13 hours ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

few baits are as fun to fish as a buzzbait.   

 

Truer words have never been spoken.  I enjoy that bite more than a frog bite.

2 minutes ago, hokiehunter373 said:

Truer words have never been spoken.  I enjoy that bite more than a frog bite.

Me too because buzzbait usually hooks the fish 

15 hours ago, BigAngus752 said:

This one slammed my chrome Cotton Cordell today.  What do you guys think?  Skin mount or replica?

 

fish that big  have different genes, for a giant of that size for sure go with the replica! 

Experienced my best day so far this year. Had steady action on a KVD 1.0 squarebill that I found a couple of years ago but never fished. These were my two largest. Left my scale at home so don't have a weight on the big one. What set today apart was that my numbers were backed up with size. I caught several 2-4lb. along with plenty of smaller ones. We're on the warm side of a big storm system so that coupled with being near peak of pre spawn certainly helped.

3 minutes ago, The Bassman said:

Experienced my best day so far this year. Had steady action on a KVD 1.0 squarebill that I found a couple of years ago but never fished. These were my two largest. Left my scale at home so don't have a weight on the big one. What set today apart was that my numbers were backed up with size. I caught several 2-4lb. along with plenty of smaller ones. We're on the warm side of a big storm system so that coupled with being near peak of pre spawn certainly helped.

Well at least you didn't leave without a camera.   If I forgot those things, 100% I'm catching a big fish lol.  

 

Man that first fish is magnificent.   Fat bellies make the world right.  

Just now, AlabamaSpothunter said:

   Fat bellies make the world right.  

I guess I'm doing my part then. lol

20 hours ago, BigAngus752 said:

This one slammed my chrome Cotton Cordell today.  What do you guys think?  Skin mount or replica?

 

That is one BAD little dude! When he grows up, I'd stay away from that lake! Wouldn't let my dogs swim in it either!

22 hours ago, Team9nine said:

Finally, some really nice weather. Steady south wind at 8-12, occasionally gusting to 20+ with highs near 75 and pretty decent cloud cover. Made one pass on a pond and then kept hopping back and forth between the two windblown corners. Ended the afternoon with 26 fish on a small mix of baits. Supposed to be similar but a little more windy tomorrow, so hopefully another good bite if I get out. They had just treated this pond, rather indiscriminately IMO, so may need to let it rest until the compound spreads, mixes, and stabilizes more.

 

 

 

 

They didn't put much effort into spreading the dye. It may take a few days for coverage. I have to do mine about twice a year to inhibit the algae.

21 hours ago, The Bassman said:

Do you find that ponds with the blue colorant are less productive or is it all in my head?

If I may answer this one as well? I have to use a colorant dye in my pond due to algae growth. My pond gets gin clear in the winter, and before the water warms enough to produce an algae bloom, the filamentous, and Chara, totally dominate. The combination of algaecide (which is toxic to zooplankton and invertebrates), and pond dye do a decent job of algae control, but is not the silver bullet pond management companies would lead you to believe.  Algae survives, but is further restrained  by the spring plankton blooms. The pond is treated in sections so there will be invertebrate and zooplankton survival.

     As far as fishing conditions, after treatment I have not noticed any reluctance on the part of the pond fish to behave any different than before treatment. I will say that after treatment, it is much harder to view the fish, which If my sight penetration is diminished, then the fish must experience a similar effect.

@The Bassman, I wish I'd caught that first bass. I love big bellies!

 

@Blue Raider Bob, thanks for the pond info. I'll likely never own a pond, but I still like learning about pond management. 

19 hours ago, thediscochef said:

On a road trip with my woman, stopped at Inks Lake for about 45 minute. Threw a weightless fluke around where I saw something eating something in some shallows near some reeds. Bass ate fluke. I took a picture, released it, and kept on my way to where we're staying, about an hour away. It's probably the biggest first catch at any lake I've been to, I'm guessing 3-4lb but probably closer to 3. I didn't take the time to weigh it. Pretty, thick fish. Super fun, should be a fun week. Hoping to catch another Guadalupe but we will see.

Pretty fish!

1 hour ago, ol'crickety said:

@The Bassman, I wish I'd caught that first bass. I love big bellies!

 

@ol'crickety Katie you set yourself up with this one?. You should have mentioned big bellied bass?

8-10 fish on the Buzzbait again today, best fish was close to 5lbs, had that beat up tail, and caught her at a major staging area, but still very shallow.    Looks like most of eggs and winter heft were gone.   Watched an amazing fish biologist on the big Bass podcast YT channel last night.......fish biologist says 10% of a Bass's weight (eggs, not winter heft) can/will be reduced during the spawning.  Then add in whatever heft they lost during the energy intensive spawning process, maybe 15% of a big fish's weight is reduced over 6-8 weeks.    Really great info on big Bass, and what it takes for a Bass to reach trophy sizes.    

 

I just threw this 5.5" Spunk Shad on there because of the big profile I was looking for while I found something I really liked.    Not sure I'm gonna change the game at this point.  I'll buy some night fishing colors and run with it.  It has almost no action.   I tried a trailer hook today with it, and it drove me crazy.   I'll take missing some blowups as opposed to constantly messing with the darn trailer hook.    

 

 

 

Vacation continues, a fun day capped off with some great fishing. Caught the chubby little bass at the Blanco State Park area, to the east of the bridge. I missed probably two or three other swipes. Then back at the rented cabin, throwing tubes into the extremely clear water of the lake, tried a few colors before they went absolutely nuts for the bass pro "Puke" color. 5 bass, a bluegill, and I believe this to be a hybrid LM/Bluegill in about 45 minutes just before sunset. Bats are out eating bugs. What a great day. 

16 minutes ago, thediscochef said:

Vacation continues, a fun day capped off with some great fishing. Caught the chubby little bass at the Blanco State Park area, to the east of the bridge. I missed probably two or three other swipes. Then back at the rented cabin, throwing tubes into the extremely clear water of the lake, tried a few colors before they went absolutely nuts for the bass pro "Puke" color. 5 bass, a bluegill, and I believe this to be a hybrid LM/Bluegill in about 45 minutes just before sunset. Bats are out eating bugs. What a great day. 

Nice catches, I think that’s a Warmouth 

40 minutes ago, thediscochef said:

Vacation continues, a fun day capped off with some great fishing. Caught the chubby little bass at the Blanco State Park area, to the east of the bridge. I missed probably two or three other swipes. Then back at the rented cabin, throwing tubes into the extremely clear water of the lake, tried a few colors before they went absolutely nuts for the bass pro "Puke" color. 5 bass, a bluegill, and I believe this to be a hybrid LM/Bluegill in about 45 minutes just before sunset. Bats are out eating bugs. What a great day. 

Warmouth is what the little guy is. Three spines on the anal fin and 10 on the dorsal. They are fun to catch and if you get into a group of them they’ll keep you busy! They have little man syndrome. Another identifier is they have a rough patch on their tongue. 

Looks like it could be a Green Sunfish as well.   The Warmouth's I catch have electric stripes around the mouth, very orange tipped fins, they just stick way out.   Never seen one bigger than the specimen above....and as noted above are always super fiesty.  A little bitty fish will hammered a 7" Roboworm.     They really like hard rock I've noticed.   Cool little fish.  

1 hour ago, TnRiver46 said:

Nice catches, I think that’s a Warmouth 

I only know maybe three species of sunfish positively, and they're all called "bass" by most people. I was struck by the size of the mouth and the black dots where a bass stripe would be. Probably a warmouth, cool experience for sure. Fought hard for such a tiny little thing.

15 hours ago, Blue Raider Bob said:

If I may answer this one as well? I have to use a colorant dye in my pond due to algae growth. My pond gets gin clear in the winter, and before the water warms enough to produce an algae bloom, the filamentous, and Chara, totally dominate. The combination of algaecide (which is toxic to zooplankton and invertebrates), and pond dye do a decent job of algae control, but is not the silver bullet pond management companies would lead you to believe.  Algae survives, but is further restrained  by the spring plankton blooms. The pond is treated in sections so there will be invertebrate and zooplankton survival.

     As far as fishing conditions, after treatment I have not noticed any reluctance on the part of the pond fish to behave any different than before treatment. I will say that after treatment, it is much harder to view the fish, which If my sight penetration is diminished, then the fish must experience a similar effect.

I put this question to the test yesterday because your question really got me thinking, (also my other choice was farm work).

I went to a local farm pond I fish often but the water is only two feet deep at its deepest. It is used to water cattle with no thoughts of fishing use. The wind was gusting but I used top water anyway (Thanks Alex). I had a couple of blowups and one small bass. Left there and tried my pond with the blue dye. Had about twenty strikes on a small Whopper Plopper in an hour. The bass had no trouble at all finding my offerings. My hook up rate was abysmal ( 1 in 10), but that a whole new topic.

Went out this past Sunday in search of smallmouth on my favorite smallmouth lake. It's probably 70/30 smallmouth to largemouth there but it sure didn't seem like it, I couldn't hardly find a brown fish, and none with any size.

 

11 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

Nice catches, I think that’s a Warmouth 

Looks like a Rock Bass to me.

7 minutes ago, Blue Raider Bob said:

Looks like a Rock Bass to me.

Not quite but close! 

10 hours ago, thediscochef said:

I only know maybe three species of sunfish positively, and they're all called "bass" by most people. I was struck by the size of the mouth and the black dots where a bass stripe would be. Probably a warmouth, cool experience for sure. Fought hard for such a tiny little thing.

That's a warmouth for sure, my favorite sunfish to catch. They can be very colorful during the spawn and always very aggressive. 

Last monday fish.

Keitech fat 2.8 is a very very bad boy!

Those Warmouth are mean little buggers. They'll choke my 3.5" Sweet Craw with a 4/0 flippin hook in it. Then they go flying past me at 100mph. ? Beautiful little fish with an attitude that makes a SM seem mellow. If they grew to 5#, they'd be all we fished for.