2024 Fishing Season Summary

[DogBone_384]

I can't say I'm done yet, but it's almost Thanksgiving, so I'm starting this thread to see how the membership's done this year.

 

• What technique worked best for you?
• What technique didn't work?
• Any big news, PB, new species, great trip?

 

Let's hear it!

[Swamp Girl]

Coming from decades of fishing rocky lakes for smallmouth, 2024 was the year I fully flipped to fishing weeds for largemouth. Like this:

 

 

And this:

 

 

I'm so conditioned to hauling bass out of weeds that nowadays, if I'm in the veggie section of the supermarket, I want to run to my car and fetch a rod.

 

For the first half of 2024, I fished an underspin with a Crush City Mayor, a great lure for throwing into weeds and wood. And I became much better at keeping them off-balance, I.e. applying so much pressure that they can't dig deep into the weeds and shuck my lure.

 

I understand that this is Bassing 101 Weeds and Wood, a class all of you took decades ago, but you gotta start somewhere. I'm still waiting for my grade. I hope it's an A! Here's what I caught on the final exam:

 

 

I did catch my PB early in the year and also likely caught the Maine state record chain pickerel. 

[A-Jay]

Well, it's been a fishing season for the ages for me.  In many different ways.

Definitely did not get out on the water as much as in previous years and 

tried to make the best of the opportunities I was given.

There were a few fish caught, some pretty decent one's too.

While still hunting big smallies, highlights included:

Several 5 lb class fish, two that went over 6 lbs, 

and my 2nd ever 7 lb mutant smallmouth bass. 

I was lucky to see many beautiful sunsets and sunrises,

throw in some plus size pike, one freak of a musky, 

and that pretty much took care of it. 

As for productive presentations,

it was another year dominated by Jerkbaits & Jackhammers.

First season throwing the Megabass 110 in Shrimp and I can say quite confidently,

that it will not be my last !

On the polar opposite end of the spectrum, I'm still trying to figure out

how to get the most out on the Jackhammer Mini Max - 

This what some of my 2024 fishing season looked like  . . . . . 

https://youtu.be/V3OYj82bUXQ?feature=shared

Fish Hard

Stay Safe & warm my friends.

A-Jay

[Dan N]

I had a good year, didn’t fish as much as last year, but many good trips. I do have a boat and fish from that, but I also really enjoy taking shore fishing trips at my local park, has some great channels off lake Winnebago, WI. I do a lot of short 1-2 hour days. I believe 30 was my best day from shore. Overall, no complaints. Very good crank bait bite this fall. Today it snowed. Season is pretty much over.Also did very well on a Tokyo rig in the spring, and forced myself to do more jig fishing, which I did great on! New convert to that! Bought like 50🤣

[Buzzbaiter]

I didn’t spend as much time bass fishing, but had a successful year otherwise. New species caught in 2024 are as follows: shoal bass, bowfin, longear sunfish, warrior bass, shorthead redhorse, white catfish, channel catfish, Atlantic croaker, and southern kingfish. That brings me up to a total of 47 species on my lifelist.

 

I also caught a new PB smallmouth. I didn’t get a measurement, but I think it was between 3 and 4 pounds. Not huge, but a step in the right direction going from numbers to size. It was a fun year

[gim]

I posted a 2024 recap about a month ago of my season.  No reason to burn it down twice.

 

These two were my best largemouth.  First one in May, at the time was a second best PB.  By golly, in early October, I bested it, with a new second best PB.

 

 

[GRiver]

Well my year was slow, I wanted to fish mostly crank baits this year. That didn’t work to good so as far as catching fish, one arm is bigger than the other from cranking so much, also I took a treble in my finger and lost some brand new lures.

The plus side I did get some cool new tackle, square bills, med to deep drivers, some flat sided cranks, and an array of jerk baits. I even picked up a Krej….. I haven’t caught anything thing on about 80% of them, but they sure do look good when I open that Plano 3700 and ta-daaah!! ( and the crowd goes wild) 

I’m going back to my old way of fishing first of the year, I said I’d give it a year. Not giving up on cranks just not going fish them exclusively. 
 

 

[Dan N]

Don’t give up on the cranks, GRiver, that being said, I definitely have certain times of the year they work great, and times of the year, not so much. Nothing wrong with sticking to what works for you! During most the summer here, I rarely use them . I will add , as I mentioned, previous to this year, I had zero confidence in jigs, but stuck to it and now love them . Good luck to you 

[MIbassyaker]

Weak year.  lower sizes and numbers than usual; no PBs.

30 trips, 105 hours, 190 bass; Largest was 4.18lb, 19.75"

Visited 16 natural lakes, 3 river bayous, and 4 sections of three rivers.

 

Top Techniques:

1 (Tie) Spinnerbait

1 (Tie) Stick worm

3.  Buzzbait

4. jighead + swimbait

5. Fluke

6. Finesse worm

7. Popper

 

Other techniques I used to catch bass this year: T-rig Creature, T-rig worm, underspin swimbait, vibrating jig, jig & craw, frog, in-line spinner, ned rig, slider

 

[Dan N]

4 minutes ago, MIbassyaker said:

Weak year.  lower sizes and numbers than usual; no PBs.

30 trips, 105 hours, 190 bass; Largest was 4.18lb, 19.75"

Visited 16 natural lakes, 3 river bayous, and 4 sections of three rivers.

 

Top Techniques:

1 (Tie) Spinnerbait

1 (Tie) Stick worm

3.  Buzzbait

4. jighead + swimbait

5. Fluke

6. Finesse worm

7. Popper

 

Other techniques I used to catch bass this year: T-rig Creature, T-rig worm, underspin swimbait, vibrating jig, jig & craw, frog, in-line spinner, ned rig, slider

 

Don’t sound too bad to me! 
Gives incentive for next year!👍🏻

[Swamp Girl]

15 minutes ago, MIbassyaker said:

Visited 16 natural lakes, 3 river bayous, and 4 sections of three rivers.

 

That's impressive. You really range. Which do you prefer: lake, bayou, or river?

 

 

[T-Billy]

I didn't do much bass fishing, but I did pretty well when I did. I only got one over 5#, but was on solid numbers of 2's and 3's in the limited time I spent chasing bass. As usual, it was the flippin rig and my homemade chatterbait doing most of the work. 

 On the other hand, I've had an epic year of muskie fishing. I've put 86 over 30" in the net so far, with a few weeks left to fish. Sitting at the top of the heap are a matching pair of thick 46.5" beasts.

[Swamp Girl]

Tim, I don't often miss musky fishing, but seeing you with your two torpedoes makes me miss 'em.

[TnRiver46]

Got two LMB around 21” which was totally unexpected! SMB were fairly normal compared to other years, lots of good ones. Caught a couple nice stripers. Barely caught any of the evil Alabama spotted bass so I guess that’s good? Business as usual. Still got over a month of great fishing to go yet 

[king fisher]

2024 was a tough year bass fishing for me.  I let work get in the way of my bass fishing again this year, and when I was able to go I had less success than previous years.  I managed to remain good friends with the Bait Monkey, but even though my tackle box was always full, I struck out more than I care to admit.

 

The good news is my wife and I had a cabin built one kilometer from a lake with bass.  The bad news is I am having a difficult time catching bass there, and when I do they are not very big, with the biggest being around 6 pounds.  I spent most of my available bass fishing time there, because it is now my home lake.  When I was able to go to other lakes I did ok at one and horrible at another.

 

I only fished Presa Pocho a couple times, and managed to catch one 10.2 pounds along with a couple 7.5 pounders.  

 

My success on large bass was down from previous years, but I had just as much fun, and even though my new home lake isn't as good as I would like it to be, I enjoy having a lake I can call home.  If five small bass is a good day at new lake, than I will try hard to catch 6 bass.  It is all relative, and a 6 pound bass on one lake is equal to a 10 pound bass on another. 

 

I hope to take more time away from work next year, and I still have time to catch my PB before this year is over.

  

[MIbassyaker]

1 hour ago, Swamp Girl said:

 

That's impressive. You really range. Which do you prefer: lake, bayou, or river?

 

 

Probably the rivers actually -- but they're the least convenient, so lakes get the call more often.

[Pat Brown]

8 minutes ago, MIbassyaker said:

Probably the rivers actually -- but they're the least convenient, so lakes get the call more often.

 

Rivers are FUN and they keep on being fun when it gets real tough at ponds and lakes IMHO.

 

Biggest this year was a 9 lb 3 oz on a red eye shad in January.

 

Caught an 8 lb 9 oz on a BPS Swerve glide bait last week.

 

Caught an 8.4 and an 8.0 and a nice pile of fish well over 7 lbs.  A nice pile of fish over 6 lbs and a very large number of 4-5 lb fish.

 

It was by far my best year for numbers and size I've ever had but I didn't get a new PB or a second DD....yet.  😎😉

 

Fished the frog and became a frog monk of the order of the frog and now I can catch fish on a frog anytime and anywhere.  It's one of my super powers in bass fishing and it's a good one because it tends to reveal big fish that don't do much revealing themselves otherwise.

 

I fished the jig and lipless a lot also and did quite well with both.

 

Less fish on t rigs and buzzbaits than years past but still plenty of those too.

 

Got some really big dropshot fish also which was cool.

 

Overall 2024 was one of my favorite years ever for bass fishing and in terms of water temperature: looks like Nov - Dec is gonna be a GREAT shot at a new PB for me this year so fingers crossed.

 

We are still hovering around 60 on the surface up shallow here in NC and to me the ideal late fall early winter temp window is 58-51°.

 

It looks like that temperature is gonna be stabilizing into view during the remainder of the year and we may not even have much of a winter this year.

 

I feel as though they're probably gonna be looking for places to spawn in late December and I plan to act accordingly this year.

[Swamp Girl]

45 minutes ago, Pat Brown said:

Fished the frog and became a frog monk of the order of the frog and now I can catch fish on a frog anytime and anywhere.

 

Yes and heck, yes!

 

54 minutes ago, king fisher said:

The bad news is I am having a difficult time catching bass there, and when I do they are not very big, with the biggest being around 6 pounds. 

 

My home lake also has smaller bass than other lakes, but I still love it. Congrats on the cabin!

[LrgmouthShad]

Much too early for me to answer! 

[Susky River Rat]

Crank baits, drop shot and spinners were probably my three best baits. Surprisingly ned rigs and top water I never got going this year. 
 

I had a great spring and summer. But, late summer into fall my river fishing has stopped due to dangerously low conditions. I ended up lake fishing a lot this year and doing decent for large mouth. This was however the worst October and November I’ve ever had. 
 

I blame that on not being able to fish the over and the abnormally warm fall we had. All in all I had a great year and am looking forward to 2025!

 

Edit: One thing I always try to keep in mind is my worst days are someone’s best days and my best days are someone’s worst days. I enjoy these puzzle piece days when they aren’t crushing it. I also enjoy when I stumble on the jackpot pattern for the day. The mystery interests me.

[VTFan]

Crankbaits, spinnerbaits and beetlespins were the ticket for me this year. I caught my new PB...8 lbs, 8 oz... on a KVD 1.5 in sexy shad color.  It had been years since I had any sort of luck on cranks. Same for spinnerbaits. Black or white willow leaf spinners worked great for me as well. Sometimes the bite was better if I down sized and threw a beetlespin, again in either black or white. 

What did not work for me this year was wacky rigging. Over the past 2 or 3 years the wacky had been my go to bait but not so this year. It just wasn't happening for some reason.

[Swamp Girl]

8 hours ago, Susky River Rat said:

and spinners

 

I love Mepps too and catch a few every year on Mepps. My only two 250+ smallmouth days were with a Mepps, the only one I had on that trip. I sure got my money's worth out of it.

 

8 hours ago, Susky River Rat said:

The mystery interests me.

 

Me too!

 

8 hours ago, Susky River Rat said:

One thing I always try to keep in mind is my worst days are someone’s best days and my best days are someone’s worst days.

 

[TnRiver46]

10 hours ago, LrgmouthShad said:

Much too early for me to answer! 

You know it! Bout to get good 

[Swamp Girl]

3 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

You know it! Bout to get good 

 

[Lottabass]

2024 was a frog year for me.  Also got to take a young lady fishing.  When you teach, you learn!