@Jmurphy87 glad to see you back at it! 

Had another 20+ day fishing-less stretch come to an end about a week and a half ago. Got a few trips in since then. Felt a little lost as last I was out they were killing buzzbaits but not now. Still managed to get some with a few good ones mixed in. 5-0 on a frog,  3-15 on a punch rig double wide beaver and 4-5 on a 10" worm.

@FishTank: If I fished 5 lb. test, I'd catch nada. A bass would plow into a weed and ping! When I hook a bass in a weed field, I see weed after weed pulled under as bass veer into it. Look at the weeds in my first and third photos and those are just the weeds that show on the surface. Don't you have weeds too and if you do, how does your line survive them? I can't argue with your results. You catch big bass. I'm just confused by your line choice and wonder how you do it.

 

@Jmurphy87: You urban, shore bound anglers amaze me. You almost always catch something and sometimes you catch a four or five-pounder, like @IcatchDinks's 22-incher. Of course, there's @Pat Brown, who catches DD from the shore, but it's rumored that FFS was developed by scanning his brain. It's further said that FFS is a crude facsimile of Pat's brain. I don't know if any of this is true, but that's what being said. 

 

Am I the only one who'd love to fish with @keagbassr? Heck, he wouldn't even have to let me aboard his boat. I could simply tie a rope to his boat and I'd be 20 yards behind him in my canoe. Double-heck, I wouldn't even need a rod and reel! Just some binoculars, for watching and learning. 

 

 

 

 

 

6:30-8:45. Two fish. 

 

 

 

 

Caught the first one on a top water blowup, so that was fun, even if he was tiny. 

 

Water levels have decreased drastically this week thanks to all the heat. It's supposed to rain pretty good all weekend, although it's only been light sprinkles so far this morning. My county is currently under a flood watch. Looking at the water levels, I find it kind of hard to believe we could get flooding, but I'm hoping we get a ton of rain to replenish my favorite fishing holes. 

@IcatchDinks, please share some of your coming rain. I love fishing current, where streams enter and exit. Say, you could feed your first bass above to your 22-incher!

8 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

@IcatchDinksSay, you could feed your first bass above to your 22-incher!

 

That's what I thought when I caught him! 😂 At first I couldn't tell how big he was because he brought about three pounds of weeds with him. I was a little disappointed to find out I'd only caught bait. 

 

@IcatchDinks, in the past week, I've twice had big bass hit smaller bass that I was playing beside my canoe. 

 

Apropos of nothin', here's how tired I was when I docked last night: I was using a friend's canoe, so I docked at what I thought was his house, unloaded, and was lugging gear up to my car when I saw the house and realized it was the wrong house. YIKES! I scurried out of there.

 

Maybe I shouldn't linger into the darkness, but I love being alone on a lake in the dark. Love. it. I see the windows of the camps glowing yellow and I both envy and pity them. I contemplate how few people have ever been alone on a lake in the dark even once in their lives because we are told, again and again and again, to be afraid. Fear is humbug. 

 

 

@ol'crickety that's too funny! I've definitely done stuff like that before. Once tried to get into some random stranger's car thinking it was mine. Lol

 

Once we get over that inate fear of the dark, the outdoors at night is such a wonderful experience. 

Got on a handful early this morning, then burnt time dragging the bottom before coffee. Here's a nice golden one

Unfortunately one of my most recently productive rods bit the dust too - went to set the hook on a ~2lber (Agent E lure), and *crack*. Tip went down the line into the water, then I tried to handline the fish in for about 10 seconds before I lost it. Sorry wallet! [was a Tatula MH]

 

@ol'crickety tag along anytime even though I don't think anyone could learn from watching me. I'm just a guy riding around chunking and grinding hoping to hit a couple on the head if I'm lucky. If I had I fishing mantra it would probably be "do as others say not as I do". Not sure anyone would want to be out when i am anyway; That 3rd fish pictured was caught Thurs. At 1p.m. temp.92 heat index 103.

Everyone: killing it.

 

@king fisher - dang dude.  Dang.  🎣🎣🎣🔥🔥🔥

 

That's a giant and another fish of a lifetime on the end of your line sir!

 

Congratulations!

1 hour ago, keagbassr said:

That 3rd fish pictured was caught Thurs. At 1p.m. temp.92 heat index 103.

 

Yikes!

 

1 hour ago, keagbassr said:

I'm just a guy riding around chunking and grinding hoping to hit a couple on the head if I'm lucky.

 

You do a lot of head hitting then! 

 

Here's my main lure:

 

 

40 minutes ago, Pat Brown said:

That's a giant and another fish of a lifetime on the end of your line sir!

 

Cowboys offer the highest praise by saying, "That guy sure can cowboy."

 

Well, @king fisher sure can fisherman. 

The Bassmaster Diary said go back out today from like 215-330  They weren't wrong. Lost a few, landed a few. Multiple lures were working - here's ones on a popper, ATV 2.5, and Ace Jig (craw trailer):

@ol'crickety The 5lb I use will hold up to almost anything unless it gets kinked. I have caught all kinds of big fish on BFS gear. I have had to learn how to be patient and how to pin fish with small treble hook baits and rods the size of toothpicks.  The lakes and ponds I fish are all full of grass. I haven't had much of an issue with it. I think one of the keys to getting them in is to not to turn the fish over once it's hooked, keeping the fish just below the surface.  Next would be changing the drag on the fly to keep the fish from snapping the line. Also, I don't really set the hook hard. I let the fish hook itself.  I looked but couldn't find them.... there are two old videos, one from Gary Yamamoto and one from Yuki Ito, both had good explanations on how to do this. To many times I have seen guys, even pros, hook a fish, reel it to the boat and then turn the rod over, pulling the fish to the other side of the boat. This puts the hook on the opposite side. Once the fish jumps or pulls, they pop off. 

 

For me, I have lost more fish and lures on 50lb straight braid than the 5lb FC.  To give you another example, I have the same Sunline Invisible on another set up but it's 10lb. I pulled in a 20+lb snapping turtle last week on this line. That thing was bigger than the seats in the boat.  

42 minutes ago, OHBuckets said:

The Bassmaster Diary said go back out today from like 215-330  They weren't wrong. Lost a few, landed a few. Multiple lures were working - here's ones on a popper, ATV 2.5, and Ace Jig (craw trailer):

I just realized my first two fish pics are the same fish! I always take doubles and at quick glance this one was fat, then skinny

 

In any case, here's another

7 minutes ago, FishTank said:

@ol'crickety The 5lb I use will hold up to almost anything unless it gets kinked. I have caught all kinds of big fish on BFS gear. I have had to learn how to be patient and how to pin fish with small treble hook baits and rods the size of toothpicks.  The lakes and ponds I fish are all full of grass. I haven't had much of an issue with it. I think one of the keys to getting them in is to not to turn the fish over once it's hooked, keeping the fish just below the surface.  Next would be changing the drag on the fly to keep the fish from snapping the line. Also, I don't really set the hook hard. I let the fish hook itself.  I looked but couldn't find them.... there are two old videos, one from Gary Yamamoto and one from Yuki Ito, both had good explanations on how to do this. To many times I have seen guys, even pros, hook a fish, reel it to the boat and then turn the rod over, pulling the fish to the other side of the boat. This puts the hook on the opposite side. Once the fish jumps or pulls, they pop off. 

 

For me, I have lost more fish and lures on 50lb straight braid than the 5lb FC.  To give you another example, I have the same Sunline Invisible on another set up but it's 10lb. I pulled in a 20+lb snapping turtle last week on this line. That thing was bigger than the seats in the boat.  

@OHBuckets, I do that too. Sometimes I sit and I stare at my camera roll trying to figure out which picture is which fish. 😆

13 minutes ago, FishTank said:

@ol'crickety The 5lb I use will hold up to almost anything unless it gets kinked. I have caught all kinds of big fish on BFS gear. I have had to learn how to be patient and how to pin fish with small treble hook baits and rods the size of toothpicks.  The lakes and ponds I fish are all full of grass. I haven't had much of an issue with it. I think one of the keys to getting them in is to not to turn the fish over once it's hooked, keeping the fish just below the surface.  Next would be changing the drag on the fly to keep the fish from snapping the line. Also, I don't really set the hook hard. I let the fish hook itself.  I looked but couldn't find them.... there are two old videos, one from Gary Yamamoto and one from Yuki Ito, both had good explanations on how to do this. To many times I have seen guys, even pros, hook a fish, reel it to the boat and then turn the rod over, pulling the fish to the other side of the boat. This puts the hook on the opposite side. Once the fish jumps or pulls, they pop off. 

 

For me, I have lost more fish and lures on 50lb straight braid than the 5lb FC.  To give you another example, I have the same Sunline Invisible on another set up but it's 10lb. I pulled in a 20+lb snapping turtle last week on this line. That thing was bigger than the seats in the boat.  

 

I'm not sure what you mean by not turning the rod over. Do you mean from ferrules up to ferrules down or the rod's to the right of my torso and then the left?

48 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

 

I'm not sure what you mean by not turning the rod over. Do you mean from ferrules up to ferrules down or the rod's to the right of my torso and then the left?

I've posted this before. Go to the 42:00 minute mark. This shows what I am talking about when I say turning the rod over but you are actually turning the fish over as well. 

 

One important thing about that 5lb line..... On a boat or kayak, I am using a net every single time no matter if it's a dink or a monster.  I also retie often. 

 

 

Switching sides. Got it and I'll try it. Thanks.

Fish were mostly noncompliant, so it was nice being distracted by this eagle on the shore we were working. 

 

First, most, and biggest again... kid needs to go back to college 😆

 

Yep, that was it for me...

 

Thought the rainy weather yesterday might be good, and it was for my son but we caught mostly small pike.  My son had the hot stick catching about a dozen, including his new PB lmb at 3.74# caught on a b&b chatterbait.  He caught another that was very long, but skinny and only weighted 3.3#, that one on a flashy swimmer.  It seemed the fish wanted moving baits in the middle of the water column in 6-10ft. yesterday.  Dad got trampled, I only caught one 2.5er on a frog and a couple small pike so didn’t make the podium for any photos.lol

 

Our bass opener here was yesterday. It was WAY too wet and miserable to take the boat out, but luckily I was able to walk behind the house to the river that runs through our property and scratch the itch! I’ve not missed an opener in well over 30 years, so it sure was nice to have the “ extreme local” option to catch a few😏

Funny bite this morning - ran out at 0630 to throw topwaters in the windy sprinkles before the real storm. Had the 'First Cast Curse' where this largie crushed my skimmer spook. Then proceeded to walk the bank and miss at least 6 - just rolling over it, zero hooksets.

 

Then went for a spinach and feta omelet with hash browns, an english muffin, and a side of bacon

I'm launching at five. At seven, heavy rain is forecast, .7" in one hour. It's gonna be pounding! 

A few more little ones from me.