Each time I've been able to make it out this year it was either quite chilly or downright cold, so it was nice to finally not see my breath hanging in the air. Cloud cover or no cloud cover, big moon nights are a reliable disaster for me, but clouds were up, and rain was in the forecast, so off I went.

 

Right off the bat a nice southern wind was painting an ideal pattern of ripple across the lake, but that didn't last. Black clouds quickly crept in overhead, and in a moment the winds shifted and came in roaring from the northeast. Perfect ripple turned into rollers slapping against undercut banks, then five minutes later sideways rain made things almost intolerable. I stuck it out for a spell until I couldn't.

 

Got 3 strikes on plastics over the next hour that I could not convert, so it was time for a treble bait. I tied on the trusty BBZ1 Shad, cranked up my brakes, then let 'er fly down the bank. Got yet another frustrating, subtle nip, but after a twitch-twitch-pause, it got smacked. Got a really nice fight with a wide arcing run at the end of a bomb cast and broke my big moon curse, so I called it a win and skipped on out of there.

You're a heckuva writer, @PhishLI. 

 

Lots of nuggets above, but this is one of the shiniest:

 

55 minutes ago, PhishLI said:

I stuck it out for a spell until I couldn't.

 

This one would also make a 49er (the first version of a 49er, not the second) holler:

 

56 minutes ago, PhishLI said:

it was nice to finally not see my breath hanging in the air.

 

Your writing puts me in that pond. I read your stories with lots of head nodding and yups.

 

Regarding that northeast wind, good things come from the northeast, like E.B. White, Mark Twain, and the Wyeths, but not the northeast winds. Northeast winds are birthed by the North Atlantic.

The struggle for a few quality bites continues, but I’ve been getting some chunky fish in the 2 - 2.75 lb. range the past few days. The 3/4 inches of rain we just got wasn’t enough to stain up the micro lakes good, so water is still somewhat clear and the snot moss is starting to take over the shallows, making presentations much more difficult. A forecasted full week of dry weather will only make water clarity and weed/algae growth a bigger issue going forward. 
 

 

 

Caught 5 LM and 5 Spots today. Water temp is 71

Nice fish, guys. What's up with your pond, GP? Did you save some bass?

Lit 'em up today.  No biggins, but I caught a pile of LM in the 1# - 2.5# range plus these two 3+. They went 3.74# and 3.45#. The A-rig muskie bite is dead, but the laydowns are full of bass. Time to switch gears, and work on wearing out the flippin stick. 31 degree start today so I broke out the wolf/squirrel skin cap. 

18 minutes ago, T-Billy said:

Lit 'em up today.  No biggins, but I caught a pile of LM in the 1# - 2.5# range plus these two 3+. They went 3.74# and 3.45#. The A-rig muskie bite is dead, but the laydowns are full of bass. Time to switch gears, and work on wearing out the flippin stick. 31 degree start today so I broke out the wolf/squirrel skin cap. 

Da hamma

 

Da hamma

 

hamma on tha fish with the gilly, yeah we all go silly watchin t-billy

Nice bass, T.

 

Nicer hat. 

2 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

Nice fish, guys. What's up with your pond, GP? Did you save some bass?

The pond still has a few feet of water in it at the moment. There's some fish in it right now. To complete the repair, I have to dig down 6' below the pond bottom to access the 90 at the bottom of the broken standpipe. Which means I must pump it out and if I can I'll place them in my neighbors pond. Our backhoe can't reach it, so I'm shoveling it and it's very slow going. 

Had about 15 free minutes, figured I’d hike down to the dock. got two dinks! One on the first cast and one on the third, first cast catch has never been bad to me. Tried the massive tree that I know is underwater out from the dock and got stuck as usual, there have to be crappie in that thing 

1 minute ago, TnRiver46 said:

Had about 15 free minutes, figured I’d hike down to the dock. got two dinks! One on the first cast and one on the third, first cast catch has never been bad to me. Tried the massive tree that I know is underwater out from the dock and got stuck as usual, there have to be crappie in that thing 

Nice bass

 

By the way, you're a nerd. I just wanted to say that. 

Long story, short fishing trip.   Not a good day today.  It was 44 degrees and raining pretty hard.  A few weeks ago I went fishing during 36 degree rain.  I caught several bass that day, and was able to stay dry and warm, with the exception of my hands.  I had just sit my rain gear in the back seat of my truck.  The next time I put it on it had a bad mold/mildew odor.  I washed it, and haven't worn it (during the rain) since.  My rain coat, and bibs double as my cold weather coat and bibs.  I fished in the rain last week but had on my lighter rain gear.   It took about 30 seconds today for the rain to soak through my rain gear.  I was soaked to the bone by the time I got my boat launched.  I decided I was going to catch 1 bass, then go back home.  (I hate getting skunked)   I might have made 15 casts before catching a nice fat 3 1/2 pound LM.   I hated leaving but I was soaked, and cold.  It was 42 degrees and raining pretty hard.   I won't fish if it isn't fun so I came back home.   I guess washing my gear damaged whatever made it water proof.   It's nice Aftco stuff Mrs B got for me.  They have stuff on their website to treat it with.  Hopefully it will bring it's waterproofing back.  Hopefully I can catch some post front bass tomorrow.  I normally do really good fishing in the rain.  I just couldn't stand it today.  Maybe I'm getting soft.   

 

 

44 degrees and soaked doesn't make you soft, @Woody B. Nice bass.

2 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

44 degrees and soaked doesn't make you soft, @Woody B. Nice bass.

Kind of what I was thinking, it’s warmer at 22 and not raining 

On 4/6/2023 at 9:01 PM, TnRiver46 said:

Dink ? alert

 

 

the real miracle was that I got to fish this evening, haven’t been since the classic and I was starting to have serious withdrawal symptoms. Shakes, night sweats, nightmares, crabbiness, irritability, etc. I can’t remember the last time I missed a whole week or more like that . 
 

So if you’re gonna post dinks might as well make an interesting story out of it. I went to launch the little tiny kayak and noticed 3-4 buffalo spawning underneath the dock. I snagged one briefly and it took off and pulled the hook. So I then paddle along casting a crappie jig and some kind of loud noise is echoing all throughout the cove. We are near a marina so I just figured it was somebody running some power tools working on a boat. Well the noise won’t stop , sounded like a bunch of people beating pontoon boats and floating docks with a baseball bat . I paddled into the marina and the splashing and noise was deafening. Buffalo were spawning and splashing and jumping all over, it was wild. I caught 6-8 of them, fun stuff on light tackle. They had some tubercules or something like it all over them, easy to hand land in the kayak like gripping sandpaper. 6 lb tatsu is tough, I was ripping them up over dock cables with a spinning rod haha. Some guy that lives on a house boat in there came out to chat, he said he can’t hardly sleep when the buffalo are beating the boat like that 

 

also got another little largemouth, a green sunfish, and a yellow bass 

 

buffalo will hit a finesse lure in the mouth, i can't explain why. tons of fun. Their spawns can be a spectacle

2 hours ago, thediscochef said:

buffalo will hit a finesse lure in the mouth, i can't explain why. tons of fun. Their spawns can be a spectacle

Thursday night me and my wife were sitting inside by the fire with the windows open and could hear them sloshing around like crazy in the water maybe 100 yards away. They were hitting tied up pontoon boats so hard they were moving back and forth. Up the river a ways they flood into a shallow creek and the local news does a story on them every year 

 

 

This is off topic but I can’t figure out how to reply to the flea market forum to people I want to buy stuff from. Can somebody help me? Thanks 

3 minutes ago, Andrew cash said:

This is off topic but I can’t figure out how to reply to the flea market forum to people I want to buy stuff from. Can somebody help me? Thanks 

Welcome to Bassresource. Swing by the Introduction section and tell us a little bit about yourself. Share some of your stories and fishing knowledge in other threads. 
 

New members need to build their post count a bit before they can post in the flea market. 

Took out the kayak for the first time this year. Wasn't super excited to see they blocked vehicle access to the water with rocks (to keep trailers/boats out), but no way that was going to stop me on a nice day like this.

 

Water temps were mid-50's, but I couldn't get them on anything other than senkos and small underspins.

 

No plus sized fish, but just about all of them were fun size fish.

 

 

 

 

 

She was kind enough to keep me company in the last cove before I had to head back in. No idea what she was saying, but she was pretty talkative. ?

 

7 hours ago, NorcalBassin said:

Took out the kayak for the first time this year. Wasn't super excited to see they blocked vehicle access to the water with rocks (to keep trailers/boats out), but no way that was going to stop me on a nice day like this.

 

Water temps were mid-50's, but I couldn't get them on anything other than senkos and small underspins.

 

No plus sized fish, but just about all of them were fun size fish.

 

 

 

 

 

She was kind enough to keep me company in the last cove before I had to head back in. No idea what she was saying, but she was pretty talkative. ?

 

 

I lived in Wisconsin for 30 years and about 20 years of that was on farms, so I speak cow. If she said, "Moooo. Mooooo. Moo," she was saying, "Atta, boy! Thatta bass!" 

 

Cows can be quite encouraging when it comes to bass fishing. 

 

However, if she said, ""Moooooo. Moo. Mooo," this site doesn't allow me to translate that, as some cows sass like sailors. 

10 hours ago, NorcalBassin said:

Took out the kayak for the first time this year. Wasn't super excited to see they blocked vehicle access to the water with rocks (to keep trailers/boats out), but no way that was going to stop me on a nice day like this.

 

Water temps were mid-50's, but I couldn't get them on anything other than senkos and small underspins.

 

No plus sized fish, but just about all of them were fun size fish.

 

 

 

 

 

She was kind enough to keep me company in the last cove before I had to head back in. No idea what she was saying, but she was pretty talkative. ?

 

Beautiful country and fish.

 

Man it's crazy how much Kayak fishing has exploded in 20 years. 

 

That first picture really drives that home.   I wonder what a boat ramp would look like around here if they closed it to boats.   I would have said it would be empty until your post.  

Got out this morning, figured it would be busy at a local park but it close by my apartment. Got some gas for the car and headed to the park, there was a few people there on the one side and the other spots had people on them already also. I headed around the corner to a spot that I hit frequently, didn’t want to get water over my boots again but it didn’t take long. I decided to just stay in the water with my boots full of water and up to my knees. I started with a tube, didn’t get any hits on the tube. Decided to tie on the mini max 1/2 with a matching zako trailer and work the weed line. I had the wind in my face and just kept going, turning my brakes down more and more to work on some control into headwinds.
 

I was getting ready to leave and decided to fire off a long cast down the shallow bank,there’s a couple of deep pockets in the middle of the weed line and I wanted to go over those.   I didn’t get hit over the pockets coming back through the grass I felt it get heavy and I reeled and swept the rod and felt it load up. I watched my line moving a little bit differently and that’s when I knew it was a fish and not just hung up in the grass again. I saw the fish and was definitely happy, it wasn’t huge but decent nonetheless.

 

 I got some insight on why the fish have been acting so strange, I figured that the spawn was getting close. I could tell by this fish that it is closer than I expected. All in all a decent fish for less than 30 minutes at a very pressured fishery. I feel like I am starting to get this body of water more and more.

 

I have went from getting skunked here all the time to usually being able to catch something. It still skunks me here and there but to me that’s normal. Feels good getting there and making progress.

Beauty, @Jmurphy87! You wrote that you felt the rod load up. I see the word "load" used fairly frequently here and in articles.

 

What does it mean in the context of bass fishing? I think I know, but I want to be sure.

2 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

Beauty, @Jmurphy87! You wrote that you felt the rod load up. I see the word "load" used fairly frequently here and in articles.

 

What does it mean in the context of bass fishing? I think I know, but I want to be sure.

How I use the term is, that when you are bringing a lure through the grass you will get hung up here and there. Which will cause the rod to get a bend due to the hook or hooks being caught on something. You get that resistance, the difference is when a fish hits the lure it starts to put a different resistance on top of the other one, or stronger should I say. Like when you are ripping a lipless crank or like today a chatter bait out of the grass it loads the rod more and you can feel it have the heavier load on it. That’s how I explain it, I hope it helps you out. I am definitely not the best person at explaining things lol but I try.

 

 I am definitely looking forward to seeing some of your catches and stories this year. I can’t wait to hear them.

@Jmurphy87, thanks! So, you feel the rod load up with the weight of a solid bass, as opposed to just weeds? I have felt that, for sure, and I'm glad I asked because I thought it meant something different. 

 

3 minutes ago, Jmurphy87 said:

I am definitely looking forward to seeing some of your catches and stories this year. I

 

Me too! I'm going shore fishing on Tuesday at three small bodies of water that may or may not hold bass. They're all on Highway One, Maine's major highway, and I've driven over and past them for years. I've never seen anyone fish them, but they sure look bassy. Then I'm fishing Thursday afternoon at a quantity pond and Friday morning at a quality bog. Fingers crossed that my rod loads up!