A Few recent catches including a new PB!  Fall has treated me well so far.

I had my new annual trip to go chase bass and muskie in the kayak this past Thursday and Friday. It was supposed to be all weekend also but my boys had football games Saturday and I had told my buddy I’d fish a team tournament with him Sunday so I came back early Friday night. 
 

My trip did not start good. I left very early in the morning and stopped in town to get ice at the gas station. I put my kayak seat on top of my cooler in the back of my 4Runner when I’m driving, so I took it out and set it on the front of my kayak and put the ice in the cooler. It was until I stopped and got a drink at a gas station 1.5 hours later I realized that I never put my seat back in the truck. So I drove all the way back in looking for it in the dark and then pouring rain. I never found it. Probably close to a $400 seat between the seat, pair of Kayak Kushions, and seat risers, gone on the interstate somewhere. 
 

I decided I would just go and have to fish standing up, which I do a lot anyways. I did stop at Dollar General in town when I got close and bought a cheap step stool that fit in my kayak for a makeshift seat. 
 

When I got to the lake 3 hours later than expected, it was storming, which wasn’t in the forecast at all. Not just a little, but like a lot of really close lightning, wind, and rain. So I waited that out before I could finally get my trip started. It took about 5 cast to get my first follow on a topwater, so I really thought I was going to wear them out. The bass were biting like crazy, but they were mostly small. I broke one off in a big brush pile and was going to retire it and switch a couple baits because the water was much lower and clearer than I expected when I rigged up the night before. I sat down on my step stool, grabbed a couple rods and leaned back a little and when my kayak leaned a little back with me, I had the sinking realization that there was nothing stopping me without a backrest, and out the other side of the kayak I went in slow motion.

Probably one of the funnier paused moments I’ve ever had in one of my trips. Only thing that would have made it better is if the crocs would have went flying also.

Nothing was lost, water and air were both in the mid 70’s. Only injuries were my pride and nearly my backside as I realized I rolled over the Megabass Grenade I had in my cupholder and it stuck to me for the next hour while I fished and I didn’t know until I took my rain gear off. The NRS Chinook was worth every penny. It popped me up so fast and made it way easier for me to climb back in, so glad I took the suggestions to get one for my kayaking.

 

 I was catching bass pretty regularly on a full sized brush hog off the timber but they were all small. In the back of one cove, I thought I heard a muskie roll but several cast with different baits got no results. I pitched my brush hog and nothing happened, but when I reeled in, a muskie swam under my boat just kind of lazily. I dropped the brush hog in front of it and it turned and slowly followed, around the front of the kayak and to my right, into the turn, inching closer, and just as it made it almost to the nose of the kayak again, it ate. I couldn’t believe I got a muskie on a figure 8 with a brush hog, but I got the whole thing on video and you can even watch the fish eat, it was crazy. Not the healthiest looking fish I’ve seen, and my attempt at a solo picture into the yak made her look even more skinny and beat up than she was, but it tied my longest muskie ever at 42” and is my 19th ever in Missouri and 4th from the kayak.

 

I only ended up seeing 2 more the rest of the weekend, and no more bites. I had one chase a Texas rig to the boat and one followed a bladed jig to the boat, both were mid 30 inch fish. I didn’t find any real big bass either but I finally figured out that the bigger ones seemed to be in the pads and not on the wood.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1 hour ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Probably one of the funnier paused moments I’ve ever had in one of my trips. Only thing that would have made it better is if the crocs would have went flying also.

Nothing was lost, water and air were both in the mid 70’s.

 

 

Ha, not laughing at you but laughing WITH you.   

 

What an awesome photo. LOL

 

I tipped last year as well except I lost an iphone.

6 minutes ago, HawkeyeSmallie said:

 

Ha, not laughing at you but laughing WITH you.   

 

What an awesome photo. LOL

 

I tipped last year as well except I lost an iphone.

Yes, please laugh at me because I’m laughing at me. It’s one of the funniest pictures I’ve ever been a part of.

All horizontal today, and they wanted it fast!  Swim jig, fluke, snagless sally, sluggo, spinnerbait, hybrid hunter.

Mr. Clicker said 34 bass and a couple of crappie on a fluke.

Al is one of the best Bass Resource anglers. 

Unlike Al, I only caught two, partly because I was fighting the wind more than bass (It was white capping and I had a wave come over my bow.) and partly because I only fished an hour. 1,241 for the year. All day long I told myself I was going to fish a bog tomorrow morning, but I think I'm going to fish my pond again. It's so close and easy.

 

@Bluebasser86, I was wondering about the color of your skinny muskie as I read your post. Every super skinny OH muskie I've caught has been a gold/bronze color. Yours looks similar. I think it's a genetic thing. 

 Here's a super scrawny 46.5" I caught last year. And a 38" the wife caught this year. 

 

1 hour ago, T-Billy said:

@Bluebasser86, I was wondering about the color of your skinny muskie as I read your post. Every super skinny OH muskie I've caught has been a gold/bronze color. Yours is similar. I think it's a genetic thing. 

 Here's a super scrawny 46.5" I caught last year. And a 38" the wife caught this year. 

 

Its back was very dark. I’ll have to get a screenshot from the video once I get it together. Water temps were still high enough I wanted to get it back in the water as fast as possible after the quick picture. 

Uhhh hey @Lottabass is your barn door open in that second photo? 🫤

 

We may have yet the most serious fashion police violation to date…

8 hours ago, gim said:

Uhhh hey @Lottabass is your barn door open in that second photo? 🫤

 

We may have yet the most serious fashion police violation to date…

Woops!  At least the Buick was all the way in the garage!!!😁

I caught 18 this morning at my pond, but Al caught 34 on his last outing, so I'm considering changing my screen name to abouthalfalottabass. 1,259 for the year. I've about a month to catch 241 more to reach my goal of 1,500 in 2025.

 

Here are the five biggest:

 

13 hours ago, gim said:

Uhhh hey @Lottabass is your barn door open in that second photo? 🫤

 

We may have yet the most serious fashion police violation to date…

Nailed him!

8 hours ago, Blue Raider Bob said:

Nailed him!

 

Best two this trip came early & then late.

A-Jay

Last Sunday was my son's second birthday. We've been sick for weeks, and are just finally getting our health back. So rather than tire ourselves out and test our compromised immune systems with a party that he most likely wouldn't remember or understand, I took him fishing. He caught his first ever fish all by himself. I made the cast, and kept my hands on the rod to steady it, but he reeled the crankbait in, hooked the fish, and then reeled it all the way in on his own. I had to give him many vocal encouragements to keep going. 'twas nothing more than a scrawny rock bass, but I was mighty proud of him. I caught a handful of small mouth and lost a couple more. 

 

 

 

 

Good job @IcatchDinks!!! 

Way to go, ICD!

@Swamp Girl "changing my screen name to abouthalfalottabass."

Maybe BogBabe would be better! 🤭

How about FrauleinFour-Pounder since I catch a lot of those?

Went out with a buddy after work. He got a yellow perch, I got a dink SMB. After several more dink hits, I decided to tie on a popper/walker and bomb it into the dead center of the river. First cast KABLOOEY!!! Got a nice 17.5 inch SMB. Third cast got one a tad smaller. That was worth the price of admission! 
 

 

I might not fish for the next five days as I'll be dog-sitting. The dog is a wild girl and my dog is a wild boy and I might have my hands full. So, I Iaunched at my pond this afternoon and caught 15. I only caught one trolling. I caught the other 14 in a specific way, along the edges of floppy grass beds with a Rapala crawdad that I plopped and waited, as if I were fishing live bait. The hits were oh-so-subtle. I saw half of them when my line twitched. My teeth were chattering coming off the water. I saw loons, geese, and an eagle, osprey, and heron.

 

Here's a deep 17-incher:

 

 

Here's a 17.75-incher in the air and and on the bump board. You can see the grass behind her in the first photo and on her in the second photo:

 

 

And here's an 18-incher:

 

 

I'm at 1,274 for the year.

Bank fished for a few this afternoon in windy/rainy conditions. It was raining lightly when I started, but I was able to ditch the coat shortly after the first fish. Got 5 smaller keepers and one big mama, with maybe 4 dinks. I also lost a big fish that’s still bothering me because it felt like a weird kind of loss. I used my spinning rods today and am glad I had the MH along with the M.
 

Weeds are thinning steadily and have browned and weakened considerably, but that big fish got me down in them and it took some hard effort to get her. My drag was less tight than it had been because I figured the weeds were not a concern as much; wrong. Probably could have slack-lined and got her to swim out, but I had 10lb xt leader, so I just tightened down and pulled. Jigs ruled the day by far and I’m very happy I can run them again as that’s my favorite way to get them. There are some BIG bass lurking around, but they’re tough

 

 

 

Dang @TnRiver46, that smallie you caught in the post made friday @10:35pm is a beauty.

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Starting to get more confidence in spinnerbaits.

 

 

 

And jerkbaits. This being a 1/4 ounce husky jerk in glass minnow.

 

There was another little bitty one on the jerkbait that flopped back in before I could get a photograph.

 

I whiffed with a spinnerbait today, Bazoo. I also whiffed with a walking bait. They only wanted falling crawdads and they were only on the edges of grass beds.