@Pat Brown: I would have loved the culling too. That was a busy bank! Cool that you're creating a big bass pond with your buddy.

 

"OUCH!" on your thumb.

 

Jake's expression is so cute on his last bass!

 

I'm fishing this evening for a couple hours at my pond and will fish my pal's pond Thursday and Friday mornings when it'll be cloudy and less windy. Best of all, it's warming all week, so the water's been warming too. I won't be surprised if Thursday and Friday are my best mornings for all of 2025. I'm hoping for quantity plus quality, a busy boat with a couple four-pounders!

Being a single parent and having a busy weekend schedule this spring my trips have been 2-3 hours max. On Saturday all I had time for was an hour before a soccer game and an hour after dinner but I limited both times on two different ponds, capped off with nice one of everyone's favorite jerkbait.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Overall the spring has been good. We need rain bad.  Took my oldest out who is obsessed with golf and can barely cast a spinning rod. I tied on The Mayor and told him to throw it out there and something would happen. Didn't take long. The rest are just rando pictures. Hoping to get some full day trips in some day and to take the Kayak out.

 

 

 

 

That's some good fishing, @Pumpkin Lizard. Did your son catch a white bass? I ask because it's so big. Or is it a wiper?

22 minutes ago, Swamp Girl said:

That's some good fishing, @Pumpkin Lizard. Did your son catch a white bass? I ask because it's so big. Or is it a wiper?

 

Wiper. He lost one that looked twice that size. I'm learning more about them. They come in surprising close, thinking about throwing some flies I use for stripers at them.

Got to fish for a little while after work a couple of days last week. In about 2 and a half hours I managed 3 largemouth, 3 smallmouth, and a catfish that wrecked my favorite spinnerbait. My little one got one too so that was fun.

 

 

Fished for a few hours this morning. Got on the water a little later than I would have liked. Late working last night made that 3:30am alarm get snoozed. Fishing was a grind. A few bass, lots of pickerel. Cold, calm dawn gave way to a warm, breezy morning. Was filming my fishing but I forgot my new SD card, so I could only film for an hour. Was able to capture a few topwater catches anyway. 

 

 

Air temp was 32 at launch, water temps ranged from 53-57. Skitterwalk and wacky rigs today. 

Got out there this morning. I have a chain of 4 good sized ponds about 3 minutes from my house. And they are finally starting to grass and algae in. So I have some cover and such to try and fish like im used to. Caffeine shad in baby bass had been killing it there. Generally pound to pound and a half fish.
 

the vegetation is getting thick enough I’m deciding to go back to full braid though. I just don’t trust flouro as thick as it’s getting.
 

Big thanks for @Pat Brown for the tutelage and help! His advice yielded my first frog catch that as more than 15 feet from the bank. He swung at it and when I hooked up to him out past the cover at the edge it was such a. Good feeling!!!!  
 

Today yielded  success in the fact that I was able to pick spots that had filamentous algae and then grass and pick that cover apart where the two met. Or dead brown grass and new growth. Every time I worked a spot that had them touching I generally found fish in the dislike vegetation!!! Have some speed worms from zoom to try out tomm morning before work!!!!

Frogging is a good thing to put time into - well done!  🐸🐸🐸

I got out both days this weekend. Saturday, my buddy and I took our kayaks to a small lake and wore out some skinny, post spawners. I struggled a bit at the beginning, only being able to get bit on a wacky rig for the most part. Once I switched my T-rig to a stick worm instead of a creature bait, it was on. 

I think this is the longest bass I've caught in Kansas this year, she literally shook the whole tree when she ate my worm.

My wife wanted to go to the lake for Mother's day. Weather was perfect for being at the lake and thankfully, I guess not many other moms wanted to be at the lake. We had a slight snake mishap right at the ramp when one wanted to be a lot more friendly than my wife is comfortable with, but after that we were right into it. 

What little breeze there was, was blowing into the point right by the ramp. I noticed some splashes and after trolling over, I realized it was a shad spawn. Didn't take long before we were catching the fish that were capitalizing on them. Smallmouth and walleye were both hanging around them. Lake got a couple nicer smallmouth out of the bunch.

 

Then Finn got one of his own.

The wind really died from there, not good when you're chasing smallmouth. We bounced around and caught some small ones here and there, as well as a few walleye and crappie, but not what we were looking for. A little breeze started blowing but I was having a hard time really determining the direction. Never thought I would use a fishing app, but it sure is nice to be able to pull this Deep Dive app and be able to really visualize how the wind is hitting different parts of the lake.

 

Using that information, I knew where I needed to go. Sure enough, those banks that the gentle breeze was breaking up the surface were the ticket. Lake picked up a nice largemouth.

Mrs. Blue got her big fish of the day, also a largemouth.

I picked up a tube and just really started working the smallmouth over. They were eating it so fast that I having a hard time keeping them from swallowing it. I caught several solid fish, these were a couple of the biggest.

 

One of the last fish of the day put me over 600 bass on the year, and over 8,000 inches of bass caught on the year. I don't know that I'll make it to 2025 bass, but I'm trying. 

 

2 hours ago, Jar11591 said:

 

Air temp was 32 at launch

 

Brrrrr! But I love your video. 

 

13 minutes ago, Bluebasser86 said:

skinny, post spawners

 

What you call "skinny, post-spawners," the rest of the world calls "nice, fat bass."

 

15 minutes ago, Bluebasser86 said:

I think this is the longest bass I've caught in Kansas this year, she literally shook the whole tree when she ate my worm.

 

Cool. She's a beauty.

 

15 minutes ago, Bluebasser86 said:

 

One of the last fish of the day put me over 600 bass on the year

 

Whoa! I am so far behind you. If I had the badge, I'd pull you over for speeding.

 

17 minutes ago, Bluebasser86 said:

I don't know that I'll make it to 2025 bass, but I'm trying. 

 

Fun goal!

600 this year? Here's your crown king @Bluebasser86.

 

 

Pull you over for speeding. Good one @Swamp Girl. 🤣

2 hours ago, Pat Brown said:

Frogging is a good thing to put time into - well done!  🐸🐸🐸

Thank you sir!

I launched for just 1.25 hours this evening. It was too windy to launch earlier. I was struck by how the cool the bass still feel, meaning the water is still cool, but we have some sunny days in the mid-sixties before we drop into the fifties for highs this weekend and the following week. So, it's my hope that by Thursday morning, it'll be warm enough to really activate the bass. I caught 8 this evening. Bunch of 2.5-pounders. Six on the underspin, two on the spinnerbait, and two hit my wacky worm, but I couldn't close the deal. I hate when bass swallow a wacky worm, so I'm quick to set the hook. I know I'd catch more if I waited, but I'd also deep hook some.

 

I’m  the board for 2025!!!! Been a long time. I had my Twins last June ( boy and a girl) and basically stopped fishing untill middle of July. Took the boat out to a lake an hour west of where I live.  Hit the key the motor turned over but, nothing.  Crank on the tower of power for 10-15 minutes and wouldn’t fire.  Lake was small enough I could use the trolling motor to fish.

 

Fast forward to beginning of march.  When I finally had time to work on my boat.  In the last month I’ve basically rebuilt or replaced the entire ignition, fuel system ,  and most of all the wires on my 1984 Mercury L6 90 hp ( tower of power).  
 

Today I took the boat to long lake north of Ionia and she comes to life as soon as I touched the key. 
 

As far as the fishing it was ok. Kinda a tough day 85 degrees and blue bird sky’s with 10-12 ft water clarity.   I caught 10 pike around 20 inches +- 1.5 inches and also around 6-7 13-14 inch bass on a deep LC pointer in American shad.  Looks like the spawn is winding down. Some males still on beds but, a lot of empty beds. Bed fish had zero interest in anything so I kinda left them alone.  Plus I was looking for bigger fish but, never really found any.  Good to shake the rust off 

 

Good job, Papa, rebuilding that engine and catching those bass.

Had a nice view on the drive down to the river this evening.

 

 

Only got 1.

First topwater frog fish of the year… he came up and pecked it in …

12 hours ago, Mbirdsley said:

I’m  the board for 2025!!!! Been a long time. I had my Twins last June ( boy and a girl) and basically stopped fishing untill middle of July. Took the boat out to a lake an hour west of where I live.  Hit the key the motor turned over but, nothing.  Crank on the tower of power for 10-15 minutes and wouldn’t fire.  Lake was small enough I could use the trolling motor to fish.

 

Fast forward to beginning of march.  When I finally had time to work on my boat.  In the last month I’ve basically rebuilt or replaced the entire ignition, fuel system ,  and most of all the wires on my 1984 Mercury L6 90 hp ( tower of power).  
 

Today I took the boat to long lake north of Ionia and she comes to life as soon as I touched the key. 
 

As far as the fishing it was ok. Kinda a tough day 85 degrees and blue bird sky’s with 10-12 ft water clarity.   I caught 10 pike around 20 inches +- 1.5 inches and also around 6-7 13-14 inch bass on a deep LC pointer in American shad.  Looks like the spawn is winding down. Some males still on beds but, a lot of empty beds. Bed fish had zero interest in anything so I kinda left them alone.  Plus I was looking for bigger fish but, never really found any.  Good to shake the rust off 

 

     Congrats on the twins! Hope mom and the little'uns are doing well. Couple more contributors to BR in a few years. Also, congrats on the "Tower of Power"! You're speaking my language now. My Merc's a 1977. Did you also replace the main wiring harness from engine to battery? Makes a world of difference in the old Mercs. 

All 3 on a fat albert grub.

 

First smallmouth of the season

 

He doesn't know he isn't a real bass.

 

I fished my pal's pond for two hours. It was windy when I launched (10 mph), but settled to half that. I only caught seven, but lost two nice ones (18-inchers) at the canoe. The ones I landed were chunky bass, caught on an underspin, spinnerbait, and walking bait. Here are three:

 

 

For the fourth out of the last five trips, I caught a 19-incher.* This one was especially fine, being both plump and sleek:

 

 

I keep waiting for the fishing to explode, but in the meantime, I keep plugging. 

 

*The one trip I didn't catch at least one 19-incher was my "busy boat" trip, where I focused on quantity and caught 31. You can see from my photos that I'm fishing deep water off-shore, trying to catch staging females instead of fishing the shallows as I so often do.

 

FWIW, I've caught 169 bass so far in 2025. Eight were 19-inchers or larger and several times that number were 18 to 19 inches. I consider 19-inchers and above to be big northern bass. Last year, about 2.5% of the bass I caught were 19 inches or bigger. This year, by focusing on bigger bass, about 5% of the bass I'm catching are 19 inches or bigger. So, to catch more bigger bass, I've had to give up catching more bass.  

 

My youngest wanted to go fishing yesterday after I got home from work so we went to a friend's pond. She caught the first one after we'd been there for about 10 minutes. I believe this is her first bass all by herself. She selected the lure, made the cast, hooked the fish, and fought the fish to the bank all by herself. She was not about to hold it for a picture though. After that, she was happy, and done fishing. She said it was OK for me to fish after that so I did.

 

My friend (the pond owner) and I caught 25 fish in about an hour. The best one was 5 lb 7 oz.

 

 

 

 

I'm not sure if it's an early spawner that's already bulked back up, or a late spawner, but she was fat, and hungry. There was a fish's tail sticking out of her throat when I got it in.

 

 

Not all of the fish were big. My little one's favorite was the dink below. She wanted to take a picture of it. Little did I know that she was going to use my phone to send it to a few folks in my contact list while I was fishing. Good times. 🤣

 

Explored a new pond today.  Bit of a hike getting back in there.  

Lows 70s, partly cloudy with winds out of the south at 4 mph.

 

Caught a fish on my first cast.  Would’ve been two but one flopped off as I landed them.  That was a recurring issue.  I caught 27 would have been in the 30s if not for that.  This pond was loaded with bass but there was a problem.

All of the fish I caught except for one was a dink.  Here’s the largest.

 

And here’s another double I caught later in the opposite bank.

 

Most were caught with the Choppo.  Tried out the POP-R and caught my fair share on that as well.  Tried to throw a Spook but I think it was too much for my rod.

Well - it's been more fun fun fun - the spawn is finally getting to where it's more waves and less full on all the time and I'm super happy to see it.

 

One thing that really lets you know it's fun time - catching a frog fish.  It's been a struggle.  Since the 9 lber in March I've lost a lot of the ones that have eaten it well and also gotten uncommitted bites and it's just been slow getting that topwater thing rolling properly here.

 

Well we have 3 days in the high 70s and low 80s with lots of rain and low pressure and stuff usually starts to...happen.

 

I fished a mag speed worm in the rain and did pretty well at the super pressured spot.

 

Well we hit a spot we haven't been fishing much this year and I nailed a nice 4 lber and Jake got a couple nice keeper size fish.

 

 

All caught fishing the floating worm - zoom no salt added merthiolate trick worm wacky style - a technique that has been absolutely deadly this spring for me!

 

Well, it rained off and on all night and Jake had practice scheduled right before a thunderstorm hit and I brought my frog and my floating worm to the retention pond.

 

Caught the biggest fish we have caught so far out of the small retention pond on the Spro Pop 60 in the Speck color but I painted a red throat and chartreuse stripe down the center to make it look like a baby sunfish or something.

 

It worked!

 

5 + on the frog!  She inhaled that thing!  Heck of a fight.  Huge head and shoulders and a big mouth.  Definitely an older fish and had she been pre-spawn would be a absolute meatball.

 

Beauty.

 

 

The storms got crazy fast and I managed one little guy on the floating worm.

 

 

Can't wait to see if the frog thing keeps getting better with the warming trend continuing all week.

 

Makes me think I need to get up in the dark and fish that popping spro nice and slow 🫣🫣🫣

Love your pics, @bp_fowler!

 

Tank, @Fishlegs.

 

You're the Energizer Bunny, @Pat Brown.

23 minutes ago, Pat Brown said:

All caught fishing the floating worm - zoom no salt added merthiolate trick worm wacky style - a technique that has been absolutely deadly this spring for me!

Okay.  I wanted to ask about this as I am a fan of both the wacky and the floating worm.

Is this weightless?  Are you fishing it more like a wacky rig? Let it fall may be hop once or twice and reel it in?  Or cast it out and twitchy twitch close to the surface like the traditional floating worm?