Got on a decent frog bite today. Had a lot of blowups but not all of them actually took it. Here are the best two of the day. A 5-02 and a 4-01. I love catching them on top.

Below are some photos from three of my recent fishing trips.

 

This first group of photos are fish caught on a Zara Spook on a very muddy water day after a storm a couple of weeks ago.  There is nothing of size here in these post spawn fish but it was nice to get some topwater bites.  After the fourth one, I decided not to take another pic unless I caught something bigger.  I didn't.  ?

 

 

 

 

 

 

The pic below was from a little over a week ago at the same lake.  I only caught four total fish on this day, but this one was quite photogenic and also looked bigger than it really was as it only weighed in at approximately 3 and a quarter lbs on the trusty BogaGrip.  So I thought it was worth a pic.

 

 

 

Since Sunday, the wife and I have been at Stockton Lake in Missouri.  Numbers were great with a lot of 2 to 3 lb fish, but again no lunkers.  This was the biggest fish of our trip weighing 3 lb 11 oz and measuring 19 inches.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I went out this morning just as the sun came up.  I was stymied at my usual topwater spots and started to fret about the day.  Then I discovered that the bluegill are spawning.  I quickly found that the bass were stalking the bluegill from nearby grass beds.  And then a bunch of bass discovered I was stalking them by swimming a jig through the grass.  It was a good day today.  

 

The season opened here on the 6th and my grand plan was to hit 'em hard at 12:01 a.m., but heavy rains all night put the kibosh on that. My first trip out was a night yakkin adventure with some buds on a new lake. It took me a little time in order to not feel wobbly out there. It was quite dark. My friend was going on about how beautiful the night was, but I had mixed emotions at first! I got over it after a really nice fish crushed the G2 Shellcracker. The water was warm and she was fired up. My pal heard the head shakes and splashes and paddled over to take a picture, but I'd forgotten my lip grippers and so did he. Worse than that the fish was hooked dead center of it's bottom lip by the front treble, plus it was going nuts. The Shellcraker was whipping around. I tried to lift it slightly to grasp the hook with my pliers and it tailwalked up the side of my yak. I felt the hooks scrape my hand and I was done. Tossed her out then I finally grabbed the hook with with the needlenose and let her shake off. That was the end of treble hook baits for the night! Lots of shorts strikes and shake offs, but I managed to land two fish on friendly single hook baits, a paddletail swimmer and a buzzbait. I'm doing it again tomorrow night.

 

 

Last Sunday, my oldest asked me if I could take him fishing on my days off, can't say no to that right? Well my boat was still in the shop so we were going to be in the johnboat, and forecasted 25mph winds and gust to 40 didn't leave us much options come Wednesday afternoon. So the boys and I headed to a bigger creek with the johnboat and tub of nightcrawlers and some "catch anything", rods and lures. We caught a little bit of everything, avoided the wind thanks to the high banks and trees, and they played in the water like kids should get to do.

 

Thursday I was back seating it. Fished with a guy that's been following my Youtube channel pretty much since I started it and has wanted to fish with me for a long time, and our schedules finally lined up so we went. Even with losing 2 big smallmouth, including one that was for sure over 4 pounds, he still had his best day for keeper sized smallmouth he's had. They really were loving the junebug TRD, which I did not bring, so I mostly caught a lot of smaller fish, netted fish and took pictures, and was just glad I wasn't in my johnboat as the 5-10mph winds that were forecast had some big rollers and white caps rolling down the lake. It was a big time multispecies day too. He'd never caught a walleye from this lake, he caught 2 this day. We caught 3 flatheads, several white bass, a couple sunfish, and several drum.

Just got my first swimbait rod yesterday, took it to my local pond when I had a couple of hours free before the park closed at sunset. First time ever trying swimbait fishing and stuck this nice one on the huddleston 68! Never caught a fish bigger than ~1-1.5 lbs in here before. 

 

I felt bad getting some dirt on her when I pulled her out but I think she'll be alright. When you're new to this it's hard to imagine how they inhale this whole bait, but wow! 

 

fished muskrat lake yesterday after work. Learned a valuable lesson.  Make sure your hooks are sticky sharp.  I lost 3 giants at the boat.  Took a hook file to my hook and fixed the problem.  The one was actually taking line. Also, I am a real bass fishermen now I actually caught fish on an actual senko wacky rigged.
 

 I caught these two decent fish on a 6 inch black and blue flake  ocho t-rigged with 1/4 oz tungsten weight.  Basically, just  flipping it into and around the Lilly pads the ring the lake. Th ocho is what I lost the giant bass on.  I used up my ocho’s.  It is so hard to find 6 inch black and blue flake ocho’s.  Finally found some and bought 4 packs. I caught 5-6 smaller bass on the wacky rig. I don’t remember the  senkos name but, it was black with red flake and a chartreuse tail 

Had a great morning. Started with a spinnerbait. Had a strike near shore than nothing. Switched to my finesse rig with a 5” wacky style Yum Dinger and caught 11 bass in 90 minutes. Most were about a lb but these two were decent:

 

 

 

Bites stopped, so switched to a weightless 5” Senko Texas rig. Missed one hit, cast back to the same spot and this one inhaled it ASAP. 

 

No hawgs, but what a fun morning! 

1 minute ago, BrianMDTX said:

Had a great morning. Started with a spinnerbait. Had a strike near shore than nothing. Switched to my finesse rig with a 5” wacky style Yum Dinger and caught 11 bass in 90 minutes. Most were about a lb but these two were decent:

 

 

Bites stopped, so switched to a weightless 5” Senko Texas rig. Missed one hit, cast back to the same spot and this one inhaled it ASAP.

 

No hawgs, but what a fun morning! 

Them two there would end up in my freezer!

 

Nice day when you get some fish on.

6 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

Them two there would end up in my freezer!

 

Nice day when you get some fish on.

This pond is strictly C&R lol. But they would have made a nice dinner! 

Just finally made the switch from straight mono to braid with a short leader for topwaters, and I was pleasantly surprised to see they seemed just as eager to hit it in clear water and my knot held up with a big girl that jumped no less than 6 times. Range of fish went from about 1/2 pound up to the big girl of the day at 6lbs 2oz. I'm sold.

 

Small fish honors go to...

 

Big fish honors for the day...

 

 

Tore em up today with a Junebug Texas rigged zoom worm. This was the biggest of the day.

 

Got my first Melanosis Bass at Indian Lake in Ohio.

 

Got out late so I stayed near home. Contrary east winds were making it tough . Caught a couple on the red shad culprit, and did get a healthy fish on a frog before dark. My house is right below the notch in the trees in the middle.

1.) Lose crankbait in some rocks ?

2.) Swear off crankbaits and pick up buzzbait ??

3.) Catch 7# ☑️

4.) Forget you were mad and add new crankbaits to you TW cart

 

 

 

 

 

 Crankbait? What crankbait? ?

my brush piles are holding some decent fish right now ?

 

1 hour ago, lo n slo said:

my brush piles are holding some decent fish right now ?

 

 

Nice Bass ~ 

But everybody know's it's all about those Lucky Flip Flops !

A-Jay

38 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

Nice Bass ~ 

But everybody know's it's all about those Lucky Flip Flops !

A-Jay

the fish flops! ?

Finally broke through  the 4 lb ceiling that has been haunting me this Spring.

 

 

Way to go!

She has a post-spawn tail  

 

Roger

Another good day fishing a Texas Rig

 

This was kind of funny. I caught my first LM out this reservoir where I usually catch smallies, and I thought it weighed 4 lbs, but got home and looked at the pic and noticed my scale somehow got put on ounces and read 40.0 ounces and not 4 lbs, so it was 2 lbs 8 oz. instead. Was missing a fin also. In my defense it was dark out.

 

Got out on the creek. My brother and I went up and my dad and other brother went down. They got about 20 on a spook and wacky worm and we got about 15 on a fluke and ned rig (my favorite). I caught a new PB smallie at 2 1/4 lbs in a small pool. Very surprised there were any fish in it let alone this fat pig!

Pretty slow day for me today but I managed a couple fish worth a pic. Both were caught on a 7" power worm in green pumpkin. Caught in the brush on a SLOOOOOW retrieve. First one is 4-4 and the second is 3-2