IcatchDinks

Haven't been fishing in about a week and a half. (That's not strictly true: I took some more of my siblings fishing last weekend, but I didn't catch anything as I spent most of my time helping them catch stuff.) Despite a late night last night, I got up at six and hit the pond before work. Managed to get several bass. Nothing big, but they were all fighters. Also, using a ultralight gear made the fights far more interesting. One fish had a dead eye, but his partial blindness didn't stop him from absolutely hammering my crank bait. Also caught a nice bluegill. He'll be in the Other Species thread. Felt good to catch fish again.

I don't watch pro fishing, but I watch YouTube. My grandpa takes the number one spot. He taught me the basics as a child and instilled an interest at an early age. NDYAKangler on YouTube. @A-Jay because he's a master at catching my favorite fish, the smallie, and a wealth of info. And @ol'cricketybecause she's just an inspiration and an absolute cheerleader for everyone here on the forums. (Also, I've never seen anyone do her kind of numbers.)

Not important at all. I usually rig it with the hook in the slot, but I've caught lots of fish without that slot too. The best "Senko" style worm (in my opinion) is of course Gary Yamamoto's, and those don't have slots at all. But on the Dinger, the slot is there, so I use it.

Mono FTW. I tell people I use mono because it's cheap and works. I don't tell them the real reason: I'm intimidated by the other types of line. 😆

This is wonderful, Katie! So stoked for you!

Beautiful fish, @T-Billy! I've only ever caught one musky. And it was tiny. (At least I think that's what this tiny guy is.) Didn't need no figure 8 to catch this river monster. He attacked a spoon about half his size on a straight retrieve.

I'm always happy to catch a lot of bass. I'm always looking for a new PB. As long as the bass aren't tiny dinks, I'm happy. So, somewhere near the middle of the QQ scale.

@Baitmaker, that looks very nice! Awesome work! And even with one hand it looks like it's got great action.

Took my little brothers fishing yesterday afternoon. They must have caught every bluegill in the pond. The eight year old caught a nice bass. (Not posting his picture with the fish here because he's 8 and not my kid. Lol) I nabbed two bass as well. One of them just over sixteen inches. @raggydoo, that is an awesome smallie! Congrats on the new PB!

I have found this to be the ticket for nearly every bait I use. I learned it when I was learning how to fish top water, but I've since started waiting to set the hook on nearly every lure. I seem to get a much better hook-up ratio nowadays.

Thanks! But if I were in Katie's world, I'd be pulling in 40+ bass a trip. Lol @JayMac89, I'm super stoked to hear about your success! It adds a little extra garnish that you were fishing better than the tournament anglers too. Lol. Thanks for sharing.

Had a great morning. As I was tying on my shoes at 6AM I wondered if getting up early was worth it. It is. Started out the day with a couple dinks that I didn't photograph. Then had something big absolutely HAMMER my crank bait. It ran for a few feet, my drag screaming. And then it came off. Nothing sudden. Didn't break. Just one second I had something massive on the line, the next my bait was cranking along like nothing ever happened. I was so mad. Then I went on a string of catches. Nothing massive, but I did finish the day with a beautiful 16 incher, which is about as big as I've ever landed out of this pond. Later today I'm gonna take my two little brothers back to this same pond for some worm N bobber fishing. Hoping they have as good a day as I did this morning. This bass I caught directly after that I lost that massive thing, hence my annoyed expression:

Honestly, the mist is one of my favorite parts of early morning fishing. It feels so ethereal and mysterious . Lol The picture doesn't do it justice.

Some days just kick your butt. Yesterday I could only grab about 45 minutes of fishing time at the pond before work, but spent half that time picking cottonwood fluff off my line and out of my reel. Managed one largie. Then this morning I spent about 2 hours wading the Chippewa. It was a beautiful morning with the mist rising off the river. Saw a bi-coloured squirrel in the parking lot, a turtle on the bottom of the river, innumerable birds of all sorts, but only one fish. Caught him on a T-rigged EFH wyrm. Had another one hit the whopper plopper, but I totally whiffed on the hook set. That's all the action I saw.

@NorthernBasser very nice fish! And your camera takes crystalline photos!

I always love a good sunset over the water photo. It's so beautiful when the surface is perfectly still and mirrors the sky to such a degree that without a frame of reference (in this instance your canoe), you wouldn't know which way is up or down. The treetops catching fire with the last rays of the sun's light. Sunset is always a magical moment. It reminds me of a line from a Rich Mullins song: "There's more that rises in the morning than the sun. And more that shines in the night than just the moon."

Love me some rebel lures.

I've got the attitude of Lou Gehrig and the career of Rusty Staub. I consider myself the luckiest man alive, and so far I have serviceable but average production.

A little pre-work pond fishing produced one tiny dink. But I caught the stupid thing three times. I refused to take his picture the first couple times, but after three attempts he finally got his photo taken and he finally left me alone. Saw very little action aside from him. Had a decent fish on the end of my line for a second, but he had sideswiped the bait and was barely hooked. A headshake freed him.

My wife (at that time my girlfriend) and I were at one of the many riverside parks in our town: a common date location for us. I spontaneously suggested I run to the local store and grab a fishing pole and some lures and we try our hand at fishing in the river. I don't know why, it just seemed like a cute date idea. I hadn't been fishing in 18 years. The last time was when my grandpa took me and my siblings fishing for suckers. But something about the idea enamored me. I grabbed a small 30$ pole and some spoons and we went back to the park. To my deep chagrin, my pretty little girlfriend had to remind me how to use a spinning rod, and, not knowing any better, we started fishing the worst place to fish in that whole stretch of river. I caught one fish there that day: a nice little smallie. I've never caught a fish there since. That next week my work fired me. I was stunned and flabbergasted. But now that I was in between jobs, I had a ton of time on my hands. And I had this brand new pole and nothing better to do. So I started fishing. Every day. Non stop. And maybe a month later, I had an incredible day of fishing in one spot. I caught fish after fish after fish, all from the same hole. I could hardly keep up with them. I lost count. And then a biggun hit. I don't know that any single fish changed my life. I think that even if this big one hadn't bit I'd still be just as avid an angler today. But if any fish did change me, it was this one. When it hit, I realized that these things got big. In the grand scheme of things, the fish was just a good solid smallmouth. Probably 16-17 inches. I didn't measure my fish back then, so he may still even be my smallmouth PB (17 inches is the biggest I've ever caught.) But everything before that had been 13 or under. Something about the weight of that fish on the other end of my line hooked me far deeper than I hooked it. I marveled at it. I would hold it in the water to make sure it stayed alive, then pull it out and hold it and marvel at it again. I probably handled him too much. But I was in awe. I finally let him swim away. Hopefully, he's swimming still. That was almost three years ago. I've been learning and honing my craft ever since.

I was driving home from my earlier adventures when I received a call from my wife: her brother and his wife were coming into town to do some shopping and were planning on doing some fishing afterwards and would we like to join them? Well, sure! So I landed three more bass to cap off the day and now I owe my wife something fierce for all the time she's granted me to chase my favorite hobby this weekend.

My brother in law, my brother, and I went fishing in the rowboat this morning. My brother in law slaughtered the crappie, I caught mostly small bass, although I did get my first top water catch of the year on the bone colored whopper plopper. (About dang time!) Then we took the kids fishing at the river behind my brother in law's house (the Flat River). The kids all got hooks into something. I caught several little smallies, my niece and nephew (bro-in-laws kids) both caught rock bass. And then my brother's five year old landed a super healthy 15" smallmouth using ultralight gear. We cooked and ate it. (Pls don't kill me, C&R only Crowd. It wasn't my decision.)

Whatever lure @A-Jay says I should have. My personal favorite is the Rebel Wee Craw in the Ditch Brown color. It works great for the shallow rivers I fish most often. (Chippewa, Flat, and Pine)