High Risk/High Reward

[throttleplate]

On 8/3/2021 at 4:01 PM, T-Billy said:

I make a habit of fishing the stuff most folks won't throw into. My local lakes get a TON of pressure. 90% percent of people won't throw into the thickest most tangled cover. Those same people generally make a cast or two to the obvious more easily fished stuff, and move on. Slowing way down and picking every inch of it apart, and making repeated casts to the high percentage spots pays off. 

yes sir you are 100% correct, i had a great day wading in the thick pads today and was the best day of the summer for me and they were 3 to 5 lbers i was gettin out of this mess.

 

 

[T-Billy]

2 hours ago, throttleplate said:

yes sir you are 100% correct, i had a great day wading in the thick pads today and was the best day of the summer for me and they were 3 to 5 lbers i was gettin out of this mess.

 

 

Atta Boy!!! FULL CONTACT FISHING!!! I'm gonna wade my local river for some smallies and saugeye this afternoon.

[CrankFate]

Anyone fishing for these will tell you a picture is worth 1,000 words (and rigs).

*not me in the pic. I pulled it from the internet. Better than my PB.

[scaleface]

2 hours ago, CrankFate said:

Anyone fishing for these will tell you a picture is worth 1,000 words (and rigs).

*not me in the pic. I pulled it from the internet. Better than my PB.

I dont know what kind of fish that is but it looks like a bully .

[Big Hands]

I have been known to use the phrase "never up, never in", but in this case it may actually be "never in, never up".

[Jaderose]

10 hours ago, throttleplate said:

yes sir you are 100% correct, i had a great day wading in the thick pads today and was the best day of the summer for me and they were 3 to 5 lbers i was gettin out of this mess.

 

 

HA!  That's awesome.  Looks like an exhausting good time!

[CrankFate]

9 hours ago, scaleface said:

I dont know what kind of fish that is but it looks like a bully .

Blackfish (tautog). Pound for pound total bully.  Also, by far, my favorite fish to eat.

[Bird]

I fish very clear water and have actually looked down and watched big bass tangle and break line in gnarly wood. 

 

We all know that that's where they are but you gotta draw the line. Imo

3 or 4 trees piled up and you cast in the middle, chances are the bass breaks free.

 

[T-Billy]

Right gear for the right job is important. 3 or 4 trees piled up? That's what I'm looking for. I'm going in with a heavy flippin stick and 40# 832. Chances are that bass is coming to the boat.

 

Giant Flatheads are another story. I got my butt kicked by another one today. That's twice in three trips my flippin stick and I got manhandled, and wrapped up by one of those beasts. They seem to like T rigged beavers. I'm begining to think you need Goliath Grouper tackle to winch a big flathead out of a log pile.

Todays fish had me wrapped up about 6' down. 80 and sunny, I thought what the heck, I'm going in. I emptied my pockets, pushed the thumbar, laid the rod on the deck, and went after it. I followed the line down to the limb it was wrapped on and managed to snap it off. Climbed back into the boat, reeled the slack out and @#$%^&*!!!. That son of a gun swam out deeper and wrapped me up again. Wrapped the braid around my plier handles and gave a pull. Braid gave before the limb. Catfish 2. Me 0. Oh well, it was quite the fun calamity, and a refreshing dip.

[flyfisher]

I have never hesitated to throw to a spot and that even includes my fly rod.  I have used leaves to hold a fly and float it on trout streams and twitched them off to get to places....almost always results in a fish or at least that is what I remember lol

[geo g]

I will throw a lure in risky spots because if you cant get them out, its only a hook or lure.  With age, I have stopped putting the boat in risky spots.  Before power poles we would run our boats into masses of weeds to hold in place and flip an area.  I would run boat trails not much wider than the boat at speed, hoping someone else wasn't using the same trail.  I would fish between standing rotten timber and hope it would stand for just another ten minutes.  At 70 years old I don't do that crap anymore, I just don't want to experience the consequences again!  Not as daring as when I was young, and bullet proof.

[Bluebasser86]

Way back when I was 16, working at Cabela's, Denny Brauer was in there signing autographs and talking to people when he was sponsored by them. He's always been one of my favorites and I was just getting into fishing a jig so I was really excited to talk to him. I used my whole lunch break talking to him and asked him how he gets fish out of heavy cover and he gave me the "I worry about getting them on, then I worry about getting them out". It stuck with me as being very obvious and simple and how I've approached it ever since. It's bit me more than once, but you miss 100% of those shots you don't take.