Man O Man O Man!  Went up to spend some time with my Dad and we decided to check out one of his favorite small ponds to fish, primarily because most of the dam and other parts are in the shade of some big oaks.  Dad was fishing with wax worms and I was fishing with a ultralight reel (Shimano) and rod (Ugly Stick) with beetle spin.  As we stopped on the dam to fish you could smell a strong fishy smell--surely they were not spawning in all this heat.  But as I said earlier, Man O Man!  Seemed like on every cast each of us caught a fish or had a bite.  Dad had said we would keep some for a family in His church.  When we got home we had kept 25 and every one of them weighed over a pound and probably 8 or 10 weighed over a pound and a half.  We had one that tipped the scales right at 2 pounds and Dad was sure he had caught it but it seemed to me that was the one that kept running in circles with my beetle spin.  As he ran in circles I remember saying to the fish:  "OK, big guy you got it now what are you going to do!"  We went back this morning and caught several bass--released all of them with the biggest weighing about 5 pounds.  The fish are really beginning to turn it on.  Uncle Tom

i have notice that the gills and bass have started to put on their later summer/early fall feed bag a week ago.

keep up having all that fun with yer dad and enjoy catching all them there fishies

Thats good to hear! Its been cooling off around my neck of the woods here lately. We even had 2 nights when it dropped into the 40's. A month ago the water temp was hovering around 80 but I was thinking of heading north to the lakes this weekend and give it a try.

The fall bite makes it harder to figure out where to fish, cause all the lakes are hot right now or right after they turnover.

what makes it hard is that the fish can be anywhere and be confort. but when ya do find them they are biting and it doesn't take long to catch more than ya need.

Hey Uncle Tom, a whole mess of pound to pound and a half gills! How can you beat that? About how long were they? Must have been close to 12 inches to weigh that much. A buddy of mine and I are going fishing tomorrow so I hope a little of that luck rubs off on us,lol we could use it. We're fishing a lake that is about 200 acres over a hundred feet deep but averages about 25 or so . The whole east end of this lake is riddled with little submerged island that the bluegills love to spawn in. After spawning they slide down the sides of these islands into weed beds in 25 to30 ft of water where they tend to hang out during the hot weather. It is hard telling where to find them when fall rolls around. They could be right back where they were spawning or maybe even suspended around 20ft in 50 ft of water. I guess thats what they make fish finders for. Hope fully i will get back with a good report. Good fishing to all!