Latest Catch Pics Thread

[Swamp Girl]

 

Alex, wouldn't you win many big tournaments with that bag?

 

I know this: You sure have won my respect for your skill, tenacity, and joy. 

[AlabamaSpothunter]

24 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

 

Alex, wouldn't you win many big tournaments with that bag?

 

I know this: You sure have won my respect for your skill, tenacity, and joy. 

I think that's the average bag on a good lake for the elite pros......it always amazes me the gap between myself and those pros.     

 

I had a 21lb+ Spotted bag the one time I fished with a true pro.....Dalton Bobo, who lost the Classic on a dead fish penalty.     That was in high school, I knew right then I'd never be a pro like that.   Still one of the best days of my life.    One 4lb+ Spot after the next on Lay Lake in the Fall on big Jerkbaits.  

 

Quick story on that.......He lost the Classic by an oz on a dead fish penalty (story on that fish is pretty wild).    His hometown is not far from mine, so I was devastated when he lost the Classic.  I knew he must be, so being a kid I looked up his number in the white pages and called him on the phone.   To my shock he answered the phone and I told him how much of a hero he was of mine after his performance in the Classic, and that he'd always be the winner in my book.     He told me to be ready in a week to go fishing with him during a trip he had planned for on Lay Lake.     I still couldn't believe until the morning my parents were dropping me off at the Hardees and lo and behold the most beautiful Bass rig I'd ever seen, a brand spanking new Ranger Comanche was glistening in the parking lot.

 

One of the most awesome human beings I've ever met to this day, he gave me the most amazing gift ever.    Pics are from that day.   That's still the most beautiful fish I've ever caught......the quality sucks because they are pics of pics.  

 

[Swamp Girl]

What a great story, Alex! And what a good, good man.

[AlabamaSpothunter]

Just now, ol'crickety said:

What a great story, Alex! And what a good, good man.

Absolutely, and I've been trying to get back in touch with him since I started back fishing.

 

I even invited him to be the speaker at the High School Outdoor club.......yep, he showed up and talked to about 40-50 students for an hour, and I was hero to all those students for bringing in a Bassmaster.

 

I only saw him in the flesh twice, yet the impression he left on my life forever is etched permanently into my memory.     Take a kid fishing couldn't be any truer, or more noble!

[Eric 26]

31 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

I think that's the average bag on a good lake for the elite pros......it always amazes me the gap between myself and those pros.     

 

I had a 21lb+ Spotted bag the one time I fished with a true pro.....Dalton Bobo, who lost the Classic on a dead fish penalty.     That was in high school, I knew right then I'd never be a pro like that.   Still one of the best days of my life.    One 4lb+ Spot after the next on Lay Lake in the Fall on big Jerkbaits.  

 

Quick story on that.......He lost the Classic by an oz on a dead fish penalty (story on that fish is pretty wild).    His hometown is not far from mine, so I was devastated when he lost the Classic.  I knew he must be, so being a kid I looked up his number in the white pages and called him on the phone.   To my shock he answered the phone and I told him how much of a hero he was of mine after his performance in the Classic, and that he'd always be the winner in my book.     He told me to be ready in a week to go fishing with him during a trip he had planned for on Lay Lake.     I still couldn't believe until the morning my parents were dropping me off at the Hardees and lo and behold the most beautiful Bass rig I'd ever seen, a brand spanking new Ranger Comanche was glistening in the parking lot.

 

One of the most awesome human beings I've ever met to this day, he gave me the most amazing gift ever.    Pics are from that day.   That's still the most beautiful fish I've ever caught......the quality sucks because they are pics of pics.  

 

 

24 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Absolutely, and I've been trying to get back in touch with him since I started back fishing.

 

I even invited him to be the speaker at the High School Outdoor club.......yep, he showed up and talked to about 40-50 students for an hour, and I was hero to all those students for bringing in a Bassmaster.

 

I only saw him in the flesh twice, yet the impression he left on my life forever is etched permanently into my memory.     Take a kid fishing couldn't be any truer, or more noble!

Holy Schiznit Alex! That’s an absolute awesome story and the photos are absolutely amazing no matter what you think. Thank you for sharing both the photos and more importantly the story and most importantly the message .

Edited January 15, 2023 by Eric 26
Grammar

[AlabamaSpothunter]

1 minute ago, Eric 26 said:

 

Holy Schiznit Alex! That’s an absolute awesome story and the photos are absolutely amazing no matter what you think. Thank you for sharing bothe the photos and more importantly the story and more importantly the message .

Always so thoughtful and kind Eric, I appreciate it!  

[PhishLI]

7 hours ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

I had a 21lb+ Spotted bag the one time I fished with a true pro.....Dalton Bobo, who lost the Classic on a dead fish penalty.     That was in high school, I knew right then I'd never be a pro like that.   Still one of the best days of my life.    One 4lb+ Spot after the next on Lay Lake in the Fall on big Jerkbaits.  

Now there's a cool memory! Friends, laughs, and photographs.

8 hours ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Best 5 fish went almost 22.5lbs. 

Very nice!

8 hours ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Sure wish I had fished winters before

I can usually suck it up on cold days, especially when I have "that" feeling, but some winter days up here are just a bridge too far.

 

Just let my pooch out for her morning squirt. She made it out about 5 feet from the door when an arctic blast stopped her cold in her tracks. She did a cartoonish four-paw-skid then nearly hyperextended my knee barreling back through the partially opened sliders. Just checked the forecast. I was gonna...I really was... but NFW! In the meantime, I'll have to live vicariously through your vidya. Thankee!

 

 

 

[Jar11591]

@AlabamaSpothunter Awesome man. That's a great day of fishing. Always love the videos. I can't wait to spend some time throwing an A-rig this year. I have at least 2 months before open water, but that gives me some time to pick out a dedicated setup for it.

[Swamp Girl]

This might sound a little strange, but I awoke this morning happy for Alex. We've all had a good evening of fishing and awoke the next morning happy for all the bass we caught, but today, I had that same giddiness, except my first thought was, "Alex caught all those big bass!"

 

And I was grinning, remembering Alex's video and photos. 

 

Sincerely,

 

A Yankee who hasn't caught a beautiful bass for more than a couple months, but is happy when her Southern cyber-pals do

[TnRiver46]

Southern ice fishing, saw some frozen puddles walking to the spot…….

 

8 lb seaguar basix zoom tiny fluke 

[AlabamaSpothunter]

52 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

This might sound a little strange, but I awoke this morning happy for Alex. We've all had a good evening of fishing and awoke the next morning happy for all the bass we caught, but today, I had that same giddiness, except my first thought was, "Alex caught all those big bass!"

 

And I was grinning, remembering Alex's video and photos. 

 

Sincerely,

 

A Yankee who hasn't caught a beautiful bass for more than a couple months, but is happy when her Southern cyber-pals do

Haha, you're so kind Katie, I know exactly what you are talking about.    You wake up pumped to have the opportunity to put into practice the stuff you just learned.

2 hours ago, Jar11591 said:

@AlabamaSpothunter Awesome man. That's a great day of fishing. Always love the videos. I can't wait to spend some time throwing an A-rig this year. I have at least 2 months before open water, but that gives me some time to pick out a dedicated setup for it.

Thanks brother!   Yeah you definitely need to be slinging this A-Rig in a few months.   Toads seem to love it, and that strike is quite addictive.   Fish really hammer this bait, very similar to how they hit the bigger swimbaits.    

 

I can't wait until all my Northern best buddies get back into the action, this thread is so much more fun when everybody is in season.    I could look at fish pics all day ?

17 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Southern ice fishing, saw some frozen puddles walking to the spot…….

 

8 lb seaguar basix zoom tiny fluke 

Pretty fish, and what a deadly little bait.   Need to learn how to tie those knots.  

5 hours ago, PhishLI said:

Now there's a cool memory! Friends, laughs, and photographs.

Very nice!

I can usually suck it up on cold days, especially when I have "that" feeling, but some winter days up here are just a bridge too far.

 

Just let my pooch out for her morning squirt. She made it out about 5 feet from the door when an arctic blast stopped her cold in her tracks. She did a cartoonish four-paw-skid then nearly hyperextended my knee barreling back through the partially opened sliders. Just checked the forecast. I was gonna...I really was... but NFW! In the meantime, I'll have to live vicariously through your vidya. Thankee!

 

 

 

You get a pass friend, I ain't fishing in 20mph wind, with freezing temps.......yeah I'm soft, so what ?

[TnRiver46]

24 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Haha, you're so kind Katie, I know exactly what you are talking about.    You wake up pumped to have the opportunity to put into practice the stuff you just learned.

Thanks brother!   Yeah you definitely need to be slinging this A-Rig in a few months.   Toads seem to love it, and that strike is quite addictive.   Fish really hammer this bait, very similar to how they hit the bigger swimbaits.    

 

I can't wait until all my Northern best buddies get back into the action, this thread is so much more fun when everybody is in season.    I could look at fish pics all day ?

Pretty fish, and what a deadly little bait.   Need to learn how to tie those knots.  

You get a pass friend, I ain't fishing in 20mph wind, with freezing temps.......yeah I'm soft, so what ?

@Deleted account can show you how to tie the loop knot……..

 

just kidding it’s super easy, I do the rapala knot. It used to come diagramed on paper with every rapala in the box 

[Swamp Girl]

1 hour ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

I can't wait until all my Northern best buddies get back into the action, this thread is so much more fun when everybody is in season.    I could look at fish pics all day ?

 

Heck, yeah. I'm up to 44 ponds I want to fish in 2023, 10 from last year and 34 new ones. Of course, I won't be able to fish all of them because I'll find some favorites that I'll want to fish several times, but I'm feeling like a kid outside a candy shop with my face pressed against the window, waiting and waiting for the shop owner to flip the sign from "CLOSED" to "OPEN"! So, I study and study them on Google Earth and study the Maine Fish and Wildlife depth maps too and plan where I'll fish first and second and....

[Deleted account]

1 hour ago, TnRiver46 said:

@Deleted account can show you how to tie the loop knot……..

Be happy to, I can tie several, (perfection is my favorite) just ain't using one...  

[AlabamaSpothunter]

7 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

 

Heck, yeah. I'm up to 44 ponds I want to fish in 2023, 10 from last year and 34 new ones. Of course, I won't be able to fish all of them because I'll find some favorites that I'll want to fish several times, but I'm feeling like a kid outside a candy shop with my face pressed against the window, waiting and waiting for the shop owner to flip the sign from "CLOSED" to "OPEN"! So, I study and study them on Google Earth and study the Maine Fish and Wildlife depth maps too and plan where I'll fish first and second and....

I'm already counting down the days until those beautiful dark Maine greenbacks are posted ?

 

44 Ponds is awesome, that might be the total number of ponds I've fished in my whole life.   That certainly makes the sport more exciting.   

[TnRiver46]

24 minutes ago, Deleted account said:

Be happy to, I can tie several, (perfection is my favorite) just ain't using one...  

I use the perfection loop quite a bit in fly fishing

[LrgmouthShad]

Moving spots. I’ve already picked up a couple today on spinnerbaits 

[Swamp Girl]

44 minutes ago, LrgmouthShad said:

Moving spots. I’ve already picked up a couple today on spinnerbaits 

 

Is this a live feed fishing day? Cool! Go, Mr. Shad, go!

[Deleted account]

2 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

I use the perfection loop quite a bit in fly fishing

Yeah, I use one for fly line to butt, and sometimes line to tippet, but mostly for snelled hooks.

[LrgmouthShad]

Alright I’m going to call it quits early. I wasted almost 2hrs walking in the woods trying to find other spots on the bank that I could fish on this lake and didn’t really find anything that pleased me. My spots to fish right now are really limited.

 

But picked up four, three on spinnerbait and one on the same lipless as yesterday. The wind was absolutely roaring around noon. The largest bass looked decent, I didn’t weigh it but thought maybe it was around 2.5lbs. It was also the shallowest fish that I caught. 
 

Fun day out on the water. Love it when I can get them to eat a spinner. The one I used today is a clear water assassin. 

[ScottW]

Almost got skunked 

 

[AlabamaSpothunter]

34 minutes ago, LrgmouthShad said:

Alright I’m going to call it quits early. I wasted almost 2hrs walking in the woods trying to find other spots on the bank that I could fish on this lake and didn’t really find anything that pleased me. My spots to fish right now are really limited.

 

But picked up four, three on spinnerbait and one on the same lipless as yesterday. The wind was absolutely roaring around noon. The largest bass looked decent, I didn’t weigh it but thought maybe it was around 2.5lbs. It was also the shallowest fish that I caught. 
 

Fun day out on the water. Love it when I can get them to eat a spinner. The one I used today is a clear water assassin. 

Beautiful fish, and there is catching Bass, and then there's catching Bass the way you want to catch them.  One of those ways is lot more fun than the other.

 

First day I tried out a Ned Rig I caught several fish on a day when they wouldn't bite anything else....guess what I haven't thrown since, yep a Ned Rig.   Somethings just aren't fun to fish with.  

[LrgmouthShad]

1 hour ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Beautiful fish, and there is catching Bass, and then there's catching Bass the way you want to catch them.  One of those ways is lot more fun than the other.

 

First day I tried out a Ned Rig I caught several fish on a day when they wouldn't bite anything else....guess what I haven't thrown since, yep a Ned Rig.   Somethings just aren't fun to fish with.  

Well, yeah, I do like catching them on a spinner. And when the wind is so strong like it was, about the only thing that I like to throw is something that I can retrieve constantly, and I had two fish within 30min on spinner so not a hard choice for me! Lol. But I mixed in some lipless too. 
 

By the way, that last fish bit so weird. Basically I’d been casting out in the same general area for a while, covering a dropoff, and every time then spinner came back to me, it was still pretty deep close to shore because I was retrieving it real slow. Well, I look in front of me and I just see this nice looking piece of cover that I’ve been running by and without a single thought telling me to do anything, I just make a short, super soft entry next to that piece of cover. Now, like I said I’d already passed there deeper. But this time I cast right to it, so my lure was higher up in the water column, and that fish came up and grabbed it. I had to take a moment to process what just happened after that bite. Really strange. Subtle differences make a difference sometimes I guess

[LrgmouthShad]

46 minutes ago, LrgmouthShad said:

And when the wind is so strong like it was

I just checked the weather for tomorrow and saw that the weather today had updated. At noon when I was fishing my spot, the winds were 20mph. I’m not surprised 

 

 

[Woody B]

23 hours ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

You should throw an A-Rig tomorrow.   

 

Big ol Skunk today.  (I did "touch the leader" but I don't count that)  I've got A-rigs.   I normally use 4 Money Minnows on 1/8 ounce jigs heads, with a 1/2 ounce Johnson Silver Minnow spoon in the middle.   I lost my favorite A-rig last week as well as my spoon.   The one I was catching bass on at Lake Norman is bare.  The others ones I have, and the one I was using today have small willow leaf blades.   I lost 3 fish today.   2 were an A-rig double that I "touched the leader" on.   Not much of a fight, but I could tell there was some weight.  I had my glove on to lip it.  When I saw it was a double I was fumbling to get my net.  I must have gave the some slack, both shook off right beside the boat.   They weren't huge, I'd guess 2 or 3 pounds.    The other one I lost might not have been hooked.  It grabbed my jerkbait as I was picking it up out of the water.   When I made that cast I decided that was my last cast.  I fished 15 more minutes after the boatside hit.  Water was 48 when I got there.  Air temp was 24 on the way.   The lake was still pretty bad muddy on the lower end.  I went up the lake ~15 miles to water that wasn't as muddy.   I saw one BIG log sticking out of the lake.   It wasn't sitting on the bottom, it's 40 feet deep where I took the picture.   

 

 

 

I believe attitude can effect fishing.  (and most other things in life)  The landing that I love is closed for construction.   There's one I hate a couple miles away.....but I HATE it.  The landing I used is near the dam, not near the section of the lake I normally fish.   I may go to some other lakes until my favorite landing is open again.