Leaderboard

Bit of a frustrating day. Hooked up on a few, but my hookset game was not strong or my luck was incredibly bad. Time to trade out the value H2O Xpress hooks and go with a new brand. Anyhow, I pulled in this 4lb. He seemed a bit oddly shaped...big shoulders(?).

These guys must have misplaced their calendars because they aren't supposed to show up like they did until October! I had quite the time playing this guy on my swimbait stick with a Cardiff 400. I had never caught a big one before, I was very impressed by the power this fish had

I haven't fished much in the last 2 weeks, but made time for a short river float today. A bunch of little smallies showed up, the best of which was this 15-incher: Hard work and time-on-task pays off -- congrats!

I have no problem unless I cast in an unseen tree .

I don't know if I'd call it progression, but what I did (and still do) notice is that at some point things become almost automatic. Similar to driving a car. You see something and automatically respond to it, not react, if you follow. Without thinking about it, you change your retrieve slightly because of something. You don't actually count down your jig on every cast because you know when it should hit bottom and when it doesn't, you set the hook without thinking about it. Almost instinctively, you cast to the shady side of a lay down. You can't pin-point exactly when those responses began, well, because you weren't thinking about it at the time. I think that is true with every piece of knowledge you acquire and every presentation you learn. Sooner or later you grow past learning it and just 'swing the hammer' like a carpenter.

New PB Alert! Just got back from Wequaquet (air 80, water ~77). Overall, the fishing wasn't great with the water hot and bluebird skies overhead...and yet it all came down to one pitch and one $%*#-show of a fight around some lilly-pads in the southern portion of the pond. My new PB goes 7.62lb (just a hair over 23.5").

Had a few hours to kill today so we went to one of our favourite lakes. Caught over 40 bass, about a 50/50 mix of smallies/largies and that’s with a couple swim breaks in between?. Today the fish were schooled up big time, almost like in the fall. Almost every fish we hooked had multiples of either species following and attacking the hooked fish, trying to steal their “prize”. We had multiple double headers, all we had to do was drop anything over the side and the other guy would hook up too. It was a pretty neat experience for my son. Fish were caught on KVD size 300 jerkbaits, 1.5 squarebills and wacky rigged Berkley Max Scent generals. The kid won the bet for first fish. Got a few nice ones as well. Same fish, they’re healthy in this lake ? This one followed one of the kids smaller ones to the boat trying to grab the lure, it hammered the stickbait.

My Grandaughter Mackayla holding up the stolen combo I recovered from the pawnshop.

The coolest bottle of Dr. Pepper I've seen in a long time. ?

Isn't that a George Thorogood song? "I fish alone. Yeah, with nobody else. I fish alone. Yeah, with nobody else. Yeah, you know when I fish alone I prefer to be by myself." ?

Noting like Ajay puts in the boat, but 4 like this on chatterbait and Craws. My buddy was lighting it up on wacky rigged trick worms

I'd say its about 50/50 for me. I either fish or alone, or with my brother or dad. I'm picky about who I bring, because there is a fine line between having someone to talk to, and having someone who never stops talking. lol

A friend and I drove out to the Hennepin Canal for a few hours of largemouth this morning from 7-10:30. The water temp was 85*. The shoreline has a dense line of coontail weeds covered with a mat of yellow green algae. The center of the canal is only 2-3 feet deep. I tried a rubber frog but only got a few hits but no hookups. A Whopper Plopper 90 got a couple but it was plain to see that topwaters weren't going to get the job done. Nearly all the other fish I got came when I would throw an unweighted, T rigged, 4" senko up on the matted weeds then I'd drag it off and let it sink on the outside weed edge. I had 15 total with the biggest at 19 inches.

I fish alone 99% of the time. I despise weekend fishing and the bud I fish with works long hours. I actually enjoy the solitude of fishing alone, but I have a Grandson waiting to share the bank and boat with Pop-Pop. Brian.

I fish by myself the vast majority of the time and I'm OK with it. Capturing (& then sharing) video makes it 'seem' - like I not really alone. A-Jay

I usually fish alone. I have some buddies who like to fish, and we’ll go sometimes but most of the time I’m alone. Fishing solo definitely has its perks, like getting to stay out as long as you want. If there are more than one person in a boat, they won’t always agree on when to leave. Fishing solo allows me to stay out as long as I want without worrying about if the other person started getting bored 4 hours ago. Fishing with a buddy has its benefits too. Like having a net-man, and it can be a little more fun on a slow fishing day when you have someone to talk to.

A 3" to 4" grub (Zoom Fat Albert most of the time) on a 1/4 to 3/8oz jighead! When everything else fails a grub on a jighead is my savior!

Hooked up at sunrise ~ A-Jay

Took the boat out on the lake this past Sunday, it was to nice not too.

Well 6poundbass and I headed out yesterday morning so he could break in his new Mike Iaconelli spinning combo he got for his birthday last week. @OCdockskipper would be proud knowing my son specifically asked for the Ike combo. LOL He ended up catching 7 in just over three hours. Most went around 1-8.He was pretty geeked. No more spincast for him.

It may not be much for some of you but it is a PB for me in my short fishing career so far. Caught on a swing football head with a Rage Tail menace grub.

air temp was 95 degrees water temp was 93 degrees. Still managed to catch my Largest bass of 2018, from a tough Kansas power plant lake, that has skunked me more than once. 21 inches 5lb. 12oz.

A rep for Zoom plastics had a garage sale I stopped at and he sold me a 12"x12" box full of plastics for $5.

I prefer fishing with a partner fun fishing and alone trophy bass fishing. All of my fishing partners have past on now and my son works 6 days a week so I am fishing lone more now then in the past. My wife goes out with me if the weather is just right and we don't leave at o dark 30 or stay out past lunch time. It's get more and more difficult to fish alone the older we get and I am at that stage in my life, will be 75 this week. Tom

I had a similar conversation about this kind of stuff over the weekend while teaching a friend to fly cast on the river. Early on, we have to focus on some real basic stuff - casting, learning to feel through a rod, very basic presentations. And this stuff is a lot to focus on early. Simply, we don't know what we don't know. There's a whole lot of excitement and a whole lot of ignorance that comes with it. Once you get the basic stuff down and you put in years of data entry (be it via a notebook, journal, laptop, or the ol' brain), you realize that a whole lot of your learning happens off the water. This, to me, is a big step that a lot of guys just don't take because it feels like work to read maps, water gauges, fishing reports, tournament results, researching different ways to present, and of course practicing off the water. It's a lot more than filling a cooler full of beer or rolling up whatever and simply heading out for the day to try your luck. I find that I get much luckier the more I fish mindfully and put in work.

I always fish alone. To me getting away from people is one of my favorite things about fishing. Just me and nature.

Congrats on your success! Hmmmm... I really can't remember. I gain new insights all the time. Each season, more and more comes together. I do a ton of reading, both fishing, fish, and ecosystem stuff and that simply takes time to acquire. One thing I've noticed over the years is that I get more out of everything I read now. Even fishing articles I read years ago, I can now "read between the lines" a lot better -get more out of each of them. In education circles, that's called "transfer", the ability to take what you know to better access new information and ideas. Yes, it is a progression. Enjoy the journey, I say. As to "instinctual", or maybe long term memory and second nature... Our bodies have a "record button", and the more you see and experience, the more you'll recognize when you're out there on the water, or in the woods. One of my favorite quotes, paraphrased: "There is only as much beauty available to us (in nature) as we are prepared to appreciate. And not a grain more." -HD Thoreau

I've been bass fishing for around 15 years (since I was 12). And in my first 8-10 years I caught some nice fish and figured some stuff out. Landed multiple bass over 5lbs (on purpose) and Went out on the water with an idea on what the bass should be doing. But this last 5-7 years I really feel like I have stepped up my game and can hang with some of the best "regular Joe's" in my area. Realizing that decent or good equipment helps, technique specific rods help, and using my head and past experience has put me over the edge from average to a pretty alright angler.

Yup - anyone can cast when you can see . . . . And here's another example of how being an effective night basser improves ones skill. Now you can cast blindfolded. "Look Ma - No Eyes". A-Jay

Yes ~ And when I fish in places that have a healthy population of both numbers & size, I often catch more & bigger bass. Places that don't - well, not so much. A-Jay

Educate your thumb, setup your reel so your lure hits the deck without backlashing. Depth perception? You don't need no stinking depth perception! Get off the bank! I quite often fish New Moon nights. ?

Up hill in the snow both ways?... Had to man.

It's true you have almost zero depth perception at night but you shouldn't be totally blind because it's dark. I have always used a baitcasting reel at night and no issues casting regarding backlashes because it's dark. Casting 10' up on the bank or into a tree, I've done more often then I am willing to admit. After making lots of casts you develop a sense when to stop or slow down the spool. Tom

I caught 11 river smallies on the Bone 75 Whopper Plopper this morning.I really liked it, I did not have any issues with line twist or anything like that, I felt like my hookup ratio was better than the normal Whopper Plopper sizes (90 and 110) and when I did hook fish they were hooked solid.

She decided that there was just enough room to fit a 2.75" trd in that belly.

this greedy 4.6 lbs bass couldnt even wait to completely swallow this poor frog before chomping at my jig.

Well, today was a good day. Went fishing at Burr Oak for a little bit and caught my new Personal Best Bass. Granted, those of you that have seen my previous bass, you'll realize it doesn't take much to break it. lol Drug a whopper plopper 90 in Pac-Man along the right side of some lily pads and on the 5th retrieve or so this guy came storming out from under and smoked it.

I took two 5" yum dingers and joined them together to make a 10" stickbait and I'll tell ya what, little fish like big worms too! The 2nd fish I caught was even smaller than this one!

Now were on the same page. At 120v system you could run the TM, run an A/C unit in the summer, and a heater in the spring and fall. With all that hooked up the Lund would look sweet! ?

Well Joe, at least you accomplished something. Mine probably does not work, hasn't been opened in 5 years. On the bright side I caught one over 7 in the lake back of the house yesterday.

If noticeably not smooth, I'd go back to the store before you do anything to it. I have reels smoother than my President, but you describe a reel that may not be quite right. Store should have others you can compare it to.

I keep my thumb on the spool. And I try to estimate the amount of time the lure will be in the air. It comes with some practice time.

Finally made it! So far all I figured out was how to fix my camper awning. Dirty sob! Might go to Palo Gaucho in the morning. Very interested in any lessons concerning the mouth of Gaucho. It seems to have all the ingredients to be a good area. I just haven't fished it enough... yet.

Buncha cranks!

pretty stoked about the deal i got today i've been looking at getting a nice drop shot rod for a while, looked at e6x's, zillions and a few others. Today I found a Dobyns Champion Extreme 702 SF for $250 at one of my local shops. I'm so stoked to get this thing rigged since I have a smallie trip this weekend but of course the bait monkey is telling me I need a nice reel to go on it.

My wife is my fishing partner and better half, but she has hand, arm strength issues and can only fish for short periods of time, and only with a lite rod and Zebco spin cast reel. However this doesn't keep her from showing me up on a regular basis. Yesterday was a perfect example. We were fishing for bass in shallow weedy water. The bass weren't cooperating but we caught the occasional pickerel. I was doing OK with pickerel when I heard her say " Fish on ". As our usual practice she handed the rod to me to get it in. ( she doesn't have the strength to do it ). Got the fish in and darned if it wasn't the biggest, thickest, pickerel we've seen in years. 3.2 lb. 26+ inches of muscle and slime. No one will ever convince me a Zebco can't do the job. Here's a couple of pic's. the first one is the average I was getting, the second, I'm holding, but it's her fish.

Spent the day on the James river yesterday and caught a handful of largemouth and a couple smallmouth. The smallmouth were on wacky rig stick baits. Largies I caught on jigs and one on a Keitech, all way up in cover. Fishing wasn't easy, but we had one of our better days on this stretch of river. Saw a couple 3-4lb smallies cruising around and had one follow a lure but couldn't catch any of the big girls. Also trolled right up to a 40"+ Muskie sitting up on the edge of a rock pile, and saw maybe 2 dozen short nose and long nose gar cruising around chomping on all the fry that were literally everywhere. Almost caught my first Muskie on a jerkbait! Felt a couple taps on the bait when it was 8-10 feet from the boat and kept just barely twitching it. Finally got it close enough to see and there was a teeny tiny Muskie! Couldn't have been more than 6" long and was very interested in that 5" rapala jerkbait! It hung around for about ten seconds then swam back down into the rocks. Just missed getting a pic of it. The smallie in the pic thought it had wings! I hooked it and it ran a few feet then jumped straight up about 5 feet out of the water! Couldn't shake that VMC hook though!

Smallies liked the ned yesterday morning. I caught 11 in 30 minutes. The ned is a skunk buster.

Small Necessities

Had 2 firsts today. 1st first was catching a bass with the 110 Whopper Plopper(also first fish of the day) 2nd first was catching a fish with four different baits/lures. 1lb 4oz on the Whopper Plopper, 1lb 1oz on a weightless Texas rigged bama craw Rage Craw with the pinchers dipped in chartreuse Spike It Dip N Glo, nonscorable bass on a wacky rigged double header red Strike King Ocho and a 2lb 3oz bowfin(not pictured because it took up too much space on here) on a 7/16oz bluegill Storm Wildeye Swim Shad. Not a bad day of bank fishing at Caney Lakes lower lake side. ?