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Another evening out - got there a couple hours before sunset, stayed for an hour after that. Quiet night - only got one bass it was all of 14oz. Again on the 1/8oz Shakey with the GP-Magic Finesse Worm.

I went fishing again yesterday evening as I'd taken a pal fishing yesterday morning and whenever I take someone fishing, as much as I love to do that, I miss being able to focus on my fishing. Well, I focused, but for the first hour, could only catch one pickerel. I had a couple weak hits, but no bass. In the final two hours, the fishing picked up and I landed eight brown bass and seven green bass. The smallmouth were all cookie cutter. This size: Of course, being smallmouth, there was nothing thin about their fights. The lmb were thicker and they fought like the dickens too: Nothing big, but a fun evening. I think the heat and bright, blue skies are why I caught fewer than I normally do. I caught them on a wakebait, spinnerbait, and underspin, the only three lures I tried. The second bass from the bottom was in less than a foot of water, lying in the little river right behind her, a river which hosts Atlantic salmon. However, the best fishing was off-shore, in eight to ten feet of water.

Couple of river smallies on a spinnerbait and chatterbait. Weather app said it “feels like” 100 when I called it quits and packed up at 10:15am. ☀️

I went fishing with a pal this morning. I had three goals: 1. I wanted him to catch a lot of bass. 2. I wanted him to enjoy the morning. 3. I wanted him to catch a four-pounder or bigger. He achieved the following: 1. He caught 35 bass. Success! 2. He had a great time. Double score! He commented several times about how beautiful it was in the fog. 3. I caught the four-pounder. Dang it! Here's one of his average bass: Here's a 3.5-poundish* bass I caught: Here's my four-poundish* fish: And here's a pond pic: I only caught 22, but I was doing nearly all the paddling and a lot of positioning him. The only baits that were working were a wakebait and a spinnerbait. I couldn't catch a single bass on an underspin, which is my main lure. * "ish" means I'm guessing. My length-to-weight table tells me that when they get up to 19", they're about four pounds and I do know what a 19-incher looks like. I am certain that my biggest bass had a big head and my second biggest bass had a chubby belly and that my fishing buddy did a great job of netting them in deep weeds. That pond is at Peak Weeds right now.

This last week has been a bit slow. I haven't been able to make it out onto the water for any longer than an hour at a time, and haven't caught anything substantial. I did get jump scared by a raccoon who snuck up behind me, and stood up with his front paws on my leg like he was begging for snacks or something. I would have taken a picture, but I shouted because I was startled which in turn startled him, and he waddled away in disgust. 😆 Anyways, here are this week's dinks:

Got the video wrapped up. Some pretty quality fish catches from a few hours of fishing.

My wife outfished me with her 3 wt fly rod the other day on a 2.5 hour float, already missing clear water as ours is yohoo colored

Well Tuesday night is normally the night there is a weeknight kayak tournament that I like to get in on whenever I get off work on time. My assignment for the day had me driving 3 hours each way but I could start as early as I wanted so I could bust it and make it off work on time to get home and get to the lake before the 5:30 launch time. Not sure if anyone is aware of this but apparently the tournament directors weren't, it's hot in the summertime in Kansas. This is the hottest week of the summer so far with temps in the high 90's and heat indexes in the 110's. So a little after noon, they decided to cancel the tournament for the evening instead of just letting the people who don't mind the heat, come out and fish like several of us wanted to. I was more than a little irritated as now they've canceled tournaments for wind, rain, and heat, all of which should be judgement calls on the anglers IMO. Anyways, several of us on the page decided we were going fishing anyways and met at the lake at take off time and made an identifier for the night and braved the conditions. I set out to flip water willows and was a bit disappointed to find the lake had dropped and there wasn't water in the willows. I still managed to get a few bites, but they were super dinks, barely clearing the 8" minimum. I did get my 3 fish limit doing it though, and nobody else was doing it, or even on the same side of the small lake we were on, so I kept flipping. A little over an hour in, I was starting to have my doubts and considering joining the crowd in the one cove with docks in it, when I pitched into some willows and there was a bunch of movement. I thought maybe I spooked a carp because I didn't get bit, but the fish didn't move far, so I picked up and dropped the bait back in. The weeds shook again, so I popped my bait, and he finally found it. Normally a 15 incher is a solid fish at this lake, so I was real happy to see a 17.25" incher. I caught a few more, including a decent cull with a 14.50" fish and lost another fish that felt real solid. The sun was getting lower and the bank I wanted to fish in the dock cove had been shaded for a good period of time, so I decided to move to phase 2 of the game plan, hoping that they'd have moved up to the shade on that bank by now. I cruised across the lake and almost immediately caught a 15.50" fish off a dock ladder with my blue bladed jig. I felt pretty confident about my chances at this point but there was well over a hour left. I caught a couple more small ones before I got to one of my favorite docks. I lined up the right angle and skipped my bladed jig way under the walkway, and caught a dink. "That cast deserved a better fish", I thought out loud to myself and repeated the cast. I never even got the bait moving before a good fish boiled on it. I worked her out from the other side of the dock and netted another 17" fish. Breaking 50" in a 3 fish tournament is like breaking 90" in a 5 fish tournament, and I'd never done it before. Now I was 1/4" away with 45 minutes left in the night and needing a 15.75" fish to get there, not impossible, but not an easy task either. I kept on down the bank and was surprised to not catch anything down my favorite part of that bank that almost always produces. There's one overhanging tree that for some reason always seems to have catfish under it in the bend of that bank. I skipped my bladed jig under the tree and got hammered almost immediately and heard the "slap, slap, slap", of a rolling catfish on the surface before it came off, good riddance. I almost moved on but skipped a few more under the tree and finally a parting shot the the front of the walkway of the dock next to that tree. Shortly after I started the retrieve, a big boil hit the surface and a heavy fish was dragging my line under the dock. I was really struggling to control it, positive it was another catfish, when she jumped right under the motor of the pontoon that was tied to the dock, not a catfish. My line was visibly scarred from dragging along the underside of the metal pontoon, and then she dove into my trolling motor for just a second before coming free so I could scoop her in the net. I probably could have got another 1/4" out of her, but at 20", it's my biggest Tuesday night tournament fish and put me well over the 50" mark at 54.25" on the night. It would have been the second biggest total in a Tuesday night tournament ever but it won't could towards that since it wasn't an official tournament. There was 30 minutes left in the night when I caught that fish, and that would be the last fish I would catch. Second place for the night was 39.75". There was some really great video but I haven't put it all together yet. P.S. We didn't lose anyone to the heat and it was actually pretty comfortable with a good breeze most of the night until the sun got lower and it started to cool off anyways.

Haven't been fishing in a few weeks, shoulder problem, but got out this morning for a short while. Caught a 3+ Alabama on a white Sammy clone the first thing then a few more Alabamas and 1 smaller LM. Had a good one on with too short a line and it broke off.

Short answer is chromatophores, specialized skin cells that have the ability to regulate pigment. A brief description from Dr. Bruce Tufts lab: He has a short YT video of smallmouth color changes with a more lengthy write-up of his experience with this.

mostly enough.................mostly

With the shallow water brown bass bite just around the corner, I went all in on the SK Hybrid Hunter Jr. and Shallow. Looking forward to seeing if the hype is real. Baits seem like the right size and if I can get them far enough away from the Lund, I may have another breezy day option. We'll find out. A-Jay

So are you going to change your screen name then?

Just now from an extremely pressured and carp choked urban pond. I was actually happy just to see a bass still living in there, and got a decent little belly for the size.

Almost sunset over Coffee Cove, Lake Minnetonka.

lul was gonna say so in my original post, but didn't want to derail the thread into Abu🤣

You beat me by five minutes!

I honestly don't know. 70 ish rods. 50 ish reels. Another new muskie rod will be here tomorrow.

2 for 3 today. Numbers 90 and 91 in the bag. 35.5" and 37.5" Number 92 shook off as I was trying to slide the net under it. Grrr... I also raised five other fish. Only two more days to fish, and still nine fish away from the century mark. Ain't looking good for the home team. 😂 I'll be riding around in a crude tanker for the next five days wish'n I was fish'n. This working for a living crap really cramps my style. 😁

I bought Smackdown based on the hype on this site and wasn’t pleased casting performance changed it to Fins Spin5 using the same rod, reel and lures very happy with performance. The difference comes down to braid diameter and smoothness coming off the spinning reel. 15# Smackdown is .009D vs 15# Spin5 is .006D. Tom

Through Sunday, ALF has 20% off all their used rods and reels. I've purchased both from them and they're always in excellent shape mechanically and visually.

@Flyfish-mt Vanford is the '20 name for Stradic CI4+ And yes, the reason Vanford has a shorter knee is for Shimano design to hit their stiffness target - Stradic forged alloy is inherently stiffer than the composite. The composite frame is the only difference between the two reels - both are assenbled in Malaysia and share identical drive. Both have composite rotor, and Vanford's is cut-out for lighter weight. Beginning with Stradic, all worm-drive Shimano reels are the same design as Stella, with model grades separated by bearing count, MOC and labor costs setting the price (Japan/Malaysia, Al/CI4+/Mg) - from Stradic to Stella, parts inerchange. Stradic FL is '18 Stella design, and when '19 Stradic (FL) was introduced, TackleAdvisor's take-down review dubbed it "The Best $400 Reel You Can Buy" The only change in '22 Stella and Stradic FM, etc, is a slightly increased spool pitch (slightly longer spindle). This change shows Shimano was so happy with the strength of their '18 design, they simply pushed it a little harder. @TheLokoWuaka for MH, I would definitely pick Stradic toughness over Vanford light. (Stradic FL + Yumeya shallow braid spool)

10 more hours of grind'n, one more fish. Another 37" from the same bay I caught yesterday's. This is my first top water musky, and oh what a bite it was. Shortly after first light, I eased into the back of the bay, rolling a double 8 over the submerged milfoil bed, but no takers. It was cloudy and slick calm, so I fished my way back out by crawling my new Muskie Train, Wake Shad over top the weeds at a snails pace. As I was approaching the outside edge of the weeds, this joker came rocketing up and absolutely exploded on the bait about 20' from me. Just about startled the crap outta me. 😂 I see this bait getting lots of early morning action as long as they're using the shallow weeds. I ended up getting seven more follows, one on blades and six on cranks, but couldn't get one to commit. I get another crack at 'em tomorrow, then back to work for five days.

Yes you can smell the odor difference between crawdads eaten and fish eaten. Tom

Hoping for a striper on a glide, thought I snagged a leaf. Fishing for flathead bait with a 1/80oz jighead and a piece of a 2" grub.

Nice fish. You're SO close to your goal. Bet you can almost taste it. Especially considering how many you've raised. Just starting posting pics of fish from a few years ago. We're old and won't know the difference. Better be wearing the Bomber hat for a distraction though. Stay safe and good luck. 😀 A-Jay

I still feel like the magnetic braking system Daiwa uses is the best in the business. I’ve owned a number of DC reels, and standard centrifugal braking reels with MGL spools and Daiwa just wins. The T wing doesn’t matter much to me, but I’ve replaced all of my Shimano reels with Zillions because for me they are easier to use. If I’ve got money on the line in a tourney I don’t want to deal with a reel getting finicky when I change trailer or baits. I fish from a kayak or as a co angler, so I switch baits often and need rods to pull double and triple duty. The SV spool, its boost feature, and the ease of external adjustment are winners. I’m not as concerned about dialing in a bait for 2-3 casts after making I change. I pick up the rod and sling the bait.

My favorite (and I've tried many) is Suffix 832. Got turned onto it by others on this forum and I have been extremely pleased. It handles well, is plenty durable, and isn't overwhelmingly expensive. It's all I buy at this point.

I was just coming to type what frnknsteen wrote. This past winter my dad and I both ordered new reels (and me a rod). He went 4k size vanford, I went 3k sized stradic (FL, previous model to current). His is on a 7' zodias M, mine is on the zodias 6'9" ML. Both rods have carbon monocoque rear grips which are really light. I had intended to use a 1k size reel and it was no where close to balancing it. The 3k did at an ounce or so heavier and feels great in hand. Its a much better balanced package (size, weight, swingweight, etc). His 7' with the vanford feels tip heavy for me and how I hold the rod. His reel is also an ounce and a half lighter I think. That's great for him because heavier setups tax his elbow and I think he holds the rod further up the grip. I think the stradic is the best value for money spinning reel available and I wish I had bought a couple of them when they were clearing the FLs out at ~30% off. Given that option now I'd buy two more and just set them aside for the future.

As usual,... @bulldog1935 nailed it! The only thing I would add is to consider the weight difference betwen the Stradic and Vanford in parallel with the weight of the rod you are going to put it on to assess which will balance better. For instance, I have both Vanford and Stradics. On my Fenwick rods that have a more substantial, full handle, I don't need as much reel weight to balance the setup on my fingers, so the Vanford balances very nicely. My absolute favorite is my Fenwick ET Smallmouth 6'9"ML with a Vanford 2500 I use for wacky rigging smallies!! I have other rods that are a split grip, or completly open like the Phenix Feather that don't have as much handle weight. The heavier Stradic balances them out a little better.

I don't even know what DRT is.....but I know what trolling is.

You have stock on the Curado MGL 150? LoL

I had to replace a popmax through a freak accident. That definitely hurt. I took the opportunity to add the Black Orochi color to get me closer to free shipping, of course. It's really an exotic looking bait. The golden underbelly with speckled black is unexpected.

Go look at AJay's posts on his 1875 Pro V Bass. I have a 19' BassCat. For my fishing I could go down to a smaller boat and almost did with a Bobcat. I fish alone 99.9% of the time. I'm not looking for a boat to accommodate someone every now and then. I really want a boat that's easy to load and unload alone. But, My dream boat is a 2075 ProV Bass and I don't fish water as big as AJay. I think it comes down to what you have to tow it with, how much storage you have, will you have anyone else in the boat fishing with you, and then what lakes will you fish.

Bakers Dozen 😉

Probably not the smallest Bass I've ever caught but I caught this one on an 8 inch long swimbait.

I have the same rod in mojo bass and I love it with the Stradic FL 2500. Feels great in hand and to fish all day.

I plead the 5th, 6th and 7th. Including saltwater over 60. The bait monkey has me on speed dial. FM

Cal's Tan - nothing else goes on my gears and carbontex drag washers. https://www.amazon.com/Cals-tan-Drag-Reel-Grease/dp/B08FGG26FX It may seem expensive - but you use very little. That 1oz 'tin' will probably grease my 13 casting and 7 spinning reels close to a decade if I do them yearly. For oil, I've been using 'sewing machine oil' - it's thin and formulated to last a long time under severe use. The difference in smoothness of my reels from using Abu grease and oil to Cals and 'sewing machine' was enormous.

May be a couple weeks before I can get back out again due to the heat and humidity returning after a very nice and unusual 3 week reprieve from normal Alabama July. So if I indeed have to keep the lines dry for a bit, I am quite satisfied I managed to get a 5lber Monday morning. Supposed to have 110 degree heat indices for a week straight and I tend to get sick very easily if it's over 90 and can't find shade or AC.

Managed to slide out onto local Lake Menderchuck for a couple of hours before sunset. Surface water temp was 81. Officially the warmest water I've ever caught smallies in. Either way, still felt really good. Rage Bug on a swinghead - just saying. A-Jay

Got on a couple on the 10” Carolina rigged worm. They were sitting on rock piles in 12’. The shallows are totally beat. At this point I just do a milk run of some offshore spots and call it a day. Best fish went 4lb 2oz.

Good day fishing the Passaic river. Got another two small pike on top of the three fish pictured. All came on a spinnerbait while a buddy of mine pitched a wacky rig and waded through about a dozen dinks before landing a solid 3.5lb largemouth.

It certainly is smart, i think they got the hype rolling through socials, and it somehow worked better than everyone else.

More than I need yet still not enough. I haven't even dabbled in BFS yet. Planned on it this year but may have to wait until spring.

And DNR says that Alabama bass are invasive here in VA......... welcome to VA i say as them things fight harder than a smallmouth in River current.

This was a WP 110...... thought I had grass.

Not as small as yalls, but I thought this one was humorous. The look on the fishes face with the worm wrapped around his head.

12 combos, 3 rods and 6 reels who haven’t been married yet. All bait casting 2 spinning setups 1 for the youngest kids only and 1 saltwater. Mike

I've always used the Shimano Drag Grease for both the main and pinion gears along with the drag washers. For all other areas that require grease, I use Super Lube. I do believe the Shimano Drag Grease and Cal's Drag Grease are pretty similar. As for oil, I have a bottle of Remoil I use. Same stuff I use for all of my firearms.