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This fish deserved its own post, I would rank it as top 5 in my craziest fish catches ever. I was on the Ohio River near Weirton, WV, on the WV side. I was walking beside a set of train tracks to go to a spot where my friends and I fish for walleye, hybrid striper, and white bass. It is a pretty good hike so we have to carry in a lot of gear, all of which is packed away. My friend lives in the area and had never caught a bass from the area we walked through, and he is an EXCELLENT fisherman. As usual, my eyes were picking apart the shoreline while we walked, and I spotted a pretty nice largemouth as it cruised up to a weed edge. I didn't have anything rigged up, and the only suitable rod I had with me was a 7' medium action baitcaster with 12lb fluoro. I scrambled as fast as I could to open my bag, get a finesse jig out, and tie it up. Shockingly, the bass stayed put. I was standing on the side of the train tracks at this point, a solid 10' above the water level, and flipped my jig way out in the river. I swam the jig back in to where the fish was, and let it settle on the bottom before I shook it. I instantly felt two sharp taps and set the hook. The fish went nuts, and my buddy somehow slid down the extremely steep bank feet first, and scooped the fish in the net as soon as his feet hit the water! The fish was absolutely gorgeous and weighed 5lbs, 7oz, my biggest WV bass so far, and I am pretty sure that is a large fish for the Ohio River. She didn't look like she had ever been caught before either!

Took my buddy Bill fishing yesterday. First time fishing in 28 years, first time ever bass fishing. He had liver failure and got a transplant earlier this year and is doing well. This was his first bass ever (the little one) and the bigger one he said was the biggest fish he had ever caught in his life. Anyway, by the time we got to mid afternoon he was asking how much money I had in the boat, trailer and motor and was thinking out loud about getting one in the spring. I think he had a good time. It was the best day fishing I have ever had.

It catches smallmouth around here bigger than the text you used to ask this question!

Caught in a public pond at about 10am on black n blue booyah frog. I retrieved so slowly so I was just barely causing him to make commotion next to the two downed trees. Not sure the picture does the justice since I was alone but I estimated 3 something probably. ( feel free to voice ur opinion on size) someone else said over 4 but I don't know This is the spot he blew up on it. Just to the left of the left branch...

Hadn't been fishing in a while, until tonight. It's been hot and fish have been in the summer mood. Though the air is still in the high eighties, the shorter days are causing the water to cool slightly. I went out bank fishing on a pair of golf course ponds tonight and caught a dozen 2-4 pounders and a 5 pounder in an hour, most of them from under a wooden foot bridge. It was phenomenal. All of them smashed a green pumpkin chatterbait with a matching trailer. The fish were strong pullers tonight and I think they are becoming activated by the cooling water. We are expecting finally a cold front this week and after that the bass should be actively chasing schooled baitfish and go nuts chasing my collection of jerkbaits.

On my flight back to Connecticut, yesterday, I found a new way to rig babies for night fishing: Apparently, you'd have to use a different rig for babies that are 35 pounds and up. Has anyone tried it? I found a different way to rig babies for night fishing a couple of years ago: It didn't work for me, but a friend pointed out that there's a leader at the top of the rig, so we think that it's a trolling rig. I didn't try trolling it and lost a lot of babies. I lost so many that I ran out during the one night I tried it and never tried it, again.

Friend and I caught over 250 crappie on a trip late last week - had a great time. Water temps are starting to cool, trees are near their peak colors, and even saw a few bald eagles ? Love fall fishing!

About time! I was successful at catching and keeping a few rainbows after what seems like weeks of throwing my whole tackle box at them! "not literally but hopefully you get the point" I used a size 10 Owner Mosquito Hook "Used these before, Awesome hooks.", Four pound fluorocarbon and a Berkley trout worm in bubble gum. I used a spit shot rig with a single spit shot about 12 inches from the hook and that was all it took. The other three rainbows were a bit wiser and wanted nothing to do with my pink worms/powerbait. I pulled out a crank bait and spinners and it was enough for the other three to want to bite. Now i would of liked to put the others on here and show them off but stupid me forgot to take a picture of them first and was more worried about getting the next one/etc. However, Perhaps next time though. Finally got my fall rainbow feels good <3

I wanted to get started early this morning so I got to the smaller pond at 7am as the sun was starting to rise. Didn't get to stay long as it started pouring down and I wasn't really dressed for the occasion. It was a tad chilly out. Got back to the house about 7:45am so I could put my wet clothes in the dryer. Finally the rain let up enough for me to get back out there. Rain was still in the forecast so I dressed for it this time. Glad I did because it rained a bit more. It was ok though it finally cooled down some and stayed that way. Got back to the pond around 10am had my green pumpkin 3/8oz Dirty Jobs Tackle swim jig tied on with a green pumpkin 3.75" Tube as a trailer on my baitcaster and a green pumpkin 3.75" Tube with an 1/8oz shaky head hook stuffed inside it with the line tie eye pushed out the side at the head of the Tube(got the idea in an article on Tubes on this site) tied on my spinning rod. Both were productive today caught 2 on each before I got my swim jig snagged and broke off(gotta replace it soon). Ended up tying on my 3/8oz black and blue Arkie jig with another green pumpkin 3.75" Tube trailer. Caught one on that too, it was by accident though. It had a little mud on it so I dipped into the pond to rinse it. As soon as it hit the water it was engulfed. One handed I pulled it out, did my thing and released it. They were all dinks today, but I had fun anyways. The most fish I've caught in a single outing so far. Still trying to get that big un that I almost had yesterday. It's gonna happen, just hope it's sooner than later.

Just put the new ZPI NRC001 Spool in my Steez, then mounted it on a Kistler Helium 7'M rod.

Another few hours on the lake. Y'all ever have one of those days where you just feel like you'll get bit every cast? Thats how I felt. Ended up with 16 , but I lost more fish than normal . This was mostly because the fish were so active they would almost immediately hit the worm and swim off in any direction faster than normal. Caught probably 10 or more in blown down trees and limbs from Irma. Only had a couple lucky strike worms left , and I quickly used them up. Ended up using old manns ribbon tail worms in purple flake from the 80's and they loved them. Ended up with a 6 inch manns black screw tail worm on for the pictured fish. Fall bite is ON !!?

Thought I'd make an evening trip out for some walleye today, instead I ended up catching a few smallies just after sunset on a yellow perch patterned Rapala shadow rap. The location was a rock flat with a sand transition and a weedbed along each side. Biggest smallmouth shown below, guesstimate on the weight was about 4 1/2 lbs. The others were in the 1-2lbs range. Water temp 9ft down was 61F. And don't be alarmed...that's me in the picture...lol

Here's another picture from yesterday. Only if all fishing days were that good but it's what keeps us going right?!

Fished a small tournament on Lacygne Saturday. Had a really good jig bite. Here is the video from the tournament.

Yesterdays best.

Well it wasnt a monster, but Dad finally caught a bass in my boat. It took three trips, but he finally did it. Havent seen him smile like that very often, really cool experience.

Mr. Bass Arkansas? Please tell me there isn't a swimsuit portion of the contest.

My wife's fishing partner ? will make an excuse or 2 when being out fished. 1: He's running the TM 2: He's always taking her fish off so less fishing time for him This poor excuse for a fisherman just needs to come to terms with the fact that he gets out fished by a woman who only uses Senkos and has never read a fishing magazine, watched a show, or visited Bassresource while he does on a daily basis. Sucks to be that guy!

I fish with my wife and she has never been wrong in her life so....

I've been meaning to post this. I was down on Falcon Lake, TX a few weeks ago when I got this 11.38 lb. bass. Caught on 10" worm, half-ounce tungsten weight, 25-pound flouro. line. Fishing in 28 FOW. My new personal best.

Recently I posted about trying to help my soon to be 12 year old son get his PB and how he can be a bit stubborn at times. The post was all in fone, but the quest to help him get his PB is real. What started off poorly for him yesterday ended up being a great day. My son had a half day of school yesterday and to celebrate that time off he wanted to go to the ballpark and work on some pitching for a while and then go fishing. But as we're about to leave he tells me, "Daddy, I think I left my pole at the lagoon last week." Dad is not happy. I just bought him a new reel a few weeks ago. We fished with friends last week and in between fishing and the kids goofing off he forgot his gear. So after his bullpen session we head back to the lagoon and sure enough his rod and reel are gone. Lucky for him he does chores for a number of our elder neighbors and he has the money to buy his own replacement. In the meantime, I give him my Pflueger President /Ugly Stick combo to fish with and this time he immediately puts on the spinner bait I told him to fish with the other week. On his fourth cast of the day he gets a strike and he can tell it's not like any fish he's hooked before. "Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!" "I've got one! I've got one! A BIG one!" At this point the fish is really fighting and he's having a hard time reeling it in. Now a little panic starts to set in. "I don't want to lose it! Daddy, Can you help?" He's got to learn to land his own big fish so I tell him to take his time and keep tension on the line. I know there's 50 pound braid on the reel because I had been using that rod for frogging. He gets it close enough to shore where he can get a fleeting glimpse of the fish in the stained water. His eyes get real big as the fish tries to run parallel to the shoreline and then tries to dart back to the deep but he keeps the tension on and the fish has nowhere to go. Unfortunately for us, our net broke earlier in the summer and I have not replaced it yet so now Matt has to land this fish on the bank without a net. He gets the fish near the bank and steps forward to try and grab it - the line slacks. For a fleeting moment that fish must have thought it found freedom and it picked up speed and breached the surface almost coming eye level with my son at the shoreline. "She's a HAWWWWWGGGG!!!" he yelled. Thankfully he had set the hook deep and he landed his personal best. The look on his face (and probably mine, too) was priceless. It weighed in at 5.8 pounds and as he pointed out right away that was 0.05 pounds better than my biggest catch this summer. He once again declared himself the "Fishing Champion". That's OK, I'm happy to turn over my title to him. For me, this is what fishing is all about.

I went to Erie, PA with a couple friends this weekend to experience the steelhead run. We fished Elk Creek, a tributary to Lake Erie that is known for steelhead fishing. Water was extremely low, fish were very skittish, and there were LOTS of anglers. We knew that was how it would be before we went though. My first day, we fished sunup to sundown. I got my first bite at 11am and landed it, I ended up figuring it out a little more, and landed 4 more before sundown. Over half of the fish I saw hooked would break off or pull the hooks, I'm not sure why but everyone would put a ton of pressure on the fish. I'm sure that part of it was good fortune, but I landed every fish I hooked this weekend, and that was on a light action rod with 6lb fluoro. Day two was much better, we found some fish off the beaten path and got on them early, surprisingly we were the only anglers around! I caught 3, and we landed 6 total, with a couple others pulling the hooks. I definitely plan to return when water levels are better, pools were almost stagnant and there was no drift, I saw thousands of steelhead this weekend but 90% of them wouldn't even think about eating! This fish was kept if anyone was wondering about the vertical hold/gilling.

Take a kid fishing...it is the future of our sport and gives you time to mentor a kid and teach lifes lessons and have a blast....

Hello Jason, I just checked my emails and for some reason it did not come through. Could you please resend it to siebertoutdoors@gmail.com or pm me here? I will get back with you. Thank you Mike Siebert

Can’t tell you about Northstar or Dirty but I use Siebert Jigs exclusively. Since I’ve started using them, I have had no reason to think about changing. The hooks, band and heads are all great quality, and there are a ton of color options. The couple times I’ve emailed Siebert about custom colors or a question about my order, I’ve always heard back quickly, the shipping is fast and track-able. You wouldn’t have to worry about customer service.

The answer is always Carbontex from Smooth Drags. Call Dawn, she'll figure out how to get it across the pond, I'm sure.

It'll probably take some mock up time, and time working with the salespeople at a brick and mortar, but I bet you can find an aftermarket, or other brand's seat that will work. Just not too high, as to make your boat unstabe. Very nicely executed mod, @Darren.

The Lowrance Hook models are great units for the money. Buy the biggest screen you can afford.

I have a Lowrance Hook 4X on my kayak, but there are few days that I don't wish I had GPS AND side scan. But, as a solid downscan unit for two bills, it is a good buy.

Oh I'm a DIY junkie for my kayak. I've done a bunch of seat mods over the years and just built a new one this past week. I've got a Native Ultimate 12, similar to @J Francho's Commander, but I don't have a perch. That's one thing I did like about the WS when I was deciding between the two. PVC is a DIY'ers material of choice here . I'll take some pix and post the latest, but suffice it to say, I'm back above the gunnels where I like to be. I prefer sitting up high in my yak. Previous DIY had me just below the gunnels but still higher up. Now I'm probably 6" higher. Lov'n it! I should point out that my avatar pic is an older mod where I was perched on the gunnels as well, but it was not a good setup as it put too much weight directly on them. Now I'm perched via 1" PVC just above. Ok, just took the pic. The mod is PVC welded together, but the underside (what I'm going to do with that space) is a work in progress...

There is a Wildy owners' group on FB, and I know more than a few guys have rigged seat upgrades on a few different models. Take a spin around there, you might find some help. Here's Jeff Little ina C140, seat removed, and using the perch: You may actually want to contact Jeff, as I know he has used Tarpons in the past, and probably has some tips on seats.

Hi All, I've been in the market for a couple of fish finders for the new boat (Lund fury XL sport ) I have on order. I've been cruising the internet daily for a good deal and finally came across one. Cabelas is having a sale on electronics right now, and today there is a 10% sale also. So I ordered a Garmin echoMAP chirp 73sv Sonar/ GPS combo with lake vu HD for $ 539.99, and the same unit with cv for $ 431.99. All told It was almost $ 400 of list. The sv will go in the console and the cv will go in the bow. Why Garmin?-I like the way it's laid out and the included maps. Why 7 inch?- My boat has a full windshield and a small casting deck so 7 inch is as big as I can go, and it was in my budget. All in all I'm happy. Jim

Don't let those excuses get to you. Life's too short to worry about others. Took me a long to time learn....hard to do. My solution is to fish alone I do fish with my wife, however, but my mission when she's in the boat is primarily to put her on fish. She doesn't make excuses ever.

K.I.S.S. Of all the lures in an angle's aresenal the jig is one of the simplest & yet the most over completed by angler's. Select 1 manufacture & stick with for now then later you can add your own personal repertoire of confusion.

Sometimes fishing isn't all about catching fish, thanks for being a great friend.

I stopped by the Cabelas in Augusta GA a couple weeks ago and they were very well stocked. If my wife hadn't been waiting out in the car, I might still be in there.

Unfortunately, shortly after writing these, he got in a disagreement on another thread, then went on a tirade and attacked members, moderators, and the forum owners as well. He was banned as a result, to which he sent us an email with the message "I'm coming for you". So much for "respect", eh? We removed the public messages, as there's no need for that garbage on our site. Moving on....

Good to hear, I want some no-coat knobs on this guy; I picked up a GLX MBR783 for the Steez to live on. I figured if I was looking for an all-around rod, I might as well pony up for the classic. I have only had it out a few times and caught an embarrassingly small number of fish on it, but I am loving it so far. I have thrown a ton of different lures on it (maybe why I am not catching so much....) each trip and it really does great with everything. I would absolutely trade 2" of handle length for 2" more on the front, but other then that I have no complaints. I do need to find a key for the fancy brake dial screw on the Steez. It looks like a stake yet of some sort, but the part diagram does not list a number for it, so I have no idea what I am looking for. If anyone knows what size spanner key it takes, I would love to know.

Good to hear. I personally don’t understand the draw if tourneys but like to see people adopting the MLF format. I don’t mind people taking fish to eat, but hauling around in a live well for a weigh-in and a picture doesn’t seem right to me; it would also be illegal in my state.

USA!!' Thank you everyone of you for putting everything at stake for myself and this country. shout out to our awesome police officers as well who deal with the worse people every single day and are treated like ****.

i like to thank the great people in this group as well as whom ever started this group it is a pleasure to see and read other peoples minds i have ptsd and some health and body problems but this grpoup has saved me. thanks i now dont take many meds because this group has helped me center myself and allowed me to giv e to others again i say thanks. i have been carving topwater lures for a while but my on set of parkinsons has hindered me but you guys have been out of this world i started carving today and i didnt shake much and completed one thanks is all i can say but God bless each of you everyday and tight lines........al

I take my oldest, and will take my youngest in a couple years, as much as I can.

Weather not the greatest here in the Omaha area, but I was able to get out for a few hours and catch four (4) bass. Here was the biggest at 4.16 pounds and just short of 19". Caught on a weedless 1/0 wacky hook using a weightless 5" flat dawg worm. This is the biggest I caught this year and it sure felt good.

Had my personal best today on St Clair, 3 fish over 5 pounds and 2 around 4. 23 pound bag and all on Ned rigs.

Oh god I had a buddy who ask me why he never catches anything. So I went out with him a couple times. He would throw a bait once or twice and if he didn't get bit he would change it .. he must have chnGed Baits 15 times in 30 minutes. I tried to help him and he wouldn't listen. Or he would rig up stuff in the worst way. He tried to put a plastic worm on a hook all balled up like it was a real worm.. or when you give advice and they say ok got it and then proceed to do the exact opposite you say

It's been nice to see the progress you've made from your first video this year to your last video (I think your best so far) last week.

I agree. I have of few I series Curados and a Citica. I like the handles on the I series better, but overall I actually prefer the E series reels. Very simple set up and low maintenance. Wish I could find a few E series Curados still new.

Exact same thing with "pre-spawn/spawn". ? Quit watching calendars, moon charts, temperature gauges, & get Outdoors! Fall & spring "feeding frenzy* can be earlier or later each year, let nature tell y'all what's going on.

USN 1990-1995 Hospital Corpsman