Spring Time Mamma Bass

Back in May 2011, a buddy of mine and I hit my favorite lake, fishing for a good mess of crappie
This little lake is well taken care of, the owner manicures about 2/3 of it. The rest has trees growing thickly next to the waters edge.

We were fishing the tree lined side, adding a few decent crappie into our buckets, when I walk down to the shallower end. There's nearly 2 doz. keepers in the bucket, mainly crappie with a couple of decent bass.

I cast next to a log sticking out in the water, something slams my jig, and the fight is on!!

With 4lb test line on, ya don't horse the biguns, ya play em and wear em down. My little ultralite rod is bent almost double, my reel's singing a pretty song to me, real music to my ears.

I play this fish over 10 minutes, finally I see it, what a fish, it's Big ole Mamma Bass, what a pretty sight to behold. She's starting to tire so I work her over to the bank, reach down and lift her up into the air.

Would ya look at the belly on that girl, what a lunker. I holler at T,"Look at this Baby" he looks over and his jaw drops.

Well after he put his jaw back in place, he says "That's gotta be at least 7lbs maybe more with that belly" I agree with him, but don't have weigh scales with me. I don't care really since I plan on turning her loose soon anyway. Now here's the kicker folks.

I walk over, ease her into the bucket, hey I want to admire her for a bit OK.

I walk back to where I was, about 30 ft from my bucket and resume fishing. A couple minutes later, my buddy walks over to add another crappie to our catch, he calls me over there. I look in the bucket, Oh no she's gone, so is most of our catch.

Big ole Mamma Bass, well I guess she had a mission. Laying that bellyful of eggs, and she wasn't about to let me stop her. So we caught another mess of crappie to replace the ones she took home with her, had a lot of fun doing it too.

Now that's been 4 years ago, I think it's about time to catch another big'un from that lake, I believe I'm ready too.

Thanks for visiting folks

Jon

How to Fillet Crappie Easily & Quickly

Crappie!! Filleting The Easy Way

Hi Fishing Folks

Here's a little 5 minute "How To Video" that I just made and added to you tu.be this week. Please bear with me folks, this is my first ever video. By now you know I'm just a simple ole country boy, but I can sure enough learn! I filleted quite a few fish that day and I'd been wanting to make a video for a while, so here's the result. About 40 years of fish cleaning practice wrapped up in a 5 minute video. <(;HF+<

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-K9tPVbP91rk/VQfYH79yZVI/AAAAAAAAAqE/G7QZop0exAs/w380-h675/20150312_171205.mp4

Early Spring Crappie Fishing

Hi All Fishers
The Crappie Fishing was amazing today!! Yesterday...Not so much. But today my fishing rod and I, had great fun. And I even have some pretty cool 'crappie fishing tips' for you, in good time. hehe. ((-;

So for the 12th of March, we here in central Missouri near the Lake of the Ozarks, are having beautiful weather. It was 55 by 11:00 AM today and I was already at my favorite lake. For this early in the year the water temp is warming nicely, so I was hopeful the fish were biting.

3-12-15 First Fishing Trip in March
My Favorite Lake

I love crappie fishing folks, when they're biting the action is hard to beat. Today it started off slow as I walked to the shallow end of the lake, making a few casts along the way. When I get to the willow trees (red arrow) I start to see some fish movement beneath the trees. So I ease my way close enough to cast near the swirls.

Strike...And a miss! A few more casts, still nothing hooked, so I walk on down to the point of the cove. Now usually there's some slab crappie hanging out in this area, not today though. I started here because the water would be slightly warmer, but the wind is blowing towards the dam, the opposite end of the lake.

So after catching a couple of crappie, I work my way to the dam. Now here's a little "crappie fishing tip", whichever direction the wind is blowing, fish at the bank that it's blowing towards. The choppy water stirs the baitfish and that's where the bigger fish will be feeding, and that increases your chances of catching more fish.

I've been here about an hour, and it's warmed up a few more degrees, the fish are starting to bite more, so I've added a couple more to my bucket. This time of year in ponds and small lakes, the crappie are usually hanging close to the bank. I was casting 4-5 feet out from the bank and catching some 9-10" fish.

I like to use a bobber this time of year, about 12-18" deep. This keeps the jig at a consistent depth where the crappie are feeding and with a solid weighted bobber you can cast farther even with a strong wind

3-12-15 First Mess of Crappie

So I'm walking along the bank, casting ahead of my direction of travel. Finally a good solid hit, there's a slabbie, a nice 13 incher, in the bucket she goes. Prespawn crappie fight like the devil and I'm having a blast. I've added 8 to the bucket by now, and since crappie like shade I'm headed to the tree lined side of the lake.

Now it's warmed up to about 70 and the fish are really starting to bite. My next 5 casts I land 3 nice slabs. Next I cross the fence and sit down on a boat that the owner keeps there, this is a nicely shaded area, and the crappie have really started to bite.



For the next hour I land over 30 fish, some small 7-8" but out of those I have 14 nice keepers 10-13". I also kept a few small bluegill to fertilize my tomato plants, that makes those tomatoes taste so good! I ended up keeping 22 nice filleting size crappie, what a great relaxing early spring fishing trip.

Thanks for visiting folks
(-: jono

Childhood Fishing Ponds Revisited

Hi Fishing Friends

I made a trip back to my hometown this last May 2014. My sis Lois had some business to take care of there, and asked me to ride along. So we loaded our gear, and 'hit the road'.

We get to Fulton, she gets her business dealt with, and off we go, to my old favorite clay pit. When we get there, we grab our rods and tackle, walk about an eighth of a mile thru the brush and scrub and approach the water. This pit is a pale blue/green, and about 40 feet deep.

I scan the water along the edge, looking for bass, and all I see are perch. For the first half hour or so, we catch a few bluegill and shellcrackers. Finally Lois hangs into a decent bass, and lands a 2 LBer, good enough to keep so she puts it on a stringer.

By then it's time for me to move, so I work my way on around the shore to 'the spot'. It's pretty overgrown since hardly anyone fishes this hole anymore.  Fighting, thorns, briars, and thick brush, I finally clear a place well enough to fish at.

Now you may ask, is it worth it?

Well my first few casts weren't. That third cast though - wham! That bass hit hard, then it took off running for cover. I lowered my rod tip, reeled some line in, and horsed him away from the brush. Oh man, I love it when a big ole bass starts 'tail dancing', shaking his head the whole time. Sorry bud not getting away this time, I reeled him into shore to my waiting hand. As I lifted him from the water, I could tell he was nice 5 pounder, sweet!!

First one for me on the stringer, and I'm not a bit disappointed in my ole fishing hole.  The next few casts I catch some perch and smaller bass, from about one to three pounds, add a couple more to my keepers, and man am I having a blast.

#2 H&W Claypit This is also where I learned how to swim.<(;HF+<

I work my way around the bank a bit, to a slightly less overgrown place, then make a few more casts. The darn perch keep hitting my jig. I make a long cast, quickly a perch gets
hooked. As I'm reeling in, A BIG bass attacks the perch I hooked. Oh baby, Fish On!!

This bass dives deep, I can't even turn him, no control at all. And then, SNAP!!! Grumbling as I reel in my line to retie a new jig on, oh well, plenty more bass in this pit. Pretty disappointing though, I didn't even get to see that one, it had to be a monster bass.

Still all in all, no disappointment in the fishing trip, I had just as much fun here, as when I was a boy, to me that's what counts.

We kept 8 nice bass that day, between 2 & 5 lbs, I sure do 'love them pits'. I'll be back next spring to catch that huge bass, we have a score to settle. :-)

Well folks thanks for visiting. It's the beginning of March now, in about a month, I'm heading back to that old pit, look out monster here I come!! (((-: j

Pond Fishing Love

Hi Fishing Friends

So you love pond fishing too, well YOU are in the right place. Here at my little site we can share that passion!!

My fishinglove bond
Began in a pond
My passion is plain to see
Scroll down my wall
Come one, come all
What pondfishing means to me.