Latest Catch Pics Thread

[Bluebasser86]

Well this past weekend was tournament stop number 3 for the year on Wilson Lake, KS. It's one of the most popular lakes in the state and always one of the most looked forward to tournaments for everyone it seems like, but I'll never understand the fascination. The lake is such a strange lake with very little cover other than rocks, and there's rocks everywhere so none really stick out. What little cover there is sits yards up on the shoreline of the drying reservoir. The fish are almost always skinny, and sickly looking from lack of food and over-pressure, but yeah, it's great I guess. 

 

Prefishing went okay. I couldn't find any big largemouth, despite discovering a cove loaded with big tree stumps that I didn't know existed. I guess the largemouth in the lake don't like stumps. With the cloud cover and wind, I did get on a decent smallmouth bite with a Berkley Drift Walker and burning a Bull Shad.

 

Highlight of practice day by far came late afternoon. There's a bridge that has pilings in the water that I can sometimes catch bass off of, but more importantly, sometimes, there's stripers on it. This is the only lake in Kansas with a fishable population of stripers and I'm not going to miss my chance to try and catch one. No bass on a dropshot, didn't mark much at all, but I put a big flutter spoon on. One of my first drops, I popped it a few times, and one of the pops, it was stuck, then it started swimming. Thought I'd snagged one of the billions of carp or buffalo that live in the lake, but after several short, thumb burning runs, I saw the striped, white side. She barely fit in my kayak net, but I got her. There was an older gentleman and his granddaughter fishing on shore, so I pulled it through the water to the bank and asked him to take a couple pictures for me. Got a quick weight and watched her kick off. At 14.47lbs, it was my second biggest striper ever.

I went back to the piling and dropped again, got smacked and missed it, then got hit again and hooked up. Not quite as big as the first one, but a second striper was a big bonus on the day.

 

Tournament day set up like it should have been a great day, but it just wasn't. My bites were much smaller and fish I'd found the day before were still there, but not interested in eating. I lost a big smallmouth on the Bull Shad and had a couple good fish hit the Drift Walker and either miss it or pull off. Right at the end of the day, I found a 20ish inch fish on a bed, locked in and running gills off constantly. I set the kayak on the bank and ran a few different baits through her nest and she was very catchable, just needed the right bait. I switched to a KGB crappie and slow swam it over her head. She darted up behind it, inched closer, then flared her mouth open and grabbed the back of the bait. I swung, and smacked my trolling motor with my rod and never got a good hook into her, but it spooked her bad enough that she never bit again. I found that fish with about 10 minutes left, so time expired as I tried to get it to bite. Ended up 11th out of 43. Not a terrible finish, nor a surprising one for me at a fishery I always feel like I'm just trying to hang on at.

 

[Pat Brown]

Dang that's a big striper!!!!  Nice smallies too!

[Swamp Girl]

6 minutes ago, Pat Brown said:

Dang that's a big striper!!!!  Nice smallies too!

 

Heck, yeah, that striper would stretch a net and so many long smallies too. 

[BigAngus752]

5:30AM, no wind and the water was almost glass.  Very light misting rain.  Walking a Zara Spook, looked down at my Lowrance and HEARD her suck it in and swept the rod.  Topwater is the best of bass fishing IMHO.  Stayed with the topwater for 2hrs and ended up with seven more on the Spook and a WP. Then went home and had breakfast with my perfect wife.  I consider that a great morning.  4lb-9oz, Bone colored Spook, 12lb Yo-Zuri Hybrid on an Okuma TCS all-purpose M/H.  Water temp 69 degrees and she was shallow on the rocks next to a steep drop to 8-9ft.  

[Swamp Girl]

14 minutes ago, BigAngus752 said:

I consider that a great morning.

 

I second that!

[Pat Brown]

Well it's been a while and there's been a few trips but by golly we been having fun!  Mostly frog and weightless stick bait doing the heavy lifting right now!

 

Had a solid trip out with Jake catching a good one and me missing a giant on the frog 

 

 

Complete with a rainbow on the car ride home

 

 

Got some great night fishing in this weekend with a toad on the frog and some fat littler ones too!  Stick bait also caught one!

 

 

Been loving the scum frog trophy frog in that shad color for sure!

 

Had some fun at the pond also with some nice gills and more frog fun:

 

 

Missed another big one this morning on the frog sadly.  I think I been snatching it away a bit too fast and need to give em a second to engulf that bait (basically I'm breaking my own rules of topwater fishing - thinking if I swing fast I'll hook the ones that aren't commiting - WRONG!).

 

My success so far this season with topwater has all been contingent upon me letting them establish that they're going to take the bait down.  Paying attention and being prepared when they strike is the other half but I'm *usually* good at that part.

 

Here's hoping I find success this week!  Been a minute since I got a giant.  😎😎😎🐸🐸🐸

 

 

[Swamp Girl]

Out of reactions, but thanks for the update, Pat. I love to see you guys happy.

 

Two-fer for Jake!

[TnRiver46]

Got out Sunday morning in a downpour. It wouldn’t quit and I nearly froze to death even though it was like 65 degrees maybe warmer, just soaked to the bone. Fish were biting tho, Got 5 LM, a SM, a bluegill, a catfish, a carp, and 3 skipjack . 
 

 

[Bird]

Got on the water at daylight and the fish were hitting a top water Jerkbait.

Caught a mixed bag of smallmouth, largemouth, Crappie and my very first Walleye caught on a gravel dog.

Enjoyable day.

[gim]

Always an enjoyable read when @Bluebasser86 chronicles his yak tournaments.

 

@TnRiver46 frozen in the rain when it’s 65 degrees. Lol

[raggydoo]

Went bank fishing on Sunday for a couple hours and ended up catching my PB smallie, 21” and 4 1/2 lbs. 

[Bird]

6 minutes ago, raggydoo said:

Went bank fishing on Sunday for a couple hours and ended up catching my PB smallie, 21” and 4 1/2 lbs. 

Congrats 👏 

Super nice Smallie 

[Pat Brown]

Dang dude that's a tank!  And bank fishing!  Way to go!

[IcatchDinks]

Took my little brothers fishing yesterday afternoon. They must have caught every bluegill in the pond. The eight year old caught a nice bass. (Not posting his picture with the fish here because he's 8 and not my kid. Lol) 

 

I nabbed two bass as well. One of them just over sixteen inches. 

 

 

 

@raggydoo, that is an awesome smallie! Congrats on the new PB!

[Swamp Girl]

@IcatchDinks: Keep this up and you'll have to change your screen name. Cool that you took your little brothers fishing! 

[TnRiver46]

Got home from work and was hanging out with my wife, but she had some business drama to sort thru on the internet and asked me if I was going fishing twice, don’t have to tell me 3 times! Haha

 

The water in Knoxville has changed drastically over the last couple weeks. The two reservoirs upstream have finally reached full so they are no longer holding back water. So now we are getting swift flows of chilly water from the bottom of the dams, maybe making the fish think it’s back to march. Water temp was 62 degrees!! 
 

got one on the big bait that looked pre spawnish and a few on a worm (including a ky spotted bass that people think are extinct) Also found a crankbait and quality inner tube floating down the river and scored a pair of channel locks someone left sitting on the ramp dock 😂 

[GaryH]

13 hours ago, raggydoo said:

Went bank fishing on Sunday for a couple hours and ended up catching my PB smallie, 21” and 4 1/2 lbs. 

Congrats 👏👏

[Pat Brown]

Couple lil guys before work and some much needed frog hookset resetting.  Delay is the way.  🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸

 

Wait 🕜🕜🕜🕜 then set 🎣🎣🎣🎣.

 

 

There really isn't any advantage to swinging fast with a frog.  For one thing the fish learn the bait is fake in an area much faster if you swing on every nip.  Sometimes that first fish misses and you keep walking that frog and the next one isn't so sheepish.  Swinging pretty much shuts all of that down.

 

If they don't get it, they don't get it.  That's the cold hard truth of the frog.  This morning I hesitated and kept walking and saw SO many tail swats and pecks that would never have happened if I was just swinging.

 

The frog is the best when you lean into the subtlety of the lure.

[Swamp Girl]

3 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

Also found a crankbait and quality inner tube floating down the river and scored a pair of channel locks someone left sitting on the ramp dock 😂 

 

The river is where you do all your shopping.

 

@Pat Brown: I'm terrible at frog fishing, so I appreciate your tips, Pat.

[Jmurphy87]

I caught my first Chad shad fish, just a tiny little guy but better than my first fish on a mag draft. I caught 10+on a weightless stick bait  after I was done throwing the glide. I had plenty of followers but no takers but it is all part of throwing big baits, I see my swim bait collection growing soon. A wake gill and a deps 160 bull shooter and a few more on the way maybe a real Chad shad. The tequila baccarat feels really good with the spro Chad shad and I like my casting distance with my tatula 200 and 50lb braid.

[Fried Lemons]

Making it a mission to break 4lbs on a smallie this year. Population density on this river is not great and fish tend to be lean from fighting current all day so this is easier said than done. Got this one as the only fish of the day after a 6 hour grinder. Ate a bubblegum fluke.

 

[Swamp Girl]

@Fried Lemons: You are a 10 on the QQ Scale!

[bp_fowler]

Been busy with family stuff the past few weeks.  Finally managed to get out to the lake for 2 hours today.  

 

It was 71-74 degrees today and muggy from the showers that had just ended.  Skies overcast.  Wind was from the south at 9 mph with gusts up to 21. 

I didn’t have time for a complete circuit of the lake today so I just hit the crescent shaped weed bed that had been so good to me last month.

 

Started at the western end of the weed bed since there were active bluegill beds nearby and a deep hole just past the outside edge of the milfoil.  Managed two there on the UV Speed Worm and another on the Booyah Blade.

The spinner bait fish was smaller but had some gnarly battle scars.

 

Moved on to the opposite end of the weed bed and caught another with the swimming worm.

This one had already munched a hapless bluegill. I could hear the tail flapping in the bass’s mouth as I landed it.

[MIbassyaker]

On 6/3/2024 at 8:03 PM, raggydoo said:

Went bank fishing on Sunday for a couple hours and ended up catching my PB smallie, 21” and 4 1/2 lbs. 

22 hours ago, Fried Lemons said:

Making it a mission to break 4lbs on a smallie this year. Population density on this river is not great and fish tend to be lean from fighting current all day so this is easier said than done. Got this one as the only fish of the day after a 6 hour grinder. Ate a bubblegum fluke.

 

 

Great smallies!  4# would be a PB for me too -- mine are all lean and mean fish from small to medium rivers...not so much "footballs" as "torpedos"

[Swamp Girl]

I used to live on the Wisconsin River. Clear. Sandy. Good current. Its smallies were also lean...and strong. The bass I caught in Ontario, Lakes Superior and Michigan, and the Mississippi were footbally. They were strong, but not as strong as fish that fight the current all day.

 

 

Nice catches, @bp_fowler! Good bellies on those bass.