I'm going to have to break my own rule and give it a 5 star day due to new personal biggest bass, even though no trout.

Today I took my rubber raft out to Ballinger. I fished up north, I fished the island, I fished the south, I fished the east, I fished the island again. 7am, give or take, to about 5 pm.

Well, I pitched that dumb rubber worm till my elbow hurt. Huge waste of time. So when I got to the island maybe 10 am, I switched to crappie jig format with a piece of worm instead of a jig. Caught some minnows, and suddenly bobber down hard ... smaller bass in pic. Worked island another hour or so, more minnows, then they stopped biting entirely.

So then I went to south end, got hooked up on a sunken log, switched to floating minnow looking thing that I pulled off a cattail up in Lake Cassidy heh, couple casts in I managed to WAY overshoot and it landed up in a tree, pulled to break line and the lure shot out of the tree, so I reeled up the line and rescued the lure with my net, back to crappie jig style, eventually started getting bites again but all small, worked my way up the east side of the lake, then finished back at the island and managed to catch larger bass (new biggest all time bass for me!), method for that being unconventional and will remain cloaked in mystery!

Along the way I took two breaks to catch perch. At this point I'm not posting any more pics of Ballinger perch. It would be gloating. I'm better than that. Regardless, I also got a new record perch.

I wish I hadn't wasted so much time casting that stupid rubber worm.

I've heard lots of people say there are no bass in Ballinger. At this point, I beg to differ. Oddly enough, both bass had empty stomachs. The second bass came at s spot where there were so many bass minnows I could not leave my perch gear in the water as they were all over it - to the tune of me catching 10+ of them in 2 minutes just dipping my gear in the water off my raft. So why the largemouth in this lake are starving makes no sense to me whatsoever. Every single perch and pumpkinseed I've butchered is so full of little red worms their stomachs are distended. But the bass are starving, in a lake full of minnows, crayfish, etc? I am very puzzled.

Another thing that puzzles me is that I caught a few perch today under 7 inches - but they were 6 inches. I have never caught a perch under 6 inches in Ballinger. Where are the perch minnows?

Also, there are NO bluegills anywhere in the lake. Only pumpkinseed, and they appear to be genetically horrid stock as there is not a single pumpkinseed (of thousands) in that lake over 4 inches. Also, I would be willing to bet money there are no crappie. I cast that crappie jig nightcrawler piece for a solid 5 hours today. If there was a crappie I would have found it. Speaking of pumpkinseed, I'll bet I threw back 30 of them heh. Get your perch gear in about 3 feet shallower water and they start hitting in a lot of places.

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