Day three of our smallie trip to Lake Erie Pa waters. Warmer weather than the first two days. Wind was brisk but SE & SW direction off shore. Best two plus a bonus pike. See other species thread.

The brown bass on local Lake Menderchuck were chewing to-day !

Fished from late morning to late afternoon.

There was plenty of sun & some wind with crystal-clear 46-degree water.

Didn't keep count, but I'll be changing some hooks and split rings before tomorrow's trip.

I'm sharing a few of the prettiest girls I met today.

A-Jay

Wow! Those are some beautiful fish @A-Jay!

Another very enjoyable spring trip with lots of willing spots and LM.

Skinny hard fighting torpedo. Seems like the females have been spawn/prespawn so guessing this was a male.

Underspin was the bait of the day

Pops with a solid one

3 hours ago, A-Jay said:

Those fins are incredible and that fish almost looks cartoonish. What an awesome catch!

23 hours ago, Pat Brown said:

Been a little while but we have been having a blast - finally got some frog fish!

Jake got some really nice ones on the floating worm!

And I managed a few good fish here and there on flipping baits etc

But what’s really been crazy has been the giant crappie slug fest in the backyard - here’s just a small sample lol

But also lots of perch and sunfish

Pretty much non stop action every day when I have time to get out and make a few casts - spring is my happy place!!!

Those are nice crappies!

The front has moved the fish on me…or they’re so pegged to the bottom the electronics can’t pick them up. Grinding out a few each afternoon under blue skies and pleasant temps.

Do ya ever catch just enough to keep you throwing the same bait in the same area but your gut says you should be doing something else? I get too stubborn or too lazy sometimes to change.

I was catching bass on swim jig and spinnerbait in 2 fow, but size was lacking. I was just sure I would run into some bigger ones sooner or later.

Finally tied on a bladed jig and moved outside the weedline into 4 to 6 fow and size went up. Why did I wait so long to adjust? Too lazy or too stubborn, or both!

4th day of Erie Pa fishing and it got better with bigger fish all on jerk baits. Mostly sunny and warmer air temps up to 65. Water temps 51-52.

Additional photos see above.

When I grow up, I wanna fish with both @Dwight Hottle and @A-Jay…

Beauty of some green specimens gentlemens…

@Dwight Hottle: HUGE!!!

On 4/22/2026 at 5:25 PM, Dwight Hottle said:

4th day of Erie Pa fishing and it got better with bigger fish all on jerk baits. Mostly sunny and warmer air temps up to 65. Water temps 51-52.

Additional photos see above.

Those are insane. Nice work.

Caught 11 yesterday. They tried hiding from me on the humps.

@Dwight Hottle Wow!

@Dwight Hottle Nice! I see you targeting those morbidly obese girls.😁

Last day on Erie & no big smallies. Over six walleye all on jerk baits including Rob’s 29” 9lber. We moving our quest to the St Lawrence river out of Clayton NY for two days. Results to follow. We did see a really big eagle overhead that looks like a golden eagle.

That's an excellent eagle shot, Dwight. What camera did you use? I see eagles every time I fish, but don't bother photographing them because they'd be black specks, except when I'm paddling close to shore and surprise an eagle in a tree and they take flight, close enough for me to count their tail feathers, but I'd need a camera already in my hand, which I never have.

I'm fishing today, tomorrow, and Monday. It's been too cold and windy to fish for the last five days or so and I encountered ice on my way to the bird feeders this morning, but it'll warm fast and I'll get back to bassin'!

Good luck on the St. Lawrence, Dwight!

Your latest bass are beautiful, @GreenPig!

A few from last Sunday

My son Joe got a 3.5 pounder this morning in one of my favorite ponds…The bite was very slow though, that was the only bite.

@Susky River Rat: Those smallies make me wanna yell, "Omaha, Omaha, Omaha!"

Last couple of days on Lake Murray

First time back fishing since july 4 2025, River fishing from the bank in lisbon ND on the sheyene river. Cold and 40 mph gusts, had to put snow pants on and layered up. Minnows, jig and bobber and one on a mimic minnow casting.

@Pat Brown I finally put a free rig on and made myself fish it this morning. Had one eat it as soon as it touched the water after I skipped it under the walkway of a dock on my first cast, and it broke off just as fast on the zebra mussels on the dock. I managed to catch several in the couple hours I had including the biggest one I’ve caught from the home lake in a couple years.

12 hours ago, GreenPig said:

@Dwight Hottle Nice! I see you targeting those morbidly obese girls.😁

Yeah there’s about a 99% chance they have type II diabetes.

Those girls got some junk in their trunks.

Was going to head to the lake spot related to the "Steep side Shallow side" post, but with limited time did night fishing at my local honey hole. Ended the night with a 21lb bag!

I broke off on another giant though and this time got to see it wallow on the surface trying to shake off my 7 inch glidebait. I'm making changes to my gear, and to my hook set, this is the 2nd break off in about a month on these big baits on big fish. It's starting to shake my confidence. Going back to braid to a Maxima Ultra green leader, and switching from a San Diego Jam back to the Palomar knot. I'm also pretty jumpy on the hook set so going to try and slow down, reel until tension, and give a nice solid lean into the fish instead of a snap set. Checked the line after the break off and saw it looked curly so 100% a knot failure. While checking the line I heard the fish come up to try and shake the glide and saw a big hefty 7lb+ fish tail wagging on the surface so that stung a bit. At the same time I'm hooking these bigger fish pretty consistently now which is great! Figure once I can sort out these knot failures I'll be on better ground. Either way here are some pics of the ones that filled out the night!

Also anyone who's gone through this and was able to sort it out please let me know! I'm about at a point I'll need to be admitted to the psych ward with this 😂