Latest Catch Pics Thread

[Pat Brown]

34 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

@Pat Brown  Way to go brother, and simply getting an invite is a huge accomplishment......kind of like a mini NC Classic 😎

 

You mentioned a Shad spawn which really surprised me reading it, what are your water temps?   Heck you went from dead of winter to post spawn in a blink of an eye unless your Shad spawn at much lower water temps than mine do down here.    They start spawning once it hits about 70d here.  

 

I'm jealous of that particular lake you fished the derby on, you alone have proven how many monsters live in it.   

 

 

The big gizzard shad seem content to start at about 58-59° 🙂

 

Thanks for the kind words - I actually submitted bass 4 times last year and won my entry in December with the 7.35 lber I caught day before Christmas Eve.  I submitted 8.4, 8.0 and 6.5 lbers during March, April and June respectively and then had a hard time coming up with something that beat any of the big fish during the other months of the year.  

 

It felt wild being beaten in March by .2 lbs.  Felt surreal after catching a fish that big!

 

There's definitely some giant bass down here and the multiple shad kills this winter and last winter (and the last two summers) have certainly resulted in some absolute freaks!

 

I don't think it's absurd to assume some of the bigger bass with better genetics and crazy appetites are growing 3.5 lbs a year in some of the spots I fish.  🥴

[Bluebasser86]

14 hours ago, Swamp Girl said:

@N Florida Mike: Losing bass? Been there. Done that. Again and again. Even Pat Brown, Alex, and Clayton lose bass. That bass in your photo is a football.

Oh, wait until I have time to break down my tournament day, I'll tell you all about me losing bass 😬

[Swamp Girl]

1 hour ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Oh, wait until I have time to break down my tournament day, I'll tell you all about me losing bass 😬

 

I remember a morning last May or June when I landed about 30 and lost about 40. The pond's conditions had shifted on me and I just didn't adapt. I had been successfully catching bass in a zombie reed field. Lots of 3.5 to 4-pounders.

 

Then the new reeds started to rise. Those reeds were like bumpers on a bumper pool table. To land a bass, I'd have to survive the bass bouncing off half a dozen of these reed bumpers. More than half the time, I'd lose the fish. I think the bass ricocheted off the new reeds on purpose until they jolted the lure loose. 

 

Finally, I abandoned the reed field and started hooking some nice ones abutting it. However, IF I had a boat where I could stand, I think I would have landed more. Standing gives you more power and leverage. 

[thediscochef]

I love topwater season

[Bird]

Today they quit hitting spinnerbaits but inhaled Chatterbaits, go figure.

Water temp 53*

[Sp33dSnake]

Boat ramp fishin'.   Went with a t-rigged Senko worm.  Probably about 1.5 pounds or so.  Sometimes you just gotta get back to basics to reel 'em in.

[thediscochef]

I caught this fish

[Pumpkin Lizard]

The Pumpkin Zoom Lizard is the king of spring.

 

 

[herder]

 

[MIbassyaker]

14 hours ago, Pumpkin Lizard said:

The Pumpkin Zoom Lizard is the king of spring.

 

 

 

Name checks out!

[Pumpkin Lizard]

51 minutes ago, MIbassyaker said:

 

Name checks out!

 

I'm not a big Deion Sanders fan but I got a big kick out of him naming the Pumpkinseed Lizard his go to bait.

[TnRiver46]

18 hours ago, thediscochef said:

I caught this fish

How’d ya do that ? With your teeth/claws similar to the methodology of a grizzly bear ? 

[Bluebasser86]

The final installment of The Adventures of Blue goes to Lake Fork is tournament day. Launch was 7am, lines in at 7:30, lines out at 6:30pm. 11 long hours on the water. I wasn’t sure where to start but settled on a dock that I’d found with several crappie beds on it that I’d caught a couple out of in practice. I spent a lot of cast slowly picking the cover apart with a very light T rig, which the light weight seemed to be key for me to get bites. I finally got a fish to go, but it was only a small 14.50” fish. 15 minutes later I was working a weightless Yamatanuki through the brush when another fish picked it up. Keeper number 2 was another dink, only 13.75”. I picked the cover apart for a while and had one really thump the Tanuki once, but no more fish. I slid over to the next dock and pitched the T rig into a small hole and felt pressure. The fish sliced under the dock after the hookset and my line pinged under the edge of the dock. At the end of the dock there was an old piece of rope I didn’t see hanging in the water, the fish got wrapped and tangled in the rope and was threatening to rip free. I stabbed with the net and got her. Keeper number 3 was a 21.75” fish.

I had a long dry spell with just a couple dinks on a shakyhead out of some trees on a point. I worked into the point I caught my 8.23 and was pitching into a gap in the grass under the bushes when I had another pressure bite. I slammed the rod back and saw a big flash, and then she was gone. I hadn’t lost a big fish all week until then. I didn’t use braid because the light weight and wind wasn’t a good combination but it bit me on that fish. It was almost 1pm when I finally got another bite, keeper number 4 was another 13” fish on the T rig. Then at 2pm I caught 2 keepers on back to back cast on the shakyhead, a 12.25” fish, then I immediately culled it with a 13.50” fish. I had 4 hours left to fish and only about 76”. I fished a couple more areas before I decided to work back through where I had caught my big fish in practice. The first pocket produced nothing. The next one was the one with the bushes that I’d lost the big one earlier and caught my 8.23 in practice. I was picking apart some bushes with the T rig and pretty zoned out when I dropped my bait and when I lifted, I saw a big white flash and my line started moving for deeper water. The fish when nuts on the hookset, thrashing all over the surface and was quickly in the net. The fish was a better boat fish than a kayak fish, 20.75” and a hair over 7 pounds.

It was just after 5 and the wind laid down, I felt like maybe I could make a late move. I was fishing a senko through a tree where I missed one earlier in the day when I caught a small fish. When I hooked that fish, it was stuck for just a second, and I never checked my line. Right there was the trees I caught my 8.23 off of, and one of my first cast to them got picked up. The fish swam to open water so I let it swim away before I set the hook. The fish was heavy, and the. I saw that it was maybe my biggest of the day. I had it open water, it was mine, just wear her down. She fought and surged and dove under the kayak, and broke my line. I was completely defeated at that moment. That fish should have been mine and I made a careless mistake and it cost me. I never got another bite and ended with 84.25”, good enough for 60th out of 145 anglers.

 

[thediscochef]

4 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

How’d ya do that ? With your teeth/claws similar to the methodology of a grizzly bear ? 

I told it a funny joke to gain its trust and then it calmly allowed me to take a selfie

 

Did the same thing for this 4-3 about an hour ago

[Swamp Girl]

@thediscochef: YESSSSS!!!!!

 

@Bluebasser86: Just when I'm certain that Kansas has the fattest bass, Clayton goes and catches an even fatter bass in Texas, teaching me that it's not about the state, it's about the angler. 

[Team9nine]

Some of the craziest variable winds I’ve ever fished in today, combined with the weird haziness created by the drifting smoke of the areas wildfires. But I finally found a group of biters. They weren’t big - nothing over two pounds - but I caught nearly 2 dozen bass along with a dozen scattered crappie, so I’m not going to complain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Fishlegs]

I had about 15 minutes to fish before a family dinner, so I took advantage of it. The water was nasty from a recent round of storms so I reached for the brightest lure I had in my box. This little guy really wanted to taste a chartreuse jerkbait. He went for it twice.

 

I was reeling my lure in when I saw something swipe at the lure right beside the dock. He missed, but went after it quite aggressively so I had to try again. I cast out far enough to get it under the water about where the swipe happened, let it sit for a couple of seconds, and...BAM! A feisty largemouth on a jerkbait followed by a nice dinner with another set of largemou...umm, I mean family members. 🤣 It was a very nice evening.

 

[thediscochef]

Two best of the five I stuck in about two hours. Missed just as many. That larger girl was foul hooked on the side of the face and I had to pull her through a bunch of invasive milfoil

[Team9nine]

The big girls are still MIA, but caught 10 more up shallow this afternoon to a bit under 3 pounds. Water low 60s. 
 

 

[thediscochef]

Made the best of a half hour before I hit the road for the evening. When roberts turns on, it turns ON. Every fish I've caught this week was on a choppo. It never gets old.