IcatchDinks

Don't believe him. I'm closer to the center than he is. Lol. Welcome! I'm always glad to have a fellow Michigander/Michiganian join us. I, too, love the smallmouth here. Nothing fights like a river smallie.

I don't know knot names. I know the Palomar and the knot my grandpa taught me when I was twelve. I've been using the latter ever since. Went to look up the Pitzen and discovered it was what I had been tying all my life. ?

When you gotta ask, throw black. That's my philosophy. You're asking fishermen on the internet for any kind of consensus? Lol.

@you I was rather confused by this notification until I clicked on it. ? Beautiful fish, btw.

Huge congratulations on a beautiful fish!!! Excellent storytelling as well.

Well, they're fish, I guess. The weather has cooled down, it's been absolutely gorgeous out, the recent storms have filled the once low, weed-choked ponds... And the bass won't bite. But I did find a perfectly good baseball, and a doe joined me on the bank for a drink of water and a light snack of grass, so that was super cool.

We're having a similar problem here in my neck of Michigan. The weather changed after a couple big storms and the bite has really slowed down.

Beautiful silhouette! For me pike are just as fun as bass. Never caught a muskie, but one day....

The mom n pop fabrication shop I work for sponsored a little in-house fishing tournament for biggest bass (any species) and biggest pike this weekend. It was catch and release. Seven employees showed up, but two of them (a husband and wife team) had boat troubles and had to pull out last minute. The fishing was rough for everyone. We got hammered last night by a major thunderstorm, that dropped the temps by about ten/fifteen degrees. I paired up with a buddy from work, and we had a blast on the water, regardless of the slow fishing. The lakes we were fishing are all connected together by rivers, backwaters, and channels, and the scenery and wild life were stunning. I'm probably gonna come back soon. I caught several small LMB, but nothing much over 13 inches. I also hooked and landed a nineteen inch pike, but we didn't count him because he wasn't over the legal harvest limit, and thus didn't qualify for the tournament according to our made up on the spur of the moment rules. We also caught a bunch of bluegill for my buddy to have a fish fry. All in all, it was a wonderful morning. I'd have gladly spent all day out there. Fortunately for my neck, I didn't. After my haircut, I forgot that the back of my neck is now an exposed skin surface to the sun and got burned pretty bad. All other skin was covered pretty well with long clothing. An absolute blast. 10/10 recommend. Oh, and the winner brought in an 18 inch Largemouth, and a 14 inch Largemouth.

Tomorrow morning I'm driving up to Martini Lakes here in Michigan for a work sponsored fishing tournament. Since I broke my good rod in the car door a couple weeks ago, I had to run to Walmart and get something somewhat serviceable so I wouldn't being showing up to a bass and pike tournament with a crappie rig. Also restocked on hooks. I've been holding the bait monkey at bay pretty well so far this year...

It truly is a wonderful state. I'm proud to call it home. Awesome story! River smallies are so much fun.

Not a bad bass, either. ?thanks for sharing.

Last night I caught several dinks. I know y'all don't wanna scroll through photos of tiny fish, so I made a nice collage for you: Tonight I caught two more dinks. (I'll spare you the pain of seeing them. You've seen one, you've seen them all.) And then I hooked a really nice bass for my ponds (just under two pounds): I'm hoping to wake up early tomorrow and go fishing before work. We'll see how I'm feeling at 6AM. I'm not a morning person like some of you madmen and women.

I've had them here in Michigan. They don't taste bad. Similar to any other panfish, I guess. I'm not a huge fan of fish as a food, but they're not bad.

Ned Rig. Drop Shot. Whacky Rig.

Unless we call them Crappie Bass, I think we'll be safe.

@galyonj funny thing: It started raining right as I started driving home.

"Go to the river" they said. "Small mouth are fun," they said. Nobody mentioned the rock bass... And then one fat bluegill to finish the day. (Don't come after me, @gimruis. Rock bass are bass. ?) Also, I think the entire town today was out on the river. There were three or four groups of tubers, all with no less then ten people per group. I saw five kayakers, two canoes, and countless kids and parents wading and splashing around. Plus one extremely gregarious but very nice old gentleman that wanted to tell me every single detail of the one time he went backpacking in the Sierra Nevadas in the 60's, and his buddy who knew the neighbor of the guitarist for the grateful dead and about some hiking gear company he thought was cool, and how he ran track in highschool and how he was a physical science teacher for 30+ years, and on and on and on. But he seemed so glad to have someone to talk to I didn't want to dash his feelings and tell him I didn't want to talk to him. I also had three hikers trying to tell me how to fish. I think from now on, I'm gonna stay away from the river and stick to my ponds. Oh, and I fell and scraped my leg up on the rocks pretty good. What a day. ?

@treble hook that is wild. Lol. Nice catch.

I like the action of the Yamamoto better than the Dinger. But I haven't noticed a big difference in catch ratio, and Dingers are just WAY cheaper. And I can buy them in bulk. And the hook slot helps just that much more to avoid the weeds. I agree with you.

I mostly use a Texas rigged Blue and black 4" Yum Dinger when fishing plastics. I haven't had a lot of success with finesse this year. Not sure why. Usually it's my number one bass bait. Edit: All my local ponds are pretty murky, and my local river is pretty clear. I have spent considerably more time pond fishing this year in comparison to previous years, where the river was my go to fishery. Now that I think about it, that might explain my lower numbers of bites on finesse.

Caught nine fish today. All on either the spinner or a gold spoon. Not like I didn't try other baits. They just like flashy stuff right now, I guess. Also, because I shut the tip of my main bass rod in the car door, I was using a five foot ultra light with four pound test. Even the dinks I caught felt like monsters! I love Michigan sunsets. It's views like this that remind me how glorious it is to be alive:

This. Is. Brilliant.

That looks maybe half as crowded as Tippy Dam on the Manistee river in Michigan during the salmon run. Absolutely unbearable.

That is absolutely ahorrent behavior, and I'm sorry you had to deal with that. If they were engaged in illegal activity, I probably would have tried to take down their license plate numbers and reported them. Probably wouldn't do anything, but I'd be too morally outraged to not do anything. As far as their bullying, intrusive behavior, I would just move. There are lots of fish. Lots of great fishing spots, probably many way better than even the one you were fishing. I don't know if I could keep myself from telling them what I thought of them, though. Try to find fishing locations removed from humanity. Hard to get to, off the beaten path. That tends to weed out a lot of the lazy, trashy people that frequent easily accessible public areas. My favorite pond was completely surrounded by heavy brush and trees, and I could always count on fishing alone. Last year the city cleared all the brush out and turned it into a really nice, easily accessible water feature. And now there are always anglers at all times of day down there. Ruined it for me. But, yeah, I just try to avoid people. If someone steals or crowds my spot, it's extremely rude behavior, but I don't own the water, the fish, or the land. So, I'll just mosey on over to another spot.