Got the skunk out the boat anyway.

 

     Went to the river and the weatherman was correct for a change. Sunny skies and breezy conditions. Well.......it was breezy in between gale force winds and white capping water. Don't know where the bass went but i only caught one dink. Gave up on bass and targeted BG beds but couldn't hit a good lick there either. Went to the marina to escape the winds and saw a school of something on livescope so I tied up boat, walked over to spot and tossed cast net. Caught five nice Crappie. Dropped those back in the lake and went below dam to try something different. Due to recent rains, all spillways were spilling and between gale force winds and high water and currents, all I did was spin down river. Drove home wondering why we do this?  At least I had the river to myself. All the other nuts were home!

21 hours ago, FryDog62 said:

Had planned 2 days of fishing afterwards, but because of 40 degree weather, rain and 30-40 mph winds only got a half day in.

 

3 minutes ago, Blue Raider Bob said:

gale force winds and white capping water

 

And Maine (This is a sheltered bay that I reached after paddling through white-caps.):

 

 

Mettle-testing in many places.

Terror of the Riffles, 14".  Honestly kind of a handful in current with the ultralight:

 

 

Snagged this guy and a couple others this size this morning. Had a few bites also. We are in the middle of a cool front in the Midwest. And spawn is over so the bite dropped off bad. But it was a success as me and another member were conversing about jig fishing and trying to make it as natural as possible. And it definitely worked. &nbsp
 

sorry for the blur only way I have to size stuff so it fits the site is to email it to myself. 

I was going to fish for three days, but I had to cut it short, do to a minor emergency at home.  I had been up since 2:30 AM fishing hard all day in 20 to 20 MPH winds.  I was to tired to make the 4 hour drive home, so I camped for the night and left for home in the morning.  I had to pick up my marker buoys I had left out, so of course I couldn't help but make a few casts and caught a long skinny 6.6 pound bass before heading for home.

 

Yesterday was very good fishing, and I am disappointed I couldn't stay for another two days, but there will be another time. 

 

 Yesterday I landed 24 bass.  Best 5 were 9.9  pounds 25 inches, 9 pounds 25 inches, 8.6 pounds 24 inches, 8.4 pounds 25 inches, and 3.5 pounds, fore a total 39.4 pounds.  I was really hoping the 9.9 pound bass would be over 10 pounds it looked over, but both scales read 9.9 pounds.  All the bass were thin, and light for their length.  All were released in good condition.

 

I landed bass on a wide variety of lures, but the biggest ones were on T Rigged Junebug Zoom Ole Monster, Zoom Magnum trick worm, and one was on a T Rigged Magnum Rage Bug.   Fishing the T Rigs in the strong wind was less than easy, but I had to give the bass what they wanted.  The two over 9 pounds were caught in the morning before the wind started blowing hard.

 

6.5 pound bass landed today.

 

 

9.9 pounds

25 inch.

 

9 pound 25 inch

8.6 pounds 24 inches.

8.4 pound 24 3/4 inch

Heck of a bag @king fisher

Congrats

A-Jay

@king fisher: If I could choose between a 39.4 pound bag and a DD, I'd take your big bag everyday of the year, including February 29th. Your achievement coming atop a kayak makes it doubly impressive. I'm so proud of you and so happy for you. 

Wow @king fisher that’s one great bag. Man those are some impressive fish. And out of a yak in the wind! 

Thanks for the read @Bluebasser86, congratulations.

Spent an hour at the pond this morning temps started in the high 30s and crept up into the low 40s. It was cold, finger-numbing work, as it has been all week. I've gone out like this three or four times this week and been totally skunked. I'm dying for warm weather. The sunlight contrasted with ominous rain clouds was a pretty cool sight, though: 

 

 

Finally nabbed my only fish of the week. Not big, but I'd almost forgotten what it felt like to have a bass on the line. And he was real pretty, too. 

 

 

And here's my homely mug so you can get an idea of how bundled up I was: 

 

 

Please let it warm up. I don't know how much more of this I can take. 

33 minutes ago, IcatchDinks said:

Please let it warm up. I don't know how much more of this I can take. 

 

Amen, my friend! It'll be 43 degrees when I launch tomorrow morning (and it's 43 right now), but at least it won't be windy. I think I'll catch some fish because the bass have to eat and if I'm right in guessing that they haven't spawned yet, they really have to eat. Crazy that you wore so much clothing when June is a week away! I'll bundle tomorrow too.

 

Shouting out again to @king fisher. What a bag! Atop a kayak in 20 mph wind. That takes mad skill and a truckload of pluck. I wouldn't enjoy the brown shorelines, but I'd love the challenge of boating big fish from a tiny boat. I assume he's not using FFS. I'm guessing no motor too. 

 

Hail to the king, baby!   😎😎😎🦅🦅🦅

 

Who is an absolute stud? - @king fisher 

 

@IcatchDinks - come on down to NC - we got some sticky underpants with your name on them - bring flip flops and sunscreen!  👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

Cold, drizzly, gray morning on the water. Cooling trend has the fish a little funked up. Been several days of highs in the high 40s and low 50s. At least the night-time lows haven't dipped too much so I thought the "steady" weather may work in my favor. Nah. Launched in 39 degree air temperature. Water temps have fallen to 54. I started with a Rapala Skitterwalk and kept getting lazy boils and no hook ups. Switched to a Megabass Pop-X to see if that made them more committal. Well it made the bluegill interested. Hooked several of those before I got my first bass of the day. Nothing special but the day was severely lacking riveting moments. It hit the first or second pop after I got done picking out a slight backlash. 

 

 

Best fish of the day was a streamlined 18.5". Gorgeous morning in the mountains as usual. Can't complain too much, even though today could be described as "casting practice" or "peaceful float with the loons" as accurately as "bass fishing" would have summed it up. The forecasted steady rain moved in so I moved out.

@Jar11591, Sounds like all of us Northerners are fighting the weather. 

 

Sure is some beautiful scenery though. I love that mist clinging to the treetops in that photo! Congrats on a nice bass. 

@IcatchDinks when the fishing stinks, getting to fish in one of the most beautiful landscapes in the world is a great consolation prize! Luckily in the Adirondacks, the fishing is good more often than not, so I get to have my cake and eat it too! 

On 5/21/2025 at 10:21 AM, FryDog62 said:

Left 80 degrees in South Carolina for a wedding back in Northern Minnesota. Had planned 2 days of fishing afterwards, but because of 40 degree weather, rain and 30-40 mph winds only got a half day in.

 

It was like 80+ degrees and sunny for 10 days prior lol

39 minutes ago, gim said:

 

It was like 80+ degrees and sunny for 10 days prior lol

Yes, I heard that plenty and we were blamed as the ones that brought the bad weather with us. Bummer though, we had some good smallmouth lakes picked out for day 2 that would have been really fun to get back to. The fish were definitely on the chew despite the weather... 

Some nice bass being caught! @king fisher making me want to move!

 

Went out last Friday for an hour here was the nicest one. She was in about a foot of water. The lake level was super high. Didn't see a bed around but she had a bloody tail.

 

Been a bit frustrating dumping a lot of nicer bass when they come up and jump.

First decent bank fish in a while, absolutely inhaled the flashy swimmer. Poor guy looks like a sea lion or striper chewed on him.

Went down to the river last night and laid into something big. I think a gar. Played it a while then it just come off. Could have been a huge bass I reckon, and I thought it was a bass to begin with. Didn't see anything.

 

The boy got a goggle eye on a worm.

 

Went back today and caught a few.

 

 

Lost that Fat Free Guppy and then put on this white Bandit 300.

 

 

 

Lost the bandit and then put on another Guppy.

 

After nearly three weeks of fishing my pal's pond, I returned to my pond. I sure missed it.

 

 

I worked my along the edge of a bog. I kept trying to catch bass on the surface, but only caught two on a loon-colored Whopper Plopper. I did catch another 23 on a wacky worm. It was 49 degrees when I launched and I fished for two hours. 25 bass in two hours is pretty steady fishing. I could have caught more, but I kept setting the hook early, not wanting to gut hook any and I didn't; Every wacky worm bass was hooked in the lip. The bog looked like this:

 

 

And the bass looked like this. They were fat and WIGGLY and ranged from 16.5" to 17.5".

 

 

I'm at 318 bass for 2025 so far.

You've got some really healthy fish, @Swamp Girl. Twenty-five fish in two hours is one heckuva good rate! Keep it up! 

12 minutes ago, IcatchDinks said:

You've got some really healthy fish, @Swamp Girl. Twenty-five fish in two hours is one heckuva good rate! Keep it up! 

 

I think they're pre-spawn, ICD, but it's gonna finally warm up starting on Monday. Even though it was cool today, I figured they'd be feeding with the spawn so close. I did catch this skinny one:

 

 

I was just happy to be back on my pond. On the way back, I trolled a crankbait and underspin, but failed to elicit a hit. 

More fun!

 

Had a short but sweet night fishing trip - one bass slow rolling a swim jig - missed something massive fishing a black whopper plopper SUPER slowly.  It was probably a 20 lb catfish - the mouth sounded like two flat pieces of cement slamming shut in a puddle and the wake looked like a bull shark.

 

It let go instantly.  Smart fish.

 

 

My jig bass was our only fish.  I got two more bites replicating that swim jig retrieve but couldn't get a hookset before they dropped it.

 

We had more adventures at the pond and I caught the world's smallest fish ever caught on a 7" worm with a 5/0 hook on a 7'6 swimbait rod of all time!  😂

 

 

Jake did well with small stuff!

 

 

We decide to do boat yesterday and Meagan got her first big bass in quite some time on a Indiana blade 1/2 oz Bizz Baits spinnerbait!

 

 

It was AWESOME!  The fish fought very hard and she got a great rush!

 

We missed a LOT of bites yesterday.  I probably missed 4 fish that were not small.  They were sheepish - but aggressive.

 

TONS of baby shad and sunfish schools literally everywhere.  Tough to compete with that much of the real thing but still we found a couple more.  AND on the frog!

 

 

If we had caught every fish we hooked or that bit - it would have been a absolutely insane day - but the early summer shad explosion is happening and it's all about finding the crazy stuff and not the fish that are just chilling - which can be - tricky?

 

😎🤙🏼😉

 

 

First pic worthy bass of 2025.  I caught it on a weightless 6" worm in thick vegetation in between rain showers.