Got out for a short 3 hr. Trip. Finished with 4 bass, 1 on a popper and 3 on a buzzbait with this one at 3-9

 

This day started out dry and ended up wet.

I'm good either way ~ 

A-Jay

took the daughter out for a "boat ride" as she calls it. was a beautiful night and not going to get the chance to fish again for a bit. the bite was slow (non existent). water level was low maybe a draw down or something. hard to juggle appeasing a 4 year old and focusing on fishing.  i was throwing a bone whopper plopper because i recently saw an episode of mlf where a contestant decimated the field using one. got this fish to finally bite when i casted right on its head. there was a reaction right when it hit the water and then a couple cranks later she was on. only fish of the 2 hours or so we were out. 

 

 

 

After two consecutive weekends of big frog tournaments, I went out with the intention of punching the mats, figuring the fish normally receptive to topwater offerings were recovering from being sore lipped. The fish were chewing, and I was really surprised when I put a 4.4lb and 4.1lber in the boat on consecutive casts. I pretty much had a solid #retiredguytournament bag at the end of the day, just wish these better fish were bitting on Saturdays lol...

Back to catching "normal-size" kicker fish. These are not quite 5 pounders (yet) but I tried to follow @A-Jay's lead, and caught the first one before it started raining, and the second one when it was pouring.

 

 

 

Caught both of these on a JDM Nories Chibi Ebigaeru (apparently that means "little shrimp frog"). When everyone's fishing the same lily pads in the same little 75 acre reservoir with the same Spro and Booyah frogs, I think it's good to show the fish something a little different. (Caught a few on a Jackall Iobee too, but guess that's not as exotic.)

 

 

 

 

Largemouth on Little (lower) Mousam Lake in southern Maine, with fellow forum member & wife and their Lund in the background. Great morning! Now if we could just do something about those inflatable pink flamingoes....

 

 

 

Found the white bass schooling good on surface, kept 8 and released several. Got some bonus fish, one small blue cat (on ice) and 3-4 short largemouth. Mosquitos got intense after dark so the catfishing grinded to a halt (not that it was working all that well anyhow)

Caught and Released this guy yesterday. Caught on live bait 

Got this guy yesterday in open water on live bait. He is 4lbs biggest Pickerel I ever caught, real thick.

Made the hour drive north to lake nimrod this morning. Caught somewhere around 30 all but 1 on a trap. 

Had a real productive outing today with the best being this one at probably 5.5 or better. Had a unique sight fishing experience where a duck served as my marker. Apparently a bass took a swipe at her and as she jumped up on the bank I followed with my Fat Ika. Result; one three lbr. with a taste for duck.

Attack of the leeches, a common occurrence in several of the ponds I've fished over the years. Spotted this one today on a smaller bass I caught. It's Myzobdella lugubris, and there are even a few good published papers researching the link between largemouth bass and this parasitic leech.

 

I think she wanted to eat that 5” swim bait! 

 

19” long, just under 4lbs! Caught just a little after sunrise. 

 

Caught about a dozen today mostly smaller. One was maybe 2lbs. Bite was tough but I could get some of them to eat IF I could get a lure in front of them. They wanted to follow around all the enormous clouds of bait minnows that were out drifting around. So getting their attention meant doing a lot of chucking and winding, and hoping to get a bait within the 3 feet of visibility where they could see it! 

 

8 hours ago, Team9nine said:

Attack of the leeches, a common occurrence in several of the ponds I've fished over the years. Spotted this one today on a smaller bass I caught. It's Myzobdella lugubris, and there are even a few good published papers researching the link between largemouth bass and this parasitic leech.

 

I'll never forget wading Sugar Creek by me  several springs ago and catching smallmouth with parasitic lampreys attached. I think it occurred on about three fish. They were app. 8-10" long and would come loose when I reached for the fish. Only saw them that one spring.

Caught my first spot, and can't wait to catch more.  This little thing fought like a wildcat in a croaker sack.  I guess this is my smallmouth.  

Spots are all kinds of fun! If you ask me it’s just a smallmouth with different colors. 

Haven't been getting out as much since school started, but I got out and did some night fishing Sunday night into Monday morning and had a good time. About my 3rd cast with a homemade 1/2oz black and blue football jig with the same colored Christie craw trailer got crushed, not by the target species, but still fun.

Wasn't very far down the bank when I got a similar bite on the same bait, but this time it was what I was looking for. First time trying trying out my new Frabill Power Extend net, which has a built in light and lift assist (which would come in handy later). The pictures aren't great, but as someone who frequently night fishes, having a net with a bright light on it was a game changer. Not just for netting fish, but also handling fish in the net once in the boat

 

Rounded a point a little ways down the bank had another one thump it, thought it dropped it, but she was just swimming slow. It's hard to tell when they swim off real slow in the dark.

 

The jig bite just quit on me for some reason, but then they started eating the all blue homemade bladed jig. This one slack lined me and swam at me so fast I thought I missed her.

Caught a drum and a few little guys, running out of time and decided to try the spot I started on one more time before I had to leave. Dragging my jig over some deep rocks when I got an unmistakable bite from a flathead. Not a monster, but it was fun on my jig rod and made me glad for the lift assist handle on the net ?

Selfies in the dark with a flathead are hard...

 

 

 

When you get a 3lb'er from the dock after uncovering the boat, you know it's going to be a good day.

Got out 7:30-1:30 today. Boated 9, 1 on jig 2 on a toad 5 on a buzzbait and 2 punching a double wide beaver with this one weighing in at 5-8.

Another Great Bass for @keagbassr ~

Funny - you don't look confused . . 

At least not when it comes to finding & catching Big Bass.

Well Done Sir.

A-Jay

for real

Believe me there's  no shortage of confusion on the water  for me this year. This one came on my 4th different bait I tried on my punch rig. Over all I threw at least a dozen different baits today. 

You're not confused, the bass are just being picky eaters...sort of like my grandkids! No, I don't want to eat Green Pumpkin today, do you have that in Red Devil Shad or Chartreuse? Oh, and I'd like that on 20# braid not Fluoro 

One last trip to Lake Faraway before school starts, and one last good fish. Actually that's the only fish I caught yesterday, before a big thunder/rain storm chased me off the water.

 

No regrets though. Faraway has been good to me. I caught fifteen or so good fish, and a really good one, in ~10 trips. Might not seem very impressive, but to put things in perspective, it would probably take me one whole year to catch that many decent fish from my local lakes!

 

I'm going to start working on a post about fishing frogs sitting down in a kayak. The learning curve was steep, and it took me a good bit of time to figure out the techniques, baits and gear that actually put fish in the boat (I missed a lot of fish before I finally figured out what worked).

 

 

 

Johnny and I took a much needed study break!

He must have been getting grouchy from not going fishing because he reached out and snagged one right in the back on the first cast!