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I returned to my pond for the first time in about a week, launching at 4:30 and fishing until 8:30. I was SURPRISED and PLEASED to find that the rudimentary boardwalk two pals had built for me out of pallets was straightened and extended by a man whose house is at the entrance to my property. He asked if he could fish the pond with his son and I said yes and when I met his employee who also has a son, I gave him permission too. So, those two men took it upon themselves to greatly improve the boardwalk and they built a dock too. So, now launching is a breeze. I paddled my 85-pound canoe backwards because it's a tandem and tandems are easier to steer if you paddle backwards from the bow seat if you're alone. I caught 52 bass. The last two years, I'd average about 35 bass, but I was fishing longer then, so I feel like I'm learning the pond, as I'm catching more in less time. I caught the vast majority of my fish casting into shoreline pockets. I saw a red flower I've never seen before. Does anyone know what it is? Then I saw it again, looking purple this time. Pretty, huh? At one point, I crossed the pond and took a pic of it so you can see that whereas I catch most of my bass in the marshy pockets, there is open water. Here's a long, thin bass I caught. For once, I didn't cast a single Whopper Plopper. I caught half on my translucent Shimano Flash Boost popper with a pink tint and the other half on an Owner Underspin with dark blue and shad-colored paddletails (Keitechs and Crush City The Mayor). By the end of the morning, I was down to my last Underspin. I thought I'd bought enough over the winter to last for all of 2023. Ha! The spinners eventually fall off. They still work, but not as well. I caught some thicker ones too. Thanks to @fin for teaching me how to insert photos for more cohesive storytelling. Five final points: Is there anything better than putting a brand new Keitech on an underspin? I increased my hook-setting success by waiting a few seconds on the underspins, i.e. just letting them run with it. I forgot to take photos of the new boardwalk and dock, but I will next time and share them. @Glenn said the higher the Sun, the more bass tuck into shady shores. Man, oh, man, is he ever right about that. I found success casting under overhanging bushes. A few times, it seems like I cast right into a bass's mouth, as the lure hit the water and it was immediately fish on. I have lots more fish pics, but so many of the bass were flopping as the shutter clicked. I don't like to wait for them to be still because I like to return them to the water ASAP.

Most tournament people are nice but there's an occasional jerk. When they mention that "they're fishing for money" I tell them that I have a job, what I make, and that I can afford to fish for fun. I caught 10 today. That seems like a good day to me. I can't imagine catching Bass like Katie does. So far this year (January through May) I've caught at least one 5 pound Bass each month. I didn't catch a 5 pounder today, but I caught a 4.54 pound Spot. Most including the biggest one came on a spinner bait with a couple on a shaky head. Water temperature was 80 degrees. 2 degrees warmer than yesterday, 1 degree cooler than last week. Pictured are the first I caught, along with the biggest one.

Belive it or not, today beat out yesterday. Still throwing the weightless t-rigged creature bait. Think I found a honey hole. Pulled up to the ramp this morning and it was PACKED. Kayak tournament going on. Holy cow some of these guys are serious. Kinda cool to see, but also a bit annoying. Anyway I got out. Some jerk tried telling me I couldn't fish till 6AM (he thought I was in the tournament) then after explaining I wasn't he continued to tell me "don't beat up the area, we're fishing for money". I think it was meant as a joke, but it didn't sound like one the way it came out. Rubbed me the wrong way if in being honest. So I followed by catching 3 decent bass in about 10 minutes. 4 or 5 within the hour. It was cool to because there were 2 guys in that cove with me. Both in the tournament (one being the suspected jerk, the other being quite nice). Neither were having the same success. Which only solidifies that I definitely figured somthing out this past week. Continued fishing for 3 hours total, got 7 when all was said and done. Most fish I ever caught in one day by a long shot.

Had a great morning. As I was tying on my shoes at 6AM I wondered if getting up early was worth it. It is. Started out the day with a couple dinks that I didn't photograph. Then had something big absolutely HAMMER my crank bait. It ran for a few feet, my drag screaming. And then it came off. Nothing sudden. Didn't break. Just one second I had something massive on the line, the next my bait was cranking along like nothing ever happened. I was so mad. Then I went on a string of catches. Nothing massive, but I did finish the day with a beautiful 16 incher, which is about as big as I've ever landed out of this pond. Later today I'm gonna take my two little brothers back to this same pond for some worm N bobber fishing. Hoping they have as good a day as I did this morning. This bass I caught directly after that I lost that massive thing, hence my annoyed expression:

Went for a float on the river today. I’ve waded this spot before and never gotten on any good fish. With the paddle board I was able to cover a lot more ground and I found that the first mile or so by the ramp was just dead water. Once I cleared the first set of riffles I started seeing life - suckers and big schools of 6-8” channel cats. The fish were mostly set up in deeper areas with moderate current and large boulders. This was sort of an impromptu trip so I did not have much of a selection of lures - just what I had tied on last at the lake, a gantarel jr. Luckily the fish were all over it once I got into the correct areas. They ranged from 8-19”. The big one took me for a ride, one of the best fights I’ve had this year. Also had the biggest walleye I’d ever seen take a swipe at it. I’ve caught many in the 24” range and this one I would estimate was over 30”.

I managed 8 this morning. No big ones, but on really small ones either. First and last are pictured. Many of the fish are really skinny post spawn. I was going to fish longer but my "gut" said no. After my 4th trip to find a restroom I decided to call it a day. I've pretty much been "sitting" since I got home. Hopefully I'll be able to fish tomorrow without all the pit stops. The last few nights have been fairly cool for this time of the year. The water is 3 degrees cooler than it was Monday. (78 degrees)

Completely omitted the fish pictures ~ What was I thinking ? Not part of the top 5 but I need to add Miss Big Fin as an honorable mention fish. A-Jay

I had a pair of them run by me yesterday, WOT within 20', racing to their first spot, while I was fishing with my wife. Fortunately for that first guy, he buzzed the post Jesus Tim. The pre Jesus Tim would have launched that Medussa with it's pair of 7/0 trebles at his head. I hate fishing weekends.

Don’t wait on a hookset. Bass can inhale and then reject a bait much faster than we can even realize it happened. Waiting on a hookset is just giving bass more time to reject a bait. When you feel the hit, drop the rod, reel up the slack, and let em have it as fast as you can. You will never have to wait on a bass. They’re faster than you.

This is the way Shaw Grigsby put it to me, he calls it the three tap theory. The first tap the bass has inhaled your bait The second tap the bass has exhaled your bait The third tap I'm tapping you on the shoulder asking you why you didn't set hook! I don't wait on anything, my hookup ratio is in the upper 90 percentile range. Like @casts_by_fly said...4/0 hook.

With any Texas rigged soft plastic I expect to have zero fish throw a hook. It might happen, but I’m surprised when it does. The plastic has basically zero weight to lever the hook and a single sharp hook will penetrate well. Plus, when fish hit a fluke it’s easy for them to inhale the full thing on the first strike. If you’re losing fish that way, there is something amiss. to that end, a 3/0 ewg on a 5” fluke isn’t enough hook gape for me. At a minimum a 4/0 ewg with a longer shank that puts the bend far back in the bait is the starting point. Owner light 4/0 hooks with the cps spring or even 5/0 depending on the specific bait.

Well done @A-Jay ! @gimruis I can’t keep up either! I’m sitting with a total weight of a about 6.5lbs over the last five years. 😂

Only crappie caught on today's trip, but at 15" and 1-3/4 lb it's my new PB crappie

I took my 4 legged partner out this morning for a few hours. She did not like the family of feathered carp that swam by. Caught 12 largemouth, nothing real big. I got a new clamp for my cell phone that attaches to my windshield and tried a photo with it today. Seems to work pretty decent. I don't do selfies. If I catch a muskie by myself this season, then it'll be put to the ultimate test.

I can't keep up with the smallmouth masters above but I'm going to play along anyways. Mine are inland MN lake smallmouth, not Great Lakes versions. I've gone twice this season so far. I'm probably done lake smallmouth fishing until fall now but I might be able to do some river fishing for them this summer being that we are not in a drought. Luckily, my biggest 5 are all prespawn versions. I think I can upgrade on the bottom two at some point. A matte perch megabass jerk bait has been my most productive lure thus far. 4.8, 4.4, 4.0, 3.3, 3.1 pounders so far for a total of 19.6 pounds.

If one thing has remained relatively consistent, it’s that spinnerbaits, jigs and I go together like oil and water. Neither has ever done anything other than one bass here and there, if that. But jigs are starting to change for me. I started off with a squarebill and that bite was dead. I switched to a Texas rig with a green pumpkin Speed Senko and so was that. I later switched to a weightless TR with a Neko Macho and caught three bass and missed one. Two were on a #956 and one on a blue with black flake. As heavy as Neko Machos are, maybe it’s a semi-weightless. That bite petered off. I had a blue/black jig with a green pumpkin Rage Bug trailer and figured I’d give it a shot. 45 minutes later I boated 5 bass and missed two (one was pretty good but it was not hooked well and it threw the hook). This was a Nichols Mango jig, which uses a toothpick through a hole to hold the trailer on. I did not have any toothpicks with me and went through that Bug, a Rage Craw and a Rage Menace as trailers quickly lol. I got bites hopping it, swimming it, dragging it over wood and pulling it off the bank. For 45 minutes, that jig was gold! I caught one more on a weightless Speed Senko TR and called it a day. One bass, the tail was gone and I was left with, well, a Senko. @JayMac89 Nice bass! The more you fish, the better angler you become. Keep at it! And yeah, while I can skip much easier with a spinning rig, overall I’d say it’s easier to be more accurate with a baitcaster. It takes practice!

Great morning of fishing. Out of my 3 seasons so far, this has to be a top 5 day. Caught 4-5 bass. The fifth one I got to the kayak but lost him when I went for the net. Not really counting that fish so 4 fish this morning. As iv mentioned though, this season I'm really dedicating myself to improving. I always had luck. Good days, bad days. But I could catch a few pretty regularly. But it felt accidental if that makes sense. Well today I threw nothing but a t-rigged creature bait. Believe it was a strike king rodent? I'm not sure on that. But I had some minor success Monday with it. So I kept that going. Safe to say I went from not a lot of confidence to fully confident with that technique. Every got a brand new spinning combo last night (like I said, I'm dedicated to improving). Besides throwing a bait I could literally count with my fingers all the times iv thrown it before, and having great success. I also just knew where to find them. The pattern from Monday continued today. Plus iv been paying alot more attention so swirls and what not. Caught 2 by seeing movement and targeting that area. I must say though, I'm terrible casting with spinning gear. Holy cow I need to work on that. Here's the 2 better fish from today... After getting 2 fairly quickly, I really wanted 5. Got to 4 and decided to stay a little longer even though I was feeling pretty done. Got that 5th to the boat and lost it... little bummed about that. But I was also only out for 4 hours. And had a few other fish I lost. Keep improving and today could of easily been a 7-8 fish morning. Just glad to have things come together rather than just catching them randomly. Today was the first day since I started fishing where I truly felt like I had a purpose and knew what I was doing. Very happy with the morning and broke the new combo in the right way.

Same basic weather pattern as yesterday - maybe a bit more hazy and a little cooler. Very light NE breeze. Changed lakes to a bit more stained reservoir. Caught about the same - 9 keeper bass - but overall quality went up. Ned and jig for everything today.

Past few years I've been keeping track of my top 5 Brown Bass. Info in the last couple of threads can be found here https://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/258133-top-5-brown-bass-of-2023/ This season has been most decent so far and has enabled me to already surpass at least the last two entire season's totals. I'll need to go back into the archives to see just where 2024 sits when it's over. Currently we're sitting at 31.23 lbs for 5 fish. 7.05, 6.48, 6.26, 5.86, & 5.58 and most all of that happened on Lake Menderchuck over a 2 week period in April. Trip details are posted in the Reports Thread. There's Plenty of fishing left to be done so we'll see how it all shakes out. Very exciting. Fish Hard A-Jay

I sent the photos to a flower expert and you are correct. I knew it was odd when I saw it. I just didn't know how odd. She wrote:

I hear that. I'm a typical New Yorker quick to fly off the handle. Got in a good amount of trouble as a kid, really worked on calming down as an adult....discovered sarcasm helps. After catching the 4 th fish part of me really wanted to pedal by and say "how many fish do you need to catch to win this thing? I got 4 so far. Is that good? How many have you caught?". You know, just to push buttons. But I held back and figured it was better to just enjoy my morning.

Do I rip tails off plastics...you bet ya! Do I set hook on stumps, logs, limbs, twigs, grass...you bet ya! Do i lose hooks, weights, plastics...you bet ya! Do I set hook on nothing...you bet ya! I guarentee y'all I stick more than I miss ?

I fish a lot of ponds with muck bottoms and a lot of algae. I either fish weightless presentations or the least weight possible. Still picks up some stuff every 3-4 casts but not like a TR with a 1/4 oz bullet weight or a 1/2 oz jig.

Well said! I really hope I get to see another 25lb LM in my lifetime, but I highly, highly doubt that will happen. Ken Duke said it best, when she was caught every Bass angler in world went "I didn't know they could get that big"

Only thing I will recommend is to keep your weights lighter. An 1/8oz works well in these kind of bottoms. Jigs should be light too. For reasons I can’t explain, I have never done well on heavy weights in muck.

If he mentioned money, he meant it seriously. There is a subset of tournament anglers who believe because there is money on the line, they deserve special privileges, and that every other angler on the water must defer to them. It's a bad look on his part. If it's public water, you're not violating a regulation, and he's not offering to share his purse, he shouldn't be telling you what to do or how to fish. I hope he enjoyed seeing you catch those fish. He deserved that.

I want to congratulate you too, @JayMac89. It's cool that you're catching more and cool too that you're posting in this thread. @IcatchDinks: I actually caught 52 this morning, but I always lose a lot. Always.

I felt guilty……for this long.

Awesome job buddy! I usually do not take the time to weigh or measure fish. Catch it quick pic just to prove to my wife I can catch a fish and move on. Lately I have been doing an online derby so I have been measuring them. I’ve been catching between 14 and 18 inch smallies. Which I am more than happy with.

Surprisingly never done it. About 20 years ago my buddy had a big smallmouth flop between his legs and buried a treble on each leg " Jerkbait " ........quite the site. I had to yank the hooks completely through and snip the barbs. It wasn't a pleasant experience playing surgeon between my buddies legs 😳 But he's still alive today.

How about using the rod Jordan Lee used to win Heavy Hitters $100K using a frog for under $50! On sale at TW. Tom

Some days just kick your butt. Yesterday I could only grab about 45 minutes of fishing time at the pond before work, but spent half that time picking cottonwood fluff off my line and out of my reel. Managed one largie. Then this morning I spent about 2 hours wading the Chippewa. It was a beautiful morning with the mist rising off the river. Saw a bi-coloured squirrel in the parking lot, a turtle on the bottom of the river, innumerable birds of all sorts, but only one fish. Caught him on a T-rigged EFH wyrm. Had another one hit the whopper plopper, but I totally whiffed on the hook set. That's all the action I saw.

Thursday was Mrs. 12poundbass’s birthday. Our son had a baseball game Thursday so last night was her night to do what she wanted. She wanted to go fishing, but skunked. I only caught three fish and all three were pike. Thankfully, the @Siebert Outdoors Fogy survived all three attacks.

I spent my final evening on a pal's pond. Next week, it's back to lugging my canoe over fields and through woods, but not having to do this let me fish four times this week instead of two. This pond saved the best for last, as I caught nine bass in the three and a third pounds to more than three and a half pounds. The pencil reeds have grown higher and thicker and it's verrrry difficult to bring a bass out of them. To take a break from failure, I dragged a Rapala Crush City The Mayor on the bottom in deeper water and landed some thick fish. It's amazing what a little weed-free water will do for my success rate. Below, the first two bass are well-shaped, but smaller. Look at the fins of the first bass. That's a nest maker, the first one I've seen. Then there's a pretty shoreline pic. Then two well-shaped smallmouth. Then another pretty pic. And then the parade of slabs. Some of them are so round, thick, and beautiful, but a few are simply long. Then a reflection photo for @IcatchDinks. And finally, a pic of a pickerel. The pickerel grow as thick as nice pike in this pond and I wanted to share their girth with the BR gang. Note how calm the water is. After a week of fighting wind, a calm day meant more fishing and less paddling in my three hour session. I caught 37 total.

Hold onto them, especially if they are the ones made in Sweden. The dumbest thing I ever did was sell my dad's Ambassadeur reels from the late 70's early 80's.

OWWWWWWWW !!!!!!!!!!!!! glad your ok.......been there done that........tilapia is tasty..

Great tips and lure selections. https://www.bassresource.com/fishing/catch-bass-june.html

I bend it before adding the blade to keep it flat.

Happened to me several years ago. I was wading the river with a backpack full of beer. A Smallie ran a Whopper Plopper right through my hand. I yanked it right out but I don't think it went too deep. I had two hooks and a Smallie hanging from my hand though. Didn't feel much because I was lit up. Poured some beer over the wounds and kept going. Not my brightest moment.

Wife and I camped again on a small 19 acre lake that was beyond clear, 20 ft visibility. Bluebird skies so every fish was caught early on Jackall flickShake GPC.

A little time on the lake yesterday… caught a few.

Sunny, light north wind, air and water both 80-82 today. Water vis almost 9 ft. Ended the afternoon with 10 bass, including the first smallie I’ve seen since moving here. Wasn’t big, but the surprise factor made up for that 😎

Quick lunch break bass on the Heavy Poop. Water chickens.

Guy on the left came from a spinnerbait during a quick trip last Saturday. Guy on the right was on a Texas rigged lizard after a pretty tough day today.

Got out from 6:45-8:45. Several little smallies and two big drum. Motor started acting weird just as I was running up the rapids back to my truck but it smoothed out thank goodness . 12 yr old harbor freight special that sits outside, might need some maintenance 😂 also had to wear my wife’s purple life jacket….. really fits my contours…….

I got these the other day. This is the biggest crappie I've ever seen! Beautiful sunset. If you're wondering, that thing on the left, its a knife lanyard. Got these this evening on the way to bible study. He's coming back, don't let him catch you with slack lines!

I've kept my canoe at a pal's pond this week. The fishing was suddenly harder, as the reeds rose overnight and the lily pads are getting thicker. I caught 31 bass, but likely lost 40 or more. They dive, hook on a reed or lily pad stem, and shake free. I lead with the four best bass, followed by a golden light shot, then one of a smallmouth, which are never big but always beautiful, then the sunset, and finally, one of the smaller bass. I did apply @Pat Brown's advice and @T-Billy's advice to turn the fish with brute force and once they're on the surface, surfboard them to the canoe. When I remembered to do that, their tactics worked pretty well, but I didn't always remember because everything happens in a second. I'll fish my pal's pond one more time this week and next week, I'll fish two bogs, one where I caught my PB and the other where I caught three six-plus-pounders in 2023. I heard a turkey gobble and an owl hoot and saw a fox and two deer. The third bass down is a tank, huh?

Best of the weekend! From the pier at the in-laws, I chucked it maybe 35yds and it's still only about 7' deep. Came on 7" flush w/ a 3/8oz free rig, had a bit of a belly on her, I'm thinking she was an early spawner and also an earlier recovery. scott

My nieghbor Leon called and had a new topwater frog he wanted me to see . I had fished all morning and was relaxing but he’s always so excited about fishing I met him down at the property line. He had had 2 blowups but missed them. He insisted that I try with his combo and frog. It casted probably 125 feet. Boom! Fish on ! 😄 He couldn’t believe it…

I was driving home from my earlier adventures when I received a call from my wife: her brother and his wife were coming into town to do some shopping and were planning on doing some fishing afterwards and would we like to join them? Well, sure! So I landed three more bass to cap off the day and now I owe my wife something fierce for all the time she's granted me to chase my favorite hobby this weekend.