8 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

@keagbassr is baaaaccckkk!!!!

I'm never really gone. I just sometimes like to hang out under my 'lurker rock' for a while🙂

10 minutes ago, keagbassr said:

I'm never really gone. I just sometimes like to hang out under my 'lurker rock' for a while🙂

 

I think I've cast at your lurker rock and hooked you briefly. I got footage of you leaping and throwing my hook.

 

I knew you were just waiting for a thaw to continue catching big uns

Just got back from Texas this morning. The Bassmaster Kayak Classic was an adventure but the week leading up to it was pure awesomeness. I caught several bass over 5, 3 over 6, 2 over 7, 2 over 8, and one nearly 10 pounds, my second largest bass ever. Of course, I never lost a big fish all week, until tournament day, then I lost 2, but that's fishing. I'm proud with my efforts and how I did on a notoriously tough lake with no previous experience. I finished above some of the biggest names in the sport, so I did okay in my book. I'll get to writing up a recap and posting pictures and videos as I have time, but here's a little sample for now.

 

12 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

I finished above some of the biggest names in the sport

The names don’t get much bigger than @Bluebasser86 to the BR community. Looking forward to the write up.

48 minutes ago, Fishlegs said:

The names don’t get much bigger than @Bluebasser86 to the BR community. Looking forward to the write up.

 

We call him Mr. Bluebasser86!

 

Few from my kiddos first time Kayaking yesterday. Water temp 58 degrees with smallies bedding in AZ. Haven't been out in a long time.

@Bluebasser86  Congrats!!  That's a showing!

 

 

Air temps in the mid 30's, got out there for a couple hours in the clean water of a wind protected marina in NW indiana and was sticking them one after the other till the sun popped out.  Terrible pics incoming and still no scale, but landed what certainly is over 5lb and my pb.  All in all, about 18-20 in 3hrs.

 

scott

 

couple chunks to start...

 

 

A real nice one...

 

bonus brown?...

 

 

my pb....

 

@softwateronly What a fish! Congrats on the new PB!

 

@Swamp Girl I assure you there is nothing but respect for Mr. Bluebasser in my book!

Just now, Fishlegs said:

@softwateronly What a fish! Congrats on the new PB!

 

@Swamp Girl I assure you there is nothing but respect for Mr. Bluebasser in my book!

Thanks!  Just an absolute pig who's body is brutalized.  That's the most beautiful ugly fish to me.

 

scott

The Adventures of Blue goes to Lake Fork started on the 14th at 2am with an 8 hour drive to the lake. The wind was supposed to be howling all day (a recurring theme during the week), so I decided to launch from the Lake Fork Highway 19 Ramp because it was pretty protected. 

 

I put in a hard 6 hours on the water there, had 1 bite I think was a bass on a frog, caught 2 catfish on bladed jigs, and found the motherlode of gar and spawning carp before I decided to move to a different ramp. 
I moved to Fisherman’s Cove Ramp for the last 4 hours of my day. It took about 2 hours before I finally got a bite. My first Lake Fork bass was a Whopping 13.50” bass on a Neko rig. I caught a 12.25” fish on a jerkbait off a boat ramp and missed one more off a seawall on the Neko. I was not feeling great about my first day on Fork.

Day 2 I launched at Coffee Creek and went under the bridge with the intention of flipping and frogging the shallow grass. After a couple hours, I had 1 bite flipping that I missed. I headed out of the shallows and around the point to try and fish a channel swing point. Unfortunately there was boats all over it so I continued around and found some dead cattails with emerging cattails mixed in on the backside of the point I wanted to flip. As soon as I started down the bank flipping, I got cutoff by a boat about 20’ in front of me but decided to just continue on my course. Didn’t take long before I caught a little 15” fish, and a few flips later, I got another a little bigger. I figured out any spot with laid over cattails right on the bank, had a fish under it. I went from no fish, to 7 or 8 in about 30 minutes. The bite stopped when I got to the back of the pocket and there was nothing on the front, so I went to the backside of the next point. There wasn’t as much grass, but I flipped the little bit there was. One of my lifts was greeted with a little resistance so I hammered the rod back and a good fish was thrashing on the surface immediately and quickly in the net. It took me well over a solid days, but I finally had a nice Lake Fork bass in the boat. 

 

I found one more clump of cattails and flipped a 16” fish out of there, and that was it, radio silence the rest of the day.

On 3/19/2025 at 8:59 PM, Swamp Girl said:

@Pat Brown: Your little boat looks a lot like Alex/@AlabamaSpothunter's boat.

 

You both do so much more with less. @pdxfisher too. And @softwateronly is on the shore! And there are others who catch more with less. 

You're the Queen of K.I.S.S. though Katie 😎

 

You don't need no stinking Glitter Rocket, electronics, or gas/electric propulsion 😁

@softwateronly: You are smokin' hot!

 

 

3 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

You're the Queen of K.I.S.S. though Katie 😎

 

You don't need no stinking Glitter Rocket, electronics, or gas/electric propulsion 😁

 

Ha! I wouldn't have it any other way. Rather, I couldn't have it any other way or I wouldn't be able to fish most of the water I fish.

Part 2 of Blue goes to Lake Fork started on Day 3 when I decided to launch from our campground at Patriot Park. I was flipping docks and not overly impressed with the area but caught a decent fish pretty quickly on a Bang Stick under a dock. Just a few minutes later, I caught little bigger fish, around 17”, on a wacky rig. As I worked around the pocket, I was catching them pretty regularly on the T-rig and wacky rig. Lots of people were sight fishing, but I don’t have much luck with catching bedding bass so I wasn’t spending any time with the beds. As I was getting to the backside of the pocket, I saw what looked like a light spot a little deeper, and flipping the Bang Stick on it. My line took off immediately and a strong, heavy fish went ripping off for deeper water. She took me back and forth around the front of the kayak before I could get her in the net. My second big fish of the trip was a 21.25” 6.80lb chunk.

 

The bite stayed pretty steady into the next pocket, mainly on the wacky rig. There was 3 standing trees that were growing in the water. The first one was empty. The second one, my wacky rig was picked up and slowly swam off with. My hook set was super heavy, if I was at home I would have been thinking catfish, but then the fish jumped. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a bass make me nervous during a fight that wasn’t in a tournament, but I was nervous fighting this fish. I had 3 boats watching me and a chorus of cheers when I got the net under her. 
In all the years I’ve fished in Kansas, over 30 years, I’ve never caught an 8 pound bass, it took me 3 days in Texas.

I caught a few more small fish, covered a lot of water, saw 2 swamp puppies and almost ran over one,

Day 3 was a big success. I saw several other big fish caught, it was obvious this was a potential area for the tournament.

Let's go @softwateronly!   Congrats on such a beautiful smalljaw and PB!  

 

Awesome trip Clayton!!!!   That's more big fish than many will catch in years or a lifetime.   

 

Too many awesome posts/big fish to keep up with since I been gone, seems Spring is here or just right around the corner for the Bassresource universe.   Bad time to be a Bass it seems 😁

36 minutes ago, Bluebasser86 said:

In all the years I’ve fished in Kansas, over 30 years, I’ve never caught an 8 pound bass, it took me 3 days in Texas.

 

@AlabamaSpothunter has praised Texas's bass rearing program many times.

 

34 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Too many awesome posts/big fish to keep up with since I been gone

 

It's been a heckuva spring for the BR gang. I seem to remember you, Alex, starting off the parade of beshemoths with your near DD and all your sixes, sevens, and eight-pounders.

 

 

Got this one today. He spit the hook just as I was flipping him on shore, and flopped on the bank and I grabbed him for a pic. Still counts!

 

Got a couple of his brethren with a beetle spin loaded with an FF sonar minnow.

 

 

These pretty flowers were growing all over the hillside.

Part 3 of the Adventure of Blue goes to Lake Fork was on Day 4 of practice when I went and launched from the 514 Bridge. I had to drag my yak and all my gear about 50 yards down the bank to get to the water and do a gator check in the weeds before I could launch. I wasn’t positive it was a launch but the map said it was and I thought it might be a good good choice because it was hard to access. I caught a 17.75 almost immediately and was excited about the potential. It took almost 2 hours to get my second bite in a tangle of timber off a point, but it was a great kayak bass with a skinny 22” bass that was very postspawn looking (or maybe a huge male). 

 

Only one other small fish followed that one and then the winds that were not forecasted, started to blow heavily straight up the gut of the arm I was in. I made the decision to load every Back up and move. 
 

I moved to the Fork Boat Storage Ramp and caught a fish quickly on a wacky rig. Right next to the first dock I came to was a private ramp with poles marking what I assume was the end of the ramp. I pulled my wacky rig across the ramp and caught my smallest fish of the trip off the ramp, a 10 incher. I made another cast to the ramp and had another fish swim off with it. This hookset was met with an unmovable weight on the other end that slowly moved upwards and then lurched above the surface. I immediately thought I might have a DD on my line. I begged and pleaded with the fish to cooperate and it did everything to do the opposite, jumping 4 different times and dodging the net on my first attempt. After almost 2 minutes, I slid the net under the monster. She stretched to 23.75” and went 8.49lbs, one of my top 5 largest bass ever.

I fished for 4 more hours and caught a total of 1 more bass, but I didn’t really care.

I went fishing and I caught these bass

Overcast and really breezy today. The bite, which has not been great, was really slow today. Caught one on a Rage Craw TR and another on a lizard. That was it in 4 hours. 
 

Got rewarded today with a nice spotted bass after a 5 hour skunk on Saturday. The fish ate a black finesse worm on vertical rock cliff and fought like the devil! Took me for quite a ride in a tiny kayak. It was 3.56 lbs and 20”

 

I also got a couple dinks like this 

 

 

All I got from Saturday was a picture at the ramp, had to wade up thru those shoals in blue jeans 😂 

 

oh, and a great blue heron rookery in the tree tops 

@TnRiver46: This thread is really something. So. Many. Big. Bass! I think your Alabama bass might be the prettiest of them all.

7 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

oh, and a great blue heron rookery in the tree tops 

Fascinating spots.  I hadn't seen one until a couple years ago.  Never really thought about where they roost.  To come around a point and see and hear every heron in the county in the tops of a small group of trees is an amazing sight and sound.

@Choporoz, they sound like Jurassic park up there 

Part 4 of the Adventures of Blue goes to Lake Fork was a very windy Tuesday that was supposed to be the day before the first day of the tournament. I had gone out to try and find a way to fish in 30mph winds in case we did fish on Wednesday, but I found out around 10am that day one was cancelled because of the wind so I headed in. We were allowed to fish on Wednesday, but we couldn’t fish Fork. I didn’t want to sit around the camper all day, so I drove to nearby Quitman Lake to see if it was a potential option. The lake was much smaller, muddy, rocky, lots of docks, seemed to be shallow, and most importantly, I caught 2 healthy bass right next to the boat ramp on a bladed jig.

 

So Wednesday morning I headed out to Quitman and loaded just a few casting rods and zero spinning rods into the kayak. I started right at the ramp and after trying a few different baits, I pitched a black and blue jig into the opening between the boards on the launch dock. I picked up and felt pressure and the hookset had a good fish thrashing on the surface quickly. I held it’s head up while I worked the kayak next to the dock and was able to reach through the dock and grab a 19” fish.

After releasing that fish, I pitched back under the dock and my jig got slammed immediately. I could tell by the thrashing it was a bigger fish. I did the same maneuvering and got a grip on a 5+lb 20.50” fish.

The wind started blowing pretty good and I only got one small spot before I came around a corner that was pretty protected. I ran my bladed jig down a seawall and it just kind of got heavy. When I leaned into it, I felt the headshake and knew it was big. She darted past the kayak right on the surface and I was quick with the net and she was mine as fast as the fight started. A beautiful 22” bass that weighed 6.72lbs.

I caught a little 12 incher (that would be the last small fish I would catch), before pulling up to a tree growing out over the water. I pitched my jig and hopped it once before I got a bite that shook my whole rod. The fish was in about a foot of water and came charging across the surface. The back was so thick, I knew it was big, but when I scooped with the net and my jig popped out of her mouth at the same time, the realization hit me how big she was. I was sure I’d just caught a DD. The first time on the scale she came up 9.58, but then I realized it had started in the negative. When I zeroed it, the scale locked at 9.72. The 2nd largest bass I’d ever caught and way prettier than my PB, the fish just didn’t look real in the net.

 

I couldn’t believe what just happened, but the shakes hadn’t even worn off from that fish when I pitched into another laydown and yanked out another 6.5lb 21.25” fish. That 20lb Seaguar Tatsu was earning its keep with these fish I promise you that!  I didn’t catch a single one that wasn’t rubbing on something at some point in the fight.
 

I had to surf the waves around the southeast end of the lake. It was too rough to be safe to try to fish and run the boat, so I just focused on driving the yak and getting to calmer water. When I got to the northeast side, it was a good, solid 2 hours before I got my next bite, a fat 17” fish in some shallow grass. I passed another kayak angler who said he hadn’t had a bite all day. When I got to the area by the north ramp, there was some bushes growing out over the water. I pitched my jig into, picking them apart. I knew when I finally made the right pitch, because my jig hit the water and the whole push shook. Another pig of a bass came boiling out of those bushes and crashing across the surface, putting on a whole show until I got it in the net. This one was just an absolute toad of a bass at 7.11lbs and only 20.75”!

2 more kayers passed me and asked how I was doing, and I told them. I don’t know if they believed me but they also said they hadn’t caught anything all day. I kept flipping those same bushes and about 5 minutes later my line jumped again and another big fish bolted out of the bushes. This time it was a 21” 5.66 pounder.

I was at the end of the road at that point unfortunately. I was going to have to crash through a lot of big, rolling waves to get to the next safe spot to fish, or make a short run through much more manageable ones to get to the ramp I launched from. It was only 2pm and I wanted so badly to continue on. It was already the best day of my fishing life, how much better might it be able to get? I made the decision and pointed it towards the opposite shore and rode the waves the short distance across to the ramp and called it a day. My longest 5 were 108.25”, my heaviest 5 weighed 35.71lbs.

My homemade silicone/living rubber jig and Yum Christie Craw combo that did most of the damage.