Latest Catch Pics Thread

[Woody B]

Caught 11 bass this morning.  A couple were nubbins (dinks) the rest were between 14 and 18 inches.   This one was 3 pounds 3 ounces.  I suspect it's a Largemouth/Spot hybrid.  No teeth on tongue, "normal" largemouth teeth, largemouth dorsal, but smaller scales on it's cheeks, and smallish mouth.   

[The Bassman]

1 hour ago, Woody B said:

Caught 11 bass this morning.  A couple were nubbins (dinks) the rest were between 14 and 18 inches.   This one was 3 pounds 3 ounces.  I suspect it's a Largemouth/Spot hybrid.  No teeth on tongue, "normal" largemouth teeth, largemouth dorsal, but smaller scales on it's cheeks, and smallish mouth.   

Looks like a LM to me. Mouths are sometimes disproportionate to body size with very healthy fish. That one looks well fed.

[Cbump]

Rough day for me. Lost a Daiwa spinning rod/reel out of the boat first thing. Broke off on a big topwater bite. Trolling motor kept messing up. Backlashed so bad I had to put that rod up. Broke about 8” off the tip of my Champ Extreme. Wind was blowing about dang 30 mph. And my wife out fished me lol. I did manage to end the day in first for big bass. My wife is in 3rd overall. 2.5 pounds back. Anything can happen tomorrow. 
 

 

[Team9nine]

Micro jig still doing work. Figured that out when I got bit on the first cast - love when that happens. Managed 7 or 8 before calling it after just an hour to get home for dinner. Still waiting to get to the wolf pack pond with this little thing.

 

 

 

[gim]

16 hours ago, throttleplate said:

This muskie was thick and best of all i caught her on my new 7 ft, $15.00 clearance sale Berkley cherrywood rod.

Nice muskie @throttleplate!

[Swamp Girl]

Fishing conditions changed in Maine. It's no longer summer. It was 45 degrees this morning after three days of the wind blowing in cold air, from 14-18 m.p.h. I feared the sudden cold might clamp some mouths and it did. I took five rods and caught bass with all five lures, but determined no pattern whatsoever. The one bonus is that when the bass did hit, they hit hard and I caught 19 of the 20 bass I hooked. The first one was 17.5 inches. There were some small ones like you see in the last photo. Then there were also some in the 16-inch class. I did catch one thick fish: 19.75 inches. She hit a pumpkin Senko with a chartreuse tip. There were two tiny taps and then nothing. I watched the line and thought I saw it moving. I didn't wait long because I don't like to gut hook bass with Senkos. When I set the hook, it was barely in her lip. I actually managed to photograph her with me. I'm holding her with my elbow behind my head to situate her right beside me for perspective. I always have a hard time discerning size when fish are thrust toward the camera and maybe I'm not the only one who prefers a fish positioned right beside the fisher. Note how thick her tail is. The state of Texas has a length to weight table and that says she weighs 4.5 pounds, but I think Maine bass are thicker than many bass in other places. What do you think? I think she might weight five pounds. 

[gim]

28 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

What do you think? I think she might weight five pounds.

I'd say its a darn nice largie for Maine.  I haven't caught one that big this season yet.

[Cbump]

All were released fine for those worried about It. 

[Jmurphy87]

2 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

Fishing conditions changed in Maine. It's no longer summer. It was 45 degrees this morning after three days of the wind blowing in cold air, from 14-18 m.p.h. I feared the sudden cold might clamp some mouths and it did. I took five rods and caught bass with all five lures, but determined no pattern whatsoever. The one bonus is that when the bass did hit, they hit hard and I caught 19 of the 20 bass I hooked. The first one was 17.5 inches. There were some small ones like you see in the last photo. Then there were also some in the 16-inch class. I did catch one thick fish: 19.75 inches. She hit a pumpkin Senko with a chartreuse tip. There were two tiny taps and then nothing. I watched the line and thought I saw it moving. I didn't wait long because I don't like to gut hook bass with Senkos. When I set the hook, it was barely in her lip. I actually managed to photograph her with me. I'm holding her with my elbow behind my head to situate her right beside me for perspective. I always have a hard time discerning size when fish are thrust toward the camera and maybe I'm not the only one who prefers a fish positioned right beside the fisher. Note how thick her tail is. The state of Texas has a length to weight table and that says she weighs 4.5 pounds, but I think Maine bass are thicker than many bass in other places. What do you think? I think she might weight five pounds. 

I would guess 4.5-4.75, looks about like a couple that I caught earlier this year. I know that once I got my scale it did make it a lot easier. I am still going for my goal this year a 7lb largemouth, last year it was going for a 6lb didn’t make it so this year it went up a pound lol. Here’s a couple pics for reference, one’s 4.4 and the other is 4.74lbs.

I took the kayak out this afternoon and fought the wind. Caught 4-5 nothing special pics are of first fish and largest fish. I brought 4 rods and only needed one lol, caught them all on a jig with a rage chunk trailer.

[AlabamaSpothunter]

2 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

Fishing conditions changed in Maine. It's no longer summer. It was 45 degrees this morning after three days of the wind blowing in cold air, from 14-18 m.p.h. I feared the sudden cold might clamp some mouths and it did. I took five rods and caught bass with all five lures, but determined no pattern whatsoever. The one bonus is that when the bass did hit, they hit hard and I caught 19 of the 20 bass I hooked. The first one was 17.5 inches. There were some small ones like you see in the last photo. Then there were also some in the 16-inch class. I did catch one thick fish: 19.75 inches. She hit a pumpkin Senko with a chartreuse tip. There were two tiny taps and then nothing. I watched the line and thought I saw it moving. I didn't wait long because I don't like to gut hook bass with Senkos. When I set the hook, it was barely in her lip. I actually managed to photograph her with me. I'm holding her with my elbow behind my head to situate her right beside me for perspective. I always have a hard time discerning size when fish are thrust toward the camera and maybe I'm not the only one who prefers a fish positioned right beside the fisher. Note how thick her tail is. The state of Texas has a length to weight table and that says she weighs 4.5 pounds, but I think Maine bass are thicker than many bass in other places. What do you think? I think she might weight five pounds. 

Wow, another amazing session for you Katie, great job!    I bet it's in that 4.5-5lb range certainly.   She's a real beauty.   All your fish are, so rich and dark.    I guess it's the swamp Bass effect, and before you I had no clue this type of swamp Bassing existed in the north.   I've seen swamp Bass in the South that were lush green and dark like that.

 

Hopefully next time out you'll have the new scale in.   I've found once you weigh enough fish, you get pretty close without the scale.   Rarely do you find yourself off by more than half a pound.   That's when I stopped weighing anything I think is under 5lbs.    

 

You got a high RPM motor to be doing all this fishing in the manner you do it in, seriously.   Makes me sleep well just thinking about it......I hate carrying just my poles and tackle to a motorized boat lol 

[Swamp Girl]

Alex, the old trail to the lake was blocked by a landowner, so I had to bushwhack through state land. No portage trail, lots of downed and dead trees, and an old stone wall. And I had to do it four times, going and leaving with the canoe in one carry and my gear in the other. Tomorrow morning, I'll park by the bog I'll fish and be thankful for that. ☺️

 

They are dark and beautiful fish! I'm glad that you appreciate that. I do too. 

 

I also agree that I won't have to use the scale a lot. I'll quickly get a sense of weight just by weighing a few. 

 

As far as my "high RPM motor," I'm building a garden too!

 

Those are beautiful fish, Mr. 87!

[AlabamaSpothunter]

6 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

Alex, the old trail to the lake was blocked by a landowner, so I had to bushwhack through state land. No portage trail, lots of downed and dead trees, and an old stone wall. And I had to do it four times, going and leaving with the canoe in one carry and my gear in the other. Tomorrow morning, I'll park by the bog I'll fish and be thankful for that. ☺️

 

They are dark and beautiful fish! I'm glad that you appreciate that. I do too. 

 

I also agree that I won't have to use the scale a lot. I'll quickly get a sense of weight just by weighing a few. 

 

As far as my "high RPM motor," I'm building a garden too!

 

Those are beautiful fish, Mr. 87!

I love gardening and landscaping.....takes the same mentality to become a good gardener as it does a good fisherman.     Patience and practice are what weeds most out of both hobbies.   

 

Good luck tomorrow pal, catch em' for us both.   Tough sledding right now around here, fished 3.5hrs for 3 fish.    I do have a suspicion that right before I left, I finally had the fish I wanted, but within seconds it pulled off the chatterbait.    Sure felt like one of the big Spots I've been hunting without success the last couple of months.  Should have kept the chatterbait in my hands the whole time as well, kept trying other stuff and wasn't even getting a bite or two.    2 Spots and a LGM.   All about 1lb fish.    

 

I've always felt the worst time to fish was the first 30mins to hour after dusk, and this was confirmed yet again.    Bite was slow during the last hour but managed one, then it went absolutely lockjaw until the last 30mins I was out there around 9pm.....a good 1.5hr after dusk.    I imagine if I would have stayed the fishing would have picked up.    FISHING IS SO FRUSTRATING ?

 

 

[Drawdown]

First time catching a fish on a popper for me! One of those deals where you are walking back to the car, but decide to make “two casts” to some submerged structure you noticed walking in.
 

“Two casts” became five, and that’s when the action began. Missed the first strike, but the hits kept coming on that same retrieve, so I waited till the rod loaded to lean into it. Hooked this nice spotted bass on the back feather treble. Funny enough, the other time I caught a bass on Allatoona, it was on a buzz bait. Something about a topwater in that clear water!

 

This one had a fat belly. Felt like it weighed about 2lbs or just shy of it.

[Swamp Girl]

Alex, I never thought of gardening and fishing as similar. You've got me thinking!

 

I went fishing this morning because the forecast was cloudy and rainy. It was clear skies and sunny, which meant it was cold this morning. Honking geese flew overhead. The maples are going crimson. I'm seeing more ducks than ever. The lily pads are dying. Yeah, it's fall. 

 

Like last night, I struggled to catch the numbers of fish I caught this summer and my morning total was the same as last night: 19

 

10 of them were pickerel, so I feel I should start posting at pickerelresource.com.

 

The bass topped out at 14 inches, except for the big girl (19.25 inches) below the leaping pickerel. She hit my loon-colored Whopper Plopper and jumped twice.

 

The frog fishing is dead, dead, dead. Is this normal? Does it die in the fall? However, my new froggin' outfit casts beautifully. I just don't catch any fish with it.

 

 

[Jar11591]

Hit my favorite lake this morning hopeful for some good fall action. I was happy to find that the fall seasonal pattern was in full swing here which means bass can be found on shoreline timber again, and they also move to the coves that have pondweed which stays greener longer than the milfoil. They wanted 2 things; a Rage Structure Bug T-rigged with a 5/16oz tungsten bullet, and a 3/4oz spinnerbait with a Rage Swimmer trailer and I obliged. 
 

Big girl of the day on the spinnerbait:

 

Weather was perfect. Cool but slightly humid and foggy with a slight warm breeze. 

 

Good numbers, decent size, great weather. Couldn’t have asked for a more perfect morning of fall bassin. 

[T-Billy]

2 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

Alex, I never thought of gardening and fishing as similar. You've got me thinking!

 

I went fishing this morning because the forecast was cloudy and rainy. It was clear skies and sunny, which meant it was cold this morning. Honking geese flew overhead. The maples are going crimson. I'm seeing more ducks than ever. The lily pads are dying. Yeah, it's fall. 

 

Like last night, I struggled to catch the numbers of fish I caught this summer and my morning total was the same as last night: 19

 

10 of them were pickerel, so I feel I should start posting at pickerelresource.com.

 

The bass topped out at 14 inches, except for the big girl (19.25 inches) below the leaping pickerel. She hit my loon-colored Whopper Plopper and jumped twice.

 

The frog fishing is dead, dead, dead. Is this normal? Does it die in the fall? However, my new froggin' outfit casts beautifully. I just don't catch any fish with it.

 

 

Yeah, the frog bite will die off, but have no fear, that new setup will do a lot of things well. Jigs, Trigs, swimbaits all come to mind. A 3.5 - 4.8 keitech fat, or similar rage swimmer will work clear up until ice over. You can rig them on a weedless swim jig, or a belly weighted swimbait hook and just slow roll them around. The strikes are vicious and the hook and land ratio is high.

Tossing a creature bait like a beaver into heavy cover will produce all fall too. I've gone to snelled straight shank flippin hooks, and a pegged tungsten weight on straight braid exclusively for this. Usually 3/8oz. They're as snag free as it gets and most fish are hooked in the roof of the mouth. #STRAIGHTBRAIDBRIGADE!!! You can fish that thing through the nastiest of tangles and pull the vast majority of them out.

Easiest way to snell a hook I've found, and I've never once had one fail.

[AlabamaSpothunter]

12 minutes ago, Jar11591 said:

Hit my favorite lake this morning hopeful for some good fall action. I was happy to find that the fall seasonal pattern was in full swing here which means bass can be found on shoreline timber again, and they also move to the coves that have pondweed which stays greener longer than the milfoil. They wanted 2 things; a Rage Structure Bug T-rigged with a 5/16oz tungsten bullet, and a 3/4oz spinnerbait with a Rage Swimmer trailer and I obliged. 
 

Big girl of the day on the spinnerbait:

 

Weather was perfect. Cool but slightly humid and foggy with a slight warm breeze. 

 

Good numbers, decent size, great weather. Couldn’t have asked for a more perfect morning of fall bassin. 

Dynamite friend!  Man those are some really pretty fish you guys got up north.   That's a super nice fish in the first pic, hard to always gauge a pic, but that fish looks easily over 5lbs. 

 

Love the fog pic, if heaven exists, I hope it looks something like that.

2 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

Alex, I never thought of gardening and fishing as similar. You've got me thinking!

 

I went fishing this morning because the forecast was cloudy and rainy. It was clear skies and sunny, which meant it was cold this morning. Honking geese flew overhead. The maples are going crimson. I'm seeing more ducks than ever. The lily pads are dying. Yeah, it's fall. 

 

Like last night, I struggled to catch the numbers of fish I caught this summer and my morning total was the same as last night: 19

 

10 of them were pickerel, so I feel I should start posting at pickerelresource.com.

 

The bass topped out at 14 inches, except for the big girl (19.25 inches) below the leaping pickerel. She hit my loon-colored Whopper Plopper and jumped twice.

 

The frog fishing is dead, dead, dead. Is this normal? Does it die in the fall? However, my new froggin' outfit casts beautifully. I just don't catch any fish with it.

 

 

Another fantastic report Katie!   Hate to hear the frog bite died off, fishing is a cruel mistress sometimes to be sure.    It will make that new frog rod/setup all the more awesome when they return to the bite next year.     

 

Eventually will there come a point when you can no longer catch any LGM at all, or does the coastal climate allow them to be caught all year long?

[Jar11591]

11 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

 That's a super nice fish in the first pic, hard to always gauge a pic, but that fish looks easily over 5lbs. 

I thought she was really gonna go 5 too, but scale said 4-11. If only she ate one more yellow perch before my spinnerbait crossed her path…

[Swamp Girl]

Thanks, T-Billy. I had to Google a couple of your words, which tells you how farm fresh your info is for me, and I'll try swimbaiting for sure.

 

Nope, Alex, we'll have hard water come January. I frogged last night and this morning and triggered one tiny bite that was likely a pickerel. The lily pad bass have lost their frog appetite. 

[T-Billy]

32 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

Thanks, T-Billy. I had to Google a couple of your words, which tells you how farm fresh your info is for me, and I'll try swimbaiting for sure

I'm pure strain SE Ohio Hillbilly. Not even google knows some of my words!!! 

?

Her ya go Katie. Good rigging tutorial. 3/8 is my standard weight and I only go up if I need to in order to get through matted weeds, or need a faster fall rate to trigger bites. I'll ocasionally drop down to 1/4 in very cold or very shallow water, but day in day out, 3/8 and a beaver style bait gets it done for me. I've used a bunch of different flippin hooks including Owner, Gamakatsu, Mustad, and others. The VMC and the 6th Sense OX are my hands down favorites. Strong, sharp, and they have the best bait keepers I've found.

[gim]

4 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

10 of them were pickerel, so I feel I should start posting at pickerelresource.com.

 

The bass topped out at 14 inches, except for the big girl (19.25 inches) below the leaping pickerel. She hit my loon-colored Whopper Plopper and jumped twice.

 

The frog fishing is dead, dead, dead. Is this normal? Does it die in the fall?

As the water cools, the frog bite will definitely cool off with it. However, since you’ve already established that they are definitely there, simply change your approach now. And since you stated that it doesn’t freeze, the bass will be back for a frog bite again next summer.

 

BTW I am catching more pike lately too. They start to get quite active as the water cools.

[Cbump]

Day 2 of the tourney: another tough day. Really couldn’t figure anything out today. My big bass didn’t hold up but I didn’t expect It too. Wife ended the tournament in 4th. She was down 2.5 to the leader yesterday and he brought in a 17lb bag today ?

Good times  anyway. 
 

 

[The Bassman]

A bit more breeze today had me wanting to cover water with moving baits, in this case a Mann's Baby 1-Minus and a Booyah One Knocker. Had a pretty good session with about 25 in three hours. Six or so were about the size of these three, the rest being 12-14". That One Knocker gave me a memorable outing last Mon. with four 3-4 lbrs. and a bonus DD channel cat (one of only two I've ever caught) during a rainy one and a half hr. Disappointed I couldn't take any pics. Phone was in my car.

[Texas Flood]

Not what I was fishing for but that’s the river for ya.

 

 

[roadwarrior]

The beer counts, the drum doesn't.