2 minutes ago, Lottabass said:

I've learned the "feel" to worm a crankbait thru and over wood. It requires proper boat position, casting angles and cast length, retrieve speed, and depth the crankbait runs.

^This^ sounds like a lifetime of earned wisdom. I can feel the difference between wood, rock, and weeds with my soft plastics most of the time, but your challenge sounds much harder.

25 minutes ago, JonB2 said:

This was the big fish from yesterday.

There she is! Thanks!

1 hour ago, Lottabass said:

It happens but not often. When I do get stuck it's because I've let my attention span lapse. Every cast requires concentration. I've learned the "feel" to worm a crankbait thru and over wood. It requires proper boat position, casting angles and cast length, retrieve speed, and depth the crankbait runs.

A plug knocker works to free a bait most of the time.

There is a YT cooking show where the host says lifting the lid on your grill lets all the heat out.

He says, "If you're lookin', you ain't cookin'".

Same with squarebills, I say, "If you ain't hittin', you ain't fishin'."

It has been hot/humid/wild fire smoke here - to beat the heat I went out earlier on Saturday - no luck at first - then I threw this Baum BOFU 55 (bait in the picture) around some isolated reeds - I caught several nice LMB but the most fun one was when I threw the bait a bit too far and it got hung up on one of the reeds, so only the back appendages were in the water - WHAM ! this LMB came right up out of the water to grab it off the reed - an exciting catch !!

1 hour ago, WaskaCrank12 said:

this LMB came right up out of the water to grab it off the reed - an exciting catch !!

I LOVE when they do that. I caught my biggest lmb of 2026 (22.25") when my lure landed in a woody bush overhanging the water. I didn't want to ruin the spot by paddling to the lure, so I twitched it and the water stirred. I twitched it again and the water moved again. Then I twitched it free and the water erupted. So fun.

I'm launching this evening for a couple hours because it's been too windy to evening fish for a couple weeks or more and it'll finally be just barely okay (7 mph), but I worry I won't be able to see the Pond Weed beds where I've been catching bass. I might just go for an evening paddle and troll along the way.

Hit the Delaware today, weather was great and no smoke.landed 16 Smallmouths, 1 chub and a Walleye, lost a bunch on the jump.

Saw 2 Muskies. an eel and a good size catfish, also some big carp.

Water was clear and moving normal.

There's a lot of eel grass, but that's normal for this stretch.

Some caught on a 3" paddle tail, most on a Ned rig bounced off the bottom in 6' ft of water, biggest came on a fluke.

Nothing that big but those river smallies fight over their size!

I fished my pond for 2 hours and 15 minutes this evening. It was clear-skied and windier than I like, but I managed to boat ten, taking my 2026 total to 1,269. Look how fat this smallie was!

The smallie above makes this smallie look slender:

This was my biggest bass:

I caught these nice ones too, using a combination of a blue craw, a Deps Sakamatashad, and wacky worm on a jig:

Been getting out on and off the past month trying new lakes and stumbled upon some nice catches! I lost the rhythm on lakes I was fishing during Spring as they grassed out, and decided to mix things up by trying to learn the many deep, rocky, and clear fisheries in my area.

The highlight so far has been getting my girlfriend on a nice chunk of a largie, and catching my pb spot at 3lbs 10oz. On a 6ft ultralight!

Let that 1/8th oz drop shot sit with a Zoom trick worm while trying to adjust my raft fighting off the wind. Picked up line and felt a little weight so set the hook. It didnt fight so hard at first but the second I brought it about 10ft under the surface it did the classic spot maneuver of diving straight down like a freight train. After two strong runs the wind had pushed me right over a thick and gnarly tree where the spot decided it had its chance to break me off zipping straight into the tree. Meanwhile the lady had pulled up in the paddle board and was trying to tow me away from the tree but by then that thing was all wrapped up and I could see it down there about 8ft. Told her I was gonna swim for it hahaha because with the distortion of the water that thing looked 7 pounds!! Thank goodness letting some tension off the line did the trick and it worked it's way out of the tree and it was pretty tuckered out after the ordeal. Got it in the raft took a breath and celebrated. It feels good giving largemouth a break and going after these hard fighters.

I paddled 5 ish miles from the dock to a floating concert my buddy’s son was playing on Saturday. An older couple saw my fishing tackle and invited me on board their pontoon to talk fishing. Lightning delayed the concert and I was a tad apprehensive about paddling 5 miles back in a storm but they offered to load my kayak onto their pontoon to take me back to my dock, thanks to them !

Since I was back home by 7 i figured I would fish a while, got two SMB and a LMB

There were more boats at that concert than in Ft. Lauderdale ! I couldn’t zoom out far enough to capture it all

Started my weeklong vacation on Monday. Decided to start my vacation off by fishing Monday morning ( only day to fish). Middle of the week we are heading up north for a family camping trip.

The smoke from the wild fires has for the most part cleared out with the S/SW winds.

Fished the Saginaw River again but, decided to start farther down river at a places called the 1st turning basin. 1st street turning basin is the furthest up the Great Lakes freighters can up the Saginaw River. At this point I am 15-20 miles from The Saginaw Bay/Lake Huron. One thing I like about big river fishing is that if I get bored of fishing the same area. I just move down the river 4-5 miles and I’m on a completely new area with different structure, current, water clarity etc, etc,

Any how left the Saginaw launch at 7 am. Roughly ten minute boat ride to 1st street. Start throwing a strike king size 3 sexy shad crank at up stream side of log Jam. Boom fish on. Fish dived low and stayed down low and I’m like “ definitely a catfish”. Get fish to the surface and yup, it’s a channel 17-18 inch channel catfish. Reposition the boat throw the crank at the log jam, crank gets caught on some sea weed, rip crank out. Boom !!! fish on. This time a 14-15 inch large mouth.

I outs around fir 2ish hrs and than head into the turning basin proper. The trip before with my daughter, the basin was full of 1-2 inch shad. Which, the bass were corralling up against hard structure and busting them. This day however, there was not as many shad in the basins.

Messed around in the basin for a hour started using the trolling motor to move back up stream. There are a ton of old pilings from former ship loading/ unloading docks lining the river in this area. I’ve never really caught much out of them. The pilings are kinda tricky to fish. 2 years ago fishing the same area I managed to knock the transducers off the stern of the boat. Started off with a black and blue 5 inch senko Neko rig and caught a 15-16 large mouth right away. Caught another smaller large mouth about 15 minutes later. I literally lost 5 Neko rigs trying to fish these pilings in literally 200 ft. The hooks aren’t digging in but,the line is getting caught in the tops of the old pilings that are split. Finally after waisting time thing leaders and re rigging Neko rigs. I switch over to a black and blue t-rigged spine craw. I come across a 12-14 inch pipe leading to the water. I flip the spine craw under the pipe let it fall and feel a thump. Set the hook and fish on. I’m able to tangle the fish luckily out of the pilings because, it’s going nuts. It goes airborne and it’s a small mouth. I figured it was about 2.5-2.75 lbs. The smallie caught hard he made one more run to the pilings and I was able to turn him again and get him in the boat. By this time it was 1-1:30 pm and needed to go.

Some patterns from fishing the river the last 3 weeks. Large mouth are loving the Neko rig. The small mouth are not likening the Neko rig as much. I’ve caught one smallie on a Neko rig. The small mouth are loving the spine craw. I have not caught one large mouth on the spine craw. The smallmouth have been very very tight to cover. The large mouth seem to be roaming more and keying in on shad.

Best thing about the warm weather up here is it seems to super charge the small mouth. The warmer the water gets the more P.O.ed the smallies get.

Went fishin in detroit lakes minn area tuesday, strong winds from the bank, cloudy and only hit 80 degrees air temp and low humidity had me wearing a jacket to keep warm as the past 2 weeks had been 95 high humidity.

Went crappie fishin and also caught bass using 1/32 oz jigs with gulp minnows, 1 inch plastic hellmagrite and pieces of cooked shrimp using a bobber.

The bass were hittin that small 1/32 oz jig with 1/2 inch cut piece of hellmagrite and not hittin the gulp minnow.

I love catchin' fat girls! It was another squrebill day. 2.5 caught the most. Yo Zuri and SK 4.0 caught a few. First pic is a timbered tree line, brush on the right and what was pasture before they built the lake on the left. I worked up and down for a couple hours until my arms just couldn't take any more!

On 7/21/2026 at 12:11 PM, TnRiver46 said:

but they offered to load my kayak onto their pontoon to take me back to my dock,

That's really awesume!

Hooked a big one and she was headed for "the danger zone". I was winchin' as hard as I could but she got in the log. Took the split ring and rear hook right off the Big Rocco!

5 minutes ago, Lottabass said:

I love catchin' fat girls! It was another squrebill day. 2.5 caught the most. Yo Zuri and SK 4.0 caught a few. First pic is a timbered tree line, brush on the right and what was pasture before they built the lake on the left. I worked up and down for a couple hours until my arms just couldn't take any more!

Those are some real quality bass. I can see why your arms got tired! No telling how big the girl was that got away. At least you know she's still there and where she lives.

3 minutes ago, Blue Raider Bob said:

Those are some real quality bass. I can see why your arms got tired! No telling how big the girl was that got away. At least you know she's still there and where she lives.

@Blue Raider Bob Thank you, Bob! I had her up and skiing but she had the mojo on me! Oh well, it was a magical day!

20 minutes ago, Lottabass said:

Hooked a big one and she was headed for "the danger zone". I was winchin' as hard as I could but she got in the log. Took the split ring and rear hook right off the Big Rocco!

That’s a good one for the retired lure wall. I’m assuming it broke the hook hanger or just the split ring ?

21 minutes ago, Lottabass said:

I worked up and down for a couple hours until my arms just couldn't take any more!

I know how you feel, Al. I have some mornings where I'm fighting three-to-four-pounders and then I hook a little one and I'm relieved!

19 minutes ago, Lottabass said:

Hooked a big one and she was headed for "the danger zone".

I have danger zones here too! I have a lure in my collection that a musky shredded when I was bass fishing. It pulled the wire spine out of a floating Rapala and deformed the hooks. You should save your lure too!

3 minutes ago, Mbirdsley said:

That’s a good one for the retired lure wall. I’m assuming it broke the hook hanger or just the split ring ?

@Mbirdsley The hanger was intact so the split ring broke. I've never had a split ring break or come off....and I been fishin' a long time!

Have you ever had this happen?

6 minutes ago, Lottabass said:

@Mbirdsley The hanger was intact so the split ring broke. I've never had a split ring break or come off....and I been fishin' a long time!

Have you ever had this happen?

No I have not had just the split ring break off. Usually, the hangers will give out way before the split ring will. I have had hook points break off of snags but, I don’t think on a fish. Definitely not on a bass. Trolling for salmon it’s not uncommon to have hooks bend out or break if the drag is too tight on the reel.

I guess you don’t have to retire the lure. I’d definitely be putting some different split rings on it though.