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That’s some beautiful scenery @Swamp Girl 😎 I’ve been so uninspired about anything lately, it was a toss up whether we’d fish at all this weekend (didn’t fish last weekend either 😕). But I felt guilty at the thought of “wasting” a beautiful early fall day, so Wes and I went after smallmouth. There’s a particular stretch of shoreline that has produced a few for me on a whopper plopper/Choppo in the fall so that was my plan. Water temps were about 67 degrees. We started in about 6-8ft. of water with sparse coontail, and I caught a chunky pike on about my 5th cast. Not long after we’d moved to a deeper shoreline I caught a 2.60# smallmouth near a rock sea wall between two docks in about 5-10ft. of water (it’s a steep shoreline, dropping from 5 to 35+ ft. in a casting length. The pattern along that steep shoreline was my El Choppo 105 around docks, and I weighed four 2-2.5# smb. But it wasn’t a barn burner with a fish every 20-30min. and Wes blanking with his flashy swimmer (we’ve got several other ploppers, but he didn’t want to change). So, I suggested we try a long underwater point that rises steeply from 30ft. of water to a narrow flat 8-10ft. deep. I think we stumbled into a feed and Wes caught a 3.72# on his 2nd cast with a buzzbait (was trying for a largemouth) and I landed a 3.35# and a 4.01# about 5 minutes apart. My 4# was very cool because I had just cast when a good smallmouth swirled 10ft. in front of the boat with a bunch of minnows spraying ahead, then my plopper got whacked about 1 second later. I had one other miss on the plopper, then we lost track of the school, We did see some bait busting again a couple times and trolling motored over there quickly with no luck. So after 1/2 hour with no more bites, we called it a great afternoon and headed home for dinner. 🙂

Got some blowups this morning and finally stuck a little bit better fish. Nothing big but at least enough to bend the rod a bit, 3.5lb. Missed a couple better ones but this morning is the first time I've seen the larger ones out. I love fall surface fishing

Well, this morning reminded me a day last fall where I managed to catch some fish, but never managed to find their pulse. I caught 25 total, all on a Dobyns spinnerbait with an orange Mayor and my Yo-Zuri popper, but nothing over 18 inches and eight of them came in two flurries. The first flurry happened when I was paddling across a rocky flat and a couple bass bolted from two reeds. "Hmmm," I thought, "so that's where you hang." So, I cast my popper to five other tiny stands of reeds and caught five smallies. The other flurry happened when I was paddling back and saw two loons diving and diving. "Hmmm," I thought, "bait." Yep, I hooked four lmb in four casts, but only landed three, each about 17 inches, all on the spinnerbait. All my other bass came here and there. No pattern, no pulse. My stupid, old camera stopped working (AGAIN!), so I used my cell phone, which takes much better photos. See? Then the Sun rose. To take a photo, I had to remove my cell phone from its waterproof pouch, rouse it, and then shoot, all while the bass was drowning in air, so I only took two bass pics, the first a typical fat bass and the second, a longer, skinny one that I caught in weeds. ^See^ my stupid, old camera? I shouldn't complain. I've used it for about 35 years. However, it is a slacker compared to my bike, which I've ridden for 53 years.

Got this one on a watermelon seed super fluke…

Kris passed on today, I guess Willie Nelson is the last man standing. Thanks for all the songs, RIP. You will be missed

Doing my best @Bluebasser86 storytelling impression of a tourney with this, so bear with me. Derby number 2 today from 8am - noon. Four fish limit. Pretty tough conditions, pressured metro lake, hot, windy. My partner and I had 4 legal fish by 9:30am but they were all dinks. Like 13-14 inchers. Couldn’t catch anything bigger. At 11am, we went to a patch of deeper weeds I had found pre fishing on Saturday morning. BOOM! I caught a pair of nearly 4 pounders in a 10 minute span and got rid of 2 of the dinks. Got ‘em both on a jig worm along a weed line. Before we pulled up to that spot, my partner said “we’re screwed if we finish with those four dinks. We need to replace 2 of them with quality fish to have a chance.” I agreed with him. We ended up winning by 0.67 pounds. Those two fish I caught in a 10 minute span won it for us. After I caught those two fish, my partner said to me “Did that really just happen? It’s exactly what we asked for and we may win because of it.” Another round of free beer and lunch afterwards. Beer goes down a lot smoother when it’s free.

Messing with my boat in the garage this weekend while it rained and I read my trailer winch plate for the very first time. Boat and trailer are circa 1977. Don't know what went on in Hastings Nebraska back in the day but I'm giving that place a wide berth!

Got this one deadsticking a big gill bait in a windblown pocket. I picked up this technique last year specifically for pressured fish. I cast it out and let it sit without any input, letting any ambient wind or current provide all the action. After about 10 seconds this fish slurped it off the surface. This type of bite is always very subtle and the fish is usually lightly hooked.

Been a fan of Bizz Baits since they were a site sponsor here a number of years ago. I haven't bought much tackle this year, but I saw they had some good looking stuff in their custom shop, including some limited-run plastic colors and "Fall Fry" triple willow spinnerbait:

Trout, walleye and bluegill are all eligible for my fillet it program. But I just don't have it in me to take a knife to a big bass. btw, the waters I do take a few eaters from, are pretty clean. A-Jay

Fished the municipal pond today. Caught a handful of dinks on the drop shot. While I was there I met a gentleman who told me about a strip pit near by. I decided to check it out. When I got here it wa shallow and weedy, just like I like it. I deployed the floating worm and caught a quick couple fish before I ran out of time. Bigger than the ones at the municipal park but not impressive by any means. Hoping I can explore this place more thoroughly soon.

How about a triple willow? Just arrived: The "Fall Fry" from Bizz Baits.

I ate coon once. Once........ 😉

Yesterday I did my second tournament. Last year I decided to do one a year so I could 100% dedicate 8 hours to fishing for a day no excuses. This tournament was at blue marsh against mainly guys who fish Tuesday nighters there all summer long. The fish had to be mini 15” for the livewell. This is a big open lake that fits perfectly into the FFS use. had been rainy misty and nasty here all week. Blast off was at 7 and I pulled boat 27. The plan was to use fast moving baits over shallow weeds. After no eaters we made a big switch baits that could be paused long and/ fall slow. 11am we got our first keeper. We had some others that did not make the 15” cut off. Now the race was on to get a limit. We quickly followed up with another in the same area. There were also a few lost. We back tracked to another area we fished early doing this tactic. We got one more keeper and a couple non keepers. So 3 total at this point. We left time to hit the area we got the other two keepers at on the way to weigh in. With the pressure on I lost two fish in the last half hour. I completely blame myself for those two lost. I rushed them in and let them get airborne. We weighed in with 3 fish 6.92lbs. The winning weight was 16.02. Second was 15.07 third was 14.14 4th was 13.69. Big fish was 4.69 which went to the second place team. We had a blast. Ran on some adrenaline and took some fish to the scale. There was even a point when we got those two fish very close together we said hey! We aren’t out of this yet! Again, some mistakes and figuring out the pattern late hurt us. All things to build off of for our next one.

Watch 1976 Star is Born, Kris Kristofferson was fantastic ….RIP Tom

My thought and condolences to everyone

Once things settle, and you are ready to spend some time and effort on your flooded pond or lake, here's a checklist of what to do. https://www.bassresource.com/fish_biology/Flood-ponds.html

Great songwriter, singer and actor.

First, myself and my family are doing good. We all live on hill tops, so no threat of flooding. We've got no electricity but have generators going. It's a mess around here. Power is off EVERYWHERE. The Lake Lure dam is failing, or has failed. This morning, before I even heard of the dam problems the Broad river at Gaffney SC was within 10 feet or so of the I-85 bridge. There's several small dams down the Broad river. I hope none of them fail. At 99 Island reservoir the Broad river is 10 feet above full pool. There's trees down everywhere around here. I'm still not good due to my kidney stone, but I saw some kids with chain saws clearing trees. I was able to sit comfortably in my truck and pull some trees out of the road with my tow strap. It was nice to see young people out working for the "greater good". The truck stops along I85 are packed with travelers out of gas. There's one exit with power on. The line from the Interstate to the truck stop was at least 1/2 mile long. I suspect they'll be out of gas and diesel soon. Lake James (the first lake on the Catawba river chain) is a little over 10 feet above full pond. Rhodhiss (next lake) is 7 1/2 feet over. Lake Hickory (next) is at full pond. Lookout Shoals (next) is 8 1/2 feel over. Lake Norman is basically full. Mountain Island is 4 1/2 feet over. Lake Wylie is full but not over. The power company had been pulling the lakes down for several days. Lake Wylie was 6 feet lower a couple days ago. As I said earlier, myself and my family are doing good. Everyone impacted by this storm will be in our prayers. Internet is out. I have limited cellular data so I won't be posting much.

Huge Rage Tail sale. 20% off all in stock Rage Tail from now until Oct 14, 2024. Use code Rage. This includes all instock Rage products like the new Hawk, Luau Craw, Rattlin Rage Craw and more. https://siebertoutdoors.com/products/ols/categories/rage-tail

Adult Beverages along with a healthy serving of Bragging Rights, just taste better. Nice job and Congrats to you both. A-Jay

Fish Fry! ^Commented on my pictures on social media all the time by my non-fishing friends. I couldn’t tell you the last time I kept a fish for me to eat. I keep a fair amount of fish, but it’s always to try to feed it to a bigger fish so I can catch and release that one too 🤷🏼‍♂️

Just added some new custom color jigs in Hot Craw, Blaze Craw, and Sapphire Craw. I have also updated my Megalodon spinnerbaits. All of them now have Owner hooks and the 3/4 oz you can get a light wire or a heavier twisted wire. https://siebertoutdoors.com/products/ols/categories/special-make-up-custom-colors?sortOption=descend_by_created_at

I was happy to see my Broncos beat Rodgers again😎

You can’t wash off E. coli and they farm a lot more than just produce I can count on zero fingers the number of people I’ve heard of getting sick from eating catfish they caught but the list of people that got sick from grocery store and restaurant food is a very long one

@Bucks Bass and Bourbon I've gone an entire lifetime without FFS and I still get a few. If you'd said that you went a season without Bourbon, now then I'd be impressed. A-Jay

Thank you👍

Yes I get asked all the time by non-fishermam if I keep all my fish. Wife and I both love fish but I only keep a small percentage of them. By the way, Largemouth bass caught out of clean clear lakes are a delicacy so are spotted bass.

A very interesting and informative eulogy by Rolling Stone Magazine. RIP Kris Kristofferson, country singer, actor, Rhodes scholar, and soldier. https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country/kris-kristofferson-dead-1107074/

lol not even close to the same as boiled peanuts. Put a small bag of salted Planter's in a Coke or Pepsi. Drink a little bit first so the peanuts fit. And make sure to drink it fairly quickly so the peanuts don't get soft. Sweet, salty, amazeballs. It was started in the South. As I understand it, workers would add peanuts to the soda on their lunch break to not have to touch the peanuts with their dirty hands.

Heading out Wednesday with cases upon cases of bottled water, food stuffs etc etc.. My family, my people are from Black Mountain Kentucky, or Harlan county.. I'm glad my Grandfather moved away and headed north, settling on the Siltstone Escarpment in southern Indiana.. also called the Knobstone escarpment..

I mean, you eat the ag causing the runoff…..

We are all good here @Spankey, across the mtn not so much the rivers that come across the Appalachians from NC blew way out so the current is raging, the SMB will adapt as you know

Absolutely this website is not responsible for the actions of certain people..... I guess I'm a fairly trustworthy person and with that comes a risk. It's all resolved and I'm just out the cost of shipping back to seller. That's why I always do my transactions through Paypal as you have protection if the money is not sent via "Friends & Family".

I tell people that if I kept what I caught, there'd be no fish left.

RIP Kris, thanks for the music.

I wouldn’t give 35 cents for one

Nichols Depth Finder spinnerbait sells in 1.5oz @$10 with high quality components. $35 for a spinnerbait is ridiculous

Look at Abu Garcia. I'm taking 3 ML rods after redfish next week - two of those are JDM Abu Garcia. The shortest one, though, is 6'5" - the range is 1/16 to 5/8 oz. USM Vendetta offers a 6'3" that will probably match your lure range. https://www.abugarcia.com/products/vendetta-casting-rod?variant=42039898669195

Interesting discussion, thanks all for sharing. chuckle@ I don't eat a football after a touchdown. I don't eat a lot of fish. I only fish for bass, and I don't like the taste of the one I ate last year. If I routinely caught walleye, which I hear is the best eating fish there is, I'd likely eat a few.

Maine might be at its most beautiful when it's snowing, Alex. I've planted a mound of red twig dogwoods and another of yellow twig dogwoods, which are bright red and bright yellow in the winter. They're both backdropped by giant arborvitaes, so the red and yellow stems are frosted with white, glistening snow. I just smile thinking about it.

When they ask me if it tasted good , I can often say “it sure did “

I am a believer in durability when it comes to spinnerbaits. Cheap Walmart versions for 3 bucks will catch a few fish but they will inevitably wear out sooner because of inferior components, specifically the frame. I have northern pike here, a lot of them, and they are wicked aggressive. They love spinnerbaits. That’s the primary reason I use premium versions. El cheapos would last one assault by a pike and then be done. $35 for one is a bit steep, but I’ve paid 15-20 bucks many times for one.

My favorite spinnerbait has double Indiana blades. Booya 3/8 oz convert double Indiana looks good, the wt/chart-blue with Zoom white spinnerbait trailer is a good bluegill color. Mike at Siebert can make up whatever you need. Tom

I've been doing well throwing these the last couple years, clockwise starting top right: -Pepper Custom double willow "bleeding bluegill" -Siebert Outdoors Compact Cosmic double willow, "Pumpkinseed" -War eagle colorado-indiana, "Copper/Chartreuse" -Revenge double willow, "Bluegill" -Booyah Covert double Colorado, "Chartreuse/White/Silver" I like gold and copper blades around bluegill/sunfish forage.

You came to the right place for advise on spinnerbaits. TnRiver 46 is the site expert on spinnerbaits. I'm sure he will be able to tell you everything you could ever want to know about spinnerbaits. I recommend you buy four colors of spinnerbaits. White, Chartreuse white, black, and Chartreuse black. Blades I recommend singe Colorado, tandem willow, and tandem Indiana in silver and gold. 3/8 1/2 and 3/4 oz. Don't be afraid to try black in the day time. The bass don't know that black is only for night time. Fishing a black spinnerbait in the day time wont get you a fine from the bass police, but you may get a warning citation. Rip up the citation, and ask them to apologize when you catch your PB. I personally don't use trailers or trailer hooks, but you can get away with only two colors, black and white if you buy some chartreuse trailers. Trailers make for good contrasting colors without having to change baits. I probably should use trailers, but I have such a hard time deciding what one of my hundreds of spinnerbaits to throw, I feel I may suffer from bass bait overload trying to determine what trailer to put on what bait. Save all of your parts off of broken spinnerbaits. You may end up building your own some day and you can never have to many parts. Be warned, the Bait Monkey is very fond of spinnerbaits.

I’d agree it sounds like you had to much food and not enough hungry mouths. I’d try a lipless you let get below the bait ball, then a popper. If neither get hit, move on.

Ain't enough bass to garner my attention.