Kinnelon, New Jersey

Caught my first turtle yesterday. I saw some ripples in the lily pads and casted over with a topwater frog. He missed it the first time, so I casted back and he took it the second time. I had no clue it was a turtle, and thought it was probably another giant bass, but I soon realized that I had made a mistake once I got it to the bank. Luckily he was a rather small turtle, otherwise I probably wouldnt have pulled him in, but I had no pliers or line cutters to get him off. I was at a loss for what to do, as he was definitely hooked, so I just tried to act as if his mouth was a log that I was snagged on, and pulled and popped my rod from different angles. Somehow it worked, and the turtle swam off while I got my entire frog back in one piece. I also found out today that this pond is private. I was kayaking for a bit, and the homeowner came out and told me, but he was very nice about it. He said people keep taking the no trespassing signs next to the road, which is why I thought it was public in the first place. He said I could keep fishing, but as we were talking, there was some thunder over head, so I decided to get of the water.

New PB Bass. Probably somewhere between 5 and 6 lbs. I was supposed to be working doordash, but just before I entered the open zone, it closed. Since there were no open spots anymore, I decided to pull off at this pond I just passed. It was covered in pads and had a nice pulloff spot for my car, so i decided why not. This fish had an insane blow up on my frog and missed it twice 10 feet from the bank. I made a couple more casts and I thought he left, but sure enough, he was still waiting. This pond had a nice place to put my kayak in, so I'll probably come back and explore it some more. For less than an hour of fishing at a random pond on the side of the road, it was a pretty great day

Toughed out the rain yesterday afternoon for a couple of hours for my first largemouth of the year. The little guy was the only bite I had for 4 hours, and I had to work for him. Started off with the frog which didn't work, then I switched to the spinnerbait. After no bites for an hour, 45 degree rainy weather, and a very large swan giving me a very nasty side eye, I decided to call it quits so I could prep for today

Found this nice little lake with a public kayak launch. Came here Wednesday and didn't catch anything from shore, but came back with my dad and the kayaks yesterday. I was using a frog, this one little bass choked it. I missed 6 other fish, I have to wait longer to set the hook. My dad caught a 2.5 lber on a crankbait on the weed edge. It was a nice little outing until sunset.

Not a bad morning.

Quick bank fishing trip with the kids. They were too afraid to hold but wanted a pic of their catch