@Woody B, you're consistent too. So is @Team9nine. And @Bluebasser86. And others.

 

I do often catch more, but that's a function of latitude. You must have noticed that the Ontario and Maine bass fishers catch about what I catch...or more. Northern bass aren't as pressured.

 

As I noted above, I am proud of the consistent quality of my catches, but that's due to Bass Resource. You guys have taught me lures and techniques that I did not know. For example, the 19.75" bass above was caught on a 7" Wacky worm with a 1/0 hook. It was Alex who modeled throwing big baits for me. I hooked her using tips imparted by other BR guys. I played her on braid, which T-Billy encouraged me to use. I set the hook using a stiffer rod than I've used in the past. Again, that's because of the BR gang.

 

I think my total bass catches have dropped, but my quality has increased and that's a joyful trade for me. A four-pounder coming out of the water and making like a marlin is as thrilling as a roller coaster. And netting a kid's first four-pounder is the best. 

Streak goes on!!! Lets go!!!!

 

Having some friends for a BBQ and took a buddy down to the pond to get my fish of the day. Took about 15mins for him to hit my popper (Mirrolure walker). However, it came out of the water like a great white hitting a seal. 

 

@Dominat0r how days are you at currently? 

3 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

I do often catch more, but that's a function of latitude. You must have noticed that the Ontario and Maine bass fishers catch about what I catch...or more. Northern bass aren't as pressured.

Y’all pay for it in the winter though, so it all evens out. 
 

One thing that’s surprising me is that I thought that fishing would slow down here in TX once it got hot. It is not. 

16 minutes ago, IcatchDinks said:

@Dominat0r how days are you at currently? 

 

Today is day 30  (starting from June 5th) in a row, I missed 1 day when I was at Epcot.  If I get a mulligan for that, the first day was May 25th, which would be 39 days, minus 1 day for Epcot.

23 hours ago, Jar11591 said:

@TnRiver46 I’ve seen cormorants on the bigger bodies of water. My first thought was possible cormorant but they flew just like loons, and when I used the binoculars they looked to be loons. I’m like 90% sure. I’ve seen loons on this lake before. But as I type, the less sure I get….

loons can't land in trees, they cant land or walk on land,  must be cormorants

20 minutes ago, LrgmouthShad said:

Y’all pay for it in the winter though, so it all evens out. 

 

So true. For months, I watched Alex and others land 6, 7, and 8-lb. fish. Even the NY bassers were catching weeks before me.

8 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

 

So true. For months, I watched Alex and others land 6, 7, and 8-lb. fish. Even the NY bassers were catching weeks before me.

I'm paying for it now most certainly, most days it's close to 110 felt heat, mixed in with thunderstorms and humidity so thick it's like a wall.

 

Oddly the fish still bite, but I just can't deal with that level of suck on the water.   

 

One thing that makes your fish extra awesome is that their pure Northern strain, just a much more aggressive fish than the FLGM strain.  Once you get down here, it's a genetic soup, some places get stocked with pure northerns but then after a spawn or two it gets diluted again.

 

39 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

I'm paying for it now most certainly, most days it's close to 110 felt heat, mixed in with thunderstorms and humidity so thick it's like a wall.

 

Oddly the fish still bite, but I just can't deal with that level of suck on the water.   

 

One thing that makes your fish extra awesome is that their pure Northern strain, just a much more aggressive fish than the FLGM strain.  Once you get down here, it's a genetic soup, some places get stocked with pure northerns but then after a spawn or two it gets diluted again.

 

 

In that linked article about the men who hunt for giant bass, they mentioned the northern strain + the Florida strain producing huge bass quick to strike, which produced a string of monster fish. I would melt down there. If it hits 80 degrees, I'm baking.  

Yeah "Tiger"/"Gorilla"/"F1" Bass are a real blast.     They are popular down here for stocking small ponds with.     Much quicker growth rates, and very aggressive.  The ones I've caught are cleaner looking fish, lighter in color with more vivid marking.  They pull harder than the avg. LGM as well.    

 

Like all hybrids though, you lose that vigor the more generations you breed away from it.   It's really only the first generation of stocked fish that have the best of both genetic expressions.   

@AlabamaSpothunter As I recall, most bass in Toledo Bend and Sam Rayburn as examples are F1 bass.

 

Northern strain largemouth are most definitely more aggressive, having spent a lot of time in NY. I won’t claim whether that makes them easier to catch, but it did mean for me that in the summertime, I was spending less time dragging a worm and more time reeling a spinnerbait. They just seem more apt to chase. If you listen to the Bassmaster elite circuit, you will hear commentators talk about this sometimes 

@ol'crickety Those are 3 nice bass. 

42 minutes ago, LrgmouthShad said:

@AlabamaSpothunter As I recall, most bass in Toledo Bend and Sam Rayburn as examples are F1 bass.

 

Northern strain largemouth are most definitely more aggressive, having spent a lot of time in NY. I won’t claim whether that makes them easier to catch, but it did mean for me that in the summertime, I was spending less time dragging a worm and more time reeling a spinnerbait. They just seem more apt to chase. If you listen to the Bassmaster elite circuit, you will hear commentators talk about this sometimes 

I'm unfamilar with the genetics of those two bodies of water, but it would not surprise me to see that both pure FLGMs and NLGMs were stocked at different times in those lakes making up a mix of DNA.    

 

However the F1/Tiger/Gorilla Bass refer to the F1 generation or the first filial generation.   Basically the parents first set of offspring.   Once those offspring reproduce now you're on the F2 generation, and so and so on.    Unless the climate/geography limits the sub species, it's extremely hard to know the exact DNA makeup of Bass in the SE with costly testing.    F1 genetics can get dumped into bigger lakes, Northern and pure FLGMs are stocked by state agencies, then you have the Spots and SMs in many areas.    

 

The wonderful thing about TX's fish program especially the sharelunker is that they introduce pure FLGM and F1 fry from sharelunker/FLGM fish into the public fisheries.  TX deserves to be a the heart of big Bass fishing currently, they've worked hard and care about Bass fishing.  

3 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

For months, I watched Alex and others land 6, 7, and 8-lb. fish. Even the NY bassers were catching weeks before me.

And the anglers in Maine were catching bass weeks before me too. I am pretty sure I was the last one to post a legal first bass of 2023, other than some people in Canada.

 

3 hours ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

I'm paying for it now most certainly, most days it's close to 110 felt heat, mixed in with thunderstorms and humidity so thick it's like a wall.

 

Oddly the fish still bite, but I just can't deal with that level of suck on the water.   

Sounds lovely there this time of year lol

 

19 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

TX deserves to be a the heart of big Bass fishing currently, they've worked hard and care about Bass fishing.  

Correct. It is the #1 state currently for bass fishing. Trick for me is going to be to figure out what lake works for me and how to catch them

5 minutes ago, LrgmouthShad said:

Correct. It is the #1 state currently for bass fishing

I would agree with this unless you are including smallmouth into the mix. Right now New York might be in that conversation too given that they have a number of water bodies that just made the list of top bass lakes in the country.

Been busy with work lately and catching a lot of 1-3 lbers when I make it out but managed to get my wife on a gorgeous 5 lber and my dad on a beautiful 6 lber in the past two weeks!

 

Caught a nice 4.5 on a jig on a brief solo trip out before a rain.

 

Just getting ready to head home from a 4th of July trip to the outer banks where we stuffed ourselves with fresh caught redfish and stingray and fished off of kayaks til we were very tired and ready to get back to our beloved lakes and bass!  It was epic!

 

 

 

                                     

15 minutes ago, roadwarrior said:

 

 

                                     

 

I agree with @roadwarrior. Well done, Pat!

On 7/3/2023 at 7:25 AM, ol'crickety said:

 

That's a beautiful bass and like Glenn said, it's great to have you back. How were you fishing your Megabass Dark Sleeper?

 

@Dominat0r, your top bass has a sweet shape.

 

@PhishLI, as you know, I once focused on muskies. Muskies are so dang hard to catch that you must leverage every possible advantage, which means noting all minutiae. A good musky fisher sees more, hears more, and remembers more. You're like that on your pounded lakes.  

 

I observed and deduced like PhishLI once and was rewarded beyond my wildest dreams. We'd been fishing a wilderness lake for muskies for five days. I'd caught nine in those five days, but two of the four in our party hadn't caught a single one because the wind was a cool northwester. One day, we were fixing lunch on our island when the wind swung 180 degrees. It was suddenly coming warm out of the southeast.

 

Well, at the far end of the lake was a strait that ran from the southeast to the northwest. I guessed that the change in temperature and pressure would trigger the muskies and that they'd cluster and feed at that strait, with water pushing through it. 

 

"Let's go fishing!" I yelled to my partner.

 

"Lunch?" he said.

 

"Later!" I said.

 

We paddled as fast as we could to that strait. I caught five muskies in an hour, which is, given the length of time it takes to play, land, and release a musky, close to Constant Musky (TM). I lost a sixth just as the wind died. The fishing conditions were really tough as we each had about one cast before we were blown out of position. 

 

My point, PhishLI, is that you're always trying and often succeeding to crack the code at your Long Island ponds by paying attention to light, wind, temperature, and even smoke and deducing from the clues.

I was just dragging and bouncing it off the bottom relatively close to the shore and it hit.

1 minute ago, TheBasslayer said:

I was just dragging and bouncing it off the bottom relatively close to the shore and it hit.

 

Thanks. I bought one and will do the same.

2 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

 

Thanks. I bought one and will do the same.

I’ve noticed it works well like that in the Great Lakes region like where I was fishing on that day because of all the gobies around there.

26 minutes ago, TheBasslayer said:

I’ve noticed it works well like that in the Great Lakes region like where I was fishing on that day because of all the gobies around there.

 

Well, I'll see if it works well in Maine too!

Go streak GOOOOO!! 31 (40 missing 1 day) days of fishing!! A fish every day of summer.....

 

2 on Zoom Speed worms (6" Junebug) and 1 on a wacky rig. First wacky rig fish in these ponds. Was very exciting to get them to bite this. 

 

Twenty-eight bass today. Sunny and hot, with a high of 90 and a heat index of 96. Just a light breeze that felt good if you were facing it. Took 14 bass on swimbait under those conditions this afternoon, then caught 14 more this evening from a different location after the clouds rolled in and temps dropped slightly, all on finesse worm. Rain overnight and tomorrow with a slight cool down will be welcome.