12poundbass’s second annual year in review thread

[12poundbass]

2020 was an odd year all around, I’m sure most of you would agree. 

Misses:

We got a late start this year because we were told we couldn’t fish or we would be fined. We won’t go any further with that one. 
 

I did catch my first smallmouth out of a lake so that was good. That was the only one I got so that was a bummer. We also lost a couple poles, two just broke, and one went overboard (I sure miss that one). I’m still struggling to get away from beating the banks. I’ve successfully been Senko free for two years now. If I can beat that addiction then I can beat the urge to hit the banks. 
 

Hits:

Got the negatives out of the way first. The fish weren’t plentiful this year by any means, neither were the chances for us to go out, but there were plenty of things that were positive. I really took a liking to the vibrating jig particularly @Siebert Outdoors he has. I’ve used vibrating jigs before and never had much luck. After finding luck this year it became my go to and I’ve taking a liking to it! 

Screwing around on our dock I decided to try skipping. It took a while to get the hang of it, but I’ve become fairly good at it and it’s paid off a couple times already so one more tool I can add to the arsenal. 6poundbass has learned to do it as well. 6poundbass has continued to grow as an angler as well. 
 

Like I have previously said 2020 was just an odd year all around! The only big fish that sticks out was my PB pike. My goals for 2021 are to try and get at least one new PB bass, learn a few more presentations, and break this awful addiction to beating the bank. 
 

So let’s hear your year in review. What are your hits, misses, and goals for next year? 

[A-Jay]

Bummer you lost gear but at least you survived the insanity of a season that Michigan presented in 2020.

My personal fishing season can be summed up in a single pic......

Here's to a more productive 2021.

A-Jay 

[detroit1]

I put my boat to sleep today. This year was way better for me than last year. My outboard behaved, and i got to fish with a friend that turned me on to firecraw bladed jigs that he makes . (some may know who i'm talking about) Clear water and that dang color should not work (in my mind), but it has all season long. Last sunday was my last time out, watrer temps 48*, and i caught a beautiful 18.25", 3.6# smallie in 14 fow on a blade bait. Nice way to end the season. Now the hard part...4.5 months until i can go again.

[Catt]

Our house is a very, very fine house ?

[Columbia Craw]

The true highlights of this year ?  My colonoscopy came up clear, I paid off my truck and got a new blade on my lawn mower.  I ventured better than most I guess.

[jbsoonerfan]

First year with the boat was successful, but certainly not over

[Bigassbass]

Fished all year and kept my sanity, took up throwing a bait caster, thats a biggy for me since I love spinning reels.  Caught lots of fish wish I would have taken pics, hey next year will work!

[Mobasser]

My season is winding down now. I caught a good number of bass, but nothing of any real size. As with most years, spinnerbaits early in the season, then once it got hot, the plastic worm ruled. Didn't get to do as much night fishing as I had hoped. Probably the best part of the 2020 season for me, was seeing my old friend Mike get back into fishing after 12yrs. I made a thread about him a while back called" From Younger to Older". Now he's fishing again, almost every weekend and two or three nights a week. Mike got me to throwing some older plastic worms again, ones that he likes. Mr. Twister Phenom, Zoom U Tail, and the Zoom 6" lizard. My goal for next season is to continue to learn about deep water structure fishing. I'm looking for that " spot within a spot".  Hopefully next season I'll find it more often.And, I miss fishing with my grandson each Saturday morning. Since Aiden got his job at the grocery store, he's working every Saturday. They're keeping him busy up there, so, I guess that's a good thing.

[12poundbass]

27 minutes ago, jbsoonerfan said:

First year with the boat was successful, but certainly not over

I’ve saw your pictures this year and you’ve killed it with the green bass for sure! Nice work. 

[Log Catcher]

As I have posted before this is the worst year I have ever had. Got skunked a lot more than I ever have. Did not catch any fish with any size worth talking about. Did not catch any SMB. Did not catch anything on a spinning rod this year. Fished a lake I just found four times this year. I still haven't caught a fish out of it. My wife has caught one. Caught hardly anything on soft plastics this year which are usually my best baits.

 

I had to rewire the boat trailer with new lights and wiring. It was so hot this summer I couldn't work on it very long at a time.

 

My wife went with me every time I fished this year which was a first. She was afraid to let me go by myself after having knee replacement surgery on both knees last fall. She doesn't like to be out as long as I do so I cut the trips a little shorter.

 

Here's hoping for a much better year next year.

 

 

 

 

[Way north bass guy]

It was an interesting year for me. We also lost a few weeks in the spring, due to the ramps all being closed ( first time and hopefully the last I ever see of that). Once it did all open up though, we were off to the races. Got quite a few real good sized pike in the spring, then when things warmed up we did real well this year, especially on the Georgian Bay smallmouth. Managed to get out a fair bit with my number one fishing partner, who was also the only one in the boat with me all year, other than the wife a few times. 
No real giant bass this year, but we sure got a ton of them, up to about 5lbs. Found some new areas that were basically untouched water, and I plan to expand on that a lot next year. Also finished off the year with a couple more huge pike, which is always fun. 

[soflabasser]

I can sum up my 2020 fishing experience with the following three words; Improvise, Adapt, and Overcome. I caught lots of memorable fish and look towards to seeing what I catch in rest of this year and 2021.

[FryDog62]

Got out over 60 times this year and up until the last 3 weeks would say it was the worst year of fishing I can remember.
 

With Covid/quarantine in the Spring, our governor made several proclamations including that 74,000 Minnesotans would die by Labor Day (thankfully we’re not even close to that). That shut our state down and almost all activities (besides rioting). Then he said stay indoors, no golf, no restaurants, nothing except well... er, um, fishing is ok! 
 

Then every boat ramp in the state was clogged with fishermen, new fishermen, wanna be fishermen, and everybody else that needed to get out of the house.  
 

Despite having 11,000 lakes and rivers we had a level of pressure never seen before. So many people I talked to said catch rates and size were way down all season.
 

This past month with school starting (mostly), deer opener and people winterizing their boats -  finally fishing pressure or lack thereof returned to normal.
 

Of course we have had an early winter again - snow, low temps (and all the usual non-global warming stuff)... so have only been able to get out out here and there, but witnessed a vast improvement in fishing with many of the lakes not pressured for the first time all year.  
 

We’re about ready to ice up but at least we finally had some very good days during an otherwise below average year for most here. 

[MN Fisher]

1 minute ago, FryDog62 said:

Got out over 60 times this year

Ten times more than I did, buddy. Covid-19 put a damper on it cause we couldn't get someone here to watch the wife often enough for me to get out more.

 

1 minute ago, FryDog62 said:

up until the last 3 weeks would say it was the worst year of fishing I can remember.

Haven't been out for over a month - and I'll agree with the last part of that.

Best LMB this year - 1.83#

Best fish this year - 2.24# Northern

 

This winter - upgrade a few rods, upgrade my electronics - those are the big purchases.

[FryDog62]

3 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

Ten times more than I did, buddy. Covid-19 put a damper on it cause we couldn't get someone here to watch the wife often enough for me to get out more.

 

Haven't been out for over a month - and I'll agree with the last part of that.

Best LMB this year - 1.83#

Best fish this year - 2.24# Northern

 

This winter - upgrade a few rods, upgrade my electronics - those are the big purchases.

Tough year for sure for many of us - better seasons ahead my friend. Cheers looking forward to an enjoyable and productive 2021 for you!! ??

[Bluebasser86]

At least you were able to get out and enjoy some time on the water and you have a son that really seems to enjoy it also. A year like this can really make you appreciate the little things.

[NorcalBassin]

All things considered the fishing year could have been worse so I won't complain too much. I was pretty bitter having to cancel our annual father-son trip to Clear Lake in the spring and all of our lakes getting shut down for the few weeks that are always the prime prespawn and spawn, but once California quit California'ing so much I was able to get back into a pretty normal fishing routine. We also skipped our annual fall Clear Lake trip and I still have my dad (mid-70's) meet at the ramp instead of ride in the truck to decrease potentially spreading something... happy to make those concessions and have some sense of normalcy. On a more positive note I have another 6-7 trips for the year weather permitting, so there's still a chance to end the year in style with a PB.

[Catt]

I did get to see my #2 grand daughter catch her first bass!

 

 

[jimmyjoe]

   Had a decent spring, a moderately dead summer, and a fantastic fall. ? This year was a spinnerbait year, even more so than other years. Got'em high, got'em low and got'em in-between. It kinda surprised me. Side-effect of trying to lay off plastic, I guess. That, and I took to heart what I read other people post here on BR: "You can't catch fish if you're afraid of losing lures." So this year, I lost a bunch of cheap spinnerbaits playing low-and-slow in the rocks and in blowdowns ..... and caught my best fish of the year there.  ?

   Like everyone else, the one big thing I noticed was the number of people out fishing this year. I was glad to make room. I can't imagine how tortured I would feel if I had to be cooped up all the time.

   jj

[DitchPanda]

Well I'm like you I want the bad news first and save the good stuff for last!

 

Misses: Honestly I don't have alot of fishing misses this year...only one that comes to mind is lack of smallmouth at my local lake. Caught probably 20 last year and only 2 this year. Otherwise I dealt with the same covid strangeness but it wasn't near as severe for me as for many others. I've managed to stay covid free thus far...my job never shutdown and financially we took a %10 pay cut for 3 months to weather the storm then went back to full pay...lastly our fishing was never off limits so I was able to get out even more than normal I'd say.

 

Hits: Well there was a lot of these for me. First we had a long open water season as we had ice out the first part of March giving me an extra month on my open water season. This only happens once every 5 or 6 winters so that was welcome.

 

Second, I caught several pike from my local lake along with some white bass and a couple nice smallies. All these fish got in over the past several years from flooding and they are a welcome addition to my usual largemouth, crappies and bluegills.

 

Lastly, I had a good year for numbers if bass...not my best year but far from my worst. The awesome thing was size...I caught lots of 4s and 5s...3 6s and a 7.

 

With this craziness going on all I can say is I have lots the be thankful for.

[MIbassyaker]

A month ago I posted this on another thread, which sort of serves as my summary of the season:

"My records show 31 trips outside the house to fish to 22 different bodies of water, four of which were new to me this year. 15 natural lakes, 3 impoundments, 2 free-flowing river sections, 1 river bayou, and 1 gravel pit.

I fished a total 123.41 hours, for an average of 3.98 hours at a time.  I caught 232 bass, including 209 largemouth and 23 smallmouth, for a rate of 1.88 bass/hour fishing. I was skunked twice."

 

 

No PBs, no milestones, a couple of skunkings, but otherwise caught brown or green bass everywhere I fished, including a family trip to WI over the 4th. I didn't break 4lb though, unless pike and drum count.

 

No real goals for 2021, other than try a few new places (which I do every year), and revisit a couple of places I haven't been to in a few years.

[NoShoes]

This was really my first full year fishing, though I did fish the end of last year self learning as I go. 

 

I was struggling in the spring. I either struggled to find bites at all or found just a handful of smaller bass. Going into June my PB was 3.8 lbs and not many over 2 lbs.   Since then, I’ve had a 4 lb or better every month including my PB 9 lber. Granted, all but one have been the same 60 acre mill pond but it’s my home body of water. 

 

All my good bass have been on Texas rigs but I branched out some. Caught a few bass on a drop shot after graphing the area which was an achievement for me. Also caught one on a jig. 

 

Still need to work on finding bass and fishing structure, but it’s hard to argue I haven’t improved the past few months. 

[king fisher]

My year started well with some successful offshore trips. ( large tuna and marlin)  Then like every one else life changed.  It was the first summer since 1988 I didn't guide in Alaska and I only went off shore fishing here in PV. one time this summer.  Good thing was I bought a kayak and  was able to bass fish more than I have in years.

     I will not complain about lack of fishing opportunities.  I had a good friend miss a month of fishing while in the hospital with COVID.  He still doesn't have enough energy to deck hand off shore trips making it hard for him to support his family.   A cousin will never fish again because he is no longer with us.  Even if I wasn't able to catch a single fish this year, I would still feel fortunate.   I hope to have many more years fishing,  and I appreciate every day on the water more than ever. 

[NYWayfarer]

Truly a year of ups and downs.
 

The good: My best year in both quantity and quality. COVID caused my job to have us work from home the entire months of March and April. My work schedule since then has been in office every other day. This allowed me to fish before and after work and have a lot more days on the water than a typical year.

 

I have caught over 1700 fish this season with 1000 of them being Smallmouth Bass. 
 

I got my PB Largemouth this year

 

 

And my PB Channel Catfish

 

 

The bad:

 

I have missed spending time with my folks. Mom is 78 and Dad is 83. Our visits are limited to talking on the driveway with masks on. 
 

I lost my dear friend and neighbor this week. He was 5 years older than me and it was sudden and unexpected. I just spoke with him the week before so when it happened it was a shock. 
 

I went fishing for the first time this morning since his death. Freezing cold no sign of life but I caught a Pickerel on my last cast. I know he was looking down on me today.