22 minutes ago, Woody B said:

I caught 16 average size bass today(biggest one 18 inches) and one great big grumpy old man.   

 

Ouch…

5 minutes ago, GaryH said:

Ouch…

 

It wasn't "that" bad.  I was hooked pretty good though.   The other treble was in my shirt sleeve kinda pulling against the embedded one.  I had done one of my famous tree casts.  It came back right at me.   I ducked, turned and covered my face with my arm. 

I cut the end of the hook off, got the other out of my sleeve, but couldn't do anything with the embedded one.   I usually keep my knife razor+ sharp, but I had cut a bunch of carpet with it yesterday.  I spot locked my boat then sit there and sharpened my knife.   After I got it sharp I made a small cut and just pushed the hook through.   The barb worked good.  It wasn't coming back out that way.   I bet there were fish in the water laughing while I was dealing with it.   

If I can't reach it, I cut it off. My brother learned that lesson and I took notice,

This morning was largely about beautiful failure. I fished a bog again and landed 22 fish, but half a dozen were chain pickerel and another half dozen chain pickerel cut my line. I did catch one skinny 18-inch bass (See pic.), one 16-incher, and two 15-inchers, but what made my heart race was my failure.

 

I cast my big, black Whopper Plopper as far as I could and let it sit. Before I could twitch it, it disappeared and the fish ran for the lily pads about 8 yards away. I was fishing my big Shimano spinning reel with the drag cranked for situations like this, but she overpowered my drag and almost reached the lily pads. Then she came out of the water, looking like a Field and Stream cover circa 1963. Then her klaxon sounded and she dove, dove, dove. My stout line and drag pulled her free of the weeds, but she wasn't out of tricks. She charged my canoe and I failed to take up the slack, so by the time she was boat side, she had the slack she needed to shake free, right in front of me. Gosh, she was great. 

 

I also saw the biggest eagle of my life, as well as ducks, a heron, swallows, loons, and turtles.    

Made a few trips from the bank over the weekend. Switched things up and hit a local pond right around sunset Fri and Sat. Good topwater bite Friday, but very slow Sat for some reason. High of 91 today, but went back to my usual midday fishing schedule and found the drop shot bite going again. Nothing terribly big on any of the trips, but the fish are strong and healthy, and I've even backed off the drag a bunch and just had fun letting them try and pull me around (L spinning). Pretty happy now that I seem to have the drop shot setup dialed in to my liking, also.

 

 

 

 

Got a couple during a rain on an old school 3 inch rapala…Using the 2 jerk and pause retrieve…

On 8/27/2022 at 8:08 PM, IcatchDinks said:

Today was a good day. We went camping this weekend up near Tippy Dam in Michigan. I tried all around the dam and caught nothing. Then we went to the beach on Lake Michigan today and I tried fishing off the pier but also caught nothing. 

 

Then just before heading home I tried little manmade pond (literally named Man Made Lake) just inland from the shore of Lake Michigan. 

 

Finally got lucky. First fish was a little pike on a Mepps inline spinner. He shredded the tail feathers right off it. 

After that I caught a little pumpkin seed on a swimbait the same size as the fish. 

 

Then I caught my PB smallie on a square bill crank bait. He hammered it the second it hit the water. 

Finally, just before heading back to camp, the largest rock bass I've ever seen hammered the whopper plopper. 

Tons of fun today. 

Good stuff!

I've always believed a 6" Roboworm to be the magic bullet of Bass fishing, and still likely do....however I think a Chatterbait is the magic bullet for quality Bass.    

 

Super slow rolling these things through deeper structure, or where deep water meets weed/shore/dock lines is really producing for me.    Caught a several fish in the hour I got out before dusk after feeling better today.    The best was taken on the 3/8th Zman Breaking Bream weedless project chatterbait with a Zoom twin tail trailer in pearl, then I marked the tips with chartreuse garlic marker.   

 

   

Still busted up, so I had to sit it out for the past 3 weeks yet again. Haven't been to my favorite local spot for a month, so I ran up this afternoon to test out the machinery, and to see what this drought has done. It's way worse than I'd imagined. The water level is terribly low now. Feeder creeks are bone dry, pad fields are burnt out, and my favorite cove is now a stinking mud flat of decaying weeds. The bullfrog tadpoles, fingerling catfish, and yearling bass that usually live there under milfoil mats have been pushed 1000 feet up the shoreline. Everything has changed. It's pretty depressing, and with no rain in the forecast combined with mid to high 80s over the next week and beyond...I just don't know. I almost didn't want to fish. Almost.

 

I was able to find a decent bass fish tossing a CrawZ into pads, my parts felt OK, so I decided to go back after dinner for a night mission, because night fishing is awesome.

 

Nothing much was working, so I tied on a Livingston Bullnose Wake. It somehow gets through mostly topped out weeds nicely, and I couldn't keep the newly relocated micro dinks off. A crazy bluegill munched it next, then a nice 3-9 bass blasted it. Great fight on spinning gear, and it was good to see a little action again.

Kinda hit a wall with fishing. I’ve only been twice in the last month and it felt like half hearted attempts and didn’t fish long. Took time to maintain, fix some equipment issues and re-spooled  my rods.  
 

Ready to go for the last push. I have basically 2.5-3 months left up here in Michigan.  Im ready for the final push untill ice up. 

2 minutes ago, Mbirdsley said:

Kinda hit a wall with fishing. I’ve only been twice in the last month and it felt like half hearted attempts and didn’t fish long. Took time to maintain, fix some equipment issues and re-spooled  my rods.  
 

Ready to go for the last push. I have basically 2.5-3 months left up here in Michigan.  Im ready for the final push untill ice up. 

Get em buddy! I’m always envious when you go up Benzonia way 

Last BFL of the year on the Detroit River! Had a blast even if I lost a few fish that would have put me in the top 10. A little disappointed but I know now that I have a pattern to run with next year and have fixed my mistakes that led to loosing these great fish. Did catch a PB that went 4.5 on my scale on the water which weighs light. Should have weighed again on land but forgot to. 

8 minutes ago, JWall14 said:

Last BFL of the year on the Detroit River! Had a blast even if I lost a few fish that would have put me in the top 10. A little disappointed but I know now that I have a pattern to run with next year and have fixed my mistakes that led to loosing these great fish. Did catch a PB that went 4.5 on my scale on the water which weighs light. Should have weighed again on land but forgot to. 

Smallmouth bass are beautiful fish. Crazy striping! 

Had a slow weekend, only caught maybe 10-12 fish with most being small, but I did get 2 nice ones. Biggest was 5.52lbs and excuse the background, prefishing for a tournament and there was some pretty distinct landmarks in the background. 

Tried real hard to get myself stuck a couple times too.

 

4 minutes ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Had a slow weekend, only caught maybe 10-12 fish with most being small, but I did get 2 nice ones. Biggest was 5.52lbs and excuse the background, prefishing for a tournament and there was some pretty distinct landmarks in the background. 

Tried real hard to get myself stuck a couple times too.

 

Real nice to see you are still finding some time to fish alongside the work balance. ?

Been waiting on some rain to inject a burst of fresh water into the local ponds. Well, we finally got a decent storm last night that dropped a quarter inch on us, so had to check things out this afternoon. Started slow, losing a fish on my first cast, then not getting anything halfway around the pond. But then they either turned on, or I figured something out, as I was able to land about 20 bass in short order, which made for a very fun outing. More storms threatening as I type this, plus potential severe weather overnight, so might improve things even more by tomorrow

 

 

I live in the same metro area as @Team9nineand was able to take advantage of the approaching storm front that he mentioned. Hot and breezy conditions had me wanting to go power so out came the baitcaster for one of the few times this summer. Enjoyed a decent bite at a friend's pond close by. Caught six in about an hour on a bladed jig with this one being the biggest. Starting to look forward to fall. November is probably my favorite month.

2.5-3 hrs tonight.    Hot night still for this time of year, like many nights I've found the typical 1-2hr window was open while I was fishing, and equally closed seemingly as well.   

 

Caught b/t 4-5lb LGM on the chatterbait, took a pic, threw back out into another stand of structure.....WHACK, start to feel drag being stripped, pole tip starts bowing into a U...."Is this my DD?", nope it's just a real quality Alabama Bass.    3.2lbs, and every second they remind you why they are the king.    They're just awesome.

 

Best 5 fish all did over 3lbs, with the Alabama Bass being the smallest of those, the other 4 were LGMs, and heavier, but the prize was that Spot in my book.   

 

Only threw the chatterbait, and an ole' favorite.....Jobee head hook 4/0 EWG with a 7" Roboworm is "After Dark".   This is one killer night time bait.    Maybe threw it a dozen or two times, and caught several in those casts.   Fun to catch big night time Bass on the finesse stuff as well.   

They were chomping on the FishLab crawdad last night. Got several with it, a couple on a finesse worm, and sunfish with a fly 

Tried a new lake on Sunday with my 12yo son.  It’s a very clear lake and quite deep off the shore in many spots.  Despite my recommendation against it, he insisted on throwing a frog so we spent way too much time in shallow water with me just maneuvering the canoe.  Oh well, that’s what Dads do sometimes.  I sucked in all the info I could and may return again.  I did catch the biggest for the day on a Yo-Zuri 3DB cast beside a small tree laying in maybe 2ft. of water.

 

Funniest part of the day was while I was prepping the canoe, a group of 4 fellas packed into a 14ft. tinner caught about a 2# lmb right in front of the launch.  They were going on about it being a trophy fish and digging out their scale.  As we launched and paddled past them, I said that’s a good start - congratulations.  One of them asked me what we’d be fishing with and I replied I’ve never been here before but likely dropshotting and some crankbaits, looking for smallmouth along the far shore (which I could see looked rocky).  Another of their crew said no smallmouth here, only largemouth.  So I said well, I guess we’re fishing for largemouth.  I then caught about a dozen smallmouth, just the one lmb as we worked our way back toward the launch. lol

8 lbs even today in 3 fish tourney. Got second. 
 

Second? Sweet!

53 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

Second? Sweet!

First loser ?

 

5.58 lbs ~ She Demolished a spinnerbait.

The Strike was Killer ! 

A-Jay

Another "looks like 8 lbs to me".