Tie on some corkland tooth critters, after losing 50 dollars work of jerksbaits and chatterbaits I decided to never fish kensington without it. It's much more limber than a standard wire leader, and hardly affects the baits action.

Got my new toy this past weekend!!

 

 

Sweet Rig !

Congrats

A-Jay

Been out a few times got a few smallmouth and a couple largemouth also the pike are bitting like crazy 

Well, after months of almost no time to fish (current bass count for the year: 1, from a brief gravel pit bank excursion in March), I finally got out on the kayak for two hours on Wed. Nothing going on shallow anywhere that I could find. Managed one 16" pike on a drop shot. Oh well. I'll get to try again next week.

 

I fish some lakes in the northern half of Barry County, and I like to float the Thornapple.

New guy from Holland here. Been fishing smaller lakes and ponds with my six year old. We have a Bass Raider. Just having fun. 

3 weeks in a row, pike at Harley ensign. Waiting for these guys to get out so I can get some bass.

Hmm. Harley Ensign is like 45 minutes from me, but I do like feeding lures to Pike.

They haven't gotten one from me yet (knock on wood) but they have autographed a few.

That is a thing of beauty! Just out of curiosity what's your smallie PB?

On 5/9/2017 at 7:37 PM, 12poundbass said:

That is a thing of beauty! Just out of curiosity what's your smallie PB?

**** Updated 7-5

A-Jay

Got 2 small large mouth yesterday. Finally something besides pike

got one Friday, 20", looking spawned-out:

 

 

Spawned out already? 

That's what it looked like to me, and that's a relatively-warm lake. Would have been a bit of an early-bird, but not impossible.

It surely isn't impossible at all. I was in full panic mode thinking I've completely missed the spawn. Don't do that to me. ?

Took the Skeeter out for a few hours this weekend. I planned on being out all weekend but..life! 

 

Landed a handful. No size. All on the 2k Jigs Deposit Spin in Bluegill.

Also, I have my first tournament of 2017 at the end of May on Houghton Lake. Haven't been there in a decade or more. Anyone have an advice or tips on this lake for this time of year?

 

I plan on practicing up there next weekend.

I've been going there for vacation for the past 7 years.  My experience is on spinnerbait your going to be getting a lot of pike on the southern part of lake. Weed bed on the southern part are a little more dense. Northern and western part are a little thinner. I've only fished the eastern bay once but water was murky haven't had the chance to get back to it. Don't know if that helps.

 

But thats july conditions.

On 5/2/2017 at 11:40 PM, SemperBass said:

Got my new toy this past weekend!!

 

 

NICE!!

Hey Semperbass did practice go well at Houghton lake?  And are you going to leave any bass for me to get in july? ?

Made the classic mistake of trying to fish lake St. Clair on a holiday weekend. Too many jet skis which I expected, but boats trolling 15ft off shore while people are casting. Really!  Like 6 boats did this. Would have fired a sinker at the boats but not good to do in front of my 5yr old son.  I'm guessing the younger group 40yds down may have due to the arguing. Landed just one bass, and missed about 3 hook sets due to kids and adults creeping right up next to me while I'm working my jig and talking to my son. 

Never made it up there for practice. I did however have the tournament yesterday and let's just say, having my gf as my partner (due to my normal partner not being able to make the first event) is NOT a good idea. It was 8hrs of agony. My plan was out the window because she was bored, hot, cold, hungry, tired, changing lures every 2 mins (I had to tie), etc..

 

Eitherway, it was a good day on the water and I managed 4 fish. I obviously didn't win but it was fun none-the-less. Winner in our circuit was a tad over 18lbs. Winner in the other circuit launching out of the other launch was 21lbs.

fishing would be decent around here if they didnt spray a bunch of the lakes last week

Wow Semperbass and I  thought it was bad that my wife only has confidence in spinnerbaits.  Sounds like you made the best of it though. Better luck next time.