Latest Catch Pics Thread

[herder]

[Bluebasser86]

Late report, been a crazy busy week. 1AM as I'm writing it as is what I guess is the end of my Wednesday still and have to be back in to start my Thursday in a little over 6 hours.

 

Fished a new to me lake Saturday. Got a roadrunner tournament coming up that I thought was the same as last years but found out it's completely different. Last year, we could fish in 3 different counties, any public body of water. This year, it's any state lake in Kansas, which rules out all of my favorite lakes as all of our state lakes within a reasonable drive of me are absolute garbage. So now I'm scrambling, trying to find a state lake that is at least decent to hopefully make a good showing in this tournament.

 

Made the 2 hour drive to this lake, caught probably 40 fish but the biggest was only 17.25". Maybe it had the fish I will need, but the bank pressure was insane. It was only a 90 acre lake but there was no less than 20 shore anglers from the time we arrived at 5:30AM. It made a small lake even smaller. 

 

One of the state lakes I like but isn't particularly known for it's numbers of big fish was on the way back, so we decided to head there with a few hours left in the day to fish. I like the lake because they eat the jig, and sometimes I catch a good one there. This time, I got both.

 

[Swamp Girl]

@Bluebasser86:

 

[IcatchDinks]

Usually I go to the pond in the early morning before work, but decided to try my luck on the river today instead. Made it to the spot about 6 AM, and right away caught a fish. I didn't know I had a fish until I got my lure back in because he was so small. I thought I had just wrapped my line around one of the trebles or something. 

 

 

I then absolutely set the crap out of that lure on a submerged log and had to break off. 😭

 

So I switched to top water. Lost one right away, but then hooked another at the very end of about 100 yards of line downstream. I doubt it was actually that far down, but it was a long way off. Not a monster, but what with the fish using a pretty strong current to fight me, and having that much line out, it was the longest fight of my life. Poor fella was worn the heck out, but he seemed to revive pretty quick and splashed me as he swam off. 

 

 

After about 30 minutes of fruitless casting, I switched to a #5 Mepps Black Fury. Another absolutely tiny dink bit. 

 

 

I finished the morning with the Crush City Mayor on Owner's underspin hook. Missed two fish who seemed to have lazily swiped at it. 

 

Then I finally hooked into a really good one. A nice 16" smallmouth that leap as high as I've ever seen a fish jump. Twice. But EWGs hold really good, and I landed him with no problems.

 

[Swamp Girl]

@IcatchDinks: I'm always happy to see you catch not-a-dink! 

[Backroad Angler]

Recently moved to a new apartment complex, and there is a huge pond out in front of it. Decided to go give it a try. Caught 5 large mouth and even a couple catfish, nothing huge, but decent fish.

 

 

[BluegillsTightlines]

Got out to the lake this morning, didn't get much of anything for an hour, and then it came an absolute flood. Waited it out in my car and moved down the lake and spotted a bass chasing some small bream in the grass bed. Problem was I would have to cast over a very thick  pile to get to it and there would be no way to lip or net it there. So I decided if I hooked it, I would work it down the bank and into an opening in the grass that led to some rocks to step on so I did that and kept my rod up while fighting it to keep enough tension on it. Paid off. 7'0 Lew's Speed Stick handled it beautifully. I missed a good one the other day so it was nice to get this one in.

[Swamp Girl]

@BluegillsTightlines: Your lake is beautiful. Nice bass too!

 

@JoshFromBolo: In your front yard? Lucky duck! Keep posting pics, Josh. It's always ducky to have new anglers in this thread.

[BluegillsTightlines]

25 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

@BluegillsTightlines: Your lake is beautiful. Nice bass too!

 

@JoshFromBolo: In your front yard? Lucky duck! Keep posting pics, Josh. It's always ducky to have new anglers in this thread.

Thank you, I love the color variations they have. I've caught some super dark green, and others more dollar bill looking like that one, and others that were almost colorless, but had a very prominent line running along the arch of their back just a bit under the dorsal fin. And that lake really is a gorgeous place. There is an islet/jetty there that allows for some absolutely stunning sunset views. And it's only 3 miles from home too. So I can literally hop up on a whim and go, don't have to pre plan or schedule. Bass population is VERY healthy there thanks to the way they've managed it after closing it down for renovations a few summers ago. It stayed closed for a year , but it paid off. That lake holds a lot of quality fish. There have been quite a good many double digit bass by other anglers since the renovation. It's also a great place to catch some nice catfish, bluegill, and shellcracker. I caught a handful of shellcracker there this year that were definitely over a lb and several, several bluegill up in the 10 inch range. Crappie were finicky this year though for some reason.

[Team9nine]

Took it on the chin two days ago, not even getting a bite. Got a chance to sneak out to the lake for a few hours this afternoon and try and redeem myself. Fortunately, things went better, as I was able to figure out a pattern and bite. Hooked up with half a dozen bass, about twenty crappie, two channel cats and half a dozen white perch. Landed 4 of the bass, losing a small keeper when it jumped near the boat, and had a much larger fish hooked for a good while that eventually just pulled off.

 

 

 

[Swamp Girl]

29 minutes ago, Team9nine said:

half a dozen bass, about twenty crappie, two channel cats and half a dozen white perch

 

Wow! If you'd kept them all, that's a stringer you couldn't have lifted!

[Backroad Angler]

12 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

@BluegillsTightlines: Your lake is beautiful. Nice bass too!

 

@JoshFromBolo: In your front yard? Lucky duck! Keep posting pics, Josh. It's always ducky to have new anglers in this thread.

Appreciate you!

Yup all i gotta do is put on the flip flops and grab a pole and I'm at the water in 30 seconds 😄

[Fried Lemons]

Committed an afternoon to some old school Carolina rigging. I picked off a few fish on rocks in 12’. I caught the big fish of the trip off a newly discovered rock pile. Always an exciting moment when you feel the line swim off while probing a new piece of structure.

 

 

[LrgmouthShad]

[Pat Brown]

Nice to see folks catching em good.  Been mostly catchin dinks and snapping turtles.  Missed some big fish this week but we gonna get one.  😎😎😎🎣🎣🎣

 

Keep up the excellent work folks.  Love seeing all this action - summer is fun.

[TnRiver46]

Northern swing pics. Isle royale and voyaguers national parks. Probably hammer out a separate report. Thought it was going to be all pike but finally caught 2 bass. 

 

first bass , fluke in shallow water with st croix rod seviin reel and 33 lb seaguar JDM braid, gamakatsu nano alpha hook 

 

second bass, fluke on first throw this morning same spot back by that pontoon boat. Rolled out of bed at the rental in the same clothes as yesterday and BAM! He grabbed it off the surface 

 

 

 

 

got lots of pike too, here’s some samples. They are delicious. Had to hike a few miles with them On a stick at isle royale 😂 

 

[Swamp Girl]

Fat, North Country bass! And look at that meal. YUM!!!!!!!!!!!! 

[TnRiver46]

@ol'crickety, I’ve got tons more photos to share, I know you will enjoy them 

[Swamp Girl]

I'm excited to see them, @TnRiver46! With the new puppy, it's pretty hard to go fishing. I used to fish three to four times a week. Now, I try to fish once a week. He is, of course, worth it. 

[IcatchDinks]

@TnRiver46 looks like a ton of fun! Thanks for sharing!!

[12poundbass]

Here’s my fishing report for today….

 

 

 

6poundbass did get one pike and one dink LMB.

[Woody B]

It's good to see many of you still catching the heck out of them.  I had a slow weekend.   2 Spots Saturday, and 2 Spots Sunday.  At least no micro Bass.  One was borderline micro though.  They varied between 13 and 19 inches.   They were all on points between 12 and 18 feet deep.   2 were on a Shaky head, 1 on a Spinnerbait, and the biggest on a XD3.  I also caught 7 smallish Catfish (~3 pounds and under).  I shook them off beside the boat so I didn't get slime everywhere. 

  

[LrgmouthShad]

This coming weekend around the new moon I think is going to be dynamite fishing here 

[N Florida Mike]

Got 3 in under 15 minutes on the bama bug yum dinger…

[The Baron]

My son and I fished a private access lake Friday afternoon-evening, on invitation from a friend.  My friend claimed the lake had plenty of 5-8# bass in it… but a 6# bass up here is a very rare catch and over 7# would be big news in the local fishing world.  So I was excitedly optimistic, but skeptical.  My friend fished in another boat with a buddy and not too long after we started fishing they had a big one on.  We were only 50 yards apart and hearing “oh, yeah that’s a big one!”… “get the net”… “look at the size of the mouth!”… excited laughing… high-fives…  Wes and I were riveted with anticipation for the monster to be revealed… then a fat 2.5# was hoisted high for us to see and “look at that one!” shouted to us.  Right away I knew we likely had the only scale to ever grace these waters.🫢

 

All humour aside though, this little 8 acre oval provided good fishing and we caught several 1.5-2.5# fish which made me plenty happy after so many 1-3 fish outings. That said, the fishing was up and down through the day.  This is a natural lake, fed and drained through a swamp/small creek on either end, the deepest hole being 15ft. the east end with most areas 6-10ft.  The lake is rimmed with a fringe of lily pads, the bottom has submerged weeds everywhere… and bass seemingly everywhere we fished.  I decided to start out by frogging the entire perimeter, with Wes throwing our go-to flashy swimmer with a paddletail as we slowly graphed most of the lake to get a feel for it.  I only caught a few, but missed another half-dozen bites, a few of which looked like quality (3#+) fish.  They just weren’t biting the frog well, but I was having fun.  Based on my bites, I coached Wes to cast right at the edge of the pads and he started catching some, most almost immediately when his bait hit the water.  After one round of the lake (about 2:30-3:30pm), the 4 of us had probably caught 20-ish fish, with a few over 2#. My friend and his buddy were seriously out fishing us, drinking beer and throwing “rubber worms” when I asked what they were using.  They had one spinning rod each, so I was feeling a little stupid with 8 combos in the boat and not catching as many as them.  I put the frog down and I started cycling through baits while Wes started throwing a wacky rigged senko.  I threw a senko, Texas rigged 10” worm, flipped a beaver, a chatterbait, spinnerbait, whopper plopper… and we went through a painfully dry spell of probably 2 hours, even our buddy’s bite almost shut off.   My buddy said this was the worst day of fishing they’d ever had, and I was was thinking yes of course because I’m here and I’m cursed this year.😖 But then he “mentioned” that one of the other owners on the lake (there are only three) had seven guys up fishing for the past week. So, 8 people fishing an 8 acre lake for 7 days straight.  Adding at least 2 of those fishermen were on the water sunrise-dark every day.😒 That really burst my bubble, because I thought there were only 2 owners on the lake and only my buddy fished it occasionally.  Oh well - I guess any lake you can drive to and launch a boat in ain’t gonna be untapped.  I just didn’t expect the poor little lake would have been hammered by 600+ man hours of fishing the prior week. 😭
 

Anyway… our spirits slowly sank as the other boat enjoyed a beer fuelled dink fest.  Then, I finally cracked the nut.  Wes somehow got his line wrapped under the spool of his spinning reel and while I was fixing that a 1.5# grabbed his senko and I had to hand line it in.  That was unrealized clue #1.  I kept cycling baits with zero bites, then Wes blew up his bait caster and while he was trying to fix it a

really good bass grabbed his paddletail off the bottom.  Wes said “I’ve got one, what do I do!?” and I heard it jump, but didn’t see it.  Wes went into panic mode saying it’s huge.  I said just hand line it in, and there was a brief struggle then it was into the deeper weeds and gone (no hookset at all).  Wes was frustrated, and now his line was a total mess so I said I’ll fix it.  I didn’t realize his bait was still laying on the bottom and while I was trying to fix things another small bass grabbed his bait.  That’s when the light bulb came on.  I ended up cutting off a bunch of almost brand new FC Sniper (😩) then we were both back in the fight.  I said the key is fish slow… like, deadstick slow.  I tied on a weightless white fluke and we proceeded to cast onto/close to the pads and work very slowly back into the deeper water with 5-10 second pauses to let out bait sit.  That was the ticket and we started catching ‘em.  By now it was about 7pm and the evening bite started picking up for everyone.  In the last half hour, I switched to a popper and got several bites by just casting it out and waiting 10 seconds, then if nothing grabbed it I’d give just a few twitches and long pause again.  I only hooked half the fish that swirled on the popper, as the “bites” seemed very lazy.  All in all, a good day.  I do really look forward to trying again when the weather cools a bit - my fried still swears there’s much bigger bass in there.