How'd you do this year?

[Jamo]

Personally, I like to get do a review of the year for myself and see what I can learn and try to capitalize on during the next season...

-I like to do this kinda early so I can shop the holiday sales to reload for spring.

-Yes, I know that if you live in the south the season doesn't end but for some of us up north, we have to hang it up for a little while and pretend to go deer hunting.

 

-The small lakes I fished in GA had a ton of grass so that was almost all that I fished. When I moved to IN, my home lake has everything but grass (some weeds but they're shoreline out to about 2ft, nothing actually growing up off the bottom) so I had to do a bunch of trial and error to figure out how the lake behaves.

Top Producing Structure: Rock, followed by weed edges, and wood was a very distant third place

#1 producer: No clue, I was spread out pretty evenly across many lures and techniques.

 

How about everyone else?

[Mike L]

The beginning of the year was a little slow for me as I only concentrated on qualifying for the BASS Nations Championship, a few BFL’s and fished in a few club tournaments. 
My top producers were the original Scum frog and a modified prop bait I played around with on top, Magnum UV Speed worm fir the middle and a Rage Craw on the bottom where most of the bigger girls came from. 

 

It’s been a mixed bag because of the destruction caused by Hurricane Ian. 
I couldn’t fish the B.A.S.S. Nations Florida State Championship or the Toyota Series because my family is still in the clean up and repair/rebuild stage down here. 

I passed on the last BFL because of the preparations we had to make. 
 

Things have started to get done and hopefully back to normal soon 

 

 

 

 

Mike

[Jamo]

Man, sorry to hear about the destruction from Ian but super awesome that you're competing at that level

[ironbjorn]

April through the first week of June was some of the best fishing I'd experienced in the past several years. After the first week of June and up until I hung it up for the year a couple two-three months ago out of frustration was the worst fishing in my entire fishing "career". 

[TnRiver46]

 Nice smallies have been fairly cooperative 

[Jamo]

3 minutes ago, ironbjorn said:

April through the first week of June was some of the best fishing I'd experienced in the past several years. After the first week of June and up until I hung it up for the year a couple two-three months ago out of frustration was the worst fishing in my entire fishing "career". 

Dead on. I've talked to some friends in other states and they also said this was the toughest summer that they've ever had. Not sure what that was all about but even the tournament weight averages for some of the USA Bassin stuff I've looked at we're weird. A single team would come in with a solid bag and they everyone else would be way behind with a somewhat unimpressive limit

[casts_by_fly]

"not bad" would be my answer to the question.

 

Every year I set goals to 1- effectively learn a new lure or technique, 2- learn something on my 'usual' lakes, 3- explore a couple new lakes, and 4- really learn one of my local lakes in depth.  I have a standing 4 lb smallmouth/5 lb largemouth target since that size fish around here isn't exactly common, though not unheard of.  So against that set or goals:

 

1- a swim jig was the big winner this year.  I'd never fished them before this year but I caught a lot of bass on them.  Days when the pickings were good and days when it was tough.  A swim jig salvaged a few potential skunks.  I have one tied on every trip now.  I also did a 'plastics only' day on the water (published here in the fishing reports section) to get out of my comfort zone a little and do new things.  I caught some fish and now knowing that lake better I think I could do better to do it again.

 

2- My 'usual' lakes fished a bit differently this year.  The grass grew early, quickly, and thickly but then died off in a lot of places in June.  That put the bass out of the dying grass and forced them into other areas.  Places that held fish last year were barren all year.  Places that were barren last year held good fish this year.  I still managed to catch fish, but it took some working out.  My closest lake is a big shallow bowl with lily pads and grass.  No real hard structure, but plenty of 2-4 lb fish and more than a few 5-6lb are both caught in tournaments and F&G electrofished in every survey.  Last year, there were large lily pad beds with milfoil under them that held fish across the lake.  This year the milfoil died and those pads largely disappeared.  The remaining pads had some fish, but I caught a lot more fish on empty banks.  My favorite lake from last year had a similar grass die off this year.  It fished great before and then was tough after.  There were some fish on last years areas, but not like it was.  One particular dock string that gave me multiple 3-4 lb fish last year yielded one 13" fish.  So these two I learned that sometimes you have to fish the whole lake.  Another local I learned the smallies.  I thought I knew them last year but could never connect.  This year was much better.

 

3- I explored a couple new lakes to good effect.  I found a neat little 20 acre lake in a beautiful setting and caught some decent bass in the early season (april, 50 degrees).  I fished it late season (august) and the grass was too much.  Its 25 minutes away and I can back down to the water, so I'll do it again maybe once a year.  I also explored one of the biggest and most popular lakes around.  Pre-spawn and spawn were pretty good with a bunch of 15-18" fish.  Not bad for the first two trips there.  Then the lake lowered 25' over the summer in the drought and I couldn't bring myself to fish it.  I rode around and mapped a few things for next spring though and you can be sure that the stump field in (what should be) 8-13' will be one of the first places I head next spring.  An OG6 on the shallower side of the flat and a chatterbait tight on the stumps should be a winner there (a lipless crankbait will feature heavily also).  I also fished another local lake a couple more times this year throughout the year (compared to a single late season skunk last year) and learned it enough to know that I probably won't spend much time on it going forward.  I also fished a 3-4 others that didn't impress for whatever reason and I don't know if I'll go back to.

 

4- Last year I fished a particular lake once.  I had a bunch of blowups but never really connected, catching 2 smaller fish I think.  Talking to my dad on the way home, I said I'd never fish it again and they must have been all small fish.  It wasn't worth going back to this highly pressured 40 acre lake.  He said that if you got a dozen hits then the fish must be there.  Fair enough, and he was right.  I fished it a half dozen times this year and have it fairly figured out.  This was a swim jig lake for sure this year.  Also, the fish stay pretty deep in the grass.  This lake has a lot of muskies, so I can imagine that a 12" bass out of the cover is just asking to be eaten.  The ones that stay in cover survive and continue to stay in the cover (and grow into plenty of 3-4 lb fish as I learned this year).  Swim jigs slide through the cover well.  1+1 = 2  And most of the pressure wasn't bass fishermen, so there's that.

 

5- the first fish I caught this year was on a whim.  I was fishing one of my locals that I knew must have some smallies (though you'd never guess when you pull up to it).  I tried hard for them last year to no avail.  I actually went for early season pike this year but got tired of throwing an ounce of spinnerbait on a magnum rod.  So I put on an early season favorite lure for covering water and started casting the other side of the lake.  Sure enough a couple casts in was a 4 lb 3 oz smallie.  Not bad for 40 degree water and March 11th in NJ.  The largemouth proved elusive.  My favorite lake from last year had a weird weed kill this year and the fish didn't behave most of the summer.  Late august I finally managed a big bag there (around 18 lb for 5 fish) but the big one was 4 lb 15 oz.  I had to weigh it a couple times to be sure, but it was consistent.  Awesome fish, and especially eating a buzzbait well before sun up.  I thought I had a small musky when I first got it in the net and had to put a light on it before I lipped it.  Overall the quality of fish this year was up probably an inch or maybe more on last year.  

 

Thinking ahead to next year?  More time on the big lake in the spring for sure.  There are lots of big fish there, so focus the best time of year with one of the best lakes.  Two trips wasn't enough this year.  I'll cull out a couple lakes from my list again.  From last year to this year, I pretty much eliminated the biggest lake around due to pleasure boat and fishing boat pressure and spent that time elsewhere.  I'll do the same again next year with a couple lakes.  I've got a half dozen lakes still to try.  I also have the Delaware river to fish in the spring.  Lures/baits/presentations?  Not sure yet.  I'm not ready to commit to learning finesse techniques.  Maybe do a single day of it like I did the plastics day.  Big paddletail swimbaits are an option.  Maybe smaller hard swimbaits.  Maybe I'll commit to throwing a spinnerbait more often.  Still plenty of time to sort through it.

[Jamo]

2 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

 Nice smallies have been fairly cooperative 

I had a buddy fish the USA Bassin tourney on Percy Priest this past Sunday. Winner had over 18 w/ just smallies

[ironbjorn]

7 minutes ago, Jamo said:

Dead on. I've talked to some friends in other states and they also said this was the toughest summer that they've ever had. Not sure what that was all about but even the tournament weight averages for some of the USA Bassin stuff I've looked at we're weird. A single team would come in with a solid bag and they everyone else would be way behind with a somewhat unimpressive limit

Drought and record heat. Among other factors. The earth is warning us in many, many different ways.

[KSanford33]

I could go in-depth on my season, but I'll sum it up by saying this: I learned a lot and I had fun. That's all I can ask for.

[TnRiver46]

20 minutes ago, Jamo said:

I had a buddy fish the USA Bassin tourney on Percy Priest this past Sunday. Winner had over 18 w/ just smallies

Nice! 

[Aaron_H]

Still plenty of time left here in FL to get into some big fall fish, so I'll let you know in January. ?

 

So far, though, my numbers are down from this time last year by about 100 fish, but I had about two months in the summer where I could not fish at all due to thunderstorms. Numbers aren't the biggest deal to me, though, and I did much better this year on size than any other year, with my best five coming in at 43lb 9oz, anchored by two over 10 pounds (and my first year landing a DD bass finally).

 

I also put in a lot of time learning a new technique this year (2022 Year of the Jerkbait™), and caught my three biggest bass of the year on it, and some fantastic numbers days. It was incredibly rewarding and I thank several members here (including @A-Jay and @Bluebasser86) for inspiring me to really grind that out and giving me some tips on lure selection and hardware upgrades.

[Deleted account]

Not great, but I really didn't put in much effort.

[Bluebasser86]

My season has been decent. Still a couple months left so we'll see how it finishes out yet. Only caught 3 over 6 on the year and no good smallmouth to speak of, nothing over 4 anyways. Won my first and last kayak tournaments of the year and one little jackpot one in between but had an overall tough tournament season, and still managed to end up in second for AOY in our newly expanded group full of some very good fishermen. Got the family out less than I would have liked to thanks to the ridiculous gas prices, the boat sat at home most all summer.

 

And I caught a drum on a buzzbait, which felt like a pretty big accomplishment. 

[Jar11591]

Overall I’d rate this season a B-. Average size was slightly down, but numbers seemed to be consistent to years passed. 
 

Spinnerbaits accounted for the most fish, so they dethroned the popper which is usually my number one bait for numbers. 
Spinnerbaits caught my 3 biggest of the year. 
 

Fished a ton of new water this year. Found lots of productive spots and some not so productive, so I know which spots to pick apart and learn next year. This is the first year in many that I targeted smallmouth just as much as largemouth. 
 

So overall I’m rating the season B-.

Size was down a tick, numbers were on par. No PBs caught, but lost what should have been my personal best smallie. Not the best year of the last decade, but certainly not the worst. 

Some fish pics from the year:

[T-Billy]

Not done yet, but it's been a good year size wise. Numbers are below average but only because I focused on catching bigger fish. 3 LM over 5# so far, and 5 over 4#. That's a pretty solid year in my neck of the woods. Got off to a slow start. Didn't get one over 4# until june. No big smallies yet, but a few between 3.5 and 4. Put my wife on her PB musky at 44" a couple weeks ago. That'll be the highlight of my season no matter what I catch going forward. Caught several nice saugeye including my PB at 6-14. Overall, a really solid year and the water's still mid 50's. Looking forward to it dropping into the 40's. Every swing could be a monster in those temps.

[Aaron_H]

2 hours ago, Jar11591 said:

Overall I’d rate this season a B-. Average size was slightly down, but numbers seemed to be consistent to years passed. 
 

Spinnerbaits accounted for the most fish, so they dethroned the popper which is usually my number one bait for numbers. 
Spinnerbaits caught my 3 biggest of the year. 
 

Fished a ton of new water this year. Found lots of productive spots and some not so productive, so I know which spots to pick apart and learn next year. This is the first year in many that I targeted smallmouth just as much as largemouth. 
 

So overall I’m rating the season B-.

Size was down a tick, numbers were on par. No PBs caught, but lost what should have been my personal best smallie. Not the best year of the last decade, but certainly not the worst. 

Some fish pics from the year:

 

@TnRiver46 right now

 

If that's a B- year, I'm looking forward to seeing what you catch during an A year!

[gim]

7 hours ago, ironbjorn said:

Drought and record heat

That was me last year in 2021.  When the pattern shifted in August, the fishing was significantly better.  Constant high pressure for weeks or even months at a time makes it difficult.  A series of low pressure systems started showing up in August and the fish responded.

 

Drought was pretty bad here again this summer, but it wasn't extraordinary hot like last summer/fall.  This fall was some of the best fall fishing I've had in a while.  The final month was exceptional.

 

Overall I'd say the season was average.  I went fishing 31 times between April 21 and Oct 22.  I went 34 times last year, just for comparison.  I missed a couple weeks this past May because I was moving.

[A-Jay]

I got on some decent brown bass early spring and again late summer.

Somethings change and some things stay the same.

https://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/251335-2022-~-year-in-review-video/

A-Jay

[Woody B]

A BUNCH of people around here caught more, and bigger fish than I have this year but as far as I'm concerned I've had a great year.  I quit fishing 30 years ago and started back last December.   I've caught bass every week since I bought my boat except 1.   I only went to one lake this year (one time) that has a small mouth population.  I managed to catch 3 smallies, including one that was 4 pounds even.   My biggest spotted bass was 4 pounds, 4 ounces, back in December (state record is ~ 6 1/2).   My biggest largemouth so far this year is 7 pounds 13 ounces.   Some bass fishermen frown at "accidently" catching other species.  My highlight of the year so far is a flathead cat that was too heavy for my 50 pound scale.  It was 45 1/2 inches long with a 34 inch girth.  My digital scale read "err".   I caught it on a bandit 200 using 12 pound test.   My wife also caught a 30 pound channel cat on an otts garage crankbait, using 12 pound test.  She also caught a 4 pound 15 ounce largemouth.   

[king fisher]

The year started well.  I landed a DD. first day on the water in early January.  After that my job got in the way of bass fishing until April.  I found a new lake in April, and landed some nice bass including one over 9 pounds.  Work and health issues kept me off the water until Sept.  First trip in Sept. I landed a few small bass, and lost two rod and reel combos over board.  I replaced the gear and was able to go fishing last weekend.  I landed lots of small bass, but couldn't find the big girls, but at least I came home with all my gear, minus one Jackhammer.  My biggest bass have been caught on a variety of soft plastics, which is a first for me.  Lost a giant on a jackhammer, making the bait monkey happy.  I may never hook another giant bass on a Jackhammer, but I can guarantee I will have a couple spares in my box from now on.   I have some time off from work the next couple months, and am in good health.  I hope to catch a couple double digit bass before the end of the year.  Who knows I might even catch my PB.

[Derek1]

Terrible, it was hot and no rain all summer. All my regular ponds are so low there’s no shore line cover to cast to. Water quality had to be bad. Sure looked terrible. I caught some, but all skinny fish. Hoping for a wet winter and spring. 

[TcRoc]

Worst I’ve had in years. Not the fishing… the lack of … spent the  normal off season fortune lol… had a good spring.. had the yak out a few times , That was the last I had the yak out…. Late April … schedule changes … Here we r  in November… wet a line literally a couple times since April.  Those who know me here knows that is as far from my normal as possible ….as has been my presence here since than . Have had zero time. 
…Life .. lol.. sometimes it says …. NOPE. 
Going from wetting a line almost everyday for years  to a couple times since spring has been maddening. 
Hope all had a great season though!!

 

Hoping mine is back to normal next season or I’ll be in the physic ward lol.

 

 

 

 

[Jamo]

9 hours ago, TcRoc said:

Worst I’ve had in years. Not the fishing… the lack of … spent the  normal off season fortune lol… had a good spring.. had the yak out a few times , That was the last I had the yak out…. Late April … schedule changes … Here we r  in November… wet a line literally a couple times since April.  Those who know me here knows that is as far from my normal as possible ….as has been my presence here since than . Have had zero time. 
…Life .. lol.. sometimes it says …. NOPE. 
Going from wetting a line almost everyday for years  to a couple times since spring has been maddening. 
Hope all had a great season though!!

 

Hoping mine is back to normal next season or I’ll be in the physic ward lol.

 

 

 

 

This hits me in the feels

[DitchPanda]

Still in mega drought mode here so honestly the bass fishing in my local lake sucked. I went on a month long skunk from late August or early September until 2nd week of October. That said I regained my love for river walleye and cat fishing and that actually went pretty goid.