Mitch G.

My friend Jim wanted to fish today so we met at a local spot that I usually do well at from shore after ice out.....Met up at noon and instantly started slamming the crappies again......don't get me wrong, they are fun to catch, esp. the size we were catching and on 3/8 oz swimjigs, but I'm after Mr Bass.....specifically a spring pig.......we kept it moving all day long, fighting the wind which at times was brutal, caught a few smaller bass but nothing great....Jim wanted to leave but I convinced him to stay for one more hour where we were getting the slabs....4th cast in, I felt my jig get inhaled and set the hook and rod bent in half....I was fishing w/ a 6'9" Avid MLXF......got the fattie in, weighed her on Jim's Boga grip and a solid 5.8.......Fat stomach and I should have taken a pic on it's side for my own reference..catch, photo, release.......All in all, lesson learned for my friend....Persistence pays off always, on and off the water ...... a few from today.....

Good point Hookset.....and thanks!!!!

Ty

Had a decent day yesterday for sure w/ safe ice @ 4" + in most spots...only got out for 3 hours because the first spot we were supposed to fish at was sketchy with only 3" of ice and some open water......not taking any chances........bass were definately chewin at our second spot...!!!......all fish on shiners and jigging.....FISH ON!!!!......best from today

Hit another NJ reservoir yesterday w/ 25 fisherman in search of Mr. Muskie thru the ice, but no luck.....just perch again.....oh well...NEVER give up!!!....beats workin'

So me and Brad decided to go back and try for Mr Muskie on Friday and it was just a free for all madhouse.....When me and Brad fish together(I know him for more than 15 years and he is one of my good friends) it's all about goofing off and joking around and catching ....We always get on the fish as we are both local NNJ guys who know the lakes pretty well and so we just have a FUN day on wherever we are fishing......Brad never has been ice fishing before so it was my goal to put him on something so he gets the bug.......I showed him some basics and how to rig up a tip up and recommended which jig I do good with, tied him up, and told him to jig and I'd rig up the rest of the tipups.....by the time I finished setting up the last one, I hear him scream like a banshee and see him reeling in something. I figured it was something nice because how loud he screamed....Nah, it was a perch, but he was so happy he broke his ice fishing cherry, he went nuts...Believe me, this guy is a destroyer in open water and has caught bass up to 7# when we fish together.....Anyway,all day long we were cracking jokes as usual, goofing on our catches, and having fun......A flag even hit him in the face and cut his forehead and all we could do was laugh. Ended up with 15 for the day in @ 4 hours.......Took some video and pics and here's how it went down today.....Looking forward to this weekend(I'll be there on Sunday at Monksville) meeting everyone.... Looking forward to Monksville on Sunday...Oh yeah, my wife made 5 quarts of Chili for us also...And today she's making cornbread...Hope you guys are hungry....talked to Eddie and he said he's gonna bring his grill to keep it warm.......Here's a few pics from Brad and Me and a video also......See you guys on Sunday!!!....Catch em up!!!!! Bonus videos: Me getting jiggy https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=494592433995828&l=4205398144845928574 Brad w/ perch on tipup: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=494741613980910&l=1689045646677985902 Better save your appetites, Debi made her famous 5 alarm Chili.....FISH ON GUYS!!!!.....

Well I'm going to try to keep this post a bit funny(pictures) instead of just my normal post of pix of fish........ Got a chance to fish w/ some more guys from this site before this weekend's ice fishing derby.....On Thursday me and my friend Joe met Pete and Jason at Greenwood in search of Muskies or whatever would bite.....Now getting there was an issue in itself as on our part there was a lack of judgement and I thought I remembered where the launch spot was...I f&cked that up...So a 10:00 meet time ended up actually being a little later due to my lack of judgement...So we set out on the ice, and I see two guys ice fishing so we start talking to one of them and set up a few tip ups and I go to introduce myself to the other guy and say, "Hey Pete, nice to meet you" and this guy looks at me and says I'm not Pete I'm Mario....We were like I don't understand?......Wrong guys!!!!....they pointed us towards other guys at another spot, got on the cell and lo and behold there were Pete and Jason....FAR AWAY.....so we ended up walking(only 15 minutes on ice) and finally meet up w/them by around 11:30.....d**n these guys are hardcore I could tell as soon as I saw the barbeque on ice!! My kinda fisherman!!.....So they tell us they already had caught 15 perch by the time we got there and we were psyched...Hopefully Mr. Muskie would be close in the area(ended up not being the case)....So we start jigging and setting off tipups and within 5 minutes Joe and I each had our first Greenwood Lake fish thru the ice...Started the fun of the afternoon off and by days end we caught @ 36 perch between us....Pete and Jason are AWESOME guys and diehard fisherman......I brought Cherryaki Marinated chicken thighs and Pete made us Burgers.....It was alot of fun and gonna be fishing with these guys alot more throughout the season.Here's a few pics from Thursday: Me Pete and Jason.... Time to eat!!! Gettin jiggy with it!!! As we were leaving the lake at sundown

WOW!!!...Awesome day on hardwater!!!!....Congrats!!!

Good eating.....Congrats on 2014 looking good already!!!

Hit the hard water this morning with a few friends...7 degrees at 9:00am in North New Jersey.......Was targeting other species when line went tight while jigging......Lifted up......FISH ON!!......I had no idea what to expect as with the multitude of species in this lake and to my surprise when it neared the hole, was my first bass of 2014!!......I'm on the board and it felt great....We continued to pound multispecies today including largemouth bass, pike, perch, snot rockets and a kitty cat also which was pretty cool , even though I don't like these fish.....Thanks to Rocco, Mikey, and Richard for the great company and getting the party started in 2014!!!!!......Started drizzling about 2:00 and I called it quits but they continued to fish...Maybe i'll get a call and some more pics later today....Here's a few to show it happenned.....Happy New Years Everyone!!!!!!!!

Thanks everyone....Tight lines and FISH ON!!!!

Nice Bronze!!!...What can brown do for you!!!!

Went out for a quick few hours shore fishing....I made a post on facebook that I had a feeling that today was going to be a good day as soon as I got to the lake........15 minutes later I had my first 4 pounder of the day on.....5 casts later I had another over 4 pounds(4.3)....I saw fish cruising pushing bait up into the shallows all morning and it was game on from there....Ended up with 7 fish today.....2 over 4 pounds, one 3.4 and the rest all between 1.5 and 3....I love fishing this time of year....Most guys don't even bother because temps are in the high 30's and mid 40's but this is when the best fishing happens......I'll be out there again tomorrow with my friend Joe.......Here's a few from this morning's SLOB-FEST!!...Tried out the self timer on the camera.......satisfied with the results......Some scenery thrown in also.......

It's getting cold here in NJ....50 degree water temp....35 degrees air temps in the am.....I reel in and pop it just as slow as i can near weedbeds(which are still alive!!) and bump off the bottom.......I like a 4" worm on the back as a trailer or a split tail......kills em every time!!!!

Thank you....You hit it spot on about changing baits and hitting the bite right on.......That's the key...While we may not get numbers this time of year, the quality is pretty decent!!!.........I have 4-5 go to baits for this time of the year and so far, so good...........FISH ON!!!!

ChatTerbaits and jigs

After a beautiful day yesterday in NYC w/ the wife, headed out on shore with Joe for some November Bassin'......Winds were pretty rough and not many places we could have hidden so we just said what the F and winged it.....Ended up with a few, lost a few and some more great scenery......Bass were deep throating what we were throwing so that means they are filling up for the winter.......Here's a few ......Have a nice afternoon!!! First fish 10 minutes into the game Joe got on the board shortly afterwards.....

Thanks AK...Hope you had a Happy Halloween also!!!

Thanks DelcoSol......I appreciate the nice words......I never fished there...too far south........good luck to you though.......the heavy rain may shut it down for a few days...if you don't get rains down south , you should do well...Depending on how heavy we get hit up NNJ, I am going to go out in the afternoon, if it's just a light rain.......from shore...and no sandwich when i fish from shore.....I eat before I go out for the morning whiuch holds me over....lol......thanks again!!!!....Happy Halloween and good luck tomorrow

Jeff, Mike is from my homestate of NJ.....Been a fan for over 21 years since before DreamTheater.....thanks!!!!

Got up early and saw the almost perfect day for fishing, esp. at this time of the year.....very light wind and 60 degrees at 6:00am....no shower, quick breakfast, grabbed 2 rods, and headed off to a local little spot where I've been getting alot of 1-2 pound fish...I know there are bigger fish in there just gotta put time in lately....been hitting the shoreline the past 3 weeks and finally paid off....Started off with a bunch of nice 2# schoolies cruising shallow(less than 2 FOW)..7 total to start the morning......continued onward and casting my spinnerbait and the line just stopped and I knew it was game on!!......Got the big boy in and released after a few quick self pics.....Fish was 20" and FAT...4 and a half pounds!!!.......2 casts later got his brother a solid 3.8 pound fish.....Nailed a few snot rockets after that and decided to call it a day..Happy Halloween!!!!!...Here's a few to prove it happenned: Scary Bass on Halloween!!!.....Four and a half pounds!!!! His brother also came a knockin'......3.8 pounds!!! Few dinks also: Bonus shot of me and Debi at Starland Ballroom on Tuesday Night before the show with the Winery Dogs....Great band featuring Billy Sheehan, Richie Kotzen and Mike Portnoy....check em out.....best band in the last 30 years!!!They autographed a bunch of stuff for us as well.....Really decent down to earth guys they are also!!! Some scenery from this morning also....

AK.....when you come back to NJ, pm me and we'll go fishing somewhere!!!!

The Susquehanna Sammy Sub.....Homemade eggplant parmesan with fresh mozzarella and Mitch's homemade sauce on a Ciabatta Loaf....Side of Power team Lures Hammer Shads and Craw D'Oeurves!!!

Ahhh, the Big River in the fall..what can be better than that?.......Woke up at 1:00 am Tuesday night and headed off the PA shortly after for a long fun day on the Susquehanna River w/ Bill and Mike ...Hit the water at 7:00am ....no wind, overcast,60 degrees....Can't top that for October weather......We must have caught at least 75 fish between the three of us!!!!.....Bill put on a show w/ topwater action...He's the new Pop-R-Azzi King...Mike lit em up w/ the buzz buzz, and I had a bunch of fish using everything from Power Team Lures Hammer Shads, Keitech Swing Impact, Rapala Jerkbaits, Chig-Chig-Chigger Craws, and Death Shimmer Spinnerbaits got me my biggest of the day!!!.....Bill and Mike nicknamed me "Small Fish Mitch" , and rightly so because I couldn't connect with the slobs I was looking for today, BUT I managed over 25 decent fish for the day ..my biggest was @ 3.5(will post pic later after Mike sends it to me)...We caught alot of bass and alot of walleye also.......subtle bite so you had to be on your game or it was not happenning.....Had a barrel full of monkeys fun, perfect overcast fall day, saw a bunch of bald eagles, deer, great scenery and split the Susky Sammy Sub Sandwich also ...A great day and fall has just begun on the water!!!....Had alot of laughs with these guys and got some good tips and suggestions from Mike about fishing in general and also tournament fishing, based on his experience ........Thanks guys for a great day on the water!!!!...We took alot of pictures all day long...Here's a few to recap the day:

Thanks everyone for your comments!...Tight lines and FISH ON(ALWAYS!!)