Great day on reeds lake, Michigan! I caught 15 keepers, one 13” & the token pike. All on a 1/2 oz jackhammer with a custom skirt I made. Fished the weeds on ...more a mini drop from 4-6 ft. The key spot where I caught most of them (I think 8 of them) was a 5 ft deep spot with 4ft deep either side. It was where vegetation mixed. I’d pop and rip the jackhammer through the weeds and they’d slam it! I caught 4 in the 4 lb range and one (bottom left pic) was 5ish. Great day swinging the hammer 😁
Caught below the Fallasburg pump house on the flat river on a 1oz football head jig. I casted into the current and let the jig hop off the rocks going downstream ...more when it felt like it was hit with a sledgehammer! It popped out... the jig hit another rock and it was hammered again! This time I had it! It didn’t move for a few seconds and once I got it out of the strong current it gave up. Weakest fight of a big fish ever for me. It’s the biggest smallie I have caught to date by a long shot.
7 lb. 25 in. Smallmouth Bass with a football jig
My dad and I went out on Reeds Lake (where I grew up fishing) 2 days after my birthday. We got on some good ones including this 6 pounder! Caught on a 3/8oz chatterbait ...more pro with a custom bluegill pattern skirt I made and a Yamamoto Zako trailer.
6 lb. 2 oz. 24 in. Largemouth Bass with a chatterbait
I figured out a pattern really quickly mostly because I was forced to fish shallow due to boat traffic. The bass were hanging in the shade next to and under docks ...more and boat lifts. They were in the shade whether it was on the front side, next to or under docks and lifts. I tested out some lily pads, but there weren’t in them..or they weren’t in the biting mood. They were def into feeding by the docks! They would come flying out of the shade and smash a lure! I caught over 20 fish, most of the 15-16” pitching a Chatterbait to the shade. I caught one on a jig. But, they really reacted to the change of direction of the Chatterbait as I kind of popped it just above the weeds before I began to reel. Most of the hits came as the lure began to move horizontally. This was my best fish of the day. 17” ~ 3 lbs. caught on an OG Chatterbait with a custom skirt I tied and a Great Lakes Baits sinister shad.. and a zoom super fluke jr tail I melted on after a warmouth are the paddle tail off. Is tail actual makes the trailer swim better and it really looks like a blue gill swimming.
3 lb. 17 in. Largemouth Bass with a Chatterbait
Just messing around with a frog and a jig at a local pond. It’s being mined for landscaping rocks and pebbles, etc. so it goes from very shallow at the bank to 10ft+ ...more really quickly. There are not a lot of areas with grass and cattails. So, I always fish those areas the most thoroughly of any area in the entire pond. There is a perfect spot on the pond, where I caught this fish. Pond weed, milfoil and cattails all mix in the largest flat with a deep pocket surrounded by cattails and weeds in a crescent. I tossed my frog and got a strike on the first cast off a cattail point. Tried to follow it up with the jig and no luck. I tossed the frog around some more and had something swipe at it. I decided to toss the jig around into the weeds. My first pitch to the front edge of the grass in a little pocket I caught his super fat and healthy 19” ~3.25 lb. largemouth.
3 lb. 2 oz. 19 in. Largemouth Bass with a 3/8 oz Mann’s stonehead jig Ike’s special skirt w/ a Great Lakes Baits Kicker Kraw in a light green with gold, purple ...
I was pitching a junebug pitboss in thick pond weed in about 7 ft of water. Pitched to an opening, let it set, swam it and dropped it into the next hole on the retrieve ...more let it drop and I shook it after it hit the bottom. There was a ton of weight and I set the hook. It measured 23.5” I’m guessing it was at least 6lbs if not more. It was really really fat and tall. Shaped like a fat 23.5” smallie basically
6 lb. 23 in. Largemouth Bass with a pitboss,3/8 oz tungsten flipping weight w/ bobber stopper
I casted near the shore into sparse lily pads. As soon as I started to move the lure it was hammered.
6 lb. 23 in. Largemouth Bass with a Chatterbait
I made a long cast parallel to a lily pad line but about 4 ft outside the lily pads were there is a drop from about 4ft to 12ft. I let it sink, then reeled up the ...more slack, popped it a couple of times and I began swimming it on the retrieve. The bass took it a few cranks of the reel after the lure straightened out. It was an awesome fight! It dove immediately when hooked, then it headed straight up and made an epic leap about 70ft away from me. I kept it hooked somehow.. and said "awesome" after it jumped. Once I got it close enough to see how it was hooked (in the right corner of it's mouth) and played her clockwise around the boat.. we did 5 circles around the boat before she was tired out enough to land her. She measured 21". Probably 4.25-4.5 lbs.
4 lb. 6 oz. 21 in. Largemouth Bass with a 3/8 oz Chatterbait custom bluegill skirt, netbait bluegill swimbait trailer
I was fishing a bama bug color Berkeley pit boss soft plastic creature bait with a 3/8 oz tungsten flipping weight pegged on a 5/0 trokar Flippin' hook on a ...more 7' medium heavy power fast tip fenwick eagle rod with a 6:3:1 pfleuger president baitcast reel. I pitched the pit boss into a thick cluster of hydrilla growing between two boat docks right at the top of the drop off in about 6 ft of water. I let it drop into the hydrilla, I engaged the reel and went to pop the lure and it was all heavy weight, so I set the hook! This big ol 5 pound bass came firing out into the deep water towards my boat and jumped. It dove and jumped a few times and I managed to play it to the boat mid fight and grab her as she surfaced. I had it hooked right through the bone in the corner of its mouth. It also had a red ewg hook dead center of its upper lip/jaw. I removed that hook and mine. And wonder if that's the one that broke me off a year ago...?? The hook should have rusted and fell off by now.. I wonder because I'm the only one who fishes this little lake with that kind of gear. Everyone else fishes for pan fish. Anyways... it measured 22". It had to have been 5lbs+ it was comparable in size (or bigger) to 5 pounders I have weighed there before.
5 lb. 22 in. Largemouth Bass with a Berkeley Pit Boss Bama Bug color
Caught at Scalley lake (a private lake w/ a campground that rents boats). I caught this fish at Scalley Lake not Murray lake... I can't change it for some reason. ...more I made a ~50ft cast parallel to the shore and the break w/ a 1/2oz Chatterbait w/ a custom bluegill pattern skirt and Arkansas shad color zoom superfluke Jr. as a trailer (With the fat part of the belly cut off.) I let the lure sink a second until I thought it was in the tops of the weeds. I reeled up the slack and popped it out of the weeds along the middle of the break, the break goes from about 4ft to 10ft of water. A moment (3-4ft) after the lure straightened out on the retrieve the lure stopped vibrating and I couldn't feel it .. But, the line had jumped and was moving fast out to deeper water (to my left). Great fight, I was very careful fighting and landing the fish. I couldn't see the lure until the bass came out from under the boat. I had it hooked through the bone front center of it's upper mouth, almost nose area.
7 lb. 25 in. Largemouth Bass with a Homemade bluegill pattern skirt 1/2oz Chatterbait (bladed jig)
