memorial day weekend fishing binge

[bigben]

I did a good bit of fishing last week and continued it into the weekend.  I fished tue thu fri sun and twice on Monday.  Each trip yielded a decent smallmouth for someone in the boat.  I caught them on a variety of baits including spinnerbaits, tubes, and flippin jigs.  I did strike out at a local lake and I hope someday I can have better success in lakes compared to moving creek and river water. 

pics.

I caught two about this size on a 3/8 oz flipping jig Monday morn



Here is a decent fish I caught on a tube.


spinner bait fish 

[coyote101]

Nice fish Ben.  Looks like you're having a good time this year. 

Pat

[nastygunz]

That's a whomper of a smallie!

[bigben]

Thanks fellas. Yea i have been having a good year for smallies. I need to figure lakes out though. Having a hard time getting on fish in resivoirs and such

[bigben]

Decent one from tonight.  Been searching out new area in the waters i fish and have came up with some decent locations. Cught all of my fish on a mizmo tube. They were eating a 4" tube easily. Good night of fishing. On the way back to the ramp my gas motor coughed and i realized i ran out of gas. Glad it didnt happen a mile downstream.

Pic

[FinsnFur]

I missed these But thems some nice ones for sure.
You getting too much water time though. Ever since you picked up that boat it's nothing but fish fish fish 

[bigben]

I never knew there was too much water time.    but yea i am willing to bet that the boat is in the water more then its out. I tried a new bait last night. Called a rage blade. Got one hit on the fall but no hook ups. Might hit a local farm pond to get some confidence in it before i use it again. Im thinking about going out fishing this afternoon. And most of the day tommarrow. 

[Dale]

what lake are you having a problem with?...what happened to your head?... looks like you was near scalped...   

[bigben]

Any lake. I been to raystown and pinchot so far this year. I might be heading back to raystown on the fourth and im going to have to go and fish only for bass. I know how to fish flowing water such as the river. But lakes i have a hard time on. I have read points and flats. Well if ished flats last time we were there which was pre spawn. But they were so churned up from pleasure boaters it was mud brown.

[Dale]

Raystown is tough, I've fished with most of the guides out there and never caught a keeper striper, plenty of big catfish and whopper walleye and smallmouth, but only on live bait... mainly on points out into the lake... cast large surface plugs to feeding striper at night is what I've heard is the ticket to catching them...

Pinchot, that's easy... spinner baits, sluggo's, fin-s-fish to the banks early and late in the day...  plugs pulled deep during the day in the old creek channel, and surface stuff anywhere on the lake after dark...  big catfish at the launch below the park office... at the bench just to the left of the launch straight across to the handicap area out on the point, is the drop off into deep water... lay a live bait along that edge and the big cats come up onto the flat/shallows all in around the mooring area to feed at night...

[bigben]

Todays pair. Hit a local pond and gained confidence in skirted jigs big time. Then me n dad hit the creek for some more bassin. We caught mostly largemouths and i landed a decent smallie on a tube. Called the night early before the smallmouth bite really turned on.

[bigben]

Im plannin on hitting pinchot again fri with dad if he gets a chance. Raystown i might head up early thu july 4 th or maybe the weekend prior. We'll see. A bud hit it today and did awesome.

[Dave]

Those are some chunky looking bass.  I gotta get after some myself!

[FinsnFur]

Looks like yours are all bred out. That female large mouth looks a bit gant.

[bigben]

How can you tell its a female from the pic?  And what does gant mean?  Spawn is over cept for a few straglers here in pa.

[FinsnFur]

Gant, meaning thinned out.
I cant be positive from the pic but the reason I called it a female was because of the way it expands so drastically in body width around the belly. It looks out of proportion compared to the back half of the fish leading me to believe it was a female that recently dropped her eggs.

The way to tell when you have them in your hands is by looking at the butthole. A males vent will be a perfect circle, female will be more oval.

[bigben]

I should have took a pic across its back. It was vlose to four inches thick. Had beefy shoulders. Prob my best largemouth i have caught in a while.

[FinsnFur]

Its a nice fish no doubt. Males do not typically get too big. They generally peak out rather small, 14 or 15 inches average. So if this one was as wide across the back as you say, thats more reason to believe its a female.

[bigben]

Thanks for the info.  Might head out tonight depending on what time I get off and how work goes.

[bigben]

Hit a local manmade lake that the water was ultra clear in. 12 feet down you could see the bottom. Started fishing around 4 and i was worried at first. We hadnt got any bites with some good looking shore we were passing. Then i hooked up on a fluke but lost the fish. He was decent but nothing big. I grabbed my heavier jig rod and pitched it up into the rocky point. "Thunk". I crossed his eyes twice just to be sure the hook was set. Got him to the boat and got some pics. I played em pretty good so no weight.  But prob my best ever large mouth.



I got things put back together and pitched my jig up onto a big flat under water rock. I hopped it over the edge and "thunk" it was on again. Not as big as the first but was what i would consider a decent fish.

The day went on like that. I kept wanting to try different lures and a ratltrap was prob my other decent producer. Had 6 fish at the end of the day with three niceuns.

Really have a lot of confidence in a skirted jig now.

Thanks for lookin