Absolutely jinxed it. Heading into our 3rd and last day on the trip to Clear Lake I said I was shocked we hadn't hooked a big catfish or carp since that's the only lake that always seems to happen. Well, it was a day of dink bass not pic worthy and giants we weren't chasing.

 

Big cat on a wacky senko. Always disappointing when you go from thinking you have a giant bass to realizing that's no stinking bass.

 

The wrong type of PB. Never seen a carp with this type of girth and length. Caught it on a finesse tube with 6# sniper, and that Certate was screaming as it ran at least a couple hundred feet and under a couple docks that fortunately didn't have ropes running under them. Had to put the trolling motor all the way up to 10 to catch up before she could spool me. Heck of a fight.

 

Around 36" and full of eggs I'm guessing she had to be at least 25-30lbs.

Huge fish, Norcal. The Lindners sure respected carp and anyone who's hooked one is forced to respect them too. 

I mean I don't care what anyone says, that's a cool looking fish, carp or not!  Nice one @NorcalBassin!

4 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

The Lindners sure respected carp and anyone who's hooked one is forced to respect them

Ya hear that @TnRiver46?  You need to respect ol rubber lips. @roadwarrior needs to start showing some respect to the mighty drum too. 😜

 Bugle mouthed pile of uselessness 

 

that catfish tho ❤️ 

Fished a lake that I hadn't fished in a few years with a buddy.  We caught 13 bass in a few hours and this was the largest.  Not real big but fun with 8 lb line and lots of stumps.  The picture wasn't sideways when I got it.

 

Went to the lake this morning to tune a friend’s bait and couldn’t keep the fish away from it. Got four in total with these two being the better ones, 4-8 and 4-0. Not big but they were angry. I’d be too if my lake looked like that.

 

 

A couple from a 30 minute trip to the river. 

He had a lots of pretty blue spots and bright orange fringe. Hungry little guy.

Nice pike, Murph! I bet she pulled hard in that current. That doesn't look like an Owner underspin? Is it?

54 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

Nice pike, Murph! I bet she pulled hard in that current. That doesn't look like an Owner underspin? Is it?

Yeah she definitely pulled good and hard in the current, but she was no match for my megabass tequila baccarat rod. The underspin is a mustad tactical bass infiltrator blade weighted swim bait hook. Local shops don’t have much in the way of owner flashy swimmer only 6/0 with a 3/8 weight. I thought that these ones had more throat to them to clear the hunk of plastic better.

@Jmurphy87: I like the look of your Mustad. I'm going to buy some. 

Carrying on with the theme last time I found them even hotter on the same pattern. Got a couple dinks and was getting swiped and slapped at every 5th cast. I’ll only bore you with one of here.

 

Reached a spot with immediate access to the deepest water in the lake and had another small fish miss on two consecutive casts. On the third I felt the bite and swung. Imagine my shock to find two fish on! The small one that had been missing and a much bigger one! They had a combined weight of 9lbs which is more bass than I’ve ever gotten in a cast.

 

@Fried Lemons: You catch huge fish! Are you always fishing the same lake? If not, how many lakes do you fish and why are they so full of big fish? I would think that water that grows bass so big would be pounded.

 

P. S. - Looking at fish pics doesn't bore me, whatever their size. 

1 minute ago, ol'crickety said:

@Fried Lemons: You catch huge fish! Are you always fishing the same lake? If not, how many lakes do you fish and why are they so full of big fish? I would think that water that grows bass so big would be pounded.

 

P. S. - Looking at fish pics doesn't bore me, whatever their size. 

I primarily fish 3 lakes which I determined through lots of trial and error have big fish potential. In my state I found the best lakes have either gizzard shad or rainbow trout forage. The trout lakes are small and fly under the radar for sure.

Just now, Fried Lemons said:

I primarily fish 3 lakes which I determined through lots of trial and error have big fish potential. In my state I found the best lakes have either gizzard shad or rainbow trout forage. The trout lakes are small and fly under the radar for sure.

 

Well, you're a heckuva angler. You catch BIG bass.

I caught a couple more today, one on a wacky rig and one on a swing head jig.

Nice Bass Fred, especially the double!!!

 

I had a good trip today.  I caught 9 Bass in 4 hours today.  (that's a good day for me)  6 Largemouth and 3 Spots.  All but one were "keepers" (14 inches).  Pictured are the first, a chunky 15 1/2" Largemouth caught at 5:58 on my 3rd cast, the biggest Spot, a 16 incher that fought like a 16 inch Spot, and the 4.48 pound Largemouth I caught on my last cast at 9:45.   Most including the biggest came on a spinnerbait, a couple on a wacky, and a couple Spots on cranks.   I was surprised by the water temp.  It was a couple degrees colder than last week (68.5) if I'm remembering correctly.   I don't keep "records" but I've decided to start taking a picture of the water temp every trip in case my memory get's "off".  

 

Added: The Shad Spawn is just starting.  Action should be good by next weekend.  

 

Nice bass, Woody!

 

You sure are catching those smallies, Murph.

2 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

Nice bass, Woody!

 

You sure are catching those smallies, Murph.

Yes I catch a lot of smallies out of the Kalamazoo river for sure. Not huge but they make up for it with there fiesty behavior lol. And I get to fish some of the craziest spots for them. Like today I was standing on a concrete wall on the edge of the spillway that was seven plus feet tall and I had to pull myself up to climb it. Along with traversing a wet moss covered rock with a rod in one hand and a backpack on my back. It’s always a fun adventure and that’s why I love it.

Got about an hour of fishing in from the bank.before work today, caught 2 both on a buzzbait with this one weighing 3-12

Algae blooms and the effect they have on water bodies is a strange thing. There are two lakes we like to hit that are less than a ½ mile apart from one another with each draining directly into a salt bay via dams. One month ago, the western lake we fished already had pads popping up everywhere along with flourishes of almost fluorescent green bushy weeds emerging in the middle. However, the eastern sister lake which is nearly its carbon copy with regard to depth and shape is murky, practically pad less, and seems to have no new weed growth. Only filamentous algae laced zombie weeds still standing from last year were found. In past years, and at this point in the season, this place was nearly topped out with a carpet of weeds from shore to shore and had sporadic but dense pad fields. Both lakes have a good flow from inlet to outlet, so it's odd how one has been affected and the other hasn't. Kettle lakes usually don't fare well against an algae bloom, but dammed mill ponds seem to overcome them because they have flow, but not this one.

 

Still, they were bitey until un forecasted rain and a chilling wind drove us out after two hours. My brother caught a huge pickerel that nearly swallowed his Tiny Tum. Just a nightmare to unhook it, but no blood, so it darted away with vigor. He shook off one buck bass at the boat, so his skunk was off. I got a buck pitching into zombie cat tails with a Zman ProcrawZ, then a nice chunk swimming a Berkley Grass Pig out in the middle in a patch of zombie weeds. Not bad for one of the few spots we can back right up to and dump the boat in and leave just as easily. Too bad we had to stop on a good bite, but it was miserable getting soaked and spun all over the place by wind. A win is a win.

 

Went out yesterday to the New Reservoir it was slow going for a while at least until the forecasted clouds showed up.  80 degrees with winds gusting to 30mph out of the SW.  Managed 4 dinks on the DT4.    

Photo shows the typical size.

 

Went home grabbed a bite to eat and went back out, this time to the public pond I visited last week.  The dink parade continued with another 4. 

Went down to Burr Oak early this morning hoping to add some size to my weekend haul but was thwarted by the skunk.  Still some great views.

More great storytelling, @PhishLI, and a beautiful bass.

 

I've fished Burr Oak, @bp_fowler. Beautiful photo.

@ol'crickety probably my favorite “big lake” to fish.  I’m not sure why I don’t fish it more often since it’s only a 25min drive from my house.  

 

Actually I do know, It’s because it’s so big and spots are so spread out that it’s a lot of walking/hiking in order to cover water.  That wouldn’t normally be a problem for me on smaller BoW.  I have caught decent fish there but never more than 1 in a trip with a lots of skunks in between.

 

In any case the scenery there is great, and I think that more than anything keeps me coming back.