Latest Catch Pics Thread

[Swamp Girl]

@TnRiver46: Downtown fishing is cool. When I was in college at Ohio State (Go Bucks!), I'd wade the Olentangy River for smallmouth within sight of the stadium. Your smallie has such strong striping.

[TnRiver46]

@ol'crickety, check out this little feller’s stripes. I’m still trying to steal the @IcatchDinks moniker 

[A-Jay]

Hit Local Lake Menderchuck for an later afternoon / sunset trip.

Weather was crazy nice - like summer, so I really had no choice.

Coincidentally, this thought was running ramped through the minds of what seemed like every pontoon and Jet Ski operator in the tri-state area.  More on that later.

Either way, I committed to throwing horizontal moving baits along the perimeter of a historically productive main lake flat.  So 4-8 feet with plenty of cabbage on the flat.  I was being kept company by an abundance of bait making expectation of contact with a few smb, at least reasonable.  I my mind anyway.  Squarebills, spinnerbaits, Rattlebaits, vibrating jigs all looked good but never drew any attention.

My rig, on the other hand, seemed to be the focal point of every recreational vessel on the lake as they all just had to pass close aboard and even were thoughtful enough to run circles around me. 

I love that.  It's all good and they have every right.  But it usually doesn't help my catch rate.

So after a couple of hours of this, I bailed.  But not before catching my first "Dock Demon".

A jackhammer crawled along the bottom snagged some line and during the recovery process a sweet little Zebco (zip tied to an ice fishing rod) was my prize. 

Before departing, I decided to stop on a main lake point that was 'sort of' off the general path being taken by the circus.

Proved to be a decent move as there ended up being a school of small but willing participants positioned off the end of it.  A rage bug on a swinghead turned them all into biters. 

For several minutes it was brown bass every cast, or at least a bite.

All trophies in training but it was a fun way to finish this one up,

especially after such a pretty sunset. 

Fish Hard

A-Jay

 

 

 

 

[IcatchDinks]

1 hour ago, A-Jay said:

Proved to be a decent move as there ended up being a school of small but willing participants positioned off the end of it.

 

 

Small. ? A-Jays "small" is my PB. Keep up it, man. I love seeing the fish you pull in. 

 

2 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

@ol'crickety, check out this little feller’s stripes. I’m still trying to steal the @IcatchDinks moniker 

 

? now's your chance. My opportunities for catching dinks are dropping since I'm too busy being a new dad. 

[Blue Raider Bob]

2 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

@IcatchDinks

You'll be standing in line for this one. Right after me!

Just now, Blue Raider Bob said:

You'll be standing in line for this one. Right after me!

 

[Swamp Girl]

Confession: I catch dinks too. It's the fearless nature of bass, as they hit lures as big as them. 

 

@IcatchDinks: Atta, Dad!

[IcatchDinks]

1 hour ago, Blue Raider Bob said:

You'll be standing in line for this one. Right after me!

 

Not a bass. ?

[Woody B]

Can I be in the "dink" club?  This was a couple weeks ago.  

 

[Team9nine]

Day 3 on the new reservoir. Went uplake to check out what I was hoping would be another roadbed, but if it was ever there, it’s buried in silt now. Found one hard bottom area I want to check out later, but from just driving around, this section looks like a strictly shallow water dock bite. Since I haven’t found my jig boxes yet from the move, I ended up going back downlake and fishing the roadbed area from yesterday.

 

Blue skies and a light ENE breeze at times isn’t helping the bite in this clear lake. For whatever reason, I couldn’t generate a bite on bottom with Ned. Messed around with a few other options, and found out that I could trigger bites with a deep crankbait (DT10 that runs 12+ ft). Triggered a couple groups of bass on the roadbed with this tactic and was able to land 16 bass. No big fish today, but had more than a limit of fish that ran up to 17 inches. 

 

 

 

 

[gim]

9 minutes ago, Team9nine said:

No big fish today, but had more than a limit of fish that ran up to 17 inches.

A 17 incher is still pretty solid in my book. Much better than the average fish in the far north here.

 

8 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

Confession: I catch dinks too.

I am pretty sure every bass angler catches their fair share of dinks, but only a few of the brave on here are actually willing to post photos of them. Not this guy lol. When I catch a dink it goes back faster than stink on a monkey.

[thediscochef]

42 minutes ago, Woody B said:

Can I be in the "dink" club?  This was a couple weeks ago.  

 

can i pay you $1000 to take me out to O.H. Ivie

[AlabamaSpothunter]

1 hour ago, Woody B said:

Can I be in the "dink" club?  This was a couple weeks ago.  

 

Me frantically trying to identify the tree/location in the background......well played on protecting the lair of monsters ?

[TnRiver46]

Got a couple with my 4’10” ultra light and a helgrammite , fun with 4 lb test 

[Bluebasser86]

I'm in a week long murder trial so not sure when I'll have time to do updates on all this, but more good news from the weekend. The boys that I boat captain for, that I took out prefishing for their tournament the weekend before last instead of prefishing for my own, they smashed them and are now qualified to fish the state tournament. Gavin caught their big one off the same stump I caught my big one off while we were prefishing, the one I made sure to emphasis "Always has a big one on it, just a matter of whether you get her to bite or not". Looks like they got her to bite ?

 

[LrgmouthShad]

46 minutes ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Always has a big one on it, just a matter of whether you get her to bite or not". Looks like they got her to bite ?

What have you observed with how cover “reloads” with fish on different lakes? Will cover “reload” on most lakes? How long will this take? Are some lakes faster than others? Do some types of cover reload faster than others? What else influences this, such as season?

 

An elite series angler mentioned this phenomenon of cover reloading in a tournament I was watching recently

 

Super awesome report by the way ????

[Swamp Girl]

23 minutes ago, LrgmouthShad said:

What have you observed with how cover “reloads” with fish on different lakes? Will cover “reload” on most lakes? How long will this take? Are some lakes faster than others? Do some types of cover reload faster than others? What else influences this, such as season?

 

An elite series angler mentioned this phenomenon of cover reloading in a tournament I was watching recently

 

Super awesome report by the way ????

 

I once camped on an island in northwestern Ontario and right across from the island was a waterfall tumbling into the lake. That current held ten fish. No lie. We'd paddle over and catch ten fish and then nothing. We'd wait an hour and catch another ten fish. Hour after hour. 

 

So, on that lake, at that waterfall, it took an hour. 

[Bluebasser86]

Prime spots always reload. This stump is the the biggest, nastiest stump, on a channel edge, and in a choke/funnel area that is directly between 2 feeding flats.  I wouldn't be surprised if there are always a few big fish by that stump. 

 

Another lake I fish has a beaver dam that extends into 10' of water on a prime spot. I've caught over 2 dozen bass out of that dam in less than and hour, including several big ones, because it's such a desirable location for the fish. Then came back a few hours later and caught several more.

 

Less than prime spots may take much longer to reload.

[LrgmouthShad]

22 minutes ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Prime spots always reload. This stump is the the biggest, nastiest stump, on a channel edge, and in a choke/funnel area that is directly between 2 feeding flats.  I wouldn't be surprised if there are always a few big fish by that stump.

That’s awesome

[Bluebasser86]

3 hours ago, LrgmouthShad said:

That’s awesome

I hope the boys appreciate me giving up such a sweet spot to be able to move on to state. 

 

So this past weekend was my championship tournament for Kansas Kayak Anglers. Going into the tournament, the AOY race was as tight as it could get. 1st had 795 points, second had 794 points, 3rd has 793 points, I was in 3rd. The tournament was on a lake I have fished a lot, but not nearly as much as normal this summer and the times I've fished it have been tough. 

 

I went down early Friday morning to prefish with no real gameplan, just go fishing. One of my first cast, I got a 17" largemouth out from under the docks by the ramp. I didn't catch another bass for probably an hour, a small spot on a spinnerbait. 30 minutes later, a 15" largemouth out of a laydown. Probably an hour later, a 16" largemouth out of another brushpile. Doesn't sound bad right? Problem is, this is a smallmouth lake, those largemouth are few, and far between and not something I was comfortable depending on, and I hadn't had a bite from a smallmouth. In fact, I moved 3 more ramps, and after launching at 0630, I finally caught my first smallmouth, an 8 incher, at 1630 (4:30pm). That was the first bass I had caught since the 16" largemouth I'd caught in the morning, I was feeling pretty down. I finally pedaled over to where I normally start when I take the family out to this lake because it's usually loaded with little ones. I got several bites, caught a few, including a 15 and 16 inch smallmouth. It wasn't much, it wasn't at all the plan I wanted, but it was better than nothing. 

 

That night I was still torn on what to do. There was a pretty big boat tournament the next day, and 20+mph winds forecast that were going to shrink the lake even more. I rigged my rods and did like I often do, sat out and fished for catfish to relax a little bit. They seemed to be biting like crazy. I had a triple on at one time, landing 2 of them and getting spooled by the 3rd.

It felt good to relax and calm my nerves a little. It got my head right and I decided the next day, I was just going fishing again where I caught them to end the day.

 

Next morning, the wind was howling when we launched. I pedaled across pretty stout waves. Anther kayak with a motor blew past me, straight to where I was headed. I thought he was going to sit where I wanted to go, but instead he drove right over the top of it and seemed to just be graphing or something, because he kept driving all over where I'd planned to fish. I pedaled to my spot and just set up on it. It took a little bit to get one to bite, but I finally got a 15.25" on a Ned rig.

 

 

I kept getting sunfish bites on the Ned, so I switched to a tube. It was pretty instant with me catching 3 more small keepers, to go along with one other small keeper I'd caught on the Ned, to make a very small limit. It wasn't much, but it let me settle down and fish. 

A little down the bank, I pitched the tube to a concrete pillar and caught a 14.75" fish.

 

I fished down the bank a long ways, catching lots of fish, but they were all very small. The wind was howling at this point, straight into where I was fishing. I had to make the safety call and pedal back against the wind. I pulled up to a calmer spot and tried to get bit but they weren't having it. I noticed some offshore rocks I'd never fished and dropped my tube on them and got a little tap. It wouldn't have weighed much in a boat tournament, but it was still 16.25" on my board.

 

I moved around a lot, got stepped on by a lot of tournament boats, and with an hour to go, pedaled back to my started spot. I went back to the same concrete pillar, and caught a 15.25" and 15.50" smallmouth, both on the tube, to give me 77" on the day, good enough to be in second going into day 2.

 

To be continued...?

 

[The Baron]

20 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

I'm in a week long murder trial so not sure when I'll have time to do updates...

 

Jury duty or you're a lawyer, I hope?  lol

 

@LrgmouthShad  There's a weedbed on one of the lakes I fish, that's about 200ft. x 100ft. in area and rises up to 8ft. deep from about 25ft. of water on the deep side.  A couple of times we've fished it and caught 6-10 fish (mostly pike, but always a couple largemouth) then had the bite stop.  I've gone back to it 1-2 hours later and had times where we catch 2-4 more fish right off the bat. Not sure if that means the bite turned back on again, or if the weedbed had new fish.  If new fish, I'm not sure why if all the ones we caught were released immediately.  Unless maybe the caught fish don't go back into the weedbed (to feed?) but settle somewhere else/maybe a bit deeper, to recover.?

[Bluebasser86]

16 minutes ago, The Baron said:

Jury duty or you're a lawyer, I hope?  lol

Neither ?

[The Baron]

??

[TnRiver46]

1 hour ago, The Baron said:

Jury duty or you're a lawyer, I hope?  lol

 

If Clayton is making too much noise catfishing at your campsite at 1 am, it’s best to just leave him be…….

[Bluebasser86]

2 hours ago, The Baron said:

??

Sheriff deputy for over 16 years now. Part of my current assignment is transporting inmates to and from court and also sitting in plains clothes with them during their trials. Unfortunately "plain clothes", translates to a suit and tie ?. As someone who selects clothes almost completely based off comfort,  it is not my favorite thing at all.

[A-Jay]

16 minutes ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Unfortunately "plain clothes", translates to a suit and tie ?. As someone who selects clothes almost completely based off comfort,  it is not my favorite thing at all.

I'd be tempted to go full send Pee Wee Herman . . . . 

A-Jay