IcatchDinks

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.

I have two updates. Tuesday, I went fishing with a friend from church. I caught a boatload of rock bass, several smallmouth, and way more chub than I wanted to deal with. (stupid, grunting, slimy, useless little creatures.) I only got picture of two because we were wading in the river and it's hard to manage fish, pole, and phone at the same time without dropping one or all of them in the river: My buddy couldn't land a single fish. Then today I had an hour to fish, so I went pond hopping. First pond I couldn't catch any fish, but I didn't get skunked: Note the indignant look on his face as if it's my fault he can't tell a white plastic lure from real food. I flew him like a kite until he gave up and let me catch him. He'd hooked himself pretty good, and wouldn't open his beak to let me help him, but I finally managed to get the hooks out of his mouth with minimal blood Then I went to the other pond. I thought I was gonna get skunked, but right before I had to go, I hooked a nice 15 inch bass. SOME people here, don't believe me when I take pictures with the measurements, so you just get to guess if I'm telling the truth by looking at the picture: And then on my last cast of the day, I hooked an actual whale. It was a horrible, exhausting fight (think Old Man And The Sea meets Biblical Jonah) but I finally landed her. Just look at that beast:

I usually bank fish, but I have ready access to a canoe whenever I need it. Which of course I would utilize on the Titabawasee. That's great news, because I'm closer to Midland than I am Saginaw. (I live in Mount Pleasant.

When I grow up, I wanna be like @Pat Brown Nice catch, man! @Dominat0r I think following your streak is the most invested I've been in a sporting event since 2012 when the Tigers made it to the World Series! Keep it up!

@Mbirdsley that looks like a pretty awesome day on the river. I've never fished the Titabawasee, which is ridiculous because I only live about half an hour away from it. I'm gonna have get out that way sometime.

That's the beauty of the Texas rig: it slips through weeds and obstructions better than anything else in my tackle box. I can chuck it into any kinda of structure and be fairly confident I'm gonna get it back.

I use T-rigged 4" yum Dingers in my local rivers. I usually cast upriver and let the current carry it past the places I think might be holding fish. Sometimes I'll swim it. Sometimes in slower current I'll kinda jig it off the bottom. But I catch them. I've caught more smallies off that setup than all my other baits combined.

@Kirtley Howe you made my wife cry with this story. Thanks for being ready and willing to help out. The world needs more people like you. God bless!

Went wading again. This time in the rain. It was a nice gentle drizzle when I started, and then turned into a heavy downpour. I kept fishing, seeing as I was already soaked. But I coulda called it a day an hour early and saved myself from turning into a human raisin. The downpour turned off the bite like a light switch. I caught three in total, only took pictures of two. And I had two more bites but they got away. I think they grabbed the end of my plastic but not the hook. As I was reeling in both of these fish, I saw bigger smallies chasing them in. I'm gonna head back to that specific hole soon, and see if I can get even bigger fish.

How the heck do you pronounce Rapala!? ?

@ol'crickety I know the photo looks like 16, but could swear it said 15.5 in real life. I think the camera angle makes it look like it's measuring longer. But since I have photographic evidence, we'll call him 16. ? Fishing is fun, even when I'm pulling in the little guys. As much as I'd love to pull in monsters all the time like you and some others here seem to do, that's just not the reality of the fisheries readily available to me.

I had the bank fishing version of this happen today. There's man-made outlook about fifteen feet above the river, with a rock covered bank below. I was down on the rocks, directly underneath the outlook, fishing the river. Three young guys show up on the outlook and ask me how the fishing is. I told them I'd caught one or two smallies. They then proceed to CAST DIRECTLY OVERTOP OF ME. As in, they're casting over my head and directly on top of my line. I packed up and left without a word. I felt like cussing them out. But it's just not worth the hassle. I found fish elsewhere.

@Jmurphy87 I hope things improve for you, man. Always enjoy seeing your posts. I've got a full report for today: I spent about three hours wading the Chippewa today. A few small bites, but nothing to write home about. There was this beautiful tiny smallie. Probably the prettiest smallmouth I've ever caught. A pity he wasn't bigger: Then I went out again this evening. Just throwing from the bank this time: The Yum Dinger was only catching dinks, and I've caught my fair share of dinks this week. So I switched to the Rebel Wee-craw. (From past experience, the wee-craw is also very good at catching dinks. But I also caught my PB LM on it.) Landed my largest smallmouth of the year a few casts in. And the largest smallie I've pulled out of the Chippewa. It was a really good fight, too. The cast itself actually landed on the far bank. Oops. I gave it a little pop to get it back into the water. The second it hit, the water around it boiled, and the floating lure disappeared under the water. He was peeling drag. I'm not very good at adjusting the drag while fighting a fish. But I managed it this time. Except while I was busy tightening the drag, he dove into a weed bed, and wedged in tight. I never fish with anything more than 12 lb line, so muscling him out wasn't really an option, plus, I didn't trust that my treble hooks had anything more than skin. After fighting the weeds for what felt like an eternity, I decided to let him have his a head, just a bit. I gave him a little bit of slack, and then picked it right back up again. That did the trick. He swam free and the fight was back on. I almost had him to shore when he jumped, and my heart jumped to my throat with him. It was a glorious leap, tail driving, head shaking. But the hooks held, and after he landed back in the water, the fight just left him. I brought him in, and lipped him. The moment I had the fish in my hands, the crankbait fell out of his mouth. He measured in about 15 1/2" and 1.8 lbs. Compared to the fish some of you guys n gals are hauling in, he's a little guy. But for me and the waters I fish on the regular, he's a really nice catch. And definitely the best fight I've had all year. And then I slipped in the mud and fell into the river trying to release him.

Don't believe him. I'm closer to the center than he is. Lol. Welcome! I'm always glad to have a fellow Michigander/Michiganian join us. I, too, love the smallmouth here. Nothing fights like a river smallie.

I don't know knot names. I know the Palomar and the knot my grandpa taught me when I was twelve. I've been using the latter ever since. Went to look up the Pitzen and discovered it was what I had been tying all my life. ?

When you gotta ask, throw black. That's my philosophy. You're asking fishermen on the internet for any kind of consensus? Lol.

@you I was rather confused by this notification until I clicked on it. ? Beautiful fish, btw.

Huge congratulations on a beautiful fish!!! Excellent storytelling as well.

Well, they're fish, I guess. The weather has cooled down, it's been absolutely gorgeous out, the recent storms have filled the once low, weed-choked ponds... And the bass won't bite. But I did find a perfectly good baseball, and a doe joined me on the bank for a drink of water and a light snack of grass, so that was super cool.

We're having a similar problem here in my neck of Michigan. The weather changed after a couple big storms and the bite has really slowed down.

Beautiful silhouette! For me pike are just as fun as bass. Never caught a muskie, but one day....

The mom n pop fabrication shop I work for sponsored a little in-house fishing tournament for biggest bass (any species) and biggest pike this weekend. It was catch and release. Seven employees showed up, but two of them (a husband and wife team) had boat troubles and had to pull out last minute. The fishing was rough for everyone. We got hammered last night by a major thunderstorm, that dropped the temps by about ten/fifteen degrees. I paired up with a buddy from work, and we had a blast on the water, regardless of the slow fishing. The lakes we were fishing are all connected together by rivers, backwaters, and channels, and the scenery and wild life were stunning. I'm probably gonna come back soon. I caught several small LMB, but nothing much over 13 inches. I also hooked and landed a nineteen inch pike, but we didn't count him because he wasn't over the legal harvest limit, and thus didn't qualify for the tournament according to our made up on the spur of the moment rules. We also caught a bunch of bluegill for my buddy to have a fish fry. All in all, it was a wonderful morning. I'd have gladly spent all day out there. Fortunately for my neck, I didn't. After my haircut, I forgot that the back of my neck is now an exposed skin surface to the sun and got burned pretty bad. All other skin was covered pretty well with long clothing. An absolute blast. 10/10 recommend. Oh, and the winner brought in an 18 inch Largemouth, and a 14 inch Largemouth.

Tomorrow morning I'm driving up to Martini Lakes here in Michigan for a work sponsored fishing tournament. Since I broke my good rod in the car door a couple weeks ago, I had to run to Walmart and get something somewhat serviceable so I wouldn't being showing up to a bass and pike tournament with a crappie rig. Also restocked on hooks. I've been holding the bait monkey at bay pretty well so far this year...