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Hit the Nursery again yesterday evening for some BFS play. Caught 9 bass and a bonus bream. The wind was dead calm so a Z - Man Micro TRD in GP/1/32 bullet weight/Gamakatsu #2 EWG did most of the work. It amazing what the Aldebaran BFS/Dobyns will throw.

Been a rough end of summer for me. Decided to go back to my favorite and best producing lake just for a bit of a confidence boost. Still struggling in that big lake iv been trying to conquer. Think that's just going to be how that lake fishes, but that's besides the point. Been at least a month, maybe 2 since iv been to the lake I went to this morning. Vegetation looks like it's starting to die off. Lots of matted vegetation. Wasn't having luck in my go to spots, had a long hard weekend without much sleep, decided to call it quits. On my way back to the ramp I was tossing a weightless t-rigged creature bait on the outer mat line and in little holes. Ended up finding a few, one being a really good one. A little skinny, didn't get a weight but probably close to 3 but not quite. Had she been a little more full of would of been a 3.5-4 pounder for sure. Put up a real good fight too. Confidence boost.... mission success

Fished for 16 hours straight Friday-Saturday, had 5 bites, that was a rough one for sure. 9 hours into the trip after throwing everything and the kitchen sink at em... first fish. 2nd bite was a wakeup, new PB @ 5lb 14oz. also ate the firecraw cb. picked up 3 on the pop-x at change of light including this drag pulling (bfs) monster

2 day report. Water has cooled into the upper 70's and the Bass are active. Saturday I fished the lower end of the Lake. I caught 13 Bass, all Spots and a couple Blue Cats. All of the Spots were between 14 and 18 inches. I fished the upper end of the lake today. I caught 17 Bass. 10 Largemouth, and 7 Spots. Smallest was 13 inches. The rest were all over 14". Biggest was 20 1/8" long and weighed 4.57 pounds. Biggest Bass from each day is pictured.

Got to sneak out for another trip to "Lake 19" this morning, 7 to 11:30. A good one nailed nailed my Cavitron buzzbait on the first cast....and popped off a couple arms lengths away from me. I reminded myself I don't believe in omens, and carried on, throwing mostly the Cavitron until the sun was over the trees, then moving in on the surface veg, pitching a Zoom lizard. I ended up catching 8 LMB + a ~2-footer pike. Couple of buzzbait munchers, 16" and 17", helped ease the sting of that first lost fish: Another 17" ate the lizard, and a 19", 3.81lb slurped the buzzbait. I was about ready to go home, when this 19.5", 4.18lb grabbed the lizard: And that, I declared, would be the last cast.

Yeah, I fished again. Just an hour and 15 minutes this afternoon, from 12:15 to 1:30. The disadvantage of my short trips is that there often isn't time to locate bass, but I did catch four and all on a hard jerkbait, as that was the only lure I took. It's always fun to use a lure I don't use much. This was the biggest: And this was the smallest. It's my new PW (Personal Worst). However, don't mock this bass. Rather, fear it for one day, it'll be fearless and ferocious and BIG ENOUGH to swallow a musky lure...or your Yorkie. There were bass feeding on the edges of off-shore grass, but I couldn't match the hatch. If I'd had a small popper, I think I could have caught them.

Elite Evo field test and tested my FG knot! Both work flawlessly! also I think i caught my PB in that top photo! Love how they fight

I fished from 5:45 to 6:45 and caught four, two smallies and two largies. I don't have enough time in an hour to paddle to where the biggest bass are, but I did manage to paddle halfway and scored an 18-incher: I caught a 17-incher too: I also caught two fat smallies: All caught on a wacky worm, but I also hooked and lost two, one lmb and one smb, on a popper. The big news is my neighbor, the guy who greatly improved my boardwalk, spread ten yards of gravel on my path and has extended my boardwalk all the way to the pond. And he did it out of gratitude for letting him fish and hunt from my lot. Whadda guy! He's grateful to me and I'm grateful to him.

this is the best kind of fishing......Bubba Bassin.....

Getting fish out of pads has it's own set of problems. Getting fish out of pads while on the bank comes with additional problems. Getting fish up & over a handrail adds even more problems. Bubba bass fishing at its finest!

Even tho it looks intimidating, it isn’t. In addition to pitching into any hole you can as @Catt said, don’t let that be the only way to fish that stuff. First, no need to make a silent entry into those holes as you normally would when fishing vegetation. It’s stuff like this that you can “punch” right through as @Zcoker mentioned making as much noise as you can. But you gotta have the equipment to handle it. I’d grab the big stick with 80# braid keeping in mind you won’t need any weight heavier than an 1/2oz and cover as much water as you can fan casting right into it. You may be surprised Mike

In the public lake I mostly fish, there are no secrets, there are no secret spots. If you can throw it at bass, they've probably seen it by now. Stealth, persistence, and presentation have been my best assets to that. I have noticed that when I fish less pressured waters my catch rates are 2x or more than they are at my usual public lake. One private pond around memorial day I got 16 in one day and could barely eek out 5 at the public lake the same week. It's important for me to adjust expectations for the water I'm fishing to avoid unnecessary frustration

I went to a national forest in north Florida today. My target species were mud sunfish, bluespotted sunfish, banded sunfish, blackbanded sunfish, and fliers. I caught none of those. However, I did catch this warmouth in roadside ditch. I also found a couple of ponds, where I caught some coppernose bluegill and a dinky Florida bass. I’d like to come back soon to get my target species.

There are many controlled experiments that confirm bass do learn to avoid lures. In his book Knowing Bass, Dr Keith Jones shared some research he did at Berkeley. Groups of six bass were allowed to freely strike at a minnow bait for five minutes. During their first exposure to the lure they hit the bait on average a combined 24 times. They were then separated into two groups. The first group was retested 2 weeks later and they hit the lure on average a little over 2 times. The second group was tested 3 months later and hit the lure more than the first group (about 4 times) but still far less than when originally tested. These bass were not hooked but still learned and remembered that the minnow bait was not food.

Studies have shown bass caught on lures typically resume normal feeding activity in under 24 hours. It takes a little longer for those bass subjected to tournament regimes (12-18 hrs) versus those caught and immediately released (6-10 hrs). Some other thoughts: “Pressure” also needs to be taken in context. For example, the 400 yearly tournaments on Rayburn sounds like a lot, but at well over 100,000 acres, and according to Texas’ own surveys there, actual fishing pressure is only about 5 hrs per acre. Compare that to a place like Guntersville at about half the size, which is about 4X that amount (19 hr/ac). The smaller the body of water, usually the greater the effect. In Indiana, our two largest reservoirs (8-10k acres) average 8X and 10X greater fishing pressure (41 & 48 hrs/ac) than Rayburn does.

Original Rat-L-Trap Grass Early pre-spawn

I fished my pond again this evening for 1.5 hours and had a great time because...I caught: Three bass out of trees, One bass out of weeds, Two bass off of shorelines, and Three bass that were open water wolfpacking. Nine total. Here's the first one, taken from a shoreline: Then another shoreline bass, nearly 17 inches: I caught two of my wolfpacking bass at the same time, as I was paddling back and had two rods out, one with an underspin and the other with a spinnerbait. The first was 17.5" and the second was 16.5": I finished my evening on the very next cast with a muscular 15.5-incher: I love all the ways we can catch lmb. Again and again, I have thanked Glenn for urging us to stay mobile in the fall to catch bass and it's so true. I no longer pursue and apply a pattern like I did in the summer because there is no pattern, no catching 40 bass 10 feet offshore or 50 bass in one feet of water tucked under woody bushes. They're here and there and everywhere, but I have to find each one. I also love having fishing five minutes from my home, being able to ring my spouse when I reach the car and say, "I'll be home in five minutes." @Rocky998: Congrats on your new PB. Those are two beautiful bass.

Not catching a lot, but there's been some quality. Here's a few little bait/big fish. scott

Visited a buds pond in a light drizzle and 25 mph gust today that I call " The Nursery ". Took my new Aldebaran BFS/Dobyns combos and caught 18 micro - bass and 2 bream.

That's the key. You need a broom stick spooled with rope to pull fish from that. Its no place for spinning gear.

New video just released!

Was just skimming through the latest BB when I saw this Q & A piece with Milliken on pressure vs. lure design/innovation: Did that level or style of competition (Elite Series) give you any ideas for new baits? > "Ooo that's a good one. I don't know if it was the level or the style as much as just how fast fishing is changing with how the fish are reacting to different baits. It's been that same way for like the last 3 years, I would say. > "The fish are getting conditioned and changing so rapidly. You constantly have to stay on top of what they're doing that moment. > "...if you fish the same body of water with a lot of tournaments, if you fish a smaller body of water with a lot of tournaments – you can see the fish changing every 6 months even. > "So I think just overall fishing pressure has caused a lot of the baits we're working on right now to come into fruition."

Hear, hear.

Always preferred the og steez and the og alphas for jerkbaits, and that for the longest time, but now i personally consider the aldebaran mgl to be the best for the job because of how the reel palms and how light it is. Of course a 21 zillion will be great, but between the two i'd go with the Alde.

Interesting. I pretty much came to the same conclusions in my high school cafeteria. Not much if any of that mess was real food either. A-Jay

I fish Lipless in the spring, fall and early winter with fall being the most productive. I’ve caught them on various retrieves but the 6 or so bass I’ve caught between 5 and 8 pounds with a lipless I was using a straight retrieve around structure.

@ol'crickety Beautiful fish, and I had to look up that Googan bait. That's a cool looking bait, and makes sense why you'd be fishing it #whopperplopperqueen 😆 Last few days have been surprisingly great since we've started to transition into Fall. 8.6 on a DT10. She bent out both hooks on STX 38s. That fish would have been lost on stock trebles 1000%. Those hooks are just exceptional. 7.10 and a 7.3 on Free Rigged D Bombs.

No bigs today, but you’ll never hear me complain about catching a limit. I had 6 keepers today along with one missed fish and one broken off - it took my 6 lb. line into a treetop and that was the end of it. On and off rain through the weekend, but surface temps did drop below 80 for the first time this summer.

I fished my pond for an hour at the end of the day. The problem with only fishing it for an hour is that the bigger bass are at the far end of the pond, but there's no time to paddle there and back, so I'm left catching 15" to 16.5" bass instead of 17" to 18.5" fish. Still, they're strong and fun. I caught four on a spinnerbait in deep water and one tight to the shoreline on a Googan Revolver.

The fishing has not been kind to me of late. After our heat wave we had a few nights that got down into the 40s. Couple that with sun and clear skies it’s been tough. Last 3 days I’ve returned to wade the tail waters of Dillon lake on to find the water level had dropped there as well. Three days of grinding produced a dink LMB along with a dink channel cat. Today cloudy weather was forecasted but after waiting until 3PM I was getting antsy so I decided to just go conditions be damned. Since I didn’t have a ton of time I went to the crappie hole which is the closest to me. I started out drop shotting around the dock the houses the spillway riser, but no takers there. I moved to the other end to fish the shallow flat where I caught my PB in July. I was working my shaky head along the bottom and got a hit but when I went to set the hook my line broke at the leader knot. I shrugged it off and figured I must has tied it wrong since it was kinda a rush job. I retied it, being a little more thorough this time. I was out of shaky heads but I had a single solitary tube left over from my Canada trip so I tied that on and got back to fishing. I worked the tube across the flat a couple times and caught the nicest LMB since this summer. Unfortunately after releasing it I spotted another even bigger fish floating out in the middle. My stomach dropped thinking this may have been the one that broke me off earlier. It was too far out for me to reach it. In my defense there were a couple guys fish in my that area when I pulled up, and I didn’t see ten feet of leader line dangling from its mouth. Either way my heart wasn’t in it anymore and I decided to pack it in and head home. When I looked out the fish was no longer there so I guess there’s a small chance it’s okay, at least that’s what I’m telling myself.

The A-Rig accounted for this gorgeous Brown bass today. Brief report to follow. A-Jay

Nice trip after work, lots of numbers . My fly fishing buddy got the lunker for the evening, I missed a few monster topwater hits

Areas like this out in the Glades are productive so I can’t see why the area you posted wouldn’t be. Bass luv the thick stuff!

Only had two and a half hours to fish after an early afternoon appt., so switched to a closer reservoir today, but the pattern I’ve been on continues to hold with another limit of bass.

Feeling nostalgic this morning I visited the flat where I caught my PB Smallie 7 years ago. Well all of that was quickly put to rest by Mr Pike who Clobbered my walking bait. And then tried his best to make me believe he was a big bass - no such luck. Never did get the topwater for bass deal going despite what looked like semi-idea conditions. Limiting factor - no bait shallow. In fact, it took me most all of the morning to even find a couple of schools of yellow perch. But once I did, my efforts were rewarded. I'll get out again, just don't have a clue when that might be, I was thankful for this one however. A-Jay Side bar - been down to only 1 GoPro for a while now. But ordered two new units that should be up and running in a couple of weeks. Hope I can still fish.

If the Nursery keeps going in this same direction, a few years down the road, you'll be telling this story: "So, I was fighting a pretty nice bass for the Nursery, three or four pounds, and just about had it to shore, when an eight-pound bluegill suddenly appears, t-bones that bass, snaps my 30-lb. braid, and takes my bass to the deep. I expect I'm the only man alive who knows, so trust me when I say that an eight-pound bluegill runs like a bonefish on crack."

Any reel that casts and can roll up slack will work. When it comes to fishing stick baits it's the Indian not the arrow. Of course ,it's your hard earned.

This is important in LIFE not just fishing - and yet still, it is SO SO good to internalize this wisdom for bass fishing.

For a change of pace, here's a numerical trip report: Launched: 5:45 a.m. Left: 9:15 a.m. Wind speed: 2 mph increasing to 8 mph Wind direction: NW Total caught: 20 SMB/LMB breakdown: 12/8 Longest bass: 20.75" Range of SMB: 15" to 17" Build of bass: On the thin side, as they always are at this pond Lures used: Walking bait, fluke, and spinnerbait tipped with a Crush City chartreuse and white Mayor. Each lure caught about the same number. Sky: Started mostly cloudy and ended mostly sunny Temperatures: Lower fifties to sixty degrees Longest bass: Some of the other LMB: One of the SMB:

I caught a 1.5lber and a dink on this tonight it handled them both very well and I couldn’t be more pleased.

Went bass fishing with the boy for a few hours this morning. I had not been bass fishing since August (I’ve been muskie fishing for the past few weeks instead). Caught about a dozen fish ranging in size from 12-17 inches. I got up at 6am and Garrett was already chomping at the bit to go. We’re still working on how to hold the fish correctly. Water temp is 73.5 degrees.

That was an awesome fish! I bought a few A-rigs but I am afraid to throw them in the kayak. I see myself spending a day untangling 8 rods that are in one big snarl

They last a lot longer when a person doesnt catch fish. 😀

I’d cancel my trip if the report was a bite on drop shots.

If you're going to wait 5 hours for your first bite, at least make it a good one 🤣 40lb blue on cut carp. 5 minutes after she swam off, this 20lb flathead ate my sunfish.

Yeah nail weights will definitely make flukes and stick baits heavier and affect the action less - but weightless is the only way to have the action that it has. (hope that makes sense). I'd try lighter line and rod before I try heavier weight with a fluke. Also always rig it so the hook eye is outside of the plastic or it will rise up a lot. It will stay at depth much more efficiently with the hook eye exposed and it will weight and keel the bait to some degree. If the issue is depth - probably I'd put it on a C- Rig. That's the most efficient way to get a fluke deep fast and then pop it around weightless (sort of)