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Went bank fishing on Sunday for a couple hours and ended up catching my PB smallie, 21” and 4 1/2 lbs.

I went @A-Jay fishing this morning, i.e. I tried to catch the Kraken I caught earlier this spring, which was my PB. I struck out, but the pond hit a home run for me. It was just so pretty. See? I did manage to catch 28 bass. Here was the first one. And the second, a bit bigger. However, the pond was the real show. I love when the moment is both light and dark. Oh, yeah, another bass! I think it was my biggest. I cast everywhere nowadays because I never know where bass will be. This girl came out of lily pads. And this one was small, but fat. This pond has more small bass than the other water I fish, but it also has BIG bass. I didn't catch a BIG one today, but I'll keep plugging. Time to go. One last look back at the pond. There's the landing! The wheels are strapped onto my canoe and I'm ready to roll. Out of the woods and across the meadow. Back to the car and I'm already thinking about my next trip. Now, can someone tell me where my big girl is hunkering? She was so pregnant when I caught her. Maybe she's holed up in a spa and recovering.

Got home from work and was hanging out with my wife, but she had some business drama to sort thru on the internet and asked me if I was going fishing twice, don’t have to tell me 3 times! Haha The water in Knoxville has changed drastically over the last couple weeks. The two reservoirs upstream have finally reached full so they are no longer holding back water. So now we are getting swift flows of chilly water from the bottom of the dams, maybe making the fish think it’s back to march. Water temp was 62 degrees!! got one on the big bait that looked pre spawnish and a few on a worm (including a ky spotted bass that people think are extinct) Also found a crankbait and quality inner tube floating down the river and scored a pair of channel locks someone left sitting on the ramp dock 😂

Took my little brothers fishing yesterday afternoon. They must have caught every bluegill in the pond. The eight year old caught a nice bass. (Not posting his picture with the fish here because he's 8 and not my kid. Lol) I nabbed two bass as well. One of them just over sixteen inches. @raggydoo, that is an awesome smallie! Congrats on the new PB!

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 pert near died when I saw the grocery bill this past month.

Prostate cancer survivor. Does that count?

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

I had to hang around the house this morning while my new garage door was being installed, so I didn't get to the lake until 11:30. I fished until 3:00. It was on like Donkey Kong with the 30 somethings. 39", 36" and 31" pictured. I also lost another high 30's and caught a mid 20's dink. Six other aggressive follows, but they're really skittish with the clear water, and I couldn't quite close the deal with them. All ate in the 8. I was BURNING a Llungen 22 Short over grass in 10'-13'. Same deal as when I was hammering them last August. I don't know why I was sticking my tongue out in the pic of the 36". Musta been thinking of @gimruis!!! 😜

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 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.

Couple lil guys before work and some much needed frog hookset resetting. Delay is the way. 🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸 Wait 🕜🕜🕜🕜 then set 🎣🎣🎣🎣. There really isn't any advantage to swinging fast with a frog. For one thing the fish learn the bait is fake in an area much faster if you swing on every nip. Sometimes that first fish misses and you keep walking that frog and the next one isn't so sheepish. Swinging pretty much shuts all of that down. If they don't get it, they don't get it. That's the cold hard truth of the frog. This morning I hesitated and kept walking and saw SO many tail swats and pecks that would never have happened if I was just swinging. The frog is the best when you lean into the subtlety of the lure.

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.

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. 😎😎😎🐸🐸🐸

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.

Esophageal cancer survivor that endured 7.5 hour surgery to remove my esophagus & a small portion of my stomach & 17 lymph nodes then replacing the removed esophagus with reconstructed stomach tissue called a gastric pull-up. Excellent medical care by Sylvester Cancer Center in Miami saved my bacon.

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.

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

@ol'crickety ~ you didn't strike out. That's how this game is played. Don't see me posting giants or numbers of giants 2 or 3 times a week. Because I rarely get them. There's not that many to go around and they are Vwery Twicky. But when I do - you'll see them - many times. Nice trip either way. Congrats. A-Jay

That's not striking out. That's a home run. If that's what is referred to as striking out, then a lot of posters here don't even make it to the ball park.

Sounds like a good spot for a t rig plastic worm.

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.

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 caught my first Chad shad fish, just a tiny little guy but better than my first fish on a mag draft. I caught 10+on a weightless stick bait after I was done throwing the glide. I had plenty of followers but no takers but it is all part of throwing big baits, I see my swim bait collection growing soon. A wake gill and a deps 160 bull shooter and a few more on the way maybe a real Chad shad. The tequila baccarat feels really good with the spro Chad shad and I like my casting distance with my tatula 200 and 50lb braid.

No mention of budget, but it's hard to beat the daiwa alphas sv tw 800 for bang for the buck (well under 200 jdm). A very good, compact, finesse capable reel.

Ha! Its hull is designed by Ted Bell, one of the best. I wish it weren't so tippy, but the narrow hull also makes it speedy and I tend to paddle miles on each fishing trip, so I appreciate its speed and its tracking. No zig-zagging in such a long, narrow hull. I love to fish water with undeveloped shorelines.

The river is where you do all your shopping. @Pat Brown: I'm terrible at frog fishing, so I appreciate your tips, Pat.

I don't understand why people think a Texas Rig can only be fished slow. With a 1/4 oz or larger weight I can pitch or roll cast & cover water quickly.

I’d pitch a soft plastic of your choice in and around the areas of visible growing grasses, especially every isolated pocket avoiding all the dead spots. When pitching to the rock/timber spots I would constantly change the angle of each pitch as you work your way around it. Before you leave cover water with a moving bait starting a few yards out working your way in. Mike

Let the rod/reel do most of the work. If you are trying to send it a country mile, rarely does it work out. I compare it to a golf swing for those who understand it. When you swing hard, usually you miss-hit the ball (or completely whiff). When you swing easy and fluid, allowing the club to do the work, you make solid contact and get better results.

I am semi-obsessed with casting distance - especially with spinning gear. My style of fishing & the fishery itself demands it. Coming from a surf casting back round, there are 3 main and often critical mistakes bassheads overlook when this subject comes around. As mentioned above line diameter plays a role, but here's the big three for me. 1. Not using a long rod 2. Not Allowing the blank to load properly. It's almost like your 'throwing' the lure through the cast. 3. (and this is a biggie) Not leaving sufficient length of line between the rod tip and the bait being casted. Let that deal hang - almost half the rod length. May take some practice to get the timing down as you'll need to 'slow down' through at the beginning of the cast and then accelerate through it. But when done right it's pure, effortless and super effective. btw- totally works on casting gear as well although the mechanics are a little different, the results are the same. Good Luck. A-Jay https://youtu.be/Vsl5A_YmHzs?feature=shared&t=44 btw - if you go to settings on the YT video, you can change the playback speed to .5 or better yet .25. Makes it Real Easy to identify what I mentioned above. https://youtu.be/8x9A8IP3j7w?feature=shared&t=10

In March 1976 I was bitten on the head by a German Shepherd. It was 45 minutes to the nearest hospital. I nearly bled out. In June 1991 I hit a car on my M/C at highway speed. My fault. In April 2005 I fell off a 12' A-frame ladder that resulted in an open skull fracture and a few other broken/fractured bones/vertebrae. The neurosurgeons told my wife/parents that if I lived, it was expected that I would need to learn to walk/talk/etc. all over again. I went back to the FD with Dr.'s blessing 3 months and 2 days after the accident. Lastly, in October 2022 I was at work and had really bad heartburn that wouldn't go away. Turns out it was a 95% blocked artery. I had a stent put in 12 hours after the medics discovered it. As an added bonus the surgical team hit me with the defibrillator while I was awake. I went into V-fib when they were moving the stent into place. Funny thing is that I've been an EMT for over 20 years and they don't teach 'heartburn' as an indication of a heart attack. Still here, and still kickin'.

None of my friends can load a rod, except for the few who came from fly rods. My dad's cast is entirely swing. My buddy Lou is swing + wrist-snap. Even when they bring the rod back in a rod-loading motion, they stop static so that motion is lost and doesn't load the rod. The last edge is follow through and elevation. Finish with the rod tip high and aim up. In a 2-hand cast, you pass the rod to your rod-butt hand and stretch that arm - in addition to higher speed from 2-hand swing, this final follow-through can add 20% to 30% to cast distance.

I’ve got 3 I suppose. The one I was tagged about that some of the long timers here know and probably the “worst”. 5.5 years ago when working as a tow truck operator I was winching a car out of a ditch when a ‘99 F150 hit what we assume was the same black ice and spit out striking me. Shattered pelvis, ruptured liver, kidney, spleen, lung collapsed, fractured neck and TBI. Was in coma(induced) for 3 weeks. Made a full recovery and unless I told you you would never know I got hit by a truck 5 years ago limp is gone only thing I have to show from the accident so to speak is the scar from hip to hip from when they put the plate in to fix my pelvis. When I was doing commercial roofing I fell off a roof about 20’ when they had me lower a wheel barrel by hand since the crane was gone and it had to be taken off the roof. They said I was knocked out for a minute before coming to dusting my self off and going back to work haha but they stopped me and told me to go sit down. Then first day of summer break after 6th grade being young and dumb. Mudding on the 4 wheeler with best friend we decided it would be a good idea to hit a corn field that was flooded at top speed……wheeler hydro planed threw us off Clay went one way I went another. Wheeler landed on me upside down the curve on the seat is basically all that saved me. I didn’t have a scratch on me lots of mud but no injury’s. We found my glasses sticking up out of the mud where I must of face planted and glasses stayed and I kept going haha. 3 accidents most recent one was worse. I think I’m invincible some times lol

All near death experiences came in my youth and involved heavy alcohol use. Most memorable and not something I'm proud of. My girlfriend " wife for 38 years now " had a red Mustang and was at a big party in our small town. Left drunk and totalled her car coming off the mountain, ran off the road into a large Oak tree, buckled the entire car and smashed the windshield. Bought her a Toyota Celica to replace her mustang and ended up totalling that car while heavily intoxicated colliding into an RV. There's more instances before I finally grew up but I'll refrain.

One time comes to mind for me. If I wouldn't have gotten killed I would have been badly injured. I had put new front axle universal joints in a Jeep Wagoneer. (30+ years ago) I was working in a flat bay.( a bay with no lift) I had the front jacked up. I had jack stands just sitting under it, but had it supported by my floor jack. I was done with the job, except for putting the front wheels back on. I decided I needed to check the lubricant level in the front differential. My jack, that had been supporting it for the entire job was in the say. (while doing the actual job I wasn't under the vehicle, just beside it) I put the jack stands that had been just sitting there so it "looked" safe under the front leaf springs and let the jack down. I grabbed a 3/4inch/19 mm wrench to remove the plug to check the differential lube and slid under the vehicle. The plug takes a 5/8-16mm wrench to remove it so I slid back out from under the vehicle to reach in my tool box and get the correct wrench. As I stepped away from the vehicle it basically spit the jack stands out, crashing down to the floor, with not tires or wheels on it. IF I would have had the correct size wrench I would have still been under it, and would have got crushed, resulting in death or serious injury. Having the wrong size wrench saved me. The thing is, I had done a BUNCH of them, and knew what size wrench I needed. I'm a Christian, and I believe the Lord put the wrong size wrench in my hand. I don't have fear anything, including death, but I got sick on my stomach and threw up in the floor right in front of the Jeep after it came crashing to the ground.

I was a police officer for over 20 years. Usually working the town and part of the county by myself most nights. Shot at twice over the years on traffic stops and both times the bullets missed me. Dealt with little thug gangs and the drug runners taking back roads and staying off the interstate. Things have sure changed in law enforcement today. I don't believe I could do it now, without getting arrested. 😉

Numbers of big bass. Tom

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.

A couple more toothy slimers bellied up to the bar for T-Billy's all you can eat crappie breakfast this morning. First was a nice thick 40.5", second was an anorexic 46.5" old timer. The poor thing was so skinny I felt kinda bad for catching it. A bit later I moved to a big flat and pulled this 37" off the weed edge with a crappie colored double 8 spinner. It was an awesome bite. It came in hot and chased around the 8 three full laps then finally smashed it on an outside turn right at the surface. A fired up muskie on a foot of line sure is a hoot!!! The smallest fish was the highlight today. Felt good to get one on an artificial. It's been awhile.

The main technique thing that gets me more distance is “loading up the rod”. That’s when casting overhead, you pause when you have the rod cocked back and you wait to feel the weight of your lure dangling from the rod, and at the moment when it feels the heaviest, you cast. Not only does that give you more distance, but the lure will travel straight and not flip flop or spin, which also increases the distance. So instead of cocking and firing quickly - ****, pause, then fire. (edit: **** is censored. You can say "cocking", but not just the first four letters 😄) There can be a lot of variation between two people casting the same rod. The reel has practically nothing to do with it. The weight of the line, the smoothness of the line, the length of the rod, the power of the rod and the action of the rod are the mechanical factors. I second what @new2BC4bass said. Swap rods with your buddy and see what happens.

@IcatchDinks: Keep this up and you'll have to change your screen name. Cool that you took your little brothers fishing!

-Couple 80+mph dirt bike crashes that I walked away from unscratched. -A tree collided with my Blazer at 60 mph, uninjured. -Fell 35 - 40' out of a tree, hit every branch, uninjured. No it wasn't an ugly tree. -Dumped a 545 lb bench press on my ribs after completing it. Took a few days to take a full breath. Was actually thankful it was ribs and not my neck.

I fish with a wide brimmed Tilley hat... other than that, its a pair of khakis and a long sleeved cotton/poly sport shirt... both of which will double to mow the lawn in. I think the rest of you are a group of "pansies" needing "special clothes" to catch bass in. oe

@clayton86 have you done a family history check? Somewhere along the line you must have feline in you because it sure sounds like you have nine lives!

Two to eight on your scale. Sometimes I'll chase Spots all day with a Micro Ned. Next trip I'll hunt LM with big swimbaits. Sounds like a bad case of multiple personalities, atleast they all bass fish.

Dang dude that's a tank! And bank fishing! Way to go!

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

We had a power surge in my home recently that cost me about two grand in lost electronics. "File a claim," a friend said. "Then they'll raise my insurance," I said. "Then what good is insurance?" she asked. "It's very, very good if my home burns to the ground," I replied.