Been a fun year of fishing, but definitely got out less this year than I have in years due to work. I was able to fish in Minnesota for a good month, several weekends in Wisconsin, and made it out to Louisiana for a two day trip to break up the horrendous winters of Wisconsin that never end. Minnesota continued to be the easiest place to fish for me. I love that place, always less pressure (relatively speaking), and the easiest place to catch a 20+ pound bag in my opinion. Despite my efforts, I did not catch as many 5+ pound bass as in previous years due to several of our favorite lakes dying off from a fish kill. Definitely tragic and frustrating to have your favorite unpressured gems die off. Spent more time trying new lakes. I have heard of this happening throughout the state as well. Nevertheless, was able to still get some good fish there and in Wisconsin. Top 5 bass for the year still put me a little shy of 30lbs. Biggest bass this year between the two states was in Wisconsin at 7 lbs 1 oz (almost 23 inches) on my own jig. I do wish we had more Wisconsin guys piping in on this website. Pretty confused why we don't see a lot of reports. I generally find it harder to get a 6+ pound largemouth bass out of here versus MN. Here were a few of the Minnesota/Wisconsin bass and accidental northern and musky:

 

 (no smiling allowed. Bill Dance hat)

 (7 pounder)

 

 

 

I also had the opportunity to drive my boat 15 hours south and fish Louisiana for 2 days late March. Was able to get my dad and brother out there as well. We had a blast. We tried out ol' Bussey to see how we could do on 2 days of fishing. Definitely crowded lake and a lot of learning and falling short on our end while there. We did not catch many bass, but learned pretty quickly that we were also not well equipped with the best fishing equipment (complete oversight on my part). I brought out a bunch of medium heavy rods and not strong enough line. We missed some big fish and I will try to be better equipped next time.  I am hoping to stay out longer. Even after 2 days, I still don't think we came close to figuring this lake out quite yet. My biggest of the trip was this 8 lb 2 oz bass on a 5" texas rigged senko. Just realizing looking at the pictures that my blue shirt is a lucky shirt!!!

 

 

 

Thanks for reading along! 

 

Shimmy

 

 

 

Well Done my friend ~

Congrats

btw - you fish jigs ?

j/k

A-Jay

 

You're a heckuva angler. That's a lot of big bass!

You caught some nice fish this year.

WTG @shimmy well done as always.