Fried Lemons

Biggest of the year and pb at 22.5” 8lb 4oz. Bad picture, she slid forward a bit on the board. Another very memorable catch, my first double up with a combined weight of 9lb 2oz.

Pair of smalls on the last day of 2024. Caught on the shade line of a bluff. Bite died once the sun got too high in the sky.

A few of the lakes I fish produce trophies but most anglers don’t like these lakes because catch rates are low. Those big fish don’t bite often and those small fish that provide the bulk of the action anglers want are not that plentiful. I even get sick of these lakes sometimes because I can go weeks without a single bite. If widespread harvest became the norm again I would expect more of our lakes to fish this way.

I had an excellent Spring, a mid Summer, and an abysmal fall. Highlight of the season was a new pb at 8lbs 4oz, my first and only fish on an 8” Huddleston deluxe. Caught decent numbers of 5-6lb fish with the most memorable being this double up with the bigger one being 6lb 7oz. Caught numerous fish in the 4lb class that I didn’t really keep track of. From March through May I caught them exclusively on big swimbaits with a Deps 250 accounting for the majority of them. Once summer rolled around I leaned more on big ribbon tail worms and jigs. Kinda struggled with size, caught more 4s than I cared to count with the only bigger fish coming in at 5lb 10oz on a wobble head jig. Got two decent ones in September then the fishing fell off a cliff. These last two were notable for coming from a lake I’ve been to in the past and never had success at. These are the only two fish I’ve ever caught at this lake. Overall the best year I’ve had so far. It is really tough to crack 8 where I’m at so honestly the rest of the season was just a victory lap.

Topwater and finesse. Topwater I find is rarely the optimal choice even when I see them busting on top. Finesse because I’m not a tournament guy and don’t care about catching limits of keepers.

IMO taking a hobby and making it about money is the quickest way to suck all the fun out of it.

I like to think my best days are still ahead of me. My knowledge and physical fitness is the best it has been but there are things I lack which hold me back from really dialing things in like a watercraft I can take out on the larger lakes, electronics etc. Not saying these things are necessary to catch fish but the difference between what can be accomplished with vs without is undeniable.

I've seen this happen mostly with baits that have a loud/unique signature in the water like a whopper plopper/MS slammer/crawler. These baits were like magic for me when I first picked them up; I could go to almost any lake in my area and catch fish on them. I think it's the novelty of these baits that gets a lot of attention from the fish which eventually wears off. After the first year or two the fish responded far less to these baits. On the other hand I've never seen them stop eating a worm or to a lesser extent a jig.

It is a thing in new england where there are a few hardcore guys catching giants at night in freezing temperatures on big wakebaits. From what I hear they fish the baits extremely slow.

It's normal for me especially this time of year. I fished multiple days in a row this new moon period during the hurricane and got one fish out of it.

I have a specific spot where my go to technique is to stitch a big worm. I've caught plenty of fish doing it but I've never had the patience to fully commit and sit on the spot for hours. Usually I'll give it an hour then leave and do something else. I use copolymer for this because the bait sits for so long on the bottom fluorocarbon will sink down into rocks and get snagged. For the same reason it's best to use as light a weight as you can get away with. Spinning is probably better for this purpose.

Got this one deadsticking a big gill bait in a windblown pocket. I picked up this technique last year specifically for pressured fish. I cast it out and let it sit without any input, letting any ambient wind or current provide all the action. After about 10 seconds this fish slurped it off the surface. This type of bite is always very subtle and the fish is usually lightly hooked.

Smile and nod

Last salt trip of the year for me. Conditions were different, we got a lot of rain that raised the water about 2’. Grass was also starting to die back. Fish were not in the areas I found them previously so I had to do some exploring. I found a lot of fish concentrated in a small area sheltered from the wind. Every 30 seconds or so I would see a fish boil or a back or tail sticking out of the water. However they were not biting very well. I must have cast at 30 different fish before one finally hit. Fortunately it was a nice one(didn’t have my measuring board on me but I believe it was somewhere in the 28-30” range. Overslot!). I stuck around for a while trying to get the breaking fish to bite. I ended up with one slot fish and 4 undersized. Pretty surprised at how tough it was despite seeing fish all around the area.

Two trips here. First was a short bank beater session. They were ignoring the usual 10” so figuring I had nothing to lose I put on a 13” and it got picked up before hitting bottom by this 4lb 4oz fish. Last worm fish of the year for me. That bite is pretty much done. Caught a lot of 4s on them this year but nothing I would consider big. Second trip I found two different groups of fish. First group I caught in tree tops dropping a jig through the branches. Second group was hunting gizzards on a flat adjacent to a ledge. I was fishing a heavy saltwater jig with a 7” fluke trailer, giving it 6’ rips off the bottom. Got 4 cookie cutter fish in about 10 minutes doing this before I had a guide ring fall out which made it difficult to land any fish. I dumped 3 more then they moved off.

It’s very niche but I’ve gotten some decent fish throwing big wakebaits at shallow cover in the sun. When they’re on this pattern the middle of the day is best because the sun is directly overhead and the shadows are smaller. Never had much luck fishing open water in the bright sun with topwater.

Scouted some new spots to hopefully add to the rotation when the time comes. Usually these types of trips end in skunks but not this time. Got three on the first lake with the biggest at 4lb 5oz all on a big gill worked with a stop and go retrieve. I was running low on time at the second lake which also had significantly more anglers. I hit a few spots without any signs of fish then decided to make a last ditch cast from a dock as the other anglers occupying it just left. Big fish of the day ate on the drop and came in at 5lb 4oz. Hopefully a sign of good things to come.

Couple highlight fish from an otherwise slow day of fishing. I think the high sun had them deeper or less active than they were the previous trips. There were periods of cloud cover where they seemed to turn on for short spurts. Near the end of the day during one of those windows I hooked a huge speckled trout that thrashed and shook out the hook but not before I got a good look at the massive head and got a glimpse of the overall length. I hate to guesstimate fish size but it was way over citation which in Maryland is 26”.

I think they'd be more popular if they hit lures. Redfish are pretty similar to carp in how they fight but they hit lures with a lot of aggression. If I had to dunk real bait for them they'd be a lot less interesting to fish for.

Super fun day chasing shallow reds. Landed 9 ranging from 14-26”, broke off 3 fish and missed maybe 3 bites. I had my drag locked down from bass fishing and had to back it off. They were busting my line and opened up a snap. Caught all on a paddletail under a popping cork. Never tried this technique before, super fun and effective.

Yep

Got on some cookie cutters despite my best efforts. 2 on a weedless swimbait in the grass, 2 on a line thru one on offshore rock another skipping under docks. Missed 2 more in the grass and one on a ledge. They were chewing, just not the size I was after.

It's been ok. I can usually scrounge together a couple fish on deep structure, but the size has been lacking. One nice 5lb 10oz fish in July and a lot of 4s, almost one every trip. Even that bite has slowed down considerably. Shallows are really tough, I usually don't bother unless I exhausted every other option.

I got on a fun mixed bag in some brackish water. I never target these fish or fish salt so it was pretty gratifying to get on all three species I was hoping for in one exploratory trip. I caught all these fish on a grass line in 8’ with an old mirrolure that sat forever in an old tacklebox without catching any fish.

You can mitigate it by choosing baits where the weight can slide up the line like an unpegged Texas rig or a line thru swimbait. Rarely ever lose fish hooked on these baits.