50 minutes ago, Mbirdsley said:

Saginaw Bay Smallies were feisty today.

Launched out of the mouth of the Saginaw River this morning and started looking for some bass. Headed out to an island near the mouth of the river.

Started the day by ripping a lil general ned in gobey through the weed lines on a 5-6 ft flat. Picked up one 2.5 lbs large mouth. Fished that and various weed lines for another hour and decided to go try and find some smallies.

Went around the island and went to the same spot where I pounded the smallies in the fall. I caught 5-6 smallies out of one spot. They were holding extremely tight to cover. I would literally have to bounce my maxx scent Gobie ned head right of the metal dock structure watch the Ned slide down the gridded and boom fish on. Most of these smallies came in 4-6ft of water. The big 3.5lber came off the same structure but a little deeper in 6-8ft. All of the smallies faught very well today.

I knew the M/V Sam Laude was in bound with stone for the upper Saginaw River. She ended up by me on her way up river around 11:30am. The photos that I took do not do justice to how close I was. She was still at full power doing 18 kts when she passed me. While on the trolling motor her suction literally turned the boat 360 like a toy top. The resulted silt she kicked up eventually blew into the area I was fishing and killed the action.

I caught a bunch of 1 lbs bass later in the kawkalin river.

I’m not going to lie those big boats used to freak me out when my FIL would have us out on the Illinois River and his boat was a 36’ cabin cruiser.

Bob and I fished for two hours this evening and we caught 29. Bob caught the biggest at 18 inches. He also caught a 17.75-incher, as did I. We fish well together, supporting each other, but with a light seasoning of teasing. Bob loves the beauty of my pond as much as I do and he knows more birds than me (and trees!) and I enjoy learning more names of nature. Bob really enjoys t-rigging, but he also caught bass on a Whopper Plopper and spinnerbait. Here are some of our bass, starting with the first one caught:

12 hours ago, GreenPig said:

Nice. Some days they only want the legs.😁

I cut the legs off.

9 hours ago, Swamp Girl said:

Bob and I fished for two hours this evening and we caught 29. Bob caught the biggest at 18 inches. He also caught a 17.75-incher, as did I. We fish well together, supporting each other, but with a light seasoning of teasing. Bob loves the beauty of my pond as much as I do and he knows more birds than me (and trees!) and I enjoy learning more names of nature. Bob really enjoys t-rigging, but he also caught bass on a Whopper Plopper and spinnerbait. Here are some of our bass, starting with the first one caught:

I think you two are having a grand time, on and off the water!

11 minutes ago, Lottabass said:

I think you two are having a grand time, on and off the water!

We are! Bob's my buddy. He does have a wounded wing. He had shoulder surgery this spring and the bass keep wearing him out. I love how he loves walking through the woods to the pond...like me! For Bob and me, it's not just catching bass. For example, it's watching the birds and talking about them. I asked what a white-breasted black bird with a white-tipped tail was and Bob explained that it was a Kingbird, which flutter hovers in the air as it hunts bugs...and it does! We were both happy to see a grouse rise out of the bog, something I've never seen before that moment.

And the carnivorous Pitcher Plants are blooming and we both enjoy them too, but most of all, Bob loves the bog. I'm Swamp Girl and he's Swamp Boy.

Just a pair of regular ole cricketys chirpin’ away on the pond! Makes me smile to see it. Yall have fun and catch a biggin!

Fished a short while to clear my head and hit my favorite spot for the first time all season. Conditions were trash and I didn’t start fishing around 11-1130, but I got one good female to go and felt it was good enough

"My thumb is raw," Bob just said.

And I'm sad because my buddy leaves tomorrow morning, but we ended our visit dancing with bass, catching 40 (Bob caught most of them.) in about 2.5 hours. At one point, we saw four circling ospreys and we saw a loon swim underwater beside our canoe. Bob hooked an 18-incher in tight quarters and played her masterfully and a V of geese flew low overhead. I didn't even try to photograph the sunset. I couldn't capture that much beauty.

9 hours ago, Swamp Girl said:

"My thumb is raw," Bob just said.

And I'm sad because my buddy leaves tomorrow morning, but we ended our visit dancing with bass, catching 40 (Bob caught most of them.) in about 2.5 hours. At one point, we saw four circling ospreys and we saw a loon swim underwater beside our canoe. Bob hooked an 18-incher in tight quarters and played her masterfully and a V of geese flew low overhead. I didn't even try to photograph the sunset. I couldn't capture that much beauty.

Sounds like heaven!!!!!

I hope Bob gets to come back.

Launched today before the sun was up. 58 and overcast with a slight breeze from the south.

Entire upper end of this reservoir has been overrun by Lilly pads since the last time I fished here. Started out pitching them but gave up after a few minutes since it was so fast and featureless I couldn’t pick one area to focus my attention on.

Switched to the elite Evo, working the outside of a milfoil edge near the creek channel got bit and broken off. Now a a good time to mention I’m experimenting with braid to leader on casting gear and well I guess I did not tie a good knot. I was about to scrap it but took a deep breath and retained my leader taking my and I believe I got it right.

Anyways kept working the outside weed line caught another adjacent to deep water. Not huge but had an interesting short and round shape.

Caught the next two along the dam where the weed line was interspersed with some boulders. Much better fish.

Few more dinks after that. Finished with seven total by 8:00 .

Did some more prefishing for the upcoming state lake roadrunner tournament yesterday. I wish this lake was closer because it sure is fun. I caught my biggest (longest), 5 bass limit in Kansas and tied my longest kayak bass from Kansas both. T-rigged plastics and swim jigs were the deal. These gals were real tackle testers. I could hear that Seaguar Tatsu and Smackdown screaming in those laydowns and water willows while I was trying to drag them out.

I got so close to the century mark, something I’ve only accomplished once before. I was catching 17 inchers and laughing knowing they wouldn’t have done anything for me in a tournament.

I told Bob yesterday that I wouldn't want to fish against you, Clayton. I would, however, like to net some of your beasts!

Headed home to SWPA for the weekend for a concert tomorrow and we came a day early to spend some family time. Of course that meant fishing on my dad’s largemouth lake. This was actually the earliest he’s ever fished it in the year (he goes elsewhere until now) so the grass was a little lighter and the water MUCH clearer (4’ visibility) than normal. No matter, the fish were still in the usual places, you just had to work for them. We got 19 between us with a 6-fish limit of 18-20” fish. Only took one sub par picture of one of the smaller ones to share here. Biggest of them would have topped 4# no problem and not pushed 5 by any stretch. That’s as close to a weight as I took on them aside from a super chunky 15-16” fish that we couldn’t agree on a weight for and actually weighed to settle the argument (he was right, I was over by 1/2 lb). Mish mash day for lures- buzzbait (biggest), trick worm (most), miyagi, rage bug, and vibrating jig all caught fish.

I also got out on Wednesday for an evening session to the big lake back home. I thought the smallies I was hammering earlier would have pulled back to their summer patterns. They probably have but I haven’t figured out what that is yet. The plan was to graph around a bunch until I found bait and structure and then throw minnows, drag a jig, etc. Every time I found fish, it wasn’t bass.

Caught a couple of those guys and while they are fun (and the bigger mat helps with slime containment @A-Jay ) they weren’t the target and I really want to figure out the summer smallies up there. With nothing playing deep, I went shallow and found a couple willing participants. There were still a few guarding beds I think, plus the resident small largemouth that are always there. Caught a couple, lost a decent smallie, but nothing to write home about. I did hear a loon though which I have never seen in NJ.

The fishing has slowed down finishing school and landing a post grad job, so here's an AI bass from graduation for fun!!! Officially a Master of Social Work!

Also a river smallmouth caught the day after graduation as well wading the American river, it was stunning I'll get more scenery pics next time.

Going on a solo camping trip next week at beautiful Lake Almanor here in Northern California, on the hunt for some healthy Smallies. Hoping to stick them with rip-baits, crankbaits, 3 inch swimbaits, topwaters and jigs n dropshots. Thinking fish will be in post-spawn with maybbeeee a few spawning stragglers. Should be a blast with the view if Mt. Lassen in the background.

@RenzokukenFisher Congratulations on making it through school and the new job.

5 hours ago, GreenPig said:

@RenzokukenFisher Congratulations on making it through school and the new job.

Indeed!

Congrats, @RenzokukenFisher! Those were clever, and fun. The one with the tarpon nearly made me spit out my coffee. 😂

48 minutes ago, Fishlegs said:

Congrats, @RenzokukenFisher! Those were clever, and fun. The one with the tarpon nearly made me spit out my coffee. 😂

Exactly what was said above 😆

Ventured out to a new lake today about 40 mins from the house. It’s a 118 acre state park. It was drained and refilled and stocked 2 years ago due to a huge invasive gizzard shad population. I’d been told the fish are small but numbers are amazing. I hit the water at 5:45 and fished till 9. I absolutely wore my arm out lol. Lost count but man I had to have caught 30 fish. 12-13 inches were the biggest. But they were destroying a buzzbait. But once I started not getting hook ups I switched to a plopper and that solved that due to the small fish. Flipping a jig along the shoreline and rocks and the tons of lay downs produced fish as well.

The state actually treats this lake for curly pond weed. You can fish about any kind of lure you want here. Lily pads as well which I haven’t seen since I left Florida. Absolutely a fun day. No giants but a really fun morning nonetheless the less.

@GreenPig @Swamp Girl @Fishlegs @Eric 26 , Thanks for the good wishes and glad the pics could get some laughs!