4 hours ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

GIB ME CHAD SHAD PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Very nice fish, been trying to get a Chad Shad for a couple months, Bass Pro and a few other retailers had them but they sold out super fast.    

Great report, and fish.   Having fishing buddies is priceless.  

Ordered mine from ALF last fall, got it late in the winter.  Really glad I picked it up.  It's like a giant jerk bait if you want it to be, can dance in place practically, nice to sit over the break/cover and twitch it.  A couple slurps, but most have been tagged.  Hardware is really nice.

 

scott

 

 

I had a few hours to fish yesterday if I could make it down there by 5am, but my last-minute bait-tweaking OCD made me late yet again. By the time I waded through a creek, up a hill, then through some woods towards the lake it was 5:30, so the rising sun was already illuminating the clouds above the eastern shoreline. The path I chose brought me to a spot where I often like to start, and as I got close enough to sort of see the shoreline, I was disappointed to find a huge flock of geese parked right there, but that wasn't what it was after all. Huge flotillas of fluorescent green algae were set up against the western shoreline from one end to the other. I tried wading through it out to cleaner water, but it was thick as cotton candy right to the bottom, so my game plan needed to change completely.

 

The crazy heatwave we had here 10 days ago quickly gave way back to our typical chilly April overnights, but it left behind consequences. One was this awful algae bloom, and the other was that males had already begun making nests, just as I'd suspected after all the short strikers here during my previous session. However, all the beds I found yesterday were abandoned. It's simply too cold in the shallows now, enough that I wished I'd worn my Long Johns. The bass will be back on beds soon enough, and hopefully the algae will desist long enough for the weeds to take hold. Last year a few typically very weedy lakes farther out east never sprouted as much as a chute where the algae bloom took hold early on.

 

Timing is always important, but with rollercoaster springtime temps it's even more touchy than usual. I couldn't get much going yesterday during the time I had, but I'll take what I can get.

2 day report.  I'm going to change my name to Catfish (just kidding mods).  I went Saturday afternoon from 3 until 8.   I caught 11 bass, as well as a 18.88 pound Blue Catfish.  I've caught 5 catfish this year bass fishing.   4 have been over 10 pounds.  I don't think that's trophy size cats, but they're fun, and they're a handful on bass tackle.   None of the bass were big enough to measure or weigh.    I was thick into the cats for a while.  A couple followed my lures to the boat.  I also hooked a couple that twisted and got off.  One's I've caught on treble hook baits are usually skin hooked.  I guess the bass size trebles have trouble penetrating their hard mouths.   I suspect being skin hooked helps them twist off.   Right after one of the cats twisted off a 13 inch Spot hit my lure.   I lost a fish and caught a fish on the same cast.  

I went from 8 to 3 today.  No cats.  I caught 16 bass, a crappie and a perch.  Biggest bass was a Largemouth I'd guess to be around 4 lbs.  I've got 14 inch, 18 inch and 22 inch marks on my boat.  This one was a little over 18.  

Colder temps, less wind, and a few spits of sleet. I figured the bite would slow, but still found over a dozen up shallow like yesterday, and mostly pretty aggressive. Dark Sleeper continued to do most of the work again, like yesterday.

 

 

 

 

 

9 hours ago, bulldog1935 said:

The plight of TX hill country rivers is population growth, compounded by our 3rd year of drought (only place that can flash flood and still be in drought).  Yesterday, Josh, Will and I had to drive 140 mi to find water, and we had a great trip, great exploring - even fish.  We explored the N. fork of the Llano, which I've never fished, and Josh said he's only made 3 trips this far over the last decade.  Since I came from the east, we drove separately, and met at the first crossing.  After the last two days flooding, we found chocolate water.   We fished the deep water here here for 2 hours, all the gear worked great, but the fish weren't cooperating, compounded by N wind.  

Decided to take our exploration farther upriver, hoping to find less-turbid water - less chert in the run-off.  We loaded boats, drove 5 miles up a dirt road. crossed the river 5 times -- two of those on the wet flagstone - and found a wide spot in the flagstone where we could see the structure.  The sun was also breaking, and the fish turned on for us.  

This time it paid off.

My first cast, right after Josh said, "first fish gets a dollar"

Everyone caught fish here, we paddled as far as we could, and got out to explore farther.  A native cichlid here made Josh's day.  

With the long drive home, we were out of time and had to blast back at 1:30.  Josh didn't invite me until 7pm the night before, so I only had time to load - no time for provisions.  Good thing Josh brought IPAs and jalapeno-cheese sausage to share.
Great group and great time.  

A maiden voyage for my new truck. Got to use the 4WD, and the 10-sp transmission was a jewel climbing the divides on the interstate in cruise control.  

Thanks again guys - I'm back - Josh posted these 3 photos of me

fighting the day's bass

lipping the day's bass

showing off the day's bass

If you note the back of my boat, that's my Meiho 7080 tackle box I bought because it exactly fits this little sternwell and has two add-on rod holders.  

I fished 2 of the 3 kayak rods I took out, but the only one that mattered was my glass ML Smith Super Strike/ Plugger combo, fishing the pink/brown 4-g inline keel spinner.  

 

I can’t believe I had to resize this ?? I pulled it out of the water on the hook set.

Fished in the snow this morning.

Something I haven't done in  awhile.

Paid off.

A-Jay

 

 

2 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

Fished in the snow this morning.

Something I haven't done in  awhile.

Paid off.

A-Jay

 

 

Monsters!!! I’ve always loved fishing in the snow, it’s a lot easier for me because the water doesn’t freeze 

Well I caught a couple today, had 2.5 hours to go fishing. Second cast caught my first pike of the day on a rapala slim 4, poor thing chocked it. He swam off though, next fish and the best one of the day bested me at the bank. Only had the rear treble in the very edge of the inside of the mouth, gave a dance at the bank unhooked himself and then threw itself onto the bank. I about went in backside first trying to grab it, but he laughed and ran back into the water lol. Took a while to catch my second tiny bass on a demon dt-4. I then caught 2 more pike on the dt-4 and a Rocco. The best bass of the day was probably 2.5-3lbs. That’s fishing though and crank baits, you win some and you lose some but it’s still a blast.

Got to mess around on a pond today after Sunday lunch. Tough bite after yesterday’s cooldown, though there were plenty of fish on beds.

Tied on several different baits, both the bass and warmouth came on a Zoom Tiny Brush Hog on a black 1/16th oz jig head.

 

This is a pic from Saturday.  I caught this one on a swim jig before the wind gusts started.

21 hours ago, bulldog1935 said:

Thanks friend.  I know Josh was aiming his camera at me.  He owns TKF forum and hosts the redfish rodeo every fall.  But he has 5-m-o twins at home - after he posts his photos, maybe I'll add a couple.  

Used to be my favorite forum. Last time I checked the traffic was very low. I need to get back on there more. 
Great fishing report and pictures. 

@Cbump where TKF really shines is inshore and offshore kayak fishing reports (offshore picks up in summer doldrums), and a killer rigging archive that goes back almost 20 years.  

Freshwater fishing reports there are pretty lean.  

5 minutes ago, bulldog1935 said:

@Cbump where TKF really shines is inshore and offshore kayak fishing reports (offshore picks up in summer doldrums), and a killer rigging archive that goes back almost 20 years.  

Freshwater fishing reports there are pretty lean.  

Back when we had our hobies and I was big into kayak fishing, I would look at the inshore and btb forums all day from work and drool. I never did much kayak fishing in Texas but we used to take them every summer to Florida and fish the lagoons and offshore. Tkf and Pensacola fishing forum kayak sections were my go to. 

20 hours ago, A-Jay said:

Fished in the snow this morning.

Something I haven't done in  awhile.

Paid off.

A-Jay

 

 

A-Jay... Wow... Way to go brother!!! You're off to a heckuva start!!! Congrats!!! I love fishing in the snow too. Those days just have a magical feeling about them.

21 hours ago, A-Jay said:

Fished in the snow this morning.

Something I haven't done in  awhile.

Paid off.

A-Jay

 

 

Gosh dang dude !

It was a 3 forum posts day, but I’ll save myself the trouble and wrap it up in one post here ?

 

Record cold overnight and a light NE breeze slowed the bite down, as expected. Caught 17, mostly on Ned, but dumped the only good fish hooked (Latest catch pics thread).

 

Bonus was a 10.5” hybrid gill on Ned, which this location has some bruisers (Other Species Latest Catch Pics Thread).

 

And was reminded again that I’m not the only one pressuring these fish (Found lures thread).

 

 

 

Got 16 this afternoon, mostly on speed worms and yum dingers. It was one of those weather days I love. Maybe 10 mph breeze, cloudy, temps in the 70s. I caught most of the fish  on the retrieve… 

 

 

 

 

Got some time walking the rocks on the big lake and got into a few fat clones.  1/4oz ball head and little ez in hammonds herring did the catching.  

 

scott

 

@N Florida Mike, your smiles always make me smile.

 

@softwateronly, I add two inches to each of your fish given where you're fishing. You're mountain goatish!

18 minutes ago, softwateronly said:

Got some time walking the rocks on the big lake and got into a few fat clones.  1/4oz ball head and little ez in hammonds herring did the catching.  

 

scott

 

What an epic shot that is with the city skyline in the background.    That's the only way I could live in a big city.

 

Fantastic fish as well.  

10 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

@N Florida Mike, your smiles always make me smile.

 

@softwateronly, I add two inches to each of your fish given where you're fishing. You're mountain goatish!

100% Katie, when people wonder why we love to Bass fish, just show them Mike's smile.   

Caught a fish today that really fooled me, for about 30-45 secs I thought I had the white whale.   Just last night I finally swapped over to 15lb Pline Ultimate Fluoro, had I not there is a 50/50 chance this fish broke that PLine 12lb CXX.    She exploded to the surface like a Beaver slap, and then proceeded to bulldog for half a minute. Spectacular fighting fish, but she only went 5.11, a far cry from what I thought.  It's been since Feb. that I felt that rush of fear and anxiety.   

 

Caught another 3.5-4lb fish, and then 10 other 1-2lb fish.....all on the D Bomb.  I was targeting shaded weed lines on wind-blown banks.    Big Swimbait, buzzbait, squarebill.....nothing, not a single bite.   Meanwhile this stupid T-Rigged creature bait keeps the lights on ?   This is the fourth color now that I've had really great results with, it's called bruised plum.    More evidence in my book that color just doesn't matter as much as we think it does.    The average fish size on this bait continues to impress me.   

 

3.5 pounder with a 5 pound head. 
 

 

And a blue fin sand bass

 

 

41 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

@N Florida Mike, your smiles always make me smile.

 

@softwateronly, I add two inches to each of your fish given where you're fishing. You're mountain goatish!

Ha Ha!!  I'm not always a fan of trekking out on the rocks, but that's the narrow breakwater entrance to the harbor full of current and deep water.  Talked with the CFD the other day when their rookie rescue diver was putting in time, the older guy said he's seen schools of giants right at the mouth of the harbor.  So for now, I'm gonna continue slo mo goating out there to get a chance.

 

38 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

What an epic shot that is with the city skyline in the background.    That's the only way I could live in a big city.

 

Fantastic fish as well.  

100% Katie, when people wonder why we love to Bass fish, just show them Mike's smile.   

It certainly helps!  April and May can get the big girls within reach. 

 

scott

4 hours ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

That's the only way I could live in a big city.

I couldn't do it. No way, no how. I didn't like living in a city of 30k, but couldn't talk the wife into moving out in the boonies, so we settled on my childhood home town of about 350 people. We're both happy here.