thediscochef

I caught a stinky 2.6lbs bass. There was a nice crappie and a smaller bass too. Lost a white bass and a decent lmb. Also lost three hardbaits. I had a good time.

I heard I could post photos of dinky bass here so I'm doing just that

Didn't have a lot of time and the weather was meh but I still got a nice little spotted bass. I'm jonesing for a big fish again, even after the big longnose gar I posted in the other species thread...

I'm only 30, but I haven't been kind to my body until lately. I'm definitely feeling it. Lost 80lbs a few years back, fishing the bank helps with exercise. Lately I've had some lower back/hip trouble that's kept me from fishing on a few occasions. I also have a bad knee and arthritis in the hands that can be brutal if I don't take days off from the baitcaster. I've found spinning tackle with a large handle knob to help with the hands on bad days. Years of playing upright bass with poor technique did the hands, weight did the knee. It all kinda seems to get worse if I don't exercise. This is gonna be a painful body in 20 years. Speaking of which it's time to go for a hike at the lake.

Sorry I hadn't followed up on this lately - been out fishing some other spots along with some back pain. We just got a heavy rain at the start of the week, most of the northside lakes are up a solid two feet from where they were last week. Hoping that stays up a bit, I like my water at 100% capacity

She's been Big Wendy out this way too, but I don't typically tap out until we get to 37mph sustained. When it's blowing like that it's a great time to chuck a red eye shad or a jerkbait. It's always a great time to chuck a jerkbait though. I love you, jerkbait. How many times can I say jerkbait? I fish it how I say it in more ways than one Anyway I do best in 5-10 but I'll toss around in 25 if I have to Nothing stops this train Nothing except wind over 37mph I think they said this was (so far) the windiest month in Dallas/Fort Worth since 1996, and the windiest April since 1961 I'd also say this all changes in a boat. I will handle weather in a boat but if I have a choice I want glassy water. Yesterday was the first true 5-10 I can remember having in probably a month or more

they could at least send you a nifty hat or something

Not my first bycatch of the year but by far the most notable. Good times. I was not equipped for gar fishing today. Ate a KVDJ300 in sexy shad. Neat

As stated above, typically I go by what is in the water historically. We don't really have Alabamas where I'm at, it's all spotties afaik. They don't get very big, lake record here is like 4lbs.

It's all over the place honestly. It mostly depends on how much life I'm seeing; if there's a ton of fish around and I'm still not getting bit...let's find what will get bit. But if the fish are slow and scattered then there's no guarantee that even 5 fish will see my lure in an hour and I will throw the same plug for hours if I feel like it; this is how I landed my best fishes of the year in 2022 so far, as well as my Christmas PB.

Got five today, two LMB and three spots. This was the "big" of the bunch, probably 1 to 1.5lbs. Not bad for a bright, sunny, calm day between 3pm and 5pm. Lake is up about two feet from some rain earlier in the week. The rest of my day was absolute dumpster-quality. But at least I caught some fishes. It's a good day.

Managed to get a nice hour in before the weather started rolling. As it did, I got the fish I came for, this 3.5lbs lmb. Anything over 3lbs is a good time. I think jerkbaits are good.

Nothing to write home about today, but I'm going to anyway. This was the only landed fish of decent size, about 1.75-2.25 estimated. Didn't feel like messing with the scale, didn't seem worth it. I took a day trip down to Lake Whitney, as one does, in hopes of a killer Wiper/Striper day but conditions did not cooperate and neither did the fish. I did catch a small striper and a small LMB though. I also had four really cool experiences: - the fish pictured chased probably four different jerkbaits before following through on the strike finally. The water was clear enough that I watched the fish come up and look at the bait very closely several times. Like at least five times. Eventually in that same spot it finally bit. It was cool to watch the strike happen. You don't get to see that very often from such close range (less than 12ft rodtip-to-lure). - a pretty sizable Spotted Gar chased my lure a few times but never bit which is fine by me. Those are such pretty fish, it's a treat to see one without having to deal with teeth. Whitney is full of them lakewide. - a 3ish foot longnose gar made it into my net before spitting my Vision 110 and hopping out of the net, which was woefully inadequate for a gar. I was trying to get its back half with the net and the front half with my lure which is always dangerous with a flopping gar. I was just happy to get my 110 back and not have to deal with teeth. It was also confidence inspiring as I managed that on 12# copolymer line. - a man oddly reminiscent of a shorter Roland Martin caught a 10-15lbs carp on shrimp and bacon at one spot I tried. I got to take his picture for him which was a cool moment. I was only at that spot for maybe 20 minutes. It was a good, relaxing day. Whitney never lets me down with cool experiences. Looking forward to going back already but it's Possum Kingdom up next...these Brazos lakes have been very kind

It ain't much but it's honest fish

I live 20 minutes from Lake Ray Roberts so it's tough for me to want to deviate from that, considering the nearest lake with a state park is on the other side of the metroplex. I will absolutely fish lakes without state parks, but I like the way the TPWD facilities are built - there's almost always a big pile of boulders for me to play with instead of that beachy nonsense. If I can go to a state park I will choose that over private parks any day. The nearest ones outside ray roberts are Joe Pool, Mineral Wells, and Texhoma. These are all roughly an hour to an hour and a half away. I have not made the trek to Texhoma in a while, it is on the list. A little further out is Cleburne, Purtis Creek, Tawakoni, Possum Kingdom, and Whitney. These are closer to 1.5-3 hours away. Y'all know Whitney and I have a thing for each other, I go there any time I can. I've honestly gotten a little comfy at Ray Bobs...I need to branch out. It's just tough when you feel like you have as good a spot as any. But those poor bass need a break from my harassment, I think.

That monkey is always around with a fix... The first rod I ever broke was actually on a fish...a very fast and light action low-end store brand rod on what I estimate to be a double digit flathead. It was early in my solo fishing days. I was trying to high stick it up onto the bank like a dingus. My rod tip broke off, it chomped my line, and took off. I felt worse about the light wire hook being left in its cheek than anything else. Cats handle that better than bass do but I still hate that it happened. I learned several lessons from that fish

Above suggestion is good, the southern access points at Lake Grapevine are not particularly fishing-friendly. I went to Lakeside Park and Meadowmere Park, this morning did not go to plan so I didn't take time to check out the topography and access points like I wanted to. Let's just say that I'm sure there's probably fish around there...but the gradient is so slow in both of those parks that you're sure to snap off some lures as I did today. I would not recommend either place. The only half decent spot I found to retrieve a lure was the Meadowmere Park Pavilion boat ramp. The one adjacent to it doesn't allow fishing within 100 feet of the ramp or pier. First time I've seen one of those signs. I'll visit the lake again on the north shore soon. I'm just pumped to see some local discussions, we don't get that a ton on this forum lol

I personally believe that golf spectators should be allowed to act like all other sports spectators. Like, yes, what those guys do is already impressive. I want to see them play it with some guy in a richard nixon mask squeezing 10 rubber ducks with a belt on the fairway. If basketball players can make free throws with 20k people yelling at them...I'm sure a golfer can learn to handle an air horn also i don't play golf

and I thought I was the dink king...I catch a ton of dinks but none that small!!

For a number of reasons I believe I am maxed out on rods at the moment, I really should slow up my spending a bit until my back heals completely and I can start working again. We're fishing on nice, easy, flat banks for the time being. I've been able to get a handful of the rods for less than half their original release price. I have like eight or nine of them total. I'm also not 100% certain these are being discontinued it's just...the stock levels and price cuts at D/FW stores would seem to pretty overtly imply that they are on the way out. The stuff I buy doesn't seem to be getting replaced and they're now $80 instead of the $120 they were when released. If they are indeed being discontinued, I hope they retain whoever designed the rods...I'd buy em a beer if I ever met em

So being shorebound really cuts down on how much I can really prep, as there's only so much lake I have available. I generally need about an hour to fully go through the process of mapping, researching, and prepping. Fish like to hang around stuff (as said above) so I just cast at stuff until something bites, usually. All spots I fish are chosen based on topography and usable shore. Sometimes I get lucky and I can actually see baitfish or topwater action and that helps. I use navionics and google maps a ton when scoping out new spots, as it saves me the hassle and lost baits of physically scouting each location. There are places I don't even mess with because I won't be able to use my preferred baits due to shallow depths. Saves some access fees too. I have very rarely been skunked on new water when I follow my basic four steps - Scout Access, Prepare Tackle, Arrive Alive, and Adapt to Survive. The last part just means "never be afraid to try something or to catch unintended species". Crappies, Stripers, and Blue cats are all tons of fun and I have spots for each that I discovered by searching for LMB areas. If I'm catching I'm usually in a good mood. I wrote a really long thing about how I do each of those steps, but that seems like a little much and feels like I'm on Dunning-Krueger's Mount Stupid, in the state of Confidence. That said, I've always had success with those in-depth methods on larger reservoirs or places with widespread shore access. Power plant lakes and places with limited access have caused me problems on the shore.

For real...I want a pond like that pond...

I've already done this exact thing in the last 6 months, it absolutely crossed my mind. The first one was me shaking hydrilla off the lure...lure bounced up into the rod with force and straight up broke a foot off the tip. I told them exactly what happened, and they gave me a new one without any hassle at all. The folks at the local Academy know me pretty well by now, and are pretty good with that sort of thing. It's a rod series that is being discontinued so I'm sure they wouldn't have minded moving the old stock out and I'd absolutely love to have another one. I generally would not have thought twice about making a good size corporation pay for my fishing rod, but I will always remember the white lie I told to good employees to get a second free rod. I go there enough that I would like to have the employees on my side if something really did come defective and I actually needed help. A good employee that likes you is invaluable as a customer of most businesses. I ended up buying a new one through gritted teeth and had a half decent day of fishing afterward so not all bad.

Didn't make it by today...had to stay closer to home for some surprise family stuff. We will have a cold front tonight which will affect things tomorrow, but that's now the plan

I had wondered if there was a way to turn this into a 5'6" mhf lol I may do that, it's a good rod.