Busy boat made for a fun afternoon even if the size was a little lacking - about 20 bass and 30 crappie. Cranks and spoons for the bass.

 

 

 

 

 

Busy boat!

Launched at my favorite lake shortly after sunrise this morning. Lake was like glass, and it was an incredibly beautiful mountain morning, as cold as it was. 

 

Air temperatures at launch were about 30°, water temperatures were 47-49°, and the sun was shining. High 40s water and sunshine is a recipe for catching in my book. With a strong feeling they’d be munching today, I had to figure out where 

they’d be doing that munching. Would they be up shallow in the trees or on deep structure in their cold-water haunts. Well the first tree gave me my answer. Siebert Outdoors brush jig with a Netbait Paca Chunk did the damage today. Fish were all shallow and crashing that jig. A couple of my hooked fish had 1-2 followers trying to rob the jig, only to immediately grab it when I unhooked one fish and dropped it back down. 

Called it a day when the predicted 15mph winds turned into 20-30mph gusts. 

No spring hawg, biggest went 18” and change and was a few ounces short of 3lb on the scale. But I’ll pitch a jig into timber for 2-3lb fish all day long. With this lake I know it’s only a short matter of time before I run into the size class of fish I’m looking for. 

@Jar11591: Gorgeous bass! Gorgeous lake too. I launch again tomorrow and have a Siebert Outdoors bladed jig tied onto one pole and a worm with a small hook on another. Alex suggested the first and Pat Brown the second. 

@Swamp Girl thank you, and good luck tomorrow! Can’t go wrong following the advice from either of those 2 sticks. We all know how skilled they are. Hopefully you’ll be on the board for 2025 tomorrow! 

Good luck @Swamp Girl

When I grow up, I wanna be @Dwight Hottle. 😂 Congrats on those big browns Dwight!!!

@Jar11591  Seeing your posts again makes me realize how much missed seeing them for a year or so.    That area you fish is just beautiful, only matched by those NLMB you catch.    

Got out on a boat with a friend of mine again, our second time fishing together. I enjoy it a lot cause he fishes like I do, lots of different approaches and minimal electronics. Picked up where @LrgmouthShad left off with making me appreciate the art of the spinnerbait.

It was a rough rough day on roberts, south winds 30mph gusting higher. We started to cross the lake and decided to turn around and fish the marina. We didn't land any giants but we each caught probably 4-5 bass. Everything caught on a watermelon red purple power worm. Just a good morning. I am so thankful for the trips I get on that boat.

 

Had some stuff to do early afternoon, made it back out to my usual bank spot around 4pm. I was burning a red eye shad along the bank and again, I hooked something absolutely gigantic. I had absolutely no control over it. It just took line and took line. I finally put my thumb down a little bit when I started to see more backing line than braid on my spool. The hook immediately popped out and my lure was free. I'm almost certain that was a large gar, because I caught a spotted gar a few minutes later. Also just the way it fought, plus how easily that hook popped out. I've felt that same sensation down below the dam a bunch, it's just been a while.

This will not haunt me since I am 95% sure it was not a bass, and I got my lure back (it was claimed by Log™ mere moments later but I can live with that). Just a cool experience and good fish story.

 

Anyway so I kept fishing and caught a handful of small bass on a war eagle spinnerbait. Then I went home and ate a whole pizza and passed out. The end. 

Another nice one in the church pond…

21 inch.

Quite a spring you're having, @N Florida Mike.

25 minutes ago, N Florida Mike said:

Another nice one in the church pond…

21 inch.

 

 

I wanna go to your church!  😄😄😄

The wife sent me shopping at the store near the pond. (Sam's Club is a couple minutes away from one of the retention ponds I often fish.) So I snuck down to the pond for a few minutes before I got the groceries. Only pole I had in the car was a 4'6" ultralight I picked up for two dollars because Walmart apparently couldn't give them away, but it did the job. I caught one very skinny 16" bass, and figured I should hurry up and get home before my lovely wife got overwhelmed with the kids. 

 

20 hours ago, Jar11591 said:

Launched at my favorite lake shortly after sunrise this morning. Lake was like glass, and it was an incredibly beautiful mountain morning, as cold as it was. 

I'm calling this a perfect day.  What a beautiful spot. 

1 hour ago, IcatchDinks said:

and figured I should hurry up and get home before my lovely wife got overwhelmed with the kids. 

 

Solid husband and father.

1 hour ago, BigAngus752 said:

I'm calling this a perfect day.  What a beautiful spot. 

And I’m inclined to agree. I think I said that to myself a dozen times while I was out there. Doesn’t get more perfect. 

I braved the wind and the cold for about an hour today. Caught one bass after most of that hour. 

 

It was low fifties with a stiff wind that made it feel much colder. I would have been fine if my fingers didn't go numb. 

 

Had my rod in the truck with spinnerbait tied on. No other tackle with me. Stopped by the lake for a second. Caught two in the first three casts. 4th cast broke off my bait. Not bad for 5 min of fishing. These little dudes only cost me $10 to catch. 🤣

 

 

Hadn’t fished all week, started to have withdrawals………

 

So today I went from 7 am til 10 pm with a break from 3-5. I caught somewhere in the neighborhood of 50-60 fish maybe more, mostly white bass on topwater. Also got some smallies, one largemouth, a crappie and a few yellow bass. My buddies that showed up at 5 also caught maybe 20 apiece. 
 

got most of mine fishing with mojobass trigon and seviin reel, using pop R. Spooled up with seaguar JDM braid with pounce leader. Also used okuma Hakai and fluke style baits nose hooked. The smallies hit a purple worm rigged up on the mojobass trigon 

Russ, your white bass are thick! For a few years, I focused on white bass because they're so much fun. I have long believed that they're as strong as brown bass, but smallies have a better marketing department.

 

#ifyoulikeafightfishforwhites

Busted my hump the past two days doing yard work. Forecast for today said rain/thunderstorms coming this afternoon, so I went out this morning. Wasn’t on the water for 60 minutes and it started to rain, get dark and I heard thunder. So I did the prudent thing and left. Back home, gear stowed, sun’s out. 
 

Caught one bass on a Rage Craw TR. Also caught two channel cats on the same bait. Wasn’t expecting that. 
 

57 minutes ago, BrianMDTX said:

Also caught two channel cats on the same bait. Wasn’t expecting that. 

Looks like a bullhead - channels have forked tails; bullheads are rounded or lobed. Growing up, it seemed like bullheads were much more common, and we considered them a nuisance. These days, it seems like many waters have lost their once prolific populations, and it’s always a nice surprise when I catch one. In Indiana, we caught channels and flatheads on bass gear quite regularly. Down here in SC, the bullheads I’ve caught by accident have greatly outnumbered the channels, and they run quite large, so I’m always happy to see them come aboard.

Last day on Lake Erie of our four fishing days. Much warmer air temps up to 69 degrees but the wind was a steady 20-25 almost all day with a recorded guest at 41 mph. We could not get to our favorite spot out on the lake but settled on a secondary spot. Max water temps for the week were 48 degrees out in the lake & 50 degrees in Presque Isle bay. Deep diving jerk baits to start & finished with blade baits. Our best five totaled 27lbs -4 oz. All in all we had a great time even with the cold/wind & the two really good fish we lost. 

Amazing trip Dwight, that second to last one looks far more like a Grouper caught out of Destin than SM 😎

Those bass are soooooooooo thick, Dwight. They remind me of these guys: