Latest Catch Pics Thread

[AlabamaSpothunter]

Thanks Katie!  The amazing thing about your results is your abundance of those same sized fish, seems like your avg fish in 3-4lbs.   If I could catch 20 of those in an outing my priorities might shift.

 

Yes indeed on Greenpig, always such beautiful fish perfectly posed like he has an "auto fish framer" in his brain  😆

 

Keeping posting those spoon fish, eventually I'll stop being stupid and try one lol.  

[RipzLipz]

@AlabamaSpothunter Appreciate it. I feel fine just don’t want it to turn into something worse & end up battling a cold/sinus infection all spring while trying to get out & fish.

[Pat Brown]

Got a fish up shallow on the red eye shad and that was it this morning.  Wind changes directions tonight to SW and stays that way through the weekend.  I think tonight could be great.  Looking forward to my after work session.

 

[Swamp Girl]

@Pat Brown, it's getting to the point where I look at your fish photos and sigh with envy, not because you're catching bass, for that makes me happy, but because there's NO SNOW behind you. 

 

I do enjoy the fight of those medium-sized bass I catch. Last year, I shifted to all MH rods. In 2024, I'm going to use one or two M rods when fishing for quantity instead of quality. Of course, I also bought a H rod when I start Tim's vertical fishing.

[Pat Brown]

I'm starting to see green vegetation come back on my hooks already.  Won't be long before the first trees blossom.  I assume it will do the typical zig and zag of spring and winter doing battle or is it dancing?  The big bass simply don't care.  Surface temps are 52° in the coves which means they're fairly well about to start making little bass. Which means they're eating a LOT up shallow!  It happens so fast every year it blows my mind.

[Swamp Girl]

29 minutes ago, Pat Brown said:

I'm starting to see green vegetation come back on my hooks already.  Won't be long before the first trees blossom.

 

You taunt me, man.

 

 

 

 

Note to self: Keep your cool, Ol' Crick, keep your cool.

 

Quote

In 2024, I'm going to use one or two M rods when fishing for quantity instead of quality.

 

When I wrote the line above, I imagined @A-Jay reading it and shouting, "Heretic!" 

 

[A-Jay]

1 hour ago, ol'crickety said:

 

You taunt me, man.

 

 

 

 

Note to self: Keep your cool, Ol' Crick, keep your cool.

 

 

When I wrote the line above, I imagined @A-Jay reading it and shouting, "Heretic!" 

 

LOL~

I often feel there could be some of that floating around here every time I post up one of these.

A-Jay

[Swamp Girl]

@A-Jay: Rather than accuse each other of heresy, let's unite against those whose trees are about to blossom. How can trees blossom when the world is still rightly snowy and icy? Surely that's witchcraft.

[RipzLipz]

Sandhill cranes headed your direction @A-Jay.

[AlabamaSpothunter]

The worst best day you could have, before the sun was even up I lost a 5+ and an irreplaceable swimbait literally inches from the net.    I really wanted to vomit even though I've been preparing myself for the eventuality as I'm not a collector.   

 

I could have gone home which I really wanted to do, but I ended up fishing 8 hours and experienced about as much as you could ask for as a Bass angler.   

 

Caught 27 + 2 Crappie.    Big fish was 6.8 with another 5.1 weighed, best 5 for 23.5lbs with several 4lb class fish.    Lost two fish over 5 including the one on the KGB TSG.   

 

Got a new Crappie PB at 2.11.  

 

And for the better part of those 8hrs fished I watched acres of water boil with hundreds of just about every size class Bass, and the number of fish I saw vs caught would drive anybody insane and it certainly did for me.   Hundreds of blowups.   The Jackall Drift Fry caught the vast majority, but I caught 4 on the Crush 75x, and 1 on the KGB/Spro Chad Shad......but I threw the tackle box at them.    I included some footage at the end of the video showing what I'm talking about.     

 

 

 

And lastly if you want to see what peak Bass feeding activity looks like on 2D

 

[A-Jay]

39 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

The worst best day you could have, before the sun was even up I lost a 5+ and an irreplaceable swimbait literally inches from the net.    I really wanted to vomit even though I've been preparing myself for the eventuality as I'm not a collector.   

 

I could have gone home which I really wanted to do, but I ended up fishing 8 hours and experienced about as much as you could ask for as a Bass angler.   

 

Caught 27 + 2 Crappie.    Big fish was 6.8 with another 5.1 weighed, best 5 for 23.5lbs with several 4lb class fish.    Lost two fish over 5 including the one on the KGB TSG.   

 

Got a new Crappie PB at 2.11.  

 

And for the better part of those 8hrs fished I watched acres of water boil with hundreds of just about every size class Bass, and the number of fish I saw vs caught would drive anybody insane and it certainly did for me.   Hundreds of blowups.   The Jackall Drift Fry caught the vast majority, but I caught 4 on the Crush 75x, and 1 on the KGB/Spro Chad Shad......but I threw the tackle box at them.    I included some footage at the end of the video showing what I'm talking about.     

 

 

 

 

A bonanza of Big Bass in the sunshine - hard to beat.

Nicely Done & Congrats @AlabamaSpothunter

btw - what jighead are you fishing that Jackall Drift Fry on?

If you don't mind sharing.

Thanks in Advance

A-Jay

[Swamp Girl]

1 hour ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Big fish was 6.8 with another 5.1 weighed, best 5 for 23.5lbs with several 4lb class fish. 

 

Another great day on the water, Alex. And I think you've strung enough great days for this to count as your second streak. If the last one was Joe DiMaggio's streak, this one is at least Pete's streak, Rose's 44-game hitting streak.

 

I know you're pining for another DD, but beyond that goal, have you ever had a season of bassing like this one? I never have and I'm guessing that 99% of the Bass Resource anglers haven't. 

 

That screenshot is cool. Thanks for sharing it. 

 

And thanks for the video too. Lawdy,, those big girls don't quit, do they?

[AlabamaSpothunter]

Thanks A-Jay!   After yesterday I put on 70spf and still feel cooked.   Think we get one more day.   

 

I've got the

Keitech Super Round Tungsten Jighead 1/8th 2/0

Owner Range Roller in 1/8th 3/0 (still trying to get the bigger Mellow 5.2 Drift fry for this one with the bigger hook)

Deps Midst 1/8th 2/0 

 

I really like all three, but the Owner Range Roller and Deps Midst jigead really do create more of that roll, however I wish they used Tungsten like the Keitech does.  They both do it differently though.   The Owner changes the center of gravity, whereas the Deps changes the orientation of the line tie.  

 

Today I tried the Fish Arrow Flash J 4" that are such a cool bait, but it didn't produce fast enough so I put the Drift Fry back on.    Same deal a week or two ago I tried to use the Spunk Shad but couldn't draw a bite.   

 

The Fish Arrow Flash J just won't roll like the Drift Fry, and neither will the Spunk Shad, yet both rolled awesomely in a filled-up sink.    Odd and not sure why.   

 

@ol'crickety  Thanks Katie, I love both the analogies and your attitude and perspective.   I really do wish to emulate your attitude and outlook, and truth be told I think that's my biggest limiting factor.   I am however trying to strongly work on that in part because of our PMs and your replies in this thread about it.   

 

Hopefully it showed a bit of that "green Tuna" action I've tried to described in so many replies.    I'm staring at what looks like 100k Threadfins, many times inches from the boat, Bass blow up so often right by the boat as well.  One thing I've learned is that when Bass are actively feeding, they're like a Buck in heat, they really can't see anything but the prize.    Every time it feels like I'm in the middle of a nature documentary on predators and prey.   

[Team9nine]

1 hour ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Big fish was 6.8 with another 5.1 weighed, best 5 for 23.5lbs with several 4lb class fish.    Lost two fish over 5 including the one on the KGB TSG.   

 

Got a new Crappie PB at 2.11.  

Is your scale measuring pounds and ounces, or pounds and hundredths of a pound? You typed/posted them as the latter, but the video makes it sound like the former. Just curious.  Crazy that you’ve got massive schooling and shad feeding going on with 50 degree water. Fish still think it's fall/winter and not pre-spawn 😆 Any idea how much longer that will last?

[Swamp Girl]

20 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Bass blow up so often right by the boat as well.  One thing I've learned is that when Bass are actively feeding, they're like a Buck in heat, they really can't see anything but the prize. 

 

I experienced this last summer too and couldn't crack the code. For three consecutive trips, I saw bass chasing shad on the surface, but couldn't catch a single one. I caught other bass on those trips, but none of those bass that had that rutting buck focus.

 

22 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

 I am however trying to strongly work on that in part because of our PMs and your replies in this thread about it.   

 

I'm glad. We'll all be pushing daisies in a few years or decades. It's wise to celebrate the fish that we do catch and not pine for those we don't. 

[AlabamaSpothunter]

@Team9nine  Yeah it blew my mind last year when they did it even more frequently, as I'd always heard winter fishing is slow, the fish are sluggish, etc.   

 

It slows way down once they start spawning, but then the Shad Spawn kicks in and you get that whole deal around April.   They do it on the "hi activity" days year-round, but nothing like what they do in the winter.     Fall has a ton of it, but I've found for whatever reason the size class fish are much smaller predating on them. 

 

I've spent as much time trying to learn Gizzard and Threadfin Shad as Bass since fishing this lake, but they're as hard to predict and understand as Bass for me.  For example Feb 8-9 last year I had 40-50 fish days in that same area as today, and the amount of Threadfins were equally as staggering, yet they were in 20-25fow carpeted up for hundreds of yards with the spaghetti right above them, and I was using a Damiki Axe Blade 1oz tail spinner to catch them in about 15-20ft.

 

Today they were in 8-10fow exploding upwards at groups of thousands yet spaced out balls of Threadfins sunning on the surface.  

 

Too much info I'm sure, but those Shad fascinate the heck out of me.   

10 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

 

I experienced this last summer too and couldn't crack the code. For three consecutive trips, I saw bass chasing shad on the surface, but couldn't catch a single one. I caught other bass on those trips, but none of those bass that had that rutting buck focus.

 

 

I'm glad. We'll all be pushing daisies in a few years or decades. It's wise to celebrate the fish that we do catch and not pine for those we don't. 

Agreed on the second part, and hopefully it's something improvable and with work I'll grow in that area.

 

As far as the first part, I think there's lots of logic in the fact that you can have too much of the real thing and at some point it's impossible to compete with the real thing.    One thing I've found is that these fish seemed to be keyed in more on size than any other factor of the real prey.    I get the best results matching the size first and then trying other things.     

 

Usually a Vision 110jr is kryptonite for them in the Fall, and in the Winter an A-Rig.   I've had times where the Flashback Mini with the Armor Shad destroys them as well.    They usually have a magic button, but some days you just can't really find the perfect one, or even one at all.   I had a couple days IIrc last winter where they wouldn't eat anything, not a single fish.    

[RipzLipz]

@AlabamaSpothunter Wolfpacks of pigs bro.

 

[Pat Brown]

Makes a lot of sense because bass are sight feeders and I think that the single easiest thing for them to really quickly evaluate is the profile of a bait when reacting to it.

[softwateronly]

Just another great video!  Congrats and only a little bit of jealousy

 

scott

[Fishlegs]

@AlabamaSpothunter That big one at the beginning hurt us all brother. I've got to hand it to you for sticking with it and having an incredible day when it was all over!

 

[A-Jay]

@AlabamaSpothunter

THANK YOU very much for the detailed response.

I really appreciate it.

I am also a huge fan of that Keitech Super Round Tungsten Jighead - 

Been using it for several different applications for a while.

Enjoy the sun.

A-Jay

 

[Dwight Hottle]

@AlabamaSpothunter gotta love the sound of that Certate's drag. 

[PhishLI]

18 hours ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

The worst best day you could have, before the sun was even up I lost a 5+ and an irreplaceable swimbait literally inches from the net. 

 A few years ago, my brother got a standard, bone, 6" Bullshad, then sent it out to a hot-at-the-moment bait painter. He waited a very long time in the queue, and was thrilled showing it to me on the tailgate of his truck as we suited up in our waders. This lake is snaggy, so he'd spooled up with straight 65lb braid just to be "safe". I was standing right next to him when he said "Watch this. This bait really flies", and he swung for the fences. It certainly did fly. My brother's a long 6'4" and his rod was 9', so the knot didn't stand a chance against the strain of the backlash, so off it went into the troposphere on the very first cast. The funny part is that it was dark, cold, and windy, so with my wool hat pulled down over my ears and my hood up I really couldn't hear much. In support, I enthusiastically cried out "WoW, that thing really went out there!" My brother said nothing and made no sound, which I thought was odd. I looked over at him for a reply only to find his head hung low, arms to his sides, the rod tip in the water, and his chin on his chest.

 

It happens eventually, one way or another. The lake giveth, and the lake taketh away. Sorry for your lost bait. I lit a candle for it.😢

 

Great vid though. Congrats on yet another awesome day, bro!👊 

[Swamp Girl]

35 minutes ago, PhishLI said:

I lit a candle for it.😢

 

[PhishLI]

19 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

 

Baits like his TSG are worthy of a eulogy. "He was a wonderful bait. Everybody loved him".😁