Jmurphy87

That’s the river for you, something new on the bank every time. Keeps it interesting, truly I wish that people didn’t litter. Although that’s like saying everyone had a brain and I am not convinced of that one bit yet lol.

That’s what fishing is about, overcoming difficulties and prevailing. I think that you have proven that you can do that everyday. I know your struggles and fight with them myself but I persevere and push forward as do you. You will kick there fins next time lol. Keep doing what you do and have fun no matter what.

5 packs d bombs toxic grape candy bomb pink belly black neon super craw 1 pack jackall chunk craw green pumpkin orange 1 pack clear pegs for my tungsten weights

I had 45 minutes to fish and caught these two small fish out of the river, dill pickle d bomb with a 1/16 oz brass weight. The last one put up a nice fight but was no match for my zillion mhh rod. I didn’t get skunked and caught a couple fish. It was a good day.

Congratulations on the great day on the water, that definitely looks like a good time.

I caught this fiesty plump little lady on a max scent creature hog in Alabama craw. Perfect hook set in the roof of the mouth. She saved me from a skunk today, for this I am forever grateful.

A small run for me 3 packs of D Bomb dill pickle watermelon red super bug

Nope no long arming from me, make them look as small as possible is my moto don’t exaggerate your size stay humble and proud. They were chomping the stick bait today. This is a new to me body of water. Maple lake in paw paw, seems different and strange. Once again this place gets pounded daily. But hey it’s just down the road from my job. I have been trying to get a bite on the stink o gill, but that’s going to take a bigger fish due to it being a larger presentation. I don’t know if I should keep fishing there or try a new place. I might try some tubes and see if I can best my stick bait numbers. A beaver or creature bait is my confidence lure oddly enough.

Well I caught 8 fish after work this morning after my last 13 hour shift for a minute hopefully. All came on a weightless general and stink o stick. Nothing huge but still fish.

Thank you, that means a lot to me. The drive to catch bigger fish is what keeps me going. I know that I can out fish most people on the bank no questions asked on that. The drive to always do better is what pushes me to the limit and that’s what I am chasing. I enjoy fishing and catching them, odd part is most of my bigger fish come later in the year. Guys around here catch 5lb plus fish during the spawn, I do it in the middle or late summer. I am weird that way but oh well. My methods work and for that I am happy.

Thank you, sad part is that the one lake that my pb has came out of is private 😢 I am stuck wandering the banks and I can’t launch a kayak unless I want to do it illegally. I have heard stories from older guys at the local tackle shop from when they use to rent boats out there of 7.5lb bass coming out of there. If I want a real Michigan pb I am going to have to pound the banks and get lucky. Just under 5lb is nothing to sneeze at but I want another 3lbs to hit 8lbs and call it good for my state. And it’s right there in front of me but so far out of reach lol. Someday maybe, my goal for my state is 8lbs and then I can say that I am a decent angler.

All of my pb fish have came from the bank, I have caught 3.5, 3.9 when I had my kayak. Although if my life keeps going the way it is I might just go down the rabbit hole, then there is no telling what I can do lol. Hopefully not but oh well if it does. Here’s photos of some of my nice ones.

It’s been a minute since you broke the scale out, but it’s only a matter of time until you do. Great fish and you and Jake are both amazing anglers, I always enjoy seeing what you guys have been up to.

I finally got my hands on one of the new slx mgl hg reels, I wanted to compare them to the older ones that were great reels. I spooled it up with fresh 12lb sniper. I was going to try the new r-18 line but I couldn’t justify the price of it.

Yeah the photo I took makes it look smaller than it was, it was taller in person but I couldn’t lift it with one arm so I did what I could. My drag was tight and it would still pull line, I had to be careful only have maybe 40 yards on that reel if I am lucky. I need to add more but I am waiting until I can cast it all out and hit the knot and then I will re spool the reel.

Daiwa j braid grand 8x is what I use on my spinning reel in 8lb test

Well it was a very interesting morning of fishing, I landed my first carp on 14lb fluorocarbon, it was quite the battle and process. No clue on the weight but I couldn’t hold it up with one arm to take a photo and I am fairly strong. I did manage one bass, last but not least I caught a pike that bite thru my 7lb fluorocarbon as I was taking it out of the water. So yes very interesting day, I was hoping that I would catch more bass and definitely larger ones than I did. Although I fish for all species and that carp is definitely bigger than any bass that I am going to catch in Michigan so that’s a win in my book. The funny part was that after I got done catching the carp a couple guys show up to go carp fishing, they had not caught any by the time I left 4 hours later. The weather was very windy and slightly warmer than it has been. The bite seemed to turn off pretty quickly today I had to have seen 30 different people fishing and they were not having very much luck either. That’s why we love this thing called fishing so much though the constant challenge to perform no matter what is happening weather, life, or work wise.

I got a couple after work today, for some reason my phone won’t add pictures to my post. But I caught 5 smaller ones. It was a good after work session. 1 on a chatter bait, 1 on a dolive beaver, 2 on a yamatunaki and 1 on a jerk bait

It will come with time, I struggled at first with jigs because of no confidence in them. I could fish plastics with no problem at all. Although I kept throwing a jig and then it clicked, catching 2 fish over 4lbs in Michigan in less than 3 hours gives you confidence and now I have full confidence in jigs and they are one of my favorite presentations. You just have to put in the time to get there, it’s a dedication thing.

Well I resisted a week to the monkey 3 vision 110 2 packs smello gill 1 pack stink o sticks 1 pack grubs 1 pack 3.5 yamatanuki 1 pack of odd mustad alpha point hooks that I wanted to try. I am a sucker for jerk baits and colors that I don’t have lol.

Yep 14 hours today and the rest of the week lol. It’s good for the paycheck, well sort of I am salary so it’s straight time. But at least I got something extra instead of nothing. I definitely recommend that you try a fluke, I started throwing them last year and I have confidence in them already. There was a couple of guys in a boat throwing spinner baits past me and people fishing on other banks. I never saw them catch anything and that always baffles me, I want everyone to catch fish and have fun it’s just my nature.

Well I stopped by maple lake after another 13 hour shift this morning. I caught 2 dinks and an upgraded dink all on a weightless fluke. I followed @Woody B advice and left after catching the upgraded dink and not making one more cast. I fished for 30 minutes or so. The smaller ones came along the bank and the larger one was hiding underneath the tree in the shade. Hard to believe that we got crazy storms yesterday.

I would say be extremely careful on how you choose to proceed with your decisions. I am at a point in my life where I am hopelessly addicted to fishing and it’s all that I think about most of the time. I have very interesting things going on with my family situation currently and I want to make sure that I end up making the right decisions and not just what seems right in the moment. Fishing has put me into debt of sorts and I am currently living alone in a motel room, not debt related fully but to try and figure out what I truly want in life and how I want to proceed. I will say that wanting to fish for extended periods of time is completely normal and it’s perfectly normal for you to want that uninterrupted time with what you truly enjoy. Just be really careful of what this hobby that we love so dearly might cost us if we make the wrong decision and choices. Heck I have been up 26 hours now and I just got out of work at 8:15am and I am thinking about going and fishing this new to me urban area, although I know that being a supervisor at a plastics factory that I should probably get some sleep before having to be back into work at 7:30pm for another 13 hour night until next Tuesday. It’s all prioritizing and making the right calls, sometimes what we choose can be extremely lonely and leaves us wondering if we made the right choice. Sorry for the book but I wanted to share my experiences with you to help you understand your choices.

Most small swim baits weigh quite a bit by there selves, before a jig head. Believe me I have broken out my gram scale and most small swim baits are 2-7 grams on there own. So by that point you are over 1/4 ounce finesse but not bfs level where I try to keep total weight below 2 grams total. I would say a NRX+ 901 would be pretty good but that’s a spinning rod a 852mbr would be a decent casting rod version, or a 852jwr for a little bit stouter rod.

Congratulations, that looks like a very good time.