Not the target ?

[volzfan59]

I've caught catfish on a spinnerbait and lipless, carp on shad raps, drum on jigs, numerous bluegill and crappie on crankbaits and jerkbaits. The two weirdest were a pretty good sized snapping turtle on a jig and four muskie in six casts using a shad rap. Number four got my shad rap so if any of you are on Melton Hill Lake in Oak Ridge, TN and catch a muskie with a shad rap in it's mouth, I want my bait back!

[Aaron_H]

17 hours ago, N Florida Mike said:

Yeah , that’s what they look like. I know of a pond that’s full of them, and they wouldn’t bite anything. They were bedding in April. I even tried snagging one and couldn’t even do that , lol.

 

 

I've caught a handful off of beds, it's not terribly different from a bedding bass. I just pitch a small soft plastic, get it right in the center of their bed and let it sit. They'll pick it up to get it off their bed, guaranteed.

 

My most productive time for them is in the late fall when bass are schooling up the small shad, they aggressively hit lipless crankbaits and other small baitfish profiles. FWC says they don't eat baitfish, but I'd like to introduce them to a few of my ponds....

[the reel ess]

Crappie, bluegill and shellcrackers (redear sunfish) are the common ones. There are no stripers, white bass, perch or toothy critters where I usually fish. I have only seen one small catfish caught there in about 8 years fishing it. One of the landowners told me he put 200 blue cats in this 30 or 35 acre lake. I don't know why he would do such a thing and sincerely hope they die out. Maybe the bass will eat all of them before they get too big.

[GANGGREEN]

I catch tons of non-targeted species when I bass fish.   Admittedly, a lot of the fisheries that I spend the most time on are really good as multi-species fisheries and many of the techniques that I use involve light line, small lures and other finesse type presentations that lend to it.  I'm not a huge fan of "toothy critters" like pickerel, pike and musky, but I'm thrilled to catch big crappie, yellow perch, walleye or other fish when they weren't necessarily the target species.

 

I've been fishing Lake Keowee in South Carolina for the last few weeks and admit that there are far fewer non-target catches here, although I have caught a handful of Black crappie while fishing for Spotted bass and Largemouth.  I know guys also catch the odd catfish as well, but my northern waters are MUCH better for multi-species stuff.

[N Florida Mike]

2 hours ago, the reel ess said:

Crappie, bluegill and shellcrackers (redear sunfish) are the common ones. There are no stripers, white bass, perch or toothy critters where I usually fish. I have only seen one small catfish caught there in about 8 years fishing it. One of the landowners told me he put 200 blue cats in this 30 or 35 acre lake. I don't know why he would do such a thing and sincerely hope they die out. Maybe the bass will eat all of them before they get too big.

If there’s any otters around , the cats won’t be there very long…

[leinad]

while fishing for river smallies this december with a shakey head with a beaver style bait and another time using a geecrack bellows gill (3.8) with a 4/0 texas rig with a 3/8 wt i manage to catch 2 large brown trout  one 20" and the other 23". 

[TnRiver46]

4 hours ago, GANGGREEN said:

I catch tons of non-targeted species when I bass fish.   Admittedly, a lot of the fisheries that I spend the most time on are really good as multi-species fisheries and many of the techniques that I use involve light line, small lures and other finesse type presentations that lend to it.  I'm not a huge fan of "toothy critters" like pickerel, pike and musky, but I'm thrilled to catch big crappie, yellow perch, walleye or other fish when they weren't necessarily the target species.

 

I've been fishing Lake Keowee in South Carolina for the last few weeks and admit that there are far fewer non-target catches here, although I have caught a handful of Black crappie while fishing for Spotted bass and Largemouth.  I know guys also catch the odd catfish as well, but my northern waters are MUCH better for multi-species stuff.

Did you finally make the move? 

[JbroBass]

For me it's usually been chain pickerel, yellow perch, crappie (but we always called them calico bass), and the rare trout or pike. I also caught a small atlantic salmon smolt once. 

[Bluebasser86]

It's pretty unusual for me to go a day without catching something other than a bass. Just a few from this year;

52lbs on a jigging spoon

17+ on a football jig

Little trout on a homemade bladed jig

Crappie on a 1/2oz spinnerbait.

Carp on a Ned.

Crappie on a stupid tube.

Swinghead Menace walleye

Swimming a grub

Striper on a Duo Rozante

2 person limit of walleyes on a duo rozante trying to prefish for a bass tournament

swimbait sunfish

Punching gar

Topwater channel cat

Ned rig warmouth

Ned rig redear

 

[the reel ess]

13 hours ago, N Florida Mike said:

If there’s any otters around , the cats won’t be there very long…

There aren't. 

[GANGGREEN]

9 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

Did you finally make the move? 

 

Yes.  We're only here seasonally, but we're down in South Carolina now and should be here about 90% of the time until the end of April at least.  Feels good to fish in the winter and not freeze your butt off......

 

[Basser2021]

I catch a bunch of drum around here. I don't know what it is but middle TN has too many drum and carp.

[Fallser]

On both sides, fly fishing and spin fishing, I've caught most the already mentioned ones.  Chain pickerel, crappie, rock bass, bluegills, green sunfish, trout, carp, large golden shiners, pike, small musky, bowfin, a couple of walleye.  When I was in college in NW Tennessee, a lot fresh water drum.  No catfish, yet.

[Fat Ika]

On 1/1/2022 at 8:30 PM, gimruis said:

Yikes, that is some carnage. Muskies have serious teeth and an iron jaw. Did the bass survive or did it die?

@gimruis He sawm off, but I'm not sure if that was conscious motor cortex or just a dead fish with some brain stem activity left before he puttered out. Who knows. I was gonna put him out of his misery, but wanted to give him a fighting chance. If that happens to me, just bop me between the eyes and put me out of my misery, ok?!

[Zcoker]

Here in south Florida everglades I haven't caught that many other species besides what I am fishing for, which is bass. What perked me about this thread was one such catch the other day, a decent sized alligator gar. What I did totally wrong with that thing was to swing it over into the yak. Man, that was a BIG mistake! That thing went totally Tasmanian devil with a big salt water spook attached to its face (the one with three big trebles). Needless to say, I learned my lesson that day: don't ever do that again!

[snake95]

Here in Georgia, my best was a carp that took down a 110 whopper plopper.

 

I was astonished - but it really happened. 

[Aaron_H]

On 1/4/2022 at 2:59 PM, Zcoker said:

Here in south Florida everglades I haven't caught that many other species besides what I am fishing for, which is bass. What perked me about this thread was one such catch the other day, a decent sized alligator gar. What I did totally wrong with that thing was to swing it over into the yak. Man, that was a BIG mistake! That thing went totally Tasmanian devil with a big salt water spook attached to its face (the one with three big trebles). Needless to say, I learned my lesson that day: don't ever do that again!

 

If you're seeing alligator gar that far south, I would contact FWC. I'm sure their biologists would be very interested in seeing their range grow again. They're typically only found in the panhandle.

 

Sounds like quite the (almost) catch, though!

[Sphynx]

Typically I am not bothered by non-bass while targeting them, occasionally I catch crappie (usually big ones too, which is never a displeasing event) and the occasional catfish or monster trout/steelhead/salmon, I think the most unusual by-catch was a 6ft long grass carp on a crankbait...I am nearly certain that it was one of those stars aligned moments where the trebles just happened to end up in the right place at the right time, but it sure was an adventure. 

[SpinLight]

Several of you guys have some some unusual bycatches. Some great pics! Most of my fishing nowadays in on Lake Martin in Alabama, where I throw a lot of small swimbaits at the local spotted bass population.  My occasional bycatches are channel cats, white bass, stripers, crappie and various sunfishes.

 

I grew up fishing the Tennessee River, and still fish it several times a year. Like the other boys on the forum here who fish the Tennessee, I have had a lot of bycatches. Some types of lures we use for bass, like hair jigs and soft plastics, also attract other gamefish/non-gamefish. This river has a tremendous variety of freshwater gamefish swimming between its banks.

 

Over the last few years, while I have fished below Pickwick Dam with the same small swimbait I use here for spots (not truly targeting just bass, but whatever happens to bite), I have caught smallmouth, largemouth, spots, white bass, yellow bass, hybrids, stripers, drum (lots of them), sauger, white crappie, black crappie, buffalo, bluegill and other sunfish, carp, channel cats, blue cats, shad-river herring, and gar, all hooked in the mouth. I have also snagged a few fish who are filter feeders and who don't normally hit lures, like paddlefish (spoonbills), carp, buffalo and bottom feeding shad.

 

Most unusual bycatch in one day had to be about three years ago when I snagged and landed four Asian carp. Of those four Asian carp, three of them were different species.

[Luke Barnes]

Ned Rig catches everything for me. Besides largies ive caught bluegill, green sunfish, channel cat, crappie, and snagged a shad. About crapped myself when I was throwing a super spot and had a big walleye latch onto it. That was my first toothy fish and I was worried about getting bit. Sauger on a paddletail, channel on a Rage Blade, crappie on a rage craw. But still no carp and I want to catch one to add to the list!

[BayouSlide]

Most common are needlenose gar, but the occasional bream, crappie, yellow bass, catfish, bowfin, one white bass, two chain pickerel, one buffalo and a drum or two. Once had a five foot alligator gar on a crankbait and spinning rod with 10# test. Tried to trap it between the boat and the shore so I could save my plug (a favorite obsolete make) but as soon as it got in shallow water it began flopping and broke off.

[Further North]

Up here, you're going to have to deal with pike and musky if you're chasing bass.

You have a decision to make:  Do you use wire, or loose baits?

...as a side bar: I hope more people are learning to hold Esox horizontally instead of vertically...

[MN Fisher]

1 minute ago, Further North said:

Up here, you're going to have to deal with pike and musky if you're chasing bass.

You have a decision to make:  Do you use wire, or loose baits?

...as a side bar: I hope more people are learning to hold Esox horizontally instead of vertically...

I'll second this...couple experiences I've had

 

WP-90 - 2 bass, 1 pike

Lipless crank - 1 bass, 2 pike...second one bit it off and 'stole' it.

 

If you don't want to chance losing lures to Esox up here you got two choices....wire leader...or don't fish.

[KSanford33]

On 12/31/2021 at 7:33 PM, A-Jay said:

By catch up this way has included Walleye, Northern Pike & Fat Brown Trout.

But, I do love telling this story . . . .

While fishing a deep point with a jerkbait for smallies, I hooked what I thought was a U-Boat.

Hoping the 10lb InvisX would hold her, it was all I could do to keep from pooping my pants.

Net job was quite an adventure but in the end, I got to hold & measure this Beautiful Full Framed Beast. 48 inches of stunning Michigan Musky.

I was so pumped !!!

 

 

https://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/215910-new-pb-musky-~-video-added/

 

A-Jay

That might be one of the coolest videos I've seen. As someone who loves all esox species, that's incredible! Great job A-Jay!

[Seaworthy81]

Recently I had caught so many small to medium bass while snakehead fishing and no snakeheads that I switched to a lighter rod and a smaller bass-sized swimbait thinking I would have a fun afternoon of bass fishing. Well I proceeded to catch a peacock, a PB snakehead (almost 6lbs) and a huge mayan cichlid, but not a single bass...