Latest Catch Pics Thread

[MIbassyaker]

On 11/25/2023 at 1:57 PM, BigAngus752 said:

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.

 

 

 

 

On 11/25/2023 at 5:03 PM, Pat Brown said:

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!

 

 

On 11/25/2023 at 6:49 PM, RipzLipz said:

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 7 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.

 

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.

 

10 hours ago, BassSteve said:

 

7 hours ago, Peacedivision said:

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

 

4 hours ago, bp_fowler said:

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.

 

 

 

4 hours ago, thediscochef said:

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 

 

3 hours ago, Fried Lemons said:

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

 

50 minutes ago, Woody B said:

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.  

 

 

18 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

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 

 

 

*sigh*

 

If I weren't über-busy, and if I were confident I could gear safely for 30s-40s water and air temps in a kayak, I'd still be out there too.  No ice yet, at least.

[Swamp Girl]

I second @MIbassyaker's sigh.

 

Another great trip report by @TnRiver46!

[TnRiver46]

@MIbassyaker, nowhere to stand on the bank below a dam and fish ? I do that when it’s too cold and at least break off some jigs 

[MIbassyaker]

5 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

@MIbassyaker, nowhere to stand on the bank below a dam and fish ? I do that when it’s too cold and at least break off some jigs 

 

The major obstacle is time.  The second obstacle is Steelhead Season: Dams are constantly crowded, thus defeating the purpose as far as I'm concerned. 

 

 

22 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

I second @MIbassyaker's sigh.

 

The struggle is real, isnt it!

[RipzLipz]

@TnRiver46 Well done hanging in there & making the best of it. Slow days can be bummers but still better than raking leaves in my book. 👍

 

@MIbassyaker You’re more than welcome to come down & freeze your beans off in the Crawdad with me.🤣 I draw the line at 39° & wind over 10mph though.

 

Extended forecast calling for highs in 40s & into upper 50s but going to be too windy. Thursday is supposed to be almost 60° but calling for rain for 4 out of 5 days later in the week. I hope the honey hole isn’t going to be chocolate milk by December. Chances looking good I may make it out next month.

 

@ol'crickety I know the feeling all too well. With luck a short winter but usually when it’s mild like this we get a late running winter. 🤮

[jimanchower]

@RipzLipz sent me here...

 

 

 

I got out intending to throw swimbaits but started with a 3/8" jig with a Rage Bug 3.5" trailer and on about my third cast I stuck a 5.5 pounder. I threw the jig some more and then threw swimbaits for about an hour with no luck. I've never been much of a football jig guy but I brought one with me so I tied it on and caught three decent fish in my first three casts. Played around a little more and decided to switch it up to a black and blue jig. All I had was a 1/2" Beast Coast Lil Magnum and I had one black and blue Sweet Beaver trailer. A couple of casts later I land my PB, or at least the largest that I've weighed: 7lb 4oz. I kept on fishing and caught several more decent ones. Great day on the water.

[Swamp Girl]

@jimanchower: Welcome and congrats! Please don't do a one and done posting. Stay! Be an active member of this great group of anglers. Now, here's me celebrating your beast:

 

[RipzLipz]

@jimanchower

Nicely done & congratulations on the PB. I can blame you for having to look this up:

"A group of pigs is called a drift or drove. A group of young pigs is called a litter. A group of hogs is called a passel or team. A group of swine is called a sounder. A group of boars is called a singular."

 

Nice drove you ran into. You toss that jig out & piggies be like:

 

Keep spanking them until they don’t want it anymore.

 

[Swamp Girl]

One way I can infer weight is the heavy bass, over six pounds or so, stretch their lower jaws when lipped and gripped, like @jimanchower's big girl. 

 

 

 

 

 

[RipzLipz]

8 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

One way I can infer weight is the heavy bass, over six pounds or so, stretch their lower jaws when lipped and gripped, like @jimanchower's big girl. 

That & it appears he might be able to fit his face in her mouth 🤣🤣

[PhishLI]

1 hour ago, jimanchower said:

A couple of casts later I land my PB, or at least the largest that I've weighed: 7lb 4oz. I kept on fishing and caught several more decent ones. Great day on the water.

👊💪👍

[thediscochef]

Well I didn't get a PB, or even close. But I did successfully catch bass under the full moon. NWS says 36 degrees out, 70% humidity, and 10mph north wind. Caught four, lost two better fish but that's just the way she goes sometimes. Gonna be making my way round some other spots this week, hoping for some good luck.

[RipzLipz]

@thediscochef You need a stocking cap that says, "I’d rather be fishing in warmer weather" 🤣

 

All kidding aside, that’s dedication my man. Nicely done.👍

[Bluebasser86]

Spent a day on the water with my buddy Jon on Saturday. Temps started in the 20s and barely broke freezing by quitting time when the snow really started. Fighting the ice ws annoying, but we were fighting so many fish it was easy to ignore. Over 50 fish between us on jerkbaits, Neds, and blades mostly. Jon's fish were camera shy 😅

 

 

[RipzLipz]

@Bluebasser86 Just the one on crankbait starting to show lipstick. 👍

[Swamp Girl]

 

^This^ is for Officer Blue, but I know Tim RipZ loves squirrels too. 

[N Florida Mike]

Tried another pond on the work route for a little while. This pond has been there a long time but was private land with one landowner. Now, like so much of Florida, develepors bought it and now there’s access. 
A man stopped and asked if I caught anything, as I turned to talk to him a fish clobbered my yum dinger as I was reeling in. He missed, I threw back over , and he bit again. The man said he’s fished there a lot and never caught anything, not even a bream, nor has other people he talked to.

I told him” a local boy can survive” .

Not big but we know there’s fish in there at least !

 

ps: on the way out the biggest bobcat I’ve ever seen crossed the road. Too far away to get a pic though…

[Bluebasser86]

2 hours ago, RipzLipz said:

@Bluebasser86 Just the one on crankbait starting to show lipstick. 👍

Water was 42*. Lake will likely be froze over by next weekend 🤦

[RipzLipz]

8 minutes ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Water was 42*. Lake will likely be froze over by next weekend 🤦

I am pretty much east of you & would be surprised if we’re froze out that soon but we have more hills than what I’ve seen driving through KS on I-70. I could be wrong though - wouldn’t be the first time. Biggest factor for me right now is wind due to small waters & lightweight boat.

 

2 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

 

^This^ is for Officer Blue, but I know Tim RipZ loves squirrels too. 

[Swamp Girl]

That is one sassy squirrel!

[Blue Raider Bob]

15 hours ago, RipzLipz said:

@thediscochef You need a stocking cap that says, "I’d rather be fishing in warmer weather" 🤣

 

All kidding aside, that’s dedication my man. Nicely done.👍

Took me awhile to read his hat. First thought was it was written in Russian...that would explain the heavy clothing. Surprised Gimruis hasn't thrown a flag on that Crappie!  🤣

[RipzLipz]

2 minutes ago, Blue Raider Bob said:

Took me awhile to read his hat. First thought was it was written in Russian...that would explain the heavy clothing.

Took me a bit too until I decoded "rather be" 🤣

[TnRiver46]

@Bluebasser86, looks like you’re warming up nicely to blade baits 

[fishingtx]

Hope everybody had a good Thanksgiving. Caught these 2 last Wednesday solo in a rainstorm.

[Bluebasser86]

25 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

@Bluebasser86, looks like you’re warming up nicely to blade baits 

It's hard for me to find areas I can fish them, but I feel like I've figured them out. I was doing way too much with them. I think I do better fishing them on spinning gear also. I showed my buddy how to fish one and he caught his first couple blade fish also.