Fishlegs

He is still working to get another shot at one. I'd love to be there to help him when he gets it.

I caught this one last Friday. It helped me fulfill my fishing goal of catching a fish in every month of the year in 2023. It may seem like a small thing to the dedicated anglers of BR, but it's a first for me. 2023 was a blessed year in many ways. I'm thankful for the friends who helped me with this. One of which is BR's very own @roadwarrior. He helped me in several months this year. If you're reading...thank you too, David. 😊 PS - I don't hold roadwarrior responsible for any of the drum I caught...just the bass. 🤣

Sounds like a great day, and an exciting future. Congrats!

Wow! I'm with @TnRiver46. That's the kind day you never forget. Congrats on a great day! This fish looks like it ate a softball! 🥎

@T-Billy Unfortunately, it happens to us all. They're still scared because they heard you say these words as you were leaving...

You make the muskies think that too. When you break out the hat they know they're in trouble! 🤣

Unfortunately, I believe it was only a one day sale.

It should say 85DEC

I don't have precise weights, but here are my best 5 smallies of 2023. I'd be happy if this were it for the year, but I'm hopeful that I'll get more chances before the year is done.

Welcome!

@Sam That timeline is scientifically accurate. My time in the aimless wandering section of the graph is spent at the beef jerky counter. They have several varieties of jerky…and they give samples. Free beef jerky balances out the “no squeegee” problem for me. 😂 Be prepared for there to be 2,000 people in there no matter what hour of the day it is. It’s crazy.

Good to hear that there's news to be thankful for on Thanksgiving! Stay strong!

Got a couple of nice smallmouth yesterday. On the fish in the second picture. I felt a hard pull on the line, but when I pulled back it didn't budge. I turned to my partner and said, "I'm hung up", and pointed my rod directly at the snag to let it break off. As I was waiting for it to break the "snag" started running hard to the left. I kind of freaked out. About the time I got myself under control the fish launched out of the water like a rocket. I got a good look at it, and my heart started racing again. I was afraid that we were not going get it, but after several hard dives at the boat she was in the net. My partner got a couple nice ones as well. What a day.

Caught my first bowfin. It looked like it had a friendly smile on it's face...until it opened its mouth.

It can get pretty big in places for sure. I wish I’d taken a picture of the parade of yachts that passed through during the day. It literally made it feel like we were in the ocean at times. I assume they were all heading to the Tenn-Tom, and then down to the Gulf for the winter.

Friday morning the temperature was in the mid 30s. For a southerner that's cold for this time of year. The day started with a dink to get the skunk out of the boat. As the day went on it warmed up in the 70s, and the fishing warmed up too. My last fish (below) was my best of the day. We caught 4 this size or larger. My partner caught the other three big ones. We ended up catching 12 or 13 in all. It was an excellent day.

Unless the worm is purple, or it’s a day that ends with a “y”, right?

Wow!

Looks like it was a very good year.

You could try something like this https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Gamakatsu_Swivel_Shot_G-Finesse_Drop_Shot_Hook_3pk/descpage-GFDS.html

Beautiful fish!

Just tell her it’s a reusable shopping bag because you’re trying to help cut down on plastic bag use. 😉

The talk of the end of the fishing season from the folks from up north makes me a little sad. I hate losing half of the country in this thread. I got to fish yesterday. The air temp was in the upper 70s, and the water temp was in the mid 70s. I don't mean this as bragging, but the weather is just starting to get good for those of us down south. The only problem we had was the 25 mph wind we had at times during the day. Other than that, it was a great day. We caught them with TX rig worms, and wacky rig worms. We caught them with lipless crankbaits, but most were caught on a spinnerbait. My friend whose boat we were in had to take a call. He told me that I had to get up front and run the trolling motor while he was on the call if I wanted to keep fishing. Not owning a boat, I'm accustomed to being the back seater so I'm not used to running the trolling motor in 25 mph winds. Let me just say...it gave me a new appreciation for you guys in the front of the boat, and a cramp in my leg this morning. 🤣 We managed to boat 16 today. 12 largemouth, 2 spots, 1 white bass, and 1 yellow bass. We didn't catch anything big, but it was a beautiful day where we caught at least 1 fish at every spot we went to. We caught fish on a point, in the back of a slough, in grass, under a bridge, a laydown, but most of our fish came off of docks. The coolest catch of the day was my friend got a double on a rattle trap.

If you have shad in the lake I'd go with shad/white colors. It works great for fall since that's what the fish are usually gorging themselves on.