FivePoundBluegill

Monster fish

Alright guys today I tried swimbaits. Bought a pack of the 2 inch storm sunfish patterned swimbaits where you get 3 in a pack for about $4.50. These were the baits that were recommended to me earlyer in the thread. The big lake by my house that has a good amount of large bass over 5 pounds isnt open on mondays because its one of those saturday, sunday and wendsday lakes. For this reason I tried my local pond which is practically in my backyard with the swimbaits. Ther are a very limited number of places you can throw a swimbait in this pond since there are lots of reeds a bait can get stuck and lost in. However I still had a pretty good three hours of fishing throwing just the storm swimbaits. I caught a 2.5 pounder, a 2 pounder, and a 1.5 pounder. Yes I only caught 3 fish in three hours but none of them were the 6-8 inch dinks I often pull out. So id say the swimbaits worked. Also for the first hour and a half I was throwing them I caught nothing. Only had one fish try to take the bait. The last hour and a half when it was cooling down was when I got the three bass. The 2.5 pounder and the 1 pounder were both caught within the last 20 minutes when the sun was setting. It is clear the swimbaits work much better in the evening. This weekend im going to go to my larger local lake that has many large bass and try out these baits. Thanks for the help guys.

Why do so many people not use a landing net while fishing. Especially when bass fishing and chose to lip the fish instead? Does useing a landing net make you less of a man or something? I use a landing net when I fish for anything wether its bass, trout, catfish, carp, crappie, or any other kind of fish. Its so much easyer than lipping the fish and getting your hands cut up by sandpaper like fish teath or putting your hand into a mouth full of trebble hooks and getting stabbed by a hook. Yeah I understand the material of the net isnt good for the fishs skin but I take the fish out of the net as soon as I have him out of the water. Also I noticed many fishermen use nets for practically any other species but bass.... Why is this? Just wanted to know?

I just checked out the storm wild eye swimbaits.... They look very nice. http://www.thornebros.com/muskie/baits/swimbaits/Swimbaits_storm.html Hard to believe you can get three of them for about $5. Im going to pick a pack up next time I go to a shop that sells fishing tackle if I can find them. Thanks guys.

Was going to say the same thing. Am a big fan of the wildeye swimbaits. Catch decent size bass on even the small ones... I think im going to check these things out if I can find them. Thanks guys

JuniorFisherJJ2008 is right I think. I often throw 6 inch roboworms and power worms and they are pretty consistant. Practically only bait that seems to work in the dead of winter. However I catch lots of small fish of around 1 pound on them. The small fish just tear them up.

-Agreed One of the lakes I fish has quite a few bass that are probably double didgits swimming. I have seen them just not caught them. That lake also has carp and catfish over 10 pounds which I have caught before. It is a very good fishing lake for how small it is. Yeah I tried useing senkos once for like 45 mins without a hit. Maybe I wasnt working them right......I was working them as I would a plastic worm. Is this how your supposed to work them?

Actually man I have been doing that. When I fish my two local lakes I know where the structure such as deep drop offs are and fish them often. It seems I get bigger fish in those areas as well. Well most of my larger fish have come at big drop off spots. Although I did get my two biggest fish in shallow water. I like fishing structure. When I go to fish a new lake or pond or one I do not fish often I always have an eye out for structure.

Im not actually looking to catch just 10 pound bass. That is like...impossible to do. I just want to bring up the size of my average fish. Yeah il check out these bass patterned lures though

I dont think they would be good. I think i just got lucky with a small aggressive bass that wasnt thinking.

I would love to have a trip like that.

I might have you all beat....and my picture is by far the most funny

Yeah man I have heard good things about swimbaits. Thing is they are very expensive. Every one I have seen is at least $10. That is realy expensive for just one lure. I would also be very angry If i lost it to a snag or a fish takeing it down into tough weeds or something. I work at Vons and dont earn much money so buying those lures would be a problem for me. I have heard very good things about the Castaic(cant spell) bluegill lure though. Also their 8 inch trout lure is suppoed to be great too but would not work for me since there are absolutely no trout in my local lakes and Id only be able to use it the couple times of year I go to a lake thats stocked with trout though.

I just wanted to ask you guys some advice on how to catch more lunkers and less dinks. I am pretty good at bass fishing and seem to catch a large number of largemouths every time I go out. The thing is I catch so many small fish and hardly ever get a fish over 5 pounds. In my lifetime I have only caught 4 largemouths over 7 pounds and I have never been able to get one over 9 pounds. It is a problem me and all my fishing friends seem to have. Today I went out fishing and it was an extriem example of this problem. I was out fishing for about 4 hours and got one good size fish of about 3 pounds(shown in picture), one fish that was probably about a pound and a half, and about 7-8 dinks that were about 8 inches long. I usually fish from the side of the lake since I do not own a boat. I also usually throw 6 inch plastic worms, bass assassins, and about 3-5 inch rapallas. I also throw things like rattle traps and other hard lures. Thing is when I try throwing larger lures and baits I do not seem to catch as many fish and the ones I do catch arnt monsters. One day I went out to my local lake and threw a large "Spittin Image" Lure for about 3 hours and only caught one fish of around 2.5 pounds. I also tried senkos which are meant to catch large fish. I put the senko on threw it for about 45 mins without catching anything. Also the problem is I just cant seem to get the big largemouths. I have caught many big freshwater fish of other species that are over 10 pounds such as catfish and carp. But no monster bass. Just wanted to ask some advice.

Sorry I didnt know there was already a thread like this...Im new to the forums

Well im new to these forums and would like to know. I havent had realy any experiance catching realy strange fish. The strangest thing I ever caught was the large Koi carp in my picture. Im sure some of you have some interesting catches you would like to share though.

Nice... SO someone else has caught large blueill and sunfish on bass lures too. I remember catching the biggest bluegill of my life on a rapalla. He was probably around 1 pound. Iv also hit big bluegill with rooster tails and small poppers.

It realy depends on situations. Sometimes I only bring one rod and a couple lures or plastics. Some days i bring both rods and have ne rigged for plastics one with a lure.

My funnyest memory I have of fishing was when I caught a one pound bass on a gummy worm. Am I the only person who has ever caught a fish on a gummy worm? One day I was fishing with a couple friends and we brought some lunch with us. My friend brough some gummy worms. We thought wouldent it be funny if we could catch a fish on one. So I got a gummy worm and rigged it as I would a regular worm. It was spawning time for bass and threw it at a nest which a small male bass was on. He hit the gummy worm the second time I threw it at the nest. We were laughing so hard. It has got to be the funnyest moment in my fishing experiance. What is your funnyest fishing memory?

About a 9 inch rainbow trout

I once caught a catfish on Carne Assada meat. I also have caught them on bread, bacon, cheese, worms, and practically any kind of meat. Iv even caught one on a rattletrap while fishing for bass and another on a spinnerbait fishing for bass.