everythingthatswims

Water was super cold so it pulled but not as hard as big trout I have caught in the spring. It jumped once and took some drag but I was able to net it in about a minute. 6'6" Light Action Field And Stream Tec-Lite with a Sienna 1000 spooled with 6lb fluoro.

Guess they better make an 8" derps

Have fun with that 6lb fluoro and a drop shot while Don sticks another DD

Believe it or not, we can use trout as bait, just not in trout waters (thank god, there would be no big bass if the same guys who chunk carolina rigs with powerbait started using trout as bait there, it's bad enough when they snag them on beds and keep them)

They are all stocked There's a reason I have never caught one that size in a stocked lake (these were in a creek so no bass)...They don't survive long enough to get caught . I can say swimbait

I'm gonna make a rule for guys in TX, FL, and SoCal. If you are catching fish on topwater right now, don't tell us about it. Just say you had to crawl a jig along the bottom reeealllllly slow because the water is cold Pretty fish and glad to hear you are catching some.

Way to go deep!

Whenever I see people using fish grips it just looks clumsy and gives the fish a huge opportunity to shake loose. Get a rubber mesh net, trebles won't get stuck in it, and you can land the fish FAST. If a fish has trebles in his mouth, grab him behind the head while you unhook him.

I'm thinking these guys got stocked by accident, most of the fish we caught were 10-15"

I'm gonna be the first to share a BAD memory, I have too many good ones to pick from. There was a really hot bluefin tuna bite off of the Outer Banks one year in February (I think) and the weather was nice so we decided to go. Trailer-ed the boat down to Hampton, VA and spent the night at a friend's house, then got up at 3am to continue all the way to Oregon Inlet. Put the boat in the water, everything good to go, and started heading out. Before we were even under full power leaving the marina, one of the engines crapped out (I don't remember what the problem was, but it wasn't a quick-fix). The day was shot and we headed home....a five hour drive of complete silence. Gotta love those B.M.D.s!

^this

"Too cold for trout"...I love it when I hear that

Was fishing a neighborhood lake with my friend when a guy asked us if we were catching stripers on mepps (we were fishing jigs so there is no way he thought that's what we were using, and I have never heard of stripers caught on inline spinners)...there are also no stripers within an hours drive of there. Another time my dad was showing someone a photo of some blackfins we caught on our boat one summer, he asked us if we caught them at Lake Anna...***face-palm*** And I also love the strange looks/comments I get when people see me throwing a swimbait. "You'll never catch anything with a bait that big" or "There's nothing big enough in here to eat THAT!"

Real Prey makes a bait that looks like those "indigenous swimbaits" you are referring to But unfortunately, soft plastics do a pretty terrible job at getting nervous when a big fish is nearby, that's where the real McCoy sets itself apart.

Most places I fish, nearly all of the bass are 11-13" and since I don't tournament fish I consider these to all be dinks, they stop being dinks once they reach 2lbs or so for me. In most of those lakes there are hardly any 2-4lb fish or the population that size is tiny, there is one lake about 20-30 acres that my friend and I pound every year during all seasons with all sorts of techniques, its either under 14" or over 5lbs, NOTHING in between!

It's winter up here and we are all losing our minds. This isn't helping.

Yeah on a medium light spinning rod and 6lb fluoro it felt huge

I'll target ANYTHING December-February

I'm not in CA so I guess it does I was dragging a 5" zoom shakeyhead worm on a 1/8oz jighead... moving it about a foot every 15 seconds. Two taps and I set the hook! I would like to think that he had the tip of the worm in his mouth so when I set the hook it stuck in his side, but who knows. Eager to try it some this weekend when I have more time, it's hard to cover water when it takes 2 minutes per cast!

***Tenkara***

Getting a Roman Made Negotiator...I have officially gone off the deep end

Well they must be seeing something! I talked to a dive crew working on a dam once time and that was a really neat experience, they see a lot of cool stuff while working.

I will probably head over there with my brothers and friends sometime during my winter break from school. Just wondering if anyone has advice for fishing it in December, the only time I have been there was last February and I was only there for 2hrs, mainly exploring (I did get a couple bass on a 3XD). Kayak fishing and launching at dike 3, so I doubt I will go all the way to the warmest water waaaay over near the reactor.

Should be fun, and with minnows you will literally catch every species out there along with the crappies

While we were trolling offshore, we went through some grass and had to pull in lines to make sure everything was clear...I picked up a rod to bring it in and a blackfin exploded on the bait and started peeling drag, I'm lucky I was able to hold on to the rod!