Got on some cookie cutters despite my best efforts. 2 on a weedless swimbait in the grass, 2 on a line thru one on offshore rock another skipping under docks. Missed 2 more in the grass and one on a ledge. They were chewing, just not the size I was after.

 

 

 

@ol'crickety catches 19-inchers and she's thrilled.

 

@Fried Lemons catches 19-inchers and he says, "...just not the size I was after."

56 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

@ol'crickety catches 19-inchers and she's thrilled.

 

@Fried Lemons catches 19-inchers and he says, "...just not the size I was after."

Considering I'm bound to the shore this year, I'm thrilled when I catch 13-inchers.

6 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

Considering I'm bound to the shore this year, I'm thrilled when I catch 13-inchers.

 

If I were shore bound too, I'd be catching the same.

1 hour ago, ol'crickety said:

@ol'crickety catches 19-inchers and she's thrilled.

 

@Fried Lemons catches 19-inchers and he says, "...just not the size I was after."

I was thinking the same thing haha. I’d probably write a letter home to mom if I caught those 

Got to fish from a boat for the first time in 2 months. Just been a busy, and hot summer. We started out with temps in the upper 50s, which is rare for us in August. The fishing was hot while the temp was cool. We caught 16 before noon, and only 2 after noon. Nothing big, but the morning was a nice preview of fall. The one below had some nice markings.

 

 

I caught one so small it was hilarious. I felt a strike, pulled back, felt no resistance so I let up. Then I thought I felt the line move so I pulled back again. Again, felt no resistance so I let up. I decided that I must have snagged some grass, or a stick so I reeled in and found the beast below on the hook. 🤣

 

I can check off another one for the Senko. 

 

 

I'm not sayin a 5in Senko will catch everything in a lake but come on... really. 

19 minutes ago, FishTank said:

I can check off another one for the Senko. 

 

 

I'm not sayin a 5in Senko will catch everything in a lake but come on... really. 

Eat that bad boy! 🤣😂🤣

Only been able to get out twice in the last two weeks between work and the thunderstorms, did okay both trips.

 

First cast I hooked into this one on the chatterbait that went 3.55lb

 

Not a bad fish and I was hoping first cast curse wouldn't get me. I caught a handful more, but I did lose a much nicer fish also on the chatterbait right at the bank. Spit it on the jump right at my feet, got a good look at her and she looked ~6lb. Not one of the behemoths that lurks that pond but a sore loss for me when big girls have been slim pickings lately.

 

It was kind of the breaking point for me with my chatterbait setup. I've caught quite a few large fish with a couple over 7lb on it, but I have lost far too many big ones. At first I thought braid to leader was letting them get slack too often on the jump, so I switched to mono. This helped a lot and I landed more big ones than I did with braid, but I was still losing too many. Throwing it on a MH/F graphite rod, but it bends deep into the blank, very moderate for a "fast" rod IMO. Ended up seeing a deal on the Intenza glass on American Legacy for 100 bucks so I figured I'd give glass a shot and see since so many chatterbait anglers swear by it.

 

Today was the first trip since it showed up, and so far I'm not disappointed. I didn't hook into any big ones, biggest only went 2.29lb but I didn't lose any fish, including one that was just baaarely skin hooked. Time will tell if this is the solution for me. Losing fish is part of the game, but hopefully this switch minimizes it.

 

They were busting hard on schooling shad later in the evening, I should've been throwing a small jerkbait into those bait balls and I would've cleaned house, but I left it at home wanting to put time into testing this combo. Alas, still ended the evening with 10, including this chunky little guy on a Rage Bug:

17 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

@ol'crickety catches 19-inchers and she's thrilled.

 

@Fried Lemons catches 19-inchers and he says, "...just not the size I was after."

Right? Lol Nothing wrong with his feelings of course, but a 19" bass thrills me too. That's a nice quality fish in every definition of the book. And anything 20+ for me is the cherry on top.

 

I've caught more 19 and 20 inch bass this year than I ever have before, and it never ceases to amaze me just how big these things are and how much surface area they take up at that size. 

@Fried Lemons even has the chutzpah to outfish us from a de facto surfboard in bare feet. I'm glad he doesn't post pics of his rods and reels. I fear he's outfishing us with a Snoopy rod and reel. 

 

@Aaron_H: It's good to see you posting again!

Last Saturday was another stop for the Kansas Kayak Anglers tournament circuit, this time it was a roadrunner format. I thought it was the same as last year's format, but found out a month ago that it wasn't. Instead, this year we were allowed to fish any state lake in Kansas. This threw a major wrench in my plan because our state lakes are mostly terrible and especially the ones close to my area. I had time to prefish a couple of them leading up to the event and settled on Montgomery State Lake near Independence, KS as my destination despite having only ever fished the lake once just 2 weeks before. 

 

I camped near one of the ramps the night before and the "30% chance of storms", turned into wild thunderstorms with torrential downpours, high winds, excessive lightning, even hail, for about 6 hours straight. Everything in my tent was soaked and I got very little sleep. At least the storms had mostly passed by launch and there was only distant flashes by the time first cast came at 6AM. 2 other guys had chosen to fish the lake also but launched from a different ramp so I didn't know who they were. I started fishing right at the ramp and just a few cast into the morning with my bladed jig, I caught a 15.75".

I fished around the cove a little and ended up catching a small limit, which was a surprise for me as my first trip I was averaging about a bite a hour and it wasn't even 7 when I caught my 5th fish. The lake is shallow and dirty with weeds all around it. I had heard lots of fish in the very shallow weeds, so I ran a toad between some cattails and water willows and got one to suck it down. A little better fish at 16.75"

The lake had probably dropped a foot since I fished it the first time 2 weeks ago and a lot of the weeds I'd caught them in then were barely in the water, so I was really struggling. It had become clear that I didn't know the other 2 fishermen on the lake, but they knew each other. I was right across the small lake from them when I swear I heard one of them exclaim to the other "I just caught another 20!" Not what I was wanting to hear. 

 

I needed to make a change because the size had gone way down on the fish. So I took off the now useless frog that I had put on, I tied on a spinnerbait. Not ideal to fish a spinnerbait on a 7' 3" H/F with 65lb braid, but I didn't have high hopes for it in the 90* water anyways. So my second cast, it got slammed and she jumped as high as I've ever seen a fish that size get. Really glad I had a trailer hook because it wasn't hooked great, but I still got the 20.50" fish in the net and on the board.

I caught several more small fish, including a small cull, but nothing like I needed. There is a pretty sizeable creek that I'd caught some fish out of in practice, but the bites I got were in the back. So I cranked the motor on high and ran to the back of the creek. Once I got there, I skipped my Texas rig into a big laid down tree. I hadn't caught anything out of it before, but this time, there was a little pressure when I picked up, and a big head came wallowing out when I set the hook. I kept her up and moving so she couldn't get back in the tree and slid the net under her. That was one of the only bites I got back there, but at 19", it was worth the effort.

I fished around for the next couple hours and didn't catch much. My wife did her normal lunchtime check in that has a history of bringing me luck, and this time was no different. I flipped my T-rig into the grass and got thumped. Had to get off the phone so I could take the pictures of the 17 incher.

I felt like I was close, but I still had a 15.75" I wanted to get rid of. I had some really good bites on the T-rig one lay downs, but they would just whack it and drop it for some reason. In the last 30 minutes, I ran to the same spot I caught my big one and ran a bladed jig across the grass line. I had a big fish load on. I set and she was immediately on the top, shook her head, and came off. That would be the last bite I'd get and proved to be the difference between me and the other guy on the lake that was doing a little better. Turns out they both lived right by the lake and fish it all the time. His buddy that also fishes it all the time, managed a single 10.25" fish, holding up to it's reputation as a lake with big fish that are difficult to catch. 

 

I don't watch or participate in tourneys, but I sure love reading Clayton's exciting accounts. 

31 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

I don't watch or participate in tourneys, but I sure love reading Clayton's exciting accounts. 

 

I always feel like I'm there when I read his yak tourney stories.  I find the kayak bass fishing tournament scene to be very facsinating in general.

40 minutes ago, gimruis said:

I always feel like I'm there when I read his yak tourney stories.

 

Me too.

 

Wait, if three of us are in his kayak, it might be getting a little tight for Clayton to cast well.

 

41 minutes ago, gimruis said:

I find the kayak bass fishing tournament scene to be very facsinating in general.

 

Agreed. As a fellow little boat angler, they're my kin. 

3 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

Agreed. As a fellow little boat angler, they're my kin. 

 

I feel there's just a lot more strategy involved when you can't haul ass at 70 mph up the lake to the next spot.  Plus I'm in favor of the immediate catch and release (length) scoring that all of them do.

1 hour ago, gimruis said:

 

I feel there's just a lot more strategy involved when you can't haul ass at 70 mph up the lake to the next spot.  Plus I'm in favor of the immediate catch and release (length) scoring that all of them do.

 

I like the catch-and-release approach to kayaking. I used to watch one YouTube channel until I saw the angler killing smallmouth in Maine by overstuffing his live well for a tournament. 

Tuesday I met up with my good buddy Jon  for an evening boat buddy tournament. Fishing is historically very difficult there, not unusual for a single 2lb fish to win, and he’d told me it was holding up to its reputation recently. Not expecting much, the lake held its own for the first hour, producing only 4 small fish that were well short of the 15” minimum. I was starting to feel like we’d be lucky to get a keeper as we ran to a new spot when we noticed that our favorite area had opened up, so we headed back to it. The usual stretch didn’t produce, but as we fished up the other side, Jon slowly leaned back into his bladed jig rod and what he thought was grass, started pulling back. I was ready with the net and we quickly had a very solid keeper in the box. I hopped into the back and went to make a cast when on his very next cast, Jon leaned into another one. Almost an exact replica of the first, things we’re looking up quickly. We decided this was our home for the remaining couple hours and started picking it apart. I caught a just barely short on a frog before we went across the cove and started worked back to where we had originally pulled into the cove at. As we did, we both noticed a sizeable wake pushing bait along the shallow grass line. I switched my bladed jig from green pumpkin to my favorite all blue as the sunlight faded and we neared the hunting fish. We were really working that area when a fish stopped my bait as hard as one has in a while. It wanted to jump bad but I buried the rod long enough for Jon to get the net and we put a third in the box. In the last 10 minutes, we were fishing through where Jon caught his keepers when my bladed jig got smacked again. I saw a flash and it looked small so I called Jon off with the net. When I swung it in, it was obvious I shouldn’t have and the board made it more clear when it stretched over the line. We had a good laugh about it as we headed for the ramp. Of the 13 boats, only 5 other fish were weighed and only one boat had 2 fish for 4.5 pounds. Our 4 were good for almost 9 pounds and the win!

 

Clayton!!!

3 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

Clayton!!!

It was a good week. I took the family for a few hours Sunday and caught a bunch of smallmouth too.

I'd like Clayton to buy me a lottery ticket. He's on a streak. 

 

I went to my pond for 90 minutes this evening, just grabbed a couple rods for a quick session. I caught fourteen, but forgot my camera, so I took a couple photos with my cell phone. The evening light was gorgeous and the bass, like so many Maine bass, refused to pose for their photos. They just never stop fighting.

 

 

One last trip before the 90-100 degree heat returns this coming week. That will keep me off the water for a while. A mixed bag of fish that included a pair of keeper bass, including one good one. This fish was strong - couldn’t turn it or stop it. Figured it might be a big cat. Ran right out into a large fallen tree and wrapped me up. I get over to it, a little see-saw action, then nothing…then something…then nothing again. After about 60 seconds of stalemate, she somehow comes back out and free, and she’s big and green 😎

 

On 8/23/2024 at 12:17 PM, ol'crickety said:

I don't watch or participate in tourneys, but I sure love reading Clayton's exciting accounts. 

For sure @Bluebasser86 writes a good update.👍🏻

 

but I’ve got the same thought on tournaments.  That said, my son wants to fish a tournament so maybe I will someday just to say I have.  Maybe if I do that with no plans to win and just enjoy the experience, it will be fun.  But it could end up like my sporting clays career - tried one tournament just to see what it was like, zero expectations and I shot very well.  So then thought I’m good at this and as soon as I thought I’d get serious, that’s about when both engines caught fire and my tail fin fell off… ✈️ 🔥 😆

 

@Aaron_H My chatterbait setup uses copoly line and a MH/mod crankbait rod.  I’ve had great success landing with with that setup. 👍🏻  Crazy to say you lost maybe a 6# but it wasn’t one of the really big ones - a 6# up here would be the fish of the season, if not my life.  🤪

2 hours ago, The Baron said:

Crazy to say you lost maybe a 6# but it wasn’t one of the really big ones - a 6# up here would be the fish of the season, if not my life.

 

I often remember the In-Fisherman Master Angler chart, which is really a latitude equivalency chart, when it comes to LMBs. On that chart, a 6.5-pound Northern Strain LMB is equivalent to a 10-pound Southern LMB. For an Ontarian like you, I'd stretch the difference a little more and suggest that a 6-pounder in Kingston would be equivalent to a 10-pounder in Orlando, a 10.5-pounder in the Everglades, and perhaps an 11-pounder in Lake Baccarac, as you have serious winters.

 

I'm actually a little bit north of you, so I'd apply the same equivalencies to my bass, as I've a moderating ocean. You, of course, have Lake Ontario, which would also moderate your lows, but our bass still go through low metabolism stretches that last for months where they're barely feeding and growing. Of course, genetics also prevent northern bass from peaking much beyond ten pounds.  

 

What's interesting about the chart is that there is no difference between southern and northern smallmouth. A six-pounder caught in the north equals a six-pounder caught in the south. They're equally rare.

 

In the last three years, I've caught multiple 6+-pounders and especially in 2023 when I focused on the bogs. Here are some of them, all weighed or measured. Note that they're bass with bellies, except for the first one, and all have hunchbacks. For comparison, the first bass, which is the skinny one, weighed 6.54-pounds. The third and fourth fish are silly fat. I caught another two that were six and three-quarters in 2023 and a bass in 2024 that was longer and fatter than any of these, but 2024 has been more about quantity than quality simply because the quantity ponds are easier to reach, which matters because I turn 68 this month*:

 

 

The quantity ponds are also great fun and full of four and five-pounders, like this gal caught this week:

 

6 hours ago, The Baron said:

 

@Aaron_H My chatterbait setup uses copoly line and a MH/mod crankbait rod.  I’ve had great success landing with with that setup. 👍🏻  Crazy to say you lost maybe a 6# but it wasn’t one of the really big ones - a 6# up here would be the fish of the season, if not my life.  🤪

 

Our Florida bass have a very long growing season compared to O Canada, like @ol'crickety said a 6lber in your waters will be a much rarer, much older fish than the same weight this far south.

 

But yes, there are some true giants in this pond. It's not the same one I caught my DDs in, but my longest bass ever (pushing 28" or so) came from here. Sadly I caught her in the middle of June with no belly so she went 8lb 9oz, I dream of catching her in prespawn. Her head was so big I was able to comfortably fit both fists in her mouth, and her shoulders were so thick I couldn't get my hand around her.

 

I had to hold her back away from me just to get her all the way in the photo. For reference, I am 6'3" and my forearm from where my wrist is bent to the point of my elbow is 11.5". She was a big, healthy girl.