Kinda slow morning. Only fished 8:00-12:00. Nothing up top, in fact, nothing at all except on 5” Senko TR. For once, #297 ruled the day. Caught these three and three dinks. 
 

 

Speaking of dinks, man, they are small, but boy, do they fight! It’s surprising how much resistance a 12” bass can put up!

 

Also lucked out and found a frog in some overhanging limbs. 
 

Best of 10 this afternoon fishing a bit deeper just outside the weedline using a jig - close to 5...at least high 4s.

 

Got this 19 inch fish on my new Lew’s combo. Bit a watermelon red ’dinger.

Caught a few dinks and a warmouth on a watermelon red dinger. 
 

 

Then got out the big bait setup and caught this 4.99er on the 2nd cast, right where I had worked over a corner with the dinger. 
 

Got out at night for a couple hours and then a couple hours late morning the next day.  Night time was the right time for the bass, but this by-catch was fun on a M rod for sure...

 

scott

 

6 minutes ago, softwateronly said:

Got out at night for a couple hours and then a couple hours late morning the next day.  Night time was the right time for the bass, but this by-catch was fun on a M rod for sure...

 

scott

 

Nice Pike !

A-Jay

15 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

Nice Pike !

A-Jay

 

Thanks!  Pic doesn't do justice to the shoulders she had, easy double digits in weight.  The death rolls at the end were a little nerve wracking for me and my line.

 

scott

On 5/26/2022 at 9:54 AM, hokiehunter373 said:

Got out for a few hours the past couple days and caught 20ish.  Tuesday was filled with a bunch of pounders.  Wednesday was a 2-2.5# average and a lot of fun.  Bluegills are dominating the shallows now with bass mixed in around them.  The roboworm did a bunch of work again.  Caught this chunky girl who put my 6# line to the test.  Great fight.

 

 

 

It was breezy and the bass were aggressive so it seemed like a good opportunity to work a spinnerbait.  Excellent decision as it was on fire.

 

 

Then I caught this guy again lol.  He's got to be getting absolutely sick of seeing my ugly mug but glad to see his tail is healing up just fine.  

 

 

I forgot to add the craziest part to this outing. Was walking the edge of the pond and a frog spooked and jumped into the water. On impact I see a bass dart out of cover to where the frog entered. Half a second later I see the bass swimming away with 2 hind frog legs sticking out of its mouth. One of the craziest things I’ve ever seen and it happened so dang quick. Showed how fast those fish can really move. That frog didn’t know what hit him. 

1 hour ago, softwateronly said:

Got out at night for a couple hours and then a couple hours late morning the next day.  Night time was the right time for the bass, but this by-catch was fun on a M rod for sure...

 

scott

 

So I caught one of these this morning. First one ever. It smashed a jerkbait and had a hook in his mouth and another straight in the gills. 0 chance the fish was going to make it. I was on a dock and not expecting anything toothy so I was trying to get out the essentials to unhook the fish. Long story short it started flopping around, rods were going everywhere, and it ended up snapping my line and flopping in the water with the lure. Had that not happened I was unsure what to do and here’s my question: MD says they have to be 30” to keep. I hadn’t got to measure yet but it was certainly over 25”, not sure about 30”. What would you all do with a fish that doesn’t meet regs but clearly isn’t going to survive? I’m 100% sure this fish wasn’t gonna make it. 

18 minutes ago, hokiehunter373 said:

I forgot to add the craziest part to this outing. Was walking the edge of the pond and a frog spooked and jumped into the water. On impact I see a bass dart out of cover to where the frog entered. Half a second later I see the bass swimming away with 2 hind frog legs sticking out of its mouth. One of the craziest things I’ve ever seen and it happened so dang quick. Showed how fast those fish can really move. That frog didn’t know what hit him. 

So I caught one of these this morning. First one ever. It smashed a jerkbait and had a hook in his mouth and another straight in the gills. 0 chance the fish was going to make it. I was on a dock and not expecting anything toothy so I was trying to get out the essentials to unhook the fish. Long story short it started flopping around, rods were going everywhere, and it ended up snapping my line and flopping in the water with the lure. Had that not happened I was unsure what to do and here’s my question: MD says they have to be 30” to keep. I hadn’t got to measure yet but it was certainly over 25”, not sure about 30”. What would you all do with a fish that doesn’t meet regs but clearly isn’t going to survive? I’m 100% sure this fish wasn’t gonna make it. 

 

Obviously a tough decision.  Where I fish, you will only see authorities on the water memorial day weekend and maybe a saturday or sunday near the 4th of July.  I've killed my fair share of fish over the years, but much less frequently the last 4-5 years since I gave up on the weightless senko in windy conditions.  I attempt to release them all, if they kick away and I don't expect them to make it, I'll hang in the area for another 20mins.  If they come back up, I keep and eat them, legal or not.

 

scott

 

needle nose pliers are the first thing I need to go fishing up here if I want to practice CR....rod, reel, and baits are secondary.

1 hour ago, hokiehunter373 said:

I forgot to add the craziest part to this outing. Was walking the edge of the pond and a frog spooked and jumped into the water. On impact I see a bass dart out of cover to where the frog entered. Half a second later I see the bass swimming away with 2 hind frog legs sticking out of its mouth. One of the craziest things I’ve ever seen and it happened so dang quick. Showed how fast those fish can really move. That frog didn’t know what hit him. 

So I caught one of these this morning. First one ever. It smashed a jerkbait and had a hook in his mouth and another straight in the gills. 0 chance the fish was going to make it. I was on a dock and not expecting anything toothy so I was trying to get out the essentials to unhook the fish. Long story short it started flopping around, rods were going everywhere, and it ended up snapping my line and flopping in the water with the lure. Had that not happened I was unsure what to do and here’s my question: MD says they have to be 30” to keep. I hadn’t got to measure yet but it was certainly over 25”, not sure about 30”. What would you all do with a fish that doesn’t meet regs but clearly isn’t going to survive? I’m 100% sure this fish wasn’t gonna make it. 

Release it.

16 minutes ago, GreenPig said:

What would you all do with a fish that doesn’t meet regs but clearly isn’t going to survive? I’m 100% sure this fish wasn’t gonna make it. 

As Green said - release it. By the regs, it's illegal to keep, so it doesn't matter if it'll make it or not - turtles, crayfish, etc will make a meal of it.

Got out this morning after work and took my kayak to a lake I had never fished before. I go by it on the highway and look at it and think it’s got to be good in that spot. Only had three hours caught two and missed a couple more. 2 fish total of 6.06lbs, 2.58,3.48lb. Caught them both on a damiki hydra June bug color with a tungsten bullet weight pegged.

Decided to head out yesterday anyways after my buddy bailed on me and glad I did got my first 4 pounder of the year.  Only caught two a 4.12 and a 2.99.  Lake was about a half mile walk into so had to take limited gear just some senkos, flukes, brush hawgs, and my jig/chatterbait box.  Fished an hour and a half or so and wasn't having any luck at all with my usuals so I threw on a 3/8 ounce jig and trailer and second flip with it by a pipe drain the 4 pounder hit and got the 2.99 shortly after.  Been trying to get confidence in jigs this year and so far I've only caught 3 fish on them but they've been 3 of my 5 biggest this year.

Weather was beautiful but action was spotty.

One fish came from an area that's usually productive but nothing else was interested here. On a typical year this spot is filled with beds but not this season. Hmmm . . .

 

 

Went for hours on another large flat with only one hard strike on a Spin Bait 80 and, at this point, was thinking about calling it a day. Decided to check my favorite rock pile and I'm glad I did:

 

 

 

 

These three smallmouth came in a forty minute period and put me in much better humor on the trip back to the dock!

 

5 hours ago, Jmurphy87 said:

with a tungsten bullet weight pegged

Nice fish!  Unpeg that weight and watch your numbers go up!  Especially this time of year. 

2 hours ago, BigAngus752 said:

Nice fish!  Unpeg that weight and watch your numbers go up!  Especially this time of year. 

I will definitely try that. The best part was I got to watch the bigger fish eat it. Water clarity was good and I was fishing a lot of sunken timber all over. Threw it in to a lay down and was working it through saw the fish come in and killed it then twitched it and he went right to it and ate it.

6.31 post spawn Ct green head 

Had a great day at a little Indiana farm pond. Caught 2 4 pound bass on topwater, one on the Buzzbait around noon and another on a whopper plopper at night. Great day!

 

 

3 hours ago, DinkDreams said:

Had a great day at a little Indiana farm pond. Caught 2 4 pound bass on topwater, one on the Buzzbait around noon and another on a whopper plopper at night. Great day!

 

 

What a chunk! Too bad it’s short. Great fish!

6 hours ago, hokiehunter373 said:

What a chunk! Too bad it’s short. Great fish!

It’s definitely a stubby gal! That whole pond is like that. Not a lot of fish but the ones you catch are usually fat and short.

Western PA stud.  Spro poppin frog - Killer gill.   50# PP.   Curado 200K XG.  LowRider - Lizard dragger. 6# 9oz.  

Boat is up north getting some work done to the motor.  So I decided to kick it old school and fish the Shiawassee river with my canoe.  River was higher than normal and a ton of weeds were floating.  Making it impossible to use inline spinners or rapala’s.  I havnt floated the river since my first boat.  So about 5 years 

 

Only caught 4 fish. missed a really nice one for the river.  What the fish lack on size as they make up for in spunk.
 

I forgot my zoom tubes at home which, the smallies love.  I don’t know how well they would have done rigged on a tube jig any how.  

 

found success with a mojo rig running some type of sinking strike king finnesse worm that was black and blue flake