Latest Catch Pics Thread

[TnRiver46]

Short float with a buddy, got a spot , thinking Ky instead of Alabama 

[AlabamaSpothunter]

^^^ That Spotted guy is living it's best pre spawn life clearly 😎

[FishTax]

Dang what a fatty. Cool! 

[thediscochef]

1 hour ago, TnRiver46 said:

Short float with a buddy, got a spot , thinking Ky instead of Alabama 

man look at the belly on that thing

[Aaron_H]

1 hour ago, TnRiver46 said:

Short float with a buddy, got a spot , thinking Ky instead of Alabama 

 

Positively obese. Nice one.

[TnRiver46]

Well that was close, I took my canoe out at this airport at 7:00 and the plane crashed at 7:30. They were definitely landing a little squirrelly today 

https://www.wbir.com/article/news/local/plane-crash-tennessee-river-south-knoxville/51-2f4137a1-bb87-486c-be25-4f4a65fc183b

[Pat Brown]

Got some of Chris Zaldain swim baits and the beast hooks to try in lieu of a small underspin/swimbait I've been catching pretty well on and stuck this nice one in the pads.  Ya think she wanted it!?!

 

 

 

Missed 4 bites on the bait before catching this one so it definitely gets bit!  I missed my first good frog fish of the year sadly and Jake had a good one come unbuttoned in the pads (he thought he was hung for a solid minute of the fight before realizing he was dragging a good fish and giving her slack with his retrieve).  I missed one on a bigger worm and then switched to a smaller speed craw and never got bit on the t rig again.

 

Weird day!

[Bluebasser86]

I'm slowly starting to work my way through this past week. I have so many stories and pictures to share. Everyone here was incredible with the support. I needed 1 big bite and I was walking the Bassmaster Classic stage, that sounds crazy to say but it's 100% true. We went straight to Grand Lake and stayed in a B&B on Monkey Island for the Classic and fished Thursday-Sunday after my tournament. so I fished every day for a week straight last week. There's a lot to get to and unfortunately work is going to get in the way of me doing that too quickly.

 

 

I'd never fished or even seen Tenkiller before and it fished a lot different than I expected. Water was mid to low 50's the closer to the dam I got, upper 50's to low 60's the further up the lake I got and the water was much dirtier. I struggled a lot down the lake and did decent from midlake on up. One real key thing I noticed, every pocket that I went into had shad in the very back getting blown up on, every one. The further north I went, the more shad and the more fish there were chasing them. I fished around Chicken Creek where we were camping the first day and did pretty well on a shakyhead, tube, and micro football jig. Day 2 I went to Strayhorn by the dam and did terrible for the first half of the day. I think I'd caught maybe 3 or 4 fish and only a couple were the 12" minimum. I drove a complete lap around the lake, checking out ramps and looking at different areas. I wanted to fish the river but it was so windy that it wasn't safe in my mind. Hindsight, I wish I'd gone to the furthest north ramp and tried there, I think it was more protected and the winner was in the river. I ended up in Snake Creek the last few hours of the day. It reminded me a lot of Chicken Creek and I did well again on the shakyhead and micro jig. Day 3 I went to Barnacle Bill's and struggled a lot, but there was shad everywhere and fish chasing them a lot. The water was dirtier and I did catch a couple nice ones towards the end of my day. The rock snot made fishing a crankbait impossible, and I couldn't get bit on a jerkbait or spinnerbait. I really expected all 3 of those baits to be huge players. By the end of practice, I'd caught 2 on a jerkbait and 1 on a spinnerbait. It really felt more like I was fishing a late summer/early fall tournament than a prespawn tournament. I never found any really big ones, and certainly couldn't find the big smallmouth, but I did find lots of quality that I was pretty happy with.

 

[bp_fowler]

Seems like it’s been forever since I’ve been able to fish.  Yesterday was beautiful but I was working OT so I could render unto the bait monkey.  I made I promise to myself that I was gonna fish today no matter what.  
 

Well I got 50 degrees, winds from the south-southeast gusting to 37 mph and a steady rain.  Decided on the Crappie Hole since it has been producing bigger fish for me. Managed two on a Booyah Blade white/chartreuse spinner bait which had been successful for me there before however I went with an Indiana/Colorado combination instead of the willow leaf/Colorado.
 

Results were similar with two fish today.  Smaller than usual from that particular body of water but still bigger than what I had been catching at the Gun Club and the Old Reservoir.

[Blue Raider Bob]

On 3/24/2024 at 5:27 PM, Aaron_H said:

Got rained out, managed to last about 90 minutes before I called it, but I did get 6 bass and culled 2 tilapia. Biggest bass went 5lb 4oz, on a Shadow Rap Shad. I was picking apart a cove where the wind was blowing pretty hard and corralling bait up towards the banks. Bass weren't feeding super hard but they were biting. Was really nice to get into a sizeable bass, they've been stingy lately and it made dealing with the crappy weather worth it. She nipped the back of the bait on a long pause right as I was hovering over a sandy point during a brief respite from the rain and before it got much worse.

 

She never came up, stayed down and dogged me the whole fight. Which was a relief because I barely had her hooked. I've had guys ask me why I spent so much time/money tinkering with this setup (still very much a budget setup though), and this is why. If I was still throwing these on braid-to-leader or a stouter rod like when I first started out with the technique, 100% I'd have lost this fish.

Aaron, I'm surprised you haven't gotten a hair citation! Obviously, gimruis is out fishing! But beware...he will return!

18 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

Short float with a buddy, got a spot , thinking Ky instead of Alabama 

Ain't bashful about the buffet line, that's for sure! What are they eating in there? That can't be all eggs, can it? Might have et a beer can!

[Swamp Girl]

@Bluebasser86: One big bite away from the stage doesn't surprise me a whit of a bit. You're such a consistent angler. As always, confidently speaking for all of us, we're so proud of you. Even if I were invited, I wouldn't compete: too scaredy!

[ATA]

On 3/22/2024 at 7:09 AM, Aaron_H said:

Managed to cull two tilapia as well, both on the jerkbait. One was decked out in spawning colors.

happen to me as well.

[The Baron]

So many great photos, guys. 👍🏻

 

We’re still stuck in winter water temps here.  I snuck out today on Lake Ontario, looking for some early pike with the backup plan being the early catch and release bass season.  Sadly, the sunshine they promised never came and it was very cool on the water.  The surface water temps on the main lake were the same as two weeks ago (35F) and the back bays that were up to 42-43F on March 8 were only 37-38F today after a cold snap last week.  We didn’t even try pike fishing.  I was going to try a big rock flat area for smallmouth, but with a SE wind the rollers were not to my liking in a small aluminum bass boat.  So, we went for a boat ride up the Cataraqui River to have a look at where we’ll be slaying big largemouth in the summer. 😊🤞🏻

 

So, no fish… but I own a boat and was out on the water for the third time in March.  If it was only 20 degrees warmer… 

 

 

[AlabamaSpothunter]

Had a great day yesterday with almost 22lbs, all on the whacky rigged senko.   Also included are a couple good fish I caught on Saturday and Sunday.....all on the whacky rigged senko.    Over the last two weeks I've blown through about 6 packs of yamasenkos, and countless O Rings/cross over rings.   Today though I tried the VMC Crossover Ring in #4 and might have finally stopped hemorrhaging senkos.  Still need the VMC Cross Over pliers because these things are near impossible to get on the bait.   

 

There's a nod to you Katie on the second fish in the video 😁  These fish on a pixie wand crank up the adrenaline level to 10.

 

6.6 

 

5lb 15oz

 

5lb 14oz

 

5 

 

Lastly I caught a Spotted Bass and it had what looked like a few eggs coming out, and sure enough they were.    These are two individual Bass eggs.

 

 

 

[Swamp Girl]

Bass + Weeds = Heart Arrythmia for Me for Sure

 

More beshemoths for Alexander the Great! Imagine how many tourneys Alex would have won with the bass he's caught his winter and spring. He'd be the new KVD.

 

 

[AlabamaSpothunter]

Thanks Katie!   If only they held derbies on my home lake 😆

 

Had a Bass boat in college and shortly after and fished the big public lakes some but then life happened and never really got to scratch that itch.  

 

I think that's my next goal, after 20 months of learning how to Bass fish again, I want to expand my universe and learning opportunities.  I really want to fish a tournament.....I'm thinking it takes the adrenaline factor to the max limit.    

[gim]

On 3/26/2024 at 1:56 PM, Blue Raider Bob said:

Aaron, I'm surprised you haven't gotten a hair citation! Obviously, gimruis is out fishing! But beware...he will return!

 

The haircut police is burned out for the moment.  I've spent 4 of the last 5 days shoveling and blowing snow here.  Don't have the energy even though it's an obvious violation.

[Swamp Girl]

You have so many ways to catch bass, Alex, and you've developed such skill at playing them that I pity the fool who fishes against you. Plus, you've caught so many big ones that you've got Encyclopedia Basstanica in your brain. The complete set. 

 

[AlabamaSpothunter]

With all of this said, I think it illustrates how proud we all are of @Bluebasser86, and what he did at his recent Bassmaster Kayak Classic. 

 

We already knew the hammer he was, but doing so well in an event like that really solidifies his hammer status.   

 

 

[Swamp Girl]

11 minutes ago, gimruis said:

 

The haircut police is burned out for the moment.  I've spent the 4 of the last 5 days shoveling and blowing snow here.  Don't have the energy even though it's an obvious violation.

 

It's lousy here too, Gimruis. There's still ice on everything and we're supposed to be wet and gray for 14 of the next 15 days. We'll have to live through Alex and the other hammers. Luckily, Bass Resource has more hammers than Home Depot. 

[GreenPig]

Alex, you put on a great show, dancing with those fat girls.

[Swamp Girl]

2 minutes ago, GreenPig said:

Alex, you put on a great show, dancing with those fat girls.

 

Whenever Alex's girls ^jump,^ he gets a little nervous, but they don't get away. 

[AlabamaSpothunter]

@GreenPig  Thanks friend!  I'm learning with every fish at this point on the spin pole, but I really appreciate how they allow me to connect more with the fish.

 

It made me realize how desensitized I was to the magnificent fight of these creatures on 16 and 20lb FC mainly.   

 

Give me a 13-14lb green pig on one and you'll hear me scream from GA 🤣 

[Aaron_H]

6 hours ago, ATA said:

happen to me as well.

 

Nice! I've culled a couple hundred of these in the last few years. My best year for them was 2022 with just over 100 of them culled. I overwhelmingly get them on lipless cranks and jerkbaits, but I've caught them on topwater, senkos, jigs, chatterbaits, etc. I still have people who don't believe me when I talk about how aggressive they can be and how hard the big ones fight, a lot of guys think you can only get them by pestering their beds or by bowfishing.

 

33 minutes ago, gimruis said:

 

The haircut police is burned out for the moment.  I've spent the 4 of the last 5 days shoveling and blowing snow here.  Don't have the energy even though it's an obvious violation.

 

You might have a cardiac event if I posted a picture with my hair down

[AlabamaSpothunter]

4 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

 

Whenever Alex's girls ^jump,^ he gets a little nervous, but they don't get away. 

I finally felt what it was like to be Katie on those first two fish, and both times your name went through my mind 😁

 

Both of them were seemingly inches from getting in the weeds.