1. Kyle Tinny

    Decided to pond fish yesterday because I didn't feel like fighting the wind in the boat... Started and stayed at a 3 acre or so pond by the house and did quite ...more well. Fished for 4 hours and caught 7 fish between a swimbait, swimjig, and punch-rig, with the biggest going about 4lbs; caught punching (as you can see I had a tackle malfunction while setting the hook but I landed her). Started out throwing the swimbait and caught 2 fish suspended off the grassline in about 6-7ft of water; had several other strikes but they weren't eating it so I changed to the more compact swimjig that I could work through the vegetation better. Landed 2 more fish on the swimjig working it closer to the grass line in roughly 5ft of water or so; seemed like they wanted something more compact and the swimjig gave them that. Decided to slow down and punch the newly developing grass mats that already have some "cheese" on them... Caught 3 in a couple hours before calling it a day. All 3 came from mats with algae (the inside edge of the mats) and not scattered grass, and all 3 bit on the initial drop. The patterns were quite simple; post-spawn/early summer locations. I know where they spawn on this pond and I just progressed through the transitional areas catching them on shallow spawning flats, grass edges, and off of the same edge where many go for the summer. The fish moving off the bank are definitely suspended and haven't moved to the bottom yet, and the shallow fish are predictably is the heaviest cover they can find. All-in-all, a good day and the fishing should get progressively better for the next month before we settle on summer areas.

    Conditions: Cloudy with intermittent sun; wind SW at a steady 15mph or so; water temp 71, clear water with 4 feet of visibility

    Tackle: Swimbait (Keitech 3.8 Swing Impact Fat in Bluegill Flash on a 1/4 Revenge Hedz in Chartreuse Shad) - 7'2" MH Duckett Fishing rod paired with a Shimano 7:2:1 reel spooled with 40lb Daiwa J braid.

    Swimjig - Same setup as the swimbait

    Punching - 4" Chigger Craw in Watermelon on a 5/0 Monster Trokar flipping hook with a 3/4oz Swagger Tackle Green Pumpkin weight pegged with a Decoy Texas Lock Peg - 8'0" XH Gary Klein Flip Stick by Duckett Fishing paired with a 7:2:1 Shimano reel spooled with 65lb Daiwa J braid in Chartreuse with 3 feet blacked-out with a sharpie

  2. Kyle Tinny

    Fished a Cook County Forest Preserve Lake this morning from sun-up til about 11 and caught a total of 6 largemouth. Got started fishing a northern riprap bank where ...more there were balls of 3"- 4" shad spawning; so I tied on a 3/8oz white buzzbait with a white/green buzztoad in-place of the skirt and caught 3 fish from 6:30ish til 8ish. Fish were suspended up-high in the water column just like the bait I was seeing in the water and on my electronics; all 3 strikes came on the end of a long cast and within a few cranks of the reel handle. Biggest fish was 2.5lbs or so and they were all well fed (no marks from the spawn...). Riprap made a 45 degree drop into about 5 feet of water and flattened out to scattered rock; all bites came over the drop and not over the flat. Made a 200 yard move to an adjacent 3-5ft flat with scattered Milfoil and starting chunking a 1/4oz white swimjig with a 4" black Chigger Craw trailer. Moved around the area a bit and finally got a bite around the thicker clumps of scattered grass in 4ft of water. Stayed in the area for a few more hours landing 2 more fish with the biggest going 3lbs or so (spawned out female - big head, skinny belly). I wanted to break out the flipping stick and work the thicker clumps with the sun shining, but life's inconvenient responsibilities were calling (wind was tough anyway).

    Peace

    Conditions: Water 68-71 degrees; stained with about 1ft of visibility; wind SW at 15mph

    Tackle:
    Buzzbait (Strike King Tour Grade - 3/8oz) - 7'0" MH Duckett Micro-Magic Pro paired with a Shimano Casitas 7:2:1 spooled with 40lb Daiwa J-8 braid (I use either 40-50lb Daiwa or Sufix braid or 20-25lb Sufix Siege or P-Line CXX monofilament with cover/wind being the deciding factors).
    Swimjig (Boss Outdoors - black head) - 7'1" MH Duckett White Ice II paired with a Shimano Citica I Series 7:2:1 spooled with 40lb Sufix 832 in chartreuse color (I can see it better than green). I only use fluorocarbon when the bite is tough (but only as a leader).

  3. Kyle Tinny
    - Whalon Lake

    Fish fish are spawning with some big gals' already moving slightly off the bank around clumps of grass (big heads and skinny bellys). Lots of 1-2 pound males ...more on beds in a foot of water so. Better fish are suspended around Milfoil clumps and ate both hard and soft jerkbaits well. Caught around 15 fish or so. Only got bites around thicker clumps of Milfoil off the bank. Best fish 3.5 lbs or so. Water was 63-65 degrees.

    2 lb. 8 oz. 18 in. Largemouth Bass with a Super Fluke/X-Rap/Swimjig

About

I live in Illinois, the land of the cooling lake... I'm married with children and I work in health care. I love to bass fish, especially new ...more waters. My favorite fish is the Smallmouth, and I prefer to fish northern natural lakes that have vegetation of some sort. I can't say for sure why I'm so passionate about bass fishing but it's mostly the never-ending challenge of the ever-changing conditions, and the fact that there's always something new to learn. My earliest experience with bass fishing involved smallmouth fishing on creeks and rivers, so I learned how to finesse fish before power fishing was ever a thought. My favorite finesse techniques/baits are dropshotting, snapping a tube, and tossing a small swimbait. My favorite power-fishing baits are a swimjig, a jerkbait and pitching/flipping/punching. My biggest largemouth is an 8.3, caught on a buzzbait from an Illinois county lake, and my biggest smallmouth is 5.7 from Grindstone Lake in Hayward, Wisconsin, caught on a swimbait.

Fishing Favorites

  • Species Smallmouth
  • Waterway Grindstone Lake
  • Lure Swimjig/Flipping...

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