Latest Catch Pics Thread

[fishballer06]

2 hours ago, J._Bricker said:

Congrats @fishballer06 on your 5lb green football! Big girl’s looking like she’s about ready to pop!

Thank you! Our waters are still in the mid 40's I'd guess, so still plenty of time before they do their thing, but all the females are fat and full of eggs right now. 

[Bluebasser86]

Continued our new Wednesday family fishing tradition this week. It was pretty windy but I found some up shallow in the back of a creek arm that were biting. The boys got to reel a bunch in and Finn is slowly getting over his fear of touching fish. I got him to cradle and release 2 of them with me and he was very proud of himself for doing it.

 

Thursday was on a small lake fighting a howling wind all day. Caught a ton of fish, mostly on a homemade bladed jig or spinnerbait. Big fish of the day was on a big homemade spinnerbait. I also got my first sight fishing bass of the year and first frog fish of the year, which turned out to be the same fish as I spotted one sitting in some dead lily pad stalks and put my frog right by her and she immediately sucked it in.

 

[PhishLI]

I got a buddy who was cozy on his couch and "wasn't going anywhere" out for a midnight wade with the old "I've got a really good feeling" shtick. Works every time. It was kinda crappy with steady 15mph winds with 20mph gusts, but not bone chilling this time around. Got one 20 minutes in on the Rat 40. The Beast Coast Miyagi in Dope Gill got the rest of the attention.

 

[TnRiver46]

A day that shall never be forgotten! We were fishing a river with roaring current about 4-5 mph, 12,000 cubic feet/second. So the main channel seemed fairly hopeless unless there was some kind of current break. We decided to make our first stop a creek mouth with a little warmer water. I started off by losing what I believe to be a nice smallmouth. Then we catch a few drum And white bass with tube jigs. I try a shakey head and I saw a skipjack herring chase after it as I was reeling it in. I tell Rachel skipjack and we both start reeling in the tubes as fast as possible and she hooks one. It was hooked in the gills so I put it on a 6/0 stainless and hurl it out there. A striper takes off with the dead bait twice and I missed it twice. Lucky for me a smallmouth threw me a bone and got himself hooked right in the roof of the mouth with my tube, I never even felt a hit but it was hooked very well. The fish only went 4 on my scale but it sure seemed bigger. After releasing that fish, the dead bait goes off like a rocket. Since I failed the first two times i asked Rachel if she wanted to try it. The fish Took the bait from the somewhat calm water out into the torrent and line was just melting off the baitcaster. Worried she would run out I put the minn Kota on 100 and took of after it. Quite some time and distance later, she gets the fish to the net and it’s 36 lbs and 45 inches! She beat my 4 lber by just a tad....

 

just added a video too, warning loud screams hAha

 

[lo n slo]

me and my son were counting rocks in the little johnny this morning. after all was said and done we had caught 43 spotties. then i got hungry.

 

the end 

 

[PhishLI]

Moonlight and slick calm water like we had last night is usually a recipe for a ride home with the skunk. The grass is still sparse, and in just a few spots, and non existent near the shoreline. The pads aren't up yet either, and there was zero activity at the surface. I spent the first hour throwing a few baits that I knew weren't the best option, and fell flat. There's nothing like defying the odds sometimes, but it didn't pan out. The area I committed to seems to be a hot spot for yellow perch to cluster in. At the very least it's where I've seen them caught most often, so I tied on a Berkley Champ Swimmer in perch that I'd glued some nice shiny eyes on. It didn't take long before I started getting hits. I pulled in one, then two, then my buddy hearing the tail splashes finally asked which bait I was using. Within 5 minutes of tying on his own Champ in perch he had a nice fish. OK for a short hop. Anything to break the monotony of self quarantine. Also, I'm hearing some nearby lakes have been closed. Gotta get em while I still can.

[12poundbass]

First time out this year. A balmy 31* when we launched, 41* water. Only managed 1 smallie. Nothing to write home about. My first lake smallie though. Added fuel to this brown bass fire too! 
 

[12poundbass]

14 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

A day that shall never be forgotten! We were fishing a river with roaring current about 4-5 mph, 12,000 cubic feet/second. So the main channel seemed fairly hopeless unless there was some kind of current break. We decided to make our first stop a creek mouth with a little warmer water. I started off by losing what I believe to be a nice smallmouth. Then we catch a few drum And white bass with tube jigs. I try a shakey head and I saw a skipjack herring chase after it as I was reeling it in. I tell Rachel skipjack and we both start reeling in the tubes as fast as possible and she hooks one. It was hooked in the gills so I put it on a 6/0 stainless and hurl it out there. A striper takes off with the dead bait twice and I missed it twice. Lucky for me a smallmouth threw me a bone and got himself hooked right in the roof of the mouth with my tube, I never even felt a hit but it was hooked very well. The fish only went 4 on my scale but it sure seemed bigger. After releasing that fish, the dead bait goes off like a rocket. Since I failed the first two times i asked Rachel if she wanted to try it. The fish Took the bait from the somewhat calm water out into the torrent and line was just melting off the baitcaster. Worried she would run out I put the minn Kota on 100 and took of after it. Quite some time and distance later, she gets the fish to the net and it’s 36 lbs and 45 inches! She beat my 4 lber by just a tad....

 

just added a video too, warning loud screams hAha

 

Two long sleeve shirts and a sweatshirt here! Good catch in’! 

[jbsoonerfan]

Finally got to get back at it after the weather really threw a wrench in the fishing plans on Friday and Saturday. Picked up right where I left off and put together a new PB 5 fish limit. Not by much, but I beat my 18-1 with an 18-4 today. Five best were 4-3, 4-2, 3-11, 3-6 & 2-14. All pictured except the 2-14. Let it go without a picture and then caught the 3-11 and realized I beat my 5 from the other day. Oh well.

[Michigander]

Today I caught my first good fish of the year, 4.89lbs! Michigan waters are still cold, didn't even see males up scoping out bed spots yet.

 

[J._Bricker]

1 hour ago, jbsoonerfan said:

Finally got to get back at it after the weather really threw a wrench in the fishing plans on Friday and Saturday. Picked up right where I left off and put together a new PB 5 fish limit. Not by much, but I beat my 18-1 with an 18-4 today. Five best were 4-3, 4-2, 3-11, 3-6 & 2-14. All pictured except the 2-14. Let it go without a picture and then caught the 3-11 and realized I beat my 5 from the other day. Oh well.

Definitely looks like you’re pittin’ those Bantams to work! Way to sack ‘em up

[jbsoonerfan]

Thanks! Yep, all of those came on a spinnerbait using a Bantam 

[N Florida Mike]

Waited for the rain to stop and didn’t get out to 430 or so . Cloudy and calm. It was an afternoon of contrasts. Started out fishing various worms , caught 2 dinks and lost 5 or 6, then had a bad birds nest on my finesse reel. Didn’t even pick it out , so I...Went to a deep point with an eel grass edge, switched to a watermelon seed super fluke , and immediately caught one. Next cast , caught another. Then I crossed the 100 foot wide channel to the south end of our island.

First cast- boom! 20 inch fish.( scale had quit working). Next cast, it had just hit bottom, and the line started peeling out. This one was 21 1/2, skinny though. Third cast, a smaller fish. Then had a fish pick it up but dropped it.  I decided to go a little above where I caught the 20 incher- first cast, another decent fish.

I then went around 200 feet away, cast along another eel grass line, and caught another 20 incher.
Then I missed the last 5 out of 6, had got overconfident I reckon,  and the last one I lost might have been the best fish of the day.

 

As a side note, this was my best 5 fish bag of the year ( I think ) and it was also probably my worst hook up percentage for the year. Go figure.??‍♂️

 

 

 

 

 

[Mbirdsley]

2 hours ago, Michigander said:

Today I caught my first good fish of the year, 4.89lbs! Michigan waters are still cold, didn't even see males up scoping out bed spots yet.

 

Congrats.  Yes I fished sleepy hollow Friday.  I left at 3pm and water was barely getting to 49 degrees.  Most of the water I found was 47.5 degrees +- a degree 

[Michigander]

Thanks! That is where I caught that one. The side of the lake where I got her was 4 degrees warmer than the rest of the lake. If I knew that before someone told me I wouldn't have wasted most of the day fishing the colder side.

[Dirtyeggroll]

Pre-spawn or just a glutton?
 

 

[The Bassman]

Doubtless loaded with eggs. Nice bass.

[Bird]

Caught everything shallow today on this.

[TnRiver46]

@Dirtyeggroll, both! A pre spawn glutton. Nice catch 

[Ksam1234]

Another beautiful day on the water! Around 50 smallies to finish the day! Going out again tomorrow before the storm rolls in! Hoping to get about 6-8 hours in before hand.. god I love me some brown bass! 

[roadwarrior]

[PhishLI]

I haven't needed to defrost my feet after the last few wades, and yesterday was the first time this season that I saw bluegill in the shallows. It's about to get real. Last night's Jackhammer eaters weren't bigs, but were very, very energetic.

 

[PhishLI]

My parents are retired and living down in S.C. Dad's on the mend after a heart attack and quintuple bypass, but he's finally hitting the banks again. He just sent some glory pics. He was very proud, and made a point of mentioning that he got her on 6 lb test. Seems to be a badge of honor for the old timers. I was gonna bust his onions and tell  him that some guy caught a giant great white shark on 6 lb Stren in '72, or some such nonsense,  but held back and let him have his moment. Happy for him.

 

 

[jbsoonerfan]

Bite was TOUGH today and it was WINDY!!! I can't wait to get the power poles in and put on. I did manage to get this big girl to take a spinnerbait. I didn't measure her but she was short and fat. Weighed 4-15, should have put a couple weights in her LOL

[galyonj]

Last Saturday I got to fish for the first time in a long time…for about a half hour. Found an empty boat ramp down at the base of the dragon, and managed to catch a couple fish. Didn't get pics of one of them because it was gill-hooked (it choked the lipless I was throwing) and I wanted to get it back in the water quick.

 

The one I got a picture of was 2lb 9oz. Wasn't much but I'll take it.

 

Then we left to do other stuff. I didn't get to play on the dragon because we were in the woman's car instead of mine.