5 hours ago, LrgmouthShad said:

Just me, but as long as the pike are big, I used to love catching pike. They are scrappy as heck. Sure beat up my spinners though

The problem is that unless you’re in Canada, most of the pike nowadays are not going to be “big.” And by big, 30+ inches. 90% of them are of the small, annoying, lure wrecking, snot rocket variety in the 20 inch range.

 

I do agree that once they approach the 30 inch range or bigger, then they’re more tolerable. I’ve caught about 40 pike this season on accident and 2 have been over 30 inches. We have way too many small ones here in MN. It’s a difficult problem to fix and will take many years to get results with more sizable fish.

 

Spinnerbaits and chatterbaits especially take a beating. Ripped skirts, shredded plastic trailers, and bent frames are common.

We’ve cooled down just slightly, but the sun was out most of the day, so kind of negated everything. I decided to go “old school” on ‘em today, partly because I just wanted to and partly because I thought I might show them something they haven’t seen in a while. When was the last time you threw a pre-rigged worm? ? Yeah, those things with multiple little hooks in them. The sunshine and lack of steady winds didn't help the cause, but didn’t hurt it too bad, either. Ended the afternoon with 17 bass, but nothing over 2 lbs. it was still fun and nostalgic.

 

I had mentioned I was going to update my catch records for the year, and I finally did. We’re 211 days into this year, and I’ve fished just over 125 of them - pretty good for central Indiana given our penchant for frozen water in Jan, Feb and often into March. It was a fairly mild winter overall. Seven of those trips were crappie, the rest were bass. Counting today’s catch, I’m over 1700 bass for the year, along with another 500+ misc fish, mostly crappie, but a little bit of everything. I’ve got maybe one more month left before things come to a big slowdown.

 

 

 

13 minutes ago, Team9nine said:

over 1700 bass for the year, along with another 500+ misc fish, mostly crappie

 

River float today, as I was itching to catch some smallmouth.  I chose a river section I hadn't yet fished or paddled before:

 

And wouldn't you know it, the first bass was green --a 16"er who took a whopper plopper 75.

 

Everything after that was bronze, though. A handful of 14-15"s were very interested in a rage tail menace grub:

 

But the best of the day was this 17", another WP fish:

 

Actually, two this size on the WP, but the other wriggled overboard before I could snap a pic.

 

10 total, a few nice ones -- all I can ask for in a new location.  Pretty good day.

 

@Pat Brown and @Woody B, I do a whole lot of gar fishing and they rarely break my line, get 40”+ regularly on light spinning tackle. 

 

now pike I got into today floating a river in Michigan and I went 1 for 7 , all clean slices on the hookset but I did boat a 23” , Only my second pike ever!! I was beyond excited

 

 

Haven't been able to fish much this summer, so even a quick trip with a few small fish has been quite enjoyable. Really looking forward to fall when we can make it out a little more regularly.

 

Well, they're fish, I guess.

 

The weather has cooled down, it's been absolutely gorgeous out, the recent storms have filled the once low, weed-choked ponds... And the bass won't bite.

 

But I did find a perfectly good baseball, and a doe joined me on the bank for a drink of water and a light snack of grass, so that was super cool. 

 

 

Well hey, free baseball.

Given the temps lately, I decided to head to my local swamp on Sunday and fish in the shade.

 

Slow day. Just a few bass on trick worms. Can't complain about the scenery, though.

 

@you I was rather confused by this notification until I clicked on it. ? Beautiful fish, btw. 

 

22 minutes ago, IcatchDinks said:

@you I was rather confused by this notification until I clicked on it. ? Beautiful fish, btw. 

 

 

It tricked me too. 

Haha, sorry about the mind games @ol'crickety and @IcatchDinks!

 

Just thought it was a funny username when I picked it.

No biggie, @you. Just happy to have you in the thread and I love seeing your bass!

Got to keep the streak alive.......fish for 7/31, almost 2 months of a fish everyday! I am almost to my goal. LETS GOOO!

 

Was super blazing hot, now its hurricane time for the next 5-6 hours. Storms are coming!

 

I was able to get out right when overcast started, thank god....the UV index today was 9. Got this off a blazin worm, junebug color. 

 

About 10 days ago I went fishing at Lisbon dam and i posted this pic of what i labeled a white bass, it is not a white bass it is a sheaphead aka drum. The second pic is of a white bass caught at the same dam.

Luckilly we ate the white bass and not the drum. Sunday wife and I went to lisbon armed with minnows and nitecrawlers, i caught only a nice big catfish, a handfull of small ones and 10 drum right in the whitewash on the dam wing using 1/2 a crawler on a 1/8 oz ballhead jig and a bobber 3 ft up from the bait and threw it into the whitewash and they found it and kept me busy.

The cat was a good reel dragging time as the cat swam circles in the wash and those bigger drum also are energtic. The very small smallies we caught were all on minnows same as the very small walleye which we had to put back , no smallie or walleye took the crawlers and i presented them on jigs, circle hooks and aberdeen hooks  and i fished them 90% of the day.

 

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Took my friend and his kids fishing tonight. I think they’ve been fishing twice in their lives and both were with me. After the first time the son spent all his birthday money on fishing stuff lol. 
 

Fishing and a little cliff jumping. 
 

 

I am thankful for so many days of fishing in a row.....but the weather was not being nice, went out in the drizzle to get my fish for the day. Fish for 8/1, caught off the good ole carolina rig. 

 

First thing I noticed yesterday as I walked up to the micro lake was that they had nuked the water primrose…like mostly brown and crispy. See last pic for an example. Had no idea how it would affect the fishing since it’s really not a submergent. As I kind of expected, I caught very little around the dead grass, instead finding most fish out deeper around the Chara weedline or shallower in areas where the primrose didn’t exist. Ended up with 15 fish to about 15”, so not much size wise. Clear blue skies, bright sun and very little wind combined with the weed treatments and shallow depths in this lake made catching a challenge. Half a dozen on the pre-rigged worm today, then the remaining balance on Ned.

 

 

 

This past weekend was incredible for bass fishing!

 

For me, I typically get bigger bites around a full moon, so my plan was to fish hard this weekend when plans allowed for it and it just so turned out that Monday was the magical day.

 

Wife called in sick and told me and Jr. to get lost so we happily hopped on the Jon boat at about 9 am yesterday right as a moderate summer rain came through and cooled everything off.

 

We got out on the lake and it was very breezy and all of 74°, a marked change from what we had been experiencing on the boat the last couple weeks.

 

I morning fish at the pond a lot and don't get out on the lake early in the day nearly enough, so I felt uncertain of what to do and the feeling was... exhilarating?

 

My instincts told me that because it had been raining, a lot of fish were going to be pushing up shallow to enjoy an easy meal washed into the lake as the sun finished coming up/out and killing all the shade.

 

My thoughts were: offshore humps or steep bluffs and just target the shallower 'feeding' zones more directly than on a hotter sunnier day where I'd target more outside cover in general.

 

We made our way to the first stop, a main lake point with two nice steep bluffs loaded with deep brush on either side and started working the shallower cover.  It wasn't long at all before we were getting bites.  Then even less time and Jake stuck the first one of the day on a big ribbon tail worm.  Close to three lbs and clean and healthy looking.  A bite this early into the trip at our first spot, gave me a lot of confidence so we kept going down that bank.

 

A little further down I stick a nice 2 lber out of brush that is just starting to peak into the emerging sunlight.  Temp is starting to climb a good bit.  We are probably one hour in.

 

We head over to the next channel swing/point and stick two more nice 2 lbers on worms.  

 

I am convinced at this point they are feeding everywhere on the lake in the cooler post rain water and our opportunity to capitalize on that bite is waning.

 

We head offshore to one of my favorite humps.

 

We pull up and I make my first cast and stick a gorgeous 5 lber immidiately.  

 

I decided at this point to try a jig and see if I can upgrade my size on the hump.  I catch another small 2 lber immidiately and Jake also catches a 1.5 lber on the worm.

 

The sun really starts to beat down and the wind all but dies.  It is now approaching 1 pm.

 

The bite slows down a lot on the hump.  We see the fish and present lots of stuff but they seemed to pull deep and lock jaw as soon as the sun began baking the flat.

 

Jake suggests we head back to the first point we hit and fish that still shady channel swing bluff wall where he stuck the 3 a couple hours back.

 

I like that idea mainly because there is a nice shadeline that's still a good 50 ft out from the bank we can position in for another hour or so.

 

We pull up at the log where Jake caught his 3 and I see mayflies going nuts under a tree 50 ft to the right of us that sticks out maybe 20 ft over the water about 10 ft up off the surface.  Nice easy clearance, well within casting distance.  I see on the graph it's about 10 feet of water, so I know there are probably some bass lurking below.

 

I cast my new Bizz Baits Flip n Skip black and blue jig with a chigger craw on it directly at the bugs instead of past them knowing full well that the disturbance could draw up a fish who's been watching and waiting for anything to change.

 

Well.....my jig hits the water and I BARELY feel the lightest tick the instant after I engage my reel and move into position.

 

I remember the wise words of @Catt and I reel down and set the hook like my life depends on it.  No waiting for nothing.

 

I feel immidiately like I have deep hooked a stump....but my bait was centimeters beneath the surface.

 

Then the shallow floating stump just DIVES.

 

This fish pulled harder than any fish I have ever caught of any species.  I'm thinking this is a 30 lb catfish or something at this point.  It literally feels like dead weight that is aggressively pulling drag.

 

Remember the previous trip out I broke off TWICE on hooksets not far from where I hooked this fish....well I went ahead and bumped my set up to 20 lb big game before me and Jake went out yesterday.

 

I'm convinced that is the ONLY reason I landed this fish.  She should have broken me off at least 4 times during the fight.

 

At one point she pulled me directly under the boat and had my line scraping into the aluminum and even had my 7'6 rod buckling under her force.

 

I finally turned her head and brought her up and it's an absolute giant largemouth bass.  She jumps and Jake misses on the first swing with the net.  She plunges again.  I'm convinced she's gone but I turned her around one more time and bring her up and Jake scoops her.  I can tell Jake is struggling to lift the fish out of the water and into the boat from her sheer mass.  She barely fit in our net.  I need a bigger net.

 

Her belly was SO post spawn but she is probably the longest fish I've ever caught on my home lake.  She weighed 8 lbs on the dot but is the skinniest giant I've ever seen. Hooked firmly in the upper lip, she was never coming off and swam away chipper and unharmed after photos and revival.

 

We are struggling to maintain our jubilation at this point.  We do a quick lunch break and drink water and head to another offshore hump as the shadeline is gone.  We stick two more 2 lbers at the second hump we visit and then I catch a 1.5 near the marina and then it's time to go because we don't want to die of heat exhaustion but from 9 am - 3 pm we caught the most bass we have ever caught in one outing on the home lake and we caught our best 5 which weighed 22 lbs.

 

I know some of y'all catch bazillions of bass and lots of big bass but for this lake and for us, this was something very very special and rarely happens like that!

 

Here are some of the highlight fish:

 

 

Hoping to get a full moon giant on the pond also this week but I probably missed my opportunity when I tried to bank flip a 7-8 lber I caught on a buzz toad and it simply flopped very hard and fell off the hook and swam away.  That was Friday  morning.  ? Luckily I didn't snap my rod with the 50 lb braid.  Lesson learned ?

 

TIGHT LINES TO ALL!!!!  It's hot out there but there's plenty of excitement and beauty to experience outside even in the dead of summer!

@Pat Brown, great post! You must have not read on the internet where largemouth don’t pull hard….. ? 

@TnRiver46Yeah I mean sometimes I feel like they let me reel them in and sometimes they try to jump off and sometimes they pretend they're red drum ???

Went out yesterday morning and evening, bait moved so I went back to the east side of the lake. Nothing huge, mostly tiny aggressive spotted bass but it's always nice to catch em. And sometimes the sky paints us a picture. Good times.

1 hour ago, Pat Brown said:

I felt uncertain of what to do and the feeling was... exhilarating?

 

YES!

 

1 hour ago, Pat Brown said:

Then the shallow floating stump just DIVES.

 

Love ^this^ line. 

 

1 hour ago, Pat Brown said:

I know some of y'all catch bazillions of bass and lots of big bass

 

Aragorn said it best:

 

 

I'm so happy for you, Pat, and even happier that your son shared your great day with you. I'm going fishing with a kid tomorrow and introducing him to fluke fishing and popper fishing. I hooked him on Rage Tail paddletail fishing last time. 

I have not been able to fish much lately. June and July did not allow much fishing time for me, but I was able to sneak down to the bank a couple times in the past few days. I'm not sure exactly why, but I always feel like the world is right when I catch a fish. I caught mostly dinks, but it still felt good to catch them. I did manage one nice 18" largemouth, and a 15" smallmouth that fought way above it's weight class. It really showed off. Hopefully, I'll get to catch this one again when it's full grown. The largemouth bit a TX rig creature, and the smallmouth was a rage menace.

 

 

Slow afternoon at a micro lake today, probably due to the weather and my timing, but managed 7 bass and the overall quality was better than most recent trips. Weighted wacky, and 4 of the 7 were caught sight fishing (“cruisers”).