Latest Catch Pics Thread

[gunsinger]

Broke two myths today. One, it takes high dollar rods and reels to catch decent fish and two, you gotta spend big bucks on the best lures. The tool of the day was a $59 H2O Express baitcasting combo pre-spooled with fluorescent yellow/green braid and a $2.18 Ozark popper I picked up at Walmart yesterday thinking, “What the heck?”  That landed me a new PB of 6.59 lbs. 

 

 

The pic doesn’t do it justice. 

[LrgmouthShad]

4 minutes ago, gunsinger said:

Broke two myths today. One, it takes high dollar rods and reels to catch decent fish and two, you gotta spend big bucks on the best lures. The tool of the day was a $59 H2O Express baitcasting combo pre-spooled with fluorescent yellow/green braid and a $2.18 Ozark popper I picked up at Walmart yesterday thinking, “What the heck?”  That landed me a new PB of 6.59 lbs. 

 

 

The pic doesn’t do it justice. 

Heck yeah! Congrats on the PB!

[hokiehunter373]

Top water bite finally heated up and now the weather is about to cool down. Caught a half dozen or a few more in an hour this morning. Half on top water. Half on the roboworm. 

[Choporoz]

I always take 8 rods in my kayak....well...because I can.  Only needed one this weekend.  It was a spinnerbait fest.  Two of the bigger ones here....dozens of others, nearly half over 3 lb.

[LrgmouthShad]

20 minutes ago, Choporoz said:

I always take 8 rods in my kayak....well...because I can.  Only needed one this weekend.  It was a spinnerbait fest.  Two of the bigger ones here....dozens of others, nearly half over 3 lb.

Awesome. Nice looking SB too. Like that skirt color

[Choporoz]

1 hour ago, LrgmouthShad said:

Awesome. Nice looking SB too. Like that skirt color

I'm rapidly becoming a Stanley fan.  Thanks, @Catt

[Mbirdsley]

Up north and fishing big crystal in benzie county. Big smallie came on a maxx scent tube on a tube jig.  Other 2 came on a sun gill kietech paddle tail on a 6th sense divine swim bait hook . I don’t believe they are on there beds. Fish look to be roaming around.  Water temp 60 degrees when I first arrived.  Down 54 when I pulled the boat 

[TnRiver46]

2 hours ago, Mbirdsley said:

Up north and fishing big crystal in benzie county. Big smallie came on a maxx scent tube on a tube jig.  Other 2 came on a sun gill kietech paddle tail on a 6th sense divine swim bait hook . I don’t believe they are on there beds. Fish look to be roaming around.  Water temp 60 degrees when I first arrived.  Down 54 when I pulled the boat 

Yeah buddy!!! I’ve driven up to that lake but I was going to bank fish, but it looked super shallow for a ways around the edge. Is that the case all the way around? 

[Mbirdsley]

57 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Yeah buddy!!! I’ve driven up to that lake but I was going to bank fish, but it looked super shallow for a ways around the edge. Is that the case all the way around? 

It’s not a good bank fishing lake.  Big issue is there is no cover shallow.  It’s all sand.  The drop off is around 8 ft to 20-40 ft.  But, it’s all sand to the drop off.

 

your best bet would be the best east end of the lake where cold creek comes in buelah.  There is a fishing pier and more cover down in that area shallow 

[Bluebasser86]

Fished a kayak tournament this past weekend on a lake I'd never been to, only ever seen it once this year driving by for work. All I'd heard was it was terrible and we should go to a 3 fish limit for this tournament because we'd be lucky to have any limits caught. We've had tons of rain so the water was up a couple feet and even dirtier than it normally is. 

It was supposed to be very windy during the tournament so I prefished areas I thought I'd be able to fish during the tournament. One was a creek that produced a few small fish but I lost one big one and had another good blow up on a buzzbait. Second was the marina, which I didn't want to fish because I thought it would be packed with people, but it was an option. I caught several fish there, including one I think was the first meanmouth I've ever seen in Kansas.

Tournament morning, I was very torn on where to fish. I made up my mind to go to the marina because I was sure I could get 5 there and not sure about the creek. Then as I was about to leave the campgrounds, I decided I wanted to fish for the win, not just 5 fish, and went to the creek. 

There was 2 of the other 24 anglers that decided to launch from the same spot, which was a little disappointing since I didn't think there were many fish to go around in that creek, but I wanted to give it a shot. First cast was 5:30, too dark to even see in a laydown loaded creek, so I dropped my anchor right by the launch and waiting a little bit, just running a buzzbait through the one tree I could see over and over again. After about 10 minutes I could finally make out a tree laying in a few inches of water on the bank, so I flipped a Bang StickZ into it, and when I lifted it my rod got pulled straight back down. Couldn't even see it, so I just boat flipped the fish and was real surprised by the size. Spawned out, but way bigger than any I'd caught in practice. 

That felt great to get in the boat right away, thought maybe I'd even win big bass. It was 5:46 when I submitted it, and it was already not the biggest fish submitted. Took awhile to get another bite, felt solid on the hookset next to a tree, but I never got it moving and it broke me off. Probably 45 minutes later, I got bit again by a small fish, set the hook and it flew over my kayak and came off. A few minutes later, I missed another bite that just thumped my bait and ran off, my big fish high was long gone. Finally caught another little 14" fish, not much but something. I fished until I got to the end of where I felt the productive water was in the creek and turned around. On the way back out, I cast my buzzbait over where the good fish had missed it the day before, and it got sucked under. Adding a 17" fish to my score helped take away the pain of the missed fish a little.

I had a couple more missed bites on the Bang StickZ, and then I think I might have figured out what was causing it. Pretty disappointing when I thought I had my 4th keeper bass. 

No more bites the rest of the way out of the creek, and 2 more kayaks had shown up, I decided to go to the marina to try and find my last 2 keepers. 

 

It was about 10:30 when I got to the marina, lines out was 1:30PM, so I had some time to work with still, but it was pretty busy and not a big area. I peddled straight back to my most productive area the day before, and got no bites on the jig that had been getting bit steadily in practice. I floated up next to a service dock and made a long cast under the walkway with a tube, and missed a fish. Skipped my bladed jig under, and missed it again. I'm guessing fry guarding and just pushing the bait. By the other service dock, I had a better bite on the tube and again missed. I hadn't even brought my Ned rod out with me because it had been useless in practice, but I'd seen lots of small minnows jumping along the shoreline, so I'd rigged a white lightning TRD on a homemade 1/8oz weedless Ned head on a 7' 2" M/F Okuma Psycho Stick paired with a Okuma 2500 ITX and 14lb SPRO finesse braid. Cast back to where I missed the bite and hooked up with a smallmouth that jumped, then jumped again right as I tried to net it and came off. Getting 5 was looking less and less likely. I picked the tube up again and tried a couple cast into the pocked between the docks and felt like a fish was just following it along and pecking at it. Finally it gave a good thump and I stuck a 14.75" largemouth, but all I could think was how that should have been number 5. 

Since I'd hooked a smallmouth on the Ned, I went to my productive spot from the day before where I'd been getting smallmouth bites and tossed it. I got a quick bite but I was shocked when the fish jumped. I was just hoping for a little smallmouth. This fish was a smallmouth, but it wasn't little. A tense battle ensued before she was finally in the net. Another spawned out female, but a huge bump to my total and my 5th fish.

I was so happy to get 5, I was still floating when a few minutes later I got another "tap, tap". This fish was immediately airborne and went into a crazy zig-zag fight right under the front of my kayak, knocked my paddle off the side of my yak, and the hooked popped out right as the net slide under her. Unfortunately, I was so excited about the last fish, I forgot to start my camera again and missed even getting the fish on camera at all ?‍♂️

Still, a 16.75" smallmouth culled out my 14" largemouth from the morning.

I caught a little largemouth, and a green sunfish, before I peddled around all the marina docks to fish a 20 yard piece of gravel bank where I'd missed 1 bite the day before that I thought was probably a smallmouth bite. I caught 2 more smallmouth and missed 2 more on the Ned, one was a 15.25" fish that culled my 14.75" largemouth I'd caught 30 minutes before. I had about 30 minutes left in the day and was in the mid 80 inch range at that point. I kicked back over to where I'd caught my first 2 smallmouth and switched to a Coppertreuse TRD. I think it was maybe 3 cast before I stuck another good fish right next to a dock cable. It rubbed on my 8lb leader for a second, a dangerous thing anyways but coupled with zebra mussels and it's a recipe for disaster. Thankfully, she came up and I had the net ready. With 15 minutes left, a 17" fish culled the 15.25" smallmouth I'd just caught to give me an even 88" on the day.

 

I felt pretty good at the awards ceremony. A tough lake that everyone was saying we'd be lucky to have a limit on and I got 88"? So I was pretty surprised to find out I got 3rd place. Apparently, the lake is better than people like to lead on. Still very happy with my ability to overcome the lost fish and tough conditions on a new lake and put together a strong finish.  As you can see, it was a fast drop after the top 4. 

 

[Choporoz]

Congrats, @Bluebasser86.  I enjoy reading your tournament write ups.

[TnRiver46]

8 hours ago, Mbirdsley said:

It’s not a good bank fishing lake.  Big issue is there is no cover shallow.  It’s all sand.  The drop off is around 8 ft to 20-40 ft.  But, it’s all sand to the drop off.

 

your best bet would be the best east end of the lake where cold creek comes in buelah.  There is a fishing pier and more cover down in that area shallow 

Gotcha! Thanks man. Next time I’m up that way I’ll try it 

[scaleface]

14 hours ago, Mbirdsley said:

 

Man , thats a healthy smallie .

[Choporoz]

56 minutes ago, scaleface said:

Man , thats a healthy smallie .

Looks like it is posing for a replica 

[J._Bricker]

5 hours ago, Choporoz said:

Congrats, @Bluebasser86.  I enjoy reading your tournament write ups.

X2, as I think we all do 

[DinkDreams]

If anyone who fishes ponds thinks “swimbaits will never work”, they’re just wrong.

 

I’ve caught plenty of fish out of small ponds with S Wavers, Hudds, and now to add the Jackall Gantarel (full size)

 

 

[Bluebasser86]

4 minutes ago, DinkDreams said:

If anyone who fishes ponds thinks “swimbaits will never work”, they’re just wrong.

 

I’ve caught plenty of fish out of small ponds with S Wavers, Hudds, and now to add the Jackall Gantarel (full size)

 

 

My PB swimbait fish was from a pond so small I could cast across it.

[Mbirdsley]

Fished big crystal again in benzie county.  So I caught a 4lbs  20 inch smallie on a tube.  However, I forgot the phone in my truck .  So I have no picture proof of it.  Ran back to the launch and I happened to find my brother there who was launching a customers boat.  He ran up the big hill for me and grabbed my phone.  Caught another smallie on a tube fishing the 8-40 ft drop off on rail road pt. 
 

after I moved down to the east end near buelah and started nailing smallies and rock bass on spro rock crawler.  Basically I was fishing isolated rocks or rock piles. Biggest smallie down there was 18 inches 3.5 lbs 

 

good day .  Crystal has the biggest rock bass you will find.  They even give  head shakes making it seem like there is a small bass on 

[BigAngus752]

Crazy bass.  This was the fightingest bass I've ever caught in my life.  He was only 3lbs 9oz but I thought he was going to snap my braid.  This madman was everywhere.  He was pulling drag and went under the boat, straight out, and then under the boat again so hard that I loosened the drag some more as I began to doubt my Palomar knot.  I just let him run and dig while I ate a sandwich and watched a Seinfeld rerun on my phone.  LOL.  I'm not sure why he was so angry but I was impressed.  Fished 2hrs after work.  Six bass, two over 3lbs.  Nice evening. 

 

[TnRiver46]

3 hours ago, Mbirdsley said:

Fished big crystal again in benzie county.  So I caught a 4lbs  20 inch smallie on a tube.  However, I forgot the phone in my truck .  So I have no picture proof of it.  Ran back to the launch and I happened to find my brother there who was launching a customers boat.  He ran up the big hill for me and trapped my phone.  Caught another smallie on a tube fishing the 8-40 ft drop off on rail road pt. 
 

after I moved down to the east end near buelah and started nailing smallies and rock bass on spro rock crawler.  Basically I was fishing isolated rocks or rock piles. Biggest smallie down there was 18 inches 3.5 lbs 

 

good day .  Crystal has the biggest rock bass you will find.  They even give a couple head shakes making it seem like there is a small bass on 

You’re killing me man! Great fish 

[Mbirdsley]

14 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

You’re killing me man! Great fish 

Yeah you can wade fish the buelah end of the lake. Once your in the lake your legal to walk aways north and south.
There is public access/ beach where cold creeek comes in. Almost down town buelah.  

 

You will be able to cast a drop off Into a 10-12 foot drop off 10-15 yards from shore.  I was down there fishing today 

[Bluebasser86]

My kids are out of school now so I can finally start sneaking out for occasional short, weekday trips. Tonight was the first one and it's going to be hard to top. I had 2.5 hours to fish and only took 3 rods. I had 1 swimbait rod with a 6" FishLab wake shad swimbait, 1 swimbait rod with a 7" Top Shelf Tackle line through swimbait, and 1 spinning rod with a wacky rig for a follow up bait. I caught multiple fish on all 3 rods, but the wake shad was doing work.

[GreenPig]

Fished 4am - 1130pm this morning. Called myself targeting bigger fish and threw a buzzbait til 7am then swimbaits and caught one on the Wake Bull. Major storm rolled through yesterday evening and apparently had a negative effect on the fish. I purposely left my shakey head & Ned gear at home so I wouldn't be tempted to go after the Spots on the humps but next trip it'll be with me.

[TnRiver46]

5 hours ago, GreenPig said:

Fished 4am - 1130pm this morning. Called myself targeting bigger fish and threw a buzzbait til 7am then swimbaits and caught one on the Wake Bull. Major storm rolled through yesterday evening and apparently had a negative effect on the fish. I purposely left my shakey head & Ned gear at home so I wouldn't be tempted to go after the Spots on the humps but next trip it'll be with me.

4am to 11:30 pm?? You got a full kitchen on that Jon boat? 

[hokiehunter373]

Got out for a few hours the past couple days and caught 20ish.  Tuesday was filled with a bunch of pounders.  Wednesday was a 2-2.5# average and a lot of fun.  Bluegills are dominating the shallows now with bass mixed in around them.  The roboworm did a bunch of work again.  Caught this chunky girl who put my 6# line to the test.  Great fight.

 

 

 

It was breezy and the bass were aggressive so it seemed like a good opportunity to work a spinnerbait.  Excellent decision as it was on fire.

 

 

Then I caught this guy again lol.  He's got to be getting absolutely sick of seeing my ugly mug but glad to see his tail is healing up just fine.  

 

On 5/10/2022 at 10:35 AM, hokiehunter373 said:

Met up with this guy again.  Last night on the drop shot.  Caught a handful the same way but nothing for size.