Last morning of my northern trip, major cold front came through last night and it was 45 deg. this morning and clear sky’s. 

We found the fish had slid a bit deeper and didn’t even want to touch anything fast ( no surprise), but we managed to put the smack down on em with a Berkley power tube and drop shot Gulp minnow. For a while it was a fish on every cast, we managed another 40 or so, not bad for the first major cold front of the season. Best fish was right around 4lbs but most of them were between 2-4lbs. 

4 hours ago, Gundog said:

You guys are killing me with all the fish pics. I'm down with a nagging case of tendonitis and early carpal tunnel in my casting hand.   Hoping it clears up before the weather changes to fall. If not I'm chopping off the hand at the wrist and ducktaping a pair of salad tongs on so I can at least reel with it and I'll finally have some use for the salad tongs. 

Sorry to hear that. I have trouble with my right wrist sometimes,esp. with casting gear. You might try spinning, it doesnt hurt as much.

went up to the Poconos for a few days and caught my first popmax bass. btw the stock hooks are so soft. this guy bent out the front trebles pretty good.

 

They are finally waking up this week! No big ones yet but I'll take every bite I can get . Even got a bonus "green bass" as @A-Jay would say 

5 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

They are finally waking up this week! No big ones yet but I'll take every bite I can get . Even got a bonus "green bass" as @A-Jay would say 

Nice Smallie - I got a green bass yesterday too - Your's was bigger.

Congrats

A-Jay

 

2 hours ago, A-Jay said:

Nice Smallie - I got a green bass yesterday too - Your's was bigger.

Congrats

A-Jay

 

Ha! I didn't know they had small bass in menderchuck

In the last 25 days I have been catching lots of 7-9 lbers including my PB of 9 lbs 8 ounces. All of them were caught and released. My streak of catching all of these heavy ones however ended yesterday. I have been on my Ob/Gyn rotation and catching lots of babies!

 

Due to the long long work hours of the rotation its been 25 days since I’ve wet a line, but after my exam today I picked up a little reward for myself and stopped by the lake by my house to try it out and break the streak. 

Low and behold I caught my first rat fish!

 

 

 

3 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

Ha! I didn't know they had small bass in menderchuck

 Yea . .  you know what it's like.

Oh they're in there - just that so many end up as snick-snacks for the larger Jurassic beasts that roam those fertile waters, that they may not often be seen by the angler. 

I might need to lay off the cough syrup for lunch . . . 

A-Jay

PB’s are meant to be broken. At 3.81lbs this girl weighed in just shy of 4lbs. My biggest Hudson River Smallmouth ever. I got her on of all things, the Ned Rig. I have been shorebound this season due to some back and shoulder issues. It has been tough going so far but I was experimenting with the heavier Shroomz Nedlock jig heads on baitcasting gear and 10# line for max distance and less drift in the currant. It worked for sure today as this big ole river girl choked the TRD. The fight was intense. I had to lock down the drag and use my thumb to stop her from peeling line. Once I landed her I was able to stop a lady on the walking path to take a pic of me with it. Probably scared her half to death but I thanked her and she could see my excitement. She knew it was a special fish. Got some vids on my phone of the release soon to come. I spent a good while reviving her but she was Ok in the end. I look forward to catching her at 6lbs

Did a little finesse fishing today from the bank in a clear water weedy lake just to test a few things out. Turned out rather successful overall. This one, along with the others, came on 3# yellow braid fished with a 5# fluoro leader (~4 feet). Managed 10 total - never retied - Palomar knot, not wetted. I'm sure I broke some other "rules" I'm forgetting - 

 

Had my best outing of the year this evening. Got off work at 4pm, came home and ate supper, rested a few minutes and headed to Caney Lakes around 6:30pm. Went to the lower lake side first because they close that side down at 8pm. Second cast was a skip under the pier I was on(I only fished from the pier this time) and a 2lb 2oz bass chomped my Texas rigged weightless 7.5" plum crazy Culprit worm. 3 or 4 casts later I skipped a 1/4oz weighted Texas rigged tequila sunrise Zoom 6" lizard to the same spot and a 1lb 5oz bass slammed it. From the excitement of catching 2 that quick I forgot to take that one's pic...lol...I did weigh it though. About 10 casts later, switching back and forth between those 2 presentations, a 1lb 8oz bass hit the lizard. 2 for the lizard 1 for the worm. By then it was almost closing time for the lower lake side, so I packed up and headed to the upper lake side. Second cast to some matted grass from the boat dock(I only fished from the dock here as well) with the same Culprit worm, I felt a strike, set the hook and somehow missed. So I started retrieving it fast to cast back to that same spot quickly. Didn't get the chance. On that retrieve, a 2lb 1oz bass slammed it as it was scootin' across the surface on its way back to me. I was like Wow! this is awesome, 4 bass at around 7lbs or so total weight. Unfortunately the bite on those 2 baits stopped happening. I tried my 110 Whopper Plopper and my 1/4oz chartreuse perch Booyah spinnerbait and nothing happening. So I changed out the 110 for my new 1.5 KVD natural bream shallow runner square bill crankbait. First cast the pictured nonscorable bass hit it and was stuck good with all the hooks(glad I changed the stock hooks out for some Mustads I got when I worked at Rat-L-Trap), he wasn't coming off. By then it was almost 9pm and after swapping back and forth between the lizard, worm and 1.5 nothing was doing again, so it was time to come on home and get some R and R. Gotta lotta overtime coming up starting Monday 5am. Inventory time is here. Yay!...Not!...Lol! Had a great evening of bass fishing though! 2 for the lizard, 2 for the worm and 1 for the 1.5! Life is good! ?

Went to my local lake on the 29th and didn't have much luck. I was mostly throwing larger baits looking for some bigger fish. Still trying to figure out were the fish are going currently. Lake is up 22ft this year after a decade of low water levels. I'm leaning towards they're still using their same routes to get to where they used to haunt and doing some further exploring at this time. 

 

Anyways as I was heading back in for the day I threw on a Warpig and started grinding away. I hooked one and lost it as I got it close to my kayak. It was one of those 1-2 lb feisty ones that wound up pulling the hook. After I lost it I backed off my drag a little as it felt kind of too tight.

 

I only wound up getting this one in the end. 2.65 lb which I guess is better than none.

 

I think on my next outing I'll head on over and explore the areas I fished in March and April. The water level is up about 8ft from then so if my old haunt willing to explore theory is correct they may be there or close. 

Got out for about 30 min before the parade. 

 

Whopper Plopper. Gobble gobble.

 

Decided to try some shallow water with the river boat, my buddy got a nice one!

4 smallies today with 9 hours on the yak. They're not making this easy. Awesome day.

 

Caught 5 today. 

3 hours ago, FrankN209 said:

Caught 5 today. 

Nice bag limit there! They all look like they're starting to feed up for the winter. ?

8 minutes ago, MichaelCopeland said:

Nice bag limit there! They all look like they're starting to feed up for the winter. ?

Yep, they're little fatties for sure. 

Walked down to the lake, made 1 cast with a ribbon tailed worm, and caught this one. Then it started pouring down rain so I went back in the house !

 

47 minutes ago, N Florida Mike said:

Walked down to the lake, made 1 cast with a ribbon tailed worm, and caught this one. Then it started pouring down rain so I went back in the house !

 

Can't ask for a better outing than that! You were 100% on cast and catch and a hawg to boot! Well done! ?

A little old school Charlie Brewer Slider Fishin' today...a couple of the 23 landed in a 2 hour trip in 90+ degree heat.

 

 

 

Finally caught a fish on the Arboghast Buzz Plug Jr.

 

I lost the set of double hooks the first outing with this lure. I replaced them with a treble hook and tried again this weekend. Got this pound and a quarter Smallmouth Bass on it. The lure and fight messed up it's mouth pretty bad as you can see in the close up. It might be one and done with this lure as I might retire it.

Some of these pics are dorky because they were meant for one of my fishing buddies who says I can't crank. Had way too much fun this morning putting it in his face as he sits at home.

 

1 minute ago, A-Jay said:

Fixed that one for you.

A-Jay

 

 

Sounds like code for video taping feeding practice buddy

 

 

Went back out this evening. Got a beauty on the Whopper Plopped.