It's great to have Murph back on the board!

 

I always love to see Russ on the water with his buddies.

 

Way to stick with it, ICD-buddy.

Part 2 of finding green backs went pretty good. I had the opportunity to watch a couple crankbait fish go airborne and bow over my rod. Always a good time.

@LrgmouthShad: An 18 and a 20! Well angled, my cyber-buddy.

Spent the weekend at the lake with my wife and kids. I rented us a little cabin, something we hadn't done before, it was nice to not set up a tent and have a little more room. Weather left a lot to be desired as far as comfort, but it was great "fishing weather". We caught a ton of really fun sized smallmouth, a bunch of wipers, several crappie and drum, a few white bass, and quite a few blues and channel cats. Saturday when we set up for catfish, my youngest son Finn caught the first one, and it was one of the coolest looking blue cats I've ever seen. This lake is known to have a healthy population of piebalds, and I've caught a couple, but none have ever looked as good as his did before. We had a "biggest fish", contest between the boys for the weekend for a $5 prize. My oldest son, Lake, won that with an 8.5lb blue cat he caught right behind our cabin.

 

I fished this past Saturday and Sunday, at Presa Corinches.  I got skunked at this lake two weekends ago, and hoped for better success.  Saturday I landed one 12 inch bass after fishing all afternoon.  Sunday I fished all day.  I didn't get a bite until 2:30 PM.  when I landed a two pound bass. Finally with an 1/2 hour of day light left, I landed this 4.9 pound bass.  I lost one other bass for a total of 4 bites in two days and even though the wind drove me crazy, I never gave up and kept casting until I had to leave.

 

I have not had much luck at this lake.  This is the peak season for other lakes I fish, but I keep fishing here because my wife and I sold my cabin in Alaska and built a small cabin near this lake.  We picked this location as an investment, tourism is growing in this area, and there are bass.  The other lakes I fish are far from any towns, and besides farming have zero economic potential.    Rumor has it bass fishing was far better a few years ago, and the fact that all of the restaurant have bass on the menu, but never have any bass to order may indicate the fishing was better then than now. 

 

I keep thinking I will unlock the secret to catching giant bass at this lake, but I'm starting to think, maybe either the bass are not there, or my skills will never be good enough to catch them.  I'm hoping to fish another lake next weekend that is in the middle of nowhere, no cabin, I have to camp, but has DD bass, that just might bite my line.

 

 

 

 

@LrgmouthShad They kept getting bigger as the day developed.

2 minutes ago, Dwight Hottle said:

@LrgmouthShad They kept getting bigger as the day developed.

 

A pound to five pounds is a 400% increase. If he'd stayed another day and maintained that growth rate, he would have caught a 25-pounder by the end of the second day and a 125-pounder by the end of the third. The 625-pounder he would have hooked at the end of the fourth day would have sadly eaten him, so it's best he left when he did.

Fished a mountain lake shortly after sunrise for about 5 hours. Water temps ranged from 54°-58° and the air temperature is up to 75° today. The water was clearer than I’ve ever seen it at this lake, with a calm surface I could make out objects on the bottom 16’ down easily.

 

The loons were calling, the trout were rising, and the eagles were soaring….but the bass weren’t really biting. I was able to grind out a few with a wacky rig and a

Skitterwalk.

The Skitterwalk was getting attacked repeatedly but nothing was getting hooked and I couldn’t figure out a cadence that made them commit. Only stuck one dink. 
 

I’ve had a lot of time to get out since ice-out, and fish are definitely coming to the boat, but the big girls have eluded me thus far. It’s still April, and some years the lakes are still frozen at this time, so I need to be patient. Just happy to be fishing. My thumb has been shredded for a couple weeks now  

@Bluebasser86 that has to be the coolest catfish I've ever seen. Sounds like an awesome weekend. 

38 minutes ago, Jar11591 said:

The loons were calling, the trout were rising, and the eagles were soaring….but the bass weren’t really biting. I was able to grind out a few with a wacky rig and a

Skitterwalk.

 

Sounds like Maine. I've been grinding too. I'm launching in an hour though and because it's been our warmest day so far this spring (70 degrees and sunny!), I'm hopeful that I'll catch more than seven bass, which is my best trip to date. 

 

7 minutes ago, IcatchDinks said:

@Bluebasser86 that has to be the coolest catfish I've ever seen.

 

Agreed. It's a penguin bass!

 

@Bluebasser86: Boy, oh, boy, your boys are growing!

I caught this one in a friend's pond. My scale said 5 lbs 1 oz, which was less than I expected, but it's what it said.

 

My friend bought this property 3-4 years ago. We were actually on the boat fishing when he was talking to the agent. The first time I went with him to see the pond after he bought it there were thousands of tiny bream, tadpoles, and frogs everywhere, but zero evidence of anything else. He had tried fishing with lures, and live bait, but caught nothing. He decided to pay someone stock the pond with catfish, crappie, and some type of small minnows.

 

The next year he decided that we should catch a few bass to release into the pond...which we did. He wanted to transfer smallest bass that were legal to catch (15") because he didn't want a lot of big bass eating everything he had stocked. We did put one healthy 3 pounder, and one 5 pounder in there to make sure there were a couple with good genes in there. We've caught catfish to eat out of the pond, but this is only the second time I've fished it for bass. I'd say that they are doing well.

 

We fished less than two hours and caught 8-10 small bass, 10-12 large bluegill (one big enough to get a 3/0 EWG inside its mouth), 4-5 catfish (a couple close to 5 pounds), one crappie, and the big bass right at the end. I caught the big bass running my favorite spinnerbait past a laydown, and everything else on a weightless, tx-rigged purple-ish zoom z-craw. My friend used a bobby garland baby shad the whole time. I'm happy to see his pond is doing well. We actually talked about how we should probably start culling fish to keep it from getting overpopulated. Looking forward to our next fish fry.

 

 

On 4/26/2025 at 7:05 PM, Jmurphy87 said:

A tiny guy on the baby bladed jig.

Glad you're back Murph!

Haven't been bass fishing much recently but I still remember how to catch them if the opportunity arises 

4 hours ago, Dwight Hottle said:

@LrgmouthShad They kept getting bigger as the day developed.

I figured something out at the end of the day that led to some bigger bites. Hope to keep that going.

On the water report.

They're getting Bigger !

A-Jay

Blessed with a 4lb 2oz yesterday (no pic because it was bleeding and was released immediately) and a 4lb 1oz today!  That's a great feeling, especially since I was only out for about 3.5hrs total for both days.  

  

 

$5 well spent @Bluebasser86. That is a cool catfish. I like that it put on the tuxedo for your family. 😂 

 

@king fisher we’ve seen the fish you catch so we know your skills are not the problem. You’ll figure them out.

Started out deep for two hours, 15-22 ft trying to pick off a big bass, but that plan didn’t work. Moved up into 10-15 ft of water where the schoolers have been and caught a double limit, just nothing big. Most 14”-16”, with the biggest at 17.5” and 2-11.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This one was feeding on shad it appears.

 

 

 

The boy caught this one all by himself. this was the first one he unhooked too.

 

He unhooked this'n too.

 

 

Went out early this morning.  I caught 5 in three hours between two different lakes.  
 

Low 60s and mostly cloudy.  Winds out of the SW at 15 mph and gusts up to 35.

 

First up was Flagdale lake.  This was only the third time I’ve fished it.  It’s a tough one to bank fish with limited access.  
 

Fortunately that access is on the eastern bank which has a large shallow flat extending all the way to the upper end.  

 

Normally this is covered in pads and weeds but this early in the year it’s still relatively sparse enough to fish.  

 

With the wind blowing into it I thought it was my best shot.  I caught a decent one on the Mayor a few casts in.  But after that my only other fish was a dink closer to the end.  
 

Frustratingly I could see fish busting bait on the surface outside of my casting range.  I’m guessing they were hanging out closer to break line and not really up on the flat like I had hoped.

 

After that it was still relatively early so I decided to check out Flagdale’s sister lake Twin Churches, which I had never been to.   Pulling up to the boat ramp I could see this lake was even more weedy than its neighbor.  I walked the service road back towards the dam hoping to find some open water to cast to.

I found a gap between the bank and weeds closer to the overflow that I was able to get the Mayor into and was rewarded with another dink.  Made my way up onto the d**n and noticed the weeds were somewhat thinner near the spillway and that was open and had some current.

I sent the Mayor into the spot in front of the spillway and got maybe two turns of the reel handle before something hit it.  after a bit of a struggle getting the hooked fish through the weeds to shore I was pleased to see another decent bass.

Working my way back towards my truck I decided to change it up.  I tied on a wacky rig and began tossing it into gaps and holes in the weeds.  I almost made it all the way back to the ramp with no bites.  But got another one that hit it so quickly and hard I must have dropped the Senko right on its head.

Called it a day after that.  Figure I’ll be back.  Probably with the canoe.  Place definitely looks like frog country.

Changed lakes to a very clear, deep body of water hoping to catch a good post spawn bite. Ended up looking like I was really early or really late…I think more the latter. Only saw one bass on a bed, along with a handful of shallow cruisers, but very little fry or signs of old beds. Water 74 degrees. Ended up catching 4 keepers on Ned, all between 14”-17.5”. A bit of a pesky breeze and only partly sunny skies somewhat limited my approach.

 

 

Well it was a wild and crazy week last week with the new moon.  Sorry y'all I dumped every special fish I hooked this week and I hooked 3 that are gonna haunt me and make somebody who sells tackle a little richer this week.

 

But thankful we did catch a few quality fish and loads of hard fighting dinks and crappie and sunfish galore!

 

 

I am hoping that with the warming trend - low pressure front and the temps settling into shad spawn territory - the big girls really start to eat for me and not just half heartedly thump.

@Pat Brown: Those are the ones you didn't lose??? How big were the ones you did lose?

5 hours ago, Swamp Girl said:

@Pat Brown: Those are the ones you didn't lose??? How big were the ones you did lose?

Every time I see one of @Pat Brown posts where he’s holding up his fish I have to remind myself that the man stands 6’4”.  
 

So what looks like a nice bass next to Pat, would be a giant next to an average sized human.

14 minutes ago, bp_fowler said:

Every time I see one of @Pat Brown posts where he’s holding up his fish I have to remind myself that the man stands 6’4”.

 

I think the same thing!