10 hours ago, casts_by_fly said:

 

that is quite impressive. 

I took a day off and went home to my parents for a couple days (left Wednesday after work, worked Friday morning before coming home).  My (retired, and picks his days) dad has a local lake that he fishes exclusively from the start of may until mid June because of TONS of smallmouth and plenty over 5 lb. Mostly it’s topwaters and just cast and catch. Since I kinda had to work around work we didn’t have optimal weather but we managed 11 with a bonus pike. None over 16” or so this time. But catching and big fish isn’t the point. When you’re fishing on a Thursday with your 68 year old dad guiding you, it’s not about the fish. 
 

Yeah it was a heck of a backlash, sent my lure flying into the lake sadly.

I would love to fish with my dad again, cherish those moments. Nice smallie!

The Berkley Juke jerkbait has been my most productive bait this week. Caught another fat prespawn Largemouth. It had another fish down it’s throat.

 

 

And my first Smallmouth of the year on the river.

 

Not much to write home about. Caught 6 total. 5 dinks and one about 2 lbs. My best topwater spot was covered in floating mats of algae. I did not have a frog (or frog rod) so standard topwater baits were a no-go. Had one missed hit on a spinnerbait and lost a bass on a dropshot. All were caught on a 4” #956 Senko TR except for one on a Mann’s blackberry Jelly Worm. Looked great but it was a slow go. 
 

Been real busy both on and off the water, so just going to dump some photos of catches from the past few trips. Bass are really really shallow here and it has been getting real toasty. Drank almost a gallon of water in the kayak today. Today was the slowest day. The other trips were pretty good. I've caught an awful lot of bass and have not photo'd many of them. Some of the smaller ones I did, until i realized I was catching a bunch and didn't want to keep taking pictures. Swim jig still a major player right now, especially in the really skinny water. Have had a little spinnerbait and whopper plopper action, but the bass tend to try and swipe at a spinnerbait if I throw it, whereas if i throw a swim jig, they will try and eat it. Saw a video by Jason Christie where he explained that a swim jig zipping by a bass's bed resembles a bluegill or perch zooming in to try and get a quick meal. Explains some of the success I've been having and perhaps why they've been less apt to try and eat a spinnerbait.

5 hours ago, LrgmouthShad said:

Been real busy both on and off the water, so just going to dump some photos of catches from the past few trips. Bass are really really shallow here and it has been getting real toasty. Drank almost a gallon of water in the kayak today. Today was the slowest day. The other trips were pretty good. I've caught an awful lot of bass and have not photo'd many of them. Some of the smaller ones I did, until i realized I was catching a bunch and didn't want to keep taking pictures. Swim jig still a major player right now, especially in the really skinny water. Have had a little spinnerbait and whopper plopper action, but the bass tend to try and swipe at a spinnerbait if I throw it, whereas if i throw a swim jig, they will try and eat it. Saw a video by Jason Christie where he explained that a swim jig zipping by a bass's bed resembles a bluegill or perch zooming in to try and get a quick meal. Explains some of the success I've been having and perhaps why they've been less apt to try and eat a spinnerbait.

I remember back when you mean mugged the camera…….. hahahah! Nice catches

1 minute ago, TnRiver46 said:

I remember back when you mean mugged the camera…….. hahahah! Nice catches

Was literally just thinking of that when I posted the photos. Whole lotta smiles on those first two especially. Yeah man, it’s a good feeling smiling with the fish, dunno why I never did it. 

Got out on a short float after work with some friends Wednesday and caught a couple small ones cranking 

Ran the same float Friday evening, caught a couple small ones with a worm





today I caught my first ever whopper plopper fish, hit it twice 


And my buddy caught a drum that was 4-5 lbs and I said let me take a pic , he’s like no it’s a drum. Then said ok I’ll hold it way out here so it looks tiny. I think it should be a new trend 

5 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Then said ok I’ll hold it way out here so it looks tiny. I think it should be a new trend

That is hilarious ?. Nice fish by the way ?

Pretty relaxing day in Southeast Texas. The summer has arrived. It was in the 90s sunny glass calm water. My first cast I landed a pretty nice fish for the small pond I was fishing throwing a Zoom Finesse Worm on a dropshot rig (plum metal flake). My second catch came a 6th Sense ****** 70X (Sunfish Scream). Just Yo-yo'ing the lure through grass. These two colors are great in stained water. As is orange chartreuse and white. This same body of water I caught a nice 3lb green fish on a The Big Chatterbait last week with the orange blade. It looked kind of gimmicky, but I gave it a chance and it produced!!! This time of year is not my favorite because the mosquitoes are out and I have to prepare myself and change the way I fish. It's going to be a hot one this summer! 

Only fished 8-12 today, but had a decent day. I love fishing soft plastics, but I use a lot of different baits. Not today. I decided to fish soft plastics and only soft plastics. 
 

First up was a Neko Macho weightless TR. Got hit on my first cast, but missed it. About four casts later it got whacked again in the same spot. Likely the same bass.

Tried a Jelly Worm TR next. Got bit on three times but very light strikes. Never hooked one so likely biting the tail. Tried a dropshot next. First with a 4” Senko, then switched to a Z-Man Finesse TRD. That did the trick! Unfortunately my Palomar knot did (k)not. Felt like a decent bass. Got it halfway to the boat and…poof. First bass I’ve lost to a knot failure in two years (and I had a lot due to a bad batch of line). Tried a 5” Senko Wacky Rig and got nothing. 
 

I re-rigged the rod the Palomar broke on (Daiwa Procyon M/XF) with a 3/0 Gamakatsu EWG and rigged a watermelon seed Zoom Trick. Cast it out, and as it sank I pondered on how much I really enjoy working a Texas rig-standard or weightless. I love feeling that “tap-tap”. No “tap-tap” here. It sank about 2’ and bam! The line took off. So fast that I set the hook with my finger on the line as I didn’t have time to close the bail. It put up a good fight!

Nearing noon, I decided to stick with the Trick. Good call. Not long after, another decent bass took it. But it took it slow and it had a chance to gulp it before I knew I had a fish on the line. 
It was guthooked. Thank God for the “thru the gills” method I learned on BR. I got the hook out and not one drop of blood. It swam away without a hitch. 
 

All three were about 2 lbs. caught three dinks as well. 

Left the house at 3:45 am, Got out on the water at 5 am hoping to find a shad spawn and maybe some striper/walleye. Water temp was 77, I might be a little

late in the year for shad spawn. I only got one fish in the dark and it was a small largemouth with a rattle trap, tried whopper plopper for about an hour with only one dink bite. Once the sun started hitting the water I switch sides of the river and fished a shady pocket off the main channel. I was kind of mesmerized watching my fluke next to the trolling motor when all of a sudden what I think is a big spotted bass is tracking it. I had a minor heart attack, shrieked like a girl, and the fish just froze. I finally twitched the bait and he engulfed it, almost a 20” meanmouth (I think). 

i had to cut the grass and spread some

seed at the lake house so I started driving the boat that way. I was marking some fish so I tried trolling a crank 2 mph. As I’m doing that, fish start blowing up the surface. A lot of them were skipjack herring and I wanted one for live bait. They were attacking my fluke by the dozens with no hookup. I cast to what I think is a jumping skipjack and it gets immediately flushed and a nice smallie jumps…… and jumps…. And jumps…… and I finally net it 

there are still fish jumping everywhere so I tied a spook on and put the troller on high, casting to lay downs as I chased the schools. A smaller fish that I think was fry guarding smashed the plug 

ok now need to cut grass , get that done including lots of poison ivy. I jumped into the lake to wash that off, and tried one more spot near the dock with a worm, deep rocks. Thump…………

I’ve got a big fish bulldogging…………. Then all of a sudden it feels smaller and I net a catfish and my line is all frayed, guess he was behind a rock

sunrise was awesome 

there was a big full moon also, normally I don’t catch fish during such but I did today 

Great post!

One correction for you: Shad spawn 2 or 3 times a year on most of the Tennessee River and reservoirs.

1 hour ago, roadwarrior said:

Great post!

One correction for you: Shad spawn 2 or 3 times a year on most of the Tennessee River and reservoirs.

Good to know! Thanks. It stands to reason you would know exactly what’s happening between 4 and 5 am ! ? 

On 5/13/2022 at 10:43 AM, thediscochef said:

Down in San Angelo for work, I took a detour to Possum Kingdom and Hubbard Creek Reservoirs. Possum is absolutely amazing, beautiful clear blue water and so many rocks and docks to cast around. Spent about 90 minutes, caught two LMB and six Wipers. This was the largest fish I landed, I lost two more that felt much larger. First time I've ever actually wanted to set up tent camp and stay somewhere in 100 degree heat.

 

Hubbard Creek was kind of the opposite...that's where the pictured backlash ended my day on cast #2 LOL

Hubbard is murky as heck, max 18" vis, less than a foot in others. Didn't bother with Lake Fort Phantom Hill, it's being reported as even murkier.

 

On the job as I type, I leave here Sunday and will be hitting a few lakes on the way back. Hopeful to find a shore spot at OH Ivie but thinking Brownwood and Proctor will be better access. 

 

I'm finding that I much much prefer clearer water over the usually 2-6ft vis I have back home. Whitney and Possum are now favorites. 

Quick update on the trip back - skunk at FOUR lakes. Ivie is inundated with boats and zebra mussels, which cut my line twice. I counted 67 empty boat trailers at Kennedy. You can't actually even see the dirt that makes up the shore at Padgett Park, as the shore is completely covered with huge clumps of rotting zebra mussels. The stench was unimaginable. I didn't last long. Never going there without a boat again, and never on a weekend. Total waste of time. Same with Brownwood. Except the water at Brownwood looks like a mud hole. Ivie is at least clear on the south and east sides of the lake. Proctor is somehow muddier but at least mussel-free. Stopped back at Possum and a good size LMB spat me at the shore. I packed up and went home. The end. Sorry for the book of whinging ??

53 minutes ago, thediscochef said:

I didn't last long

That's okay. I typically don't either...

 

By the way, I didn't even know what a zebra mussel looks like but when google shows me a photo of a shell and calls it an animal, that makes me pretty uncomfortable. Like, are they just shells that have been possessed?

1 minute ago, LrgmouthShad said:

That's okay. I typically don't either...

 

By the way, I didn't even know what a zebra mussel looks like but when google shows me a photo of a shell and calls it an animal, that makes me pretty uncomfortable. Like, are they just shells that have been possessed?

They look like this

1 minute ago, TnRiver46 said:

They look like this

I thought that was called a fish

8 minutes ago, LrgmouthShad said:

I thought that was called a fish

That's why they pay me the big bucks 

25 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

That's why they pay me the big bucks 

You mean to tell me that this whole time, we’ve been uploading pictures of zebra mussels of various sizes onto this thread??!! Latest “Zebra Mussels” Pics Thread? 
 

1 hour ago, LrgmouthShad said:

That's okay. I typically don't either...

 

By the way, I didn't even know what a zebra mussel looks like but when google shows me a photo of a shell and calls it an animal, that makes me pretty uncomfortable. Like, are they just shells that have been possessed?

They can be sharp as a knife when they're alive or freshly dead which can be dangerous for swimmers and fishing line etc, though they do calcify over time and lose their edge. The main problem is clogged pipes and reduced plankton/algae that other filter feeding fish rely on. Which can affect bass forage. Doesn't seem to be affecting forage at Ivie LOL. Or at Ray Roberts. But maybe in some years. They also can produce a million larvae per mussel per year, there's only been one known eradication in Texas. They found it within days of invasion, I think

Got out Saturday morning after work, nothing special but still a fish. A day that you catch a fish is a good day.

Been chasing the pond bass mostly over the past few weeks in between crappie trips. Different presentations for different ponds, or different weather conditions. Just a few baits overall though as I like to keep options simple from shore. Here's what's been working:

 

JIGS -

 

SWIMBAITS - 

 

JIGHEAD WACKY (Flick Shake) - 

 

FROGS - 

Went fishin sunday and monday. The river produced some nice walleye for wife and i.

Along with the walleye we both caught smallies and pike.

I didnt have a camera on me but the smallie took the old original rapala black and gold and it hit like a tank.

The big walleye weighed 8# and 24 inches long.

On 5/13/2022 at 9:57 PM, HaydenS said:

Nice fish!

You throwing that robo worm on a bubba shot?

No.  I was fishing a trick worm on a shaky head and the worm got bit off.  I had the roboworms in my pocket and figured I'd try them and see how the fish liked it.  Worked well enough that I fished it some more yesterday.  Didn't get anything else sizeable but absolutely hammered a pile of 1-2 pounders on it mid day. 

 

Speaking of, yesterday was a year since my dog passed.  Took the day off work to do fun things with the fam and figured I'd start off by watching the sunrise over the water.  Didn't disappoint.  

 

 

 

Of course the first fish was fittingly the smallest of the year 

 

 

The next was considerably better.  I switched to a spinnerbait and saw this guy come charging over right as the lure got to shore and I was lifting it out of the water.  I tossed it back out a few feet in front of me, spun the reel a few times, and got to watch him annihilate it.  The amount of eats I've gotten to watch already this year has been amazing and never get old.  A caught a few more on the spinner and saw a giant bass but had to leave for the morning right as the bite was heating up.

 

 

Came back midday for an hour and change and the spinnerbait bite was off even though the wind had picked up.  Broke out the above mentioned roboworm on a shaky head and stacked um up.  Full worm or even with the end bit off, it didn't matter.  Failed to take any pics with things happening rapid fire and nothing chunky.  I'll be back at it tonight looking for something with some more size to it.

1 hour ago, hokiehunter373 said:

No.  I was fishing a trick worm on a shaky head and the worm got bit off.  I had the roboworms in my pocket and figured I'd try them and see how the fish liked it.  Worked well enough that I fished it some more yesterday.  Didn't get anything else sizeable but absolutely hammered a pile of 1-2 pounders on it mid day. 

 

Speaking of, yesterday was a year since my dog passed.  Took the day off work to do fun things with the fam and figured I'd start off by watching the sunrise over the water.  Didn't disappoint.  

 

 

 

Of course the first fish was fittingly the smallest of the year 

 

 

The next was considerably better.  I switched to a spinnerbait and saw this guy come charging over right as the lure got to shore and I was lifting it out of the water.  I tossed it back out a few feet in front of me, spun the reel a few times, and got to watch him annihilate it.  The amount of eats I've gotten to watch already this year has been amazing and never get old.  A caught a few more on the spinner and saw a giant bass but had to leave for the morning right as the bite was heating up.

 

 

Came back midday for an hour and change and the spinnerbait bite was off even though the wind had picked up.  Broke out the above mentioned roboworm on a shaky head and stacked um up.  Full worm or even with the end bit off, it didn't matter.  Failed to take any pics with things happening rapid fire and nothing chunky.  I'll be back at it tonight looking for something with some more size to it.

GORGEOUS photos and nice fish, awesome