35 minutes ago, T-Billy said:

I had no idea that I could get the number of bites that I'm getting, or I'd have started chasing them YEARS ago.

 

I don't think most fishers could get the bites that you're getting and I say that as an ex-Ohioan. You're the difference, Tim.

14 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

 

That's a lotta yellow in those trees, but looking at your t-shirt, it's still warm there. I like your boat. It looks stable and comfy. 

I believe it was 77º yesterday. We have started getting a lot of yellowing leaves, but still a long way to go for us. It's been quite warm lately. The lake we were at closes at sundown, and we didn't have time to fish that spot thoroughly, though we started getting into the bass.

 

The boat is quite stable, and the seats are pretty comfy too, it's a Buster Boat, one of those plastic bass boats. I've had it about 3 or 4 months and I'm still figuring out what I like and don't like about it and what I can do to make it better. 

3 hours ago, LrgmouthShad said:

I have to leave Texas for a bit and won't be doing any fishing. I'm happy to have gotten a couple decent fish before leaving. I wanted to take a break from fishing at some point anyway to give my body rest. I've found that I don't even need the rest at the moment. Body is holding up great. I'll look at the positive and say that's fantastic.

 

Just keeping y'all updated!

Safe travels brother we look forward to more of your green footballs soon 

Hit Roosevelt this afternoon for a couple hours. Cooling off nicely, was only 92 degrees at 4:00 when I launched, water temps between 80 and 83 around Windy Hill.

 

Got a total of 3, one dink on the Whopper Plopper, 2 on dropshot in 20’ (4” kuttail in rootbeer/green). Nothing of any size, but still fun. 

Pre fishing for a local contest on Monday from 8-12 this morning, I caught 6 bass and 4 pike. It was decent for the first 90 minutes, but after that it just completely died. Bright sun, no wind. The same conditions look to be occurring on Monday, so I’m gonna need to pile a few decent ones into the livewell early. The leaves are about 25% turned here.

I've been able to get out often the last couple weeks, but success in size or numbers has been elusive.  Most have been open water, bait ball followers, except for the LM on the 7" spoon was pulled off a deep weedline in 17'.

 

scott

I took a break from pursuing big bass to visit a beloved pond that doesn't grow bass over 18". I caught 21 and could only catch them by hitting the bushy notches in the shoreline with surface lures. It was a fun, foggy morning and you can see the notches in the second and third photos. You can also see how beautiful this pond is, which is why it was good to paddle it again. The second bass was the the longest, but I wanted to buy her a Filet O' Fish sammich! 

 

On 9/30/2023 at 8:37 AM, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Exact same thing happened to me this time last year.  Still got the blade.

 

It's really a design flaw I wish they'd fix.  The plate metal rusts really quickly, and there is very little metal behind there.   

I've only really had this issue with the gold blades idk why

been giving the body a rest while nature plays out Fake Fall/Second Summer. I am not a young 31-year-old. The last couple weeks have been stuck at 95f/75f with a whole lot of bluebird. For this time of year it makes for a really tough pattern to fish. Last time I was there they were still eating the tiny tiny baits. This week looks like highs in the 70s/lows in the 50s so you can bet i will be glued to the lake, looking for a pattern change. I should be getting my favorite jerkbait and lipless crankbait rods back from the local pro just in time. Oowee sucker

Caught a pair of dinks and this one, just shy of 6 lbs. 

Started October with a bang. Didn't have high expectations with almost no wind but caught two that were bigger than anything since spring. Teeny Pop-R did the trick. I've caught a lot of big bass on this unassuming bait. Also caught fifteen or so of the usual suspects (foot longs). This particular lake typically serves as a numbers pond when the bite is tough but these two gave me a new point of view.

I've been busy.  I'll go back and like all of y'alls fish pictures later.  I managed to get out yesterday and today.  I caught 12 yesterday but I was just sore lipping juvenile bass.   The first picture is the biggest one from Saturday by a bunch.  It was barely 14" and the only one over 12".   I had limited time to fish so I just kept catching little ones instead of looking for bigger ones.   I found bigger ones today but no BIG ones.   I caught 9 between 14 and 16 inches.   I broke another rod today.  That's way too many in the past couple months.   I boat flipped a 15" bass (the second picture).  On the next cast my rod broke between the 1st and 2nd guide.  (no the tip, near the base)   This rod was only a couple weeks old.   2 others I broke recently were severely high sticked by me, by accident.  I suppose this one just wasn't up to the task of boat flipping a ~2 pound bass.   If it was from high sticking it should have broke closer to the tip. (?)  This was a Falcon BuCoo med/med 7' rod.   I bought it locally for WAY less than they're listed online for.   I wonder if it was a blem, or otherwise had something else wrong with it.   Water temp was 76.   Most of the bass were on cranks, near or at secondary points.  

 

Well, that’s the end of my week long local fishing vacation and I could not have picked a better week, weather wise.?

 

No big ones today, but my son and I teamed up for a decent average using mostly a buzzbait and chatterbaits.  I did pick up a bonus fish on a jig (I don’t fish a jig much - gotta work on that).  The scenery was fantastic and dare I say, it was a bit too warm in the blazing sun.  haha

 

Back to reality tomorrow. ?

2 hours ago, thediscochef said:

I've only really had this issue with the gold blades idk why

been giving the body a rest while nature plays out Fake Fall/Second Summer. I am not a young 31-year-old. The last couple weeks have been stuck at 95f/75f with a whole lot of bluebird. For this time of year it makes for a really tough pattern to fish. Last time I was there they were still eating the tiny tiny baits. This week looks like highs in the 70s/lows in the 50s so you can bet i will be glued to the lake, looking for a pattern change. I should be getting my favorite jerkbait and lipless crankbait rods back from the local pro just in time. Oowee sucker

That's crazy, the one that broke on me was gold as well.    Guess the materials are more prone to pitting from the surface rust.    

Well I got out today for a hour and a half, felt good to go fishing again. It has been over 2 weeks since I last went fishing. Just doesn’t seem right, I caught a bunch of dinks and a rock bass. I found a decent hook for the 2.75 tubes I didn’t lose any or miss any hits. I caught a couple on a square bill, I then proceeded to cast my new square bill into a tree yay. Oh well that’s fishing and what I get for trying to squeeze a little extra distance out of a cast. 

1 hour ago, The Baron said:

The scenery was fantastic and dare I say, it was a bit too warm in the blazing sun.

It was downright hot out there for me yesterday too. Felt more like mid August. Combined with no wind, it was toasty out there. It should be about 60 and cloudy now, not 85 and sunny.

It's always good to see Murph posting and flashing some new facial fur!

1 hour ago, Jmurphy87 said:

 

 

That tube has "goby" written all over it -- are the gobies getting up into to your stretch of the river?? 

2 hours ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

That's crazy, the one that broke on me was gold as well.    Guess the materials are more prone to pitting from the surface rust.    

From my time working in guitar repair this is honestly 100% unsurprising. Gold-colored guitar hardware corrodes and degrades faster than any other color. Very rare that it holds up and the metals underneath tend to be very prone to rust. I don't know the chemical reason this happens but it happens. As much as I love the chartreuse chatterbaits i do worry about this with the gold blades 

Well, been on a bit of a slump since late August,  1-2 dinks here and there and got skunked a lot more than I was used to.  

Went out for a few hours yesterday hoping my luck would finally turn.  Caught 3 adjacent to the boat ramp which was a minor miracle considering the amount of traffic that was out there.

 

Have a procedure scheduled this week and might be laid up for a little while. So if this may have been my last trip  of the year at least I got to end it it on somewhat of a high note.

22 minutes ago, MIbassyaker said:

 

That tube has "goby" written all over it -- are the gobies getting up into to your stretch of the river?? 

They very well might be, I have not been able to confirm it. But the bass today seemed to love it. Sorry that I can’t give you a definitive answer. They were actively feeding today while I was there today, you could watch them chase bait into the shallows to corner them. They were also jumping out of the water pretty good. One of the smallies attacked my square bill just sitting there floating after touchdown on the cast. It was a good time of day to be there, I am extremely grateful that my mom took me to go fishing today. It hasn’t been easy being away from my family for 3 weeks while I was getting the engine replaced in my car, but I should be back on the road by the end of this week and back to my family again. That will be great for sure.

21 minutes ago, Jmurphy87 said:

They very well might be, I have not been able to confirm it. But the bass today seemed to love it. Sorry that I can’t give you a definitive answer. They were actively feeding today while I was there today, you could watch them chase bait into the shallows to corner them. They were also jumping out of the water pretty good. One of the smallies attacked my square bill just sitting there floating after touchdown on the cast. It was a good time of day to be there, I am extremely grateful that my mom took me to go fishing today. It hasn’t been easy being away from my family for 3 weeks while I was getting the engine replaced in my car, but I should be back on the road by the end of this week and back to my family again. That will be great for sure.

 

Yeah, i was wondering because Allegan Dam "should" be a barrier on the Kalamazoo River, but you know...

 

Sounds like they were really active so maybe no other explanation is needed!

29 minutes ago, MIbassyaker said:

 

Yeah, i was wondering because Allegan Dam "should" be a barrier on the Kalamazoo River, but you know...

 

Sounds like they were really active so maybe no other explanation is needed!

That’s my guess is that they were just fired up really good today, although it gets pretty good this time of year around here. 

21 hours ago, thediscochef said:

been giving the body a rest while nature plays out Fake Fall/Second Summer. I am not a young 31-year-old.

 

Me too, Chef. I"m fishing this afternoon and might fish again on Friday, weather permitting, but then I'm done for the year. For those of you who remember that I quit last fall and then started again and if you're thinking I'll do the same this year, I won't. I fished much more in 2023 than 2022 and I've caught many more, so I'm full and happy, plus the water temp keeps creeping down and the peril keeps creeping up. The advantage of my canoe is its light weight. The disadvantage of that light weight is that it's tippy. So, I'll put the canoe on sawhorses at the end of the week and fish again in 2024. And I'll switch from player on the aquatic field of glory to cheerleader for those of you fishing on. 

 

The pond I fished yesterday morning was a pond I lost access to in June when the pond association posted "No Trespassing" signs at the launch. However, there's a farm on the pond, so I rang them and introduced myself. Long story short, I visited the farm three times in the last two days, baked cookies for them, gave them a couple books, and now I'm allowed to drive past their two big signs declaring "Absolutely no pond access!"

 

I bake cookies for four landowners now. A buddy cynically said that I bribe, but I said, "You've got it all wrong. They're kind to me. I'm kind to them. Kindness greases the world's gears." 

 

@PondProwler9000: Big bass! Nice to have you post. Keep posting, big and small, for we like to see them all. 

 

I'm thinking a good thought for you, @bp_fowler.

 

@The Baron: Your Ontario bass are built like cinder blocks.

 

@The Bassman: BEAUTIES!

 

@softwateronly: Whoa! 

3 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

Kindness greases the world's gears.

5 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

 

Me too, Chef. I"m fishing this afternoon and might fish again on Friday, weather permitting, but then I'm done for the year. For those of you who remember that I quit last fall and then started again and if you're thinking I'll do the same this year, I won't. I fished much more in 2023 than 2022 and I've caught many more, so I'm full and happy, plus the water temp keeps creeping down and the peril keeps creeping up. The advantage of my canoe is its light weight. The disadvantage of that light weight is that it's tippy. So, I'll put the canoe on sawhorses at the end of the week and fish again in 2024. And I'll switch from player on the aquatic field of glory to cheerleader for those of you fishing on. 

 

The pond I fished yesterday morning was a pond I lost access to in June when the pond association posted "No Trespassing" signs at the launch. However, there's a farm on the pond, so I rang them and introduced myself. Long story short, I visited the farm three times in the last two days, baked cookies for them, gave them a couple books, and now I'm allowed to drive past their two big signs declaring "Absolutely no pond access!"

 

I bake cookies for four landowners now. A buddy cynically said that I bribe, but I said, "You've got it all wrong. They're kind to me. I'm kind to them. Kindness greases the world's gears." 

 

@PondProwler9000: Big bass! Nice to have you post. Keep posting, big and small, for we like to see them all. 

 

I'm thinking a good thought for you, @bp_fowler.

 

@The Baron: Your Ontario bass are built like cinder blocks.

 

@The Bassman: BEAUTIES!

 

@softwateronly: Whoa! 

Say it ain't so! No way I can go through the fall and winter without seeing your fat Maine Bass! It may surprise you, but the bass are not nearly as interesting to me as the places you catch them. I cannot go months without seeing lily pads and Pickerel Rush! Please keep fishing......PLEEEase!