16 minutes ago, Pat Brown said:

It was a fantastic summer full of bass and memories.

 

Thanks for sharing your summer with us, Pat. Jake will change so much in the coming year, but he has a ways to go before he can outfish his pops, who has such a nose for bass. 

3 hours ago, gimruis said:

 

Please do us and the fish a favor.  Remove that metal j-hook from your scale and replace it with a clamp.  I cringe every time I see photos of that thing shoved into a fish's gills.  Plus they can flop off very easily from it.

I will, I just picked this one up in a pinch until my Berkley scale with a clamp comes in. I had one, but it stopped working and my local stores didn't have any like it.

@Pat Brown whats with the black rubber gloves?

@gimruis Really nasty infection with open wounds and stuff.  Had to get on antibiotics.  Don't get dirty water and fish slime in your little cuts and dings on your hands kids!

 

Have to keep them clean and dry until they fully heal which could take a while.  Hopefully won't need another round of antibiotics.

Makes total sense.  I'd be wearing them too if that was the case.

1 hour ago, Pat Brown said:

Don't get dirty water and fish slime in your little cuts and dings on your hands kids!

Rut Ro Raggy... Here lies T-Billy, cause of death... infected case of muskie knuckle. 😂

 Joking aside, I hope ya heal up soon Pat. Some nice fishes ya been catching. Congrats.

I also struggle with summer cuts and infection. I've got three things nicking me: a needle-toothed puppy, fishing, and gardening. One cut heals and two more open. Sigh. 

I'm a mechanic.  Cuts are part of my life.  Make sure your Tetanus shot is current.  

Another couple days of slow fishing this weekend.  Fished dawn until 1pm with my son and a friend of his on Saturday.  I only caught a few 1.5-2.5# largemouth, my son caught a nice smallie that was long and surprisingly light at 3.4# (take a look at the photo and tell me what you think the two dents could be from?).  Wes’ buddy caught only one 1# largemouth early on.  The boys are both 14 and when the fishing proved to be slow they got acting goofy, not listening and then Wes was whining about how hot it was (it wasn’t hot).  His friend was casting very aggressively and thought all the bluegill nibbles were big bass he had to violently hookset then say oh, I missed it that was big. I tried to coach him a bit, but he didn’t listen so I gave up and concentrated on not drowning anyone. 🙄😒#yerbugginme

 

Sunday I took a good friend and his 13yo. son to a favourite small lake.  My friend used to fish the lake with his dad, and his son had only been there once before when he was young.  They were great guests and it was a pleasure to take them to experience that together.  His son has a great sense of humour and despite slow fishing he stayed in good spirits.  We had some good natured ribbing when he declared it a tournament and kept changing the rules when I was winning.  It was a weird day and seemed I caught the first and only fish at each new spot, then there’d be no other bites so we’d move to a new weed bed or hump and I’d do it again even when I hung back and let my guests take a few casts first.🤷🏼‍♂️  I caught 1/2 doz. including one solid bass and a pike that could swim through the eye of a needle - he had some gill damage (not from me) and was obviously struggling, but still fought like a pike does.  My buddy got 1 pike and unfortunately his son struck out (had one pike bite him off, that was it).  I’ll be trying again to get his young lad out for a better day. 🤞🏻

23 minutes ago, The Baron said:

and a pike that could swim through the eye of a needle

Wow, no kidding. That thing is a flag pole.

 

The largie is healthy looking tho.

I think the dents are too perfect to be an injury. I think they're a birth defect. 

 

I love that fat bass!

Took the family to the lake Sunday to meet my MIL with her pontoon and jetski. We got there a little before the rest of the group and caught some fish before they showed up. Once they were there, the kids hopped onto the pontoon to go swimming with their cousins. It was triple digit heat indexes but not awful with a good amount of wind blowing. Mrs. Blue and I had the rare chance to get out and fish by ourselves and the fish were more than willing to bite despite the heat. Not a lot of bigger fish, but lots of biters and hard pullers. 

 

@Bluebasser86: Hear, hear for hard-pulling bass and an afternoon with your sweetheart! 

12 hours ago, Woody B said:

I'm a mechanic.  Cuts are part of my life.  Make sure your Tetanus shot is current.  

 

 

Hah!  I get cuts every day too but I've never had a septic infection.  Apparently it is not unheard of for people who handle fish.

@Bluebasser86 nice trunks I've got the same lol

 

@Pat Brown pretty sure that's the issue you can have when catfish get ya with those barbs

8 minutes ago, hokiehunter373 said:

@Bluebasser86 nice trunks I've got the same lol

 

@Pat Brown pretty sure that's the issue you can have when catfish get ya with those barbs

 

 

Yeah absolutely - I think basically this time of year it's hot and there's lots of....stuff...in the water - stuff is also dying so there's lots of rotting and decay and fungal and bacterial blooming.

 

Then you've got 12 inches of rain pushing Lord knows what into the waters I fish.

 

Then add to that the fact that I caught some big very floppy bass with very sharp lips ripping up my hands - biting really good in a nasty spillway.

 

Well yeah it was a perfect storm.  Debby's revenge!

 

😂😂😂😂😂😂

Mrs @Bluebasser86 always catches the SMB 

I launched at a small, boggy pond this morning, the pond where I caught my PB last spring. I have gone there again and again looking to catch that girl again or her big sister, but other than a few four-pounders, I have failed to dance with a big mama. This morning appeared to be perfect conditions with calm and fog. 

 

 

I caught 26 total, but my first 16 were the size of this bass, which was my first:

 

 

Finally, my 17th bass was bigger:

 

 

I was working weed fields:

 

 

My 19th bass was solid too:

 

 

I also caught some that were short, but fat:

 

 

 

And one more thick fish.

 

 

The requisite pretty pic:

 

 

I finished the morning like I started, with another cookie cutter, smallish bass:

 

53 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Mrs @Bluebasser86 always catches the SMB 

They’re her favorite. She loves fishing a Ned so it makes sense. She somehow managed to only catch smallmouth Sunday too while I also caught drum, crappie, catfish, sunfish, and a spotted bass but fished a Ned way less 🤷🏼‍♂️

4 minutes ago, Bluebasser86 said:

They’re her favorite. She loves fishing a Ned so it makes sense. She somehow managed to only catch smallmouth Sunday too while I also caught drum, crappie, catfish, sunfish, and a spotted bass but fished a Ned way less 🤷🏼‍♂️

 

I could not fish a Ned in most of my ponds and bogs. I'd catch only weeds. 

 

Clayton, of all the bass that are posted in this thread, I think yours look the most like mine. We both catch thick fish. If I put them on a bump board, they really bulge, but I've come to fear the bump board because they don't always stay put and once they start flopping on the floor on my canoe, they can flop all the way to the bow or stern and getting them is not easy.

24 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

 

I could not fish a Ned in most of my ponds and bogs. I'd catch only weeds. 

 

Clayton, of all the bass that are posted in this thread, I think yours look the most like mine. We both catch thick fish. If I put them on a bump board, they really bulge, but I've come to fear the bump board because they don't always stay put and once they start flopping on the floor on my canoe, they can flop all the way to the bow or stern and getting them is not easy.

I fish a Ned through weeds and wood that would shock most. Ned searches out weeds to target in most of his fishing trips and has lamented the states war against aquatic vegetation and its detrimental effect on our lakes in many of his reports. If you can find the tiniest space to fish one, they’ll pluck fish right out of those weeds if you’re willing to deal with the headache of cleaning weeds. I don’t think it’s probably worth the hassle from your reports though, doesn’t seem you have any issue getting bit on standard presentations.

52 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

I could not fish a Ned in most of my ponds and bogs

But you can if you use these:

I routinely fish them through this:

6 hours ago, Pat Brown said:

I get cuts every day too but I've never had a septic infection. 

 

Septicemia is no joke.  If you get the wrong one, it can be fatal.  One of my fishing friend's Father got one on a Canadian fishing trip last year and it got so bad, they had to amputate one of his infected fingers off.  An open cut from handling walleyes and pike went untreated.

 

Another good reason to stay on top of your tetanus shot.

Originally planned on going tomorrow (and I still might).

Either way, I called an audible and hit local Lake Menderchuck for an afternoon trip.

Surface water temps were still 75, despite a cold east wind

and mostly bogus on & off rain in my face.

Been a while since I've fished in the rain but I knew the boating traffic

would be non-existent in that mess, so I went for it. 

The brown bass were, for the most part, fairly cooperative.

A swinghead with a Keitech Swing Impact FAT Swimbait did all the damage today.

Got plenty of bites and I needed every one.

A-Jay

 

Ya know, I think it’s really nice in the last few weeks of summer when alarm clock goes off at 0330 and I could turn it off, go back to sleep because there’s no 0500 sunrise. So when I finally get out of the rack, get underway and missing the morning topwater bite is an afterthought. When I get to the launch ramp I find no sign of a breeze, the tide has about an hour left before it bottoms out and almost 73 degree water temps. Good thing the fish were unaware of this, that air temps were gonna hit 98 degrees, because the bite was pretty good. Best fish of the day was a 4.29lber punching and a 4.58lber on a GYCB stickbait.