AlabamaSpothunter

Nice, thinking first two are Smallies, and the last guy is a LGM. River fishing it looks like, love fishing around big structures like those below the dams. Wish I lived closer to the TVA lakes, as it stands I'm an hour + away. I think the variety of fish is one of the things that makes that area so special.

Yeah that got me going down the Google Earth rabbit hole......you are spot on correct, I was quite surprised to see the sizes of the lakes, but it makes sense.

First time I've ever seen Castiac was the other day on a livestream of the fires that were very close to the lake. I was stunned at how small the lake was, for whatever reason I had built the lake up to being huge in my mind. I can't imagine how pressured that lake was during the heyday of WR chasing.

Yeah I just twitch the things along weed lines, or throw them into pods of baitfish. I rig the same way, but use a 4/0 or 5/0. There is a tradeoff doing so, I think the smaller hooks give much better action, but hookup ratio is reduced in my experience. Somebody here was talking about putting them on a jig head, and bumping the bottom with them.....a lightbulb went off when I read that, but have yet to try it.

A wife unit who goes fishing with you.....yeah that's gonna be the real catch of the day I hate what Stripers do to most Bass fisheries, along with Alabama's only little Rainbow Trout locale, but they are easily one of the most fun freshwater fish to catch. Very exciting catching them when they are blowing up bait on the surface.

BINGO......my fishing mentor, a man who was personal friends with Ray Scott, and many of the earlier pioneers of BASS. He stressed one thing throughout my childhood when seeing my love for fishing....DON'T TRY TO MAKE A LIVING BASS FISHING! He said inevitably you start to hate the fish when they don't bite and you go home checkless. I'm lifelong friends with a guy who has won and took second place during MLF events this past year, he's been professionally fishing for a decade, and up until this year the most he won in a single calendar year IIrc was 30k. This year he's already at almost 200k though. I couldn't imagine making a living that way.

Right back at ya brother! Terrible weather in Central Alabama....been raining for two days, and it looks like dusk outside

Haha, I was thinking of doing just this in the near future to live bait some threadfins. I'm gonna take my smaller koi pond net and just scoop a few as they cruise by the boat.

Muskie is the only yankee fish on my bucket list. Ever since I was a little kid I've wanted to catch one. Congrats, and awesome Bass as well.

Killing it in both numbers and size! Those are some big girls. Before you I'd never made the association b/t LGM Bass and Maine. You should try to break and set some of the Maine Bass records

If Uncle Rico was a Bass fisherman, he'd have won the qualifier that would have landed him a spot in the Classic if not for that pesky tennis elbow issue in college

Like you said earlier, once you start seeing all that structure it's only a matter of time until your successes greatly improve. My next step is to start planting structure again in this lake now that I'm finally seeing and marking all the natural stuff. Before I just relied on stuff I placed or felt with carolina rigs and t rigs lol. Seeing a perfectly laid down tree extending 40-50ft underneath the water for the first time was my lightbulb moment. It looked like I drew it perfectly on a tablet.

I'm blessed in the fact I get to fish a lake that has a healthy population of 5lb+ fish, I'd guesstimate 8/10 of the fish I release need some time and coaxing before swimming off healthy. My guess is my climate and time of year/water temp might be playing into this. I say all this though because I catch these fish on stout Bass tackle, quick fights, fast releases......doesn't matter. Big fish always seem to need time after being caught. I wish this wasn't the case, makes me super nervous as a dead fish ruins any trip I'm on.

Guys like this are using it to change the game, not to mention the tourney guys who you can watch in real time depend so heavily on it. Oklahoma angler Josh Jones is the hottest fisherman in the country (oklahoman.com) Just the Side Vu was unbelievable for me, so I have to think this would only rachet it up to the next level. Overkill for my situation, but the tech is amazing, and fascinating.

Nice job, you can surefire always tell who the real fisherman is when the skunk is on board......to a real fisherman that only means they are gonna fish harder, they get more stubborn, more determined.

Yeah sonar, and especially the side vu sonar have already shown to be the most game changing thing I've used in fishing. I had sonar on my first Bass boat about 15 years ago, but this stuff today is incredible. I can only imagine what it's like to have FFS/live scope. I meet so many fisherman who have nice sonars, and have no idea what it's telling them, or what they are looking for. Neighbor has the most custom sweet small lake boat ever, fantastic sonar, and has no idea how to use it. Bear in mind he's a good fisherman, and has been fishing for Bass longer than I've been alive I'd imagine.

Seeing standing timber makes me so happy.....I think a DD Bass lives on every piece of it lmao

If you got sonar you can't miss them either

Heck a good flashlight or docklight will tell you the size of the shad if that's all you want to do. This time of year is great for finding schools.....all you have to do is wait until a pod swims past you as well

You really can't catch them in a casting net in deep water anyways Catching them with the net from a dock or shore is optimal

Something like this, and then a real critical piece I'm told is using actual pork trailers. Big Daddy Baits Hair Jigs - Tackle Warehouse

Been trapping Crawdads since a kid in traps like these.......Amazon.com : Frabill Crawfish Trap, 8 x 8 x 18-Inch, Black (1267) : Fishing Bait Traps : Sports & Outdoors Just bait them, and leave them be for a few days, come back and you should have half dozen if your lake has a nice population. As for threadfins.....super hard to keep alive, and given they are pelagic in nature, a "minnow trap" device is much harder to deploy. Hate Gizzards so not sure about those....plus they can get huge.

I couldn't disagree more having personally fished with a guy that lost the Bassmaster Classic because of dead fish penalty. Truly next level fisherman. These guys are on another level, why is debatable.

Amazing post, and very sad. I have started to really, really hate Stripe Bass the more I learn about their effect on fisheries. What a cluster all that was, the State seems responsible for destroying 75% of those once amazing fisheries. My Bass mentor who fished a lifetime like WRB for trophy caliber Bass always said a Hair Jig with real pork trailers was the best big Bass bait you could throw. Ironically enough I hardly ever throw a jig, let alone a hair one with real pork.

I use 15lb Pline on a MH rod.