Wednesday was my mentee’s 1st work birthday - he’s an engineer fresh outta school and getting the hang of the job very well.  So I said we should celebrate and go fishing (he’s an avid hunter and fisherman).  He liked the option of topwater smallies, so I hoped for a repeat on that.  We launched into thick fog at sunrise and ran the same plan as Wes and I did on Sunday.  It held up well and we caught probably 20 smallies and a handful of pike.  Average size was down a bit, I caught a 3.75# and a 3.92# near the end but most were 1.5-2.5#.  No complaints though, it was a good couple hours.  Our topwater bite died not long after the fog finally cleared, so we went shallow for the last 45 minutes and blanked on trying to find any largemouth.

Yesterday I fished the strip pit again. Unfortunately I only caught two smallish fish.  So I decided to check out some of the other strip pit ponds in the area, one was tinged yellowish orange and the other was clear but both were devoid of any signs of life.  
 

Today I went a little further into the woods to check out another pond that I saw on google earth.  Given the length of the hike and the terrain I only brought my ML spinning rod and a fanny pack with some spare ned heads, TRDs, scale, leader material, and hemostats.  
 

Long story short, I caught 13 most of which were dinks but also some decent ones pictured below.

 

Edited October 4, 20241 yr by bp_fowler
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Got the canoe out after work, fish were cooperating for a short session! All LM which is rare, had to fish a tributary as the main river is insanely fast from floods. Got 5 or 6 with two decent ones . I tried to feed them a frog but they all ate a black worm 
 

First trip out since the hurricane came through. Things are slowly returning to normal around here, including the reopening of a couple of the lakes. Water (and lake) was in better shape than I was expecting given the local flooding and damage. Managed 3 keeper bass and about 2 dozen crappie. Water still high 70s and stained, but not muddy.

 

 

 

Some fun action last night at a little pond.

 

 

Buzzbait and frog and Pop n fly got it done.  Sunday's boat trip might be an all topwater day - pretty excited 😍🐸🎣

Good fishing, guys!

I’m semi-upset. I lost my A-Jay Special. I caught my first two bass on it, cut off and retied the hook on, and put the green pumpkin Rage Craw back on. Two casts later it got hit hard, I set the hook and my freshly-tied knot broke. I can make more but didn’t have the materials on the boat. So I tried a jig-and-craw with a Rage Menace (one bite-no bass) and a squarebill (no bites). So I put a 1/4 oz. bullet weight and a 3/0 EWG on in place of the lost rig and threaded on a green pumpkin Rage Menace. In short order I caught two decent bass, and then it got hammered. I knew it was a big ol’ gal right from the hookset. She pulled some drag and dove deep (well, as deep as an 8’ pond gets). My scale stopped working but she was 20”. 
 

My last bass was rather unconventional.  I had cast the Texas rig near a blowdown but a big gust of wind came up and drove me towards shore. Leaving the bait as-is, I reversed the TM to get back to open water, and inadvertently “trolled” the TR and it hooked a bass. So, 3.5 hours (late start), boated 7, lost two and had a great morning. No dinks, but two were 1 to 1.5 lbs (no pics). 
 

Brian scores!

 

@Rocky998: Your bass has the build and color of a much bigger bass. 

 

@The Baron: Your last bass is beautiful. Love the coloration. 

 

@Pat Brown: Jake is on a roll.

1 hour ago, Swamp Girl said:

Brian scores!

 

@Rocky998: Your bass has the build and color of a much bigger bass. 

Oh really? That's pretty cool to know!!

This has been my first year of targeting fish species. I've always been intrigued by bass fishing so I've learned so many things with where bass go during different parts of the year and how to "match the hatch" as well as TONS of other stuff which has proven to be very effective.

I have yet to really dive into the identifying of certain features on bass... For now I've just been looking at the size of the bass I catch loll.

Might have to do some more research on this topic!

It was absolutely beautiful here today - high in the mid 60’s, sunny and a cooling north breeze.  Water temps were 64.5-66.   Not a lot of bites on the buzzbait, but good quality and enough for me to not put it down all afternoon.  The last was a 4.2# that absolutely train wrecked it. 😁  

35 minutes ago, The Baron said:

It was absolutely beautiful here today - high in the mid 60’s, sunny and a cooling north breeze.  Water temps were 64.5-66.   Not a lot of bites on the buzzbait, but good quality and enough for me to not put it down all afternoon.  The last was a 4.2# that absolutely train wrecked it. 😁  

 

 

Those are some real nice looking bass and if they come on a buzzbait they're even nicerer.  It's science.  😎🫡🎣

wacky senko chunk from the bank today. I was hoping to striper fish but the weather isn't cooperating.

@The Baron: I remember when you were struggling. Happy days are here again!

I'm in Florida right now, but there is no time nor equipment to fish. There is even a big pond with zero no fishing signs right outside my window. Sigh.

guessing this was a spotted bass but not sure ? 

3 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

guessing this was a spotted bass but not sure ? 

I’d say smallmouth, but couldn’t completely rule out a hybrid, either. Lots of smallie characteristics in that fish 

The yellow belly indicates perch.

 

The green indicates lmb.

 

The striping indicates smb.

 

So, it's a perchy slmb

16 minutes ago, Swamp Girl said:

The yellow belly indicates perch.

So, it's a perchy slmb

Except yellow perch and bass can't interbreed even with 'help'...too much genetic difference.

Had a great hour of strikes this morning before the bite died altogether, I had probably 20 bites that caught 5 barbs and landed one superdink. They just couldn't make contact with the bait itself, always an inch or two to the side. Frustrating, but better than no bites at all. Try again tomorrow 

Yesterday was hot, 90° weather, Southwest winds were blowing hard. This morning it was 53° with a northwest wind 5 to 10 mph.

 

I was working a bluegill colored spinnerbait in 2 to 4 ft of water near stumps and lay downs. Caught a 4 lb bass, and then this 5 lb 3 oz Largemouth bass. This is the largest bass I've ever caught in Nebraska.

 

Put 14 bass in the boat in a little over 3 hours. Darn good day!

@DaubsNU1   Congrats brother, that's a magnificent fish!    I knew you were going to catch a 5lb class fish on that lake, and I'm excited about seeing the future 6lb class fish you catch from it 🙂

 

 

I love seeing my fishing brothers catching big northern bass! Alas, Alex will soon be catching bass that could bully our bass.

5 hours ago, Team9nine said:

I’d say smallmouth, but couldn’t completely rule out a hybrid, either. Lots of smallie characteristics in that fish 

I thought meanmouth when I caught it , then when I posted the pic I could see some lateral line 

Just a few creek bass from yesterday morning. I only took one rod and one 3500 box and it worked out just fine. Good thing I took a spool of 10lb fluorocarbon line because I backlashed on my third cast after getting bit twice in a row.

 

After catching a couple of 1.5, 2 lb fish on these little Keitech jigs with straight fluoro... This setup is definitely going back to braid to a leader. I'll just adapt my cadence and action with jerkbaits, it's fine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Caught five out last Thursday at a usual spot of mine.

 

 

These next two came from a trip to Virginia this weekend.  I met up with a buddy of mine from N. Carolina and spent all day Saturday on the water.  Rough time fishing but the weather made up for it.

 

 

All came on some denomination of spinnerbait except for the last, he came on a dropshot.