Pulled the plug, 2020 Bass season done.

[Spankey]

Ending my 2020 season on a small high note. Got out yesterday morning, weather conditions not great, solid overcast and continuous breeze with no gusts or let offs.  Pre storm conditions.  Prior day perfect in every way but could not make getting out happen. 
 

Fished as hard as I could for a 6+ pounder. Wanted to end my season that way. Did not happen. Did pull off one 13” fish on a Bitsy Jig w/ baby Rage Craw trailer. Combination similar to how I started off the season on earlier bass. To me he was equal to a 6 pounder. The bite has not been good lately and will consider it a godsend. I think I’ll stop on that gift. 
 

Fished rock rip rap that drops off quickly to deep water and plain rock points. Fished a split tail grub and jig. Felt hits but no real takers. Did nothing with Husky Jerks or suspending cranks. Just don’t think I could get them deep enough. 
 

This season has not been a season of numbers. (I’m not sure why the bite from smaller bass was not there. That bothers me to some degree. Has to be a reasonable explanation to it.) But I did pull off a nice handful of quality bass. Helped my grandsons catch some nice bass, that means more to me than anything I may have done. Lost that bass that went 6+ pounds that would have been a new personal best. It’s etched into my head. Can’t seem to shake that loss off. 
 

Next season just have to go at it. Harder.  No plans to do anything different. 
 

Good luck to you guys who still have time left. Souther guys hope you have a good winter. Good fishing. 

[Michigander]

The bite was off all season for me. I think the dramatic increase in fishing pressure from people looking for a safe pandemic activity really took a toll on how spooky the fish are. Had an awesome spring but once t shirt weather rolled around, the bite got hard and the bag weights in my local tournament circuit were way down over last year too. 

[nascar2428]

1 hour ago, Michigander said:

The bite was off all season for me. I think the dramatic increase in fishing pressure from people looking for a safe pandemic activity really took a toll on how spooky the fish are. Had an awesome spring but once t shirt weather rolled around, the bite got hard

Same here, spring was great, then reality it!! Can't wait for 2021!!

[Randy Price]

Really hoping for a COVID vaccine in early 2021 so we can get beyond all of this.  2020 has certainly been a Annus Horribilis!!!

[Spankey]

12 minutes ago, Randy Price said:

Really hoping for a COVID vaccine in early 2021 so we can get beyond all of this.  2020 has certainly been a Annus Horribilis!!!

That kept me off a lake that I would have been on earlier. They had the state park system shut down and the ramp was closed. Pre true bass season but I fish them early. C&R all year for me. 

[A-Jay]

1 hour ago, Randy Price said:

Really hoping for a COVID vaccine in early 2021 so we can get beyond all of this.  2020 has certainly been a Annus Horribilis!!!

It's coming . . . .

Vaccines have been successful in helping to eliminate diseases formerly prevalent in the United States. Viruses prevented by vaccines include polio, Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, smallpox, measles, mumps, rubella, and rotavirus. Examples of bacterial infections prevented by vaccines include tetanus and pneumococcal disease 

A-Jay

[Spankey]

20 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

It's coming . . . .

Vaccines have been successful in helping to eliminate diseases formerly prevalent in the United States. Viruses prevented by vaccines include polio, Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, smallpox, measles, mumps, rubella, and rotavirus. Examples of bacterial infections prevented by vaccines include tetanus and pneumococcal disease 

A-Jay

I hope you are right A-Jay. We are too smart of a country to not get this past us. Our people in medicine can handle this. No outside interference is needed. Let them do their job. I hope for next summer a visible progress is made. If it takes a year or one and a half years with steady good results we will be going in the right direction. Currently going/went backwards. 
 

I don’t want to get political. I think we’ll start to pull out of this. 

[MGF]

My season may be about done too. My wife and I got out Sat and though the high temp was supposed to be near 50 F it seemed pretty cold on the lake and she didn't last long. I caught one 14" brown bass. I was going to try to fish as long as we have open water but I'm afraid I'll have to go it alone. LOL

 

This wasn't a bad year for size but I think the numbers were down and things shut down early this fall in my section of river. I think the extremely low water has something to do with it.

 

Something I want to do differently next year is we have a reservoir about an hour from me that I almost never fish. I want fish it some. The only thing that stops me is that within minutes of home I have a bunch of launch ramps on the river...so we always fish the river. We have a lot of lakes close by but most are lined with houses and bars. The river is MUCH nicer to look at and listen to.

 

The reservoir I want to fish more is surrounded by state forest so it's nice to look at too.

 

[TOXIC]

It’s been a tough year for me as well.  The Potomac river has been off and stayed that way all summer.  My trip to Wisconsin that I make every year was terrible.  It was horribly hot and the mosquitoes were the size of sparrows so night fishing was not even a consideration.  Our annual boyz trip to Michigan’s lake st Clair was a no go due to COVID but I did sneak up for a little brown fish action.  Weather is starting to turn here in Virginia but I’ve still got options.  Until it gets totally frigid, the Rappahonock river has been very fun to fish and is awesome for multi species.  The Potomac is getting ready to fill my freezer with crappie as soon as the temp drops a little more and I have access to 3,000 acres of nuclear power plant cooling lake that we fish all winter and it has taught me how much fun vertical jigging spoons and silver buddies are.  So I guess even in the tough years, it still better than sitting on the couch.?

[scaleface]

I still may go if Mother Nature provides a calm warm day .

[Cptndeez64]

This is not me crowing, but I’m just offering up a different experience. I was able to work from home since the shutdowns in March. This gave me more time to get out and fish than I ever have. Heck I’d just run up to my neighborhood pond for an hour at lunch if I could. My dad and I also vowed to get out on local lakes or out to one of our better fishing lakes in Missouri once a week. So I had more time to spend with him. As a result, I had the best fishing year of my life. I learned more techniques, improved at all aspects of fishing. Even went out and got myself a kayak to river fish. I discovered a few fisheries off the beaten path that produced.

I caught more bass over 3lbs this year than probably my whole life combined. I obviously am routing for life to go back to whatever normal is, but d**n I worry that means less time out on the water and that makes me sad. I had a blast and I don’t intend on stopping this winter until everything is frozen over.

[Bird]

I'm still gonna try to get out after Thanksgiving but it better be nice. 

[TnRiver46]

1 minute ago, Bird said:

I'm still gonna try to get out after Thanksgiving but it better be nice. 

I will be out during and after thanksgiving and it better be nasty! 

[Bird]

1 minute ago, TnRiver46 said:

I will be out during and after thanksgiving and it better be nasty! 

You say'n I'm wimpy ? Lol

[Michigander]

@TOXIC

I only made it over to St. Clair one time this year and the fishing was poor. They were concluding a two day tournament when we trailered the boat and I looked at their leaderboard. Out of forty-ish teams, only one single day bag was above 15lbs for either of the days. Shocking!

[TnRiver46]

41 minutes ago, Bird said:

You say'n I'm wimpy ? Lol

Hahahaha no man that busts wood is wimpy. Fish just like nasty weather instead of bluebird 

[TOXIC]

6 hours ago, Michigander said:

@TOXIC

I only made it over to St. Clair one time this year and the fishing was poor. They were concluding a two day tournament when we trailered the boat and I looked at their leaderboard. Out of forty-ish teams, only one single day bag was above 15lbs for either of the days. Shocking!

My buddies have pulled some beautiful fish out of there this year but the weather has been brutal.  I went up the end of May and we had to go to some inland lakes for a couple of days but when we did get out we caught them pretty good.  

[Bankbeater]

My season is probably over.  Not from weather, but from work.  I'll probably be working 60+ hours a week from now until the end of the year.  Up until June the fishing was terrible due to the boat restrictions on the local lakes.  When things opened up a little the bass numbers improved, and I'm in the camp that's thankful to have any size fish on the end of my line.

 

[Spankey]

4 hours ago, Bankbeater said:

My season is probably over.  Not from weather, but from work.  I'll probably be working 60+ hours a week from now until the end of the year.  Up until June the fishing was terrible due to the boat restrictions on the local lakes.  When things opened up a little the bass numbers improved, and I'm in the camp that's thankful to have any size fish on the end of my line.

 

I’m sort of in your boat. I don’t think next season we will start off with restrictions. It doesn’t look like weather is going to get brutal soon but I have things to get done at home before winter sets in, we have picked up at work some also till the end of the year. At this time of year I just find it real discouraging when I plan and get myself all hyped up to do a Saturday or Sunday and the weather doesn’t cooperate. I really thought about bumping my end date up until Thanksgiving Day. Day off why not. Gonna start raining tonight and all day tomorrow. Not the way I want to end it. 

[TriStateBassin106]

My season ended the 6th of November. I couldn't even get a bite, I've given up until march, got too busy and haven't been able to fish lately. 

[Spankey]

21 hours ago, TriStateBassin106 said:

My season ended the 6th of November. I couldn't even get a bite, I've given up until march, got too busy and haven't been able to fish lately. 

It will be back around before you know it. I’d like to catch a few shows this winter but they might not happen. Last February I was suppose to go to one but I got pretty sick (not CORONA). I have a lot I want to work on at home this winter.  Shoot some trap and sporting clays also. 19 has slowed my shooting down some also.