Latest Catch Pics Thread

[AlabamaSpothunter]

1 hour ago, TnRiver46 said:

Found a nice looking spinnerbait while cleaning out my boat, figured I’d try it a while. After one hour no bites I tossed my jig on the St croix Legend tournament bass rod. It’s probably not designed for jigs but I had 15 lb invisix on there and a few minutes in I felt thump thump and caught a nice smallie. It’s crazy how dense/springy/something that line is and how that transmits the bite. Quite the fun battle in 30,000 cfs of current 

Nice brown piggy! 

53 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

Beautiful fish, Phish!

 

Alex, I had musky fever for about three years, but casting big lures is so hard on a body. I was smallmouth focused for about 30 years. As a kid, I loved bluegills. I've done some walleye fishing too, but nowadays, it's bass, bass, and BASS. Smallie or largies doesn't matter, much like largies or spots doesn't matter to you. 

 

I have yet to fish a chatterbait. Or a roboworm. Or a swimbait. Sigh.

I'd love to Musky fish!    

 

Honestly with your amazing results, I wouldn't change or add a thing.   That said, it's too fun to tickle the tackle monkey to not always be trying new stuff.

 

I'm the same way with your whopper plopper, I intend to try those this summer.  So many lures, so little time haha 

[Aaron_H]

4 minutes ago, BassSteve said:

Lol this one basically let me drag it out of the water, did not put up much fight 

 

Yeah the small ones aren't much sport, but once they get a little heft to them they are aggressive strikers in my experience that are pretty good at using those tall flat sides to their advantage to bulldog you, and they can make some pretty impressive runs. No jumps, though. I've had a handful over 7lb (and one just over 8.5lb) and they were fantastic fights.

 

FWC says they "rarely" strike artificials, but I'd like to take one on a trip with me to some of these spots....

[Bluebasser86]

It's always funny reading about different parts of the country how different the weather is. When guys are bemoaning fishing in 15mph winds while I'm looking at Sunday's forecast hoping that maybe the wind will only be 15mph when I start in the morning before it gets up to the forecasted 25-30mph ?

 

WindS 25 mph

Wind Gusts60 mph

[MN Fisher]

1 minute ago, Bluebasser86 said:

WindS 25 mph

Wind Gusts60 mph

Come up here for the weekend

 

Saturday

Mostly sunny, with a high near 75. Southeast wind 10 to 15 mph.

[BassSteve]

1 hour ago, Aaron_H said:

 

Yeah the small ones aren't much sport, but once they get a little heft to them they are aggressive strikers in my experience that are pretty good at using those tall flat sides to their advantage to bulldog you, and they can make some pretty impressive runs. No jumps, though. I've had a handful over 7lb (and one just over 8.5lb) and they were fantastic fights.

 

FWC says they "rarely" strike artificials, but I'd like to take one on a trip with me to some of these spots....

Oh it definitely hit my crankbait with force lol, I thought it was a decent size bass at first. I would agree that they rarely go for artificial lures, there are a lot of them in my local pond and my lures pass right by and they don't really react lol, sort of get spooked if anything 

[Bluebasser86]

30 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

Come up here for the weekend

 

Saturday

Mostly sunny, with a high near 75. Southeast wind 10 to 15 mph.

That's about what it was last time I fished Tonka. Such a huge body of water with so many good looking areas. 

[MN Fisher]

Just now, Bluebasser86 said:

That's about what it was last time I fished Tonka. Such a huge body of water with so many good looking areas. 

Well, it's a bit different right now - about 1.5' below normal cause of the drought.

[The Bassman]

4 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

It's always funny reading about different parts of the country how different the weather is. When guys are bemoaning fishing in 15mph winds while I'm looking at Sunday's forecast hoping that maybe the wind will only be 15mph when I start in the morning before it gets up to the forecasted 25-30mph ?

 

WindS 25 mph

Wind Gusts60 mph

You know it's too windy when your lipless crankbait starts skipping across the top of the water from your line bowing, and that's on a three acre pond.

[Bluebasser86]

3 hours ago, The Bassman said:

You know it's too windy when your lipless crankbait starts skipping across the top of the water from your line bowing, and that's on a three acre pond.

I've had those days, lipless, spinnerbaits, and bladed jigs just skating across the surface because a 50mph gust just caught my line and drug it. 

[TnRiver46]

Younz is crazy……. 15 mph wind and I can’t drive the boat without jarring my spinal cord . I know a few places you can hide but I’d rather bank fish or take a personal day haha

 

went to pickwick once, nearly sank my battleship 

[galyonj]

If the wind turns my fastball cast into a slider down and away, I'm just gonna go on to the house.

[Swamp Girl]

Alex, you are right about the fun of catching fish with new lures. I was so proud of my first froggin' bass. The best I ever did was seven bass on a frog, but that was right before they quit hitting my frog, so I'm super excited about next summer and surpassing that number.

 

I once went to a musky lake north of Lake of the Woods with 21 guys. Many were young, large, and muscular, and even they were beaten down by heaving those billy clubs with hooks. If I were to do it again, I'd fish with heavy bass gear and smaller lures. I once did that froggin' for muskies and you see the V coming for your frog. I had 21 hits and only caught two, but what a day that was!

 

When whalers used to harpoon a whale and the whale would pull their boat, they called it a Nantucket Sleigh Ride. Well, in my solo canoe, I've been on a few Ontario sleigh rides when musky fishing and that's probably the greatest thrill I've ever had fishing. A tarpon or mako jumping might surpass that, but not by much.

 

Mr. 86, since I fish in a 15' canoe that's not loaded with gear and is therefore light and easily windblown, even a 15 mph wind means I spend more time with a paddle in my hand than a fishing rod. 

 

P. S. - You guys are funny in this thread!

[Fishlegs]

10 hours ago, Aaron_H said:

Those tilapia are the bane of my existence. I'm up to 85 of them culled for 2022.

Sounds like you should be posting a lot more fish taco pictures. ? ?

[Aaron_H]

2 minutes ago, Fishlegs said:

Sounds like you should be posting a lot more fish taco pictures. ? ?

 

I don't eat them. The water in the spots I catch them in is fed mostly by drainage from nearby roads, and much of it in the area has been tested as unsafe. I feel wasteful dispatching them without eating them, but FWC does not want them live released since they are invasive.

[galyonj]

12 minutes ago, Aaron_H said:

 

I don't eat them. The water in the spots I catch them in is fed mostly by drainage from nearby roads, and much of it in the area has been tested as unsafe. I feel wasteful dispatching them without eating them, but FWC does not want them live released since they are invasive.

 

I've never caught a tilapia, and I don't reckon we have them up here (yet, or I expect that  @TnRiver46 would've mentioned it by now). But I wouldn't eat them, either. Any tilapia I've ever eaten has about as much flavor as a sheet of cardboard.

[TnRiver46]

10 minutes ago, galyonj said:

 

I've never caught a tilapia, and I don't reckon we have them up here (yet, or I expect that  @TnRiver46 would've mentioned it by now). But I wouldn't eat them, either. Any tilapia I've ever eaten has about as much flavor as a sheet of cardboard.

They live in the Cumberland river near a steam plant! State record is a possibility 

[galyonj]

Bro everything lives near that steam plant.

[AlabamaSpothunter]

44 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

Alex, you are right about the fun of catching fish with new lures. I was so proud of my first froggin' bass. The best I ever did was seven bass on a frog, but that was right before they quit hitting my frog, so I'm super excited about next summer and surpassing that number.

 

I once went to a musky lake north of Lake of the Woods with 21 guys. Many were young, large, and muscular, and even they were beaten down by heaving those billy clubs with hooks. If I were to do it again, I'd fish with heavy bass gear and smaller lures. I once did that froggin' for muskies and you see the V coming for your frog. I had 21 hits and only caught two, but what a day that was!

 

When whalers used to harpoon a whale and the whale would pull their boat, they called it a Nantucket Sleigh Ride. Well, in my solo canoe, I've been on a few Ontario sleigh rides when musky fishing and that's probably the greatest thrill I've ever had fishing. A tarpon or mako jumping might surpass that, but not by much.

 

Mr. 86, since I fish in a 15' canoe that's not loaded with gear and is therefore light and easily windblown, even a 15 mph wind means I spend more time with a paddle in my hand than a fishing rod. 

 

P. S. - You guys are funny in this thread!

"Nantucket Sleigh Ride".....that's epic.

 

Moby Dick is still one of my favorite books.   While the Whaling industry was tragic, it was full of daring and exciting stories.    It's no surprise that Herman Melville wrote a book that touched on this.   

 

I currently hunting my "white whale"

7 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

They live in the Cumberland river near a steam plant! State record is a possibility 

"Yeah I'm kinda of a big deal around these parts, I got a IGFA World Record"

 

"Wow, what species"

 

"That's my phone ringing, I'll see you later"  ?

[Swamp Girl]

Alex, if you ever get a 300-pound spot boatside, don't, in your supreme joy and terror, get tangled up in your line and have it drag you into the deep. Don't be Alex Ahab! 

[thediscochef]

Caught my first decent size smallmouth today, followed by a one-eyed meanmouth (I think), and a LMB. Smallmouth are a very different brand, the thumps were a new experience. All on pearl chatterbait. Not bad for about an hour and 20 of time, especially considering how late I started. I'll take it.

[TnRiver46]

42 minutes ago, thediscochef said:

Caught my first decent size smallmouth today, followed by a one-eyed meanmouth (I think), and a LMB. Smallmouth are a very different brand, the thumps were a new experience. All on pearl chatterbait. Not bad for about an hour and 20 of time, especially considering how late I started. I'll take it.

Nice catch, def looks like a meanmouth to me 

[DitchPanda]

14 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

It's always funny reading about different parts of the country how different the weather is. When guys are bemoaning fishing in 15mph winds while I'm looking at Sunday's forecast hoping that maybe the wind will only be 15mph when I start in the morning before it gets up to the forecasted 25-30mph ?

 

WindS 25 mph

Wind Gusts60 mph

Right! We had 2 days last week of 30-35mph sustained with gusts up to 45. Also love when guys are like oh god the cold weather is setting in...it was already 47 this morning. When I went to work Wednesday it was 14 at 7am.

[AlabamaSpothunter]

57 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Nice catch, def looks like a meanmouth to me 

Absolutely.   Perfect blend between the two.

 

You are the only one that seems to post meanmouths on the reg.    I get it, they are controversial, but in many ways it's the perfect Bass if I was drawing one up from scratch.   If they could reach the DD threshold, they'd be the perfect Bass.    What's the biggest one you know about being caught?

[Swamp Girl]

Check out this meanmouth:

 

 

[TnRiver46]

14 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Absolutely.   Perfect blend between the two.

 

You are the only one that seems to post meanmouths on the reg.    I get it, they are controversial, but in many ways it's the perfect Bass if I was drawing one up from scratch.   If they could reach the DD threshold, they'd be the perfect Bass.    What's the biggest one you know about being caught?

Well , meanmouth has different “mean” ings. See what I did there?

 

the ones we have normally are hybrid between spot and smallie. Some also call a hybrid between LM and SM (much more rare) a meanmouth. That’s what is pictured above, and I had never even heard of until the OH Ivie exploration of the last few years 

 

the smallie x spot hybrids max out around 4-5 lbs it seems. Scott Martin caught a 19 lb limit of meanmouth on my home waters in an FLW tournament years ago