Ok, let’s recap from the end of last week. First and foremost, Friday was my last day with American Airlines after almost 37 years. Yay! No more waiting until the weekend to go fishing and hope even then something doesn’t happen to interrupt the day! So of course, the weather has been yuck since lol. So, no fishing but, that’s ok! I can get my fix on Bass Resour…Gah!!! The site’s still down! So finally, even though it’s still gray and overcast, I went. First bass was on a Whopper Plopper 90. I used my net and the trebles got tangled bad. While trying to get one of them out of the bass’s mouth and the net, one of the hooks on a treble snapped (bass was fine). Caught another bass on top a little while later and then bang! The bite was off. Fished for three hours with nothing but a couple nibbles from bluegills until I finally caught one on the Bitsy jig with an Easy Shiner trailer. So three on the day. Nothing of any size but fun nonetheless. It was nice to come home and see that BR was back up!

Congrats on retiring, Brian. That's big news!

Got this 4-9 a couple weeks back, on a Zoom grub.

Congratulations on your retirement Brian👍

I can highly recommend it, nothing beats being able to get out during the week and avoiding the weekends, especially holiday weekends.

Went camping on the Delaware river in NJ for a week of kayaking and fishing.

Arrived on Sunday May 3^rd set up camp, walked down from my campsite and fished the river for an hr, tried shad fishing but nothing, switched to bass and caught a smallmouth and a 20’ Walleye.

Next day launched the yak, wind was brutal, blowing against the current. There were whitecaps on the river, was getting blown against the current at 2mph , could only fish close to shore as the middle was unfishable. Toughed it out and managed to land 13 Smallmouths.

Next day my friend came up, he’s shore bound so we just fished down from the campsite. Once again the wind was brutal, I got 3 Smallmouth and another Walleye, when  coming off the water hooked a nice shad and lost it at my feet, kept casting and got a couple of  bumps then hooked another one and landed it. My friend caught his first Walleye and a chub.

Next day was a rainout, no fishing.

Following day I went to a different launch a couple of miles north, didn’t work out as I only got 1 Smallmouth for 5 hrs of fishing. Got back to the campsite and hit the shoreline for another 2 hrs and got nothing.

Next day back to the campsite launch, cloudy with showers and of course wind though not quite as bad as the previous days. Landed 15 Smallmouths, lost a bunch on the jump.

Got back to the launch and started loading up, now the sun came out and the wind died down.

Way to fish, @Bazoo!

Cool trip, @herder!

3 hours ago, Swamp Girl said:

Congrats on retiring, Brian. That's big news!

Can’t argue. It’s pretty big! 🤗

Well I had posted this on Sunday but, must have not survived the update. I’ll make condensed report of the one I posted on Sunday.

Went up north last weekend to visit family in Frankfort Mi. I took my oldest daughter ( 8 yrs old) and the boat. We stoped at Barry lake just east of Cadillac. Long story short caught 2 dink bass and a big crappie. Let the daughter get the boat on plane, come off plane and drive the boat around the lake ( with supervision). She liked that a lot

Fished upper hearing lake Saturday night. Plan was to use Leaches under slip floats and troll for walleye. Wind was pretty gusty and pretty much put an end to trying to float. We did try for 2 hrs. We decided to troll and picked up a 16 inch walleye on a flicker shad. At least proof of concept. My first inland lake walleye I’ve caught while trolling.

Sunday was up in the air due to the wind. Crystal ( Benzie County ) can be a mean you know what on windy days. I set my alarm for 8am. I woke up at 8 o clock and just laid in bed in the upstairs room of my Grandparents and just listened. No wind. I said to my self “ I can get 2-3 hrs in) launch is literally 5 minutes away. Told my daughter “I’m going fishing I’ll be back by noon”

Launched the boat and headed out to rail road point. Water temp was only 46.5-47.0 degrees Checked the 8 ft flat just in case and the smallies were not yet roaming it yet. Didn’t think they would be but, never know. So I head out to the blue line. The blue line is where it drops off from 7-8 ft to 30-40 ft with a 20 ft ledge. I started at the west side started of the pint and start working east. About halfway through working the point I start seeing shadows 20 ft down start darting back and forth between the dark blue water and the sand of the drop off. I had found the small mouth.

First fish I caught on a 3.2 sungill Keitech on a 1/4 round gamakatsu type jig that I make. This was a 2.5 lbs small mouth. Same spot I throw a 2.5 inch Juvy craw watermelon/GP out into about 25-30 ft of water. Let it hit the bottom and started slowly dragging it back. Thump, thump, and I set hook. I know it’s a pretty good fish. I get him closer to the surface and yeah he’s a good fish. He gives me 2 good jumps and net him. Juvy craw just barely in the front of the top of his mouth. I weigh the small mouth and it’s a19.5 inch 4.2 lbs small mouth. Biggest I’ve taken out of Crystal.

About 30 minutes later just as I’m debating about heading to the east end of the lake. Weather starts moving in and I hear a crack of thunder fairly close. It was almost noon anyhow. Decided to head back and pack up to go home,

As a whole the Weekend was alright fishing wise. Sunday was very good for a couple 2-3 hrs of fishing.

Haven’t been fishing much lately because Ive been under water with work.

But I’ve been getting a few…😉

Mostly on watermelon red super flukes.

Seems like since the site was down, I actually fished more instead of just talking about it. I fished a local lake in town that I’ve fished before with -ish success. Well, I went two weeks ago when the site went down and wound up going 6 days in a row. I was catching 10-12 per day, all small guys. However, I was rewarded with this nice 3.5#’er one day. Don’t know how long she followed my spinnerbait, but she hit it about 6” from the bank.

Fishing has been great during the outage.

Photo sums it up:

@Lottabass: My hands are pretty chewed too, Al. We're finally synced!

I know somebody got a new PB while the forum was out of service - it wasn’t me - but I know it was somebody - come on show yourself! 😀😀😀

12 minutes ago, Swamp Girl said:

@Lottabass: My hands are pretty chewed too, Al. We're finally synced!

It's a good pain, Katie! Good to read your reports again! I missed ya!

5 minutes ago, Lottabass said:

It's a good pain, Katie! Good to read your reports again! I missed ya!

Thanks, Al. You're the best.

I'm really proud of the afternoon of fishing I described. Maine Fish and Wildlife says that less than 1% of all Maine largemouth weigh four pounds or more. Well, I caught more than four pounds per bass in my bag with a 6.25, 5.5, 4.5, 4.2, and 4.2, giving me a 24.65-pound total. And that's at nearly 45 degrees latitude and I wasn't fishing a pond with bass-fattening trout or gobies. In-Fisherman says that such a bag would be equivalent to a 37.6-pound bag in the South. And I did that with a paddle and without FFS too.

I'm also proud of the fact that this was my smallest bass. 16.5 inches, but thick:

I was really dialed into big bass. Here are some others I didn't share in my trip report. They're long, but not as thick as the others:

I've shared before that I'd rather catch a 20-pound bag than one, especially fine fish. A 20-pound bag means you're line is being really stretched five times.

few highlights from last trip

@Susky River Rat: Your smallies are soooooooooo dark and beautiful!

@Swamp Girl thats from them hiding in the rocks I believe. Thank you!

Had about 30 minutes to fish yesterday, caught this 3.5lber on the second cast! Probably closer to 4, but I did not have a scale on me.

@herder Thanks. It’s something we’ve been discussing since last August on and off. My wife was being very persistent lol, but I wasn’t quite sold on retirement. Then after returning to work in January after the holidays, I learned that three men in PHX (part of the region I was in) passed away in December. Someone made a comment about one of them turning 65 in April and would never enjoy one day of retirement. That made my mind up for me. And as summer is the busiest season for airlines, I decided to retire in April. But I stayed a few weeks longer to help my replacement get up-to-speed. This week just feels like vacation. Next week probably will, too. It’s definitely wild to contemplate that there is no more “gotta get up and go to work anymore”.

Although the best part will be spending more time with my wife, the next best thing is never having a weekend rained out. When every day is Saturday or Sunday, just go fishing “tomorrow” lol!

It took me a little while to realize I wasn't just on vacation, people ask me if I miss working, I just laugh.

4 hours ago, Swamp Girl said:

Thanks, Al. You're the best.

I'm really proud of the afternoon of fishing I described. Maine Fish and Wildlife says that less than 1% of all Maine largemouth weigh four pounds or more. Well, I caught more than four pounds per bass in my bag with a 6.25, 5.5, 4.5, 4.2, and 4.2, giving me a 24.65-pound total. And that's at nearly 45 degrees latitude and I wasn't fishing a pond with bass-fattening trout or gobies. In-Fisherman says that such a bag would be equivalent to a 37.6-pound bag in the South. And I did that with a paddle and without FFS too.

I'm also proud of the fact that this was my smallest bass. 16.5 inches, but thick:

I was really dialed into big bass. Here are some others I didn't share in my trip report. They're long, but not as thick as the others:

I've shared before that I'd rather catch a 20-pound bag than one, especially fine fish. A 20-pound bag means you're line is being really stretched five times.

Save some for me Swampy! I'm right at one week away from pointing the Ram north!

42 minutes ago, Blue Raider Bob said:

Save some for me Swampy! I'm right at one week away from pointing the Ram north!

The fishing and water are just warming up. You're coming at the perfect time!

Finally had a productive trip north and was able to get a new PB for myself, 5-02 and my dad 5-11 as well. Wish we would have spent more time there. Already looking at 2027!

So last week we had 2 days of nice weather in the Detroit Lakes Minn area where it wasnt windy and was sunny and in the 70,s. I was told about this lake named Rush lake and learned that the lake narrows down into a short 40 yard long 50 feet wide channel which runs 10ft deep with sandy shores and shallow rocky rapids as it feeds into another lake, perfect for walleye spawning where angers line up and cast and reel with boats also staged at the entrance to the channel.

Wife and I caught bass during the day and enjoyed watching the giant sturgeon spawn, it was like looking and fishing in a aquarium, after awhile it was 6pm and i asked one of the folks lining up to fish from the bank "when do the walleye start to bite? the guy tells me " see that parking lot light behind you? when it turns on the bite starts" Well the light turned on alright, at 9.30.

When it turned on so did the walleye, there was 25 folks with chest waders on standing in the water and 3 boats at the mouth and i was the only one fishing from the bank, but i persevered, I was standing behind everyone and just casted out with the others and on 2nd cast caught a 19 incher, I was pumped as i had on a 4 inch gulp purple minnow on a 1/4 oz jig.

Two guys snagged into sturgeon and we all stopped and pulled our lines so they could walk in front of us and get out of the way to take care of the sturgeon, then it was all lines in again, numerous snags between us were happening but no one argues as its part of the game, I snagged lines twice and each time was easy to undo.

I later put on a mimic minnow and caught 2 more 18 inchers and it was now 11:30 pm soi was satisfied with my bigger size walleye and we cleaned em up and arrived home at 2:30 am.

Man, that was some long downtime. I caught too many fish to even try to catch anything up, so I’ll have to offer some targeted and incidental “panfish hookup” bass from the last week on my little inland lake.

Prespawn, deep water bluegill have recently began staging near the shallows and it’s been a hot bite for them. I’ve lost a few nice bass on the bluegill tackle, but that is expected. I had a nice afternoon with the bfs setup tossing bitsy bugs on 6lb and pulling a few bass threw emerging and still frail pads. That was fun, but I won’t be trading in my mh any time soon!