thediscochef

Wacky rig continues to produce, as it does. Best this morning was probably about 4-5lbs best I could tell, didn't have my scale handy. My buddy got one that was about 3-3.5. Together we caught about 20 from the bank. Gotta love it.

My guitarist and fishing buddy took us to Texoma and hired a guide at Ray Roberts. I caught a pair of lmb about the size pictured and about a dozen between 1 and 2lb. Texoma sent us home with a cooler of meat. Good times.

Dose makes the poison, I don't worry about it unless they state explicitly not to eat fish from wherever. I don't eat enough fish for it to be a problem

Second vote for Blue Heron. I don't know many birds, but I'm surrounded by these guys. They're hilarious birds, full of personality and many squawks. Also skilled at fishing. I usually consider them a sign there is life in the water.

They're bold enough to pull this BS naturally I'd think they'd do all the bad things

Stumbled into four bass with a wacky rig this morning, and quite possibly my first appearance on TV while fishing. I gave a quick underwater wacky rig demo and then caught a 3ish lb bass for the PBS guys who were out at Ray Roberts. Super cool experience. Yamamoto and Berkley owe me for the promo lol I also started testing a theory I have about copolymer and line-to-line knots. I had an experience earlier in the year where a setup of 30lb 832 to 15lb CXX would work great with a double uni, but an Alberto almost always broke after an hour or so of casting. I think it has to do with the layers of copoly and the different securing actions of the two knots. An Alberto on a fully fluorocarbon line did great today with all four bass. Gonna keep testing it. In other news now I want to work productions for TPWD

Sounds like you caught bass already, so I'd say sooner than later ?

First two wacky rig bass I've ever caught this morning. Neat

I've pulled out softbaits but never metal...that's wild. I think the two things I've seen like that were: - a 20lb blue catfish with a swimbait in its mouth. The jig head was the the only part left, and it had been there long enough that skin had grown all around it. Would have done more damage to remove it at that point. - a small bass choking on a chatterbait micro I'd broken off the day before. I'd gotten my line snapped off in some sharp timber, came back and saw a bass that should have been swimming away. Managed to get it ashore and get the hook out of the gullet without much sign of trauma (thanks to info on this board). I have to wonder if I'd hooked the bass and it pulled me into the cover without me feeling it. I pulled a senko out of a 3lber earlier this year. Had to have been a relief.

I love the largemouth mailbox, there's one by Ray Roberts and one by Whitney. Always lets me know I'm five minutes from a line in the water. There's one guy across the street from me who asked me about fishing a few months ago, I gave him good info on the ponds and lake around town. Haven't seen him out so who knows. I have fishing buddies, one is just as into it as I am and would probably fish as much as I do if he did different work. He's my guitar player too, we're very close. Yes, I am the bass player in the group as well.

That equals my biggest bass of the year. Awesome! I went back out and caught a crappie on my new spinning rod, and one bass on my new st croix mojo. An awesome rod. Also the biggest bass I've seen at the cabelas pond decided to bite my ned rig today. That was neat. Good times!

I was wondering how you'd fared. Glad to hear it wasn't worse. I love that that's "little". In your neck of the woods it certainly is lol I'm of the opinion that any day spent catching is a good day. My only concern with catching so many small bass is that landed young bass may become finicky old bass. I'm not targeting them, it's just what's close enough to the bank.

Those Tac40s are nice. I have like 8 of them in various casting and spinning setups. I did away with brand loyalty today though, I broke my shimano clarus spinning rod this morning dragging a chatterbait through some weeds. It wasn't anything that should have broken the rod tip, but that's what happened. Oh well. My first non-tac40 or shimano rod is this St Croix Mojo Yak MF that will be paired with this well worn speed spool tournament pro. Gonna be using this for lighter weight swimbaits, chatterbait minimax, jerkbaits, wacky rig etc. I got the yak version for the shorter handle, Winn grip, and reinforced tip. Hoping this rod lasts me a bit longer than others have. I think catching the biggest bass I've seen in the Cabelas pond is probably a good omen. I also picked up a lews mach spinning rod. I liked the feel.

I use braid + copoly leader on some stuff, sufix siege on others. For various reasons. Lines are just tools and we have different tools for different tasks

I worked retail through my 20s. The general public is the worst

Continuing to catch little guys as the water temps continue to drop. 16 this morning, just caught the picture of this one. The size of fish is slowly increasing but I think we're still another few weeks off from better fishing. Wish it would rain. Need some of these coves with huge hydrilla beds to fill back up so I can stop touching it with the lures. Two guided trips next week, home water and Texoma. Should be fun. Getting warmed up for them this week the best I can lol

one of the few advantages to bank angling at state parks...nobody owns the water and if someone gets mad at you for fishing, they're wrong unless you started casting them down. It makes it much easier, much less entitlement to the water. Furthermore there's big bass all over the reservoirs down here, no need for a confrontation. It's not that serious.

that you openly and directly assume my ignorance on this matter is offensive. Do you really think I would fish daily without being tangibly invested in the health of my local waters and mindful of my impacts? Do you really go around questioning everyone so assumptively like this? Insufferable

? I mean I fish the same cove 3 days a week, I feel like I'd be seeing more dead or skinny bass if I was handling them wrong. The herons in the cove are doing more to control the population in one day than I will in five years. You could make your comment without giving me a notification about it but everyone makes choices I guess.

This is the idiot I'm intentionally not reading the yellow jacket stories for my own health. My favorite stinging insect is the cicada killer because they fly away.

I had a big dumb idiot water moccasin chase a swimbait out of a pond and onto my foot, striking my boot. We both ran. Lesson learned, stand back a few feet. Thank you boot, very cool!

Honestly there's times I'm thankful that gar are the only toothy fish I really have to worry about in my home waters, and nobody is going to give you heck unless its a trophy...God bless north texas

Yes, as a last-ditch effort to save a bass that has suffered barotrauma worse than it can self recover. For anglers who won't take the bass home (which is just as good as trying to save the fish imo), learning to fizz can slightly raise the survival odds of a fish who will certainly die from the swim bladder trauma. These are the deep fish that are suspended at 20-25ft in 40+ feet of water and released into hot surface water at the ramp. Bass caught deep in those conditions should be released immediately which creates a problem for livewell tournaments. Releasing a bloated fish into surface water this time of year is certain death. A skilled fizzer somewhere in the group would at least give the fish a better chance if things like fin clips don't work. Or just be prepared to take home dinner if you're fishing deep ?‍♂️?‍♂️ either way is fine

I get more upset with the amateur tournament anglers who don't know how to fizz big fish they caught in deep water. Also trash and shore anglers leaving huge lengths of line in the water. Kills me every time I break a lure off, it's just littering with extra steps. Injury from jaw holding is pretty rare, that's not something I'm going to say much about unless I'm showing a friend how to hold the fish. I hold them vertical for a selfie but am mindful of how far the mouth gets opened. I've not killed a bass yet so ?‍♂️?‍♂️?‍♂️

also happens to be the big fish of 2022 (5lb12oz) and a poor quality selfie but easily the prettiest fish I've had all year. My guitar player booked us a guide for the first week of october which is exciting. hoping to get a new PB either for the year or overall...we will see lol. Would need to break 7lb for a new LMB PB.