I’m going to say something I truly never thought I’d say...

[scaleface]

I'm   in a big bass funk . The lake I frequent is in one of those cycles where the big ones are rare . Add in a little bad luck where I missed a couple and I'm stuck at four lbs tops for the year . This lake is going to rebound in a big way . Theres a lot of two lbers that  are growing steadily . So enjoy catching those big ones , they seem to come in streaks for me .

[Teal]

40 minutes ago, scaleface said:

I'm   in a big bass funk . The lake I frequent is in one of those cycles where the big ones are rare . Add in a little bad luck where I missed a couple and I'm stuck at four lbs tops for the year . This lake is going to rebound in a big way . Theres a lot of two lbers that  are growing steadily . So enjoy catching those big ones , they seem to come in streaks for me .

Don't feel bad.   I'm in the same boat with you..Been a 3.75 kinda start to the year.    Caught a ton of 3-4.5 but only 5 over 5lbs.  Only 2 of them over 6.   But fishing has been funky here for almost weeks with super high levels, chocolate milk, generating, and flooding.   And rain almost every day last week.

[BrianMDTX]

Darn. I had my chance. I was catching dinks on Senko wackys and switched to a weightless TR Zoom trick worm. Line started peeling after it started sinking. I set the hook (more on that in a sec) and the rod bent. Started reeling it in, it jumped and there went the hook. It was about 20’ from shore and its mouth was huge. I’m sure it was 5 lbs or more. 
 

I have to start really setting Texas rigs hard. I think I’ve been finessing so much I’m not really driving the hook home. 
 

Shame. That was a nice bass. 

[A-Jay]

On 6/19/2020 at 10:21 PM, A-Jay said:

Now you're talking.

Suggestion - make sure your gear, (rod, reel, line & terminal tackle) are designed to met the challenges of the fish you 'hope' to catch.  So that when you do hook her, you're offering yourself the best possible chance to land her. 

Good Luck and remember to have fun

A-Jay

 

On 6/19/2020 at 10:45 PM, BrianMDTX said:

I’m hopeful my “new” gear is up to the task. For now it’s basically fishing in ponds. No heavy weeds (just muck on the bottom), so my baitcaster currently is spooled with 12 lb. YZH on a Fenwick HMX 70M-FC rod. It’s a Garcia Black Max, which I know is entry grade, but as my other baitcaster is a Daiwa Millionaire 3H from the mid-70s, I figured I’d start back slow. The finesse rig is a Daiwa Revros LT2500 with 20# Sufix 832 and a 8# YZH leader on a Fenwick HMX 66M-FS rod. 

 

Nothing top of the line, but hopefully serviceable for now. 

 

4 minutes ago, BrianMDTX said:

Darn. I had my chance. I was catching dinks on Senko wackys and switched to a weightless TR Zoom trick worm. Line started peeling after it started sinking. I set the hook (more on that in a sec) and the rod bent. Started reeling it in, it jumped and there went the hook. It was about 20’ from shore and its mouth was huge. I’m sure it was 5 lbs or more. 
 

I have to start really setting Texas rigs hard. I think I’ve been finessing so much I’m not really driving the hook home. 
 

Shame. That was a nice bass. 

Bummer.

A-Jay

 

[BrianMDTX]

7 hours ago, A-Jay said:

 

 

Bummer.

A-Jay

 

Yeah. I think that’s all on me. I really need to start driving those hooks home. 
 

At least the day wasn’t wasted. Went out after this afternoon’s thundershower and at least reeled in this guy. 
 

[Boomstick]

13 hours ago, scaleface said:

I'm   in a big bass funk . The lake I frequent is in one of those cycles where the big ones are rare . Add in a little bad luck where I missed a couple and I'm stuck at four lbs tops for the year . This lake is going to rebound in a big way . Theres a lot of two lbers that  are growing steadily . So enjoy catching those big ones , they seem to come in streaks for me .

I'm not sure I've broken a pound this year, so I'll gladly switch places with you.

[GreenPig]

Sounds like you might be ready to get into Big Swimbaits and really focus on Pigs and leave those 2.5 & 3 lb runts alone.?

[BrianMDTX]

7 hours ago, GreenPig said:

Sounds like you might be ready to get into Big Swimbaits and really focus on Pigs and leave those 2.5 & 3 lb runts alone.?

Not quite. See A Jay’s last post on that subject lol. 

[PaulVE64]

19 hours ago, BrianMDTX said:

Darn. I had my chance. I was catching dinks on Senko wackys and switched to a weightless TR Zoom trick worm. Line started peeling after it started sinking. I set the hook (more on that in a sec) and the rod bent. Started reeling it in, it jumped and there went the hook. It was about 20’ from shore and its mouth was huge. I’m sure it was 5 lbs or more. 
 

I have to start really setting Texas rigs hard. I think I’ve been finessing so much I’m not really driving the hook home. 
 

Shame. That was a 

Too much finesse and crankbaits will ruin my creature/worm hooksets.

I can be accused of fishing on autopilot at times but if I'm having fun its all good.

[BrianMDTX]

7 minutes ago, PaulVE64 said:

Too much finesse and crankbaits will ruin my creature/worm hooksets.

I can be accused of fishing on autopilot at times but if I'm having fun its all good.

Wacky style is so different. Reel in the slack and they hook themselves. That’s probably 70% of my bass fishing right there. I really need to focus on really driving the hook home on TR set-ups. Probably setting it too early as well. Maybe I need to put a label on my rod “Set The Hook!” lol. I know bowhunters that put “Aim Low” on their sights to remind them. 

[JediAmoeba]

2# bass are top end for me in our local watering holes.  Well not exactly, but anything 2 pounds and above is a very rare occurrence unless I go anywhere else besides local.  

[OCdockskipper]

A side story to the "aiming for larger size only" theme.

 

My sister lives in Georgia and has 2 ponds/lakes on her property, one about 5 acres, the other about 3 acres.  The first time I every fished them, I caught a half dozen bass above 3 lbs (along with some smaller bass) in the larger lake and about 30 bass in the 10"-12" class in the smaller lake.  I assumed the rest of the bass in the smaller lake were stunted, based on them all being in that same size range.

 

When I went back there earlier this month, the same thing held true, bigger fish in the bigger lake, stunted fish in the smaller lake.  However, this time, I noticed that most of the fish from the smaller lake had full bellies, that they had been eating well.  Further, their heads were more developed, they looked more like a miniature size of a full grown fish as opposed to a stunted fish.  It suddenly dawned on me that a majority of these fish in the smaller lake weren't stunted, but were actually Suwanee bass, a subspecies that live in rivers in South Georgia & North Florida.  They are tough little guys, max out around 16 inches, fight more like spotted bass than largemouth and are voracious.

 

I always enjoyed fishing both lakes, but now I do for a different reason.  The bigger largemouth in the larger lake typically require me to flip in the brush with a heavy rod & braid and literally yank them out of the water while the smaller Suwanee in the smaller lake are fun with a lighter rod and various moving baits that they hammer.

 

A side note to the side story.  The smaller lake is not exclusively Suwanee bass, there are a few largemouth in there, including one that is pushing DD.  I hooked up with her the first time I fished that lake.  After showing her fat head, she took my Ned rig and dove into a brushpile, breaking me off.  I keep expecting her to show up as I'm fishing for Suwanee's and will throw a big 10" worm or swimbait occasionally to see if she is still there, but she hasn't made a 2nd appearance.

 

 

[BrianMDTX]

Never heard of Suwannee bass before. Yeah, per IGFA the WR is 3 lb 14 oz, so not big. They sound like scrappers though! 

 

 

[soflabasser]

2 hours ago, OCdockskipper said:

A side story to the "aiming for larger size only" theme.

 

My sister lives in Georgia and has 2 ponds/lakes on her property, one about 5 acres, the other about 3 acres.  The first time I every fished them, I caught a half dozen bass above 3 lbs (along with some smaller bass) in the larger lake and about 30 bass in the 10"-12" class in the smaller lake.  I assumed the rest of the bass in the smaller lake were stunted, based on them all being in that same size range.

 

When I went back there earlier this month, the same thing held true, bigger fish in the bigger lake, stunted fish in the smaller lake.  However, this time, I noticed that most of the fish from the smaller lake had full bellies, that they had been eating well.  Further, their heads were more developed, they looked more like a miniature size of a full grown fish as opposed to a stunted fish.  It suddenly dawned on me that a majority of these fish in the smaller lake weren't stunted, but were actually Suwanee bass, a subspecies that live in rivers in South Georgia & North Florida.  They are tough little guys, max out around 16 inches, fight more like spotted bass than largemouth and are voracious.

Is this lake completely landlocked or does it connect to a river? I have caught Suwannee bass in rivers and have not read of them being caught in a lake. Did you take pictures of them? Suwannee bass are one of my favorite species of black bass to catch. They rarely grow bigger than 12 inches and 14 inches or bigger is trophy sized. They might not grow big but pound for pound a Suwannee bass fights harder than a equal sized largemouth bass.

[OCdockskipper]

2 hours ago, soflabasser said:

Is this lake completely landlocked or does it connect to a river? I have caught Suwannee bass in rivers and have not read of them being caught in a lake. Did you take pictures of them? 

It is connected to a small stream that still flows through the man made lake.  Not sure if the fish were there originally and just got trapped when the dam was built or if the previous owner brought them in.  I find most of the Suwanees hang out in the old creek channel which parallels one side of the lake and part of the dam.  The property is in Georgia, but literally sits on the Florida border and the creek that feeds it empties into the Upper Ochlocknee river.

 

I didn't take a picture of them, it wasn't until I was done fishing the last day I was there that I put 2 & 2 together.  Their mouth size is similar to largemouth, and I had noticed the unique coloring on the undersides of a few, but still didn't even think about them being a different species.  It really was numskull of me not to consider it, for my other sister lives outside of Austin, Texas and I have caught Guadalupe Bass in the Blanco river that runs by her house.  Those fish were really unique, looked much more like smallmouth so it caught your eye.

 

The ironic thing is although I had thought the bass were stunted, it turns out it is an extremely healthy little lake.  The Suwanee out-compete most largemouth their size, so they keep the largemouth population in check, the very few largemouth that are able to make it to a larger size (like the behemoth that I hooked & lost) most likely feed on the Suwanee, keeping that population in check.  As I mentioned, all of the fish I caught had full bellies, pretty good for being post spawn.

[TnRiver46]

5 hours ago, JediAmoeba said:

2# bass are top end for me in our local watering holes.  Well not exactly, but anything 2 pounds and above is a very rare occurrence unless I go anywhere else besides local.  

Move! Do it for the kids, man! Haha

[OCdockskipper]

5 hours ago, BrianMDTX said:

Never heard of Suwannee bass before. Yeah, per IGFA the WR is 3 lb 14 oz, so not big. They sound like scrappers though! 

 

 

 If you are in Conroe, Texas, north of you in the Austin area are some rivers and creeks that have Guadalupe bass (or Guacamole bass as the Elite series anglers called them).  They are similar to Suwanee not physically, but in that they are a smaller river fish that is very good fighter.  The Blanco river consists of quite a few "swimmin' holes" and I found that the largemouth would stay in the middle to lower end, where the water was deeper and slower moving, while many of the Guadalupe would hang out in the upper stretches of the stream.

[soflabasser]

5 hours ago, OCdockskipper said:

It is connected to a small stream that still flows through the man made lake.  Not sure if the fish were there originally and just got trapped when the dam was built or if the previous owner brought them in.  I find most of the Suwanees hang out in the old creek channel which parallels one side of the lake and part of the dam.  The property is in Georgia, but literally sits on the Florida border and the creek that feeds it empties into the Upper Ochlocknee river.

 

I didn't take a picture of them, it wasn't until I was done fishing the last day I was there that I put 2 & 2 together.  Their mouth size is similar to largemouth, and I had noticed the unique coloring on the undersides of a few, but still didn't even think about them being a different species.  It really was numskull of me not to consider it, for my other sister lives outside of Austin, Texas and I have caught Guadalupe Bass in the Blanco river that runs by her house.  Those fish were really unique, looked much more like smallmouth so it caught your eye.

 

The ironic thing is although I had thought the bass were stunted, it turns out it is an extremely healthy little lake.  The Suwanee out-compete most largemouth their size, so they keep the largemouth population in check, the very few largemouth that are able to make it to a larger size (like the behemoth that I hooked & lost) most likely feed on the Suwanee, keeping that population in check.  As I mentioned, all of the fish I caught had full bellies, pretty good for being post spawn.

Hopefully you can take pictures of these fish the next time you fish there. They are a beautiful species of black bass and have one of the smallest native ranges of all the black bass species. Have you visited the Bass Pro Shops in Tallahassee? The aquarium there has one of the biggest Suwannee bass that has been caught and it was very close to breaking the world record. I saw this bass in person along with other beautiful fish they have in that aquarium. 

[JediAmoeba]

6 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

Move! Do it for the kids, man! Haha

I told the wife we are moving because the fishing sucks.   She told me to have fun.  

[TnRiver46]

7 hours ago, JediAmoeba said:

I told the wife we are moving because the fishing sucks.   She told me to have fun.  

Did you tell her it was for the kids???