Great day there Mr. Cadman. Congrats!

55 minutes ago, MarkH024 said:

Great day there Mr. Cadman. Congrats!

Thanks, that was the best day on the water I had all year. Would have taken pics, but it was raining pretty good on and off all day.

5 minutes ago, cadman said:

Thanks, that was the best day on the water I had all year. Would have taken pics, but it was raining pretty good on and off all day.

Excellent job Cadman!

DELAVAN report

On the water for a couple of hours yesterday: Water temp. 65, wind SW @ 17mph

8 bass, biggest was 19in.  And three pike. 15-18ft.   Got all but one bass and one pike on a One Knocker and everything else on a 1/2oz. Single willow spinnerbait  

Only six trailers in the parking lot  

I love this fishery

 

Headed to Long again tomorrow to do some panfishing with my dad. Hopefully a little better than last weeks bass adventure

FIshed Braidwood for the last time this year.  It was my 3rd Saturday in a row out there.  Cold front and high pressure really affected the bite.  I have caught a lot of fish out there the last couple weekends but I had to really fish hard for my fish today.  Only caught one at a shade under 16" and everything else was in the 10"-13" range. Nice day to be out though.  Thinking about fishing someplace else tomorrow- maybe the Cal Sag.  

My dad and I put a hurtin' on them

western suburb folks -- has your bite been garbage lately? for me i'm talking small ponds. in august and even into early september, the topwater (frogs, toads, buzzbaits) and t-rigged worm bite was awesome. since it turned to fall weather though, i can barely catch anything. i was looking forward to the fall feed, but did it just get too cold too fast, and the bass just aren't quite aggressive yet?

i've caught 1 t-rigged fish in the past 2 weeks. zero on topwater. my only "success" has been with a slow rolled spinnerbait or chatterbait, and we're talking like 4-5 fish over the same time span. i've tried a dropshot and c-rig with no luck either. 

part of it was my MH spinning rod broke, and while waiting for a replacement, i came up with the genius idea to learn how to use a baitcaster. i suspect years down the line i will view this is a slam dunk positive development, but there have certainly been challenging moments! but now that i'm at least adequate with the baitcaster, the bite still hasn't picked up. just curious if you folks in the same are are noticing the same thing. the other variable is there has been some landscaping going on around the banks of one of the ponds i fish -- the weed growth was whacked down and they laid down some straw grass seed blankets around the perimeter. i was wondering if either the commotion or maybe some runoff chemicals were giving the fish lockjaw. 

Went to a farm pond, all I can say is wow! That shoe measured 12", for a reference. I was told that was a small and skinny one!! 

Beardown

The bite has slowed down for me as well in the recent weeks.  I usually only manage one or two fish when i get out.  The water is cooling at an extremely fast rate and because of that i've seen a lot of the emergent and submergent vegetation wilt and disappear quickly.  I've had to rely on finding any weed patches out further in the water and fish in and around them to get a bite.  Just keep at it, they're going to feed up for fall before ice comes.  I wouldn't expend a lot of time on top water except at peak times. Give it 30-60 min and go back to something more traditional.  The other factor is we've had winds coming from all directions every other day.  Some days its SW, some days its East.  We deal with some crazy weather conditions in this area and it can either turn the light switch on or completely kill the bite.  Unfortunately, the OFF switch seems to last longer than the ON switch.  We have a warming trend starting today through Monday so get out if you can.

This is the best fish I've caught in the past 3 weeks, just over 3lbs.  You can see her belly is flat and not really eating but she wacked a 7.5" Strong shad, so they're going to eat.  Keep at it.

9 hours ago, beardown34 said:

western suburb folks -- has your bite been garbage lately? for me i'm talking small ponds. in august and even into early september, the topwater (frogs, toads, buzzbaits) and t-rigged worm bite was awesome. since it turned to fall weather though, i can barely catch anything. i was looking forward to the fall feed, but did it just get too cold too fast, and the bass just aren't quite aggressive yet?

i've caught 1 t-rigged fish in the past 2 weeks. zero on topwater. my only "success" has been with a slow rolled spinnerbait or chatterbait, and we're talking like 4-5 fish over the same time span. i've tried a dropshot and c-rig with no luck either. 

part of it was my MH spinning rod broke, and while waiting for a replacement, i came up with the genius idea to learn how to use a baitcaster. i suspect years down the line i will view this is a slam dunk positive development, but there have certainly been challenging moments! but now that i'm at least adequate with the baitcaster, the bite still hasn't picked up. just curious if you folks in the same are are noticing the same thing. the other variable is there has been some landscaping going on around the banks of one of the ponds i fish -- the weed growth was whacked down and they laid down some straw grass seed blankets around the perimeter. i was wondering if either the commotion or maybe some runoff chemicals were giving the fish lockjaw. 

I have had one of the best times this year with the Bass bite these past few days. Nothing on top water. Swim jig and creature baits have been nailing the Bass. Keep at it. Fall bite will get better. I am also in the West Burbs. Keep natural colors. Nothing fancy.

Dern, nice largies. Yeah I'm waiting for the bite to pick up here. In the meanwhile, lots of casting practice 

Beardown34, you could also use this time to teach yourself a different tactic. IE pitch or flip with opposite hand, skip a jig (I really need to force myself to learn this one), etc. 

 

Wow- I had a brutal day fishing Lake Michigan on Saturday.  1 14" smallmouth is all I had to show for fishing 7 hours.  Overcast, 58 degrees, with south winds- I thought I would hammer them.  Tried a bunch of different techniques and colors but I could not figure them out.  Had a couple follows including 1 from a monster smallmouth but nothing.  Thing looked like a boulder following my bait.  Oh well- it was my first time out there in the fall so I am still learning.  

Better weekend than I had. Diswasher sprung a leak and my wood floors are warped. Would have rather been fishing 

That sucks! I recently put some allure vinyl, I think they where 12*24 sections. In one of our bathrooms. Supposed to be water resistant. They snapped together, used the score and snap method to cut them. Was pretty easy once I got going.

They don't look to bad either.

Was a windy one out today but managed a few bass and one pike.

First bass with new Curado 70 reel.

with this unseasonably warm weather, i'm going to see if the buzzbait will start working again. maybe even a frog?? the last few weeks all i've been able to catch em on are spinnerbaits and chatterbaits. 

21 hours ago, beardown34 said:

with this unseasonably warm weather, i'm going to see if the buzzbait will start working again. maybe even a frog?? the last few weeks all i've been able to catch em on are spinnerbaits and chatterbaits. 

2 weeks ago when I got skunked, my bites were on a jitterbug and my son caught his on buzz baits and a wake bait. Water was still in the upper 60's

My fall so far this year.

Too hot to hunt and too windy to fish.

I have been working a lot and that's about it. 

 

What a beautiful morning

4 inch bass looks huge when you hold it close to the camera

Found me a boat

Just polished off some fresh bluegill

Are those yellow bass mixed in? If so, are they tasty? Have caught some here, they fight for all their worth!

The are good but you can only eat the backstraps. the stomach meat is bad. When you clean them, after you skin them, there is a line of red meat that runs the length of the side. Remove  everything below the red meat. They taste as good as any other fish.

 

Thank you for the information. I will keep some the next time. 

looks like a couple warm days coming up this week, but i was wondering -- let's say there aren't really many warm days strung together from here until winter. are there seasons where it just goes from hot hot summer to cold cold fall, with no real moderate time in between, and that season the bass just don't feed and fatten up very well?