Latest Catch Pics Thread

[gim]

Hey @ol'crickety are up you catching those smallmouth in a bog? It’s hard for me to imagine smallmouth being present in that type of habitat. When I think of smallmouth habitat, I think of the Great Lakes, a river, or a big lake with a hard bottom. Not a swamp lol

[Swamp Girl]

6 minutes ago, gimruis said:

Hey @ol'crickety are up you catching those smallmouth in a bog? It’s hard for me to imagine smallmouth being present in that type of habitat. When I think of smallmouth habitat, I think of the Great Lakes, a river, or a big lake with a hard bottom. Not a swamp lol

You are correct. I was fishing a lake today. I only catch largemouth in the bogs. And the lake I fished today, as you could see from the photos, has both largemouth and smallmouth. Whenever I'm over rocks, that's where I catch the smallmouth. 

[ScottW]

9 hours ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Lol......you haven't even begun to know what a wuss is in regards to cold weather.    Every year that passes I think Alabama is too cold ?

Big swimbait investment paying off I see ?

It IS too cold! ? When winter hits that is. ?

 

5 hours ago, PhishLI said:

I should live so long...

 

Need another place to warehouse some lures? ?

 

2 hours ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

2 for 2 on the big Swimbait.....both quality fish

 

 

What’s the large swim bait in this photo?

[T-Billy]

9 hours ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Lol......you haven't even begun to know what a wuss is in regards to cold weather.    Every year that passes I think Alabama is too cold ?

I was a bit overdressed the other day, but it's what I had handy. I've been known to sit in the woods from daylight till dark, temps in the teens, waiting for a deer to walk by. I don't often get accused of being a smart man. LOL.

[AlabamaSpothunter]

4 hours ago, sdw215 said:

It IS too cold! ? When winter hits that is. ?

 

Need another place to warehouse some lures? ?

 

 

What’s the large swim bait in this photo?

I bought it at Mark's the other day, action is amazing, high-quality hardware as well, however I just had to go back to Marks today to exchange it for another one because the nylon tail flew out on a cast.   Then I get the new one, check it, and it slides right out.   So while very budget friendly, and great in every other regard, be prepared to glue this bait from the jump.  

Duckett Baits BD Shad Slow Sinking Swimbaits - Tackle Warehouse

 

It's got this killer strong magnet that holds a unique front treble tight to the body.   

[Way north bass guy]

10 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

Here’s another view of that fish @galyonjposted, the spro pin tail did it again 

Man, with all those ropes all over the front deck, I’d be tangled up and likely on the bottom of the lake! It would drive me absolutely bonkers to have to step all around that while casting ?. Whatever works though I guess. 

[T-Billy]

2 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

If T-Billy or Alex or Eric or any of you had my six, I would have stayed and launched, but none of you were there. Sigh.

 

Yup. Crackheads and miscreants don't get to dictate where I go. 

[TnRiver46]

56 minutes ago, Way north bass guy said:

Man, with all those ropes all over the front deck, I’d be tangled up and likely on the bottom of the lake! It would drive me absolutely bonkers to have to step all around that while casting ?. Whatever works though I guess. 

If you get tangled up in rope, just pull on the rope until you are up to the front of the boat! 
 

but seriously my trolling motor broke and the 100 ft rope is to my new (free) cinder block anchor 

 

@Way north bass guy, I bet I could create the same effect with some clever knots and some of those stones you have leftover 

[Way north bass guy]

52 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

If you get tangled up in rope, just pull on the rope until you are up to the front of the boat! 
 

but seriously my trolling motor broke and the 100 ft rope is to my new (free) cinder block anchor 

 

@Way north bass guy, I bet I could create the same effect with some clever knots and some of those stones you have leftover 

That makes more sense now! I’ve caught many a fish over the years as a kid with the help of one of my dads “extra” concrete blocks. 8” blocks always worked well, 10” blocks held better, but they were always much heavier to lift as a kid so we stuck with the 8s . A half of a 6” block was just about perfect for a canoe ?

[TnRiver46]

Just now, Way north bass guy said:

That makes more sense now! I’ve caught many a fish over the years as a kid with the help of one of my dads “extra” concrete blocks. 8” blocks always worked well, 10” blocks held better, but they were always much heavier to lift as a kid so we stuck with the 8s . A half of a 6” block was just about perfect for a canoe ?

I’ve always been too scared to try it with canoe but some folks swear by it or a drag chain. I was anchored up in 40 ft with a breeze and current on Sunday, had to use almost every foot of the rope to Sit still 

[gim]

1 hour ago, T-Billy said:

I've been known to sit in the woods from daylight till dark, temps in the teens, waiting for a deer to walk by.

I do that too. Usually for the entire 9 day season which starts on Nov 5. My brother calls it “rotting away in a tree.” Lol

[Swamp Girl]

I like when you guys talk tackle. I am so far behind all of you in tackle knowledge. I am shopping hard swimbaits this evening. Phish's fish persuaded me. 

[galyonj]

55 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

I am so far behind all of you in tackle knowledge.

 

Lady, having seen your work in this thread, I don't think you're missing much. 

[Aaron_H]

4 hours ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

I bought it at Mark's the other day, action is amazing, high-quality hardware as well, however I just had to go back to Marks today to exchange it for another one because the nylon tail flew out on a cast.   Then I get the new one, check it, and it slides right out.   So while very budget friendly, and great in every other regard, be prepared to glue this bait from the jump.  

Duckett Baits BD Shad Slow Sinking Swimbaits - Tackle Warehouse

 

It's got this killer strong magnet that holds a unique front treble tight to the body.   

 

I found one of these at one of my favorite spots a while back, cleaned it up and replaced the hardware and the action is definitely good on it. Caught some decent fish with it, but no giants yet, biggest was one just a bit over 4lb. Best luck with it has been running it just subsurface almost like a wakebait.

[AlabamaSpothunter]

2 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

I like when you guys talk tackle. I am so far behind all of you in tackle knowledge. I am shopping hard swimbaits this evening. Phish's fish persuaded me. 

If we could catch 50 Bass a morning, we wouldn't have the time to buy or research tackle either ?

 

 

49 minutes ago, Aaron_H said:

 

I found one of these at one of my favorite spots a while back, cleaned it up and replaced the hardware and the action is definitely good on it. Caught some decent fish with it, but no giants yet, biggest was one just a bit over 4lb. Best luck with it has been running it just subsurface almost like a wakebait.

Dang, not only would I get a kick out of finding the regular lures you guys do, but to find $25 swimbaits......LUCKEEEE ?

[T-Billy]

8 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

I am so far behind all of you in tackle knowledge.

And yet you caught 22 more fish than I did yesterday. Way to go HAMMER!!! At the rate you catch them, I'm starting to believe Z-Man named their top of the line chatterbait after YOU!!!

7 hours ago, galyonj said:

 

Lady, having seen your work in this thread, I don't think you're missing much. 

I'll second that. Personally, I'm coming around full circle. I'm throwing less different stuff as the years go by. I have a handfull of confidence baits, and mostly just roll with those.

6 hours ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

If we could catch 50 Bass a morning, we wouldn't have the time to buy or research tackle either

Amen Brother!!!

[Swamp Girl]

You guys are always so supportive. 

 

I do like using new lures and adding to my options. One of my proudest achievements this summer was landing a 19" bass on a frog and one morning, catching seven on a frog. I also caught largemouth bass on a jerkbait, soft plastic swimbait, lipless crankbait, spinnerbait, fluke, and wakebait this summer, all for the first time. I still need to work on my technique with the soft plastic swimbait and frog, as I miss most of my hits, but I love how I can cast both of them into cover. 

 

I'll never be able to carry as many lures as the rest of you because I'm literally carrying my 15' 6" boat and the approach to the water is rarely flat and it's often dark. My tacklebox is the size of a purse, so I can wear it on my shoulder while carrying the rods, paddles, and fish measuring trough. My one luxury is five rods and I do use all five. Sometimes I'll make two casts with one rod, another two with another, and all the way down the line. I often catch a fish with one lure and change immediately to another. I'm a curious fisher. I don't commit to one lure/rod until I'm pretty certain that there's a pattern. I made that mistake one morning, casting and casting and CASTING the Whopper Plopper because that's what they'd wanted many mornings. When I finally switched to the wakebait, I caught 48 that morning. That one morning, they L-O-V-E-D the wakebait. Another morning, they wanted a jointed, shad-colored Rapala with a rattle, but that was a one and done event. Sure, I caught bass on those same lures other mornings, but never like those two mornings.

 

Another change I made my last two outings was barbless hooks on my lipless crankbaits and jerkbaits. I am pleased with their performance and am thinking of swapping more hooks on other lures to barbless. The barbless hooks remind me to maintain tension and I can always use reminders on technique. 

 

Yesterday, in the first ten fish, only one came on a Whopper Plopper. Four came on the wakebait. Yet, it was the Whopper Plopper they eventually wanted. I love how their mood is always shifting. Sometimes I think I know why, but I'm probably just deluding myself. They are mysterious and I love that about them. 

 

I am so excited to do more froggin' next summer. That is the most exciting way to catch a bass that I've ever experienced. They often hit within a couple feet of my canoe and frequently hit the frog twice or even thrice in a single retrieve and I can't imagine a better boat for froggin' than my canoe, which is so long and light that I float over the lily pads and don't incur much drag.

 

Here's that 19-inch froggin' bass. She came out of a break in the wild rice that was merely five feet across. See how convex she is, like a contact lens. She hit like a tsunami. You know how a tsunami will suck the water away from the shore before it clobbers the shoreline? I think I saw something like that, like she drew the water down a millimeter or two a nanosecond before she hit. I've seen big smallmouth bulge the water under a surface lure a sliver of a second before they hit it and I wonder if she did something similar. There wasn't much water in her hole, which increases the odds of her moving it.

 

See the crawlers too? I eventually quit on them. They simply didn't catch many fish and they're not nearly as fun as lures.

 

Thanks again for all the encouragement! Any women who complain about men not welcoming them into fishing have never been to bassresource.com. 

 

[galyonj]

1 hour ago, ol'crickety said:

My tacklebox is the size of a purse, so I can wear it on my shoulder while carrying the rods, paddles, and fish measuring trough.

 

All the tackle I bring can fit in a backpack -- even when I'm on the boat. And even then I only use about a quarter of that on any given outing. You can tell when I start getting frustrated because I start swapping out lures like a zoo monkey.

 

I try hard to cull down, but then I find a new shiny thing, talk myself into revisiting the tackle I carry around, and the whole process starts anew. It's a problem.

 

Honestly, if I only ever took a spinning rod, some jigheads, and a pack of straight-tailed worms, I'd do just as well on any given body of water* with a fraction of the junk to keep track of.

 

*This is not to say that I'd do well, but I'd do about as well as I would with anything else tied on. YMMV

[Swamp Girl]

13 minutes ago, galyonj said:

 

All the tackle I bring can fit in a backpack -- even when I'm on the boat. And even then I only use about a quarter of that on any given outing. You can tell when I start getting frustrated because I start swapping out lures like a zoo monkey.

 

I try hard to cull down, but then I find a new shiny thing, talk myself into revisiting the tackle I carry around, and the whole process starts anew. It's a problem.

 

Honestly, if I only ever took a spinning rod, some jigheads, and a pack of straight-tailed worms, I'd do just as well on any given body of water* with a fraction of the junk to keep track of.

 

*This is not to say that I'd do well, but I'd do about as well as I would with anything else tied on. YMMV

Lean and light!

[JWall14]

MLF Lake of the Ozarks College Event Recap. Long story short, my partner and I had 4 days of practice and boy we found the winning fish. We were fishing specific docks in the back of skinnier long pockets. They were in about 15-10ft of water. I turned him on to the swimbaits in practice and we got on em.

 

Was able to catch my new PB at 5-8 on a burrito which beat my old PB by 2oz. He absolutely choked it on the first cast. Needless to say we left that pocket quickly. Day before the tourney we would have had close to 20lbs which would be enough for a win, so we were feeling great.

 

Tourney day we faced the same conditions as the day before, but these fish were following his mag draft out from docks and not committing. We could see winning fish follow out eat 3 times and not hook up. I didn’t even get a chance because by the time my glide or swimbait went past they had seen enough. It was disappointing to only bring 3 fish in after watching 10-15 winning fish go crazy on his swimbait and not hook up. Ended up with 7 and change for 55th out of 180 which isn’t bad. It only took 17 and change to win and 12 to qualify for the national championship which hurts a little bit. I haven’t felt this upset about a tourney since loosing the BFL on Cherokee. This keeps me motivated though and I know I am doing the right things to win.
 

Lessons learned: this was the first tourney I really controlled the boat which was awesome. I think he knew I was on to something and I was able to make decisions which was really cool. I also glued a swimbait into his hand and mine which gave us a legit shot to run away with it. Swimbaits catch giants and little fish. He was shocked at the amount of 12-14 inches that ate his magdraft in practice and the tourney.

 

Anyway thanks for reading. Next tourney is in three weeks which I hope to win as I’m fishing with my friend and we got some great info and experience on this lake.

[AlabamaSpothunter]

32 minutes ago, JWall14 said:

MLF Lake of the Ozarks College Event Recap. Long story short, my partner and I had 4 days of practice and boy we found the winning fish. We were fishing specific docks in the back of skinnier long pockets. They were in about 15-10ft of water. I turned him on to the swimbaits in practice and we got on em.

 

Was able to catch my new PB at 5-8 on a burrito which beat my old PB by 2oz. He absolutely choked it on the first cast. Needless to say we left that pocket quickly. Day before the tourney we would have had close to 20lbs which would be enough for a win, so we were feeling great.

 

Tourney day we faced the same conditions as the day before, but these fish were following his mag draft out from docks and not committing. We could see winning fish follow out eat 3 times and not hook up. I didn’t even get a chance because by the time my glide or swimbait went past they had seen enough. It was disappointing to only bring 3 fish in after watching 10-15 winning fish go crazy on his swimbait and not hook up. Ended up with 7 and change for 55th out of 180 which isn’t bad. It only took 17 and change to win and 12 to qualify for the national championship which hurts a little bit. I haven’t felt this upset about a tourney since loosing the BFL on Cherokee. This keeps me motivated though and I know I am doing the right things to win.
 

Lessons learned: this was the first tourney I really controlled the boat which was awesome. I think he knew I was on to something and I was able to make decisions which was really cool. I also glued a swimbait into his hand and mine which gave us a legit shot to run away with it. Swimbaits catch giants and little fish. He was shocked at the amount of 12-14 inches that ate his magdraft in practice and the tourney.

 

Anyway thanks for reading. Next tourney is in three weeks which I hope to win as I’m fishing with my friend and we got some great info and experience on this lake.

Congrats on your new PB, and piggie.  That's a fantastic fish, and that's the real prize in my eyes.  

 

The reason I love the idea of big hard swimbaits vs soft swimbaits is situations like yours.   You can get those hard baits to turn around and stare that fish in the face and get that instinct bite.  

[JWall14]

5 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Congrats on your new PB, and piggie.  That's a fantastic fish, and that's the real prize in my eyes.  

 

The reason I love the idea of big hard swimbaits vs soft swimbaits is situations like yours.   You can get those hard baits to turn around and stare that fish in the face and get that instinct bite.  

I thought the same thing and was throwing glides behind him. The water was lower and clearer than usual and I think we really only got one chance at em that day. If I went back to that day I would have definitely put a glide in his hands since he was at the front.

[Swamp Girl]

Quote

this was the first tourney I really controlled the boat which was awesome.

It is so gratifying to master a new task. Congrats on that new PB! I can't imagine the pressure of tournament fishing. 

 

Quote

You can get those hard baits to turn around and stare that fish in the face and get that instinct bite.

Alex, how do you do ^this^?

[AlabamaSpothunter]

1 minute ago, ol'crickety said:

It is so gratifying to master a new task. Congrats on that new PB! I can't imagine the pressure of tournament fishing. 

 

Alex, how do you do ^this^?

The baits sound complicated, but they are incredibly easy to use outside of the chunking and winding part.    They swim in a relatively tight S pattern, and anytime you jerk it, it causes the bait to turn sideways.

 

I'm a newbie, but I'll just sit there mesmerized by how amazing they look in the water.    Lots of people swim them up to a piling, dock, or piece of cover, and then hit that jerk to make the bait turn sideways.     Others do it when they are trying to coax that strike from a follower, and lastly I add them randomly on the retrieve for any fish that might be following.  

[Swamp Girl]

44 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

The baits sound complicated, but they are incredibly easy to use outside of the chunking and winding part.    They swim in a relatively tight S pattern, and anytime you jerk it, it causes the bait to turn sideways.

 

I'm a newbie, but I'll just sit there mesmerized by how amazing they look in the water.    Lots of people swim them up to a piling, dock, or piece of cover, and then hit that jerk to make the bait turn sideways.     Others do it when they are trying to coax that strike from a follower, and lastly I add them randomly on the retrieve for any fish that might be following.  

Fascinating. Thanks! Do you have a brand favorite?