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Championship weekend; part 2. Sunday, the weather was very similar to Saturday, except the wind was a little lighter. Crisp in the morning was going to give way to a warm and sunny afternoon with 10-15mph north winds. I started on my same ramp area with Deric, along with 2 new additions to the area that hadn't fished there the day before, one being the guy that was in second place behind me in KBN. It started a little slower than the previous day, taking me almost 15 minutes to catch my first one, but it was a solid 16 incher. A 15.50 inch fish would follow that one about 30 minutes later. The whole time, it seemed like Austin (the guy in 2nd), was catching fish about every 5 minutes and they all sounded big. He was less than 2" behind me, I was sure he was well ahead of me now and I was going to have to make up ground. The next bite from a keeper sized fish was about 10 minutes later and was one of the strangest sequences I've had with a fish. I missed it, got it to bite again (Ned rig), let it pull my rod down, stuck it, and it popped off. Sure I'd messed up my chance, I casted back once, then again, and it came back. This time, I let it swim with my bait for over 10 seconds before I set the hook. She surfaced and I scooped it with the net, and the hook was barely in the tip of her lip and just fell out in the net. Many of them bit very strange on Sunday. This one would go 17" I bounced around the area a bit, hitting the entire ramp and both loading docks many times before trying a nearby point leading into the ramp. I caught a short, then a walleye, and finally, a 16.50" smallmouth. It was almost 9AM and I only needed 1 more. I remembered how I use to get some on a weighted wacky rigged trick worm on this lake many years ago. Always used a pink or white worm, but all I had was watermelon/purple flake. I tried it anyways and after just a few cast, a 14.75" fish ate it to give me 5 fish just before 9:30. The ramp area was crowded, so I started fishing up the bank I'd caught my last culls the day before, and came up empty. I cut across and fished a shallow point that has produced many times before. My first cast, I got a light tap and my line started moving. I set into a heavy fish with my Ned and had it for a couple seconds before it jumped and tossed it back at me, probably a 17 to 18 inch fish that would have really helped. I thought I could surely get another bite on this nothing looking bank that nobody had been fishing, but I was wrong. An hour passed, then 2, and 3. I had nothing but drum and a couple tiny smallmouth to show for it. I was getting worried and a rockpile up the lake was calling for me. I kicked the motor on high and made a run. 30 minutes later, I covered a lot of water quickly to the rock pile I've taken my family to so many times because it's always loaded with dumb, hungry smallmouth, size is just always in question. This time, it had neither. I caught a single 6" smallmouth and nothing more. Now, I was 30 minutes from where I'd been catching my fish and I had just over 2 hours left. I talked to another competitor that had fished the same ramp area at the end of the day on Saturday and culled a couple times. He said he was thinking of heading there right after he fished another point just around from where I saw him. That made up my mind, I was heading straight back to my starting point. I was shocked to find only 1 other kayak fishing there when I got to it. He was working the area I had been in the morning, so I fished the side that Austin had fished in the morning. I methodically worked it over with a Ned, and finally got one to eat, another 16 inch fish to cull out the 14.75 incher. The guy fishing the other side decided to load up as he'd had a rough day, so I bounced around to where I had started. Not long after I got there, I hooked a good fish that jumped eyeball high and tossed my Ned, another cull gone. There is a large, covered dock in this cove, one of the only none marina docks on the lake, and there is a bunch of brush under it. I was easing my Ned through it, when what I thought was a limb, started to pull back. For some reason, my rod snapped perfectly in half on the hookset, so I got to fight the fish with half a rod and opted to swing it on it's arrival to the kayak. Another 16" to get rid of the 15.50". With just over 30 minutes left, I felt okay, but still was dreading how big the fish sounded from the morning that Austin was catching. I needed another cull. I hadn't gotten bit on a tube all weekend, but something told me to pick it up. I tossed it at the end of the loading dock and scooted it a few times before it disappeared. The fish was super dark when it surfaced, made it look much bigger than it was at first, but at 17.25", it was still my biggest of the day. With just 2 minutes left, I was fishing the walkway of the big covered dock with a Ned, ready to pack it in. That's when my line mushed up. The hookset was solid and a big head came out of the water, a largemouth! It looked huge, I hadn't seen a largemouth bigger than 12 inches all weekend and that big head made it look massive. My heart was pounding when I scooped it, knew I had to hurry to get my picture before I ran out of time, but the hook had gone through it's lip and was tangled in my net! I was frantically pulling on the net and the hook with my fingers and then pliers. It finally popped free and I quickly slapped it on the board, 15.75", no help. That big head and super thick body made it look so much bigger. I laughed at myself as my timer went off. I doubt I'd have gotten a picture in time if it was a cull. I loaded up and headed to the awards, nervous to find out how the others had done. The 2-4 or 5 inch lead I had over others seemed like a big gap at the start of the day, but I'd imagined situations all day during my huge dry spell of what if this person catches a few 18's or better, I really had my nerves on end. The called 3rd place, 161" to Daniel. 2nd went to my buddy Deric with 161.75". Then they finally got the first, 165.75", to me. I had it won when I caught my 5th keeper of the day. So now I'm qualified to fish the Bassmaster Kayak Classic in March on Lake Fork, a lake I've never even seen before. I had also entered the team event for the day, which my partner and I won, and it was announced that I won AOY, just barely squeaking it out in the final event of the year thanks to 2 second place finishes in row plus this win. It was another great season and I'm already looking forward to next year.

Topwater blow-ups

Got out today as this was my only chance this week, baby sitting the next 2 days then I have to cook a bunch of stuff for my daughters 30th birthday on Saturday. Hit up a lake I haven't fished in a couple of months, it's got a max depth of 12'. Kind of a grind with more wind then predicted and managed 6 fish. 3 largemouth, 1 smallmouth, 1 crappie and 1 perch.

As I posted earlier, a buddy and I went on a week long trip to the St Lawrence river fishing both in Canada and New York. We had a mountain of info and waypoints along with stories of big smallmouth and 100 fish days. 4 of our friends had been there 3 weeks before and my buddy had a Canadian pro that was born and raised on the river supplying us with intel. We felt pretty confident we were dialed in on baits and locations. This would be both of our first times on this body of water. We stayed in Alexandria Bay in a nice clean old fashioned double decker style motel right on a creek with docks right outside the front door. It was nice being able to walk to the boat in the morning and cast off for a day of fishing. As a general statement, over the week we traveled 25 miles up river and 20+ miles to the mouth of Lake Ontario downriver. We did not venture out into the lake. Due to a couple of factors, fishing was tough. Very tough. We fished hard sun up to sun down every day. Did we catch fish? Yes we did, but none of them came easy. The weather has been unusually warm and the fish were in a funky pattern. We were hoping to time it to the fall feed up but it was not happening. Second, if you have ever fished there, it is a totally unique style of fishing. I’ve done my fair share of fast moving water smallmouth fishing like on the St Clair and Detroit rivers in Michigan, and I’ve waded fast flowing rocky rivers like the Shenandoah and the headwaters of the Rappahonock but nothing compares to the St Lawrence. While there are many, many, islands and bays to tuck in for some slower water, we found all of our fish on ledges and seams in the main river. I’m going to throw a little shade on my buddy who was in the front of the boat. The best way to catch fish hunkered to ledges and seams is to vertical drift fish. He would set up on a ledge and spotlock, which totally eliminated me from using the massive current in my favor. To give you an idea how fast the current was, the lightest dropshot weight I used was 3/4oz. Sometimes I could use 1/2oz in the seams. The river could go from rock outcroppings above water, to 100ft plus in 20 feet. It was crazy. Will I go back? Absofreakiglutely! I have never had a 5 pound smallmouth pull like these fish did and still go 4 feet in the air multiple times. It wasn’t just the current either, they are a different breed living in that river and every single one we caught was absolutely pot belly full of gobies and perch. Enjoy my picture dump and if you have and questions, feel free to ask. Oh and by the way, every one of my fish came on a Yamamoto bait. Shad Shape Worm, 4” Senko, Yamatanuki, Pro Senko and finally a Scope Shad. All on a dropshot or a Ned. My buddy did catch a couple on a jerkbait. He also used a Berkley Flatworm a lot. Since I don’t like posting pics of others without their permission, I’ll just put up a sample of mine. May take a couple of posts to get them all up. Few more pics….

Got out this morning at daylight while still dealing with the remnants of the latest storm. Light drizzle, extremely foggy so boat never saw plane all day. We caught smallmouth, largemouth and a Walleye.......deep clear lake in WV.

I was working outside yesterday, doing some things around the house. Around here fall is in full swing. The air is getting cooler and dryer, the leaves are starting to drop. As I worked I kept thinking of Octobers past, and it felt so bitter sweet. My dad taught me about the outdoors, guns, shooting, hunting early in life. Back then, around here, the hunting was good. October was bird season and as soon as I was old enough I joined dad in the fields and marshes going after pheasant and duck. Our times together were so special. As we hunted he talked to me about things in a way I had never heard before, not father and son, but I guess, two hunting buddies. I learned more about him then than ever before or after. Mid 1980's my dad retired and he and mom retired in Florida. I stopped hunting soon after. Even after all this time the smell of gun oil, a freshly fired shotgun shell, the " fall" feeling outside, all trigger the flood of memories of me and my dad and the special bond we shared together. He and mom passed years ago, but I like to think he still remembers as I do, every fall. Thanks for listening Jim

Got the new KGB 'Lil Guy" in Threadfin. Missed the first couple drops of this bait, but finally scored one. It's so much smaller than any other glide I own. The Chad Shad makes it look like a morsal 🤣

Bait Monkey will not get me into expensive swimbaits, bait Monkey will not get me into expensive swimbaits, bait Monkey will not get me into expensive swimbaits. There, I said it like Dorthy. It has to come true.

Private pilots were in there hours after the storm passed by. It took several days for significant Gov't resources to show up. Civilians always respond faster than Governments.

Was one of the first back in Indiana to throw it (early 1990s) and won A LOT of money in tourneys by keeping it a secret for many, many years

Buckle up for a long winded story, I was fishing Thursday-Sunday this past week. Saturday and Sunday was the combo 2 day championship for the Kansas Kayak Anglers and Kansas Bass Nation Kayak Series on Melvern Lake, the winner of the KBN qualifies for the Bassmaster Kayak Classic on Lake Fork in March. I prefished on Thursday in brutally calm conditions. I stayed in the dirtier water thinking it would help. Turned out, it didn't really matter where I went. I caught a few small largemouth, and then a carp on a dropshot right by the ramp, so I headed out and east towards some areas I thought would be good, they weren't. I found carp everywhere, and stumbled onto one nice smallmouth that was sitting in inches of water and smashed a 6th Sense Speed Glide. I fished from 11AM until 7PM and every bite was a surprise and very far between. Finally, at the end of the day I started getting some bites on a Zara Puppy in the slick calm conditions. I had one pretty decent smallmouth to the boat, when out of nowhere a 30ish pound blue catfish tried to eat him right next to the kayak! It was wild! He made it unscathed for a picture though. The next day, there was much more wind and the fish were a lot more cooperative. I launched near the dam and got bites immediately. The fish were so much healthier than they have been in past years with the explosion of the shad population. How do these stupid things catch up with a bait burning along above their heads? I picked fish up pretty steady but was wondering where the big ones where. Fishing a Duo Realis Rozante 77 when it stopped hard. The biggest smallmouth I've seen from the lake in quite a while cleared the water and after a hard fight, was in the net. Would have rather seen her in the tournament, but it was good to see it either way. The hardest fight of the day, on a Ned rig of course. And then there's this guy. I didn't feel great about my practice, but I'd found something at least. That night while I was rigging up my rods at the campsite and cooking my food, I had my catfish rods out and caught a couple nice blues, always a good time. Day 1 of the tournament, I opted to start right at the ramp, and so did 2 others including my buddy Deric. Him and I both started fast at the 7AM first cast, my first fish was an 18" smallmouth just 7 minutes into the morning and he was fighting one while I was unhooking mine. Just 6 minutes later, I added a 16" fish to my total off the same spot. Then it took over a hour to get my next bite, while I watched Deric catch his limit just 50 yards away. It was at least another solid fish at 16.25". Just a couple cast later, I added my first smaller fish of the morning, a 14.75" fish. I was really struggling fighting these fish. Not only were they fighting extremely hard, but I'd had a mishap in practice. At some point, I'd broken my AR switch off my Ned rig reel and could no longer backreel. I don't know how anyone feels like they have more control with the drag than they do backreeling, that was horrible having to use my drag. The big fish from the day before was calling for me. With 4 fish in my bag, I only needed one more bite, and a fish like that would really make for a huge day 1, but it was a gamble. I caught it off the dam, which is a vast riprap bank that takes a couple hours to cover, even fishing fast. After covering the entire thing, I had 3 dinks and 1 14.75" fish that filled out my limit to show for it. The wind was howling, I was eating wave after wave. I needed to cull the 2 small fish to stay in it. I put my nose into the waves and pounded back to the north, all the way back across the dam towards a shallow rockpile that I hoped was hidden enough that nobody was messing with. It took several cast and a lot of fighting snags, but I finally plucked another 16" fish from the rocks at almost 1PM. I had 2 hours left, and I still needed 1 more bite. I tried to go back to the ramp area, but it was packed with kayaks and boats and I couldn't get any bites on the few spots that were open, so I headed north along that shoreline. I was running out of time, running out of hope. My wife called, she tends to be somewhat of my good luck charm when she calls. The sunfish were mauling my Ned rig while I gave her a recap of my day. One was tappity tapping away at my bait, when suddenly, it just got heavy and started moving slowly. The hookset was solid and a good smallmouth was instantly airborne next to the kayak. A couple quick surges and it was in the net. A 2" cull with a 16.75" fish just after 2PM. I started getting bites after the call. Picking off small ones off each secondary point I'd hit. I fished quickly. I came to one point and got a weird bite but the line moved off. The hookset was extremely heavy but the fish was fast and not rolling. I had a monster smallmouth, I knew it, I'd caught them here before. I saw the bronze/brown in the water, then I saw the orange. It was a gut punch, but at least I already had a solid bag at that point. I didn't cull anymore that day, and ended in 2nd for KKA with 83", 2" out of first behind Deric. I was leading the KBN, 1.75" ahead of second place. Deric wasn't going to be able to fish the National tournament, so he didn't enter the KBN so he wouldn't take that spot from someone if he won. To be continued!

I may have mentioned this a time or two over the years; I began throwing white, skirted jigs with a white grub trailer over 20 years ago. After it dawned on me that the fish were hitting it within seconds after it hit the water, I began yo-yoing it around 4-8ft. below the surface. That increased my strike ratio, but it wasn't until I began a fairly straight retrieve that the light in my pea brain came on. I was basically swimming a white jig with a trailer. It has been a staple presentation for me once the water temperature drops to around 70 until it dips below 45 or so. It worked so consistently that when the water temp. rises above 45 in the spring, I started using it then, too. I don't know when the term 'swim jig' started being used, but how many of you throw a white one in the fall? If you don't, why not?

Wonderful memories @jbmaine! Thanks for sharing, and helping me remember fond times in past Fall seasons. Like @gimruis, fall here in Nebraska have gotten warmer and warmer. My Dad (now 83 years old), remembered having to pull the blind off river before Thanksgiving due to ice. This was in the 1970's and 80's. Now we rarely have to pull the blind before the end of the season in January. I really love, Love, LOVE the fall. It is most definitely my favorite season. I'm lucky to be able to still talk with my Dad, get him out on the boat. He doesn't hunt any more, bad shoulders...but we still remember and talk about great hunts -- pheasants, ducks, turkeys, etc.

I’ve been known to dabble in some 15”+ jumbo perch, don’t even have to walk on ice got an even bigger one somewhere along the way pushing 3 lbs but it was back in the flip phone days and the picture was lost in translation

I’m anxious to hear why our military wasn’t ordered on rapid response mission to drop food , water and essentials immediately.4 or 5 days later don’t cut it.Force in readiness is what we do.

It's amazing how impressive that man is for his age. He's building an empire and has one of the best hearts imaginable. In the absence of a federal response, it's been incredible to witness fellow citizens like Cleetus step up to the plate. Hundreds of private helicopters showed up the day after the storm. Good reminder that you can't count on the Gov't to help you after disasters, only your neighbors and the generosity of your fellow Americans. There aren't any fundraisers or donations pouring in from other countries.

I saw a picture of a monster killed online the other day , 183&3/8. You can find them in the warm season if you really want to , heck here are even velvet hunts available in many southern states now during late August

Guys I live in Johnson city tn. I really wish I could tell you the media is sensationalizing it. I really wish I could but it’s not. Johnson city it’s like we never got any kind of weather but some gust and some rain. Go ten miles east and that’s when things start to get real. It’s wiped out sooooo much. Towns, highways businesses and everything. The nolichucky is now considerably wider. I moved here two years ago from south Louisiana and have been through a number of hurricanes in my life, but I’ve never seen anything like this. Sorry to paint a doom and gloom scenario but that’s what the situation is. Now….that being said, the people here are strong and are gonna rebuild and come back better than ever.

Day 2 exploring the strip pit pond. Started out throwing the Ned and the floating worm. They wanted the floating worm, and a caught a quick pair of fish hiding under the duck weed. I moved down the bank but was unable to get anymore bites on the end where the terrain was flat and level. I got back on the old dirt road that paralleled the bank and found a spot where I could make my way down to the water’s edge if I was careful. After getting settled in I noticed the water was a bit deeper here so I tied on my mayor and proceeded to catch another 4 fish all about this size. I had another fish hit my mayor but he was too big for my M/F and buried himself in a lay down and broke me off before I could horse him in. I still had my ML rod with Ned tied on so I started throwing that and my and hooked another big one on my first cast. Of course this one made a beeline for the lay down on my other side. I thought if I shook the branches it may spook it and cause it to run out on its own. To my surprise the lay down wasn’t very heavy (it was more like a big branch) and I was able to move it out of the way while simultaneously manipulating my rod to untangle my line and land it. After the protracted struggle I decided just to get the pic and throw it back. So I’m not sure about the weight. After that I added another smaller fish to the day’s tally and headed home since I was being dive bombed by a cloud of mosquitoes.

I know it’s different around the country but this time of year can be tough to find them here in Michigan. I spent the weekend at a lake up north that I’m pretty familiar with and have had some pretty good success fishing the last couple years. The lake has both largemouth and smallmouth but the largemouth numbers seem to be much higher. Also decent pike and musky, walleye, perch and a million rock bass. I spent a solid 9-10 hours on the water Saturday and only managed two small largemouth and two pike (one of the pike was a good one though). The lake is generally divided up into three lobes - east, west and south. The east and west are mostly shallow flats with a few 20 foot areas. The south has shallow flats, a few humps, steep drop-offs and the deeper parts of the lake down to about 60 feet. I am most familiar with the south and fish it almost exclusively since between all the different features I eventually run into some fish. Not Saturday though. Oh no, not Saturday. In fact I was surprised to see several other bass boats on the water because usually it’s not a heavily fished lake but I didn’t see anyone else catching anything either. I spent the whole day moving and searching all the different areas, fighting the wind and trying to keep a line in the water. All the spots that have produced previously were empty. Saturday night I considered hitting a different lake on Sunday but decided to make a plan, tie on specific lures and exhaust another lobe on the same lake and if I came up empty, so be it. Fortunately the morning was calm so I could see down into the water and get a better feel for what was around before the wind set in again. I covered as much water as I could with shallow crankbaits and a lipless but wasn’t finding anything or even having a follow up. Finally as I moved to a little deeper water I picked up big schools of small fish on the FFS so for the first time all weekend I was at least near fish. I still didn’t have any success until I randomly cast out into about 10 FOW at a couple fleeting blips on the FFS. Right then my phone rang and as I pulled it out to check it POP a big thump hit my underspin hard. Turned out to be the best fish of the day. Went on to catch a few more but they were scattered and skinny despite the abundance of forage in the lake. Very hard to determine any sort of pattern. The water temps were mid 60s in the morning warming to high 60s in the afternoon. Grass was still green and healthy and other available cover was still there. It was really weird to see such a large portion of the lake so empty of fish despite such a variety of good habitat for them. Also odd to have them ignore everything but the finesse underspin. Drop shots, lipless cranks, shallow and mid-cranks, a-rig, micro a-rig, tubes and top water all were completely ignored. But the ones I caught on the underspin hit it hard. I don’t think I have fished a lake or section of a lake as hard or completely on a single day as I did Saturday. I was exhausted and my body was smoked. Still a good weekend though! It helped having a little success on Sunday for sure.

I stand corrected, the Cajun navy is there with a team of mules delivering insulin and other supplies . Great humans like @Catt know what’s up heard from my aunt and uncle in Brevard and they are ok. No power but alive and safe

@NorthernBasser Absolutely brother, I think it's the most realistic swimbait I own. The first run ever on this bait was a Bluegill pattern that was incredible, sure hope they do another run in that color. They might have been the most realistic small bluegill bait I've ever seen. It's .8oz and 4.5", it has the same hooks as 110 Jrs have 😁 Think I'm going to upgrade them to a bigger size or at least use STX 38s on them.

I just want to take a moment and say that I’m glad our Bass Resource members posting in the aftermath of the devastation hurricane Helene left in its path are alive and well. The loss of life and property that have been shown on the news is saddening, and it is my hope that those 400 people reported as missing are found safe and in good health. As for the talk about relief efforts/support I’d like to offer a little more information on an emergency service response to a disaster. It needs to be understood just saying “I need help, send help” as simple as it sounds just doesn’t work when it comes to government helping after a disaster. The Federal Government needs to know specifically what those on ground in the affected areas need (water, food, money, fuel, tents, etc.), how much or how many, where is it needed and for how long before being resupplied. Next comes the operation of getting the requested relief supplies where it’s been requested all the while coordinating the various government, civilian and volunteer personnel with rescue efforts and getting basic services back on-line. And even with fires and other things happening, California sent over 170 firefighters trained in search and rescue to help with recovery efforts because that’s what Americans have always done, help others out in time of need. I just look forward to reading that everyone’s family and neighbors are safe, well and are getting the necessary help to rebuild their communities.

Wow! I love a good rack.

Op I fish in Indiana and Michigan. Both lakes and rivers with and without shad. Right now our bass are relating to shallow areas with green vegetation and wood. Bottom comp doesn’t seem to matter. Shad are not currently in those area but bluegill and sun fish are heavily. Since Sunday I have had the best luck on large shallow cranks and walking top waters. The biggest bass seem to prefer a 6th sense swank in a baby bass color(green top, white sides). I’ve been casting other square bills and jerk baits in similar size of various colors and non produce like the swank. It has a very very different action than a traditional square, round, or coffin style crank. I have found the L style cranks produce almost as well but not as often.The key has been staying just over the top of the vegetation or 3-6 inches into it. Above or below that and they won’t take it.For top waters any ghost type 4-6inch walker has been on fire. Has to be a ghost or bone/pearl color others get follows but not takers. While fishing for bass I’ll generally toss out a wacky or t rigged stick bait. Almost always bluegills, sunfish or whatever bass may be feeding on will show themselves following those baits. Otherwise I use sidescan on my Helix to see if bait schools are in the area. Our water clarity has been changing a lot with the rain over the last week and water has cooled to 60 degrees give or take. Sun/cloud cover, and wind have not affected my fish at all. I fish daily from a boat.

I do every time I go fishing, but my white jig has a wire arm with two spinner blades rotating above the jig. It works every where I have fished, but I have never fished on the Tennessee River. I have tried a jig without the spinners and have had limited success. I plan on trying them more this fall.

Well done, @gimruis. I laughed when you stated that you were channeling @Bluebasser86's excellent storytelling style!

The Goff TD catch was awesome. That guy had a game. 18 for 18 passing and a TD catch. Quite a feat for an NFL quarterback.

I have a few of them. They are fantastic when fish are hiding in cover or grass. I sent a few emails to Yukitomo since I got the first one. Very nice and busy guy. He said there is a new version coming out. Here is the video. You think the current one is in high demand, just wait.

@A-Jay I don’t fish in any bigger organized tournaments, so these two small derbies with my Father and friends are the only competition I’m in. They are the two most favorite fishing days of the year for me. I’ve also been on the losing end a few times too. Not quite as fun. I should have taken a photo of the two big bass I caught. Dang it.

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.

Got this one on a watermelon seed super fluke…

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

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. 🙂

I can't believe larger companies haven't released a copy of this bait yet. They have been backordered for months at the few places that sell them, and go for $35+ on ebay. Come on Mike Siebert...whip one up!

In all of the YouTube videos I watch, and all of the articles I read talk about largemouth chasing around baitfish this time of year. The lakes around me don’t have any shad, but they have some small baitfish like shinners etc. but I’m pretty sure that most of the bass are eating bluegill, and maybe some crawfish. This might be a hard question to answer being that you don’t have too much info about my situation but you could still maybe help me out a little. In your experience will largemouth in grassy northern lakes with bluegill as the main forage still chase around bait balls like everyone talks about? Will the young of the year bluegill kind of act like shad? If not where will the bass be and what will they be doing? I hear a lot about green weeds so that will definitely be on my radar next time I hit the water. Where else should I look?

Must be a funk up north. I just put a post up in the smallmouth forum about our trip up to the St Lawrence. We thought the fall feed should be closer up there but we were wrong. Probably the hardest I have fished for a week straight. Here’s a pic of the Hotel we stayed in if it gives you any idea how tough it was.😜

This is a great thread. So much bass-catching information in it. I've complimented Pat's teaching in the past, so this time, I compliment girmuis's, casts_by_fly's, and Tom's. I especially liked gimruis's observation that bluegills pecking at your lure can mark the presence of bass. A few days ago, I hooked four bass in four casts adjacent to feeding loons. Note I didn't write "floating loons," but "feeding loons." They were diving and diving, marking baitfish for me. They were my FFS.

99% of the time I have some type of white colored swim jig on deck during all seasons. Its been my highest producer the past 2 years.

Absolutely horrible Prayers to all

I don't throw an A-rig often, but it's certainly something I'm not going to give up. It's really cool to watch an A-rig, and Bass on live sonar. 5 hooks are legal here. I've caught as many as 4 on one cast. They didn't all 4 hot at once though. Next time any of you are using an A-rig when you hook the first, don't immediately bring it in. Other will hit the other hooks. I've had the best luck with 4 various swim baits, and a Johnson Silver Minnow on the rearmost position. Regardless of number of hooks, I look at an A-rig as an oversized spinnerbait.

I have a unique view on stitching as a original Picese bass club member with Bill Murphy during that time. Stitching began as a retrieve technique using nose hooked live crawdads. The technique was borrowed from fly fishing retrieve line over the index finger under the pinky finger alternating back and forth. This allows you to feel the line and slowly walk the crawdad along the bottom. I used a small bucket with water in it to drop the stitched line into to prevent tangling when the crawdad acted up indicating a bass was about to eat it. During the strike have time you reel up the slack line and set the hook. The item that is essential is a stationary platform like anchored boat or standing on shore. Stitching is very slow requiring patients, it’s a saturation presentation. When semi buoyant hand poured worms became available we stitched a split shot worm because they worked and didn’t crawl into brush like a crawdad did. Today’s bass anglers don’t have the patients needed to stitch or double anchoring system. We do have hydraulic anchoring today but few if anyone stitch today….it’s too slow! Tom

Funny you should ask. A while back (OK 11 years ago) I went all in on the Stitching Thing. And I do mean all in. Never could make it work for me and eventually abandoned the technique all together. One reason might be that I was fishing in predominantly Brown bass water. Just did 't know it at the time. Either way, here's some light reading regarding my personal experience with it. A-Jay

I believe the OP is in Minnesota, so maybe I can help here. Most waterbodies here do not have shad. Some of the larger river systems in the southern portion of MN have them, but the individual, isolated land of 10,000 lakes do not have them. So the assessment of sunfish being the primary forage in most largemouth lakes is accurate. Obviously they eat more than just sunfish, but that is the main prey source here. I caught about 16 incher on Saturday morning, and while unhooking it, it spit up a 5 inch sunfish on the deck. I have been fishing twice in the past 3 days for largemouth (pre fishing Sat, contest yesterday), and both outings were directly correlated to sunfish being present in an area. If I was fishing with a plastic, I could feel them jack-hammering on the end of it. I also saw several schools of them visually near the surface. But every once in a while, a bass would strike too. If you're fishing in a smallmouth lake, then the main forage is crayfish, followed by perch. My approach is to start with a moving bait and once you get a strike or hook a fish, immediately stop there and slow down with another tactic because there's very likely more bass around. Beat it into a pulp. I caught about 15 fish in one small area on Saturday morning doing exactly this and yesterday in the contest I put two 4 pounders in the boat in 10 minutes.

In my experience balls of bluegill/shiners/baby bass (much like shad in appearance and behaviour) start popping up around March and don't stop being an important part of LMB diet until the water gets to be less than 50° in shallow water and sunfish and shiners move deep. They suspend on sunny days - usually around some kind of cover for the shade and protection it provides and they swim around more open water on cloudy days and relate to the surface more (usually). I find the largest bass often relate to these extremely tiny baitfish - not to eat them - to eat what's eating them. 😎😉🎣

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.

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.

Absolutely nothing wrong with double willows. Choose the correct blades for the correct conditions and desired presentations. I catch 90% of my spinnerbait bass on double willows. And I catch a lot of bass on spinnerbaits in general.

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.