Leaderboard

30 Aug 24 ~ Update. Last post saw that Lynn's Kidney function was SLOWLY / Incrementally improving. Thankfully that has continued. Sufficiently enough that her 3 days a week dialysis has been reduced to 2 days a week. THIS IS HUGE and there were tears shed. This latest medical deal has been serious and way scary. We try so hard to keep composed, regardless of that's going on at the time. Knowing how volital and how quickly circumstances can change has taught us that maintaining a level head helps control the wildy debilitating stress that can be a another layer that doesn't help anything. Either way, this is a big win. The smiles are the best A-Jay

Twins arrived a week earlier than expected!

I knew I only had an hour and a half to fish this morning due to a family obligation and that scared me, for it sometimes takes time to find the bass. I guessed well at first, for I went to a shallow corner of the pond and caught five bass there. I started with this one, a thick 16-inch smallie which I hooked on a Kardashian-garish spinnerbait on the edge of the shallow water. Then I caught this well-shaped, 17-inch lmb on a chrome Whopper Plopper three feet from the shore. The Whopper Plopper then caught this smaller bass. And the spinnerbait scored a thick one. Then I hooked this medium one, giving me five bass in the first half hour. So, I paddled across the pond to my favorite shoreline, expecting more fine fishing, but in 45 minutes, I could only manage this one bass, a skinny 16-incher: It was time to paddle back, so I trolled my spinnerbait and crossing the middle of the pond, discovered where they'd been: DEEP! I hooked this one: I cast to where I'd caught ^this^ one and hooked vthisv one: I hooked one more about 15 inches on the next cast and I made that my final cast, lest I be late. If that dang end-of-recess bell hadn't rung, I would have run up a nice total, but settled for nine, an average of one bass every ten minutes. Oh, yes, I cast a creature bait for the first time. T-Rigged with a tungsten weight. And I couldn't even provoke a bite. Total failure. They wanted my clownish spinnerbait and Kardashian-shiny Whopper Plopper with the big bum. They wouldn't even sniff at finesse.

Ya know, I think it’s really nice in the last few weeks of summer when alarm clock goes off at 0330 and I could turn it off, go back to sleep because there’s no 0500 sunrise. So when I finally get out of the rack, get underway and missing the morning topwater bite is an afterthought. When I get to the launch ramp I find no sign of a breeze, the tide has about an hour left before it bottoms out and almost 73 degree water temps. Good thing the fish were unaware of this, that air temps were gonna hit 98 degrees, because the bite was pretty good. Best fish of the day was a 4.29lber punching and a 4.58lber on a GYCB stickbait.

Originally planned on going tomorrow (and I still might). Either way, I called an audible and hit local Lake Menderchuck for an afternoon trip. Surface water temps were still 75, despite a cold east wind and mostly bogus on & off rain in my face. Been a while since I've fished in the rain but I knew the boating traffic would be non-existent in that mess, so I went for it. The brown bass were, for the most part, fairly cooperative. A swinghead with a Keitech Swing Impact FAT Swimbait did all the damage today. Got plenty of bites and I needed every one. A-Jay

This is EXACLY WHAT you're looking for. It's essentially a light punch rig. Consists of a bobber stop, a bullet weight, a shirt on a hub, an ewg hook and the plastic of your choice. Rigged right, comes through anything. I use this when fishing new water when I'm not sure what type of mess I might be throwing into. A lighter weight can slow you down, get more bites and save you from constantly being snagged. Takes a few seconds to rig but totally worth it. A-Jay

Some of yall may have seen photos in the latest catch pics thread but this video captures the essence of my favorite stretch of water to fish. I do have somewhere between 100-200 bites from seed ticks on my legs but that’s a first for me, still worth it ! You have to put whatever you want to fish with in your pockets and swim for it, also lots of wading and falling down on slick jagged rocks

First time out since 4th of July. We’ve had a lot of rain, so the lake is at full pool. Fish were real spread out. I caught 7 by 8:30, then nothing else til I quit at 10:30. I spent 45 minutes of that talking to a friend that was on his dock though … I caught all the fish on a june bug uv speed worm…

The waters around me are full of submerged pine trees, have less than two feet of visibility, densely wooded banks, and muddy bottoms. Just about anything with an exposed hook gets stuck in a few casts. I'm currently confined to the bank. Any suggestions for search bait(s) that isn't going to get hopelessly stuck? I feel like some sort of texas rigged swimmable soft plastic might be the ticket, but I'm so new to this I really only have have experience with t-rigged stick and creature baits.

Hit the Columbia on Sunday the 25th and I caught a beast of a smallmouth. At 21.75" it was the longest smallmouth I have caught and it tipped the scales at 5lbs even (well short of my heaviest which was a 5lb 14oz bass from 2023). That was definitely the best summertime smallmouth I have ever caught. It really turned a somewhat mediocre day into a great one!! I got the the river around daybreak and the wind was calm and forecast to be light out of the West all day long (that turned out to be a lie) so I decided to head East for the first time this year. I was a little nervous about that decision since I don't know that part of the river very well since it is not often that it is fun to fish from the kayak. The other things that gave me were different for this trip is that the shad smolt are out-migrating and it looked like it was raining there were so many dimpling and the river was probably up a foot or two from anything I had seen this summer. I thought the shad smolt would be there but I was surprised by the water height. I dd hit the point by the ramp to start the day and promptly missed a couple of topwater bites and caught a smallish fish. I then headed East and picked up a small smallmouth just upstream from the ramp. I was starting to feel like this was not going to be the greatest of days. I headed upstream to a point I have done well on in the past but only managed two bass off of it. One was decent (2lb 4oz) and the other was a little over a pound. After fishing that point I gave serious consideration to turning around and heading West but for whatever reason I decided to keep going East. The next couple of spots each produced a handful of fish. Mostly dinks but with a couple of decent ones thrown in. Overall it was a grind with a lot of work going into every fish I was catching. The fish were in 15-25' of water and it was a lot of slow and tedious probing for each bite that I got. I was rotating between a Ned rig, drop shot and wobblehead jig and each produced some fish. By noon I only had 11 bass, about one every half hour. Definitely not lighting it up. I had two bass that were over 16" and a lot of the rest were dinks. Several spots that normally produce were completely empty and I kept thinking I had made a mistake in heading East. I had not given up hope completely since I had not yet reached my favorite spot but I definitely was just hoping to catch at least a few fish off my favorite spot. By the time I made it to the spot the wind was starting to pick up which I was hoping would stimulate the bite. I started carefully probing the spot and it was crickets. I was starting to really feel bad about the day at that point. I stopped to eat my cherries and think. I said to myself, "There have to be fish on this spot". I realized that the wind was making it hard to control my kayak so all my fishing a bit haphazard. I decided to extremely carefully re-probe the spot making sure every cast had a purpose in sifting the water. Since the wind was making it hard to fish I decided to make the wobblehead+Zoom speed craw my primary weapon. It gets to the bottom quickly and is pretty easy to fish effectively with even in the wind. After a bit of careful probing I found a section of that spot that was holding fish and quickly caught a few nice bass and big (3lb) pikieminnow on the wobblehead. I switched to the drop shot for a bit but realized I was having a hard time keeping contact with the bottom. After a bit I realized I should mostly keep the wobblehead in my hand. Three casts later I felt a thump and then no weight at all. I reeled in quickly and when I caught up to the fish I slammed the hook home. It was one of those beautiful moments where you rear back on the hookset and it feels like the tip of the rod does not move an inch - oh yeah, this is a big one! The fish fought hard but I was able to get it to the surface pretty quickly. When I saw that fish I almost lost my mind. Fortuneately I was able to keep my wits about me and keep good pressure on that fish. I was not going to make a stupid mistake on this one! As I went to scoop it with the net it made a thrashing jump and sort of bounced off the side of the kayak. I was able to scoop it up on the rebound and the beast was mine!! Just a beautifully healthy 5lb 0oz, 21.17" piggy. I stopped fishing for a few minutes after this and texted that picture on the board to a handful of friends and my family. A somewhat mediocre day just became epic! When I got back to fishing the bit just kept getting better and better. To try to keep them biting I switched up to a Ned rig for a bit and picked up a 19.25" 3lb 1oz bass. Then it was back to the wobblehead and I picked up a couple more decent ones and then a 17.5" 2lb 13oz fish. For most of the day I could not find a decent fish and now the small ones I was cathing were as nice as my best fish from earlier. I am not sure if the bite just turned on or if my careful probing is what made the difference and I don't care I ended the day with 20 bass and the 1 pikieminnow. My best 5 went 91.25" (21.75, 19.25, 17.5, 16.5, 16.26) and weighed 15lb 1oz (5lb, 3lb 1oz, 2lb 13oz, 2lb 4oz, 1lb 15oz). They were still biting good when I left but the wind was becoming ferocious (turns out the light winds turned into a 20mph blow). It took my 55 minutes to slog back to the ramp through the wind and the waves and I did not regret a single second of that ride Here are some other pics from the day and my video.

@bulldog1935 I was fortunate enough to be around some of the Legends of our sport. I believe I learned more about fishing from a WWII freind of my Dad's. He was a world renowned flyfisher man & won multiple awards for the flies he tied.

All of the sudden all the ticks and itching made me wonder why the thread was called "My Happy Place." Doesn't seem all that happy if you are throttled by ticks from it.

I dunno about their 'Mint' rods, but I picked up a couple 'Excellent' Victorys that I couldn't find anything wrong with...no blemishes, straight-line guides, unstained-intact cork, etc. I have no problems getting used gear from ALF...I think they under-rate the condition sometimes.

I agree with @A-Jay and @TnRiver46 that wind prediction is not super accurate. Still, what else can you do but check a bunch of sites and try and form an opinion. Here is my list: https://www.windy.com: In the bottom right of the page you can pick from different weather models. I look at them all. I don't think the default is the most accurate for the gorge. I think that often HRRR 3km and HRDPS 2.5km are more accurate. Both of those models only predict a few days out. https://www.windfinder.com/weatherforecast/columbia_river_stevenson: I don't trust the regular wind forecast but there is a superforecast button (link should take you right there). Clicking that gives a different (seemingly much more accurate) forecast. It is only goes 2 days out but seems relatively accurate. The best site is https://thegorgeismygym.com/forecast/ : This person looks at all the wind forecasts and makes an assessment based on those and the pressure differentials at the ends of the gorge. I subscribe to their daily forecast and even shoot them a donation each year because I appreciate their efforts so much! Then of course I always sacrifice a live goat to the wind gods before I go out

Dont forget the buzzbait. Incredibly snag resistant.

Weather predictors been stealing everyone’s money for decades

I do it without mapping or 2D 😂. I deal with enough electricity at work you can tell where the drop offs are using a spoon and the channel marker red/green buoys

Line color, diameter, type, and invisibility is a variable I can control, so I'm going to maintain my control over it. Regardless of whether the fish can see it and gets spooked or not. There are enough variables out there I cannot control already. No reason to add another one to that list.

I agree. That's exactly what I'm trying to do, keep the amateur honest. Let them walk to the trailer next to me that has no locks at all. I see it similar to escaping from a bear. I don't have to outrun the bear, I only have to outrun the other guy. 😂

I see all sorts of different fish... bluegill, baby bass, shad, shiners, etc that will come to check out clear 4lb mono line...not the bait; they very clearly see the line, even in dirty water. I have convinced myself that trying to make my line less visible is not close to being worth my efforts. I am far more concerned with whether I can see the line.

First off, fish don't think or reason - everything they do is a trade-off between instinct and fear. Gary Borger said it best - big fish aren't smart, big fish are cowards. This is reinforced in the gene pool, because inquisitive fish become dinner for larger fish, birds, etc. Heavily hit fish will feed on cycle driven by fear - when another fish eats, then competition-for-food instinct takes over. @Catt is correct about there's enough natural fiber drifting in all waters. Even with trout, vision is not related to tippet size, but tippet limpness - how your fly behaves in the current compared to the natural food. Many times, I've stood with a fly rod over big redfish and black drum with their backs sticking above 6 inches of water - they don't know you from a bird in a funny hat. If your presentation is stealthy, you get a lot of chances while your heart is skipping beats - when your presentation looks like natural food, they eat it. Same thing is true sight-fishing big bass - lead their patrol so your cast doesn't spook them, and your fly is in the right place when they arrive.

Me too. And every one is different And wrong ! Even if I could somehow take the mean average of each one, they'd still be WAY OFF. 😎 A-Jay

I use Loctite Red on my trailer balls. Good luck to any thief trying to remove that.

Always fill the spool for max casting performance

Talk about someone stealing your sunshine. Guy catches a state record and soon thereafter his buddy wipes the floor with him https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/west-virginia-fishing-buddies-break-state-records-hours-each-other

Thank you. ME TOO ! ! ! A-Jay

If you ever wonder how to catch fish off shore using mapping, side scan and 2D, this video shows one of the best ways to do it. I have been catching fish the past few years this way. It doesn't always work but its just like cruising the bank up close. I have found some high percentage spots on a few of the lakes I fish and have pulled some nice fish from these spots all year round. The nice thing is once you mark the them, you can go back and hit them anytime. I'm not always using a jig though, sometimes it's a deep crank that I know hits the correct depth I want. I also use small swimbaits. I always enjoy the looks I get when I pull a big one from 20 feet deep and 300+ feet shore. It's like I just pulled off a magic trick or something.

Reading water and thinking like fish has always been innate for me - not a huge accomplishment, since fish IQ ranges from 6 (trout) to 12 (carp). One hot summer night off a lighted Lake LBJ tee-pier, fishing Daiwa Minicast and 1/16 oz Panther Martin, I cast out as far as I could, stripped some extra line, leaned the rod and sat down until everything sank to the sandy bottom. Stand up, slow retrieve, I caught a fish every 3rd cast and filleted 17 white bass when I got up the next morning. Coming from the cooler, deeper lake, the fish couldn't breathe well in the hot shallower cove, made a run along the bottom, turned up to the light to feed, and ran back out. My presentation exactly followed that route. How I figured this out - could see the flash of feeding fish turning in the light. I had an audience lining the pier, and I was the only one catching fish. (we had a fish fry and invited all the neighbors in the park -Mom's hush puppies were epic)

Love a positive update!

Digitaka is having a sale, not sure I've ever seen that before. Big highlight I noticed (didn't check if any are actually still in stock) Zillion SV TW 30% off the already cheap JDM price. Bantams are in the 30% off Shimano section. Poke around probably a ton of good stuff I glossed over.

Keel weighted swimbaits and flukes will be your best friend.

Try swimming a zoom ultravibe speed worm, 3/16 worm weight pegged and cast and retrieve like a spinnerbait or swimbait. Can kill it next to weed clumps, swim it just under the surface. I prefer the magnum version over the standard. The mj rig with a senko style bait( screw lock a spinnerblade with a swivel in the back of your t rigged stick worm and swim it through as well.

Well spinnerbaits do well, swim jigs, a weedless swimbait as well. I would probably throw a swim jig with a swimbait or some sort of kicking craw trailer (rage craw cut down a bit). Make sure it has a good weed guard and work it through. A spinnerbait is very good in woos. The arm keeps it from hanging up pretty good but it will hang just like every thing. Hope this helps and welcome to the forums.

A little tip, if you clean both sets of the threads with brake cleaner and put some Loctite Primer on them before putting on the Loctite Red, it most likely "AIN'T" coming off without some heat.

Think about it.. What do bass have to compare what fishing line is? Do they determine that it doesn’t belong there so it’ll just move on? Do they rationalize what it is and its intended purpose, slow down and turn away? The answer is nothing in its world is as thin as fishing line So as @Catt asks… “what do they think it is? My answer is they have no idea and don’t care, as they look at what’s at the end of it. Mike

I think bass can see our line but that's not my question. My question is what do they think it is? Do they gasp & say, that dang Cajun at it again. Next how can a bass pick out my line given everything floating in the water.

is a seed tick basically a baby tick? idk the technical term... a young tick. i'm apparently not nearly as tuff as you............. swimming across with your fishing pole kept outa the water reminded me of the surfing scene in apocalypse now.............

It sounds like you need to buy a wading staff. Use the staff to test for sudden drop offs or mud. They are especially useful if the water is stained and you can’t see your feet. Just make sure to tether it to yourself so it doesn’t float away. Current will generally flush any mud or silt away and deposit it into eddies and slack areas. That’s where you have to be careful

You don't have to be in the water all the time. If it's loose muck, just go rat around on land. Any bridge with pillars is going to disrupt the current and pile silt somewhere where slack is created.

Line color only matters to how the fish see and react to it. Line colors we can see easily helps to detect line movements on the water surface. Trout have micro vision to see small insects and line diameter can be critical trout fishing. Bass are not line shy fish but can react negatively to line that hampers lure movements or rate of fall. For example use line too big in diameter can hamper the live bait like Shad move and bass tend to avoid that bait but eagerly strike the same bait on smaller diameter line. Tom

20 yds of 25-lb mono backing on a deep spool is lighter weight than an extra 200 yards of 20-lb braid because there is more air space in the mono stack. That said, on shallow BFS spools, no reason to back with mono, unless you just want a few wraps for your arbor knot. Covered on a recent thread.

Probably won't make bit of difference in casting. Only thing I can think of when going half and half is to save on the braid. Then, again, need to know how far the cast will take off the spool before the braid/mono connection shows. I don't take that chance. I load up all my reels with the line used, which is strait braid. No issues yet.

In my wading experience, I was more concerned about getting “swept” because I waded shale rim rock and if you stepped off the ledge wrong you were going for a ride. Summer is not so bad but when you are breaking ice chunks in the winter, getting swept can be a real danger. For that reason, I chose 3mm neoprene bootfoot waders that were good for summer and if proper underlayment, winter as well. The most important part was they were buoyant and kept me afloat. When paired with lightweight wading boots with felt soles and gravel guards, I was pretty good at floating. More treacherous than quicksand was the possibility of me getting a foot wedged in between rock or roots in fast deeper water.

Years ago I got hooked on the larger brush hogs also. Bigger bait bigger fish. That went out the window. Still have a few. Gave some away. I never bought a ton of them. The baby version by far are more productive for me. BUT everyone’s situation is different. Water and fish are different. When you can catch a 4” bass on a 7” worm makes you wonder.

@Mike L & @Mobasser I've never caught a bass I'm a full size Brush Hog but I do on 6th Sense Hogwalla. Go figure

I stopped at my local tackle shop today and showed unbelievable, super hero, power of restraint. Take that Monkey.

I launched at a small, boggy pond this morning, the pond where I caught my PB last spring. I have gone there again and again looking to catch that girl again or her big sister, but other than a few four-pounders, I have failed to dance with a big mama. This morning appeared to be perfect conditions with calm and fog. I caught 26 total, but my first 16 were the size of this bass, which was my first: Finally, my 17th bass was bigger: I was working weed fields: My 19th bass was solid too: I also caught some that were short, but fat: And one more thick fish. The requisite pretty pic: I finished the morning like I started, with another cookie cutter, smallish bass:

There will be fish there if there is water under it. Like catt said, work the openings with all of those things. You can also punch down through the thicker parts. However, make sure you go armed for bear. Without the boat to go to the fish, you have to bring the fish and any pads he's wrapped in to you. I'd be looking 65-80lb braid minimum.