Is this Spring ordinary or extraordinary?

[Pat Brown]

@ol'crickety just watch yourself next time you go fishing (you seem like you are a perfect  example of these days but your geographical frame of reference)🙊🙊🙊🔥🔥🔥 

 

@Zcoker I know EXACTLY what days you're talking about and they always seem to be a warm drizzly front before it gets cold for a day or two when it's spring for me.

[Swamp Girl]

2 minutes ago, Pat Brown said:

@ol'crickety just watch yourself next time you go fishing (you seem like you are a perfect  example of these days but your geographical frame of reference)🙊🙊🙊🔥🔥🔥

 

That's generous of you to say, Pat, but the best I could muster in 2023 was back-to-back four-pounders. Just those two on consecutive casts and even in Canada, where I'd commonly catch 100 smallmouth in a day and sometimes would catch half a dozen in a day over four pounds, I never caught four-plus-pounders on consecutive casts.

 

In Canada, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Maine, if I catch more than one bass over four pounds in a trip, there is time between them. 

[Pat Brown]

@ol'crickety you are a the shining Maine version example of this phenomenon for all that it's worth!  I think the sheer volume of bass you're dealing with has a lot to do with the frequency of large ones being proportionally smaller. Probably has a lot to do with your grow season and stuff like that. I think in Florida there are times when there's just a lot of wolf packing females and they're usually pretty big and you can catch a lot of them out of the grass consecutively when they're stacked up.  The best I've ever been able to muster is Three 5 pounders out of a tree on back to back to back casts but it was pretty cool.

[Swamp Girl]

3 minutes ago, Pat Brown said:

I think the sheer volume of bass you're dealing with has a lot to do with the frequency of large ones being proportionally smaller. Probably has a lot to do with your grow season and stuff like that. I think in Florida there are times when there's just a lot of wolf packing females and they're usually pretty big and you can catch a lot of them out of the grass consecutively when they're stacked up.  The best I've ever been able to muster is Three 5 pounders out of a tree on back to back to back casts but it was pretty cool.

 

Whoa! Three consecutive five-pounders??? I could die happy right then and there. Here's the view outside my kitchen door right now. It's going to continue snowing all day today. All night long. All day tomorrow. And into tomorrow night. I'm going to go snowblow right now, but I'll have to do it again and again. Does consecutive snowblowing equal your feat? 

[Zcoker]

16 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

 

You should film such times and share the footage. Not still photos, but video that let's us see you consecutively catching big bass after big bass, each one bigger than the last. I'd love to see that. 

 

I'm not setup to film out there, especially at night. Not uncommon to catch multiple fish over 7lbs in matter of minutes during a hot summer night. Maybe someday. Sure would be nice to share some of these action packed encounters. The fishing can be quite dramatic! 

[Swamp Girl]

29 minutes ago, Zcoker said:

 

I'm not setup to film out there, especially at night. Not uncommon to catch multiple fish over 7lbs in matter of minutes during a hot summer night. Maybe someday. Sure would be nice to share some of these action packed encounters. The fishing can be quite dramatic! 

 

It's just as well you don't post such footage. I'd hit 11 on the must-fishometer, which only goes to 10, and I'd go fishing right now instead of blowing snow. Then I'd die, stuck in the snow on a backwoods road. 

[Zcoker]

11 minutes ago, Pat Brown said:

I think in Florida there are times when there's just a lot of wolf packing females and they're usually pretty big and you can catch a lot of them out of the grass consecutively when they're stacked up.  The best I've ever been able to muster is Three 5 pounders out of a tree on back to back to back casts but it was pretty cool.

 

Lotta folks think big bass are solitary creatures. Lotta folks think big bass spook easily. Well, I kinda thought that myself until I ran into the wolf packs! Hard to imagine with all the commotion after a good catch that all the other big fish just stay cool, calm, and collective, in the EXACT same spot where their buddy was just caught! I've foamed up the water good while catching a tail-slapping giant, only to cast back a few minutes later to the exact same spot, catching yet another giant....and so on. Mind you, this is in very shallow water and in close proximity. You'd think they'd all spook away. Now I know better. 

[thediscochef]

On 4/3/2024 at 6:44 AM, Pat Brown said:

Honestly, last spring was kind of bypassed in North Carolina.  We had winter and then it was summer.  It kind of felt like the bass were all scrambling to spawn at once and it was chaotic and short.

 

This year the spring has been happening very gradually and there have been a lot of winter days mixed in with the occasional summery day and a lot of in between.

 

I think this more transitional weather tends to generate more big fish on the whole per year.

 

Years where we have long, cold Winters and long hot summers without much of a spring or a fall, tend to be the toughest ones to catch big fish probably.

 

If you think about it even on a daily basis, when we go out on the water we are looking for some kind of unique change in the weather. Perhaps a pressure change or some clouds rolling in or the breeze picking up or some drizzle starting to kick up the bite and make the big ones easier to catch. A transitional season is nothing more than a prolonged state of perpetual this kinda stuff.

Longer windows mean more biggins over time, that tracks

[TnRiver46]

I think I must fish different than most everyone because I never do much damage in the spring, the season everyone else looks forward to. Winter and late summer are where it’s at for me 

[thediscochef]

Without a doubt the best spring I've had yet. Earliest in the year I've broken 7lbs. I'm learning! 

[MIbassyaker]

1 hour ago, TnRiver46 said:

I think I must fish different than most everyone because I never do much damage in the spring, the season everyone else looks forward to. Winter and late summer are where it’s at for me 

 

I usually do better in the spring than in early summer (which coincides with post-spawn here), but my best days of the year often end up being in August or late September.

[WRB]

This the 1st pre spawn I have missed in decades. The weather has been cold and windy this year but imagine the fishing is good.

Thinking about buying a boat so I don’t have to wait to be invited to back seat.

When I look in the mirror that old man looking back reminds me why I sold the boat. Still have the fire in my belly but the rest of me knows better.

I hate getting old,

Tom

[Susky River Rat]

I am catching fish. Nothing big and it’s been a struggle to find them. We just got a months worth of rain in 3 days cold and windy. This week it’s going to change. I hope we don’t revert back. 
 

I do think for the next month and half here it is big girl season. It’s when most people more than likely will bump into one.

[throttleplate]

Where"s the beef, er i meant water, april 6th and my favorite river by the dam in north dakota is running dry when it should have flooded banks at this time with water boiling over the dam. The good news is we still caught dinner.

 

 

 

[Swamp Girl]

@throttleplate: I love, love, LOVE walleye. I haven't eaten them in years because they're rare in Maine and in none of the water I fish. However, I'm glad you're eating well today!

[bp_fowler]

So this is only my second spring.  Last spring I did very well.  A few fish were on already beds by this time but most were shallow and I was catching them even though I still didn’t have much of an idea of what I was doing.  
 

This spring is night and day different.  I’ve been getting skunked far more than I ever have before.  Honestly I was catching more fish in February and March.  I think the several storms and heavy rains we’ve had recently have messed things up a bit.

[Woody B]

I normally only get to fish on weekends but I was on vacation for a week right before this thread was started.  That had me fishing and posting fish pretty much every day.   

 

This Spring, and 2024 in general has been different for me.   I haven't caught the numbers of Bass I've caught in the past,  however the Bass I have caught have mostly been big, at least for the waters I fish.   I'll have to go back at add up the number of Bass I've caught over 5 pounds.   So far in April I've fished 2 times, catching 3 Bass over 5 pounds.   (I think I'm around ten over 5 for 2024,  I'll try to get an accurate count soon).   So far my biggest Bass of '24 is just over 6 1/2 pounds back in March.   

[Pat Brown]

The storms and cold fronts have definitely knocked big females many steps back and when they're knocked back, they're also tight lipped I find.  The little males that aren't very spawn oriented also tend to fall back and hold.

 

Eventually very soon we will cross that threshold where the night time lows no longer allow for this tom foolery and that will probably be May-ish this year.

 

We have had plenty of frost on the ground in late April growing up so I'm thinking this is just one of those types of years.

[Bluebasser86]

This year has been very poor for me so far. Have not fished nearly as much as usual, and have not had a lot of success when I have. Have not broke even 5 pounds yet this year, which I normally do many times in January alone. 

 

First kayak tournament of my circuit year is next weekend. Hopefully I can shake the funk then. 

[Team9nine]

First winter/spring here in SC for me, so wasn't sure what to expect on all new waters. I will say that once I figured out I had record class crappie around me, I spent an awful lot of time the past 3 months chasing them while the window was available. But I did scan through my pics from Jan 1 through April 1 and had a pretty decent run on bass for as little as I fished them. Looks like I landed 17 bass over 3 pounds, with 4 between 4-5 lbs, 3 more between 5-6 lbs., and then one over 7 lbs. Add to that the 46 crappie over 2 lbs. I've been able to catch, and I can't complain. Will be spending a lot more of my time chasing bass the next 3 months if things don't get too hot around here, so we'll see what happens.

[deep]

On 4/3/2024 at 7:44 AM, Pat Brown said:

If you think about it even on a daily basis, when we go out on the water we are looking for some kind of unique change in the weather. Perhaps a pressure change or some clouds rolling in or the breeze picking up or some drizzle starting to kick up the bite and make the big ones easier to catch. A transitional season is nothing more than a prolonged state of perpetual this kinda stuff.

 

Pat, this part of your post reminded me of a particular passage from "In pursuit of giant bass". I hope it helps someone land a new PB.

 

 

Off-topic (sorry), but this (below) is my favorite passage from the book.

 

 

P.S. I lived this life for almost 5 years. I caught a lot of big fish, but it left my mental health, social life, and to some extent even my professional life, in a sorry state. I have since moved on.

[Pat Brown]

Yeah I am trying to learn to be serious and casual.  Serious about the fishing when I get to do it.  Casual about the failure that is sure to come most of the time pursuing giant bass.  The good thing is I have enough success to keep me feeling like it has a purpose.  It takes some major mental discipline though and I'm learning that balance all the time.  Great post @deep .

[The Budget Angler]

I'm just newly back into bass fishing after a 4-year hiatus in Montana.  We have huge pike, monster trout, but almost no bass over a couple lbs.  Even then, I had a couple of spots for bass and fished them religiously.  At least in the past years, Spring sucked ass.  I always missed prespawn, never saw fish on beds, and never caught a bass over a lb when I was up there.  My dad caught a random 5 lber, which was the only decent bass I saw up there.  So this Spring has been amazing for me.  I've caught a satisfying amount of bass, some of them decent, and I'm starting to see bass guarding fry and beds.  Y'all got it good down south!

 

Tight lines!

[gim]

2 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

This year has been very poor for me so far. Have not fished nearly as much as usual, and have not had a lot of success when I have. Have not broke even 5 pounds yet this year, which I normally do many times in January alone. 

You still got me beat because the season isn’t open until May here! 

[TnRiver46]

3 minutes ago, TheLastBestFish said:

I'm just newly back into bass fishing after a 4-year hiatus in Montana.  We have huge pike, monster trout, but almost no bass over a couple lbs.  Even then, I had a couple of spots for bass and fished them religiously.  At least in the past years, Spring sucked ass.  I always missed prespawn, never saw fish on beds, and never caught a bass over a lb when I was up there.  My dad caught a random 5 lber, which was the only decent bass I saw up there.  So this Spring has been amazing for me.  I've caught a satisfying amount of bass, some of them decent, and I'm starting to see bass guarding fry and beds.  Y'all got it good down south!

 

Tight lines!

@BigSkyBasser lives in Montana and catches bigger bass than I do here in the “south”