I spent the morning chasing those uncooperative muskie, once again without success. I found lots of shad up in the creeks, but no slimers with 'em, so I called it quits with them about noon, and picked up the flippin stick. 

Ended up with 11 LM before I called it quits at four. 10 bucks in the 1-2# range and this 3.48#. First one over 3# this year. 

Hoping to get out in tomorrows monsoon, but it's looking like lightning may scrap that trip. 

2 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

That's 5,000 square feet to clean

Not to mention energy costs. I can’t even imagine the heating or AC bill for a house that size.

No bigs this afternoon but had an unexpected treat with a good top water bite. Caught eight fun size in under forty minutes. I usually don't get out the little Pop-R until mid month but conditions seemed right. We're supposed to get storms and heavy rain tomorrow. Usually translates to a hot storm drain bite. Problem is that I have to work later this week and we're going to barely get out of the 30's after this system passes. That's spring in Indiana.

6 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Well I'm way behind on my reports, but I guess better late than never. 

 

Day 1 

Launched at Sizemore Landing with about 12 other kayaks. I was the only one without a motor so at 0630, I watched everyone else blast off, then hopped in my kayak and started kind of kicking around and scanning since I hadn't fished this area at all in practice. 

 

As soon as the sun started to lighten the sky after lines in, the schooling started. I hadn't had much luck getting the schooling fish to bite, but I had a different bait ready for them this morning and it flipped the switch for them.

The Rapala Crush City Freeloader on a 1/16oz Hover Head just slowly swam through the schoolers did all the heavy lifting in the morning on day 1. I started with a 16" fish.

Then went back to back with 16.75" inchers.

A 17" fish and a 13 incher rounded out my limit.

It all happened so fast, I had no idea what I had, what time it was, what had even happened really. I culled the 13" with another 17" fish.

And then culled the 16" fish with another 16.75" fish.

It was about 0830 at this point, only 1.5 hours into the day and I was already into the mid 80's on my limit, which was my goal for the day. My buddy Jon and his son pulled up in the boat to watch me and then another boat pulled up. I thought I was going to have someone park on top of me and fish because it had happened so many times, but it turned out to be Mark Cisneros from Bassmaster. He introduced himself and told me he was going to take some pictures. My heart was already going, but I knew what it meant having the camera boat pull up on me, even if it was early in the morning on the first day. Trying to fish when I knew they were there watching me, I haven't been that nervous since I drove my first born home from the hospital. 

Jon took a picture of the camera boat, taking pictures of me.

Some action shots, unfortunately the bite had died by the time they got there and I only caught 1 tiny smallmouth while they were there.

Now when I tell you that my bite died, it was stone dead. If I only knew how close I was to the motherlode though. I fished until 1330, with 1 more dink largemouth to show for it, before I decided to move to another ramp where I had 1 short stretch of bank across from the ramp where I'd done well in practice. I caught several more there in the last hour and hooked 2 that felt good, but both just came off my jig for some reason. I ended the day in 20th, but it was a tight race and it wasn't out of reach. I never looked at the scoreboard, couldn't make myself do it, but my wife took a couple screenshots.

Sorry about the audio on this video, but there may not be a day 2 video so this is all I've got for now.

 

 

I did go out for a few hours yesterday on Easter and caught myself an overinflated football. 17.5" and 3.75lbs on the Strike King Rodent with a Gamakatsu Nano Alpha 4/0 EWG Superline hook. 

 

 

 

That's a day to be proud of, awesome job!

Got 14 this afternoon. Most were 1 to 1.5 pounds, with one decent fish.  Caught it on a houdini super fluke. Caught most of the fish on the june bug uv speed worm again. Nearly every fish was caught on a slow retrieve.

Jake was off one last day today and we had a day alright.

 

 

6.3/5.2/4.1 on the bank at the pond this morning on jigs.

 

 

 

A few more to round out the pond visit.....

 

And a 5 lber on a gizzard shad @Siebert Outdoors grasss jig and an incredibly fat 2 lber on a Missile Baits D Bomb and a dink on the bizz baits spinnerbait on an afternoon boat ride!

 

Missed a good few too!

 

What a day!

Alex posts his fat bass.

 

Then Pat and Jake hitch go Biblical and say, "A bass for a bass."

 

I can't believe the parade of beshemoths this spring. I'm guessing @gimruis and @A-Jay are frisky as Secretariat in the stall at Belmont. I know I am. At least I'm going fishing tomorrow, but I think it's still too cold to catch a bunch, but we'll soon see. 

Congrats on an awesome day Pat.....really love seeing Jake catch a toad!   As I've said before, the apple doesn't fall from the big fish tree 😁

 

@Blue Raider Bob  Love seeing you post Bob, tell us a bit more how you upload your pics.  

 

The easist I've found, is to upload the image to your PC....then go to postimages.org and upload there, get the "share" link which is the second one down on the list of shareable links.    

 

When you upload it to your computer or to that site, you'll have an option to edit the photo, you can hit the rotate image that will correct the orientation.   It's very easy, but difficult to explain lol. 

Dang @Pat Brown 3 bank monsters! That's awesome! 

 

Y'all are gonna get me in trouble at work. I'm supposed to be doing taxes and now I want to sneak down the road and wet a line (ok I always want that, but more when it's 80 outside with a cold and wind coming the rest of the week). 

Awwww shucks y'all. Thank you very much. We had a lot of fun!  It's nice to see others wrecking em too!  This spring is gonna be a doozy I believe.

 

That 13 lber that guy got in the other thread and all the chunky fish in here.  Shhhheeeeew

 

🫠🫠🫠🫠🎣🎣🎣🎣

I finally caught a few bass: Three to be exact. And I caught a pretty pickle (pickerel) too. Our snow melted three days ago and we're getting more tomorrow, so I caught 'em sandwiched between snow. I tried a spinner bait, wacky, lipless, jointed Rapala, and a Mepps, but they wanted a gray and white Keitech on an Owner underspin, retrieved slowly and going tick-tick-tick over the 2023 weeds, all between 50'-100' off shore. I didn't get a single bite on the shoreline or in the shallow stream mouths and bays.

 

The hits were soft. Not even hits. The rod just loaded. I also hooked and lost another three and I had something bite the tail off my Keitech, likely a pickerel. However, they fought as hard as warm water bass and two were over 17". 

Awesome job Katie, I sure did miss those dark Maine beauties of yours.

 

All of what you described sounds textbook winter pattern.   Wet blanket/mushy bites, fish way offshore, hyper focused on a particular bait and size.   

 

 

30 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Awesome job Katie, I sure did miss those dark Maine beauties of yours.

 

All of what you described sounds textbook winter pattern.   Wet blanket/mushy bites, fish way offshore, hyper focused on a particular bait and size.   

 

 

 

Thanks for the input, Alex. I kept returning to shorelines because that's where I've caught many bass, but they weren't there. Not a single one. 

My nieghbor Leon called and wanted me to see his new combo. He brought it over and we went out back to try it out. He didn’t catch anything on it , so I showed him how to catch bream on my ultralight.

Apparently he hooked a little bream and this bass ate the bream.  It fell off on top of the grass right at the bank, and I reached down and grabbed it. I haven’t seen many children that were as excited as Leon was . It was his first bass. 

Now he’s wanting me to take him on saturday!! 

 

That's what it's all about Mike, way to go brother!  

 

Leon will never forget this day; you gave him a priceless memory.

Hip, hip, hooray for Mike!

1 hour ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

That's what it's all about Mike, way to go brother!  

 

Leon will never forget this day; you gave him a priceless memory.

 Thank you. He even texted me and thanked me again later. It was kind of a special moment that is hard to explain.  He is a great nieghbor also , always willing to help with anything he can.

I may have created a monster though…😂

Way to go Mike and Leon 

15 hours ago, N Florida Mike said:

My nieghbor Leon called and wanted me to see his new combo. He brought it over and we went out back to try it out. He didn’t catch anything on it , so I showed him how to catch bream on my ultralight.

Apparently he hooked a little bream and this bass ate the bream.  It fell off on top of the grass right at the bank, and I reached down and grabbed it. I haven’t seen many children that were as excited as Leon was . It was his first bass. 

Now he’s wanting me to take him on saturday!! 

 

 

 

This is what it's all about.  👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

 

Hooked for life.

On 4/2/2024 at 8:31 PM, N Florida Mike said:

My nieghbor Leon called and wanted me to see his new combo. He brought it over and we went out back to try it out. He didn’t catch anything on it , so I showed him how to catch bream on my ultralight.

Apparently he hooked a little bream and this bass ate the bream.  It fell off on top of the grass right at the bank, and I reached down and grabbed it. I haven’t seen many children that were as excited as Leon was . It was his first bass. 

Now he’s wanting me to take him on saturday!! 

 

 

That's a whole lot bigger than my first bass! Very awesome of you to be able to get someone's feet wet in this sport.

Working in Louisiana for a week so got a little fishing in at Texoma and Roberts before leaving.

 

Flipped a war eagle colorado blade around the docks at Texoma and hooked into this angry little spotted bass. Slammed it as I was chatting with a buddy. You know those times when you're mid sentence and then conversation stops as you set the hook? Yeah, that.

 

In the Roberts shallows, a whopper plopper grabbed a little largemouth and the weightless fluke grabbed a few super dinks so I get the feeling I'm antagonizing males. Maybe when I get back the ladies will be around.

 

Probably gonna stop at some east Texas Parks on the way home. Congrats to the people catching tanks, looking forward to my next one.

 

Highlights from a super weird cold front.  Lotsa toads!  Too many to post smaller than this.  Been a fun last 24 hours.  Can't wait to see what this weekend has in store for us!!!

 

Jake started us out right before it hit with a 5.5 on the boat and I followed him up with some chunky pre and post spawners at the pond while it blew hard and got chilly.

Jordan and Pippen

 

Jake and Pat

Rack ‘em and stack’em @Pat Brown, stay on a roll!

I haven't fished/ caught/ posted much in a long time, but good to see lots of nice fish being caught! Here's a 7.5# NLMB I caught today on a swimbait (WCZ citizen) though.