Bass fishing bycatch...AKA sweet bonus fish

[DitchPanda]

So around here its extremely common to catch lots of accidental species while bassin...bluegills,crappies,rainbow trout,White bass, catfish and pike are all welcome and common. Stinky drum are also very common and not as welcome! One that's not as common the past few years are walleye but I've got 2 in the past 2 trips...big ones even. Got a 27 1\4in 7.6lb beast yesterday then this morning I got one close to 24in that went just under 5lbs. Talk about pleasant surprises.

[J Francho]

Northern pike, brown trout, steelhead...

 

 

 

[gim]

I catch a ton of pike when I'm bass fishing.  Quite often, I catch more pike than bass.  And they are mostly the small, annoying, hammer handle type.  Every once in a while its a sizable pike (over 30+ inches).  I catch pike when I'm specifically targeting muskies too.

 

In the spring and fall, when the water is cooler, I catch some walleye.  More often on certain lakes or in the river than on the smaller, weedy lakes in midsummer.  Last year a friend and I got into a school of large walleye.  All of them were 25-27 inches long (and released).

 

I rarely catch anything else mentioned.  No catfish, trout, drum, white bass, carp or panfish of any kind when I'm bass fishing which I find to be a little odd given how abundant they are around here.

[A-Jay]

1 hour ago, DitchPanda said:

So around here its extremely common to catch lots of accidental species while bassin...bluegills,crappies,rainbow trout,White bass, catfish and pike are all welcome and common. Stinky drum are also very common and not as welcome! One that's not as common the past few years are walleye but I've got 2 in the past 2 trips...big ones even. Got a 27 1\4in 7.6lb beast yesterday then this morning I got one close to 24in that went just under 5lbs. Talk about pleasant surprises.

Nice fish, Congrats.

btw as seen in the @J Francho reply,

he did include photos

Perhaps Take note.

A-Jay

[J Francho]

I catch plenty of other spp. as well, but the three pictured are a joyful surprise.

[GaryH]

1 hour ago, J Francho said:

Northern pike, brown trout, steelhead...

 

 

 

hmmmm is there a family resemblance I’m seeing. ?

[Dwight Hottle]

While fishing for smallies with jerk baits I have caught channel cats, pike, largemouth, walleye, perch, sheephead (drum), steelhead, brown trout, lake trout and a musky. The more diverse the fishery the sweeter the bonus fish except for the drum. I absolutely hate them.   

[Bluebasser86]

Flathead catfish are one of my favorite bycatch, along with wipers. One of my favorite bycatches wasn't a big fish, and I know anyone up north thinks it's no big deal, but they're very rare here, so it was cool to catch one in my home state, only the 3rd I've ever caught in Kansas.

[DitchPanda]

And the sweet by catch hits keep coming....got another walleye today this one was a nice plump girl around 20in. Beautiful fish. Hit a Ned rig green pumpkin TRD.

[Bluebasser86]

I'm always surprised I don't catch more walleye on a Ned rig, but it's a pretty uncommon thing for me to catch them on it. 

[gim]

I caught a 35 inch pike last Saturday evening.  Its the biggest one I've caught this season.  Most of the pike I catch are not of this variety.  They are of the small annoying hammer handle type (which I caught about a dozen of too).  Unfortunately I was fishing solo so a photo wasn't possible (I don't do selfies).

[J Francho]

20 minutes ago, gimruis said:

I don't do selfies

[roadwarrior]