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I was at work far from home few days to finish a big job in airport, at day 4th I received this pictures from Grand son, And that's the text message follow. I felt so good and I wanted to share that with you fellow fisherman and Bassresource family. Here is the TXT.

What do you gift yourself on your birthday? You go fishing is my answer. So I called up my buddy Capt Erik Tilson to go shiner fishing on lake Kissimmee yesterday. We put in at the ramp at Camp Mack my first time staying there. We found a floating island & set up there. The fishing was fast & furious with over 50 fish caught before we ran out of bait. We spent the rest of the day fishing artificials which resulted in only one fish caught on a swim jig. The best two went 7-12 and 9-10. An epic birthday for sure.

Second day on Headwaters lake. Two best today.

Right or wrong, I feel bassboat is one thing, kayak fishing is another. They have unique challenges. this is my new big-bass off the kayak. All morning was socked in fog. Zero visibility. I made it across the lake using only my fish-finder waypoints. in the fog: 4-5lbs hitting the jig…and 5” Magdraft. (Separate thread about the magdraft later - I’m mad at the lure) The sun fries off the fog and I move to deeper water and fish a steep drop off. Hhmmm, hungry. So w sandwich in one hand, rod in the left hand I got hit hard. One handed hook set; it was a really good sandwich!….i set the sando down on kayak and got to fighting. It pulled hard until it didn’t. Pop…. Slack. I was bummed. It felt big. I check bait, and pitch it back out, pick up sandwich and TICK! This time I spike the sandwich and set the hook properly. It felt good! The fish saw my kayak and then it felt REALLY GOOD! She barely got into the net. I guessed a solid six, but in my scale it wobbled between 6.9-7.1. I averaged it. Call it a seven! my bassboat PB is almost identical weight. Apparently I have a type. best day ditching work EVER! Fishing was crazy.

Went out yesterday even though the forecast called for 20mph gusts out of the north. Water temps were 55-60. Fish have been on the beds somewhat. Good chance for me to give the new Ghost trolling motor a good field test. And to run my boat for the first time this year. Fueled up with non ethanol on my way to the lake and actually misjudged how much was already in my port tank (26 gal capacity) and belched some very expensive fuel on the concrete. Always a puzzle to figure out on this lake, shallow, deep, blades, Ned’s, etc. Normally this time of year we would be vertical jigging blades in 30+ft of water. At the current temps, the fish were scattered and setting up to spawn. We caught males up shallow and females a little deeper. Best baits were Ned’s with a 4 inch Senko, 3.5 Shad Shape Worm and a 3in Scope Shad. The Ghost performed well and was invaluable when we needed to hold in place for a net fish and to keep constant on facing into the wind. We found them in pockets as well, they seemed to be bunched up in the pockets when there was deeper water nearby. Easy 60 fish day. I’m now off to Florida for some beach time. No fishing though.

@Bazoo, those are standard bluegill, green sunfish with have blue vermiculation between its eye and mouth. I meant to target stripers today and I did some, but I couldn’t help myself and caught a bunch of other stuff 1 Kentucky spotted bass, 3-4 smallies, lots of white bass, 6 nice crappie, a drum, and a channel catfish. Maybe a couple dozen fish with 6 species, a fun variety pack. I saw some white bass actively spawning, pods of 4-6 climbing all over each other in shallow shoals and splashing water everywhere. Water temp 60-63.

@Bluebasser86 Congrats!! That's a showing! Air temps in the mid 30's, got out there for a couple hours in the clean water of a wind protected marina in NW indiana and was sticking them one after the other till the sun popped out. Terrible pics incoming and still no scale, but landed what certainly is over 5lb and my pb. All in all, about 18-20 in 3hrs. scott couple chunks to start... A real nice one... bonus brown?... my pb....

Thanks everyone for the kind words and encouragement. I didn’t have the day I hoped for but considering the reputation Fork has for being difficult, and the fact that I’d never even seen the lake before, I’m not disappointed with it. Last I saw when Steve posted the standings at 6pm, I was in 50th out of 145 anglers. I caught that 7 pounder with just 1.5 hours left after a few hours of no bites. I lost one big one in the grass mid day when it buried up and just came off. Then with 45 minutes left, I hooked what may have been my biggest of the day on a weightless Senko and 8lb test. I had just caught a small out of a tree and I made a rookie mistake and didn’t check my line. When she dove under the kayak, my line broke. It was a huge high thinking I was about to catch another 20+ inch fish and cull 7+ inches, to watching that chance flapping in the wind and questioning why I didn’t check my line after that little fish had me in the tree, even it was only momentarily. I had the bites to be in the mid 90’s, but just didn’t capitalize. I wouldn’t have even been in the money with that total though, it took over 110” for first place, 100” didn’t even make top ten. Fix a couple mistakes and get 1 more big bite, and the guy from Kansas is right there in the mix and I’m pretty proud of that. It’s going to be a great video and the day before when I caught 108.25” and over 35lbs for my biggest 5 and nearly broke my PB is going to really be an amazing video 😎

Biggest frog bass of my life today on the Bronzeye 65 in clear chartreuse. 59° water. Caught a 3 lb male on a grass transition in about 3 feet of water moving back into a pocket. (Pictured here) and a little voice inside my head said shut everything down and slow WAY down in that pocket and on the first cast under a shadeline into inches of water next to some submerged wood - this beautiful 9 lb 3 oz giant hit on the first twitch. I didn't wait for nothing. Swung hard and she launched herself into the air instantly. I could feel her weight fast - it was like fighting an angry stump on the braid - somehow I managed to get her head up and keep her pinned and into the net she went. Last day of practice for Saturday's big bass bash was really fun.

2 days of warm, windy weather raised the surface temp from 52 to 59 yesterday. Had 'em chompin'!!!

The final installment of The Adventures of Blue goes to Lake Fork is tournament day. Launch was 7am, lines in at 7:30, lines out at 6:30pm. 11 long hours on the water. I wasn’t sure where to start but settled on a dock that I’d found with several crappie beds on it that I’d caught a couple out of in practice. I spent a lot of cast slowly picking the cover apart with a very light T rig, which the light weight seemed to be key for me to get bites. I finally got a fish to go, but it was only a small 14.50” fish. 15 minutes later I was working a weightless Yamatanuki through the brush when another fish picked it up. Keeper number 2 was another dink, only 13.75”. I picked the cover apart for a while and had one really thump the Tanuki once, but no more fish. I slid over to the next dock and pitched the T rig into a small hole and felt pressure. The fish sliced under the dock after the hookset and my line pinged under the edge of the dock. At the end of the dock there was an old piece of rope I didn’t see hanging in the water, the fish got wrapped and tangled in the rope and was threatening to rip free. I stabbed with the net and got her. Keeper number 3 was a 21.75” fish. I had a long dry spell with just a couple dinks on a shakyhead out of some trees on a point. I worked into the point I caught my 8.23 and was pitching into a gap in the grass under the bushes when I had another pressure bite. I slammed the rod back and saw a big flash, and then she was gone. I hadn’t lost a big fish all week until then. I didn’t use braid because the light weight and wind wasn’t a good combination but it bit me on that fish. It was almost 1pm when I finally got another bite, keeper number 4 was another 13” fish on the T rig. Then at 2pm I caught 2 keepers on back to back cast on the shakyhead, a 12.25” fish, then I immediately culled it with a 13.50” fish. I had 4 hours left to fish and only about 76”. I fished a couple more areas before I decided to work back through where I had caught my big fish in practice. The first pocket produced nothing. The next one was the one with the bushes that I’d lost the big one earlier and caught my 8.23 in practice. I was picking apart some bushes with the T rig and pretty zoned out when I dropped my bait and when I lifted, I saw a big white flash and my line started moving for deeper water. The fish when nuts on the hookset, thrashing all over the surface and was quickly in the net. The fish was a better boat fish than a kayak fish, 20.75” and a hair over 7 pounds. It was just after 5 and the wind laid down, I felt like maybe I could make a late move. I was fishing a senko through a tree where I missed one earlier in the day when I caught a small fish. When I hooked that fish, it was stuck for just a second, and I never checked my line. Right there was the trees I caught my 8.23 off of, and one of my first cast to them got picked up. The fish swam to open water so I let it swim away before I set the hook. The fish was heavy, and the. I saw that it was maybe my biggest of the day. I had it open water, it was mine, just wear her down. She fought and surged and dove under the kayak, and broke my line. I was completely defeated at that moment. That fish should have been mine and I made a careless mistake and it cost me. I never got another bite and ended with 84.25”, good enough for 60th out of 145 anglers.

The Pumpkin Zoom Lizard is the king of spring.

If the Rapala digital reads 5.95, can we just call it a 6 pounder and assume it reads a few hundredths of a pound light 😆

I fished my favorite lake Friday, Saturday and Today. I landed 29 - 21- and 16 bass. Biggest bass was 5.9 pounds caught on a bladed jig Friday afternoon. Bass in picture was 4.8 pounds caught on a Junebug Magnum Trick worm. It was caught Sunday morning before the wind picked up so I was able to get a picture. No picture of the 5.9 pound bass caught late in the afternoon. I haven't had a chance to fish this lake three days in a row for a couple years. After catching a 9 pounder there two weeks ago, I was sure I would catch a Grande bass or two. I didn't get the big one, but it wasn't for a lack of effort. I drove three hours Friday morning, first cast was at 6:30 AM last cast was at 7:45 PM. I ate lunch on my kayak with line in the water. Same on Saturday, non stop all day, and 6 hours of constant fishing on Sunday. The wind was relentless gusting to 30 miles per hour starting at noon every day. The wind was so bad I couldn't set my tent up until late at night. I just had to keep telling myself, my new PB could be on the next cast. The bass know it is going to blow every afternoon, and feed accordingly. The wind helps the bite, but hurts the fishing. It was a long weekend, but I'm already looking forward to my next time , wind and all.

The big girls are still MIA, but caught 10 more up shallow this afternoon to a bit under 3 pounds. Water low 60s.

Today, @Bluebasser86 (Clayton) is fishing the Bassmaster Kayak Classic on Lake Fork! This is his 2nd appearance in this prestigious event. Last year, he briefly lead it, and ultimately took 15th out of more than 150 contenders. This year, it's even more difficult. High winds changed the multi-day event into one mega-marathon day....11 hours of competition! So right now, he's out there slugging away at it. He's had a phenomenal practice period, boating several over 8lbs, so he's in a good position to take the win! As I'm writing this, he's in 15th. Go Clayton GO!!

Probably my biggest smallie bag ever and definitely my best shore bound, city bass day. Ended up with only 8 total, but 7 were definitely 3+lbs with 2 that might have exceeded my 20" 5lber from the late 80's. I'll obviously never know. but I'm fine with that. The great lakes finesse juvy craw, 4" berkely power drip in perch, and a 1/2oz spro bucktail jig getting the 2 biggest. The biggest fish were pretty beat up with sores/wounds, must have been a tough winter! scott

A FAT healthy fish that slammed the spinnerbait yesterday for me. Missed a couple mega giants on the weightless fluke fished super erratic around spawning areas. Missed 2 more on the spinnerbait. They are definitely on the move! Big things coming up shallow I reckon!

SMB, carp, tons of white bass, 3-4 drum, and a channel cat or two. Fun afternoon inbetween storms

9-10 release.

Had a day in the high 70's before the next series of storms and road tripped it to the nearest open lake. Water temps 58-60*, and after the next couple days of storms it should start being prime time around here. Pops caught one right away. Bummer was he had fish repellent lures on the rest of the morning and didn't get another bite. 😬 I picked up this fella and another dozen of his siblings on quite a few different baits and depths ranging from 5' to 40'. Hopefully the big girls will be joining them soon...

Some of the craziest variable winds I’ve ever fished in today, combined with the weird haziness created by the drifting smoke of the areas wildfires. But I finally found a group of biters. They weren’t big - nothing over two pounds - but I caught nearly 2 dozen bass along with a dozen scattered crappie, so I’m not going to complain.

I caught this fish

Today they quit hitting spinnerbaits but inhaled Chatterbaits, go figure. Water temp 53*

I went fishing and I caught these bass

Few from my kiddos first time Kayaking yesterday. Water temp 58 degrees with smallies bedding in AZ. Haven't been out in a long time.

Got out on the water fo the first two times this week. Tues. I caught 10 all on a spinnerbait. Mostly dinks but hafd 1 about 5.5 shake off but got a chunky short 3-2 about 5 minutes later fo the best of that day. Today(thurs.) I only managed to scrounge up 3 bites,1 on a bladed jig and 2 on a spinnerbait. With one of those the biggest weighing 5-2.

We only caught 4 today, all on spinnerbaits. My partner caught the best fish today. Water temp 52*

I was finally able to fish my favorite lake for the first time this year. A local lodge does not fish there anymore, and I was the only one on the water both days this weekend. It was very nice to have the place to myself again. Saturday I got off to a fast start with a 5.5 pound bass landed in the first 15 minuets of the day. It was a short chunky bass, I wish I would have taken time to turn my kayak around and get a picture with the sun at a different angle. I finished the day with 25 bass, the largest that first 5.5 pounder. The afternoon west winds started at 11:00 Am and didn't stop until way late at night. 20 mile an hour winds in a kayak can be frustrating, but I stuck with it, and had a good day. Sunday started off with 15 MPH. winds out of the East. I had to change my plans of fishing off shore and drift down the bank. I landed a 7 pound bass along with some small bass on a chaterbait. The east winds started dying down at noon, I new I only had at most an hour before the west winds started howling. I went to the off shore spots I had luck at yesterday before the wind started, and landed one 9.4 a 5.8 a 5.5 pound, and a 3.5 pound bass along with many smaller bass offshore. I might have caught another big one or two, but nature called, and I had no choice but to answer. I lost valuable time with light winds, going to shore to take care of business. As expected the wind shifted to the west at 25 MPH. within an hour. I was tired and only drifted one shore line before calling it a day. My best five for Sunday added up to 31.2. pounds with a total of 18 bass. No double digits, but still a great way to start the year. I landed one large bass on a bladed jig, drifting the shoreline, and all the other big bass were taken on T rigged Zoom Magnum Trick worms in Junebug. Having to fish slow with a T rig, made fishing offshore difficult to impossible in the strong wind. My anchor wouldn't hold, and keeping the kayak facing my target was challenging. I tried every lure in the box but besides loosing a hog on a spinnerbait, worms were the deal. Last year at this lake the only worms I could get them to bite were ribbon tail worms. This past weekend no matter how hard I tried, I could only get them to bite the mag trick worms. Bass sure are unpredictable. I also got a large tilapia on a large square bill. Pictures are in order, 5.5 pound bass caught on Saturday, 7, and 9 pound bass caught on Sunday, and of course the Tilapia, also caught today.

We went out on Alqueva yesterday between storms. Water clarity was anywhere from about 5-6 feet of visibility in more protected creek arms to just 6 inches near the dam, and the lake was only 8 inches from full pool. We were on the struggle bus for a while but eventually found some active fish. I was surprised cranking was *not* the deal. I got one to chase my bladed jig but couldn't get him to commit. 4 and 5 inch paddle tail swimbaits on jigheads and jerkbaits were the deal for the guys. I couldn't catch anything on either of those so I switched to the bladed FlashMob Jr. and finally got bit. This was my only fish, but at 4lb 11oz it was the biggest fish of the day and my biggest so far on the A-rig. Between the three of us we probably only caught about 6 or 7 fish, plus another 4 that broke off, but they were all solid 2-3 pounders.

The ice came off late thursday, and I got the canoe in for friday and saturday. Ended up with 25ish bass, a really big and pregnant perch, and a few snagged shad over the 2 days, most came from a wind pounded shoreline. The shallow, dark dirty water was probably a few degrees warmer and held a lot of 4" gizzard shad. I had 3 over 4lbs by my estimation. Caught them on a blade bait, underspin, jighead minnow, hair jig, Duel shad crank, and a TB DD crank. This is probably the best I've ever done the day after ice out. scott

I'm finally on the board with a decent fish after a tough winter and the challenges of tax season. Shout out to @Pat Brown for encouraging me to throw a heavy jig with paddle tail, @Siebert Outdoors for creating the jig (3/4 oz MATA brush in black and blue), and @A-Jay for the reel (first fish on it). This fish was in a shallow wind protected cove and smoked the jig as I was working it slow around the bottom. It was about 5lb but wouldn't be still enough for a good reading. Photo isn't great because my phone was tied to yak, I need to change my photo setup somehow. I was a little surprised by the catch because I had just launched and wasn't really prepared. Couldn't be happier though!

Ok, I'll fall on the sword and follow @softwateronly. Good grief!!! You got on quite a roll there brother. Congrats!!! First bass of the year. Ended up catching six pitching laydowns this afternoon, on the backside of today's monsoon. Only took a pic of the first. No bigs. Best was a couple shad shy of 3# I'd guess.

Stuck a couple after a shoot with red bull. Tough day but a good topwater bite fixes a lot

I had about 15 minutes to fish before a family dinner, so I took advantage of it. The water was nasty from a recent round of storms so I reached for the brightest lure I had in my box. This little guy really wanted to taste a chartreuse jerkbait. He went for it twice. I was reeling my lure in when I saw something swipe at the lure right beside the dock. He missed, but went after it quite aggressively so I had to try again. I cast out far enough to get it under the water about where the swipe happened, let it sit for a couple of seconds, and...BAM! A feisty largemouth on a jerkbait followed by a nice dinner with another set of largemou...umm, I mean family members. 🤣 It was a very nice evening.

I told it a funny joke to gain its trust and then it calmly allowed me to take a selfie Did the same thing for this 4-3 about an hour ago

Boat ramp fishin'. Went with a t-rigged Senko worm. Probably about 1.5 pounds or so. Sometimes you just gotta get back to basics to reel 'em in.

Fished my first little local derby this weekend out of a Jon boat and caught a 4 and 1/4 lb bass that earned me 7th place out of 12 boats - felt cool to catch one in a tournament and weigh it in! Caught it during a shad spawn right at sunrise on the Berkeley stunna in a color I custom did (scratched the paint off and made it chartreuse with black back but see through). Fished hard all day in 30+ mph winds and got one more in the boat that didn't help me out And headed back in at 3 pm - missed a few bites on the fluke that could have helped me but the winner caught an 8 lb 10 oz bass on a main lake point before the sun came up in 19 feet of water on scope - so I don't feel so bad. Meagan and Jake took me fishing to make me feel better on Sunday after my defeat - 3 casts into the day - I hook an 8 + lber on a black and blue jig - she comes up jumps one good time Two feet before netting range and comes off in slow motion and then sort of slowly swims back down. It was really something. Kinda hurt my feelings. She was real fat and healthy - but I had such a good week - I accepted it. Managed to boat 4 nice fish on a nice fun trip with the family mostly flipping shallow cover with t rigs - my kinda bass fishing! Didn't get another shot at a giant yesterday - but if last week is any indication - it's giant time here in NC! @Bluebasser86 WOW! That clump of brush is something you'll be dreaming about for decades huh!?!? 😂😂😂❤️❤️❤️

Part 3 of the Adventure of Blue goes to Lake Fork was on Day 4 of practice when I went and launched from the 514 Bridge. I had to drag my yak and all my gear about 50 yards down the bank to get to the water and do a gator check in the weeds before I could launch. I wasn’t positive it was a launch but the map said it was and I thought it might be a good good choice because it was hard to access. I caught a 17.75 almost immediately and was excited about the potential. It took almost 2 hours to get my second bite in a tangle of timber off a point, but it was a great kayak bass with a skinny 22” bass that was very postspawn looking (or maybe a huge male). Only one other small fish followed that one and then the winds that were not forecasted, started to blow heavily straight up the gut of the arm I was in. I made the decision to load every Back up and move. I moved to the Fork Boat Storage Ramp and caught a fish quickly on a wacky rig. Right next to the first dock I came to was a private ramp with poles marking what I assume was the end of the ramp. I pulled my wacky rig across the ramp and caught my smallest fish of the trip off the ramp, a 10 incher. I made another cast to the ramp and had another fish swim off with it. This hookset was met with an unmovable weight on the other end that slowly moved upwards and then lurched above the surface. I immediately thought I might have a DD on my line. I begged and pleaded with the fish to cooperate and it did everything to do the opposite, jumping 4 different times and dodging the net on my first attempt. After almost 2 minutes, I slid the net under the monster. She stretched to 23.75” and went 8.49lbs, one of my top 5 largest bass ever. I fished for 4 more hours and caught a total of 1 more bass, but I didn’t really care.

Part 2 of Blue goes to Lake Fork started on Day 3 when I decided to launch from our campground at Patriot Park. I was flipping docks and not overly impressed with the area but caught a decent fish pretty quickly on a Bang Stick under a dock. Just a few minutes later, I caught little bigger fish, around 17”, on a wacky rig. As I worked around the pocket, I was catching them pretty regularly on the T-rig and wacky rig. Lots of people were sight fishing, but I don’t have much luck with catching bedding bass so I wasn’t spending any time with the beds. As I was getting to the backside of the pocket, I saw what looked like a light spot a little deeper, and flipping the Bang Stick on it. My line took off immediately and a strong, heavy fish went ripping off for deeper water. She took me back and forth around the front of the kayak before I could get her in the net. My second big fish of the trip was a 21.25” 6.80lb chunk. The bite stayed pretty steady into the next pocket, mainly on the wacky rig. There was 3 standing trees that were growing in the water. The first one was empty. The second one, my wacky rig was picked up and slowly swam off with. My hook set was super heavy, if I was at home I would have been thinking catfish, but then the fish jumped. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a bass make me nervous during a fight that wasn’t in a tournament, but I was nervous fighting this fish. I had 3 boats watching me and a chorus of cheers when I got the net under her. In all the years I’ve fished in Kansas, over 30 years, I’ve never caught an 8 pound bass, it took me 3 days in Texas. I caught a few more small fish, covered a lot of water, saw 2 swamp puppies and almost ran over one, Day 3 was a big success. I saw several other big fish caught, it was obvious this was a potential area for the tournament.

The Adventures of Blue goes to Lake Fork started on the 14th at 2am with an 8 hour drive to the lake. The wind was supposed to be howling all day (a recurring theme during the week), so I decided to launch from the Lake Fork Highway 19 Ramp because it was pretty protected. I put in a hard 6 hours on the water there, had 1 bite I think was a bass on a frog, caught 2 catfish on bladed jigs, and found the motherlode of gar and spawning carp before I decided to move to a different ramp. I moved to Fisherman’s Cove Ramp for the last 4 hours of my day. It took about 2 hours before I finally got a bite. My first Lake Fork bass was a Whopping 13.50” bass on a Neko rig. I caught a 12.25” fish on a jerkbait off a boat ramp and missed one more off a seawall on the Neko. I was not feeling great about my first day on Fork. Day 2 I launched at Coffee Creek and went under the bridge with the intention of flipping and frogging the shallow grass. After a couple hours, I had 1 bite flipping that I missed. I headed out of the shallows and around the point to try and fish a channel swing point. Unfortunately there was boats all over it so I continued around and found some dead cattails with emerging cattails mixed in on the backside of the point I wanted to flip. As soon as I started down the bank flipping, I got cutoff by a boat about 20’ in front of me but decided to just continue on my course. Didn’t take long before I caught a little 15” fish, and a few flips later, I got another a little bigger. I figured out any spot with laid over cattails right on the bank, had a fish under it. I went from no fish, to 7 or 8 in about 30 minutes. The bite stopped when I got to the back of the pocket and there was nothing on the front, so I went to the backside of the next point. There wasn’t as much grass, but I flipped the little bit there was. One of my lifts was greeted with a little resistance so I hammered the rod back and a good fish was thrashing on the surface immediately and quickly in the net. It took me well over a solid days, but I finally had a nice Lake Fork bass in the boat. I found one more clump of cattails and flipped a 16” fish out of there, and that was it, radio silence the rest of the day.

Just got back from Texas this morning. The Bassmaster Kayak Classic was an adventure but the week leading up to it was pure awesomeness. I caught several bass over 5, 3 over 6, 2 over 7, 2 over 8, and one nearly 10 pounds, my second largest bass ever. Of course, I never lost a big fish all week, until tournament day, then I lost 2, but that's fishing. I'm proud with my efforts and how I did on a notoriously tough lake with no previous experience. I finished above some of the biggest names in the sport, so I did okay in my book. I'll get to writing up a recap and posting pictures and videos as I have time, but here's a little sample for now.

Really slow start to the year but finally on the board with a 4lber. 4.25 if you count the trout she puked out.

Caught 24 yesterday on a 9 acre private pond with an 85 year backseat boater. First cast from the bank produced a Rat fish. I tied on my Pink Trick Shad because my buddy was catching them on pink Trickworms and it worked. It was a good trip, he caught the biggest at 4.05 lbs . A - Jay and Swamp Girl, I worked my Traps, Rear delts, Lats, and a bit of biceps while paddling us around.😆

Second biggest bass of my life 9 lb 14 oz (a shad shy of 10) and another giant off a school in 14 feet of water today. On the 1 oz @Siebert Outdoors grass jig in 'Pats Gizzard' slow rolling deep with swimbait trailers. 😎😎😎🥵🥵🥵 Flying solo mid day during a warm front. Both fish released and swam away with vigor! Happy spring FINALLY!!! 🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼🎣🎣🎣 Fish that are basically 10 lbs make me smile really really big yes indeed. 🙂🙂🙂🙂

I've struggled fishing from the bank so far this year so I was excited about my first trip of 2025 in a boat. The air temp started out in the upper 30s, but warmed up to a perfect 70 degrees. Bluebird skies, 50 degree water temp. It started immediately. I hooked up on the first cast! I was pumped...until it turned out to be a drum. Sorry, no picture @TnRiver46.🤣 That was the last bite for over an hour, and the next bite was just a dink smallmouth. After the dink we got nothing for about two hours. The wind was blowing hard against the current which made it tough to manage the boat. We were getting frustrated, but things finally started improving. After only catching two fish for the first three hours, we got 8 in the next two hours. The best two are pictured below. It slowed down again after that burst of activity. We only managed 2 more over the final two hours, but these two fish are enough to make it a good day. 4 lb 9 oz smallmouth 4 lb 13 oz largemouth

It definitely took a little while to finally get on the water, however my first trip of 2025 was a personal success with this 4.4lber coming aboard. With 58 degree water and 71 degree air temps it sure seemed like better fishing is just around the corner.

Spent some time with the country bass, and didn't catch any worth a pic. Lots of 1-2lb bucks sitting on the 12-15' break. They were very susceptible to highly erratic cranks and twitch baits. The duo bayruf 85 hw seek is a blast to fish, and even called em up at times from 20-25'fow at times. I meant to bring it back with me to the city, but forgot. So I spent the next 2 mornings fishing in the city and boy did the smallies cooperate. Water clarity was dropping as the winds shifted, but the bass were on bait. Shaking a minnow was catching every few casts but playing the swirling current was tricky. 1/2oz scrounger would only get bites when ripped and killed, but the lip would leave a poor hookup ratio. Walked a 12g br head near the bottom, and immediately got smashed. Unfortunately, the hooks on those heads are slightly brittle, and I left the point of my only 12g in the upper lip of a nice 4ish lb bass. So I decided to put a 4" deathadder on a 3/8oz ballhead and mimic the scrounger retrieve. I was met with instant success and access to more water with my longer casts. In about 7hrs over 2 mornings, ended up with at least 45 bass. I'd bet on a 20lb+ bag each day with another thrown in for great luck. Couldn't leave without dragging a jig/tube when the action slowed down, and got rewarded with 3 more good fish. Lots of rambling and boring pics, but the variation in color always fascinates me. scott

Me and the boy fished with some hand dug worms the other day. He only caught one, but I was able to coax 4. They are pretty good at cleaning a hook. This one was the prettiest of the bunch. I think these are green sunfish. Anyone know for sure? ---------------------- Had about 30 minutes today and was able to get a willing participant. Not the greatest size, but sure beats staying home!

Part 4 of the Adventures of Blue goes to Lake Fork was a very windy Tuesday that was supposed to be the day before the first day of the tournament. I had gone out to try and find a way to fish in 30mph winds in case we did fish on Wednesday, but I found out around 10am that day one was cancelled because of the wind so I headed in. We were allowed to fish on Wednesday, but we couldn’t fish Fork. I didn’t want to sit around the camper all day, so I drove to nearby Quitman Lake to see if it was a potential option. The lake was much smaller, muddy, rocky, lots of docks, seemed to be shallow, and most importantly, I caught 2 healthy bass right next to the boat ramp on a bladed jig. So Wednesday morning I headed out to Quitman and loaded just a few casting rods and zero spinning rods into the kayak. I started right at the ramp and after trying a few different baits, I pitched a black and blue jig into the opening between the boards on the launch dock. I picked up and felt pressure and the hookset had a good fish thrashing on the surface quickly. I held it’s head up while I worked the kayak next to the dock and was able to reach through the dock and grab a 19” fish. After releasing that fish, I pitched back under the dock and my jig got slammed immediately. I could tell by the thrashing it was a bigger fish. I did the same maneuvering and got a grip on a 5+lb 20.50” fish. The wind started blowing pretty good and I only got one small spot before I came around a corner that was pretty protected. I ran my bladed jig down a seawall and it just kind of got heavy. When I leaned into it, I felt the headshake and knew it was big. She darted past the kayak right on the surface and I was quick with the net and she was mine as fast as the fight started. A beautiful 22” bass that weighed 6.72lbs. I caught a little 12 incher (that would be the last small fish I would catch), before pulling up to a tree growing out over the water. I pitched my jig and hopped it once before I got a bite that shook my whole rod. The fish was in about a foot of water and came charging across the surface. The back was so thick, I knew it was big, but when I scooped with the net and my jig popped out of her mouth at the same time, the realization hit me how big she was. I was sure I’d just caught a DD. The first time on the scale she came up 9.58, but then I realized it had started in the negative. When I zeroed it, the scale locked at 9.72. The 2nd largest bass I’d ever caught and way prettier than my PB, the fish just didn’t look real in the net. I couldn’t believe what just happened, but the shakes hadn’t even worn off from that fish when I pitched into another laydown and yanked out another 6.5lb 21.25” fish. That 20lb Seaguar Tatsu was earning its keep with these fish I promise you that! I didn’t catch a single one that wasn’t rubbing on something at some point in the fight. I had to surf the waves around the southeast end of the lake. It was too rough to be safe to try to fish and run the boat, so I just focused on driving the yak and getting to calmer water. When I got to the northeast side, it was a good, solid 2 hours before I got my next bite, a fat 17” fish in some shallow grass. I passed another kayak angler who said he hadn’t had a bite all day. When I got to the area by the north ramp, there was some bushes growing out over the water. I pitched my jig into, picking them apart. I knew when I finally made the right pitch, because my jig hit the water and the whole push shook. Another pig of a bass came boiling out of those bushes and crashing across the surface, putting on a whole show until I got it in the net. This one was just an absolute toad of a bass at 7.11lbs and only 20.75”! 2 more kayers passed me and asked how I was doing, and I told them. I don’t know if they believed me but they also said they hadn’t caught anything all day. I kept flipping those same bushes and about 5 minutes later my line jumped again and another big fish bolted out of the bushes. This time it was a 21” 5.66 pounder. I was at the end of the road at that point unfortunately. I was going to have to crash through a lot of big, rolling waves to get to the next safe spot to fish, or make a short run through much more manageable ones to get to the ramp I launched from. It was only 2pm and I wanted so badly to continue on. It was already the best day of my fishing life, how much better might it be able to get? I made the decision and pointed it towards the opposite shore and rode the waves the short distance across to the ramp and called it a day. My longest 5 were 108.25”, my heaviest 5 weighed 35.71lbs. My homemade silicone/living rubber jig and Yum Christie Craw combo that did most of the damage.