I caught a solid bag yesterday, but that was luck. I simply stumbled upon a big bass school that was feeding for about 30 minutes. Today, I caught nine, but didn't need luck to land another solid bag. I caught five by casting under free-standing bushes like these:

I caught two off the top of a ridge, including a smallie and my biggest lmb:

And I caught two casting a wacky-hooked Senko in green pumpkin with a chartreuse-tipped tail into a laydown. You can see the tree in the background:

I caught the other six with T-Rigged Yamamoto dark blue craw. Here are some of them:

It felt good to rely upon my skill rather than luck to catch some bass.

I've caught 78 bass in 2026, which is about what @TnRiver46 and @pdxfisher have caught in a single session this year, but as you can see above, my best five were solid.

Only if you count white bass, I don’t catch very many black bass unless I go off grid

Nice bunch of fish you got !!

14 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Only if you count white bass, I don’t catch very many black bass unless I go off grid

Nice bunch of fish you got !!

I LOVE white bass. They fight like smallmouth, but just don't jump.

Our water is still cool, but I'm going to launch pretty early tomorrow and see if I can catch some on the surface. I had a couple jump today and I think that when bass are jumping, they're perky enough to hit surface lures.

Very nice catch Swamp Girl and I wish I had half your luck, you most certainly have plenty of skill and definitely know how to put them in the boat.

Maybe you soremouthed most of the bass in your ponds and they won't bite. You're still doing great in comparison to most of us.

That's a good day and great pictures! 9 bass that size is a happy day!

1 hour ago, Alex from GA said:

Maybe you soremouthed most of the bass in your ponds and they won't bite.

Nah, the fishing will pick up. It's just been cold and the water's still cold.