Top water bite wad good to me.

 

 

 

Caught on the same crankbait at the same time.

 

 

Well with the new moon coming I figured I better fish a little harder than normal and was rewarded handsomely yesterday.

 

After work a storm was set to roll through hard and wet just around sunset and we said 'heck - that sounds pretty swell'.

 

We packed ourselves into the car and made our way to the ponds and only got some hits and taps with one small fish upon a mepps for an hour of our time.

 

We changed the tune and decided to hit a local spillway that has produced before but only a couple dinks - figuring maybe the weird weather would activate them.

 

Well it was a good adjustment.

 

Minutes after we arrive Jake nails a really nice fish on the ox blood dinger weightless:

 

 

A very healthy fish that portends good things and tells me we are in the right spot - maybe.

 

Jake and I make our way to the dam - me with my frog and Jake with his dinger and Jake proceeds to nail fish #2 on the finger:

 

 

I'm feeling antsy about my choice of the frog - but the storm is getting closer and the weather is getting funkier so I keep tossing it.

 

I bomb one waaaaay out into the main river channel the dam dumps into and my frog gets smoked nearly instantly in about a foot of water on a hump I know is out there.  I somehow manage a hookset and it feels nicer:

 

 

It is nicer.  Sadly it snapped my frog rod on the landing but a fish on topwater from this spot seems very odd and special.....Okay maybe we are getting somewhere with the bite.

 

I release this healthy porky fish and return the corpse of my frog rod to my trunk and retrieve my drop shot rod.  After about 3 casts I conclude a dropshot is not going to work at all with the bottom composition and retie with a weightless Zoom Speedworm in green pumpkin on a 3/0 offset worm hook.

 

I bomb my first cast out on a rocky flat and try buzzing it and it gets smoked by a dink - I land this fish and continue to try to get one buzzing the speedworm to no avail.

 

Storm is getting rather serious at this point.  Some thunder and some lightning but very far off - the rain and wind however were picking up.

 

I insist that the bite is exceptional and it's nearly a new moon - I decided to make a few more casts at some choice locations before we depart.

 

I head to the mouth of the creek that the spillway dumps into and bomb one to a sandy point that sticks out into the main channel noticeably with a ton of wood dammed up in the water just beyond where I can physically get my bait.

 

I very very slowly begin to retrieve the bait with my rod tip down.  Rain is pouring everywhere and we can't really hear anything.

 

I merely felt like I was snagged all of a sudden and then the snag began to pull back!  Oh boy fish on and it's a doozy.

 

 

We get recombombulated after the excitement of a big fish and I bite the head off my speedworm and retie my knot with shaking hands all in a matter of 1 minute and make one more cast to the same spot.

 

I begin the same barely moving retrieve.

 

This time I'm sure I'm snagged (I've lost dozens of baits at this spot to fishing line and rocks and trees limbs under water) but this snag begins to pull back and my drag slips.

 

Then she jumps.  Uh Oh.

 

 

Back to back casts yielded giant fish number 2.  This one a true NC trophy.

 

Spawned out 7 lber that would easily go 9 in the spring.

 

Incredibly healthy fish with a small mouth and a giant body.  Probably from the same school the first one came from.

 

Jake and I pack the car-  soaked in silty spillway water and rain and fish goo - with adrenaline pumping through our veins.

 

Not bad for a quick trip out after work before a storm hit around a new moon.

 

 

1 hour ago, Pat Brown said:

Sadly it snapped my frog rod on the landing but a fish on topwater from this spot seems very odd and special.....Okay maybe we are getting somewhere with the bite.

 

I broke my rod, but I got a special bite on topwater!

 

What's wrong with us? 😆

 

I was thinking I would cry a lot more over that rod, but then I scrolled down and saw the pics of the fish. Ah-ha. I understand now. And being proven right to stick it out through the storm is priceless too. 😉 Congrats on a great experience.

 

 

@Pat Brown: Way to go!!!

 

I fished my pond this evening and I continue my downhill slide...catching fewer and fewer bass. It's not just hot. It's steamy. Yeah, that humid. Plus, the sky was clear. Still, I caught eight, starting with two in the middle.

 

 

Then I caught my best bass tight to shore. It was one of those extra fun bass because there were weeds behind weeds by weeds atop weeds beneath weeds. So, boating her was a rush.

 

 

I picked up a couple more nice ones and finished with eight bass, all lmb, and all on an underspin and wakebait.

 

 

 

Fished crystal clear water today. Landed a nice bass off a wacky worm in about 3 foot of water

It was hot but the fish were biting at midday. I was fishing offshore rock in 12-20’. Got on a few with a 10” worm

 

They were also eating the swimbait pretty well in similar areas.

 

I need to get some or 'y'all to re teach me how to catch Bass.  I went yesterday morning and caught one 14 inch Spot.  I found a few scattered Bass but for the most part I couldn't even coax a look or follow.   I decided to try at night.  That was no better.  I went last night around midnight and fished until 4AM.  I caught one dink Largemouth.  My night pictures are usually pretty bad so I didn't even attempt for a dink.    Both were on points in 12 to 14 feet of water.   Both were on a 6 inch Texas rigged "trick" worm with 1/8 ounce weight.  

 

@Woody B: If anyone teaches you how to catch bass again, please send that teacher to me too. I was catching 45 bass per outing mere weeks ago. Last night I caught eight and I felt lucky to catch eight because they just weren't hitting.

 

It's confusing because the water looks soooooo bassy now with all the weeds.

 

There was another boat near mine with three anglers and they caught none, so, yeah, I felt lucky to catch what I did, but here are my catch rates for my last three outings: 22...15...8.

 

At this rate, I'll catch two next time or be smooched by this guy:

 

 

@Fried Lemons: Great fishing, but I beg you: Please delete that pic of the deformed bass!

14 hours ago, Fried Lemons said:

They were also eating the swimbait pretty well in similar areas.

 

That first one on the rising son has a crazy curvature! Nicely done btw... what a great trip!

 

2 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

@Woody B: If anyone teaches you how to catch bass again, please send that teacher to me too. I was catching 45 bass per outing mere weeks ago. Last night I caught eight and I felt lucky to catch eight because they just weren't hitting.

You jinxed yourself with all that happy to just be on the water nonsense.  😎😉😆 

2 hours ago, NorcalBassin said:

You jinxed yourself with all that happy to just be on the water nonsense.  😎😉😆 

 

I don't need bass for bliss. I don't think you do either. 

 

Pops + your kid = West Coast Bliss

6 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

I don't need bass for bliss. I don't think you do either. 

Pops + your kid = West Coast Bliss

You know I'm just messing with you! And speaking of...

 

We were able to sneak in one last evening trip before she headed back to college. Of course she broke the first rule again and caught the first fish.

 

I could almost hear this fella say "toss it back on the bank." 😆

 

"Biggest" bass of the evening 

 

Apparently even bluegill like underpins.

 

Double hookup and I was relieved when she boat flipped hers. 😆

 

Beautiful sunset to top off a great evening.

@NorcalBassin I absolutely love seeing stuff like this.  Fishing with my kids are my most special days.  My son is a keener, my daughter likes fishing but all conditions need to be perfect - not early, not too hot, not for too long… lol

I was up north for work last week (Thunder Bay area) and came back to some much improved fishing.  A buddy and I were on the water at 5:30am at a favourite small lake, and the fish actually cooperated.  We started on a long underwater point and I had some luck with a couple good smallmouth (3.2# and 3.7#) on an underspin with a white paddletail.  After about 45 min. I picked up my cranking setup.  Went to bomb my first cast, and as I did I notice the line was looped at the end but it was too late to react and I pulled the second rod guide off because the line had been looped behind it. 😕 Still functional, so I went to cranking parallel to the slope/weedline in 12-16ft. of water and picked up a nice largemouth on my third toss but then crickets with the crankbait.  After a while I switched gears and threw a Tokyo rigged 10” Power Worm around the inside curve of the weed line, closer to shore in 8-10ft. of water.  I picked up a couple 2-2.5# lmb within 5 minutes - I love that 5/0 hookset.😁 My buddy had caught a few and lost a few, so within about 1.5 hours of fishing we were into double digits.👍🏻

 

We fished some more weed lines and settled on 8-10ft. of water right on the weed edges as the pattern.  Both of us dragging worms and we caught another 10 or so in an area that’s been good to us in the past, but that was over about 2 hours.  That bite died, so we moved to a little hot spot I’d found on a previous trip.  It’s a very specific spot in about 14ft. of water where there’s a tree top with weeds on the bottom, or maybe it’s a rock covered in weeds (if I think of it next time, I’ll idle over it and take a pic of my graph to see what you guys think it is).  We rolled up on that, hit Spotlock and I told my buddy the cast to make.  The fish were there, and between his TR worm and my Berkley Hit Worm on a dropshot we boated 6 more 1.5-2.5# lmb in about 15 minutes. 😎

 

By then it was about 9:30am and the heat quickly got bad (88F, humidex 100F - that’s extremely hot for up here).  We pressed on fishing for another 1.5 hours with only a couple small bites, then called it a great morning and bailed.  I turned the AC in the truck to “Canadian” and by the time the boat was packed up it felt like heaven in there. 😊

 

I got home about 1:30.  Wes (my son) made me an awesome 2 egg sandwich on a bagel, then I shaved, showered, and absolutely crashed for a 2.5 hour nap.  Wes was suuuper pumped about fishing and I’d told him we’d go in the evening.  Wes had to wake me and I was not too thrilled about going back out in the heat, but it wasn’t too bad once we were on the water around 6pm.  We went out on a different lake and caught about 1/2 dozen each, including a nice fattie for me on a frog.  Wes don’t want any pictures of him or his fish, said they weren’t big enough.

 

So after struggling through July, today was a great day of fishing - hopefully I’ve turned the corner on my summer slump. 🤞🏻

@The Baron: So happy for you! Happy for @NorcalBassin and his clan too!

Had to run down to the lakehouse and cut the grass yesterday, as well as pick my boat up from my moms house (I left it there Saturday because my truck was overheating when I was driving thru her city)

 

after I got done with the grass , it was blistering hot. Perfect gar fishing conditions. So I chased several gar and missed the one we call the white whale, it appears to be 50 inches. Then I missed the white whales green cousin who was nearly as big, looked like shark snapping repeatedly at my jerkbait. It was about time to go home and I don’t like getting skunked so I fished a plastic worm on the way back to my dock and caught two bass. I recall @A-Jay saying 81 was the warmest water he had caught SMB so I snapped a pic of one with the depth finder temp showing 88 at the console. Then got another tiny LM casting to the neighbors swim ladder (for some reason there are always fish on the ladders at docks). 
 

then after getting home and looking at photos, I think the smallmouth I caught was actually a meanmouth 
 

My buddy took me for a ride in his new to him boat yesterday after work. Pretty sweet little rig, a river hawk with a 9.9 4 stroke. We floated downstream and picked our way back up river, hitting plenty of rocks to break it in proper. I told him I was coming straight from work in boots so I couldn’t help drag back up thru the rapids so he had to treat me like cleopatra 😂 

 

he got the biggest of the journey, a SMB that hit a deceiver on an 8 wt fly rod

 

i caught lots of little SMB, a rock bass, and a redbreast sunfish

 

 

 

On 8/4/2024 at 8:15 PM, NorcalBassin said:

Apparently even bluegill like underpins.

Does that look like some kind of Hybrid to you? Looks like somebody got into that Bluegill bed that was not all Bluegill.

1 hour ago, Blue Raider Bob said:

Does that look like some kind of Hybrid to you? Looks like somebody got into that Bluegill bed that was not all Bluegill.

Looks like green sunfish might have been the interloper 

50 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Looks like green sunfish might have been the interloper 

That was my thinking. I have a Hybrid in my pond I see daily. It appears to be BG and Redear. Wish I could post a picture but water clarity is not good. It has the vertical bands of a BG but it is green with a large gill flap with a white boundary. The boundary has no red spot at all but it has the Shellcracker look. He certainly has an appetite.

On 8/4/2024 at 8:15 PM, NorcalBassin said:

You know I'm just messing with you! And speaking of...

 

We were able to sneak in one last evening trip before she headed back to college. Of course she broke the first rule again and caught the first fish.

 

I could almost hear this fella say "toss it back on the bank." 😆

 

"Biggest" bass of the evening 

 

Apparently even bluegill like underpins.

 

Double hookup and I was relieved when she boat flipped hers. 😆

 

Beautiful sunset to top off a great evening.

Ya' know Norcal....when she is aged and slow like I am, she will still have these powerful memories to relive again and again. These special moments are momentous for you , but it is she that will use them the longest. So proud to get to watch and live through your journeys! Only when my eyes close forever will I finally say goodbye to my dad, though he's been gone since '93.

I gave up fishing at any of my local spots following last Monday's attempt. After a month and a half of relentless heat and lack of any meaningful rain they're nearly unfishable. A better way to say is that it's just too tedious to deal with, and I generally like fishing very heavy cover. But it's different this year. Topped out with weeds is one thing, but when they're covered in shore to shore cheese it's another thing altogether. Sounds like good frogging conditions but it actually isn't. The water is just stagnant under the cheese and withering milfoil, and deeper water is out of reach.

 

Thankfully, yesterday I got a last minute invite out to a deep water eastern LI lake for a later afternoon sesh. Time was short so it was run n gun mostly, and we found some good zones but the bites were super subtle. My fishing partner didn't check the hook on his new-out-of-the-box Dark Sleeper. He should have, because we lost count of how many fish he had shake off including a really nice mama just 1" from the net.

 

Mine bit on a BBB Trick Stick in Prime Rib rigged on a VMC Rugby Head, a Launch Frog, and Fish Arrow Heavy Poop. Just at dusk, it was my turn in the barrel. Had a freakin mondo shake off right at the net after it went airborne one last time. I knew beforehand I should've swapped out the stock hooks on my Bullshad, but it is what it is. The bite was good compared to my home waters, so even with the near misses it was a fine day.

 

2 hours ago, Blue Raider Bob said:

Ya' know Norcal....when she is aged and slow like I am, she will still have these powerful memories to relive again and again. These special moments are momentous for you , but it is she that will use them the longest. So proud to get to watch and live through your journeys! Only when my eyes close forever will I finally say goodbye to my dad, though he's been gone since '93.

 

^This^ brought tears to my eyes.

 

And @PhishLI's fish put a big smile on my face.

My fishing numbers went off a cliff a couple weeks ago, from 35-60-bass mornings to a fourth of that. So, instead of fishing primetime morning, I launched this afternoon after a cold front and surprisingly caught 25. I usually determine which lure works best and stick with that, but today the watermelon Zoom Trick Worm, junebug Zoom Mag Monster, Bronco Bug-tipped spinnerbait, and Mayor on an underspin all worked equally well. I did have a titanic hit on my Junebug T-rigged Mag Monster and set the hook into what felt like a boulder, but she was in a horrible location with rocks, trees, bushes, weeds, and current and I couldn't keep her pinned for more than a couple seconds. For those couple seconds though, the amount of water she moved was awesome.

 

I didn't catch anything big, but a lot of bass from 2.5 to 3.3 pounds. Here are four of them:

 

 

P. S. - At one point today, I had a hooked smallmouth that leapt as an eagle flew over it while a float plane flew over the eagle. It doesn't get any more northwoodsy than that. 

 

A very hot river day but the fish were biting.  Add another seven pike and a perch to these guys.  All came on a chatterbait.

 

Got this skinny fish on a super fluke.