Latest Catch Pics Thread

[LrgmouthShad]

@BrianMDTX My biggest dislike of Central Texas is that the ‘trees’ are just glorified bushes. 

 

I have quite a few things I like about Texas though. It certainly is not a bad place to live. That’s even withstanding that the summer was INSANE, STUPID hot

[Swamp Girl]

1 hour ago, LrgmouthShad said:

@BrianMDTX My biggest dislike of Central Texas is that the ‘trees’ are just glorified bushes. 

 

I have quite a few things I like about Texas though. It certainly is not a bad place to live. That’s even withstanding that the summer was INSANE, STUPID hot

 

Florida is the same way. The trees are too short for me. I want cathedral trees, not shed trees. 

[TnRiver46]

Got a few this AM, the spot paid the ultimate price 

[LrgmouthShad]

@TnRiver46 the way you are holding that smallmouth it looks like a swimbait 

[TnRiver46]

4 minutes ago, LrgmouthShad said:

@TnRiver46 the way you are holding that smallmouth it looks like a swimbait 

Caught several swimbaits 

[LrgmouthShad]

@TnRiver46 careful what you say. I can already hear Steve Kennedy running towards you and giggling 

[Bankbeater]

It's October and that means Jitterbug time.  The dinks were tearing it up from first light until the sun hit the water.  After the Jitterbug bite died I got the last bass on a swimjig.  I saw the snake on the way back to the car.

[Aaron_H]

22 hours ago, thediscochef said:

I've had one good bite across three boat trips this year with two different guides. I just get the opportunity so little, I'm honestly pretty upset at how that has gone this year. Been looking forward to this trip for weeks. Guide caught a 7+ and a couple smaller fish. My buddy and I had a single 16" fish between the two of us on an 8 hour trip. I get that nobody controls the bite but I do feel like maybe when you realize your clients haven't caught **** all day, maybe put your own rod down for a little bit and give them first crack at a FFS fish for once 

 

Would've had some words for that guide if it'd been me. A cast here and there is one thing, but you're there to guide, not fish. Wouldn't have tipped, and would've posted a bad review. Sorry to hear the trip was a disappointment for you.

[thediscochef]

13 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

Got a few this AM, the spot paid the ultimate price 

The price of deliciousness 

[thediscochef]

Got back out today at a spot I've been hitting a lot lately, caught 9 bass on a walking bait. Shallow this morning. I had probably just as many bass miss the bait. Feels good

[Woody B]

Kinda fishing report after camping trip Saturday.  The camping trip was to a local 1500 acre lake.  I was temped to call it skunk lake, but I usually manage to catch 1 or 2 tiny spots.    Yesterday was no exception.  I caught a small one.  (first picture, the picture makes it look bigger)  Mrs B's cousins husband caught one.   The picture makes it look smaller.  It "might" have been 14 inches.  I didn't measure it......so it wasn't shorter than 14".   The lake was FULL of people fishing.   One guy is always posting fish pictures of fakebook.   We've thought for some time he was posting a single fish picture multiple times.  I watched him several different times come up to an area, pull a bass out of his livewell, take a picture, then fish for a bit.  Later at the landing I saw him release a single fish out of his livewell.   I saw the pictures later on fakebook.  I'm 99% sure they were all the same bass, out of his livewell with different backgrounds.   I've been resisting commenting "that looks like a bunch of pictures of the same bass".    

 

Anyway, camping trip was great...... didn't get skunked, and had a delicious nice thick rib eye cooked on the campfire last night.   

 

[Swamp Girl]

4 minutes ago, Woody B said:

We've thought for some time he was posting a single fish picture multiple times.  I watched him several different times come up to an area, pull a bass out of his livewell, take a picture, then fish for a bit.  Later at the landing I saw him release a single fish out of his livewell.   I saw the pictures later on fakebook.  I'm 99% sure they were all the same bass, out of his livewell with different backgrounds.   I've been resisting commenting "that looks like a bunch of pictures of the same bass".    

 

Man, that's a lot of work to impress a few friends and relations. Bad for the bass too. 

[Woody B]

I made it to Lake Woodybchuck this afternoon for a couple hours after getting home from camping.   I thought I had caught 5, but after checking my pictures it was 6.   I have a clicker I keep count with, but left if in my coat pocket in the truck.   The first, and smallest was a Largemouth.  The last was a 17 1/2" Largemouth.  The rest were Spots, including one that was 18 1/2" and one that was 17".   

 

[PhishLI]

Headed up to one of my favorite local spots for an afternoon sesh. Winds were ripping at 21mph, and 52* felt more like 32*. It felt good though. I haven't been there much over the past several months due to being aggravated by the night-crew bucketeer poachers, and the huge piles of stinking milfoil left on the shore by one lone casting net criminal, or so I thought. Casting nets are illegal here and so is taking bass, period. I confronted this guy twice. The second time I wasn't nice at all, and he split.

 

As I was wading through a creek on my way to the lake, I passed by one of the regulars. He asked how I've been doing here and told him I haven't really been down for some time. He said fishing's been awful for months, almost impossible, then went on to share the worst news. It turns out a casting net crew had been pounding this place at night. Someone finally got the DEC officers to show up and they caught four of them. They denied having any fish, but the officers found their stash bags loaded with 90 fish. 90 fish in one night. How much damage have they done to this 25-acre place over the course of months? Apparently, a lot. For the most part, the regular I met in the creek typically fishes the zone they netted. They all got ticketed and the story made a local paper. This place has been a tough bite for years without these clowns pillaging it further. It makes me sick.

 

The upside is that there are zones these jackholes can't do their work, so I went to those under the assumption that they'd wiped out the resident fish where they plied their trade.

 

We had heavy rain Friday through Saturday, so I knew they'd be offshore. I tried working cover nearshore anyway, but no bueno. I got all my bites moon-shotting a Fat IKA rigged on a 1/4oz swimbait hook and slow dragged it up a drop-off. Tough to set a hook at 180ft out, but I nabbed two scrappy smalls and left with some bass perfume on my thumb. I'll take it, and the fallen leaves gave the place some nice color. I'm still fuming though.

 

[AlabamaSpothunter]

Great fish all things considering buddy, and the reason the Bass is so awesome is in part due to it's ability to survive extreme levels of pressure, it's hard to kill a Bass population once it takes holds.    

 

Once you get old enough in life, one realizes how much humans ruin pretty everything that isn't man made, aka nature 😥

 

I think that's why I romanticize Katie's adventures and amazing success, she fishes for these fish in unmolested, unmanaged, largely un fished locations.    As I've said a number of times now here, if I were a Bass, no doubt about it I want to live wherever Katie fishes.    

 

If I put in the work Katie puts in, you better believe I'm expecting not to see other anglers, or humans 😁

[Swamp Girl]

Sadly, Alex, I can foresee my fine, local fishing fading. More and more houses are being built in Maine and a member of the BR community who lives in southern Maine reported that he's catching fewer fish and seeing less non-finned wildlife too, blaming the people who crowd their homes on shorelines.

 

Humans do ruin pretty much everything. On my last outing, I retrieved two bobbing beer bottles from the bog and fetched two beer cans in the woods. 

 

I'm grateful that @PhishLI scolded the glutton/thief who was casting a net. 

[gim]

Cabin or lake shore owners isn’t necessarily a death sentence. Many lakes form a lake association and put together an annual clean up of the lake, in addition to private stocking if they receive permission. Docks can often provide cover. I target docks regularly in the heat of summer as they have lots of shade.

 

There is a down side to it though. People with docks usually try to control weeds and many of our lakes get treated with a herbicide for weed growth in the spring. Sometimes the fishing pressure goes up too, and word gets out. Then it becomes tougher. The “virgin” bass you’re used to targeting might not be so easy to catch as a result, but they are still in there.

 

The trash is an unfortunate result of lazy, careless, irresponsible people. It may not be locals either. Could be just about anyone.

[Swamp Girl]

The septic systems of lakeside homes leak, degrading water quality. If they want a suburban lawn, the fertilizers and herbicides are washed into the water. 

 

Of course I don't know who littered. I only knew who retrieved the trash. 

[gim]

Both are true. However, it’s not all bad. Those types of activities keep some murkiness to the water, which makes fishing a little easier.

 

Clear water makes it more difficult. Some of the lakes I fish here have very clear water and the fishing is tough there. The lakes that still have a stain to them are easier with my preferred power fishing presentations.

 

Either way, this sort of thing doesn’t happen overnight. It’s going to be years before you notice a significant change.

[TnRiver46]

I got my lakeside septic system pumped out last year…:….

 

the 20 deer in the yard everyday just let theirs wash downhill into the lake 

[thediscochef]

Topwater continues to produce

3-10 on the walking bait, I had probably two or three others at least as big hit the pompadour but I think I set the hook too fast. Not as active as yesterday, and the better fish were in deeper water. but there's weather moving in, no great surprise they were a little mixed up

[TnRiver46]

nice one, love a big LM on topwater 

[AlabamaSpothunter]

I thought I was the only one who loved big LGMs on topwater 😁

 

Caught a fat little 3lber on a buzzbait yesterday, I must have laughed and giggled for 5 minutes over the joy of that experience.  

 

If only every Bass could be caught like that.  

[A-Jay]

Looks like I'm ending it right here ~ Last Brown Bass of 2023.

A-Jay

 

[LrgmouthShad]

But not the last bass, no? 😃