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Don't usually do weekends before Labor Day. So Very Glad I made an exception. A-Jay

Pretty cool find on the river Friday. Buddy that knows a lot about old western history thinks a Bison Antiquus that went extinct about 4,000 years ago! I can tell you for sure, it was real heavy, my kayak was dragging on some of the sandbars on the way back to the ramp that I floated over on the way up. Nearly 3' wide too and as you can see in the second picture, the cap is bigger around than a 5 gallon bucket.

Just shy of 21" I had to crop out my head because, naturally, I was making a weird face. It's hard to scale, but I promise it was a big girl

We left the big boat at home today, took the “mini bassboat” just up behind our place to a small lake that’s loaded with decent smallies, largies and panfish. Managed to get about 20 or so, mixed bag of both types of bass. Biggest was about 3lbs, but most were in the 2-2.5lb range. Today was a “ bring only one rod day”, 7’ spinning outfit with 8lb fluoro and a Berkley maxscent General on a wacky jighead. At one point my son had a 2.5lber on and there were easily another 10 about the same size cruising around the boat at the same time. I didn’t know weather to help him or try to catch one myself. Defenitely a fun couple of hours on a quiet, fish filled lake with my favourite fishing partner.

Proud dad chiming in here and I'll keep this short. Nolan made us all proud but in the past he's been cut short in the category of camera time so I'm posting this up for those that missed it. He owned Bassmaster LIVE for a bit and the ounces he came up short will soon flip flop giving him that first big W! Enjoy... I know I did. https://video.bassmaster.com/detail/videos/top-videos/video/5823097360001/nolan-minor-s-final-day-at-college-classic-bracket?autoStart=true

Hello! I just got back from a youth tournament at Candlewood Lake in CT. I caught a smallie just shy of 5 lbs. I know for many of you that isn't a giant, but I've put so much work into my tournaments with poor results, so I'm pretty proud of it. Pictures will come shortly.

I added a few accessories to my truck recently. The rainguards are a must in my rainy climate. Bugsheild for driving to the lake in the early mornings and dusk (when bugs are at their worst). Tinted the front driver/passenger windows for those hot sunny summers. And an A.R.E. Z-Series canopy w/remote lock for storing rods and fishing gear. I also added a Bedrug, which I'll post pictures of that later. What do you think? How do you accessorize your truck?

I wouldn't, but the option is available. 5-1/2 years ago I dropped some serious coin on a Lund Predator 2010, side imaging, Talon etc. Many said I was foolish spending big money on an aluminum boat. For what the Ranger Icon costs, I could have bought 2 boats and hooked the trailers up with the finest KIA wheels around. That's 40'4" of boats, 450hp in motors, and 8 chromed out KIA spinners

Thanks guys ~ She went 6-4 A Report (with sweet video) is just about ready. A-Jay

Did a little kayak catfishing on the river Friday. I found there comes a point in kayak catfishing when you hook a fish and for a moment aren't really sure who has caught who.

Why bother with a leader at all? Unless you're needing the abrasion resistance, dump the extra knot and extra line, I did and it's worked out just fine.

Got his first victory in the Friday night derby. 3 fish limit for 6lbs and big bass 3 lbs 3oz. Had to get off the water an hour early cuz it looked like it was gonna storm. It didn't until weigh in. He woke up the ole lady and my brother with a phone call stating we'd just won the bass pro shops tournament lol

don't comment

Big mouth billy bass on a little brush hog. Also, I think I finally found a swing jig head that I really like for fishing vertically in different types of cover and then swimming the bait back. (Zman makes these.)

Actual text from my boss today (I'm on vacation)

Got out today for a quick 2.5hr. After work bonus trip. Got 7 pitching a double wide beaver with the best checking in at 6-1

Here's my PB smallie replica, 6lb 4oz. Dave Campbell did it, he's one of the best in the country. Other companies like Lake Fork Taxidermy, etc in the $500 price range can't touch his paint jobs. He did my PB largemouth too. Dave told me that most people's deciding factors on the replica comes down to price, but this is one place where you don't want to "cut corners" and go cheap..... It's something that will hang on your wall and you'll be able to enjoy the rest of your life (unless you get a cheapo' mount done, then you'll regret it). Both of my PB's are on his website under the "master grade" examples and I've posted pics of my PB largemouth on this website as well. Good luck with your search... www.davecampbellfish.com

Started this morning with a 6-4 Smallie - Completely Air Born ! Wake me up - I must be dreaming ! A-Jay

This might go contrary to many opinions, but I base the decision primarily on retrieve speed combined with target depth I'm fishing. If you need to slow the bait down, use a larger Colorado. If you need to speed it up, go Indiana or willow depending on how fast. Lots of component variations to get the desired outcome irrespective of water clarity.

I think I fished Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and friday night on Silver. Monday and Tuesday SUCKED.....I tried to force the bite I had going last Friday, and it wasn't happening. With me struggling to put a couple of keepers in the boat each nite. Thursday was good, I played around with the new Berkley max scent general baits and caught a bunch of good ones in a few hours. See my post in the baits section for report/review of the night. Friday was on fire. I got there around 1pm after an early day at work. I had another one of "those days" that only happens a few times a year. Without going into too much detail....the highlights/best five largemouth were a 6-2, 5-7, 4-11, 4-3, and a 4-1....yeah it was good. Then there was yesterday. If last Sunday I started to throw dirt on my Conesus struggles with my 3rd place finish and 6-4 lunker in a tournament, yesterday (with BIG BIG help from my partner) we buried them....for now LOL. I fished the annual big Dash for Cash on that lake with the kid whom had to cancel on me last weekend. We started right, as I caught a 4+ lber early and we each contributed to a solid limit in the boat of mixed bag lm/sm in the first hour or so. Then the wind really started whipping. We went to one of my best areas for big fish on the lake, and had a magical 20 mins. He put a 6.5, 5.5, and 3.5 in the boat in short order, and I culled out one of our smaller fish with solid mid to upper 3lb fish fishing behind him. That put us well over 20lbs when combined with the 4lber I got early. We ran in and weighed his 6.5 at the bottom of the hour, waited 2 mins and weighed in the 5lber at the top of the very next hour. The 6lber took that hours big fish prize, but the 5 was JUST clipped by some one with a little bit bigger one. Oh well....we could have waited and won almost every other hour after that, but we wanted to get them weighed, on the board, released, and get back to that area before the bite died, or someone else moved in on it. That's all part of the dash for cash game. Anyways we won the entire event in the overall weight department with 22.84lbs...got some $$ for the win and his hourly winning fish, a couple of cool plaques, and bragging rights for a year over a lot of the top guns on that lake. What a day.

Hello and Welcome to Bass Resources Todd. Nolan has quite a following by the BR membership. I'm betting you can tell by the responses here how we feel about him as an angler but more importantly as a young man. Although, like many here, I was fortunate enough to catch every second of that most excellent performance. But I'd watch it again. Thank you for the link. A-Jay

Guitarist / Drummer here. Been playing for 8 years on guitar, 12 on drums. I mainly play rock / metal on both but I love to good around on tons of other genre's. I am way better on drums than I am guitar. Guitar is just fun for me to fool around with. I don't stick a whole lot of time into practice. This a crappily recorded cover I did of a Killswitch Engage song from like 4 years ago.

Best & cheap don't go together when looking for quality. Good luck with that.

I like the old stuff. I can't list just one favorite but I do only fish with one brand of reel and one brand of rod which is Mitchell Reels and Garcia Conolon Rods. All my reels are at least 50 years old and most are over 60. And my boat motor favorites are a 61 year old Evinrude and a 52 year old Johnson.

Step 1. Join a gym step 2. Get stronger , lots of curls and wrist movement. Step 3. Start with small jars that needed opening and step 4. Twist the seat loose with your new found strength haha ?

Went down to Alexandria today for the birth of our new granddaughter and had a chance to go to Pineville and hit my old little neighborhood pond. My son still lives there and he walked with me over there. Didn't have alot of time to fish because we had to get back to the hospital for the birth. Anyhow my second cast with a 1/4oz Texas rigged 6" Yum watermelon red flake lizard landed this 1lb 4oz scorable bass. Nothing else after that though. It was nice to fish thare again and to catch a bass on top of that. Will post a pic of the grandbaby when I can. We have two grandbabies in NICU at the moment. So as soon as I can I'll post pics. ?

Had a local club tournamant this past friday evening. We had 12 boats and we fished a small 200+ acre lake. We do an evening 4 hour shootout on fridays from 6pm to 10pm throughout the summer with bigger tournaments in the spring and fall. Missed winning it and the winner take all pot by exactly one ounce. Bright side is that it is my third straight top 3 finish and my 4th straight top 5. I feel like i’m getting close. I have learned so much and have grown as an angler by fishing a little bit competitively even if it is only at the local level.

Playing hooky from your consulting job - and catching fish off your client’s dock (while he’s at work) with a photo of his jet ski in the background??

A.R.E. Z Series Cap Borla Exhaust Bed Rug WeatherTech Floor liners Front & Back But the best 'investment' by far - is the Rock Tamer mud flap system. Really works well to keep the boat from getting pulverized with road debris. Of course the Lund is a pretty nice "accessory". A-Jay

Looks sweet... for a Ford Glenn ?. My accessories are a little bit more useless than yours. 10" lift, 22x14s, bed liner, Amp electric steps, Blackhawk intake, straight pipes, black bear tune and full 2% tint. Before/stock

I tried calling about a trade in last week and was told they no longer do trade ins. They only allow defects and broken rods to be returned for credit

Very true, but why on earth would you put KIA wheels on a Lamborghini......?!?!?!?!? I too know about not "needing" the most expensive stuff to succeed... My first rig back when I was in high school.... 1989 Ford Festiva (4 speed manual V4) w/ two man plastic Basstender without a depthfinder! My depthfinder back then was sticking the rod in the water and seeing if I could touch bottom!!! (Keep in mind I'm 6'4", 250lb)

Accessories can still be had cheap. A basic color 2d graph can be had for a couple hundred bucks. One does not need $10K in graphs on his boat...But it sure is a nice addition. I saw a guy in a bay boat earlier this year who had a graph on his center console that could also play movies for the kids. I'd never own one but it sure is a neat idea.

Shawnee State Lake is shallow and dirty, has a good population of larger largemouth bass but very few smallmouth, dirt roads getting to it also, north of Silver Lake a few miles. Lake Shawnee in Topeka is typically clear, rocky with weeds and some laydowns. It's a mix of largemouth and smallmouth with large versions of both. It also has an insane number of drum in it and during the heat of the summer it's often difficult to catch much else. I prefer Lake Shawnee but I try to stick more to winter, spring, and fall out there, the bite is awfully tough during the summer.

Z521L ICON Features Exclusive Custom Icon Hull Color Package Cutom 50th Anniversary Traction Pad Cockpit Floor Liner Custom Steering Wheel Tilt Steering Black Chrome Stern Grab Handles Lighted Recessed Trolling Motor Foot Well 50 Anniversary Center Rod Box Liner 50th Anniversary Start Up Screen with Lowrance Electronics Electronic Linked Gauge Display Dual Trim Custom Vented Boat Cover Engine Hood Cover (2) 8’ Black Power Poles Power Pole Foot Switch Custom Gloss Black Hydraulic Jack Plate Jack Plate Gauge Lowrance HDS 16 Carbon @ Console Lowrance HDS 12 Carbon @ Bow Lowrance 3D Structure Scan Transducer Stereo Minnkota Ultrex 112/US2/IP-45”_BT Group 31 AGM Cranking and Trolling Motor Batteries Oxygenator Battery Charge Gauge Hamby’s Kee; Protector Dual Console Parking Backup Light Challenger 17in Wheels (Black Chrome finish) Launch and Load Trailer Lights 50th Anniversary Step Lighting F2 Winch Its a wonder the d**n thing floats!

I'm not too concerned with visibility, but ability to break off, abrasion resistance, and saving braid on re-ties are all reasons for me to keep using leaders.

Well, my knockout punch was supposed to be a big longnose gar, but this might have to work. Cut the tail off a bit in the this picture but my picture I submitted it was all there, all 39 inches of her. I was beached doing pictures and measurements, figured I'd set my bait back in the current seam this one bit it, rod hadn't been out 2 minutes when line was peeling out again! The "small" one was 8 pounds. I was also hoping to find a wiper in the fast water. I didn't find any where I'd hoped and was disappointed because I know from a friend that they live there. On the way back, there's a water treatment plant that has some water running into the river. I had 10 minutes and a grub tied on so why not? First cast white bass, second cast, maybe the smallest river wiper I've ever caught, but he's 10 3/4 more inches and another species on my list.

You can't have too many. I'm sure you have plenty of wall space. Fill it up!

Well the lakes I fish don’t have Shad that I know of.. bluegill , pumpkinseed, perch and brook trout are the main species. Brook trout is actually stocked every year with 1-2 yr old trout and some fingerlings. So I thought about getting a lite trout colored S -waver and throwing that around also

For an all around baitcaster, MH would be the choice. For a spinning rod, a M would be best.

Try Arkie Salty Crawlin' Grubs. They are meatier than the Cabin Creek Spider Grubs. I like use them with lots of success.

small lake fishing in the little johnny this morning. warm and muggy early with a nice SW breeze building as the morning progressed. numbers were down slightly but the quality bite was good. i caught a solid bag of largemouths to go along with this 5.12 kicker. life is good!

I find it's best to have no friends.

Not a photo, but this gives a whole new meaning to the umbrella rig...lol! ?

Headed out into the pre-dawn darkness & fog this morning. Wanted to be on my spot right at first light hoping for a topwater bite. Arrived as planned but didn’t see much in the way of fish or bait movement up on the flat. It’s a rather large area so I poked around a bit. Focusing on isolated weed patches, I was throwing a walking bait which is usually a solid producer and a good way to cover some water. I wasn’t drawing any interest (except from the gulls) so a few minutes after sunrise, I reluctantly switched up to a popper. Knew I was going to have to fish much slower but if there were a few smallies around, this one has been producing lately. It’s all about that ‘pause’. Didn’t take long. First Cast it got absolutely clobbered ! Fortunately had the GoPro running and managed to get a decent chunk of that whole deal on video. After some give & take and a lot of praying by me, I slipped her into the Frabil. She was gorgeous and at 5.88 lbs (5-14) my biggest of the summer. Worked that popper all over flat for the rest of the morning but that was pretty much it for the topwater action – but I’m certainly not complaining. Before noon and for a complete change of pace, I busted out the A-Rig and went to heaving that mess around. Once again, for whatever reason, the darn thing got hammered right off. First fish on it this season and a totally decent way to start – this one was 5.22lb (a tad over 5-3). After letting her go I was thinking maybe I was onto something. Didn’t pan out that way. So the morning’s tally was 2 brown bass that went over 11 lbs. Nice. And it’s only the second week of August. A-Jay

I did too, as I recall it had a special sound system so you could almost " feel " the explosions.

Im pretty sure I saw the first one with Charlton Heston in the theatre when it came out. With todays special effects, it should be great.

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 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.

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: