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Our latest make. An Electric Shad swim jig. Its our newest special make up colors. I'll be building on the special make ups the next couple weeks. https://siebertoutdoors.com/products/ols/products/swim-jig-swm-jig

Return trip to "Lake 19". Last time I was here was April. Discovered a small crack in the hull of my main kayak, so until I get a chance to repair it I'm back on my old orange Tarpon 100. At the lake I found the curly-leaf pondweed fully died back, as hoped. Also found a whopping algae bloom and visibility of a foot or less, down from about 4-5 feet in spring. With no deep weedline to speak of, I just ran around the deeper edges of spatterdock with a double-colorado spinnerbait and t-rigged power worm. Both were occasionally effective. The fish were much paler than usual, despite being fairly shallow (4-6 feet), as befits the low-vis situation. Pair of 17"s: Pair of 18"s: Plus a few dinkosaurs. I just know there is a 6-pounder in this lake. One of these days...

From this weekend at Whiskeytown Lake. Big one at 3.04 lbs

Just one on the speedworm right after the sunset near a seawall shadeline. Just keeping them honest - the bite has been rough.

Hello I’m 66 years old and I only have one leg and live alone because my wife of 30 years passed away 2 years ago. Fish in the lake behind the apartment building I live in. I’m looking for people to talk to about bass fishing.

Great fishing bag with rod holders at one side and so many pockets and seven 3700 box in it and on top of that has wheel. I got it as boat bag. and this one for the reels;

Starting to wrap up my 40th birthday trip, we are driving back slowly starting today for 3 days. We arrived at grand portage, MN on Friday night to embark on the ferry ride bright and early Saturday morning. The ferry ride was pretty awesome with lots of great views on Lake Superior First stop on the island was McCargo cove where we camped for 2 days. They have a nice dock area for fishing. We hiked to an old abandoned mine that was pretty cool. Mosquitos were aggressive Didn’t have a ton of time but I struck out fishing the first evening off/around the dock in Lake Superior. Weedy and shallow waters that are ultra clear, and the boat captain told me there were no smallmouth bass in the area…… didn’t realize that was possible 😂. Sunday morning I climbed out of my tent and snuck down to the dock. I was using a small blade bait just trying to catch fish of any kind and got it stuck. When it popped free a fish clobbered it, my first catch in Lake Superior was a nice pike!!! Luckily some guys came down to jump into the lake and wash their clothes, one of them snapped a pic for me. I had my measuring tape with me but didn’t realize it so I let the fish go , I was pretty certain it wouldn’t meet the 24” minimum anyway. I made a notch on my rod and it turned out to be 22” so I made the right call. The other guys were shocked that I would follow a regulation in the middle of nowhere 😂. I then caught a little perch that I let go just because it was tiny Later that day we hiked to one of the nearly 200 inland lakes on the island called chickenbone lake. The hiking was what the locals called “car wash” with vegetation slapping you the whole time. The inland lakes are barbless only but don’t require a fishing license and you can keep 2 pike under 30” . I had one swirl on a fluke and just sit right in front of me. I showed it to my hiking partners and missed it two more times. They hiked on and I finally got the darn thing after missing it several more times and it biting off 2 lures. I then waded out to retrieve one of the lures and face planted in the water 😂. A little further down the trail I got another pike and just started hoofing it back to camp since I had my 2 keepers. We fried them up at camp they were delicious, I could have went home happy right then but the fish kept on coming We had to catch a ferry midday the next day, I really wanted my buddy to catch a pike so we hiked back to chickenbone in the morning and got skunked haha. I told him it was ultra easy no problem to catch one, apparently not although we didn’t have time to walk all the way to where I fished the previous day. We got on the ferry and headed to rock harbor where there is actually a lodge and boat/canoe rentals and a restaurant. We only had time enough to claim a campsite and eat at the restaurant, no fishing on this stop. Did do a little short night hike and saw the monster toads that live on the island. We had to break down camp quick and catch an early morning ferry but while we were doing so a fox came into our camp and took a dump right in front of 7 of us 😂 The early morning ferry then took us to daisy farm. I fished off the dock here a bit but it was strong wind and didn’t have any luck. Our campsite was 4 miles away at moskey basin so we had a little backpacking to do. The trail wasn’t steep but it was sure rocky and took longer than expected. We finally arrived at Moskey to another nice boat dock we had heard good things about but it was a bust other than a huge brook trout that a dozen people tried to catch but couldn’t haha. It looked to be a solid 4 lber and everyone could see it for 2 days straight . We camped two nights at moskey. One of the days we hiked into an inland lake called Lake Ritchie. As soon as we got there, our friend Leah said she would be happy just catching a bluegill. I reeled in a fluke and saw 4-5 small fish chasing after it nipping the tail. I told Leah there were bluegill so I rigged up some tiny stuff and immediately caught a yellow perch, which I thought were sunfish. We then proceeded to catch quite a few perch and finally decided to keep some. I think we had 6 or 7 on a stringer and were discussing when to hike 2 miles back to camp. About that time my float went under and I set the hook and instantly hollered out “NOT A PERCH!!!”. Turns out a pike had eaten my 1 inch piece of a plastic worm on a tiny jighead! I got him up onto the shore to bolster the fish haul. We then hiked back and cooked them on the shore of superior, all decided that was the furthest we had walked while holding fish. The pike had a yellow perch inside its stomach The ferry was picking us up back at daisy farm 4 miles away at 8 am so we had to hike out in the darkness. Saw more monster toads and a pretty sunrise on the rocky trail, made it 30 minutes faster than we did on the way in. Saw some wolf tracks and poo as well This marked the end of our isle royale experience as we boarded the 8 am ferry. We still made several stops on the way out picking up other campers and got lots more pretty views but never set foot on the rocks again. Once making it back to our cars at grand portage, we pointed them towards Voyageurs NP and hammered down. Passed a cool sign We arrived at our rental home on Rainy Lake well after dark, which is very late in the north country. Dead tired, we crashed in excitement of all day canoe/kayak rentals the next day. Our boats were waiting at a launch in the morning and off we went. The wind was howling. We thought for sure we would have to stick close to the ramp. I missed a fish on a Johnson silver minnow in the grass right off the bat. Not long after that I boated a pike not 100 yards from the car. Shaping up to be a good day! Then an eagle was flying all around us while paddling. We caught several more pike in that area on spoon and fluke. 3 of our party were not fishing and paddled to a hiking trail that led to a big beaver pond. They sent us a location and it was across a wide open part of the lake with huge waves, I said multiple times that was an impossible crossing. Well I was wrong because we paddle right across it without incident, my wife was nervous but once we made it there and back she said it boosted her open water confidence. There was a nice dock to fish off of at the trailhead so I started casting my fluke. I hooked up on a fish and it turned out to be a big ole black crappie! More to eat, score. We had released some of the pike but thankfully i had earlier convinced everyone to have another fish fry. It was tasty! We then took a boat tour to a lake just southeast of Rainy called Kabetogama Lake. This was pretty cool and loaded with bald eagles. There was a spot they dropped us off to explore a rock garden one man had built entirely by hand over a 20 yr span. We also took a short walk up to a beaver pond overlook and had a frosty beverage When we returned to the rental house, I had a little free time to cast off the dock. Got a nice fat SMB that wrecked a fluke in shallow water, the locals said bass could only be caught out in deep open water. I was on cloud 9, didn’t think we had a chance at any bass This morning we had to pack up and check out but I fished off the dock for maybe 20 minutes. Caught a bass on my first throw that ripped my fluke into pieces. I had only one other lure in my pocket, trophy scum frog a la @Pat Brown I tossed it into the grass and lightning and thunder hit, I looked upwind to see what was up. Looked back at the water and my frog was gone, turns out a little pike had it haha caught both bass back in the little cut near the pontoon. Also saw a little velvet buck on the way in Now I’m just riding shotgun headed slowly back home with 3 more stops along the way. Not sure if there will be fishing but I will take pictures if there is

^Hunchbass of Notre Dame.^

@WackyWormNedRig Keeping it simple and cost effective is something that still deserves a couple pictures 😉

I lost two this morning in the 2 to 2.5 range, bummed me out. I considered giving it up but I decided to stick with it and 30 minutes later this big mamma struck and gave me an amazing airshow. She splashes me good upon release and gave my thumb a good munching. Did not have a scale with me, but got a girth and length. Length was 20.5 inches and girth was 13 inches. Using the estimator on this site with those data points, it estimated it at 5.35 lbs. I was stoked. That's my biggest one of the year and pushed my PB. Held her up like a WWE title belt at one point 😂 I lost two this morning in the 2 to 2.5 range, bummed me out. I considered giving it up but I decided to stick with it and 30 minutes later this big mamma struck and gave me an amazing airshow. She splashes me good upon release and gave my thumb a good munching. Did not have a scale with me, but got a girth and length. Length was 20.5 inches and girth was 13 inches. Using the estimator on this site with those data points, it estimated it at 5.35 lbs. I was stoked. That's my biggest one of the year and pushed my PB. Held her up like a WWE title belt at one point 😂 I lost two this morning in the 2 to 2.5 range, bummed me out. I considered giving it up but I decided to stick with it and 30 minutes later this big mamma struck and gave me an amazing airshow. She splashes me good upon release and gave my thumb a good munching. Did not have a scale with me, but got a girth and length. Length was 20.5 inches and girth was 13 inches. Using the estimator on this site with those data points, it estimated it at 5.35 lbs. I was stoked. That's my biggest one of the year and pushed my PB. Held her up like a WWE title belt at one point 😂 I lost two this morning in the 2 to 2.5 range, bummed me out. I considered giving it up but I decided to stick with it and 30 minutes later this big mamma struck and gave me an amazing airshow. She splashes me good upon release and gave my thumb a good munching. Did not have a scale with me, but got a girth and length. Length was 20.5 inches and girth was 13 inches. Using the estimator on this site with those data points, it estimated it at 5.35 lbs. I was stoked. That's my biggest one of the year and pushed my PB. Held her up like a WWE title belt at one point 😂

I started bass fishing in 2020 and have been on the pursuit of catching one over 5#. Well, I was on vacation last week in northern Michigan and ended up accomplishing this goal… 2x! I caught my new PB, which is pictured below, of 5.24 and 20.5”. The following day, I caught another one over 5 at 5.15 and 21”. I caught both of these largemouth bass on a Zoom Trick Worm in ‘Candy Bug’ Texas-Rigged (1/4). ^ 5.24 | 20.5”

She did great! Casting was good with baitcaster. Got 2 backlashes and got them out herself! Asked good questions. We had fun! I didn't fish, just ran the boat and refrained from trying to tell her everything I know!

https://realtree.com/fishing/mississippi-reduces-crappie-limit-on-popular-lakes-due-to-live-sonar?fbclid=IwY2xjawEVBh5leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHdFE1Rk05kqaL4CUilo2V9Pk7uqM_r1ZXKCBzdPFHJ9T9Lqdoq-uUnu3pA_aem_pikRQ15MDhMCz7IDD_A39A# Good move, IMO.

PB devil sock Wacky worm 8lb test It broke my grips Location hidden because of reasons

Looks like you came to the right place. Welcome!

Slow this morning, only 3 on a wacky rig. Had a giant Snakehead rip a small bass off the hook right at the boat. Weather was hot and sunny, water temp 82*. This was the best fish.

My son and I fished a private access lake Friday afternoon-evening, on invitation from a friend. My friend claimed the lake had plenty of 5-8# bass in it… but a 6# bass up here is a very rare catch and over 7# would be big news in the local fishing world. So I was excitedly optimistic, but skeptical. My friend fished in another boat with a buddy and not too long after we started fishing they had a big one on. We were only 50 yards apart and hearing “oh, yeah that’s a big one!”… “get the net”… “look at the size of the mouth!”… excited laughing… high-fives… Wes and I were riveted with anticipation for the monster to be revealed… then a fat 2.5# was hoisted high for us to see and “look at that one!” shouted to us. Right away I knew we likely had the only scale to ever grace these waters.🫢 All humour aside though, this little 8 acre oval provided good fishing and we caught several 1.5-2.5# fish which made me plenty happy after so many 1-3 fish outings. That said, the fishing was up and down through the day. This is a natural lake, fed and drained through a swamp/small creek on either end, the deepest hole being 15ft. the east end with most areas 6-10ft. The lake is rimmed with a fringe of lily pads, the bottom has submerged weeds everywhere… and bass seemingly everywhere we fished. I decided to start out by frogging the entire perimeter, with Wes throwing our go-to flashy swimmer with a paddletail as we slowly graphed most of the lake to get a feel for it. I only caught a few, but missed another half-dozen bites, a few of which looked like quality (3#+) fish. They just weren’t biting the frog well, but I was having fun. Based on my bites, I coached Wes to cast right at the edge of the pads and he started catching some, most almost immediately when his bait hit the water. After one round of the lake (about 2:30-3:30pm), the 4 of us had probably caught 20-ish fish, with a few over 2#. My friend and his buddy were seriously out fishing us, drinking beer and throwing “rubber worms” when I asked what they were using. They had one spinning rod each, so I was feeling a little stupid with 8 combos in the boat and not catching as many as them. I put the frog down and I started cycling through baits while Wes started throwing a wacky rigged senko. I threw a senko, Texas rigged 10” worm, flipped a beaver, a chatterbait, spinnerbait, whopper plopper… and we went through a painfully dry spell of probably 2 hours, even our buddy’s bite almost shut off. My buddy said this was the worst day of fishing they’d ever had, and I was was thinking yes of course because I’m here and I’m cursed this year.😖 But then he “mentioned” that one of the other owners on the lake (there are only three) had seven guys up fishing for the past week. So, 8 people fishing an 8 acre lake for 7 days straight. Adding at least 2 of those fishermen were on the water sunrise-dark every day.😒 That really burst my bubble, because I thought there were only 2 owners on the lake and only my buddy fished it occasionally. Oh well - I guess any lake you can drive to and launch a boat in ain’t gonna be untapped. I just didn’t expect the poor little lake would have been hammered by 600+ man hours of fishing the prior week. 😭 Anyway… our spirits slowly sank as the other boat enjoyed a beer fuelled dink fest. Then, I finally cracked the nut. Wes somehow got his line wrapped under the spool of his spinning reel and while I was fixing that a 1.5# grabbed his senko and I had to hand line it in. That was unrealized clue #1. I kept cycling baits with zero bites, then Wes blew up his bait caster and while he was trying to fix it a really good bass grabbed his paddletail off the bottom. Wes said “I’ve got one, what do I do!?” and I heard it jump, but didn’t see it. Wes went into panic mode saying it’s huge. I said just hand line it in, and there was a brief struggle then it was into the deeper weeds and gone (no hookset at all). Wes was frustrated, and now his line was a total mess so I said I’ll fix it. I didn’t realize his bait was still laying on the bottom and while I was trying to fix things another small bass grabbed his bait. That’s when the light bulb came on. I ended up cutting off a bunch of almost brand new FC Sniper (😩) then we were both back in the fight. I said the key is fish slow… like, deadstick slow. I tied on a weightless white fluke and we proceeded to cast onto/close to the pads and work very slowly back into the deeper water with 5-10 second pauses to let out bait sit. That was the ticket and we started catching ‘em. By now it was about 7pm and the evening bite started picking up for everyone. In the last half hour, I switched to a popper and got several bites by just casting it out and waiting 10 seconds, then if nothing grabbed it I’d give just a few twitches and long pause again. I only hooked half the fish that swirled on the popper, as the “bites” seemed very lazy. All in all, a good day. I do really look forward to trying again when the weather cools a bit - my fried still swears there’s much bigger bass in there.

I fish with my 11 year old son almost every day. People kinda give me funny looks and are hesitant to fish with me when I tell them he's coming sometimes a tiny bit - until they get in the boat and see him fish. He's passionate and consumed with nature and the sport and it tickles me to no end. I remember being a kid and fishing with my dad and how special and exciting it was to become consumed with the pursuit of fish with him - sharing that with my son is sublime. I enjoy when Jake invites a friend fishing who likes it but doesn't know *much* and we get them on some fish! IMHO - it's all about the love of the sport and the outdoors and the only way it's gonna survive is if we keep sharing it. Good on you sir!

I suggest you come back as young Captain Phil. The current one is pretty worn out. ☺️

Good point. Terry tackled that one and he believed it was basically a tie, both introduced the same year. Action Worm or Ring worm?

I fish a 3/4 oz white double colorado gold blade spinnerbait - fast in the summertime. Over weedbeds, around rocks, docks, weed edges, isolated cover, riprap especially. Sun, clouds, rain, wind...all the time. Early morning or evening can be outrageous!

For the sake of history Rebel Ring worm wasn’t the 1st “ring” worm but best known brand. My In-Fisherman article A Rare Chance for a World Record Jan 1985* on page 7 there is a photo of the Action worm dates back into the early 1970. Very complex tooling with rings and loops to trace air and sound. The Action worm is lost in the mist of history. Tom * anyone interested in the article PM your email to send to

This thread's summary: Nothing and everything works.

Yes but I do change some things during the summer months. Firstly I tend to use heavier (for me 1/2 oz and up) and slow roll them bumping along the bottom. Usually close to breaks. I like white and white/chartruese. I don’t always use a trailer for this method but when I do I like a split tail grub. Second thing is I fish a big single Colorado blade at night with a paddle tail trailer. Always black and blue. I like to target shallow cover and flats adjacent to deeper water. I have been catching fish on a Spinnerbait since February and I just caught a new PB with one a few weeks ago. So I have a lot of confidence in the technique.

Still waiting for the Bobsleds. Mike

South Shore fishing is on fire. Water is dirty everywhere I go. White frog or black and blue chatter is all that’s working, but they are working real well.

Northern swing pics. Isle royale and voyaguers national parks. Probably hammer out a separate report. Thought it was going to be all pike but finally caught 2 bass. first bass , fluke in shallow water with st croix rod seviin reel and 33 lb seaguar JDM braid, gamakatsu nano alpha hook second bass, fluke on first throw this morning same spot back by that pontoon boat. Rolled out of bed at the rental in the same clothes as yesterday and BAM! He grabbed it off the surface got lots of pike too, here’s some samples. They are delicious. Had to hike a few miles with them On a stick at isle royale 😂

Committed an afternoon to some old school Carolina rigging. I picked off a few fish on rocks in 12’. I caught the big fish of the trip off a newly discovered rock pile. Always an exciting moment when you feel the line swim off while probing a new piece of structure.

Took it on the chin two days ago, not even getting a bite. Got a chance to sneak out to the lake for a few hours this afternoon and try and redeem myself. Fortunately, things went better, as I was able to figure out a pattern and bite. Hooked up with half a dozen bass, about twenty crappie, two channel cats and half a dozen white perch. Landed 4 of the bass, losing a small keeper when it jumped near the boat, and had a much larger fish hooked for a good while that eventually just pulled off.

I've got two of these combos that I use for river fishing. ML rod. Highly recommend. Got it at Wal-Mart. Lew's Xfinity XJ Spinning Reel and Fishing Rod Combo, 6-Foot Rod, Size 100 Reel, Green https://www.walmart.com/ip/Lew-s-Xfinity-XJ-Spinning-Reel-and-Fishing-Rod-Combo-6-Foot-Rod-Size-100-Reel-Green/155659016?athbdg=L1200&from=/search

Got few surf perch with sand crab. I also got them back to back but they were smaller ones.

Another aspect of the Canadian Shield, Imagine yourself doing this portage:

@BluegillsTightlines: I wear a glove on my left hand with rubberized fingers, leaving my right hand free for knot tying and other fine motor tasks.

Pretty sure it got trapped in my shoe, that's usually what happens

A lot of the tournament kayak guys I know, including me, have a second kayak just for running rivers. Either to float with or one with a bow mounted trolling motor like a newport or a torqueedo to launch and go upstream with. I run a jackson coosa I got for cheap and it is a dream on the smallmouth rivers near me.

I feel your pain! I am in SE Pa too and looking for flows. 1” of rain is suppose to come Tuesday / Wednesday. Should be enough to bump up my favorite Skook spot for a day or two so I’ll have to seize that. I have been resorting to hitting the banks of my local little reservoir for some LMs but nothing of size and I much prefer fishing from my boat.

@Ohioguy25 I’d just buy them premade from stealth tackle personally they have a variety of different style leaders. And I lost a crush 100x I was not using anything tooth proof. Just my normal leader for the abrasion on rocks. @gimruis still no northern pike for me lol

There will be more of this coming in the future. Panfish like sunfish and crappies are heavily pressured here during the winter and live sonar has made it exponentially easier and less time consuming to find a school of them. Very few are released. Last year the MN DNR lowered the daily sunfish limit on over 100 lakes here from 20 to 5. I could see a statewide regulation coming soon.

All my rods Dobyns fury and sierra and my baicasters are lews. Keep it simple and not that expensive. Loll

A few more photos to show off. I set the mag brake casting 2-g with 5-lb UG mono. Final brake-set result casting 1/4 oz to 140', which nails my shore fishing target, and I couldn't make it backlash with intentional wrist snap. Happy with this result on mediocre pack rod. Also got the braid loaded, but haven't cast it yet with my 3-g low-end target - not worried about it, fixed brakes are set. Nobody has asked about fishing non-level-wind (CT surf) reel, so I'll volunteer it. Line management depends on getting a good tight hand-LW base wrap when you first load the spool. If you're fishing mono, you under-fill the spool, may need to correct line lay some during fishing. When you get down to PE#1 threadline braid, narrow spool with a capacity of 100 to 200 m, this gets a lot simpler. The concave (hourglass) line lay is intentional, and goes deep in the 4-mm spool. You can fish your working line mindlessly, because it falls to the middle of the spool and self-corrects on wind. The only time you need to re-do the hand-level-wind (when you get home) is after a big fish takes you deep.

I posted this a long while ago, but I just wanted to thank everyone for their replies. I've been in the field for a little bit now, and now am fishing a lot more than I was the last couple years.

A spinnerbait is a year round lure for me. They work differently in the winter and summer than they do in the fall and spring, but hey still can work. Especially if you can get them knocking into submerged wood. That being said, there seem to be years when spinnerbaits don't work for unknown (to me) reasons. Some years they're hot. Some years they're not. But when they're working, there isn't a time of year I won't throw them. Usually, this time of year, I go for heavier, single Colorado blade baits that can stay lower in the water column. Just kind of slow roll them like I might in winter. But sometimes, smaller, double willow blade baits, buzzed just under the surface in shallow water also work this time of year. It depends. This year, in particular, spinnerbaits aren't doing much for me. In fact, nothing with a skirt has been doing much for me since last fall.

1/2 oz Stanley Wedge, double gold willowleaf, white skirt

It looks like it was rattlesnake lures. I found a few sparce pictures online of their 4" worm. You can see the salt in the bag. Thanks everyone.

I'm mostly soft plastics in the summer but always have a spinnerbait tied on. They are still very effective in summer especially around wood and sparse grass. Spinnerbait = my all-time favorite bait.

Not like I need more top water stuff but oh well. Shiny!

I told myself a few years ago I would try a Megabass rod before I hang it up. Thanks to a timely offer, I ended up with two.