Bassin' With Brian

I had to the chance to hook up with Bassin' Brian and do some fishing here at home on Saturday morning.  There were murmurs of a "Return To Lunkerville", but a 5am wake-up call would have been too much for me to handle on a Saturday mornin, and we ALL hate to be late for a fishin' trip. 
 
So instead, we met at my house around 6:30 and put in a few hours of fishin'.  From "Lunkerville" to "Averageville", of course.

We tossed a limited mixed bag of offerings, but stuck primarily with spinnerbaits, soft plastic swimbaits, and topwaters...  All produced- but of course those topwater frog strikes were the best...  I think we got the majority of fish 'on top', I think!  Plenty of action to keep us pounding the weedbeds for a few hours.  Those surface strikes from the bigger bass are always a thrill.  Water explodes and lily pads go flying!

We did two laps around the lake and (as always with Brian) had a great morning.  It was cold and grey when we started, and hot and humid when we finished around lunchtime.  Not sure how many bass we caught- it was surely not a 'bloodbath', but we did take some photos of a few of 'em.

Brian and a smallmouth to start the day:



I think he switched up rods, and got this fish on the next cast or two out of the same spot:



The the largies began to make an appearance as we worked our way around the lake:











It's always great to get a chance to fish with an angler like Brian.  Great morning, lots of laughs, hot coffee, and just plain enjoyable.  If you haven't spent a few hours in a boat chasing bucketheads with Bri, you should.  You'll be a better person for it, no doubt.

While he is always kind heharted and laid back, he had the 'quote of the day' today while we were drifting over the middle of the lake's deep spots looking for walleye.  We got to talking about bottom structure or something when all of a sudden *BAM*, Brians rod doubles over and the rod tip almost hits the water. 
 
I didn't know what the heck was going on until the drag started streaming and the rod was going nuts.  Brian perked right up, looked at me over his shoulder as the reel continued to squeel, and with the excitement of a kid blurted out "This fish is biiiiiiiiig!"

We were both pretty excited, but as soon as the words were uttered, the fish was gone.  It's hard to say if that fish was a bruiser walleye or a giant smallie...  At around 36ft down, it sure was deep during the midday.

I would assume it was a nice 4lb smallie or something, just because it ran SO hard!  But as I was casting off my dock last night my neighbor came outside to tell me about the 6lb walleye that his wife caught a few hours earlier!  They released the fish, so it's still swimming in there somewhere!  I have yet to see a 6lb walleye out of this puddle- but they could exist! 
 
I don't know if they'd fight like that heavyweight that spit the lure yesterday though!  It looked MOTIVATED!!!

So at least we can assure you there is something in that lake to get excited about next month!

Man that's an Awesome post Jimmy and great pics! I think I look forward to meeting all of you as much as the fishing and good times to come. Hey Brian is that a black skirted spinner bait or a tequila sun rise color? Come on August!

Sweet! great job on those flies!

I had a great time as i knew we would no matter where we went. I have an open seat for you at "Lunkerville" so we'll get you that slob  

I have thought a few times about "the one that got away" !! I really need to find that structure again, because that was a very solid fish in deed !!! No question in my mind that the fish was in that spot because of the big structure we passed over out in the middle of nowhere. But either way we did well man, and on many different baits.

Jimmy - you forgot the fish finder story  !!! What a jackass move by me, but funny

Hey Brian is that a black skirted spinner bait or a tequila sun rise color?

MR Jigs - my fish were on Black Jig, Black Spinnerbait, Black frog, Brown senko ... so it's safe to say black is good BUT the monster from the depths i lost was on a white swimbait ... i toss black 90% of the time anyway, my "go to" color i guess.


BB

Great day you guys- I wish I had the on-water time you guys have I am sooo jealous!  Nice fish porn too. 
RJ : Those flies look good enough to eat.  Better not bring those to Jimmys,  Perchy might dip em in batter and fry em.
JIMMY: I was thinking of you and Perchy saturday,  I picked up a pie at KAYS and tossed in a few baits while I waited. Fishing sucked but pizza was awesome as was the frosty pint of Yuenglings.  Mmmm.

BUT! here is the question, Does one catch more fish on their favorite color because THE BASS prefer it? or is it because being our favorite we FISH it more and with more confidance?  so we catch with it. hmmmm I wonder

Great question !
I am not a huge believer in color (for bass that is) i know some people will argue, but i fish a lot of reaction baits, and also feel if you get the bait in a basses face they will hit it no matter what color. I'll be the 1st to tell you they are not the smartest of fish LOL !!! So i stick with the basics and just keep hammering away with LOTS of confidence ... always knowing i'll get 'em on the next cast   (with black) LOL
 
I'm no dummy either, if my fishing partner is banging them out on a different color and i'm not getting a sniff, i WILL change. But i stick with my own game plan for the most part (which i think about the night before and all the way to the lake) ... yeah i have a problem !!!

BB

Strange how these fish are.. I think they just like to stimulate the economy

 
Wow good point Tuna ... if they are farm raised (state/fed funded programs) then maybe the govt is behind it all !!! Any way for them to suck a few bucks from us dammit !!! LOL
 

ORIGINAL: bassinbrian

 No question in my mind that the fish was in that spot because of the big structure we passed over out in the middle of nowhere.

 
o'cmon brian, offshore structure?  big largemouths?   hahaha.  people always wonder why I have so many small marker buoys in the Lund.  gotta love those sunken jems

ORIGINAL: Neversink Jimmy


As a side note, I also stumbled across a sunked Christmas Tree in the shallows across the lake yesterday.  The water was gin clear and I spotted it 12ft (or so) underwater from the canoe.  Not coincidentally, it is in the same location where I noticed a permanent ice shanty all winter long.

the greatest crappie fishing I've ever had through the ice was over christmas trees.   Sounds like whoever did that has the right idea.    I'm thinking one rainy night maybe two or three christmas trees should show up in 10-20FOW in front of your dock  I might have done it before.


oh yeah, any of the bigger panfish you get in there ever have young of the year bluegills or perch in their bellies?

Well, as it turns out, there might just be some structure out there from last winter's ice storm...
 
Maybe.
 
I have a funny feeling Mr. Jigs might be hammering on Crappie all afternoon once August rolls around
 
Bassin' Brian was here around Wynantskill this evening while picking up some stuff for his wife (and the ASCPA) so of course we had to get out for a little while and do some fishing!  We opted for the canoe tonight so Brian could check it out and we didn't have to mess with my tempermental boat.
 
The action wasn't as hot as it was last night (I slayed them yesterday for some reason) but of course Brian did find some bass willing to chase a buzzbait in the shallows.  We had lots of surface strikes but had trouble getting a few to hand at first.  But Brian came through right around dark when a Smallie hammered the buzzbait near a floating dock in about 8ft of water.  It came right out of the water immediately, which is ALWAYS cool!
 

 
I had to show Brian the Crappie schooled up in the frontyard by pulling one out with a little jig, but the next strike ripped the tail off the only black grub I had with me.  I found some in my boat (on the trailer) a little later but we never really went after them again too hard after that.  I managed one 'portly' Largie that apparently wanted to showoff like the Smallie.  It hit, stopped, sulked, and then hit the air, clearing the water by at least a foot.
 
By then it was so dark that my weak camera batteries didn't want to take a photo. 
 
But I did mention to Brian a photo my buddy took on my lake last Fall that I always found really cool.  Totally random shot, but it came out awesome.  Check out this LMB heading skyward!
 

 
 

Nice jumping pic! Hey Bri, sweet buzzbait, where did you pick up that Cavitron?