Got some SMB and drum on Independence Day. One of them was a 19”, got it trolling a shad rap with the electric motor. Also got some trolling with the gas motor, those were mostly drum 

 

 

 

Russ's video is funny. @TnRiver46

Got out this morning. Caught a few at one pond on the Berkeley bullet pop 70. And a couple on a culprit ribbon tail. Had to move to one of the other ponds though. Or the mosquitos would have carried me off literally. So went down the road to the next pond. Got one on the bullet pop. And then the bite died. Farted around a while with a strike king cut-r worm. No bites. Three on the old Berkley Choppo 75 and sealed the deal on a few more. No spectacular fish but a good early before the sun rose morning. It’s overcast and rainy today so I may stop again depending what time I get out of work. I’m liking the poppers. Slower presentation but effective 

1 hour ago, Joedodge said:

I’m liking the poppers.

 

Me too. I'm trying one on tomorrow for the kid and me. Tying on a frog too. Bass learn to avoid plopping lures, but not popping lures.

1 minute ago, Swamp Girl said:

 

Me too. I'm trying one on tomorrow for the kid and me. Tying on a frog too. Bass learn to avoid plopping lures, but not popping lures.

I agree! They didn’t work at all in Florida. And I’m surprised the plopper isn’t played out yet here. I’m sure it will

be a no bite next year kinda lure. But the popper does get bit like you said and been around forever. And I enjoy it. The slower methodical baits get me hooked. 

24 minutes ago, Joedodge said:

And I’m surprised the plopper isn’t played out yet here. I’m sure it will

be a no bite next year kinda lure.

 

That hasn't been my experience. So far, they're remaining effective in Maine. 

If only @roadwarrior was still around to see the drum. 😆

Went down to a buddy's church for a 4th of July cookout and fireworks. Since I was in the area, I checked out a local lake that's in the area.

 

My buddy indicates it's hard fishing. I got a little one throwing a baby brush hog into a bush.

 

I went back after the fireworks and got 2 more. I'll definitely be going back.

4 hours ago, gim said:

If only @roadwarrior was still around to see the drum. 😆

He caught a nice enough smallie that he might let it slide. 

It’s been a while since I posted in this thread, and BR as a whole. Summer for the airlines is like retail from Black Friday to Christmas Eve. As busy as it can get. But I finally got out this morning. Only had a few hours so just fished the neighborhood pond. Wasn’t expecting much as it’s been rather dead lately in both quantity and quality. 
 

We’ve gotten a lot of rain and all the algae that had been floating on the surface was 100% gone. I guess it all got flushed down the drain pipe, so that was a plus. But wow, what a difference this outing was compared to all of 2025 so far. I caught nine. No dinks. The three biggest were 2.0 to 3.0 lbs. And while disappointing that it threw the hook, I did have a legit 5+ lb. bass on the line. It’s the first one I’ve seen there in two years. Every bait caught bass. A Mann’s Jelly Worm, Rage Craw, a Neko Macho (that hooked the 5 lb’er), a Senko and in a first, I caught two bass on a Zoom Trick on a wacky rig. All in all it was a great 3.5 hours. 
 

Wes played an away football game yesterday - a quarterfinal upset win, so the Kingston Grenadiers U16 team are off to the semifinals. 😎. But that made yesterday a long day, so best we could do was get on the water for early afternoon.

 

It was hot, but the breeze helped and I managed to pull a 4lb+ smallmouth and then a near 4lb largemouth off the same structure just 10 minutes apart.  Both on a dropshot Roboworm.  Felt good to stick a couple that feel like a snag until the line takes off.  Unfortunately, the scale came out for the first time this year with no batteries in it so an honest guess is all I got.

 

Looks like @The Baron is in full compliance with the haircut police.  😂

Well angled, @The Baron!

1 hour ago, gim said:

Looks like @The Baron is in full compliance with the haircut police.  😂

What’s “hair”? 😢 

My brother was in from Philly today so we went and caught a few. I used the mooneye as bait for a while but an Osprey wouldn’t leave it alone 

 

On 7/5/2025 at 12:56 PM, Joedodge said:

I’m liking the poppers. Slower presentation but effective 

A popper is one of my summer go-to lures.  Slick calm, usually the first or last hour of light is best.  Some days they really want to think about it, other days you’d swear they catch it.  On the slow days, try casting at cover and just dead stick it for 10-15 seconds.  Then just one little twitch and repeat.  I caught one of my best popper bass a few years ago, cast it out and got a backlash.  Had been working on that for I don’t know how long and a nice one slurped it.  That opened my eyes to just how long it can take for a fish to get tempted.  I think a rear feathered treble helps.

@TnRiver46 Were you using the moon eye whole? And if so what the heck were you hoping to hook into? 

I went fishing with my toddler this evening. We got rained on pretty good, but found refuge under a bridge and still caught a fish. It's been pretty difficult finding time to fish, and similarly difficult finding fish when I manage to find the time. The difficulties this trip were most likely directly linked to the rocks my boy kept throwing into the water. 

 

On 7/5/2025 at 2:19 PM, Joedodge said:

I agree! They didn’t work at all in Florida. 

Topwater is great at attracting alligators. Bass, not so much.  😂

8 hours ago, The Baron said:

A popper is one of my summer go-to lures.  Slick calm, usually the first or last hour of light is best.  Some days they really want to think about it, other days you’d swear they catch it.  On the slow days, try casting at cover and just dead stick it for 10-15 seconds.  Then just one little twitch and repeat.  I caught one of my best popper bass a few years ago, cast it out and got a backlash.  Had been working on that for I don’t know how long and a nice one slurped it.  That opened my eyes to just how long it can take for a fish to get tempted.  I think a rear feathered treble helps.

Thank you! I’ll definitely let it pause longer. I agree. About the feather treble. I was catching them on hard jerk baits in very early spring. On a dead pause. A long one. And the feathered rear treble helped there as well. Speaking of that I need to replace that before fall. I really am liking the pooper a lot 

9 hours ago, The Baron said:

Some days they really want to think about it, other days you’d swear they catch it.

 

So true. Many times, I feel like I cast my popper into an open, awaiting mouth.

1 hour ago, Joedodge said:

And the feathered rear treble helped there as well.

 

I really like feathered trebles too, but if the bass are really smacking it, the feathers won't even last one trip. Do I bother to replace it? No. Does it make a difference? I don't think so.

1 hour ago, Joedodge said:

I’ll definitely let it pause longer.

 

Whereas I agree with @The Baron, there will be times when you can't retrieve it too fast for bass. I'll utilize a walking retrieve and they'll hit it.

1 hour ago, Swamp Girl said:

Whereas I agree with @The Baron, there will be times when you can't retrieve it too fast for bass. I'll utilize a walking retrieve and they'll hit it.

Yup, that too.  Some days it’s really aggressive big “bloopy” pops and short pauses, other days walking either slow or fast.  It’s a crazy guessing game what the bass want any given day.  I’ve had great luck on the Storm Arashi poppers, from pops to walking it has a great action and good hooks.

14 minutes ago, The Baron said:

It’s a crazy guessing game what the bass want any given day.

 

So true. As I've been fishing with my teenage buddy, I keep coaching him to mix up his retrieves. 

10 hours ago, Eric 26 said:

@TnRiver46 Were you using the moon eye whole? And if so what the heck were you hoping to hook into? 

Yes sir, great white shark 😂. Nah I’ve seen stripers blasting them in shallow water, looks like orca whales pushing seals up onto the beach. Got a nice 25-30 lb striper with a topwater once when I saw them doing that 

Had one of the toughest weekends of fishing I’ve had in a long while this weekend. Took the family out on the 4th. Water had stabilized at our favorite smallmouth lake and I was hoping for an improved bite, it was not, if anything it was worse. I had 2 bites I’m sure were smallmouth and lost both of them. I caught one tiny largemouth and a rare keeper sized spotted bass along with several walleye. A grand total of 3 bass were caught between the 4 of us and my wife took a complete skunk.

 

Sunday I did some prefishing for a tournament that is next weekend and struggled all day to catch 10 bass. I did get 1 good blowup on a frog throwing the Okuma X combo and 50lb Smackdown. Not my normal frogging combo but man did it feel so good with that super lightweight rod and reel fishing a frog! 

My only decent bite of the day was a solid chunk of an 18.50” fish on a BBB Kriet tail worm on a laydown in 7’ of water.