Black Lake - the lake full of 14.9" bass, lol.  Sounds like you found the big ones!

So much for beating the heat this morning. Got to the lake around 5:30am, it wasn't that hot at that time, but nothing was biting. Nothing biting all morning, then finally I caught a bream on a 4" wacky rigged green pumpkin Strike King Ocho...lol.  It hit it like a bass, but by far wasn't one. So I changed out the 4" to a 6" green pumpkin Ocho and a bass hit it, I set the hook and had it coming in then it jumped and spit my bait. That was all the excitement for the day. It's just too dang hot out there 100°+! Maybe next time I'll do better. ?

RICHF-

Great looking fish. The second picture, the one where you're kneeling. Watch out for that evil looking blue thing at the end of the dock. That's well documented as the fastest spreading invasive species known to man, and bad news to fisherman everywhere.?

3 hours ago, RichF said:

July has been good to me this year.  Fished two tournaments and won both.  First, an ABA divisional at the beginning of the month on Cross Lake up near Syracuse, NY.  Weighed 18.19 with a 4.7 kicker flipping docks, grass, and shallow wood in 1 to 5 ft. Second, a Northern NY Bassmaster Team event on Black Lake I fished with my dad.  We knocked out our biggest bag ever out there, 20.37lbs with a 5.7lb kicker and another 5.5, both caught in the last hour of the day.  Flipped grass in 3 to 10 ft and threw a frog super shallow.  Not fishing a ton anymore, but I'm making my days count!

Stacker of a Bag ! 

Congrats

A-Jay

Had to catch another one to practice my smile, as recommended by @A-Jay. So I did.

 

Problem is, I kinda forgot to smile. Also forgot my scale, which is not unusual. Length citation anyway at 23".

 

 

 

Putting that kayak to work! Nice catch

Nice one Deep! Thinking I'll try to get out there tomorrow or Sunday. Any tips? I see you've been getting some decent ones on the swimbait. 

Thanks!

 

No new insights, unfortunately. I was fishing weed edges and brush edges both vertically and horizontally and covering water. Probably caught a dozen dinks for every 15"+ fish.

 

The first decent one was off the side of the long tapering point, the second one from the finger on the bigger of the two humps, and the one today near the cut that sits south of the cove with the pipe.

 

 

Black/blue Dinger wasn’t doing anything for me after about an hour. Threw on a green pumpkin Senko and caught 4 in about 15 minutes. Big one went 4.3, and was a lot of fun to bring in. As soon as I set the hook, he took off like a dart and started peeling off a little drag. 

 

Sidenote: my H20 Xpress 4/0 woes seem to be fixed. I don’t know if it was that particular hook, or I just have been setting the hook harder. (Knock on wood)

 

 

 

The early bite has not let up....5 like this, all in 6 feet with Temps in the mid 70's

Good topwater bite on the Pop-X this morning, and by midday, they were hitting spinner baits pretty well. 

 

Biggest fish came on a jig and Paca Craw trailer though. 

Rode the wind all over the lake in the canoe today. Got kinda choppy out there (no crappie though) late afternoon so I ended up hiding in a few coves on my way to the far end of the lake. 

Was hoping for a swimbait bite today, and I guess I got one if a swim jig worked on structure counts.  

 

Caught my my first fish, maybe a pound or so, on a BD shad out in 8fow over some grass but couldn't keep in position well enough to really work the point thoroughly. After an hour and a half of drifting around to other grassy areas I decided the bass in the grass weren't in the mood to eat. Backup plan... Wood structure! Couple points on main lake that have deep submerged standing locust trees. I like to pull jigs and Texas rigged plastics through those and pick off some bass and usually get a handful from each spot even on a rough day. Caught a couple like that working a swim jig with Keitech trailer but they were all pounders. 

 

Moved into some coves to get away from the wind and started pickup up numbers and some bigger fish! Problem was all the big fish were super skinny! The photo is my longest of the day, I weighed and measured it just out of curiosity. Two and a quarter pounds! 2-1/4, 2.25. Yes, a 19" bass that's 2lbs... I caught 4 roughly that size. 

 

Overall I landed 19, with the exception of the first and one somewhere in the middle on a speed worm, nabbed all of them on the swim jig out of some kind of wood or brushy cover. I'll call that a good day! Best part was the wind pushed me to the fish, and at the end of the day it flipped directions and helped push me back to the ramp! 

Great day!

 

hit the water at first light in the little johnny this morning and didn’t get bit til around 7:30.....but what a bite it was! i hooked this 11 lb striper, on a 5” Zoom lizard, while fishing a deep brush pile. i thought it was a big cat at first but when i finally saw the tail, i knew it wasn’t a cat. she fought for a couple minutes, zipping drag repeatedly and then it was over. my Revo SX, spooled with 12 lb Seaguar InvizX, on a 7’ MH Berkley Shock met the task head on! i also boated this healthy 19”+ largemouth later. git r done.

Those are some nice fish ! 

So I put the boat in in off of center street in Saginaw on the Tittabawassee River. The Day started off fast but, I missed 3 smallies right off the bat and the one was a nice one.  

 

Than it slowed way down but, I was able to pick up this 17 inch smallie on a pb&j jig with a green pumpkin paca chunk.  I didn’t pour this jig but, rather I bought a bunch of unpainted arkie and football head jigs from a guy on the forum. I did powder coat it, add weed guard, and put the skirt on.

Here is the jig from the last post that I lost three smallies on including the big one.  I painted, added weed, guard, and put the skirt on.  The skirt is from fishingskirts.com

Took a solo trip to a new lake this morning, lots of smaller ones and managed to get a few decent size bass in super shallow water on a frog and pitching to pads/eelgrass. Lost a nice pike about 36” right at the boat, she just opened her yap and spit the spinnerbait out, then sat there  like she was mocking me ?.

Heres the best bass I got. 

Was able to get access to a new place to walk the bank at, so checked it out this weekend in-between passing rain showers. Got two short sessions in totaling just over 3.5 hours and managed to land over 60 bass. Caught everything on finesse worms and a spinning rod. I always enjoy fishing a new place for the first time, as each little lake is different, and it's always fun trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together, both the fishing and the biology. This one was shallower than most, had an inside and outside weedline, and a bunch of cookie cutter bass between 1.5 and 2 pounds, likely all from the same year class suggesting a possible kill event several years back. Did get a few small guys so some natural reproduction, but not many. Only a couple hookups with bigger fish this go round, so more to explore there. Also has a few stray carp in it which is interesting. Likely dropped in via an emptied bait bucket. Doesn't appear like they are doing any damage at this point.

 

 

A bunch of small fish today walking the shoreline for a couple hours. Most of them on a topwater (gunfish 115).

 

 

 

I had about an hour study break today to get on the lake. 

 

On the 5th time I thought I was snagged in the brushpile I was fishing, I wasn’t!

 

It was a 5.62 lb brush bison!

Today’s rainy day catch. 

Have a few more working on sizing pics

A buddy of mine who I used to fish with all the time moved out of state a few years ago, but is in town for a week or so, so we hit the lake. Due to a massive weather system moving over the northeast, the radar was looking iffy so we decided to stick to a lake close to home. Sure glad we did, because the fishing was ON. We caught lots of fish, and the average size was very impressive anchored by the 20”+ smallmouth that my buddy caught. Here’s one of the chunks I landed, pitching a Texas Rig to some Lily pads: 

They would not leave the spinner bait alone today. Caught fat little dinks up to much better ones.

The rain came in today and got me a day off work. It also made for some killer fishing conditions. Went down to a local pond that I heard was just recently stocked and absolutely whacked them silly. Over 15 fish and the best 5 went for around 16lbs. Here’s the best of the day.