Well I found one giant bass and I found it with a buzzbait yesterday which is always extremely enjoyable.  She stripped drag and wallowed and did everything that makes me a bass fishing addict and she was absolutely gorgeous.

 

One of the small head football body phenotypes I catch every so often with darker green and gold coloration - probably a little more Northern genetics in them when they look like this - absolutely awesome bass.

 

 

Caught another really nice one on a nail weighted trick worm rigged weedless in bubblegum.  Spawned out but a heck of a frame and a big mouth.  More Florida for sure!  More typical this time of year for us.

 

 

Another drag stripper that pulled me into a tree but came out and made it to the boat.

 

Found one really pretty fish willing to eat my Spro back behind a shady pocket of brush.

 

 

And then we caught a few ranging from nice to tiny with one bullhead catfish, an unpictured long ear sunfish and Jake's 'mini milliken' bass - a 10" bass with a 20" bass frame lol

 

 

Absolutely smashing good time.

@Pat Brown well done. 
 

Im always fascinated by the shape difference between the big bass you catch down there and the ones up north. Your big bass have small/normal heads and absolute tank bodies. The big bass I get up here (20”+) all have massive heads and long bodies. They usually aren’t skinny, even the fat ones still have the giant head and streamlined shape. I guess they carry their weight differently! 
 

 

 

8 minutes ago, Jar11591 said:

@Pat Brown well done. 
 

Im always fascinated by the shape difference between the big bass you catch down there and the ones up north. Your big bass have small/normal heads and absolute tank bodies. The big bass I get up here (20”+) all have massive heads and long bodies. They usually aren’t skinny, even the fat ones still have the giant head and streamlined shape. I guess they carry their weight differently! 
 

 

 

 

 

Thank you kindly!  We are having a blast right now - summer is always very good to me in NC.

 

Growth rate.  😉😉😉

 

I believe the efficient bass around here with the right genetic make up are growing 2-3 lbs per year without trying.

 

I catch 6 lbers that are 3 years old a lot.

16 minutes ago, Jar11591 said:

The big bass I get up here (20”+) all have massive heads and long bodies.

 

Same here. Your bass look like my bass. Our bass are so much darker than Pat's bass too.

 

FWIW, I don't watch bass tournament, but I'd love to watch Pat (@Pat Brown) versus Clayton (@Bluebasser86). East versus West! The clash of the Titans!

1 minute ago, Swamp Girl said:

 

Same here. Your bass look like my bass. Our bass are so much darker than Pat's bass too.

 

FWIW, I don't watch bass tournament, but I'd love to watch Pat (@Pat Brown) versus Clayton (@Bluebasser86). East versus West! The clash of the Titans!

 

 

He'd whoop my @$$ 🤣🤣🤣🤣

 

But I'm very flattered. That's very kind of you.

 

I'm just a blind squirrel surrounded by acorns here. I probably got nothing on any body of water besides the ones I'm good at LOL

54 minutes ago, IcatchDinks said:

 

So, now I'm drying off in my favorite donut shop, huddled around a cup of coffee to warm up, waiting to go to work. 

 

Psych! The rain lessened to a light drizzle so I went back to the pond and caught three bass so small, they might as well have been minnows, and then one average size bass. I watched a really nice bass, probably 17 or 18 inches take a lazy swipe at my bait right at the bank. But he totally missed and despite repeated casts in the general area, he never took interest again. 

 

 

@Pat Brown, save some for me! We're coming to North Carolina again in September. Looks like some great fishing right now. 

2 hours ago, IcatchDinks said:

 

Psych! The rain lessened to a light drizzle so I went back to the pond and caught three bass so small, they might as well have been minnows, and then one average size bass. I watched a really nice bass, probably 17 or 18 inches take a lazy swipe at my bait right at the bank. But he totally missed and despite repeated casts in the general area, he never took interest again. 

 

 

@Pat Brown, save some for me! We're coming to North Carolina again in September. Looks like some great fishing right now. 

 

 

Oh it'll be even better in September.  That's when they REALLY eat topwater around here.  🥹🥹🥹♥️♥️♥️

Best of 17 over the last two trips, 16" and 17".  Lots of two pounders around, but anything larger than that has been hiding: 

 

In other news, got a 2025 Michigan Master Angler patch in the mail for entering the 21", 5.73# largemouth I caught last month:

 

This one:

6 minutes ago, MIbassyaker said:

In other news, got a 2025 Michigan Master Angler patch in the mail for entering the 21", 5.73# largemouth I caught last month:

 

My goodness, they processed yours fast. I submitted one last year in June and didn't get the patch until October. 

 

I'm gonna have to try to get me another PB this year, because the 2025 patch is way cooler than the 2024.

5 minutes ago, IcatchDinks said:

 

My goodness, they processed yours fast. I submitted one last year in June and didn't get mine till October. 

yeah, they say allow 8 weeks on the form, but this one took only about 2 weeks from when I submitted.  

 

Qualifying length for both Largemouth and Smallmouth is now 21".  LM used to be 22" a couple years ago.

It was a good news bad news kinda day.

 

First the good news I got to explore a new pond and caught 11 fish.

 

Now for the bad news.  
 

I had to drag my canoe about a quarter mile through the woods to get there.  Worse than that none of the fish were much bigger than this.

 Just one of those days I guess.

 

The wacky worm targeting shade and shadows shallow got most of the action today with the mayor swimbait getting some work around clumps of submerged vegetation out in the middle.

I fished my pond for 2.5 hours this evening, except it's not feeling like my pond so much anymore as there was a family on a pontoon boat plus a shore angler again. I caught 28 bass, all about the size of the ones below, I.e. between 16.5 and 17-inches. I was using a Rage Bug and having some success with it, but boy, oh, boy, when I switched to my trusty underspin with a white and chartreuse Zako, the pace really picked up. 

 

My total for the year is 643.

A couple days ago I went to Freeman Lake and the water was 2 feet high.

 

I pulled this guy off the flooded bridge.

 

This one came out of the bush. Both with a curly tail grub on a jighead.

 

Today before bible study at a private pond, I got into a few with the jig. Then, unfortunately lost the jig. Then I got my first catches on a bladed jig.

 

 

Black Lizard for the boy.

 

 

Took out this guys right eye unfortuanately.

 

Nice solid 2 pounder.

 

Mouth of the above.

 

Not sure how this happened, but, I did feel a strike.

 

 

After bible study we had a some pretty sky.

 

 

 

1 hour ago, Swamp Girl said:

there was a family on a pontoon boat plus a shore angler again.

I hope you gave them their privacy and didn’t even think about looking in their direction! 🤣

9 hours ago, Jar11591 said:

I hope you gave them their privacy and didn’t even think about looking in their direction! 🤣

 

They did shadow me, but I waved at them. I think the four of them only caught four bass total and I'm guessing that's because the bass were tight to cover and I was fishing a weedy, rocky area. Even my canoe scraped a couple rocks.

Stopped at my favorite pond for about 1/2 an hour yesterday. Bad news is the drizzle turned into rain but the good news is I was all alone. Got 2 off my new spinnerbait.

5 hours ago, Swamp Girl said:

 

They did shadow me, but I waved at them. I think the four of them only caught four bass total and I'm guessing that's because the bass were tight to cover and I was fishing a weedy, rocky area. Even my canoe scraped a couple rocks.

Did you wave with all five fingers?  I'm guessing that .5% might have showed up.  🤪

32 minutes ago, Blue Raider Bob said:

Did you wave with all five fingers?  I'm guessing that .5% might have showed up.  🤪

 

Yep, all five. I prefer a quiet pond and they were noisy, but I shrugged and enjoyed the evening nevertheless. 

Went out this morning. Got a few on a swim jig. One had quite the pile of hardware hanging in his mouth. I was pretty  surprised. This pond has a ton of pressure. Finally for the first time in 10 years I hit a bladed jig fish! Not much of one. But a fish!  And I’m putting them back up or giving them away lol. They catch so much trash on the blade it’s wild lol. I’ll stick to a swim jig 

I can really tell I am not into fishing right now after the last few disaster trips. On my way to work I crossed some bodies of water that looked like they would hold quality and quantity fish-- and normally I would take a moment to do a quick scout and note some places to go, but this time I just did not feel compelled to give it much thought, other than thinking that I feel like it is pointless now because I just feel like I'd have the same rotten experiences I've been having-- just not worth the trouble. It may take the fall season to save my fractured love for it.

1 minute ago, BluegillsTightlines said:

I can really tell I am not into fishing right now after the last few disaster trips. On my way to work I crossed some bodies of water that looked like they would hold quality and quantity fish-- and normally I would take a moment to do a quick scout and note some places to go, but this time I just did not feel compelled to give it much thought, other than thinking that I feel like it is pointless now because I just feel like I'd have the same rotten experiences I've been having-- just not worth the trouble. It may take the fall season to save my fractured love for it.

That’s no way to be! Take the advice of Joe dirt, you gotta keep on keeping on 

@TnRiver46 and @BluegillsTightlines: Yes, Joe Dirt is the preeminent sage of all time:

 

 

And Karma rewarded him with a family (and Brandy!):

 

 

But taking a break is okay. It's sizzling in Alabama, but Gill's fishing has been shivery ice cold. It's quake and bake. 

Better late than never report from my June 7th tournament. Work and life have been busy lately and just haven't had time to sit down and write it up. 

I've won the last 2 years in a row on Big Hill Lake, despite not really liking the lake, it does fish to my strengths usually. This year, the water was up into the grass and practice day on Friday they were eating a swim jig really well along with a topwater and then a Texas rig when the sun got up. I had around 87" and didn't really try all that hard and everyone else was complaining about how tough the fishing was, I really thought I might 3-peat. 

Saturday morning, it stormed like crazy. I pulled my tent down Friday night because of the forecast and slept in my truck and it was just dumping rain and flashing non-stop. On top of that, they dropped the lake several inches overnight. My topwater and swim jig bite never happened, not even a sniff. It took almost a hour to finally get my first bite on a T-rig, fishing it super slow.

That would be the deal of the day. The weather would be crazy all day. It kept switching from flat calm and hot, to windy and raining, until it finally cleared off completely and was blazing hot and slick calm. I locked the T-rig in my hand and just fished slowly, as fast as I could to cover as much water as possible and every once in a while, I'd find one willing to bite.

Notice the raingear on, raingear off theme? I tried flipping grass and thought I had a giant for a second. I did, almost a state record, just not the right species.

Less than a pound off the state record for a spotted gar, which was also from the same lake.

With less than a hour left, I decided to run back to my starting spot by the ramp where I couldn't get any bites in the morning. I'd caugh 3 solid keepers in practice there and marked a bunch of fish in the morning, I was going to pick it apart and try to get one to bite. I needed to cull a 14.50" fish. 

I rolled up to the ramp and fired a long cast with a Ned rig and started dragging it down the side of the ramp. Didn't take long before I felt like I was getting maching gunned by a green sunfish. He wouldn't stop so I gave a half-hearted hookset, which was met with a considerable amount of weight and a fish screaming for deeper water. I had to crank like crazy and caught up just as the smallie went airborne. I was begging the hook to stay stuck after my rookie mistake of not setting the hook on a biting fish. I got lucky and my biggest fish of the day pulled hard enough that the hook dug all the way in and it made it to the net.

I really didn't think I had done anything, I had struggled all day on a lake that it isn't unusal to need over 90" to get in the money, but in the end, I just barely missed the 3-peat!

Mark said he had 4 fish with less than a hour left for about 50", but passed over a dropoff with some fish on it and caught a 16.50, 20, and 19.50 3 cast in a row off of it. Got to add another cool chalkboard trophy to the collection.

 

Dang that Mark!

@Bluebasser86, good finish but to me that gar is the star of the show! Holy smokes