Latest Catch Pics Thread

[Jamesg0418]

Last day of our trip from CT, we headed to Kenansville lake.  Fishing was slow but we got a couple decent ones.  It’s probably the steepest ramp I’ve ever seen, however the road in wasn’t nearly as bad as everyone made it out to be.  We got this one on a 12” finesse worm.

 

[RipzLipz]

@Pat Brown Nice red lipped beauty bud. About time for a DD, I’m thinking. 👍

 

@Jamesg0418 Been a looooong time since I was last at Keenansville - back when you could get there from Blue Cypress via Big M canal. Used to be full of barbed wire fencing. Nice pig.

[Swamp Girl]

Ho and oh, that's ANOTHER big one! Well done. Thanks for the road pic. You should see the logging roads I used to drive in northwestern Ontario. I wore my Muck boots and every time I encountered water, I'd walk through it. It I found mud under mud, I turned around. Rock under mud and I drove on.

[Pat Brown]

Just now, RipzLipz said:

@Pat Brown Nice red lipped beauty bud. About time for a DD, I’m thinking. 👍

 

@Jamesg0418 Been a looooong time since I was last at Keenansville - back when you could get there from Blue Cypress via Big M canal. Used to be full of barbed wire fencing. Nice pig.

If I had let her eat for another hour or two before I caught her, she probably would have been a DD.  I'm happy with the one I've got under my belt, but another one would hang the moon for me, especially from the Pressured Pond®™ 😎😎😎😎

 

Thanks for the kind words and here's to some giants for you when weather permits.  

[Jamesg0418]

8 minutes ago, RipzLipz said:

@Pat Brown Nice red lipped beauty bud. About time for a DD, I’m thinking. 👍

 

@Jamesg0418 Been a looooong time since I was last at Keenansville - back when you could get there from Blue Cypress via Big M canal. Used to be full of barbed wire fencing. Nice pig.

Today was our first time there, we drove down from Connecticut for a two week fishing trip.  Seems like an interesting place.  I’d assume the barbed wire and fence posts are long gone but I could be wrong.  It’s interesting the lakes down here are like one big spot.  Up north, you have a couple of features on lakes that count as spots haha.

12 minutes ago, RipzLipz said:

@Pat Brown Nice red lipped beauty bud. About time for a DD, I’m thinking. 👍

 

@Jamesg0418 Been a looooong time since I was last at Keenansville - back when you could get there from Blue Cypress via Big M canal. Used to be full of barbed wire fencing. Nice pig.

The first 5ish miles of the road has been rough paved, the rest of the road, I’d honestly say is in better shape than the road into headwaters a few days after it’s been graded.  

[RipzLipz]

21 minutes ago, Pat Brown said:

If I had let her eat for another hour or two before I caught her, she probably would have been a DD.  I'm happy with the one I've got under my belt, but another one would hang the moon for me, especially from the Pressured Pond®™ 😎😎😎😎

 

Thanks for the kind words and here's to some giants for you when weather permits.  

You’re on ‘em for sure, especially if you keep pounding on ‘em through the spawn. That fish looks like she still has some filling out to do in regards to eggs. Might still be a month or more away unless photos are deceiving my eyes.

 

We dipped into single digits & big lake was frozen solid, last report I had. Last 3-4 days have been overcast, drizzling rain but 30s-50s so hoping big lake will thaw. Forecast is calling for mid-50s late next week with low winds. Will probably have to make a scouting trip to make sure lake is thawed. My fingers are crossed. Line will be respooled with fresh fluoro & drags rechecked. Jigs, spinnerbaits, A-rig, jerkbait & RES will be tied on.

 

13 minutes ago, Jamesg0418 said:

Today was our first time there, we drove down from Connecticut for a two week fishing trip.  Seems like an interesting place.  I’d assume the barbed wire and fence posts are long gone but I could be wrong.  It’s interesting the lakes down here are like one big spot.  Up north, you have a couple of features on lakes that count as spots haha.

Fencing was on the south end (away from ramp) & ran across the lake at an angle. I’d be surprised if it was removed but has probably sunk. You take that canal near the ramp (in Kenansville Lake) east & you used to be able to get from there all the way into Stick Marsh/Farm 13 as well as continuing on into Ansin/Garcia. Now it’s a completely ridiculous out of the way drive around to all those lakes. All have giants in them - shiners were best bet but that’s not everyone’s cup of tea. Blue Cypress is a big bowl surrounded by cypress tress & Kissimmee grass. I believe it’s a natural lake. Keenansville is an old ranch that was levied & flooded (IIRC). Stick Marsh was an old orange farm, Farm 13 was old radish farm. Both were levied & flooded. Can remember watching them build the levies from Big M canal. Interesting how that area has changed over the years. Used to be able to pick wild yellow grapefruits off the banks of the canals. Lots of gators & nature to see for sure. Giant panfish in those lakes too.

[RipzLipz]

@Jamesg0418 Those sand roads can be bad if not maintained. Road back to Headwaters/Stick Marsh will probably be horrible until Headwaters cools down from the pressure. Stick Marsh was the hot place down there in the 90’s. The ramps were dirt & after launching, you had to get your launch vehicle & trailer strap towed back up the ramp by a waiting local with a 4X4 who’d charge you $5-$10. Whole area was sand & dirt. No concrete anywhere. They’ve improved it all greatly except for the access roads over the years. Those can be like a washboard if they haven’t been graded recently.

[TnRiver46]

I only had free from 5- dark, figured I would give it a try on my offshore magic zone. Haven’t had much success there this winter like normal. Finally got a SMB there on a damiki but it was decrepit looking one 😂. I was treated with a lovely sunset at 6:30, days are getting long 
 

 

[The Baron]

Good to see some areas of the world are still living and not just existing.  lol

 

I hadn't been here in a bit - no fishing here.☹️  But I just paid for my boat insurance and that's about the only bill I can pay that makes me smile.  Good to know it's all tucked in here, ready to go when the weather gets warm.  I'll hopefully get out on Lake Ontario in April for the early catch and release only bass season, and catch some monster pre-spawn smallies. 🤞

[Pat Brown]

Topwater in January? ✅😎

 

[Swamp Girl]

Pat's a scrapper. And fearless. Pat really does Pat, deviating from dogma to go with his gut.

 

@The Baron; I'm pining with ya. I too miss fishing, but our three coldest months are December, January, and February. January is almost done and February is the shortest month. I've been studying the first bog I'll fish using Google Earth, zooming close to look at rocks, spending time following the feeder streams to see how big of an area they'll drain and infer how much warmer water they'll deliver, and so on. They I plot my path in my mind, where I'll fish in sequence and what I'll use. So, in a way, I'm already on the water again, already fishing.

[The Baron]

You sound much more intelligent than me, @ol'crickety   I just work, watch YouTube videos and complain about winter. 😆

[FishTax]

I found the bait this morning. Confirmed with this photo. No bass though. Still spending a lot of time playing with electronics and learning how to position kayak in the wind, and my confidence launch spot wasn't accessible so I've been in a newer area trying to figure it out this winter. 

Is this a threadfin? I think it is but would love someone more experienced to confirm. 

[TnRiver46]

@FishTax, the pic goes blurry when I zoom in but it sure looks like a threadfin. Gizzards have a more rounded/blunt nose than threadfin and are generally slimier. Also threadfin often have a yellow tint to their tails, a lot of locals even refer to them as yellowtails 

[Pat Brown]

Looks a lot like a threadfin.  This time of year fish look pretty pale in general so kinda hard to say exactly but it's a shad/Herring of some sort.

[Woody B]

After almost 2 weeks with no fishing that seems like years I made it out today.  It was raining but not cold.  Earlier I've been catching small Spots deep, and bigger Largemouth shallow.  Today was different.   The first 4 I caught were all small Largemouth.  12 inchish.  I don't see many LM that small so I think small ones are a good sign.   They were ~20 feet deep hugging the bottom under a school of Shad.  They didn't want an A-rig, blade bait or spoon.   I caught them on a Shaky head with 1/2 a Bizz Baits Dizzy Diamond.   (Don't call this a NED,  I'm not a finesse fisherman).  Since they were 20 feet deep, on the verge of "fizzing" depth (and small) I quickly released them without pictures.   I moved over to a stumpy flat next to a channel swing.  I saw fish on sonar around the stumps.   I decided to channel my inner Pat Brown. (not the size of the fish, his are 3 or 4 times bigger) by trying a buzz bait.   2nd cast got an 18 inch spot.  (pictured)  I caught a couple more 14 inch Spots.  The water where I was fishing wasn't muddy at all.  I moved up river and ran into a mud line.  The muddy water was a couple degrees warmer (52) but not much activity.   I decided then to channel my inner TNriver.  I found a current break where the muddy water as mixing into clearer water.   I tossed a wacky rig into the edge of the clearer water and it got hammered by a 19 1/2 inch 4.7 pound Spot.   That's my 2nd biggest Spot ever, and my biggest in NC.   (NC state record Spot in 6 lbs 5 oz)   The rain was getting harder so I decided to call it a day.  I'll be back tomorrow morning looking for clearish, or at least mixing water.   

[Swamp Girl]

Another whopper! Congrats, Woody. What a fish. What a fisher.

[TnRiver46]

Nice work @Woody B!!!! That’s a certified Spotapotamus. I would have to tie myself to the steering wheel if I hooked into one like that, don’t want to get pulled overboard. I found a nice mudline today where our creek hits the main river at the lakehouse. Only problem is a park ranger told me he was locking the gate for sunset about 15 minutes into my casting 😂 (and 30 minutes before dark) 

 

the water in front of our dock is currently ultra brown and I don’t like it, was green yesterday 

[Pat Brown]

Let's GO @Woody B!  Double topwater attack in NC in January today!  I guess if you're south of the Mason Dixon line, better get outcher frogs n spooks n buzzers n poppers n such.  😎😎😎😎🎣🎣🎣🎣

 

I wanna channel my inner woody tomorrow on the boat hopefully and figure out how to catch a million fat bass in one trip like I was sort of doing for a second in the fall.  🥹🥹🥹🥹

 

But only after a sunrise topwater and lipless walkabout.

 

Oh goodness I do love me some prespawn.

[TnRiver46]

It’s always post spawn and pre spawn unless it’s the day or two they are spawning ……..

[Pat Brown]

Okay fair, I do love the late winter early spring transition.  But if I'm hooking them, I'd love them to be pre. 😉

[TnRiver46]

The pre have already spawned so they are post. What is time? 
 

[Woody B]

It rained all night last night.  According to Duke Energy the lake is up a foot from yesterday.  I was going to launch down near the dam today but the wind is up.  I'll launch up on the smaller part of the lake.  I may work my way down if it isn't too rough.  

[Pat Brown]

Yeah the conditions are super weird, I'm excited kinda.  I feel like sometimes on weird days the big ones bite better.  Not always but sometimes.

 

My plan is to go check out the main creek first since after big rains that warm water pushes a lot of water through there and I believe that area tends to get cleaner first.  Probably fish around the marina tight to the rip rap for a bit too.  Generally on the lake you find them deep on structure or very very shallow on structure on days where it's very blown out with mud.  Sometimes if you can get them to bite, it makes them very easy to pattern.

 

But we know what happens with plans and bass fishing.  Probably just gonna fish a little bit of everything until I run into a fish or two.  As always.  LOL

 

You might think I'm crazy but I'll be checking spawning bays for bed fish 100%.  Saw some beds at a pond yesterday so.....

[TnRiver46]

So pat is post spawn February-December ? 😂 I’m still stuck in the twilight zone