4 minutes ago, gim said:

@Swamp Girl shorts?! Is it unseasonably warm there? Just last week you posted a photo of snow in your yard.

Looks like @Bluebasser86 is squarely back in the crosshairs of the fashion police with those fruit loop colored crocs again.

We hit our 2026 high of 65 degrees today.

2 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

I wish I could “not find the bass” like @Swamp Girl

Well, you know I generally catch more than four. I'm launching again tomorrow, hoping that the problem today was the Sun. Tomorrow will be cloudy.

Fashion and haircut police have been MIA but they will be watching closely in photos moving forward for violations, rest assured. Some of you may know him as the Northwoods Wardrobe Warden.

57 minutes ago, Swamp Girl said:

I launched for the first time in 2026, but couldn't find the bass. I did catch four

First bass trip of the year to Duck Lake Michigan. First 3lbs bass of the year and on a spinner bait. Huge Crappie, caught some smaller bass, and a bunch of little pike.

Made the spinner bait from a kit I bought

Water levels are way up with all of the rain Michigan has been experiencing over the last month. Lake levels might be higher than the all time highs of 2020 and 2021.

Caught 4 like this one Saturday. I had a big one get off at the boat. Fun day.

I finally got on board in northern Michigan!

Man, sometimes we really have to go through some crap and waiting up here in the north, but it’s well worth the wait in anticipation. I had made a couple early scout trips to the north side last week, but today went south. I did a scout run, noting what and where, then started fishing. This is my second serious season bass fishing and my first with a kayak. They’re really annoying in wind of any breeze, but after some clunky moments, I started getting a feel for anchoring. I ran a bladed jig, senko, underspin and jerkbait to no avail. However, off one dock a switch to a bluegill swim jig with a perch Mayor pulled two good females, one was pretty nice. Both inhaled the bait and pulled the MH well.

After no more action, I went out and around between the other side and next dock. No further good fish, but before I left, I pitched an 1/8oz bitsy with a rage Ned bug trailer and got a handful of 10-12” dinkers on the M spinning rig which was pleasant. I’m headed out whenever I can again which may be Friday. Scattered schools of bluegills up shallow sunning and one good school of crappie that just stared at me under a dock lol

I'm launching again today. On Sunday, I had good luck dragging a blue T-rigged craw. Yesterday they would only hit a red spinnerbait. So today I'm going to drag a red T-rigged craw. Trying to dial in, ya see.

And I'm going to fan cast a lipless. I never really found them yesterday, so I want to explore a lot of water today.

I might even tie on a Whopper Plopper. I caught bass on the surface in cold water last year and I'm not hitting the jackpot going sub-surface...yet.

Katy - one of these days you gotta at least try a crappie jig - I know you said the weeds are bad and it won’t work - but I betcha it will work enough of the time to be fun!

I actually like fishing with light tackle in places where the fish tend to bite on every cast - makes losing them less bad.

it’s not something I really ever considered til this past year and now I do it all over the place and you’d be shocked the kinds of places I successfully land fish and keep them hooked on 6 lb mono with those itty bitty hooks.

11 minutes ago, Pat Brown said:

Katy - one of these days you gotta at least try a crappie jig - I know you said the weeds are bad and it won’t work - but I betcha it will work enough of the time to be fun!

I actually like fishing with light tackle in places where the fish tend to bite on every cast - makes losing them less bad.

it’s not something I really ever considered til this past year and now I do it all over the place and you’d be shocked the kinds of places I successfully land fish and keep them hooked on 6 lb mono with those itty bitty hooks.

All our weeds are rotten right now, so a crappie jig on light line would be doable. How do you work it?

Pat, recently I've been seeing similarities between Clayton and you. You are both SO observant and you both have analytical minds.

@Swamp Girl - shaking a minnow for pond hopping troglodytes volume 1 - by Pat Brown

I point my rod up towards the sky for the most part and do some kind of variation on:

Holding the rod still

Gently vibrating the rod

Shaking the rod

Popping the rod

With my reel hand I try to begin my retrieve the instant my minnow hits the water for the most natural presentation. I will reel very very slowly. I will reel slow and then slowly speed up the retrieve incrementally until the bait returns (works awesome) I will reel slowly and randomly increase my reel cadence for a turn or two (makes the minnow kinda dart) I will burn burn pause burn burn pause like a dying minnow occasionally and last but not least I will every so often just stop my retrieve and let the minnow fall to the bottom - occasionally triggering a nice bite!

By FAR my most productive retrieve in nearly all seasons and conditions is a medium/fast speed retrieve while gently vibrating the rod trying to keep the jig just barely visible the entire retrieve occasionally speeding up a little bit or killing it for a millisecond here and there.

What’s most important is making lots of casts over high percentage targets like laydowns and grass clumps and paralleling weed edges and around sunfish beds etc - and you’ll catch a fish on every cast sometimes!

I like windy sunny banks with lots of cover the best right now for sure.

You accused me of being analytical and now I’m going to live up to your accusation! 🙂

Baitfish will never swim below a predator. They cannot do it. It goes against their programming.

I never ever want that minnow more than a few inches beneath the surface in clear water - especially shallow water - for this reason - the technique remains viable well into the months where vegetation grows back for me.

I like the little 1/32 and 1/16 oz eagle claw micro fish head jig things from Walmart and the monkey milk Bobby garland minnow super glued to the jig. I’ve caught 100+ fish on a single jig head many times ranging the entire gamut of species in the pond from carp to catfish to perch to bass to bluegill and beyond.

The technique will show you SO much about your pond and what lives where and who’s eating what etc.

Get after it!

6 lb mono and tiny hooks??? Now yall are speaking my language

Just some highlights from today

Fished this afternoon and had a nice, solid day. Overcast and flat calm for a good while before a slight chop kicked up later on. Yesterday’s pattern wasn’t there today as fish were not set up the same. Big females seemed to have pulled back deeper again with a few medium girls hanging around structure, but scores of 10-12” dinks and smaller keepers were around and active. Working flooded brush, stickups or certain docks with an 1/8oz bitsy bug with a finesse trailer worked low was best. A jig bite is my favorite bite and even better around cover.

More variable weather including continued rain, but also a cold spell in the mix so it will be hit or miss. Might check a different, slightly bigger lake next trip. Most keepers were 14-16” with a 17ish as big fish. Even threw tight to the dock at the launch before leaving and got one lol

Drove 3 1/2 hours to my favorite lake that has largemouth, Smallmouth and spotted bass.

Water temp was 62* and the action was consistent throughout the day.

Caught most on Flickshake and Ned.

I made it out for an evening session at the tiny lake down the way that I’ve been liking. It was 88 degrees on the dash of the truck when I pulled in and it felt like it. There was a nice breeze though (7-10 mph) and the lake was clear so I thought a big swimbait bite might be happening. This lake doesn’t have main big fish, but I hear there is at least one 7 in there so I was fishing for one big fish. After the first half hour of heaving an 8” Magdraft around and getting into the grassier section where the trebles and running depth were too much, I swapped to the 6” Magdraft that slow rolls (rod tip up) at about 18-24” deep- perfect for fishing 3’ deep water with grass on the bottom half. It was 5 minutes after swapping that the first 4 bass were in the boat and I had a couple more come rocketing up from the bottom and grab just the tail.

The water was 72 degrees, but it hasn’t been that warm for long. Just 9 days ago it was 60 and had just barely gotten there. Monday was 55 and cloudy and the weekend before was freezing (33 on Sunday morning at sunrise). So that tells me the water has jumped at least 5-7 degrees in the past 2 days (not surprising since this lake is <4’ deep for more than half its area and bottoms out at 12’). I think the males moved up quickly and were cleaning for beds while the females were still sitting tight. On that logic I figured that since I couldn’t see the holes in the grass where they were cleaning, I just needed to cover water with something I could get through the grass cleanly and put it in front of fish. I swapped from a Magdraft to a 4.75” miyagi on an owner beast swimbait hook and that did the trick. I was into double digits quickly. After a pass doing that, I swapped into a vibrating jig (Elite Evo) and made another pass. The second pass doubled up the count and I finished with 22 for the night with 2 more lost on the way back in. Nothing over 14” or so- all but two appeared to be males- which would confirm my suspicion that it was all males up around beds. The two females I caught were ready to pop, so I think over the next week they will be on the beds in this lake. This is the first lake to warm in the area so in the same way that the pros chase the temperature change by swinging north, I’m going to chase temps by going to bigger and bigger lakes so that I can stay in that high 50’s, low 60’s temp range.

I also had the resident osprey following me around all night and gave me a nice flyby.

13 hours ago, casts_by_fly said:

I made it out for an evening session at the tiny lake down the way that I’ve been liking. It was 88 degrees on the dash of the truck when I pulled in and it felt like it. There was a nice breeze though (7-10 mph) and the lake was clear so I thought a big swimbait bite might be happening. This lake doesn’t have main big fish, but I hear there is at least one 7 in there so I was fishing for one big fish. After the first half hour of heaving an 8” Magdraft around and getting into the grassier section where the trebles and running depth were too much, I swapped to the 6” Magdraft that slow rolls (rod tip up) at about 18-24” deep- perfect for fishing 3’ deep water with grass on the bottom half. It was 5 minutes after swapping that the first 4 bass were in the boat and I had a couple more come rocketing up from the bottom and grab just the tail.

The water was 72 degrees, but it hasn’t been that warm for long. Just 9 days ago it was 60 and had just barely gotten there. Monday was 55 and cloudy and the weekend before was freezing (33 on Sunday morning at sunrise). So that tells me the water has jumped at least 5-7 degrees in the past 2 days (not surprising since this lake is <4’ deep for more than half its area and bottoms out at 12’). I think the males moved up quickly and were cleaning for beds while the females were still sitting tight. On that logic I figured that since I couldn’t see the holes in the grass where they were cleaning, I just needed to cover water with something I could get through the grass cleanly and put it in front of fish. I swapped from a Magdraft to a 4.75” miyagi on an owner beast swimbait hook and that did the trick. I was into double digits quickly. After a pass doing that, I swapped into a vibrating jig (Elite Evo) and made another pass. The second pass doubled up the count and I finished with 22 for the night with 2 more lost on the way back in. Nothing over 14” or so- all but two appeared to be males- which would confirm my suspicion that it was all males up around beds. The two females I caught were ready to pop, so I think over the next week they will be on the beds in this lake. This is the first lake to warm in the area so in the same way that the pros chase the temperature change by swinging north, I’m going to chase temps by going to bigger and bigger lakes so that I can stay in that high 50’s, low 60’s temp range.

I also had the resident osprey following me around all night and gave me a nice flyby.

Nice day of fishing. Where are you from? That sounds similar to how the bass were acting where I was fishing at home(Spotsylvania, VA). Mainly makes up shallow but at least one big one was up shallow with them.

@Brycecover - I'm in northern NJ. That lake is atypical for the area- most of the shallower lakes are low 60s and the clear rocky ones will be high 50s right now. But it is all coming fast now.

The pics for the bass I caught on the burrito didn't load. A long wait for nothing, sorry guys. I'll try to catch some more on a big bait and post those. Caught some backwater bass at the James River on a buckeye lures swim jig and a bladed jig evo the other day in the bluegill color. I love fishing trips like this.

Got out for a bit this morning. Post front blue bird sky’s today. Water has warmed up into the high 60s. Grass is getting unbelievable thick already. Blades jig and spinnerbait weren’t getting it done. Tied on a swim jig and got 5 off one grass bed in about 30 mins. I floated it a couple times. Finally got some fish out of the boat though. 3 small 1 pounders and a 2 pound 8 ounce. The 3 pound 12 ounce was a really nice fish. Tough finding them on a lake but so glad I did.

@Joedodge So I have to ask, is that a tattoo of Scabby the rat getting constricted with the words “Fake it until you make it” on your arm? I worked with a great guy who had a few different sayings and that one and “If you don’t produce they’ll cut you loose” were 2 of his favorites. Either way it brings back some great memories from a really great job I was on with one of the best crew of guys I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. Also those bass are beautiful.

17 minutes ago, Eric 26 said:

@Joedodge So I have to ask, is that a tattoo of Scabby the rat getting constricted with the words “Fake it until you make it” on your arm? I worked with a great guy who had a few different sayings and that one and “If you don’t produce they’ll cut you loose” were 2 of his favorites. Either way it brings back some great memories from a really great job I was on with one of the best crew of guys I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. Also those bass are beautiful.

Man that’s awesome!! I’m glad that brought back some aweosme memories. It’s actually a possum with the words “ fake it till you make it” since possums play dead lol. They are my favorite animal. And when I was in my teens my family drag raced at the local drag strip. And the first race car I built was white,primer gray, and primer black. And we named it “possum” because ya couldn’t tell if it was dead or alive lol. So all my projects I’ve had over the years kayaks, motorcycles and now this boat have all been called possum. With 1,2,3 and such behind it lol. And it kinda became a nickname that stuck with me the last 20 years lol.

48 minutes ago, Joedodge said:

Man that’s awesome!! I’m glad that brought back some aweosme memories. It’s actually a possum with the words “ fake it till you make it” since possums play dead lol. They are my favorite animal. And when I was in my teens my family drag raced at the local drag strip. And the first race car I built was white,primer gray, and primer black. And we named it “possum” because ya couldn’t tell if it was dead or alive lol. So all my projects I’ve had over the years kayaks, motorcycles and now this boat have all been called possum. With 1,2,3 and such behind it lol. And it kinda became a nickname that stuck with me the last 20 years lol.

That is really cool 👍🏻

Edited April 17Apr 17 by Eric 26
Removed double content

Oh lord. Possums. Did you know me from 2007-2024 @Joedodge ? 😂 😂 😂

I’ve caught and released a million of those things. I even caught one that had mostly black fur

I even just grabbed some because I saw a professor do that in wildlife classes during college, always a bad idea 😂. They seem docile until they aren’t, one of the most resilient creatures on the planet. They always walked away laughing at me

I also caught one that looked just like Freddy Kruger but I can’t find the picture . It was wild

14 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Oh lord. Possums. Did you know me from 2007-2024 @Joedodge ? 😂 😂 😂

I’ve caught and released a million of those things. I even caught one that had mostly black fur

I even just grabbed some because I saw a professor do that in wildlife classes during college, always a bad idea 😂. They seem docile until they aren’t, one of the most resilient creatures on the planet. They always walked away laughing at me

I also caught one that looked just like Freddy Kruger but I can’t find the picture . It was wild

Oh man check that guy out!!! Wow. lol I’ve had to get some pretty mean ones out of garbage trucks when I used to be a diesel mechanic them lol. I’ve got some funny pics of me with them as well.