everythingthatswims

Are you going to fish the tour?

It used to be more common when they allowed people to change boats depending on the event. Now, in the pro tours, you have to stick with the same boat for the whole season. In the opens, people still are allowed to change boats. Look up Ott Defoe tunnel hull!

I guess you could trace that back to the Dad. Then again there's probably someone or something to trace back to before him as well. It goes on and on. Good job trying!

You realize that largemouth bass thumb is different than spotted bass thumb because of their toothpatch

Every time I catch a non-bass that would be good on someone's table, I put it in the well and try to give it away, not hard to find someone at a boat ramp or on the bank who would love some fish. At Lay Lake, my most successful college fishing event, my partner and I found an incredible pattern after two days of TOUGH fishing. It happened almost immediately after I trolled over to the bank to hand off some fish that I was catching. Fish will pay it forward too!

Had a totally insane day today! My friends and I did a little exploring, and we found a spring creek with a network of beaver ponds, all of which is loaded with bass, who seemed to have never been fished for before! We caught well over 100 fish, triple hookups were common, the water was clear and the bass were gorgeous. The creek never gets wider than 20' across, and no deeper than 5'. All the damage was done with a ned rig but I'm sure they would have eaten anything. Biggest bass was the 4-13 that I am holding, and our best 5 were somewhere in the neighborhood of 17-18lbs.

I weighed four legal smallmouth for 3.19, step up your game we really grow them over in WV.

I think it is generally accepted by the bass fishing community that removal of smaller class fish will benefit a fishery, although it is more complicated than keeping a limit of legal fish. Labeling catch and release as a scam on the other hand, I'm not sure about.

I'm at school at WVU, that is on Cheat Lake, which does touch the PA border at the dam. (I love soho too and I'll be there over thanksgiving )

Took a trip to BROWN TOWN today!

I don't have time to keep up with any sports besides fishing

The slow-rolled spinnerbait bite was wide open today! Lost two nice brown fish that shouldn't have come off, not sure what went wrong

Been twiddling my thumbs over a $50 Tackle Warehouse gift card for about a month. Not anymore.

One of my fishing buddies is like that. Can't force the horse to drink! All day he hadn't hooked one steelhead and in the last hour I told him to come catch an active fish I had located, he declined. Two casts later and I was hooked into it.

Hadn't gotten the boat out in a while, but I finally have my college things at bay and had some free time this afternoon. Water from the river had pushed down into the lake with recent rains, 48 degrees at the ramp! Found some 55 degree water and got to work slow rolling a spinnerbait

And sometimes a 4lb green one follows in a little brown one. This largemouth followed for long enough for me to get my phone out and take a picture. Then she hung out by the boat for 30 seconds while the smallmouth wasn't even in the water! Note the Jerkbait!

I have a pretty good bit of experience with fish acting that way. With largemouth, once they are close to the boat, you typically can't get them to eat. Smallies are more aggressive and you'll have a better shot at them when they are right beside your boat. With schoolie sized bass, a lot of the time you can cast to them as they are swimming away after following a hooked fish, and they will eat. With bigger fish, however, your best bet is either to quickly get a bait near the hooked fish while it is far away, or let the area rest for a while after catching the fish so that they have some time to regroup and reposition themselves as they were. When the pros were on the St. Lawrence this summer, they would catch a fish off of a key area, and talk about all the big ones they could see following it. Many of them would leave to let the fish regroup before making a cast to the same spot, often a single boulder.

I was running my boat on Lake Anna last winter, when my hat flew off my head. I turned the boat around and luckily got to it while it was still floating, I like that hat! Then my buddy said "where are your Costas?"

Those fish are freakin' awesome! I still haven't gotten to chase any clear water spots, can't wait until I do! In VA the only place with big spots is muddy and full of grass!?!?

Woah! The two guys I saw were talking in a typical accent for that area in perfect English. We saw what they were doing and told a DNR guy who was standing in the parking lot. When the DNR officer got close, one of the guys turned to the other and instantly they were speaking Russian. At that point they changed from the 2/0 trebles to normal egg hooks with spawn bags etc before continuing to "fish", with their 15lb line and no leader.

I already had a PA license and trout stamp as WVU is minutes from the PA border, lots of good fishing! Erie permit was less than $10, a minute cost in comparison than the rest of the trip. You bet I gilled them and bled them out on a stringer! Got them on ice shortly thereafter though, a crucial step that many miss. Tell me more about these humpys lol. If you wanna hear the story about my encounter with some Russians I will gladly tell you about it, it involves 2/0 treble hooks, yarn, and 15lb solar green trilene big game.

I went to Erie, PA with a couple friends this weekend to experience the steelhead run. We fished Elk Creek, a tributary to Lake Erie that is known for steelhead fishing. Water was extremely low, fish were very skittish, and there were LOTS of anglers. We knew that was how it would be before we went though. My first day, we fished sunup to sundown. I got my first bite at 11am and landed it, I ended up figuring it out a little more, and landed 4 more before sundown. Over half of the fish I saw hooked would break off or pull the hooks, I'm not sure why but everyone would put a ton of pressure on the fish. I'm sure that part of it was good fortune, but I landed every fish I hooked this weekend, and that was on a light action rod with 6lb fluoro. Day two was much better, we found some fish off the beaten path and got on them early, surprisingly we were the only anglers around! I caught 3, and we landed 6 total, with a couple others pulling the hooks. I definitely plan to return when water levels are better, pools were almost stagnant and there was no drift, I saw thousands of steelhead this weekend but 90% of them wouldn't even think about eating! This fish was kept if anyone was wondering about the vertical hold/gilling.

That is awesome! I hooked a musky punching in Minnesota, not that shocking to hook one in that situation but it is a very intense event when a big mean fish of that size is hooked on the equipment you use to punch in the areas you punch. And pound for pound a salmon can kick a musky's butt! Bet you had your hands full!

This fish deserved its own post, I would rank it as top 5 in my craziest fish catches ever. I was on the Ohio River near Weirton, WV, on the WV side. I was walking beside a set of train tracks to go to a spot where my friends and I fish for walleye, hybrid striper, and white bass. It is a pretty good hike so we have to carry in a lot of gear, all of which is packed away. My friend lives in the area and had never caught a bass from the area we walked through, and he is an EXCELLENT fisherman. As usual, my eyes were picking apart the shoreline while we walked, and I spotted a pretty nice largemouth as it cruised up to a weed edge. I didn't have anything rigged up, and the only suitable rod I had with me was a 7' medium action baitcaster with 12lb fluoro. I scrambled as fast as I could to open my bag, get a finesse jig out, and tie it up. Shockingly, the bass stayed put. I was standing on the side of the train tracks at this point, a solid 10' above the water level, and flipped my jig way out in the river. I swam the jig back in to where the fish was, and let it settle on the bottom before I shook it. I instantly felt two sharp taps and set the hook. The fish went nuts, and my buddy somehow slid down the extremely steep bank feet first, and scooped the fish in the net as soon as his feet hit the water! The fish was absolutely gorgeous and weighed 5lbs, 7oz, my biggest WV bass so far, and I am pretty sure that is a large fish for the Ohio River. She didn't look like she had ever been caught before either!

That's because they wait for winter to go hang at those discharges