IcatchDinks

I've been itching for a little adventure to kinda break the same day to day, week to week routine I've been in. I wake up every morning feeling like I'm in Ground Hog Day or Source Code or any other film using the repeating time trope. I wanted something special. So I drove down to the river and spent four hours wading a quarter mile of the river. The only really exciting part of the trip was that I nearly sank to my waste in a quicksand-like mud at the bottom of the river. Fortunately, I was within arms reach of the bank, and grabbed onto the foliage and bushes lining the river to pull myself out. Unfortunately, most of the foliage happened to be stinging nettles. I had a friendly encounter with a very large snapping turtle, and caught five fish in total, two of them on a swim bait half their size. The first two fish came on a Texas rigged Yum Dinger: Then I switched to the swim bait hoping to hook into some pike. Instead I got two small but very ferocious small mouth. I then tried the whopper-plopper and broke it off in a tree. I may have cursed a few curse words. But thankfully I got it back after knocking the branch it was on with my fishing pole. I fished for another hour without so much as a bite. Switched back to the Yum Dinger and caught a fat rock bass that jumped out of my hands before I could take a picture. And then it was silent from then on out. I did get to witness a spectacular fly hatch just before the sun went down. The river looked like it was snowing. I assume that's why the bite went dead. I was a good evening. My legs and back are sore. But the good kind of sore that comes from good, long physical exertion. No monsters today. But I'll be back. I know they're in there.

Went on a long wading expedition this evening. I caught five fish total. I'll put a dedicated thread to my evening in "Fishing Reports" after I type this up. Here's the prettiest Smallmouth I caught:

@MJack I like the Black Blue Flake, Green Pumpkin Flake, and the Watermelon Red Flake colors the best. All have yielded fish for me, though this year I've used exclusively the Black Blue. I have two medium light spinning rods that both work well. I've also used the same setup on a light rod and caught fish.

Went to The Puddles this morning. A few days ago, I found somebody's snagged spinner bait and added it to my tackle bag. I've never caught a fish on a "safety-pin" type spinner, though not for lack of trying. I'd basically given up trying. But whenever I find a lost bait, I try to catch fish on it. I tied this one on and after several casts, I finally caught one. 14" largie, and my first ever fish off a spinnerbait: After about fifty more casts I gave up on the spinner. I caught two more fish this morning, but they were both fairly small. One on a spoon, the other on a T-rig: Might get out again later this evening, but the light doesn't last long in the evenings anymore, and it's 7:30 now.

Praying for you and your wife.

Amen.

@thediscochef I like ned rigging but almost never use it because I catch literally everything except fish when I try to use it. Rocks, branches, and whatnot in the river, and every piece of slime and weed when fishing the ponds. There's no denying it catches fish, though.

Welcome also from the center of the mitten. Always glad to have more Michigan folks in here.

Had a nice relaxing couple hours fishing my local puddles today. Caught two nice fish, one small fellow that had been treated pretty roughly by some previous angler, and lost a really good one on a thrashing jump. The one I lost was really interesting. I felt a bump, and then saw my line in the water go really slack. I reeled down hard, and realized he was swimming at me about as fast I could reel. I kept cranking, he kept swimming, then, as he got to the bank, he half jumped/half thrashed in the shallow water, and slipped the hook. It was a pretty good sized fish. Probably about 17-18 inches if I had to guess. But I never really fought him the whole way in, and somehow it didn't hurt as bad when I lost him. Then I found somebody's spinnerbait in a tree. And found just what kind of a monster the previous owner was: there were multiple knots on the lure!? This guy just cuts the lure off and then reties without cleaning the first knot off. I don't even know the man and I hate him with a passion. ?

I get that. I told my best friend back before we both got married (to women) that if.he was a chick I'd marry him. Lol. We also both love metal, a lot the same interests (literature, philosophy, shared religious views, etc.). He's become a brother to me over the years. We both stood in each other's weddings, and he's the guy I go to if I need someone to talk to. Hopefully this new friendship of yours can turn in to someone even half as beautiful as mine did! Also, TOOL rocks! ?

I never have any luck when I cast out into the middle unless I'm casting to cover. I usually try to cast parallel to the shore, even when I'm standing on it.

I've caught my fair share of snapping turtles. Never a good time in my experience. ?

@Bluebasser86 that's an awesome day! Also, I love the Crocs.

@thediscochef those are some nice fish! I feel your pain: had a fish spine me pretty good in the hand yesterday. And then I dropped him out of pain and surprise, and as he fell down into the water, he managed to spine my knee on the way down.

Thats funny. I'm the opposite. I prefer to be alone when bank fishing, but I enjoy company in a boat.

I'm a bank fisherman. The one thing I do to "keep it fresh" is walk. If I'm pond hopping, I'll walk all around the pond, fishing every bit of water I can, from all different angles. I love to wade the rivers where it's shallow enough. And where it's not, I'll climb out on the bank and fight my way through the trees, bramble, and overgrowth to a place I think I can catch fish. If I want to relax, I fish the ponds. If I want an adventure, I pick the river. It's as much a nature hike for me as a fishing trip with the river. I come home tired out and aching some days with, scratched arms, mosquito bites, sometimes a sunburn. That's not always the case, but there's always something new with the river. And it's always changing. The cover is always shifting, the water levels are always different, sometimes day to day. I want a boat, but bank fishing is loads of fun.

If I start having major line twist issues, knots, bird nests, etc, I'll change the line. If not, I'll keep using it until I start having problems. But I've only been fishing for a few years and maybe some of the old timers will have better, time honored practices I should listen to.

@ol'cricketyI'd never heard of the Big mistake and looked it up... SIX AND 3/8 INCHES!?!? That's like a Muskie lure! Beautiful bunch of fish! @Alex Ball Nice catch!

Well, I sure shattered the doledrums I was complaining about this morning. I caught seven fish this afternoon, all but one on a 1/4 oz spoon. The biggest was 15.5 inches, and they gradually went down from there to the last two at about 10 inches. Good fights. Nice jumps. Landed every fish I hooked. It was a good day. Also, I'm taking @ol'crickety's advice and holding the fish a bit closer to the camera so as they look bigger. Feels like cheating to me, but I guess it's what the people want. ?? (^^^Ignore the fish theatrics. He's fine.) Now the nice fish: 14 inches: 14.5 inches: And 15.5" There's two fish I forgot to photograph, but they weren't huge. One was thirteen inches. The other was too small to worry about measuring. also, feel free to ignore the ornery look on my face. I'm thrilled to death, but the sun is bright.

Same. And usually there's not much I could change. It's just the way it plays out sometimes. I appreciate the empathy.

Spring. Something about everything waking up and coming to life. The ice thawing out. The migratory birds coming back, the leaves coming back to the trees... greenery popping up everywhere... There's something deeply symbolic about all of it. It's such a joyful season. And of course, the fish moving around and all the local waters opening up from the winter frigidity. It's just the best season.

And it's always a carp, too, but it doesn't change my reaction. ?

The past few days have been difficult. I've caught cell phones, turtles, birds (as shared previously), and lost far more lures than I normally do. But today and yesterday were a real struggle. Yesterday, all I could manage to hook at the river was a BIG old snapping turtle. I snagged him on a spoon and thought he was a big stick off the bottom until I got him close enough to see. He broke off right at the bank and took my lucky spoon with him. Early this morning I went to the pond for a few hours. It was pretty quiet fishing all morning until, WAM, something massive hit my crank bait and RAN. I've never fought anything that fought back with that much authority before. And then with a little "pop" my line snapped off. At first I thought it must have been a bad knot, but the same thing happened when I snagged some grass near the bank on my next cast. Now I'm suspicious of the line itself. This was on my second rod, not my main pole, and the line came pre-spooled from the store. I always check for kink and abrasions when tying on, so I know it wasn't something like that that caused the breaks. I'm just gonna respool that reel. I'm still not sure what that fish I hooked was. If I had been on the river I would have thought I'd gotten bit off by a pike. But this pond doesn't hold pike. It does hold extremely large carp, and if I foul hooked one of those with bad line, I can see that happening. It also holds some pretty good size catfish, and I can see a similar result. If it was a bass, it's a big one. Twice as large as my PB at least. But whatever it was, he's free, and I'll never know. That sorta took the wind out of my sails. I didn't really enjoy the rest of my trip. I caught two tiny little bass in the next two hours. I didn't get skunked, but it sure felt like it. Ah well, there's always next time. I'll live vicariously through all the monsters you guys post on this thread until my next biggun. The three fish I've caught in the past three days:

Oof. That's rough. I snagged somebody's phone out of the river the other day. It was in a waterproof bag... That turned out to be not so water proof. I'm always paranoid about having my phone near the water. But how else am I gonna take pictures of all my tiny little fish?

Never had a problem with this one.