Spring 2011 recap **Blessed by the river gods**

I first want to say that the spring 2011 season was a absolute blast for me and I caught some of the best fish that I have ever caught on the river. I did not catch a world record fish nor did I even come close.
I know deep down that my chances of catching a world record fish are about the same as winning the lottery but that is not what this is all about.

The whole idea behind this blog was about setting a goal for myself and instead of just randomly fishing for what ever is biting focusing my efforts on a specific target. This blog was created to be a place where I could share my adventures with friends. Hey and who knows..If I really did end up catching a record fish how cool would it be to have a record of the events leading up to the big catch.

One thing that I can says is that by setting this goal it has helped me become a better fisherman. Over the past few years since I started river fishing exclusively I was going places and fishing all over for what ever bass species that might be biting at the time..Not any more. The past few months I have focused totally on catching a record shoal bass and nothing else. In doing so it helped me really hone my fishing skills in on this one specific target.. I have traveled places I would not normally go and fish in ways that I would not normally fish. . I have not landed the big one so far but I sure caught some of the best fish that I have ever caught on the river which tells me my efforts are paying off.

Below is a slide show of some of the fish that I caught this past spring. It was a total blast and now all I can think of is the upcoming fall season..The shoal bass will move up once again in preparation for the winter months and guess who will be there waiting..
Thanks for looking and I hope to see you all on the river.
Take care.
WJ

Hot summer fishing..A recent trip report.

Well there has not been much to report lately as far as big fish go. Seems like since summer kicked in and things heated up the big shoal bass headed for deeper waters to hide out until things cool off. Over the past few weeks we have experienced drought conditions around the state and the rivers have been extremely low and super clear.

I believe the big shoal bass seek out deeper water with cooler temps where they can hide out during these times. In a couple of months though we will start to transition into the fall pattern and the fishing should improve. The fish will move back up into the shoals to feed and fatten them selves up in preparation for winter..This is when I will have my next opportunity at that record fish.

You can bet that I will be there and be ready.
Here is a recent trip report that I made on one of the forums of a trip that me and my good Friend and fishing partner Glenn Anderson took a couple of weeks ago..The fishing turned out to be ok with both of us catching quite a few smaller bass and both ended up with one good fish each for the day.
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Trip report 06/11***Big ol bass and fresh fruit***

RatherBfishing likes his fruit prepackaged frozen in a bag.

 I like mine fresh cut and chilled.

Nothing like some ice cold fruit on a hot summer day to refresh you and give you a energy boost.

And it was a hot one..It was in the mid 90's for about the 16th straight day I believe in the state of Georgia.
That did not keep up from getting out there though..

The morning started out slow but once we got into some shoals we found a pretty decent top water bite
that lasted until the sun cleared the tops of the trees around 11:00am..RBF scored on buzz baits and rag tail shads and
I caught a few on the ol trusty Torpedo..After the top water bite turned off it did not take long to figure out the ticket would be
soft plastics fished on the bottom in the deeper sections with current..The hot bait of the day was a watermelon seed zoom trick worm.
Watermelon seed is a excellent color choice when the water is super clear and we proved it on this day.
Between the two of us it was a 50 + fish day..Mostly dinks and 1 to 2 lbers but fun fun fun no matter how you look at it.
I had thought with the heat that we would be ready to call it a day around mid after noon but now way...We fished from sun up to
sun down..It was a blast...I even took along a ultra lite rod and some beetle spins and had a blast catching a few small bass and red breast.
There were red breast beds every where that we found a sandy bottom..

We caught a bunch around this size.

We caught a good many in the 1 to 2 lb range.

RatherBfishing caught the first big one of the day and what was really cool is he saw this fish and

kept casting to it until he coaxed the girl to pick up his worm..Way to stick with it there buddy and
a darn nice shoal bass...Congrats

Now RBF is my buddy and I enjoy seeing him catch a big bass but no way could I let him get away

with catching the only big fish of the day...Well it took me the majority of the afternoon to do it but I finally
was able to hook into a good one myself.

At the end of the day we were totally drained from the heat and the long day on the water but we had fun so all that just did not matter.

I would do it again in a heart beat..Summer fishing is always fun when it it comes to numbers of fish..I have had many a day
like this in the summer months when it seemed like you could almost catch one on every cast when you found the right spot.
It was fun but I am looking forward to the cooler days of fall when the big ones start fattening up for winter.

Fish on my river fishing friends..I'll see you on the river.
WJ

What happend to going from spring to summer ?

We are going backward ? The weather in GA has been really jacked up this spring.The lows this morning was in the 40's and only warmed up to the low 60's today..It has been super windy and cool for the past week with low cloud cover but no rain ? In fact it has been super dry and the rivers are very low and clear.To be so cool you would think there would be more moisture but it is almost draught conditions at my house.My grass is dying and has not needed to be cut in two weeks.

After all the mothers day activities and the big birthday party weekend before last I was all geared up to go catch some big spring shoal bass before the spring time spawn was over but it just did not happen..We went but the conditions were less than favorable.The water was low and super clear and a cold front moved in the day before that just screwed the fish up big time. We caught a few fish but mostly juvenile males in the 1 to 2 lb range..There were several times that I could see big mommas in that were easy 4 or 5 lbers swim by but they were not interested in any bait that I had to offer.

Shoal bass like all other black bass species are at their prime in the spring when the females fatten themselves up for the spawn..This is the time of year when you have the best chance at catching a record shoal bass..I think that I may have missed my chance at the record this spring.The fish that we did catch last weekend were either small males or spawned out females that were very skinny so that tells me that the spawn has already taken place or is in progress and about to end.I also noticed some big fish sitting on top of the rocks in open water acting like they were totally uninterested in any feeding activity.This tells me they are in that post spawn funk.

I may have missed my chance at that big fat spring time momma shoalie that I have been looking for but I did catch some really nice ones so no disappointment here..There is always the fall and next spring.
They will be back in that heavy feeding mode when the water starts to cool down in the fall getting fat for winter.Who knows...Might even hook up with a big one over the summer months.

I will be back at it soon..May even take a break and go after some small mouth up in the Carolina's soon.
Stay safe out there folks.
See you on the river.
WJ

I am going to loose my mind !!!

I cant go fishing this weekend !! Mothers day on Sunday and the grand baby has a birthday party on Saturday and I am the hot dog cook....Of course I would not miss either event for the world but it just dawned on me that I have been lucky enough to fish just about every weekend at least once since the first of the year...Cant complain about missing one weekend can ya ? I have truly been blessed to be able to get out and fish and have a family that understands my addiction..So where is that world record shoal bass you might ask ?
Still in the river I guess but I can assure you it not because I have not been trying to catch it.

So no report this week but maybe the big girl shows up next weekend .I will dam sure be out there.
This weekend the focus is on the the grand baby and the mothers..I hope every one has a great weekend and a great time with your families.

Take care and be safe.
WJ

Fishing Tornado alley 05/01

The shoal bass fishing has fell off a bit for the past couple of weeks.For me it has anyway..My buddy Bruiser has been on a streak the past couple of weekends catching several nice one including two over 5 pounds.The shoalies seem to be in that mode where they are about to spawn or have spawned out and they are in the pockets and deep holes right in the roughest part of the shoals that are tough to get to and fish.Its not like fishing a lake or even a river its like fishing in a small pool or a barrel even.
You have to be able to sneak up on these pools and drop a lure in there without spooking the fish.
Bruiser has been doing pretty well at it.I have been catching a lot of fish but mostly smaller ones.

Anyway here is my short report of my trip on 5/1 which also include a couple of pics from the tornado damage in Georgia from last week..

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Trip report 05/01

While Bruiser was down stream breaking paddles and reeling in 5 plus lb shaol bass I was up stream messing around with the worn out spawned out largemouths that were hanging around the banks in the shallow water and trees..I managed to catch this girl that looked like she had been though the ringer..Her fins and tail were ragged and red and she was very skinny..She may have been a 6 lber prespawn but
she only tipped the scales at 4-11.Caught on a green pumpkin zoom finesse worm thrown right into a tree.

I only managed to catch a few small shoalies and spots up in the shoals for the rest of day on worms and finesse jigs..After around 1:00pm when the sun was up high the bite turned off.
After we left the river we went buy to take a look at a spot where a tornado must have crossed the road.
It was absolutley amazing to see what a tornado does to a tree..I feel for the people that took direct hits from these storms and pray for those who died or were injured or lost loved ones.

Behind these trees is a house that looked like it only had roof damaged but we could not see it to well..Looked like the storm went through the front yard.

Fish on my riverbassin friends.

See you on the river.

WJ