3 hours ago, BrianMDTX said:

It’s a St. Croix Bass-X 6’ 10” MLXF. It certainly had a bend in it but it got her out of the wood fast. Once out, she kept runnin’. We fought. I lost lol. 

Sounds like a heck of a tussle.

 

I forget which pro referred to spinning gear as a “fairy wand”, back when they started to show up more often at tournaments.  

This Bluegill was a fatty! This lake has a solid healthy and fat Bluegill population, interestingly the bass are a bit stunted. I think there's not enough size variance in the bluegills for the bass the feed their way up in size. With that being said there are some giant bass but they are very hard to come by. luckily though there are plenty of these guys to catch!

12 minutes ago, RenzokukenFisher said:

This Bluegill was a fatty!

Wrong thread - this one is for bass only - you want this one for anything other than Bass

 

19 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

Wrong thread - this one is for bass only - you want this one for anything other than Bass

 

 

Come on now.  Your "latest catch" is your latest catch. 

3 hours ago, MN Fisher said:

Wrong thread - this one is for bass only - you want this one for anything other than Bass

 

 

Hey the bass werent biting good that day what can I say!! Thank you for the reminder though I forgot about that thread

I'm on vacation this week so I'm going to spend some time fishing.  I went last night and fished from midnight until 5.  I caught 11.  8 cookie cutters (but no dinks,  for me cookie cutters are 13" to 15") and 3 decent ones.   Biggest was first,  a 4.16 pound 20 inch long Largemouth.  (first picture)   I caught a Spot that might have been 4 pounds but I didn't weigh, measure of photograph it.  When I unhooked it I knocked a rod overboard.  I needed both hands to be able to grab the rod before it sank without falling out of the boat.   I didn't want to lay be Bass on carpet so I released it and saved the rod.   The last one (last picture) was a 16 inch Spot.  It looks bigger in the picture.  I was struggling to hold on to it.  It didn't have any teeth.  Both of it's lips, as well as it's tongue were slick.  It looked healthy to me.  I don't think the lack of teeth was keeping it from eating.  

15 hours ago, gimruis said:

@throttleplate is in northern MN so my guess is the water temps there are about 70 degrees. Where I am in Central Mn the water is 73 and all the bass and panfish are done spawning now. I don’t really target panfish outside of a couple trips in the early spring. I have no interest in them once the other seasons open here.

Panfish done spawning? Bluegills go all summer long again and again 

That spot looks heavier than your lmb, @Woody B. Good fish!

41 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Panfish done spawning?

They might still be doing their thing north of me. They’re done here and have moved into a summer pattern now. Just like the bass and crappie.

I caught one bass a couple weeks ago with a slightly bloody tail. I also never saw a spawning bed. I think Maine bass spawn on the down low.

Definitely, several fish I can caught lately are on the skinnier side and have shown signs of beat up fins or tails. It takes them a while to recover and heal.

I never even saw skinnier bass, suggesting they're post-spawn. They looked the same, all through March, April, May, and June. Only this girl was clearly pregnant and she went full Octomom:

 

51 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

That spot looks heavier than your lmb, @Woody B. Good fish!

It's not.  It was squirming around and I was about the drop it due to it's slick lips.  It was really close to the camera when I snapped the pic.  It was 16 inches long, the LM was 20.  

10 minutes ago, Woody B said:

It's not.  It was squirming around and I was about the drop it due to it's slick lips.  It was really close to the camera when I snapped the pic.  It was 16 inches long, the LM was 20.  

 

Ah, the camera and bass are tricksey, as @Glenn wisely noted. 

I got out for a couple hours yesterday with my daughter, which is a rare treat (she likes fishing, but all the “conditions” need to be just right).  Unfortunately, a slow day but she did catch a 2.5# so that made my Father’s Day… and she was happy too. 😊 

 

I caught one small bass and a kicker rock bass. @IcatchDinks @gimruis 😝

 

Atta, girl.

 

Atta, Dad.

Went out for a few hours Saturday morning. Started in the creek but it was unusually tough. The bites I got were smaller than usual for some reason. Bait was everywhere and there was actually shoreline grass growing into the water, extending out several feet in lots of places, so maybe they had changed their habits and I just didn't figure them out. Found one that tried to swallow my jig though.

Moved to the main lake for the last couple hours to just fish around the ramp cove. As I got there, I noticed a really small V-bottom skipping across the waves that were building fast. I watched for a minute, but he was getting close to the ramp so I assumed he was good and went to preparing my kayak to launch. Had a state worker doing a creel survey ask some questions, and I backed my kayak down the ramp. As soon as I hoped out of the truck, I noticed a pontoon holding onto the nose of a mostly submerged boat, 100 feet from the ramp and a person in the water with several items floating. I found out later, little V-bottom guy turned too sharp, took a wave over the back and it was over. The pontoon was a husband and wife team, her reversing hard towards the ramp docks while he was holding onto a rope thrown around the nose boat cleat. I went to the end of the dock they were heading towards and tried directing a guy with an old bass boat to move forward or to a different dock because a boat was sinking and they were incoming with it, but he said he could only move forward a couple feet or his boat would potentially scrape bottom. The poor lady was obviously very stressed and the young man wasn't helping the situation by refusing to move, so we aimed for the next dock. She did a great job managing to get the boats within range and the husband tossed the rope to me. There was another husband and wife on the launch dock that ignored the goings-on while I strained to drag the mostly submerged boat around the end of the dock and up the ramp while the pontoon retrieved the owner. Once they got back with him, I helped him drag it out far enough that all sides were above water level so he could bail water, then hopped in my kayak and pedaled around, retrieving what I could of his items that were floating. I didn't find a lot, but recovered a few things for the unfortunate guy. He didn't lose either motor, his battery, or either fishing rod, so he seemed pretty happy with that.

 

After all this had gone on, I only had about an hour left to fish. Only managed 4 bites, broke one of them off, then caught 3 off the same tree, one was pretty decent.

Sunday, I took my boys creek fishing for a while. It was kind of slow, but the last stop we made was loaded with longear sunfish on spawning beds. They're not the biggest fish around, but those spawning males are always some of the prettiest.

@Bluebasser86: So, you serve and protect even when you're not wearing the badge. My admiration for you is equaled by my disdain for the couple who did nothing to help. 

1 hour ago, gimruis said:

They might still be doing their thing north of me. They’re done here and have moved into a summer pattern now. Just like the bass and crappie.

I was always taught their summer pattern is to keep spawning over and over 

28 minutes ago, The Baron said:

 

 

I caught one small bass and a kicker rock bass. @IcatchDinks @gimruis 😝

 

Honestly, that's a pretty good rock bass. What a chunk! 

Also, looks like you had a great father's day! Ya love to see it. 🙂

Just now, IcatchDinks said:

Honestly, that's a pretty good rock bass. What a chunk! 

Also, looks like you had a great father's day! Ya love to see it. 🙂

 

I'd gladly swap a three-pound lmb for that rock bass, just to enjoy a rock bass again after a half century of not catching one. They're feisty! 

26 minutes ago, IcatchDinks said:

Honestly, that's a pretty good rock bass.

 

Actually yes that is a sizable version.  I'll give you that.  Nice work @The Baron.

 

It still doesn't defeat the fact of what it is though.  If someone posts a new state record here then we'll have a serious conversation about it.

A few before 10 today on "Lake 22", 15"-16", plus a few more under 12s.

Speed worm and senko.  Still seem to be battling some "post-spawn blues" here.

@Bluebasser86  Glad you were there to help and the guy was ok.  But really, how hard would it be for the guy in the bass boat to fire up and move out of the way to help a fellow boater in an emergency. 🙄😡

 

Spent the weekend down at the lake, mostly hanging out with friends and swimming with their kids and dogs and camping (in the yard 😂) with my niece . I finally got to fish some from 2-3:30 pm on Sunday in the 92 degree heat. Water temp was 87-88, I knew gar would be my best shot at catching something. Went to my favorite spot right around the corner from our dock and despite constant jet ski traffic there were 20-30 gar sunning just under the surface. Tossed a cotton Cordell ripplin Redfin wake bait and a monster immediately hooked up and snapped my line, knew I shouldn’t have used a good lure for gar haha. Then I tied on an extremely crusty husky jerk and boated one 
 

After a few more passes around the cove I figured I would toss a senko , a nice bass grabbed it and the gamakatsu nano alpha 4/0 round bend came thru again, hooked the fish nicely (thankfully) because that fish fought hard for its size. And I got a tiny dink bass on my gar bait 

Then it was popping quite a bit of lightning outside so I ran and hid, even tho the storm missed 😣 

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