Brew City Bass

I was somewhat confident I caught the biggest bass in the little 83 acre lake I fish. Was just shy of 8 lbs and I was freaking out. That's a good trophy in Wi, and this small of a lake. Then on the same night I caught one just under 8 1/2. Now I have no idea how big they get in there. I have a gut feeling I'll never top that for that lake, but I wouldn't be surprised if I catch a 9lber there this spawn. The 8 1/2 was a mid August fish. Not as fat as he coulda been. I could probably say the same about the Pike there. I was pulling out 30-38"ers all summer, then on a cool fall morning I had a 43" blow up on my whopper plopper. I never imagined this lake harboring big fish like this. It's a honey hole for sure.

Sorry to hear Glad he's okay. My buddy use to tie flies and would have hundreds hanging over his desk. One of his parents farm cats got in his room and thought they were toys. He got a mouth full in the tongue and they had to put 'em down.

Every time I fish a tourney it's basically a donation of my $100 or $50.

Hey bud! Fellow big guy here. I'm 6'3" and 360lbs on a good day. I've tried just about everything before settling on a small 16ft bass boat. The kyaks I tried were cool once you were in em, but getting in was a pain and if I flipped, I was screwed. No way I was climbing back in on the water. Canoes were too much work for what they were. Jon boats were way too unstable for what I was comfortable with. So I got on craigslist and found a nice little 16ft with 75hp outboard. Costed me around $2500 and I haven't had an issue with it minus upgrading to a bigger trolling motor. The boat costed more than a yak obviously, but I don't regret it one bit. I can stand on the bow, walk all over, drive 50mph, troll 5mph, I've even had 3 people in this little boat. It's the way to go. Not a big rig either so I just tow it with my little Jeep Grand Cherokee. Super easy to launch and retrieve when I'm alone. Arguably easier than loading a canoe on the roof of the Jeep.

Before last week we had 15" of ice and I was driving my Jeep on the ice. Now it's 50*, raining, and wind blowing. I'm hoping to have the boat on the water in a few weeks myself. Sadly bass isn't open til early May, but I can still do a shakedown and fish for crappie. The Lake Michigan launches are breaking open quick, hopefully our small lakes are soon behind.

We have some really clear lakes up here. Muddy - 1-5ft visibility Stained - 5-10ft Clear - 5-30ft

I've only found rain to matter in eroding the shore ice. I was out on a local lake 3 weeks ago and had my jeep on the ice. Ice was 16" and I was out for 6 hours and it rained for half of it. Drove back to the launch in a foot of slush and got to the launch and saw some open water. Lot of run off completely damaged it. It was good enough to drive off, at least once haha.

60* tomorrow here in Milwaukee. We still have thick ice, but I'm hoping it breaks up soon with this weather. Can't bass fish til early May, but I'd love to get out and find some crappie.

I was expecting a rant about how crappy the supply of the devils lettuce has been lately, and I was going to agree haha!

Definitely met some awesome people because of it. There were a of people I "knew" but never hungout or talked to. Once I found out a few of them fished, we became good friends.

Haha! Right! Yeah, I've fished straight through 80% of these storms, and honestly, only one was bad enough to make me haul ass of the lake. My only stipulation to fishing in a storm is lightning striking near me. That's the only thing I don't tolerate. I've fished through rain coming from every way, winds upto 40mph and my boat has taken everything mother nature could throw at it, but I don't stay out around lighting. Usually I can feel the static in the air, and that's how I deem if the lightning is close or not. If I see it in the distance, but no static in the air (My long hair going straight up in the air, line lifting out of the water.) I am not too worried.

Haha thanks. I still haven't found the pattern, but the weather has been terrible. So much rain, so much flooding. Hopefully it clears up. I've been catching a few here and there by dragging jigs. Not much else.

I've gotten so paranoid about stuff like this that I have doubles, even triples of certain tools in my boat. I've got 3 pairs of pliers in the boat. One pair in the rod locker, one pair in the back cargo compartment and a pair in the tool box. I've got probably 4-5 pairs of scissors hidden about the boat. 2 pairs of Boga grips to deal with pike. 2 scales, and 2 sets of wire cutters to cut hooks.

Well, the one lake I've been at most summer is just a bowl lake. 60ft deep, steep sloped all around. There are 2 flats but I haven't been seeing them in there. I am going to a different lake tomorrow with a little more contour, so we will see what's up there.

Been tough here in Wisconsin. Rain has my home lake up 4ft. Like water over everyone's docks high. This dropped the water temps close to 10* and has the fish pretty lockjaw and hanging deep. I managed 6 in the past three days fishing (6 hours a day) from dragging jigs in 20-30ft of water. Was an absolute grind to get those fish. Wouldn't be worth it if I wasn't just happy to be out, even if it was storming every day.

It was storming here all weekend long! I braved the weather and had the lake all to myself three days in a row. Fishing wasn't great, but I stuck a few each day.

I night fish 80% of the time, and day fish other 20%. Only color I throw at night is Loon. During the day I just throw whatever color I feel like it. No rhyme or reason, most my lakes don't have a topwater bite during the day anyways. I just have one tied on in case I see a blow up.

I use em as a jig trailer when I don't want to go through a pack of chigger craws. Some times I'll go through chigger and chigger if the bluegill are aggressive. Lot cheaper to use these than $6 chigger craws.

I felt the exact same way until this week. I started noticing that every plopper I own will turn on it's side a fair amount during a steady retrieve. This has to show a lot more of it's paint to the fish than if it were even keel. I plan on painting clear underside ploppers this winter when the water gets hard. River2Sea has hardly been a gimmick company, so I am not really sure what the hell they were doing with the ploppers. I was pretty put off by the clear belly's until I saw my loon and bone ploppers were always a 1/4 on their sides. Then I went and bought a few of the clear ones. I highly doubt the fish is getting such a good look at it that it see's the machine parts in the guts. If you're fishing a steady retrieve, I doubt they see much besides commotion. That being said. I am going to start buying the knock offs and seeing how those work. I only buy the real ploppers when they're on sale at Dicks from $16 to $10. I won't buy one full price because to me, they just aren't worth that.

Like everyone said, if you're not using a leader you're definitely going to scare away fish from biting. 5-10ft flouro leader works wonders. I only go straight braid if I throwing top water or night fishing.

Sound like it's either yellow grub or fungus?

I honestly feel like I could catch a bass on any color if I worked it long enough to have confidence. I usually pick up chartreuse for like 10 mins then put it down if I don't get *****. Just how it goes. I never worked one long enough probably.

Did it come through his gills first? Or go through the mouth and through the gills? I've had the latter happen when they inhale it in a striking motion. Never had the first thing happen though. Trick shot to say the least!

Hell yeah. I wouldn't go swimming in it. But I'd fish it for sure.

All my reels are Daiwa, but my rods are a mixed bag. I've yet to find a company that makes every rod I want. Usually they only have one or two rods I like.