How Have You Done This Year Thus Far? 2024
NCbassmaster4Life reply :
Just wondering how everyone has done this year in there fishing success,what have you done differently,and if you have any new techniques that have been working for you.
I have done more jigging this year and tried some new soft plastics. So far so good.
radtech reply :
haven't really tried any new techniques this year to speak of. I picked up fishing with a crankbait last year. They can be a great "finder" BAIT and a great bait all together! As for as the bite for this year has been slow so far. I'm not catching alot of numbers however I have been catching better quality fish this year! 3 over 5lbs already this year! One that weighed 6 but could have been an 8 or 9 lber if it wouldnt have just got done spawning!
NILBasser reply :
Still fishing most of the same baits just in different areas and in a slightly different way.
NCbassmaster4Life reply :
Awsume, thanks for the replys.
ww2farmer reply :
The open water season started very early with the mild winter we had up here. It started great, mid to late March I was doing things, and fishing areas I usually fish in late April. Catching was not a problem, I had several big fish, and a couple of pretty good days. Then April came, the nice weather went, and so did the good fishing....for me. I struggled for the better part of 2-3 weeks. Between one cold frosty night, followed by cloudless, high barometric pressure days, dropping water temps, or being busy ar work when the small windows of decent fishing were, it was one of the most frustrating April's I can remember. The last week of April things started picking up, and this past week has been decent.
New things? Not really, but I have made a strong effort to gain some confidence in jerkbaits in cold water this spring, and so far so good. Had a few good outings for multiple species in mid to high 40 degree water.
NCbassmaster4Life reply :
Thanks for the feedback farmer, yeah the cold fronts didn't help at all.
GOOCHY reply :
I agree with ww2farmer. I had a bunch of luck in late March and was catching multiple per day and then just went cold through most of April. Weird cold fronts at night just threw everything off here in Iowa, for me. I'm not the most experienced fisherman but it slowed way, way down.
flippin and pitchin reply :
The weather has dictacted everything this year. Abnormally cold temps through early April, low water levels, and high winds. My first outing was April 10th. I have done well with bigger fish but numbers are low. I went out yesterday in 25 MPH 47 degree wind and it hailed on me. I had a seven and one over five and lost three others over three pounds and that was it forover seven ours with the Trolling motor on high all day. I managed my PB largemouth a few weeks ago and got a 5th in a tournament last week end. I can't complain. It wouldn't do any good any way. 
JaxBasser reply :
I've caught more nice fish (5+ lbs) so far this year then I have in like the past 2 years combined. I've been using soft plastic swimbaits and the fish have been crushing them.
Frog Turds reply :
a big fat 0 since I haven't been out bassin yet, 21 more days till opener =(
VictorDevano reply :
I caught some smaller bass to 2 pounds, but no giants like I hoped for,
Jim_M reply :
Spawn and post spawn conditions out here in the southwest deserts. Caught a bunch of 1-1/2 lb rats and some 2-3 lb'ers all from shore so far. All on light finesse rigs. Seriously problems fishing that slow but I am improving some. Need to get the cover off the tinny and start learning to jig in deep water.
MN Bassin' nOOb reply :
On 5/6/2012 at 4:36 AM, Frog Turds said:a big fat 0 since I haven't been out bassin yet, 21 more days till opener =(
x2 on that.
Scorcher214 reply :
First day of bass fishing since the season started, did better than the guys on boats haha. Just a rage tail craw in bama craw and a keel waited hook......(Thanks BIG-O!).
A-Jay reply :
This season is starting out a little slow - hope things pick up soon - like today perhaps ~
A-Jay
Lund Explorer reply :
Must be time for all the MI guys to chime in.
Made the first real bass fishing trip this morning. Water temps sitting around 58 and all those funny looking shiny spots have shown up again this spring. Every darn one of them seems to have a young buck sitting on it ready to pounce on the first thing that comes anywhere near these places.
Wasn't much of a challenge to put a couple dozen greenies in the boat, but the top five probably barely squeaked in at 11 - 12 lbs.
NCbassmaster4Life reply :
Thanks all for the in-put, I think this years start was shady in most parts of the south the warm weather came rather quick,water temps warmed up, and the bass were in shock....most of them that I was fishing for were.
Started out in late March fishing a tournement, the water temps were decent enough for the bass to spawn only one problem we had a fair amount of rain so the lake was up rather high then usual.
Needless to say I had to pull back a little,instead of fishing in the 1-2 ft range I had to drop back into 5-6ft of water and cast into the 3-4ft range where the water would have been normal at 1-2ft.
It produced a couple of mamas,but most were still in post spawn??? It was definitly a learning process for me and I used this to learn about the bass's pattern and how they are used to it gradually warming up instead of spurts.
jerzeeD reply :
Ive done ok... Not high in numbers, but the sizes I have been catching habe made me pretty happy. Nailed 3-4 in the 4-5 lb. Range already as far as LM bass go. The trout fishing has been ok as well.
tpsneaks18 reply :
I've had an amazing year so far as far as numbers...I'm a tourney guy- not just some ****** who fishes only for money but I fish w ith a tournament mentality, even though I'm leisure fishing most of the time, I'm testing different techniques and always take my fishing fairly seriously but definitely always laugh and take in the beauty...So my point is when I'm fishing I'm usually tallying in my head what my best 5 would estimate out to be...and so far this year I've done great as far as that goes. I'm in MA so we are still very much pre-spawn, only now starting to see some beds start to be fanned off, I'd say the new moon on the 21st is when we'll see a good chunk of our fish start spawning. They seem to follow that "new moon" crap pretty good out here. But we've had a warm winter (NO ice) and water's warming so we'll see. But I have avg'd a solid 15lbs with man 18-20lbs limits...and around here that's almost always enough to put you in the money or win. Granted...there isnt 15-40 other boats out there when im fun-fishing so not getting too excited.
But no HAWGS yet this year...I haven't fished many HAWG holding waters (the ponds with the herring runs emptying right into them or the ponds stocked with 100's of Trout- these ponds, naturally grow giants) yet this year tho so not too down on things.
Also the growth in the ponds I live on has seemed to really get better...2.5-3lbs AVG....but still it's like EVERY fish is that size...2.5-3.5...hardly ever over 4, very rarely 5...and that's def the biggest that I think you'd get outta there. I've caught a 5lbs smallmouth, 5-4...never a weighed 5lbs lm...a few i thought were 5 but still...it's odd.
A-Jay reply :
On 5/7/2012 at 12:34 AM, Lund Explorer said:Must be time for all the MI guys to chime in.
Made the first real bass fishing trip this morning. Water temps sitting around 58 and all those funny looking shiny spots have shown up again this spring. Every darn one of them seems to have a young buck sitting on it ready to pounce on the first thing that comes anywhere near these places.
Wasn't much of a challenge to put a couple dozen greenies in the boat, but the top five probably barely squeaked in at 11 - 12 lbs.
OK - In the last two days the bite for lmb has picked up considerably. Haven't seen any beds yet but much of the local population is shallow and very cooperative. Mostly smaller fish so far. I've been probing that first break looking for the fat girls. Today looks sweet and I'm heading out . . . . . . . . . . . Retirement is good.
A-Jay
wisconsin heat reply :
The two days ive been out its been okay. the first day i caught about ten bass. And I pulled a "5 pounder" on shore and it weighed 3lbs 9oz LOL. Which Ties my personal best:). The water was really murky and i caught em on day one by flipping a jig n pitboss, and on a double colorado spinnerbait. Day two i only caught two fish, but the water was more murky and I didnt fish nearly as long as i did the first. I caught em on a chartreuse chatterbait
Lund Explorer reply :
On 5/8/2012 at 8:06 PM, A-Jay said:OK - In the last two days the bite for lmb has picked up considerably. Haven't seen any beds yet but much of the local population is shallow and very cooperative. Mostly smaller fish so far. I've been probing that first break looking for the fat girls. Today looks sweet and I'm heading out . . . . . . . . . . . Retirement is good.
A-Jay
I'm almost fully there, just to the "Tired" stage. Have to work today through Thursday and then I'm done until June 4th. That should give me a few days on the water for the pre-to-post thingy. Schedule has me sitting at my desk for 8 days in June and then I'm headed north for two weeks until July 3rd. Too many honey-do's in July, so I've got a reserved campsite near Hamlin Lake from Aug 14th until Sept 23rd to make amends.
I'm either going to get in a lot of fishing this year, or we're are in for a bunch of rain! 
bassmaster3541 reply :
It has been on and off, the weather has been really wierd up here.
My biggest so far this year was just under 8, on a horny toad.
New baits I have been getting into are zoom Ol' Monsters, I have never been much of a worm fisherman but I have gotten really into them this year and had some very good days with them
ChrisAW reply :
One trip out so far. It was about a 3 hour trip with my girlfriend and a friend of mine. I boated 5 fish, girlfriend got one little one, friend zero. They both gave up, and I ended up catching this 5.8lber.
Scorcher214 reply :
Had a good day today in SE Michigan. About 10 boated and 2 had gotten off. Biggest one was probably around 3lbs. All the bass I caught were shallow in and around lily pads. Or where there were a decent amount of weeds but not too clogged. All on a weightless fluke simply swam across the surface. No action or anything. Just reeled in.
And I had another 2 hit on a snagg proof frog with a buzzbait blade on it. But I suck at setting the hook on frogs.
BassinNY reply :
I'm using 5 baits and my average bass sizes are larger. By concentrating more on locating structure and cover my quantity is up as well.
BassfisherMass reply :
i love the useing the plastics worms and so far this year i am doing well
Crestliner2008 reply :
This season actually started for us in February, as this winter has been very mild and temps have pretty much stayed above normal through April. Got the bass moving earlier than normal, that's for sure. Haven't been out in the boat yet; mainly fishing from shore. We have several small ponds and oxbows around this neck of the woods and most provide some decent bass fishing. Here's some of what I've been able to CPR so far:
And this is a couple of shots of my single largest so far this season:
They've all been caught on large plastics; creatures, 7" Senkos and 10" worms. Water temps here are still in the mid 50's, but after this week, the temps should start to get up there. This is the first year I haven't had an opportunity to target smallies - yet! 
NCbassmaster4Life reply :
Nice fish Crest.
TourPT reply :
Like others have mentioned, that early spring was some good fishing then it just died off. Since then everything has been backwards. What I mean is, usually early in the season the ponds being the first to warm, the bass fishing is usually the best this time of year at the ponds, however I have not been able to get anything going on the ponds. The lakes on the other hand have been producing pretty well. No monsters, but at least getting some action on the bigger waters. Water temps as of this past weekend are around 55-60 here in Northern IL.
Another kind of weird thing is the bass usually are hitting jigs, traps or cranks this time of year but its been all frogs, buzzbaits and other topwaters around here. Kind of like a fall bite rather then a early spring bite. Not complaining at all for I love throwing those, but just kind of wierd this early in the season.
Bankbeater reply :
I have caught numbers, but so far I haven't gotten anything over 2 lbs.
thehooligan reply :
The frog bite has been exceptional for me, nothing very big though. Biggest bass for me so far this year was a 3.5 on a shadrap. April was horrible with the wind, did alot of shore fishing, way to windy for the boat or kayak. Hoping things calm down and its a solid summer.
B@ssCrzy reply :
I have by far had the best year of my life. I don't necessarily attribute that to the weather or conditions though. I actually attribute it to this site. This is the first spring that I feel like I am fishing with purpose and not just out there slinging baits in random places. With some of the stuff I have learned by reading over the past year I have been able to see my catch rates go way up. Last year I caught zero fish on a crankbait...this year I landed my pb largemouth (about 4-5lbs) and have caught numbers on lipless cranks. This is a big deal to me since last year I couldn't catch a cold on a crank. Thanks everybody!! Tight lines!!
NCbassmaster4Life reply :
That's awsume B@ssCrzy!
riskkid 2 reply :
It's been good for me. Have caught fish consistently except maybe the roadtrip where the conditions were less than favorable. New baits I've tried have been a Jika Rig which worked well and new for me is a swim jig which has been good. Best fish so far is about four pounds. Got to fish a new lake in a club tournament last weekend (Nickajack, lake just above Guntersville on the TN River), beautiful scenery and caught a 9.5 lb limit, only good enough for 3rd place (missed second place by an ounce) but always nice to get a limit....headed to Old Hickory next for old familiar surroundings. Kentucky Lake in the early fall.......looking forward to a fun year!!
xxjoker122 reply :
Best fishing for me in the past 10 years, caught over 200 fish, at least twenty 5+ pounders and over eight 6+lbs, i have been using 5 inch senkos, wacky rigged, and 2.5 crankbaits, and #4 bluefox spinner
Bluebasser86 reply :
1097 on the year so far with the biggest being a 6.1 pound largemouth last Monday. Going to be padding those numbers at Table Rock Sunday-Tuesday though 
related General Bass Fishing Forum topic
previous topic
most viewed General Bass Fishing Forum topic
© 2024 - fishing.qciss.net. All Rights Reserved.