I have not been out fishing in over 4 weeks due to not feeling well and suffering a heartbreaking near miss on getting a kidney. For 24 hours I thought I was going to be getting one but in the end that organ turned out not to be viable. (Long story but that is the gist). Anyway that was a real gut punch and had me feeling pretty down for a while. Following that was a nice bout of gout but I am happy to say that I finally felt like getting back out on the water!

My family almost begged me to go fishing on Father's day, they know me pretty well  So I spent Father's day/Spring Equinox/First day of summer out on the river. I got to the river a little bit later than I had hoped for since I wanted to really push the topwater bite. I am happy to say though that the bass must have been feeling sorry for me because they stayed on the topwater for about 1.5hours after sunrise. I think the slight ripple helped extend the bite.

I was excited try to get my first topwater fish of the year and to fish a new Sammy that I bought. It was 3 sets of trebles instead of just 2 like my older ones. I love that Sammy but I miss a lot of bites on it. I was hoping the extra hooks would help. I think they definitely did! I still missed some fish but I felt like my hookup ratio was better than in the past.

In all I caught 10 bass on that Sammy  including one of my two best, a 19.5" (but skinny post-spawn) 3lb 2oz fish. It bit once and I missed it but the lure darted to the side. I stopped it for a second to adjust my rudder and that beauty just blasted it while it was sitting there. Super cool!

My only bummer on the topwater was that later in the morning I had once again stopped my lure a couple of feet from the kayak and a giant bass came up and hit it but I missed that fish (and it did not come back). Overall though it was a fun topwater bite and it did catch 10 bass on that new Sammy!

After the wind started blowing pretty hard and the topwater bite stopped I switched to my old reliable bladed jig Stealthblade and MinnowZ trailer. I ended up fishing that for a lot of the rest of the day. The fish stayed active in the shallow water likely due to the wind and they were smashing that JH! My other good fish of the day came out of just a couple of about 5 feet of water in the wind, sun and waves. It was also a 19.5" but it was a bit healthier and weighed in at 3lb 10oz.

That JH bite lasted for a few hours. I wold just cover these huge flats in 4-8' of water. Every once in a while I would come across a section that was holding a bunch. Nothing special or different about those spots other than they were holding fish

Eventually I decided that I should try some other spots and depths to see if I could find some more big ones. I had the two nice ones, a handful of 2lbers but also some real dinks.

I went to  a spot where the bass often push bait and I did see a bit of occasional surface activity but it was more like individual bass chasing a small ball of bait rather than the wolf packs I am used to seeing. I chased those stupid fish for a good hour and half but only managed to catch one dink and lose one decent fish. Every time I would go to leave a bass would bust something within 50 yards of me and I would zoom over there and cast to nothing.

By now it was getting late in the day so I headed back to the ramp, stopping to fish a couple of the spots that were productive earlier. I picked up a few more fish on the JH and that was it.

Overall I ended up with 29 bass, with the best 5 going 90.5" but only 13lb 13oz. A few of the fish I caught were starting to fatten up but most of them were still thin as a rail.

I have to say it felt really great to be back out on the water! A month is too long to be off of it this time of year. On the drive home my daughter (who is on the east coast) called and we chatted, laughed and reminisced while I was stuck in traffic. Made being stuck in stop and go traffic on the highway downright pleasant!

One last funny thing is that as I was walking back to my truck after using the facilities at the end of the day a fellow (named Cross) recognized me from my youtube channel. He said he moved up here from Texas and learned a lot about where to fish from my videos. That really made me smile!

Overall it was a really good father's day for me!

Good report, thanks.

Happy Father’s Day!

Top notch summary of what seemed like a super fun day of brown bass fishing. I will openly admit that the start of this one made me quite sad. Really sorry to hear about that. But we both known 19 inch smalles have a way of brightening the day.

Congrats and belated happy father's day.

A-Jay

On 6/23/2026 at 11:02 PM, pdxfisher said:

Every time I would go to leave a bass would bust something within 50 yards of me and I would zoom over there and cast to nothing.

Ha! A continent apart, you and I fruitlessly chase bass busting on the surface.

Two 19.5-inchers!!! If I catch one, I feel like it's been a great trip. Plus all those bass on the surface. What a great way to spend Father's Day.

It funny you mentioned running into someone. At first I thought you were talking about my dad. But he is not from Texas. He said he did run into you at the ramp recently and chatted you up for a bit.

3 hours ago, Rockhopper said:

It funny you mentioned running into someone. At first I thought you were talking about my dad. But he is not from Texas. He said he did run into you at the ramp recently and chatted you up for a bit.

That's pretty funny. Next time he sees me make sure he tells me he's your dad!