Been down with shingles for the last month or so. Finally got back out and the lake was kind. 5lb on the dot, a long 5lber. Then some dinks. 6 total in about an hour at that spot. The bigger girl ran me up under a massive log and got stuck for a little bit. I managed to get a decent angle to the side of the laydown and she worked free. That same log later claimed that red eye shad, and my fancy new daiwa mangetsu took some scratches. Oh well. I caught some good ones and I'm gonna focus on that.

Went fishing yesterday.

Only caught 3.

Sometimes you're the windshield.

Sometimes you're the bug.

Yesterday I saw an eagle.

Heard quail calling and roosters cackling.

Got scolded and swooped by a kingfisher.

Watched a crow chase my frog down the bank.

Tied up to a tree and had a good snack (hot dog, cheese stick, and fritos...I wasn't catching much so maybe I should have texas rigged the hot dog instead of eating it!)

Watched a deer walking in the shallow water (how come they don't sink to their knees in the muck but I do?)

It was a good day.

 

 

19 minutes ago, Lottabass said:

I wasn't catching much so maybe I should have texas rigged the hot dog instead of eating it!

 

Ha!

 

19 minutes ago, Lottabass said:

It was a good day.

 

Indeed. 

 

17 hours ago, thediscochef said:

Been down with shingles for the last month or so.

 

Shingles are rough. Glad you're feeling better.

Fishing is still hard, but managed to hook up with two smallies this morning. I tried the pond first, but couldn't get any action, and moved to the river. Hooked up right away. Nothing massive, but it was nice to feel the tug again.

 

 

As I let him go, he flopped free of my hands and dropped headfirst into the water. I didn't give him much thought and hooked up with a tiny little guy on my next cast. 

 

 

As I'm unhooking the little guy, I glance over and notice that the first bass I'd caught had dove headfirst into the mud at the bank, completely trapping himself. Never seen a fish do this before, but he was completely trapped. After snapping a photo, I was able to reach down and pull him free. He swam away to deeper water with a grateful flip of his tail. (Actually it was probably a panicked flip of his tail, but I like to anthropomorphize my catches.)

 

 

Felt like I could have caught more, but my wife texted that the kids were up and I still had to do a grocery run before I went home. Might get back out this evening. 

@IcatchDinks: You could have caught more, but duty called. Thanks for being observant enough to save that smallie!

Just got home from my annual fishing/camping trip in south Alabama and it was a blast as always. I’ve gone on this trip with the same family/friends since 1998, only missing two years for new jobs. Bass pro shops even did a commercial about this trip (starring yours truly) which has occured for around 55 consecutive years. We had violent thunderstorms nearly everyday so we didn’t get to fish as much as we wanted to but that’s part of it! 
 

Here I am leaving the house, brought my canoe as well for a buddy and his youngster

My biggest of the trip was a 4.24 lb pushing 20” on a live shad with 6 lb line and a little hook 

My second biggest was a 3.3 something with a weightless ribbon tail worm up against a cypress, my buddy’s son also got a nice one that outing. I was using the seviin reel on a mojo bass rod and with seaguar 33 lb JDM braid, the thin diameter helped for tossing weightless 

 

I got two nice fish on a buzzbait, one of them a spotted bass 

Got another nice spotted bass on a jig, the fury inside the mobile drainage spots is unrivaled. You think you’ve tied into a 5 lber and it’s 1.5 lbs 

I also got to fish a variety of grass and lily pads which we don’t have at home so that was fun 

 

Fished around lots of Spanish moss and cypress

One of the storms produced a great sunset after it went by, only leaving us about 20-30 minutes of daylight to fish but it was sure pretty. 

And here’s a pic and video of an approaching storm

Good eats were had, forgot to get photos of breakfasts but they were also top notch 

And one funny instance occured on the final day. To begin the week, me and my buddy said first one to catch a bowfin is the winner. I typically on fish from 5-7 on the last morning then we tear down camp, most of the guys don’t even fish. I wasn’t having any luck with bass so I went to the only place I have caught a bowfin maybe ten years ago. The ultimate buzzer beater hits! A bowfin grabbed my worm on the last cast of the week 

What a week! Cant wait for next year 

18 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Bass pro shops even did a commercial about this trip (starring yours truly) which has occured for around 55 consecutive years.

 

I love your trip reports: bass, buddies, and bodacious scenery, BUT now I'm dyin' for a link of the Bass Pro Shop commercial. Bowfin for the win!

3 minutes ago, Swamp Girl said:

 

I love your trip reports: bass, buddies, and bodacious scenery, BUT now I'm dyin' for a link of the Bass Pro Shop commercial. Bowfin for the win!

Hahaha! I have it on video but it’s quite embarrassing and I think I signed some NDA, maybe it expired 😂 

38 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Hahaha! I have it on video but it’s quite embarrassing and I think I signed some NDA, maybe it expired 😂 

 

Dang it! Well, they chose well in casting you. No one does friendship and good times better than you. Love your food pics too!

Since I forgot breakfast pics it was fried eggs, grits, bacon, pattied sausage, conecuh smoked sausage (the best stuff ever), biscuits, and milk 

39 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

I think I signed some NDA, maybe it expired 😂 

I just got off the phone with Johnny Morris and he said your NDA has expired, so you’re good to post it. Don’t make me wake @Glenn up and give you an ultimatum. 😉

It was a little brisk out this morning at the local pond, with the air temps in the low 40’s. Fishing overall was pretty slow, but I did catch one descent one on a zoom curly tail grub. 

@TnRiver46 …and now after ready your post I find myself strangely hungry.

 

Fished in my first tournament today out in Burr Oak.  44 degrees this morning when launched and foggy until about 10, clear skies after that.  Light winds out of the west at 8 mph.  
 

I’ll cut to the chase, we didn’t do great.  I caught 3 out of our 4, the biggest only 11 inches. Yikes!  
 

We weren’t the only ones struggling.  Winning bag was 8lbs, and the biggest bass caught was 2lbs 12 ounces.  Out of 20 boats only 3 caught a limit.  Over half the field got skunked.  
 

I’m grateful for the experience though and looked forward to my next one later this month.
 

 

Had a hour to fish, didn’t want the jerk bait so a lil trooper on a 1/16 oz keitech jig head paid off. Not big but definitely better than a skunk lol.

Walked the frog thia mornin'...

@Lottabass:  You're landing some fine fish, Al. Proud of ya!

I fished Saturday and Sunday.  Landed between 60 and 70 bass.  Almost all of the bass were on a offshore ledge, that dropped from 16 feet, to 25 feet.  I didn't catch any large bass, and wished I hadn't spent so much time fishing the ledge, when all I was catching were 1 to 2.5 pound bass.  I did catch a 5.7 pound bass on a deep crank on the top of the ledge.  I have landed DD bass on a tree at this spot and always fish it this time of year.  While casting to the tree I noticed many marks on my fish finder right on the drop.  I rigged up a drop shot, and dropped straight down to them.  I got a fish on every drop.  When the wind picked up I switched to crankbaits.  I lost the crankbait that was working best, right after landing the biggest bass of the trip.  Of course even though I own hundreds of crankbaits, I only have one exactly like it.   Bait Monkey reminded me how much he tried to get me to order two, but I wouldn't listen.

 

The action was fast, and the fishing was fun, but I regret spending so much time at this spot.  I did fish other places, but I kept going back for the easy pickings, hoping a big one would show up. 

 

  The first rain of the year came on Saturday, and I probably will not be able to fish this lake again before it gets flooded.  This past weekend was probably my best chance at a DD bass, and I spent most of my time catching dinks.  I don't know how many times I have to learn this lesson.  If I'm going to catch big bass, I have to fish where the big bass are, at the moment, not where I have caught them in the past.  I don't know where the big bass were this weekend, but after 30 or so small bass, I should have figured out they were not where I was fishing.

 

All in all I did have a good time, and hopefully learned a valuable lesson. 

 

5,7 pounds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

3 hours beating the banks and only one bass, caught in 6 inches of water. But me and the toddler had fun together the whole time. 

 

 Not enough time to take the boat out today, so I walked the bank of a local

lake for a few minutes.

 

What better way to ring in June than with weedless frog fish? 

 

Tomorrow I’ll be taking the boat out on my favorite lake. Hopefully I’ll be doing that a few times this week. 

36 minutes ago, Jar11591 said:

 

Tomorrow I’ll be taking the boat out on my favorite lake. Hopefully I’ll be doing that a few times this week. 

 

Exciting! Your favorite lake is one of the most beautiful places fished by the BR gang. It harbors big bass too! I'm going fishing three times this week too, starting with tomorrow morning. 

I went to the river after work on Friday. The park where I fish is always jam packed when the weather warms up. This was no exception. My favorite spot had 3 people on it so I had to start somewhere else. I ended up catching a decent smallmouth on the third cast, but then it was nothing for the next hour and a half. The wind was starting to blow pretty hard so I moved to a more protected area.

 

I wasn't the only one who had that idea. There was a boat, a kayak, and 3 others fishing from the bank within sight of where I stopped. I didn't see anyone else catch a fish, so I felt pretty good catching 3 bass within 10 minutes of getting there. None of them were big, but it's better than nothing.

 

After a few minutes I saw a blowup on some shad so I cast in that direction. It was a perfect cast, right in the middle of the ripples where the blowup happened. I let the lizard sink to the bottom, and felt a tug on the line. I set the hook. The fish immediately swam toward me so I couldn't feel the weight of the fish. I assumed it was another small one until I caught up with it. Once I got some resistance on the fish it jumped. This was a nice one. The splash got the attention of the people around me so I had an audience of a boater, a kayaker, 3 other fishermen, along with an older couple who were walking by. All eyes were on me.

 

I was using a spinning reel with 6 lb line so there was no chance of flipping this fish up over the riprap so I had to climb down the rocks to get it. I managed to keep the fish on while climbing down. When I pulled the fish out of the water I heard several "atta boys" from the onlookers. It's cool to see people pulling for each other. It started out tough, but turned into a decent night. Two smallmouth, and three largemouth with the last one being a 4 pounder. Not bad for a Friday night bank trip at an overcrowded park.

 

I caught 27 this morning at my pal's pond in three hours, giving me 478 for the year. I T-rigged six different soft plastics and they all caught fish. I'm slowly learning that just about any soft plastic will catch a bass. I caught a mix of largemouth and smallmouth, including a 19-incher. Here:

 

 

Here's an 18-incher:

 

 

And a skinny smallie:

 

 

And an average bass:

 

 

Weekend rats

Couple striper rats

New PB crappie  yes I never catch them