I took my farmer friends 2 oldest sons out again yesterday.  They didn’t seem nearly as enthusiastic as the first trip, and despite one of them catching the first fish about 2 minutes in he spent a lot of time not fishing, instead going through all the tackle in my boat and looking at the fish finder.  That frees up the back deck so I decided to fish.  I continue to have excellent luck with a white paddle tail on an Owner Flashy Swimmer weighted/willow bladed hook so started with that.  I’d caught 4 smallish ones and decided to switch it up and look for a bigger bite.  I threw a black and blue chatterbait for probably 30 min with no bites, so I went back to the white swimbait.  Literally 3 casts later I boated a 3.95#.  About 15 minutes later, I had just reeled the swimbait quickly over a barely submerged clump of weeds in about 5-6ft. of water, then killed it to let it sink and got whacked by a 3.13#.  We packed it in after 3 hrs. on the water, which felt like enough for all of us.

FINALLY  got out on the water in my home state for the first time since June. We've had some cool nights in the 50s and water temps dropped 5-7 degrees from summertime averages and thought they might be working into fall behavior. Only had maybe 3hrs of actual fishing but figured it out in the last hour.... they are still summer pattern here. White swim jig was the ticket. 

 

2.5lb

 

4lb

Well I got a ride to go fishing yesterday, I had to wait till evening. Although that’s fine with me, because I like fishing in the evening. I got to the river around 6pm, tied a new leader on and started with a 2.75 tube Texas rigged. I fished it here and there for a hour and a half off the old bridge. I made one cast and felt the tick, I gave it a few seconds and it tugged firmly on my line. I gave the reel a few cranks and laid into it. Snap it went, my line came flying back at me with no leader. 
 

I am assuming that my braid cut my leader off, because the knot was still there but not my leader. Oh well, if I am being honest this frustrated me a little bit. I had worked so long to get a bite and I didn’t even get a fight. I refocused my brain and decided to go with a little 1.0 square bill that I bought a couple weeks ago.

 

 I put down my spinning rod and grabbed my conquest 844c mbr, curado 150 mgl with 14lb line and started going to work. I fished the normal spots but nothing, I made a cast out next to some weeds and felt it hit. I reeled it in and was not disappointed, not a huge fish but for its length it sure was a chunky little fish. I kept fishing through the light rain and caught a nice little dink, although I was happy with the dink and hook set. Poor little guy had two trebles right in the roof of the mouth.

 

 I was happy, didn’t get skunked and it’s the first time I’ve had been fishing in 6 days. I still don’t have a vehicle, it’s going to the shop Monday. I am getting the motor replaced since it blew last Saturday. I am half way there on money and that’s a start. Seems odd going to work when you don’t have a car, but hey the bills aren’t going to pay there selves lol.

 

Good luck ? everyone keep catching them and have a great week.

19 minutes ago, Jmurphy87 said:

I still don’t have a vehicle, it’s going to the shop Monday. I am getting the motor replaced since it blew last Saturday. I am half way there on money and that’s a start.

 

^Great news!^ 

 

Holy bassin', boys, you're boating the biggies!

 

I'll try to do my bit tomorrow morning. I regained access to my favorite pond of 2022 a couple days ago. It's a pond with quantity plus quality. Usually, I have to choose between the two Q's, but this pond doesn't make me choose. It's rimmed with weeds, but it's open in the middle, so if I do hook a biggie, I'll have a better chance of landing it. If I have the energy, I might fish my little stream tomorrow evening too. I've twice hooked a four-pound plus bass in water five feet wide. The first time she jumped and threw the hook. The second time she hooked my line on a branch and I boated only tree. 

 

Speaking of trees, trees are changing here and leaves are falling and it's nippy most mornings now. Snow's a ways away, but I don't intend to fish into November like I did last year. The fishing wasn't that good and it was dangerous too. Same with spring of 2024. I won't begin as early to catch only one bass in cold water other than one nearby weed-choked bog where that one bass is likely to weigh five pounds and if I fish it in late March and early April, there aren't weeds atop weeds atop weeds. It's an amazing bog. If I catch a 17-incher, that's a dink for that bog. However, if I catch three bass in four hours, that's non-stop hits for that bog too. It's quality with pitiful quantity. 

5 hours ago, The Baron said:

@A-Jay - what a gorgeous pair of smallies!

 

@thediscochef - your hands are absolutely huge.  It must be impossible to find gloves. ?

My palm is 4" wide, but don't let that fool you. This is a pure, unadulterated, tournament-winning Walleye 

I got busy yesterday afternoon so I'm posting a report now for yesterday and today.  I caught 30 total.  13 yesterday, 17 today.   None were big but not tiny ones.  I also caught a 3 pound Cat.  I'll post it in the other species thread.  I don't want to get in trouble with the photo police.  I'm already in trouble with the hair police.  My barber (Mrs B  ) has a pinched nerve in her shoulder so cutting my hair has been postponed.  Pictured are the first from yesterday, and the last from today.   The largemouth looks bigger than it is.   It was 17 inches.   Most of the bass I caught were fattening up really good.  No worn tails like Pat has seen further North in the Carolinas.   Most of yesterdays were caught on points, on either a bladed jig or a T-rig.    Todays were either caught up on flats or in almost no water right at the bank.   Most were on cranks (mostly OG4) a few on a t-rig.   I learned something last week that's still proving true.  When I see fish on sonar that don't appear to be active I'm running a buzz bait over them a few times.   I didn't catch any on a buzz bait this weekend, but I caught a bunch that ignored my lure until after I ran the buzz bait over them.   The largemouth pictured (the last one I caught) didn't offer at the buzz bait, but hit the OG4 as soon as it hit the water.   It was sunny yesterday, cloudy and raining today.  Water temp is down to 81 degrees.   

 

Great report @Woody B, especially thankful for you sharing your observations like the buzz bait tip. I may try that out tomorrow and see if I can fire them up. 

2 hours ago, Woody B said:

I don't want to get in trouble with the photo police.  I'm already in trouble with the hair police.  My barber (Mrs B  ) has a pinched nerve in her shoulder so cutting my hair has been postponed. 

 

Photo police was defunded, but thanks for voluntary compliance anyways.

 

Great Clips is open everyday.  Plenty of barbers out there to clean up the birds nest.  Or you can photoshop a dog head on your face instead like the guy who posted behind you LOL

6 minutes ago, gimruis said:

 

Photo police was defunded, but thanks for voluntary compliance anyways.

 

Great Clips is open everyday.  Plenty of barbers out there to clean up the birds nest.  Or you can photoshop a dog head on your face instead like the guy who posted behind you LOL

 

Photoshop? Nah. I've fished with Nelson. That's his head. 

15 minutes ago, gimruis said:

Great Clips is open everyday.  Plenty of barbers out there to clean up the birds nest.

Bad things happen when a stranger cuts your hair.  Ray Stevens has a song about it.   I'm considering 

1. Throwing myself at the mercy of the court.

2. Bribing the Judge

3. Bribing the hair cut Police.

I'm....not so sure fishing needs haircut police.

 

3 minutes ago, MIbassyaker said:

I'm....not so sure fishing needs haircut police.

Haircut Police has endless funding.  It's taxpayer funded.  Everyone here supports it.  No one likes seeing nasty ratty long hair in photos.  Plus it just slows you down anyways which decreases your physical ability to catch fish so there's no reason not to show support for it here.

 

 

 

Getting a haircut is scientifically proven to help you catch 33% more fish

Couple nights ago got this one, Had broken back, but doing well and very healthy ?

44 minutes ago, Woody B said:

Bad things happen when a stranger cuts your hair.  Ray Stevens has a song about it.   I'm considering 

1. Throwing myself at the mercy of the court.

2. Bribing the Judge

3. Bribing the hair cut Police.

 

Don't worry, Woody. Every time you catch more than ten bass, you get a "Get of Jail" card. So, you have hundreds of those cards. Go heavy metal long hair if you want. 

Hit Headwaters today, had a great day as always. Really nice day, till about 12 or so, then it was SUPER hot. 

 

1 minute ago, Dominat0r said:

Hit Headwaters today, had a great day as always

That first bass looks big.

Little late night carolina riggin.....

 

Brothers from other mothers? ? ? My wife showed my grandkids a pic of me from my high school  yearbook, now they want me to grow a mullet again. ? ZERO chance of that happening.

6 hours ago, gimruis said:

That first bass looks big.

 

Heck, yeah, it is. So is that last bass! Wow, Dom! That's two giants in one trip. 

Spent the weekend floating/camping 20 miles of the headwaters of the Cumberland river. Caught lots of smallies, couple walleye, got rained on, ate lots of fish and steak, listened to poor excuse for football on a battery radio, Jumped off some rocks, ran some rapids, tons of fun 

 

     Looks and sounds like a terrific trip. I was many miles down the Cumberland and only caught three dinks. No current at all, actually the wind was blowing me upriver! You didn't miss much football on your radio. It would have been better not to listen at all! The upper reaches  of the Cumberland are beautiful beyond words. Thank for sharing!

@TnRiver46 really knows how to live, but I'm angry at him. He ate walleye and didn't offer me any. I LOVE WALLEYE!!! 

 

12 minutes ago, Blue Raider Bob said:

I was many miles down the Cumberland and only caught three dinks.

 

^That's^ because TNRiver46 was hoggin' walleye upriver.

 

Say, I just returned from this morning's fishing and had one of the best fishing trips of my life. I'm going to write a stand-alone trip report. Right now, I'm just tired and happy. So tired. So happy. 

 

Tough morning, snapped off more tungsten than I'd like and also a very nice looking football jig. Nested two reels bad bad. Flubbed two of the three bites I got, but that's just fishing sometimes. I'm not in a bad mood about it...it was 58 degrees outside this morning. There wasn't much that was gonna spoil my mood.