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Hazy morning fog and stained low visibility water met me at 6am. I was out for a few hours and nothing was biting. I worked a Magnum Rage, a dark chatter but nothing. I rigged up a wacky and scored a dink of a smallie. I stopped by another local lake and met a fishing acquaintance who had just landed a monster on first cast and was heading out on the kayak. I spent a fruitless 45 minutes striking out. Spent the afternoon busy with chores and a choice cigar. Decided to clean the tackle pack and started feeling antsy. I couldn't shake the notion that me and that lake had unfinished business. 4:30 and there I was back at the same spot I fished this am. I start working a creature bait getting increasingly annoyed at a gaggle of High School girls running amuck. One decides to jump into the water off the dock right where I am fishing. Illegal and outrageously obnoxious. Not a great start. I fish for a couple hours, see my angler buddy again who tells me the lunker from the morning was it for him. We talk while he loads his kayak onto his truck and say our goodbyes and good luck. I had at this point gone to a T-Rig worm but still nothing. I decide to leave but want to hit the back pond inlet just in case... Two little girls are quietly laughing on the bench near the bank. They ask if I'm going to catch a fish, and I reply that I'm going to try... I generally start off casting while steadying myself on two rocks that peak out of the muddy soil. The paddies are lush and tall but plenty of open space to place a lure. My first cast is pinpoint accurate. I slowly reel in navigating the vegetation while keeping an eye on the line for lateral movement. Once the lure is clear of the water I decide to cover some water and cast about 6 feet to the left of my first cast. I don't get through 4 revolutions when I feel that soft... so soft.... tug. My eyes zero in on the line looking for movement. Is that a fish? Am I just tugging vegetation? I want to to soft snap the rod but don't want to jump the gun here... I let the line go slack... just a bit... then a small tug and the line starts to move left... I hard set and BANG! Fish on!!! I carelessly let my rod go slack after the set allowing the fish to jump. I see him, shining, glistening as the failing sun lights up his scales and the water droplets spraying in all directions. HE IS BIG. The two small girls jump up on the bench squealing with excitement. I have an audience... I start to reel in furiously. It was a long cast and there are too many places for him to run and wrap me up. My rod is full on bent, I lower it to keep him down. He fights hard taking me to the layover and bush to my left. I need to get closer to the water to pull him out. I step forward stretching out as my feet sink into ankle high mud. He renews efforts pitching hard to my right trying desperately to push into the reeds and high plants more akin to a U Boat on a mission than a Bass looking to hide. I adjust the drag on the fly and know that I can't reel in any farther. Instead I reach out, stretching just a little bit more.... I manhandle the rod to pull him back in and drag him into the shallowest water, half on the mud so that I can grab him. Big... he was big, and heavy. His teeth tore up my thumb like fresh coarse sandpaper. Both hunter and hunted look at each other, exhausted. I smile and thank him for the battle just before gently placing him back into his world grateful for the gift and reward nature shared with me today... 7lb 2oz... People ask me what I get out of fishing... How does one explain?? Eric J

My name is Matt Foley...and I lIve in a VAN, DOWN BY THE RIVER!

“Biggest” and hardest fighting 3lb bass I’ve ever pulled in. Black/blue Dinger on all the fish I caught today.

Cassidee enjoying her boat dog bed canopy after a cooling off swim.

Over years past, I posted about my obsession with catching a 7 Pound Smallmouth and in May of 2013, I was fortunate enough to have achieved that dream. Over the last 5 years, I haven't been able to fish much (arrival of a third child, increased responsibilities at work, stresses in life, etc.), so the thought of ever catching another 7 pound Smallmouth never really entered my mind (and I was still in shock that I even caught the first). My buddy recently asked me if I wanted to get out for a few days on the big pond and chase some Smallies as the weather was supposed to be nice. After some negotiations with the wife (which I am now committed to a bathroom remodeling project), me and my friend took the two and half hour drive and hit the water. The weather was Beautiful, but not very conducive for hot action. The lake was as calm as I have ever seen it and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Needless to say, the action was slow, but around 1:00pm, my lure abruptly stopped and upon lifting the rod, it loaded up with something heavy. As soon as the fish realized she was hooked, she came rocketing up to the surface. However, she was so morbidly obese that she made a sloppy flop at the surface vs. a grand leap that she may have performed during her skinny years prior. My buddy and I saw that wide gut during her flop and knew we had on a good fish. After several intense moments and heavy deep runs, I was able to guide her head into the net with my light spinning rod. Lightening had struck again! She was 22.5" long by 16.5" in girth and tipped the scale at 7 lb. 2 oz. (Excuse the blank stare on my face, I was still in shock at this moment) It's amazing how one fish like this could take what was turning out to be a poor trip fish production wise and turn it into a memory I'll never forget. I want to Thank my buddy for getting me out on the water and for his great net performance at the side of the boat.

A little recap of my 15th year of going to Lake St Clair for our annual Smallmouth beatdown. First and foremost, everyone that attended (7 of us total) came home safe and sound with no major mishaps on the water or travel up and back (last year we took out a boat axle on those lovely Michigan roads). We had epic weather with only 1 day being windy and we were able to fish through it, although it beat us 1/2 to death. Average number of fish per day for my partner and I, 40-50. The slowest day was the day before we left with probably 20 each. Average size 3-5lbs. Although no giants, the numbers were well worth it. We got into an unbelievable Walleye bite in the Selfridge area on SPRO Original Little John crankbaits in Cell Mate and Little John Medium Divers in Olive Shad. These cranks also got us a lot of other species but the Walleye ate them up. We got the steady stink eye from the Walleye fishermen dragging crawler harnesses and cranks around us because we were releasing all of our fish (after we had enough for a meal ?) plus we were catching them 3 to every 1 of theirs. Water temps were generally in the 62-67 degree range depending where we were. 1st wave of spawners were done and although we caught good numbers on the Mile Roads we didn't fish there all that much. We found that the fish that were there were guarding fry and in order to get them to bite you had to put a bait right on their nose. We preferred to move off shore a little more and go after the pre spawn fresh wave setting up to come in and find other bedding areas that were unfished for the most part. Even though we rent a cottage on Harsens Island and are literally 1/2 mile from both the big and little Moot we didn't fish there. Lots of our buddies did and caught the biggest fish of the trip. I did fish there for about 2 hours at the end of the day when I rode with someone else for a day. I have a problem going into the Moot and yaking big smallies that have been caught 3 or 4 times before me. Yes, we did catch them off the beds in other places and we could have gotten bigger fish in the Moot but the bedding fish we caught were fresh and their mouths did not look like pin cushions. Species caught......Just about everything. We caught Smallmouth, a lot of Largemouth (they were running with the Smallmouth in some of our areas), Musky, Pike, Rock Bass, Bull Gills, White bass, Walleye and my first (in 15 years!!) Sheephead. We caught them on a number of baits depending on the location. The cranks I mentioned above, Jerkbaits, Tubes, Dropshot, Underspin, Yamamoto DShads, Senkos and as I have always said there are a couple of baits that take me by surprise every year. This year it was the Yamamoto Shad Shape Worm in Natural Shad on a dropshot. I finally had to change to another dropshot bait (Pro Senko) because the Smallmouth were inhaling the Shad Shape Worm and I got tired of having to remove deep hooks (no fish were killed). The second surprise bait and the one I caught a large number of fish on was a Yamamoto California Roll on a Ned rig. Absolutely wore them out. Most memorable catch of the trip was me hooking up on a dropshot and breaking off on the hookset. I re-rigged and we continued fishing moving about 100 yards from our original spot. After a few fish I get bit on the dropshot again and set the hook. Get the Smallmouth to the net and when I reach in to lip it, I get a hook into the topside of my thumb and made the comment to my partner that I must have hooked this one on the outside of the mouth (after a few explatives and removing the hook from my flesh)....but then I look and there in it's upper lip is the dropshot I broke off, bait, weight, line and hook!! I was able to get both rigs back. We ate like Kings as usual with a fresh Walleye fish fry, 7 racks of ribs, bacon wrapped deer backstrap, 20lbs of King Crab legs, Bison burgers and crab stuffed Portabello mushrooms just to name a few meals. I am already planning for next year!! I won't bore you with the 500 or so pics we took but will post a couple of our average size fish. What a trip.

Best time to go fishing is anytime ya can go fishing!

I think it's generally supposed to be females in the body paint swimsuits, but what works for you.

Was Kayak fishing Lake Perris today and hooked into what felt like my new PB Bass. It stayed down and fought hard wound up fighting it for a couple of minutes as it pulled my kayak in circles. I got a glimpse or two of it and was somewhat heart broken when I got it close enough to net. I guess in the end it's still a new PB as it's the only one I've ever caught and on a lipless crankbait to top it off. 5.93lb which looks to be a toddler compared to the monsters that thrash around my kayak at times. I only caught 3 Bass today with the largest being a 2.5lb and other 2 in the 1.5lb range.

Finally! Broke the ice with my first smallie of the year on Tuesday. 2.5 lb chunk

My new way of bass fishing. Make myself ready to jump after that DD bass.

Papa Joe, it still beats the alternative. We may be getting slower, but we are more experienced and can do more better than some of the younger guys who go faster. It is still great to be standing in your boat or on a dock/bank, taking in the beauty of Mother Nature while holding your fishing rod even if you have not had a bite. Just enjoying the outdoors. That is what it is about.

I don't follow the quite approach, sometimes I wanna raise a little commotion!

Ya got 2 choices! Fish above it or in it! I prefer to fish in it ?

Had some friends doing some night fishing and sent me this pic, 9-4lbs

Yeah, I was thinking the same, unless he's 5' tall or something. She isn't overly fat but not paper thin either. A 3lb fish around here will typically be in the 18" range. I'd guess your fish somewhere in the 20-22 inch range and closer to 5 pounds than 3 pounds. Regardless, congrats on nice fish no matter what she weighed.

My son, John-Allen, when he was 3 years old. He's 19 now and doing pretty good for himself. I'm one proud daddy!

Day use area opened up this Memorial Day weekend at Caney Lakes lower lake side in Minden, La. I had to work all weekend and Memorial Day so I got up early and was there by just a little after 6am this morning. Tried my new Prop Frogs but nothing really showed interest in them. That's when I started chunking my trusty ole 1/2oz breaking bream Project Z with a green pumpkin Rage Craw trailer. About 3 or 4 casts later it got smoked by an approximately pound or pound and a half bass(not pictured because it shook off my bait before I could unhook it myself and it hit the pier and flopped back into the lake). Got a few more bites but nothing committing so I tried some other baits. Nothing doing with them after about 2 hours of trying different ones. Went back to my all time fave 1/2oz breaking bream Project Z same trailer and a few casts later this 3lb 4oz hawg annihilated my chatterbait. She gave a little bit of a fight but I got her in fairly quick. Pulled her through the tall weeds on the shoreline and was raising my rod up to grab the line to unhook her when my favorite rod snapped about a foot from the tip. Oh I was so frustrated with that. I'm back to just a spinning and a baitcaster arsenal at the moment but at least this big girl didn't get away. Finally inching closer to a new PB and I believe it can happen in this part of the lake. There was lots of big splashing going on and I saw a few big bass in there. Soooooooo can't wait to go there again. Think I've finally found a good spot. Just sucks it's only opened from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day weekend. I'll just have to go there as often as I can in that time frame. ?

Had them dialed in today. One of the best days of fishing of my life. Here was the recipe: Step 1: Forget your phone. Who really needs it anyway when you're fishing by yourself? What could you possibly need it for? Picture of a PB maybe? Step 2: Get to the boat ramp and realize you forgot your net. Well good thing you also forgot your phone so you can't call someone to bring you one... Step 3: Dial the fish in on squarebill. Yep, catching fish on every 2nd to 3rd cast. Of course, the best bite of the day is going to be on light wire treble hook crankbaits, you know, since you forgot the net. At least you changed the stock hooks to #4 Mustad Ultrapoint Triple Grip. Step 4: Donate your scale to the lake. Weighing fish is for chumps. I mean, you've probably already caught the biggest fish in the lake at about 6 lbs on a previous trip. Not anything any bigger really worth weighing. Step 5: HOLY $@#& you just hooked up with a GIANT on a squarebill. Where's the net! Where's the net! Oh no, you forgot it. What are you gonna do? FISH JUST JUMPED!!! OMG its HUGE! Heart's really racing now. Lip it? Start to shake with nerves. Oh no, you're gonna get hooked past the barb. Who cares, the fish is worth it! Wait last time you tried to lip a fish with trebles you knocked it off on the boat bumper. Step 6: Taking drag, back to the boat, taking drag, dives under boat, back up, going for trolling motor, back up, getting closer to boat. Grab that beast under the belly and put it in the boat!!! 23.5 inches and thick! I'm guessing around 7 lbs. Biggest bass I have ever caught in my adult life (I once caught an 8-8 on a minnow when I was 8 years old). Step 7: Stand shaking with a giant fish in your hands. Realize the you're wearing a GoPro. There is a record of this fish! I will add a YouTube link later today when get it all edited. For now here is a picture with evidence of how bad they wanted the little KVD 1.5 Bluegill color.

Before it gets all complicated in here, I'll toss out one of my very few (only?) weather/lure tips: -If there's a ripple on the surface, I'll have a spinnerbait close by

Looks like a "standard" LMB to me.

71 here.... I don't do marathon fishing. If I had to stand when fishing, I'd do it even less, but in my Old Town canoe, that's not really an option. I fish only as long as I feel like it. Sometimes I take a break - just sit and drift, doing nothing but enjoying being there. Just as I don't play 100 rounds of golf a year now either (more like 30 now). Changing weather makes a lot of body parts hurt (or at least hurt more than they do every other day). Peeing has become a stage race rather than a pit stop. Hearing aids are expensive. You young bucks take heed and protect yourselves. All that said, if I lived on or near a good fishing lake, I'd be out there many times more often than I am now. I'm darn sure not too old to fish a lot more than I do.

Can't catch them at home, I'd always be willing to give it a shot.

or portable toilet.

In Florida 90% of our banks are full of weeds especially this time of year. Like Catt said you can fish over it or in it. Forget the treble hooks from the bank, all you will be doing is buying new ones, and lots of frustration. Plastics, with various weights depending on the type of veggies, and the thickness. Fishing over the thick stuff with frogs, spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, weightless senkos, flukes, big weightless worms, all will work. In the thick stuff, look for weed edges, drop-offs, pad field, with heavy line, heavy weights, stout rods, and slow way down. Once hooked, a must is to get their head up, and surf them over the thick weeds, before they bury themselves in it. That is where the heavy line, and stout rods come into play. Once hooked, you can't play with these fish, they will bury themselves in a heart beat. Proper equipment, and technique will make your job so much easier, especially from the bank.

Sounds like you might be getting the knot really tight too high up then the cinch down causes the line coils. Try tying it a little loose and gently work it down as you slowly tighten the knot to the swivel eye. Unless you've already done this and it didn't help.

Sportsman seat,,,,

A 4 1/2 lb'er from over the weekend - from the fight, I thought it was going to be way bigger. It pulled off drag and made more than one run.

Not a bass, caught a lot of little dinks out of my in-law's pond this weekend too, but my greatest catch caught these cats this weekend all by herself.

Went to visit a friend, and swung by a lake on the way back. Cool place, and here's my "I got skunked" pic. Just kidding. Caught a few walking the banks.

I was on the short and stocky bite this past weekend.

Got the last bits of construction done on the boat today! Cut the hatches in the front deck without any errors, big relief. Just need to cover them now and we're pretty much ready for the start of the fishing season on June 16th.

Most fun for me would be a fly rod and a top water popper.

I know this isn’t much of a fish, but this one has been on the same freekin dock for years and nobody has been able to get her........I small victory, but a victory none the less

I sure am glad I'm not a young/new mechanic just starting off and having to buy tools. The price for good tools has gotten stupid. Every year or two, I do a tool box clean out and inventory to replace any sockets/wrenches missing out of sets. Since I keep serval sets of all common sizes, wrenches and sockets, it's no big deal if one comes up missing. Doing that also helps keep me from spending more time looking for a tool than I spend working on something. Trust me, I can sit in one spot, never move from it and loose a tool, sit it down, go to pick it back up a minute later and have to go get another out of the tool box where that one disappeared. I just spent over $300 ordering a handful of sockets and a few wrenches I was missing, to make the sets complete again. Three 1/2" drive sockets cost bunches more than the original set cost new. (granted that was probably several decades ago). Other than some sets of GearWrenches, if they are not made in the USA, I don't buy them. I don't pay the stupid tool truck prices for Mac, Matco, and Snap-On, other than for specialty tools that are only available though one of those, and Craftsman is the cheapest thing I will buy. Most are Proto, Wright, Armstrong, and S-K. I do have a lot of the old Craftsman from many years back when S-K and Echo made them and they were very good tools, simply because you could get replacements at your local Sears. Since K-Mart bought Sears and closed most of them, that ain't so anymore. At 70 years old, and started buying my own tools when I was 15. I've raced, go carts, cars and boat most of my life and worked as a industrial material handling equipment, mobile service tech for a major company for 15 years after retiring from the Air Force so I have a massive set of tools. I spent $9,000 just upgrading my tool box, when I became a service tech. Mostly larger wrenches, 3/4 drive and 1"drive sockets and stuff. Today, it would probably cost $30K to $40 to assemble the same set off tools. That's almost what I had to pay for my house when I bought it 25 years ago.

Where I was yesterday had lots of thick underwater vegetation. I tried topwater first and only one fish was kinda interested as in it didn't make the greatest effort to get the Prop Frog. Was a killer wake though. Started throwing my trusty 1/2oz breaking bream Project Z chatterbait with a green pumpkin Rage Craw trailer and almost immediately started getting good interest. Fishing it just above the thickness below and popping it up towards the surface. Water was clear enough for me to see about 2 to 3 feet deep or better. Anyways I tried fishing in the thickness without any success. So I went back to the chatterbait fishing it like I was before and this hawg annihilated it. Don't get frustrated if you can't fish what you want to in that situation. Throw a chatterbait in a color that matches the hatch in your area and call them up from within the thickness. It worked for me and I'm sure it could work for you as well. ?

I'll try that. Thanks. Well, I just tried it and it didn't completely eliminate the problem, but definitely helped a lot. I'll try to tie it even looser this time and see if that works. Edit: It worked... Thanks again.

The terminator series holds up a lot longer against those annoying pike because of the titanium frame. Normal steel framed ones are toast after one of those snot rockets plows into it

Welcome aboard! Was gonna say to check Cabela's house rods, as @islandbass recommended, so yeah, good idea! Though I've only put hands on them in-store, they were nice feeling, balanced rods. As for Bass Pro, their Carbonlite lineup is quite nice and super light....

Thanks Dwight for the kind words. You know I have always viewed you as somewhat of a mentor when it comes to big smallmouth and I always appreciate and enjoy our text conversations. It's just great to know you are back out on the water showing those Smallmouth who is the king. Haha...Tell me about it! The very next day after I returned, she had me go with her to pick out paint and flooring. I was still on the high from catching that fish, so it was hard to concentrate. However, I did suggest bronze colored paint. ? She came on a tube that we were actively fishing. There was no wind at all to even attempt a drift. In fact, the wind was so calm that we didn't even need spot lock to hold our position.

Yeah I wish I'd had time to weigh her again. My first thought before ever putting her on the scale was a new PB about 5lbs worth. Was pretty surprised to see 3lb 4oz on the scale. As far as calling her 5.5lbs, I'd love to, but without an accurate reading I'll just call it a tie with my PB. Don't want to cheat for a new one...lol. ?

Went back out to Castaic Lake a few days ago for my last trip before I head to DC for the summer. The forecast called for windy conditions, so I hiked down to a protected cove and starting looking for a topwater bite. Nothing going on the topwater, but I pretty quickly caught a striper on a jerkbait. Fished finesse for the rest of the day and managed a few largies and a smallie on a drop shot and a senko. It ended up being a decent day of fishing, even though I pulled the hook on a nice fish. Sad to leave SoCal for the moment, but excited to check out the fishing in Maryland and Virginia!

I'm a month short of 61 and just got back from a solid 7 days on lake St Clair fishing from sun up to sun down. I had one day where the wind/waves were large enough that I cut my feet from bracing in my fishing shoes (Shimano Evairs). Other than some stiffness I wasn't in any real discomfort. I fished with a buddy that had a sit down chair on his back deck and just for giggles, I tried to fish sitting down. Just couldn't do it. Keep in mind I was a guide for 15 years and the only time I sat down in my boat all day was to occasionally eat lunch. I am a firm believer that fishing works different muscle groups from different angles than what most people are used to and are hard to replicate through workout routines. Stretching seems to be the best.

I only use rapala countdowns my whole life

this hawk decided to dry off out by our pool deck after another round of showers passed through.

Here's an unwritten rule. When someone pays you to put the name of their product on your shirt. You do everything you can to put that name in front of as many people as you can. You get up on that stage and represent your sponsors. You don't go home.