Bycatch

[Buzzbaiter]

What non-Micropterus species do you enjoy catching by accident while bass fishing? Are there any species you hate catching?

 

Personally, I love catching fallfish while smallmouthing. I get annoyed by green sunfish.

[gim]

I catch a fair number of walleye when I’m bass fishing, and even a rare muskie. Don’t mind either one, as long as the seasons open.

 

One species in particular that I catch a lot of by accident are northern pike. 95% are of the skinny annoying aggressive snot rocket variety. No thanks.

 

Other than that I don’t catch much else when I’m bass fishing. 
 

 

[Munkin]

Most by catches are just annoying to me when bass fishing. Sunfish ripping appendages of soft plastics, pickerel biting off lures, catfish slime on my boat carpet, muskies destroying lures are just a pain in the butt for me. 

 

Allen

[softwateronly]

Drum.  Mostly because they're too new to me so it takes me forever to realize I don't have a large smallie on the other end.

 

scott

[MediumMouthBass]

Ive caught, trout, bluegill, crappie, yellow perch, walleye ,pike, pickerel, and green sunfish while going for bass. I enjoy it when any of them bite, the first 4 ill bring home for my parents to eat. (reason i said 4 and not 5 is the walleyes i catch come from the Susquehanna, dont want to eat those!)

 

Now if i were going for catfish with the right gear, sure. But bycatch ugh....

And musky, i know some guys would love to catch a musky, but anytime i fish the river i worry about one biting. They are such amazing fish, i would rather they not bite my treble hooked baits.

[TnRiver46]

It would take too long to type them all, I can catch 8-9 species in a 2-3 hour afternoon session pretty regularly. 
 

they had a tournament on wheeler lake recently and several competitors said the live sonar wasn’t effective because “there are so many trash fish in the TN river “

[Tackleholic]

Gar!  I groan whenever I hook one.  Bull Shoals is loaded with them.  

[TnRiver46]

11 minutes ago, Tackleholic said:

Gar!  I groan whenever I hook one.  Bull Shoals is loaded with them.  

Those may be my favorite fish to catch. The only fish I’ve caught that fights harder is a huge striper. And gar will bite everything they see , what a wonderful characteristic. I typically get a few 42-45” ones during summer . And I know where a 50”+ lives, been chasing it for years 

[A-Jay]

Local By-Catch on the bigger inland waters here includes Musky, Pike, Walleye & Trout.

Early season, the brown and rainbow trout are a total blast on light spinning gear,

putting on quite a show. 

My strike to land ratio on big Musky is pretty low but I've managed to hold a few.

Pike are almost always a huge PIA, even when they are bigger.  They trash everything.

But when I hook a big one, I'll still work hard to land it; just to get my bait back if nothing else.

When the toothy critters are thick, I'll either move or add a trace of wire.

Then there's the walleye, I like them.

Because they taste very good, I'll knock the sides of a limit of cutters just about every chance I get.

I will often make them my target species after initially heading out for Brown Bass.

Depends if the season's open on them yet or not. 

Panfish taste awesome too, just not a fan of cleaning so many at a time. 

A-Jay

[Tackleholic]

2 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Those may be my favorite fish to catch. The only fish I’ve caught that fights harder is a huge striper. And gar will bite everything they see , what a wonderful characteristic. I typically get a few 42-45” ones during summer 

 

Please come to Bull Shoals and take a few home with you.

5 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

Local By-Catch on the bigger inland waters here includes Musky, Pike, Walleye & Trout.

Early season, the brown and rainbow trout are a total blast on light spinning gear,

putting on quite a show. 

My strike to land ratio on big Musky is pretty low but I've managed to hold a few.

Pike are almost always a huge PIA, even when they are bigger.  They trash everything.

But when I hook a big one, I'll still work hard to land it; just to get my bait back if nothing else.

When the toothy critters are thick, I'll either move or add a trace of wire.

Then there's the walleye, I like them.

Because they taste very good, I'll knock the sides of a limit of cutters just about every chance I get.

I will often make them my target species after initially heading out for Brown Bass.

Depends if the season's open on them yet or not. 

Panfish taste awesome too, just not a fan of cleaning so many at a time. 

A-Jay

A-Jay, you're a show off.  (Nice fish)

[A-Jay]

14 minutes ago, Tackleholic said:

Please come to Bull Shoals and take a few home with you.

A-Jay, you're a show off.  (Nice fish)

Thanks but don't blame me ~

It's all the fishes fault - I swear . . . .

A-Jay

[softwateronly]

2 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

Thanks but don't blame me ~

It's all the fishes fault - I swear . . . .

A-Jay

That Brown is darn near obese!  Hopefully it was cold enough water for some of that famous drag peeling sound...Nice fish even if it was their fault.

 

scott

[A-Jay]

20 minutes ago, softwateronly said:

That Brown is darn near obese!  Hopefully it was cold enough water for some of that famous drag peeling sound...Nice fish even if it was their fault.

 

scott

Thank Scott ~

Pulled this one from the archives just for you . . .

Not my smoothest deal but still OK.

A-Jay

[softwateronly]

@A-Jay Beautiful audio and video...Thank you!  I just relived my pb brown, not as big as this one, shore fishing lake michigan 12-15yrs ago.  Bill Lewis rattle trap got annihilated in front of the Shedd Aquarium and nearly spooled me twice.  If it wasn't for some friendly polish kids with a long handle net I might still be there.

 

scott

[IcatchDinks]

Pike. I love catching pike. And it's always been accidental. 

[MIbassyaker]

I grew up fishing a river for channel cats, and still have kind of a soft spot for them....as long as they don't bite too often.  The seem to like bladed jigs.

 

 

Crappie are generally welcome, when they're adequately-sized:

 

 

I do not really enjoy pike and bowfins.  Agents of pure chaos, especially from a kayak. Lure destroyers and thieves, thrashing everywhere, knocking around everything that isn't tied down.  They don't come out of the water if I can help it.  

 

 

[softwateronly]

6 minutes ago, MIbassyaker said:

 

 bowfins.  Agents of pure chaos, especially from a kayak. Lure destroyers and thieves, thrashing everywhere, knocking around everything that isn't tied down.  They don't come out of the water if I can help it.  

 

 

 Nothing more true has ever been written...

 

scott

[TnRiver46]

If I was stuck in a kayak, I could definitely understand not wanting to bring a bowfin on board. 
 

I have brought a pike into a canoe though, seemed slightly easier to deal with than bowfin and they taste a lot better. Granted , eating rocks tastes better than bowfin 

[MIbassyaker]

1 minute ago, TnRiver46 said:

 eating rocks tastes better than bowfin 

 

I'll take your word for it.

[TnRiver46]

Just eat the rock 

[MIbassyaker]

5 minutes ago, softwateronly said:

 Nothing more true has ever been written...

 

scott

 

Like the fish version of a Mafia thug.  "Nice spinnerbait you got there..."

[BrianMDTX]

Sunken adult diapers. 
 

Nothing else comes close. Nothing. 

[GReb]

The non-bass I hook into the most are gar. Outside of a good fight I hate them. Mud fish too. If they don’t break my line they ruin nice baits. 
 

Ironically the lake I fish is loaded with crappie and catfish but I rarely ever catch one and with the amount of squarebills and cranks I throw you’d think crappie would bite more often. I’m always around crappie it seems but I may catch one per year. 

[MediumMouthBass]

4 hours ago, BrianMDTX said:

Sunken adult diapers. 
 

Nothing else comes close. Nothing. 

Well that DEPENDS! 🙂          I hope someone understands this joke

[T-Billy]

7 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

there are so many trash fish in the TN river “

 

7 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

Those may be my favorite fish to catch. The only fish I’ve caught that fights harder is a huge striper. And gar will bite everything they see , what a wonderful characteristic. I typically get a few 42-45” ones during summer . And I know where a 50”+ lives, been chasing it for years 

One man's trash is another's treasure. We have spotted gar in my local river. They will school up in the shallow slack water pools in summer. Tubes work great for catching them. When they bite it, I just put some pressure on them and they instantly start rolling, effectively tying their mouth shut on the tube. I land nearly 100% and most aren't even hooked.