Latest Catch Pics Thread

[A-Jay]

1 minute ago, RipzLipz said:

Debating on whether I’m going today or not. Here’s today’s forecast for the town where Lake Shantbenamed is located ☹️

Wind laying down but probably little sun to warm things up.

That's a Warm May forcast for me.

Go Fishing !

A-Jay

[RipzLipz]

21 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

That's a Warm May forcast for me.

Go Fishing !

A-Jay

Probably will.👍

[RipzLipz]

Loaded up & heading out the door.

[Swamp Girl]

Those are good windspeeds, Tim. I didn't know you ^drive" a chick magnet!

[1984isNOW]

On 11/23/2023 at 11:31 AM, Aaron_H said:

Kastking Zephyr on a decent black Friday deal

What was the deal if you don't mind, I've been curious to try an affordable BFS reel. Any more time on it?

[BigAngus752]

That's it for me!  Last trip out on Thanksgiving.  Just ran to the closest lake for less than two hours.  Five LM with the biggest right at 4lb.  Had a fantastic year.  Looking forward to spring already.

 

 

 

[Woody B]

I caught 7 today in a short, cold windy trip.   5 Spots between 12 and 14 inches bookended by pair of 16 inch Largemouth.   All were on a Shaky head.  Temperature was in the low 40's with 25 mph wind gusts.  I was cold.   First and last Bass (the 2 Largemouth) are pictured.  3 of 4 ramps were closed due to low water levels.  (I haven't posted a boat pic in a while.....and I like my little boat)    The other pic is a deer on someones back patio.   Tega Cay has a deer problem.  They've been going round and round trying to decide what to do.  The city wanted to bring in marksmen to kill a predetermined number of them.  Some of the residents thought this was cruel.   They've opted to "shoot them with birth control darts".  (I didn't make this up)   I'm going later tomorrow,  probably 10 or so and fish into the afternoon.   

 

[Pat Brown]

We didn't set the world on fire but with surface temps hovering around 48 after a hard cold front, we were happy to get three on the flashy swimmer!

 

[RipzLipz]

Brrrrrrrrrrrrr!

 

I figured it would be slow given the temps & I’m not a finesse LMB fisherman at heart. Odd, I don’t mind whipping out the fairy wands as some refer to them (no offense intended just having some fun) for smallies but baitcasting latched onto me & I sometimes stick to it when the little angel on my shoulder tells me otherwise. Today I think it was screaming. 🤣

 

Got to the lake a bit after 12PM - no rush as temps weren’t quite as warm as forecasts but I am usually more concerned with wind when it’s below 55°, plus the Crawdad (boat) is more or less a plastic John boat so a light breeze can wreak havoc with it. Save a few annoyingly loud hikers with dogs not leashed, I had the lake to myself. Started off just like @TnRiver46 would, with the spinnerbug, while I was cruising through the shallow end of the lake. Zero takers. Slight breeze in my face but not a show stopper by any means. Kept 2 casts from the bank, slow rolling. Nothing. This bank has nothing in terms of laydowns so I wasn’t expecting much. Fished some obvious points for a bit with both the spinnerbug & jig with no hits.

 

Decided to move on down towards deeper water (15’-20’ in this lake) & worked the jig slowly through some raggedy small laydowns & still nothing. Plopped the jig in the same tree where I caught the donkey a few weeks back & thump….set the hook & felt good but was a healthy but long 1-13. Skunk was drowned within 60-90 minutes. Good.

Tossed the jig around this area for a bit with no more takers. Threw the spinnerbug (hearing @TnRiver46 screaming, “Just put that ungodly thing away already!" with each cast) but nothing. Saw a young guy picking up trash so I pulled the trolling motor up & set it for shallower water & went along the bank & picked up some trash in the water & tossed it up on the bank. Told the kid I threw it up there so he wouldn’t have to get near the water. He thanked me, I thanked him & I moved over to a bank with more laydowns. Had one more bite which I think was either a very small bass or panfish. Grabbed my jig & just immediately took off with it. As soon as I was in a decent position to set the hook, it dropped it. Oh well. Just didn’t bite like a quality fish so didn’t bother me at all.

 

Sun started going behind the hills & everwhere I went the breeze was blowing. If I saw slick water, all I had to do was move to it & the wind would change direction. Remember how it was blowing in my face on the way out? Was blowing in my face on the way in. Fished some steeper banks with deeper water nearby sort of half-heartedly. Hands were chilly & I was just done for the day. Was going to just keep getting colder so I headed back to the ramp.

 

Always better than sitting around the house or raking leaves. Saw plenty of gray squirrels running around & chasing each other & heard a few chipmunks popping up in the woods. Pileated woodpeckers were everywhere it seemed - with the leaves mostly fallen, it’s easier to see all the birds & critters. Saw 2 bald eagles (or 1 eagle twice) & 2 hawks. They were on the move & it’s hard to stop, get the phone ready & snap a pic where you can see their colors while running the trolling motor or while holding a rod. When sun isn’t shining their white heads & tails get harder to see.

 

Long report for a meh day but I enjoyed getting out & not coming home smelling of skunk.

 

On 11/25/2023 at 11:22 AM, ol'crickety said:

Those are good windspeeds, Tim. I didn't know you ^drive" a chick magnet!

The old Family Truckster! Was looking for a GIF when Clark was getting ready to dive into the hotel pool with Christie Brinkley, saying "this is crazy" over & over but couldn’t find it.

 

Vacation movies were classics….well, some of them.

[TnRiver46]

I always break the skunk when I quit spinnerbait fishing too! 

[Aaron_H]

9 hours ago, Kites R4 Skyfishing said:

What was the deal if you don't mind, I've been curious to try an affordable BFS reel. Any more time on it?

 

Was just 20% off on Amazon. I just searched Kastking Zephyr BFS (careful since there's a non-BFS Zephyr now). It's the drag-clicker version for 59.99.

[1984isNOW]

@Aaron_HThanks man, I happened to bump into that today and grab it.

 

Any more feedback on it?

[Aaron_H]

3 minutes ago, Kites R4 Skyfishing said:

@Aaron_HThanks man, I happened to bump into that today and grab it.

 

Any more feedback on it?

 

I don't want to derail the thread, but it's been a bit frustrating to get dialed in, to say the least. I don't have enough time with it yet to make a verdict so we'll see how it goes. Ergonomics definitely a step up from the spincast reel I had on my panfish setup, and it's cool to be able to cast a 1/16 oz jighead on a baitcaster for under 60 bucks, but I'm not casting consistently without backlashes, and my casts are not nearly as accurate as with the spincast reel on the same rod. It's like the lighter spool has my thumb allll out of whack.

[BassSteve]

Hey,

 

Decided to do a little crankbait fishing this morning and landed 2 decent peacocks and 1 pretty large 👌 

[Swamp Girl]

Some day, @BassSteve, I too want to catch one of those pretty peacocks!

 

Here to here to hearty men of the north who are still fishing. That's you, @RipzLipz.

[BassSteve]

[RipzLipz]

13 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

Here to here to hearty men of the north who are still fishing. That's you, @RipzLipz.

Not today - sleeting here right now. Not to worry, will be 50° by end of week. That’s one of the nice things about IN. If you’re not happy with the weather, just wait 15 minutes & it will change. 🤣

[Swamp Girl]

2 hours ago, RipzLipz said:

Not today - sleeting here right now. Not to worry, will be 50° by end of week. That’s one of the nice things about IN. If you’re not happy with the weather, just wait 15 minutes & it will change. 🤣

 

Many Mainers say the same thing about the weather here, but only because they haven't lived anywhere else. Coastal weather is almost always stable, as opposed to mid-continent weather, which changes rapidly. 

[Peacedivision]

38F this morning, only had an hour or so to fish the bank. Managed one undersized striper on the spook.

[bp_fowler]

I know I said I was done for the year but I just couldn’t stay away.  

Managed to get out for an hour or so and caught a few on a Rapala floating original.

 

 

[thediscochef]

Got on a dinkfrst yesterday, mostly on an ol monster and a red eye shad. Had a bigger fish hit the buzz toad but it dove into invasive milfoil and got free. Six total in about an hour and a half 

[Fried Lemons]

Couple post thanksgiving fish, all on a suspending TK. Twitches with 1-2 second pauses. 

[Woody B]

I went later today.  It was still cold....or I'm not used to it yet.....or I'm getting old.   I caught 6 all between 13" and 17".     4 on a shaky head, 2 on a Bandit 300.   One is pictured twice.  It had a tiny mouth for it's size.  The mouth picture fish is the one on the ruler.   It was 14" long, with the mouth of a 10 incher.  I've got big hands, but not big enough to make a "normal" size mouth on a 14 inch spot look that small.  

 

[BassSteve]

10 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

Some day, @BassSteve, I too want to catch one of those pretty peacocks!

Yeah they are fun and plenty aggressive. The water around my area is pretty low visibility so as you can see in some of the pictures they unfortunately get hooked near the gill area or side of the body. Probably from swiping at it or just missed strikes due to bad visibility 

[TnRiver46]

Had quite a bit of free time to fish this weekend. Saturday morning sunrise was pretty 

I fished my offshore magic for 3 hours and only got a tiny yellow bass. Punted and hit the rock cliffs, caught about a dozen SMB and two nice panfish with nightcrawlers. One bass was about 16.5”

 

 

 

Then I lost a good one (20” class) that had a jighead right in the nose but he still somehow jumped off. Luckily I captured this heartbreaking moment on film haha

 

 

saw deer on the way out and back in, bald eagles, loons, I love winter

 

This mornings sunrise was even better, but windy

fished my offshore magic on anchor, which was hilarious since I forgot my long rope. Had to tie 3 together to hold in the wind and 25/40 feet of water. Still no magic, my buddy calls and says he wants to hop in. Wind dies completely and the lake is glass. We are surrounded by loons and eagles but still no magic.

 

3 loons in one camera shot……

 

 

Tried my reliable jigging spoon and caught a swimbait 30 feet down????

 

Hit the rock cliffs and he’s catching small fish  instantly on ned so we stayed by rocks all afternoon.
I finally chase the skunk off my portion of the boat at 1:35 pm, been out since sunrise. Naturally you make a funny face when something like that happens 

Craig keeps catching small ones non stop with his GP ned so I switch from chartreuse pumpkin finesse worm to GP. 

I got a hold of something big swimming left to right really fast that came off………. Not two days in a row of heartbreak……….. But alas!  I got a nice fat 17.5” right before heading in, they are usually much leaner. It put up a great fight once it saw the boat.  I only got 2 fish in like 9 hours but they were both bigger than all my buddies so I saved some face . Great weekend on the water, don’t wanna go back to the real world tomorrow. I think I even got sunburned