I thought @Swamp Girl might like this bluegill shaped bass. Only 18” but went for 4.62lbs. 

@10,000 lakes Bassin: Ah, you know me well! Thanks for the pic of the bluegilly bass.

Amazing day south of the metro. 79 degree water temperature and the fish were on fire! Caught em shallow,  deep and everywhere in between. Caught most on Texas rigs but caught a few deep cranking and spinnerbaiting. Even had a huge musky hit my crank right at the boat,  didn't get hooks in her though. 

 

Broke my favorite jig rod but it was still the best day I've had this year. 

 

 

I went this morning for 3.5 hours.  I only caught 5 bass and by 9:30am I was toasted.  It's hot out there today and the water temp is 80 degrees.  When I left, the parking lot was full and 3 rigs were waiting to get in.

 

All 5 bass were quality fish but the schools seem to have disbanded for now.  However, one of the largies was a tank.  It was 20.5 inches and weighed nearly 6 pounds.  It's my biggest bucket mouth this season thus far.

 

Thankfully there does appear to be cooler weather coming in a few days.

Caught a chunky 18" LMB and a very feisty 17" SMB on two different recent outings. Big wind and storms have limiting my opportunities to get out today - hope to possibly get out tomorrow (Sunday)

 

 

I went locally this evening for about 3.5 hours.  My last couple outings were a bit of a struggle for quantity, but the quality has still been good.  This time I went full combat - right to the jungle.  I pitched heavy bullet weighed plastics into holes of the pads like pictured below.  Straight braid on a stout MH action rod.  It was tough fishing but produced 10 largemouth, including one giant.  This is my biggest bass of the season, and flirting with my PB.  A 21 incher that weighed just over 6 pounds.  It was a real challenge hauling it out of that nastiness too.  Water temp is 78 degrees.

 

 

Congrats on that tank! Are you going to bumb your PB on your profile up to 6-7lbs?? 

Nice fish Gim!

@gim

 

Since you are in MN, what's your favorite, brown or green bass?

I was able to get out on Saturday - very windy so I went to a smaller local lake - the water is very high from the recent storms - and with the wind it was cloudy/muddy in a number of places - caught a number of good sized bluegill/crappie (I was not targeting them, all catch/release) and a few pike - but no bass - until - I went to an area of the lake you typically cannot get into because it is generally so shallow, yet with the water so high this shoreline/weeds/overhanging trees area had water and were accessible - so I fired in a frog (a small/light frog) - wham, something grabbed it and dug hard in to the weeds, because it was a light frog I had it on a light rod, and this fish was bending that rod to it's max, unfortunately I lost it (operator error, I was afraid the rod/line was going to break so I let up slightly and the fish rolled off) - ugh, whatever it was, was big/strong/aggressive - so I changed over to stouter rod and a wake bait (DEPS Buzz Jet Jr.) - nothing for about an hour - but as I trolled back across an area I had already tried with the frog - bang - the fish in the picture hit it hard - it was a challenge to get to and into the boat - a just shy of 19 inch LMB (my new PB LMB, previous was 18.5, this was just a sliver short of 19) - as you can see in the pic it was bleeding, I think in the fight one set of the trebles must have caught it in the gill area - the fish as going nuts - so I quickly put it on the measuring board and wanted to weight it but it continued to go nuts and was it was bleeding so I released it right after this pic - I stayed in that area and caught a two 16 inchers, a 16.5 incher, a 17.5 incher and this one - the best 5 fish I have ever caught in one day

8 hours ago, HawkeyeSmallie said:

@gim

 

Since you are in MN, what's your favorite, brown or green bass?

I would rather target smallmouth most of the time. Truth be told, there just is not a lot of opportunity to target them near me. Most of our lakes are natural largemouth lakes, so most of the time that is what I target.

 

The nearest location is either Mille Lacs or a river. Mille Lacs is the the Dead Sea in midsummer and rivers are more of a gamble that I do not know very well.

20 hours ago, gim said:

I would rather target smallmouth most of the time. Truth be told, there just is not a lot of opportunity to target them near me. Most of our lakes are natural largemouth lakes, so most of the time that is what I target.

 

The nearest location is either Mille Lacs or a river. Mille Lacs is the the Dead Sea in midsummer and rivers are more of a gamble that I do not know very well.

 

Was always a smallmouth fan myself, hence the name.

 

Now I hardly fish rivers, mostly smaller lakes.

 

My first frog fish is what got me hooked on largemouth. Not sure if that's pun intended or not. 

 

The largest lake by me, still only around 400 acres has "recently" stocked smallmouth so that's exciting. It's a lake that is going to hopefully produce some really nice fish.

Tough fishing today. Had to finesse em with tiny,  unweighted plastics to get a commitment. Still better than not fishing. 

Water temps hanging at 78F

10 minutes ago, Adrift said:

Tough fishing today. Had to finesse em with tiny,  unweighted plastics to get a commitment. Still better than not fishing. 

Water temps hanging at 78F

 

Slightly muggy out there huh?  Soupy is the word I would use to describe it lol

8 hours ago, gim said:

 

Slightly muggy out there huh?  Soupy is the word I would use to describe it lol

 

You aren't kidding!  

Luckily,  for fishing, I was on the water at 0600 and off by 1030. Not too bad. 

Changing the oil in the SUV and grilling dinner were a whole different story! 

I was able to get out on Sunday - it was very windy with some substantial gusts - I braved the waves/gusts for a while but then moved to the north side/shore of this lake (4500 acres) to get as out of the wind as I could - I caught a 14" LMB near some above water weeds/reeds - then a 17" LMB near an isolated dock - then my new PB LMB - 19",  pictured here, in about one foot of water near a tree that had fallen in to the water - I was pretty surprised that a fish this size was in such shallow water, but it was shaded/protected from the wind/well protected by the branches from the tree -- last week, on a different lake, I had caught a LMB just a sliver shy of 19", now I have caught one that is a full 19" 

 

 

Way to go Waska.  PB's are always a great day.

On 8/11/2025 at 10:28 AM, WaskaCrank12 said:

I was able to get out on Sunday - it was very windy with some substantial gusts - I braved the waves/gusts for a while but then moved to the north side/shore of this lake (4500 acres) to get as out of the wind as I could - I caught a 14" LMB near some above water weeds/reeds - then a 17" LMB near an isolated dock - then my new PB LMB - 19",  pictured here, in about one foot of water near a tree that had fallen in to the water - I was pretty surprised that a fish this size was in such shallow water, but it was shaded/protected from the wind/well protected by the branches from the tree -- last week, on a different lake, I had caught a LMB just a sliver shy of 19", now I have caught one that is a full 19" 

 

 

 

19-inchers are special fish.

I did pretty good this morning with a friend.  Caught 16 largemouth and 4 pike in about 5 hours.  Several bass were in the 17-19 inch range.  One particular 17.5 incher was very plump.  Had one pike saw me off.  That sucker sliced right through a 30 pound fluorocarbon leader.

 

Most fish were caught around docks.  Either burning a spinnerbait next to it, or skipping a plastic under it.  Had one double and netted both fish.  Water temp was 76 degrees.  Saw Bambi on shore right before we left.  It was pretty sweltering out there when it was time to quit.  "Tropical" would be a good description.

 

 

@gim: 2024 was sweet for you, but 2025 might be even better. Way to go, buddy!

I finally made it onto the big river this past weekend.  It was high, muddy and a bunch of weeds floating downstream.. exactly how I don't like it.  Managed one decent smallie in the first 10 minutes, although I thought I had a carp on at first.  This guy just dogged straight down and refused to come off the river bed.  A few more small ones after that, along with 2 decent pike.  Good to get back out there, but hopefully this no rain forecast holds up and levels drop a bit for the fall fishing.

 

 

@Standard: Beautiful bass and a great pic.

Yes @Standard hopefully the rain will slow down (we needed the rain due to drought conditions over the past several years, yet there have been an abundance of storms/rain this summer) - I too hope the water levels drop a bit (this pic is from a local lake)

 

First time bass fishing in over 2 weeks today. Caught 6 largies and 6 pike. All on moving lures. It was cloudy for a couple hours which is when I caught nearly all the fish. Once the sun came out, it went completely dead. Water temp is 74 degrees.

 

 

Still 74 down there @gim? Didnt get above 68 the last time I was out and we’ve had some major grass dieback’s because of the chilly temps.