IcatchDinks

Beautiful fish! One day I'm gonna have to come try out that mud puddle you threatened me with. ?

It's all relative. If I catch even one fish, I go home happy. Some days I'll be out for hours getting skunked and then land one decent bass, I'll go home satisfied. (average size in our area is about 14 inches so decent in my book is anything bigger than that.) But it's all variable. Yesterday I had a really good day. But that was because it rained. A lot. Water levels are finally back up, the weather isn't scorching hot anymore, and I caught three fish in 2 hours. Nothing big, not a lot of fish. But I went home feeling like I had a great evening out. Of course, the more and bigger the fish, the better. I'd say my best day was fishing a new lake, and I only casted about 4 or 5 times. I caught a pike for dinner, the biggest rock bass I've ever seen, a big fat bluegill (also dinner), and a new PB smallie. Four fish on four or five casts, delicious dinner, and a new PB. I have similar rates, so don't feel inadequate. Some people just live with better fishing. Lol

These are beautiful! I aspire to be this good one day. Very lovely paint job!

Honestly, compared to most of my local spots, a mud puddle in Maine probably would best my PB.

For all the Ohioans:

When in doubt, throw dark. That's been my general rule of thumb. Regardless of water colour, dark and natural colored baits always seem to work better for me than lighter, flashy colors.

The Joe DiMaggio of fishing

Hook slot isn't critical. It helps a little bit keeping the bait weedless, but it'd work just as good the other way, too.

Been a slow week until today. Haven't been able to get out much, what with our Church's VBS and it being pretty dang hot (for Michigan. We don't hold a melted candle to you poor chaps down there in Texas). Tried a new pond on Wednesday. Kept getting tons of little bumps from the bluegill, but nothing big. Figured I'd at least downsize the bait to have some fun with the little fellas. I did not catch a bluegill: Today was a much different story. We have a series of little ponds here in town that get pressured pretty heavily, but still seem to yield pretty good numbers of fish. One of them had become almost filled with weeds, so anything with treble hooks is really hard to fish with. I went out this evening to try the topwater bite, but got nothing but swings and misses on the popper. I've never used a weedless frog before, but own two of them. I tied one on and started fishing among the weeds. Bass were hitting it, but I really struggled to resist the reflex to set the hook. Had one bass hit it three times before I finally relaxed enough to wait before setting the hook. Then I had to drag the poor fella 15-20 feet through dense vegetation. But I finally landed my first ever weedless frog catch After about an hour, I went down the road to try another pond. As I pulled up, two jacked up, very nice pick-ups driven by young guys about my age were getting ready to leave. They were all kitted out: nice baitcasters, nets, go-pros, etc. Everything looked brand new. I had my grandpa's old fiberglass rod and a couple topwater lures. One pick-up leaves, the other guy hollars at me as I get out of my car: "There's no fish here. We've been trying for hours. We're leaving!" I said, "No fish? I've caught tons of fish out of here. If you're not catching anything you must be doing it wrong." The guy replies with, "they're just not biting tonight then." As he says this, I dropped my line in the water and immediately had a big blow-up. I'm not a very good angler, and maybe those guys could kick my butt at fishing any other day, but it made me laugh. Managed to land two more fish in the next hour, before calling it a night. I know these aren't huge bass, but they're pretty decent for around here. Boy I love fishing. Sorry for the book.

Got another bait in the works. This time it's a popper with a propeller tail on the back.

I didn't even think that could happen. That's insane. Btw, what boxes are you using? Those look super useful.

It's my first father's day today. My dad says I haven't yet joined the club because the baby isn't due to born until September, but my mom says it counts. Happy father's day, y'all. Take your dad fishing. Or take your kids fishing. Or both.

I also have become partial to measuring. Especially considering how depending on what the fish eats, what season it is, spawn, etc, they can weigh more or less. Length pretty much always stays the same unless something took a bite. ?

I've never caught a 7lb fish. But I've caught plenty of 2lbers. Your fish is AT LEAST twice the size of any of my two pound fish.

Thanks! Marling is one of my favorite YouTubers to watch, and the one who inspired me to try my hand at it. The guy is an absolute artist. And super funny to boot.

Spent this past week hand carving and hand painting a crankbait. I've never tried making lures before, but after watching several YouTube videos, it looked like something I could do too. I finished it up last night and got up early before church this morning to give it a try. I caught decent largemouth on it. I probably won't use the bait again because it's not the best crankbait I've ever used. It wants to pull to one side and I didn't space my hooks far enough apart, so they occasionally become tangled. I have cheap crank baits that work better and that I haven't spent hours hand carving. But it sure feels rewarding to catch something on a lure I made with my own hands.

First lure I've ever made. Just need to clear coat it. No idea if it will work, but I'm very proud of how it looks. First time ever trying to carve something. Only my second time trying to paint something like this.

I took several of the lures to the pond and tested how they fish. Those pencil plugs swam just like a pencil: absolutely useless. I think I'll use them as decorations or something.

I'm gonna try some of these out, and then probably sort them and keep them safe somewhere to avoid losing them. I'm getting into bait making. I'm thinking about making replicas of my favorites if they work well.

Welcome!

Ha! I caught a snapper on the whopper-plopper last summer. He did NOT like it when I tried to remove the hooks. He was so unfriendly I chose not to name him. He was angry, I was angry. It was not a fun time. Now I'm ashamed to post my dinks. Those are some NICE fish, my guy!

I hit the jackpot today! I was visiting my parents this evening, and my dad mentioned that I can have all the tackleboxes his dad had given him when my grandpa got too old to fish. We went rummaging through the garage and I came away with three tackleboxes: One that belonged to me when I was a kid (the maroon Flambeau box), one that belonged to my dad when he was a kid/young man (The orange OldPal), and one that belonged to my Great Grandpa that my Grandpa repurposed, keeping some of his dad's lures and some of his own. The box my grandpa made up for me when I was just a kid: My Dad's old tacklebox: And my Grandpa's tacklebox: Does anyone know what those long baits are? or how to fish them? They have a scooped front, that looks like a kind of lip to make them crank? I've never seen a bait like this, and they are unmarked so I don't know how to look them up. Also, I found these really cool old wooden lures once I looked in that middle tray: Any of you guys know what any of these lures are called/how to fish them? I'd love to catch some fish on my grandfather and great grandfather's fishing stuff. My dad also says he's got one more box that was full of my great-grandpa's gear, but we couldn't locate it tonight.

I always throw topwater first because logically, I think something floating on top of the water would be a lot less disturbing to the fish than something swimming through the water right at them. But honestly I don't think either really bothers them. I have seen fish swim away when I throw a popper or plopper right on top of them, but then I've also seen fish eat the bait before it lands, so I never worry too much about scaring the fish. They're predators. And bigger meaner things than my baits go through and above the water all the time.

It was slow at the ponds today. But I managed to get a ~14/15 incher on the top water: Then I got another little dink, also on the topwater: And, then after an hour of fruitless casting, and several bait swaps later, I caught my first fish ever on a wacky-rig: The funniest thing about the little guy was he tried to take it three times, but couldn't get it in his mouth, the worm was too big for him. Finally hooked him on the fourth attempt. He wanted that worm.

oops. I missed that. lol