I've caught a couple of decent bass this year, but most of the bass water ski on the surface when I reel them in.

On 5/7/2021 at 1:34 PM, DitchPanda said:

By this time last year I had already caught a 6 and a 7...my best so far this year is 4 1/4.

 

I feel your pain.  I've skunked 2/3 of the trips I've taken this year.  A few friends are doing well, but I'm firing on 7 cylinders, or something...  

 

BTW, 2 to 3 pounds is a big fish for my home area, no sorrow for your small fish being 4 1/2... 

 

Best of luck recovering.

To put things into perspective, took the top off Jeep last year on April 2nd.

It is now May 11 and haven't even considered taking the top off.....41* this morning. 

 

Last year at this time, had 3 fish over 5lbs and around 50+ fish.

This year I'm under 20 fish and 2 lbs was biggest fish but wind has played a major role as well. 

 

Heading out to another lake for 3 days, hopefully will get into a good one.

 

 

I’m kind of the same but not the same. I can’t really find a big school of crappie so I turn into bass more this year. Same time last year I would spent majority of time and probably caught several hundreds of crappie, this year I have to get up super early to find only a few. On the other hand, I already caught a few of 6-7 lbs and a bunch of 3-5 lb. 

Good year for numbers of small spotted bass on Lake Martin in east AL, all fish under 3 lbs. Rarely ever caught fewer than 10 fish. But not as good as the last two years.

 

Since I use light and ultralight spinning gear, I don't mind the small bite. Have been a successful fisherman for over 50 years in various species, but had never targeted spotted bass before. I have learned a lot on this forum, especially from Tom Young.

I've caught 34 bass since I started fishing after ice left the last week of March. Way more than last year, but my biggest is sub 3lb so far.

Well, I haven't caught a bass over 4 pounds in more than a year, but this year has been uncommonly slow for numbers and low for size, even compared to last year at this point (which was my worst in some time).  I've seen larger 4-5+lb class bass cruising, but all biters have been under 3. However, It's probably just a small sample as I've only been out 9 times for 3-5 hours each time, and four of those trips have been to places I've never fished as early in the year before.  Haven't been skunked yet, though.

 

 

This year has been pretty low on numbers, but in my lakes that I fish, a 3.10 pounder is a pretty good fish, and I caught one earlier this year than ever! Normally I catch my 1st 3 pounder in June, and if that 3 pounder was fat, it would be 3.6 pounds! So this year has been ok overall.