A new PB white bass on a Cotton Cordell lipless crankbait.

4 hours ago, gimruis said:

You catching rockies on a chatterbait?

 

Rock Bass: the ugly low life cousin of the bass family that no one really wants to associate with.

Most trips to this lake I catch a few on it if I'm fishing it close to bottom. 5/0 hook and a 3.5" Do-It Ripper trailer, and those little buggers choke it. LOL. If they got to the size of LM and SM they'd be all we ever fished for.

Yesterday's trip to the Pamunkey River. Made a long run to a creek that I've wanted to try. Very shallow with and filled with grass. This fish weighed in at 4.12#. A great day indeed. I owe @Catt a big thank you for posting pictures of a couple of his johnson silver minnows with skirts and trailers installed on them. The silver minnow lure truly does work wonders in grass. @Glenn did a video demonstrating how the minnow has a 'cacheing' action as you retrieve it. I would highly recommend checking that video out of you fish grass!

Here a some better pictures of my recent post just resized

8 hours ago, gimruis said:

You catching rockies on a chatterbait?

 

Rock Bass: the ugly low life cousin of the bass family that no one really wants to associate with.

I never have understood the disdain for rockbass from guys in the upper midwest and northeast. I've always viewed them as part of the whole experience when wading for smallmouth where I live in Indiana. 

1 hour ago, The Bassman said:

I never have understood the disdain for rockbass from guys in the upper midwest and northeast. I've always viewed them as part of the whole experience when wading for smallmouth where I live in Indiana. 

They're tasty if you can get into some big enough to be worth cleaning. A stretch of river close to me used to hold lots of 10"-12" Rock Bass. The city cleared all the overhanging brush along the bank and they disappeared. 

You're a good man, Spothunter, worrying about that Dachau fish. I just want to feed that fish, not catch it.

 

Kyle, I like the shape of your big bass. It's it funny how bass come in so many different shapes, even from the same lake, within the same hour?

Welp, I finally doubled up.  Around 6/7 every night it seems the water boils with all the shad balling up at the surface. Thought I'd try a different approach and throw a kvd sexy dawg and caught 3 total by got my first double up. Small fellas but I'll take it! 

 

7 hours ago, The Bassman said:

I never have understood the disdain for rockbass from guys in the upper midwest and northeast. I've always viewed them as part of the whole experience when wading for smallmouth where I live in Indiana. 

They’re technically classified as a “rough fish” here so they’re in the same class as carp and bull head. Junk fish is probably a better nick name lol.

 

I’ve never tried eating one. They always seem to have scars and black parasites on them.

Rock bass is tasty, just mostly rib cage. You have to gather a bunch of them haha

3 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

Rock bass is tasty, just mostly rib cage. You have to gather a bunch of them haha

They are really good to eat! I only keep them if they're 9 or 10 inches though because of the bones.

4 hours ago, Basser2021 said:

They are really good to eat! I only keep them if they're 9 or 10 inches though because of the bones.

It's rare to find one that big around me. I'd never eat them if did that. 

Set a little bream out, and ended up with this …

Didn’t even check the weather but ran in to this on the way to the lake:

 

 

Sp we fished in the rain for a few hours this evening. I boated 7. Nothing big. Rain slowed enough to get a picture of this one. 
 

It's been way too long since I've gotten out on the jon boat with my brother. We finally made it happen, and chose a spot we know is weedy, but it turned out to be crazy weedy right now due to the lower water levels here. Good thing we brought the oars because the trolling motor didn't stand a chance. Other than a section on the dam end, where there was maybe 6" between the surface and the top of the weeds, everything else was topped out. 45 acres of shore to shore monolithic astro turf with no breaks anywhere, or so we thought.

 

One good thing about this place in normal times is there are isolated lily pad fields out in the middle that float about 18" over the weeds, but these aren't normal times. Now the lily pads have fallen flush into the weeds, so the gap which served as a great ambush point doesn't exist anymore. Nothing was happening in the pads at all. There were about a billion golden shiners skittering around everywhere, but it was tough to get anything through cleanly. After 2 hours of drudgery my brother was ready to quit. I convinced him to fight on.

 

We decided to paddle as far north as possible into a watershed we've never been into. I was determined to find a break in the cover somewhere as I knew this was our only shot, and we found it. The much narrower northern-most end turned out to have a bare silt bottom of about a foot deep. The water was way colder there. We then doubled back and fished into the first wall of weeds and pads, and that's where the action was. I got one crappie on a small wake right on the edge of a weed line, then lost a tanker bass on a Keitech Noisy Flapper. I noticed small perch darting around when we were in the silt bottomed zone, so I tied on a Spro Bronzeye Shad 65 frog in Wicked Perch and chucked it into the first pads on that line. A few bass slapped at it, but finally a charged up chuck gobbled it down when I twitched it in an open gap. There's nothing better than playing a hunch and getting it right, especially when things seem completely hopeless. Kicking the skunk off the boat is a nice bonus.

6 minutes ago, PhishLI said:

It's been way too long since I've gotten out on the jon boat with my brother. We finally made it happen, and chose a spot we know is weedy, but it turned out to be crazy weedy right now due to the lower water levels here. Good thing we brought the oars because the trolling motor didn't stand a chance. Other than a section on the dam end where there was maybe 6" between the surface and the top of the weeds, everything else was topped out. 45 acres of shore to shore monolithic astro turf with no breaks anywhere, or so we thought.

 

One good thing about this place in normal times is there are isolated lily pad fields out in the middle that float about 18" over the weeds, but these aren't normal times. Now the lily pads have fallen flush into the weeds, so the gap which served as a great ambush point doesn't exist anymore. Nothing was happening in the pads at all. There were about a billion golden shiners skittering around everywhere, but it was tough to get anything through cleanly. After 2 hours of drudgery my brother was ready to quit. I convinced him to fight on.

 

We decided to paddle as far north as possible into a watershed we've never been into. I was determined to find a break in the cover somewhere as I knew this was our only shot, and we found it. The much narrower northern-most end turned out to have a bare silt bottom of about a foot deep. The water was way colder there. We then doubled back and fished into the first wall of weeds and pads, and that's where the action was. I got one crappie on a small wake right on the edge of a weed line, then lost a tanker bass on a Keitech Noisy Flapper. I noticed small perch darting around when we were in the silt bottomed zone, so I tied on a Spro Bronzeye Shad 65 frog in Wicked Perch and chucked it into the first pads on that line. A few bass slapped at it, but finally a charged up chuck gobbled it down when I twitched it in an open gap. There's nothing better than playing a hunch and getting it right, especially when things seem completely hopeless. Kicking the skunk off the boat is a nice bonus.

 

 

Nice job, you can surefire always tell who the real fisherman is when the skunk is on board......to a real fisherman that only means they are gonna fish harder, they get more stubborn, more determined.   

I drove to a new bog yesterday afternoon, but there wasn't enough water to float my canoe. I could see water yonder, about a hundred yards away, but there were a hundred yards of reeds between me and it. I asked the folks at the nearest house what happened to the bog and they said the dam broke. Dang dam!

 

So, I went to a smaller bog this morning and for the first 45 minutes, I only caught one bass. Then I switched to nightcrawlers and caught two more, but I don't like worm fishing. It's not busy enough for me. I was getting hits on my Whopper Plopper, but not hooking fish. The bite slowly increased and I landed a 17.5-inch bass. I also caught some chain pickerel and took a photo of one in case you southern fishers wanna a look.

 

The wind blew me into some reeds. Just last night, I watched a YouTube video where an accomplished frog fisher said that we should chuck our frogs into places where we don't think there's enough water for fish. Well, I'd been blown into the big salad bar at Caesar's Palace, but there was about two feet of open water, so I cast my frog there and KERSPLOOSH! There was so much water moved that I was confused, but my frog was gone, so I set the hook and luckily, there wasn't enough water for the bass to put up a big fight. She was 19 inches, the size I love.

 

I caught 34 in all and lost a BIG bass at the end that I just couldn't control, not even with my 17-lb. line and MH rod. I could see she was headed for reeds as thick as a man's thumb and I tried to stop her, but couldn't. Even in the reeds, I had her hooked for a bit, but by the time I dug to my lure, she was gone. Sooo exciting. 

 

The first photo is a typical bass for the bog. Then the chain pickerel. Then the big girl. Then some others.

You are on a roll!

 

 

                                                                 

Killing it in both numbers and size!    Those are some big girls.    Before you I'd never made the association b/t LGM Bass and Maine.    You should try to break and set some of the Maine Bass records

Thanks, Mr. Warrior and Mr. SpotHunter. I too always thought of Maine as a smallmouth state and there are lots of smallmouth here and big ones, but I've fallen in love with bog fishing, which means largemouth. Bog fishing is like miniature golf with all the obstacles, but instead of windmills and tunnels, there are reeds and lily pads. Bog fishing is also great for my canoe. The smallmouth prefer the deeper lakes, which are more open and therefore windier. All that wind and water is fine if you have a big boat and motor, but bogs are cozier for a canoe. Hey, did you see my bolt cutters in three of the photos? I'm ready for the next mishap! 

When I grow up I wanna be as awesome as ol'crickety!!! 

Was out at daybreak. I connected first on a Big bites craw 17.5 inch fish. I switched to a fluke and got a 19 incher. Got 10 total but 8 in the first 1.5  hours. 9 of them on flukes…

2 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

I drove to a new bog yesterday afternoon, but there wasn't enough water to float my canoe. I could see water yonder, about a hundred yards away, but there were a hundred yards of reeds between me and it. I asked the folks at the nearest house what happened to the bog and they said the dam broke. Dang dam!

 

So, I went to a smaller bog this morning and for the first 45 minutes, I only caught one bass. Then I switched to nightcrawlers and caught two more, but I don't like worm fishing. It's not busy enough for me. I was getting hits on my Whopper Plopper, but not hooking fish. The bite slowly increased and I landed a 17.5-inch bass. I also caught some chain pickerel and took a photo of one in case you southern fishers wanna a look.

 

The wind blew me into some reeds. Just last night, I watched a YouTube video where an accomplished frog fisher said that we should chuck our frogs into places where we don't think there's enough water for fish. Well, I'd been blown into the big salad bar at Caesar's Palace, but there was about two feet of open water, so I cast my frog there and KERSPLOOSH! There was so much water moved that I was confused, but my frog was gone, so I set the hook and luckily, there wasn't enough water for the bass to put up a big fight. She was 19 inches, the size I love.

 

I caught 34 in all and lost a BIG bass at the end that I just couldn't control, not even with my 17-lb. line and MH rod. I could see she was headed for reeds as thick as a man's thumb and I tried to stop her, but couldn't. Even in the reeds, I had her hooked for a bit, but by the time I dug to my lure, she was gone. Sooo exciting. 

 

The first photo is a typical bass for the bog. Then the chain pickerel. Then the big girl. Then some others.

Nice ones! The only chain pickerel I’ve ever caught was in FLA

1 hour ago, N Florida Mike said:

Was out at daybreak. I connected first on a Big bites craw 17.5 inch fish. I switched to a fluke and got a 19 incher. Got 10 total but 8 in the first 1.5  hours. 9 of them on flukes…

All is right in the world when @N Florida Mikeis slayin with flukes 

N Florida Mike, if you don't mind, will you share a photo of your fluke rig and a tip or two for using them?

 

Aw, shucks, T-Billy!

I caught 11 bass today between 9 and 18 inches.   It's the first holiday (except Christmas) I've had off in almost 2 years.   It rained off and on.  I pretty much had the lake to myself.   I kept having (longnose) gar follow my bait to the boat but no strikes.   I'm not sure I wanted to deal with all those needle teeth anyway.   

 

 

The wife and I tried a new lake today. The black bass fishing wasn’t great but we did catch some stripers.