Latest Catch Pics Thread

[HaydenS]

Had our state tourney this week at Norton County Lake, two day event, but prefished a couple days.

 

First day of prefishing we had 17 pounds, caught fish on almost every cast.  We left good spots alone, and didn't fish them until tourney day.

 

Big baits you threw, smaller fish you caught.

 

First few cast:

Swim Jig fish:

Day two bag:

@Bluebasser86 flipping jig prefishing:

\

Prefishing:

Culling day two:

Day one was tough for us, only weighed 10 pounds.  Might have culled once.

Day two was much better,  weighed 13. 59, culled at least 5 times. 

 

Should've done better based on prefishing, but we were happy with an 8th place finish, during state, on a lake we'd never heard of.

[GaryH]

3 minutes ago, HaydenS said:

Had our state tourney this week at Norton County Lake, two day event, but prefished a couple days.

 

First day of prefishing we had 17 pounds, caught fish on almost every cast.  We left good spots alone, and didn't fish them until tourney day.

 

Big baits you threw, smaller fish you caught.

 

First few cast:

Swim Jig fish:

Day two bag:

@Bluebasser86 flipping jig prefishing:

\

Prefishing: 64.09 kB · 0 downloads

Culling day two:

Day one was tough for us, only weighed 10 pounds.  Might have culled once.

Day two was much better,  weighed 13. 59, culled at least 5 times. 

 

Should've done better based on prefishing, but we were happy with an 8th place finish, during state, on a lake we'd never heard of.

Great job Hayden ?????

[GreenPig]

Fished 3a - 10a this morning and caught two 18 - 20' deep on rocks on a T - Rigged beaver and two on the Bull Wake after daylight. 

[TnRiver46]

[hokiehunter373]

We had some showers go through yesterday afternoon and evening but that had cleared out by the time I was able to fish.  Water was high and murky and it seemed like a good chance to slow down and try out the molting craw color TRDs I had gotten a few weeks back but hadn't used yet.  Suspicion was confirmed with a few 1 pound fish and then it started to sprinkle.  Checked the radar and there was some spotty stuff around but whatever I don't mind getting a little wet to catch some fish.  Wanted to see if I could get a better bite so I switched to the trusty KVD 1.5 squarebill in neon bluegill.  Right away I had the best fish of the night, a ~2.5 pounder, on and thrashing around.  The strike was weird and I set the hook late and barely had him by the back treble.  He came off trying to lift him up onto the bank.  Caught a few more 1 pound fish and had a few more brief showers on me.  Then this bluegill crushed the crank.  I get a chuckle every time they blast a lure that won't fit in their mouth.  During that catch the rain had picked up.  Sky didn't look great but I was already a decent bit wet and light was fading anyway so I'd only be there a few more minutes.  Plus the radar I had previously looked at seemed fine so why not keep fishing.  

 

 

 

Switched back to the ned since I hadn't fished it on this side of the pond.  I was hopping it back to me when on the 3rd hop I felt a little more resistance than usual.  Leaned into it and the line started running.  I saw someone on here mention yesterday about watching how the fish react if you keep tension on the line but barely fight them so that's what I did.  The fish basically swam to me without a fight.  Once I got her to the bank was a different story but I had a high 2s - low 3s fish in hand.  Soon as I unhooked it it was like the skies decided, "ok, you've had your fun now, time to go home" and a monsoon unloaded.  Luckily I keep a towel in the truck and had a spare shirt to boot because I was soaked from head to toe and through to my boxers lol.  Worth it for a few fish ?.  Ended up with 8 bass and the 1 get away in about 80 mins.

 

[Will Wetline]

Found a number of post spawn smallmouth at depths of 15', give or take, in locations not far from where they had spawned.  They were receptive to Z-Man's small stuff, the Finesse TRD and TicklerZ fished on a 1/16 oz. or 3/32 oz. mushroom head .

 

 

 

 

 

[throttleplate]

Wife and i for the first time in 4 weeks stepped away from the river fishing for walleye and brownies which we were succeessful at but the dam has been releasing lots of water the past week due to more rain.

The dam at the river we fish is releasing 2000 gps of water and it has flooded out our fishing spots.

It is not a giant dam or river but the effect it has is major.

When they release a bit more now and then the rolling waves of the surges are like being at a swimming parks wave pool. Pic of the dam.

 

 

So we went to our favorite lake and fished for crappie and blugill. Caught lots more bluegill than crappie as gills are spawning now.

I was messing around with bass before the blugill and after throwing a spinner bait 1 cast and then a chatter bait 2 casts i put them away and just wanted to fish lazilly.

I was burnt out from casting jerkbaits, crankbaits the past month at the river pulling them upstream against the current.

Do you ever get to that point where you are just tired of casting a thousand casts and want to chill out?

So i pulled out the red 8" berkley kingtail t-rigged and cast it out and sat on a rock and slowly dragged it in. I caught a hand full of bass, nothing big 2-3 lbs but enjoyed just dragging away.

[TnRiver46]

9 minutes ago, throttleplate said:

Wife and i for the first time in 4 weeks stepped away from the river fishing for walleye and brownies which we were succeessful at but the dam has been releasing lots of water the past week due to more rain.

The dam at the river we fish is releasing 2000 gps of water and it has flooded out our fishing spots.

It is not a giant dam or river but the effect it has is major.

When they release a bit more now and then the rolling waves of the surges are like being at a swimming parks wave pool. Pic of the dam.

 

 

So we went to our favorite lake and fished for crappie and blugill. Caught lots more bluegill than crappie as gills are spawning now.

I was messing around with bass before the blugill and after throwing a spinner bait 1 cast and then a chatter bait 2 casts i put them away and just wanted to fish lazilly.

I was burnt out from casting jerkbaits, crankbaits the past month at the river pulling them upstream against the current.

Do you ever get to that point where you are just tired of casting a thousand casts and want to chill out?

So i pulled out the red 8" berkley kingtail t-rigged and cast it out and sat on a rock and slowly dragged it in. I caught a hand full of bass, nothing big 2-3 lbs but enjoyed just dragging away.

Good eatin! 

[LrgmouthShad]

On 6/7/2022 at 7:29 PM, HaydenS said:

Had our state tourney this week at Norton County Lake, two day event, but prefished a couple days.

 

First day of prefishing we had 17 pounds, caught fish on almost every cast.  We left good spots alone, and didn't fish them until tourney day.

 

Big baits you threw, smaller fish you caught.

 

First few cast:

Swim Jig fish:

Day two bag:

@Bluebasser86 flipping jig prefishing:

\

Prefishing: 64.09 kB · 0 downloads

Culling day two:

Day one was tough for us, only weighed 10 pounds.  Might have culled once.

Day two was much better,  weighed 13. 59, culled at least 5 times. 

 

Should've done better based on prefishing, but we were happy with an 8th place finish, during state, on a lake we'd never heard of.

Just awesome. Congrats on a great finish!

 

I gotta ask, are those flannel jammies that your partner always seems to rock? That man’s a legend 

[IcatchDinks]

2 hours ago, Will Wetline said:

Found a number of post spawn smallmouth at depths of 15', give or take, in locations not far from where they had spawned.  They were receptive to Z-Man's small stuff, the Finesse TRD and TicklerZ fished on a 1/16 oz. or 3/32 oz. mushroom head .

 

 

 

 

 

I love me some smallies. Beautiful fish. 

[treble hook]

Doing some evening deep cranking…

[scaleface]

Caught a 5 this morning at a pond on a frog . 

[scaleface]

17 hours ago, throttleplate said:

The  hat has character .

[LrgmouthShad]

9 minutes ago, scaleface said:

The  hat has character .

Better that way

[FishTank]

I am having fun with my new BFS setup. Granted the Baby Pop-x is 1/4oz, it's not something I would probably throw on regular topwater gear.

 

[LrgmouthShad]

4 hours ago, FishTank said:

I am having fun with my new BFS setup. Granted the Baby Pop-x is 1/4oz, it's not something I would probably throw on regular topwater gear.

 

Shoulda saved the first catch as food for the second! I wonder… if you tried to hand feed a bass a bluegill out of water, would it eat it? 
 

Great pics

[FishTank]

3 hours ago, LrgmouthShad said:

Shoulda saved the first catch as food for the second! I wonder… if you tried to hand feed a bass a bluegill out of water, would it eat it? 
 

Great pics

 

May be the perspective of the pictures but that bluegill was too big to fit in that bass's mouth. It was about 9in long and at least 1lb. The bass was about 15in. It might have been a good meal for 6lb. Still waiting to hook into a big one on the BFS setup.

[roadwarrior]

1 hour ago, FishTank said:

Still waiting to hook into a big one on the BFS setup.

Doesn't work. I'm going to sell mine. BFS is designed to make

little fish feel bigger.

 

 

                                                  

[thediscochef]

First fish over 3lbs in weeks. She had a short tail that was bleeding pretty good, have to wonder what happened there. Inhaled my chatterbait hard, no chance she was coming loose. For being injured she sure was fat. Only one I got today in about 5 hours of throwing all over the lake. It's a heat index of 104 right now and I'm in my car cooling off, the rockpile was getting to be a bit much. Been a rough few weeks, this always brings a smile to my face.

[Jmilburn76]

Still havent found any larger fish yet but these will help with my tourney, both are 13.25".

[scaleface]

Caught about 40 post spawners today and about half of them over 15 inches . Brush piles , flats and points . This is probably the largest of the day . Dont know the weight because my scales fell apart . Caught main lake point , 5 foot deep on a Gitzit .

[king fisher]

     I fished Presa Trigomil for the past two and a half days.  The lake was down another 15  feet from when I was last there in April.  The water was very clear, between 8 and 10 feet of vis.  Thermocline at 20 feet, and surface temp. 79 degrees.

      I marked lots of fish on offshore humps and points, at 15 to 20 feet, and was planning on a good crankbait bite.  First point  I stopped at I  caught a 5 pounder second cast on a crankbait, and a couple of three's on a Carolina rig.  spent the rest of day fishing offshore for a big zero.  I snagged many 2 pound Tilapia so I assumed that Tilapia were what all the marks were.  I should have noticed there wasn't any marks of bait around all the nice size marks I was getting on my Garmin.  I'm guessing bait size Tilapia don't hang out with the adults, and since there are no shad or other schooling bait fish, the bass are not in the deep water regardless of how clear and warm it is.  I need to find out more about the habits of Tilapia, but only get recipes when I try and google the popular fish.  

     There were thousands of bait size Tilapia along almost every foot of shoreline in 6 inches of water or less, but I never saw any bass chasing the bait, right next to the shore.   

     I decided to change tactics the next day and fish the shore line with Jigs, a T rigged magnum Rage Bug in Okeechobee Craw color and a skinny dipper in a color that matched the Tilapia.  I had put a minnow trap out the day before, and caught some giant crawdads that were mostly blue along with a few dozen 2 to 4 inch Tilapia.  I don't know if even a double digit bass would try and take on a craw das as big as the ones I caught, but I have to assume there are also smaller ones for them to eat.  I thought the Rage Bug would be a good match the hatch, along with a black and blue jig.  I blanked on the jig, caught a few on the swimbait, and they tore the T rig Rage Bug up.  It was calm in the morning making it possible to see down10 feet deep from a spot I climbed to on a cliff.  I saw many bass cruising up and down the shoreline about six feet deep.  I can only guess they were waiting for one of the baby Tilapia to make a mistake and venture to far away from the shore.  They definitely were not scared to be that shallow in the clear water, and stayed about that depth regardless of how deep the water was.   I would position my kayak to make a long cast next to the bluff or other rock, and the bass would usually hit it as soon as it sank a foot or two.  If they didn't hit right away I would would hop it down one ledge, and if not bit make another cast.   Surprisingly cast made parallel with the bank did not work very well compared with casts made directly toward the bank. 

       I ended up landing dozens of small bass, along with about 20 in the 4 to 6 pound range, with the biggest being a 7.7 pounds and 23.5 inches long.  I saw a couple double digit bass cruising up and down the bank, but couldn't get one to bite.  Sure wish I had a few more days to fish this amazing place before the rainy season starts later this month.

[thediscochef]

Went night fishing with a red eye shad. Got a 5.5 and a 3.1. By weight this suddenly becomes one of my best days all year and my second biggest bass of 2022. I got pooped on by a tiny spotted bass, and I'd almost lost the clippers that belonged to my dad, searched through the rock pile to find em. Then a guy came and casted me down after I caught the 3.1. Not even 5 minutes after he left, 5.5 crushes the RES literally right where he was standing. I like to leave on a high note. What a night. I'm very happy.

[Drawdown]

First bass on my new finesse rig—caught first fish on weightless Texas-rigged Stick-O between first light and sunrise. Then after the sun came up, tried a Neko rig for the first time. Used a Zoom trick worm. Didn’t buy fancy weights, either; drywall screws worked perfect.

[lunkerboss923]

They ain't biting