Super User Swamp Girl Posted July 30, 2023 Super User Posted July 30, 2023 Gar are southern pike. 2 Quote
Super User LrgmouthShad Posted July 30, 2023 Super User Posted July 30, 2023 Just me, but as long as the pike are big, I used to love catching pike. They are scrappy as heck. Sure beat up my spinners though 4 Quote
Super User Swamp Girl Posted July 30, 2023 Super User Posted July 30, 2023 9 minutes ago, LrgmouthShad said: Just me, but as long as the pike are big, I used to love catching pike. They are scrappy as heck. Sure beat up my spinners though Big pike are a blast. For my safety and theirs, I'd release them in the water, but one day in northwestern Ontario, we used a leaky, abandoned boat and a big net to boat and photograph one. It was caught on a F13 Rapala with 6 lb. test and no steel leader. 20 Quote
Pat Brown Posted July 30, 2023 Posted July 30, 2023 I LOVE Pike and Muskie. I actually really want to target them up North with my Uncle next time I get up there. They're like pretty intensely cool and beautiful and terrifying and all the good stuff. Love love love em. Walleye too. And trout. And salmon. Dad gum it, I just love fishing! Now about them gar....I put 20 lb big game on my flipping stick. I aim to go back to that laydown with my battle-axe and my war paint and see if I can't figure out what done snapped me off. ?? 4 1 Quote
Global Moderator 12poundbass Posted July 30, 2023 Global Moderator Posted July 30, 2023 Went out for a few hours this morning, post frontal conditions made for a tough bite. Spinnerbait was the ticket. 21 Quote
Woody B Posted July 30, 2023 Posted July 30, 2023 I've never got a Longnose Gar in the boat. It's my belief that their boney beak/mouths are impossible to sink a bass hook into. A friend of mine fishes for them. He described a piece of felt(?) attached to the hook for their needle teeth to get stuck in. I landed an 18 inch spot a few minutes after whatever snapped/bit my line off on the same line. For people who don't catch Spotted Bass, an 18 inch spot is like a jet powered submarine. 4 Quote
IcatchDinks Posted July 30, 2023 Posted July 30, 2023 2 hours ago, 12poundbass said: Went out for a few hours this morning, post frontal conditions made for a tough bite. Spinnerbait was the ticket. Beautiful silhouette! 2 hours ago, LrgmouthShad said: Just me, but as long as the pike are big, I used to love catching pike. They are scrappy as heck. Sure beat up my spinners though For me pike are just as fun as bass. Never caught a muskie, but one day.... 2 Quote
Super User Dwight Hottle Posted July 30, 2023 Super User Posted July 30, 2023 Got out on Lake Okeechobee fishing the rim canal this morning from 6:30 to 11:00 am. Four guys fishing from two boats having a mini tournament. Biggest fish won with the losing boat buying lunch. So all I fished was a 6” Bucca shad hoping to get the winner. Caught three nice ones on it. Other fish came on a top water spook & frog. Brett & I ate good. 28 Quote
Global Moderator 12poundbass Posted July 30, 2023 Global Moderator Posted July 30, 2023 1 hour ago, IcatchDinks said: Beautiful silhouette! Yeah we didn’t think about the sun until after it swam away and I looked at the picture. 2 Quote
Super User Swamp Girl Posted July 30, 2023 Super User Posted July 30, 2023 2 hours ago, IcatchDinks said: Beautiful silhouette! For me pike are just as fun as bass. Never caught a muskie, but one day.... the jumping ability of a smallmouth + a pike + the gumption of Audie Murphy makes a musky @Dwight Hottle; Way to go, Dwight! Beauty, @12poundbass. So, I shared that a cold front hit yesterday and the bass weren't feeding. The wind will swing from out of the north to out of the west overnight. It'll be 58 degrees tomorrow morning, rising to a high of 76. They have to return to eating, so I'm going to fish in the early morning and hope for the best. Do you think they'll be feeding again tomorrow morning? 1 2 Quote
Dominat0r Posted July 30, 2023 Posted July 30, 2023 Blazing hot day, thought it would be fitting to use a blazin worm to keep the streak alive! 2nd cast in......got my dink, I mean fish, for the day 7/30. Sun is suppose to be out till like 745pm tonight, so I may go back out if the temp goes down. 14 Quote
Super User gim Posted July 30, 2023 Super User Posted July 30, 2023 5 hours ago, LrgmouthShad said: Just me, but as long as the pike are big, I used to love catching pike. They are scrappy as heck. Sure beat up my spinners though The problem is that unless you’re in Canada, most of the pike nowadays are not going to be “big.” And by big, 30+ inches. 90% of them are of the small, annoying, lure wrecking, snot rocket variety in the 20 inch range. I do agree that once they approach the 30 inch range or bigger, then they’re more tolerable. I’ve caught about 40 pike this season on accident and 2 have been over 30 inches. We have way too many small ones here in MN. It’s a difficult problem to fix and will take many years to get results with more sizable fish. Spinnerbaits and chatterbaits especially take a beating. Ripped skirts, shredded plastic trailers, and bent frames are common. Quote
Super User Team9nine Posted July 30, 2023 Super User Posted July 30, 2023 We’ve cooled down just slightly, but the sun was out most of the day, so kind of negated everything. I decided to go “old school” on ‘em today, partly because I just wanted to and partly because I thought I might show them something they haven’t seen in a while. When was the last time you threw a pre-rigged worm? ? Yeah, those things with multiple little hooks in them. The sunshine and lack of steady winds didn't help the cause, but didn’t hurt it too bad, either. Ended the afternoon with 17 bass, but nothing over 2 lbs. it was still fun and nostalgic. I had mentioned I was going to update my catch records for the year, and I finally did. We’re 211 days into this year, and I’ve fished just over 125 of them - pretty good for central Indiana given our penchant for frozen water in Jan, Feb and often into March. It was a fairly mild winter overall. Seven of those trips were crappie, the rest were bass. Counting today’s catch, I’m over 1700 bass for the year, along with another 500+ misc fish, mostly crappie, but a little bit of everything. I’ve got maybe one more month left before things come to a big slowdown. 19 Quote
Super User Swamp Girl Posted July 30, 2023 Super User Posted July 30, 2023 13 minutes ago, Team9nine said: over 1700 bass for the year, along with another 500+ misc fish, mostly crappie 2 Quote
Super User MIbassyaker Posted July 31, 2023 Super User Posted July 31, 2023 River float today, as I was itching to catch some smallmouth. I chose a river section I hadn't yet fished or paddled before: And wouldn't you know it, the first bass was green --a 16"er who took a whopper plopper 75. Everything after that was bronze, though. A handful of 14-15"s were very interested in a rage tail menace grub: But the best of the day was this 17", another WP fish: Actually, two this size on the WP, but the other wriggled overboard before I could snap a pic. 10 total, a few nice ones -- all I can ask for in a new location. Pretty good day. 20 Quote
Global Moderator TnRiver46 Posted July 31, 2023 Global Moderator Posted July 31, 2023 @Pat Brown and @Woody B, I do a whole lot of gar fishing and they rarely break my line, get 40”+ regularly on light spinning tackle. now pike I got into today floating a river in Michigan and I went 1 for 7 , all clean slices on the hookset but I did boat a 23” , Only my second pike ever!! I was beyond excited 6 Quote
Super User NorcalBassin Posted July 31, 2023 Super User Posted July 31, 2023 Haven't been able to fish much this summer, so even a quick trip with a few small fish has been quite enjoyable. Really looking forward to fall when we can make it out a little more regularly. 19 Quote
IcatchDinks Posted July 31, 2023 Posted July 31, 2023 Well, they're fish, I guess. The weather has cooled down, it's been absolutely gorgeous out, the recent storms have filled the once low, weed-choked ponds... And the bass won't bite. But I did find a perfectly good baseball, and a doe joined me on the bank for a drink of water and a light snack of grass, so that was super cool. 19 Quote
you Posted July 31, 2023 Posted July 31, 2023 Given the temps lately, I decided to head to my local swamp on Sunday and fish in the shade. Slow day. Just a few bass on trick worms. Can't complain about the scenery, though. 15 Quote
IcatchDinks Posted July 31, 2023 Posted July 31, 2023 @you I was rather confused by this notification until I clicked on it. ? Beautiful fish, btw. 2 Quote
Super User Swamp Girl Posted July 31, 2023 Super User Posted July 31, 2023 22 minutes ago, IcatchDinks said: @you I was rather confused by this notification until I clicked on it. ? Beautiful fish, btw. It tricked me too. Quote
you Posted July 31, 2023 Posted July 31, 2023 Haha, sorry about the mind games @ol'crickety and @IcatchDinks! Just thought it was a funny username when I picked it. 1 Quote
Super User Swamp Girl Posted July 31, 2023 Super User Posted July 31, 2023 No biggie, @you. Just happy to have you in the thread and I love seeing your bass! Quote
Dominat0r Posted July 31, 2023 Posted July 31, 2023 Got to keep the streak alive.......fish for 7/31, almost 2 months of a fish everyday! I am almost to my goal. LETS GOOO! Was super blazing hot, now its hurricane time for the next 5-6 hours. Storms are coming! I was able to get out right when overcast started, thank god....the UV index today was 9. Got this off a blazin worm, junebug color. 14 Quote
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