AlTheFisherman313

Wait..... fish can’t talk? i hope my insurance is gonna cover this. Probably have a slew of mental issues ?

Thank you so much, I am the fisherman who over analyzes to a point of fault sometimes haha. I was going to attempt to fish either the Clinton river or the north branch Clinton river. Hear about people catching them like crazy, it’s a feeder river to lake st. Clair over here in Michigan, and I have personally caught small mouths in feeder rivers to Lake Huron. I know there will be some. Locating them is gonna be the tougher part. That river has had trout in it as well, I’m not sure if they co exist, but if they do not co exist with trout, than I can at least rule that area out! I appreciate that post it answered just about everything I needed to know. I’m assuming water clarity also follows traditional selection. Natural in ultra clear bright in mud and white is good always in my experience not sure why. Maybe a mix of natural and bright? Who knows lol.

You can continue to fish catch and release absolutely! You just cannot keep more than 5 per day in my area. considering all things are said and done I’m happy with what I did. I mean honestly I might not have called if it was 12 legal fish aka 2 over for his son and dad. I realize that’s over and I don’t keep anything unless it’s a walleye I catch bass fishing, but you know I could live with a guy who fishes 2 times a year and keeps 1 extra fish each time. Let’s be real to catch that many bass, he had to have some experience. And I do realize some people fish everyday and take their limits, hence why I said I could live with the 1-2 trip angler with an extra fish over the people who take 5 legal largemouth EVERYDAY from my local 500 acre public impoundment. Since these dudes started showing up I am noticing the bass are slowly going missing. They started after ice out and have been taking 5 every single day. I wish they would fish somewhere else! not sure what to do about that, they are taking legal bass also, it’s just ruining it as a sport lake for me and it’s 15 minutes away! ?

Never seen it on a LMB on a SMB or a rock bass I see it frequently. maybe a genetic/environmental influence?

Is there a general rule of thumb? A color and style guide for smallmouth dummies? Haha!

Would they like anything like a kvd shallow crank? I own a lot of lures haha, wonder what “hardware” to throw also! I am going to gander outdoors tomorrow to grab some plastics, figured I’d see what else I can get myself into trouble with.

Little update, white plopper 110 has been on ?, as well as my white Lunkerhunt “thump” spinnerbait. Funny the cheap spinner gets hit so much. yesterday morning was awful for me hooked one didn’t land it, but I only fished for about an hour and a half in a heavily pressured area.

I went out yesterday for 2 hours and hooked 1 fish didn’t land it! Going out again today lol! I don’t like being skunked, gotta get the skunk stench off my equipment.

I got an update the suspect was cited! They called me back this morning! They thanked me in my efforts in conservation of our water ways! And to the guy who spoke of pond management, we have to take some bass from my buddies pond up north, but managing a pond and poaching are vastly different. This was not a management situation! The waters were public! The biggest red flag of not being private in the picture was the face he had fish from 10-17 inches? It’s hard to say, but no one who harvests a pond would take something that sized out I still don’t know what repercussions he will face, but they did cite him for poaching. I’m still mad he basically had a bass genocide, but hopefully he learns something from this. I doubt it, I’m sure the guy will be out again poaching any day. and as far as bait, I didn’t ask the dnr or the guy, I’m a hockey player, I might have been confrontational ?. I’m not even kidding when I saw it I felt my blood boil. you can say I overreacted, but being born and bred in Michigan, we take our waterways seriously! The only thing that directly prevented me from talking to the guy was the fact that he had his child with him, and I could only see it escalating to where I could be potentially in a situation where I’m in trouble. Like I said I don’t wanna get in a fist fight and spend the night in jail with the poacher, just wanted him to get caught, plus at that point the deed had been done, if they were In a live well when I saw it I would have probably started recording saying release those fish, but like I said they were laid out like he was proud of what he did.

I know they love tubes, I just don’t know which brand or colors to use lol. i did pretty well for my first time targeting river smallies. They were angry little buggers.

I was actually gonna give a follow up call. I got his license plate so I’m sure they did, hopefully while he was cleaning them so he couldn’t do anything but look dumb!

Awesome angling man, I wish we had more slabs like that in Michigan. I tend to bass fish more frequently, but I go targeting pike and Muskie multiple times a year for my big fish fix haha. I mean heck in Michigan anything above 5-6 is a hog. Keep in mind our state record is around 11 pounds and it’s an old record before the area was developed I believe

Guys excuse me before I rant, but I saw something this weekend I never hope to see again and it sickened me to a point where I called the dnr. I caught this piece of trash pulling these out of his boat, with him and his son, immediately snapped a photo and called the dnr poaching hotline. apparently this guy wants to teach his 12 year old son how to poach large mouth bass. This is just sick, wrong, harmful and cruel. 32 large mouths many undersized michigan is a 5 14+ state. does this tick everyone off as bad as I did or am I a fishing snitch

Needless to say all it took was a nice 16 inch smallmouth riverfish to take some drag on my rod that I usually use for largemouth to become much more interested in river fishing, I caught 3 on a whopper plopper two on a popper. in general terms fishing small rivers, what else is good to throw? I went too water because the river was slow, clear and unfamiliar to me so I didn’t wanna be snagging up all day and first cast the plopper was on! Any suggestions? River fishing is much different than lake fishing, don’t wanna waste my time, I probably own the gear, just don’t know how to apply it for smallmouth! i always loved catching them in lake st clair, but the ones that are stuck in the rivers seem to be pound for pound much stronger, and also a lot more psychotic.

I love this idea, I am 29 and it’s rare besides my one fishing buddy to find a guy between 20-30 fishing in my area, oddly enough I see kids on bikes with poles pond hopping! I am a NCAA ice hockey official, I am off working side jobs until the season starts and would love to partake!

I’m sure it hurts them to an extent, I mean if you fell full weight flat on the ground from 6 inches you may not be injured, but your gonna feel it. Oddly enough I have heard certain parts of a fish mouth have less nerve endings where being hooked may not be super painful, but for all I know Rapala wrote that article for tree huggers to think fishing is “humane” haha. fish are pretty tough, but if you ever suspect you dropped it too hard, or perhaps gill hooked it so bad it’s gonna die, in those situations keep it, however I dropped a pike that tried to go crazy on me when we were taking a picture and he literally fish flopped himself back into the water and took off fast, which is strange because pike stun easily. but, like one of the other anglers posted. I have nose hooked a pike landed it and released it within a minute and they have gone belly up even with me properly reviving the fish. I have been told fish release a stress hormone, when caught in my mind maybe it’s like adrenaline or something to where they can have too much and die from it? I am by no means a marine biologist so do not take this as fact. I might be right or my uncle told me an old wives tale and they die for unknown reasons during a fight. I do not recommend using lighter tackle than the fish your going for requires. It’s much safer to crank them in and release them quick than fight a 24 inch pike on a crappie rod for 30 minutes lol. Obviously exaggerating, and your gonna hook other species on accident, but generally speaking use equipment that matches your target.

We had a heavy t-storm last night at about 7pm, we are supposed to have another at 10 am i am a big solunar guy and this morning should be epic fishing, but with the storms am I potentially looking at a bad time? I planned on going first light for a couple hours, probably gonna throw a plopper or popper, maybe a buzzbait, but I am worried about locating fish in the between storm conditions! Any input? I also realize pre storm fishing can be great, I’m just not sure how to fish series of storms. Usually I wait a couple days for the water to clear, but we have a full moon people haha!!

I’d say 10. I caught the fish of a lifetime for Michigan at 7.8 pounds our state record is only 11-12 pounds, so anything above 5 is a big ole bass in the north haha. The reason im going 10 is that fish looks to be 25-28 inches long and they don’t even get that fat in Michigan the 21 incher I pulled out last week was like 4.9, which is on the low side for a bass that size, but that thing is a strait pig.

Your an awesome grandfather! What a day the little man had. i got started fishing this way from my uncle, I don’t know why, but oceans and lakes, really anything to do with marine biology always has fascinated me. Maybe it was from a fishing trip I don’t remember? Either way, awesome day for you both! We need to keep fishing alive. I’m 29 and have only a few fishing buddies my age! Hell i like fishing so much even getting skunked doesnt kill the day, what beats being on a boat and seeing beautiful scenery? Haha only time being skunked is a problem is when it’s repetitive, but if you know where and when to fish you shouldn’t have that problem. I should mention those little kid rods will catch fish on kayaks, under low branches and what not ? I dare you to ask me how I know?

Awful to hear that. i have seen lures shot out so far on some bigger fish that have scared me into wearing sun glasses at all times when fishing, as well as the fish grips, for pike and dangerously hooked fish. thank god it wasn’t anywhere on your face , or even worse eye or privates haha. if my buddy didn’t almost take my eye out once on a spit lure, I’d probably not be so cautious lol, but hopefully I learned my lesson without having to “pay the piper” haha. That being said I’m probably gonna end up hooking both hands together next time I’m out ?

Are you mixing up what you throw? I am in a predicament where I think I spooked my own fishing hole, try giving it a couple days off, or if you believe in solunar like I do go on a good day and time and see how it works, fish aren’t dumb though they can become “lure trained”.

Man that is my dream to start doing big tournaments. Those are some great small mouths! i would have been happy to catch 1 that size let alone 4 lunkers! Fish on!

Also, I should mention the water is very clear and shallow through the entire lake, some areas are weed choked, but the bay I fish is in shade about 85 percent of the day. It’s shaped odd and has a high tree line surrounding it, might see sun from like 6-8pm every day lol. I probably should let it cool down, it just sucks because it’s 11 minutes from my house. I like going out there real early before work or whatnot and slapping a few bass to get my fix. its looking like I’m going out for musky this weekend, so hopefully things go good with that. out of curiosity do you guys focus on weather or moon phases more? The more I’m thinking most of my catches came during the “solunar good times” lol, at least at this spot.

I tried multiple presentations, speeds and depth, the bass literally always hold here, I could see them jumping and hitting natural top water forage, I tried a buzz bait, a popper, a plopper, a spinner bait(varied speeds from a slow roll to burning it back), added a trailer to the spinner bait and buzz bait, tried a jointed minnow and a kvd shallow crank, I was gonna go to old reliable the senko, but I won’t lie it’s my least favorite method of catching fish and I had to be somewhere. i fished for 2 hours strait making multiple visuals on the bass. 3 rods for quick switches. This spot has never skunked me before that’s why I’m somewhat confused Also it’s a 450 acre impoundment, was fishing off the current from the dams in a shallow bay that’s a mix of weeds in the back gravel out front, usually early morning anything thrown on the edge of those weeds gets hit. The reason I asked about ruining your own spot, is I noticed after about let’s say 3 fish per lure NOTHING will hit it. I am not sure if bass have home spots, or if they kind of free roam, I’m worried if the bass “live there” I have spooked them. The lake is under unreal fishing pressure for the size, 100% public with lots of shore line open to anglers. The spot I found is actually rarely fished, because on a map there is no visual path, but if your a local one leads you right to the hot spot.

Is it possible to blow up your own spot? Like over fish it haha! I was pulling 14-20 inch bass every day for a week in this spot, I saw them jumping and hitting things on top water, just not lures. Any suggestions? Do I just keep buying lures they haven’t seen ?