bp_fowler

First time out in a while. Didn’t think the weather would cooperate at first as it was raining and the wind was brutal. Once I got to the spot the rain let up but the wind really made me regret not bringing my spinning rod. You can see it a bit in this first picture but it really doesn’t do it justice. Fished for about an hour and only got one bite that happened so close to the bank that it took me by surprise and I couldn’t get the hook in em. Disappointed I started heading back to where I parked my car and made a few more casts on my way. Since I got bite shallow I targeted those areas with my parting casts and wouldn’t you know it, now I’m on the board in 2024.

An advertisement for a weight loss clinic slipped through the junk filter in my email. Had pretty detailed information and promised a special limited time offer of only $495 a month. 🥴

Off label and at higher doses it is prescribed for weight loss.

I spent most of my adult life in the military and now I’m a Firefighter/EMT. Both careers where physical fitness is highly encouraged for obvious reasons. I’m also very fortunate that I have mostly avoided major illness or injury until this point in my life (knock on wood). I don’t really do anything too fancy. I just try to do something physically challenging more days than I don’t. Sometimes I lift and sometimes I run. Sometimes I just go for a 1-2 mile walk. I try not to eat too much junk food and drink too much beer. I try to stay hydrated and get enough sleep. I guess you can make it as complicated or as simple as you like. I choose to keep it simple.

I have some big plans this year. The town I live in as well as most of the nearby towns all have a reservoir or two (or three) so I have about 7 smallish BOW I fish pretty regularly. I’ll probably still pond hop and hit these from the bank when the opportunity presents itself. However, my goal this year is to get a kayak and hit some of the larger ones near me. I have several relatively larger sized impoundments: Rush Creek Lake, Burr Oak and Dillon all of which are about a 30 minute drive and I’ve only fished them a handful of times each. I have a whole list of about 7 lakes to my N-NE I’d love to hit also. Last but not least, I’m planning a trip to Canada with my pops to do some smallmouth fishing on Lake Huron. Which will be my first time fishing for smallmouth.

Black and Bubblegum.

Well, I was able to get out today now that the Christmas time running around is done. Saw this unlucky fella as son as I started working my way down the bank. Now I’m not the kinda guy that believes in signs or superstitions but given the day I had afterwards this may have been an omen. I started off working a soft jerkbait around the lone stump protruding from the water. After a few casts in I felt a heaviness so I reeled down and set the hook BAM! It felt like I had broken off but when I reeled in my line I saw this I’ve bent hooks before but never snapped one…and the hits kept coming after that. Move down to where a creek fed into the pond and tried a Ned. Few cast in…hung up and had to break it off. Tied on another one…4 casts later same thing. Decided to switch to a paddle tail…and over the next 45 minutes broke off all three heads I had on me. So I called it a day after that. Skunk won this round 🦨

Yeah I seem to recall they used to come 6 or 7 in a package… ***EDIT*** I looked on TW and they sell the various sizes in packages of 4-9 depending on the size for $7. The ones I have I got at Wally World and they were $4 for a pack of 5, but they only have the 3.25 and 3.75.

Putting all those Christmas gift cards to good use for a mid-winter resupply.

I started fishing this year 1 March and I was pretty regularly going 3-4x per week up until late September. After that I was on a short hiatus due to minor surgery. I picked back up again last month and have been getting out about once or twice a week.

Looking to upgrade both my MHF casting and my MF spinning setups. Rod + reel together on each of these setups cost ~$100. I’ve been checking out rods and reels in $80-100 range but there are also a-lot of options in the $125-175 range. On paper that’s not much difference $ wise to me and I’m sure either option would be a huge improvement over what I have now. So two part question: 1a. How much of a difference in quality and performance can I expect between rods and reels in the $80-100 range over the ones in the $125-175 range? 1b. Is that difference, if any, significant enough that a relatively new angler such as myself would even notice or benefit?

If I’m a hammer than I’m definitely this hammer…

This years list ranked top to bottom: 1. Spinnerbait 2. Texas Rig (Ribbon tail/Pit boss) 3. Swim Jig 4. Football Jig 5. Chatterbait Spinning Rod: 1. Shakeyhead (finesses or trick worm) 2. Senko (weightless t-rig or wacky) 3. Jerkbait (including soft jerkbaits, flukes etc.) I kept a quick and dirty running tally of how many fish I caught on what lures. It’s not the most scientific. Next year I’ll track the length and weight also to give me a better idea of the quality each typically produces as well.

Chatterbaits. I have caught quality and I have caught quantity. I have also had a lot of days where I caught absolutely nothing. It’s maddeningly inconsistent. As for buzz baits…I’ve never been.

3.5 lbs, with a black&blue swim jig. I caught it in what was probably the smallest body of water I fished this year. Sorry for the mean mug I was kinda PO’d I had just dropped my phone in the mud trying to take this picture.

I think I was first drawn to this site because being new to the sport I was trying to find the best gear possible within my budget. Without a doubt information shared by others here on that particular subject helped me immensely but that’s not what improved my fishing the most. The collective knowledge and lessons learned about things like bass and bait behavior, structure vs cover, presentation, rate of fall, seasonal transitions all that stuff is where I had the most return on investment. After all even if I have the nicest gear and state of the art lures it doesn’t matter if I’m not throwing them where the fish are. Not to mention that the people on here are just genuinely fantastic folks, very patient with me and my stupid questions. Even the times people disagree on here it’s pretty tame compared to the rest of the internet.

Welp, went out after all and caught three. Would have stayed out longer but my line started freezing on the spool.

It’s currently 21 degrees here with some light flurries. However after seeing the fish some of you have posted recently I’m tempted to head out to the local reservoir just because I’m curious if I could even catch anything. 🤔

I know I said I was done for the year but I just couldn’t stay away. Managed to get out for an hour or so and caught a few on a Rapala floating original.

If I were that handy with a bow I’d probably have another hobby 😆

Well looks like it’s time to close the book on this season and start living vicariously through our brethren in warmer climes. Caught this guy yesterday but lost another one that was big enough to straighten out the the treble hook on my jerkbait. Today was more of the same had two come off my paddle tail, one was a dink the other was not. It’s been a heck of a ride and I’m excited to apply lessons learned to next season.

Another rough day today. Even though the temps are in the 70s again the fish haven’t recovered from the overnight lows in the 30s and low 40s earlier this week. One Dinkasaurus Rex to keep the skunk at bay.

Just two ✌Tough sledding today.

Is this the one you’re referring to? No boat.