Fishlegs

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.

Yesterday was a frustrating day so I needed to unwind after work. I headed to the bank even though it was sprinkling rain, and I had less than an hour before dark. I really wanted to try out the double fluke rig that roadwarrior used once when we were fishing last fall. Yesterday was my first time to try it, but it will definitely not be the last. I got it rigged up, and made a cast. I had two different colors tied on. White in the front, and baby bass in the back. I learned quickly that it's not the easiest rig to cast. However, on the second cast I hit the spot I was aiming for, and to my surprise I caught the little largemouth in the picture below. It hit the white fluke on the front. I don't know if it was the color or location that made it hit the one it hit, but it's always fun to catch fish on a new technique. I appreciate @roadwarrior introducing the idea, and giving me setup tips. Soon after I caught that one it started raining harder so I got under the boat cover on the dock I was fishing on. I didn't have enough room to cast the double fluke rig under there so I tied on a watermelon senko. On the second cast I got another little largemouth. It was about the same size as the one I caught on the fluke. I hung around in hopes of fishing more, but the rain stayed steady until it was dark. As I waited I tied on a black & blue jig. I knew I needed to make two more casts even if it was dark. After all, the second cast pattern was obvious. I tossed the jig in the water, expecting nothing, but this time the hit came on the first cast. The smallmouth hit the jig as soon as it hit the bottom. I was wet, but I was happy. It was a nice way to end a frustrating day. I started not to post pictures, but dinks have been getting some love lately. I'm also glad it was dark by the time I took the smallmouth picture. Let's just say I am trying to avoid any run-ins with the BR haircut police. ?

Congrats on a great year @ol'crickety!

Wonderful news! Hopefully things continue on this positive trajectory! We're pulling for y'all!

@T-Billy

Congratulations! I always enjoy your reports, and watching your videos. I also like how the awards are shaped like the state. That's cool.

For real. I've just about fallen in the water multiple times from this. Sounds like someone dropping a bomb in the water.

I can catch rocks with any lure. Nobody taught me how. It's just a natural skill I possess. ?

Great article @ol'crickety! Made me feel like I was there.

Congratulations! I didn't fish much for a long time after my kids were born. I was too busy reading books, playing games, hanging tire swings, putting toys together, learning how to ride a bike, coaching ball teams, going to music recitals, etc. They're older now so I get to fish more. I love to fish, but I wouldn't trade a minute of the time I've had with my kids. My (unsolicited) advice is to fish if you can, but don't miss the kid stuff. Seeing them experience the joys of life, and making memories with them has been better than catching a PB...at least it has been for me. Congratulations, again!

I think you're going to like those trick worms @ol'crickety. They dart & dance through the water so nicely. I use both kinds of hooks, but I prefer the offset round bend for trick worms. I prefer the EWGs for thicker plastic lures. Good luck! No surprise that @Glenn has a good video about trick worms that you might enjoy. https://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-videos/trick-worm-floating-worm.html

I got to fish for the first time in almost a month on Friday. We were pretty pumped because this time of year has given us some pretty fantastic days. We hit the lake excited about topwater blowups, and catching fish cast after cast. We spent the first three hours of the day going to all of our favorite fall spots without seeing a single shad feeding frenzy, a single school of fish, or getting a single bite. My buddy turned around and asked, "What do we do now?" I thought for a minute, and told him that we should explore new water since our favorite spots were not producing. That's what we did. We only saw one shad feeding frenzy all day, which turned out to be white bass...sigh. But then a stroke of luck turned the day around. My friend was quickly reeling in at the end of a cast, and a fish hit his lure. Then on his next cast he tried cranking the reel as fast as he could turn the handle, and caught another one. It was on then! Turns out that we were fishing too slow. In spots neither of us had ever fished before we ended up catching 10. Eight of the ten were caught on a lipless crank burned as fast as we could move them. I caught one spotted bass, and the rest were cookie cutter largemouth. Nothing big, but the adjustments turned a frustrating morning into a decent afternoon. The picture below shows a cove we found where the path of a storm passed through back in the spring. Obviously that's not an easy spot for a lipless so we switched to soft plastics. We had no luck until I remembered that everything we were catching them on earlier in the day was using very fast moving bait. I decided to try the heaviest worm weight I had in my bag and boom! I picked up a couple more in the laydowns due to the faster fall rate. I had never heard of fall rate, and the difference it can make until I joined BassResource so thanks to y'all for that tip!

Those mean little fish are the ones that grow up to be the beasts we all love.