7 minutes ago, Joedodge said:

Gawdang. You Have some killer fish where you are.

Thank you. I benefit from the hard work of texas parks & wildlife, and the US Army Corps of Engineers. We had a huge storm come through last night and I managed to get in and get out before the lingering clouds cleared off

14 minutes ago, thediscochef said:

Thank you. I benefit from the hard work of texas parks & wildlife, and the US Army Corps of Engineers. We had a huge storm come through last night and I managed to get in and get out before the lingering clouds cleared off

Very nice man! Gotta love good fishery’s. Yeah it’s flipping snowing here. We had false spring for like 2 weeks. Hopefully the snow we get Sunday is our last hoorah. But I’ve been catching fish so oh well

3 minutes ago, Joedodge said:

Very nice man! Gotta love good fishery’s. Yeah it’s flipping snowing here. We had false spring for like 2 weeks. Hopefully the snow we get Sunday is our last hoorah. But I’ve been catching fish so oh well

I am blessed with some of the best down here. There are big, beautiful reservoirs all over. We have been largely sunny and mild since mid february and I have done my best to take full advantage. Good work fighting through the ice. that's not for me.

I hooked into something this morning that allllllmost spooled me. I think it was a big catfish because it never shook or made any moves like a bass. I was about five turns from being out of line, my backer/mainline knot was in the water before the fish let go. Would have liked to have gotten a look but that's OK

1 hour ago, thediscochef said:

I am blessed with some of the best down here. There are big, beautiful reservoirs all over. We have been largely sunny and mild since mid february and I have done my best to take full advantage. Good work fighting through the ice. that's not for me.

I hooked into something this morning that allllllmost spooled me. I think it was a big catfish because it never shook or made any moves like a bass. I was about five turns from being out of line, my backer/mainline knot was in the water before the fish let go. Would have liked to have gotten a look but that's OK

Ice is gone thank goodness. Just cold now. Open water so I fish even in the cold lol.

Oh man that sounds like fun!

43 minutes ago, Joedodge said:

Ice is gone thank goodness. Just cold now. Open water so I fish even in the cold lol.

Oh man that sounds like fun!

Snow might as well be ice as far as my desire to fish in it. But I guess I would feel different if I lived north

6 minutes ago, thediscochef said:

Snow might as well be ice as far as my desire to fish in it. But I guess I would feel different if I lived north

Every place comes with perks and a price. A Maine winter is the price I pay for a Maine summer. You're vice-versa. Another way to think of it is this: You're in the thick of your hot fishing right now, but you'll eventually be in the thick of simply being hot.

Fished from 7am - 1pm this morning. All caught on the 3" & 4.25" Nikko Hellgrammite T - Rigged.

17 minutes ago, Swamp Girl said:

Every place comes with perks and a price. A Maine winter is the price I pay for a Maine summer. You're vice-versa. Another way to think of it is this: You're in the thick of your hot fishing right now, but you'll eventually be in the thick of simply being hot.

I will take that as a challenge 😅our predawn summer topwater bite is pretty good until about August, nighttime jig fishing once it gets hot for real. And that will be slow slow

Made it out for about 30 mins after work and got one. Nothing like the fish yall have been catching! You all have had some monsters lately. But in true Iowa fashion this morning was side ways snow almost a white out for 3 hours. But by 4 o’clock it was all melted and sunny and 45 degrees lol.

Post frontal conditions today. H 44 degrees bright and sunny with winds gusting out of the NW.

Returned to the Pork Chop ponds I first fished last week. I started in the SE corner of the first pond. The previous night’s rain and today’s winds had stirred up the bottom enough to reduce water visibility by a good margin.

This particular pond was almost devoid of any kind of structure or cover at least that I could perceive. The exceptions being a rock culvert in the NE corner and a beaver lodge on the southern bank.

The bank sloped at a gentle angle creating somewhat of a flat that extended at least 10 yards out into the middle. So the plan was to work my way around the whole pond fan casting out over this shelf.

My first cast parallel to bank caught a dink with a white mini max which would end up being welded to my hand. and I would end up with 4 on 6 bites.

I moved on to the second pond which I blanked on the first time I fished it. This time however I moved along the northern bank hoping the sun warmed water might treat me better. The terrain and vegetation made this a tough row to hoe but I ended up catching my biggest of the day just in front of a submerged bush.

The third pond which previously had been the only one where I caught anything stymied me. Called it a day after that.

Had a great morning. We had a wonderful blue hour this morning. Got up and got on the pond just before the sun came up. Lost count honestly on how many of these 1.5 pounders I caught in an hour. We are getting a storm and cold weather tonite/tomorrow. And they were loving the blades jig still. I’ve got to where I can feel the bite and get a good hook set on them. The chain of ponds I fish three of them get treated for weeds and algae and such so their production fluctuates. This one is left to have its own cycle. And it’s amazing very early. After about 10 am it’s a tough fish though very strange.

Go, Joe, go!

And BP is tallying too.

Sorry I can't contribute to this thread, but perhaps in a month.

2 minutes ago, Swamp Girl said:

Go, Joe, go!

And BP is tallying too.

Sorry I can't contribute to this thread, but perhaps in a month.

Soon enough you will be slaying them and showing us 5 pounders! Admittedly I’ve been workin fin my boat more than my lil 1.5 hour adventures. And our weather just isn’t stable yet lol. I wana fish so I go. But this morning was 34 lol. My hands were about done after 1 hour. And that’s with gloves lol

3 hours ago, Joedodge said:

I wana fish so I go. But this morning was 34 lol. My hands were about done after 1 hour. And that’s with gloves lol

Been there. Bass tug at us long before we set the hook.

The boys are on the beds and the girls ain’t bitin’. Saw at least 5 other anglers and no one caught a fish except me, and only one. I actually saw this bass on a bed right on the bank, in water so shallow his dorsal fin was sticking out like a shark lol. I must have finally jerked his chain after casting a green pumpkin lizard TR that he finally bit it.

Went to a highland reservoir today with a buddy and his wife, then his friend showed up and accommodated them so plenty of fun all around. We got at least 7, hopefully more as they are still fishing

Went back out at sunset before the blizzard we are getting rolls in. 2 of them wanted to play. So strange how this pond is amazing at sunrise. But any other time of the day it’s hit or miss. But I’ll take every bite I can get.

A bit late posting these, caught both around late February! This is a pocket off the American river here in Sacramento. Water levels were high and the fish were posting up on river rock bars with a channel running through. Chucked a lil 1/4oz jig and either slow dragged it or swam it letting it bump up against the rocks. They couldnt stay off of it! Both ran around 3lbs

3 minutes ago, RenzokukenFisher said:

A bit late posting these, caught both around late February! This is a pocket off the American river here in Sacramento. Water levels were high and the fish were posting up on river rock bars with a channel running through. Chucked a lil 1/4oz jig and either slow dragged it or swam it letting it bump up against the rocks. They couldnt stay off of it! Both ran around 3lbs

Very nice man! Love a good jig fish.

Here's a few from the first trip of the year. Got two on Saturday, one on a 1/2oz bladed jig with a 5.5 Spunk Shad and the other one on the LV 500. Water visibility was only 2 to 3 feet on the count of all the storms we had rolling through these last few weeks so I started out with red and chartreuse baits since the water is normally clear, but both bites came after switching to more natural colors, Green Pumpkin Shad with a Frosted Purple trailer and a Ghost Minnow LV, even with the limited visibility.

It was a really rough day out on the water: my new bladed jig rod broke, the trolling motor pedal stopped working except in reverse or with the remote control... I have a feeling someone snuck a banana on board.

"Bonus" catfish that Dave caught on the lipless.

Yesterday we got really bad wind so we went bank fishing for a couple of hours, didn't expect much but I caught two more on the bladed jig - this time a 3/8oz Green Pumpkin Shad with an Electric Shad Chatterspike 4.5 trailer.

Finally decided to let Riggs have his first trip out on the boat. Didn't take more than 5 minutes for him to decide he really needed a quick swim. 😄

With the recent warm weather the water temp was 59-62* and some fish are finally moving up shallow.

Senko/stickbaits were the ticket again

He was not sure what to think about fish temporarily joining us on the boat.

first 10+ fish day of the year, caught em everywhere from less than a foot to 30+. Even seeing a few on beds already,

Busy weekend of fishing this weekend finally.

My buddy was fishing in the Bassmaster Kayak Classic. Day 1 went pretty well for him and he was within striking distance of the money, but the cold front wrecked his bite on day 2. He did win one of the hourly big bass prizes on one of my baits.

Saturday I went in search of big fish. I'm doing the monthly and year long big bass challenges for my bass club and while I doubt I can keep up with the guys that live close to better big bass waters and fish way more than I do, it's fun trying. I put together a pretty solid bag for March and got a 20.25" fish to go towards my yearly bag. They were eating a little bit of everything but a jerkbait did most of the damage including the biggest one. Also caught contributions to my biggest 5 on a homemade spinnerbait, Clutch Baby Boss, and Berkley Shallow Money Badger.

My buddy was out there and also catching some good ones of his own. This one ate a Ned rig off a shallow stump.

Sunday I took my kids out in the kayaks hoping to beat the wind. We got about 45 minutes before it switched directions and we had to hustle back to the ramp. They both got back on the board for 26' though, Lake even outfished me. I got a picture of one of his but Finn's fish flopped back in the water before I got a picture of it. It was 63* while we were on the water 24 hours ago, it's 13* with a wind chill of -8 with snow on the ground now 😫

Finally got on the board for 2026 before the weather drop. Dragged in about 10 branches before getting a lazy mushy bite. White 3/8 Elite Evo with a fluke trailer. Only one for the weekend, but I'll take it !