Latest Catch Pics Thread

[Swamp Girl]

@Team9nine, the water you fish is so different than the water I fish, but I'd still love to fish where you do because I learned to fish on micro lakes and doing so again would be like going back to my childhood. I rigged a floating worm this spring, but didn't catch anything. What's your technique?

[Team9nine]

33 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

@Team9nine, the water you fish is so different than the water I fish, but I'd still love to fish where you do because I learned to fish on micro lakes and doing so again would be like going back to my childhood. I rigged a floating worm this spring, but didn't catch anything. What's your technique?

Nothing terribly complicated or technical. It’s surprising just how shallow these fish will hold, literally in inches of water or nose to the bank. So long casts really tight to the shoreline, and up and over snot moss along the bank gets a lot of work. Casting either the inside or outside weed edges is also very effective. Then throwing over any dark spots or holes in the shallow weed flats is another great option as that is frequently where the bass nest, though you can’t often tell until you walk right up on them. 
 

Retrieve is like a jerkbait or fluke, whatever personal style or flair you want to add to a twitch and pause type retrieve.

[Swamp Girl]

Thanks, @Team9nine. That's pretty much what I did. The floating worm looked amazing in the water. I think I was just fishing it too early. You are ahead of us, warmth-wise. 

[Mbirdsley]

King ? of the 1.5-2.0 fish.  Fished back and crystal today.  Caught around a dozen.  First smallie of the year.  Shallows are full of males again.  Some were in beds.  Saw a lot of empty beds.  Bigger fish came on a green pumpkin w/blue flake spine craw free rigged in 6-8 ft of water. Caught the smallie and a couple others on LC ghost pointer 78.  Caught a couple on a general baby bass wacky rigged.  
 

i might fish the Saginaw/titabawassee/Shiawassee rivers Friday. 

[Swamp Girl]

I returned to the bog that puzzles me, the bog with some nice bass, but few bass. Again, I only caught three bass. I also caught four pickerel. Alex said that the more I weigh bass, the better I'd get at estimating and I estimated the first bass, a 19-incher, at under four pounds because she wasn't as chunky as most 19-inchers. I was right: 3.74 pounds. I caught two 17-inchers too. All in 2.5 hours and I lost a nice bass too.

 

 

[AlabamaSpothunter]

1 minute ago, ol'crickety said:

I returned to the bog that puzzles me, the bog with some nice bass, but few bass. Again, I only caught three bass. I also caught four pickerel. Alex said that the more I weigh bass, the better I'd get at estimating and I estimated the first bass, a 19-incher, at under four pounds because she wasn't as chunky as most 19-inchers. I was right: 3.74 pounds. I caught two 17-incher too. All in 2.5 hours and I lost a nice bass too.

 

 

Those Maine Bass just have a different level of dark green to them, always stand out.   Beautiful healthy fish, great job Katie!  

[Swamp Girl]

11 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Those Maine Bass just have a different level of dark green to them, always stand out.   Beautiful healthy fish, great job Katie!  

 

Maine puts the black in black bass! Thanks, Alex. 

[A-Jay]

Big Fish Jeff Making it happen Day 1 

Fish Hard

A-Jay

 

[AlabamaSpothunter]

2 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

Big Fish Jeff Making it happen Day 1 

Fish Hard

A-Jay

 

Big Fish Jeff hit the lottery when ever he met you ?

 

Must be a special person to you to share such a special slice of Brown Bass heaven with.  

[gim]

26 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

a 19-incher, at under four pounds because she wasn't as chunky as most 19-inchers. I was right: 3.74 pounds. I caught two 17-incher too

Our Minnesota bass probably very closely mirror the size range that Maine bass do. I would take those quality fish every time I went out. An 18-20 inch largemouth is a sizable fish here, much better than the average one. I will finally be legally able to target them in 4 days, and god willing, post my first report since last October.

[MN Fisher]

1 minute ago, gimruis said:

Our Minnesota bass probably very closely mirror the size range that Maine bass do. I would take those quality fish every time I went out. An 18-20 inch largemouth is a sizable fish here, much better than the average one. I will finally be legally able to target them in 4 days, and god willing, post my first report since last October.

Yes those are good size - but I think Maine would average a little larger given that their state record is almost 3# more than ours.

MN state record largemouth = 8#15oz

ME state record largemouth = 11#10oz

[gim]

Just now, MN Fisher said:

Yes those are good size - but I think Maine would average a little larger given that their state record is almost 3# more than ours.

MN state record largemouth = 8#15oz

ME state record largemouth = 11#10oz

Great point. Didn’t know that. Pretty amazed that such a northerly state like Maine has produced almost a 12 pound largemouth.

[MN Fisher]

1 minute ago, gimruis said:

Great point. Didn’t know that. Pretty amazed that such a northerly state like Maine has produced almost a 12 pound largemouth.

They got a milder climate temperature wise than we do given the moderating effects of the Atlantic and some outliers of the Gulf Stream.

[Swamp Girl]

I lived in western Wisconsin for thirty years. It's much colder there than the coast of Maine. However, inland Maine is close, climate-wise, to northern MN and northern WI, i.e. growing zone 3. 

 

@gimruis, I'm happy to catch bass of any size, but I'm especially happy to catch 19" bass. I'm excited for you to fish soon!

[AlabamaSpothunter]

Katie how far are you from Moose Pond, and can you fish it? ?

 

Haven't posted a fish in a minute.....pretty guy from yesterday on the Shimano.   It's so much fun to fish with.  

[N Florida Mike]

They were biting good again today. , temps in the low 80s, partly cloudy, slight breeze. Decided to start at the south end of our island. Something told me to try the speed craw and I wasn’t disappointed. I used my lightest combo, which features 8 pound test and a 1/0 wide gap T Rig. They were all over it- caught 5 in the same general area, near eel grass dropping into deeper water. Also even got one on a roostertail when I noticed some bream beds… Bite slowed , so I went around a point and  caught another one. Fished around the southeast end of the lake and got one in a deep hole on a uv speed worm. Caught a couple more on the craw, including one that bit when I skipped the craw way back under a dock. Caught another one on the same point on the way back, and got another one on the other side of the island on the craw.

Switched to a grape shad culprit worm, and caught 2 nice fish on the same side of the island. Stopped off at the deep hole on the way home , and got 2 more quality fish on the Rage tail cut R. The only downsides today was missing several nice fish, and 

I tried a chatterbait with craw trailer to no avail off and on. Did not catch a fish on the super fluke either, which is unusual…but I ain’t complaining…

Ended up with 16 again.

[AlabamaSpothunter]

1 minute ago, N Florida Mike said:

They were biting good again today. , temps in the low 80s, partly cloudy, slight breeze. Decided to start at the south end of our island. Something told me to try the speed craw and I wasn’t disappointed. I used my lightest combo, which features 8 pound test and a 1/0 wide gap T Rig. They were all over it- caught 5 in the same general area, near eel grass dropping into deeper water. Also even got one on a roostertail when I noticed some bream beds… Bite slowed , so I went around a point and  caught another one. Fished around the southeast end of the lake and got one in a deep hole on a uv speed worm. Caught a couple more on the craw, including one that bit when I skipped the craw way back under a dock. Caught another one on the same point on the way back, and got another one on the other side of the island on the craw.

Switched to a grape shad culprit worm, and caught 2 nice fish on the same side of the island. Stopped off at the deep hole on the way home , and got 2 more quality fish on the Rage tail cut R.  Ended up with 16 again.

Speak of the dark Bass debil ?

 

Nice ones!  

[NorthernBasser]

On 5/7/2023 at 9:46 PM, Eric 26 said:

@AlabamaSpothunter I love your enthusiasm for everyone else’s fish pictures. “Mother of god” dang near made me choke on my Cheerios I’m currently enjoying ?

No doubt. He just seems like a dang good dude! A real one. 

On 5/7/2023 at 8:27 PM, AlabamaSpothunter said:

MOTHER OF GOD!  

 

Best movie ever?

 

 

[a1712]

5-2 over emerging grass on a Lipless. Really difficult to find spots to fish at the local F&G, trout guys everywhere. Brian. 

[N Florida Mike]

That’s a pretty fish!

[Swamp Girl]

Moose Lake is 2.5 hours away. It sounds like it's heavily fished. Not my kind of lake. Why did you ask?

[AlabamaSpothunter]

11 minutes ago, a1712 said:

5-2 over emerging grass on a Lipless. Really difficult to find spots to fish at the local F&G, trout guys everywhere. Brian. 

Nice toad! 

 

21 minutes ago, NorthernBasser said:

No doubt. He just seems like a dang good dude! A real one. 

 

Best movie ever?

 

 

I sincerely appreciate that friend, and right back at you!    I'd be thrilled to spend a day on the water with so many of you great anglers, and more importantly humans. 

 

I loved that movie as a kid, but I was thinking of an equally great albeit different movie lol ?

 

4 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

Moose Lake is 2.5 hours away. It sounds like it's heavily fished. Not my kind of lake. Why did you ask?

I was googling where the Maine state record came from, and it's listed as there.  Then again that record is very old, so the lake is likely very different today than it was.   

 

The Alabama record 16.8 was caught in my same County in a small lake in the 80s, I'd love to fish the lake but I'm sure it's totally different even 30+ years later.   

[NorthernBasser]

16 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

 

I sincerely appreciate that friend, and right back at you!    I'd be thrilled to spend a day on the water with so many of you great anglers, and more importantly humans. 

 

Let me know if you ever come up this way! 

[AlabamaSpothunter]

1 hour ago, NorthernBasser said:

Let me know if you ever come up this way! 

 

I just wanna visit your tackle cave/monkey cage.....must be like the Chocolate Factory for Charlie ?

[gim]

8 hours ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

I just wanna visit your tackle cave/monkey cage

Its a SHED, not a cage.