Latest Catch Pics Thread

[Jar11591]

@Aaron_H Hawg!

[GaryH]

1 hour ago, Aaron_H said:

H2O Xpress jerkbait strikes again!

 

Buddy invited me to fish the pond behind his house for a bit today, we haven't fished it since late spring. Never caught anything big out of it but it's been there ~20 years and is (for most of the year) full of hydrilla with tons of forage. Kept telling him it was primo big bass habitat and I knew there were some big girls lurking in there.

 

Well we got ~1.5 hour window to fish it a bit and about a half hour in I finally hooked into a really nice one on the jerkbait. She stayed down the whole time, never jumped, I thought I might have foul hooked the giant grass carp I've seen cruising around in here but about filled my britches when I finally saw her. She took me a ways down the bank before she tired enough to get her in. A handful of very strong runs, it was an excellent fight despite the lack of jumps.

 

She came in at 8lb 10oz, had to weigh her a couple of times since the scale tipped just over 9lb when I first put her on there, but it settled at 8-10 both times.

 

This fish brings my 2022 best five up to 45lb 6oz. Doubt I'll catch another upgrade before the end of the year but I couldn't be happier with it.

 

 

[AlabamaSpothunter]

2 hours ago, Aaron_H said:

H2O Xpress jerkbait strikes again!

 

Buddy invited me to fish the pond behind his house for a bit today, we haven't fished it since late spring. Never caught anything big out of it but it's been there ~20 years and is (for most of the year) full of hydrilla with tons of forage. Kept telling him it was primo big bass habitat and I knew there were some big girls lurking in there.

 

Well we got ~1.5 hour window to fish it a bit and about a half hour in I finally hooked into a really nice one on the jerkbait. She stayed down the whole time, never jumped, I thought I might have foul hooked the giant grass carp I've seen cruising around in here but about filled my britches when I finally saw her. She took me a ways down the bank before she tired enough to get her in. A handful of very strong runs, it was an excellent fight despite the lack of jumps.

 

She came in at 8lb 10oz, had to weigh her a couple of times since the scale tipped just over 9lb when I first put her on there, but it settled at 8-10 both times.

 

This fish brings my 2022 best five up to 45lb 6oz. Doubt I'll catch another upgrade before the end of the year but I couldn't be happier with it.

 

Amazing job brother!   What an amazing fish, and trophy!   

 

I've been tracking the big fish in this thread since joining, and this is the new big fish.  I joined in August.     

[AlabamaSpothunter]

Been slammed with work, but finally slowing down so I got out for the first time in over a week.....all I know is it was terrible lol.

 

Water temp was almost 61 degrees in some areas lol......such is life in central Alabama.

 

Bite was really slow oddly enough but I got lucky and found a nice little pattern that produced a number of really quality Spots.     Caught 5 Spots, 4 of them were well over 2lbs, and the biggest was in that 3-4lb class......second fish I've caught now with a tag.   First was a 5.8lb LGM at the end of summer.   

 

Fishing dropoffs with a 3/8 Finesse Jig a Strikeking 3x bitsy bug trailer.    Half of them picked it up on the fall.     

[GaryH]

35 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Been slammed with work, but finally slowing down so I got out for the first time in over a week.....all I know is it was terrible lol.

 

Water temp was almost 61 degrees in some areas lol......such is life in central Alabama.

 

Bite was really slow oddly enough but I got lucky and found a nice little pattern that produced a number of really quality Spots.     Caught 5 Spots, 4 of them were well over 2lbs, and the biggest was in that 3-4lb class......second fish I've caught now with a tag.   First was a 5.8lb LGM at the end of summer.   

 

Fishing dropoffs with a 3/8 Finesse Jig a Strikeking 3x bitsy bug trailer.    Half of them picked it up on the fall.     

Nice job..?

[AlabamaSpothunter]

44 minutes ago, GaryH said:

Nice job..?

Thanks Gary! 

[Aaron_H]

1 hour ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Amazing job brother!   What an amazing fish, and trophy!   

 

I've been tracking the big fish in this thread since joining, and this is the new big fish.  I joined in August.     

 

Thank you! This is my 4th submission this year to FWC's TrophyCatch program.

 

I feel like I'm just a dingus chucking lures into the void, but sometimes the fish cooperate.

[Swamp Girl]

@AlabamaSpothunter

 

Alex is back on the water!

 

[T-Billy]

9 hours ago, Aaron_H said:

I feel like I'm just a dingus chucking lures into the void, but sometimes the fish cooperate.

Any "dingus" can luck into a biggin now and then, but not with the regularity that you catch 'em. You know what your doing, and you're only gonna get better. 

[Woody B]

11 hours ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

second fish I've caught now with a tag.

 

Do you know who does the tagging?   I haven't caught a tagged fish but there's signs at the landings on one lake I fish that ask you to photograph, weight and release the fish is possible and call a certain phone number to report it.   

[AlabamaSpothunter]

4 hours ago, Woody B said:

 

Do you know who does the tagging?   I haven't caught a tagged fish but there's signs at the landings on one lake I fish that ask you to photograph, weight and release the fish is possible and call a certain phone number to report it.   

No I don't but this one was fresher so I took a picture of the information on the tag.   

 

There is no reason to be tagging fish on this lake, so I imagine its someones own little project.   

 

The state used to put tags in bigger Rainbows and if you caught them and reported the info you got a reward.  Not sure they are still doing that.   

 

[thediscochef]

Still piddling around with these little guys at my usual spot. My birthday trip yesterday got canceled for storms that didn't materialize, but I'm going to be in Houston all next week so I'm hoping to go check out Lake Livingston and see if there's much to have down there. The reschedule of yesterday's trip will be the day after I get home, so hopefully next week turns into a good one

[Chris Catignani]

16 hours ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Been slammed with work, but finally slowing down so I got out for the first time in over a week.....all I know is it was terrible lol.

 

Water temp was almost 61 degrees in some areas lol......such is life in central Alabama.

 

Bite was really slow oddly enough but I got lucky and found a nice little pattern that produced a number of really quality Spots.     Caught 5 Spots, 4 of them were well over 2lbs, and the biggest was in that 3-4lb class......second fish I've caught now with a tag.   First was a 5.8lb LGM at the end of summer.   

 

Fishing dropoffs with a 3/8 Finesse Jig a Strikeking 3x bitsy bug trailer.    Half of them picked it up on the fall.     

 

 

 

 I had a change to fish Weiss for 3 days this fall...those Alabama spots are no joke.

[AlabamaSpothunter]

8 minutes ago, Chris Catignani said:

 I had a change to fish Weiss for 3 days this fall...those Alabama spots are no joke.

They really are a blast to catch.   I love how they pack together like Sharks.

 

I was watching a video about the WR caught out in CA, and while catching the WR one, they also caught several more over 7lbs.    I honestly can't imagine the fight of a 10lb Alabama Bass ?    

[The Bassman]

Managed to get out a little bit before it rained this morning. Bass showed some signs of activity after several days of little results. These two came on a jerkbait. Second fish was a "double" with a mussel shell along for the ride. Pics are still a bit shaky still but my doc assures me that it'll resolve as I gain more strength. Had no idea how much surgery takes the energy out of you.

[Blue Raider Bob]

2 minutes ago, The Bassman said:

Managed to get out a little bit before it rained this morning. Bass showed some signs of activity after several days of little results. These two came on a jerkbait. Second fish was a "double" with a mussel shell along for the ride. Pics are still a bit shaky still but my doc assures me that it'll resolve as I gain more strength. Had no idea how much surgery takes the energy out of you.

Fantastic! Continue to get better! I would be shakey too if I were trying to photo bass that big!

[The Bassman]

3 minutes ago, Blue Raider Bob said:

Fantastic! Continue to get better! I would be shakey too if I were trying to photo bass that big!

Thanks for the encouragement. They were both under two lb. I'm just a weakling right now.

[Swamp Girl]

@ The Bassman

 

No Midwesterner who catches bass in December, wearing gloves, following surgery, is a weakling. 

 

Here's a story of other tough people:

 

I used to drive across northern Wisconsin in January. The wind would be howling and the Amish would be pedaling their bicycles.

 

I'd see them and think, "Toughest people on Earth."

[Blue Raider Bob]

1 hour ago, The Bassman said:

Thanks for the encouragement. They were both under two lb. I'm just a weakling right now.

Those are the biggest two lb. Bass ever! Ask Santa for a new scale! Yours are stuck on two!

[The Bassman]

35 minutes ago, Blue Raider Bob said:

Those are the biggest two lb. Bass ever! Ask Santa for a new scale! Yours are stuck on two!

You have to understand it's all a con game. Now when I post a bigger one I can stretch the truth a little and you guys'll buy it. lol

[AlabamaSpothunter]

My excitement level came really close to blowing a fuse today.....was past the point of talking out loud to yourself, entered the realm of casting straight in the air/or water ?

 

I'll preface this session by saying that yesterday was the first time perhaps since I've gotten Sonar that I couldn't find heavy bait presence in the area of lake I was in and thought they'd be in.   

 

So today I figured I'd start out on that part of the lake and hit a few specific targeted locations with the BD Shad looking for the White Whale, then I'd satisfy my curiosity by running to opposite end of the lake which is a true gamble with my current boat setup/lake size.  

 

Within 20mins of starting the session a 5.5lb absolute beautiful dark pig smoked my BD Shad on one of the targeted locations, at that point I was house money the rest of the day and I took off for the other side.   She was so healthy, and fat.   She'll be my White Whale in a few years.

 

Upon arriving at the other side of the lake I see massive eruptions in a creek arm with less than 1ft of water in most places......without a push pole I couldn't get most of the way back there, it was crazy watching Herons and hundreds of Bass destroy thousands of Shad.    

 

About 20 mins later the main event started, and for 30mins I've never seen anything close to this level of feeding activity.  Over the size of 2-3 acres of lake with an average depth of 2.5ft I'd say, thousands and thousands of Shad were trapped.     

 

I thought this was going to happen yesterday, it's extraordinarily hot here right now, and yesterday I almost saw 62 degree water temps.  Today I hit 63.8 where the main event happened.   

 

Big girl and some of the other fish are on the video I'll upload in a bit, but hopefully I captured a fraction of what was happening in the above scenario I'm describing.   At points you could have seemingly netted the fish blowing up on Shad so close to you.   

 

Another unique thing was I caught fish on a big Swimbait, a finesse jig, the Shimano WM Flashboost Jerkbait, and lastly caught two on a Buzzbait.    They disappeared like literally a switch was flipped.   I feel very blessed to have witnessed such a spectacle of nature like that.   I have no idea how many times that happens, but I imagine a complicated series of things all had to come together perfectly in order to produce such an epic feeding frenzy.   I'm talking hundreds of Bass, I can remember seeing vividly a 3lb+ fish clear the water.      

 

 

 

 

Next pics are good representations for the size of both the LGM and Spots I was then catching, 1-2lb fish.  

 

 

 

[Jar11591]

@AlabamaSpothunter sounds insane. Looking forward to the video. Very nice fish too. 

[Swamp Girl]

ALEX!!!!!!! What a belly on that bass!!!

 

I too await the video with bated breath because I love to see predators bunching baitfish. Wait, since we're talking fishing, maybe it's baited breath.*

 

 

*Sorry. Nerd Humor. I apologize.

 

 

 

[Woody B]

I hope I don't jinx myself.  I don't usually talk about a trip before I go.  My catch rate has slowed since the water cooled down so I'm going to try some new (to me) stuff tomorrow.  

 

I've got a "special" Alabama rig.  I will only tell how it's rigged if I catch at least 1 bass on it.  

 

On the other end of the (weight) spectrum I'm going to try a ned rig.  My last 3 trips I've seen a bunch of bass on sonar, basically ignoring everything I've thrown.  It's time to try something different.   

[Smells like fish]

2 acre pond, 2.5 hours to fish. 
 

Water temp upper 40’s. Air temp was upper 50’s, overcast occasional misty drizzle.

 

Red eye Shadded for half an hour but no takes. 
 

MegaBass 110 silent caught 3 small bass. 
Rapala X Rap caught 3 small bass and a giant crappie. 
The hair jig got neglected