of range. 
 

I gave it a go with both the POP-R and the UV Speed Worm neither could tempt any of the bass to bite.

 

I stayed long enough to see the sunrise and then moved on to St Joseph.

 

After parking at the boat ramp I took a dirt road back to the dam. Along the way a there is a clearing that buts up against the bank.  In front of that there is a large crescent shaped weed bed.  I decided to start there.  It didn’t take long for the swimming worm to do its thing and I caught these three hanging around the milfoil. 

I walked back to the dirt road and continued making my way back to the lower end.  I got sidetracked again when I decided to follow a ravine from the road down to the bank.  Casting out around the weed line I caught another one.

Resuming my journey and made it finally to the dam however there was nothing going on there. I went over to the corner right before it turns into private property and fished there.  I noticed some bald spots in the weeds that ended up being blue gill beds.  I casted out past them where I could imagine bass were lurking but the only one I caught hit my worm like it owed them money in about 6 inches of water 3 feet in front of me.  Not gonna lie it made me jump.

By this time the wind had shifted so I headed back to the upper end but not before I stopped at the crescent shaped weed bed and caught a few more.

When I got to the upper end I found a spot  among some cattails that was solid enough to stand on.  Across a channel from me was a pad field.  I casted out towards the edge of those pads and swam my worm back.  That would yield another 4 dinks to close out the day.

Very nice, congratulations!

On 5/22/2024 at 12:22 PM, ol'crickety said:

 

If you caught a DD, you'd look like the Cheshire cat:

 

 

 

Wouldn't we all? Heck I look like that on a 4 pounder!

This one I posted earlier this year was just shy of 4lbs... I still get the grin whenever I look at the picture or talk about it!

 

Beauty, Bazoo, and so light in color! No one can out smile you since your mustache extends your smile, beyond your cheeks. 

Had a night fishing outing getting there in the afternoon and fishing until around 1am. Been having a blast using ultra light lately and the fish in the 2 - 3lb range I was catching felt like tanks! Lots of topwater action on jitterbugs and walkers, then a micro chatterbait and a small jointed plug bite when top water slowed. Missed what I think was a fish ranging in the 4 - 5lb range which hurt pretty bad, absolutely slammed the crankbait and got the load up, a strong pulse of a headshake and she spit it next time!

Didn't have to be into work until 10 this morning, soooo....

Solid fish that sucked it down on a slow crawl.

Walking it right in front of a seawall when this battle scarred old gal slurped it. Biggest swimbait fish I've caught in a long time. 

Gratuitous Croc shot.

These jokers are spawning and they kept hitting my Bull Wake. This was 1 of 2 that found the hooks.

That Gamakatsu Nano Alpha hook doing what it does.

First cast of the morning was a monsta!

 

Today was tough. Lost a very good fish three feet from shore on a jump. And spent two hours trying to entice two very nice bass to bite. One of them might have been a new PB, but I will never know. The two bass were busy hunting bluegill, chasing them into shallow water and then heading back to deeper water just beyond sight to wait for another opportunity. Regardless of what I threw at them (and I threw everything) they wouldn't bite. Had one of them following my bait, but as I pulled the bait past a bluegill, the bass hammered the real fish instead. I did manage to nab two little bass, and one bluegill. But other than the year's first substantial sunburn and some mild dehydration that's all I managed to catch. 

 

Started the weekend off right with another long skinny fish.. Also got a smaller one, both on the Bama bug dinger. 

Took some time this week and went fishing for 3 days out on the kayak. Tried to focus more on stuff that I’ve learned here and other things than just sticking to the same things. Went to my same lake and a few new ones. Wednesday I only went out for a few hours but caught a few bringing a Fogy Pro bladed jig through some scattered submerged grass. Thursday, more of the same except this time they came on a 4” swimbait. Today was by far the most productive day, caught several along rocky banks with cranks and then dragging points with a small Keitech football jig. Never caught fish like that with a jig, felt cool finally catching them out in 15 feet of water. Biggest of the week came today on a Seibert Fogy Pro, brought it through a school of baitfish unknowingly along a seawall. It got smoked and the ball of baitfish also spread on the surface, was a really cool bite. Tight lines!

 

4 hours ago, davidcaudell7 said:

Good looking bass @davidcaudell7 for your 1st post and welcome to Bass Resource and the Forums!

These are from 2 different trips, the last trip, me and boy caught a bluegill each.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wife and i went to detroit lakes minn this thursday with a scoop of live minnows. It was cold, windy, dreary 48 degrees and rained on us all day from 3:30pm to midnite when we arrived home.

I wore my frog togg rain suit and was dry except for my feet and hands, i was to lazy to put on rubber boots. The bass were insane, we were fishing for crappie using 1/8 oz furry black bug looking ballhead jig tipped with a minnow and using slip bobbers.

The bigger bass have moved into the shallows now and were extremelly easy to catch on the bug jig, surprisinly with the very small hook along with a nose hooked minnow all the bass i caught were perfectly hooked through the mouth, some were jumping out of the water and that bug jig being so light there was no chance it was gonna get tossed.

 Also i was using my new 5 6" berkley cherrywood light rod and it made for an exciting fun catch and land. The bass were active all day but the crappie bite didnt start till 8:15 pm.

 

 

Hey,

 

Caught a nice largemouth this morning, he hit the crankbait hard thought it was a snakehead. Have a nice day 

Half way through my fishing trip. Heading to another spot. I went back to the spot where I lost a big one yesterday and caught a very mediocre fish. He also caught me... 

 

 

Gonna try one more pond for another hour or so and then head home. 

The picture of the bass is subpar because I had a treble hook in my hand. I snapped the photo and then flipped him into the water. I had more important things to deal with. 

 

I had a short trip today due to the weather.  I planned on going early, but wasn't sure how early due to passing storms.   It stormed off an all at my house most of the night.   (with lightening)  I finally left home around 4:30AM thinking the storms were gone.    On the way to the lake there were leaves and limbs all over the place.  There was one small tree over the road going to the landing.  I keep a tow strap in my truck so I just pulled it out of the road.  There was one boat at the landing.  They had been catfishing all night and said they got caught in a heckuva storm way down the lake.  

 

I caught 3 Bass, 1 Spot and 2 Largemouth within my first 10 or so casts.  (the fat bleeding Spot was hooked in the upper lip, I didn't see the blood until I looked at the picture.  I don't know where the blood was coming from)    Right after that the sky started toward the West started to light up with lightening.   It looked like it was headed East toward me.   I headed back to the landing, loaded my boat, and took a nap in my truck.  It never stormed there, but I respect lightening.  I went back out, caught 1 more Largemouth then decided to call it a day.  The forecast is for storms early tonight.   I plan on going around midnight and fishing until dawn or so.  I'm going to the lower end of the lake tonight.  My Sister in Law lives down there.  If it storms I'll go to her house.  The Bluegill spawn is on.  I caught all 4 Bass on a "Sungill" colored spinnerbait.   Water temperature was 79 degrees.   That's 7 degrees warmer than last Saturday.  

 

 

Went fishing on my work friends boat today along with another one of the guys that I am friends with. It was a slow day for me at first, I was getting my butt handed to me lol. Nothing big size wise, but I stayed patient and caught the 3 largest fish of the day. Would have been 4 but one threw my lure back at me. One came off boat side trying to get it in the boat. Although I came back with a vengeance with the chatter bait and caught up with them in the end. I also caught the last fish of the day. I only got one picture because I was not worried about getting pictures, I wanted to catch up. My one buddy could have probably wiped the floor with me but he didn’t really fish much, he use to tournament fish. He told me to long arm it and I don’t do that so I chose to use the picture that made my fish look smaller. Stay humble and proud and persevere through the diversity is my moto.

I fished a new pond this morning. I drove past it last weekend and took a quick look and it looked good. Saw plenty of small, medium and large bluegills, a lot of bass fry and some 10”-12”. Stained but clearer than my usual pond. Also had grass. 
 

It turned out to be much larger than the other ponds I’ve fished. It wrapped around like a horseshoe with a small island on the hidden side. It’s surrounded on three sides by private property and fronts a main thoroughfare so it likely gets limited pressure (I saw no one else fishing). 
 

I started with a Whopper Plopper. Had one hit but missed it. I switched to a jerkbait, then a jig-n-craw, then a Texas rig. There is a lot of grass. It’s thin like vermicelli and IMO, it stinks. Like the smell of it literally stinks. In some spots it was so thick it created floated mats. 
 

With no catches I switched to an old standby- a #956 Senko wacky rig. Bam! The bass really liked that as I caught 8 out of 12 on that one bait (I eventually lost it and caught another on a #297 Senko WR. Also caught one each on a 7” Speed Senko Texas rig (first time trying that bait) in green pumpkin/watermelon, a weightless TR with a watermelon red Zoom Trick and a weightless TR with a Zoom Magnum Trick in watermelon red. 
 

The numbers were good. Sizes were on the small side. I took pics of the biggest two bass (and they were definitely bigger than the rest- two were 6” long). Might go back and try it again but that grass was terrible. I thought algae was bad. This was worse IMO. 
 

I also tried for the first time a new shirt with hoodie and new pants. The pants were great. That hoodie was hot! 
 

Who says a river rat can’t go to blue marsh and catch some fish 

An all time low today... went fishing twice at my favorite pond. Morning and evening. Skunkarooni both times. Never even got a bluegill to nibble. That almost never happens at this pond. Something was definitely off. 

 

 Will try it again Monday if not sooner. Might be a glutton for punishment but it beats sitting inside all day, right? 😉