thediscochef

Thanks lol it was my dad's, I keep a little of his old stuff on me. Some kinda luck charm or something. It's 50/50 like most luck charms. Today was dumb Great fishing weather. I kept getting pulled away from water for other things, though, against my will. Only two dinks. Oh and I also caught the largest living thing I've ever hooked. It was a very short fight, I was disappointed. Red Eye shads pack a wallop. Here I go respoolin again ?‍♂️?

more eyes on your bait means more bites on your line as far as I can tell

Thanks lol it was my dad's, I keep a little of his old stuff on me.

Managed one angry 2.5 and two squarebills before the lightning showed up. There was a drowning incident at the Ray Roberts beach today while I was at the pier, very sad. I hope we don't have any more of those for a long while; at least three people have gone under at RR in the last 12-14 months. I have been at the lake for two of them. I hate seeing the dive team rolling across the dam so, so much. PFDs please, everyone. I got a 19lb blue on a chatterbait micro. Didn't get a bass that day either. ?‍♂️

Good times ?

So in Texas we have Kentucky Spots, versus Alabama bass. I don't know that it's hurting the LMB fishing at Ray Roberts where I'm usually at, though I wouldn't be surprised if the competition for forage made for less finicky LMB. I would also add that I catch plenty of fat LMBs in the same place I catch spots. They're not going hungry unless something's wrong. None of the black bass I catch up here are native to this waterway. I do like the size potential of LMB, but I personally think that Spots are a more exciting fight pound-for-pound. I feel zero guilt about eating a Spotted Bass or handing it off, as they are a shorter lifespan fish than LMBs. I also strongly believe that LMB and Spots will interbreed depending on the reservoir and the general conditions. My biggest fish so far this year (5-14) actually looked like it may be one - a much more broken side stripe, and markings much like a Spotted Bass above the dark stripe. It had the mouth of an LMB but the connected dorsal and stripe of a spot. Fought like an LMB.

Also Lake Ray Roberts. 10:04pm, Christmas 2021

I plan to start gathering data for TPWD. It makes me insane, some of these guys have boats that cost more than I make in a year and they use them like complete boneheads. For shame. Anyway. Here's the fish I caught this morning. It was the biggest fish I saw at the state park this morning. Even from the guy livescoping the crowded fishing pier ? I think swimbaits are good Hooked into 6, landed 4, got pics of 2. Thankful for the rain and the beautiful weather, finally some easier bank conditions.

I've not been fishing nearly enough, but I managed this little guy on a lipless last night. The guys in the Tuesday Night Tournament at Ray Roberts Isle du Bois need to figure out how to stop killing fish at weigh in, I keep finding dead fish 3-5lbs after each of their tournaments. A solid chunk floating up on the boat ramp last night. Sickening. At least take it home and eat it. Literally anything other than that. The other photo is the best sight I've seen all summer.

Summer is for topwater And this pond is for dinks Send rain

Caught my first topwater fish of the year a few days ago at a pond I recently discovered. Might be one of the better public ponds in the area, especially when it rains. Also a nice 3.25 the other night at Ray Roberts. Have made a couple of trips to Whitney lately, seems like the bite starts at about 6:40 and ends abruptly at 8:20. But for that hour and 40, its game on if you can get on a school of stripers with a swimbait. We desperately need rain, Whitney is down 5+ feet from where I first saw it and a water emergency is in progress at Falcon Lake. Ray roberts actually has 8k acres higher surface area than Falcon does at the moment. Possum Kingdom has a fish kill that was either golden algae or runoff from putting out the fires. Many of the fisheries here are sustaining damage. Seasons can't change fast enough.

I take what I can get. The heat plus pressure on the reservoirs here make bank angling successfully a matter of persistence this time of year. Winter will be better. But not those kinds of numbers. Always jealous of those catch raters up there, but we do grow bigger bass down here. It's tradeoffs, always.

The rarest fish of them all lol

Thank you sir You caught some lookers that's for sure This longnose isn't quite the water body record for that spot, which is about 28lbs. I didn't get an exact weight, no proper equipment. I would estimate about 18-22lbs. She kept jumping, I was like "aww she thinks she's a bass" ?

This is a proper assessment in good taste; see below It's not a joke though - the kvdj300 I used in that picture had hooks wrapped around the snout - it wasn't actually hooked. I have also caught them on chatterbait with the hook coming up through the bottom jaw. I have come to assume longnose gar hookups as luck-based possibly more than any other species. But there are always ways to increase your percentages. Like using a jerkbait.

Stripers, Wipers, and Sandies, oh my! My love affair with lake whitney dam continues. I went down with one of my best buds on Thursday, we caught 8 stripers, 8 wipers, and three sandies total in the 45 minutes we had before the school moved into open water. A derby of sorts. Didn't matter what you threw, it was getting bit. I live for this right now. I've been trying to teach him to catch fish, he's been discouraged because conditions have been rough and it's been skunky at the local reservoirs. So I was determined to get him into a fish fight one way or another, this was the sure fire thing. We didn't catch much else after the sun came over the dam, just the one bright photo you see here. And it was 5 hours round trip of driving - but worth the time just to see the water boil with schooling bass. A golden hour indeed ??

this?

I have a theory about this, it's one of those things that I'm thinking about when I stare off into space while casting - the larger bass often use the suction displacement of opening their mouths to get faster prey in more reliably, right? So it would make sense that you would only feel the end of the inhale, whereas on a smaller fish maybe you feel the bait hitting jaws before it's fully eaten. Or maybe the smaller fish just doesn't have the power to simply eat the bait (or food that size) without using more of the swimming abilities. i think i need to go outside

See the pond I was at only liked tiny flash and crash...you get over a 2/0 hook and it'll never have anything on it. Lipless crank? forget about it. The only lure I've ever actually seen work there is the chatterbait micro now that I think about it. everyone else is either using larger lures or actual baits

naw they just forgot how to eat

We aren't so different, you and I. Lol. I started really catching bass last summer at a city pond that gets trout stocked in the winter, cats in the summer. So many people out there fishing, all of them using big creatures or swimbaits or crankbaits. Visibility in most spots is maaaaybe a foot. I started posting here and also fishing Lake Ray Roberts with seriousness about the time they started stocking trout and I was getting bored with constant 1-2lb bass. The only thing I DO miss was fishing with an audience lol for that muddy water I go "flash and crash", for pressured muddy water I go "tiny flash and crash". DFW public waters are heavily pressured, so it's usually the latter. I'd suggest a chatterbait micro or a chatterbait minimax 1/4oz. Almost always catches me something if there's something to be had. I usually go white and chartreuse but I've done well with black too.

Thanks! you as well. I see we both recently had "...is that PB?" moments

Got a dummy thicc 4.25 tonight. Probably the luckiest catch of my life, it came unhooked as I had it by the bank. She sat between two rocks in front of me, facing me, and I was able to gently put my net behind her and land her. Strike King RES keeps pulling solid fish. All my 4+lbs been on a 1/2oz RES for the last two months. Broke the 5lb average streak tonight but I'm still happy to catch a hard fighter like this. Took drag to a point I thought it might be a PB. Three other dinks, two LMB and one spot. It was only 100 degrees out today, felt great to get some relief from the 105+ Edited to add photo lol

Been real slow lately but I've also been fishing way less than normal. Just haven't had the motivation, life happened pretty hard in the last month. Despite this, I have been managing some good size fish when something does happen to bite. It's weird, I haven't caught much below or above five pounds in that spot, and I get them about every third trip out there. There's a tournament that releases bags there every Tuesday and that seems to be a better luck day. I wonder why. Lmao. Lol. Water temps are in the mid 80s right now and it's just slow unless you can get into deeper water (hard to do on foot). Even downsizing to match the small shads isn't really doing much for me. Eagerly awaiting December when water is back in the 60s and 70s. Got this lil 5.2 chunk last week

Having another dry spell, though I haven't been trying very hard. I've had a whole bunch of personal stuff happen and it's affected my fishing, both in frequency and in quality. Also it's been over 100 outside for 7 straight days which is surely not helping the shorebound angler. Despite this, here's a crappie I gave to a guy on the pier one night last week. I'm freshly single so I will have more water time when things cool off just a touch ?‍♂️?‍♂️