Mrs. Matstone

Way to go. Nice fish! ;D

Well I have made several attempts to do some fishing the past few days and was only successful in doing so a few times. I have not been able to take out my boat because I have been waiting on our new truck to arrive. Well it is not new but it is new to us. I was so excited to finally be able to hook up my boat and head to the river. Here is my boat.. I know it will make all of you jealous. ;D Don't laugh too hard it is mine, it is paid for and it floats. I mean really what else could a girl ask for. My excitement turned to disappointment when I finally arrived at the river and found that the river had rose up 6 feet and was the color of chocolate milk. :'( This is what I was looking at: Well against all logic I headed out anyway. I had not fished in so long I had to try. So I took the rangers warning into consideration and promised to be careful out there with only my trolling motor. I did not catch one fish. I will be the first to admit I was at a total loss for what to throw. It was really hard to fish these conditions It was still good to be on the water again. My next attempt at a fishing outing was yesterday morning. I had about 1 hour to kill before my husband had to leave for a meeting. I headed out to my favorite honeyhole and was glad I did. With my newest addiction being this rage tail shad it totally dictated what and where I was going to be fishing and to the slop I headed. I was then rewarded with this fish. It was my first fish of the day. ;D It was morning and hot as could be. I caught this guy in shallow water amongst alot of weeds. I caught him on the shad. I was hoping that the fish would be hanging out in all the slop because of the heat. I figured it would provide cover and since all of the little fish hang out in there it would provide a food source for the big guys as well. Thank god I was right. It was nice to catch him first thing in the morning. All was right in the world again and I was a happy girl. ;D This is what he weighed. I finally remembered to use the scale. Later on in the evening I headed out to a pond with my uncle. Just him and I and what a way to end the day. I was still using the shad and my uncle was trying it now too. He does not know much at all about freshwater fishing. I am trying to teach him. It is like the blind leading the blind but we do ok. By the end of the day at this pond we both had fish and our tally was in the double digits. My fingers are all tore up from bass and I cannot tell you how much I missed that. ;D Here is a pic of one of the fish. I did not take many pics. I was having too much fun fishing. My uncle: Almost forgot. Here are my girls. I finally got my 15 year old daughter to come with me on one of my fishing adventures. I did get her to cast a line and she finally caught her first smallmouth.. I cannot even begin to tell you what a proud mama I was. ;D

Congrats to you and your son. You must be very proud. I sure would be. ;D

Glad to see your back Avid! ;D

Catch, photo release in the hopes that possibly one day my daughter may catch the same thing. If I wanted to hang something on the wall I would probably get a replica made. I am not really interested in the 15 minutes of fame or $ from manufacturer I would be happy with having the opportunity to catch a nice big fat hawg and seeing it swim off.

Glad to see that you had such a great response with the shad. I have had alot of fun with this bait myself. I think it is funny you were fishing in your business attire too. ;D I have been guilty of that myself. A few times I have passed by a spot that I cannot seem to resist casting my line. I will admit it must look funny when I am tossing a line in a skirt and heels. ;D

Great write up and fish rondef. Thanks for sharing.

;D Here's a link to Matt's Woody. ;D ;D ;D http://www.mattlures.com/woodwaker.htm Very cool looking bait. I have to try one of these mattlures sometime soon. My husband has some but I never touch his fishing stuff. It would be a bad thing. > I cant wait to see the expression on his face when I ask him to buy me a woody.

Nice fish! Congratulations to you ;D

Great fish. Congratulations ;D As for the folks that were laughing, let them laugh... Now I am almost afraid to but I am gonna ask anyway... It Mattlures woody the name of the bait that you used? Quite honesty the title of the thread gave me a little chuckle.. I was a little apprehensive to click the link. lol ;D

Nice fish. Congrats

Great fish. Congratulations to you!

That is awesome.. I am sorry I did not see this sooner. Congrats on a great outing that you will remember for a long time. I hope you are blessed with many more days like that.

That is a good one.. I will have to remember that. ;D ;D I make honey do lists too but I am usually convincing my hubby to drop all of it to go fishing so we never seem to get anything done. ;D I said it before and I will say it again.. You want me to feel sorry for you when you just came back from ICAST and live and fish in Texas..I am NOT feeling guilty at all. ;D I have heard a few people say that now. I have never even tried the frogs yet. I do hope to soon but for now I am having too much fun with the shad. I found that the placement of your rod tip and the retrieval speed changes the action of the shad a bit and all seem to be good. My husband likes to keep his tip at 4 o'clock it really seems to make quite a splash.

I have been there and done that. You will catch him! In my case I spotted this nice on at a local lake that I fish and I went back a few different times and still saw him in the same general area. From then on it was me on the hunt... It was something like out of that movie "Grumpy old Men", where they hunt that big catfish for years. ;D Every day I was back there and my husband and a few of the old timers that fish there would laugh at me until one day I got him! I turned and said to them all "Who is laughing now guys!" ;D They were all shocked including the one old guy who told me there were no bass in this place. Guess what he was wrong.. ;D Keep going back.. YOu will get him!! Good luck

Well the past few days it has been hit and miss for me to get the chance to do any fishing but I did manage to steal a little bit of time for myself. I hit one of my favorite honeyholes as usual and I cannot seem to put down my new favorite toy The Rage Tail Shad. I am having so much fun with this thing. I am just loving all the slop on top of the water that I used to hate so much. I decided if you can't beat it join it and this bait does the trick really nicely. I discovered it is a little heavier than the stuff that I usually throw so now I can hit those huge weedbeds that I have been watching those fish flop around in for a while now. AWESOME! First day at my honeyhole my husband and I did not head out till after 4pm. We did not get the chance to stay that long but I must say topwater was the key that day. We hooked up with a number of fish I don't remember how many. I always loose track. My husband says he is gonna get me one of those counter things. (Every thing is a competition with him. Sheessh!!) Here is a pic of one of the fish I caught. Bad pic sorry, I was all the way across the lake from him. My next outing proved to be a good one too but the fishing has been tough. With temps in the 90's and bluebird skies I was sure that the fish were going to be down pretty deep but I still cannot seem to put down that shad. I am having too much fun fishing topwater. I am hopelessly addicted. Did manage a few more fish too. Here is one of the pics from that day. Last day but definitely not least it was the same type of day.. 90 degree temps and I imagine by now the water temps are about the same. The humidity is so thick you can cut it like a knife and like a fool I am out fishing. ( I am really starting to wonder about my own sanity) This day I forgot my water. oops! Did not want to tell my hubby this so I went all day without a drink. BIG NO! NO! At the end of the day I almost passed out, was drug off the lake by my husband who gave me a once over for failing to open my mouth and letting him know I forgot my water and suffered a mild case of heat exhaustion. BUT i DID MANAGE TO CATCH FISH! Here is a pic from that day.. I really hope you guys have had the chance to do some fishing too. Did I ever tell you that TOPWATER IS THE BEST!!!! ;D ;D

Sorry to hear about the loss of your personal best rondef. I do have a question though. What is a snakehead? I am assuming it is some type of fish but I was wondering why you don't like catching them.

Nice assortment of fish T-Rig! Congrats to you on a great couple of days.

Congrats to you. I love fishing plastics. I fish them almost exclusively. Sam has some great pointers too. I think your gonna love fishing plastics. ;D

Awesome video!

Welcome Back.

Hey now I remember where I first read about these. It was you, the one where you posted pics of you and your husband (I'm assuming?) fishing these. Thanks for posting that . Went back out to the my pond a little while this morning with it. Not much luck in open water but found that as soon as I'd get into any kind of brush or anything it would usually get an immediate strike. Too bad there's not really much brush like that around my pond, or lilly pads, I'd love to have some of those . I am glad to see you tried it and did so well. My favorite place to fish those things was in all the slop too. It was amazing. It seemed to drive the fish nuts. Looking forward to hearing about your next outing with the things. Congrats.

I recently tried the rage tail shad and I love them. I have been having a blast with them. I rigged mine up weightless and have been dragging them across the slop at some of my local honeyholes. I have been doing pretty well with them. Glad to see that you have had a great time with them too.

That is awesome. Glad to see you take your daughter fishing with you. Also glad to see that she does so well. lol I guess she is alot like her dad. ;D

Nice fish, great report and that bait looks awesome! Congrats on doing so well. Thanks for sharing.