Finally got to go fishing for the 1st time this year.  It was mostly cloudy, in the high 70's with a water temp of 48°. I ended up catching 11, but my 1st 2 bass of 2019 was a 2 lber and then this super chunky girl that went a little over 5 lbs. Caught them both on a weightless super fluke jr. 

Got out with a friend from work for a few hours this afternoon. The bite was very slow at first. We caught 11 in the first 3 hours or so. The lake was almost slick calm, which usually means you have to slow down the presentation. Byron got a nice 3 pounder when I saw the wake and told him where to throw.

The last 30- 40 minutes we caught 9 more , all on the Alabama craw yum dingers.

The other fish were cuaght on zoom speed craws in some brush, and the golden bream super flukes. And caught 1 on a trick worm. We lost a couple bigger fish in the eel grass. It was Byrons 2nd time bass fishing. He is learning fast, and doing much better on the hook set. Another nice weather day, almost hot , with temps in the low 80s.

7 hours ago, N Florida Mike said:

Got out with a friend from work for a few hours this afternoon. The bite was very slow at first. We caught 11 in the first 3 hours or so. The lake was almost slick calm, which usually means you have to slow down the presentation. Byron got a nice 3 pounder when I saw the wake and told him where to throw.

The last 30- 40 minutes we caught 9 more , all on the Alabama craw yum dingers.

The other fish were cuaght on zoom speed craws in some brush, and the golden bream super flukes. And caught 1 on a trick worm. We lost a couple bigger fish in the eel grass. It was Byrons 2nd time bass fishing. He is learning fast, and doing much better on the hook set. Another nice weather day, almost hot , with temps in the low 80s.

Thanks for making this winter all the longer for me with all your pics. LOL Our time is coming soon. At least I've seen lots of action. More fun in shorts and T-shirts, though.

Sorry friend, but your time will come. Our weather is a month early. Our March hasnt even been very windy either. Hopefully our summer wont be early !

I only got one bass yesterday but that's better than none every single time. Saw lots of pros, they sure go fast. Spent most of the day working on the lake house, had to get proof for @Jigfishn10 this time hahaha. Got a free old school dishwasher from my buddy, it works 100 times better than the extra extra old school one that was down there 

I finally got good enough weather to go out for a few hours yesterday afternoon. My buddy caught two 7-pounders last week on the Whopper Plopper of all things. The air temp was in the low 70s, but water temp is still around 50. It was windy (whitecapping in the commode as my dad would say). I was confined about 1/4 of the reservoir in my kayak. I didn't get a bite on the WP, but I got two on the @cadman custom black/blue jig. The first was the 6.0 you see in these pics. I caught her out of a laydown pine tree and had to wrestle her out of the heavy cover. The second was a dink. It only takes one to make a trip worthwhile. Notice the red spot she has under her gills. I may recognize it if I catch her again.

@TnRiver46...

 

I can see you're not much of a cook...Fire extinguisher?!? Is that for a fish fry gone wrong? you may be remodeling the kitchen this summer...LOL

 

Sweet Fish you got there bud!

 

@the reel ess, she's a beauty for sure!

3 minutes ago, Jigfishn10 said:

@TnRiver46...

 

I can see you're not much of a cook...Fire extinguisher?!? Is that for a fish fry gone wrong? you may be remodeling the kitchen this summer...LOL

 

Sweet Fish you got there bud!

 

@the reel ess, she's a beauty for sure!

Hahaha I can cook but only outside on a fire. That poor kitchen hasn't been updated since it was built in 1988. Lots of work to do before I can convince my girlfriend to move down there. My main bargaining chip is "it's on the lake, honey!"

Went out to the pond with my friend Mike tonight to introduce him to the phenomenon of the topwater blowup, and we had great success. The top pic is his very first buzz bait fish. After we caught a few nice ones on the buzz I pulled out a Spook and caught a few more.  Then I lost two big ol' girls right at my feet, including one that could have been 6 pounds. Mike finished the day with a final dramatic twilight explosion on his buzzer.

 

 

Planned on taking the yak out yesterday, but the weather didn't look favorable when I go up. That and I had to make a 85 mile round trip to pick up a washer. Something about doing both in the same day didn't sound to rewarding.

 

The weather report said winds up to 10-11 mph at the lake. It was more like constant 10 mph with gusts up to 30 mph or so at times. The wind messed up my game plan as I had intended to go to the other side of the lake where I caught the 7 lb'r 2 weeks ago. I spent a whole lot of time pedaling my yak slowly into the wind to at least try and make the best of it. I'm glad I just stuck it out in the end. I didn't cover much water, but in the end got plenty of exercise, caught a couple fish, and most importantly had fun.

 

I wound up catching 2 Bass.

 

Both of them gave a good fight in the end. I guess the wind and the chop gave them somewhat of an advantage.

 

I almost caught one more as it tried to sideswipe my warpig about 8 ft from the yak, but it missed. It looked like a dink anyways.

Work, home stuff, and winter weather all combined at just the right times to make me start this season much later than normal...Had a decent first day on Monday though.  Caught a few like this and some smaller ones.  Third year in a row this same little balsa crank has captured my first fish of the year, I think it's officially a tradition now.  

15 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

@Bluebasser86, I almost didn’t recognize you not wrapped up like an Eskimo!

It was still cool, but 50's feels great compared to the 20's and 30's I've gotten so accustomed to fishing in. 

 

9 hours ago, NYWayfarer said:

Or without the beard! Makes him look 10 years younger. He might get carded now buying a 6 pack.

 

Nice haul of Bass BTW. Those are 2 baits I am going to throw once I can get on the river again. Spro float and fly and a jerkbait.

It had to go unfortunately. I like having the beard, but the mustache drives me crazy. Work requires us to have a mustache if we're going to grow a beard and I got tired of it. I still get carded every time I go to the liquor store or bar (which is very rarely), but not bad for going to be 33 in a month. 

 

5 hours ago, Way north bass guy said:

Frogs, those little buggers might be just about the absolute best sound of the year to hear, man I wish I could hear them soon, but that’s gonna be likely another month at least ?

My wife thinks I'm an idiot because how excited I get each year the first I hear the peepers chirping. I don't care about any other supposed way to tell if spring is almost here, when I hear frogs croaking, spring is right there. About as close to that kid on Christmas Eve feeling as I get as an adult. 

Tried out a brand new paddle tail swimbait tonight, Gambler Baits' "EZ VibeZ" in Ghost Shad color. I was disappointed about the way it was wobbling, nearly flipping over, in spite of a keel-weighted hook. On the other hand, the darn thing worked!

 

Got a couple birthday bass after work today! Hit a local pond for a bit to see if the little fish there were doing anything and they were! I whooped on about a dozen 8” bass in 45 minutes and found a small school of them sitting shallow in a sunny corner. They were happy to munch on the weightless dinker worm I was skipping over their heads! Pulled 7 out of there on consecutive casts. Then I decided if the bitty bass were chomping like this maybe the big girls would be on my honey hole spot at the bigger lake down the road. 

 

They were! But they weren’t suspending, and if it was moving they couldn’t care less about it. Slow and wiggly on the bottom was the key. 

I launched a dink with a hook set with the ned rig and then had a nice 2-3lb on that jumped twice and shook loose underwater after the second jump. 

 

I put that down and picked up the medium heavy jig rod and tied on a 4/0 shaky head with a black trick worm. That did the trick! A couple 2lbs followed by a 3.9 and a 5.8 about ten minutes later right at dusk! 

She kissed the 22” mark! B-Day citation! If you gotta work and can’t party on your bday, catching some big ole bass certainly makes up for it! 

12 minutes ago, Fairtax4me said:

Got a couple birthday bass after work today! Hit a local pond for a bit to see if the little fish there were doing anything and they were! I whooped on about a dozen 8” bass in 45 minutes and found a small school of them sitting shallow in a sunny corner. They were happy to munch on the weightless dinker worm I was skipping over their heads! Pulled 7 out of there on consecutive casts. Then I decided if the bitty bass were chomping like this maybe the big girls would be on my honey hole spot at the bigger lake down the road. 

 

They were! But they weren’t suspending, and if it was moving they couldn’t care less about it. Slow and wiggly on the bottom was the key. 

I launched a dink with a hook set with the ned rig and then had a nice 2-3lb on that jumped twice and shook loose underwater after the second jump. 

 

I put that down and picked up the medium heavy jig rod and tied on a 4/0 shaky head with a black trick worm. That did the trick! A couple 2lbs followed by a 3.9 and a 5.8 about ten minutes later right at dusk! 

She kissed the 22” mark! B-Day citation! If you gotta work and can’t party on your bday, catching some big ole bass certainly makes up for it! 

Nicely Done ~

And Happy Birthday you Old Basshead . . .

A-Jay

On 3/13/2019 at 3:29 PM, kenmitch said:

Planned on taking the yak out yesterday, but the weather didn't look favorable when I go up. That and I had to make a 85 mile round trip to pick up a washer. Something about doing both in the same day didn't sound to rewarding.

 

The weather report said winds up to 10-11 mph at the lake. It was more like constant 10 mph with gusts up to 30 mph or so at times. The wind messed up my game plan as I had intended to go to the other side of the lake where I caught the 7 lb'r 2 weeks ago. I spent a whole lot of time pedaling my yak slowly into the wind to at least try and make the best of it. I'm glad I just stuck it out in the end. I didn't cover much water, but in the end got plenty of exercise, caught a couple fish, and most importantly had fun.

 

I wound up catching 2 Bass.

 

2.46 lb on a trap. This one was longer, lean and feisty so probably a male staking out his claim. 

 

 

2.98 lb on a warpig. This one was short, chubby and also feisty probably a little girl.

 

 

Both of them gave a good fight in the end. I guess the wind and the chop gave them somewhat of an advantage.

 

I almost caught one more as it tried to sideswipe my warpig about 8 ft from the yak, but it missed. It looked like a dink anyways.

Good job man to stay in the wind, especially Perris lake. It was windy pretty bad in our area for the past 3 days. Tuesday I took jon boat out and it was pretty hard to stay in the wind even use anchor (kayak anchor) the boat still moving around like crazy. Manage to caught only one pitching jig around shallow. Wednesday decided to stay shoreline and caught 3 on Senko (feet from shore).

The wind blows in more ways than one! My kayak cuts thru the wind pretty easily, just takes a little pedaling to stay in place. All hell sometimes breaks loose once I hook a fish as I pretty much just go with the flow until I land it. It's just hard at times to get some productive casts in at times. Nice thing about being  a lipless fanatic is they cast into the wind pretty easily. Just gotta keep the thumb warmed up is all.

 

I'm on vacation starting Sunday and need to get my on the water fix at least a couple of days during the week. It's looking like I'm going to have to just suck it up and make the best of it. I guess there's lot's of shallow water to play around in if nothing else. My B-day's on the 21st and the weather report is showing possible AM rain which is somewhat depressing. It's a wait and see on that day. Last year I had one of my best days on my B-day!

 

On another note I really wish they'd put the dang weather station back online. I'm not sure why it's no longer reporting data.

 

First time I've ever viewed Canyon Lake on google maps. It wasn't what I expected to see. I figured there would be waterfront properties, but didn't think that most of the lake would be developed. How is the fishing? Would be fun to maybe someday join you on a kayaking adventure there. The upper undeveloped arm of the lake looks interesting too me. 

 

@kenmitch, the canyon lake is still good bass fishing lake, the only bad part is me “I’m still sucked at bass fishing” only catch a few here and there lol. 

You know what BR members always welcome to fish here. The only thing I ask is to follow the rules by those ..... HOA ppl. Let me know when you wanna come fish here. The north part of the lake is good for fishery but bad for us. The water level come up high and flood all the dying trees, hard to get to shallow area by the shoreline.

I’m gonna count this as Birthday Citation Bass number 2. It was less than 24 hours later so it’s close enough.  

 

Gutzilla here ate the same black trick worm. She weighed 6.69 (weighed twice just to be sure) which is .05 lbs shy of my PB. She was 22-1/4” long. OH the fatness!! 

 

Two others I got today as well. One on the ned rig, and the other on the trick worm right at dusk. 

Got this one today on a frog. One ounce shy of 5 pounds

Knowing today would be an “off” day, I went back to the spot for about an hour at sunset to see what I might convince to bite. Yesterday it was cloudy windy, almost 70°. Today, bluebird, 55, and pressure going back up.

 

Context: Last Friday I tied on a brand new zman weedless shroom jig and a brand new hula stick worm and had a bite on the first cast with it. Set the hook and the brand new worm got yanked off the hook. How that happens with an elaztech bait!?!? 

 

Fast forward a week through many small bass, a 5lber and a handful of 2 and 3lbers on the subsequent hula stick worm, and same jig head. 

 

Today my hula stick worm theif bit again, and for a short time had Two hula worms in his mouth!  The one I lost, and the one I put on a week ago to replace the one I lost! 

A little tug with the forceps and I got my other worm back, and it was in surprisingly good shape! 

I guess that’s a win for the day! Retrieved my lost worm and saved the little dude in the process! 

Had an awesome day fishing my in-laws pond yesterday.  Probably one of my best days of bass fishing weight wise I’ve ever had.  Caught 7 in a about an hours worth of fishing, and besides a small 8” fish the other 6 were these. Two 2.75, a 2.80, a 3.00, a 4.00, and my new biggest largemouth a 4.52lber.  Best 5 would have went about 17lbs

 

4.00

 

2.75

 

2.75

 

4.52

 

2.80

 

3.00

 

You gotta teach your co-angler how to take pics for you! 

Good catches, and congrats on the new PB! 

1 hour ago, Fairtax4me said:

You gotta teach your co-angler how to take pics for you! 

Good catches, and congrats on the new PB! 

I was out there by myself for most of them. My daughter photobombed me on the last one. 

On 3/11/2019 at 11:22 AM, TnRiver46 said:

 Got a free old school dishwasher from my buddy, it works 100 times better than the extra extra old school one that was down there 

 

 

Score!!