Latest Catch Pics Thread

[Loochy88]

The spawn is on at Lake of the Ozarks!  Caught this one sitting right outside our condo...

 

[deep]

Dinkfest yesterday. Tried a lot of different locations and presentations. Nope, just caught more dinks. About 25 of them in ~6 hours.

 

[boostr]

17 hours ago, teethmarks said:

pretty wired. got my pb lmb for all i know today. only started weighing last season. some of you guys catch this size daily but this is a milestone for me ? bite was slow all day until we went to wacky 4" senkos. bit a gray one.

 

3lb 11oz

 

 

Anything 2lbs and up is giant up here.

[shovelmouth83]

In the creek.

 

[Graham]

Dink tamer reporting for duty...I swear I can catch bigger fish ?. Anyways, first smallie of the season, so that’s noteworthy!

The river was all kicked up with mud and exceptionally high, the mountains must’ve had some rain.

[shovelmouth83]

Lake Dardanelle,Ar state park. 

[frosty]

8 hours ago, Bigbruce said:

Caught a few nice ones at a little pond in the military training area. It feels like it’s my own personal pond. My wife says it’s because I’m the only idiot that goes fishing at lunch next to the impact area. The artillery can be a little loud at times.

At least you don’t have to worry about them being sensitive to you walking the bank! ?

[BCline]

I have been looking at Okeeheelee Park in Greenacres, FL for years during my daily commute but had never stopped to fish.  Yesterday I decided was the day, picked a random bank and started casting.  I was rewarded with this little guy just over a pound.  I love going to water I don't know and catching fish.

[A-Jay]

Air Temps in the low 30's early this morning.

This Pretty Lady warmed me right up.

A-Jay

[Fairtax4me]

A-jay is constantly on some gigantic smallies!

 

Nice fishies guys! 

[NorcalBassin]

Biggest swimbait fish of the season so far. She had a big ol belly but unfortunately the pic didn't do her justice. Just a bit over 5 on the scale.

 

Pops with a nice smallie on a wacky rig

[Graham]

Unreal @A-Jay!

[lonnie g]

Fun times especially with dad. Nice fish!!

There must be a rule on your boat (no fish allowed under 5 lb.) well maybe 3 if you are a fat girl!!

16 hours ago, Fairtax4me said:

A-jay is constantly on some gigantic smallies!

 

Nice fishies guys! 

 

16 hours ago, A-Jay said:

Air Temps in the low 30's early this morning.

This Pretty Lady warmed me right up.

A-Jay

There must be a rule on your boat ( no fish allowed under 5 lb. well maybe 3 if you are a fat girl

[Will Wetline]

 

My idea of fun is battling a good smallie on on a ML rod and 6lb. line.

[Catt]

Bank fishing, 7 tighteyes & 5# kicker ?

[frosty]

I don’t mind getting up at 5 to go fishing ? this is my first top water bite for the year, it was a blast!

[A-Jay]

Good one from day's trip.

A-Jay

[Dirtyeggroll]

Between the guy who was the boater and I, combined we probably caught over 100 bass, most right around a pound. (we stopped weighing after we got a limit of nicer ones). We found a rock pile offshore in about 5-7 ft of water and every cast with a jig that allowed the jig to drag over the rocks ended up in a fish. Felt the tap of the jig bouncing of the rocks then bam, jig got smoked. Every single time. Upgraded to a 2.15,  2.2 and 2.9 on some docks in a little man made bay. My best 6 were 15 lbs 5 ounces (mine is on the right) enough for a 3rd place finish! Sure made 25+ mph east winds with and chilly 40-50 degree air temps quite bearable. I also got to test the Huk NXTLVL Rain Gear @A-Jay sold me and I stayed nice and dry.

[Team9nine]

One of the 51 brought to hand today from small water walking the bank. Bass appeared to be postspawn, as I never saw an actual bed, but they were cruising and chasing shallow. Did find some bluegill bedding. Zman plastics on a small jighead was the ticket (wacky).

 

 

[Fairtax4me]

My buddy and I hit the same lake again as last weekend. Water temp rose 12° in a week. Last weeks water temp was 70°, air temp was high around 70° with clouds and rain.

 

This week, partly cloudy in the Am, high of 96° and sunny afternoon. Surface Water temps bumped 82°. What a difference a week makes!

We didn't expect good numbers like last week, but we had hopes of finding some better sized fish having narrowed down a few key areas. 

We put 9 in the boat (wont complain too much) but never did find a solid bite. I got a couple on bluegill squarebill thrown on the bank (if it didn't literally HIT the bank it didn't get bit). Couple on Texas rigged plastics. Bite totally died after about 1 o'clock. Finally got a 1.5 pounder on an S-waver 168 right before dusk to end the day. 

Found a couple places where bass were blowing up on bait, but they scattered if the boat got within 100 yards. They were crushing on huge schools of 1.5 - 2" bluegill, but they wouldn't even come near anything we could throw that mimicked that size/type bait. 

 

[MichaelCopeland]

Well I finally caught another bass today. Went to Richard Fleming Park on the west side of Cross Lake. Didn't get to fish very long but managed this 1lb 2oz bass. Caught it on a 1/2oz Mann's swimbait head with an underspin and green pumpkin Rage Swimmer on it. I was fishing it kinda fast and the bite was fairly subtle. I felt the weight and it tried to swim off and I set the hook. Finally one that didn't get away. ?

[N Florida Mike]

On 5/8/2018 at 8:39 AM, lonnie g said:

another nice evening here in southern Indiana. went out for about 3 hours, caught 16 mostly 1 to 2 lb range, only one worthy of showing you monster slayers.she fought nicely.

SON ! Good job Roland. Er , uh,, Lonnie.

Not sure how I posted you again Lonnie.sorry bout that.

 

[WolfyBrandon]

On 4/29/2018 at 11:01 PM, WolfyBrandon said:

[April 29, 2018]

^Previous

 

[May 03, 2018]

 

After our last fishing trip where I had great success catching 5 Bass and 1 Pike, I really thought the fishing was going to get even better as the water continued to warm. Jeremy and I planned another fishing trip the following Thursday of that week (today), which would be a shorter after work fishing trip.

 

Got off at 2:00pm, arrived at his place shortly after and loaded up the boat with our gear. We both decided to retie baits after our last trip and decide on a plan for today. Somehow all that took an hour, and we headed toward the lake at 3:00pm. Launched the boat and were headed out at 3:30pm. We had decided to go to our furthest location first (which was a new area) and depending on the situation we could work our way back to the area we had fished last Sunday which was closer to the ramp. 

 

When we arrived at our first location, there was a heavy west wind. As we were fishing west to east, the wind was really pushing the boat faster than we wanted to fish. We couldn't really fish that area effectively, but as we continued on it was more protected from the wind. Things were pretty uneventful, until about the ~20th cast with the new Zman Jack Hammer Chatterbait I hear a "SNAP" as the line breaks at the knot and I watch as it sails through the air and splashes out in the middle of nowhere...   R.I.P. 

 

 

Uhhh, didn't I just retie everything earlier? Must have weakened the line when tying that knot I guess... Oh and of course I only had 1 in that color because of price...

 

We continue fishing and get back into this area that just looked great. Water is warm ~62F, Stained with ~2ft Clarity. Lake level is a little high so lots of shoreline cover, some rocky areas, vegetation, some matted debris... It had a little of everything. We both figured it just had to hold some bass...

 

 

Two hours later, not a bite. Had some pike chase our baits around which wasn't the best sign when looking for bass, but we covered so much water by the time we finally accepted that this was not going to work it was already 5:30pm. We only had about 30 min left to make something happen, so we decided to head back to where we last caught them on Sunday, as that's about all we had time for anyway.

 

When we arrived we noticed the wind had calmed down a bit as it was becoming evening, and the water temp had jumped from the previous ~53F the last time we fished it to ~55-57F. Things were looking pretty similar to the area we had just fished... All day we were throwing a mix of reaction moving baits and finesse soft plastics. Nothing was working, until about 30 min into fishing our second location Jeremy makes a cast up shallow over a log near the flooded brush and watches as a small Largemouth follows his bait out and takes it...

 

 

We both had been throwing soft plastics up to the flooded brush all day in both locations and nothing until now.

 

I tried focusing on the flooded brush for a while, until I got a bad loop knot in my line and didn't want to spend the time to fix it and retie as we were already fishing overtime. Basically I locked a Spinnerbait in my hand, and Jeremy locked a soft plastic in his hand, and we fished till 7:15pm and had to call it. I swore earlier I had a hit on the Spinnerbait but just didn't connect. In the end I don't think it mattered what I was using as neither of us had another bite that evening.

 

So yeah... I Zeroed. Not since 2015 have I zeroed after I started catching them as I've made consistency my #1 goal. Mistakes were made this day, first of all being busy / lazy I forgot to look back on my weather logs before fishing, where we had a day with a high of 58F / low of 38F. Then I might of thought it was possible the bass pulled out. A lot of time was wasted fishing unproductive water in a situation were we didn't have a lot of time to begin with, and fishing two areas that were similar to each other and both unproductive. If I could have a do over I would only fish the first location for 1 hour, then completely change it up, like head to the northern part of the lake where the water is a bit cooler, clearer, and deeper. Fish an area completely different to what we were currently fishing that wasn't working...

 

- - - - -

 

[May 14, 2018]

 

The day after I zeroed - I spent some time looking over my fishing log for that day to learn from it, and that's where I came up with the last part for the day above. 10 long days later... Jeremy and I are able to schedule another fishing trip for today Monday the 14th. It's part of our weekend so we had a good 6 hours to fish (~8:30am - 2:30pm).

 

I arrived at his place early and started gearing up. It's been quite a few days since our last trip, and I believe "every day is a new day", so in my mind we were starting from scratch. Documented the weather over the past week and it's been a mix of overcast days with rain or thunderstorms, with a few partly cloudy to clear days with the average temp hovering around the low 70's. Today's forecast was said to have high bluebird skies, with high pressure - falling as the day progressed, and a high of up to 82F. It's also the day before the new moon, and two days before an incoming front said to consist of two days of thunderstorms.

 

We planned to head up north to the deeper, cooler, clearer water in search of some smallmouth after the results from our last trip. I wasn't opposed to giving the south end a try as it's been over a week since our last trip, but it was more of a decision just to mix things up, try something new, and get information on other areas of the lake during this time. I recently put together a new combo, so now I can rig up to 5 baits at one time, here is my starting bait selection for today...

 

 

When we arrived at the lake the first thing I noticed was the lake level was now about 2 feet high from normal pool. Stained with ~2-3ft clarity, and the water temp at the ramp had dropped from 51 on our last trip to 49.

 

 

The warming weather and rainfall is melting snow still high up in the mountains creating runoff that is dumping into the lake leading to the current conditions. This makes fishing the south end of the lake tricky as during the early season we can get a good warming trend yet the water temp will remain either the same or drop a few degrees in temperature. They also release a lot of water from the lake to prevent flooding during the early season - so there is a constant dynamic of releasing warming water only to be replaced with new cold runoff delaying the lake from heating up (years past I've caught bass off beds in late June). The decision to head north will put us in an area with more stable conditions.

 

We arrive at our first location around 8:45am, water temp 53F. I begin with tossing the deep diving jerkbait, and 5 min into fishing I hook into a 4 lb 07 oz, 22 inch Northern Pike Minnow...

 

  

Not the target species I'm looking for, but it felt good to hook into something of size after my last outing. 15 min further into fishing I make a cast with the grub to the shallow part of a dock (as the lake level is 2 ft higher than normal pool) and within seconds after the grub hits the bottom it's fish on.

 

 

Bass 01 - 16 & 1/4", 2 lb 07 oz

 

I actually boat flipped that bass, and right when I got it in the boat it's sharp sandpaper teeth cut my 10 lb Trilene Sensation line...

 

Covering water, we fished around our first location for ~1 hour 30 min, and that was the only bite. We decided it was time to move, so we headed a bit further north.

 

Second Location has more depth to it, Water Temp was 52F. Fishing with the grub again, making casts to the flooded shoreline cover. 25 min into fishing I notice the tail of the grub got hooked on the open hook of the jig which I find suspicious as that doesn't happen often. I make a second cast to the flooded brush and it felt like I had pulled it over a limb or something but wasn't sure, so I make a third cast and let the grub sit, next thing I know something's swimming with it so I set the hook, fish on...

 

 

Bass 02 - 13 & 3/4", 1 lb 05 oz

 

Fishing our second location for ~1 hour 30 min, again that was our only bite. It was now 12:00pm, I had boated two fish, Jeremy had nothing, so I let him decide where we should try next. It was mid day, hot, we lost what little wind we had earlier and it was looking like tough conditions. We turned the boat around and ended up heading back to a location south of our first location today.

 

 

Third Location, Water Temp 60-62F. After fishing for 20 min, we get to this big dock that isn't normally there, and is just temporarily positioned near the shoreline. We both cast all around it and no bites. When we get to the other side and just as I'm about to give up on it, I'm reeling my grub back to the boat and see a little smallmouth under 12 inches follow it out from under the dock and turn away. That was our first clue that there are fish here, they just might not be committing to our baits. I give Jeremy a chance to fish it, as I take some time to change baits. Since we have high skies, low wind, and I want something weightless I can fish slower, I decide to swap out the Spinnerbait for a Wacky Rig.

 

 

We gave it some time but nothing resulted from it, so we continued on. There was a shallow flat with clumps of vegetation in about 5ft of depth we gave a try, but only managed to see two pike, one which followed Jeremy's spinnerbait to the boat and nipped at it but didn't get hooked.

 

 

We both were totally junk fishing during the mid day lull, just trying to make something happen. I even swapped out the chatterbait for a buzzbait just for the fun of it. We actually seen a few fish bust the surface but couldn't tell what they were. At this point in the day I was just fun fishing hoping Jeremy would hook into something so he wouldn't get skunked. We fished the third location for just over 2 hours, when Jeremy said he would take the loss as it was now time for us to head back...

 

 

Pulled the boat out at 2:50pm. Tough day for us, covering water was key just to catch the two as they were miles apart. We fished shallow, deep, slow, fast, finesse baits, and reaction baits. This is the time of year I struggle, that late pre-spawn to early-spawn time. If the water is between 48F-55F the fishing is good, but once it hits 56-62 its a struggle. It's still early for the spawn in my area, at least a few weeks out, need the water temps to increase a bit and the conditions & weather to stabilize. I did talk with someone who I trust that also fished on this day as well. They had better luck than us, and mentioned the best fish seemed to come very early in the day (like before we were even on the water) and seemed to shut down after 11:00am, which fits with when I caught my fish. Maybe with the new moon they are feeding early then shutting off during the day, or maybe it has something to do with location and we just haven't found the right area yet. All in all, I'm more than happy with the two I caught.

 

WolfyBrandon

 

[deep]

Tule Dipping:

 

 

Found a lot of decent bass today hanging out under matted grass in one corner of a small cove. It's a good spot most of the time once the water warms up a bit, but today was ridiculous.

 

Caught a couple and lost one in three casts pitching a plastic on a jighead. So I beached the yak, and decided to do a little tule dipping from the banks. You know, stealthier, and all that. Plus I needed to stretch a little anyway.

 

It seemed like half the bass in the whole reservoir were congregated in that 20 ft X 40 ft space, and they had never seen a bait in their lives. Find a hole, drop the bait in, and if a fish didn't eat in on the fall, another would pick it up off the bottom.

 

Think I caught about 10 in as many dips/ flips/ pitches, most of them solid 2-3 lb class fish and a couple estimated 4#. I kinda stopped taking pics after the first few and was laughing uncontrollably. Even started checking their mouths for holes from hooks because I wasn't convinced that I wasn't catching the same few fish over and over again. It was that crazy.

 

Two guys were hiking the trails and stopped by to give me some company. Well I put on a show for them too, and caught 8 or 10 more.

 

One of them remarked that he didn't know "fishing was so easy". I didn't tell him that I wasn't aware of that either!

 

 

 

 

 

 

I picked up half a dozen more decent ones from here and there. They were biting really good. Admittedly, I didn't weigh most of the fish (measured some of them); I know I caught a 15# plus limit, probably over 17#. By far the best day I've ever had here.

 

 

Called it a day an hour or two early, and as luck would have it, 5 minutes after I reach the ramp, the wind picks up and there are whitecaps all over. 10 minutes after that it starts raining hard.

 

[NYWayfarer]

7 hours ago, deep said:

 

 

 

That is the worst case of Bass thumb I have ever seen!

 

Worst and best can be used interchangeable here.