Green Bass

 

Brown Bass

It was a good weekend of fishing on the kayak. 

Got out from about 7:30 to 12:30 this morning. Caught lots of tiny spots, a little smallmouth, and a 15.75 inch largemouth. All on rage tail menace 3/16 oz texas rig. Water was fast and about 67-69 degrees 

51 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

All on rage tail menace 3/16 oz texas rig

I actually threw that rig for the first time today. @roadwarrior touted it recently, so I was inspired. Too bad I was dumb enough to go local during daylight hours today, so not a sniff on it, but I have high hopes.

2 minutes ago, PhishLI said:

I actually threw that rig for the first time today. @Roadwarrior touted it recently, so I was inspired. I was dumb enough to go local during daylight hours today, so not a sniff on it, but I have high hopes.

I think it appeals greatly to the fish’s lateral line. I asked them if that was the case and they wouldnt say 

The 6th tournament of the kayak circuit I'm fishing this year was Saturday. It was at a place called Mined Wildlife Area in southeastern Kansas, which is over 1,000 strip pits spread out over a huge area. There was 4 different clubs in the tournament, including the local one, so a lot of locals were in that knew them well, had my work cut out for me. I've fished down there several times, but a lot of these guys fish them several times a month. To make it worse, 2 of my favorite pits had been drained, 1 to be turned into a duck marsh, 1 so they could add a culvert. I was not feeling confident at all.

 

I drove down Friday morning to prefish and went straight to my favorite pit. Normally, it has pretty good water clarity, but when I pulled up to it, I could tell it was dirty even in the early morning dim light. It was already hot at 6am, forcast in the upper 90's to low 100's both days and very little wind, it was brutal. I fished for 4 hours, caught 3 fish, the biggest just shy of 17". I left and went to a different pit that's very small but has good fish, and found a guy fishing it in his pond hopper. Went across the road to a different one and caught 2 15 inchers in 5 cast on swimbaits, and then not even a bite for the next 2 hours. Went and set up my tent and ate a sandwich before trying another pit that has some of the biggest fish in the state in it. I caught more fish than I had at the other 2 combined, but nothing even over 15". After that I went full panic mode and fished probably 8 more pits in the last 9 hours. I didn't measure many fish but I know I didn't break 80 inches. One of the guys in our club said he caught 100" of bass. I knew I was going to get crushed and had no idea where I was even fishing. 

 

There was about 40-50 kayaks fishing Saturday. When everyone took off from our meeting to their starting spots, I sat in the parking lot talking to another guy and we both were just lost about what to do. I ended up deciding to go back to my muddy pit and hope for the best. I'd caught good limits of fish there 10 years ago, and I had nothing else. It was only a mile from takeoff, so I took my time setting up, drank a bunch of water, retied knots, switched a couple baits, pushed off and jumped in to get away from the mosquitos. Looked at the time, 5:45, time to fish. Literally missed a fish my first cast, hooked and lost him my next cast, 2 cast later, I boat a 16.75, which was as big as anything I'd caught in practice. I was just hoping to break 80", so that was a good start. I missed another bite and heard a big explosion behind me. Worked towards it and hooked up with a good fish that jumped a few times before I netted it. Not a monster, but an 18" bass looks giant when you've been catching 8-12 inchers the day before. I really thought I was going to do something with those 2 in the first 5 minutes. So an hour later, I'm looking for my next bite. Finally get it on a wacky rig, an 11.25" fish, not what I needed but #3 anyways. 30 minutes later, the voices are already going in my head, telling me I should have gone to the other pit I thought about going to this morning and if I leave now I could still maybe get a morning bite there. Then another one stopped my bait, another 16" fish had swallowed my homemade bladed jig. Told myself I just needed to calm down and grind them out. So that's what I did. I spent 6 hours on that pit, casting that bladed jig until my arm felt like it was going to fall off, going a hour between bites and then catching 2 back to back it felt like each time. When I finally decided to move around 11AM, I'd caught 11 fish and had a little over 84". When the day was over at 1:45PM, I had a little over 84". I wish I could have convinced myself it was going to be that tough for everyone and stayed there. First place was only 5" more than what I had. If I could have found a couple of the 20" fish I know live there, I had a shot. Still, with all the local knowledge, and for how tough it had been for me on Friday, I was happy with how I'd done. At the awards ceremony afterwards, I was even more surprised to find out I'd finished in 4th place overall in what turned out to be an extremely difficult day for everyone. Every one of my bigger fish was on a homemade bladed jig. 

This weekend was decent started off Friday night at the river after dropping my son off to go to his dads for the weekend with a skunk, lol I don’t really catch much here but I still try. Saturday was my day that I got to use my 7’2 zodias bfs ml with my 20 met xg with 10 lb invisx mostly used a watermelon lemon laminate senko weightless caught about 5 fish in a hour in a half nothing big really but a fish is a fish, biggest was probably 13 if I was lucky. The night kept going with me introducing my daughter to night fishing ? she had a jitterbug and I went with a silent superspook in black shore minnow I caught three she didn’t have any luck unfortunately ?biggest of the night 13 inches. Sunday was a day of rage lizard in watermelon red good for two dinks then I swapped to a trick worm in scuppernong green good for 3 then swapped to a black loon lane changer and proceeded to catch 8-10 while walking down the shoreline with my waders biggest fish 16 inches. Then to top it off wife got one on a spicy beaver in sun Gill weightless Texas rig mostly all dinks but better than a stinky skunk lol.

Another river float today...

 

Water was low, even for this time of year. I had a get out and walk the kayak past a few spots too shallow to paddle.

 

Was hoping to have one or more 3+ smallies to show off, but that didn't happen. Around two dozen bass (and a very naughty pike) showed up, although continuing my trend this year, the best were around 2lb.  All fish came on either a 4" Green Pumpkin Senko, a Perch Whopper Plopper 65 cast to a shady spots, or a 4" Pumpkin-green Hula Grub hopped on the bottom in deeper areas. 

 

Two of the better specimens of the Bronze variety:

 

...and a Green:

 

At one point, the Whopper Plopper goes down in a splash, and as I pull back, the weight is much bigger than I expected.  As I get the fish close, in rapid succession I see two things: (1) the profile of a pike, around 26-28 inches, and (2) gripped sideways in its jaws, a smallmouth that looks a bit too big to swallow.  The smallie has the plopper, the pike has the smallie.  After a brief struggle the pike gives up and lets go, and I'm able to land the bass, which goes 14", but doesn't seem any worse for wear, and was able to release normally. Lucky fish! 

A couple days of fishing, one in the boat and one pond hopping. My friend and I caught a couple in the boat, windy and hot. Water temps high. Found fish suspended over deep water. Still busting the shad hard. Caught mine on a Siebert "Orange Twist" spinnerbait, friends was on a wacky senko. Small pond fish were on a Texas Eye rigged with a X-Zone finesse worm in Southern Sip color. While pond fishing, I was constantly badgered by a new gator in town, he wasn't even the least bit scared of me. I hope someone isn't feeding him.

7 hours ago, MIbassyaker said:

Another river float today...

 

Water was low, even for this time of year. I had a get out and walk the kayak past a few spots too shallow to paddle.

 

Was hoping to have one or more 3+ smallies to show off, but that didn't happen. Around two dozen bass (and a very naughty pike) showed up, although continuing my trend this year, the best were around 2lb.  All fish came on either a 4" Green Pumpkin Senko, a Perch Whopper Plopper 65 cast to a shady spots, or a 4" Pumpkin-green Hula Grub hopped on the bottom in deeper areas. 

 

Two of the better specimens of the Bronze variety:

 

...and a Green:

 

At one point, the Whopper Plopper goes down in a splash, and as I pull back, the weight is much bigger than I expected.  As I get the fish close, in rapid succession I see two things: (1) the profile of a pike, around 26-28 inches, and (2) gripped sideways in its jaws, a smallmouth that looks a bit too big to swallow.  The smallie has the plopper, the pike has the smallie.  After a brief struggle the pike gives up and lets go, and I'm able to land the bass, which goes 14", but doesn't seem any worse for wear, and was able to release normally. Lucky fish! 

Fun looking area! 

Got a big one this weekend... 7lb 15oz 

23 minutes ago, Logan S said:

Got a big one this weekend... 7lb 15oz 

22 minutes ago, Logan S said:

Got a big one this weekend... 7lb 15oz 

 

How long was that bass, she looks really long , 24"?

1 minute ago, Bubba 460 said:

 

How long was that bass, she looks really long , 24"?

Didn't measure length, just put her on the scale...But yes it was long.  

Struck gold this weekend and caught some nice fish, including this nearing 3lb football, also caught another 2.6lber on a powerworm and he dragged me through the lilly pads. 

Almost got skunked today if it wasn’t for this little guy. Back on my old stomping grounds in Cossayuna Lake. Lots of memories, very few bites! 

Picked up this girl on my way home from work. No scale but I’m guessing she’s around 3.5-4 lbs. Feel like I’ve caught her before in the same spot since it’s a pretty small pond with few options for cover. Fell to the 1/16 oz slider head with  a ribbon tail. Fight was fun on BFS gear with 6 lb line and got dicey when she bogged into the weeds. Took some “strumming” on the line to get her to come out but she was hooked well so all good. 

The place down the street from me is weeding in good but i didn't want to deal with the down and up hill launch and load to get in and out on a tweaked knee so i went to another place with an easier drop. After 6 hrs. Only got 4 two-ish lb. Bass i cashed out.  Couple hrs later i decided to hit the 1 spot where you can do some punching from shore on the place down the street. Only 1 bite but it weighed 5-7 on a skirted punch rig big bite baits yo mamma.

 

The fish is nothing special size wise, although the special part is that it’s my first swim bait fish. Jackal gantrel jr in bluegill spawn color, well if we don’t count the turtle I caught on it before lol. That’s not a fish though anyhow. I woke up a little bit early before work and was setting on my deck starring at it and I just couldn’t shake the feeling to go throw it in the lake. Working 3rd shift and having a 3 month old makes it hard to go fishing, but I still manage to get it in and my son is so worth it. I am hopeful that he will grow up to like fishing also but that will be his choice when he gets older.

Quick 90 minute bank walking excursion to the largest pond I have access to produced 22 this afternoon, including this one that was pushing the 5 pound mark (but not quite). Midwest finesse scores again.

 

 

They were still chomping the rage tail menace, this one was 19”

 

Nothing special but pip squeak saved me from a skunk lol, on the full size abrogast buzz plug in the black color.

rage menace for me today, first fish i have caught on the menace and will fish the menace much more now instead of always going back to a senko.

Nothing special pic of my smallest big fish of my 2 hours of fishing, caught three smaller ones on a weightless bluegrass senko, biggest on came on a strawberry and cream weightless senko. I also caught another smaller one on a trench hawg in Alabama bug color. Then my daughter caught one on a Ned rig using a rabid bait in mud bug color. All in all a decent evening, tried teaching the wife and daughter how to use a bait caster at the same time lol. They tried but struggled, I told them it takes time and patience, wife made me put her zebco back on her rod and my daughter went back to her spinning reel. I am proud of them for trying ? I didn’t make it easy on them either, both weightless plastics wife had a spicy beaver and daughter had a trench hawg. The rods were right though a medium fast action.