Latest Catch Pics Thread

[Pat Brown]

On 1/15/2024 at 7:55 PM, RipzLipz said:

@Pat Brown Probably bluegill from ‘23 spawn - they’ll spawn in waves & multiple times in some lakes if the temps are conducive.

 

Any tilapia in this body of water?

 

 

Yeah there are tilapia in here.  I feel like those are some pretty prolific spawners regardless of conditions.  I feel like in the winter time, because the deepest this pond gets is 4 ft, there are some desperation/survival spawns for some of the species every year and then it warms, they realize they aren't going to die, and then they do their more ritualistic spawning stuff in line more with seasonal changes.

 

The bass even spawn at this pond in the mid 40s once it's up a degree or three from it's bottom out temp.  They don't care that it's not 65 yet at all.

 

I guarantee the first wave of spawning females will be up looking next Friday after 4 days of warming weather with rain.

 

No doubt in my mind at all.

 

Whenever you have any kind of extreme warming trend happening around the upcoming full moon, it's gonna be Nadine time.

[Jamesg0418]

Made the drive down from Connecticut the other day, spent some time on headwaters today.  Didn’t catch anything to write home about, caught mostly on jigs and senkos.  Dealt with  trolling motor that wouldn’t start and then wouldn’t stop all day.  All in all had 6 2ish lb fish.  I’ve never seen so much vegetation in my life!  Overall it was a good day on the water.  We are planning to hit up Kissimmee tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

[NorcalBassin]

I was absolutely shocked and thrilled at the same time to see my youngest voluntarily get up at 545 to join us since we usually can't get her up before 10:00. To sweeten the pot I told her I'd bring her a heater and get Starbucks. 😆

 

And of course she caught the first one of the day...

 

They were inhaling the underspin.

 

Microjig was also successful.

 

And a Ned.

 

Good times!

 

And added some great memories.

[Swamp Girl]

@NorcalBassin, you might have a 5G phone, but you have a 3G boat: 3 generations! Those spots sure are pretty.

 

Good luck today, @Jamesg0418!

[thediscochef]

I'm chomping at the bit to get the new Krej and work it up and down the ripraps off the pier...the motion should be perfect for hovering right over the rocks. Game on. 

[Team9nine]

We didn’t get the ice or snow here, but we got the cold temps. Water still stained to muddy and surface temp now down to 42-43 deg. The fish don’t seem to like it continuously dropping, but still managed a couple small keepers on jig for the effort. Could be a lot worse 😆 Another cool sunset, too.

 

 

 

[Bankbeater]

On 1/17/2024 at 2:01 AM, T-Billy said:

I'll second that. I thought I had broken one of my Lexa 300's last Dec. I had been battling ice all morning, and the level wind quit working altogether. A couple hours thawing out in my bibs pocket remedied it though. 

Winter is the one time I will bring 8 or 9 rigs with me.  I rotate them in and out of the car as the reels freeze up.  Sometimes it's the levelwind that freezes, and sometimes it is the handle.

[NorcalBassin]

Got a chance to go out in some mild temps in between storms. Morning was 48* and the water temps were 51-53*. Anticipated a morning of them hitting reaction baits, but they wouldn't touch anything besides a Ned. Fortunately they really liked the Ned.

 

 

 

 

Even this LM couldn't resist that thing.

 

 

[Swamp Girl]

I love when Pops catches bass. And you know how much I love those 19-inchers too. 

[Jamesg0418]

Tough fishing on headwaters today, but got a decent one.  That was before the starting battery randomly went dead and had to get towed back from the Flag canal.  

[ATA]

I lost count on how many fish I catch with this specific lure.

[Swamp Girl]

Chunky bass, @ATA! What's the lure?

[TnRiver46]

My guess is rattle trap 

[AlabamaSpothunter]

Today was the coldest water temps I've had success in and really can remember seeing at 42degrees.     I've never seen Threadfin dying before, but throughout the day I was seeing them really stunned, and a handful of small ones that were dead.   Their threshold is 40d, so hopefully too many didn't die off, but I could tell the fish weren't hurting while we were having a week of freezing conditions.    

 

Caught 8 fish over 5hrs for 21lbs......that's a rare stat line in my book, a little over 1 fish per hr is less than stellar, on the other hand 6/8 fish were over 3lbs, including two 5lb fish which is excellent.   

 

All were caught strolling Jackall's 4" Drift Fry on the 1/8th super round tungsten/ 2/0 Kietech jighead.     I've caught over 100 fish, with dozens of Spots in that mix, and I've yet to burn through my second bait.    Might be almost $3 per minnow, but once amortized per fish......it's pennies on the dollar vs. my favorite Zoom products.   

Big fish was a 5.5, second weighed fish was a 5.3, and several fish squarely over 3lb including a pair of Spots, one of which had a tumor? that was insane.   

 

Long and leaner 5.5

 

Short and super fat 5.4

 

Craziest abnormality on a Bass I've seen, I present the Tumor Spot 

 

[Swamp Girl]

17 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Caught 8 fish over 5hrs for 21lbs......that's a rare stat line in my book, a little over 1 fish per hr is less than stellar, on the other hand 6/8 fish were over 3lbs, including two 5lb fish which is excellent.   

 

Alex, you picked up right where the storm cut you off. What I note is the string of condos/apartments in the third photo. Yours is a heavily developed lake and you're catching bass like you're fishing a lake in northwestern Ontario where no one lives and few fish.

 

I'm guessing if someone were watching you with binoculars from a bedroom window, they might think, "Our lake is full of toads!"

 

And then they'd go out and fish it, catch nothing, and wonder if they were imagining you catching bigguns.

 

18 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

All were caught strolling Jackall's 4" Drift Fry on the 1/8th super round tungsten/ 2/0 Kietech jighead. 

 

I've bought both of ^these.^ The Jackalls (three packages) took a long time to arrive. They might have come from Japan. Alex, if you don't mind, please post a close-up of the jighead in the Jackall. I want to rig mine now, even though I'm far from casting one. 

[A-Jay]

39 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Today was the coldest water temps I've had success in and really can remember seeing at 42degrees.     I've never seen Threadfin dying before, but throughout the day I was seeing them really stunned, and a handful of small ones that were dead.   Their threshold is 40d, so hopefully too many didn't die off, but I could tell the fish weren't hurting while we were having a week of freezing conditions.    

 

Caught 8 fish over 5hrs for 21lbs......that's a rare stat line in my book, a little over 1 fish per hr is less than stellar, on the other hand 6/8 fish were over 3lbs, including two 5lb fish which is excellent.   

 

All were caught strolling Jackall's 4" Drift Fry on the 1/8th super round tungsten/ 2/0 Kietech jighead.     I've caught over 100 fish, with dozens of Spots in that mix, and I've yet to burn through my second bait.    Might be almost $3 per minnow, but once amortized per fish......it's pennies on the dollar vs. my favorite Zoom products.   

Big fish was a 5.5, second weighed fish was a 5.3, and several fish squarely over 3lb including a pair of Spots, one of which had a tumor? that was insane.   

 

Long and leaner 5.5

 

Short and super fat 5.4

 

Craziest abnormality on a Bass I've seen, I present the Tumor Spot 

 

Nice job Bet that was fun.

Congrats

btw - not sure if you realize it, but seems like right after you hook up,

you're reeling against that drag a good bit. Line twist might be headed your way.

A-Jay

[AlabamaSpothunter]

Thanks A-Jay, and thanks for the advice as well!

 

 

[AlabamaSpothunter]

Lol Katie, always making me blush with such kind words.  There was another guy out there today and I thought to myself, if I wasn't using this bait I doubt I'd be getting bit as it really was such a slow day.   I usually miss as many fish as I catch, today I feel like I only got 8 bites, and caught 8 fish.  

 

Here's the setup I've been using, but I really like the action on these new Owner Range Rollers......thus far I've just tried the 3.5 Spunk Shad with it, but wow does it roll back and forth on that head.     My local store only had the 1/8ths in the 3/0 which I think is overkill and hurts the action, and I wish they were tungsten instead of lead.   You never feel the bite on this technique, or at least I don't.   Really make it your own, I was intimidated by the technique because all the folks I saw doing it were using it with FFS.    This and the Free Rig have been revelations.  Fujita had me curious, but when I saw Milliken hiding them in a video I knew I had to try it.    Took a really cool bait for me to try the technique, and I say all that because I don't think the Drift Fry is the only bait that would excel, but for me that's my confidence minnow now 😁

 

I really want the biggest size, the 5.2mellow I think it's called.   Then that 1/8th 3/0 would be perfect.    That's actually the size Fujita won with on Champlain.   

 

ETA:  one of the best features of these Drift Fry is they have a guide hole already in it, so you just insert the hook tip in the tiny hole and then you'll feel the hook point sliding instead of piercing straightly along that guide hole and then just come up in the area needed for straight indexing of the bait. 

 

 

 

[Swamp Girl]

Thanks for all the info, Alex. I did a search at YouTube for "rolling jig bass," because it sounds like a specific technique, but the search just produced videos about swim jigs. Are "rolling" and "swim jigging" the same thing?

 

Never mind. Further research suggests that "rolling" and "slow rolling" are simply dragging a jig on the bottom: "a football jigs pigskin-shaped head allows it to roll over rock and rubble without falling into the cracks."

 

My concern about dragging a jig over the bottom is that the water I fish is so shallow that there's a mat of weeds on the bottom. There are a few ponds where it's nine feet deep and maybe that's enough depth to keep weeds from carpeting the bottom. 

[AlabamaSpothunter]

Happy to help! 

 

Yeah Katie you're gonna wanna search for "mid strolling" in order to find technique stuff, and then on the actual baits what makes them especially fit for that technique is the rolling action when you "stroll" or twitch the rod tip.    The whole hover/mid/bottom stroll/damiki rig/mopping really makes for a confusing deal.  

 

TacticalBassin had a good, dedicated video a month or two ago.   

[Swamp Girl]

Alex, what furthers my confusion is that the verbs they've chosen (rolling, strolling, etc.) make no sense to me. The vocabulary reminds me of assembly instructions for a product made in China. 

 

I'll go looking for that Tactical Bassin' video now. 

[TnRiver46]

@ol'crickety, don’t let the terms confuse you, ten years ago it was called “keeping your bait in the strike zone.” Before that it was called crappie fishing 

[Team9nine]

49 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

what furthers my confusion is that the verbs they've chosen (rolling, strolling, etc.) make no sense to me. The vocabulary reminds me of assembly instructions for a product made in China. 

It’s all just ‘marketing.’ The industry has become somewhat of an embarrassment at this point, but they can’t help themselves. Like one of those ‘slow motion train wreck’ type metaphors  🤑 💰 

[Team9nine]

Cloudy and upper 40s, but the wind was light (NE) and the rain stayed away. Switched lakes for a variety of reasons - only the 2nd time I've ever fished this one, the first being about 3 weeks ago. Water stained w/about 18” of vis at best and 42 degrees. Had a decent afternoon with 4 keeper bass on jig and Ned. Ready to get back out there when the rain finally moves through…supposedly not until Sun. Hoping to catch a break before then, and if not, that the lakes don't get trashed since they're just recovering from the last downpour.

 

 

[Swamp Girl]

@Team9nine, boy, oh, boy, you winter bassers are sure landing some fine fish. What state are you fishing right now? Indiana?