thediscochef

That equals my biggest bass of the year. Awesome! I went back out and caught a crappie on my new spinning rod, and one bass on my new st croix mojo. An awesome rod. Also the biggest bass I've seen at the cabelas pond decided to bite my ned rig today. That was neat. Good times!

I was wondering how you'd fared. Glad to hear it wasn't worse. I love that that's "little". In your neck of the woods it certainly is lol I'm of the opinion that any day spent catching is a good day. My only concern with catching so many small bass is that landed young bass may become finicky old bass. I'm not targeting them, it's just what's close enough to the bank.

Those Tac40s are nice. I have like 8 of them in various casting and spinning setups. I did away with brand loyalty today though, I broke my shimano clarus spinning rod this morning dragging a chatterbait through some weeds. It wasn't anything that should have broken the rod tip, but that's what happened. Oh well. My first non-tac40 or shimano rod is this St Croix Mojo Yak MF that will be paired with this well worn speed spool tournament pro. Gonna be using this for lighter weight swimbaits, chatterbait minimax, jerkbaits, wacky rig etc. I got the yak version for the shorter handle, Winn grip, and reinforced tip. Hoping this rod lasts me a bit longer than others have. I think catching the biggest bass I've seen in the Cabelas pond is probably a good omen. I also picked up a lews mach spinning rod. I liked the feel.

I use braid + copoly leader on some stuff, sufix siege on others. For various reasons. Lines are just tools and we have different tools for different tasks

I worked retail through my 20s. The general public is the worst

Continuing to catch little guys as the water temps continue to drop. 16 this morning, just caught the picture of this one. The size of fish is slowly increasing but I think we're still another few weeks off from better fishing. Wish it would rain. Need some of these coves with huge hydrilla beds to fill back up so I can stop touching it with the lures. Two guided trips next week, home water and Texoma. Should be fun. Getting warmed up for them this week the best I can lol

one of the few advantages to bank angling at state parks...nobody owns the water and if someone gets mad at you for fishing, they're wrong unless you started casting them down. It makes it much easier, much less entitlement to the water. Furthermore there's big bass all over the reservoirs down here, no need for a confrontation. It's not that serious.

that you openly and directly assume my ignorance on this matter is offensive. Do you really think I would fish daily without being tangibly invested in the health of my local waters and mindful of my impacts? Do you really go around questioning everyone so assumptively like this? Insufferable

? I mean I fish the same cove 3 days a week, I feel like I'd be seeing more dead or skinny bass if I was handling them wrong. The herons in the cove are doing more to control the population in one day than I will in five years. You could make your comment without giving me a notification about it but everyone makes choices I guess.

This is the idiot I'm intentionally not reading the yellow jacket stories for my own health. My favorite stinging insect is the cicada killer because they fly away.

I had a big dumb idiot water moccasin chase a swimbait out of a pond and onto my foot, striking my boot. We both ran. Lesson learned, stand back a few feet. Thank you boot, very cool!

Honestly there's times I'm thankful that gar are the only toothy fish I really have to worry about in my home waters, and nobody is going to give you heck unless its a trophy...God bless north texas

Yes, as a last-ditch effort to save a bass that has suffered barotrauma worse than it can self recover. For anglers who won't take the bass home (which is just as good as trying to save the fish imo), learning to fizz can slightly raise the survival odds of a fish who will certainly die from the swim bladder trauma. These are the deep fish that are suspended at 20-25ft in 40+ feet of water and released into hot surface water at the ramp. Bass caught deep in those conditions should be released immediately which creates a problem for livewell tournaments. Releasing a bloated fish into surface water this time of year is certain death. A skilled fizzer somewhere in the group would at least give the fish a better chance if things like fin clips don't work. Or just be prepared to take home dinner if you're fishing deep ?‍♂️?‍♂️ either way is fine

I get more upset with the amateur tournament anglers who don't know how to fizz big fish they caught in deep water. Also trash and shore anglers leaving huge lengths of line in the water. Kills me every time I break a lure off, it's just littering with extra steps. Injury from jaw holding is pretty rare, that's not something I'm going to say much about unless I'm showing a friend how to hold the fish. I hold them vertical for a selfie but am mindful of how far the mouth gets opened. I've not killed a bass yet so ?‍♂️?‍♂️?‍♂️

also happens to be the big fish of 2022 (5lb12oz) and a poor quality selfie but easily the prettiest fish I've had all year. My guitar player booked us a guide for the first week of october which is exciting. hoping to get a new PB either for the year or overall...we will see lol. Would need to break 7lb for a new LMB PB.

I've been on this man's boat, he takes his PFDs and safety systems very seriously. Moreso than some guides I have been out with. I had great appreciation for that and it made me feel very safe about maybe making a return, captain willing. I don't own a boat, but if I did, I would follow that example. I'm a little more lax with unpowered vessels but there's times of the year I wouldn't be caught without one period, even on what should be an easy outing. That water gets cold, even down here. Ray Roberts got to 47f this year and that's cold enough to rob your mobility as soon as you hit the water. PFD can be the difference in those conditions. I don't understand why people hate on them so hard.

so much of what I see on the internet at large is just thinly veiled product sales, so just about anything other than that is great IMO

It's still Dink Days around these parts, but it's been at least 5 days since I didn't catch a bass. I'm having fun. I like this picture for the drop of water coming off the tail ?

Replacement for anchovies on pizza? Please no

I managed to hook two of those that day, almost identically. Most of the days I pull shads are good days ?

For real though, Ray Roberts makes some really pretty bass. I've caught some up to 5lbs with this kind of marking. Great fishing lake once you find something they like.

I went to Whitney for stripers n wipers with my fishin buddy a week ago. Did 17 total fish; 14 stripers, 2 LMB, and 1 Wiper. I'm already trying to figure out when I can go next lol

I continue to stack dinks, nothing of size out here right now. Water's still consistently 80 degrees in most shallows by 9:30a. But on a cloudy day, or before then...it's game on. Did 15 black bass about this size on a sungill ned rig between 7:30am and 9:10am. Five of which came in the first 10-15 minutes on consecutive casts. I'm having fun, but looking forward to bigger fish.

I vary the six Midwest finesse retrieves but generally I'm hop n bounce or drag n shake. I use the tiny 1/15oz jigs. I haven't caught anything of size but I'm at least still catching, more than can be said for many right now where I'm fishing. Even managed some dinks at the sold out state park over the holiday.

We discovered the joys of rigging a fluke on a shroom head today. All dinks, mostly under 10", but 10 fish between 12 and 2 on a partly sunny August day is more than I expected. Now I'm fine tuning my finesse gear lmao