16 hours ago, A-Jay said:

Originally planned on going tomorrow (and I still might).

Either way, I called an audible and hit local Lake Menderchuck for an afternoon trip.

Surface water temps were still 75, despite a cold east wind

and mostly bogus on & off rain in my face.

Been a while since I've fished in the rain but I knew the boating traffic

would be non-existent in that mess, so I went for it. 

The brown bass were, for the most part, fairly cooperative.

A swinghead with a Keitech Swing Impact FAT Swimbait did all the damage today.

Got plenty of bites and I needed every one.

A-Jay

 

Dang AJ! It's 98 Degrees outside where I am. Have to start my truck and wait for the AC to muscle up before I can survive the ride home! Glad you had the lake to yourself, and the fish were eating!

First time out since 4th of July. We’ve had a lot of rain, so the lake is at full pool. Fish were real spread out. I caught 7 by 8:30, then nothing else til I quit at 10:30. I spent 45 minutes of that talking to a friend that was on his dock though …

 I caught all the fish on a june bug uv speed worm…

Pair of 5lbers

@LrgmouthShad: Woo-hoo, buddy!!!

So far in 2024 I've caught at least one 5 pound Bass each month.  I finally caught my August 5 pounder today on the last day of the month.  Many people around here catch more and bigger Bass, but I'm happy with a 5 pounder every month so far.   

 

I caught 9 today,  3 Largemouth, and 6 Spots.   I launched my boat at 6:10 AM.   I caught the 5 pounder (5.42 pounds, 21 5/8" long first picture) on my 3rd cast.....but my first 2 casts weren't "real".   I pulled up to the first stop on my "milk route".  I aimed my sonar toward a spot where a bush is overhanging the bank a foot or so above the water.   I saw the Bass on sonar.  I had decided to try a Devils Horse today.  I needed to skip it under the overhanging bush.  I made a couple practice skips out of the other side of the boat, toward the center of the channel.  After those 2 casts I made a perfect skip under the bush right on top of the Bass.   It gently sucked it into it's mouth.  I set the hook and it went crazy, walking on it's tail, like a decent sized Largemouth is supposed to do.  2 casts later I caught a 3 poundish Largemouth, and another 14 inch Largemouth a few minutes later.  After the Sun came up the LM bite stopped, but I started catching Spots.   None of the Spots were huge, but the smallest one was 14".  I thought it was a big cat for a while.   It's tail was crooked.......either an injury or deformity, but it sure didn't make it any weaker.   (2nd picture)   We've discussed Spots spawning multiple times a year.  All of the Spots I caught (including the deformed/injured one) looked to me like they were full of eggs.  The last picture is an 18 inch Spot I caught on my last cast a 8:51AM.   Depending on the weather I may go tonight around Midnight.  

 

Regarding cuts, nasty stuff in the water, fish slime, ect.  I always have cuts on my hands due to my occupation.  I put some hand sanitizer, and rubbing alcohol in my boat to clean my hands with after handing fish, or getting them wet.  

 

@Woody B nice!!
 

Well y’all I was sitting anchored on a community hole. Nighttime so I had it to myself. Offshore structure 15-17ft. Jig and worm. Definitely a well known spot but my first time going there. It’s going to be hard not to go back. Could be a DD or two cruising around there at night. Still trying to figure out what my best options are. I’ll probably go back and rotate through some baits just to see if it continue to produce and, if so, what size bass am I looking at. But I’ll need a backup spot or two.

Been learning through this past year and these are my more "recent" catches.

Fished Lake Michigan for about 3 hours. Cracked a tube, caught one smallie

 

 

Big fish of a half dozen bfs rats this morning.

Couple blow ups on the frog right at change of light, unfortunately this is the only bite that connected. That's back to back weekends landing the completely wrong species

@Woody B keeps the streak alive!!!

Got on 6 nice fish this morning before my pepperjack omelet, bacon, hash browns and coffee  Only took tubes as I thought it'd be a brief session before a downpour - a downpour that didn't happen

 

I’m sure we’ve all had those days where nothing you cast is getting bit..except that one bait. Today was that day for me without a doubt. 
 

This morning started with light rain but no wind. Tried a PopMax and a Whopper Plopper on top. Nothing doing, so I switched to jigs. A 3/8 oz. blue/black jig with a sapphire blue craw trailer as well as a 3/8 oz. green pumpkin jig with a green pumpkin Rage Menace trailer. Still nothing. Went down to a 1/4 oz. green pumpkin jig and still nothing. I then tried a black 5” Senko WR and a green pumpkin Zoom Magnum Trick Texas rig with an 1/8 oz. tungsten bullet weight and still drew a blank. I thought maybe today just was going to be a big ol’ skunkfest. Then I took off the worm and rigged a green pumpkin Rage Craw. 
 

First cast. Bass. Second cast. Bass. There was zero doubt they wanted this bait! Didn’t catch the first bass until 10:42 and ended up with seven (lost a nice one). 
 

When I was prepping gear last night, I saw I had 4/0 Gamakatsu EWG and a 1/8 oz. weight rigged on a Daiwa Aird-X 6’ 6” MF rod and a Garcia Black Max with 10 lb. Berkley Big Game. Don’t use it all that often after I upgraded to better rods and reels. Well, truth be told, that’s a fun rig to fish with. Glad I took it. I haven’t had bass thumb in a while! 
 

Chased gar all day, they were biting but missed them all.

Had to catch a bass so I didn’t get skunked 

@TnRiver46: Hey, man, you were fishing from a canoe. That's all that matters. 

 

#canoesruleallotherboatsdrool

 

@BrianMDTX: I knight thee, Sir Perseverance!

 

@OHBuckets: O-H....

 

 

Not the biggest I've caught this year by far, but one of my favorites. Fought harder than the 4 lber last week, and absolutely hammered a Texas rigged silver shad fluke. Love the colors on this dude. And caught him on my old Shimano Bantam Coriolis I've had for about 22 years. Another reel my dad bought me in school for making good grades. With fresh line on and the guide oiled up, that thing throws and reels quite smooth now. 

 

Also, even though I didn't catch anything on it, I was pleased with how my new Lew's American Hero baitcast reel performed. I slapped a buzzbait on it and I've got the spool tension and mag brake set to where I don't have to even use the thumb to kep it from backlashing-- just press the button and cast. Both over head and sidearm it casts well, and covers a nice amount of water, and I'm improving on cast accuracy as well. 

 

Only caught that one bass but, one fish over 2 lbs is plenty enough to satiate me. I treat anything more than that, or anything bigger than that an additional blessing and cherry on top.

14 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

@TnRiver46: Hey, man, you were fishing from a canoe. That's all that matters. 

 

#canoesruleallotherboatsdrool

 

@BrianMDTX: I knight thee, Sir Perseverance!

 

@OHBuckets: O-H....

 

 

I O!!!

I'm pleased to report my first rat fish - on a Baby Bull Rat

 

Caught 3, lost 2, and 2 missed blowups. A lot of fun! Note the little guy with eyes bigger than his tum tums

 

This spotted bass threw a half a bluegill up on me a couple weeks ago and all I've caught since are bluegill or warmouth. I've been cursed or something. I think the devil does it 

I caught 4 today.  3 decent ones, and one 12 incher.  2 Largemouth and 2 Spots.  All are pictured.  I wouldn't have taken a pic of the little one, but it was my first September Bass.   After a hot week water temperature is back up to 86 degrees.   I'm ready for cooler weather.  

 

@thediscochef: I can break the curse. Absolutely free. Trust me.*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*Simply send me a cashier's check for $5,000, of course, for standard and nominal handling and processing, curse-breaking fees.

Thought for sure our every other weekend john boat trip would be cancelled yet again because my brother had to work a double, but he found his 3^rd wind and toughed it out for as long as he could. Within an hour and a half, he must've nodded out about 10 times only to be woken by his own snoring or by me tapping him on the shoulder. In between snoozes he bagged a good one on the Legal Dope Tiny Tum and mine came on a Berkely Grass Pig within minutes afterward. I couldn't row through the slop and topped out weeds by myself any longer while he slept, so we called it a win and split.

 

Nice ones, @PhishLI!

2 hours ago, Woody B said:

After a hot week water temperature is back up to 86 degrees.   I'm ready for cooler weather.  

You and me both brother. That heat wave totally wrecked a hot bite here. You're doing much better than me. Two skunkings on muskie the last couple days, and I could only manage a couple dink bass and a dink saugeye this morning. The forecast is looking better for this week though, and hopefully some rain come Friday. 🤞

Anyone need an Abu Garcia Black Max. Its crappie friendly. 

 

21 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

Chased gar all day, they were biting but missed them all.

How do you catch gar? I’ve got a bunch (probably longnose gar) in the marshes near me but they mostly ignore plastics.

41 minutes ago, Buzzbaiter said:

How do you catch gar? I’ve got a bunch (probably longnose gar) in the marshes near me but they mostly ignore plastics.

 

Use a crankbait slow. Once it's on, cut the line and kiss your crankbait goodbye.  😁