paul.

good day on the water today. i really thought i'd see some good fish on beds and get to sight fish a little, but that plan pretty much fizzled. snatched a few little bucks off the few beds that were made, but i only saw one small female on a nest. played around with her a few minutes until she cooperated just to get back in the swing of sight fishing. after another hour of looking and not finding, i abandoned ship on the sight fishing game. i just don't think the spawn has really commenced hot and heavy yet around here. it will probably be on big time with the next full moon though. so i started chunking and winding. rattlebaits, spinnerbaits, and swim jigs produced sparingly. the big fish just weren't wanting to cooperate. i was starting to get frustrated. then something rather unusual happened. i discovered a huge bluegill bed which is odd on its own since usually the gills don't really get cranked up around here until the bass are at least halfway done spawning. i figured some slab bluegill might make me forget the mediocre bassin' day so i tied a small plastic on my spinning rod. normally i do really well with this setup but the gills just wouldn't cooperate very well either. but then i caught a bass, and another, and another until i was catching small bass almost every cast fishing for bluegill. that told me something. they wanted small and they wanted slow. i just had to find a big female. figuring the majority of what i had caught were bucks, i had to assume the bigger females were still holding out in a little deeper water. so i tied a baby craw with a 1/8 oz. weight onto my spinning rod. backed out to a submerged fence row with timber and grass and there she was. 8 lbs. 1 oz. really fun on the medium light spinning rod. well, i can say it was fun now but at the time it made for some tense moments.

now THAT's a fishing trip. way to smoke 'em guys. wow!

6-9. big fun on a short line.

thanks guys. last 2 pix are of the same fish. 8-5 was the weight. smaller bass weighed 5-5.

let the rest of the fishing world debate. I'll just re-bait. seriously though. that's really what it's all about for me, feedback gleaned from the experience at hand. and when all else fails, i just try to put the rod down and be still and quiet for several minutes. once i'm no longer distracted, i try pay attention to what is (or isn't) going on around me and soak up any clues. every trip is a completely new experience. sometimes you can't formulate a solid gameplan based on what you did yesterday fishing the same lake, let alone what someone else did a month ago on a completely different type of lake. to me, the only ones that have any say in where, when, and how i fish are the fish themselves.

Little man showin' us how it's done. awesome. it's a sad day when catching a bass, any bass, stops making us feel like he feels in that picture. wishin' him many, many more to come. wtg dad.

long before solunar tables, temperature guages, depth finders, and even daylight savings time, these little guys told our grandfathers and their grandfathers it was time to go fishing. when they talk, i listen. and today, they were right again.

ets back at it catching bigguns. just as certain as death and taxes.

some 11th hour success on literally my last cast tonight. only 2 tiny fish came to the boat in cold front conditions before this one finally decided to show up. better late than never i guess. just goes to show that as long as that big ol' full moon is hangin' in the sky you've always got a shot. wish someone woulda been with me so i coulda got a better pic.

you are welcome in my little jonboat anytime A-Jay. actually this nice weather we have been enjoying is about to take a NASTY turn for the colder. I hope that will play right into my hands though. c'mon down bro.

after a good day of fun fishing yesterday, i had to get back to the grind of bait testing. dad was my partner today. always great when he's in the boat with me. catching fish is just a bonus. for the most part he power fished and i fished slow. about 25 fish today. wish we would have gotten there earlier b/c they really slowed down when a front started moving in. usually it's just the opposite. that was pretty strange. the fish were mostly small (i always try to keep dad in the numbers for the majority of a trip). one good kicker. by far the most tense moments of the day were when dad foul hooked a HUGE snapping turtle on his spinning gear. i really thought i was gonna have to figure out a way to get that expensive rattlebait out of its hind leg but thankfully it pulled off right at the boat. good times.

great story for sure. there is just something about that moment when you wonder whether you're gonna catch the fish or it's gonna wreck your stuff that always keeps you coming back for more. never gets old. and with dad to boot. icing on the cake right there.

y'all smoked 'em! that's a trip to remember for sure. grats.

7 lbs. 12 oz.

PBs rock. grats man.

in honor of your ironclad willpower, i too will set a new record in FPA (fishing purchase abstinence). starting now. whew, man that was brutal! didn't think i'd make it there for a while. toughest 3 seconds of my life!

nice hat trick today. big bluegill (sorry no pix of those), crappie sized shell cracker, and a nice bass. here in the mid-south, this perfect storm of optimum spring conditions has big fish of several species putting on the feedbag in preparation for the upcoming spawn. Lord willing, i really hope to meet up with this bass again after she's had a couple of more years of reckless gluttony. her features just scream young top-tier fish with uncharted trophy potential. fingers crossed. hope y'all are catching some too.

good fish for sure. you are a much more patient man than me. i hate jerkbaits.

i have always been jealous of guys that are proficient with electronics. every time i've tried, my fishing seems get worse rather than better. the word that comes to mind for me when i think of electronics is "distraction". i always spend too much time with my head in the graph and not enough paying attention to what is going on around me. wish i was better at it but i doubt i ever will be. maybe this thread is a start though.

excellent catches. ets is back on the water. bass, you have been warned.

more field testing today. fortunately dad was willing to help. these trips are always so special to me. gorgeous day here. hope y'all were able to get out too.

That. Is. Awesome. love those reels.

their lipless cranks rock.

1. have fun. 2. catch fish. 3. don't fall in.

i was fortunate enough to do some more bait testing today with Chris (CJ on here). Chris is one of the best people walking on this planet and a bassin' phenom. but with a 30 degree temp swing (for the worse), we both figured the day would be very tough. as y'all know, post cold front fishing can humble you and make you question your sanity in a hurry. honestly neither of us would have been shocked to reel in a big fat goose egg today. initially it looked like that was exactly what was going to happen. but as the day wore on some small fish started chomping. by evening things were looking up. we finally got the bite we were looking for as the sun sank below the tree line. this chunky 6-14 made for a nice way to end our day. unfortunately it looks like we must continue this drudgery until we get these baits right.