Bass fishing has been extremely slow here in my area so off to a trout lake it was. Totaled atleast 10 nice browns and a few small rainbows. 1/8oz gold kastmaster took a few fish but the Berkeley powerbait trout worm on a trout magnet jighead really did the damage. Fun day on a 5’ ultralight with 4lb test

Raritan Bay, NJ is starting to heat up.  1 of 11 boated today.  All overs which is such an odd thing to say, it is what it is.  I caught one fat male that I swore was going to be a keeper but he came in at 32", grrr...

 

On 4/14/2025 at 8:29 PM, Craig P said:

Raritan Bay, NJ is starting to heat up.  1 of 11 boated today.  All overs which is such an odd thing to say, it is what it is.  I caught one fat male that I swore was going to be a keeper but he came in at 32", grrr...

 

Strict reg's for the law abiding anglers, not enough enforcement for the poaching and lawless anglers. 

On 4/14/2025 at 8:29 PM, Craig P said:

Raritan Bay, NJ is starting to heat up.  1 of 11 boated today.  All overs which is such an odd thing to say, it is what it is.  I caught one fat male that I swore was going to be a keeper but he came in at 32", grrr...

 

Nice fish I am impatiently awaiting them to return to east end of LI

Tammy and I had an awesome Easter Sunday on the water. Three muskie for her. They've finally started eating crappie. Three bites on the quick strike rig today, and she put 'em all in the net. Atta girl!!!

 First up was this 42.5".

Followed by this poor scrawny 39.5"

Then she capped the day off with this stout 44.25". It's a new PB for her.

We also brought home 8 nice crappie for dinner tomorrow evening. We sorted through close to a hundred 6-9 inchers to get 6 like these two, and a couple 10" for the table.

3 Muskie and 100 or so crappie??? I may move to Ohio…

I’ve been out for a while, so I haven’t had a chance to go fishing. I figured I’d head over to the eastern shore to kick things off for the year. My first fish of 2025 was a redbreast sunfish. 
 

 

I caught this guy (and many others) farther upstream in the creek I was fishing. My main goal was shad, so I moved downstream a bit. I got jumpscared by a big pickerel that blasted my crappie tube in <1ft of water, so I switched gears and threw around a stickbait for a bit. Didn’t get anything doing that, but a couple of tiny pickerel showed themselves when I tied on a rooster tail. They were followed by more redbreasts.

 

 

 

While fishing the spinner, I got a hard tap and looked to see a school of three large river herring chase my lure out from a hole. I was losing hope on the shad, but seeing those fish refocused me.

 

I moved downstream a bit and saw a bunch of smaller herring rushing up the stream, totally uninterested in swiping at anything. In hindsight, these were probably blueback and/or alewives. I casted around for a little while until I hooked into a hickory shad. He was much bigger than the smaller herring I had seen, and fought hard on 2lb test. This was my first time catching a hickory.

 

 

 

 

I caught another at the same spot.

 

 

I was interrupted by my first bass of the year.

 

Two more tiny bass inhaled my spinner; it was fun the first time, but got old quick. After that, I caught a white perch. I didn’t know they went this far into freshwater.

 

I ran out of time, so I had to go. It was a great trip to start a new season. I hope to catch an American shad before the run ends. After that, I’m focused on smallmouth.

 

Air temp was 55 degree to start the day, overcast and drizzle. Barometric pressure was 30.07 and rising. Water temps were 58-60 degrees. Second cast with the spinnerbait yielded an 18" LMB. About an hour later a 20" LMB 4lbs-6oz slammed the SB. Good times!

 

This lake holds walleye, and I was a bound and determined to land a few. Noticed a tree in middle of the lake and the sonar looked like Crappie were stacked up...so I ditched the bottom bouncer and started pitching a jig-n-minnow. It was on like-Donkey-Kong. 

 

This absolute slap went 14" and 1 lb, 8 oz. I probably caught 20+ on that one spot. And did land a few dinky walley to boot. 

 

A good day!

 

Windy and overcast with a few sprinkles yesterday, got out for about 5 hours between the river and local pit. Caught 2 gar 2 small drum and a carp in the river. Switched over to the pit caught a dink largemouth and one about 15-16in right off the bat. Then I started floating a bobber with a full crawler and got a 10lb drum, thing was a beast. A few minutes later got a 5-6lb channel cat on the bobber and crawler. We are getting some warmer weather this week so I'm hoping the crappies slide up shallow.

I'm back in the saddle again!!! April has been rough, but The Lord blessed me with a couple today. 

 First up was this 36" male, all scarred up from the spawn. He came out of a deep treetop for a free crappie dinner at T-Billy's floating buffet.

Followed a couple hours later by this 45". She was just hell bent on getting caught. She followed a crank in, came up late and took a swing as I was lifting the bait out of the water. I stuck it back in and started making 8's, after 4-5 times around she was back on it. She made several laps around then slowly swam off. I made a short cast in the direction she went and BURNED that crank back in. She was hot on it and bit in the first turn of the 8, but didn't get hooks. Grrr... I spent a few more minutes casting around but couldn't get her to chase again. Several minutes later... the lovely sound of a bait clicker buzzing away. She smoked that crappie and was headed for mid lake full steam ahead. I got a perfect hookup in the corner of her mouth, just like a quick strike oughta, and a few minutes later we were posing for a pic.

Gotta love those big dumb ones!!!

I had a few other lazy follows on the crank, and missed another on the crappie rig. This crappie bite is just warning up. I'm looking forward to a fun May!!!

Daygum Musky kingpen Tim, congrats!   

 

Had no idea how much Musky loved/hated Crappie until your results.   Sounds like they're what a Crawfish is to a Bass.......almost impossible for them to resist.

 

Wonder why Musky are so attracted to Crappie, wonder if it's the taste, or if it's the way it might make them feel more full.     I know that when I eat a big bowl of pasta, I feel like I got way more fuel in my body than when I eat Chinese food for example.   I have to think predator fish can tell the difference in caloric intake in the different types of food they eat.     

@AlabamaSpothunter, it's a seasonal deal. The muskie are done spawning, and the crappie are getting ready to spawn. The trees are loaded with both right now. The muskie will be hot on the crappie until they spawn and move deep for the summer.

 In the fall when the water gets back down around 60, the crappie will load up in the trees again, and the muskie will feast on them again until the water gets high/mid 40's and the shad form those huge schools in the main lake basins. The muskie will then transition to shad and completely ignore the crappie.

 It's also lake specific. ODNR says we can use any fish without a size or creel limit for bait. Most lakes have limits on crappie. The lake nearest me that has muskie, has no size or creel limit on crappie. 

Nuther 45" today at T-Billy's all you can eat crappie buffet!!! Twin sister to yesterday's fish. 

Actually this one was only 44 7/8", but I'm rounding up. Everybody else does. Heck I know a couple guys who would round it up to 47-48!!! 😂 Needed a chin strap for my hat today. It blew in the lake three times. Caught this girl on the lee side of a point where I could hide from the whitecaps. 

I was technically striper fishing but if a little bass wants to be the first top water fish of the year I won't complain.

That's... better?

@Peacedivision,

Interesting coloration on the fish in your 6th photo!

38" male, and a heavy (for this time of year) 44" female today. 

 

16 minutes ago, BASS302 said:

@Peacedivision,

Interesting coloration on the fish in your 6th photo!

Striper have some really cool iridescent color in the right light

Got fooled again, unlike The Who…….

 

 

We caught all these in our Oklawaha river trip this week… posted more about it in a post in the other species area…

A pitbull of a mayan cichlid, an absolute handful and so much fun on bfs.

4/19/25 Lake Ida, Florida

Terrible hook/land percentage today. I caught this 43, lost another about the same size, and wiffed on two that had the crappie, and were swimming away, but didn't get hooks for some reason. Some days you're the windshield, some days... 

Edit to add: Wiffing with that crappie rig is a shady deal. Two 4X strong VMC trebles and a 3oz egg sinker coming in at mach 3. 😲🦆

@TnRiver46: Love your pics, Russ.