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Well this past weekend was tournament stop number 3 for the year on Wilson Lake, KS. It's one of the most popular lakes in the state and always one of the most looked forward to tournaments for everyone it seems like, but I'll never understand the fascination. The lake is such a strange lake with very little cover other than rocks, and there's rocks everywhere so none really stick out. What little cover there is sits yards up on the shoreline of the drying reservoir. The fish are almost always skinny, and sickly looking from lack of food and over-pressure, but yeah, it's great I guess. Prefishing went okay. I couldn't find any big largemouth, despite discovering a cove loaded with big tree stumps that I didn't know existed. I guess the largemouth in the lake don't like stumps. With the cloud cover and wind, I did get on a decent smallmouth bite with a Berkley Drift Walker and burning a Bull Shad. Highlight of practice day by far came late afternoon. There's a bridge that has pilings in the water that I can sometimes catch bass off of, but more importantly, sometimes, there's stripers on it. This is the only lake in Kansas with a fishable population of stripers and I'm not going to miss my chance to try and catch one. No bass on a dropshot, didn't mark much at all, but I put a big flutter spoon on. One of my first drops, I popped it a few times, and one of the pops, it was stuck, then it started swimming. Thought I'd snagged one of the billions of carp or buffalo that live in the lake, but after several short, thumb burning runs, I saw the striped, white side. She barely fit in my kayak net, but I got her. There was an older gentleman and his granddaughter fishing on shore, so I pulled it through the water to the bank and asked him to take a couple pictures for me. Got a quick weight and watched her kick off. At 14.47lbs, it was my second biggest striper ever. I went back to the piling and dropped again, got smacked and missed it, then got hit again and hooked up. Not quite as big as the first one, but a second striper was a big bonus on the day. Tournament day set up like it should have been a great day, but it just wasn't. My bites were much smaller and fish I'd found the day before were still there, but not interested in eating. I lost a big smallmouth on the Bull Shad and had a couple good fish hit the Drift Walker and either miss it or pull off. Right at the end of the day, I found a 20ish inch fish on a bed, locked in and running gills off constantly. I set the kayak on the bank and ran a few different baits through her nest and she was very catchable, just needed the right bait. I switched to a KGB crappie and slow swam it over her head. She darted up behind it, inched closer, then flared her mouth open and grabbed the back of the bait. I swung, and smacked my trolling motor with my rod and never got a good hook into her, but it spooked her bad enough that she never bit again. I found that fish with about 10 minutes left, so time expired as I tried to get it to bite. Ended up 11th out of 43. Not a terrible finish, nor a surprising one for me at a fishery I always feel like I'm just trying to hang on at.

5:30AM, no wind and the water was almost glass. Very light misting rain. Walking a Zara Spook, looked down at my Lowrance and HEARD her suck it in and swept the rod. Topwater is the best of bass fishing IMHO. Stayed with the topwater for 2hrs and ended up with seven more on the Spook and a WP. Then went home and had breakfast with my perfect wife. I consider that a great morning. 4lb-9oz, Bone colored Spook, 12lb Yo-Zuri Hybrid on an Okuma TCS all-purpose M/H. Water temp 69 degrees and she was shallow on the rocks next to a steep drop to 8-9ft.

Numbers of big bass. Tom

Even if the fishing aint great, sometimes you just kick back and enjoy some sunshine. Went to my usual favorite lake Sunday morning. Forecast called for no wind (maybe 2 mph) until 8 AM and then just a light breeze after 48 hours of 5-10 mph steady winds. In his latest video Jason Christie said somethign to the effect of "you have to fish the current conditions, but you also have to think about the recent past", meaning if the wind has been blowing steady for a couple days, its probably pushed food and bait onto the banks it was blowing to even if the wind has died down now. That bait wouldn't have gone too far just yet. That made a lot of sense to me and since that's the conditions I was just about to hit (almost exactly) I figured to give it a try. So instead of my usual route around the lake and fishing the best of the cover first, I did the opposite and went down the shallower side figuring it was still dark and if the bass were going to be up shallow and eating on top this would be the only time for that bank (the first 20 yards off shore are mostly plain, light weeds, couple rock piles, and down to maybe 3'). I've caught fish on that bank every trip but always later in the day on the deep edge of the weeds and on the bottom. I knew it was going to be a tough day not long after I started. On cast 3 or 4 I got one where I exepcted him to be and lost him just as I was swinging him to the boat (about a 15" fish). Then nothing for an hour- not a blow up, not a fish, not even a bluegill grabbing the buzzbait and pulling it under. Not even a pickerel. I should have swapped lures after 15 minutes or so but I was trying to force feed them a buzzbait because I like it. I finally had one eat it, maybe the same fish I caught last time, a solid 16-17" fish that just barely had the trailer hook. Time to swap up. I rotated through a couple things as I worked up the good bank, which wasn't treating me very 'good'. The water clarity was a solid 10' which isn't unusual but is still tough. I could visually see some cribs on the bottom that were installed in an area I didn't know they put them in (in about 14' to the bottom). About when I hit the end, 4 boats launched. This lake has 1.5 miles of shoreline and off shore 'area' to fish. (just over 100 acres). That's a lot of boats. I was hoping one or two might be multispecies guys fishing for something other than bass but no. Fortunately, all three of them were fishing very slow and they ended up clustered in one section for a lot of the time. I managed to work around and pick one here and one there. Saw a 48" class musky twice (she kept going back to the same weed bed to relax). Biggest one I've seen to date. Two bass ate a shad colored swim jig, a couple more on a rage bug. Looking back, every fish hit it almost as soon as it hit the water (or bottom) so I think I just happened to put it in front of them and they ate it. A pickerel came to a frog in a big mat, but even they were limited. I talked to one of the other boats and he had the same. About a half dozen fish, mostly dinks. I guess some days are just like that.

Got out Sunday morning in a downpour. It wouldn’t quit and I nearly froze to death even though it was like 65 degrees maybe warmer, just soaked to the bone. Fish were biting tho, Got 5 LM, a SM, a bluegill, a catfish, a carp, and 3 skipjack .

Well it's been a while and there's been a few trips but by golly we been having fun! Mostly frog and weightless stick bait doing the heavy lifting right now! Had a solid trip out with Jake catching a good one and me missing a giant on the frog Complete with a rainbow on the car ride home Got some great night fishing in this weekend with a toad on the frog and some fat littler ones too! Stick bait also caught one! Been loving the scum frog trophy frog in that shad color for sure! Had some fun at the pond also with some nice gills and more frog fun: Missed another big one this morning on the frog sadly. I think I been snatching it away a bit too fast and need to give em a second to engulf that bait (basically I'm breaking my own rules of topwater fishing - thinking if I swing fast I'll hook the ones that aren't commiting - WRONG!). My success so far this season with topwater has all been contingent upon me letting them establish that they're going to take the bait down. Paying attention and being prepared when they strike is the other half but I'm *usually* good at that part. Here's hoping I find success this week! Been a minute since I got a giant. 😎😎😎🐸🐸🐸

What a difference a week makes. Last weekend, they were thick on grassy flats, roaming and hunting in less than 7 FOW. This past weekend, nearly every bite was more than 13 feet down. I threw Crush City Mayor for the first time and came away thoroughly impressed. Also got big bites banging spinnerbait through deep wood, and Magnum Rage Bug on swinghead on sides of rocky points.

All my favorite places are closed due to flooding or tornado damage. Both my favorite state parks took a hit from an EF-3 tornado last week, and Ray Roberts has been closed to all non-boaters since. This is possibly the most significant tornado in my county's history. It hit very close to home - less than five miles to my mom's place. I haven't stepped foot at the lake since the day before the tornado. From the dam I have seen halves of boats floating midlake from the marina, whole oak trees with root balls and green foliage still attached. I have considered going to the unmonitored public hunting lands, but the chances of meeting hogs is high right now with the water claiming land for its own. There was a herd of feral hogs photographed at Johnson Branch State Park within the last week after storm damage. So I have fished two places. On Memorial Day i was privileged enough to visit a private ranch where the church I run sound for had an event. I was lucky enough to catch 16 fish between 9am and 2pm. 8 on a one knocker spook, 1 on a whopper plopper, 4 on a popper, and 3 on an A-frame. I missed 9 other topwater blowups. 24 strikes will raise confidence enough to handle mother nature for a short while. I also caught two snakes and a turtle on the bone one knocker spook. Apparently this is an accomplishment or something, but for me it was more of a nuisance. No venomous snakes just shad noodles. The biggest fish was maybe 3lbs but had the jaws of a 5. Despite the high water of the ponds and abundant bluegill, I caught many fish who looked both spawned out and also hungry. I took particular pride in more than doubling the next closest fisherperson at the event, who had 7 fish on 7 strikes, primarily senkos. Their percentage is a goal of its own for a senko bite, but I chose the opposite end of the pond and styles for a few reasons. #1 inflow. #2 bugs above the surface. #3 shade lines. All the older guys wanted to know about my setup and I told them everything they wanted to know. They started this whole thing so they get to reap what I've learned. But none of them asked why I fished where and how I did, and I think that was at least as important as the lures, casting, line, whatever. I thought it was wild that catching bass 15 different ways in a year is "diverse" to the people I talked to in-depth. Lol, boaters or whatever. I went out to a local public pond and casted around the next few days. A small bass wanted my choppo. RIP Dallas Stars

A couple of minutes after six this morning i was slowly workinga little Rico popper straight out from the dock. In between pops while the popper was just floating there this 4 pounder came straight up and completely out of the water (airborne) hitting my popper. In the following 5 minutes she jumped 6 to 7 times ( with the low water i couldn’t keep my rod down to stop the jumping). After she started to tire i had to lay down on the dock and lip her up. Not easy with the low water. I won’t do that again without a net.

Got on the water at daylight and the fish were hitting a top water Jerkbait. Caught a mixed bag of smallmouth, largemouth, Crappie and my very first Walleye caught on a gravel dog. Enjoyable day.

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.

It ain't but 33", but anytime one of these over 30" goes into the net, it's a successful day in my book. Had three other follows, all around this size. They're finally chasing, but the water's pretty clear, so they're pretty skittish coming into the 8. This fish hit mid retrieve as I was burning a double 8 over some milfoil that's within a foot of the surface so, I got to see the bite. It came rocketing up out of the weeds and absolutely smoked the spinner. I also put about a dozen LM in the boat before daylight. Nothing over 2#. There's some fish to be had pre-dawn, but last week's cool front has the gills in a holding pattern. The night bite won't really heat up until they hit the beds. Should go down in the next week or two.

For me its a moving target! Some days I am a 10, other days not so much!

Thanks for the kind words @ol'crickety But fishing for a big bite doesn't necessarily mean I'm not 'busy'. Admittedly, it's a different type of busy. The hardest part is keeping confidence high and staying focused & ready. Because when it does happen, there's little room for error. Preparation in all manner of things is Key. My 'numbers days' usually happen in the Oct time frame. Apr/May, and Aug/Sept I'm relegated to hunting mutants. One or if I'm Lucky, two tanker bites a day. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't. Fish Hard A-Jay

First I want to say that I'm very glad to hear the victims were recovered. That's a significant blessing for those who were waiting for word. I completely understand anyone's decision to not be near that lake until there's closure. Dead bodies are icky. I'm not using that term to be funny. I'm an avid reader and I can tell you that there is no writer, living or dead, who can put into words an accurate description of the sight or smell of rotting or burned human flesh. Being in an enclosed space with remains of someone who has burned to death or with the remains of a human that is in the latter stages of decomposition hits you in a primal, crocodile-brain place and there is no language to convey that. Anyone who chooses to avoid that is simply acting on our own animal need to survive and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. I will tell each of you, however, that I have communicated with many of you for years now about all sorts of personal things, to include core beliefs and I have read along thousands of times while you talked with each other. I know that, while all of you find dead bodies to be "icky" (again, without humor), I also know that if any of you spoke with a loved one of the person that disappeared in that lake another part of your primal instinct would kick in. To stand with someone who is on the precipice of learning that the most important person in their life is no more, and to listen to them as they verbalize there belief that there is a chance it's not true would change your minds. If you talked with them for minutes or even hours in their home or on the shore of that water and just nodded your head as they explained all of the ways this could all just be a mistake and told you stories of how their husband or child was somehow lost, or unconscious but safe, or how this could all be explained because the victim's cell phone just went dead and any minute they would call from a gas station twenty miles away....you get the idea. YOUR crocodile-brain also has a button that overrides the survival instinct and that button is empathy. We all have a trigger that says, "Help that human". It may not seem like it these days because so many people just take a video with their phone while someone is dying, but I believe that this is actually a "helping" response from a human that has not been conditioned to deal with such a critical, primal situation. They've never experienced it or even thought about it so the only thing that kicks in is "I'll point my phone at it". But we all have that innate urge to help. Mine was conditioned as such that it screams "GO" in my head. I left my son's basketball games when he was a kid, I've left on my anniversary, I've left in the middle of the night and not returned for 48 to 72 hours straight. I've left on Christmas morning. It's still unbelievable to me that during my career I was called to THREE Xmas morning homicides. THREE! I can believe one maybe but three?! What's up with Christmas morning? SMH. The point is, that primal phone rings and says that another human is suffering and your instinct is to help IF you have been conditioned to that. My wife even has it. Her trigger is still well past mine, but it's funny that she's been with me enough times when my brain screams "GO" that hers now does also. When she sees someone in danger I know that her conditioning has overcome her fear for my safety when she says my name. When something bad is right in front of her and she says "Patrick..." in a certain way I know her trigger has clicked and she's opening the door to let the dogs loose. My point is, anyone's decision to avoid these sights and sounds are not only acceptable, they are a part of our crocodile brain and a part of our survival, but so is empathy. I've never met you, but I still know many of you and I know if you saw the living suffering you'd lose some of the "icky" attached to the dead. A blessing from the Lord that these victims have been found, the living have closure, and the lost are sitting at the right hand of God! Wow, I just looked back at this post and it's reallly long. I hope you skipped it, LOL. Finally a topic I'm an expert at. Final words, WEAR YOUR PFD... or don't...turtles gotta eat too. (Callous humor can be a useful coping mechanism but some can find it offensive, sorry). God bless each of you and yours!

Seriously???? Are you trying to make the rest of us look bad? OP, double the number of rods, and you'll almost be halfway to having enough for a short outing. Just kidding! Are you satisfied with what you have, or has the Bait Monkey been giving you the come hither look? I used to fish with one rod and caught more fish than I do today with a much larger arsenal.

As a man who's job description included searching for, locating and eventually placing drowning victims and or their remains in large black bags, it's not something I wanted to do very often, if at all. Especially in warm conditions when there's been an extend time between the accident and the recovery. Being out there recreationally afterwards is a personal choice. The chances of ever 'catching' such a deal while fishing are fairly remote. However, if one was to recover a victim, besides the nightmares and the PTSD, you'd be doing the family a service by providing closure. Never located victims leaves a painful void in an already horrible deal. Stay Safe. A-Jay

Got me a PB crappie close to 17" and 2#4oz Byproduct bass fishing using 1/2oz chatterbait zako trailer

Quality first quantity second

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”.

Does stage 4 cancer count? If so put me down.

I’ve never met/caught a bass I didn’t like 😉 Been the ultimate “numbers” guy for most of my life, but have slightly shifted to a better appreciation for a quality bass bite these days, so I’d say I’m up to a “3” at this point. On the crappie front, I shifted from a “1” to an “8” or a “9” almost overnight last year. If I found a local lake that supported such a shift in bass, I might move higher up the scale.

The "front" in your example would be the hours leading up to the increased wind, slight drop in air temp, drop in pressure, and ultimately the rainfall on Tuesday. Weds. would be post frontal + 1 day, and so forth. The common thought is that the best time to fish is leading into that front, so the hours leading up to that rainfall event, and during it given it's not to dangerous to be out in. The more I fish, and I've spent about 300 days a year over the last two on the water......the more I realize there is no definitive answer to "when's the best to go fishing based on weather/fronts". Perfect example, 5/31-6/1 I was on the water hours leading up to and during the perfect pre front and actual frontal event the other night. Textbook conditions for a big fish bite, 3.8lbs was my biggest that night. Just got home from getting a 7.1 and a 5.9 on just another "post frontal" night fishing the exact same time frame, and milk run. The best time to fish is when you can!!!!!!!!!!!

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.

You all know I love a busy boat. I like to lift lots of bass into my little canoe and by playing the odds, I sometimes lift big bass into my boat. @A-Jay, on the other end of the spectrum, targets big bass and does very, very well doing so. So, imagine a spectrum where I'm at one end and Andy's at the other. Are you Ol' Crickier or more A-Jayish? I'm 1 on the QQ Scale* and Andy's 10. How about you? *Quantity Quality Scale

Always an enjoyable read when @Bluebasser86 chronicles his yak tournaments. @TnRiver46 frozen in the rain when it’s 65 degrees. Lol

Ran over by a bull moose 5 miles from cabin no way to communicate with any one. Not due to be picked up for another month. Bruised and a broken finger. Charged by brown bear at night while crossing a river. Shot bear. In a plane crash I was not the pilot no one hurt. Plane totaled. 3 complete engine failures while piloting aircraft. One at worst possible time while taking off. No injuries to self or plane Fell through ice while wearing snow shoes. Temperature was - 25 degrees 3 miles from cabin. Set land speed record. broke up fight between Bait Monkey and my wife. Lasting emotional scars.

Driveway seal coated today

Oldham's 😉

Andy, you might remember that I was once a musky angler and your approach to big brown bass reminds me of my musky days. I too sought to be ever ready for that one, rare bite. Every cast, I'd visualize a fish hitting my lure so that I'd be ready when it did and I'd also visualize my reaction, much like athletes visualize their coming performance. Thanks to all who replied. Once again, I'm out of reactions. I wish there was a black market where I could buy more reactions. @Dwight Hottle is a 10, for sure, on the QQ Scale. Dwight, has anyone ever called you a 10 before this? 😉

As I've said before, when I'm out I pick up trash to build up good Karma for the week, and sometimes Karma rewards me with a nice lure ... well today Karma rewarded me with so much more!!

I found a guy in the water once, kinda felt like someone would like to have found him so it didn’t bother me https://archive.knoxnews.com/news/local/new-clues-emerge-in-death-of-missouri-man-ep-358565533-356025611.html/

It was either 71 or 72 me & friend were running back the camp a little before dark. Ahead of us about 100 yards was another boat. When he made a right turn he was wide & clipped a stump throwing the guy from the boat. This was before mandatory kill switches. The boat circled running over the guy. I took my boat & rammed his bow kocking it into a stump field. Lots stitches later he went home.

My 12 year old made dinner for a "look into asia" assignment. Pad Prig Krapow and Pad Tuafakyao. So good.

Bacon wrapped walleye

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 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.

Full disclosure: I wanted to be like @A-Jay, @Pat Brown, @Dwight Hottle, @AlabamaSpothunter, and the other BR big bass anglers, but failed. I fished big bass bogs and used big bass lures and probed big bass haunts, as explained by @Glenn and other experts, but largely failed. And I still try to be a 10, from time to time. For example, I'm big bass boggin' tomorrow morning, which means driving down the dirt road in the dark, strapping wheels to my canoe, hauling it over the meadow and through the woods, and launching in the mud, which is how I caught my PB this spring, but it's also how I caught a fourth of the fish I catch when I fish like an Ol' Crick (1!).

After 14 yrs. of being a EMT/Paramedic @BigAngus752 your humerus comment isn’t callus or rude. It’s one’s way of dealing with tragic events. I’ve had newbies on scene that it saved them from being too emotional. Thank God we have good people as displayed on this site that puts other’s first.

I agree. Our species has been here for about 300,000 years. Bass have been here for about 3,000,000 years. To survive 3,000,000 years, you have to be a highly adapted animal, one that Mother Nature has fine-tuned a guhblillion times. Anyone who asserts that bass are simple feeding and spawning machines lives in Make-Believe Land. They are sophisticated feeding and spawning machines. NEARLY EVERY TIME I go fishing, I find the bass have moved and like @AlabamaSpothunter, I fish a lot. They're reacting to every little tick and click in their environment and always shifting their position and approach. However, I too like to fish right before the change happens because I remember moments of angling bliss at such times. I know that someone of you might dismiss what I'm about to share next, but I can feel coming barometric pressure changes like wild animals can.* I have literally lived years of my life in tents and when you sleep outside, you must be aware of coming change. I think we could all feel barometric pressure changing if we hadn't been numbed by decades of living behind thick walls, where weather really doesn't matter, but living outside forces you to pay attention...or else. *I once felt a tornado well before it arrived and that pressure shift yanked me out of deep sleep, but I can also feel the pressure shifting before lesser storms arrive. I've been in the wilderness when the sky was Robin's egg blue and said more than once, "There's a storm coming." Then, the next day, it was howling. I think all wild animals feel change coming too and so they get their essential business done right then, like eating, before the change hits.

Personally I would fish Tuesday morning before the rain and then twiddle my thumbs until Friday but that's just one opinion

I think just asking the question raises you to a different level of angler. I watched a guy today throw a whopper plopper out from the dock at the same location - which was basically empty, open water - about 20 times. I'm not the best or most experienced in the world but whenever I take my kids fishing with me I tell them the same thing, especially as it relates to bank fishing around here. The biggest mistake you can make is picking a spot and making cast after cast thinking the bass will just show up. If the fish aren't biting, they're either not interested or not there. Move on.

Said it before and I'll say it again, speaking just for me, anything that I drop over $70k on will have a zip code.

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:

I felt guilty……for this long.

It's that time of year on my local lake when the bass have left their beds, and the bluegill take up residence. I have a great time catching these fish on my 3wt fly rod with an old school click and pawl reel. Catch and release throwing a barbless Bully's Bluegill Spider.

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.

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!

like any other big brushpile. Start way back off of it. Like you said, they go out a lot further than you think and the bass are often off the end. When you get up into it, 20 lb plus non braided line and just start reeling when you set the hook.