Been a bit of a  struggle since I got back from Vaca to find and also land fish,but finally got a decent one today on a frog that weighed 4lbs.even

@keagbassr: You are a big fish machine!

first post in a while.  first time on the titabawassee river this summer.  it’s finally starting to fish like it did before the dam failures in 2020.  

 

finally caught some fish with a OG6.  only took me a year and a half and it was a decent smallie.  it was the silver and black back og6.  caught 2 sheep head also on the OG6.  rest of the fish came on a black and blue spine craw t-rigged with 1/2 oz sinker.  did catch the cat fish on a sexy shad rogue jerk bait. 

 

it’s been such a weird summer up here.  today was the first day in about a month it got above 82 degrees.  i’ve not had a great summer fishing wise.  i think i hit it to hard in the spring and was burned out by mid june. had to soul searching and reevaluating on why i’m i loved fishing in the first place. I think i’m good to go now. 

 

Generally speaking it seems that the hotter the weather the better the river systems are up here for small mouth 

I have an old college friend who just moved back to MN from Colorado and he wants to start getting into fishing. He is a good friend of mine and we have kept in touch, so I took him bass fishing tonight for a couple hours. He caught 6 largemouth including one pretty solid fish. When we were done he pulled out his phone calendar and said “when can we go again.”

^ Good for you, man...one of these days we gotta get the Metro crowd together.

@Mbirdsley that looks like a pretty awesome day on the river. I've never fished the Titabawasee, which is ridiculous because I only live about half an hour away from it. I'm gonna have get out that way sometime. 

2 hours ago, Mbirdsley said:

first post in a while.  first time on the titabawassee river this summer.  it’s finally starting to fish like it did before the dam failures in 2020.  

 

finally caught some fish with a OG6.  only took me a year and a half and it was a decent smallie.  it was the silver and black back og6.  caught 2 sheep head also on the OG6.  rest of the fish came on a black and blue spine craw t-rigged with 1/2 oz sinker.  did catch the cat fish on a sexy shad rogue jerk bait. 

 

it’s been such a weird summer up here.  today was the first day in about a month it got above 82 degrees.  i’ve not had a great summer fishing wise.  i think i hit it to hard in the spring and was burned out by mid june. had to soul searching and reevaluating on why i’m i loved fishing in the first place. I think i’m good to go now. 

 

Generally speaking it seems that the hotter the weather the better the river systems are up here for small mouth 

 

I count 6 species -- nice day!

 

3 hours ago, Mbirdsley said:

Generally speaking it seems that the hotter the weather the better the river systems are up here for small mouth

 

100% -- Seasonally, smallies are firing up in the rivers just as largemouth in the lakes are slowing down.  The rivers here can be spectacular on a hot day, and a lot of them have stretches that are really underfished.

Streak Day 65! Went out around 1am to see if they were biting. Looks like they are, this is the second biggest bass out of this lake so far. 4lbs 13oz.....just 3oz shy of the largest I have got. Fought it for 2mins as it dove into the grass after he hit it. I really thought for a second it was a snakehead, but didn't feel the slither when it took off. Really happy it wasn't. Got it off a Blazin worm in Junebug color. 

 

5 hours ago, Mbirdsley said:

first post in a while.  first time on the titabawassee river this summer.  it’s finally starting to fish like it did before the dam failures in 2020.  

 

finally caught some fish with a OG6.  only took me a year and a half and it was a decent smallie.  it was the silver and black back og6.  caught 2 sheep head also on the OG6.  rest of the fish came on a black and blue spine craw t-rigged with 1/2 oz sinker.  did catch the cat fish on a sexy shad rogue jerk bait. 

 

it’s been such a weird summer up here.  today was the first day in about a month it got above 82 degrees.  i’ve not had a great summer fishing wise.  i think i hit it to hard in the spring and was burned out by mid june. had to soul searching and reevaluating on why i’m i loved fishing in the first place. I think i’m good to go now. 

 

Generally speaking it seems that the hotter the weather the better the river systems are up here for small mouth 

 

Nice mixed bag.

 

5 hours ago, gimruis said:

“when can we go again.”

 

You hooked him. Well played.

 

Beauty, @Dominat0r.

I'm a man that loves to see results. I have been greatly rewarded for committing to the buzz bait this week with this beautiful, five and a half pound chunk that I caught on a 1/8 oz white lunker lures with a double tail zoom split tail trailer which feels about as old school and cool as it gets when it comes to bass fishing clout. She was a heck of a bite and a heck of a fight and look at the bucket on that beautiful fish. I wish I could tell you guys how thick she was from side to side.

 

 

guess I'm gonna have to just keep on buzzin'

 

??????

@Pat Brown it was only a matter of time!

56 minutes ago, Pat Brown said:

 

 

 

Nice Bass and Great Picture !

Congrats on both accounts

A-Jay

 

When I grow up, I wanna be like @Pat Brown

 

Nice catch, man! 

 

@Dominat0r I think following your streak is the most invested I've been in a sporting event since 2012 when the Tigers made it to the World Series! Keep it up! 

1 hour ago, IcatchDinks said:

When I grow up, I wanna be like @Pat Brown

 

Take a number!

This morning was strange. I rose at 3:00 a.m. and launched too early. I caught a couple bass in the dark. Then, when it was light enough to see the weeds, they largely weren't there because we had three inches of rain two days ago. Yep, the bog had risen over the weeds. I caught 20 bass before 7:30 and then two bass in the next 1.5 hours. It was a good morning for birds, with owls, eagles, and herons. The pics start with the bog and end with the main lure I used, which had a feathered tail at the start of the morning. Hey, I also caught a couple bass on a frog! I also used a T-rigged six-inch Senko and a T-rigged Rage Tail and had hits on both, but caught nothing because I set the hook so soon so that I don't gut hook them. Here are the pics:

 

 

Well after not being able to get out for a little while, a friend invited me and my son to a private lake up in North Jersey.
 Not sure about the rest of the country but here many of the lakes are private communities.
Anyway, we launched our kayaks at 9:00am, and it took a couple of hrs to find some willing participants.
 I forgot my depthfinder so I was a little lost for a while as I’m always checking for drop offs etc, this lake though has a max depth of around 14 ft, water visibility was around 2 ft.
Finally was able to find em on the shady sides of docks and pontoon boats.
Wound up with 6 Largemouths, 6 Smallmouths and one Sunfish.
All throwing a wacky worm and 3” Keitech Swing Impact on a 1/8 jighead.
Sizes went from 6” to 18”

 

 

I think it's so interesting how diverse bass fishing can be. This thought comes from @Dominat0r's picture of a 4 lber standing on a sidewalk next to what looks like professionally manicured grass, versus @ol'crickety's pictures from a bog that she drags her canoe through what looks like untouched wilderness to get to. Very cool that bass can be caught in both places.

15 hours ago, IcatchDinks said:

@Mbirdsley that looks like a pretty awesome day on the river. I've never fished the Titabawasee, which is ridiculous because I only live about half an hour away from it. I'm gonna have get out that way sometime. 

it’s worth the half hour drive.  im fishing the titabawassee  in saginaw.  i don’t know if you have boat or kayak.  right now with the water levels being up i can get my 16.5 ft 90 hp boat probably,  up stream 5-6 miles to immerman park.  if you have a kayak starting at the titabawassee road bridge and south there are parks or over passes every 2-3 miles to take out from.

 

once the majority of  walleye leave and go back out to the saginaw bay (some walleye always stay ). the fishing pressure drops way off.  ran into one other boat yesterday.  the closer you get to the confluence 2 miles east of center street launch  ( titabawassee and shiawassee form the saginaw river ) you will see guys fishing for channel and flat head catfish. 

 

i’ve pulled 15-20 lbs channel cats out of the titt.  i’ve got a 20 lbs flat head out of the saginaw before. 

 

i believe it’s actually better smallie fishing north from the dow dam in midland to sanford where the dam used to be.

 

i know they pulled a couple huge muskie out of the river around sandford so you never know where one could pop up now that sanford lake is no longer there. 

14 hours ago, MIbassyaker said:

 

 

100% -- Seasonally, smallies are firing up in the rivers just as largemouth in the lakes are slowing down.  The rivers here can be spectacular on a hot day, and a lot of them have stretches that are really underfished.

i only saw one other boat up stream from the launch.  there were a couple more at the launch but, they went down stream looking for the big channel and flat heads. 

35 minutes ago, Fishlegs said:

I think it's so interesting how diverse bass fishing can be. This thought comes from @Dominat0r's picture of a 4 lber standing on a sidewalk next to what looks like professionally manicured grass, versus @ol'crickety's pictures from a bog that she drags her canoe through what looks like untouched wilderness to get to. Very cool that bass can be caught in both places.

 

Good point. Then there are Mexico and California reservoirs with their brown banks and the Everglades maze and the mighty St. Lawrence and the great Great Lakes and muddy streams and mountain rivers and farm ponds and on and on. Bass adapt. 

30 minutes ago, Mbirdsley said:

i don’t know if you have boat or kayak. 

...

 

i believe it’s actually better smallie fishing north from the dow dam in midland to sanford where the dam used to be.

I usually bank fish, but I have ready access to a canoe whenever I need it. Which of course I would utilize on the Titabawasee.

 

That's great news, because I'm closer to Midland than I am Saginaw. (I live in Mount Pleasant. 

Been on the water since 6am...almost 1pm now and this my best so far. 1.3lbs on an offset 3/16 Ned with a Zoom Trick Worm in Green Pumpkin Magic

 

Still got a couple hours so who knows..

 

13 hours ago, MIbassyaker said:

 

 

100% -- Seasonally, smallies are firing up in the rivers just as largemouth in the lakes are slowing down.  The rivers here can be spectacular on a hot day, and a lot of them have stretches that are really underfished.

I just cast to the left of all the inner tubers…..

6 hours ago, IcatchDinks said:

When I grow up, I wanna be like @Pat Brown

 

Nice catch, man! 

 

@Dominat0r I think following your streak is the most invested I've been in a sporting event since 2012 when the Tigers made it to the World Series! Keep it up! 

Appreciate that man. You seem to be on a streak yourself. Good stuff. Love having a goal set and working hard towards it. Rain or shine. Heat or mosquitoes. Even though it’s not terribly difficult, it still feels good to accomplish something you set you mind to. 
 

I love this group of people. We are from all walks of life and here we are with a common interest that brings us all together. You guys are amazing and appreciate all the words of encouragement. Good fishing to you all. 

4 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

This morning was strange. I rose at 3:00 a.m. and launched too early. I caught a couple bass in the dark. Then, when it was light enough to see the weeds, they largely weren't there because we had three inches of rain two days ago. Yep, the bog had risen over the weeds. I caught 18 bass before 7:30 and then two bass in the next 1.5 hours. It was a good morning for birds, with owls, eagles, and herons. The pics start with the bog and end with the main lure I used, which had a feathered tail at the start of the morning. Hey, I also caught a couple bass on a frog! I also used a T-rigged six-inch Senko and a T-rigged Rage Tail and had hits on both, but caught nothing because I set the hook so soon so that I don't gut hook them. Here are the pics:

 

 

I haven't had a good topwater day in a while, those are so much fun. and I feel you with the gut hooking thing, I'd rather blank than have to deal with that on a decent fish