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Took a 6-hour float on a river stretch I haven't fished before. This particular river is small, but loaded with fish and absolutely teems with life all summer. Most of the bass are small, but solid keepers are fairly frequent, with an occasional beast. What I discovered on this stretch was a lot of skinny water in the 1-2 foot range (in some places, less, making it as much a wet hike as a float), interrupted by a deeper pool here and there. As it's late summer, I figured the fish would be concentrated in such pools if I could find them, and they were...although the productive spots seemed fewer and farther between than is other stretches I've fished on this river. I caught around 30 smallies, a couple of largemouth, and a few rock bass. All came on a tiny torpedo and 4" senkos and ochos. About 10 were in the 14-16 inch range; these two are representative: ...and then near the end, I broke off a beast that looked to be 4+ lb, and would almost certainly have been a pb smallmouth for me. It came up, got a look of my hand a foot away, and took one last hard dive... snap! Of course, the last time had I retied was 10 fish ago.

I've been fishing since the end of May, so I am still VERY new to this, and to be honest, due to my inexperience I have allowed myself to focus on topwater, as it was how I caught my first ever fish, so it became my confidence technique and all I ever use. Well I decided to challenge myself, since the topwater bite at my local pond is horrible lately. So I tied on a Texas Rig setup and told myself I couldn't throw anything else until I caught a fish on the T-Rig. Well I wasn't having any luck whatsoever, and I started paying attention to my bait. And I soon realized that I wasn't penetrating the grass in my local pond at all, and my 1/32nd ounce bullet weight wasn't cutting it. So I grabbed some 1/4th ounce bullet weights and a pack of Zoom Brush Hogs in green pumpkin and tried again yesterday, after my full time job and before my part time job, and sure enough, this guy hit my Texas Rig so hard, the brush hog was nowhere to be found! Felt good to finally scrape the bottom and come up with a fish!

I was on the river today trying out my new Whopper Plopper 75. I arrived just after the top water window closed but I tried anyway. Around 9:30 am I switched to a split shot rig, weedless hook and a Z-man Hula Stickz in green pumpkin on my Lew’s Mach II size 100 spinning reel/St Croix Premier med light rod, Suffix Elite 8lb line. Got a dink Smallmouth right away. Kept throwing the same bait for the next half hour, dragging and deadsticking. Around 10am “THUNK” I set the hook and my rod bent over. This was a big fish! Fought like a demon trying to keep her away from rocks and a fallen log. I was praying she stayed on as I was able to drag her ashore on the sandy beach. She weighed in at 3.33 pounds. My new PB Smallmouth Bass from the Hudson River.

summer break is over for this guy. but we do have the memories, and there are lots more summertimes to go.....

my grandson starts back to school tomorrow so we took the Javelin out..........just one more time

When you're looking so good in your suit that you have to stop and check yourself out in the mirror.

Who'd ever thunk that a tuff ass Bostonian coast guard guy would become a hand model

Third Thursday night win in a row for me last week, plus big bass. We had a 5 fish limit, every other boat blanked.

Decided to get out early for a nice topwater bite. Was pretty calm so I started off using a walking bait and it was paying off, plenty of blow ups and plenty of fish an then all of a sudden something crazy happened. I knew something felt weird but was amazed at when I finally reeled them in.. 2 bass on the same bait at once. Never had this happen before

Try Susquehanna Fishing Tackle. They're sort of TW "east." Nice family operation, run by cool people, and they have just about everything.

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

Surprise catch of the day a smallmouth a rarity in this lake! 16" 2 pounds used Keitech salty core tube, 16# sniper fc, Tat SV reel, Quantum Smoke 7' M/F rod. This 20" 4 pounder used 16# sniper fc, Chronarch CI4 reel, Okuma Helios 7' M/F rod.

Very Timely Thread ~ I fish for smallmouth a good majority of the time. My home waters of northern Michigan offer some very decent brown bass populations that I've become fairly addicted to. Early and as we're discussing here, late season, are historically fantastic times for both numbers & especially bigger fish. Over the years I've learned a thing or two regarding how, where & in particular When to get in on this most exciting fishing. The Single Most Important factor my time on the water has proven to me (and that's a fairly bold statement) is that "The Transition", to what I always believed is 'the fall bite', happens Much Much earlier than what is so often penned in articles as 'the best time to fish'. The often talked about determining factors such as air & water temps, length of day, angle of the sun, shallow weeds dying off, bait moving shallow, and my personal favorite, when the ferns start to turn yellow, may all play a role here in determining when 'the fall bite' comes on. However, I believe there's something else completely that moves the bait & the fish and I have no clue to what it is. But I don't care - I just know that the fish are there with regularity starting in August and a "Fall like bite' will soon follow. Several seasons ago, while struggling to get bit in the typical deeper 'late summer' haunts, I started looking shallow; purely out of frustration, mind you. Not based on any of the factors mentioned above - I just wanted to catch bass. And low & behold I did. Despite the weather having not cooled off, air & water temps still pretty high, Weeds (and the ferns) still all kinds of green, there was clouds of bait and bass hunting them down in places I'd have never expected or believed, if I hadn't seen it myself. Shallow Flats were the deal, the bigger the better, usually very early morning. Squarebills, swimbaits, Lipless baits, topwater, spinner baits, Standard, swim & vibrating jigs are a few of the baits that have proved solid producers. All the typical 'fall baits' I guess, just working several weeks in advance of where & particularly, when 'the experts' routinely indicated they should. This as driven me to start my search for 'fall transition' bass & bait, well in advance of September. Waiting until then will routinely have me completely missing out of at least two & sometimes 3 plus full weeks of big fish opportunities. While there is always a certain population of bass that stay deep and not all the fish do the same thing at the same time, the shallower bass are there to EAT, making them much more appealing for me to target. Besides, I'm usually totally burnt out on dangling a drop shot in 30 feet or slow reeling a spybait by then. Often times the same places on a lake can & do produce season after season. However in the early stages of my search, especially on new & or big water, I'll actually do something that I call 'fishing for bait'. While cruising potential areas and visibly looking for signs of life, I'll swim a small curly tail worm through what I believe to be likely 'bait holding areas'. When I start to get that tell-tale tap-tap-tap type bite from the little perch, minnows, or little panfish, there's a decent chance that this spot/area has potential. And I can do this during the middle of the day, meaning not during prime bass eating periods. Then mark the spot and check it later. The past several seasons, a quick look at my report posts for early & mid August (and this week in particular) indicate this has paid off enough to where by the 1st of August, there's always at least a small supply of 4 inch power worms in the boat. Don't miss out. That's my story and I'm stick'in to it. A-Jay

There aren't too many things that compare to nitromethane on a summer night! 6poundbass got his first dose of nitro this past Saturday in Norwalk, Ohio. He loved drag racing before but now the kid is hooked. 10,000 horsepower 300mph in less than a quarter mile, what could be more fun?

Maybe your wife is sneaking a stogie now and again!

ok guys, i caught what i thought was an 11 lb “striper” a few weeks ago while bass fishing. but is it a striper? or is it a hybrid? the broken lines say hybrid, but it’s body type says striper. i have caught both before but this one has me puzzled. help a brother out. i threw it back anyways.

For the past couple weeks I've been trying out the Abu Garcia Revo SX gen4 Baitcaster. I chose to go with the 6.6:1 RH. The reel retails in the $160 price range which in my opinion it a pretty good price for this reel. It has the looks, the feel, and the function to be a higher priced reel. It has the two break system which was really nice and very easy to adjust. There is a lever on the bottom of the side plate. You drop the lever turn the side plate a quarter turn to the right and plate comes off exposing the internal brakes which were east to adjust and made a big difference when casting. The other nice thing about the lever to remove the side plate, you can easily remove your spool which make things very very convienant for tying your line or cleaning. My other reels you have to unscrew the bar in front pull that out, remove the side plate, well you get the hint. It's as simple as drop the lever, quarter turn, and there's everything you need. That was well thought out! I put this reel on my KVD Tour crankbait rod and this reel and rod launched the crankbaits a mile. The brake system is so effective I'd made quite a few adjustments because I'm not used to such an effective braking system I was over adjusting (user error). Some slight adjustments and I was launching lures like a pro. It handled the crankbait without and issue, felt really smooth, and didn't wear me out. The next time out I put it on a MH Abu rod I used for throwing soft plastics. This time I made subtle adjustments and quickly had it tuned for my plastics, and worked great. The drag gave me no issues. The handle size was in my wheel house, I prefer a slightly bigger handle, and this was perfect. As stated earlier $160 is a really good price for this reel. It's well thought out, smooth, and convenient for spooling, adjusting brakes, and cleaning. Abu Garcia has a winner with the Revo SX gen4! 12poundbass

Sometimes I set the hook on a laydown because the branch will pull back when I apply pressure. I not only mark this spot as a potential spot to fish but also to come back and check it out once they drop the water 20 feet like they do on my lake. I have named one of these laydowns the jig whisperer as every year I'll grab half a dozen jigs off of it when the water is down.

It wasn't a win but we finally.....finally put a limit in the boat last night. (my son and myself) (second place....missed first by .25). Oh my gosh has it been tough for us. Thursday nighters haven't been too bad but Tuesdays.....wow. Ever since he had that one over ten this spring he has struggled soooooo bad. Was good to see him catch them last night. We sure do better when we can both get em....(duh) So....hope the trend is going to keep us moving up.

With experience you learn to distinguish between the two but even after 60+ yrs fishing vegetation there are times I'll go "Wait! What!". Those are the times we're talking about ?

The spool tension adjustment is not the star, the star is the drag. Spool tension is round.

Wow! A whole hour! ? The bass are always biting somewhere...it's our job to find somewhere!

That's been going on for years. Van Dam didn't "perfect" his line of sq Bill's in his swimming pool before he put his name on it. Nor did Skeet Reese or anyone else "perfect" thier line of rods at a local pond near thier house Point is, prototype fishing equipment are designed, made and tweaked for certain pro anglers who have the record and selling power the manufacturer is looking for. The best selling point they have is if someone uses it to win. They still have to find em, hook em and land em like everybody else. Honestly, I doubt if I'd enjoy bass fishing as much if anyone anywhere can catch a fish with every cast. But that's just me Mike

Xcalibur Fat Free shad/fingerling, before they were all Bomber. It's one or the other for sure, the rotating trebles are a dead giveaway.

Check out AmericanLegacyFishing on ebay, they are legit as can be. Right now they have the righty Curado K for $136. Anytime Ebay runs a limited coupon they are one of the sellers on that list. I've bought a few rods and the Curado DC from them and they don't disappoint.

Still gotta be able to find the fish to be able to catch them. Not gonna be pulling 40lb bags out of a glass of water in someone's kitchen.

Flathead on a crankbait yesterday. My by catch game is taking off. RIP to my Bomber Square A in brown/chartreuse that I caught the cat with. Fell victim to a cast net someone got snagged and left behind. Pretty sure that color is discontinued and I can only find in store at Walmart but it catches fish so time to hunt for more.

Went out in full rain gear from dawn to 9am today and I am glad I did, as a couple of good fish made up for the lack of quantity. I started with topwater, since the condition was just like DogBone's forecast, calm with slight wind. Had a couple of blowups on a whopper plopper just before 6am. The fog was so dense that I couldn't even see my lure/line after I cast it out. I fished some more topwater with a sebile flat belly walker and a frog but no takers. So I switched to a chatter bait and a soft jerk bait the rest of the trip. Overall I didn't get too many hits and did not find any consistent pattern but did land 7 LMB including a 4lb13oz (below), a 3lb10oz, a couple 2 lbers and the rest were 1-1.5lbs. With cooler temperature this weekend, hopefully there is better fishing ahead...

Hey everybody, Fishing has been really good lately and two techniques have really been standing out for me lately. Crankin deep and punching pads and mats in 4 to 8 feet of water. Finding schooling bass off weed edges and points with a 5xd has been good in lakes with clear water and deep grass. Punching pads and weed mats is working for me in dirty shallower lakes. Docks have been inconsistent for me lately I think this is due to falling water levels. I'd like to wish all the guys fishing the greenhorn this Saturday good luck and I think Minnetonka is going to be a pretty interesting Lake this weekend and whoever wins is going to earn it.

I have to say unless you know 100% it’s weeds always set the hook. I started fishing a jig a lot this year, that was my fishing resolution to get better at jigs. I was out fishin last week and I swore I had weeds on my jig every few casts but when I reeled it in now even a single weed residue was on it. I thought to myself something is wrong. The next time I felt that “mushy” feeling everyone mentions. I swore it was weeds bc I felt no tick or tug but I felt mush.. I set the hook anyways and what do ya know.. it was a fish. Nice 3 pounder. So now I set the hook on all the mush until I can get better at telling the difference

@12poundbass @Bluebasser86 Went out today and took care of that. A-Jay

Yup, I'm in the swing club. You can catch a Bass on an unsure swing. I've done it more times than I can remember. I also have caught a lot of tree pounders...lol

It can be difficult . Sometimes I get the weeds half way to the boat before figuring out its not a bass .

Had a cool, foggy, drizzly morning. Was hoping for top water but had to go deep. My wife hooked a good one ( I'm holding it for her) then a couple minutes later it was my turn. Notice her rod and reel on the first pic. Nobody will ever convince me a Zebco isn't up to the task.

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.

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:

Warm summer evenings and biting bass - a good combination in my book...

Fish on a rat.....doesn't get numbers, but better than average size

He won fish of the day! Sad, really sad...

Many of you may know that at iCast Abu Garcia launched a Gen 2 version of the Ike Series rods that are supposed to hit the stores in September. They have some updated features and a new grip. In preparation for the new launch, they are selling Gen 1 rods at a pretty steep discount online at www.abugarcia.com I own the jerkbait/topwater rod and the deep diving crankbait rod. Both are glass and are pretty solid rods....they are a steal at the current discount price. I don't work for Abu but just wanted to let the forum know that these are available at a steep discount. It's always great to get good rods as cheap as possible!!

Sounds like a good time to try topwater fishing at night time.

Best 'tip' I ever got - "There's no such thing as, 'The fish aren't biting!'" It puts the onus on the angler, where it should be. Doesn't matter what the weather has been like this year - I'm still catching plenty. Accept that if you aren't, you just need to keep trying alternatives until you come across the right combination of location, timing, and presentation for your waters.

years ago an old veteran fisherman told me, in the heat of summer fish big baits in the early afternoon, on structure close to shallow feeding areas. His reasoning for this was, the Bass fed in the early morning and are getting hungry again by early afternoon. they are not yet feeding, but they will hit an easy meal dropped on their nose. Not sure how much of that is true, but looking back at all of the bigger fish I have caught, a lot of them were in the middle of summer. Usually between noon and 3pm. In deeper water next to feeding areas. On big worms or jigs.

Striper indeed, broken lines only exist to confuse people.

Plastic worm fishing. Works best for me in the hottest time of year

They don't. Try it for yourself, put a hook in a glass of water. Tell me how long before it dissolves.

Misdemeanor at most....were you arrested?

Tried for some salmon on Georgian Bay this morning, didn’t stay out too long due to the ridiculous heat and not a bit of wind, but my son did manage one nice fat laker about 10lbs or so.

Biggest fish to ever come into my boat, although I didn’t catch it