Jar11591

Sometimes, if it's a memorable catch. Good fish always get a "thank you" from me.

Nice report. The Blue Mountain Lake region is beautiful, and has a lot of great fishing. I spend some time fishing up there every year.

Chased me off the water this week.

The bite has been ON FIRE for me lately. Hit the lake after work today and I crushed them on a LiveTarget frog. I was skipping the frog as far back under the over-hanging trees as I could and they were clobbering it. Big fish was 3-11, but man the action was non stop. My thumbs are torn up!

My favorite is the Storm Chug Bug. It can make both a deep "chug" sounds and a light "pop" depending on the position of the rod tip, and it also walks very well. Megabass and LiveTarget also make good poppers, and don't forget the classic Hula Popper. It has caught me a lot of bass.

I couldn't believe it when I put the fish down on the tape measure and it was over 23". It certainly wasn't a skinny fish by any means, but also wasn't overly fat. Just nice and healthy looking. Like you said though, with that length she could be 7+ if I can catch her again. You can believe I will be trying!

Huk

Man I love fall fishing. Another great day on the water. This one nailed a spinner bait as I ripped it through some grass.

I'm usually good for 1 or 2 an outing, and if the bite is slow I'll start swinging away.

Home state PB - 6 pounds 3 ounces northern beast.

Drove up to the mountains to hit my favorite lake at sunrise this morning. It was cold, foggy, and with the exception of the loon family that resides there, I had the lake to myself. The bite started off slow for the first half hour or so, with only a pickerel coming to the boat. I made my way to one of my go-to spots on this lake: a well defined point with a steep, weedy bottom and a small lily pad bed. I've pulled a lot of nice bass off this point in the past. I flung my wacky rigged Senko just on the edge of the lily pads and let it fall. As it slowly sank, the line suddenly came alive and took off. Quickly reeled up the slack and set the hook into something solid and strong. At first this fish gave up no ground and got itself wrapped around a rope tied to a floating dock. Luckily, I was able to free it and quickly brought it to the boat and landed it. I immediately knew this was the biggest bass of my life, not including all the monster bass I caught in Mexico. This fish went 6 pounds 3 ounces and 23.5". After photos and measurements, I released her and she took off strong as I sat there shaking and smiling. I landed a few more decent fish on senkos and jig-and-craws before some dark clouds rolled in and I went in. Getting rained on in 50° weather with no rain gear wasn't something I wanted to do. This year has been the best fishing year of my life, and that certainly continued this morning. I'll be back at it at sunrise tomorrow!

Both for me. If what I'm throwing is clearly not working, I'll definitely try different things until I find something that is. If I'm catching them good on something like a spinnerbait, I'll sometimes see if I can get them on a topwater if the conditions allow.

Well there was the time I left 5 or 6 rod and reel set ups and a full tackle bag on the grass next to the boat launch after forgetting to throw it back in the boat before taking off. And then there was the time that I launched my boat and left my SUV sitting on the ramp with every door wide open. It was the first trip after ice-out and I was so excited and not thinking straight.

If the connecting knot is tied right, I don't see the need. I've never had a line-to-line knot fail on me, ever.

Wind, people and litter.

What ended up happening? Did it break him off?

Very cool. Hopefully some day I'll get to fish it. I've heard there are purebred muskies in Abanakee but are extremely rare. Not sure how much truth there is to it.

I can usually tell when I am fighting a bass, a pickerel or a pike. With bass, I can feel the head shakes which usually gives it away. Pike swim extremely fast and they pick a direction and just run. Pickerel usually twist and flip like you'd imagine a snake would. Its pretty easy to tell what I am fighting out of those 3 fish.

Thanks for the report! I drive past Abanakee very frequently on my ventures through the Adirondacks and have always wanted to find a way to put my boat on it. It sure looks like a great fishing lake from the road, but this is the first actual firsthand report I've heard from Abanakee. The Adirondacks have so many great fishing lakes, but even the ones that aren't you can't go wrong with because of the scenery alone. Did you happen to see any loons out there?

Hit up my "home" lake after work tonight. This lake has not been very good fishing this year compared to years past, but it has some very nice bass in it and its only 5 minutes from my work so I fish it a lot on week days. I was doing what I normally do on this lake, drifting a bank pitching a jig to the fallen timber trying for some bass. I was reeling up the jig to make my next pitch and a big pike followed it right to the boat so I killed the retrieve. As soon as the jig began to fall again she inhaled it and took off like a rocket after I set the hook. I probably fought this fish for 5 solid minutes and had her next to the boat 3 times, and each run would peel of a couple dozens yards of 40lb braid. This fish was way to big for my bass net, so I had to make sure it was tired out for me to safely pick it up out of the water, photograph it and release it without harming it. Everything went perfectly, as by the time she was next to the boat for the third time, she was tuckered out and I was able to grab her by the gill plate, photograph, measure and quickly release her. The tape measure on my boat is only 24" long and this fish wasn't all that far from doubling it, but not quite. Judging by how close she was to doubling the 24" tape, this fish was 42 or 43". My main concern was getting this beauty back in the water quickly. The head and jaws on this fish were huge, a real gator. By far my biggest pike and my first pike that I'd consider to be pushing "trophy" status.

The Menace is a great bait. It makes a great T-rigging bait, and they've also been working for me as a jig trailer. And if you bite 3/4 of the body off, it makes a perfect small trailer for a finesse jig. I also love the Craw for T-rigging and jig-trailing.

Air temps were at 43° when I launched this morning...summer is on it's way out. It had the bass biting though, with plenty coming to the boat including 4 on 4 consecutive casts. Found this nice one hiding under a floating dock.

2017 Nissan Frontier. This is the upgrade from my 1998 Dodge Ram that was used strictly for boat hauling purposes. Sold it, and got the Nissan Frontier that's used for every day commuting and for hauling the boat.

Bluegill

Fairly certain the top one is a Castaic Rock Hard. https://castaicswimbait.com/product/rock-hard-rainbow-trout/ Not sure about the bottom one.