Some from today

Finally made a river smallie trip and it was tough, grinding put 9 fish. Started with back to back footballs on a 1/4oz jig/craw that looked like twins, then it was slow for awhile until I went up near the dam and fished the open flood gate whitewash.

I had a fun flurry pop n' drop fishing paddle tails. No big fish, but as we all know...you don't need a big one to get bent with smallmouth! Felt great getting some HARD pulling brown bass again, and hopefully it gets better in future trips.

Got 3 and lost 2 all in the same spot last night kayaking near the dock

Hot, clear, and calm. Perfect day to bang some wood with a squarebill. Yo Zuri, Bagleys, and SK 4.0 worked well. Most were in 2 fow.

Works every time...bring an inexperienced woman or a kid and they'll get the biggest bass just because that's how fishing is! Checked out a new lake and dink city. Helped a couple kids at the launch by spooling up one of their empty reels with some 8lb hybrid I had on hand for leader, untangling the others mangled reel and giving them some worm hooks and senkos in a few good colors. After throwing off the dock to get the fresh line wet and manageable, I hooked a dink that I let the one kid reel in. I then tossed out the others twisted up rig not as far, handed it to him and seconds later "hey, I got one" and an 18-18.5" bass was brought to hand...never fails lol. Needless to say, those kids were wading out and firing around with vigor after that. The extra 30 min to load up was well worth it; good job guys.

Hot here in Iowa and waters up to 84 degrees on the bigger body’s of water where I’m at. Top water has been really good to me this summer though. The frog and buzzbait early or late in the day have been doing most of the work.

Went gar fishing with a buddy today, had a few hookups but not for long. Caught some bass to keep myself entertained, even got two and lost a couple more with spinnerbait. Paddled a long way up the creek our dock is in, fun exploring. Hadn’t been back there in a few years. Got caught in a couple downpours, thick pine trees saved me once

I went fishing yesterday. I landed around 20 bass. Most of them were tiny, but I did manage 3 keepers. One around 4 pounds, one 5 pounds, and this one that went, 6.4 pounds 23 inches.

Best lure was a spinnerbait, but the biggest was on a T rig Ole Monster. Lost a hawg on the spinnerbait, then proceeded to lose that bait, as well as the only other one like it that I had with me. I have over 100 spinnerbaits at home, but they didn't do me any good at home.

The wind blew 25 mph. I snagged a brand new crankbait, and tried to save it with a plug knocker. I was trying to get over the top of the lure, but the wind made it difficult. I tried to anchor in place, and lost my anchor. After a real circus, I did manage to get my lure back. I then decided to try and snag my anchor line with the crankbait, in order to save my anchor. I didn't save the anchor, but managed to loose the crankbait. I'm sure glad I don't buy expensive crankbaits. If that had been a Megabass crankbait, I'm sure I would have lost the plug knocker, broke the rod, flipped the kayak, and still lost the bait, and my anchor. Because it was a dt 16 I gave up and broke the line, before I became a drowning statistic.

After this fiasco, I tied on a spinnerbait, and began to catch bass. This trip cost me more in gear than all of my trips combined this year, but I buy the baits to use, and I didn't get skunked.

I launched this evening hoping to catch 13 to give me 1,200 bass for the year, but I caught 17 and so my count is at 1,204. I'm thinking I have a chance to surpass 2,000 again, as I did in 2024. I'm feeling more and more dialed into my pond. I've learned where to catch them month-by-month. My problem this evening was wind. It was 4 m.p.h. when I launched, which just allowed me to see the openings in the Pond Weed beds, but after an hour, it increased to 7 m.p.h. and I could no longer see the openings. I caught a dozen in the first hour, went fishless when the wind picked up, and caught the final five in the third and final hour when I started picking some up on the southern and western shores. I caught every fish but one on a seven-inch Deps Sakamata. I even caught three smallmouth, which is rare for my pond I put my first bass on the bump board so you can see how thick the bass grow in my pond. Not as thick as Clayton's bass, but still impressive for mid-July. Some of my bass:

This was my biggest smallie:

Back to bigmouths:

This one was caught on my final cast:

51 minutes ago, Swamp Girl said:

I launched this evening hoping to catch 13 to give me 1,200 bass for the year, but I caught 17 and so my count is at 1,204. I'm thinking I have a chance to surpass 2,000 again, as I did in 2024. I'm feeling more and more dialed into my pond. I've learned where to catch them month-by-month. My problem this evening was wind. It was 4 m.p.h. when I launched, which just allowed me to see the openings in the Pond Weed beds, but after an hour, it increased to 7 m.p.h. and I could no longer see the openings. I caught a dozen in the first hour, went fishless when the wind picked up, and caught the final five in the third and final hour when I started picking some up on the southern and western shores. I caught every fish but one on a seven-inch Deps Sakamata. I even caught three smallmouth, which is rare for my pond I put my first bass on the bump board so you can see how thick the bass grow in my pond. Not as thick as Clayton's bass, but still impressive for mid-July. Some of my bass:

This was my biggest smallie:

Back to bigmouths:

This one was caught on my final cast:

I'm curious what kinds of forage are prevelant in your pond?