Latest Catch Pics Thread

[TnRiver46]

15 minutes ago, dj1975232 said:

Last night on new water.  Pulled a 3-10 out of 2ft of water and a couple pounders.  

 

 

Nice ones, beautiful pads 

[Team9nine]

One of about 8 or 9 I landed yesterday. It was the largest of the trip, and a “keeper,” but it was the method/technique that I used that made these fish special. I was using my “Tenkara” rod, which is actually a slightly heavier “Keiryu” (bait/nymph) rod, the Daiwa Kiyose 36S-F. It’s a collapsable 11’10” rod weighing less than 3 oz. that you fish without a reel, the fixed length line being attached to a small lanyard at the very tip of the pole. Line was 2.5# fluoro “level line” paired with a couple different 1/32 oz jigs. No real casting involved, more like swing pitching/flipping. No reel also means all lure retrieve and action is control by how you manipulate the rod. Takes some getting used to, but it is a blast, especially the ‘no reel’ fighting and landing technique.

 

[Bird]

Caught several 2lb fish on weightless Senko. 

Hitting the river in the morning. 

[Biglittle8]

On 5/25/2021 at 1:49 AM, Bluebasser86 said:

Black Dog Shellcracker 

 

18" to be 3lbs is a good benchmark but not a definite. I've caught a lot of 16" 3lbers and some 18" fish that went over 5. 

 

 

Just got back from 3 days of camping and prefishing/tournament fishing so this is going to get windy. 

 

Kayak tournament #3 of the year was at Milford Lake, KS a little over 2 hours from the house, a bit too far to do the day trip thing. So I got a camping spot and with my wife's blessing, spent the night in a tiny tent (that wasn't water tight as it turns out),  camping right on the shoreline of the reservoir. 

I got to the lake around 4:30am after leaving work at 2am. As I prepped my gear on the shoreline, I'd brought 3 catfish rods to spend some time fishing for blue cats and found a near dead crappie on the shoreline (legal bait in Kansas as long as they're keeper sized), so I cut it and lobbed it out. Had a hard time getting set up because my rods kept getting hit while I was doing that. Not sure how many I caught just getting everything set up but right before I reeled them in I got a double with a 12 pounder and a smaller one.

This kind of set the pace for the day as it was a big time multispecies day. I caught a ton of blue cats with my dragging rod I had in the rod holder dragging cut white bass behind the kayak all day. With that said, I obviously also caught white bass, along with largemouth, smallmouth, a ton of crappie, a couple channel cats, a drum, a few wipers, and more walleye than I've caught in a single day in a long time. 

When a blue cat this size hits the dragging rod with the drag tight and a circle hook, it stops the kayak in it's tracks I found out. 

Day 2 I focused more on some different areas for bass. Milford is primarily a smallmouth lake, and I'd caught and seen very few the first day so I knew I needed to find some more. I fished the arm I was camping in. Found a bunch more largemouth, including some bigger ones, some spotted bass on beds which are a pretty rare fish on this lake, and again a multispecies bonanza. 

Saturday was tournament morning. I didn't have a solid plan because I'd never found the smallmouth, but I had 1 bank where I'd caught the largemouth that I'd shook off a lot of bites on a tube that felt like smallmouth, so I was hoping that was what I was getting hit by. Problem was, this bank is one of the most popular shore fishing spots for crappie and catfish (I HATE the crappie spawn btw). I put in the sailboat ramp because it was close and well lit. Since it was going to be dark for the first 30 minutes, and I've never caught many smallies in the dark, I decided to go behind the marina docks and see if I could catch any of the largemouth of spots I'd seen the day before. I don't think it even took 30 minutes of fishing a Chug Bug my oldest son had ironically found on the shore on our previous trip to the same lake before I had a limit of small largemouth. As soon as the sun started to get up, I booked it to my good bank from the day before. A couple cast into it with a Duo Rozante, I hooked a good fish, saw it was the biggest smallmouth I'd hooked the whole time. I was taking my time playing her around the kayak when she dove and stopped, everything stopped. 8lb test Tatsu and zebra mussels everywhere and she'd found something to dive into. My stomach sank, I dropped the rod, and by some miracle, she swam out and I scooped a 17" smallmouth and made my first cull of the day. 

I was pumped, thought my smallmouth plan was going to come together. Let me tell you, I've never had such an awful time hooking fish anywhere else than this lake. I remember fishing a tournament when I was teenager with my friend when I worked at Cabela's. He caught our entire limit and made fun of me for setting the hook on rocks all day. I even showed him at one point when a fish was swimming off with my bait, made him stop and look at my line moving off, set the hook and got nothing. I felt like I was reliving it this day. I was fishing a tube and I'd be surprised if I had a 25% hookup ratio, it was awful. When I did hook one, it was a dink or a crappie. The bank was only 100 yards long. Fished up and down 3 or 4 times before I moved on, discouraged by all the solid fish I'd felt on the hookset that never made it to the boat. When back to the sailboat marina and found one of the nice spotted bass on a bed. Caught it, 15.75", not much of a cull but a little over an inch. Took a picture with the tournament app, something I'd just learned how to do, tried to submit but the water drops on my phone made it click the "back" button instead. I'd released the fish already and the picture was gone. It doesn't go to a gallery like when I use my camera app on my phone, like salt in an open wound after missing all those fish. I pedaled across the cove and out to a big windblown point. Caught a few white bass and another crappie. Figured I would swing for the fences and the conditions were right. Tied on a 5" Bull Shad and started fan casting this long, shallow point. Took about 3 cast before it got hammered, and I completely missed it. Spent another 10 minutes casting the point and it never came back. I'd had the lead all morning, but as I pedaled back to where I'd camped at, I checked again and saw my lead quickly disappearing and knew it was going to be gone if I didn't start catching fish. 

 

I made a switch on my Ned rig from a PB&J 10,000 Fish Sukoshi Bug to a PB&J TRD. Not sure if it was the color or the profile, but second cast to a point I'd fished a couple times already, I pulled a 16" smallmouth. 

Went down the bank I'd missed all the fish on again, except everyone had showed up now. There was a couple set up with 6 catfish rods launched out into the lake, a guy crappie fishing, and someone who decided not to use the boat ramp but just launch their jetskis right off the bank there. I picked through the areas I could hit, found they were still there and biting. I squeezed in next to the crappie guy on the spot where it goes from deep to shallow and changed from sand to big chunk rock. I think it was my first cast I hooked a heavy fish. I was afraid it was a drum by the way it was moving, but I started feeling big, fast head shakes. I knew it couldn't be a drum and started to get excited. I saw it and it was clearly the biggest smallmouth I'd had on all weekend. Another competitor had pulled in next to me and got to watch as I scooped the net under an 18" smallmouth and finally felt like I could breath a little. 

They really liked the change in my Ned rig on this spot and I pulled 10-15 in short order, catching the attention of a pontoon passing by. They pulled up right behind me and were literally casting on either side of my kayak to the bank. I just kept fishing, I'd dealt with too much to let a couple clueless jerks bother me at this point. When the Ned bite died, I hesitantly picked up my tube rod again. I switched to a softer Power tube from the one I'd fished in the morning. Made a few cast, they really wanted the tube snapped pretty hard off the bottom. One of the snaps, I felt the tick of a fish eating the tube. Slammed the rod back and it dug this time and another solid smallmouth went airborne. The only good one I caught on the tube all day, but it happened when it mattered and I put another 17" fish on the board.

I worked the spot for 45 minutes and cleaned it out the best I could. Had about 20 minutes left so I ran quickly to the back of the sailboat marina again to try once more for a big largemouth. I didn't find any but I did see the biggest spotted bass I'd seen on a bed in between 2 cables. It was pretty snappy at my Ned my first drop so I knew I could get it to bite. It only took a few minutes of working on it before I got it stuck and worked between the cables. It was my last cull and my smallest fish of the day but a heck of a nice spotted bass for Kansas at 16.75".

I know my luck will run out, but I'm enjoying this while it last.

 

Number 4! Nice!

[Will Wetline]

A bit breezy on Quabbin today but I managed to stay in the boat and find fish.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[deep]

So I went swimbait fishing today, after a long break from the big baits. Hard to believe there was a time when swimbaits are what I used to fish like 90% of the time, and not ittybitty "swimbaits" either.

 

Anyway, took a rat, a wakebait, and weedless paddletails.

 

Caught one dink and a nice one on the rat, a dink on the wake, and got a couple bites from dinks on the paddletail (saw them).

 

I still got a few swimbait fish left in me, it seems.

 

 

[Bluebasser86]

Perfect conditions this morning, but the fish didn't seem to agree. Worked really hard to get a few bites, but at least did get a couple decent ones.

[ninerlife]

Went out Tuesday evening and managed about 12 from 630pm to 830pm.  Biggest was 19in, 3lb 10oz, which was my PR on this lake (and HUGE for this lake as 98% of the fish caught are 10-12in, 1lb or less).  Tight lines all!!

[BigSkyBasser]

Just got back from a tournament Sunday on Lake X in Eastern Montana.
 

Won our ABA with a one day weight of 26.72.......I can't wait to go back!

 

Big fish was 6.23

We have a Montana B.A.S.S. Nation State Qualifier there in September

[TnRiver46]

12 minutes ago, BigSkyBasser said:

Just got back from a tournament Sunday on Lake X in Easter Montana.
 

Won our ABA with a one day weight of 26.72.......I can't wait to go back!

 

Big fish was 6.23

We have a Montana B.A.S.S. Nation State Qualifier there in September

Congrats buddy!!! Those are slobs

[MIbassyaker]

Only one decent one out of nine this morning...a skinny 17".  Air temps dropped about 30 degrees overnight -- it was a chilly 40 when I launched (you can see the steam fog in the background).  Went old-school with a Mr. Twister Phenom Worm on an 1/8oz jighead:

 

[BigSkyBasser]

37 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Congrats buddy!!! Those are slobs

 

Let's get you out here and we can go wreck some big bronzies!

[TnRiver46]

4 minutes ago, BigSkyBasser said:

 

Let's get you out here and we can go wreck some big bronzies!

Shoot....... what is it...... 30 minute drive?? Hahaha

[JWall14]

2 hours ago, BigSkyBasser said:

Just got back from a tournament Sunday on Lake X in Easter Montana.
 

Won our ABA with a one day weight of 26.72.......I can't wait to go back!

 

Big fish was 6.23

We have a Montana B.A.S.S. Nation State Qualifier there in September

Wow! Nice fish!

[The Bassman]

On 5/26/2021 at 11:58 AM, Team9nine said:

One of about 8 or 9 I landed yesterday. It was the largest of the trip, and a “keeper,” but it was the method/technique that I used that made these fish special. I was using my “Tenkara” rod, which is actually a slightly heavier “Keiryu” (bait/nymph) rod, the Daiwa Kiyose 36S-F. It’s a collapsable 11’10” rod weighing less than 3 oz. that you fish without a reel, the fixed length line being attached to a small lanyard at the very tip of the pole. Line was 2.5# fluoro “level line” paired with a couple different 1/32 oz jigs. No real casting involved, more like swing pitching/flipping. No reel also means all lure retrieve and action is control by how you manipulate the rod. Takes some getting used to, but it is a blast, especially the ‘no reel’ fighting and landing technique.

 

And I thought I was high tech cane polin' with a telescopic fiberglass pole years ago.

[Bird]

Got on the river at 6:30 am and bite was good except for cottonwood bloom and trolling motor quit. Lol

Caught 90% of fish on Zman SlingbladeZ in blue gill 3/8.

Few on Zinkerz, even Crappie. 

The bloom.

[CrankFate]

Tried a few hours tonight after spooling my son with heavier line to fish the brush. Managed one slippery dink, which I dropped and tried to grab,but he’s escaped back into the water before I could get a pic. As usual, the fish was closest to the loud music. My son dropped a few, but they were small and not the dinkasaurs (that should be less than a pound and a half but are all pushing about 2lbs). They must be spawning off all that extra weight right now. 

[Team9nine]

17 hours ago, The Bassman said:

And I thought I was high tech cane polin' with a telescopic fiberglass pole years ago.

 

Yeah, carbon fibre is what all us hip young kids are using these days ?

[TnRiver46]

Got one on a frog at 5:30 am, no bites from then until 8. Then I got a nice one maybe pushing 3 lbs with a weightless worm against a cypress tree 

[Holetail]

Another good day in PA. Nothing huge, largest was 2.5 but no real dinks either. Most fell for the swim jig dragged through isolated Lilly pad fields in the middle of the pond. Even the crappie couldn’t resist the chatter even though it barely fit in its mouth. Going to be tough to go back to NC and leave all these fish alone. 

[rtwvumtneer6]

Nobody wanted to fish today in a soaking rain so I decided to hit up a farm pond.  Thought I would share as this is the first time I've personally caught 2 over 5# in the same day. 

 

Apologize for the poor photo quality, but this time of year in PA I try and get them back in the water ASAP.

 

5-12 and 6-6.   Grateful for Gortex!

[Bluegillslayer]

Well landed a new pb today 4.71 pounds, caught her on a sexy shad walmart spinnerbait with a white 3 inch mister twister grub as a trailer. It took me 3 years to catch anything on a spinnerbait, and then boom, I have been catching a lot of fish. I also lost a largie that looked like she was pushing 5 but I guess the ones that get away always seem bigger.... lol. Sorry for the bad quality, I don't have a smart phone

 

[Mbirdsley]

Peach lake Ogemaw   county 4 pike total, 1 walleye, 1 bass.  The one pike went 28-30.  Had him out of the water to long so didn’t get a picture
 

the pike all came on a spro little John MD chrome Olive crank 

 

walleye came on a zoom green pumpkin 4 inch tube. 
 

bass was swimming under the boat so I wacky rig baby bass general and caught him 

 

those spro little John md cranks have been on fire all spring.  I only have two the chrom olive and the chartreuse blue 

[LrgmouthShad]

This was best fishing day in a while. Finally got some rain after a long draught and hot spell as well as overcast conditions in the morning. All this seemed to help. Mi madre got two and I got 5. I’ll show my 5. Best ran at 22”. Used both live bluegill and senkos. Senkos have been the best artificial bait for postspawn so far. I don’t know why. If the first three photos show up messed up, hey idk man, I ain’t tech savvy.

[TnRiver46]

1 hour ago, LrgmouthShad said:

This was best fishing day in a while. Finally got some rain after a long draught and hot spell as well as overcast conditions in the morning. All this seemed to help. Mi madre got two and I got 5. I’ll show my 5. Best ran at 22”. Used both live bluegill and senkos. Senkos have been the best artificial bait for postspawn so far. I don’t know why. If the first three photos show up messed up, hey idk man, I ain’t tech savvy.

Nice! I like your canoe, I have a similar one