@Huckfinn38: Huck, your lure rotation is impressive.

 

@MIbassyaker: You remind me to use flukes again. I haven't yet this  year.

 

@bp_fowler: Way to go, buddy!

4 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

Nice bass, Murph (@Jmurphy87). 13 hours...whoa.

 

Pat (@Pat Brown) just keeps catching and catching and catching.

 

 

Love that perch, @CastingClinic!

 

Of course, @Bazoo wins the day for taking a kid fishing.

Thanks.  My boy does love to go. He usually goes 2-3 times a week.

First cast again on a yum dinger…

2 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

@MIbassyaker: You remind me to use flukes again. I haven't yet this  year.

 

looks like the fluke is working for @Jmurphy87 too.

Mike, that looks like a looooooooonnnnnnnnnnngggggg fish. Did you get any numbers on her, weight or length?

19 inch is all…

8 minutes ago, N Florida Mike said:

19 inch is all…

 

I love those 19-inchers. 

8 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

Nice bass, Murph (@Jmurphy87). 13 hours...whoa.

 

Pat (@Pat Brown) just keeps catching and catching and catching.

 

 

Love that perch, @CastingClinic!

 

Of course, @Bazoo wins the day for taking a kid fishing.

Yep 14 hours today and the rest of the week lol. It’s good for the paycheck, well sort of I am salary so it’s straight time. But at least I got something extra instead of nothing. I definitely recommend that you try a fluke, I started throwing them last year and I have confidence in them already. There was a couple of guys in a boat throwing spinner baits past me and people fishing on other banks. I never saw them catch anything and that always baffles me, I want everyone to catch fish and have fun it’s just my nature.

Ok, not great but not bad. Went out this morning and caught six. All were 1 to 1-1/2 lbs. 

 

Did have something occur I’ve always wondered about and it finally happened. I was working a weightless Senko TR and was casting under the low limbs of a hemlock that juts out over the water. One cast was a bit high and the line went over a limb and the Senko dropped down into the water. As I started to reel it in slowly to see it I could ease it over the limb without snagging, a bass took the bait. So it was fish on! and the line was over a limb. To make matters worse, the branch was covered in someone’s old line. What a mess! I had to cut the old line to get my line loose, but in the end, I freed my line, removed the old line…and boated the bass! Thank God it wasn’t a 5 lb’er or I would have lost it for sure. 
 

It’s the bass in the second pic. 
 

Fish last night from 8p - 3a and caught two. Bigger one pictured. There's an amazing amout of cicadas on the water.

20 hours ago, MIbassyaker said:

Only three on "Lake 26" this morning; the best was this 16-incher:

Zoom super fluke again. 

Fluketastic 

2024 night ops are officially underway. No bigs, but decent numbers of these guys running the inside weed edges. Got started at 02:30 this morning.

@A-Jay, I thought of you this morning at 03:47. Didn't connect, but I got a bite that startled me so bad I got goosebumps. Given the lake and location, I'd wager either a small muskie or a big eye. 

 I don't know the reason, but my hook/land percentage isn't good on those super hard bites. My theory is that they have it so tight in their mouth, that it's hard to move the bait in their yap enough to bury the hook good. Dunno, it always leaves me wondering how the heck those fish didn't get hooked.

 Anyway, the night bite should only get better from here. In a couple weeks we'll have lots of topped out hydrilla beds up shallow, and the girls will be getting over their post spawn funk and come shallow looking to fatten up on spawning gills.

Got an hour of fishing in on Tuesday. It was overcast with a sporadic drizzling rain. Caught a nice bluegill and small largie.

 

Got out this morning around 7-11:30. Boated 13 bass,1 on a spinnerbait, 2 on a frog and 10 on a buzzbait with one decent one that went  3-8 on the buzzbait. 

2 hours ago, T-Billy said:

2024 night ops are officially underway. No bigs, but decent numbers of these guys running the inside weed edges. Got started at 02:30 this morning.

 I don't know the reason, but my hook/land percentage isn't good on those super hard bites. My theory is that they have it so tight in their mouth, that it's hard to move the bait in their yap enough to bury the hook good. Dunno, it always leaves me wondering how the heck those fish didn't get hooked.

 Anyway, the night bite should only get better from here. In a couple weeks we'll have lots of topped out hydrilla beds up shallow, and the girls will be getting over their post spawn funk and come shallow looking to fatten up on spawning gills.

@T-Billy That's been my experience especially with wood baits since they get a couple of teeth into the wood & you can't move it for a hook set. That's why I prefer hard plastic or metal so you can move it enough to get a hook set.  

Went back to the Crappie Hole today.  After thinking about it last night I realized that every fish I’ve caught over 2 pounds I’ve caught there with one exception.  
 

Overcast skies, 64 degrees and winds 3mph from the NE.  Overnight showers had the water up about 18-24”.  The overhanging bushes where I caught 2 pounder yesterday were now flooded and the water which was already pretty murky was now chocolate milk.

 

I started fishing the same spot I had caught the 2 pounder yesterday Interestingly enough on my second cast I caught this fish which turned out to be 3.8 pounds.

 

Unfortunately I couldn’t get anything going after that and moved on to a different body of water.  I caught another three fish.  One of which (last fish pictured) looked a little different to me I’m not sure what it is if anyone can help me out it'd be appreciated.

 

 

Last one is a smallmouth @bp_fowler, heckuva day 

@TnRiver46 Thanks!  I suspected that’s what it was, that makes it my first smallie.  Wouldn’t have expected to catch that there.

Got these the other day at a city pond I frequent. I don't fish there a huge amount.

 

 

Today, I had a small one, then this 3 lb 4 oz monster. It hit that H2OX crank, and man, it was on. Started stripping line off of Abu Black Max. Praise God!

 

Finished the trip with a nice fighter. Always glad to welcome another to the party!

 

 

Needless to say, I'll be frequenting there more often!

Well played, you bank anglers!

Jacob got a biggin tonight- 5 lber at the pond on his ultralight while panfishing from the fishing dock with 10 other people - complete with boom boxes and snack eaters and screaming children throwing stuff at ducks.  It was a riot of a night and his fish was the talk of the dock.  Proud of my little man.  😎🎣

 

 

Tomorrow after school we will probably hit it again before we do tackle prep and rest up for a small tournament/culling session in Durham!  @FishTax will be there this year and we are thrilled to have him!

 

Hoping to help my buddy keep his pond moving in the direction of being a giant factory.  Can't wait!

For some reason I decided to try my luck at the most pressured pond in town and made an impromptu fishing buddy. A twelve year old kid named Hunter was there ahead of me, with a "Sporting Goods store that apparently BR thinks is a swear word but is really just short for Richard's" shopping bag of fishing gear he'd just bought with his birthday money and had no idea how to use. Nobody ever taught the little man about stranger danger, cuz he immediately approached me as I got out of my car and began peppering me with questions about fishing. I spent the better part of an hour showing him how to rig up and fish with the different baits he'd purchased. Gave him some jig heads and EWG hooks because he'd bought plastics but no appropriate hooks.

 

He says he wants to start a fishing YouTube channel, but needs to "find all the good spots first." 

 

I was the only one to pull in a fish though. Hooked a tiny guy on one of my homemade cranks. Well, at least I know the little ones think my baits look edible. 😆

 

 

30 minutes ago, Pat Brown said:

Jacob got a biggin tonight- 5 lber at the pond on his ultralight while panfishing from the fishing dock with 10 other people - complete with boom boxes and snack eaters and screaming children throwing stuff at ducks.  It was a riot of a night and his fish was the talk of the dock.  Proud of my little man.  😎🎣

 

 

Tomorrow after school we will probably hit it again before we do tackle prep and rest up for a small tournament/culling session in Durham!  @FishTax will be there this year and we are thrilled to have him!

 

Hoping to help my buddy keep his pond moving in the direction of being a giant factory.  Can't wait!

 

Holy Mic-Drop by Jake!

 

 

11 minutes ago, IcatchDinks said:

For some reason I decided to try my luck at the most pressured pond in town and made an impromptu fishing buddy. A twelve year old kid named Hunter was there ahead of me, with a "Sporting Goods store that apparently BR thinks is a swear word but is really just short for Richard's" shopping bag of fishing gear he'd just bought with his birthday money and had no idea how to use. Nobody ever taught the little man about stranger danger, cuz he immediately approached me as I got out of my car and began peppering me with questions about fishing. I spent the better part of an hour showing him how to rig up and fish with the different baits he'd purchased. Gave him some jig heads and EWG hooks because he'd bought plastics but no appropriate hooks.

 

He says he wants to start a fishing YouTube channel, but needs to "find all the good spots first." 

 

I was the only one to pull in a fish though. Hooked a tiny guy on one of my homemade cranks. Well, at least I know the little ones think my baits look edible. 😆

 

 

Talk about satisfying -- a high-quality outing.

 

 

6 hours ago, T-Billy said:

2024 night ops are officially underway.

The annual search for the floater begins.

8 minutes ago, gimruis said:

The annual search for the floater begins.

 

Absolute masterclass in Minnesota humor -- water-related, indirect, sardonic, and pitch-black.