Fried Lemons

Having owned rods ranging from $50-700 there is a point of diminishing returns. Higher price usually gets you a better blank and guides which leads to better performance. At the top end you are getting minuscule improvements for exponentially higher price.

I always try and fish when I see pre frontal conditions in the forecast. I was hoping there would be a good bite on moving baits but nope. They still only wanted jigs.

FYI can step up to the Poison Adrena line of rods from Japan for the same price as buying an Expride domestically.

Got on a bunch of fish pitching a jig into wood. Also got one solitary fish working deep structure with a worm. The top fish I caught deep in a brush pile. Wrapped me up so badly I thought I lost her. When I eased up the pressure she swam out on her own.

Got on a pretty good bite during the first hour of outgoing tide fishing flooded spatterdock. I dumped two 4-5lb fish after they wrapped me in the vegetation. This was an impromptu trip so I was unprepared and fishing with fluorocarbon. Despite that I still managed to land 5 fish. I also spotted several snakeheads but could not coax them to bite.

I have found some correlation between the lunar calendar and the likelihood of catching a 5lb+ largemouth. However, my biggest fish was caught on a non optimal moon phase. I don’t let it dictate when I fish but I do look back and connect the dots.

New pb snakehead while scouting a new location. I’ve been hunting one of these “dragons” as they are called locally for a while now. Caught plenty in the sub 30” class but the big ones take some dedication to find and catch. They tend to be killed when caught so finding them is a game of searching for less pressured water. I caught this one casting a ribbit frog over a fry ball.

I throw em a good 50% of the time from June-August. 10” the go to size, it catches everything. If you take one and ball it up in your hand it’s smaller than most jigs. I mostly throw them either on offshore structure or weed edges/flats. If I haven’t located fish yet and am probing deep spots I’ll use a heavy Carolina rig. That lets me fish faster and quickly discern bottom contours. If I’m throwing into weeds or trying to slowly pick apart a spot I’ll Texas rig with the lightest weight I can get away with.

Caught 6 fish in a quick afternoon session, all on a jig. Excellent weather after 2 weeks of saunas. This was about the average Big fish of the day, a 4lber.

Couple from the past week. It’s been hot as heck but fish were biting. Either on a 10” worm or a jig. They seem to strongly prefer one on any given day.

Yup… to be fair I’ve donated my fair share of baits to the abyss so the balance is still negative.

First good fish of the year coming in at 6lbs. Caught her on a bait someone must have broken off that I found floating around. Their loss was my gain.

Worst fishing related injury I've had was from a 28" pike. I thought I was safe with the gill plate hold but apparently if they thrash the teeth in the back of the throat can still get you. My finger was bleeding so much I thought I might need stitches. My whole hand was red when I stopped at a CVS. I probably looked like I just killed someone.

Third foil job done. By third I mean third completed. Lots of failed trial and error in between.

Half digested stocker trout

Really slow start to the year but finally on the board with a 4lber. 4.25 if you count the trout she puked out.

Most of the lakes around here have been frozen for a few weeks, they have been slowly thawing out. With the rain and the high of 61 tomorrow there should be open water on most of the lakes.

Tomorrow hopefully

When you say big, how big are we talking? I fish swimbaits a lot and one thing I've noticed is nothern guys tend to want to throw the 6-7" baits because they think their fish aren't big enough to tackle the true big baits. I've had the most success with baits in the 8-10" range. My most productive glide bait is a Deps 250. This may be counterintuitive but when the fish are really eating big baits you get more bites by upsizing instead of downsizing.

Little winter project. Learning how to paint and foil baits.

One thing that rarely gets talked about is that it takes careful management via selective harvest to keep a small pond producing big fish year after year. A good pond left to its own devices will eventually become overcrowded with stunted fish.

I fish places ranging from 20-1600 acres that all have fish over 8lbs. I prefer to fish the smaller >100 acre spots because they usually don't have boat ramp access and thus don't get tournament pressure. As far as I'm concerned there are things more important than lake geography in determining trophy potential. Forage is one thing I look at. I tend to catch bigger fish on lakes with gizzard shad or stocked trout. In fact all of the fish over 8lbs I have seen or heard of being caught came from lakes with one or both of those forage fish. Another thing to consider is competing species. I prefer to avoid lakes with too many competing predator species like walleye, pike, striped bass, etc. Fishbrain is a good resource. I despise that app but it is useful for looking at the leaderboards to see if any big fish have been caught in the past. There are places that go under the radar but for the most part this is a pretty quick way to determine if a lake can produce a trophy fish, especially places that don't keep records. Once you have narrowed down some places pay close attention to the fish you are catching. My pb would have been a 6lb fish on another lake. On that same lake I caught a 19" fish that weighed 5.5lbs. A fish needs good growing conditions to reach maximum size. Once you have determined a good lake just grind at that lake exclusively. Bite windows are small so the more often you are on that lake the better your odds. Some of the lakes with trophy potential have sucky overall fishing.

Small lake definitely increases the odds. However I do have some anecdotal evidence that big fish are creatures of habit. The first fish came from the same water inflow pipe during a high water period both times. The third fish came off the same tree both times. I know of a 9lber from a nearby lake that was caught three times in the last 2 years off the same spot as well.

Now that winter has truly set in and I’m suffering from cabin fever I find myself looking back at old photos. One thing that fascinates me is repeat catches. One- because they show the fluctuation in size of the fish and two- because they suggest that there aren’t as many big fish in some of the lakes as we think there are. Fish #1 First catch was October 29 2021. She weighed 5lb 4oz. Second catch December 3 2023 weighing 4lb 15oz. No improvement in weight probably meaning the pond can’t really support a bigger fish. Fish #2 First caught April 2024 weighing 6lb 7oz. Caught again later in the same year July 2024 at 5lb 11oz. Typical summer weight loss. Fish #3 Caught March 2023 at 7lb 10oz. And again March 2024 at 8lb 4oz. Pictures are a bit misleading, fish measured 22.5” the second time. Didn’t get a precise measurement the first time but I don’t think it changed much. This one has by far the most potential I’ve seen in a fish. Notice the relatively small head and lack of any blemishes compared to the second fish. That and the relative weight lead me to believe this is a relatively young, fast growing fish which could one day reach dd status. These fish were from the same lake as well so there is probably a genetic component.

I used to joke that jig fishing is more expensive than swimbait fishing. I don’t throw them from the bank anymore unless it’s an area I have fished before and know is relatively safe.