everythingthatswims

If they have a mouth full of trebles and hard plastic they tend to struggle to fight

That thing is a toad. Definitely looked full of eggs and food, I can't even imagine one that size, my pb smallie is right around 3.75-4lbs

Give them a couple weeks after they spawn and then go froggin! Use a pad crasher junior since they are small

Had one do that when I was out alone before sunrise setting up duck decoys... I jumped pretty bad

I agree, seeing big fish caught off beds and taken miles away to be released is upsetting. I think tournaments in the spawning season should be catch-weigh-release with no boat ride in the livewell, to keep the fish on their beds.

Light line, little finesse baits, and small hooks!

It's funny because on a spinning rod, it seems natural to reel with my left, but on a baitcaster, I have to use my right. I bet I could have more solid hook sets if I fished lefty with a baitcaster though.

I like fishing alone in locations that I know really well and can basically call the shots on the bass, that way I don't have to split the fish 50/50 and catch half as many as I would by myself! But if I'm somewhere new then I like to have someone else to help figure them out. I only have one friend that truly bass fishes and understands it, has his own tackle, etc. We get along really well and have a good time fishing together, there just aren't many kids my age (at least where I live) that fish. People at my high school think fishing is the bobber-worm deal, I frequently get asked "How can you be "good" at fishing? Isn't it just getting lucky?" People are so clueless...

The main problem that I run into is water clarity. If I'm not there within 3-4 hours of a downpour, the water is 100% bright orange/red clay colored with zero visibility. Always takes 2-3 days for the pond to get back into fishable conditions, even then it's big black&blue plastics and jigs fished slow, it's the only thing they can find.

For rivers, I like natural colored 4-5" senkos, texas rigged craws, and small jigs with craw trailers. I don't have anywhere to fish for them in still water around here. Just drifting a senko in the current, weightless or texas rigged with a 1/16 or 1/8oz if need be, knocks 'em dead.

Headed to my neighbor's pond this evening to do some topwater fishing since it was raining/low light conditions...I started off buzzing a speed craw weightless and landed lots of dinks as usual all around 12". Then I switched to a culprit incredicraw texas rigged with a 3/16oz weight and started following the bank pitching it up next to bushes and brush. I got up to where the creek feeds into the pond through a pipe, which was flowing pretty well because of the rain, and pitched right up in the current. When I tightened my line up, it was moving towards me at a pretty good speed, so I cranked down and swung, immediately realizing I had a good fish. I managed to keep her out of the sunken tree she was trying to get into and bring her in the canoe. The fish taped out at exactly 22", my 2nd citation this year. I took a quick photo and turned her loose. I sure am happy that I got in a little fishing time before the monsoon hits, we are supposed to get 3-4" of rain tonight and everything will be chocolate colored by this time tomorrow!

Get a hand under their belly. Holding fish that size that way is rough on their jaws, that last pic makes me cringe. Pretty fish though, looks like you have a great body of water to work with! Is it managed? ??Food sources??

I keep the wildlife crime hotline in my phone at all times. But if I think someone genuinely doesn't know that they are doing something wrong (sometimes it is easy to tell) I will just let them know. Especially if it is 2 or 3 live fish in a bucket or on a stringer that can be released. I love eating fish, but I struggle to see a bunch of fish kept in a body of water that can't handle it, or if someone releases a bunch of bluegill and keeps bass instead. But to each his own, as long as it's legal I say go for it.

No way would I kill a bass for a state record, a fish of that size doesn't deserve to be killed

Just observe what types of forage are present in the area, chances are that bass are going to be eating what is most available

All I know is that if we are supposed to get a storm, I go out the day before. The fish know it's coming and start feeding really well

I keep a detailed journal for bowhunting, but the closest I have come to a fishing log was when I counted every fish I caught for a year, just over 3500. That was too much work so I'm not doing it this year, but I might again in the future. I have been able to do pretty well fishing techniques that have worked in similar situations in the past, fishing is one of the only things I can store in my memory REALLY well. -I also have a fishing blog, and I look back on posts I made, which has helped a lot. http://everythingthatswims.blogspot.com

I put 2 blue cats in the 10-12lb range in my neighbor's pond last spring to hopefully help out with the stunted lmb, last week my little brother witnessed one of them snatching a gosling while it was swimming across the pond!

My little brother and I were trout fishing, drifting salmon eggs in a deep pool, when we both set the hook at the same time. I told him to quit reeling in and let me land the fish because he was tangled in my line, but he was telling me the same thing. Landed the fish and saw that both hooks were in his mouth, hungry trout!

Everything is still pretty high and muddy here in Central VA, but I got some to eat a black/blue speed craw rigged on a 4/0 weighted screw lock hook. Caught a chunky female and 3 dinks And no worries with laying the fish on the ground, it had just rained and the grass was soaking wet so it shouldn't have done any harm to the slime coat.

Go throw a baby bass swimbait...I bet there are a few big cannibal largemouth in there!

Maybe there should be a big catfish derby on the Potomac, and all catfish caught get stocked in a small lake somewhere... Make it a pay lake haha

I don't like the idea of eating anything that comes out of the Potomac, and I'm sure I'm not the only one.

I will usually hunt instead of going fishing if I think I would have a better time hunting than fishing (in December, going on a goose hunt, deer hunt, rabbit hunt, etc. is a lot more interesting than crawling a jig along the bottom of a pond hoping for ONE bite). For the most part, hunting season is in the colder months and at that point the fishing is pretty rough anyways so I'm not too conflicted about choosing hunting. The only time that it becomes a toss up is in spring turkey season...which is going on right now!

In terms of the first cast, whenever I catch an nice fish in the first few casts, it usually turns out to be the best fish of a day that is usually mediocre! My dad once landed a 22" flounder on his first cast surf fishing, then someone walking on the beach said "Wow! That's the first fish I have seen caught all week!" needless to say, the fishing after that was horrible