Latest Catch Pics Thread

[softwateronly]

@Rockhopper if you’re unaware and interested in lmb health post release, there’s been studies that conclude we can damage a bass’s jaw by holding them horizontal without supporting their weight with our other hand. The best practice for continued catch and release angling is one hand vertical or two hand weight supported horizontal. Nice catches!

 

scott

[NorcalBassin]

My oldest is home for a few weeks for the summer before heading back to school. Not many things bring more joy than a 3 generation trip out on the water.

 

Beautiful morning...

 

Of course she violated the boat rules of me or Pops catching the first, biggest, and most. 😎

 

Thankfully I was able to catch a decent one and not be too embarrassed.

 

Surprise crappie

 

Not the double hookup he was hoping for 😆

 

Time for the boys to regroup 

[The Baron]

It’s very hot here this week and work is slow, so my young coworker and I did some team building yeaterday morning. 😁  We launched at 4:45am into a creek that leads to a small lake with limited access - leveraging the abilities of my little Bass Tracker 165.  Crazy that we could see just fine without needing lights.  I caught a 2.5# (-ish) lmb in the shallow weeds where the creek meets the lake, and we saw several others cruising shallow but they weren’t very hungry.   There’s a lot of algae clouds already and with very clear water, we could at times spot bass  swimming over the light green algae patches.  Once we got to the deeper water, I had a pack of 4 nice sized smb follow my little swim jig in, but couldn’t get bit.  My partner finally caught one using a white tube on a dropshot before we changed our focus to largemouth.  We ended up with about 15 fish over the next 4 hours, all about 2-3# so not a bad morning.  I was using a 3/16oz. T-rigged Reaction Innovations Machete worm, but I only had two left and caught the remainder of my 7 fish on the same T-rig with a Berkley PowerBait worm.   I really like the RI Machete worms, but durability is poor and I only get 2-3 bites per bait before the tail is gone.  I’ve got some Zoom Speed Worms on order to try.

We saw an incredible amount of bait in the lake.  Hundreds of small bluegill and several times we saw large surface disturbances that were clouds of 1000’s of shiner minnows.  Tried to get a pic but it doesn’t even come close to reality - that bait cloud was about 30ft. long.  The fish in here are very well fed!

 

[Swamp Girl]

@The Baron: Those fish are well fed!

 

@NorcalBassin: Of course, your post made me smile. I wish more women fished, so I'm sure happy when they do and even happier when they land first, most, and biggest. 

[IcatchDinks]

13 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

@The Baron: Those fish are well fed!

 

@NorcalBassin: Of course, your post made me smile. I wish more women fished, so I'm sure happy when they do and even happier when they land first, most, and biggest. 

 

Couple years ago I took two of my sisters fishing. They were 17 and 15 at the time. They'd never been fishing before, and I was trying to show them all about how it's done. Turns out they showed me. 😆

 

 

 

Even my wife caught a nice one, though she was too squeamish at the time to hold it. 😄

 

 

 

My largest catch of the day: 

 

[Blue Raider Bob]

7 hours ago, NorcalBassin said:

My oldest is home for a few weeks for the summer before heading back to school. Not many things bring more joy than a 3 generation trip out on the water.

 

Beautiful morning...

 

Of course she violated the boat rules of me or Pops catching the first, biggest, and most. 😎

 

Thankfully I was able to catch a decent one and not be too embarrassed.

 

Surprise crappie

 

Not the double hookup he was hoping for 😆

 

Time for the boys to regroup 

Very special! Thanks for sharing. They grow up so fast.

[Swamp Girl]

@IcatchDinks: Ha!

[Blue Raider Bob]

4 minutes ago, IcatchDinks said:

 

Couple years ago I took two of my sisters fishing. They were 17 and 15 at the time. They'd never been fishing before, and I was trying to show them all about how it's done. Turns out they showed me. 😆

 

 

 

Even my wife caught a nice one, though she was too squeamish at the time to hold it. 😄

 

 

 

My largest catch of the day: 

 

You continue to secure your moniker!   🤣

Just kidding. You outfish me everytime. By the way, it's our job to hold our ladies fish. There has to be some value to us!

[Swamp Girl]

29 minutes ago, Blue Raider Bob said:

There has to be some value to us!

 

There is so much value to you, Bob. So. Much.

 

Well, the kid and I fished one last time for a couple weeks. I open with a morning sky pic, then some of the bass, I caught, and finally, the kid's biggest bass of the morning. The kid caught his biggest bass in our honey hole, which I always give to him, i.e. I let him cast while I position the boat.

 

We caught 45 total and I caught bass with seven different lures: Rage Tail, popper, wakebait, Mayor, Bronco Bug, and Keitech. The bass were mostly offshore and the kid was actually tired. Yeah, I exhausted a 12-year old. Come to think of it, I'm tuckered too. 

[Blue Raider Bob]

5 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

 

There is so much value to you, Bob. So. Much.

Katie, you are so kind! You make us all better!

[IcatchDinks]

@Blue Raider Bob, I definitely lived up to my moniker that day. 😄

And I'll happily hold my wife's fish. I'm just thrilled when she wants to go fishing. 

 

@ol'crickety that's super awesome! Thanks for passing on a love of fishing to the next generation! Those are some very nice fish. 

[gim]

17 hours ago, softwateronly said:

if you’re unaware and interested in lmb health post release, there’s been studies that conclude we can damage a bass’s jaw by holding them horizontal without supporting their weight with our other hand. The best practice for continued catch and release angling is one hand vertical or two hand weight supported horizontal.

 

I immediately thought this when I saw those photos too.  I'm glad someone pointed it out (and that someone wasn't me).  Thank you

[IcatchDinks]

1 minute ago, gimruis said:

 

I immediately thought this when I saw those photos too.  I'm glad someone pointed it out (and that someone wasn't me).  Thank you

@softwateronly said it better than I did. I'm super glad he clarified what I was trying to say. 

[Woody B]

I went Tuesday morning for a few hours and caught 8, nothing huge.  Went again Wednesday night around 11 and fished until 4:30am.   I caught 12 none huge, but at least none were tiny.   After bragging on not losing many decent fish I lost one that would have been around 5 pounds.  I was fumbling with my net and basically pulled up and switched directions with my rod.   I should play like I was trying to unhook it without getting it in the boat.  I simply pulled the wrong direction and removed the hook.   Examination of the hook revealed the barb was broken off, but I would have got it in the boat had I not changed directions on it boatside.   2 trips covering 3 days.  One from each day is pictured.  

Water temp varied from 84 to 86 depending on time of day and area of the lake.

 

I'm going to a different lake tomorrow morning.  

[Swamp Girl]

@Woody B: I wish I could report that I lost a single bass, but I lose so many. This morning, I tried fishing with the Crush City Mayor on an underspin swim jig, but I had to retrieve so quickly to keep it above the weeds that bass weren't interested. So, I reverted to a nearly buried hook on a Harmony underspin and lost more bass than I boated. So did the kid. Part of the problem is that I, like @AlabamaSpothunter, don't want to wound a bass, so I set the hook early, knowing that they will swallow a Mayor on an underspin if I give them a few seconds. Anyway, Woody, you land way more than you lose, unlike me. 

[Team9nine]

Trial run for the new boat umbrella setup - and everything worked great. Sets up and tears down in about 2 minutes. Made a big difference out on the water.

 

High of 88 deg., partly sunny, NE breeze at 7 mph. Scored a couple largemouth on Ned and two dozen nice crappie. Only snagged the umbrella once 😉

@Blue Raider Bob

 

 

 

 

 

[king fisher]

I went fishing at Presa Pocho yesterday and today.  I landed one 10.2 pound bass 25 inch first picture, on a Junebug Zoom Ole Monster( My hot lure this spring), a 6.8 pound bass 23 inch second picture, on a square bill, numerus smaller bass on a variety of lures, and one 205 pound 72 inch  fisherman third picture, also on a square bill.

 

                                                                                                                                                             My first cast I got a bite and missed, second cast I  landed a 4.5 pound bass.  Great way to start the day.  I continued to catch small bass suspended in trees in deep water.  The water temp. was 79 degrees, which is the warmest I have ever seen it at this lake.  I was thinking the bigger bass must be still in the trees but deeper cooler water.  The trees have large horizontal branches making it difficult to get lures below them. There is a fence line running in to the water from shore not far from one of the trees I like to fish.   I always make a cast or two at some of the fence posts just because I have a hard time passing up visible targets even if they are only in 4 feet of water this time of year.  I have never caught a bass over a pound on one of these posts, and doubted there were any bass this shallow, but as usual I had to make a cast while I was in the area.  First cast I hooked and landed a 10.2 pound bass.  It just goes to show how often I am wrong about where the big fish should be, and I usually catch my biggest bass at random times, due to dumb luck.  Dumb luck or not, a DD is still a DD, I wont complain.  Of course I worked many more shallow fence lines over for nothing but baby bass.

 

I went back to fishing the deep trees.  My first cast I set the hook hard into what  I thought was a tree but right when I was going to pedal over to try and get my lure the tree almost jerked the rod out of my hands.  The bass wrapped me on a limb, and after a few minuets of give and take, she managed to wrap it solid, and snap the line.  I guess my dumb luck was over, and I was back to my normal bass fishing style complete, with a giant that got away story.

 

Mid day I hooked a 1 pound bass and reached down to release it.  I grabbed the leader, and the small bass jumped over my arm, hooking me with one of the treble hooks.  It took a minuet to release the bass a and I have never seen a 1 pound bass fight so hard.  Maybe it didn't fight any harder than normal, but my arm just might be more sensitive than any rod I have ever had.  Luckily there was a couple commercial fisherman taking a siesta in hammocks not to far away.  I pedaled over to the bank and walked over to where they take their brake.  They helped remove the hook and I gave them the lucky lure.  I was back to fishing with only a small delay in my day.

 

Today was slow.  I caught a few small bass at my regular spots, and decided to try exploring a bit down the lake.  I always troll while moving and caught a couple small bass after only a short distance trolling.  I debated not putting the line out again, because I didn't think I would hook anything of size, and I was wasting time stopping to unhook 1 pound bass.  I was travelling over a featureless flat, and didn't expect to catch anything, but I put the line out because it can't hurt to have a bait in the water.  I went about 10 yards and hooked a 6.8 pound bass.  I spent the next hour criss crossing that spot looking for any kind of cover or structure, but found nothing.  The flat was a consistent 8 feet deep, mud bottom, with zero irregular features.  Again just dumb luck.  

 

The other end of the lake didn't produce any more bass, and because it was raining hard I decided to troll back to the launch and go home.  I didn't even get a small bass on my way back.  I should have stayed and fished all day in the rain, but it sure is nice being warm and dry at home.  Even in Mexico it gets cold fishing all day in the rain wearing only shorts and a T shirt.

 

 

 

[AlabamaSpothunter]

@king fisher  Amazing fish, congrats on the mega!!!!!

 

I'd take a treble through the arm for a DD any day of the week and twice on sunday 😁

[Swamp Girl]

@king fisher: You are a heckuva angler and storyteller.

 

@Team9nine: Cool umbrella rig. Literally and figuratively. 

[gim]

1 hour ago, Team9nine said:

Trial run for the new boat umbrella setup

I’ve got one very similar on my deck. Just a word of advice. Don’t use it if there’s some wind. Mine folded upward like an accordion in a gust of wind, broke into 3 pieces, and ended up in the neighbors yard.

[Team9nine]

13 minutes ago, gimruis said:

I’ve got one very similar on my deck. Just a word of advice. Don’t use it if there’s some wind. Mine folded upward like an accordion in a gust of wind, broke into 3 pieces, and ended up in the neighbors yard.

I’ll try and remember that. Mostly for those sunny, hot, calm days (dog days) where you feel like you’re baking out in the middle of the lake 🫠

[IcatchDinks]

Every Thursday evening I play volleyball in a recreational league at the park. The park surrounded by a river. We had an hour in between games, so I waded around in the river looking for a bite. The stretch I was fishing has never been a big producer for me, but I caught a couple rock bass and one tiny smallmouth to confirm to myself that I do indeed still catch dinks. 

 

[MIbassyaker]

Rented a pontoon for a few hours tonight on Gun Lake with Wifey for our Anniversary.  Less a fishing trip than a cruising-around trip, but I brought some rods and got a couple on the Ned rig:

 

[IcatchDinks]

5 hours ago, MIbassyaker said:

Rented a pontoon for a few hours tonight

 

[Fried Lemons]

These fish are always a letdown - they hit like a ton of bricks, then you feel the characteristic death roll. I think they are spawning now, that’s when the males can get super aggressive hence the moving bait bites. One on a buzzbait in a hole through the weeds and another on a glide along a rock ledge.

I dumped two good smallies early on before the heat sent them deep. I got a dozen dragging a swinging jig through a deep hole. Nothing big but good practice with strike detection. 

Also this was in the sky while I was catching. Not a rainbow, more like rain circle.