bassmajor

Haha. I was just watching City Limits Fishing with Ike and he hooked one of the cameramen in the back of the head with a spinnerbait that he was casting. Good thing that he was ok. I hope that guy got hazard pay!

You guys are lucky! We haven't had a day over 40 degrees since early December! Today is supposed to be in the high 30s (heatwave) and yesterday I found some open water on my bass lake where they had been running aerators the last couple weeks. Its only a small area but I packed my long rods today and you can bet I'll be hitting it hard after work. Get some!

Ice fishing with a camera is pretty fun. Here's a little video I made of some gills and bass with it one winter.

I fish a small, clear, upland resevoir. Ice out has been the best time for me on the big fish, as I am still a newbie. I have been fishing jigs/craws and c-rigs/beavers or kreatures on deeper structure. I fish them very slowly. This year I am going to try some suspending crank baits and see how they do.

Great photos! Looks like a fun time. Maybe someday I'll get to visit one.

Get rid of the rock and slide a person. That'd be entertaining.

Curious....what kind of fish do you have that's 18 yrs. old? That's pretty old for a fish isn't it? Pretty cool!

One of the best fishing scenes is in the Great Outdoors when they fall asleep in the boat and wake up with their leeches all over their arms and faces. LMAO when I think of them all pointing and screaming at each other..ahahhahahahaha

I've seen and liked most of the ones listed. Too many others to list for me. But I would say I'm kind of a Tarentino guy. Resevoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill 1 and 2.

The main reason is because its a gravel pit and I am thinking there might be some significant depth changes, humps, ledges, ect. that would be beneficial knowledge. Also, they only allow canoes and rowboats. I have a flasher I could use in a small boat, just don't have the small boat yet.

A gravel pit in my area was recently opened for public fishing. It is only a few acres big. There are no contour maps available for it. No motorized boats allowed. But it is frozen over right now. Rumor has it that there's some big bass in there. Any suggestions on how I could make up some sort of rough contour map? I was thinking of printing an arial photo off and heading out there with my ice auger and ice fishing sonar and marking different depths. It would take a while but I don't have any other ideas right now.

My cousin is 6'4" and the guides said the fish was 58". \

Yea, it was a nice fish. We had no idea what it even was, with all of being from the midwest. When we got it in the boat the Mexican guides, who spoke little English, were really chattering. All I could make out was "nice fish, nice fish!" ;D haha. I'll get a pic up tonight if I remember to.

Was on vacation in cancun last week and chartered a boat. Cousin caught a king mackerel that went 58" and est. 60+ lbs. Doing some quick searching on the web led me to believe that that's pretty dang big for a king mackerel. Does that sound right? I have no idea about deep sea fishing being from So. Dak. and all!

Oh, I just lost it when I read this!!!! LMAO! Also one of my favorite shows.

When counting numbers of fish caught, I actually am counting "hook-ups". Even if I don't land the fish I still consider it a positive reaction to bait, presentation, location, ect. As for estimating it's size........well ALL the ones that I have lost have been HUGE!

He can't type right now. Pulled too many muscles hoistin' hawgs!!! j/k Fat-G, hope you did well!

I try to keep it simple in mine: Air temp. and cloud cover Barometric pressure (number and if its steady or erratic) Wind (direction and speed) Moon phase Fish caught (numbers and est. sizes) Time of day Locations and depths Baits and presentations I would add water temp. but I don't have a good thermometer yet. Here's an example: 11/2/09 Round Lake 4-8 pm Temp: 56 cloudy Pressure: 29.8 steady Wind: NW 10-15 Moon: 1st qtr. Fish: 4 LMB (2-6 lbs.) Baits: grn sweet beaver T-rig, Blk/blu senko (6#-er) Location: under dock of green duplex, or on "dead tree" point, shallow weeds, ect. Here I add any notables: light bite, in the shade of trees, next to brush piles, ect. Keep it short or you'll be less likely to do it everytime. And make sure you log even on the days you get skunked!!! I use "wunderground.com" to go back and record the weather conditions.

Been keeping notes since the ice broke last March. I fish one lake so that elimiates a lot of variables and I can pretty much establish some conditional patterns with my data. Kinda fun. Well, still learning of course, and I was on shore, so I tried slowing things down. Went to a shakey head and worm and tried to slowly walk it back, stopping and shaking it a little along the way. Tried slowly walking jigs/craws also. Caught the one fish on a Yamamoto Kreature T-rigging it through some brush. So I kept trying that presentation for awhile. Tried fishing deep water sides of drop-offs, as far as I could cast. Tried a split shot rigged worm through, and around cover. Then as it was getting dark I noticed some baitfish swirling the surface so I made a few casts swimming that Kreature as close to the surface as I could. Didn't have time to try a topwater or shallow crank. As always, I am open to suggestions.

I've been keeping some fishing conditions stats over the past year. Two things have been rather consistent on my lake: -Poor fishing on a full moon phase during the day. -Poor fishing on high barometric pressure. Well yesterday the pressure topped out at a whopping 30.4 and the moon was so big and full in the late afternoon that you could see the "man" laughing at me! I proceeded to get 1 bite (and land it) in 3 hrs....and that was while fishing on and around my honey hole!!!!! haha Still was fun, tho. Had the whole lake to myself. I love cold weather up here.

Nice job, sounds like a lot of fun.

Keep your expectations low and have fun. That doesn't mean you have to lower your focus and determination. Good luck!

Ok, to answer the forage question: bluegills, crappies, along with frogs and crawfish. Two things tho: 1. There are 5 lakes within 30 miles of this lake that I know hold 7+ lb-ers. One of which gave up the state record years ago. I have caught skinny 23" fish out of 2 of them that went 6lbs postspawn. There is very little pressure up here in the boonies. So I have moderate confidence there are some bigger ones in this lake. 2. I've been friends with this guy's wife at work before we even started talking about fishing. And she is the one telling me, but only after I ask if "Dave" has been out lately. Do you think he was lying to his wife in hopes that I would mention fishing to her at work? I know.....this whole things sounds fishy. I don't know what to think, that's why I posted it. Hoping someone could help me solve this mystery or at least give me some pointers on how to catch that monster and close this case. ;D BTW: thanks for the tips WRB, I'll try them and I PM'd you. (Insert photo of me pulling my hair out!) To clear up one more thing: It sounded like he is catching those big fish all the time. my mistake. In reality, thinking back to the last year, she has told me that he has caught around 4-5 7#'s, 3-4 8#'s, and one 9#. Still, I just want a chance to tangle with one that big!!!

At first I thought the same thing about the reports being exaggerated. But.....this guy has held a record and has been fishing for a LONG time. That's why I have been giving him the benefit of the doubt and why its been driving me so crazy going after this fish. Don't get me wrong, I love to fish and I love a challenge.

Sorry this is so long. There's a lot of details. Ok-heres the situation: I've been having moderate success over the past year finding 4-6 lb. fish in my home lake. (Don't get me wrong, I am VERY HAPPY with fish this size.) The thing is that a co-worker's husband (whom I haven't met yet) is an experienced and established bass angler that fishes the same lake. It's only about a 75 acre lake and for some reason we haven't crossed paths yet. I talk to her a lot at work about fishing. She jokes around saying that if she told me what baits her husband was using she'd have to kill me No big deal at first (I like the satisfaction of figuring things out mysef) but...the problem I have is that she is consitently telling me that he is catching 7-9 lb fish! It is totally possible that they are in there (there are fish that size in a couple of other area lakes). I've been going there a lot over the past year and still haven't seen this guy in action. This lady is killing me by telling me these things. Every time she does, I put everything off for the next week and spend every free minute out there. Thank goodness I have a sweet wife. My question is: what are some things I should try to hook up with one of the bigguns? Here are some more details: Upper midwest small resevoir, max depth: 25' Water is clear typically to 2' deep No vegetation or stump fields Many manmade offshore brush piles My big fish have been caught mainly on skirted jigs/craws, some on shakey head worms (blu/blk). I fish mainly out of a boat but sometimes off shore. Should I abandon my honey holes and search for new areas holding big fish? Should I keep fishing the proven spots but with different baits?