On 8/23/2022 at 12:45 AM, NorcalBassin said:

Had a great last summer trip with my oldest. Got to the lake about 30 minutes before sunrise so we'd have time to run up to where I was hoping the best topwater action would be. She's done really well with small swimbaits, grubs, tubes, Neds, senkos, and drop shot over the years (I've always just tried to put the girls on fish when I take them out), and I figured it was past time to set her up for topwater.

 

First fish of the day a couple casts in with a whopper plopper.

 

My turn on a rover

 

Nice upgrade on the plopper

 

Double hookup... she won.

 

She'll be reminding me of this one for a while...

 

And then she followed it up with her new PB... 19" and close enough to 4 pounds to let her call it a 4 pounder. 

 

Day couldn't have gone better.   

It's great to see another woman catching fish! Your lake looks so different than Maine lakes. 

3 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

I had my best morning of the year. It was mild and overcast and I was on on the water by 5:15 a.m. and fished until 10:15 a.m., fishing a 49-acre pond. I don't usually fish that long, but I'm thinking the gray day made the bite better. I caught 57 bass and one of my best bass of the summer. The first two photos and the last one were the typical size. Then there's one of the nicer ones. Then my big gal, who erupted on a Whopper Plopper as soon as it hit the water. There's a pic of me holding her, another on the board, and a third showing her measurement.

 

I did fail at frogging. I got lots of great hits, but caught none. I think because the hits are so close and explosive that I'm pulling it from their mouths, whereas the Whopper Plopper hits tend to be distant and not as hard and I don't yank the lure, but wait until I feel the fish. I was using a baitcasting reel and braid with a 17-pound mono leader. I also used pliers to spread the hooks a bit and also trimmed the ends. I'll try again tomorrow.

Nice ones!!!

2 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

I had my best morning of the year. It was mild and overcast and I was on on the water by 5:15 a.m. and fished until 10:15 a.m., fishing a 49-acre pond. I don't usually fish that long, but I'm thinking the gray day made the bite better. I caught 57 bass and one of my best bass of the summer. The first two photos and the last one were the typical size. Then there's one of the nicer ones. Then my big gal, who erupted on a Whopper Plopper as soon as it hit the water. There's a pic of me holding her, another on the board, and a third showing her measurement.

 

I did fail at frogging. I got lots of great hits, but caught none. I think because the hits are so close and explosive that I'm pulling it from their mouths, whereas the Whopper Plopper hits tend to be distant and not as hard and I don't yank the lure, but wait until I feel the fish. I was using a baitcasting reel and braid with a 17-pound mono leader. I also used pliers to spread the hooks a bit and also trimmed the ends. I'll try again tomorrow.

57 fish.......looks like your thumbs and hand will be sandpaper for a week lol.  

 

What a morning.   I can't remember ever catching over 50 fish where the majority would even go over a lb.    I miss a lot of fish too on non soft plastic stuff, I need to get proper rod setups with better actions.   I use GLX mag bass MH fast rods as do it alls, but they'll pull a moving bait from a fish quite easily.  

38 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

57 fish.......looks like your thumbs and hand will be sandpaper for a week lol.  

 

What a morning.   I can't remember ever catching over 50 fish where the majority would even go over a lb.    I miss a lot of fish too on non soft plastic stuff, I need to get proper rod setups with better actions.   I use GLX mag bass MH fast rods as do it alls, but they'll pull a moving bait from a fish quite easily.  

For me, the key to catching a lot of fish is fishing for uneducated fish, i.e. fish that haven't seen a lot of lures. I don't fish lakes or ponds with ramps. I do prefer ponds and lakes that require some sweating and grunting to reach. A canoe helps a lot. Being quiet also makes a big difference. However, the biggest difference is simply living in Maine, where there's a lot of water and not a lot of people.

 

I was using a Medium rod with the frog. Was that a mistake? I am also terrible at casting a frog with a baitcaster. I watch the guys on YouTube frogging and they're casting geniuses, casting both far and with pinpoint accuracy. It doesn't help that I'm sitting in a canoe and that I'm old and stiff. Because I can't cast far, when the bass hit, they're just a few feet from me and I reflexively react too soon. 

 

P.S. - Thanks, Mr. 46.

4 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

For me, the key to catching a lot of fish is fishing for uneducated fish, i.e. fish that haven't seen a lot of lures. I don't fish lakes or ponds with ramps. I do prefer ponds and lakes that require some sweating and grunting to reach. A canoe helps a lot. Being quiet also makes a big difference. However, the biggest difference is simply living in Maine, where there's a lot of water and not a lot of people.

 

I was using a Medium rod with the frog. Was that a mistake? I am also terrible at casting a frog with a baitcaster. I watch the guys on YouTube frogging and they're casting geniuses, casting both far and with pinpoint accuracy. It doesn't help that I'm sitting in a canoe and that I'm old and stiff. Because I can't cast far, when the bass hit, they're just a few feet from me and I reflexively react too soon. 

 

P.S. - Thanks, Mr. 46.

Ideally you want your frog rod to be about like a broomstick. The hooks are thick and take a lot of power to poke through the fish’s mouth. I don’t have a true heavy action rod but I use the stoutest medium heavy I can get and set really hard 

5 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Ideally you want your frog rod to be about like a broomstick. The hooks are thick and take a lot of power to poke through the fish’s mouth. I don’t have a true heavy action rod but I use the stoutest medium heavy I can get and set really hard 

Well, I'll just have to buy another rod. Any brand suggestion? I'd also like a longer handle to lever the rod off my PDF. I also need to seriously calm down when frogging and not react like a Jill-in-the-Box. 

 

I just scouted tomorrow morning's pond. It looks great! And I scouted the pond after that too. It looks a little creepy. Very unMainelike. It's a gorge. Dark. Confined. I'll have to work my courage up to it, having seen Deliverance too many times.

7 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

Well, I'll just have to buy another rod. Any brand suggestion? I'd also like a longer handle to lever the rod off my PDF. I also need to seriously calm down when frogging and not react like a Jill-in-the-Box. 

 

I just scouted tomorrow morning's pond. It looks great! And I scouted the pond after that too. It looks a little creepy. Very unMainelike. It's a gorge. Dark. Confined. I'll have to work my courage up to it, having seen Deliverance too many times.

I don’t know if I would be the best person to ask about a brand since I’ve never actually owned a heavy action. I would imagine if you search through the fishing rods and reels sub forum, there are probably many threads and discussions on which is the best frog rod . I use a $20 off the rack medium heavy but I’m sure a heavy or extra heavy would be better. I just never see those actions on the rack (at least not in the cheap section)

https://okumafishingusa.com/products/psycho-stick-rods

 

PSY-C-751H

4 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

Well, I'll just have to buy another rod. Any brand suggestion

Lots of threads in the fishing rods/line subforum about good frog rods. Can just search frog rods and I’m sure you’ll find some suggestions. I’ll just say for an inexpensive froggin rod I like my Lew’s Carbon Fire 7’3” Heavy. @PhishLI and I done talked about that rod on another thread, it is a cool little gem. 

28 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

I don’t have a true heavy action rod but

Own 6 baitcasters and 4 of them are heavy. One isn’t a true heavy (Falcon). don’t really know how I wound up with 4 heavy’s but it chose me, I didn’t choose it. That’s my story and I’m stickin to it ?

The Brown bass were shallow this morning

and they were chewing . . . .

A-Jay

49 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

However, the biggest difference is simply living in Maine, where there's a lot of water and not a lot of people.

Since when is Maine "America's Dairyland" lol.  That's the great state of Wisconsin.

5 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

The Brown bass were shallow this morning

and they were chewing . . . .

A-Jay

Very nice, sir! ?

11 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

The Brown bass were shallow this morning

and they were chewing . . . .

A-Jay

18 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

The Brown bass were shallow this morning

and they were chewing . . . .

A-Jay

Gorgeous fish! Well done.

1 hour ago, A-Jay said:

The Brown bass were shallow this morning

and they were chewing . . . .

A-Jay

Wow, amazing fish.    Fish of a lifetime for many smallmouth anglers I'd imagine.  

Caught several ‘small-ish’ LMB today and only thought to snap a picture of one of them. @A-Jay’s make it look like a hatchling ?

 

 

1 hour ago, gimruis said:

Since when is Maine "America's Dairyland" lol.  That's the great state of Wisconsin.

Ahhh, the state that produces the most milk is the Great State of California . If we’re talking cheddar cheese, the state of Wisconsin would be first and California would be second. Who’d a thunk ?

Beautiful brown bass @A-Jay!  * and the man doesn’t even step on the line guides of the two rods he’s kneeling over when taking a photo of these monsta’s, hat’s off sir!

1 hour ago, A-Jay said:

The Brown bass were shallow this morning

and they were chewing . . . .

A-Jay

 

2 hours ago, gimruis said:

Since when is Maine "America's Dairyland" lol.  That's the great state of Wisconsin.

I should update that. I lived in Wisconsin for 30 years.

3 hours ago, J._Bricker said:

Ahhh, the state that produces the most milk is the Great State of California

I actually knew that but everyone still knows what state is America’s Dairyland. It’s right on the license plates!

40 minutes ago, gimruis said:

I actually knew that but everyone still knows what state is America’s Dairyland. It’s right on the license plates!

Someone at the DMV has a sense of humor cause it’s the Badger State!

Got one on the fish lab crawdad, one in the tail with a rattle trap, and a micro SMB haha

That last one's cute as a button with his tiny meanness.

This morning, I fished my tenth pond this summer. I fished a little less than three hours. The pond was really a swamp. The water was clear and it looked like there was 18-24 inches of water, but when I stuck my paddle into the water trying to reach bottom, I realized that there were a couple feet of weeds down there. I caught ten fish, but two were 18.25", one was 19", and one was 20.5". This pond/swamp is right on a major highway.

 

The skinny fish was stunningly strong, turning the canoe and nearly yanking my pole into the water. The two biggest fish hit in open water, but both burrowed into weeds. I felt lucky to land them. I liked paddling through the reeds in the fog. I did try my frog again and triggered a couple monster strikes in heavy cover and I kept my cool and wanted for the fish to engulf the frog, but I failed again. I'll keep trying. 

Here's a pic that shows you what the "pond" looks like. More reeds than open water.

10 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

This morning, I fished my tenth pond this summer. I fished a little less than three hours. The pond was really a swamp. The water was clear and it looked like there was 18-24 inches of water, but when I stuck my paddle into the water trying to reach bottom, I realized that there were a couple feet of weeds down there. I caught ten fish, but two were 18.25", one was 19", and one was 20.5". This pond/swamp is right on a major highway.

 

The skinny fish was stunningly strong, turning the canoe and nearly yanking my pole into the water. The two biggest fish hit in open water, but both burrowed into weeds. I felt lucky to land them. I liked paddling through the reeds in the fog. I did try my frog again and triggered a couple monster strikes in heavy cover and I kept my cool and wanted for the fish to engulf the frog, but I failed again. I'll keep trying. 

Here's a pic that shows you what the "pond" looks like. More reeds than open water.

Sweet day, nice. Those reeds look like they are fun to fish