IcatchDinks

You are a great angler, @ol'crickety. We bow before the presence of greatness.

This thread is named "victim support thread" but I think we're all just enabling and encouraging each other's addiction. I approve. You all make some mighty fine purchases.

@Pat Brown I had the same feeling! I got up about an hour later than you did, but going to bed early and getting up early is a new routine I'm trying to adapt to. Gives me time to fish in the morning before work and let's me spend my evenings with my family. Today was the first day trying it. Only got one good fish, but getting up early has given a pep to my step as I walk into work instead dragging myself in like I used to. Very nice fish!

Indeed. I'm always impressed that this tiny, mucky, scummy pond I fish can produce such solid fish. It was zero substantial cover aside from a few weeds and scum matts. And yet every year I pull out several bass over 16 inches. I watched another angler pull out a 22 incher! My largest is 18. Next time I'm out I'll try to get a picture of the pond to illustrate how small it is. The entire pond will fit in the picture. It gets crazy pressure, and yet in three years of fishing, the fish I've been catching just keep getting bigger.

@Zcoker when I first got into fishing a few years ago, I thought the tournament scene looked pretty cool. And then the more I looked into it, the more distasteful I found it. Competition fishing is something I want no part of. I don't go out on the water to compete with others. I go out to enjoy nature, enjoy the fish, hone my skills, find some peace, and commune with God in a very real way. I don't judge those who do competition angling. It's just not my thing. FFS anglers will definitely out fish me. Good on em. Hope they have fun. But as per the original post starting this thread, I'm here just for fishing. It's a completely different philosophy, and I just don't mesh with the electronics and gizmos.

Spent about 40 minutes before work this morning fishing a local pond. Got to watch an osprey hunting fish after he decided tangling with Mother and Father Goose over their goslings would be too much hassle. He nabbed a small bass before I got mine, but I eventually did catch a very nice 16 incher just before I had to leave.

Bank angler/river wader here: I wouldn't know what to do with a fish finder or electronic gizmo thingy if I had the manual for it. I just walk the shoreline and/or riverbed casting into spots that look fishy, bouncing lures off the bottom to find the depth, and returning to the spots that produce. On the rare occasion that I have a boat, I do the same from the water. I just look for cover, drop offs, current changes, weed beds, etc to ascertain where I think the fish are.

The final boss of pleasure boaters.

Is this where we show off our big shore caught bass? This is my biggest: a very skinny 18 inches long. I appreciate the love given to us bank anglers, @ol'crickety I think often I look at those who have boats with envy, but I've got a lot to grateful for, and part of that is not having to worry about storage, transportation, launching, and care of a boat. I can just walk up to the water and start fishing. By land or by sea (or lake, river, or stream) it seems we all find a way to land fish. And some of you guys manage to land some giants.

After further investigation, I think it is a River (or redfin) redhorse. Well, this guy was in rough shape. He didn't fight at all when I snagged him and when he swam away, he swam about five feet and lay down on his side on the bottom. Swam a few more feet and lay down again. And then I lost sight of him. Talk about bigger predators, I hooked the pike not four feet from where I last saw the redhorse.

I must do further research. Thanks for pointing this out, guys.

It was well over 11. Closer to twenty inches.

Not far at all. 30-40 min. I've fished it before, but most of my fishing trips happen before or after work for a couple hours. There are lots of great spots that I can access, but between the wife and kid and work, I just don't have the time. I'm sure as I get older and more established I'll have time for bigger, better trips.

I live in Michigan, and we have some great waters for fishing. Unfortunately, I don't live by them. I fish retention ponds, the parts of the Chippewa I can reach on foot, and a couple "farm" ponds. Pressure is massive. And several people I know of harvest the big bass they catch. All the ponds are muck on the bottom, scum on the top, and minimal cover. In the river you've got to deal with drunken caravans of tubers, and shopping carts and electric scooters said drunk college students dump in the river. But none of that really bothers me. Most of that is just the challenges of fishing my area. It's part of the game. The bad part is all the trash and litter people, especially my fellow anglers, leave in the water and on the banks. Old plastics, packaging, bird nests of string, and on and on. I try to pick up most of the stuff I see.

I measured him off camera. 30.5". Good eye.

PB pike! And a snagged "carp" that upon further inspection seems to actually be a redhorse. Which I didn't know was a thing.

Caught a carp, a tiny smallie, and a PB pike today. Pics of the carp and the pike and the full story of my day are posted as a status update on my profile page. If you don't like reading, pics of the pike and carp will be in the "Other Species Latest Pics Thread."

Brother, I'm in the same boat. I just gave up and kept fishing with the stuff that gets bites. Makes me feel like an inferior angler, but at least I'm landing fish.

For some reason I decided to try my luck at the most pressured pond in town and made an impromptu fishing buddy. A twelve year old kid named Hunter was there ahead of me, with a "Sporting Goods store that apparently BR thinks is a swear word but is really just short for Richard's" shopping bag of fishing gear he'd just bought with his birthday money and had no idea how to use. Nobody ever taught the little man about stranger danger, cuz he immediately approached me as I got out of my car and began peppering me with questions about fishing. I spent the better part of an hour showing him how to rig up and fish with the different baits he'd purchased. Gave him some jig heads and EWG hooks because he'd bought plastics but no appropriate hooks. He says he wants to start a fishing YouTube channel, but needs to "find all the good spots first." I was the only one to pull in a fish though. Hooked a tiny guy on one of my homemade cranks. Well, at least I know the little ones think my baits look edible. 😆

Got an hour of fishing in on Tuesday. It was overcast with a sporadic drizzling rain. Caught a nice bluegill and small largie.

Got an hour of fishing in on Tuesday. It was overcast with a sporadic drizzling rain. Caught a nice bluegill and small largie.

Well, you beat me to the top water bite. I'm still waiting for my first blowup. Congrats! It seems both our bass are still hanging shallow. I haven't caught a fish in more than three feet of water yet this year.

Love it! Congrats on a great catch, and thanks for a good read!

I just got around to reading your original post. I was just getting into fishing for the first time since I was a kid throwing crawlers for suckers when this thread was first started. Folks like you, @A-Jay, and honestly several others here, I still idolize as my fishing heros. Many of you are at a level of commitment that I just can't afford in my life at the moment: both finances and life commitments keep me from my fishing dreams. Not to mention the years y'all have spent on the water, learning from experience. I'm but a noob. But I love reading the wisdom of the Lip-Ripping Sages here on BR. Back in 2020, I was definitely in Stage 1. (In fact, I don't think I actually got started until 2021. Sometime thereabouts. COVID lockdowns blurred everything together.) Now I'm pretty much in stages 2 and 3. I wanna catch big bass, but I'm happy with lots of bass. Most days I don't achieve either of those goals. I'm left being content with what I've got. So I go ahead and skip on down to stage 5. I love bringing other people fishing: watching that smile you mentioned makes my day. Mostly it's my little siblings (I have 9 of them) that I bring to the local ponds and help them fish for bass. (Many of them are just as excited about the bluegill and pumpkinseed.) They love it, and the joy of watching a kid pull in a biggun, is honestly greater than if I coulda pulled one in myself. I'm still a bank fisherman. I dream of one day having a kayak. In many ways I'm still on phase 1. I'm at a point where I can identify with many of the phases in one way or another.

Congrats! That's the kind of day we all dream of having.