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1400 rubles for a Whopper Plopper? That's outrageous!

Big Pappa turned 90 yesterday.

If you don’t want to be met at your front door by 2 federal agents, ask your shipping company not to write “Bomb” on the outside of the package......Homeland Security, and they were very nice

We're still catching quality bass in 100-degree heat. Here's how!

I have gotten rid of all Dobyns and Loomis rods from my collection, wiseass.

Lets not confuse bass behavior with being smart or learned. Bass are not smart, and don't learn behaviors like bears or large cats. They have brains the size of a pea, and host of programed instincts. They have a variety of very acute instinctual senses. that control their behavior. This is not a learned behavior, but rather a programed behavior triggered by things happening in their environment. There are also far more juvenile bass in a lake, then the big ones. Whatever your doing to catch juveniles, the big fish will react the same way if you can find them, and pass it within their strike zone. There are just fewer big bass to trigger. Finding where they are that day, that hour, is the fishermans task. The great fisherman study those patterns, and eliminate unproductive waters, increasing their ability to succeed.

New addition to the family (Great Grandniece)! Camryn Blaire LaRocca 6lbs 15oz and 19 3/4 inches long!

Took a photo of the St. John’s River and notice Donald Duck in the clouds.

Y’all do realize I’m watching this thread and not only have ya’ violated rule 13.69b(hijackin’) but the more serious violation(we’re talking ban worthy actions) y’all brought guns to a fish fight!!!! This time... a warning! Next time - well you really don’t want to go there...

I finally got off the struggle bus on Conesus today....but it took a little luck, and a lot of grinding to do so. I was all set to fish as a non-boater in the Fix-it 4-U team trail tournament there today with a kid who buys jigs from me and is just breaking into bass fishing, but has a nice boat that would be more comfortable to fish out of in a bigger team open. He decided to not go at the last minute. So....I hitch up the ol' tin can this morning at 4:30am and head over there alone to fish it. My day, much like most of my outings on Conesus this year got off to a painfully slow start. It was 8:30am before I had a bite, and it was only a small 1.75lb keeper. Catching that fish did nothing to bolster my confidence, so I switched things up. Shortly after the switch, the days magical/lucky moment happened....I caught a 6lb 4oz. largemouth. Easily my biggest fish this year in a tournament, or even in practice on Conesus. ( I have caught several bigger n practice on Silver this year). So I keep running with what caught that fish...for a while. I ended up getting a limit by about 10am, but it was a 13lb bag, and with a 6-4....you do the math on what the other four were....let's just say, not hogs. I eventually bailed on that after a long period with out bites. I ended up culling up a couple times the last hour with a couple decent fish, one largemouth and one smallmouth, and ended up cashing in 3rd place in a team event by myself with a 16lb 11oz. bag, and also took tournament lunker with the 6-4.

Clent Davis finally figured out the offshore bite and weighed in 17+ to take the prize.

it was nice and cool before the sun came up, but just like the bite, it got quite hot in a big hurry. caught close to 30 (mostly those “hammer handle” spots) but my big fish was this 20”+ largemouth. threw them a curve ball with this yellow bullet/june bug lizard deal too. crazy man. *pics loaded out of sequence

Caught 3 today. The largest was around 4lbs. All 3 on a buzzbait. Lost 3 on frogs, still trying to get that technique down. I had another 4lber break off at the bank. ? was using a large white fluke... but overall a good day.

The southern Maine smallies really made me work for it today. 6 hours in the yak with not even a nibble, and in the 7th hour three of them finally connected after a change in lure and technique. Apologies to the one I deep hooked. Got everything removed but she swam off slow I'm starting to really love this feisty species.

First Smallie this morning ~ on her way home. She smashed a popper. 5-14. A-Jay

Do those come from the same factory as the Shishamo '47 bearing' reels?

I guess he didn't see it coming...

Wall art.

Precisely what I've been doing for 50+ years. Still works fine, even though the old toes aren't as agile as they once were.

Same weight as EGbassing's fish or maybe same fish.

Weird bite today, but the fish played nice, including some good ones. Topwater at daybreak produced nothing, but around 11 a.m. a very quick window opened up when they started hitting on top. Picked up 4 in a span of 10 minutes on the Pop Max before the topwater bite shut down again. Texas rigs also produced some good fish, a couple around laydowns and a few more in the thickest weeds I could find. 10” Culprit ribbon-tail:

I switched it up and put more time into fishing higher in the water column near my deep water spots. The fish were definitely active with the majority of my weight coming from reaction baits over the top and on the outside edges of the grass. I did get my big fish out deep switching to a “darker” color. I think the smallies really spread out and actively suspended on or near the outside edge of the grass. Thanks for the advice

Tomorrow is the start of the College Bracket Championship. The winner will get a chance to fish in the 2019 Bassmaster Classic held in Knoxville TN. One of our own @everythingthatswims is representing West Virginia. Good luck !! (there will be some Live coverage on the bassmaster website starting Wed)

Caught a nice fish using a whopper plopper last week. Unfortunately no scale in hand. What do y’all think it weighs? This in fact is my PB.

That picture would be perfect for the Lund website if the D didn't get cut off.

Morning started off nicely. A-Jay

Mounted my home made "Dek-It" type bow graph mount. Went with 2 short Ram mounts. Adds a little versatility to graph positioning. "Rock solid" sturdy too! Was a bit of a ***** getting to the ss bolts to mount bracket. I didn't want to just screw it down. Had to drill out the rivets that held face of tubes in place in all the top rod tubes in my center rod box, and slide them out a bit, so I'd have room under the recessed TM tray to work my arms & hands to the bolts.

The 200 acre lake I fish has only one major point and it gets hammered . Still I usually catch something there and sometimes catch them one after another . The channels are mostly silted in .Theres an amazing number of fish in the lake and can be spotted all over with a depth finder . Whenever I see some long spaghetti looking lines on the depth finder , those are probably moving/ feeding bass . I'll fire a few cast at them , usually a crankbait . I have gotten on some huge schools that way .

Sounds like you are doing pretty good to me . Keep weighing in those limits . How do I choose between a Texas rig and a jig? Easy , I just choose Texas rig . ?

LOL....buy a nice one...it'll last a lifetime...unless you loan it to @J Francho :D

@Amateur Hour @Bass_Fanatic Josh is an outstanding young who understands this lake very well! If I had today electronics back in the 70s it wouldn't have taken me 45 yrs to learn the lake.

Personally have not been a fan of any of the Loomis rods I've owned or fished, but Dobyn's are nice, just mostly out of my price range to get their better quality rods. I have 2 Fury's that get a good amount of use. I still manage to scrape by with my budget rods though. I've been using my new Speed Demon Pro and really liking it. I like the Winn Grips and how light and sensitive it is for a rod in a very saturated price range. I'll echo what @nosdog2 said about the hook keeper, not my favorite location and seems kind of flimsy, but that's the only part about it I haven't been a fan of so far. I'd like to try a couple more of them, especially a couple spinning rods.

I just want to take a minute to say “Thank you” to TH Marine and Evan Boutwell for excellent customer service. Last Christmas I received a Hydrowave as a gift and had it installed on my boat a short time later. The unit started to malfunction as the volume and delay broadcast features stopped working. I called TH Marine and explained the problems to Evan Boutwell, hoping it was glitch I may have initiated and easily fixed. Evan said the unit should still under warranty, and all I needed was proof of purchase to confirm it. I saved the box my Hydrowave came in, which is where I put the gift receipt. I emailed Evan a copy of the receipt and was told a new unit would be on its way to me shortly. Included with the new unit was a return label for the defective unit. I was pleasantly surprised and very pleased at how TH Marine handled my situation allowing me to seamlessly employ a fully functioning unit. Thanks again Evan and TH Marine.

I'm up in the adirondacks, got here yesterday afternoon. Went out for a few hours last night. Caught all dinks. Few smallies, one largie, and some rock bass. About 10 in all, I was happy for the first time on the lake. I went out again this morning at 5am solo, checked a few promising areas, but didn't see any sign of life. I came back in at 7am to eat with the girlfriend and then we went back out around 8am. Sun was coming out by then, clouds were gone. Water was 76*. We tried shady areas with no luck, then we tried a sun beaten rocky area. Bingo 5 smallies, and a largie, all around a lb, better than the night before. Then we ran out of rocks and started hitting trees... Not a ton of luck, couple smallies. I'm on vacation, and had some tackle with me I normally never take. Namely a large swimbait. I'd never thrown it, had a new rod ready to go for it... so why not. The lure was bigger than any of the fish we had caught previously... but I wanted to play. Second cast to a sun soaked downed tree in about 15 fow.: I saw a big shadow, my lure disappeared...the fight was on. My new personal best! I'm still jittery, decided to head back to camp for a bit and let the jeski's do their thing. Hopefully I have more good news to report later this week.

He was never much of a fisherman. It was my other grandfather (passed 30 years ago) that planted the fishing seeds. Charlie instilled a work ethic in anyone that worked for his restaurant. Do it right, or don't bother doing it at all. He's got a long way to go. His mother lived to be 103.

Congratulations on his milestone, one we ALL hope to achieve! May there be many more with continued good fishing.

Yep. An expensive Jika rig.

When the baitfish move! ?

Cape Update: Checked in on Long Pond yesterday 6-11am (74 air, 80 water). Top-water bite was on for about an hour or so in the fog...got a 2.5lb large-mouth on a spook and my buddy had a 3lb smallie CRUSH a zoom horny toad in sparse lily-pads (first time ive ever seen that). Rest of the morning we worked on tapering points (16-24ft) with shakeyhead and drop-shot setups and filled out a decent limit. Bite was inconsistent and had to present baits very slow, but ended up catching 7-8 fish and our best 5 went around ~11.5-12lbs. Bonus: Saturday went out on the salt off Harwichport and got a few Sea Bass jigging in 80ft of water.

I had a 30" musky go airborne on me three times today. Barbless hooks. Didn't get off. Add a half dozen pike, three smallies and five largemouth... ...no barbs.Barb Hmmmm.......... I use a large hoop trout net for landing bass. Works great.

Big Doctor Who fan here. I can see A-Jay as the doctor however he looks more like Doctor Smith from Lost in Space minus the cowardice. Thanks for the review A-Jay. I was close to picking up a pack of the general’s today. My wife gave me the side eye when she saw they were $7 compared to my $2 Dingers. The woes of marrying an accountant.

Match or contrast.

Someone was hungry ( or real mad) last night!

Who wants to take it for a spin?

Go to the fishing department at WalMart and buy the least dorky, Strike King, POLARIZED sunglasses they have. Dark colors for bright days, Amber for overcast days. Water color and fish species don't matter.

Photo by Rob Choi.

Somebody needs to come up with a video of a group of bass under a dock analalyzing us like we do with them and making fun us I think it be would hilarious. For example:Hey bob did you see what that guy in that ranger threw at us what does he think we are stupid we don't eat green pumpkin Daisy swirl black flake melon senkos,when are these guys gonna learn we only like junebug ?

Notice in the diagram below that the brain is much smaller than the stomach. There is a reason for that. That bass learn not to hit certain lures or relocate to areas to avoid being caught hasn't been proven. Bass migrate. The fact that they may not return to the exact spot just tells me that the bass found a comfortable water temp, a place they feel safe from predators and has some food there or nearby. They don't build homes and come back to those homes every evening after a hard day at work. The entire lake is their home. Just my opinion with a few facts thrown in for good measure.