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High in the low 90s with heat indexes over 100, so called it after 40 fish. Fish in this little lake are fat and healthy, and put up one heck of a fight, but I haven't found any of the big girls from last year yet. Looks like the deepest water is only 7 or 8 feet, and we had a pretty severe winter, so I'm hoping they didn't die off. Got some solid chunks though today. As always, all my tackle went in my back pocket, and thanks to the Elaztech, I only had to use 2 worms today

Here's a Lake Falcon Hawg for you boys!!

Some freedom fish on the 4th.

Top water was on.....Whopper Plopper for 3.8

Nice way to start the 4th. She Crushed a watermelon red super fluke.

First fourth, first fireworks, and first funnelcake for the grandson

From the lake to the fryer. The wife loves bluegill fishing. Kept some for the first time in a couple years. Fried them the day they were caught. This meal was some count!

Wicked storm front moving in...

Got a bass on a shakyhead today, that's one more technique that I'm learning. Before I started reading this forum if the bass didn't want a spinnerbait or frog, than I wasn't catching. Since then I've got em on jerkbaits, jigs, tubes, crankbaits, texas rig creature baits and worms, swimbaits, and dropshot. I fish from shore so i'm limited as far as how much water I can get to; but being able to pick it apart more effectively top to bottom sort of make it seem a little bigger. This site and its members have been extremely helpful. Keep posting and sharing because its been help. Thank you.

I read through all the replies waiting for someone to mention this! Fishing is for relaxing and enjoying the outdoors. Catching is just an occasional bonus. If I wanted to spend time outside doing something that's frustrates me I'd play golf. I have a buddy who bases the enjoyment of a fishing day on how many fish he caught. If he gets skunked or doesn't catch many his whole day is ruined, in fact it happened to him yesterday and I listened to him complain about it for 15 minutes this morning. I don't know why he doesn't just sell his boat and his fishing gear and buy golf clubs and a membership at the country club instead. OK, I'm off my soap box. Take a deep breath, enjoy your surroundings, be thankful you have the health and the means to go fishing, and fish. And sometimes catch too.

Happy 4th fishing with a classic lure. Caught these Bass on a Heddon Baby Torpedo. It was the only lure I could think of that reminded me of the fourth of July fireworks. Top water bite was on as the temps climbed to around 95 degrees. The top Smallmouth was wrapped in someone else's fishing line. I was able to cut it off before releasing him.

Be careful trying to toss back a baby channel cat from your kayak. Really lucky I decided to wear the Crocs Tuesday instead of the flip flops. It's spine is pierced through the shoe, not just stuck in one of the holes.

'Budget' rods have completely elevated their quality yet sell for the same price. 'High end' rods have stayed the same yet completely elevated their price.

Reading about other people's 70-fish days, I just can't even imagine... you all are catching monsters. Took about 8 hours in grueling heat on the home lake to land six fish. Best of which is here, a largemouth on a Texas rigged 5-in black/blue-flake worm fishing a dropoff at a tiny island. Worth it? Totally!

Caught a few walking the banks. This one was the only non-dink.

As a lot of you know, my oldest son Lake has shown an interest in fishing and been going on little trips with me since he was 2 and went on his first day long trip with me this year. I taught him how to cast by himself and he's been practicing and gotten pretty good at it (the casting part anyways, where it lands is often a mystery), so I knew it was fast approaching that he was going to get his first unassisted fish catch. Monday turned out to be that day. I haven't been able to take him because of the heat and the one day it wasn't hot, it rained. Monday was supposed to make it to 90, but that's almost chilly compared to what we have had so we decided to go for awhile and if he got too hot we'd just leave. I took him to the little private lake I bought a lot on a couple years ago, which means we were in the johnboat since it cost 6 times more to register my Stratos for out there and it's only 100 acres. I think we only made it about 3 or 4 docks when Lake made a perfect cast next to some water willows with his wacky rig when it happened. It wasn't his biggest catch by a long shot, but he was sure proud of it and he managed to catch about a half dozen on his own throughout the day, all without any assistance from me.

Miss Zonnie Chester lived in a small, modest home in a quiet part of town. Now she never took a husband but always remained socially active and was known to most to be a pleasant sort. She loved her little Molly, a full blooded Schnauzer that she always kept close at hand. But Molly was bad to get the heat rash and had to get sheared regularly in order to avoid the misery. But when Henderson’s Veterinary closed it’s doors this spring, she was forced to go to the new place, way on the other side of the county, in order to get the little dog clipped. This became quite the chore, and was twice the price of Henderson’s to boot! But Miss Zonnie got an idee in her head and set forth to take action on this quandary herself. She found a bottle of Nair hair remover cream that she used to use on her own legs to avoid the razor burn from shaving. It wasn’t that old, she reasoned, and she commenced coating little Molly down with the cream. But this did not go well. Little Molly turned beet red and yelped to high heaven in agony. Miss Zonnie nearly had a heart o gram, she scooped the little dog up in her arms, and drove straight down to Hagers Apothecary. She quickly made her way back towards the pharmacy desk where old man, Bib Hager was quite busy with his daily record keeping. “Bib, I put Nair cream all over my little Schnauzer and now she’s all red and puffy, whatever am I going to do?” Bib never looked up from his paperwork, never saw little Molly in the womans arms either. “Everything is gonna be fine Zonnie, just dont ride your bicycle for a week or two ‘til it gets to feeling better.” ?

This is my experience with bass. Some times color, size, shape, presentation, etc. matter, and sometimes not so much. If I could figure out all the particulars to be 100% successful all the time, I'd write a book. What I do is to try what has, or should work. If no joy I'll start throwing the odd colors and baits. For example, I have no Idea what a bubble gum colored Senko is supposed to represent, but it's kept me from getting skunked more than once.

My favorite is the dog days of summer, at night, on deep water structure! The sun is just dropping off the horizon, light & variable Southernly wind, moon on the horizon little after dark thirty!

They like to bite what they like to bite; and sometimes the color doesn't matter. My biggest pet peeve is the "fact" that apparently you need to fish something that the fish can "see". Bunch of nonsense. Even if they can't see your bait, they can feel it. If they want, they'll come and find it. Anyway, I've never seen a black and blue baitfish, in muddy water or otherwise. I fish colors I have confidence in, because I've caught fish on them. I don't change colors depending on water color or weather conditions. I change colors when the fish tell me to. Works for me.

I use them a lot!! A fluke is sometimes useless when the smallmouth here need the bait to be going fast. This happens a lot when the water is clear, they won't commit to a topwater and they will follow a fluke until it gets too close to the surface. Add weight to the fluke and fish it fast and maybe you'll get a follow but it doesn't have the right action to make them hit it. Throw a Smithwick floating rogue or a Bagley Bang-O-Lure or a Rapala Flat Rap or original floater and work it fast, jerk-jerk-jerk-jerk and a 1 second pause and repeat, it will get your arm broke sometimes. They work better than flukes when the fish are slashing at the bait as well and I can't tell you how many times I've caught big largemouth fishing them fast over shallow grass flats in summer going behind other anglers throwing flukes and topwaters without as much as a sniff.

Been getting caught up in the old hype of the original Bass Pro Shops XPS Swimmer. Of course, it’s no longer in production, hard to find and expensive. There is a copy called “The Babe” sold on Tackle Freaks that is currently out of stock, so per the suggestion of @Bluebasser86 I picked up some Optimum Boom Boom 6” Swimbaits (I picked up both pre-rigged as shown in the picture and some weedless that are not shown) and some 8/0 Owner Beast Swimbait hooks. I plan on throwing these in one lake that is way overpopulated with stunted crappie but has a decent population of 5-7 lb bass and in another lake that the bass can’t resist a bluegill or sunfish colored squarebill.

happy 4th to every one , enjoy your families, we do live in a great country, I am very thankful.

@WRB Ya forgot Mr. Twister Phenom, Rebel Ringworms. Ditto Gatortail, & Bagley, yes before crankbaits Bagley made plastics!

The view from my “office” this morning. Overlooking the open part of Georgian Bay from the Parry Sound area. And yes, it’s stupid hot up here right now as well ?.

This picture from our 4th of July/Birthday party for my Father in Law in a pretty clear picture of why women live longer than men.

Caught my first fish on a big swimbait a couple days ago!

A buddy and I had a 70-fish Day combined (all LM Bass) recently fishing in kayaks. We both caught fish in excess of 21 inches (5 - 6 1/2 Lb. range) and lots of 3 pounders etc. We were fishing coontail and slop and so there was a lot of hard cranking and lifting. We used everything: frogs, toads (Ribbits), Yum Dingers, Power worms, whopper Ploppers, buzzbaits, and even a few crankbaits and spinnerbaits on the edges. When the day was over we both had sore wrists and elbows and scratched up fingers and thumbs. It took about 48 hours to fully recover from the soreness but it still felt gooood.

Got my first decent fish in awhile and a few of her friends this evening. They were all over the small June bug yum dingers.

I walked this lake bank on Tuesday, casting a green frog, with a green fading into white belly. Twice got some interest, but wasn't a blow up, more like the fish side swiped at the frog. I walked from left to right and then back left, covering as much water as possible. Nothing. Tied on my yellow frog, with a full yellow belly and had four actual blow ups, that I failed to set the hook on. It was a mix of trying to set it too early, to just not getting it hooked. Finally set the hook on the fifth blow up. I'm new to this, been fishing less than two months, but this experience alone made me truly understand why so many of you use the term confidence color or confidence bait. Sadly this last guy destroyed my yellow Cabela's Chuck It Frog, so I picked up a Live Target replacement, with a nice yellow into white belly.

Agreed ~ I am forever selecting baits (both hard & soft) that 'Match & Blend In' with the color of the bottom and or the cover. All while fishing some very clear water. Why ? Well not that Bright Colors don't routinely produce in clear water, because we all know they most certainly do. Mostly because it's what 'I think' works more often and for bigger fish. So as is always referred to here, the confidence may be what gets the bites as much as the color. A-Jay

Happy the 4th from Canyon Lake.

Nailed it. Even more important with a fly rod. That's a 3.95 ounce rod with a 3.7 ounce reel on it... I've never weighed the whole thing, but it's not 9 ounces with line and backing...can check if anyone cares... You can see it's a little butt heavy with the line on the reel...but move that 300 grain line head out 60 ft. and it changes the whole dynamic...feels perfect in my hand. Change any one component, and stuff starts feeling different...

Posted it because I never knew one was around...and I've done some creek fishing... good fishing...

there was a time when we caught alot of fish throwing those Gatortails at night ?

Yes, but expectations can be tricky. If you expect more than you should, you will feel like you are missing out when in reality, you may be getting what is available. If you expect less, you may settle for what you are getting and miss out on a different, better bite. When I used to bowl competitively, I learned that at a certain skill level, the lane conditions were 90% responsible for your scoring, your decisions and execution were responsible for the rest. It is the same way with fishing. The conditions, both seasonally and current as well as the body of water, will create whatever scenario is available for that day. Be realistic and optimistic at the same time, but learn what should increase catch rates and what will decrease them to manage your expectations properly.

"not catching em" whats that ?

From the dual archives of: "Hey, hold my beer" and... "Arms are overrated..."

I usually rig up the night before. Sometimes I'll be caught off guard by dirty/clear water, high/low water, or different conditions than what was forecast that will cause me to make some adjustments, but being able to make adjustments is part of being an effective fisherman.

By the numbers, catfishing is more popular than bass fishing in a lot of states and used to be for the country but I don't think that's the case anymore. I know more hours a spent pursuing catfish than bass in Kansas by a wide margin.

Big Nates first green fish! https://www.flickr.com/gp/157266631@N05/eucryQ

I vote morning. It's not "better" just easier with my schedule. I really like night fishing, but I don't get to do that as much these days. I like to be on the water by 4:30 am. Usually done by noon.

Needed another reel for a lonely rod...

I know this is a bass forum but, struck out on bass today. Caught this guy on the Saginaw river today. I think it is a flat head. If it is a flat head it is my first one. I was throwing my chatter bait with boot fluke white trailer to some wood and bushes. Before it floated to the bottom he grabbed. I’ve fought a lot of salmon while trolling and this guy will give 18 lbs king a run for its money. I have never felt anything like this while casting. I was using 10lbs big game line. After I netted him the chatter bait fell out of his mouth. He bent the kvd snap all up. He gave my Black maxx rod and reel everything he had and the rod and reel came through with flying colors.

Accidental tiger muskie when I was bass fishing yesterday morning. Smoked a buzz bait in 8 feet of water. I initially thought it was a pike. Measured 33 inches, and released fully alive.

Brush Hog! Aint caught a single bass on one! Baby Brush Hog... thousand bass!