T-Billy

Finally made it down to lake #2 this morning. Launched at about 01:00. Figgered I better go catch some bass to maintain my membership here. ? The muskie addiction has been getting the better of me lately. The plan was to chatterbait some weedbeds that have been good to me over the years. That changed in a hurry. They NUKED that place. I haven't been there since June. Whole lake is baren of weeds except for pads in the upper end, and a little patch of pondweed here and there. So I decided plan B would be chasing the shadows cast by that big blue moon overhead. I ran down to mid lake and got on some dark chunk rock banks. It was on from the git-go. I had a pair of 2.5# chunks within ten minutes, one LM one SM, and so it went until daylight. Chatterbait the whole time. I caught a pile of em, and there were quality fish up on that shallow rock. Average was around 2#, and my best five would go right about 17#. Mixed bag, about 3/4 SM. Best two pictured below. I also lost a really good smalljaws boatside. Heck of a fun night. 3.69# My kicker. 21 1/4" and 5.67#. My new all time #3 SM, and this fish will bump my all time best 5 smallies up over the 28# mark to 28.24#. Tomorrow's dinner bit a little after daylight. Picked up a few more LM after daylight, pitching cattails, biggest was just shy of 3#. Called it quits on the bass and went chasing muskie for a few hours to finish out the trip. Zero luck with that. Back to lake #1 chasing muskie with the wife in the morning. I'd rather go back down chasing those big smallies in the wee hours, but I think she might have the muskie bug worse than me, so that's what we'll do. Lol.

Y'all who think fluoro is less visible ever compare it to mono side by side? The difference is negligible. Fish see them both. The density difference and it's effect on bait action can certainly be a factor in some conditions though for sure.

I'll go ahead and mark this as the solution. ??

Agree 100% Agree with this also. If you're going to eat them right away, the cold water fillets will be firmer, but no difference in taste.

On my belt. Getting a Glock wet won't hurt it a bit. Pretty tuff to make one rust. You can buy carry/duty ammo with sealed primers and case mouths.

Happy birthday @ol'crickety!!!

Lightning, 20mph+ wind and ice are the only things that keep me off the water.

Yeah....... Not in the waters I fish. I had a muskie get my chatterbait and 8" leader the other night. No point buying an expensive finely tuned swimbait that's just going to get mangled or bit off.

No need with modern carbon disks IMO. I don't even bother in the off season, and I've never had an issue.

I'm with A-Jay on this one. Heavy Moderate or Mod Fast is the way to go for chatterbaits. I like the Ark Invoker Pro 7'4" H MF so well I bought four of them. After fishing chatterbaits on at least a dozen different rods over several years, this one stood out as the clear winner.

Fur lined plaid, and white mesh with a big orange T are the only colors required. Kinda like black worms and green punkin beavers. No need to overcomplicate things. ?

This, and perch too if you have them. I always run into big schools of perch around the remaining weeds close to the break into deep water in the fall. The bays are an early/mid fall deal for me. Once the turnover happens, it's all about the main lake basins.

Very vice. Congrats brother. Good to see you getting some time to get out and decompress a bit.

We came close to doubling up, and it was with the mid 30's fish we both lost. She had one hit on the 8 just as I had made a cast. As I was burning my bait back in so I could man the net, hers came off. So, I burned mine back in and got hammered in the first turn of the 8 by a different fish. Similar size, but different color. It came unbuttoned too. How sweet would that have been if we coulda put them both in the net? Wouldn't have been a lot of fun dealing with the aftermath though!!! Those 30 something's are the worst to deal with. High strung and just big and strong enough to hurt ya.

Once in awhile...

So... The wife and I had an enjoyable morning. ? Didn't have enough room to fit all the pics, but we caught 6 between 33" and 37", a 29" , and the 46" kicker in the bottom photo, plus we each lost a mid 30's at boatside. All in just over four hours!!! Only a couple lazy followers. They were chewin!!!

Blame me all you want, I don't mind. Good luck brother. You'll have all fall to heal up.

No rap, no bro country. I'm good with about everything else. It just depends on my mood. Last week I happened across 40's junction on XM. Now I get where my grandpa was coming from. Some good stuff from that era. My work day starts out listening to Pastor Jack Hibbs on my ride to my first well, then I'll bounce between Dwight Yoakam's channel, Willie's roadhouse, outlaw country, 50's gold, 60's gold, classic rewind, classic vinyl, Ozzy's boneyard....

Go get'm tiger!!! Make sure you share those pics with us too.

Been a minute since I checked in here but, y'all are in my prayers every day. Good to see Lynn is on the mend. I hope you get to see your son soon.

Nice fish A-jay!!! Congrats!!! I did the exact opposite!!! LOL. First I got my newly built mag blade chatterbait bit off, along with my 8" wire leader, then I lost a mid 30's that hit my .22 Short on the 8. It came off while I was trying to wrangle the net. That was my morning, had to bail early and go see the optometrist for some new specs. The good news is that big chatterbait got SMOKED from behind, knocking several feet of slack in my line. I think it's gonna be a winner. I had a 4.8 Keitech Fat with the paddle cut off on it for a trailer. It's not big enough. I just ordered a 6" Do-It ripper mold. I'm a big fan of the 3.5 Ripper on my bass chatterbaits. Hopefully the 6 works as well on the muskie baits. It should be a winner on the center wire of my A-Rigs this fall for sure. Now that I know that big blade will work, I'm off to the garage to build some more.

I generally start shallow and move out from there if needed. Early spring being the main exception.

4/0 VMC flippin hook. Not the HD, the lighter wire ones. Snelled on 20# or 30# braid.

So.....uh......hmm..... Nevermind. Nice smalljaws, congrats!!! ?