17 minutes ago, softwateronly said:

 

Thanks!  Getting a lucky weather break, ice out has been followed by a week of sun and 60's followed by 3.5 weeks of 40's.  I'm pretty sure the water is stuck between 43-46, keeps the alewives and gizzards close to the marinas and hungry smallies taking advantage.  It'll fall apart soon, just getting what I can.

 

scott

 

Talented and humble.

1 minute ago, Swamp Girl said:

 

Talented and humble.

 

Humble?  I claim to have a magic rock....

 

scott

2 minutes ago, softwateronly said:

 

Humble?  I claim to have a magic rock....

 

scott

 

Bad news. I'm in Chicago right now. You gave me the rock's coordinates, so I hired a crane to lift your rock onto a flatbed. I'm taking it back to Maine!

 

@softwateronly it’s all about timing when fishing the Great Lakes region. And you’re taking advantage of it. Keep up the good work. 🤙

21 minutes ago, Dwight Hottle said:

@softwateronly it’s all about timing when fishing the Great Lakes region. And you’re taking advantage of it. Keep up the good work. 🤙

You are certainly correct, maybe even moreso when shorebound.  

 

scott

55 minutes ago, softwateronly said:

Although I’m not fishing the Great Lakes and when I did it was for perch off of Navy Pier but I get a kick out of watching the guys fish the warm water discharges up by the power plant in Oak Creek Wisconsin, I’ve taken more than a few lunch breaks living vicariously through the boaters catching salmon.

Oh boy, today was a day.  Temperatures are still cool with overcast skies.  I returned to the ponds I fished earlier this week.  This time better equipped to fish the stumps, laydowns, and standing timber.  
 

Still too cold for reaction baits so I only brought my baitcaster and a fanny pack with some jigs, terminal tackle a bad of 5” Dingers and a pack of trailers.  

 

I worked my way down the south bank of the first pond casting and pitching the jig in and around the wood cover.  
 

Nada, nothing. 
 

The water is super clear here and I didn’t see any fish shallow, bass or otherwise.

 

At that point I figured I was in for a long day.  
 

Continued to the beaver pond that feeds the first one.  Fished the first 2/3 of that with not even a nibble.  Made it to the upper end where most of the standing timber was at and finally got a follow.  I slowed down my cadence on the retrieve.  And I mean S-L-O-W.  The smallish fish pecked at my jig trailer but refused to eat it.  I missed one hookset and then another.  

By this point I noticed several other fish had gathered in the shallows near me.  So I gave up on the follower and I presented my jig to them one by one only for them to refuse it and even run off if I hopped it too aggressively.  
 

I guess that it was the rattles on the jigs that were turning the fish off.  Probably already gunshy be cause of the cold clear water as well.  
 

I switched the Texas rigged Dinger and resumed working my way back down the bank the way I had come.  
 

Right out the gate the T-rig got me a dink and saved me from the skunk.

With that weight lifted I proceeded to a part of the bank that is a shallow rocky flat with a drop off close enough for me to cast to. By this time a lot more fish were active in the shallows but they were all smaller fish so I focused on working my bait up that ledge. 

I had no less than four separate fish follow my bait from deeper water up the ledge.  They were bigger smarter bass and they examined my worm from a distance before slowly moving in picking it up softly and swimming away casually.
 

I was stunned.  Mostly because if I hadn’t seen them do it I probably wouldn’t even had known they had the bait.  Each time I swung for the fences and each time I ripped the bait right out of their mouths with nothing to show for it.  

 

Being able to see the bass take my bait was making me trigger happy and I was missing hooksets according.  
 

Finally I took a deep breath casted back out there and reminded myself to wait an extra second before slamming the hook home.  
 

This time a group of three bass followed my bait up over the ledge. Two of them were in the 4-6lb range easily.  I think I held my breath and I could hear my heartbeat thudding in my ears as I repeated under my to myself “please let the big one take it…please let the big one take it”. 
 

The runt shot in and gobbled my worm.  I counted one-Mississippi reeled down and set the hook.  After I brief fight I landed this fish.  Decent, but nowhere near as big as the other two.  

I’d like to end it there on a high note but of course I tried in vain to catch the bigger bass I had just seen but in the commotion of fighting the fish I had caught they must have spooked and vacated the premises.  I fished my way back to the first pond and had a couple bites but once again no fish.  
 

Lessons learned:  Clear & cold water = fish slow, less sound, less action, Last but not least wait an extra beat before setting the hook if you think they doing a soft take.

 

 

 

Edited April 11, 20251 yr by bp_fowler
Oh wait I’m supposed to proofread before I post it.

Went to Bill Williams river today to get a couple on a new reel. Miles of tullies and lay downs to fish. 

I caught a few Littles. But an experience that will haunt me for a while. The heaviest fish I've hooked all year lodged a barb in a log and I couldn't get it loose. Snap. I'm not sure what it was - i was burning a red eye shad and had that distinct feeling. The way it pulled drag makes me think flathead or gar. If that was a bass, it was easily a DD. Ugh.

Had a pretty crazy week!  

 

Caught some big ones and some small ones and some not bass and I brought an abandoned ultralight rig back from the dead and caught my first fish shaking a crappie jig at a small pond near where my son's soccer team practices and that was incredibly fun!

 

Looking forward to the weekend fishing!

 

At it again this morning in the main church pond. Got a 18 inch fish first, then a 22 inch , 5 pound 4 oz tank.

 

Beaaaaast @N Florida Mike - that's one of the best I seen you pull out of the church pond!

@N Florida Mike: Golly, Mike, you're yet another in the Spring 2025 Big Bass Club! What a spring it's been for most of the Big Resource gang. As I recall, it started with @AlabamaSpothunter with his seven, eight, and nine-pounders. Every time @softwateronly steps on his magic rock, he catches a big bin of footballs. @Pat Brown has also caught many giants and @Bluebasser86 goes to Texas, launches his little boat, and proceeds to catch huge bass...just like that. Yeah, his Kansas bass-catching savvy works down south too. Rockhopper caught a DD and then followed that up with an 8-11. @Dwight Hottle seems to catch a giant every three days. @Smirak boated a beauty. @Team9nine is a bass-catching machine. @bp_fowler has launched and is catching more bass than ever. @Bazoo is putting his boy on fish and @IcatchDinks somehow managed to go fishing, despite being a busy papa. @TnRiver46 is catching his usual menagerie and @Lottabass landed some beauties. @king fisher has caught some Mexico mega-bass and Jake, @Pat Brown's boy, is enjoying a spring to make the birds sing. @Pumpkin Lizard is scoring with...wait for it...a pumpkin lizard and the Texas Viking hoisted this hefty:

 

 

 

So, @Fishlegs said, "What about me?"

 

 

So, @flatcreek got in the What-about-me game too:

 

 

@928JLH keeps landing beauties. My wrist aches from seeing all these bass. 

 

 

 

 

If you're wondering why I haven't contributed a single 2025 bass to the board, it's snowing here...again...and again. However, I did drag my new canoe down to my pond yesterday evening. She's sitting on my dock, ready to launch, which I hope to do on Monday, but to a big bass bog. Fingers crossed it's not too cold for the bass to bite!

 

 

Sweet job catching em, y’all 

We may be on the board before you, but after about three trips you’ll put more bass in your canoe that most of us will catch all year.

 

Hang in there @Swamp Girl…your day is coming soon, and we’re all looking forward to that day.

 

 

8 hours ago, Fishlegs said:

We may be on the board before you, but after about three trips you’ll put more bass in your canoe that most of us will catch all year.

 

Hang in there @Swamp Girl…your day is coming soon, and we’re all looking forward to that day.

 

 

 

Thanks for the encouraging words. I might launch tomorrow. It's going to reach 51 degrees, which seems warm enough to catch bass, but the preceding 30 hours will be in the thirties and I'm worried that whereas the air will seem warm enough to bass to bite, the water won't be. 

Im finally on the board for 2025, and a day after an inch or two of snow. April’s weird, man. 
 

It was cold, breezy, and overcast, and I was able to get out for about 2 hours. Surface temp was 45°-47°, air temps were 35°, and I was targeting 8-10' of water. After a couple sporadic short-strikes, one finally got stuck by the spinnerbait. 

 

Hucked the Bama rig and slow twitched a jerk bait but no takers. Pitching a jig into timber also proved ineffective, but the timber was too shallow for the 45° water so I wasn’t expecting much.
 

No spring tanks, but man it feels good to have some bass slime on the boat and some skin off my thumb. 
 

Let's goooooooo @Jar11591!

 

 

8 hours ago, Swamp Girl said:

 

Thanks for the encouraging words. I might launch tomorrow. It's going to reach 51 degrees, which seems warm enough to catch bass, but the preceding 30 hours will be in the thirties and I'm worried that whereas the air will seem warm enough to bass to bite, the water won't be. 

I can’t wait for this thread will be filled with pics of your Maine Linebacker bass.

38 minutes ago, bp_fowler said:

I can’t wait for this thread will be filled with pics of your Maine Linebacker bass.

 

I am going to launch tomorrow, but I'm not going to fish the big bass bog. I hurt my neck launching my Old Town NEXT on Friday. It weighs more than twice my Kevlar canoe. So, I'm going to fish my pond since the NEXT is already in the water. I'll be happy to catch a couple. It's still pretty cool up here.

I got out for about 5hrs after church today. Twas a tough post frontal bite. Muskie were completely unresponsive, so I spent the last couple hours flippin trees. Caught three and missed a couple. Never felt a single bite, they'd just be there when I picked up. This little chunk was the best of the three. 

 

 

Tim, I remember some cold water bass like that last spring. I'd never feel a hit. The rod simply loaded a wee bit.

Fingers crossed our beloved @Swamp Girl will have a fishing report for us tomorrow......it's officially fishing season once Katie is back on the water 😎   

 

I caught a new PB 4lb11oz, but did not have the phone with me for a photograph. Honorable mention though!

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

A couple days later I got this guy on worms.

Then I caught 3 bass on artificial, with again, no phone. The wife was with me so I left the phone with her in the car.

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

The boy got this one today, and 1 other.

 

I walked around a while and I got this nice 3lb9oz on a fat albert grub.

 

 

The boy was handy to take a picture of me with this beauty.

 

 

I pulled him out of this tree.

 

Then I went to another place and got a crappie on a new to me color trap.

 

Overall it was agreat day!

New PB with no pics!?!?  Dang @Bazoo that's gotta hurt!  Congratulations on all the good fishing!

 

Yeah, come on Katy, you need to catch a bass so all these fish down here realize it's spring.

 

Ground hog - shmound hog.  We know it's spring when a Katy catches her first bass!