It was amazing, always my favorite anytime I get out there. The water is usually lower and you have to swim to fish it but recent rains allowed us to take boats, although they have to be tiny boats that turn easily and that you can easily pick up and drag

36 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

It was amazing, always my favorite anytime I get out there. The water is usually lower and you have to swim to fish it but recent rains allowed us to take boats, although they have to be tiny boats that turn easily and that you can easily pick up and drag

It's so beautiful, Russ. One morning in northwestern Ontario, I caught a 20-lb. plus bag of smallies, but when I remember that morning, I remember this more:

And I remember the wolves on both shores singing to each other and the bear swimming across the strait and the geese so low overhead that I could hear their wings beating. I still can hear those wings beating.

Your river is as beautiful as the lake above.

Fished the home lake and it was pretty blah. Got there around 730, starting with a pegged power worm. After 3 drops, a lost fish and a miss...I switched to a jig/craw and hit a nice fish on my second throw. Had another drop on the jig there, before moving on. Hit my second fish on a t-rigged cleanup craw before losing another fish. Got irritated with the teaxs rig(I had unpegged at that point) and started throwing the jig again and landed three more fish, two good ones and a 13". After that, it really slowed up with another drop and a miss being it before leaving. Atleast size was solid...

Got a few nice bass this morning. 8 total between 15.5 inches and the one 20 incher. Was having a real good morning until I saw the redneck "special forces" come rolling in. Bunch of loud trucks, jacked up with beat in and mismatched fenders. I figured right then I could count on one of them getting their boat and throwing right on top of me. And not only did one boat do it, but 3 others did as well. Effectively spooking off the feeding fish and forcing me away from the point I was fishing from the bank. Boat anglers like them get under my skin. They show respect when they throw right on top of me like they did. Luckily they were topwater and I was fishing off the bottom with creature baits or else we would have got tangled up, that's how close they decided to get.

That isn't to say that I own any part of the lake, of course I don't. But when I'm fishing I make it a point to not encroach others and not cast where they have already been fishing. Even if someone is fishing on or near my favorite spot before me, I'll walk to the other side of the bank and give them proper space to not only avoid tangling up, but also to not ruin their fishing.

And back to the fish-- interestingly I noticed a couple of the buck bass, or pictured, had red/blooded tails on the bottom like they had been fanning a bed. Do bass actually spawn more than one time of year, or sm I perhaps experiencing a delayed spawn, because this year in the traditional spawning window-- march-april-may, I didn't catch squat. Never even saw evidence of beds.

39 minutes ago, BluegillsTightlines said:

Do bass actually spawn more than one time of year

Professor @Pat Brown says they do and there's no finer mind, bass-wise. Your lucky t-shirt is back! Sorry about the rude boys.

Took the daughter out fishing today on the rivers around Saginaw. Tough bite with all of the Canadian wildfire smoke drifting down. Viability was less than a mile on the river. We didn’t see the actual sun until about 11am. So I believe the fish are in a funk due to the smoke.

Good day though, as I was able to get the daughter on the boat. We fished for about 5-6 hrs. I went up to the area where I had caught fish the previous trip and scratched out one smallie. Caught on a t-rigged black and blue spine craw. Really tough bite.

Should be able to get out Monday before we head up north for a week.

@BluegillsTightlines more than likely would be the result of a late spawning fish. The spawn was very spread out here this year. I was still seeing spawning activity on the lake by my house until last month when water temps were creeping into the low 80's.

It was so hot even the bass were sweatin'!

In the first photo there is a 10 ft channel on the right and a 14 ft channel on the left. In between is a 6 ft flat with timber, brushpiles, and fallen trees. Bass heaven!

SK 4.0 caught a lotta bass. Deflection gets action!

@Lottabass - what is the lure/weight hanging out of the fish’s mouth in the middle picture?

@casts_by_fly Yes, this looks funny. I have a power pole micro anchor on my little boat and this is the handle on top of the pole. The camera angle makes it look like it's in the fishes mouth, but it's not.

18 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

@BluegillsTightlines more than likely would be the result of a late spawning fish. The spawn was very spread out here this year. I was still seeing spawning activity on the lake by my house until last month when water temps were creeping into the low 80's.

That does make a lot of sense. Ewrly this sprint before I took my fishing hiatus I did not see any signs of spawning fish at all. No beds, no pairing bass, nothing. And I think that had an effect on how poor my early fishing was-- I just absolutely could not locate them since they weren't spawning.

But ever since I've been catching them the last 5 or so trips I have seen prominent spawning behavior-- male bass with bloodied tail tips, a couple beds, pairing bass, and one catch was a 20 incher that looked like she had just recently, possibly within just 3 or 4 days, had released her load of eggs. She was long, but a lil bit thin with a 12.75" girth. Still healthy, wasn't skinny per se, but you could tell she had recently shed some weight--likely via spawning. I imagine she will fatten back up over the course of the year and gain another inch of girth.

Sometimes you just gotta break the seal.

With travelling, friends coming, and other commitments, it’s been just over 3 full weeks since my last time out. Considering I was doing 2x a week earlier this year, I was jonesing. We have a tornado watch today but not until later. Rain coming in starting around 10 and getting heavy with lightning around noon. So the early window was my opportunity.

I’ve never fished this lake in the morning before. I’ve made a dozen or more trips here over the past 10 months but they have always been evening trips because the lake is small and you can do two laps in 4 hours. I keep it as a great evening playing around lake. But having not caught a bass in nearly a month, I needed to go somewhere that I knew had a bunch of fish just to put a few in the boat. With the weather coming in, the dark moon, still conditions, and being on the water at 4 am I thought for sure it was going to be a buzzbait bite such that I had two variations rigged up. I pull them out of the box plus a bladed jig since this lake is very much a bladed jig lake. After an hour and a half plus a full lap of the lake, I had 2 bass to my name. Not the start I was looking for. It was light enough to tie a hook without help, but the sun was still 20 minutes from popping up. I looked at the stretch ahead of me and said to myself that if there was a section that I might catch one on a frog, this would be it.

I haven’t had a good frog bite in years. I’ve caught a fish here or there on them, but never had a day where a frog was the thing they wanted. And yet, I keep trying because a good frog day is some of the most fun. I tied on the pad crasher (sunburn color) and threw it up into the reeds. It made it about 5’ off the bank when a 5 gallon bucket of a mouth sucked it under. I knew it was a good one when I set the hook. I knew it was a 5 when it rounded the front of the boat. When I dropped the net under it and slid it onto the mat I knew it was a beast.

I’ve been trying for 5 years to top a 5# bass. I’ve caught a ton of 4-0 to 4-15 fish but I just couldn’t top over 5. Even going home and ‘cheating’ by fishing my dad’s big fish water I couldn’t top 5. Finally, 2 months ago I got a 5-03 from this lake (after catching a 4-08 there as my first fish of the year back in March). Now the seal is officially broken, so long live more big fish.

I ended up with 10 on a short morning, most on the frog that I love to throw but never do well on. Also, i just broke my PB by a pound and a half.

Hellofa read @casts_by_fly of your morning exploits and those picture of your monster bass complete what wasn’t said! Congratulations on that beautiful bass and your new Personal Best!

Yoo-hoo, @casts_by_fly!!!

Inspiring! That is joyful blissful bass fishing perfection @casts_by_fly - frogs are the best bait.

I caught 31 this morning at my pond, giving me 1,259 for the year. I'm either improving as an angler or learning more and more about my pond. Probably both. I say this because 31 bass is an excellent catch for me in mid-July. I didn't catch a single bass off the shoreline and didn't even bother casting to the shore except for one cast at an abandoned beaver lodge, which didn't produce. I'm fishing mid-pond because that's where the bigger bass are.

I couldn't find my first Pondweed patch because it was too dark, so I paddled to the my second set of weedbeds. I caught them with a wacky-rigged Senko with a jig for my hook, a trick I learned from @Glenn. As always, they were healthy bass:

What was different was more smallies than normal. I think this is because I'm fishing mid-pond. A smaller one:

A bigger brown:

Perhaps my three biggest green bass:

About mid-way through my morning, the jig and Senko stopped working and I switched to a 6", 7", and 8" Deps Sakamatashad, which is a thick fluke. I first I cast along the edges of the weeds and into the openings, but discovered I could cast into the thickets. At one point, I landed three bass in three casts.

Here's my biggest smallie:

And here's the prettiest corner of my pond:

I also caught a few bass trolling a Zoom Speed Worm that I T-rigged and casting a T-rigged Yamamoto Nuki Bug. The Nuki Bug is a great lure for casting weightless into heavy cover because it's chunky and doesn't need a weight to chuck it.

I caught lots of other fine fish:

I hope to reach 1,300 by the end of July and then catch another 800 by the end of October to give me 2,100 for the year, which would be my Maine PB in quantity. I'm quite happy with the quality of my bass. I catch few small ones.

The top 6 in tournament standings last year fished the shootout this year at Chautauqua Lake. I placed 2nd and won lunker. Nothing giant, but it was a fun day.