BammerBass

Thanks!! And jeeze what a dummy I am!!! I actually posted in thst thread lol, my short term memory is horrible!! Sorry bout this mods, yall can lock if if you want to. No need for duplicate threads so recent, and thst makes your job easier!!! But that did answer my questions. Seemed I was correct for the most psrt, but did see where smallmouth DO like wood, so. Thanks for leading me to the proper place J Francho!!

This is a very interesting topic,and it would be exciting if scientist could provide insight into how bass perceive color and divulge more into why they like a certain color lure more than the same lure of a different color. For instance, I know apparently they DO like dark grey colors thst resemble shad, as evidenced by some of my catches this year. But I also havr a pack of bright colored (obnoxiously bright to be honest) panfish assassins that im trying to find if there is any condition that they are suited for and will perhaps elicit strikes. Th color is called " electric chicken" and is pink on top, green on bottom, with gold and silver specks. Looks a lot like a watermelon and im wondering if they just thought "ooooo, lets try these obnoxiously bright color combos to see if we can get some poor saps to buy it!" almost seems they are colored that way to attract people more, lol.

So I have read that in general, largemouth prefer warmer, calmer water and brush and weeds inst ad of swifter cooler water that their smallmouth brethren prefer. Is that a correct assessment? Spots and smallmouth seem to prefer rocky type features over brush and grassy features, is that also correct? Of course there are always exceptions to the general rules when it comes to fishing, and you can catch a largemouth in atypical areas, where you'd more likely expect a spot or smallmouth to be hanging out, and Vic versa, id imagine it possible to catch smallmouth and spots in wood or grassy cover/structure thst they typically are not known for holding to. Id LOVE to catch a decent smallmouth (14" or higher), but I am limits d to short fishing, and it has always been general knowledge that smallmouth are caught fsr more often in deeper water, often which requires a boat to reach. Im not necessarily looking to catch a monster smallmouth (though that would definitely be awesome!!), I just wanna catch one because I think they are gorgeous fish, and have heard that they could run circles around lmb in terms of fight.

I was hoping to go ne or two more timed this year, but health concerns and housework has probably made that an after thought. Wont divulge into the health issues as thats personal, but we've gotta redo the entire shower stall and looking at it, thats gonna be quite a task. Also have a vehicle acting like it is going down, someday, those are priorities over fishing. bummed out, but it is what it is. Went 5 times this year(limited in summer to allergic reaction s, couple anaphylactic type) Caught numerous youngling bass on live worms, caught several 3/4 to 1 lbers on nightcrawlers and panfish assassins. Several nice shellcrwcker on night crawlers thst seemed to hit on every thrliverow, many times as soon as it made contact with the water, so they were evide tily hungry little suckers!!! Then came that possible 4 lb bass i hadgot to strike a silvrr minnow panfish assassin, snapped line when i got it out of the water amd halfway up the pier. Several decent drum on black shad pa fish assassin jigs, including a 15" and a 17" drum. an 11.5 inch crappie on the silver minnow panfish assasin, a 2-3 lb channel cst on chicken liver, and this 2.3 to 2.5 lb largemouth cqught (qnd landed this time, lesson lewrned from losing the other one!!!) Considering the limited time I had, and my relative inexperience outside of live bait, should I consider this a success? My firdt goal was to simply catch a fish givrn it had been 3 years since the last time I got to go, check. Next goal was to catch a few nice bluegill or other panfish; check, after that, goal was a decent bass(1.5 lb or bigger) check, and finally a "good bass" being 4 lbs or more by my goal; failed, hung a good kne I believed would have been a solid 4, did grt it up out of the water, halfway up the pylon, line snapped halfway up, felt the tension go away and hesrd the splash of the fish go back I to the water..... made me sick to my stomach........ So based on my goals, does this sound like a successful year?

I've had a similar year to you except im just no good at b aitcast outfits, and has I believed would have easily been my personal best snapped the line before I got her all the way up (got her up well enough to tell she was a nice one). Caught numerous dinks this year, but have had a few decent 1 lbers, and believe it or not, my bass to panfish ratio is actually slightly in favor of bass, which is definitely a deviation from years past. Congrats on your success, and as others said, the year is not ovrr yet and there are big ones out there just waiting to be caught!! With your quick progress, youll ptobably have a new personal best much, much sooner than you think. Keep at it, i certainly hope to be able to at least achieve a 3lber this year for myself.

It has long been a dream of mine to catch a bass big enough to mount on my wall. And dont grt me wrong, I still have that desire to catch one like that, but with the advent of smartphones, the ability to get life like replicas based on weight, length, and girth, and thee preservation of quality fish, I no longer wish to catch a live fish just to have it die to put on my wall. Now that we can take photos on the spot, and get life like replicas made, we can let these beauties go back and reproduce to keep the population going strong, and even for another angler to catch d own the road when it is potentially bigger. I have my doubts ill ever get into one over 4lbs, but if I do, a simple photo will do just fine. If I could think of it, getting the length, girth, and approximate weight measurement (no one scale is 100% spot on in my opinion) for a replica would be icing on thr cake. Of course nothing really wrong with taking a fish and mounting it, but conservation is one thing I will take I to thought.

Nicely done. Bass fishing, like mathematics, often has alternate ways to get answers/results!! But id defi itely prefer bass fishing any day!!

Beautiful looking place there, and a nice fish too!!!! Love it when they have that dark green color.

Big, beefy, beautiful fish!!!!

Yup had that happen before, didn't really mind though because other than barging in, they werent rude st all. In fact we had a nice conversation about fishing and other things in general, all the while neither of us caught much of anything, lol. If I see someone in a spot, ill give them plenty of ample room if there is a large area to fish, but if it is a tighter, more co fined area, ill just pack up and head down river or back to the house since they were there first. Even if they were polite about it, id still defer because I dont wanna encroach on them and wind up possibly tangling up sith their line and ruining their day.

Thats not me holding it, thats my dad after he got it out of the net and up to where we were casting from. Sticking with 2.3 to 2.5 lbs. Let her go bbecause she was such a nice healthy fish, and she can go andnproduce more beautiful little basslets aho might grow into monsters some day The fight didnt quit when we landed her, she bit both me and my dad as we tried to get a measurement. 16" to perhaps 16.5" was our best estimation, well she was a aolid 16" for sure. Didnt waste a lot of time measuring bcause we didnt want her to be put of the water any longer than she coule avoid. Twas a blast on thst light line.

Wow!!!! Now thats some big dawg gone fish guys!!!!! When you catch fish that are as long as you are or even bigger, it kinda makes it a scary thought what lurks out there . And to the guy who caught the 12 lb cat on 4lb test line while coaching your daughter on how to handle her fish, heck of a job!!!! And yeah it is amazing how big fish like that seem to LOVE to catch you with light line huh? Kudos on landing that cat on such light gear, not an easy task at all!!! Heck that last bass I caught, while it was no monster, I still was not expecting it nor was I really ready for it, even though I had hung a good one on the same light set up a couple weeks before, I just did not believe id get lucky enough for that to happen again!!!! Lost the first one midway up the pylon due to my overreagerness it was likely my personal best if I had landed it it, if that one I DID land (and post pics of here) was 16" in length and 2.5 or so lbs, then that one must have been around 19-20 inches and it was a fatty. Both cases those bass were the first bites of the day and I was like " whoa, now, whoa, I haven't been fishing much in the three years prior, why cant ya let me warm up on some of your smaller brethren, im rusty and way out of practice!!!!!" Though that likely "personal best" bass of mine got away, I learned alot from it in terms as f what they do once hooked, and how to be patient and not try to just power it in, especially not over a 12-15 foot tall pylon. Of course now aftrr "bragging" about stuff I really shouldn't be bragging about, ill probably get the big skunk on the next trip......... such is fishing.

Changed my mind. The weather is crappie out there today and I feel like im getting a cold, ao it'll have to wait . Wind getting up around 15 mph, damp and barely over 40 an hour ago.

Gonna givr it a shot today, might be the wrong time of year, but sure wont cstch anything on it if I dont even throw it out there right? It is on an ultralight setup, so crappie probably will be my main target, but crankbaits being so versatile can also obviously be used for bass as well, and it certainly isnt out of the realm of possibility to run into a bass while I fish for crappie. Honestly I guess ill consider both of em my target species for this trip. Pretty much do anyway with my panfish jigs, but yeah.

Mine is a 19 lb carp caught when I was about 10 years old. Was fishing in a local creek and the particular location we were at had a nice deep hole to it where it was around 15-18 feet deep and the water was dingy. Had the tried and true zebco 33 on a medium action rod with 10 lb test. Was fishing for bluegill and had a steel bluegill/brim hook with the floater set to about a foot and a half above the hook. Next thing you know my dad says "thst ain't no bluegill at all right there" and sure enough she surfaced and we got s good look at her. She fought, and fought, and fought, and fought some more. Several times we would have her almost to the dip net, and she would take back off. Thought she was eventually going to break the line at some point, or surely break thst lil brim hook, but it all held true and we got her in and our buddy had a scale with him that day and it weighed about 19 1/4 lbs. It was about half as long as I was tall back then. And believe it or not, that little steel hook didn't even bend!!! That was a heck of a day. I've caught numerous carp in the 10-15 lb range ovrr at s nearby dam, and several, several 10-12lb channel catfish in my cousin's pond, but that carp beat em all.

For the most fun, I find ultralights with 4lb test line are thr best. They also pick up on the slightest of hits very well. Those 1.5lbers feel like monsters on ultralight rods and are an absolute thrill to catch. But beware, there are those 4+ lb fish out there that can strike at any time, and when they do, you will have your hands full!!! A good 5.5 -6 foot light action rod and reel combo is also great for crappie. Less likely to snap your line on these, but they also dont pick up the "light" strikes quite as well as their ultralight cousins. And it doesn't have to be an expensive rod and reel either. My 5'6" light action Zebco ZS1 spinning combo has netted me some nice crappie, and it wasn't but $25 when my mom bought it for my birthday several years ago.

Wow, what beasts!!!! And that many in a single day too!!!!! I've yet to land anything over 2.5 lbs in my life bass wise

Wow, that lure looks like the real thing, awesome result!!

Nice work.

Yup, seems setting the hook hard on these small hooks just pulls it out of their mouths. As soon as I feel a littlr bump or see my line twitch when they are in a cold weather pattern, I just give it a decent upward tug. Last crappie and bass both were set solid, and they essentially swallowed the jig. These little jigs do seem to work really well when nothing else does, and I'm sure there sre plenty of other brands and styles that would work well too. Just kinda hard to come off something you know works, lol.

Have not caught a thing on the following lures: spinner baits, crank baits, crank baits, rattle traps, poppers, frogs, plastic worms, bass jigs. Essentially the only lures I have caught anything on are: Buzzbaits, beetle spins, panfish assassin jigs. In essence, if it requires much skill to present it properly, I haven't caught a thing on it.

Nice and healthy. Well done.

And looking at the red on its tail and the time of year that was caught, seems likely that was a male that had been fanning a bed to prepare for spawning.

May very well be a spot, if so thats pretty neat, dont run into a lot of them around here. That bridge is a heavily fished location for crappie this time of year with various ultralight and light jigs. And every so often, a bass and perch can be csught too.That place is one of them all or nothing type ppaces and can be quite frustrating. A lotnof times, the best spots are taken by the time we get there, and that's with us going bright and early too, before sunrise!! Last time I was there I caught one little 8 inch or so bass and spent the rest of the time, or majority of it tying ne w jigs on due to getting hung on rocks. In the spring time you can catch just about anything there, including some stripe and hybrids. Its a great place if you know what you are doing pretty well, but for guys like me, it can be quite frustrating st times, as you can be right beside someone just tearing em up left and right, and meanwhile I get sounded, lol thats how it goes in the fishing world though I reckon.

He caught this on a shiner minnow. I didn't catch anything myself on minnows that day, so I went to a crystal shad jig and caught a couple "yellow" bass, 3 or 4 small bluegill, a small crappie that day. That was way on back in April, 2nd week I want to say, maybe 3rd week. Either way, that was a pretty nice one I thought.