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I finally caught a good one on Saturday. I was going to do some work this weekend, but my wife told me I should go fishing. I always try and do what I am told so I put the kayak on the car. I didn't plan on going until late Friday afternoon, so I wasn't gong to have time to go to a lake I wanted to try. So I went to my old favorite, which has let me down so far this year, but was worth giving one more try. I got to the lake early Saturday morning, and started fishing at first light. The water temp was 74, wind calm, and water clarity was around 2 foot. The water was at a perfect level, and any other year I would have had greet confidence. There were two other anglers in a small boat, that went to the other end of the lake. I was glad they passed the best fishing spots for this water level. They must have been there before, when the water is up, and the far end of the lake is a flooded pasture. I new they wouldn't be at the far end of the lake for long, so I was in a hurry to try most of the visible cover before they came back to the deep end of the lake. After a couple hours I had caught a few one pound bass but hadn't had a decent bite. The other anglers came by and reported they were skunked. At 10:00 AM the afternoon winds came early. By 11:00 the other anglers had left, and I was really wondering why I was still there. The wind was blowing 20 MPH. and I hadn't landed a bass over 1.5 pounds. I was working hard to get even one good cast into one of the offshore trees, before loosing control of my kayak and having to reposition. The bass wouldn't hit my moving baits which was odd for this much wind, so I had to try and fish soft plastics. I ended up catching a 4 pound bass on a Skinny Dipper so the day wasn't going to be a complete disaster. By 6:00 PM I was tired and thinking about calling it a day. The wind was blowing to hard to set up my tent, and I was even contemplating cutting the trip short and going home. I decided to stay and fish hard until dark, after all that is what I came there to do. I peddled over to the tree I had caught the 4 pound bass from and made a cast with a T rigged June Bug Ole Monster I had just put on. First cast I hooked the 8.1 pound bass in the picture. I landed a couple other 2 pound bass on the Ole Monster, then fished a rock bank with a square bill until dark, landing a bass around 3 pounds. I am so glad I didn't give up. Sometimes all it takes is perseverance to catch bass. That and a lot of luck is what I count on most of the time. The wind died about 10:00 PM and I was able to set up my camp. The next morning I started off with the Ole Monster, and landed a 5 pound bass along with a few small 1 pounders and hooked a big bass I wasn't able to get a look at. The wind started early again on Sunday. This time of year has the strongest winds, but I have never seen it start blowing before noon. I had to leave for home around 12:00 so I was in a hurry to fish everything I had planned on casting to. I ended up at my favorite tree from past years, that so far this year hadn't produced, but it is hard not to fish history. After a few minuets of hard peddling I had the kayak positioned to make a perfect cast. A small bass bit the tale off the Ole Monster so I got blown way out of position while I put another one on. The next cast I hooked what I assumed was the same small bass. When I had the bass close to the boat I saw a flash out of the depths, that looked like a good size bass trying to grab the worm. I got the small bass a few feet closer to the kayak when a giant bass came up and completely engulfed my small bass. I instantly put the reel in free spool and watched the line go away from the tree. With as much experience I have fishing in saltwater I would have thought I would stay calm and not make any mistakes. I didn't, I got excited and made a rooky mistake. When the line stopped going out, I should have waited until it started running off again before doing anything, but I just had to feel if the bass was on the line. I lightly thumbed the spool, and felt the heavy weight of the giant. I clicked the reel in gear and was going to set the hook when suddenly the heavy weight was gone. The big bass had let go, and I had ruined my chance at a fish of a lifetime. I reeled the small bass back to the kayak, and when it was a few feet away the giant came and swiped at the bass. Of course I frees pooled the small bass again, but the big one was just showing off, and wasn't about to get fooled again. All the mistakes I made were ones I never would have done saltwater fishing, but seeing a bass that size made me panic causing me to completely choke, and loose the opportunity of a lifetime. I don't know how big the bass was, but the small bass was 12 1/4 inches and completely disappeared when the big bass hit it. I had to leave early so I decided to make cast at a tree near the launch. I hooked and landed a five pound bass, and of course I turned on more last cast into 20, but finally had to call it quits and go home. I am glad to see my favorite lake still has at least one giant that will keep me going back. Maybe with more perseverance and some more luck, I will catch one. The lake is not anything like it was, but that only means I will have to work harder. For now I will have to be happy with an 8 pounder, and a good one that got away story.

26 bass this evening at a pal's pond. Some samples below. In order, a long one, a fat one, the thickest one, and the prettiest one. @king fisher, your account of the lost monster was thrilling. Congrats on the 8-pounder, the 5-pounders, 4-pounder, and the others.

Had a recent smallie fest

Got this one at the local heavily pressured place this evening.

Memorial day weekend was a bit rough figuratively and literally. I've never in my life regretted owning my tracker until this weekend. The lack of length and weight made it a FIGHT just to stay on plane without rattling the teeth out of my head. I worked that throttle probably more times than I have in the past 11 years of ownership. Fishing was also tough. Saturday we drove up to my inlaws in the morning and by the time we said hi, got everyone together and set out it was 1pm already. Full sun, no clouds and not even a gnat fart for wind. Caught 2 ripping a swim jig through weed edges in 5-7fow in about 3 hours. Took me a while to find them, wasn't sure if they were still sitting near their spawn locations or working their way into summer spots. They were off main lake points but didn't get much time once I caught my 2 with dinner and such. Sunday was same conditions except I had a little wind. I was down by the dam Saturday so I made a 30min run up the lake hoping fit less boat traffic but it was a muddy mess. Wasted the first part of my day I there and then spent some time with the family. Did 2hrs before dinner and ran back down to a hump off a main lake point I found on my way out the day before. Fished the points weed edge first with no luck and then hit the hump. Tried spinnerbaits, jig and swim jig over the stumps on the hump and no dice. Then I figured I'd pretend I was Ajay and broke out a jerkbait (I've caught maybe 2 fish in my life on one). Second cast and it got crushed. In about 15 minutes I picked up 4. I just released the 4th and cast my beautiful megabass vision one ten jr+1 in pro blue and hard SNAP. Off she went into the netherworld. Wasted 20 minutes trying to grid search for it but it was gone. Went to tie in another and realized the first guide on my used poison adrena cracked, likely cause of the break so now I'm down a 110 and gotta find someone to replace a guide. Caught 2 more off another rod and then it was time for dinner. Size was nothing great but it was nice to catch on a lure I had little confidence in. Looks like 3 spots and a LM?

I was on the water long before the sun came up. Clear and warm with a nice 10 mph breeze. Started out at the south end of the lake. I Tried the pad crasher for awhile , and had one half hearted blow up that I missed. I went to the Bama bug dinger and immediately caught 2 good fish. Then I moved to the southeast corner of the lake , and caught another good one on the dinger . I picked off a couple fish on the horny toad in the deepest hole in the lake, and one on a red bug truck worm , then began fishing around the east side of our island , hunting for shade. Got several on the June bug speed worm and lost several in brush piles. Came around the south end of the island and switched to a watermelon seed super fluke, and caught a few going up the west side of the island, including these 2… I caught a couple more on the fluke as I headed home , and stopped at the north deep hole on the way home. I had switched to a Houdini super fluke because it was so bright, and got this 4.25 pounder to close the morning. It was the best day I’ve had in several years on my lake. The lake is clearly rebounding since the otter has been gone the better part of the year… Ended up with 16, with a 16 pound bag for the top 5… It was one of those rare days where nearly everything went right! Got a good case of bass thumb to go along with it lol . Happy Memorial Day everyone!

Well I don't what is going on but I hit a large local pond and caught 30 bass (at least that's where I decided to stop). I only caught 2 or 3 keepers though. It was a two hour dink fest but it was fun. And I caught another massive bluegill, around 11 inches if I measured it correctly.

I went fishing with a friend this morning locally for largies. We were out there for about 4.5 hours. Cloudy for most of the morning, but about a 40 minute window when some decent rain was falling. We were catching bass every so often, mostly on a wacky rig. Well then it started raining pretty hard, reducing visibility. So I thought I should try something more aggressive and it paid off. Right when it was raining the hardest, I piled into this pre-spawn bucketmouth on a black spinnerbait. I thought it was a sizable fish but then it jumped and I realized I maybe had a new PB on. I measured and weighed it. 20.5 inches and 5.71 pounds - its the second biggest largemouth I've ever caught (by weight). Caught another 4 pounder 10 minutes later just for good measure too.

I still do it better on the susky.

I had a rare holiday off. I went early. I caught 4 between 5AM and 9AM. The lake was already getting full or recreational boaters so I called it a day. (FWIW I'm not a fan of all the pleasure boaters, but I suppose they have as much right to the water as I do) The Bluegill spawn is starting but the Bass are still scattered between post spawn, and summer. I think the hot cold hot cold weather as well as all the rain messed up the Bass spawn this year. I saw very little Bass action during the Shad spawn. The water has really warmed up. It's 9 degrees warmer than it was 9 days ago. (81 degrees this morning) Oh well, back to work tomorrow.

My brother in law, my brother, and I went fishing in the rowboat this morning. My brother in law slaughtered the crappie, I caught mostly small bass, although I did get my first top water catch of the year on the bone colored whopper plopper. (About dang time!) Then we took the kids fishing at the river behind my brother in law's house (the Flat River). The kids all got hooks into something. I caught several little smallies, my niece and nephew (bro-in-laws kids) both caught rock bass. And then my brother's five year old landed a super healthy 15" smallmouth using ultralight gear. We cooked and ate it. (Pls don't kill me, C&R only Crowd. It wasn't my decision.)

RIP my rod

What you're describing sounds like start-up backlash - the spool is out-running the lure at initial start. If you can cast with smooth wrist-follow-through instead of wrist snap, it should go away. Otherwise, you need a brake adjustment - more centrifugal, or maybe even end tension - all this depends on the reel. If the spool gets fuzzy mid-cast, you're on incipient wind backlash. This needs more mag brake to solve, or stick to heavier lures.

ALF St. Croix deal and TW deal got me at the same time. I was originally going to cancel an old ALF order to buy the Cashion rod because they no longer stocked my original orders items. So when I called to cancel, the guy offered to trade my order for a st Croix rod. So the bait monkey said why not both. Avid Panfish 6'4 LF Cashion Icon 6'8 UL

Feels good to get back on the water, spent the last 8 weeks out of town for work. Saturday first light was one of those epic feeding frenzies for about 20 minutes. A bluegill crank down was getting bit on every cast. After that, a weightless 7" fluke, jig, and free rig were picking them off. I had a handful over 20" and another in the 18-20" range, one of them could easily have been my lake pb if she wasn't all spawned out, though the pics don't really show it. scott

Forgot to add my catfish video

I will fish wherever, whenever, with whatever! I wade fish Toro Creek below Toledo Bend with 1 rod-n-reel, a sack of Ultravibe Speed Worms, a few hooks & weights thrown in there. I fish Toledo Bend in a Bass Cat Caracal with FFS. I don't care, I'm fishing!

This Reel was in my wishlist for looooong time, Finally I got one, I can't wait to try it on water. Thanks to @evo2s197 great packing and fast shipping.

I guess I am about a 4. I fish out of a 26 year old bass Tracker with a 40 HP motor. My 2 electronics both have 5" screens and are over 10 years old. I just use them for depth and temp. I don't have spot lock or power poles. I usually have 4 baitcasters and 2 spinning rods with me. I don't try all the latest and greatest things to come out. I stay with what has worked for me and hope it keeps on working.

I have a friend who refuses to use anything but these. Come to think of it, the same guy went on a buffalo hunt dressed as a cowboy while carrying a Sharps rifle. Some things are just classics that work.

0.5. mono, spoons, and polarized sunglasses

Orange Lake is on a comeback. Years ago, this lake was one of the best big bass lakes in Florida. It is spring fed and can go through periods of very low water levels. There is a huge hole in the bottom that has been filled numerous times. This dries out the bottom and has the positive effect of rejuvenating the bass population via a natural draw down.

0.5

What does black with blue trailer match?….nothin but is the #1 jig color combinations for decades because bass eat it! I prefer to match a color in the jig skirt because it looks good to me, sometimes the bass agree. Tom

I race mine out for stream BFS, river kayak niche, one 4500C casts far enough for shore fishing niche, and I've built custom surf reels in 4500CT to 6500CS. River extremes, stream UL 1500CI, and frogger, built on 4600C3 Express. There's a whole world of Ambassadeur upgrades out there, and you can prioritize your upgrades following this essay from Jun Sonada. https://japantackle.com/Tackle_topics/abu_tuneup.htm My reels typically get Avail spool, improved spool bearings, mag brake, full-ball-bearing LW (Avail, Valleyhill and Mike's Reel Repair) alloy rider for braid and zirconia pawl. England, France, and Italy offer the hot surf reel upgrades, stainless gears, ball-bearing drive, external variable mag. Here's my raciest '77 4500C, which will out-cast a new-from-box Steez or Zillion. Shore fishing at March new moon, it was casting 3-g microjigs to surface slashes 150' out, on 6-1/2' 2-hand rod. This one I upgraded to full-ceramic bearings, zirconia microbearings in the LW, full silicon-nitride spool bearings. Barstock-frame surf reels, 4500CT and 6500CS Rocket

Arlington National Cemetery, in Arlington, Virginia. A-Jay

You gotta see this!

Megabass POP X stick....Had to see what its all about. Now Im fighting off replacing my drop shot rod with a NRX+ Dang ole bait monkey shaking me down..

Was gonna put myself at '0' but then I remembered my endura max 55 has some sort of digital thingy that saves power so I guess I'm a '1'. As for why I just don't care to have or see the need for tech where I fish.

I don’t know what drove me as a younger man but had to know why, it’s who I am. Tools to help answer questions were very limited when I started bass fishing and knowledge of habitats and bass behavior was nearly non existent. The Fish Lo K Tor flasher was the 1st techy tool I bought into. The 2nd was my Dark Ind analog instant read thermometer w/50 probe wire. I used the flasher to help understand top maps and habitats. The thermometer allowed me to develop an understanding bass body temperature was the same as the water at the depth the bas acclimated in. This allowed me to understand bass location by seasonal periods a big step towards solving the why of bass behavior. The paper graph recorded what the flasher displayed allowing a deep study of the days outing and how bass related to structure elements. Sonar became an essential tool in my early years of fishing both fresh and salt water. I would say a 10 ATS scale, when was active fishing. Tom

I bet the boat ramp is crowded this morning!! Yesterday 5/25/2024 in 90* heat, Team Taylor/McDevitt won a local event with 40.51 pounds, pictured on the left! Pictured on the top right, Team Laney-Roberson with 38.21 pounds (they had two fish over 11 pounds) for 2nd place, and Team Murray-Schroeder pictured middle and bottom on right for 3rd with 25.72 pounds!

While you are celebrating this holiday weekend " Don't forget to honor and remember the brave men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to our country. Their selflessness and courage will never be forgotten. May we always cherish their memory and strive to uphold the values they fought to defend. Today, let us reflect on their sacrifice and express our gratitude to those who have served and continue to serve, ensuring the freedoms we hold dear."

Keep them. I regret getting getting rid of my 4600 C3.

Ain't it cool when EVERYTHING works!

As someone who fishes and spends a lot of time in the Adirondack Mountains, I am very familiar with rocky everything. I’ve found that a boulder in otherwise featureless water is usually not enough to attract fish, but boulders that are part of or on structure like a drop off, shoal, island, milfoil bed, and the like can be THE SPOT within a spot. Boulders that are emerging from the water are even better. I love throwing tubes, neds, and other finesse style presentations, as well as poppers around boulders.

Any of the less expensive ones because I'm probably going to lose it.

Calling @bulldog1935 and @redmeansdistortion to chime in on this one not to mention @TnRiver46 and quite a few others on here.

No, I don't plan my fishing solely around barometric pressure. Instead, it seems to be one piece of the puzzle that comes into play 'some how'. What that is and how if effects my fishing I haven't quite figured out. In fact, I don't know anyone who truly has. I will say that when I am selecting days I hope to be big fish days, several other environmental factors beyond the BP, seem to effect my results more then BP. https://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/211811-brown-bass-tools-~-questions-answers/?do=findComment&comment=2893464 A-Jay

My 1648 Grizzly is a 4. This is after we put the carpet & deck extension in and before it went in the water. That's his old 1648 Polar Kraft all electric in the background. We both have a Maxxum 70 for chopping weeds. My buddy's fish is a 10.5 I spent all my money on the 4Runner. They're a hi-tech 11, although that's the '16 that my stepson has now. I bought a '23. This 35 acre lake is a mile off road. Bonus pic of a 9.25# of mine.

Reading about @GRiver's fiberglass tree stakes and your logging chain anchor makes me smile. It's soooooooo old school, making do with what's cheapest instead of what's shiny and new.

Should be OK, but if you feel you are overloading the rod just do lob casts to reduce stress on the rod.

I think I’m kinda low on the scale….as you see my boat. It’s a 15ft tin, 25hp-4stroke, my shallow water anchors/ push poles are fiberglass tree stakes from Lowe’s. My electronics consist of probably close to 20 yr old hummingbird, used mostly for depth and water temp. No digital scales, I turned my live well into storage. My most modern thing is my trolling motor, with foot steering. I carry about 4 or 5 poles most of the time, and 1 tackle bag. So I don’t know what I’d be on the scale …..please put a number to it. @ol'crickety The less you have to maintain, means the less you have to break or go wrong, I’m kinda proud of being low-tech on my boat. I probably don’t catch as many fish as those that have the better gear, but that’s ok.

Does your house have a rotary dial phone? 🤣🤣🤣

mmmmmm, probably around a 3. I either wade fish the river/streams with two rods and a sling tackle bag or lake fish in my canoe, one paddle and no electronics with five rods rigged for action and a small Plano bag.

Congrats on the first! Here's a White for comparison -- notice the vertical barring of spots on the sides, while your Black Crappie's spots are evenly scattered: Not a foolproof distinction, but pretty reliable as a rule-of-thumb. Dorsal fin spines should be counted to be sure -- blacks have 7-8, whites have 5-6. I tend to find more white crappies in the river systems here and more black crappies in the lakes and ponds.

Il say I'm a 5. Standard portable depth finder in my canoe, small box with lures I've proven that work for me. And I have fun. That's important.

I would say 4. I have simple electronics. I feel like I use them ok. I have spot lock. I’m just a poor river fishermen.

4.5. Have a 16' tin bass boat with a 7" on the bow and a 9" on the console with side finder. Usually carry 6-8 rods with a foot controlled trolling motor. On the kayak I carry one rod and a pack of worms with a few hooks and sinkers.