On 4/20/2025 at 5:59 PM, Fried Lemons said:

First good fish of the year coming in at 6lbs. Caught her on a bait someone must have broken off that I found floating around. Their loss was my gain.

 

@Fried Lemons, I gave this one a like just for your shirt!  Nice bass by the way.

I got out for another quick session on the same retention pond. This time it was my new Carbonlite med/hvy spinning rod and a VMC  moon eye jig that caught these 2.

Beautiful day out on the kayak. Water temps 64-67* and visibility was some of the clearest I've seen here ranging from 18-20 ft in the areas I fished.

 

Caught quite a few on wacky senkos and an underspin teamed up with a mayor.

 

 

14 minutes ago, NorcalBassin said:

an underspin teamed up with a mayor

 

Cool!

Finally figured out how to trigger a few decent bass bites today. Picked off a limit of greenies along with a dozen or more crappie this afternoon. Water temps up to 75 degrees here.

 

 

 

 

Good to see some chunks showing up for you @Team9nine - 75° water temps is wild!

 

It warms up and cools down fast this time of year around here huh!?!?  😂😂😂

I paddled a pal around my pond this morning, but before she arrived, I caught six bass. When I launched, there was a heavy frost on my gear, but yesterday was balmy (60 degrees and sunny!), so the water is warming. Soon, the bass will be bonkers. In the meantime, I enjoy the ones I can catch. This one was only 17 inches, but stout:

 

 

This one is eating well:

 

 

This was the biggest:

 

 

All six hit soooo softly. A hit felt like I was suddenly retrieving my lure through soup. All were caught on my underspin with a white and chartreuse Zako. I did have a couple hits on a wacky worm.

 

My walking bait didn't appeal to any bass...yet. However, we're going to surpass sixty degrees on Monday and Tuesday and seventy degrees on Wednesday, so the bass will become more and more active.

@Swamp Girl Those soft hits I like to call mush or mushy. My brain doesn't even recognize them as hits but I know something is wrong. 

7 hours ago, Pat Brown said:

Good to see some chunks showing up for you @Team9nine - 75° water temps is wild!

 

It warms up and cools down fast this time of year around here huh!?!?  😂😂😂

I saw 75 on the Holston river last night also. It all depends on dam discharges here, that same stretch of Holston will be in the mid 50s (water temp) in August when it’s super hot outside, makes a crazy fog that time of year 

2 hours ago, Dwight Hottle said:

Those soft hits I like to call mush or mushy. My brain doesn't even recognize them as hits but I know something is wrong. 

 

"Mushy" is the perfect word. I imagine a beginning angler would miss the mushy hits. I think they swallow the lure and swim at the exact speed of my retrieve. 

Got a few in before a dude in a bass cat rolled over me. I have stuff to do and they quit biting so oh well

Lake Menderchuck in the rain this afternoon.

First Grown fish of the year.

A-Jay

5 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

Lake Menderchuck in the rain this afternoon.

First Grown fish of the year.

A-Jay

I fished a big bass bog this morning, but couldn't crack the code, neither for a big bass nor quantity. I caught six bass, but if you met me at the landing and asked, "So, where are they this morning," I'd honestly shrug and reply, "I don' know."

 

I caught my first bass on a wacky worm (Thanks, Alex.). I didn't photograph it.

 

I caught my second bass on a T-rigged, green pumpkin worm (Thanks, Pat.). Here's that bass, a smaller one, and you can see the worm. Both of the worm bass (wacky and T-rigged) were caught in the middle:

 

 

Then I stopped to take this crazy beautiful pic:

 

 

Then I caught my biggest bass of the morning on a Whopper Plopper, my first 2025 bass on the surface:

 

 

I'd been casting my best spring/early summer lure, which is an underspin with a Zako, but hadn't caught a fish nor provoked a bite. That changed with this thick bass caught near the shore:

 

 

Then I caught this smaller one in the middle with my underspin:

 

 

I had yet to catch a bass trolling. I usually catch one or two as I paddle from spot to spot, but I finally caught one on the paddle back to the landing. It was only 17.5 inches long, but well-built:

 

 

I think I'm getting real close to catching lots more bass. The water just needs to be a few notches warmer, but for now, I'm enjoying the hunt, even though they puzzle me. FWIW, I caught six bass on six hits. I didn't miss one, which is rare for me.

Great job Katie, and you're right on track......I wouldn't change anything.   Those big fish will come, and I suspect they're still in that deeper water.  

5 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Those big fish will come, and I suspect they're still in that deeper water.  

 

I hope you're right, that the big fish will come. I'm spending about half my fishing time plumbing the deep water. Thanks for the encouraging words!

@Swamp Girl It sounds like you’re figuring them out pretty well to me😉

4 hours ago, Swamp Girl said:

I'm spending about half my fishing time plumbing the deep water

If you're on a warming trend, shallow wood with deeper water nearby is your friend, especially if it's sunny.

Missed some dandies this week due to user error and general lack of skill fishing 😂😂😂😂

 

Can't complain - Lady Luck™ has been very good to me lately and as such I will count my blessings and be super grateful to have caught my first 3 wacky bass in 4 years!  Been too long - great to be backy on the wacky.

 

😂😎🥴☝🏼🎣

 

 

Jake got a couple nice lil guys on the minnow!

 

 

And some pretty gills 

 

 

It's Friday and we are gonna hit the ponds when he gets home!

 

Tight lines to all this weekend!

19 minutes ago, T-Billy said:

If you're on a warming trend, shallow wood with deeper water nearby is your friend, especially if it's sunny.

The most consistent, predictable fishing I do is the shallow timber bite when the water is cold but it’s sunny. It’s the closest thing in fishing I’ve found to a sure bet. High 40s water, early spring, sun, shallow timber. They’ll be there. 

Got out ahead of another round of bad weather today to do a little backwoods bassin’ in the AEP.  Low 70s and overcast with winds out of the SSW at 10MPH.  

 

I decided to target a couple ponds that I had located on Google Earth and to see if it was possible to get in there.  These ponds are ultra clear like most of the others in the wildlife area.  
 

I’ve struggled to catch decent fish out there possibly because of the combination of the clear water and fishing pressure.  I figured I could mitigate the latter by going with lighter line techniques and the former by getting further off the beaten path.  
 

I was able to get to the first pond after a  one mile hike.  The descent to the bank was steep enough to force me to shuffle slide my way down. Once I was there I had easy access to about half of the bank.  

I spotted numerous small and medium sized bass cruising shallow as well as one larger fish that appeared to be on a bed.  I left him alone and I started out fishing right there having resolved to not move until I got a bite.  
 

In about 45 minutes I tried a Mayor in both 3” and 4” varieties, a Fluke, wacky rigged Senko with nothing to show for it.  I didn’t want to use the Ned rig because the bottom of the pond was covered with bright green grass like a shag carpet that constantly snagged the Neds.  But I was running out of options so I tied one on and tried my best to target the edges of the weedless hard bottom spots.  Doing this I caught a dink and then another and finally what I believe to be the largest LMB I’ve yet to catch with the technique.

I rigged my other rod a M/F Tatula XT with a 3.5” stupid tube and got a hit.  My bait choice confirmed I began to work my way down the bank.

 

I came to a section of cattails who deeper water in front of it.  I thought it looked bassy but I was worried about my 10# f/c leader holder up against the tough stalks of the vegetation.  

Figured what the heck and I gave it a try.  My first cast along the edge of those cattails I watched a dark shape dart out from below them towards my tube.  I didn’t feel anything at first but saw my line take off so I set the hook.  The fish took off back towards the safety of the cattails while I tried desperately to keep that from happening with the medium stick.

 

I did manage to land it and another one which mercifully took off for deeper water instead of trying to bury itself in the cattails.

 

 

After that I walked about another mile in to another larger pond.  This one was more of the same with the smaller bass active shallow with a handful of larger fish appeared to be on beds.  I caught another couple dinks here including the last one pictured that looked like it was beaten up from spawning already.  By that time I was running short on time I didn’t get to fish it as thoroughly as I would have liked.  

On the bright side I think I could definitely lunch my canoe at the second pond.  I’ll probably need to invest in a cart to do so as round trip it was a little less than 4 miles.  Also I need to look at purchasing some lighter weight Ned heads that won’t bury themselves as deeply in the green weeds that cover the bottom in most of the ponds around here.  

 

Edited April 25, 20251 yr by bp_fowler
Deleted duplicate pictures

@bp_fowler: I find it helpful when you share photos of where you're fishing and delineate why you choose the baits you fished. As I shared once, I've fished AEP ponds (as well as Burr Oak). Knowing the terrain, if you buy some wheels for your canoe, I suggest a cart with big wheels, like bicycle wheels. Clear water is tough. In a similar situation, I tossed a nightcrawler hooked once through the head on 4 lb. test and those clear water bass raced to eat it. 

 

2 hours ago, Jar11591 said:

High 40s water, early spring, sun, shallow timber. They’ll be there. 

 

I'm going to apply this. So far, I can't find many bass. Thanks for the suggestion, Jar and Pat.

These were a joint effort. I hooked them, he reeled them. I had been down to a friend's getting firewood before bible study wednesday so I didn't have my rods and bag with me. I had this 1 rod still as I'd forgotten to take it out, and the spit'n image that was tied on is the only lure I had.

 

 

 

These were today, the boy makes a pretty good cameraman.

 

 

This one was probably 2 1/4 lbs, didn't weigh him though. Got the first and this one on a 2"curly tail power grub. I don't fish them much, but I've resolved to do so more since they are pretty overlooked by most anglers.

23 minutes ago, Bazoo said:

Got the first and this one on a 2"curly tail power grub. I don't fish them much, but I've resolved to do so more since they are pretty overlooked by most anglers.

The curly tail grub is definitely an underrated bait.

My son caught a 4 pound , 20 inch fish out back on a watermelon red super fluke. He was using 4 pound mono, which impressed me a little !