I keep trying and failing at topwater, Pat. I tossed a Whopper Plopper yesterday evening and worked a big swimabait as a wakebait, but nothing. Still a bit chilly for Yankee bass to be looking up. I love your smile!

23 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

 

Some of those backwoods streams are pretty wild, for sure. 

 

Hey, Kent! The BR gang sure is catching some fine fish. I'd love to have tangled with that fat musky or those wipers. 

They are quite wild but there are more humans than Canada and the humans you find in a wilderness area are typically quite the characters in one way or another 😂 

 

Me and my buddy Geoff paddled around in my canoe while my wife was in her kayak. Got some SMB, white bass, yellow bass, and skipjack. Geoff caught the nicest fish of the day that fought like it was much larger

 

 

 

33 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

I keep trying and failing at topwater.

...but nothing... 

Katie, I think I sent you a Heddon Super Spook Jr. and a PopMax.  The Junior is

a GUARANTEED producer, but the fish tend to be smaller. The PopMax is my #1

topwater producer of larger fish. Focus on those two lures and you will catch

some bass. 

I've caught a lot of bass with that PopMax, Kent. Just not in 2024...yet. In 2023, I spent some evenings and mornings fishing nothing but the PopMax. Great lure.

 

And the Spook Jr. is in my lineup for 2024.

 

I enjoyed your video, Mr. 46. The number of your fishing pals says a lot about you. 

I’ll pass along the video credit to my wife, she’s good with a camera 

Where's the drum?

I think I had “holt” of one but it came loose. That part of the Holston is lousy with them 

1 hour ago, roadwarrior said:

Katie, I think I sent you a Heddon Super Spook Jr. and a PopMax.  The Junior is

a GUARANTEED producer, but the fish tend to be smaller. The PopMax is my #1

topwater producer of larger fish. Focus on those two lures and you will catch

some bass. 

What a nice man.

Btw, I have never caught a bass on a brand new corvette. 

Just saying.

A-Jay 

2 hours ago, A-Jay said:

What a nice man.

Btw, I have never caught a bass on a brand new corvette. 

Just saying.

A-Jay 

 

Fished a deep clear lake in central VA today.

Fish were on beds.

Caught several and snapped a really nice rod with a lifetime warranty.

Went down to the new reservoir to squeeze in a hour or so of fishing today.  Cloudy conditions, high of 79 and winds from the west at 6 mph.

 

Caught a half dozen dinks on the floating worm.  Most were the same size as the fish in the photo below.

 

Made my way over to the dam and switched to a zoom fluke on an underspin.  Got two bites but only hooked up with one but it was the best fish of the day.

9 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

@AlabamaSpothunter: I don't know if any other BR anglers have fished the wilderness for smallmouth...

 

I haven't fished the wilderness for smallmouth, but fly-fishing the wilds of Alaska for grayling is an experience I will never forget. 

3 minutes ago, IcatchDinks said:

 

I haven't fished the wilderness for smallmouth, but fly-fishing the wilds of Alaska for grayling is an experience I will never forget. 

 

Hardcore. 

2 hours ago, Bird said:

Fished a deep clear lake in central VA today.

Fish were on beds.

Caught several and snapped a really nice rod with a lifetime warranty.

Purty spotted bass 

21 hours ago, Mbirdsley said:

 Caught what i believe will be a MI Department of natural resources MASTER ANGLER 16.25 white bass.  i actually caught 5 over 16 inches.

 

20 hours ago, IcatchDinks said:

I've been chasing a master angler patch every since I heard about it, and got close with a massive pumpkin seed a while back. They informed me that they believed it to be a hybrid, and I wanted to know if there were actually any purebreds left. 😆

 

Nice!  I caught a White Crappie last year that would have qualified for a Master Angler patch, but didn't think to check until I got home....and discovered I hadn't gotten a photo of the measurement.

50 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Purty spotted bass 

Heck, I didn't even know it was a spotted bass. 😂

Them things fight.

21 hours ago, Mbirdsley said:

MASTER ANGLER

That’s what my office uses to gauge fish entries for our work contest. In fisherman master angler.

1 minute ago, gimruis said:

That’s what my office uses to gauge fish entries for our work contest. In fisherman master angler.

 

State of Michigan has its own program with its own patch:

https://www.michigan.gov/dnr/things-to-do/fishing/master-angler

 

Fished a pretty long day today logging about 9.5 hours between two different bodies of water. Caught a total of 32 bass, 15 on a buzzbait, 10 on Texas rig yo mamma and 7 on a spinnerbait with the best of the day a 4-14 and 3-10 both on the buzzbait.

Rain held off, winds were calm, so squeezed in a few hours this afternoon. Managed a limit of bass and a couple bonus crappie. Water temps now in the upper 70s.

 

 

@keagbassr: Dark beauties!

 

9 minutes ago, Team9nine said:

Water temps now in the upper 70s.

 

Wow! So far ahead of Maine. 

Today was a slow one. I stopped at the Chipola on a road trip and managed a single shoal bass. This fish is a contender for hardest fighting 1lber I’ve ever caught. Thought it was a gulf strain rockfish at first, lol. 

 

 

Neither photo does this fish justice; the blue color on the tail is hard to capture on camera. Tomorrow, I’m gonna try for Choctaw bass.

I know this thread is useless without pictures, but I had a great day today on my favorite pond and didn't want to stop to take pics. Started at 0700 in a light rain and I almost convinced myself not to go. It rained for about an hour and then quit. I was fishing a Creme Tri Tail grub (yes, the thing at Wal Mart for about $2 a pack of 25) black body and chartreuse tail on a small jig head with a #7 split shot about 6 inches up the line (10 lb braid-Medium Ugly Stik rod). After a couple of hours, I had two LMB (one a tad over 3.5 lbs), four Crappie all over a pound and two Bluegill. Missed a very big LMB that bent the thin wire hook on the jig head. I normally never keep fish to eat but today would have been a nice seafood platter. I kinda wish I had.

 

Thanks for listening. My family is not as excited about today as I am, but I figured you all would appreciate it. 😉

Great day, @OmegaDPW! A farm pond or something bigger? I love mixed bags. 

I caught 6 this morning before the lightening ran me off the lake.  4 Spots and 2 Largemouth(all pictured).  I suppose you could call 5 of them "cookie cutter" Bass since they were all the same size.  The good news is the 5 cookie cutters were all between 15 1/2 and 18 inches.   One was a 11 inch micro Bass.  The first was within my first dozen casts at 5:45.  The last was at 8:53.  I usually try to end my trip with a Bass on my last cast, but today a few minutes and several casts after what ended up being my last Bass I saw some lightening down the lake.   Rain doesn't bother me and wind has to be really bad to run me off, but I don't mess with lightening.   I high tailed it back to the landing and called it a day.  I also caught a small White Perch and small Channel Cat.  No pixels on those. Water temp was up to 75 degrees.  I don't keep "records" but have recently started taking a picture of the water temperature on my graph every trip.   I keep this picture with my fish pictures.  That way I can look back and see the actual water temperature instead of mis remembering.