AlabamaSpothunter

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.

When you break off on a fish, the vast majority of the time the knot, or a critical nick within the first 3 ft of line. That or the fish has you between an object. Depending on the oldness, or level of abrasion on the line, as mentioned above, a nasty 2lb Bass is gonna break off 6lb test especially. Outside of some really rare occasions, I won't use 6lb test for any Bass applications. 8lb test on spinning reels has always been my personal cutoff for Bass finesse setups, especially with the quality Fluro type lines these days. I can easily break 6lb test with just solid hand pressure. That's always been my "redneck test" since I was a kid lmao. My best fish this year came about two months ago.....right at 8lbs. Two nights later I break a really nice fish off in clear open water, get a quick glance at it enough to realize it was indeed gonna be a real high quality fish. After I finally stopped busting myself up over it for a few days about how that was for sure next DD fish you lost, I reminded myself of the advice I just gave you. The reality is that I was likely sloppy.....had caught at least half dozen Bass on that rig without cutting off a few feet and retying the rig. I knew better, and I likely cost myself, rather than my actual tackle. The best big Bass fisherman I've always known preach two things........knot quality/checking, and checking the first few feet of line after every fish, feel a single thing in those feet, off they go and you retie the bait

Got my first sonar a few weeks back....a Garmin unit as well. Worth every penny, and I'm sure you'll feel the same way. Don't let it overwhelm you, or get bogged down in all the features at first is my only advice. Just cruise around with your new "xray" vision, and get a feel for what structure, baitfish, and Bass look like on the screen.

Thanks pal, and hope the finger is doing better! Yeah I've been thinking about that Bass all day. Truly had a 8-10lb mouth on it, but I've never seen one as skinny, and overall malnourished. I'd love to know the reason so I can stop worrying about other fish in the lake. Maybe he swallowed a hook or something. Makes me sad just posting the pics, haven't even looked at them until now

Best girl from last night.....6.4lbs caught on 1/8th Jobee Hook + 7" Blake Grape Roboworm. Typical of many of my nights, I'm only fishing for about 10-12 bites and looking for big fish, caught 4 and lost 1. Two big LGMs, and two quality Alabama Bass in about 3.5hrs. The first LGM I caught should have weighed 8-10lbs, but I doubt it even went 5lbs. HUGE mouth, and one that didn't fit its weight. Most unhealthy Bass I've seen in awhile. Going to send pics to a fish biologist. In some ways seeing that ruins my fishing session.

I find it interesting that Alabama Bass are always vivid, very little differences b/t the looks outside of size. On the other hand LGM and Smallmouths can look a million shades of brown or green. Being a saltwater guy too, nothing compares to the lose of color on Maui Maui when boated. Most of the saltwater gamefish "light up", especially Billfish. The blue on a Blue Marlin is the most extreme blue you've seen by the boat.

Beautiful Spot! How do you fish the flukes on the mushroom head jigs?

Old timer probably knows there is a piece of structure that attracts baitfish where he continually casts over. He might not even know why he always happens to catch his fish in that same area, but he does, thus he continues. There is always going to be two types of fisherman as well....1.) folks that join forums, read all night, sleep with a tackle monkey, and spend countless amounts of energy and thought on chasing fish. 2.) folks that genuinely don't care how productive their fishing is, rather the mere act of fishing itself is the primary goal. Dude could of been in the second category, happy to catch a 8lb Bass.....just as happy to sit by the lake casting a lure. He's gonna walk away a winner every time.