Was able to get out today. Been pretty absent. Haven't had a lot of time for fishing. Caught a 13 inch and a 14 inch smallie. (I'm guessing on size. Didn't bother to measure them.) Plus a handful of dinks.

 

Unless you count the pike and carp, they're aren't a lot of giant fish near me. But smallies fight like fish twice their size. 

 

 

 

Plus a couple weeks ago I caught this largie in a little pond. For the size pond, this guy is a beast. He was only 15 inches but weight a full 2lbs : 

 

3 hours ago, LrgmouthShad said:

Couple river smallies today. Larger one photo’d came on a spinnerbait. Somebody tell TnRiver that spinnerbaits work for smallmouth, I’m not sure if he knows ?. 
 

 

You need a zorro shirt! Nice one 

18 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

You need a zorro shirt! Nice one 

I actually am in need of some new shirts. I’ll place an order with some Bango blade spinnerbaits included  within next couple days probably. 
 

Id wear that for sure!

1 hour ago, BrianMDTX said:

It rained! Sweet Mother of God, it actually rained yesterday! Heavy downpours (rained again this afternoon, too!). Which meant I had to check out the pond this morning. It is still lower than normal, but yesterday’s gullywasher filled up 3/4 of what it was down (filled up now lol), and that’s a good thing. 

 

 

It seems it's been a dry summer across the country. All my regular spots are pretty low too. Everytime it rains, I get really excited. Glad to hear you got some water. 

 

Also, nice catches! 

Never want to see smoke in the sky around here this time of year...

 

Dink of dinks but it always amazes me how aggressive small SM and spots can be.

 

First cover scat fish on a free rig. I was pleasantly surprised how many bites this drew. 

 

I went fishing last night and this morning. Caught 19 bass last night and 8 bass this morning, plus a bullhead on a Whopper Plopper. Thanks to all the guys who coached me on fishing frogs. I fished some serious salad. I also caught some nice fish. I like the third one best. Right before it hit my frog, I'm pretty sure it said, Puny frog. Bass smash!" I also caught a bullhead on a Whopper Plopper!  

 

 

 

P.S. - I catch short fish too, but even they're fat. Here's one:

 

 

 

                                   

25 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

I went fishing last night and this morning. Caught 19 bass last night and 8 bass this morning, plus a bullhead on a Whopper Plopper. Thanks to all the guys who coached me on fishing frogs. I fished some serious salad. I also caught some nice fish. I like the third one best. Right before it hit my frog, I'm pretty sure it said, Puny frog. Bass smash!" I also caught a bullhead on a Whopper Plopper!  

 

 

 

P.S. - I catch short fish too, but even they're fat. Here's one:

 

Dang man, great job!   Looks like you caught a number of pigs 

Thanks, Mr. Warrior and Mr. Spothunter! One small correction:

 

 

Fishing at the spillway today. This guy put up quite the fight. Also got a small catfish and two monster carps(gross)

 

 

Just now, ol'crickety said:

Thanks, Mr. Warrior and Mr. Spothunter! One small correction:

 

 

Wow, a woman who is such a diehard fisherman she's night bassin......we'll clone you in time

4 minutes ago, Texas Flood said:

Fishing at the spillway today. This guy put up quite the fight. Also got a small catfish and two monster carps(gross)

 

 

Nice one!   Spillways are easily one of my favorite places to fish.   Caught lots of nice fish around them.  

13 hours ago, NorcalBassin said:

Never want to see smoke in the sky around here this time of year...

 

Dink of dinks but it always amazes me how aggressive small SM and spots can be.

 

First cover scat fish on a free rig. I was pleasantly surprised how many bites this drew. 

 

How you like free rigging?? It would replace tubes for me but not sure if it’s worth going down that rabbit hole

18 hours ago, LrgmouthShad said:

I actually am in need of some new shirts.

Your back is working again?

1 minute ago, PhishLI said:

Your back is working again?

It is better, not all the way healed. I stopped fishing after catching the fish photo'd because I felt a pinching sensation in my back that concerned me. Feels much better this A.M but I want to take next couple days off regardless and then try again for short spurts bank fishing. 

 

I said "back" but really my trouble is something surrounding my shoulder blade. The pain is centered on my back though, underneath my scapula and sometimes radiating in other directions. Seen doctors and started PT; I'll be fine. Thanks for asking man

You made me laugh, SpotHunter! I wasn't quite night fishin'. Just very early mornin' fishin'! There was a little light. Thanks for the encouragement. It's greatly appreciated.

Dropshot from the bank isn't a fluke. Another good afternoon on the water, but going to tweak my setup just a bit as I had another good fish that I really couldn't do anything with before he got a chance to wrap me on something and finally pull off. Kinda' comes with the territory when bank fishing though, especially with 6 lb. test - lol.

6 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

I went fishing last night and this morning. Caught 19 bass last night and 8 bass this morning, plus a bullhead on a Whopper Plopper. Thanks to all the guys who coached me on fishing frogs. I fished some serious salad. I also caught some nice fish. I like the third one best. Right before it hit my frog, I'm pretty sure it said, Puny frog. Bass smash!" I also caught a bullhead on a Whopper Plopper!  

 

 

 

P.S. - I catch short fish too, but even they're fat. Here's one:

 

I've never heard of somone catching a catfish off of topwater. Cool stuff!

1 hour ago, Basser2021 said:

I've never heard of somone catching a catfish off of topwater. Cool stuff!

@Bluebasser86has a video of one slamming a popper, one of the most violent strikes I’ve seen 

20 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

@Bluebasser86has a video of one slamming a popper, one of the most violent strikes I’ve seen 

@Bluebasser86 probably has a video of a bluegill eating a glide bait

16 minutes ago, LrgmouthShad said:

@Bluebasser86 probably has a video of a bluegill eating a glide bait

He has a magical way of making fish eat lures 

4 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

He has a magical way of making fish eat lures 

1 hour ago, TnRiver46 said:

@Bluebasser86has a video of one slamming a popper, one of the most violent strikes I’ve seen 

I caught a 15lb channel one time waking a spinner bait in like 6 or 8 inches of water...sounding like some body threw an m80 in.

3 hours ago, DitchPanda said:

I caught a 15lb channel one time waking a spinner bait in like 6 or 8 inches of water...sounding like some body threw an m80 in.

I got an 8 lb channel burning a spinnerbait in spring of 2020, sure didn’t catch a bass with it 

 

when I saw a two foot long brown and greenish fish come up and slam it, I thought monster smallmouth 

Managed one angry 2.5 and two squarebills before the lightning showed up. There was a drowning incident at the Ray Roberts beach today while I was at the pier, very sad. I hope we don't have any more of those for a long while; at least three people have gone under at RR in the last 12-14 months. I have been at the lake for two of them. I hate seeing the dive team rolling across the dam so, so much. PFDs please, everyone. 

2 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

I got an 8 lb channel burning a spinnerbait in spring of 2020, sure didn’t catch a bass with it 

I got a 19lb blue on a chatterbait micro. Didn't get a bass that day either. ?‍♂️

33 minutes ago, thediscochef said:

Managed one angry 2.5 and two squarebills before the lightning showed up. There was a drowning incident at the Ray Roberts beach today while I was at the pier, very sad. I hope we don't have any more of those for a long while; at least three people have gone under at RR in the last 12-14 months. I have been at the lake for two of them. I hate seeing the dive team rolling across the dam so, so much. PFDs please, everyone. 

I got a 19lb blue on a chatterbait micro. Didn't get a bass that day either. ?‍♂️

Nice fish, and loving the retro tackle box...I don't miss hard tackle systems though haha

 

Little report from today......been a bit under the weather with the Bat flu, but somebody must catch these fish.   

 

Went out from about 130-530pm.    Very dynamic weather right now in the SE, up and down pressure, daily t-storms and rain.....and the one thing that's killing me in this dang jon boat is the wind.     I'd say it was tough bite today, but to be fair I just didn't have the mental focus to fish slow or methodical.     Caught one fish b/t 1-2lbs way back in a shallow creek as I trying to get some shelter from the wind.   

 

At that point knowing I wasn't going home skunked, I figured I would go and try to find some big bait schools, and try to find schooling Bass for some action before I called it.   Ended up catching 6 or 7 Spots, all in that 1lb range......would have ended up with one more, and the nicest of the lot if I hadn't been greedy and tried to get another one that was in a frenzy trying to steal the bait from the hooked first.     Kept the hooked fish by the boat, went to reach for a reel with a crankbait on it, and then the hooked fish pulled the hook.      

 

I can't ever remember seeing one or more LGMs following a hooked Bass like I've seen on numerous occasions with Spots.   You see this with many saltwater gamefish, but I can't recall if I've seen another freshwater fish besides Spots do it.   Maybe Smallies would but I don't have them here.   Pics:  one LGM b/t 1-2lbs, a representative of the schooling Spots, and lastly what I was looking for on the sonar and pulling the fish from) All but the LGM were taken on the 1/4oz vibrating jig head with Live Magic Shad in Albino until I ran out, and then I went with something that looked closely, but wasn't nearly as effective as those magic shad.    They are fragile, but wow do they generate violent strikes.   TackleWarehouse tackle monkey just got me 50 bucks in Magic Shad lol.