everythingthatswims

I know there are people further south than me who can keep this thread alive! I caught this 3lb class fish today on a jig. The window of opportunity between school and work was very slim but I made it happen! Guides were icing up the whole time, things are changing a LOT. The dots near the corner of my mouth are not from me being a messy eater, the bass decided to send some mud and water my way when I reached down to pick it up

I've always fished slider grubs on 1/32-1/8oz heads if I'm casting or skipping docks. If fish are suspended around brush or bridge pilings I tight line with a 2" straight tailed minnow style plastic on a jighead. I use a 1/4oz c-rig for my tight lining because the light weight lets me know if I'm moving too fast.

Get some 1" gulp minnows in "lumaglow" color. It's just a glow in the dark white. Rig them on a 1/64 jighead (trout magnet jigheads are the best) and fish them under the smallest float you can get away with. Pull it 1-2 feet, let the bait pendulum back down, pause, and repeat. Usually that's all it takes but if one taps it I just twitch it one or two times, then they usually eat it. I've caught crappie, bluegill, largemouth, smallmouth, trout, catfish, and all sorts of other fish doing this in the winter months. You can up size jigheads if you are dealing with wind or fish greater than 6' deep.

Fish and friends are good breakup medicine

A Jig

I can't believe that first fish spent the energy to swim that big ol' gut to the surface to eat! Nice fish!

Yeah it's set up to be a trophy stream. Known for big fish...The biologist reports from electrofishing are insane

My brothers and I fished a special regulation stream today. We got into some really nice fish, I was shocked! We caught 6 fish 18" or better between the three of us. In addition to the big ones, we landed a whole bunch of 8-15" stocked and wild rainbows. This was all in public C&R artificial only water From the exact same pool as last year where I caught what I considered to be my "prettiest trout ever", I did it again. I think this guy escaped from Bass Pro Shops. Only an 18" or so fish but I wish I knew what he weighed! Quality brown

"Cold" wearing a sweatshirt. You Cali guys make me jealous. Good deal on the New Years bass!

Maybe the spotted gar or whatever you have in Florida have different mouths that can be hooked by a treble. I fish for long nose gar and out of the probably hundreds that have hit my jerkbaits, crankbaits, and swimbaits, I have never had one hooked up for more than a few seconds. You could look into nylon lures that their teeth get stuck in.

I had my fly rod with me because I planned to fly fish but the river was way up because of rain. All the split shot in the world couldn't get a nymph where it needed to be. Spinning rod saved the day. I was drifting soft plastic eggs.

Got into the trout today. Chilly but fun nonetheless! 11 Browns and 11 rainbows for me, a mix of stocked and wild fish. My dad took the cake with a 17" wild brown. All wild fish were returned to the creek, a few stocked fish were invited to dinner.

Free line live bait or strips of cut bait on a light wire hook with a 10-15lb test leader. You have to let them swallow it because there is nothing in their mouth for a hook to grab. Have fun!

I took my kayak to a local river today to look for a couple of bass. The water is high and muddy but I find it easier to fish those conditions this time of year because it puts the fish on the banks and tight to cover, at the pace I fish this time of year it helps a lot. Checked the water temp. this morning and it was 51 degrees, blessed to be in the south. Started with a texas rigged baby brush hog and right off the bat I put a 21"er in the boat. There was a lot of brush in the river from flooding and I was having trouble working it so I switched to a small 3/8oz flipping jig. Caught one small one on that and no more than 15 minutes after the first fish I put a second 21"er in the boat! That pretty much set the tone for my day, I went down the banks flipping to any brush, rock, or laydown and ended up catching around 20-30 bass. Most were only 12-15" but I did have the two 21", an 18", a 17", and a nice one on an A-Rig (also my first A-rig bass) that I didn't measure. What a day!

Wanted to remember what it feels like to set the hook like a man, so I threw this instead of the shakeyhead. Fun stuff and my first two cold water jig fish.

The title of the thread is giving people heart attacks before they see you're getting a replica made. I guarantee it Nice fish!

We catch them on light action rods with 4-6lb test. Usually we put a few kernels of corn on a #6 hook and sight fish. I caught 7 in one day on my 3 weight fly rod from a kayak during the cicada hatch.

I would want it right next to a culvert pipe or small creek coming into the body of water after some rain, with some color to the water but not too much. Seems like in that scenario a big fish really lets its guard down. I'd flip a jig to it

I'd call it 5 pounds. Not much of a gut but she has shoulders. Nice fish!

I'm not really sure. I know a couple of the spots were lesions but the big one looked like a gash or scrape. Lots of otters in that area, I see them every time I fish, so she may have had a run in with one of them.

Citation is like a "master angler" fish they have in some states. In VA if a fish meets length or weight requirements it is considered an exceptional or outstanding catch (something like that). You can get a certificate for it but they cost $5 each so I stick with the satisfaction of knowing I caught one haha. In VA, Largemouth is 22" or 8lbs, I've caught lots of those, and smallmouth is 20" or 5lbs, I've only caught one of those.

My brothers and I made a trip to Lake Anna early this morning, to fish the "hot side", a series of cooling pools for a nuclear power plant. They stay pretty warm in the winter and are packed with lots of hungry little guys so we always take our kayaks out there for some fun. We fished 62 degree water today, visibility was around 8 feet but the wind was ripping so finicky was not in their vocabulary. They were up on the banks and feeding heavy, I was fishing a 4" swing impact on 1/8th jighead and went through two packs of them (all I had!). The fish were biting so well that I tied on a spook, in crystal clear water and bright sunshine at noon they jumped on it like they were starving! Shakey heads produced plenty of fish on docks as well, one particular dock produced a 21" saugeye that I gladly put on ice. We also spent some time where the water enters the normal lake ("cold side") from the cooling pools. Lots of current and lots of bait. We didn't find any big stripers but plenty of small ones up to 18" were willing to play including a couple hybrids which are a new addition to the lake thanks to the department of game and inland fish. A chunky 19" largemouth introduced herself to my spook at the end of the day while we were striper fishing, I don't think I could have asked for a better day!

The ol black wooly bugger has caught many December-February bass for me

Caught this big nasty thing today. Saw it sitting near the bottom about 10 feet out, figured it was about to die but I would run a bait past it anyways. I paused the shad rap right in front of it and it smoked it! Put up a pretty good fight for cold water. This is in a river with a max depth of 8' so to see it in 4 feet of water isn't that crazy I guess. She was blind in one eye and that's why she didn't spook while I was standing there. 23"long, 5th citation this year

I see you're on my point there.....