The day didn’t go as planned. I had lots of set backs and didn’t end up going to prefish for a tournament but, I did get some birthday smallies in. Here are a few from today.

Yesterday, 7a - 1p water is 72 degress. It was slow and still no signs of a Shad spawn. I caught 6, here's the best 3. Rainy, overcast, with a little wind, should've been on fire.

Extremely clear lake in southern WV, 1st time fishing it.

Very windy, water temp 63.

Throwing Jackall Flickshake and Ned but tough to detect bite in wind but had fun.

I caught 23 this morning in three hours at my pond, so the fishing is heating up as the water warms. They bit soooooooo lightly. I felt nothing with about half my bites. I simply saw the line doing something strange. All but one (wacky worm) on my T-rigged blue craw. I launched hoping to catch bass on the surface, but couldn't even coax a single bite. I did get one hit in the air when my craw landed in a bitsy bush and a bass leapt out of the water to yank its claws off.

I photographed a smaller one so that you can see the up and comers are eating well too:

I've caught 169 bass in 2026, but my pace might slow for a bit as the wind speed is increasing.

Sadly, I lost a big bass when it broke my line. I saw it and then snap!

Got out early today on the lake. The grass has gotten insane and so thick. Air temp was 37 degrees and water was about 60. Had one bite in 3 hours. Was running a buzzbait along a bank leading into a pocket. She hit it probably 5 feet from the boat and in 5 feet of water.

Several cold nights had the surface temp back to 60. Lake high and in the shoreline grass. Snagless sally, swim jig, and bladed jig caught the most.

Bigger ones came flipping a pit boss on outside weed edge.

This lil guy was eatin good!

Always nice to catch crappie on a swim jig!

The highlights from today

Glorius day on the water!

Tougher, cold front conditions and bite last few days. Smallies were a little pocket flurry on a jig/stickworm at first, a lull, then a scattered paddle tail bite with one on a jig to end it. Got a big male and one fat hen. Bite wasn’t long and very hit or miss.

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The largemouth were doable, but picky and tentative at times on the bite. Had a lot of drops today and most bites were simply weight or tension. Jigs were best, with a stickworm trailer a MUST. No crank fish, but I did get some dragging a baby brush hog on a c-rig and my first senko fish of the season in a little closing flurry in the weeds(3 on 1 senko!). Tough bite and scattered around. When it gets picky, you gotta experiment. A craw trailer caught one bass all day. The pop and drop of the worm was their trigger(like coho salmon).

Another Day ~ Another Trophy Brown Bass ~

I'm almost ready to forget winter.

A-Jay

3 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

Another Day ~ Another Trophy Brown Bass ~

I'm almost ready to forget winter.

A-Jay

Wow 😲 beautiful.

1 hour ago, A-Jay said:

Another Day ~ Another Trophy Brown Bass ~

I'm almost ready to forget winter.

A-Jay

That fish looks amazing!! Congrats!! How much that one weigh?

2 minutes ago, FLYING HIGH said:

That fish looks amazing!! Congrats!! How much that one weigh?

Thanks ~ She could not have been any closer to 6 lbs if she tried.

🙂

A-Jay

@A-Jay I’ve seen some of your videos and multiple pictures of those smallmouth moments. Those are some of the biggest and most beautiful fish I’ve ever seen.

Haven’t researched if you have or not but, I would think that if you ever got into a bass tournament, you definitely have the gear and skill set to easily finish top 5.

I don’t know you outside of Bass Resource, so this is my unbiased opinion, but you sure have put together an impressive compilation of fishing moments. You could definitely take in some cash thru local tournaments or even guide a few trips for other anglers if you wanted. Definitely not saying you need the cash, you are just that skilled brother.

Maybe even enough to pay for all your toys. 😂. It’s great getting to hear some of your knowledge on everything. Thank you for the time you have invested here at Bass Resource sir!!

After all the comments we read on your threads, I know everyone here appreciates your valuable insight.

Just wanted to give you a shout out after seeing that smallmouth picture. That’s all. 👍

9 hours ago, FLYING HIGH said:

@A-Jay I’ve seen some of your videos and multiple pictures of those smallmouth moments. Those are some of the biggest and most beautiful fish I’ve ever seen.

Haven’t researched if you have or not but, I would think that if you ever got into a bass tournament, you definitely have the gear and skill set to easily finish top 5.

I don’t know you outside of Bass Resource, so this is my unbiased opinion, but you sure have put together an impressive compilation of fishing moments. You could definitely take in some cash thru local tournaments or even guide a few trips for other anglers if you wanted. Definitely not saying you need the cash, you are just that skilled brother.

Maybe even enough to pay for all your toys. 😂. It’s great getting to hear some of your knowledge on everything. Thank you for the time you have invested here at Bass Resource sir!!

After all the comments we read on your threads, I know everyone here appreciates your valuable insight.

Just wanted to give you a shout out after seeing that smallmouth picture. That’s all. 👍

@FLYING HIGH

I truly appreciate the kind words and the shout-out.

It’s been a privilege sharing these moments and learning alongside everyone here for so many years.

Regarding the tournament scene—while I’m flattered by the vote of confidence, that’s never really been my lane. For me, the 'win' has always been about the preparation, the quiet of the morning, and the personal challenge of the hunt.

I’m much more at home chasing those 'brown bass' on my own terms than I am chasing a weigh-in clock.

Thanks to the whole community for the continued support

and for making this forum such a great place to talk shop.

Fish Hard

A-Jay

New PR smallest bass ever hooked, not in the mouth so I guess I can't count it.

Bonus crappie

I finally got a bass this year that wasn't a dink. I was fishing from the dock casting a spinnerbait into some grass growing near the bank.

I got skunked the last two trips. I mean skunked. Not even a nibble. We got a ton of rain two days ago and this morning the water was stained and very cloudy. But it was a beautiful morning so I went. Started on topwater with zero action then switched to what’s been my best bait so far- a Bitsy jig with an Easy Shiner trailer. Just like that- two bass. Not big, but two bass in five minutes. And. That. Was. That. Not sure why the bite’s been off, but it’s been tough. But man, I’m having the most success with a jig this year than ever.

Went out about 2 weeks ago and finally got some solid bass on bfs. Didn't have a scale but im estimating 2.5-3.5 lbs each. I used some home made jika rigs with a 2.8 bellows shad, #2 ewg, and 1/16 oz weight. Line was 8lb suffix 832 to 6lb sunline fc sniper. I started off with an 1/8 oz weight, but the bass would just watch it fall then become un interested. I switched to the 1/16, the slower fall rate held there attention better and triggered them to swim over to it and pick it up off the bottom. Had i not seen my line move or watched them follow my bait down i dont think I would have bin able to tell because of how light they were biting that day.

Gosh, I missed Bass Resource. I tried a Maine bass fishing Facebook group for a few days, where I’d post pics of my catches, but some of the members only wanted to know where I fish. I’d be asked again and again to name my spots with nearly no interest in how I catch bass. They just wanted to fish my spots as if that would guarantee them good catches, which it won’t. 

I’ve seen other anglers struggle to catch bass at the two ponds I fish and speaking of struggling to catch bass, many of the members of that Facebook group also struggle to catch bass. I remember when Andy said that the thing he learned at Bass Resource is that an “average bassnut” can catch a lot of bass in the right place, but there sure are a lot of seemingly average bassnuts in Maine who can only catch a little bass or two. 

Anyway, because of my age, I’ve fished just two ponds in 2026, my pond and my pal’s pond, as I have a boat at each pond. There are bigger bass in the public access water I fished in 2023 and 2024, but I’m happy with smaller bass at my pond and my pal’s pond.

I’ve caught some 19-inchers at my pond this year, but this 18.5-incher is my favorite:

I had my best fishing outing at my pal’s pond a few days ago. Last year, I enjoyed fast fishing on  a shoreline of low, bushy trees. I caught eight 15 to 16-inchers in eight casts, the most consecutive bass of my life.. I assumed that males liked to park under the trees prior to the spawn to ambush prey. So I tried the same stretch of shoreline again, but this year, there were big females under the trees in about three feet of water abutting a shallow flat and I caught my biggest 2026 bass so far.

I caught her in a very cool way. I was casting a fat, white Whopper Plopper, but not casting tight to the cover because if my lure landed in a tree, I’d kill the fishing in that area while retrieving it. Well, one time only, my lure landed on a limb, so I jiggled it to free it. Every time I jiggled it, it seemed like the water beneath it stirred. Sure enough, when the lure jiggled free and landed on the water, the water erupted and I caught this girl. She was so long that I photographed her with the camera positioned over her head to capture her full length:

I caught other thick girls the same way and enjoyed a 26-bass outing with only one bass at 16.5 inches, with all the rest being bigger. Here are some of those bigger ones, adding up to a 20-lb. plus bag:

I also caught some off-shore, including a 19.5-incher and an 18.5-incher. My best ten could have won me first place and second place in some tournaments.

I returned three days later and the big girls were gone, but I still caught 29 here and there, including another four-pounder. Bass are complex, so often on the move and I don’t know why, but I am determined to find them and I’ve caught many this year by fishing locations on my two ponds that I haven’t historically fished. 

Overall, my most productive lure has been a T-rigged, blue craw, both Keitech and Yamamoto, fished with a 3/16th oz. tungsten bullet weight. 

I’m at 327 bass for the year, but because of the wind, I’m having a hard time launching as much as I’d like and I don’t fish as long as I recently did due to being older. Plus, a couple weeks back, I had a couple mornings where my canoe was frosted and its painter/rope was frozen.

Camped on a clear lake in WV with all rocks and no grass.

Couple on a Karashi and most on a Ned.

Let's try this again --

Just my luck, I finally get out on the water for 2026 in time for BR to go dark for a few weeks. Since then I have managed five ~3-hour trips. Some highlights:

First fish of the year:

Lots of 2-3lb action:

Two best so far have been this 3.5lb and 4.15lb:

The spawn seems is imminent in the smaller & shallower waters around here if it hasn't started yet. I'm going to hit a couple bigger/deeper lakes next week that may be a few degrees cooler.

Celebrated Mother's Day this year by catching a couple ~

A-Jay

Man, I’ve been having so much fun the past month plus I had to look back at the last time posting. I kept riding out the lake that was hot until this past Saturday. I might still fish it again but I think I’m giving it a break. My last post was about the 2-morning catches of smallies plus a few bonus green fish. Well, after that post I went on vacation for a week so ended up losing 2 weeks of time. Turns out the fish were still going strong. Over the past two weeks I made a couple more trips in evenings and mornings and I don’t even know how many fish I caught. Every trip was at least a dozen, usually more, sometimes a lot more. A spinnerbait stayed hot and was my default for checking that the fish were still around. A squarebill came on strong though! I’ve never been much of a squarebill user given the grass we get here but holy moly it can come through wood surprisingly well. Burning it on an 8.4:1 reel draws some aggressive hits. I’ve caught a couple dozen of them that way the past two weeks. And once, just once, did I have the conditions for a topwater bite and I took full advantage of that. Watching 3# smallies come out of 6’ of gin clear water to smack a bait out of the water on the surface is maybe the most fun fishing you can have.

I made a couple trips elsewhere for variety and caught some fish, but nothing exciting to post here. Until last night. Last night I got a later start and then had to take a long call from the water so had to sit for an hour just watching the world go by without fishing. When I finally could fish, the clouds were getting dark and I wasn’t sure how long I’d be out. Didn’t matter- only took 4 casts before my Evo tungsten stopped dead and I set the hook. I felt the headshake and didn’t think much of it. It started to come straight out of the grass towards the boat and I thought i had a big clump of grass on the fish since it was pretty heavy. Then she rolled and I saw how big she was. She looked to be hooked pretty well but even still it took a very tense minute to slip the net under her. A quick trip to the scale and bump board read out 5-02 and 21” for a new PB. Finally my NJ 5# fish. That now gives me a limit of largemouths for the year between 4-03 and 5-02.

And the big one

Had to go back a ways to figure out where my last report was, that was a rough break! The fish haven't been getting any breaks though. I took my boys out a couple times, once to the lake right by the house in the boat and they absolutely smashed the panfish of all kinds. I bought some nightcrawlers and the water was super clear. We could see the beds so I'd just point them out and they'd go in for the kill. They like putting fish in the livewell and that thing was thumping full of big foreheads by time we were done. Lake was rotating back and forth between bass and bluegills because I was catching so many bass and he thought it was really cool watching them eat the bait. He caught the big one of the day out from under a dock on a Ned and at the end of the day, I had them pose with their sunfish buffet, a bluegill, a redear sunfish, a green sunfish, and a warmouth.

Then we went out in the kayaks at another local lake that has a history of being a dink factory but has suddenly kicked out several big bass. The boys wanted the $1 per fish caught deal and Finn made me pay for agreeing to that. The panfish were spawning there also and he put 23 of them in the kayak.

I managed to find one of the over the slot bass, with a spawned out 20 incher, big enough to eat most other bass in this lake, but this is the same lake my buddy caught a 21 and 21.75 in a Tuesday night tournament about a month ago, then a boater caught a 7 pounder, and another guy in our kayak club caught a 22.50" 7.7lb fish last week from it, so maybe it's not a dink factory anymore? That would be awesome since it's 20 minutes from my house.

This week the Tuesday nighter was at the lake right by my house. It's been fishing great and I thought it might take 50" (3 fish limit), to win it. I had a really rough night, breaking off my very first flip thanks to the copius amounts of zebra mussels on every dock. Then I lost a few bites while watching my buddy Deric fishing the docks I wanted to start on and catching them on a wacky rig. I jumped across the lake and caught my limit in 3 cast on a wacky rig to calm my nerves. The bigger fish have been eating the free rig under docks but I switched it to my rod with 17lb Tatsu instead of 15lb to help combat the zebra mussels and I think it was the right move. My first fish I boated on it was a 16.50" fish, a nice fish for this lake. Then as I rounded a point, there was a dock I knew had a little brush so I dropped my rig into it. The fish took off and I could feel my line grating on the mussels but it drug her back through, a 17" that was my biggest of the night. Then I'd been mixing in a Fishlab Bio Wake Shad 6" because they love that bait on this lake and I caught several on it, including a 15" fish that rounded out my limit and gave me just enough to squeak out the win and secure my spot in the championship tournament.