Latest Catch Pics Thread

[Swamp Girl]

@Functional:

 

A. I had a couple jaw-hooked bass bleed in 2023 and I don't know why.

 

B. However, I did read that bass blood can't coagulate unless the fish are in the water, so releasing them ASAP is best for the bass.

 

C. Unlike @gimruis, I'm happy to see pics of bass that aren't bodacious because this thread isn't a bragging board. It's a trip report board and if we don't catch big bass, well, that should be in the report if the report is to be accurate. 

 

D. Congrats on it all coming together!

 

E. The whole notion of locating the bait is beyond me. I'm guessing that's for sonar-owners. I fish more by light, chasing the shadows rather than the bait that I can't see. 

[Pat Brown]

@ol'crickety I locate bait with my eyes 90% of the time.  I like to look for birds, surface disturbance, main lake structure and current breaks and go from there.  If I can't see bait doing stuff with my eyes or at least the evidence of bait in the area, I have learned that it's probably gonna be a pretty big waste of time to fish it on a bigger impoundment.  Especially this time of year when fish are very very grouped up.

 

Yesterday I puttered around on a lake I haven't fished in a little while looking at my cheap little sonar unit and the ONLY place I saw any fish at all in 4 hours of graphing was in 10-23 feet of water (really more like 17-23 of water for 90% of the fish) and they were carpeting the bottom out in the middle of the main lake relating to absolutely nothing but slightly warmer deeper water.

 

I caught my only fish in 1 foot of water on a buzzbait casting my way in back to the marina.

 

If I was to go back to that lake today and fish again I'd probably sit on top of that carpet offshore with Damiki rigs, drop shots, Alabama rigs, Jerkbaits and blade baits because it seems to me like that's about how you're going to have to fish to catch many at this lake in the winter!

 

Most of the year I'm able to work cover and targets up shallow but around this time every year that becomes a struggle down south and the electronics are a big help adapting to that drastic migration.

 

[Swamp Girl]

7 minutes ago, Pat Brown said:

I locate bait with my eyes 90% of the time.  I like to look for birds, surface disturbance, main lake structure and current breaks and go from there.

 

Now that you mention it, I think I do the same thing. I'm always scanning the water, looking for anomalies. Even if I'm retrieving a surface lure, I'm still scanning, for I can always feel and hear a surface lure hit; I don't have to see it. By looking, I'm setting up my next cast. 

 

9 minutes ago, Pat Brown said:

Yesterday I puttered around on a lake I haven't fished in a little while looking at my cheap little sonar unit and the ONLY place I saw any fish at all in 4 hours of graphing was in 10-23 feet of water (really more like 17-23 of water for 90% of the fish) and they were carpeting the bottom out in the middle of the main lake relating to absolutely nothing but slightly warmer deeper water.

 

10 minutes ago, Pat Brown said:

 

If I was to go back to that lake today and fish again I'd probably sit on top of that carpet offshore with Damiki rigs, drop shots, Alabama rigs, Jerkbaits and blade baits because it seems to me like that's about how you're going to have to fish to catch many at this lake in the winter!

 

^This^ sort of comment is one of the most useful I encounter at BR. I like to hear the reasoning behind decisions to use this lure or that. 

[Functional]

@Pat Brown @ol'crickety

 

Typically during every season but winter I'm more like both of you and working cover,  shade, wind, etc. Winter time on my smaller home lake(actually more river than lake)  it becomes a grind and with all the veg died out its tough to find them. My best luck has been graphing large schools of bait with some type of cover below them (a stump, a depression, a few rocks). 9/10 they are middle of the lake channel and the bass relate to the cover and feed up. Spoons, rattle traps, cranks, spinners and swim jigs Typically do it here. I'll have to try Pat's techniques but it's painful for me to fish that slow lol. 

 

Yesterday was in 15-20fow and a 18' crank did it. Mind you I'm not a crankbait type person but we do what we have to. 

[Swamp Girl]

@Functional

 

I love fishing wind too, but my current boat, being 15' 6' long and only 32 pounds, is so easily pushed by the wind. If I had one of my V-hulls with a heavy motor and anchor again, I'd prefer windy days.

[Woody B]

Rain rain rain is the forecast for today.  I was sitting home watching is drizzle.  I was either going to make a BPS/Academy bait monkey run, or go fishing.  I decided to go fishing.   (take that monkey).  It's not cold.  When I got the the landing (which I had to myself) there was a light drizzle, very little wind and it was 63 degrees.   I was stuck on the decision to wear my Summer rain gear or Winter rain gear.  I opted for the Winter rain gear, since my Summer jacket doesn't have a hood to keep my head dry.  That was a bad decision.   I re treated my winter stuff and it worked great for a couple trips.  Not this time.  Once the drizzle turned into real rain I was soaked.   I caught 6 Spots.  No big ones.  The 2 pictured are typical for all of them.      My phone was trying to fog up so I didn't take any more pictures after the rain got hard.  Fish were active.  I may have fished 45 minutes.  I never got more than 1/4 mile from the landing.    I realize I would have caught 9 instead of 6 if I'd had my hair cut.  It's all a matter of time management.  I didn't have time to go fishing and get a haircut.   

 

Pat, when I see them hugging the bottom on sonar I think they're sleeping or at least in some kind of inactive state.  I have a hard time getting them to respond to anything.   I suppose electricity or dynomite would work but I haven't tried that.....yet.   Often suspended bass are the same, but sometime running a buzz bait over their heads a few times will get them to respond to something else.   I can't get a buzz bait to wake up the bottom huggers though.   I think they're hugging the bottom for warmth.   The Earth is warmer than the water.   

 

[T-Billy]

8 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

@T-Billy: What do you think happens to braid when using big baits that it needs to be retied? 

 

The last time I was in Canada stretching my mono for three weeks, by the third week, my mono was seriously compromised. 

Just stressed over, and over, and over from casting I guess. I've had old knots fail with both the Palomar, and the the Improved Uni. I've never had either knot fail with less than several hours of chucking heavy baits. It's a known issue to me now, so I don't sweat it. I just retie a couple times a day when throwing heavy baits.

[Dwight Hottle]

Braids only strength weakness is from impact breaks. The sudden snap when you backlash or snap casting will weaken it at the knot. 

[TnRiver46]

Fun weekend filled with SMB (and drum)

 

Saturday morning was pouring rain like wild. It was scheduled to quit raining around 10 and it somewhat followed schedule. My buddy met me at a ramp that has been improved to where I can launch my bigger boat. That still restricted us to about 1-2 miles of river but I figured that would make us fish more thoroughly. There was also an eagle by the ramp……

 At the first place we anchored , I got a nice one with a swimbait and my buddy got 2 with an 8 wt fly rod and a minnow pattern he tied himself . By the end of the day we both caught 3 SMB and 1 drum a piece, his all on fly. I got 1 with swimbait and the rest on a tube 

 

 

Saturday night when I got home, it eventually started storming like crazy. It woke me up several times all night with constant lightning and rumbling thunder, and was still raining pretty hard Sunday morning . I cleaned up around the house and threw some stuff away and by about noon it had finally cleared off enough to launch a boat. I crossed a bridge near home and the water looked OK ish so I launched there. Motored upstream and the water kept getting darker and more filled with leaves from last nights storm. I marked some fish in 30 ft but couldn’t make them eat a spoon, thought for sure they were easy white bass. Oh well so I motor even further upstream and fish rock cliffs. After an hour or so of drifting a cliff, I finally hooked up to a nice SMB on a green tube. Ended up catching 2 SMB, a rock bass, and a drum in cold wind rain and muddy water when I was fairly certain all hope was lost. Even saw some cool ferns growing on a dead limb that was hanging off the cliff 

[Swamp Girl]

I look at that fern-covered tree and hear Jeff Goldblum intoning, "Life finds a way."

 

I enjoyed all your photos, but my two favorites are the bass by your spinning reel (good composition and a solid fish) and the one of your friend with the fly rod in his mouth.

[thediscochef]

On 12/10/2023 at 8:29 AM, Pat Brown said:

@ol'crickety I locate bait with my eyes 90% of the time.  I like to look for birds, surface disturbance, main lake structure and current breaks and go from there.  If I can't see bait doing stuff with my eyes or at least the evidence of bait in the area, I have learned that it's probably gonna be a pretty big waste of time to fish it on a bigger impoundment.  Especially this time of year when fish are very very grouped up.

 

Yesterday I puttered around on a lake I haven't fished in a little while looking at my cheap little sonar unit and the ONLY place I saw any fish at all in 4 hours of graphing was in 10-23 feet of water (really more like 17-23 of water for 90% of the fish) and they were carpeting the bottom out in the middle of the main lake relating to absolutely nothing but slightly warmer deeper water.

 

I caught my only fish in 1 foot of water on a buzzbait casting my way in back to the marina.

 

If I was to go back to that lake today and fish again I'd probably sit on top of that carpet offshore with Damiki rigs, drop shots, Alabama rigs, Jerkbaits and blade baits because it seems to me like that's about how you're going to have to fish to catch many at this lake in the winter!

 

Most of the year I'm able to work cover and targets up shallow but around this time every year that becomes a struggle down south and the electronics are a big help adapting to that drastic migration.

 

We identify bait and fish very similarly, if I'm not seeing signs of life I get real wary about even being at my favorite big water. Currently trying to get gassed up to go fish in 40 degree bluebird sky, I'm struggling LOL. At least it's not blowing 30 out like it was all weekend

[roadwarrior]

We use to have a question/answer section featuring Hank Parker. In the first segment

I asked if he fished promising structure if there were no signs of fish on his electronics.

He replied "Yes".

[gim]

7 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

and 1 drum a piece

 

Where's @roadwarrior?  Drum are not worth taking photos of here.  LOL

[TnRiver46]

42 minutes ago, gimruis said:

 

Where's @roadwarrior?  Drum are not worth taking photos of here.  LOL

I left out two drum photos but the one has already gotten a rave review 

[Swamp Girl]

*****

Highly recommend @TnRiver46's drum photos. Well composed, focused, and lighted. Will enjoy them again! 

[roadwarrior]

Geez...

Off line for a couple hours and look what happens.

 

Drum...Oh my...

 

[TnRiver46]

[Pat Brown]

2 hours ago, roadwarrior said:

We use to have a question/answer section featuring Hank Parker. In the first segment

I asked if he fished promising structure if there were no signs of fish on his electronics.

He replied "Yes".

 

 

I agree!  That's why I bank fish every day still.  All I'm doing this time of year for the most part is hitting promising structure.

 

I subscribe to the 1/3 rule.  You only need to see one out of the three to warrant a cast:

 

Bait

Bass

Structure

[Swamp Girl]

@Pat Brown, my favorite bog had weeds from shore to shore, about 100 yards of weeds. However, we received a LOT of 2023 rain in Maine and the rain in Maine stays mainly on the watery plains. So, by the end of the summer, there were several inches of water over a football field's length of weeds, meaning there was structure everywhere. So, I'd position myself in the middle and cast and catch in all directions. It was crazy wonderful. 

[Pat Brown]

Heaven is what that is @ol'crickety

[Swamp Girl]

1 minute ago, Pat Brown said:

Heaven is what that is.

 

Amen. When I saw it, I couldn't believe my good fortune. Actually, when I first saw it, I was confused. I'd paddled down the river to the bog and...the weeds were gone. Huh? Then I looked down and saw the lily pads and the rest inches below me. Woo-hoo! I think that was a 44-bass evening and I typically don't catch 40some bass beyond June.

[TnRiver46]

1 hour ago, Pat Brown said:

 

 

I agree!  That's why I bank fish every day still.  All I'm doing this time of year for the most part is hitting promising structure.

 

I subscribe to the 1/3 rule.  You only need to see one out of the three to warrant a cast:

 

Bait

Bass

Structure

I just need water, although I have casted many times in my front yard 

[Pat Brown]

@TnRiver46 just ask my wife how good I am at flipping a jig into her coffee cup while she reads  her emails before work in the morning.  😎😎😎😂😂😂

 

I just know there's a big bass in there somewhere.  I keep hearing you can catch them in the chocolate milk, I figure why not coffee?

[The Bassman]

Was able to get out briefly after work. I'll be glad when sunset starts getting later before long. Yesterday was a wash with low 30's and wind. Upper 30's and sun today. The green and chartreuse ned keeps soldiering on. Nine bites, seven decent ones in a little over an hour.

[Fishlegs]

I caught this one last Friday. It helped me fulfill my fishing goal of catching a fish in every month of the year in 2023. It may seem like a small thing to the dedicated anglers of BR, but it's a first for me. 2023 was a blessed year in many ways.

 

I'm thankful for the friends who helped me with this. One of which is BR's very own @roadwarrior. He helped me in several months this year. If you're reading...thank you too, David. 😊

 

PS - I don't hold roadwarrior responsible for any of the drum I caught...just the bass. 🤣