Why didn't I fish today???? The bass were biting!!!! ARGHHHHH!

2 hours ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

BOOOOOOM SHAKKALAKAA   G-G-G-GIANT BASS ON FROG ?

 

That's awesome Pat, what a way to catch her as well, congrats!  

Agreed with Katie, noble thing to do, and hopefully it was tasty.   

I have not cooked fish in ages, lol. I can pan fry chicken thighs with the skin though. Just need to adjust cooking times. I really don’t keep enough fish enough to have experience cooking them a lot. I am a decent cook though.

@Pat Brown great story and really awesome fish! Sounds like you got the frog figured out, hopefully you keep getting then on it and I look forward to reading more stories like this one. 

10 hours ago, Pat Brown said:

Happy summer bass resource!!!

 

TANK ALERT ~ !

Great Bass

Congrats

A-Jay

 

I'm glad I've finally found a topwater bite.   I caught 6 today.  The first 4 were on a Devils Horse.  First one was 21 inches long, 5 pounds on my mechanical scale.   My electronic scale died, I guess due to all the rain I fished in a few weeks ago.   I've got to come up with a better night time picture method.  Using my phone holder with the timer results in pictures you can't see due to no flash on that side of my phone.   I also caught a 32 pound Flathead Cat that was 40 inches long.   (in the other species thread).   My normal Summer bass timing.  First 4 were between 5 and 6.   Only 2 more (and the Cat) between 6 and 10.   The last 2 (and the Cat) were in deeper water.   

Floated a small river today after some smallmouth. This river is all about numbers. Never caught anything over 16” here, but the fish are very willing biters so it’s easy to catch 75 smallmouth in a day. 
Wasn’t quite that good today. Between a buddy and I we boated 25 little smallmouth up to 14”. So much fun on light tackle with how acrobatic these river smallies are. Tiny poppers, rooster tails, crankbaits and ned rigs were the baits we threw. 90% of my fish came on a Rapala UL Pop. 

 

Also got a bunch of nicely colored longears, pumpkinseeds, and rock bass. 

 

Been so wrapped up in going after a new PB, so this was a nice little reset to float a calm river and go after numbers. 

@DaubsNU1 is in compliance with the hair police.  @throttleplate I think he is too but he's wearing a hat so I can't tell for sure.  I'll let him slide for now.

 

@Team9nine shredded jean shorts are in violation of the fashion police but since his wife refused to wash his holey jeans anymore he simply cut them off and is using them for shorts now.  Pretty soon his wife will refuse to wash his shorts too.  Not sure what he'll be wearing when those shorts go.  We may have a serious violation on our hands later this summer...

Drove 56 miles out to a lake last night with my brother for a quick jon boat trip, but found a carnival set up across the street from it. Some nudnick parked in front of the boat ramp, so that was that. What a letdown. Our closest option is a bit of a nightmare because we need to hump the boat over a fence and tote it about 600 feet down to an entry point to the water, but ya gotta do whatcha ya gotta do. It was nearly completely choked with pads, but we had oars, so with very little wind to spoil the party we made it work.

 

It took a while to find a bite, and things looked sketchy, but I broke the ice first with a tribute to @IcatchDinks?

 

My brother got some on the Mattlures Strong shad, and several more on the Hazedong shad.

I got into some good fish on the Zman ProCrawZ in Black-Blue, and the bigger girl bit on a Black Gold Flake Yum Dinger. Our boat has leaky rivets, and I wasn't paying attention to things floating in the bottom, so my bag and scale got soaked. Scale said it weighted .047oz, then tried again and it read 3lbs, so who knows. Fought like crazy, so that was cool.

22 minutes ago, PhishLI said:

Drove 56 miles out to a lake last night with my brother for a quick jon boat trip, but found a carnival set up across the street from it. Some nudnick parked in front of the boat ramp, so that was that. What a letdown. Our closest option is a bit of a nightmare because we need to hump the boat over a fence and tote it about 600 feet down to an entry point to the water, but ya gotta do whatcha ya gotta do. It was nearly completely choked with pads, but we had oars, so with very little wind to spoil the party we made it work.

 

It took a while to find a bite, and things looked sketchy, but I broke the ice first with a tribute to @IcatchDinks?

 

My brother got some on the Mattlures Strong shad, and several more on the Hazedong shad.

I got into some good fish on the Zman ProCrawZ in Black-Blue, and the bigger girl bit on a Balck Gold Flake Yum Dinger. Our boat has leaky rivets, and I wasn't paying attention to things floating in the bottom, so my bag and scale got soaked. Scale said it weighted .047oz, then tried again and it read 3lbs, so who knows. Fought like crazy, so that was cool.

Considering the journey to catch that toad, who cares what the scales said.......made the trip and hard work totally worth it ?

 

Beautiful fish, not beat up at all.   

1 minute ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Considering the journey to catch that toad, who cares what the scales said.......made the trip and hard work totally worth it ?

I agree completely. I wasn't gonna but my brother really wanted to know. I figured someone might ask, so...

@PhishLI: Those bottom two are beauties! I like the other three too. Heck, I even like the dink. Dinks make me laugh. They're fearless!

Much like @Jar11591, I too spent a few hours this morning on a small river. Floated the canoe downstream from my house for about 5 miles or so. Caught a couple dozen this size on a frog, saw a bunch of wildlife and birds, and best of all not another human to be found!

4 hours ago, Woody B said:

 I've got to come up with a better night time picture method.  Using my phone holder with the timer results in pictures you can't see due to no flash on that side of my phone

If it's an android phone, just turn the selfie camera on, hit the settings icon up top of the screen, turn on selfie illumination, and set the timer. 

18 minutes ago, T-Billy said:

If it's an android phone, just turn the selfie camera on, hit the settings icon up top of the screen, turn on selfie illumination, and set the timer. 

It's an I phone-  It kinda flashes the screen but doesn't shed much light.  It adjust the exposure so you can see.  At night it takes a second or so.  That results in a blurry picture, at least for me.   I accidently came across the setting for my avatar picture.  I'd make more like that but I forgot what I did.   

@Pat Brown That’s one heck of a frog fish!???

 

@Jmurphy87 You did the right thing not releasing that fish and pretending it’ll be ok.  Our favourite way to eat bass is fish tacos.  Cook the fillets anyway you like (pan fried or baked) with some breading for a little crunch, then flake the meat.  Put it on warmed taco shells with some homemade cilantro/tomato/black bean salsa, a bit of shredded coleslaw and a sauce made of mayo, lime juice and Mexican seasoning to taste.  I love ‘em.?

1 hour ago, Way north bass guy said:

Much like @Jar11591, I too spent a few hours this morning on a small river. Floated the canoe downstream from my house for about 5 miles or so. Caught a couple dozen this size on a frog, saw a bunch of wildlife and birds, and best of all not another human to be found!

 

You live in Heaven.

A buddy and I launched in the dark this morning, anticipating a great smallie topwater bite… that turned out to be about an hour of nothing. ? So we switched gears and hit a couple weed edges in 9-10ft. of water.  My buddy landed about 1/2 dozen on a 7” Power Worm in what seemed to be a brief 15-20 minute bite window before we got a rain shower.  That bite ended and we moved to a larger weedbed of similar characteristics.  My buddy was 3 fish in again and I was feeling a bit left out with a skunk so far, but had confidence in my 10” Power Worm.  Finally I’d just given my worm the first drag off the weed wall when my line started coming toward me.  I caught up, confirmed he was there and then did an on the tiptoes half turn, bowed rod hookset that I wish we’d filmed because I know I looked like a pro. lol. Turned out my first was big fish of the day at 3.83.  We then enjoyed another 15 minute bite window and landed another 8-10 between us.  My takeaway for the day was to be amazed at how fish can turn on and off so quickly.

 

We ended the day back at our smallie spot for a last try.  Great news is I found a sweet 10ft. hump in 25ft. of water, marked what I assumed to be a good fish on it and flipped a dropshot Roboworm down there.  A few casts later and I set the hook into what I hoped was a solid smallie, but turned out to be a 5-6# pike.  Seeing that fish on my new electronics and then catching it was a very satisfying way to end the morning.?

Horrible out in south florida today, was nice for about an hour, storms came in, nice about 15mins....another storm came in. I made a run for it after a couple of hours with no storm.....got my fish of the day for 7/9. 35 days in a row. Then, had to run I disagree home when the rain and lightning came. 

 

First time I used this KVD 1.5 Crank bait.....

 

3 hours ago, PhishLI said:

...I broke the ice first with a tribute to 

@IcatchDinks

?

 

I couldn't be more honored. Glad you figured out how to hold 'em closer to the camera so all the rest of them looked bigger. ?

 

As for my fishing trip today, wife was cooking dinner and said I had 45 minutes. So I drove to the nearest pond (8ish minutes away) and hooked a 14.5 inch bass on the first cast. I should have just gone home then, because true to the superstition, I didn't catch another fish for the next half hour. 

 

@Dominat0r, glad to see you're keeping the streak alive! 

5 hours ago, gimruis said:

@throttleplate I think he is too but he's wearing a hat so I can't tell for sure.  I'll let him slide for now.

 

I got out again today and caught 10 of all sizes plus a nice little 4.2lb one. Perfectly clear water and sunny out and caught the 4.2 on a black and blue fleck weightless 4” chigger craw casting into a reed island. It wasn’t too bad fighting it out of there. I want to at least break the 5lb wall this year but it is definitely tough around were I get the chance to fish. She ended up coming home with me, I was way down the bank wading and had to walk her back in the water. Then the park staff wanted a picture for there Facebook page, my scale was in the car. I just didn’t want to risk putting her back and having her go belly up with all the time she was out of water. 
 

I am done weighing the fish unless I know that they are well over 5lbs. She was hooked in the roof of the mouth, so that felt good. My wife loves eating bass anyway but it is just not my style to release a fish that I don’t think will make it.

 

bay port and footballs 

 

went back to the saginaw bay but, bay port instead of bay city. 

 

went out deep out into the actual bay first and only had a dog fish to show for it.

 

went back into the islands in wildfowl bay and shallow.  first 6 hrs were slow.  i kept seeing huge smallies but, couldn’t get them to bite.  i know i saw a couple 6-7 lbs smallie i thought at first they were lake trout.  

 

finally bit the bullet and put a coppertreuse trd on 1/8 mustad mushroom head and it was game on.  for being mid summer the smallies we’re still in 3-8 ft of water.  the biggest went 3 lbs.  for the most part the smallies and large mouth we’re running together.  occasionally you would see the bigger small mouth running the top third of the water column in 8ft of water.  if i would cast the bed rig near them they would fight to get it. 

 

caught one large mouth on my number 7 super spook. 

Streak streak streak.....we're going STREAKING! 

 

Fish for Monday 7/10. I got a break from the rain and went out for about 15mins. Got this guy off a speed worm. 

 

I fished a dammed streambed this morning, so it was long and skinny with bays lining both sides. I'd only fished this pond one prior time this summer, but I'm liking it more and more. The quantity is okay (20 this morning) and the quality is pretty good. I lost a bass right beside my canoe that went between four and five ponds. It was SO close that I even attempted to net it after it unbuttoned right beside me. The fish here are well-shaped, well-fed, and feisty. And the pond is beautiful. See for yourself!

 

 

That's crazy beautiful Katie, awesome fish as well!

 

Your fish are always so blemish free, you've carved out a piece of truly unmolested Bass fishing in your area.   You seemingly have all those Bass to yourself, and equally all that nature and water to yourself........you can't buy that, it's a priceless commodity.