I went fishing again this morning. I rose at 3:45 because the Sun is rising sooner and sooner, but the fish weren't hitting when I launched. I didn't start to catch fish until the Sun was well up. I caught 15, a mix of LMB and Pickerel with one Pumpkinseed that hit a bass popper. Maine bass tend to be fairly good-sized, but I caught mostly bitsy bass this morning and photographed three of them. I also caught a 17.5" 3.21 lber. and lost a four to five-pounder that came completely out of the water to break my heart. I was surprised to see lily pads. I think they're 2023 pads, as I don't think the 2022 pads would look so fresh after a winter. What do you think.

 

I caught fish on a Senko, a paddletail, a lipless crankbait, a popper, and the ol' Whopper Plopper.  

6 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

I went fishing again this morning. I rose at 3:45 because the Sun is rising sooner and sooner, but the fish weren't hitting when I launched. I didn't start to catch fish until the Sun was well up. I caught 15, a mix of LMB and Pickerel with one Pumpkinseed that hit a bass popper. Maine bass tend to be fairly good-sized, but I caught mostly bitsy bass this morning and photographed three of them. I also caught a 17.5" 3.21 lber. and lost a four to five-pounder that came completely out of the water to break my heart. I was surprised to see lily pads. I think they're 2023 pads, as I don't think the 2022 pads would look so fresh after a winter. What do you think.

 

I caught fish on a Senko, a paddletail, a lipless crankbait, a popper, and the ol' Whopper Plopper.  

If the fish are relying on me getting up at 345am in order to catch them, they got another thing coming, and it's called Katie ?

 

That Pumpkinseed is so beautiful.   Sunfish really are the most beautiful fish.

Nice fish Katie, can’t help with the pad question, unfortunately they kill anything cool like that on my waters 

Beautiful fish Katie especially that pumpkinseed ?As far as getting up that early I’m right there with you but by 3:45 I’m heading to work not my local ponds ?

4 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Nice fish Katie, can’t help with the pad question, unfortunately they kill anything cool like that on my waters 

Same here for the most part......makes me sick, they finally let some grass come back on Wheeler, and it's absolutely exploded.  5/20lb bags are common now.   I always forget these lakes are managed for power and other things, last is fishing.  

 

Doesn't seem that way in Texas, they seem to value Bass fisheries more than we do in other states for Bass. 

On 5/11/2023 at 8:04 AM, hokiehunter373 said:

Had an hour to get out last night and took my new best bud with me.  First cast ever with a Berkley MaxScent Flat Worm and this little 1.5-2# male inhaled it.  5# mama wasn't as stupid as he was though.  Sun got down and air cooled down quick and that was all she wrote for the night but it was great to just be out.  Hopefully some longer and more productive sessions soon.

 

 

 

It's tough work when dad doesn't let you chew on their tales like you want to

 

We need more photos on this site of good boys and girls.

Regarding my losing the four-to-five-pounder that jumped, I'm making an equipment change. I was using a paddletail with a big hook, I think 5/0, with 10 lb. mono and a medium light rod. I'm switching to a medium rod and BRAID. After I lost that fish, I replayed how I played it and lost it and I think that I just couldn't stick that big hook all the way into its mouth with stretchy line and a wimpy rod.

 

I don't know if you remember the 5.5 lber. I caught early this year, but it was also on a paddletail with a big hook and when I had her in the net, that lure fell out of her mouth. Tension alone kept us connected. I was doing a good job maintaining tension with this morning's fish, but she dove into some zombie weeds right beside my canoe. I hesitated a half sec, thinking about how much pressure I should apply, and she used my hesitation's slack to pop free. 

 

Private Katie reporting for duty in the Straight Braid Brigade, General @T-Billy!

 

P. S. - I like that you guys like the Pumpkinseed. I loved it too.

1 hour ago, ol'crickety said:

I was surprised to see lily pads. I think they're 2023 pads,

They're new, and they are your friend. Since you'd encountered them way past this stage last year, their stages of growth will allow you a ton of new opportunities. Fish in and around them diligently and you'll probably hit some solid males and big girls during your prespawn period. They're a magnet for all species.

2 hours ago, PhishLI said:

They're new, and they are your friend. Since you'd encountered them way past this stage last year, their stages of growth will allow you a ton of new opportunities. Fish in and around them diligently and you'll probably hit some solid males and big girls during your prespawn period. They're a magnet for all species.

 

Thanks, Phish. I love fishing pads. I just didn't expect them to pop up so soon, so I didn't know if they were exceptionally healthy looking zombie pads or not. 

 

I went back and looked at this morning's bass photos and laughed at the last two. The water drop on my camera's lens makes it look like I fuzzed the faces of the bass to protect their identities. 

Fished muskrat lake which, is a small lake In Clinton county.  Water temp was 70 F.  Fish were in the emerging pads chasing shad.  I caught one 15 incher fliping a yum dirt purple lizard.  I had hooked about 3 more but, lost them in the pads.  Caught the 2nd fish on a yum sonar minnow with a 1/8 jig head.  Sonar minnow is showing promise. 
 

lost a bit of terminal tackle in the pads.  Havnt done that in a while. 

Lost an absolute giant tonight at the bank.  Too big to flip on to the bank and when I tried to go in for her I gave her too much slack and she came off.

 

She bit the swim jig.

 

Not my first big fish to come unbuttoned right at the boat/bank but my first in a long time and she was the biggest fish I ever lost.

 

Hurts.  Just needed to share with people who understand these sorts of things.

 

I'd have traded all my 4 lbers last week for seeing this fish out of the water tonight but it just wasn't in the cards.

 

Sun was a little too low in the sky for me to really see what I was doing and I had my pole with 15 lb line instead of 20 lb line on and I think that was a mistake in hindsight.

 

Also probably should have just risked it for the biscuit and tried to flip it even though it felt impossible.

 

So many what could have beens.  But I guess that's what keeps us coming back to the water!

 

Gosh I'm glad its the weekend hopefully I can get some redemption between now and Sunday night.

Sorry to hear about that Pat!   The silver lining is that you can't lose big fish if you don't hook big fish.   The law of averages comes into play with 5+ fish, they just have the size, tougher mouths, heavier weight, better instincts when hooked, etc.   

 

I've lost three since Jan., everyone is as painful today as when they happened, two are on film lol.    I won't stop caring until I achieve my goal.   Anything worth doing in life, is worth doing to the best of your ability.   If it doesn't hurt, it didn't really matter, and if it didn't really matter, what the heck are we doing out there....that's my take.   I wish I could be a zen like fisherman, I take it personal, I want to catch every fish that hits my bait.   

 

Let it vent, it matters!  

5 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Sorry to hear about that Pat!   The silver lining is that you can't lose big fish if you don't hook big fish.   The law of averages comes into play with 5+ fish, they just have the size, tougher mouths, heavier weight, better instincts when hooked, etc.   

 

I've lost three since Jan., everyone is as painful today as when they happened, two are on film lol.    I won't stop caring until I achieve my goal.   Anything worth doing in life, is worth doing to the best of your ability.   If it doesn't hurt, it didn't really matter, and if it didn't really matter, what the heck are we doing out there....that's my take.   I wish I could be a zen like fisherman, I take it personal, I want to catch every fish that hits my bait.   

 

Let it vent, it matters!  

 

 

I think from now on I'm just gonna walk em up the bank and hope my line does it's job, and normally I KNOW that but tonight with that 15 lb I think my confidence was JUST lacking enough to make the wrong decision in the moment.  She felt DD.

11 hours ago, Pat Brown said:

Lost an absolute giant tonight at the bank...Not my first big fish to come unbuttoned right at the boat/bank but my first in a long time and she was the biggest fish I ever lost.

Take it as a sign of good things to come. Back in July of '19, this happened to me twice from the bank. Two absolute slobs lost. I had waders on, but hadn't gone in yet, and slack line during the transition into the water doomed me. After the second time in a week, I put the hoodoo on myself by cooking up the idea that I was hereby cursed, and that this was a sign no big fish would be granted to me for the rest of the year. I chalked it up to some type of untraceable karmic vengeance. I'd been a jerk on occasion in the old days, so this made sense to me. By October of that year, I'd landed a freak, so perhaps I wasn't as bad as I'd imagined, or maybe I was simply being a superstitious moron. A similar thing happened 2 years ago, but I came out on top yet again. It 'aint over til it's over, brother. Keep the faith.

Tough postfrontal, windy day but still came across a few. Weather is looking good over the next week, so hopefully that combined with the upcoming full moon will bring some of the big ladies up shallow.

 

Not sure if I like the new tactical underspin or the og coolbaits better. At the moment I'm leaning towards coolbaits with 2.8's and tactical with 3.3's, but I'll need some more reps before making the call.

 

Hadn't thrown a brush hog in a long time. Figured why not and it delivered.

 

Toledo Bend might be the prettiest shoreline I've ever fished around, absolutely beautiful. The lake is massive. Saw some gators which was  cool. Fishing wasn't great for me but my buddy had a solid numbers day, I'll take it though. Weather became a challenge. Our guide was actually a member here once upon a time, great dude and I'll surely be back out with him again. Man knows his sonar and that's how we managed to land bass.

@Pat Brown, guys like you (and Alex, Phish, and many others) who catch so many fine fish are utterly persuasive when you say that you hooked and lost a behemoth. You'll hook another beast one day and your upgrades might land it. And if you do, we'll be so happy with you.

@Pat Brown I had a similar experience fishing a steep banked pond with a Hudd 68. It was definitely a DD but too heavy to flip up the bank. All I could do was to drag her up but while positioning to get her moving I must have given her the slightest amount of slack because sure enough the single hook popped loose as I got her head out of the water. Heartbreaking for sure. At least you know she is there for a second try. My sympathies. 

I got out for a while today, also got a new pb smallmouth. 
 

I got to the first lake and got rigged up and ready to go, it’s easy with one rod and 4 spares in the tackle bag lol. I have only caught one fish here ever, and lost plenty of jigs to a group of logs. I was feeling confident, that didn’t last very long. This place has very small casting windows here and there, started with a owner jig rig and a scornbug in black and blue. I made it 20 minutes or less and got my line wrapped around a piece of dead bark on a tree about 9ft off the ground, my reel is now blown up.
 

I start trying to get my line untangled from the dead tree, first thing I do is check to see if it supports my weight. I push against it and it wiggles, so it’s a no go on the climb technique. I strip my shoes and socks off and roll up my pants and find a long stick. I set my rod and blown up reel on my tackle bag and get to it. I am trying to get it off the dead bark with a long stick and am like why is there tension on the rod side so I look over and my rod is dunking the whole handle almost to the reel. I didn’t have enough slack line to free it, I put more slack in my line just to get it down and hung up under water where it dropped. I get it unhooked from some underwater branch just to make two cast or less to sacrifice it to the group of logs that has claimed at least 5 jigs from me. That’s my sign time to leave and go get the meds for the dogs.

 

 I am very angry at this point and feel like nothing more can go wrong and am contemplating just going home. I stopped by the pharmacy and got my son’s prescription also and decided to go fishing at the river and pond. I did get my reel that was blown up all sorted out and kept using it, just to blow it up again at the river catching a branch on my back cast, I fixed that and figured that it was probably a carp that I saw jumping and not a bass.

 

 I head directly to the spot that I caught the on last Sunday. I made a few cast and pitched towards a cluster of stumps and felt the tick and saw my line running. I set the hook and get it onto the bank and noticed that it was fairly long but really skinny. I weighed it anyway because my old pb was 2.12lbs. This one went 2.16lb and was 17.25 long. I was happy that I caught a decent fish with the day I was having. I then started my adventure down the river bank with the ticks and geese, ducks. I tried a couple different spots and finally got to a water discharge point where I have wanted to fish the past 2 years, I caught a couple more tiny ones and had fun.

 

The moral of the story is don’t give up, just change gears and try to stay positive. I figured out that the smallmouth in the stretch of river hold directly on the edge of cover as you would expect. I also found that the paca craws are really durable and hold up great. The Berkley max scent tubes are very soft and don’t work good with owner phantom tube hooks. I got more experience clearing a reel that goes boom due to my own stupidity lol. The pb was not a substantial difference, but with the day I was having it felt like I was on top of the world.

I went today from 6 until shortly after 10.   I caught 12 Bass, a handful of White Perch and 2 Channel Cats.  One cat was tiny, the other was 9.84 pounds.  The biggest bass was a 4 poundish Largemouth.  I didn't take a picture of it.  When I was unhooking it a guy in a Kayak came up and asked if he could have it for a picture.  I just unhooked and released it.  I told him if he wanted a picture he'd need to catch it.  It's my belief he was wanting to cheat in a Kayak tournament.  I HAVE NO USE FOR CHEATERS.  

 

30 minutes ago, Woody B said:

I went today from 6 until shortly after 10.   I caught 12 Bass, a handful of White Perch and 2 Channel Cats.  One cat was tiny, the other was 9.84 pounds.  The biggest bass was a 4 poundish Largemouth.  I didn't take a picture of it.  When I was unhooking it a guy in a Kayak came up and asked if he could have it for a picture.  I just unhooked and released it.  I told him if he wanted a picture he'd need to catch it.  It's my belief he was wanting to cheat in a Kayak tournament.  I HAVE NO USE FOR CHEATERS.  

 

Wow. What a scumbag in the kayak. Nice spot and kitty tho 

I second both @TnRiver46 and your sentiments @Woody B . Scumbag and no use for cheaters.

1 hour ago, Woody B said:

I went today from 6 until shortly after 10.   I caught 12 Bass, a handful of White Perch and 2 Channel Cats.  One cat was tiny, the other was 9.84 pounds.  The biggest bass was a 4 poundish Largemouth.  I didn't take a picture of it.  When I was unhooking it a guy in a Kayak came up and asked if he could have it for a picture.  I just unhooked and released it.  I told him if he wanted a picture he'd need to catch it.  It's my belief he was wanting to cheat in a Kayak tournament.  I HAVE NO USE FOR CHEATERS.  

 

Good on you man. Shoulda asked the guy if you can't catch bass why did you enter a bass tourney? Cheater= pathetic

My sons baseball game got canceled so I decided to take quick trip to the lake. I wanted to throw some baits I never use.  specifically wanted to spend some time pitching yamatanukis around. Got carried away and bought like 8 bags and hadnt tried them yet (other than in the pool and Admittedly they looked terrible). 
Well I can now confirm, I hate them. I spent 3 hours in prime fish areas and nothing. Watched a few fish come look at It and swim off. Finally got a taker in about 10’ of water on a submerged tree. Reeled down, set the hook hard, and had It coming to the boat. Solid 3 lber. As she surfaces she just opens her mouth and spits the bait. WTH?! 
Checked It out and ZERO hook penetration. 
That was It for that bait for me. I’m sure they are great for someone, but not me. 
 

Picked up my bread and butter, a Weightless senko and caught this 4. 
 

 

I then decided to spend the last hour throwing a magdraft freestyle, another i never use. I’ve never caught a MD fish. Shortly later near the boat I watched a 2lb bass come out of no where and hit the magdraft from the side and knock It off path. Then disappear lol. Didn’t even have his mouth open when he hit It. 
 

I then pitched It passed a submerged tree top I could barely see about  10’ from the boat. As I swam It back over the top of the tree the bait just stopped. 100% felt like I stuck on a limb. So I put slack In the line and started trolling motoring over to the tree top just in time to see that It was actually about a 6lb bass that had inhaled the bait. Literally on slack line I watched It just cough the bait out and haul butt deeper. Ugh! 
That was the weirdest bite I’ve ever felt. I didn’t even think to swing on It. 
So now I’m going to stick to the treble hook magdraft version. I think the treble would have stuck her. 
And that was that. Headed home now. 
Here’s a few more pictures. 
 

1 hour ago, Cbump said:

Got carried away and bought like 8 bags

I know that feeling when I got sucked into buying whopper ploppers. Instead of one useless lure, I now have 3 Christmas tree ornaments. It’s the bait monkey.