(Un)official Hoosiers Thread

[frosty]

I'm just gonna say this, bass fishing was a lot more fun before I bought a set of scales

[dsqui]

lol its amazing how once you get scales you realize how bad you were at estimating weights of fish lol

[frosty]

39 minutes ago, dsqui said:

 

40 minutes ago, dsqui said:

lol its amazing how once you get scales you realize how bad you were at estimating weights of fish lol

Yeah, and apparently my eye is a pound or two off! I swear it felt like a 10" 3 pounder when it was hanging off the end of a 7' rod!

[dsqui]

ya try bass fishing with a 9 foot crappie rod everything feels like its a ten pounder lol man i love those long noodle rods

[frosty]

7 hours ago, dsqui said:

ya try bass fishing with a 9 foot crappie rod everything feels like its a ten pounder lol man i love those long noodle rods

 I'm going to start taking my little 5' ultra light, that way I can yell "ITS A HAWG!!! ITS A HAWG!!!" no matter how small it is!

[OddChase]

1 hour ago, frosty said:

 I'm going to start taking my little 5' ultra light, that way I can yell "ITS A HAWG!!! ITS A HAWG!!!" no matter how small it is!

Not sure if you watch youtubers who fish, but this is them literally every time (Except Fluke because he always catches hawgs  )

[frosty]

9 minutes ago, OddChase said:

Not sure if you watch youtubers who fish, but this is them literally every time (Except Fluke because he always catches hawgs  )

Yeah, of the few I subscribe to, I think 1rod1reel is the worst. I like his videos but I'd hate fishing with him the way he goes crazy when he catches a big fish. 

[FastVette]

Finally got out after a few days hiatus.  Had some neighbors kids (from our old place) over for a couple days and took them to our development pond for some fishing.  Ned rig FTW.  Hooked up and landed two, had my wife take a shot of this one cause he's pretty decent.  I dropped the Ned in the middle of a group of fry in the middle of the pond and he hammered it as soon as it started dropping.  Pardon the expression, she caught me contemplating his size.  Got skunked on the topwater frogs which is unusual though because they usually do very well here.

[frosty]

Took the wife bass fishing today. She had several top water frog hits but didn't connect unfortunately. She still needs work setting the hook. Biggest one of the day was 1.71 pounds, and We worked our butts off for the few we caught, it was a tough bite today. 

 

Oh yeah, I love braid. That's a 3/0 KVD mustad hook!

[dsqui]

got out tonight for a couple hours until the ten minute storm blew in stupid lightning got soaked loading the boat.  about a mile from the launch everything cleared and hasnt rained since.  stupid lightning if it wasnt for the lightning i would have stayed and roughed out the rain fish were biting pretty good too

[OddChase]

13 hours ago, frosty said:

Oh yeah, I love braid. That's a 3/0 KVD mustad hook!

I'm about to put braid on a reel, do I need to buy new hooks to use with it? I never thought about the no-stretch line bending hooks like this.

Also - for the fellas who have fished Westwood, what's good to use there? I visited the park last night and didn't see a single bluegill or even minnow in the water. 4 foot of visibility and moss/submerged veg as far as the eye could see. Tried a senko and drop shot, didn't seem like anyone else was catching anything either. Spent my pizza money getting in so I would like some advice on how to fish it! 

[IndianaFinesse]

two days ago I got out for two hours right before the thunder storm moved in.  I tried my new spro bbz-1 rat in morning dawn out, and it caught eleven bass out of the sixteen total.  I was surprised by the number of smaller bass that ate it, the smallest was only twelve invhes long with six over fifteen inches.  fishing parallel to docks with submerged vegetation in six to twelve feet of water.

Yesterday I fished for five hours in the morning and six hours in the afternoon.  I caught 31 bass, most on a spook in the morning but about a third ate a trd skipped under docks later on.  they were in the same areas as yesterday.

And this morning I got out for four hours, but I decided to try and learn how to use frogs.  I caught 13 bass, all on the frog.  About half of them ate it while walking it parallel to a weed edge in twelve feet of water, and the rest were while skipping docks.  the dock skipping with frogs was fun, my two favorite ways to catch fish (except buzzbaits) all in one.   

[frosty]

7 hours ago, OddChase said:

I'm about to put braid on a reel, do I need to buy new hooks to use with it? I never thought about the no-stretch line bending hooks like this.

Also - for the fellas who have fished Westwood, what's good to use there? I visited the park last night and didn't see a single bluegill or even minnow in the water. 4 foot of visibility and moss/submerged veg as far as the eye could see. Tried a senko and drop shot, didn't seem like anyone else was catching anything either. Spent my pizza money getting in so I would like some advice on how to fish it! 

I wouldn't worry about getting new hooks, just realize you need to change your hook set since the braid has no stretch, no more over the shoulder, 360 degree spin hook sets I just happen to get hung up on a log, figured the braid would snap at the knot, but the palomer knot held strong!

[neocrunch]

23 hours ago, OddChase said:

Also - for the fellas who have fished Westwood, what's good to use there?

Westwood doesn't produce a lot of big fish but you should be able to find lots of foot-long bass. I've had my best luck fishing along the dam, particularly around the intake box (where the water goes to exit the lake). I'm not sure how to get there by foot but I've seen people fish from the dam so I know you can access it. I've had my best luck on the Ned rig, a white spinnerbait, and even a squarebill fished parallel to the bank. 

[frosty]

Is it just me or has the fishing been tough everywhere today? I managed a few dinks and caught 1 good looking 2 pounder, but it's definitely not like normal for this pond. 

[frosty]

Does anybody know what this plant is? It tore me up yesterday while I was fishing. 

[neocrunch]

3 hours ago, frosty said:

Does anybody know what this plant is? It tore me up yesterday while I was fishing. 

I believe that's a type of thistle. Nasty stuff. The farmers hate it, too. 

4 hours ago, frosty said:

Is it just me or has the fishing been tough everywhere today? I managed a few dinks and caught 1 good looking 2 pounder, but it's definitely not like normal for this pond. 

Yes!  I spent several hours on the St. Joseph River in Fort Wayne and didn't have much luck. I caught a few white bass and a few bluegill... but no smallies... or pike... or anything else.

[frosty]

1 hour ago, neocrunch said:

I believe that's a type of thistle. Nasty stuff. The farmers hate it, too. 

Yes!  I spent several hours on the St. Joseph River in Fort Wayne and didn't have much luck. I caught a few white bass and a few bluegill... but no smallies... or pike... or anything else.

Man it got me good, it's not bad just sitting here but it burns like crazy when you get the scratches wet! Between that stuff and the horse flies it was hard to do a lot of fishing yesterday! I think the water levels are down a bit here, not sure about up north, but the pond I was fishing today is down a bit. 

[Amoore9900]

On June 6, 2016 at 3:49 AM, dsqui said:

no actually that paddle bike was manufactured in the early 70s in south bend by don f snyder corp cant find nothing else out about the darn thing though lol

 

ahhhh the stupid green carp lol or atleast thats what i call em when im out fishin for skis lol noone hold that against me here usually when i get a bass on top water they just suck those big ol ski baits down gets that heart pumpin for about 3 seconds then u realize its a bass most the time really good ones too usually in that 3-5lbs but  man on that ski gear they dont stand a chance.

We went out today and it was tough we got 3 bass biggest was 2.5. We found some fish but most were just small tail grabbers ...2 fish on soft plastic and 1 on crank...was tough

[OddChase]

Fished a river that wasn't even a 5 minute walk from my house and caught about 15 smallmouth and 10 rock bass on the Ned. Good way to kill a few hours and lots of fun as well. Interesting as well - the bluegill were bedding in the slack water. 

@neocrunch thanks for Westwood advice, I'll have to try it out. 

[frosty]

Broke out the baitcaster yesterday. I haven't used it since I was 14, and even then I was NOT good with it. I could cast, but didn't have distance or accuracy. Well I think I got it down yesterday, slapped a frog on and started whipping it out there, making nice long, fairly accurate casts. My only issue is after many years of spinning gear use I have no rod control with my left hand. Walking the frog was more like stumbling the frog

[tstraub]

Didn't get much fishing in today. I spent the better part of the day making plumbing repairs in the camper.  I did get out for a little pan fishing.  I picked up one small bass on a ned rig on the way out to the spot where we drop anchors.  The bluegill and crappie were not biting but we did get 2 golden sinners to use as bait on our overnight rigs.  Still searching for these big blue cats I've heard stories of.  We've never caught anything but bullheads and turtles maybe tonight is our night (fingers crossed)

[tstraub]

I got out at first light without any of the kids and a plan to fish hard since I didn't have anyone but me to worry about.  I threw the tackle box at them for about an hour and a half without a bite.  Then I picked up my Ned rig rod and had a fish on the second or third cast.  It was a dink but at least it fit the skunk off.  I continued with the Ned for about an hour and only hooked one more fish which I got tangled in the anchor rope and lost him at the side of the boat.  Seems to be a tough bite so far today.

[OddChase]

1 hour ago, tstraub said:

I got out at first light without any of the kids and a plan to fish hard since I didn't have anyone but me to worry about.  I threw the tackle box at them for about an hour and a half without a bite.  Then I picked up my Ned rig rod and had a fish on the second or third cast.  It was a dink but at least it fit the skunk off.  I continued with the Ned for about an hour and only hooked one more fish which I got tangled in the anchor rope and lost him at the side of the boat.  Seems to be a tough bite so far today.

It seems like you're fishing a heavy pressure pond/small lake. Am I right? I also remember you mentioning weeds and stuff. Have you tried a chatterbait? They are pretty much weedless and can get bites when nothing else can. 

[tstraub]

20 minutes ago, OddChase said:

It seems like you're fishing a heavy pressure pond/small lake. Am I right? I also remember you mentioning weeds and stuff. Have you tried a chatterbait? They are pretty much weedless and can get bites when nothing else can. 

The lake is a 22 acre spring feed with a creek flowing out that I assume connects to a river system somewhere (at least during floods). I assume it connects to a river because of the large numbers of carp and gar I see swimming around.  Fishing pressure is low except on holidays. Probably because it's out on the middle of nowhere and they charge a fee to fish unless you are also camping so there are not many people that come just to fish.  I've never tried a chatterbait mostly do to my lack of success with spinner baits.  I just figured that they were similar enough baits that if spinner baits were not the answer why buy a chatterbait.  I guess I could pick up a few and give then a shot.