How did you do this year?

[PressuredFishing]

16 hours ago, ElijahH said:

Last year was a great fishing year for me. Got several 5lb+ fish and got on the water a lot. 

This year though. I haven't been out nearly as much as I've wanted to and have pretty much been skunked. I did however make a serious boat upgrade and also upgraded some other gear. 

How has your year been?

Anyone else looking to make a rebound, start early in the spring and fish hard next year? 

This year has been fabulous for me, I have found every seasonal and sub seasonal pattern with ease and used techniques to land those fish. Only go out on the water twice a month, sometimes more. Landed two 4-5lb fish this year and quite a few 3-4 pounders. Have not hooked into anything huge but also have not been to the lakes in my area that have double digits. Been fishing a lot of a small fish lake recently because it may not be around in a few years, they are trying to drain it completely.......

[Skunkmaster-k]

I caught my biggest smallmouth this year , thanks to Bass Resource.  

[the reel ess]

My numbers have been low. But size wise, I could have stopped fishing after May and this still would have been the best fishing year of my life. I started keeping a log of the fish I've caught over 3 lbs. A good many of those days were 2 or 3 fish days. I also lost a few big bass. You may notice my scale quit working on June 26th and I replaced it with one that reads lb.-oz. instead of decimals. The only thing I haven't really achieved this year is a new PB. The last two times out I have 1 dink to show for it. ?

 

[LrgmouthShad]

4 minutes ago, the reel ess said:

The only thing I haven't really achieved this year is a new PB.

You’ll get that this year too. I’m calling it ?. Really nice year

[HookInMouth]

Last year was terrible. And I noticed that I was scattered in my techniques. I was trying too much without mastering anything. Went back to the tried and true texas rigged menace and have had a pretty great year so far. Probably 90% of my fishing this year has been the Rage Tail Menace. The other 10% has pretty much been 3.8 Keitechs. Also texas-rigged. 

[Darth-Baiter]

This is my first full year as a kayak basserman. My last skunk was January.  As in the ENTIRE month of January. After that I’m pretty steady.  Got my new PB this year and I tied my previous PB two or three times.  Found new waters!  Really good waters. (Maybe the Best part of this year)
 

it ain’t over yet. These next few months it gets good around here.  Hope to topple my PB yet again.  Let’s do this!!

[Choporoz]

Feast or famine....cashed some checks,  won an important tourny (to me), but failed to limit on high confidence waters a few times.

 

Got a place on a nice lake and found some good fish while fun fishing there....we picked a good spot, so....good year

[TriStateBassin106]

Not over for me until November but so far from fishing the bank and on a boat with no fish finder I caught about 135 bass including a bunch of 4+lbers 

[Zcoker]

I actually started bass fishing (again) in Nov 2020 after a twenty or so year hiatus and have since had a great year. I can honestly say that my fishing only got better once I established a solid mind-set: Go big or go home, lol. Once I started thinking big bass, I started catching big bass, once I started using stout tackle and heavy rigs, I started landing most all of my fish with almost zero loses. Summer flew into June, July, and August with the fishing in the Everglades a friggin whirlwind, some days producing 11 pounders followed by a stack of 7-8 pounders, like none stop mega bass action, as if a school of 7-8 pounders were hanging out. It was crazy. The fishing was like that daily into early August and then September came along with higher water levels which seemed to practically wipe out the fishing, like day and night! Hasn't been the same since, and I can only hope that it all comes around again. This November 2021 will be a full yearly cycle for me in the bass fishing scene, which should give me an overall workable pattern for the months to come....hopefully....or at least in theory lol 

[the reel ess]

6 hours ago, Zcoker said:

I actually started bass fishing (again) in Nov 2020 after a twenty or so year hiatus and have since had a great year. I can honestly say that my fishing only got better once I established a solid mind-set: Go big or go home, lol. Once I started thinking big bass, I started catching big bass, once I started using stout tackle and heavy rigs, I started landing most all of my fish with almost zero loses. Summer flew into June, July, and August with the fishing in the Everglades a friggin whirlwind, some days producing 11 pounders followed by a stack of 7-8 pounders, like none stop mega bass action, as if a school of 7-8 pounders were hanging out. It was crazy. The fishing was like that daily into early August and then September came along with higher water levels which seemed to practically wipe out the fishing, like day and night! Hasn't been the same since, and I can only hope that it all comes around again. This November 2021 will be a full yearly cycle for me in the bass fishing scene, which should give me an overall workable pattern for the months to come....hopefully....or at least in theory lol 

Have you been to Fellsmere yet? 

[ElijahH]

6 hours ago, Zcoker said:

I actually started bass fishing (again) in Nov 2020 after a twenty or so year hiatus and have since had a great year. I can honestly say that my fishing only got better once I established a solid mind-set: Go big or go home, lol. Once I started thinking big bass, I started catching big bass, once I started using stout tackle and heavy rigs, I started landing most all of my fish with almost zero loses. Summer flew into June, July, and August with the fishing in the Everglades a friggin whirlwind, some days producing 11 pounders followed by a stack of 7-8 pounders, like none stop mega bass action, as if a school of 7-8 pounders were hanging out. It was crazy. The fishing was like that daily into early August and then September came along with higher water levels which seemed to practically wipe out the fishing, like day and night! Hasn't been the same since, and I can only hope that it all comes around again. This November 2021 will be a full yearly cycle for me in the bass fishing scene, which should give me an overall workable pattern for the months to come....hopefully....or at least in theory lol 

Wow! Welcome back! (Your wallet will never forgive you for returning!) 

[The Baron]

I’m still at my apex for the year.  I’ve gotten back into fishing after an almost 30-year hiatus and my 12-year old son has taken a real shine to fishing as well.  We’re boatless, but although a boat may still be a ways off for several reasons, I decided to not let that hold us back.  I got researching local shore spots and searching contour maps, which led me to a very good (albeit, hit and miss) Lake Ontario smallmouth spot, where my son absolutely crushed his PB with a 5lb 7oz. - average to the boaters, but a behemoth to us.  He also caught a +/- 2.5lb. largemouth at a bridge channel spot on a back lake, which is his PB largemouth.  So while I’ve got him in numbers, he’s kicked my butt in size.??

 

We shared our Lake O. shore spot with a good friend who reciprocated with sharing some back lakes he knows.  We’ve had some good days - no huge numbers and nothing big - but we’re having fun and I’ve learned a ton this year, largely from watching YouTube to research techniques/baits then going out and trying them.  I had an epic canoe fishing day with my friend, landing my PB largemouth (3lb and change - didn’t weigh it) and a bunch of smaller fish.  I learned a lot from him that day, as his experience is a lot more modern than mine and I’m still pretty new to largemouth fishing.

 

I’ve gone hog wild on rods and reels, adding I think 4 combos this year.  I should probably stop soon as we’re well equipped with quality gear, picked up used from various sources.  I just “need” another higher gear bait casting reel and we’re set.  I’ve also at least doubled, if not tripled, our tackle supply and significantly expanded our repertoire.

 

All that said, the fall bite is just coming on good here now.  We had a great day last Saturday and I’m off to a bigger lake this weekend with my friend, with use of a boat.  I’ve got new lures and techniques to try and feel the best on my year is yet to come. ???

[ABrugs]

I had 4 main goals this year:

 

1. 160 Total SMB + LMB - I'm at 127 so far (98 LMB / 29 SMB). The last 1/4 of the season starts today and I'll be fall fishing through the end of November up here in Michigan. I think hitting this goal will come down to how much I'm able to get out and fish w/ how much traveling I'm doing for work. We'll see!

 

2. SMB PB (4+) - I haven't hit this goal yet. I have caught several that have been close though and over 3.5.

 

3. LMB PB (3+) - Yes! This was the highlight of my season. I caught my new PB and 4.54 LMB up north on vacation back in June w/ my family. What I loved even more was the following day, my 6 year-old caught one over 4 as well. That was an awesome memory.

 

4. Bass Resource Membership - I obviously accomplished this by creating an account on 1/1/21 and it's been incredible. I love this forum so much.

[throttleplate]

due to the drought in minn my summer fishing wasnt as good as 2020. But the last 2 weeks in september have been fantastic this year and bests 2020 by a mile.

Hopefully the bite continues into late fall and i also changed my fishing style to slow and slower, crawling jigs, using dropshots letting it soak and move very slow pulling it towards me from the bank.

[TnRiver46]

3 minutes ago, throttleplate said:

due to the drought in minn my summer fishing wasnt as good as 2020. But the last 2 weeks in september have been fantastic this year and bests 2020 by a mile.

Hopefully the bite continues into late fall and i also changed my fishing style to slow and slower, crawling jigs, using dropshots letting it soak and move very slow pulling it towards me from the bank.

Y’all have been catching some nice ones! 

[MN Fisher]

Due to various scheduling issues due to factors including Covid - I didn't get out much...maybe 4 times from shore and the same number in the canoe.

 

Numbers - way down

Size - only one that was decent, and that was shore caught.

 

Things are looking better for getting out more in 2022, and with the change from canoe to 'real boat', I should be able to hit the better spots (structure and cover wise) next year.

[throttleplate]

1 minute ago, MN Fisher said:

Due to various scheduling issues due to factors including Covid - I didn't get out much...maybe 4 times from shore and the same number in the canoe.

 

Numbers - way down

Size - only one that was decent, and that was shore caught.

 

Things are looking better for getting out more in 2022, and with the change from canoe to 'real boat', I should be able to hit the better spots (structure and cover wise) next year.

im pulling for ya to get out next year, need more reports from minnesota people.

[MN Fisher]

Just now, throttleplate said:

im pulling for ya to get out next year, need more reports from minnesota people.

If we could get Chris ( @FryDog62) to actually report, we'd have a plethora of them.

[FryDog62]

I will try to post more. A couple largies this past week on buzzbaits and tubes. Hope to get some smallies to come out and play soon too!

[Mr. Aquarium]

The spring was awesome. Not a ton of big fish but did have  a week were I slayed. I stopped bass fishin shortly after dye to saltwater. May was great for salt! New species for me bucketlist fish.  June-August sucked!  Worst striper fishin I’ve ever had. Then September came, it turned into the best ive ever had 

[scaleface]

I am the king of 2 pounders .

[S Hovanec]

My boat never saw the water this year.  I went out with a friend once in August.  I caught a 10" spot.  To say it was a crap year is an understatement.

[InfantryMP]

This was my first year in tournament fishing. 

 

Out of 8 tournaments: I won 1, and got 2nd place in another. I cannot complain on that aspect. I think this year with no certified biggins, I can say I did well in regards to learning, and development. 

 

Additionally, I did well in not buying so much bait, but really utilizing the enormous amount of bait that I already had. I did get the new boat this year, so I guess that wipes out the bait money talk lol.

 

[Junk Fisherman]

Great year for me.  Not a lot of trophy fish but a lot of very good outings with lots of 3-4 lb fish on heavily-pressured water.  I have fine-tuned my arsenal over the last couple years to highly-productive tactics and the results have followed.  I also had solid performances in the few tournaments I fished.   

[throttleplate]

The last week of september and all of october to date has been better than july and august combined.

Here in west central minnesota we are having a drought but also a beautiful indian summer where the nightly temps havnt even dropped into the forties which just doesnt ever happen as records show.

I found that fishing culverts as a bank thrower in the drought, big bridge type culverts is the way to go this time of year and its showing in numbers and size.

I also stopped throwing the tackle box at the fish and stick tight to using the zoom super flukes rigged any way my heart desires.