I feel like this D-Bomb has really saved my Spring to some degree, today I only caught a limit, 4 Spots, and a 6.2lb beauty.   I believe that's three straight sessions in a row with a 5lb+ fish on this particular bait.    The first fish in the video is from today, the other ones are from the previous two sessions.    4 fish came on the D Bomb, one came on the Flashback Mini while I was trying to get on a Shad spawn bite.  

 

All these quality LGMs are spawning I believe, I'm not sight fishing them, but they are where one would expect them to be spawning.   I did play around with a buck for a second, showed him the bait and he didn't care at all.   I left the big girl alone beside the boat slip she felt like a pet there for a few days lol.  

 

Also backed down to a 4/0 red Gama EWG, and increased the Tungsten size to 5/16th and pegged it with a 6th Sense Peg-X.   Fantastic little spring spawn bait, so happy I've found it.   Give it a try if you are looking for a new creature bait.  

 

 

Fished crystal lake again In Montcalm county Michigan.  Water temp had warmed up almost 20 degrees in 4 days.  It’s been 80 degrees the since Tuesday.  As I was motoring out I happened to look into the water and I saw a wolf pack of 10-14 inch bass schooled up and just roaming around in 3-4 ft of water.  I investigated this and picked off three.  However, the entire shallows was full of schools of what I’m assuming were males roaming around.  Shows how much I’ve matured as an angler I would have stayed all day catching these smaller fish. They were not in a chasing mood. 
 

Tried moving out deeper looking for bigger fish I was mildly successful. I finally figured out that they wanted  either a blue gill or perch jerk bait.  I caught around 20 14-15 inch fish on a LC blue gill jerk bait.  I lost 3-4 bigger fish on a mega bass perch +1 in 8-9ft of water. I’m finding out blue gill is the hot color on crystal .  I caught 1-2 fish on a 6th sense lipless crank.  Also 1-2 on a sun gill Keitech swing impact.  Need to find bigger fish 

Great day. 

25 minutes ago, GreenPig said:

Great day. 

Laying the hammer down with that Ned Rig, fantastic day!  

28 minutes ago, Mbirdsley said:

Fished crystal lake again In Montcalm county Michigan.  Water temp had warmed up almost 20 degrees in 4 days.  It’s been 80 degrees the since Tuesday.  As I was motoring out I happened to look into the water and I saw a wolf pack of 10-20 12-14 inch bass x hooked up and just roaming around in 3-4 ft of water.  I investigated this and picked off three.  However, the entire shallows was full of schools of what I’m assuming were males schooled up and roaming around.  Shows how much I’ve matured as an angler I would have stayed all day catching these smaller fish. They were not in a chasing mood. 
 

Tried moving out deeper looking for bigger fish I was mildly successful. I finally figured out that they wanted an either a blue gill or perch jerk bait.  I caught around 20 14-15 inch fish on a LC blue gill jerk bait.  I lost 3-4 bigger fish on a mega bass +1 in 8-9ft of water. I’m finding out blue gill is the hot color on crystal .  I caught 1-2 fish on a 6th sense lipless crank.  Also 1-2 on a sun gill Keitech swing impact.  Need to find bigger fish 

Smells like peak pre spawn to me, man I miss those days.   Awesome stuff, the bigs will come......a hot jerkbait is a blast whatever size they are. 

 

9 hours ago, gimruis said:

22 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

 

Not all of us. I can’t target one until May 13.

 

Arrrgh! 

9 hours ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

 I believe that's three straight sessions in a row with a 5lb+ fish on this particular bait. 

 

Whoa! That's pro-grade consistency. 

 

That's a lotta fish, @Mbirdsley and @GreenPig!

A rare trip for me to the local large river system yesterday afternoon. It had been many, many years since I last visited, but it is unique in its smells and scenery compared to the micro lakes and reservoirs I usually play on. As it turned out, falling and clearing water had the bigger fish turned off, but still managed 15 smaller smallmouth, along with a mixed basket of largemouth, bluegill, crappie and rock bass. Saw more turtles in one day than I’ll see all year, along with ducks, kingfishers, and two separate pairs of nesting bald eagles, not to mention all the things you only see on these old river systems, both good and bad.

 

 

29 minutes ago, Team9nine said:

A rare trip for me to the local large river system yesterday afternoon. It had been many, many years since I last visited, but it is unique in its smells and scenery compared to the micro lakes and reservoirs I usually play on. As it turned out, falling and clearing water had the bigger fish turned off, but still managed 15 smaller smallmouth, along with a mixed basket of largemouth, bluegill, crappie and rock bass. Saw more turtles in one day than I’ll see all year, along with ducks, kingfishers, and two separate pairs of nesting bald eagles, not to mention all the things you only see on these old river systems, both good and bad.

 

 

 

God loves a river. You can tell by the extra care that went into their design and construction. 

 

It's cool to see you fish different water, @Team9nine. 

2.5hrs out this morning.  9 bass and this was the best of the bunch at 4-12.  This is the best pic I could get of her because she was bleeding.  Finally seeing identifiable spring patterns around here.  The weird weather had the fish all confused. 

 

Me and a friend went this morning. I can’t get out of the small ones. We caught 9 like this one. Was a heck of a fun morning though…

7 hours ago, Team9nine said:

A rare trip for me to the local large river system yesterday afternoon. It had been many, many years since I last visited, but it is unique in its smells and scenery compared to the micro lakes and reservoirs I usually play on. As it turned out, falling and clearing water had the bigger fish turned off, but still managed 15 smaller smallmouth, along with a mixed basket of largemouth, bluegill, crappie and rock bass. Saw more turtles in one day than I’ll see all year, along with ducks, kingfishers, and two separate pairs of nesting bald eagles, not to mention all the things you only see on these old river systems, both good and bad.

 

 

Have had some wonderful experiences there in the past. Just don't like to leave my car unattended where I used to go. Times have changed.

16 Bass today.  15 Spots and 1 LM.  None big enough to weigh.  Biggest was 16 inches or so.   I think I caught the most number of different species I've ever caught in a single day bass fishing.  In addition to 16 Bass I also caught a White Perch, a Yellow Perch, a Crappie and a 17.54 pound Flathead cat.  The weight on the cat may be off a little.   The lake was rough with waves. I couldn't get the scale to settle.  It was bouncing from 17 to 18 pounds with the waves.  I snapped a pic that read 17.54.  It was 34 inches long.   I caught the bass on a bunch of different stuff.  Bladed jig, shakey head, Devils Horse and a couple cranks.  The "off" species fish all came on cranks.  

 

5 minutes ago, Woody B said:

16 Bass today.  15 Spots and 1 LM.  None big enough to weigh.  Biggest was 16 inches or so.   I think I caught the most number of different species I've ever caught in a single day bass fishing.  In addition to 16 Bass I also caught a White Perch, a Yellow Perch, a Crappie and a 17.54 pound Flathead cat.  The weight on the cat may be off a little.   The lake was rough with waves. I couldn't get the scale to settle.  It was bouncing from 17 to 18 pounds with the waves.  I snapped a pic that read 17.54.  It was 34 inches long.   I caught the bass on a bunch of different stuff.  Bladed jig, shakey head, Devils Horse and a couple cranks.  The "off" species fish all came on cranks.  

 

That's awesome, would have been a heck of a day in my book.   I love to catch fish, all fish.....but my obsession over big Bass precludes me from fishing for other species.    I'm thrilled with by catches, it's usually big for whatever species it is if it hits Bass lure too.   

 

That cat would have likely stolen my bait, it's a crap shoot anytime I hook a nice cat lol

Back to the “green fish grind” today ? Continued warm, dry weather has the weeds up, the water clear, and the males continuing to move in and start setting up nesting areas. Breezy with clouds when I started, so casting the weedline was the best option. Wind died a bit later and the sun came out, and I was able to locate 7 or 8 bass staking out nests. Was able to catch 4 of them, landing 16 total. No signs of bigger females today, and much cooler and windier weather moving in tomorrow through Tuesday will probably knock back the spawning efforts for a while.

 

 

 

@Woody B, you had a busy day. Must have been fun!

 

@Team9nine, that first bass is a fatty. Good numbers too. 

12 lbs 1 oz of Bass - spent about 30 minutes fishing to catch them before work. Eastern PA

26 minutes ago, JediAmoeba said:

12 lbs 1 oz of Bass - spent about 30 minutes fishing to catch them before work. Eastern PA

 

You fish little and catch lots!

33 minutes ago, JediAmoeba said:

12 lbs 1 oz of Bass - spent about 30 minutes fishing to catch them before work. Eastern PA

Couple hawgs!

Y'all thought I'd gone and left didn't ya?

 

Not a chance ???

 

 

let's start with big fish and story time!

 

This past week was Jake's spring break and a lot of cold rainy weather broke and gave way to some big long stretches of 75°+ days with 50°+ nights.

 

I knew they were gonna be pushing up shallow and reckoned we better commence to flipping and that's just what we did.  

 

Lake was packed to the gills today.  All my gold spots were loaded with boats.

 

Improvised and hit a channel swing bank that was sitting in the wind.  Hit the first horseshoe shell bed and anchored and started flipping the heavy stuff.

 

Caught a 3 on my second cast.  Jumped off a 2 on the way in.

 

Slowed my heart down and had a snack.  Put a Zoom mag UV speed craw in sapphire blue (my previous plastic got destroyed by the 2 lber) on my hook and flipped under a green over hanging tree that stuck out as odd.

 

BOOM.

 

The line was GROANING.  She pulled me under the boat and I thought she was 10 when I first saw her breech.

 

If she'd been 5 inches longer she WOULD have been 10!

 

One of the best catches of my life and I got to share it with my family!

 

More fish pictures from the past week to come.  They weren't all dinks!

 

-Pat

Had a late night last night driving to DFW airport, so I only really worked in a drive-by today. Made one cast with a c rigged fluke and decided I didn't feel like fighting 25-30mph winds and a park near capacity for very long. Thankfully there was this tiny bass attached to it when I started reeling so I decided that was good enough. Tomorrow should have some nicer weather

1 hour ago, JediAmoeba said:

12 lbs 1 oz of Bass - spent about 30 minutes fishing to catch them before work. Eastern PA

Quickie with a happy ending.?

35 minutes ago, Pat Brown said:

Y'all thought I'd gone and left didn't ya?

 

Not a chance ???

 

 

let's start with big fish and story time!

 

This past week was Jake's spring break and a lot of cold rainy weather broke and gave way to some big long stretches of 75°+ days with 50°+ nights.

 

I knew they were gonna be pushing up shallow and reckoned we better commence to flipping and that's just what we did.  

 

Lake was packed to the gills today.  All my gold spots were loaded with boats.

 

Improvised and hit a channel swing bank that was sitting in the wind.  Hit the first horseshoe shell bed and anchored and started flipping the heavy stuff.

 

Caught a 3 on my second cast.  Jumped off a 2 on the way in.

 

Slowed my heart down and had a snack.  Put a Zoom mag UV speed craw in sapphire blue (my previous plastic got destroyed by the 2 lber) on my hook and flipped under a green over hanging tree that stuck out as odd.

 

BOOM.

 

The line was GROANING.  She pulled me under the boat and I thought she was 10 when I first saw her breech.

 

If she'd been 5 inches longer she WOULD have been 10!

 

One of the best catches of my life and I got to share it with my family!

 

More fish pictures from the past week to come.  They weren't all dinks!

 

-Pat

That's awesome Pat, congrats!   

Just now, TnRiver46 said:

Man, that's what heaven must look like behind you.......not a single man made thing for as far as I can see. 

 

Great pics, and beautiful fish as always!

Just now, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Man, that's what heaven must look like behind you.......not a single man made thing for as far as I can see. 

 

Great pics, and beautiful fish as always!

The wife of course took that pic……..  most of that is wildlife management area and/or the Cherokee national forest so it will always look like that. Luckily that’s the view just outside the creek from our house! When we pulled out of the creek as kids my mom always pointed to the mtns and said “postcard view”

Well, friend of mine called me up and said ya wanna to try a lake near him up in NY?
 He said he saw some guys come off the lake in kayaks and he went over to talk to them, they showed him some pics of really nice bass they caught that day.
 Went up on Wednesday, which was my first fishing day this year.
Temps were up to 90 and wind was outa the NW, we moved around for a while before I got bit.
First fish of the year was the biggest smallie I’ve had in years, then had pretty good action for the rest of the day.
 Wind really picked up and white caps on the lake, caught all the fish up to that time on jerk baits.
 We moved back to a cove on the south end and there we caught just largemouths, I switched over to wacky worms off the docks.
 I wound up with 10 landed and about 5 hooked but got off.
4 smallies and 6 largemouths, all were good size fish.                                        
 Went back on Thursday, pretty much same weather with high hopes of a repeat.
Well that was not to be, fished for 5 hrs for just 1 good largemouth.
 Had to get off the water as we were beat, hot and tired after paddling around for hrs.
Big thanks to BR enlightening me to using a jerk bait early in the season, my buddy was impressed with the action I had on it, I had landed 6 fish before he hooked 1.