14 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

@Swamp Girl, that was when I was catching shad near home  early this AM. It was up into the mid 30s by the time we got to the lake and was almost pleasant by afternoon 

 

I stand by my post. I secretly took some footage of you warming up to cast the net for shad:

 

A lil guy 

 

 

A big guy 

 

 

A sunset 

 

 

A happy family 😊

 

Went a little further south on Sunday to a small, cold water lake, another one of my usual winter lakes. It's very shallow with fairly clear water and lots of grass, which seems to be key for a good winter bite. I caught a couple off the dam on a crankbait, but it was obvious that the grass was obvious starting to grow. I was hoping that was going to be a good thing, but it was not. The bite was very sporadic, with long lulls in between bites and then a few spots that were loaded up with fish. I was hoping the flatsided crank and bladed jig would be working good, but they accounted for a total of 4 fish combined.

So basically, Ned ruled the day. The fish were mostly small, but a couple were better sized fish. I decided to give the Seaguar Pounce leader a real test, so I didn't retie all day. I caught 2 fish on a flatside, 2 on a bladed jig, 2 on a Money Badger, 1 on a Texas Rig, and 34 on my Ned rig with 8lb Pounce leader, without retying or breaking off once. I do swim my Ned a lot on this lake with the abundance of grass, but still the abrasion of the bass' teeth will wear through a leader that size after a while also. My biggest bass of the day was also in the end of a tree and rubbed on the limbs, and it still held up.

Then right as I was paddling up to the bank to end the day, I found a $20 bill floating right next to the shoreline.

On 3/1/2025 at 11:47 AM, lunkerboss923 said:

after work every day.

My theory is we need to swap jobs!

Finally got to change lakes to a much shallower, almost muddy water lake today with water temps in the low 50s (51-53). As I thought, I found active fish fairly shallow despite the lake being down 2-3 ft below normal. Was a nice change of pace from the past 2 months of fishing.

 

 

Returned to the mud today and expanded on the bite from Tues. Ended with a double limit caught on a mix of cranks and jigs in 51-53 deg. water. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

@Team9nine: Thick bass, buddy!

 

You are scoring and I'm living like Uncle Rico.

 

 

Here's why: I found about two feet of open water today. I kid you not, if coach had only given me a rod and reel, I would have cast at that patch of open water and I would have caught thick bass like yours! No question about it.

Shout out to @Siebert Outdoors. Until today I had ZERO confidence in red Chatterbaits. Ordered a couple recently and whattayouknow - 24 inch 7.35 pound LMB. “Hot Sauce” is my new favorite color

@FryDog62: Yee-haw! I'm so excited to use my @Siebert Outdoors's spinnerbaits too. 

 

It looks like you're tight to the shore, Mr. 62. Was she tight to the shore too?

22 minutes ago, Swamp Girl said:

@FryDog62: Yee-haw! I'm so excited to use my @Siebert Outdoors's spinnerbaits too. 

 

It looks like you're tight to the shore, Mr. 62. Was she tight to the shore too?

Just out from shore in 4-5 fow… 51 degree water temp pre-spawn.

 

It was a cluster of a time. Net got caught in a rod/lure behind me, went to net it and the entire rod/reel went in the drink. Still stuck on the net though, but I couldn’t get the fish scooped up. Fish then dove and the line got caught on a notch in my paddle.  Pulled that loose and I grabbed her jaw as the paddle floated away. Couldn’t get the camera in the cradle to take a photo. I heard a voice of someone that had floated up to me and watched the whole thing. He snapped a few shots from afar as I tried to unwind everything and release the fish. Doesn’t look like a 24 incher, picture doesn’t do it justice but I put it on the scale at 7.35.
 

I did not deserve that fish, I need a different net with a shorter handle in close quarters in a kayak, this has happened before where I lost the fish..  - - 

 

30 minutes ago, FryDog62 said:

It was a cluster of a time.

 

Been there, done that.

 

I'm just glad you got to hold her!

 

31 minutes ago, FryDog62 said:

Just out from shore in 4-5 fow…

 

I catch so many of my bass at that depth close to shore. 

I went out yesterday for about six hours.  Started off at a pond fishing with jerkbaits, spinnerbaits, crankbaits, and lipless crankbaits.  Never got a bite.  After about three hours I headed over to pond #2.  I got my first bass of 2025 on my third cast with a creature bait on a free rig.

It's official! Heck yeah! NEO unlocked today - I literally watched the ice dissolve with the wind and water.

 

Thank gawd, on the 2025 board. Chocolate milk water, 1-2" visibility dragging a t-rig dark chocolate senko with sapphire flakes. Didn't think I'd have water, so went for a haircut and thought WTH take a rod. So one rod, one weight, one hook, one worm -> one good fish!

 

It definitely took a little while to finally get on the water, however my first trip of 2025 was a personal success with this 4.4lber coming aboard. With 58 degree water and 71 degree air temps it sure seemed like better fishing is just around the corner.

Back to back to back posts of members getting on the board for the first time in 2025......Let's GOOOOO gents!   

 

 

 

 

@J._Bricker: Nice bass, but I couldn't take my eyes off your outerwear. I see an undershirt, a hoody, and a jacket. And it's 71 degrees! If you came to Maine, I think you'd have to wear five sleeping bags. 

 

I'm not complaining. I'm as jelly as Smuckers...both about the bass and that warm breeze.

15 hours ago, Swamp Girl said:

@J._Bricker: Nice bass, but I couldn't take my eyes off your outerwear. I see an undershirt, a hoody, and a jacket. And it's 71 degrees! If you came to Maine, I think you'd have to wear five sleeping bags. 

 

I'm not complaining. I'm as jelly as Smuckers...both about the bass and that warm breeze.

Ah, yes Katy hahaha it was 71 degrees- when I got back to the ramp and started the truck. In another three months air temperatures will rise to around triple digits here in the Big Valley, fortunately it’s a comfortable dry heat. And all that haberdashery is welcome when the boats on plane, I was heading back when I decided to hit one last spot because I was there. Definitely glad I did 😁. 
 

And as for the Smuckers comment- how’d you guess what I brought for lunch? It’s my jam 

@J._Bricker: Great, just great! Now I have three reasons to be jelly:

 

1. Your warm weather.

 

2. Your big bass.

 

3. You were full of jelly!

Went out Sunday hoping to find some big prespawners with the warming trend. If I'd put every bass I caught together, I could have made a good 5 fish limit, problem was, I caught 52 of them. 52 bass, and the biggest was 13", smallest was 9.25". I don't know how I caught that many fish and not a single one was any bigger, but I sure did. I did manage to Ned rig a limit of trout, including a nice 20.5" fish, and this really fat 18" rainbow.

This was my last trip locally. I'll be headed to Texas Friday. 

@Bluebasser86: Considering you catch the thickest bass at Bass Resource, that was a weird trip. At least the rainbow represented

5 minutes ago, Swamp Girl said:

@Bluebasser86: Considering you catch the thickest bass at Bass Resource, that was a weird trip. At least the rainbow represented

I'm hoping I'm saving up to catch a DD at Fork next week. 

1 minute ago, Bluebasser86 said:

I'm hoping I'm saving up to catch a DD at Fork next week. 

 

If that's the way it works, I'm going dink fishing too!

I've struggled fishing from the bank so far this year so I was excited about my first trip of 2025 in a boat. The air temp started out in the upper 30s, but warmed up to a perfect 70 degrees. Bluebird skies, 50 degree water temp. It started immediately. I hooked up on the first cast! I was pumped...until it turned out to be a drum. Sorry, no picture @TnRiver46.🤣

 

That was the last bite for over an hour, and the next bite was just a dink smallmouth. After the dink we got nothing for about two hours. The wind was blowing hard against the current which made it tough to manage the boat. We were getting frustrated, but things finally started improving. After only catching two fish for the first three hours, we got 8 in the next two hours. The best two are pictured below. It slowed down again after that burst of activity. We only managed 2 more over the final two hours, but these two fish are enough to make it a good day.

 

4 lb 9 oz smallmouth

 

4 lb 13 oz largemouth

@Fishlegs:

 

@Fishlegs   What an amazing day!    Such beautiful and healthy fish as well.