Latest Catch Pics Thread

[thediscochef]

I was inspired to go throw a chatterbait to kill an hour. PB spot×smallie hybrid I believe. Either that or just a nice smallmouth. And then a little LM on the ol monster. Gotta go home now though. 

[TnRiver46]

Looks like meanmouth! Nice one @thediscochef

[Team9nine]

Sitting in la-la land on a slight ridge of low pressure with 5 fronts circling us today. Light winds, sunny skies, low humidity and temps in the low 80s, combined with the slow bite that's been going on here made be go finesse today - really finesse. Pulled out a ML outfit with 4 lb braid to a 4 lb leader, set up a split shot rig, and decided to see what would happen. Turned out to be a good call, with near perfect execution. Landed 12 bass total, never lost or broke off a fish, and caught them all on a single Roboworm that I still have left for the next trip ?

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Swamp Girl]

14 minutes ago, Team9nine said:

Sitting in la-la land on a slight ridge of low pressure with 5 fronts circling us today. Light winds, sunny skies, low humidity and temps in the low 80s, combined with the slow bite that's been going on here made be go finesse today - really finesse. Pulled out a ML outfit with 4 lb braid to a 4 lb leader, set up a split shot rig, and decided to see what would happen. Turned out to be a good call, with near perfect execution. Landed 12 bass total, never lost or broke off a fish, and caught them all on a single Roboworm that I still have left for the next trip ?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Take those footballs to the Colts' training camp!

[thediscochef]

1 hour ago, TnRiver46 said:

Looks like meanmouth! Nice one @thediscochef

You always know how to identify bass, thank you

[TnRiver46]

Maybe not always but close! I think @Alex from GAhas probably seen them all live and in color 

[roadwarrior]

                                                                     

[1984isNOW]

I'm thanking Pat and thinking of moving to Me...

 

 

Never caught 2 5+#ers in one night, only 7 over 5 in my life

[Pat Brown]

Buzzbait for the win @Kites R4 Skyfishing !!!!

 

I've caught more fish this month on the buzzbait then all other topwaters combined up to this point in my life!  It's the deal and I'm glad I committed to it.

 

Here's a gorgeous fall  second pre spawn bass I caught on the @Siebert Outdoorsswim jig in black and blue with a blue bug rage craw on the back.  I got to see her wake on it in less than a foot of water and the hook set was oh so satisfying!

 

5 lb beast before work today:

 

 

 

[Swamp Girl]

Nice bass, Pat and Kites!

 

Since it's a rainy day and perfect for a double feature (For you young folks, that's two movies for the price of one, preceded by shorts/cartoons.), I'm going to do a double feature, i.e. some medium-sized bass followed by the main feature, but with shorts to start the show and two intermissions. I caught 20 bass total and the first of the bigger bass was 19", but the second, bigger bass, while not as long, was chunkier. I swear that the blue heron likes to watch me fish. He followed me from one rock to another. I caught all 20 bass on a bone-colored, River2Sea popper, a white, 130 Whopper Plopper, and a shad-colored Keitech with a weighted-shaft hook. 

 

I rose at 3:50, launched in the rainy dark, paddled more than six miles, and I'm drained. It wasn't that long ago that I could do this every morning and evening and still be as bouncy as a bunny. 

 

[1984isNOW]

I was gonna ask you about today, good stuff crick! All in shallow grass of some sort?

 

Seems like a tough day for big water fishing, great for smaller more predicable water. Days like this seems like a bass could be anywhere in a big lake, comfortable to move around a bit. Bright sunny I'd know where to look, shade and cover.

 

I tell ya what crick, you got me thinking I need to invest in one of those bone ploppers. I do already have that same Flambeau box though haha, but I question my need for it now that in only throw a chatterbait ?

 

@Pat Brown nice fish bro!

 

yeah man, this has been unquestionably my best season yet, I've only thrown the ned a handful of times instead of everytime all year like usual and it paid off big time.

 

This was the first time I've ever caught more than one 5#er in a season, and 2 in one night - the only time I'll have a better season is if I ever up my PB.

 

Also the first time in like 4 years catching a 5# not from the bank, boy that fight was incredible. Peeled drag, dragged me almost into a dock then a boat and then some overhanging trees. Took a lot of awkward, uncomfortable, and today,  painful paddling maneuvers.

 

I pulled it off a dock and I'm thinking of getting out on the water every night this week while I'm on vaca.

 

Second one was in like 1-2 ft of water, it's different fighting and landing'em in a yak and not on shore, been a while for me. I def get a little panicky haha

[Swamp Girl]

1 hour ago, Kites R4 Skyfishing said:

Also the first time in like 4 years catching a 5# not from the bank, boy that fight was incredible. Peeled drag, dragged me almost into a dock then a boat and then some overhanging trees. Took a lot of awkward, uncomfortable, and today,  painful paddling maneuvers.

 

Ha! ^This^ is my life. Bigger bass do the most awkward things to me in my canoe. They pull me into a tree one time and spin me backwards the next time, so that I'm fighting a bass that's behind me. 

 

1 hour ago, Kites R4 Skyfishing said:

All in shallow grass of some sort?

 

Yeah, I pulled some off grass edges, but I ALWAYS catch some in the middle. I'll frequently work a weed line and then fan cast open water. I catch some of my biggest bass in deep, open water on. the. surface. Weird, huh? 

 

Congrats on two fives in one night. Quite an accomplishment. Here are a couple I caught one morning this summer:

 

 

And a couple more I caught another morning, both 21.15-inchers:

 

 

And here's a morning trio from about ten days ago:

 

 

I love bulky bass. It means they're thriving.

[thediscochef]

A drop in surface pressure turns the bass faucet off. Just the one little beat up spotted bass this morning. Gonna go throw big worms under a full moon tonight and hope for the best ?

[roadwarrior]

 

 

                                                        

[Bluebasser86]

Had another tournament this past weekend on Saturday at a lake I hadn't fished in over 20 years. 4.5 hour drive to western Kansas was a little rough, but I carpooled with another member from our group (hauled his kayak on my trailer also), so we could split cost. Lake was really low, lots of timber and pretty clear water. First day we only had a few hours to fish. Drove around some of the nastiest dirt roads I've ever been on trying to find a ramp that was still in usable. Finally found one and decided to just fish and see what we could find. 

Took me about a hour to get a bite on a plopper that came off, a sign of life at least. 10 minutes later, I caught one off a tree on a 10" worm that was shorter than the worm. Next pitch to the same trees with a jig, I caught another, next pitch I caught a nice one.

I found a high spot covered up with trees and buckbrush that was loaded with fish. Shook off a bunch of bites and we ended the night catching a bunch of dinks on ploppers out of the brush.

 Next day we launched near the campsite. Started catching fish right away on a plopper and it never stopped. Caught well over 50 fish throughout the day but size was the issue. Tons of 14-16 inch fish, but the 17+ inch fish were tough to find. I sight fished a bunch of fish cruising the shallow buckbrush and pretty much caught fish at will, but only caught 3 over 17 all day, although one was a really nice one that caught my jig on the fall in some deeper trees.

I tried to fish a bunch of deeper trees and never could get any more big bites. 

 

That night, storms rolled in, bringing torrential rain, 60-70mph winds, a tornado, crazy lightning, all the fun. My tent got battered and all my bedding got wet, had to brace my tent up with my cooler and a couple of gear totes. 

 

Tournament morning, I went against what my gut told me and went back into the cove, away from where I had been fishing. Lost a really nice 18ish inch fish right away that hurt pretty bad. The weather was 30* cooler and very windy and the bite was noticeably tougher and the bites I was getting were much smaller. I caught a few small ones on a swim jig before finally catching a decent 15" fish on a swimjig.

At the very back of the cove, I was fishing a laydown in dirty water that was only 3' deep when it got smacked. Hammered a good fish on the hookset that was on the top thrashing right away. Of course it turned out to be a nearly 23" walleye??

I caught a small limit back in that cove before I kicked my way into the heavy wind and rolling waves and through this mess;

to get back to the better area I'd fished the day before. The bite was much tougher than I'd found the day before. There was one tree on a high spot that was laid down on a clean spot and out in front of it was covered up with milfoil. I'd caught a good one out of it in practice so I really wanted to fish it again. Caught a small one quickly and started picking it apart. Several flips in, right when my jig got to the end of the tree, the line slowly back towards the tree and I hit another heavy fish that immediately wrapped me in the tree. I could hear my line squeaking and sawing on the tree. I was fighting strong wind and positioned myself right above the fish, just about ready to jump into the 4' of water to try to retrieve the fish. Then it popped free from the snag and swam for deeper water, towing me with it, and I quickly realized it wasn't a bass ?

I was getting disheartened with the lost quality fish and my bigger bites being non-bass species. I started down the bank I'd caught the most fish from the day before and pitched my jig into one of the only standing trees and got a little tap. Hooked up with a fish and finally landed a better quality bass.

I kept moving down that bank with a swim jig in the buckbrush and caught another small cull. All my fish were over 15" at this point but still needed a lot of improvement and the day was running short.

I fished all the way to the end of the point, something I hadn't done the day before, and had another better fish engulf my swimjig.

I was slowly making an afternoon surge but needed more good bites. I fished the whole way back down that bank and returned to the laydown tree. It had reloaded and I caught 3 more small fish. After picking it apart for several minutes, I was about to move on when I got another bite, and had one of the worst hooksets I've ever had on a jig fish, but despite almost dropping my whole rod in the lake, managed to land another good cull.

Unfortunately, that would be my last cull of the day. That one that I lost in the morning would have made a huge difference in the end. 

With 2 tournaments left in the season, I'm 4 points out of 1st place in the AOY. Didn't think I was having that good of a season, but we'll see if I can do okay the last 2 tournaments to keep it close at least. 

 

[Swamp Girl]

@Bluebasser86, your Kansas bass have the perfect shape: small mouths with big bodies. If they were just as dark as Maine bass, they'd be perfect. ? I hope you win the AOY. I'm cheering for you from far, far away. 

[1984isNOW]

@Bluebasser86 appreciate the breakdown bro, good luck with AOY.

 

@ol'crickety now you're just making me feel bad haha ? killer fish, I can't even imagine a string like that in a season. if I had more time to risk I'd venture into a strange side road ME bog. For now I'm hoping to upsize in the ME clear water lake and maybe even jump into a bronzie or two.

 

I'd what they do at night though, LM still longer around cover and near shore, SM are a mystery if the deep to me.

[MIbassyaker]

19 hours ago, Team9nine said:

Sitting in la-la land on a slight ridge of low pressure with 5 fronts circling us today. Light winds, sunny skies, low humidity and temps in the low 80s, combined with the slow bite that's been going on here made be go finesse today - really finesse. Pulled out a ML outfit with 4 lb braid to a 4 lb leader, set up a split shot rig, and decided to see what would happen. Turned out to be a good call, with near perfect execution. Landed 12 bass total, never lost or broke off a fish, and caught them all on a single Roboworm that I still have left for the next trip ?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1 hour ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Had another tournament this past weekend on Saturday at a lake I hadn't fished in over 20 years. 4.5 hour drive to western Kansas was a little rough, but I carpooled with another member from our group (hauled his kayak on my trailer also), so we could split cost. Lake was really low, lots of timber and pretty clear water. First day we only had a few hours to fish. Drove around some of the nastiest dirt roads I've ever been on trying to find a ramp that was still in usable. Finally found one and decided to just fish and see what we could find. 

Took me about a hour to get a bite on a plopper that came off, a sign of life at least. 10 minutes later, I caught one off a tree on a 10" worm that was shorter than the worm. Next pitch to the same trees with a jig, I caught another, next pitch I caught a nice one.

I found a high spot covered up with trees and buckbrush that was loaded with fish. Shook off a bunch of bites and we ended the night catching a bunch of dinks on ploppers out of the brush.

 Next day we launched near the campsite. Started catching fish right away on a plopper and it never stopped. Caught well over 50 fish throughout the day but size was the issue. Tons of 14-16 inch fish, but the 17+ inch fish were tough to find. I sight fished a bunch of fish cruising the shallow buckbrush and pretty much caught fish at will, but only caught 3 over 17 all day, although one was a really nice one that caught my jig on the fall in some deeper trees.

I tried to fish a bunch of deeper trees and never could get any more big bites. 

 

That night, storms rolled in, bringing torrential rain, 60-70mph winds, a tornado, crazy lightning, all the fun. My tent got battered and all my bedding got wet, had to brace my tent up with my cooler and a couple of gear totes. 

 

Tournament morning, I went against what my gut told me and went back into the cove, away from where I had been fishing. Lost a really nice 18ish inch fish right away that hurt pretty bad. The weather was 30* cooler and very windy and the bite was noticeably tougher and the bites I was getting were much smaller. I caught a few small ones on a swim jig before finally catching a decent 15" fish on a swimjig.

At the very back of the cove, I was fishing a laydown in dirty water that was only 3' deep when it got smacked. Hammered a good fish on the hookset that was on the top thrashing right away. Of course it turned out to be a nearly 23" walleye??

I caught a small limit back in that cove before I kicked my way into the heavy wind and rolling waves and through this mess;

to get back to the better area I'd fished the day before. The bite was much tougher than I'd found the day before. There was one tree on a high spot that was laid down on a clean spot and out in front of it was covered up with milfoil. I'd caught a good one out of it in practice so I really wanted to fish it again. Caught a small one quickly and started picking it apart. Several flips in, right when my jig got to the end of the tree, the line slowly back towards the tree and I hit another heavy fish that immediately wrapped me in the tree. I could hear my line squeaking and sawing on the tree. I was fighting strong wind and positioned myself right above the fish, just about ready to jump into the 4' of water to try to retrieve the fish. Then it popped free from the snag and swam for deeper water, towing me with it, and I quickly realized it wasn't a bass ?

I was getting disheartened with the lost quality fish and my bigger bites being non-bass species. I started down the bank I'd caught the most fish from the day before and pitched my jig into one of the only standing trees and got a little tap. Hooked up with a fish and finally landed a better quality bass.

I kept moving down that bank with a swim jig in the buckbrush and caught another small cull. All my fish were over 15" at this point but still needed a lot of improvement and the day was running short.

I fished all the way to the end of the point, something I hadn't done the day before, and had another better fish engulf my swimjig.

I was slowly making an afternoon surge but needed more good bites. I fished the whole way back down that bank and returned to the laydown tree. It had reloaded and I caught 3 more small fish. After picking it apart for several minutes, I was about to move on when I got another bite, and had one of the worst hooksets I've ever had on a jig fish, but despite almost dropping my whole rod in the lake, managed to land another good cull.

Unfortunately, that would be my last cull of the day. That one that I lost in the morning would have made a huge difference in the end. 

With 2 tournaments left in the season, I'm 4 points out of 1st place in the AOY. Didn't think I was having that good of a season, but we'll see if I can do okay the last 2 tournaments to keep it close at least. 

 

 

I have heard for years that fishing is bad in Indiana and Kansas.

 

And then I see this kind of stuff by you two, and I don't know what to think.

 

[Swamp Girl]

23 minutes ago, Kites R4 Skyfishing said:

if I had more time to risk I'd venture into a strange side road ME bog.

 

I was chatting with Pat Brown yesterday about not fishing my biggest fish bog for a bit. I'm thinking I'm going to wait until the weeds die back. We're at Peak Weed right now and I just can't wrassle those big gals out of the weeds. I wish I understood the mechanics of how they dive into the weeds and and immediately unhook themselves. They don't break the line. They simply pop free and it's not because they're not solidly hooked: I use MH rods, braid, and replace my hooks. That's why I fished a pond this morning, where there are far fewer weeds. 

 

For me, the creepiest thing about bog fishing is launching in the dark. The bogs themselves don't scare me. I'm at home on the water and I'm fine with the dark. I just don't like being in the dark on land. Once I launch, no bad guy could catch me, not with my swift canoe and my half century of paddling. 

[Bluebasser86]

18 minutes ago, MIbassyaker said:

 

 

I have heard for years that fishing is bad in Indiana and Kansas.

 

And then I see this kind of stuff by you two, and I don't know what to think.

 

You heard correct. Nothing but catfish, carp, and gar here.

[T-Billy]

35 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

For me, the creepiest thing about bog fishing is launching in the dark. The bogs themselves don't scare me. I'm at home on the water and I'm fine with the dark. I just don't like being in the dark on land.

[keagbassr]

Got out today about 1-5:30, until the wind chased me off, caught 7 bass, 1 on a buzzbait and 6 on a double wide beaver, with 2 good ones on the beaver weighing 4-1and 4-14.

 

 

[1984isNOW]

2 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

I just don't like being in the dark on land.

I'm with you on this, I've had some strange run ins and heard worse stories. There's a spot around I've heard from numerous people holds 7-8 pound bass, problem is its no boats allowed. Some of the spots I think would be good night spots are way in the woods, just a little too skeevy for me sometimes.

 

I bumped into a guy once at a different spot, really good spot that's no boats again, that's in a high crime area. He was holding an aluminum bat and fishing a lipless crankbait tied to a steel leader with a bobber on it. He asked me if he knew me, I expected from a college I went to not far from there. Then he asked me if I ever did time, I look just like a dude from his cell block.

 

After assuring him I've never been to prison I said good luck and headed back down the path. Then I heard him beating the crap out of some fallen tree with that bat. I don't fish there much anymore, definitely not at night, sucks because it's a good spot.

 

But sometimes the boga bug me out, tipping over in the weeds can be disastrous.

[Swamp Girl]

42 minutes ago, Kites R4 Skyfishing said:

 

But sometimes the boga bug me out, tipping over in the weeds can be disastrous.

 

I've wondered and worried about falling into weeds. I wouldn't die because I always wear a PDF, but it would be hard to reach open water. 

 

I do feel safer launching in the early morning as opposed to evening. I've worked in some dangerous neighborhoods and they're typically quiet in the morning. Bad guys sleep late. Their awake time is late, not early. 

 

42 minutes ago, Kites R4 Skyfishing said:

fishing a lipless crankbait tied to a steel leader with a bobber on it

 

Why stop there? Why not tie another lure and a box of cookies to his line too?

 

@T-Billy: How do you keep a gun dry and still have easy access to it?

 

@keagbassr: Do you sometimes not catch big bass and simply not report that? I ask because you report so many big fish.

 

[LrgmouthShad]

@keagbassr helps keep the universe together. Hear me out. There’s just so much continuity going on there. His selfies are iconic, his shirts are similar, his bass are always big, he usually catches them on the same stuff, he usually has the same facial expression. @keagbassr posts and you know exactly what you’re getting. Someone’s whole life could be changing and things might feel like a dumpster fire to them, but then @keagbassr posts and they realize nothing has changed and everything is okay