Kayak bass fishing 7-16

I got out in the metro area for some bass fishing from my kayak!
I had a hard time finding them and it looked like a skunk, until I came upon a huge floating cattail bog over fairly deep water. flipping a heavy jig and pig in the pockets got my some good fish, the biggest looked all of 4 pounds

Panfish action 7/3-4

I met Jack up in Pelican Rapids, and we hit an area lake that was really going for Slabs and big sunfish. Some of the crappies were close to a pound and a half.
My best bait was a 16th oz jig tipped with a 2.5 inch gulp alive emerald shiner colored minnow. Also slow trolling or fan casting a paddle tail plastic put many fish on the line too. Just about anywhere we found healthy stands of broad leafed pondweed, we would get fish.

Float tubing 6-26

I finally got out in the float tube for a little panfish action . I love being close to the water for great photo opportunities, but it sure is hard on my back for some reason, so I probably won't do it too much.
I got lots of sunfish, mostly smaller, but a few nice ones in the mix, plus some nice colors. Plenty of crappies around, but they were pretty small, same with the bass.
I got some on a hair jig
Also the purple green glow tube bait was hot too, especially for the big hybrid sunfish

Up North panfish and bass 6/11-12

I got into some more nice sunfish and bass this weekend in the Grand Rapids area, getting them up shallow.
The bass were done spawning, though a few males were still on beds, got some up to 18 inches on a thorne bros 6 inch slug bait.  Bluegills were just moving up to spawn though they have not made beds yet, quite finicky as well, not willing to venture out of the thick cover to bite until the sun got behind the clouds and a breeze picked up. I got some on a small hair jig . When that bite cooled off, I tried a small leech on a plain gold hook and was able to get a few more. I went nuts with the camera , so enjoy the pics!

Big panfish from the weekend

A few of the many panfish I got this weekend. the two biggest bluegills weighed in at 1 pound one ounce. I got some on plastics and gulp, the best bait for the bigger sunfish was small leeches. Most were up shallow near reeds or bulrushes.

Bass opener 2011 weekend success

I went fishing with Jack this weekend , he was looking for crappies in the shallows and the action was pretty slow, so i did a lot of bassin' my main producer was a bluegill colored 6 inch bass slug on a 5/0 hook, casting at mainly dead emergent vegetation. I got some in the grand rapids area, but most of the big bass came out of mille lacs lake.

I

The lunker, almost 21 inches and very fat with eggs. I think it is over 6 pounds, but Jack's scale only gave me 5 pounds 9 ounces. still in my top ten all time biggest bass, and number one for smallmouths

Opener 2011

I got out on the opener for a little while, and ended up getting 3 nice pike. Another boat near there was throwing spinnerbaits and seeing a few follows but not hooking up. I went with a larger crappie plastic with some flash hoping to get their attention and it worked. I all got two smaller bass and no crappies.

Friends Dave, Eric, and Andrew out trying their luck...