everythingthatswims

I caught about a 6" Auratus Cichlid in the Rivanna Reservoir once, he was hanging out by a boat ramp and I am 100% sure someone "released their fish into the wild to be where it belongs". I think I was about 10 at the time and it was a pleasant surprise while bluegill fishing, I saw it in the water and said "what is THAT?" after a couple of minutes of dangling a worm in front of his nose, weeding through bluegills, I had him in a 5 gallon bucket, admiring the colors. http://web.mit.edu/lxs/www/cichlids/images/auratus-bar-1.jpg Here is a picture of one Not endangered but I bet it's the only one ever caught in the Reservoir, and was probably the only one in there at the time!

Or when you lose sleep over a big one that broke you off in a tree...when really there's just a 15lb channel cat sitting down there with a jig stuck in his mouth, laughing his butt off at you.

Yeah clear water rivers are my favorite...Get a 5" or 6" bull shad, if there are any big mamma spots, that will catch them!

I bet there are some pigs in there...rivers that size usually produce really nice healthy fish. Does it always stay that color and run that fast?

A trout stream is one of the most dangerous places to fish IMO, especially because a lot of trout fishing is done in the winter wearing waders while it is freezing cold out, and you may be fishing miles from your car. Big boulders, steep banks, heavy current, slick rocks and possibly ice! The things we do for fish....

My friend caught 2 at once on a senko...we still can't understand how it happened, I'll ask him for a photo and post it if he still has it.

I wish carp would hit senkos on a regular basis. I might quit targeting bass on some outings if they would!

Haha I just have my fishing pet peeves, I'm sure I'm not the only one... I totally get it when you freespool a fish that is in brush, I do it too. I'm talking about people continuously take the reel in and out of free spool while playing the fish in open water, I just back off my drag in that situation, it's hard for me to trust my thumb as a drag system, and some of my reels won't go into free spool when there is a lot of pressure on the spool anyways.

Yep I agree with Scrogg, swimbaits are the way to go if you are looking for big bass. But don't think it takes a 7lb bass to eat a swimbait, I have caught lots of 2-3lb bass on big swimbaits.

Solid bass!

Awesome! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyXs5mP-_Hk&list=UUdIIbK-eaXFC_S94uI6ZZlA Here is another shark week strike.

I caught mine on a 6" spro BBZ floater, that bait catches way too many fish for me to retire it! Fishing gear is made to catch fish, that's what I use it for!

WHAT?

Where I fish, a 16"-18" largemouth is a good fish, and fish over 20" are "big" for me. 22" and up is a trophy to me, although I have landed a 22"er that was far from trophy, I'm not even sure she weighed over 4lbs, one heck of an ugly fish! And for smallies I subtract 2"...an 18" smallie will whoop a 20" largemouth's butt!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7RgN9ijwE4 Squirminwormin, are you related to this kid?

Guys used to do it because reels didn't have good drag. Today's reels have great drag and should eliminate back reeling. What REALLY upsets me is when I see guys clicking their baitcasters into freespool while fighting a fish!

If I'm at my house and it starts pouring rain, I suit up and head to my neighbor's pond haha, the fish bite really well there when it rains, and I just LOVE watching the big ball of mist come off a baitcaster when you cast it while its soaking wet lol...maybe I'm just weird But NO FISHING WITH LIGHTNING

Smallies are better than largemouth, but they grow so slowly that I don't keep them unless they swallow the hook and die.

I trolled deep diving crankbaits from my kayak for stripers this summer, two rods out and both got slammed by catfish at once when I went over what I assume was a school. We catch more cats than stripers when we troll like that haha

Guy behind the counter at BPS the other day didn't know what a cardiff was

^This...but I don't have a local bps so I do this type of thing at gander mtn, dicks, etc...I have had rods (from stores) break the first time I fish them because they weren't taken care of during shipping/storage/something. Some of the rods on the shelves are visibly bent from being stored jammed up against a bunch of other rods, not the case with ordering from TW.

flip/pitch black/blue jigs on cover

If there is a 1oz blade bait in production, spool up a baitcaster with 10lb mono and the results would be scary.

Seeing the thread about losing lures made me wonder how often someone recovers a lure that has been lost by another angler...Here in VA the most exciting things I have found were a DD22 in the winter when duck hunting (the hooks were rusted off but we replaced them and have landed nice stripers on it!), and a live target frog after a flood washed it up on the bank. I have found a few miscellaneous cranks, topwaters, etc. too. So what is the most interesting/expensive bait you have found? I bet the guys out on the west coast have some interesting stories, I can imagine feeling a stick or something get hung on your bait and then reeling in a snagged Roman Made, Deps, 3:16, etc.!

I lost a BBZ-1 yesterday being an idiot (not a bass), I cast parallel to the bank, and my line went over a tree branch, so I went to swing the bait back over the tree branch and my line got chafed and popped, water was very deep next to the bank and it was a slow sinking bait. Went back later and managed to ruin my 6' cast net trying to retrieve it, I didn't know the bottom there was full of snags... Gotta pay to play! The way I see it, losing a swimbait or two in a year is the same as losing a few jigs, spinnerbaits, cranks, etc. every so often, swimbaits just seem worse because the $$$ leaves all at once!