14 hours ago, Pumpkin Lizard said:

The Pumpkin Zoom Lizard is the king of spring.

 

 

 

Name checks out!

51 minutes ago, MIbassyaker said:

 

Name checks out!

 

I'm not a big Deion Sanders fan but I got a big kick out of him naming the Pumpkinseed Lizard his go to bait.

18 hours ago, thediscochef said:

I caught this fish

How’d ya do that ? With your teeth/claws similar to the methodology of a grizzly bear ? 

The final installment of The Adventures of Blue goes to Lake Fork is tournament day. Launch was 7am, lines in at 7:30, lines out at 6:30pm. 11 long hours on the water. I wasn’t sure where to start but settled on a dock that I’d found with several crappie beds on it that I’d caught a couple out of in practice. I spent a lot of cast slowly picking the cover apart with a very light T rig, which the light weight seemed to be key for me to get bites. I finally got a fish to go, but it was only a small 14.50” fish. 15 minutes later I was working a weightless Yamatanuki through the brush when another fish picked it up. Keeper number 2 was another dink, only 13.75”. I picked the cover apart for a while and had one really thump the Tanuki once, but no more fish. I slid over to the next dock and pitched the T rig into a small hole and felt pressure. The fish sliced under the dock after the hookset and my line pinged under the edge of the dock. At the end of the dock there was an old piece of rope I didn’t see hanging in the water, the fish got wrapped and tangled in the rope and was threatening to rip free. I stabbed with the net and got her. Keeper number 3 was a 21.75” fish.

I had a long dry spell with just a couple dinks on a shakyhead out of some trees on a point. I worked into the point I caught my 8.23 and was pitching into a gap in the grass under the bushes when I had another pressure bite. I slammed the rod back and saw a big flash, and then she was gone. I hadn’t lost a big fish all week until then. I didn’t use braid because the light weight and wind wasn’t a good combination but it bit me on that fish. It was almost 1pm when I finally got another bite, keeper number 4 was another 13” fish on the T rig. Then at 2pm I caught 2 keepers on back to back cast on the shakyhead, a 12.25” fish, then I immediately culled it with a 13.50” fish. I had 4 hours left to fish and only about 76”. I fished a couple more areas before I decided to work back through where I had caught my big fish in practice. The first pocket produced nothing. The next one was the one with the bushes that I’d lost the big one earlier and caught my 8.23 in practice. I was picking apart some bushes with the T rig and pretty zoned out when I dropped my bait and when I lifted, I saw a big white flash and my line started moving for deeper water. The fish when nuts on the hookset, thrashing all over the surface and was quickly in the net. The fish was a better boat fish than a kayak fish, 20.75” and a hair over 7 pounds.

It was just after 5 and the wind laid down, I felt like maybe I could make a late move. I was fishing a senko through a tree where I missed one earlier in the day when I caught a small fish. When I hooked that fish, it was stuck for just a second, and I never checked my line. Right there was the trees I caught my 8.23 off of, and one of my first cast to them got picked up. The fish swam to open water so I let it swim away before I set the hook. The fish was heavy, and the. I saw that it was maybe my biggest of the day. I had it open water, it was mine, just wear her down. She fought and surged and dove under the kayak, and broke my line. I was completely defeated at that moment. That fish should have been mine and I made a careless mistake and it cost me. I never got another bite and ended with 84.25”, good enough for 60th out of 145 anglers.

 

4 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

How’d ya do that ? With your teeth/claws similar to the methodology of a grizzly bear ? 

I told it a funny joke to gain its trust and then it calmly allowed me to take a selfie

 

Did the same thing for this 4-3 about an hour ago

@thediscochef: YESSSSS!!!!!

 

@Bluebasser86: Just when I'm certain that Kansas has the fattest bass, Clayton goes and catches an even fatter bass in Texas, teaching me that it's not about the state, it's about the angler. 

Some of the craziest variable winds I’ve ever fished in today, combined with the weird haziness created by the drifting smoke of the areas wildfires. But I finally found a group of biters. They weren’t big - nothing over two pounds - but I caught nearly 2 dozen bass along with a dozen scattered crappie, so I’m not going to complain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had about 15 minutes to fish before a family dinner, so I took advantage of it. The water was nasty from a recent round of storms so I reached for the brightest lure I had in my box. This little guy really wanted to taste a chartreuse jerkbait. He went for it twice.

 

I was reeling my lure in when I saw something swipe at the lure right beside the dock. He missed, but went after it quite aggressively so I had to try again. I cast out far enough to get it under the water about where the swipe happened, let it sit for a couple of seconds, and...BAM! A feisty largemouth on a jerkbait followed by a nice dinner with another set of largemou...umm, I mean family members. 🤣 It was a very nice evening.

 

Two best of the five I stuck in about two hours. Missed just as many. That larger girl was foul hooked on the side of the face and I had to pull her through a bunch of invasive milfoil

The big girls are still MIA, but caught 10 more up shallow this afternoon to a bit under 3 pounds. Water low 60s. 
 

 

Made the best of a half hour before I hit the road for the evening. When roberts turns on, it turns ON. Every fish I've caught this week was on a choppo. It never gets old.

She’s spawned out

@flatcreek: Yeah, she's skinny, but she has a big head and long body. Got a guess on her weight?

@Swamp Girl a high 5 or right at 6. Put up a hard fight and jumped twice.

7 hours ago, flatcreek said:

@Swamp Girl a high 5 or right at 6. Put up a hard fight and jumped twice.

 

Some of my hardest-fighting bass ever have been skinny fish.

All these pictures make me want to fish so d**n bad.. My boys are itching to get out...  Even my youngest daughter is ready to go and she isn't that into fishing like us yet lol

Horrible winter here in western ny and its still not breaking..

Got one on a horny toad at one of our church ponds. 

Got this one and 3 others in 30 minutes out back. Caught them all on the june bug speed worm. 
Wind was blowing 20-25 right into my property…

Go out and fish again, Mike. The bass in your photo directly above is bigger than the bass above it. At this rate, your next bass will be even bigger and the bass after that will be even....

Me and the boy fished with some hand dug worms the other day.

 

He only caught one, but I was able to coax 4. They are pretty good at cleaning a hook. This one was the prettiest of the bunch. I think these are green sunfish. Anyone know for sure?

 

 

 

 

----------------------

Had about 30 minutes today and was able to get a willing participant. Not the greatest size, but sure beats staying home! 

@Bazoo, those are standard bluegill, green sunfish with have blue vermiculation between its eye and mouth. 
 

I meant to target stripers today and I did some, but I couldn’t help myself and caught a bunch of other stuff

 

1 Kentucky spotted bass, 3-4 smallies, lots of white bass, 6 nice crappie, a drum, and a channel catfish. Maybe a couple dozen fish with 6 species, a fun variety pack. I saw some white bass actively spawning, pods of 4-6 climbing all over each other in shallow shoals and splashing water everywhere. Water temp 60-63. 
 

 

2 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

@Bazoo, those are standard bluegill, green sunfish with have blue vermiculation between its eye and mouth. 
 

I meant to target stripers today and I did some, but I couldn’t help myself and caught a bunch of other stuff

 

1 Kentucky spotted bass, 3-4 smallies, lots of white bass, 6 nice crappie, a drum, and a channel catfish. Maybe a couple dozen fish with 6 species, a fun variety pack. I saw some white bass actively spawning, pods of 4-6 climbing all over each other in shallow shoals and splashing water everywhere. Water temp 60-63. 
 

 

Thanks.

 

That's a cute little catfish.

2 days of warm, windy weather raised the surface temp from 52 to 59 yesterday.  Had 'em chompin'!!!

@Lottabass: Holy Greenies, Al, those are big bass!!!