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A couple of decent buggers I caught on my last two trips out, including a 25.5" walleye. Bass caught on a Morning Dawn Roboworm and Jackall Gavacho Frog. Walleye caught on a Norman DD22.

It really dawned on me how great, generally speaking, the fishing community really is. After going to the gym I scoped out a nearby pond in the town next to me that I’ve never been to. Was wondering if people can put a kayak in, and saw a gentlemen with a small pedal boat loading up his truck. Approached him and we got to talking. He told me the lowdown on everything with the pond, and even shared some info on his favorite spot in another nearby county. He even offered to let me try out his Ugly Stick Carbon combo because I commented on it (have been thinking about buying one). I likewise shared some info on my favorite pond which was nearby. We really do have a good community, and this forum is an obvious testament to that. Just feeling grateful this evening. Fishermen tend to be good folks.

Got out shore fishing this morn...after much sunnies,got this 17" On a little inline spinner

Went up to fish Headwaters for the evening bite with the Hawgtech team. We took two boats & put in around 5:30 & fished for half an hour before getting chased off by T storms & lightening. Waited it out until the storms passed & got back out for about an hour before dark. Probably caught around a dozen or so fish. Couldn't get them going on top water baits so I switched over to a deep diving crankbait & finally got a better fish about 12-14 deep.

Just placed an order for these today: Megabass DESTROYER P5 F0st-66X SHIMANO CALCUTTA CONQUEST BFS HG (Right Handle)

Got out myself for a bit today. Couple small bass and here’s a few of the better bluegill. If I’m not mistaken ? as I’m sitting here thinking they might be blue fox spinners? All I know is they produced some big gills when a mepps or other brands wouldn’t for some reason.

On the water at 7:am. Started out with a blue & black senko around pilings, 30 cast with diddly squat to show. Switched to a cranberry wacky, WHAM, first cast, a 16" bass, third cast a 14" bass. Personally I've never done as well with a Texas rigged senko, a wacky seems to out fish it 5 to 1. Wood cover and grass are basically the only place where a senko "might" prove better than a wacky but then there are weedless wackys or just go with a worm. Caught a few more on the wacky then tried top water. Light fog drifted slowly across the lake with early sunlight flickering off the water. Picked up a rod with Whopper Plopper ready to go. Cast parallel to a gradually slopping shoreline in about 5 feet of water. Fifteen minutes later, nothing. Switched to a Sprinker frog over grass, "Hmmm, guess they don't want top water this morning. Picked up a 4" Z-Man, StreakZ curly tail on a weedless Ned head. Second cast "BAM", a 14" bass then several more including another 16" bass. Caught them hopping it along the bottom or swimming it over grass. Next I tried a craw colored spinnerbait, that just turned out to be nothing but exercise. Tried a square bill but after a half hour that only produces a 3 pound pickerel and a badly frayed line. Back to the wacky for two more bass then time to go. Ended up with 9 bass and the pickerel. Hey, beats a jab in the eye with a sharp stick.

Really a great place for any day but anyone knows with kayak wind can ruin the fishing. This spot has tone of islands of vegetation that no matter what the wind is you can easily get pinned to a spot to fish good from. Full of bass too these pictures are from last week or so and smallest bass was 14 inch biggest was 19 inch. All caught on top water frog type lure "SLAYER RATZ JR". Place is called Carters Pond in Greenwich, NY. Dont tell too many people though because I been there a bunch this summer and only ever seen 1 other person he was on kayak and a kid fishing from shore.

I really like using worm hooks with a grip pin on the Z bend. What I don't like is the price, so I decided to add my own to some of my worm hooks. It's a simple hack if you tie your own hair jigs, or flies. I used what Quill calls their Ideal paper clips. they're made from a heavier gauge wire than regular paper clips, more in line with the diameter of a 3/0 hook shank. Cut off about a 3/8in. piece and tie it to the underside of the hook at the bend allowing a short piece to extend out. Secure it with a drop of super glue after tying and you could add a drop of head cement, or clear nail polish after drying if you'd like. I can purchase a dozen EWG 2X worm hooks for about the same price as five KVD grip pin hooks. In less than a half hour, I have a dozen hooks finished. The other thing is, I haven't found any round bend offset worm hooks offered with a grip pin. I now have a bunch in different sizes.

Went out this AM with a true man of God, fine fisherman, and a great friend. And in this case, it was just one guy ? Anyway, we had a fine day on the water between fellowship and fish catching. We put 12 in the boat, 10 bass & 2 bream. Here are a couple of my buddy’s catches. Black TR worm. I think this was the big fish of the day. Chrome/blue Rattletrap. Huge bream. All mine were caught on worms, mostly Tokyo rig with a couple on the wacky rig. Dean wins the prize for biggest fish … multi-species. ?

Sister moved into her new house in Sturgeon Bay on Thursday. She texted me 2 pics with the caption Fishing must be good. There's 20 boats in my backyard.

Fished a Central Ga PFA Thursday night/ Friday morning and got one hit in 8 hours. 6 lb 2 oz on a Yum 10.5" Mighty Worm in Plum in 18' on rocks. Utilizing my 360 Imaging more everyday. Water temp was 89.9

A friend and I each caught a 37 inch tiger muskie this morning in the rain, 10 minutes apart.

Nothing special but I caught one on a rage tail menace in summer craw with a 3/16 tungsten weight pegged. Was a struggle to find where they were hiding. He ran straight into the salad like I figured he would, this is why I normally use braid don’t want to have to worry about snapping off on a fish. Today was only 10lb invisx. Got a little water in my waders trying to go get him out lol, that was not going to work got deeper and softer quickly. We are both fine and back to doing what we do though.

Messed around for a couple hours Thursday evening in the backwaters of a small dam, with a 4" senko. Caught 15; mostly dinks. Here's a 14"-er:

Glad you got out @MN Fisher! My daughter was up the house the other day taking some pics for her portfolio. Surprised me with this one. My boat waiting to get off the leash.

You'll be a light bait throwin, big smallmouth showin, son of a gun baby!!! WHOOOOO!!!

@Alex Ball I think you're talking about my Libra SX3000, which is a big reel - here's the Samira 2500, which is small frame and deep mono spool. I have it matched with Omen Green ML and 10-lb Tatsu. The Samira is worm drive, though both Libra and Samira have line management comparable to Shimano and Daiwa. The handle is Daiwa, knob Ulucus, and the reel-stand/keeper is Dress Origin. I hate the folding handles that come on Ticas and upgrade them to fixed Daiwas. A buddy gave me a blank check to pimp four Ticas for his grandkids, and I found great deals on Daiwa parts in New Zealand. He gave me this little Cetus along with a long-discontinued Valentine single action fly reel. I pimped the Cetus with Daiwa double handle.

I've got the little kit they sell. Fun little bait I like throwing from the bank on our reservoirs in the fall. Everything seems to bite them. Have done well on both largemouth and white bass in particular. I've got the little kit they sell. Fun little bait I like throwing from the bank on our reservoirs in the fall. Everything seems to bite them. Have done well on both largemouth and white bass in particular. I've got the little kit they sell. Fun little bait I like throwing from the bank on our reservoirs in the fall. Everything seems to bite them. Have done well on both largemouth and white bass in particular.

Out fishing with my good buddy….

Pike are not line shy, IMO. There's too many other variables: Tremendously effective lures (Mepps, spoons, spinner baits, hard plastic lures in colors like Firetiger, big surface baits that mimic nothing natural, and so on...) that don't occur in nature and look nothing like food. Big metal hooks hanging off lures. Weather/water conditions Presentation Placement ...that impact the equation to even begin to focus on the leader/line. For example: anyone who thinks a pike (or a musky) that doesn't hit a #5 Musky Killer Fire Tiger Mepps because there's a metal leader attached to it hasn't thought that all the way through...

I might be naive, but I believe if you treat someone decent, they'll treat you decent. That's just human nature. Common interests just break the ice sooner. jj

Instead of cheap reels, I pick up functional parts to hang on my good reels. They happen to add decorative splash, but form always follows function. And as @Eric 26 noted, when I find a Tica Libra or Samira model on Amazon with loss-leader pricing, I can't resist snagging one. Yes, I fish these, but also loan them to my friends, because I know they can't hurt them, and may land them a honking red or snook. The first Tica I bought was a diminutive Cetus SE to hang on salt XUL with 4-lb copolymer. If you have a spot for a Cetus SE or SS, can't go wrong. I show that first Tica Cetus on this post. 12 years in the salt and literally 1000 fish, including doubles with reds and snook The trick with doubles on XUL, the fish fight each other. You just have to get the bigger one to the net, and use sufficient leader on your tandem rig to lift the smaller. The L word.

Top pic is Acapulco gold bottom pic is either afghani kush or Thai stick.

I find that to be true ? You will have some disgruntled people in every sport.

Good evening gentlemen, finally got some free time?. Hit the local retention pond, here’s the results?. Bass weren’t too cooperative, but the bluegill were in a mood. Here’s a couple of the better ones.

Little Cunner he thought he was 5lbs. We had a wave come in and rocked us when I took the pic…little lumpy out there today. Dillon got big fish of the day. I had gotten a nice one earlier in the day. Later in the day I added a little Megastrike to his bucktail which caught the attention of a beauty cod. So glad to have this time with him. It’s going to change real soon as he gets older. I just hope that he has the relationship my father I have later in life. Ok, you can put on Harry Chapins “Cat’s in the Cradle” song. LOL!

1/0 on a 10" worm? You like living on the edge! ?

I haven’t dropped over $250.00 in the local tackle shop in a few months so I figured I would try some new things lol. 6 packs of local made stick baits garlic flavor, they are really good and soft. 4 packs of rage tail menace. Some owner flipping hooks tungsten weights in 1/8 3/16 some pegs, variety of black buzz baits to fuel my new night fishing obsession lol. 4 of the new berkley stunna jerk baits a couple of sexy dawgs a duo realis pencil 100 a pop max x in bass a buzz plug in rat color. All in all not too bad more of a impulse spree than anything, I find that once I start catching a few on a certain lure I invest in that specific type so that my bases are covered lol.

Our cool summer has lead to some head scratching as to where the bass are at. We've been getting a few hot days and that seems to have made the bass (the Largemouth at least) a little more predictable. Deeper grass clumps have been producing. Picked up this bass while running a chatterbait/trailer over the weeds tips. The weight surprized me. 4.7lbs. Skinny longer fish that I'm guessing would go over 5lbs+ in the fall. I need to start measuring these fish..... Also landed seven bass in that 2-3lb range along with a couple pike.

Nothing special pic of my smallest big fish of my 2 hours of fishing, caught three smaller ones on a weightless bluegrass senko, biggest on came on a strawberry and cream weightless senko. I also caught another smaller one on a trench hawg in Alabama bug color. Then my daughter caught one on a Ned rig using a rabid bait in mud bug color. All in all a decent evening, tried teaching the wife and daughter how to use a bait caster at the same time lol. They tried but struggled, I told them it takes time and patience, wife made me put her zebco back on her rod and my daughter went back to her spinning reel. I am proud of them for trying ? I didn’t make it easy on them either, both weightless plastics wife had a spicy beaver and daughter had a trench hawg. The rods were right though a medium fast action.

You can live with a hole in your head, couple staples and lifetime of headaches and migraines. But a well made Kistler rod at a great price doesn't come around often. Just speaking from personal experience.

I’m 40 and caught my current PB three weeks ago. Didn’t have a scale with me but it was a solid 4 pounds I think. Many here probably remember as it was recent and I asked the forum to help me guess the weight.

I will say as someone who likes to stay in the lower to midrange price point, I have Kastking (very low end) and Piscifun (mid price) reels and I’m happy with both brands. I’m of the mindset you get what you pay for in all facets of life and as long as you don’t expect $200.00 quality out of a $35.00 reel (Kastking Royal Legend II)you should be happy. Conversely I have a Daiwa CA80 that I paid $65.00 for and I’m totally impressed. Also although I’ve not purchased, bulldog1935 continues to recommend “Tica” spinning reels which look to be a fantastic buy when comparing similar reels in the same price point. Eventually I will pair down my cheap/mid range collection to a handful of good high end rods/reels but until then I’m enjoying my cheap/midrange collection ?. P.S when I do I will be relying on this site for guidance ?

I like to mention the arithmetical sum from time to time. A dozen or more cheap outfits in the closet isn't exactly frugal compared to one good one on the water. Though the point isn't often recognized here. ok, and I have my 3-pc baitcaster under the sternwell net.

True dat!

Good point. As I admitted, given the lousy customer service and the way the other reel failed, I won't defend them now. Why amazon allows that kind of racket, I don't know. I might have just gotten very lucky with my first purchase from them. I won't be testing that luck with them. I do like Kastking quite a bit so far, and they do have an american headquarters you can go to. I think they will be a name brand in a few years. Piscifun is 50/50 for me. Good so far, but no home base and odd website stuff. Hindsight is always 20/20

this was the goal of getting into BFS. I feel that I am quite accurate with my spin rod. it takes practice but I have become a "good shot" with it. I thought to myself well d**n. If I can be as accurate with a BFS reel as I am with my spin rod, it would be deadly.

I have never hesitated to throw to a spot and that even includes my fly rod. I have used leaves to hold a fly and float it on trout streams and twitched them off to get to places....almost always results in a fish or at least that is what I remember lol

Right gear for the right job is important. 3 or 4 trees piled up? That's what I'm looking for. I'm going in with a heavy flippin stick and 40# 832. Chances are that bass is coming to the boat. Giant Flatheads are another story. I got my butt kicked by another one today. That's twice in three trips my flippin stick and I got manhandled, and wrapped up by one of those beasts. They seem to like T rigged beavers. I'm begining to think you need Goliath Grouper tackle to winch a big flathead out of a log pile. Todays fish had me wrapped up about 6' down. 80 and sunny, I thought what the heck, I'm going in. I emptied my pockets, pushed the thumbar, laid the rod on the deck, and went after it. I followed the line down to the limb it was wrapped on and managed to snap it off. Climbed back into the boat, reeled the slack out and @#$%^&*!!!. That son of a gun swam out deeper and wrapped me up again. Wrapped the braid around my plier handles and gave a pull. Braid gave before the limb. Catfish 2. Me 0. Oh well, it was quite the fun calamity, and a refreshing dip.

Had someone else fishing near where I was this morning.

From a few weeks back I forgot to post

Everyone that makes jigs, spinners, and lures in general will shop at ALL the supply shops. The reason is every place has at least 1 item that you can't get at other shops. A good example is skirt material, Lure Parts Online has material that is exclusive to them. Barlow's Tackle has some striped skirt tabs with a natures edge print that I've only found there. So there isn't really a "best place" but after awhile you'll find one store that you like better than others. I buy from a lot of different places but Barlow's Tackle is where I buy 90% of my supplies from. The reason is that I can find just about everything I need there and I usually have multiple items on my list. Now if I just need skirt material I may go to a different shop depending on what colors I need. So do your research as to what kind of heads you want as well as your other materials and you'll find a place to make your initial order to get going, good luck.

No one with an open mind would ever say it's garbage because of the name on it. But because of what's inside. Be careful what you defend - if you're going to defend something, make sure it's worth defending.

rage menace for me today, first fish i have caught on the menace and will fish the menace much more now instead of always going back to a senko.

Quick 90 minute bank walking excursion to the largest pond I have access to produced 22 this afternoon, including this one that was pushing the 5 pound mark (but not quite). Midwest finesse scores again.

The fish is nothing special size wise, although the special part is that it’s my first swim bait fish. Jackal gantrel jr in bluegill spawn color, well if we don’t count the turtle I caught on it before lol. That’s not a fish though anyhow. I woke up a little bit early before work and was setting on my deck starring at it and I just couldn’t shake the feeling to go throw it in the lake. Working 3rd shift and having a 3 month old makes it hard to go fishing, but I still manage to get it in and my son is so worth it. I am hopeful that he will grow up to like fishing also but that will be his choice when he gets older.

Got a big one this weekend... 7lb 15oz

The 6th tournament of the kayak circuit I'm fishing this year was Saturday. It was at a place called Mined Wildlife Area in southeastern Kansas, which is over 1,000 strip pits spread out over a huge area. There was 4 different clubs in the tournament, including the local one, so a lot of locals were in that knew them well, had my work cut out for me. I've fished down there several times, but a lot of these guys fish them several times a month. To make it worse, 2 of my favorite pits had been drained, 1 to be turned into a duck marsh, 1 so they could add a culvert. I was not feeling confident at all. I drove down Friday morning to prefish and went straight to my favorite pit. Normally, it has pretty good water clarity, but when I pulled up to it, I could tell it was dirty even in the early morning dim light. It was already hot at 6am, forcast in the upper 90's to low 100's both days and very little wind, it was brutal. I fished for 4 hours, caught 3 fish, the biggest just shy of 17". I left and went to a different pit that's very small but has good fish, and found a guy fishing it in his pond hopper. Went across the road to a different one and caught 2 15 inchers in 5 cast on swimbaits, and then not even a bite for the next 2 hours. Went and set up my tent and ate a sandwich before trying another pit that has some of the biggest fish in the state in it. I caught more fish than I had at the other 2 combined, but nothing even over 15". After that I went full panic mode and fished probably 8 more pits in the last 9 hours. I didn't measure many fish but I know I didn't break 80 inches. One of the guys in our club said he caught 100" of bass. I knew I was going to get crushed and had no idea where I was even fishing. There was about 40-50 kayaks fishing Saturday. When everyone took off from our meeting to their starting spots, I sat in the parking lot talking to another guy and we both were just lost about what to do. I ended up deciding to go back to my muddy pit and hope for the best. I'd caught good limits of fish there 10 years ago, and I had nothing else. It was only a mile from takeoff, so I took my time setting up, drank a bunch of water, retied knots, switched a couple baits, pushed off and jumped in to get away from the mosquitos. Looked at the time, 5:45, time to fish. Literally missed a fish my first cast, hooked and lost him my next cast, 2 cast later, I boat a 16.75, which was as big as anything I'd caught in practice. I was just hoping to break 80", so that was a good start. I missed another bite and heard a big explosion behind me. Worked towards it and hooked up with a good fish that jumped a few times before I netted it. Not a monster, but an 18" bass looks giant when you've been catching 8-12 inchers the day before. I really thought I was going to do something with those 2 in the first 5 minutes. So an hour later, I'm looking for my next bite. Finally get it on a wacky rig, an 11.25" fish, not what I needed but #3 anyways. 30 minutes later, the voices are already going in my head, telling me I should have gone to the other pit I thought about going to this morning and if I leave now I could still maybe get a morning bite there. Then another one stopped my bait, another 16" fish had swallowed my homemade bladed jig. Told myself I just needed to calm down and grind them out. So that's what I did. I spent 6 hours on that pit, casting that bladed jig until my arm felt like it was going to fall off, going a hour between bites and then catching 2 back to back it felt like each time. When I finally decided to move around 11AM, I'd caught 11 fish and had a little over 84". When the day was over at 1:45PM, I had a little over 84". I wish I could have convinced myself it was going to be that tough for everyone and stayed there. First place was only 5" more than what I had. If I could have found a couple of the 20" fish I know live there, I had a shot. Still, with all the local knowledge, and for how tough it had been for me on Friday, I was happy with how I'd done. At the awards ceremony afterwards, I was even more surprised to find out I'd finished in 4th place overall in what turned out to be an extremely difficult day for everyone. Every one of my bigger fish was on a homemade bladed jig.