Not biting too good today. It was mostly cloudy with a nice breeze. Cool here for May. 
I thought it might be a good spinnerbait day, and I did get a few on one with a double blade and black skirt ,  also some on a big bite craw in watermelon seed. Only cuaght one on a fluke.

Looks like you “found” the big one! Nice fish!

Had a fun day in the back of my buddy’s boat, he even let me take home the walleye 

Haven't been to the power plant lake in over a month since everything warmed up and figured it was time to check it out again. I'd heard it was fishing tough, but it usually is. Tried to fish my normal stuff close to the ramp at the start of the morning but got followed by 2 different boats so scraped that idea real quick and headed down the lake. Crappie were spawning everywhere and I couldn't keep a bait away from them. Caught some real nice ones and actually put some bigger ones in the livewell but ended up tossing them back at the end of the day when I changed my mind about having to clean fish.

It was super calm out early in the morning so I was fishing a 10,000 Fish Sukoshi Bug on a Ned rig real slowly through the rocks when it just disappeared. About 30 minutes into my morning and I had one a hair under 5 in the boat.

The crappie bite stayed strong, but the bass were really slow. Caught a couple more small ones, one a little bigger on a chrome Strike King 300 jerkbait that had a small drum in it's throat.

Then I started getting harassed by green sunfish almost every cast on the Ned rig. I was about to give up hope when I saw a fish chase a couple baitfish near the rocks. Flipped my bait and missed it the first cast. Flipped back and it didn't eat immediately, thinking that one was gone, but another one grabbed it and when I lifted on it she just about felt like I hooked a rock. One of the more intense fights I've had with a largemouth in a while. She jumped completely out of the water twice and tried a couple more times before I got her in the net. 6.76lbs, just .03lbs short of my biggest of they year, also on a Ned rig from the same lake.

 

Caught one today. Bite has been tough where I go. They've been pumping a lot of water out. 

Funny thing is, I've been catching them on my most inexpensive lure. A $1.89 jig from WalMart. 

All of our local lakes are back open, and after more than 2 months I was finally able to get my dad back out on the water. We were crossing our fingers for some big girls, but a 40 fish day with many of them being dinks was still quite spectacular all things considered.

 

 

My first of many g-g-g-iants (on a 2.8). 

 

Not good when a crappie is top 3 of the day.

 

Biggest of the day went a hair over 3.

With all the hubbub about the virus I've found a lot of the lakes I frequent have been much busier with pleasure seekers lately. 
Yesterday I went to a local lake that normally doesn't have many people, and is only open to certain recreational uses, mainly fishing. It's a small lake with an Electric Only (No Gas Motors) restriction so pleasure boating is normally not a frequent occurrence, and kayakers generally are fishing. Hardly ever see anyone there that's just out for an afternoon paddle. It's only a 50 acre lake which means it only takes about 20 minutes to cover the entire thing and most pleasure paddlers don't find enough pleasure in that. 

Yesterday was the busiest I have even seen this lake, and it wasn't even a warm day. Sunny, high of 60°, and 15mph winds with gusts to 25. There were 14 vehicles in the parking lot, two had boat trailers and they were both people I know that frequent the lake because like me, they live less than ten minutes away. The rest were pleasure kayakers and about a dozen kids that they had drug along to get them out of the house for an afternoon! Not to say I blame them.  
Problem is, none of them went more than 100 yards from the ramp! So there was literally 25 people on kayaks packed into an area not much bigger than an olympic sized swimming pool.  

One of the kids flipped his kayak and fell in, started crying, and dad jumped off the dock at the boat ramp and swam the 50 feet or so over to the kid to rescue him. He had a life jacket on, and he was perfectly fine once he was back on dry land, but I guess when you're 6 years old and never flipped a boat before it is a little scary to be in muddy water and not able to reach the bottom. Then the flipped over kayak was just floating out toward the middle of the lake. Mom tried to retrieve it, unsuccessfully. So I offered to help once I got my kayak in the water. Got theirs rolled back over shiny side up and got it pulled back to the bank next to the dock. While none of the other twits there could even offer to help to the kid, much less grab the kayak to keep it from floating away. Social distancing leading to social #8$%-waderry? or maybe they're just turd munchers in general. 

Either way, kid and float-away kayak situation dealt with, I run the gauntlet of fake "social distancers" who are all too close to each other anyway, and head out for the far end of the lake to find some fish, and some quiet, which is what I went there for. 
Crappie were suspended everywhere. Bass were not. Caught probably 15 crappie just jigging a small grub lure 5-6 feet under the kayak. Every time I would stop in a spot to fish bass the crappie would swim up under the kayak and I'd drop the lure over the side and a few seconds later reel one up! Fun to catch, and it breaks up the sometimes monotony of bass fishing on a pressured lake. 

Caught a few small bass and missed a couple bites but I quickly figured out a few key areas that were holding fish, and just had to make the rounds and hit each of those similar spots around the lake. Finally the trip paid off right before sunset, with a nearly 22" 5.2lb largemouth. She was skinny, post-spawn and waiting on a small point for some unsuspecting trick worm to fall in front of her. Her problem was that trick worm was tied to my 50lb braid, and once I set the hook she wasn't getting away.  
Had a good day, just hoping next time there will be a few less people on my used-to-been secret muddy honey hole.

On 5/11/2020 at 1:08 AM, Bluebasser86 said:

6.76lbs, just .03lbs short of my biggest of they year, also on a Ned rig from the same lake.

 

And they say tiny baits won't catch big fish... 

Nice one man! 

Ned has got me several bass in the 6lb range the last couple years. It's just a matter of getting that bait in front of the fish, and eventually that fish will be a giant. 

1 hour ago, Fairtax4me said:

And they say tiny baits won't catch big fish... 

Nice one man! 

Ned has got me several bass in the 6lb range the last couple years. It's just a matter of getting that bait in front of the fish, and eventually that fish will be a giant. 

I’ve never heard people say that, usually the opposite. Most of the biggest bass seem to get caught by crappie fisherman on 4 lb test and a bobber/fly combo haha

caught 21 spots this morning. 17” 2.08 took big fish. 

 

 

Took my granddaughter out for some fishing and put three 18 inch smallmouth in the boat. 

Weather finally broke and gave a window.

Caught 7 LM and 1 Crappie.....few pics.

2 Bass 1 Crappie on Jerkbait and rest on brush hog.

Had a good day today boating 12 bass. All caught on a 3/8 jackhammer in bruised green pumpkin/ gp rage menace trailer.

 Also threw Spinnerbaits, plastics, and crankbaits to no avail.

Here’s a couple of em.

 

Look at this mondo! This can't be a year old can it or does it look like a recent spawn? I thought it was still early for the spawn in my neck of the woods. It tried to eat a whopper plopper.

 

7 minutes ago, kayaking_kev said:

Look at this mondo! This can't be a year old can it or does it look like a recent spawn? I thought it was still early for the spawn in my neck of the woods. It tried to eat a whopper plopper.

 

Na - that's about a year old...if it was a recent spawn in your area, you wouldn't be able to tell the species yet.

 

Ohio average age/length: 1, 6.6; 2, 10.2; 3, 13.4; 4, 14.1; 5, 15.5; 6, 16.3; 7, 16.7; 8, 17.6; 9, 17.5; 10, 19.2.

 

https://www.limaohio.com/sports/251826/anglers-eye-catching-trophy-fish

3 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

Na - that's about a year old...if it was a recent spawn in your area, you wouldn't be able to tell the species yet.

That's good to hear! I've been hunting a 4.35 lber I caught last summer in this pond trying to get her before she spawn in hopes she will break my PB.

 

I know it varies, but how much weight do you think a 4.35 lber would put on before spawn?

2 minutes ago, kayaking_kev said:

That's good to hear! I've been hunting a 4.35 lber I caught last summer in this pond trying to get her before she spawn in hopes she will break my PB.

 

I know it varies, but how much weight do you think a 4.35 lber would put on before spawn?

Female bass add 10%+ to their weight when loaded with eggs. So a 4.35# female would be 4.78# or more when laden with eggs.

 

"Usually at spawning the weight of eggs in females will be 10 per cent or more of her body weight."

 

https://appliedecology.cals.ncsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/SRAC-0200.pdf

Got out on the water after 9 weeks, almost to the day. What a @#$%show.

 

Parking lot overflowing (on a weekday) with twice as many vehicles for the capacity. Maybe 2-3 feet of visibility in a reservoir where normally I expect to see the bottom in 10 FOW. Snagged and lost a 110+1 on the second cast, after trying to unsnag it while fighting the wind for 10 minutes. Then I managed to drop my pole-type lure retriever in the drink. At least it was in somewhat shallow water and I got it back after faffing around with the paddle for a while.

 

By this time, I had enough; and I hadn't even caught a fish!

 

The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful, thankfully, other than fighting the wind. Caught maybe 15 or so bass; they were all small.

 

Caught this nice one out of my in-law's pond last weekend. 

 

 

Also caught this one that had been got by something, maybe blue heron as they've seen one in the pond lately.

 

I finally got out on the river on May 3rd and caught my first Smallies of 2020. I ended up with 5 Smallies and 5 Rock Bass, including a 9" Rock Bass, which qualifies for a Fish Ohio Pin. I caught half with a Whopper Plopper and half with a Neko Wacky Rigged 5" Worm. It felt really good to get out on the river and enjoy the serenity and sounds of nature.

 

 

I love fishing with grandkids!  He got a bonus, a nice surprise walleye. 

Oops, sorry about the sideways pictures. 

2 hours ago, moguy1973 said:

Caught this nice one out of my in-law's pond last weekend. 

 

 

Also caught this one that had been got by something, maybe blue heron as they've seen one in the pond lately.

 

Didn't realize a heron would target a bass of that size but sure looks probable. 

I caught this 6 lb 4 oz largemouth laden with eggs today on a jig and Rage Tail Craw.  Approximately 15 minutes before I caught her I lost one that was pretty close to the same size.  I was feeling pretty sick about it because I got a good look at her before she came off.  This one helped cure my depression.  ?

 

 

I went fishing yesterday with 2 friends and don't have any good pics to show for it. All of the bass were 1 to 2 pound dinks.

One of the guys went with his neighbor today. The dinks were still there, but in larger numbers and the crappie were going crazy.

The 3.75 was caught on a spinnerbait. The 2.75 was caught with a minnow.