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Enjoyed an excellent afternoon of sun & fun today. Waters are warming fast but the Jerkbait is still a major player for me. A-Jay

Was planning to go surf fishing this afternoon but changed my mind and stayed home and fished my home lake. Had my Grandaughter along. She is really improving with her casting and fish hooking and fighting skills. She lost her biggest fish,but not because of the way she fought it. The fish were very active , biting mostly senkos and flukes in various colors. We ended up with 24 bass caught, and the big fish was 5 pounds, 10 oz. It was one of those memorable days that is a lasting memory. Even the sunset was beautiful.

My buddy and I had a great day on the water Sunday. Could have done without the rain mid day, but we expected it and decide we needed to fish anyway. Between the two of us we put 30 bass in the boat. Handful of dinks and the rest 1-2lb males that were buried up in cover on the banks, right where they should be. Didn't ever hook into any big girls, but we definitely saw some. Saw one that was 4-5lbs cruising on a shallow flat. Saw several other BIG females rolling and crashing on bait on a super steep drop-off bank that drops straight into the channel and 35FOW. 2 were easily 5-6lbs, saw one other that was 8-9+. But couldn't get any interest from them on any of the bluegill or shad colored baits we were throwing. Biggest for me was a 2.5ish that came on a spinner bait in the middle of the first rain storm. We had been running moving baits and spinners and a few top waters early then I decided to slow down and get way shallow with slow presentations. Wacky rigged senko got most of my bites prior to the rain. Got two on the spinner bait while it was raining, but after the rain stopped I fished it off and on the rest of the day and got one other hit which didn't get hooked. The rest of the day was weightless worms and a few on Keitech swim baits.

Got out on the boat for the first time this year and had a great day on a lake where we commonly get skunked. The two nicest fish of the day were a 3 1/2 lb largemouth and a little tiger Muskie! Largemouth was caught on a jig, the Muskie was caught on a senko of all things.

I got 30 LMB in the Everglades yesterday, but none of them were as big as this 3-plus I nailed tonight after dinner from the bank just a mile from home. I caught half the fish yesterday and this one today on the Zoom Ultra Vibe Speed Worm -- my new best friend.

4# spot fought like she thought she was closer to 10...

fished corporate challenge this past saturday, we were the only boat out of +100 companies to weigh more than one bass. weighed 3 for 9.24 anchored by this smithville giant my buddy caught up front. that lake is tough but it’s got biggins.

Got out today to fish the Susquehanna River. Unfortunately because of the spring that didn't happen this year most of the big females were nowhere to be found. But the 2 smallies I caught fought like the devil in the current. Both weighed about 1 1/2 pounds each.

My wife and I spent 3 days at Table Rock Lake last week. We caught over 60 bass in 10 - 25 feet of water on gravel points and gravel spawning banks, but nothing huge to speak of. I saw some beds but all were empty, which was kind of surprising with the full moon and surface water temperatures ranging from 58.5 to 62 degrees. I caught a 19 inch largemouth that weighed in at 4 lbs even. My wife had the biggest smallie at 2 lbs 11 oz.

another nice evening here in southern Indiana. went out for about 3 hours, caught 16 mostly 1 to 2 lb range, only one worthy of showing you monster slayers.she fought nicely.

lucky slippers. best day of the year so far. got 9 in a couple hours. most on a denny brauer pp jig with yum christie craw. rest on res 2tap natural bream. biggest was only 2.5# but some big bellies and good fights.

This was my second trip out this season. First one (two days ago) was a brief afternoon trip that was more of a shakedown cruise. I did ‘fish’, just didn’t catch. Well that changed today– Big Time. Got on the water just after Just after 7 AM. It was calm & cool to start. Both the water & the air temps were in the low 40’s with virtually no wind at all. Air temps warmed nicely, and thankfully the water did not. The morning started off a little slow. Despite the calmness, I was trying to force feed the local smallie population a jerkbait. Often touch & go. After a bit I had my first fish of the year. Very happy. Then a few more 'keeper size' came to the net. Although, I’ll admit, despite my stubbornness, I expected more. Then the wind came on; nice NW’erly breeze. And the bite was on . . . . and on . . . . . and on. Pretty much all day. Once I found a couple spots that held fish (and seem to be reloading), I’d bounce back & forth between the two. It was wide open a few times - back to back to back and more. Jerkbait & a drop shot did most of the damage though I did get a few smallies on a Rage bug & a Menace; both on a swing head. I ended up with quite a bit of video. I’m sifting through it and will post up ‘the best of’ once it’s done. No way I can put it all up – too much. I’m not a fish counter, but I may fish all season and not have a numbers & size day like I had today. Pretty crazy & totally killer. Best fish went 5.00 lbs on the nose. No doubt it seemed like a fairly looooooooong winter – but it's hard to say today was not worth it. A-Jay

Got out on the Quabbin in the "50 percent chance of showers" yesterday, it ended up raining pretty much all day on us, with intermittent down pours ?‍♂️. Slowww start to the day with a cold front moving into the region the day before. We were met with overcast and rainy conditions with air temps in the low 50s. Water temps were 55-57 on the main res sturctures we started off fishing in the morning and 58-60 further north and in more protected spawning areas that we fished later in the afternoon. Lake trout continue to invade what have been some of my best smallmouth transition and feeding grounds out on the main res for the past few seasons. I thought I'd find them grouped out on some specific break lines, humps and points in 15-25 feet of water. Bait was present, bass were not... if they were there at all they were super inactive. First fish of the day was a healthy 5lb lake trout that hit my swimbait in about 25 feet of water. I've gained a bit more respect for them as predators the past two times out, the lakers I've been catching so far this year have all been a lot larger and harder fighting than I've caught at the Quabbin before. 7'6 ML Spinning rod with 10lb test braid to 6lb fluoro with 80 feet of water nearby made for quite the battle with this dude: After about 3 hours trying to find smallies staging on main lake stuff and only having one lake trout and one rainbow trout to show for it I knew I had to be going about it wrong and decided to go check some spawning grounds to see if the first wave was already up on beds. Took us a little while to find em, but sure enough I was right. I can confirm bedding smallies on the Q this weekend :). I found a very large female sitting in about 8 feet of water. I could barely see her with the overcast and rainy conditions. My buddy who was fishing with my insisted that it was a rock until he saw her move for the first time, which was about 15 minutes into me harassing her with baits. I worked on her for almost 40 minutes before finally giving up. There was no way that fish was going to bite anything. We moved on and looked out just a tad deeper than the spawning areas we were seeing and finally started catching some bass. But they were the wrong kind.... 4.5lb largemouth on a shakey head.. 7lb test fluoro this time! I have a couple more good pics I was trying to post, including another 5lb greenfish and finally the first Quabbin smallmouth of the year but the forum won't let me upload them from my phone. Anyone got a good way of posting images now adays? I used to use Photobucket but that doesn't work anymore either

Was rigging up the night before i took my kayak out and put a strike king rage swimmer on my chatterbait and it just looked too nice for me to wait. so since i live a block away from a pond i decided to use it. this was 4 and change, biggest of the year for me. too bad it wasnt a sign of things to come. i pretty much sucked it up on my kayak for the next two days.

Over 27 pounds of Indiana largemouth. Caught them within 45 minutes of each other, all on a magnum rage bug, pitched dirt shallow.

Had our Thursday night tournament at the dreaded mudhole this week (which I love). The lake that I caught a 5.74 pounder at on Tuesday. @gardnerjigman had to bail on me to be a good son-in-law in install a sump pump for the impending monsoons that never happened (thanks weatherman!). My boat is still in the shop (I pick it up Monday), so I was in the tin can, by myself, with no gas motor, on a 5k acre lake, in 20mph winds, odds were not in my favor. So 5 minutes into it, I stick a 3.64 on a spinnerbait, which is enough to win on this lake at times, so that's a good start. 10 minutes later I miss and then catch a 1.19 on my next flip. 15 minutes later I add a 1.59, then I have a fish hit my bait 3 flips in a row but keeps pecking at it but not committing. A bedding fish for sure I think. So next flip I'm prepared and the instant I feel the bite I swing and a poor spawning male crappie flies out of the water over the boat. Untangle the mess, release the surely shaken fish. Next flip was much different as my line jumps immediately as it lands next to a tiny clump of dead water willows, slam the rod back and a big fish is just as quickly airborne into a bush, tailwalks to the boats, wraps the line around the end of the end of the dead hedge tree the boat was next to and proceeds to try just as frantically to relieve itself of the hook as I am to get the live loose from the tree. Thankfully, I was able to free the line and lip the fish, finding the hook had all but worked itself loose. Fish was about 100 yards down the bank from the 5.74 on Tuesday, in the same cove, same side of the cove, and went 5.80. Me thinks it was the same fish. I caught 2 more in the back of the cove to finish out my limit, and it wasn't even 7 yet, we launched at 6. I was flipping a YUM Bad Momma so I picked up a 1/2oz jig to see if I could pick up a bigger bite on the same little bank I'd just fished. Pulled my jig over a limb and got whacked. Fished charged to the boat, never really got caught up to it and when I tried to flip it into the boat it just popped off. I'll make a confession, I was 100% certain I'd won already at this point and everything from this point on was just icing on the cake, so I was fishing relaxed and really only trying to break my personal record for my best Thursday night weight, which was just a tenth of an ounce shy of 15 pounds, and I was already over 14. I ended up culling 3 more times with very slight culls, but putting myself over 15 up to 15.69 when what turned out to be disaster struck, I dropped my scale in the water, making it so it wouldn't turn back on so I couldn't weigh the last few fish I caught, which at least 1 or 2 of them would have helped, but like I said, I was positive I didn't need them. Get back to weigh in, feeling great, first boat to check in has 15.72 pounds, .04 pounds more than I had, all I could do was laugh and shake my head. I had a great night, caught a bunch of fish, set 2 personal records and 2 club records, but fell just short of the win because my scale got wet. Wouldn't have taken much to get that tiny little bit I needed. First video was from Tuesday, when I prefished and had just shy of 14 pounds. Then the tournament, I should have included the part where I hook myself in the leg with a spinnerbait but left it out for anyone that's squimish. You can tell I thought I had it in the bag.

I finally caught a fish this year (a rock bass) on Saturday. One of my kids caught a tiny largemouth... then today I got this five pounder! Skunk streak over! Bring on the bass! My girlfriend took the pic on her phone which doesn't take very good pics and I didn't even pose because I was waiting forever for her to take it, but at least I got a pic. It really doesn't show the size of this fish though.

So this is the first year I have a canoe to be able to fish out of and I’m lucky to be 5 minutes from one of the best small mouth areas good ole Lake Erie! So I went out todsy and omg it was s blast. Got tons of hawgs and even a surprised northern who almost took me in. New PB smallmouth at 5.1 pounds and for sure my Pb northern, round two for tomorrow .. hoping I get some luck like @A-Jay with the 8 pounders ha. So excited for this pre spawn. Also should add any pointers would be great. This is my first time ever fishing smallmouth like this. I been using lipless cranks and jerkbaits with luck so far. Around docks etc , 3-9 ft of water. It’s currently 55-57 degrees depending where I go.

Saturday 5/5/18 6:30-Noon cloudy wind 0-10 south east water dirty, 78* Went with a friend Rick and from MM30 ramp ran east to the man made cuts on the north canal. Fished a quarter mile each side of bridge #3. The cuts are often good when water is flowing out of them. We started with top water frogs with little action except from gar, and oscar. We moved to U-Vibes and Senkos and the bite was on. Most bass caught deep, swam along the bottom. We moved to the bridge and it was every other cast. They were stacked in along the pilings and a fun time. We caught between 45 and 50 bass, and another bunch of junk fish. Because of weather conditions deteriorating around noon, and a sudden drop in temperature, we headed out of Dodge. Just got home and tucked the boat in the garage and the skies opened. Another fun day in paradise, catching numbers were good, good company, and pleasant morning temps.

If CC wasn't held at the same tough lake at the same time every year, I'd spill the beans. But since it is, and since this place is full of lurkers...

Big, we are sitting ducks for those who wish to do us harm or steal our equipment. Ramp encounters can go very bad and as you know, a small number of bass guys have been injured or killed at the ramp. Sometimes on the water you will have an encounter with an angry or frustrated boater who want to challenge you; disturb your fishing; or chase you away from a specific spot. And you never know their mental attitude and if they need mental health help. The weapon is for security. There is no reason to show it other than to let the threat know you have some powerful backup. In all my years fishing I have seen one altercation. Two guys got confused on the Nottoway River regarding the "No Wake Zone" signs, which pepper the river. Instead of slowing down in the "No Wake Zones" they went fast and in the areas that you could go faster they slowed down. They had it backwards. A friend yelled at them to slow down and the guys came back and challenged my friend who was fishing the bank in one of the "No Wake Zones." The two guys running the river were very angry about being told to slow down. At the ramp after the tournament, the two guys in the boat running fast through the "No Wake Zones" approached my friend and wanted to fight. My bass club guys all chimed in that the two guys were running the river backwards and the signs made using the river confusing. No fight, but the two guys never figured it out. They took their boat and left. To this day I doubt they understood they were confused, as many of us can get on the Nottoway River, and had the "No Wake Zones" backwards. So what would have happened if the rest of the club members were not there and it was my friend and these two angry men? My friend would have gotten beat up and the two guys could have damaged his boat and stolen some of his equipment. There are situations where having a weapon for self defense is to your advantage. You have to know the rules of engagement; be licensed to carry; have a concealed carry permit; and never point the weapon at anyone unless you are ready to use it. At this time, I have never encountered a situation where I needed the weapon. But if I do, at least I have an equalizer to help me avoid problems.

These are the guys that are such a nuisance in a Lake St Clair smallmouth tourney but really fun to catch just fun fishing!! Beautiful Tiger muskie

Glock 19

Finally got a nice bass from my kayak this year; If his butt was as big as his head he would have been a real monster. I also got a pickerel who swarmed up from about 5-6' of water to smash an S-Waver right as I was about to lift it out of the water. I want to start throwing more big baits in here as I have seen some real bruisers on beds, but the picks really give me pause.

Crappie fishing at Clinton and this 3# bass wanted my little crappie jig... caught 3 more bass 13-14 inch range.

fished Smithville hard for 6 hours today. caught 12 bass total. No drum. one of the few trips there, that I caught more bass than drum. caught 2 in the 14-15 inch range in crows creek on a spinnerbait. caught 8 in the 13-17 inch range in camp branch on a squarebill and a Pit boss caught this 2.5 pound and 4.5 pound bass in the Trimble area on a Pit boss. all fish were extremely shallow.

I've actually been more concerned about the actual cost of personal tech than the risk of losing appreciation for money. Cell, cable, internet, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Sirius... probably close to 5 grand a year just in my small household....its nuts

Not quite sure who came up with this notion that bottom contact techniques must be done slow! One can flip-n-pitch cover as fast as a spinnerbait or crankbaits. Plus I'm hitting high percentage target while you're covering dead water between targets.

So last Christmas I was bought myself a brand new Flippin’ n Pitchin’ setup. It was my first rod that I bought for a specific technique and above all it was my very first Baitcasting Rod/Reel setup ever! Well I haven’t had the opportunity to use this rod how I imagined I’d be using it until yesterday. I started out yesterday morning casting spinners and lipless cranks around some local ponds, caught a few dinks, nothing even remotely big but still nice. But once it hit around Noon - 1 o’clock ish all the fish had left the shallows and I couldn’t find anything. That’s when I pulled out my flipping and pitching setup I had been hauling around with me all day. And yah know, I have to admit, there’s something a little intimidating about purposefully chucking a lure into the branches of a big tree thatsfallen in the water. But I quickly remembered all the YouTube videos I’d seen and posts I’d read about guys pulling absolute pigs out of laydowns and I was able to convince myself that losing a soft plastic isn’t the same as losing a $5 lure and went ahead and started flippin and pitchin all the lay downs I could find. And boy and I glad I did! My first few lay downs weren’t super productive but I’m still rusty at getting my bait in the water quiet enough not to spook any fish and I basically had to stand on the tree that I was pitching to because I couldn’t get a good casting angle off the bank. So I’ll attribute my lack of fish from those spots to that. But after a few not so good pitches and flips I found myself at the laydown that has taken at least 5 or 6 of my lures over the years from casting at it from the other side of the pond. I could see two big bass hovering around the branches of the tree and my heart immediately started racing. I tried my headrest to very quietly get into a good casting position and once I did I pitched out my T-Rigged soft plastic as quiet as I could. It landed on the trunk of the tree and immediately all of the nearby bass were super interested. I could see a few 2 pounders just hovering over my bait. I ever so slowly twitched my lure up the body of the tree, watching one of the bigger bass get closer and closer as it inspected my bait. My heart was pounding at this point. I had gotten my lure as far up the tree as I could before I had to twitch it off the side of the trunk. As my bait fell down into the deeper water, immediately the big bass rocketed down to the bottom! I held on for dear life for what I thought was about the be the most jarring bite I’ve ever gotten in my entire life!... but nothing. I was so fired up that I immediately pulled my bait right back out of the water to do the exact same sequence of events over again, but as soon as I pulled it up I had wished I left it down there for an extra second with a few good twitches. When I pulled it up I saw the bass follow it up and then swim back into the deep part of the tree once my bait broke the surface. I didn’t let that discourage me though. I pitched my bait right back out there. This was the pitch that will stick with me for a very long while, and to be honest I’m not sure when I felt the bite but all of the sudden I knew I had a head shaking largemouth bass on the end of my line and II wasn’t about to let it get away. I set the hook hard and with a grunt ripped that fish right out of the water as soon as I possibly could. The fight was short but the reward will be with me forever. I pulled up what was easily one of the biggest bass I’ve ever seen pulled out of this pond. I let out a celabratory ““Yeah!” While holding my fish and the guy across the pond from me did the same! Even he knew it was a big fish or this pond too!! Luckily I managed to snap a few pictures while trying to awkwardly hold the fish and position myself in view of my phone camera. I know this fish is only about 2 pounds (maybe) but it was still a catch I’ll always remember!

4lb 20", 1/8 jighead,2.8" paddletail, 7' M/F Smoke rod, Daiwa SV105, 16# sniper.

Since we were discussing the old Charlie Brewer slider in another thread earlier today, I decided to tie one on tonight and get an hour or two of "Do Nothing" in after dinner. Thirty fish later, the old slider worm still works as well as ever. This one sure didn't hurt my feelings any ?

another trip this morning yielded 23 spots, including this 3 pounder, caught by my cousin.....again. i hate his guts. ?

Dink city gave up a major non-dink this morning. Super shallow wood. Only had an hour to fish, so fished from the banks. Going to take out the yak there this evening and see if I can coax out another decent bite from one of the dozens of laydowns lining the shoreline.

My first trip and first fish of the year, and first fish caught on my homemade jig (if you call designing your own skirts and puting them on prepainted bought jigs homemade). Caught these guys off beds. Just pitching to bed looking spots a few feet back from the shoreline... Kind of fishing blind, but reading the shoreline. Not bad for a 1 and a half hours of fishing.

Some WV multitasking this morning

we caught 34 spots this morning and put it on the trailer a little after noon as the heat builds in the western foothills of NC. my cousin caught this one on a Zoom lizard in 20 fow.

Went on out Saturday I got a hit went to set the hook and my line snapped brand new Spiderwire Ultracast Invisi-Braid Superline 125-Yard/15-Pound had a 1/16 bullet weight and a Gamakatsu 2/0 offset shank worm EWG and worm lost because the line failed, I have some rubbish stock line that came with my Walmart Combo rod and reel called a Booyah 3000 ain't even really anything online about it but so far it's caught me all of my Bass. And I've yet to pop my line fact I've snagged into Lily pads and managed to push through without snapping the line Bass below is what I caught on that Booyah rod and reel. I'm not sure if the maker of Spiderwire will replace my line or if I'm just gonna have to cut my lose on $15 line and never buy another Spiderwire product again. Gonna call them today and talk to them, about it. I've lost two Bass because of this line snapping and I've lost tackle... Good thing I brought my Booyah reel that day. Anyways this is the Bass I caught on Sunday, Saturday was a bad day my only fish I would've caught I lost because the line snapped. For the size of this man made lake I think it's a decent size.

Not every river is created equal; for example here in Michigan we have the Huron River and the Detroit river . Both are rivers , but they have very different habitat, depth and current flow. But the areas or spots I look for no matter what River I'm fishing are the very edge or beginning of slack water on the outside bends of the river and any obstruction which creates a current break. Even an underwater boulder which sits a few feet below the surface in very heavy current will create an underwater break in current flow. Those smallmouth will Setup on the downstream side of the break and can be caught with a variety of reactions baits. I like 1/2 oz Tandem Spinnerbaits, Mepps 1/4oz and Shallow 1ft CrankBaits; fished over the top of submerged boulders or obstructions. The bite will more consistently be on the backside of the underwater obstructions . If the Smallmouth are bedding or gorging on crawfish before the spawn, it's pretty hard to beat a 1/4oz Tube Jig drifted with the current using a very slow retrieve ; just slow enough to keep the head a few inches up off the bottom and only occasionally making contact with the top of rocks and boulders. You may be amazed how effective that exposed hook tube jig is when it can be retrieved this way. The key is keeping very minimal if any slack in your line and rod tip pointed at about 10 or 11 o'clock while slowly turning the Reel handle. Good Luck !

Sure, buy a 14ft John boat and slap two 9.9's on the back of that jewel!

If your looking for fun , its hard to beat a buzzbait when they are working .

1.5 lb crappie. I pitched my 5" T rigged senko into a bush and she inhales it and starts swimming off. Big girl with a big appetite....

Barrett .50 You just never know.

Personally, I switched to all 1/2 oz spinnerbaits. They cast farther, usually attract larger fish, and as mentioned above you can run at any depth with rod position and speed of retrieve.

Do y'all smoke peyote? Bones..Where are the bones ? We know of thousands of creatures that existed but aren't alive today. From bones and evidence left behind in things like Amber or rock... All the dinosaurs we know of... Bugs, birds and other animals that we know of but don't exist today and haven't for HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of years !?!?! Where are the bones ?!? NOT ONE BODY ? I'd rather discuss ghosts.

1st trip out on a little electric only lake down an abominable dirt road the other day. Pretty good trip caught 6-7 this was the biggest

Figured I'd throw swimbaits for a while yesterday and had some pigs follow and dinks commit. Pretty surprised to see the little fella absolutely hammer the Slammer. After losing a Gan Craft AND Deps last week (serioulsy, same trip) I gave BlueBasser's Shine Glide a shot and have to admit I was pleasantly surprised with the action and draw power. First double on a Plopper and it was a spot/LM combo. Really cool if you ignore they're both under 12".

So up in Ny we finally had some decent weather out of the 30 degree temps and the lakes all unfroze and the sun has been out woohoo! So of course I had to take advantage and went out picking apart the banks with a spinnerbait and crankbaits and just crushed them! Around 25 total and a few nice chunkers.

Caught my first bed fish today. Really wild experience. She was guarding her freshly hatched eggs, and I could see her following them around. Worked her for 30 minutes with a creature bait and watched her get progressively more aggressive. She broke water with my bait in her mouth. What a cool way to catch a fish! She went for 2.4#.