It's wide open just a little south in KS. We've got water temps all the way up into the low 70's in some of the small bodies of water. The guy that got 3rd in our tournament Saturday caught all 5 of his fish on a frog. Pretty much catch them on whatever you want to throw season around here.

I had good luck this morning with a VMC heavy duty underspin 5/0 with a Crush City Cleanup Craw in orange. I catch more bass with an underspin than any other lure, which is NOT to suggest that you should fish it too. However, if you fish like I do, I.e. stealth fishing in close-quartered bogs, it's an excellent lure because it lands much more lightly than a spinnerbaits, can be chucked into woods and weeds, and also casts a long ways.

6 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Pretty much catch them on whatever you want to throw season around here.

I was just thinking about that yesterday. How it is silly to go through a pack of Rage Bugs every day when I have hundred pounds of plastics I may never use. So today I broke out some hideous pink and purple D-Bombs that I was going to get rid of. Someone in Guntersville told me they were killer there and I bought a couple packs - never had a bite on one; there, or anywhere else. Today, the bass couldn't care less what fell in front of them. Ate those D-Bombs like they were starving. I need to clear out some other stuff while the bite is hot.

Past two weeks it's been a brownish finesse jig 1/4oz.

Allen

I hadn’t been for a month but was able to go yesterday. I tried wake baits with no bites, spinner baits with 2 bass, shaky with 3 bass then Ned. My neighbor and I stayed with the Ned and caught 70 more (largemouth, smallmouth, spotted bass and mean mouth).

So far it’s been beaver baits rigged with free sliding sinkers, straight tail worms in the 5-7” range rigged a variety of ways, buzzbait, frog.

That’s about all I’ve been able to get fish to bite on the “real bass fishing tackle”- ultralight with 6 lb mono and a 1/16 oz crappie jig with a Bobby garland minnow has been by far my most productive set up - caught hundreds of fish this spring running that.

Yesterday. Recent rains have muddied up portions of a small lake I fished. Could not get a bite in the muddy sections with about 2 inches of visibility. Spinnerbait with double magnum willow blades on wood and a Bomber Model A on rip rap get bit in cleaner water.

Last week I fished a northern Missouri body of water right after a strong cold front. Water temps were still low 50s and a finesse jig with subtle trailer was catching the bigger fish. I caught a few dinks on a Ned Rig also.

This week I spent the last few days at Table Rock Lake and, similar to @Jig Man, the Ned Rig was my best producer with 26 fish. I caught a couple on a jig and Rage Craw but nothing on a jerkbait, t-rigged senko, brush hog, and Zara Spook. There was some topwater feeding going on in the early mornings, but it was few and far between.

Yesterday it was a black and chartreuse 3/8 swim jig I tied with a black/blue menace grub trailer. Definitely a number one confidence bait for me is swimming a jig. So when I can’t get bites I’ll go back to it. It’s a real natural looking subtle approach.

Beds on the Big O!

White Rage Bug, Rage Craw, Brush Hog in that order.

Mike

Don't you just love it when people from thousands of miles away from Iowa start chiming in on what they're biting on?

This is why I head to the regional thread. Local advice and fishing reports. Not an Iowa report from Florida.

@Joedodge is in Iowa. I'd look at his posts and mostly ignore the rest.

21 minutes ago, gim said:

Don't you just love it when people from thousands of miles away from Iowa start chiming in on what they're biting on?

This is why I head to the regional thread. Local advice and fishing reports. Not an Iowa report from Florida.

@Joedodge is in Iowa. I'd look at his posts and mostly ignore the rest.

Ya know I should poke around the regional threads more. Thanks @gim

16 hours ago, Choporoz said:

How it is silly to go through a pack of Rage Bugs every day when I have hundred pounds of plastics I may never use.

I want to do this too this year.

21 hours ago, Swamp Girl said:

I catch more bass with an underspin than any other lure, which is NOT to suggest that you should fish it too.

@gim: Did you catch what I wrote ^here?^ A year or two ago, a Bass Resource angler argued with me at length about how an underspin is inferior to the lures that pros use. He suggested I fish like the pros, using an array of lures that he believed to be situationally superior to underspins.

Well, style-wise, I have so little in common with the pros. I'm fishing small water. They're fishing big water. I'm fishing from a canoe. They're fishing from bass boats. I'm using my ears, eyes, and hunches. They're watching screens. So, an underspin works for me, but I don't believe for a sec that it's the best choice for Bass Anglers X, Y, and Z.

Heck, a bass boat can't even float in many places that I fish. A canoe drafts 3 to 6 inches of water. A bass boat drafts 12 to 24 inches of water. I sometimes fish water that's 12 to 24 inches deep. My point is that I'm fishing in different places and I've found lures that work for me where I fish.

1 hour ago, gim said:

Don't you just love it when people from thousands of miles away from Iowa start chiming in on what they're biting on?

I don't mind, Gim. They mean well and they might just suggest a breakthrough lure.

FWIW, I did catch two bass on a Whopper Plopper yesterday. Yesterday and the day before that, I had a couple bass jump. I figured it they're feeling frisky enough to exit the water, they'd be willing to hit a surface lure.

The question was asked without borders.

I answered

Mike

1 hour ago, Mike L said:

The question was asked without borders.

I answered

Mike

I do think there's value to be gleaned from a fellow angler's perspective, even if they're fishing water a thousand miles away. For example, @Lottabass fishes about 1,500 from me, but he fishes from a small boat on water that's often swampy and always smallish. So, I have more in common with Al than an angler fishing Maine's biggest lake from a bass boat. Al recently caught some BIG bass in two feet of water, which sounds like the water I fish. Here's a corner of my pond and the water in the photo is only about a foot deep. Look to port off my bow. See the log in the water? That's the bottom. If you fish water that looks like this, please advise me how to fish, even if you live a guhzillion miles from me!:

Worm for regular bass, topwater and fluke for white bass

9 minutes ago, Swamp Girl said:

See the log in the water? That's the bottom. If you fish water that looks like this, please advise me how to fish, even if you live a guhzillion miles from me!:

Katy,

The lake I fished on Wednesday is like that in the upper third plus the first 30 yards from the bank. It gets real skinny to get the boat into that upper end and I will end up burying the motor in the mud. But it's mud so, so be it. I'll fish my way into it, let the boat drift into the skinny stuff, and let the motor hang on the bottom. Now I'm anchored effectively. Don't need a motor to hold me. If I pick my spot that I drift into carefully, I can cast to 90% of the water with a long cast so I just start casting. Applying that to you, bring your anchor! With as many fish as you have up in the shallows, the last thing you want is to be pulled into them landing one. For lures? Whatever you can get through it cleanly. A floating worm or light underspin are always a good choice. A light swim jig. Floating rapala or other topwater. All the things you're throwing already so I'm not telling you anything you don't know.

23 hours ago, Swamp Girl said:

I had good luck this morning with a VMC heavy duty underspin 5/0 with a Crush City Cleanup Craw in orange. I catch more bass with an underspin than any other lure, which is NOT to suggest that you should fish it too. However, if you fish like I do, I.e. stealth fishing in close-quartered bogs, it's an excellent lure because it lands much more lightly than a spinnerbaits, can be chucked into woods and weeds, and also casts a long ways.

For me, you are right on the money @Swamp Girl !!

I don’t have a canoe or a kayak or a bass boat. Only 2 feet and 2 legs. 😂. Bank fishing at its best.

I mentioned this last year I believe but, I absolutely love fishing an underspin with a keitech paddle tail. Never tried it before but when I did, it’s now one of my favorite lures. Underspin with a single, silver willow leaf blade.

If I can make it on the water around 530 am though and the water is like glass and no one is out there, my first lure of the day is a black hollow body frog, every time. Love throwing that frog first thing.

I feel like if you are not throwing senkos you are probably just playing around with all the new gear you bought this winter.

Texas rigs, swim jigs, and spinnerbaits. If the bass are not deep biting the Texas rig, then they will be up shallow biting the other two.

Fished a tourney yesterday. The weightless fluke and the buzzbait were the allstars but I pulled a fish off the bed with a ned rig and the mayor also caught a couple.

Water temperature here is around 60 degrees.

Tube green pumpkin, hair jig black & blue, crank bait or chatter bait to cover a lot of water.

On 4/17/2026 at 11:15 AM, casts_by_fly said:

Applying that to you, bring your anchor! With as many fish as you have up in the shallows, the last thing you want is to be pulled into them landing one.

Mr. Fly, when I last fished, I was actually thinking about your advice. I think you also advised me months ago to cast to laydowns from as far away as possible and to fish the perimeter water before casting into the laydown, which I've done ever since and I value your sagacity.

However, I'm passing on the anchor. I fished for decades with anchors, so I know the drill, but my Old Town NEXT is only thirteen feet long and it's already carrying a big net, two rod holders, my tackle box, bump board, dry box, camera, two paddles, and up to seven rods. There are also painters at both ends, so there's so much to tangle. An anchor rope would add to the mess. Plus, if I were to run it off the bow, my tipping risk increases as I'd have to creep forward to raise and lower it where the canoe is thinner and tippier. Sure, I could install an anchoring system, but I'm sure i'd hook that rope along the gunnel many times.

Plus, I'm Thoreau.

If I'm pulled into the laydown and miss the chance to catch another bass or three, that's okay with me.

8 hours ago, Dooger said:

Water temperature here is around 60 degrees.

We've had two 60-degree days in all of 2026 and none are forecast over the next 15 days.

Last time out a 1/2 oz white spinnerbait was the deal, but no big fish.