It seems I catch some of my best colored fish out of cold water every year, but then some will be very washed out as well.

On 11/26/2016 at 8:09 PM, everythingthatswims said:

Alabama rig bite was good today

This is a great screen shot .You can see the mass of " I presume shad" moving , trying to avoid the bass .  Now what do you think is on the far left ? Bass on the bottom or cover ?

Caught a nice chunk today. Also a PB. 

 

On ‎12‎/‎10‎/‎2016 at 10:00 AM, scaleface said:

This is a great screen shot .You can see the mass of " I presume shad" moving , trying to avoid the bass .  Now what do you think is on the far left ? Bass on the bottom or cover ?

I think it's more baitfish. This lake has a pretty barren bottom.

Only had time for a few casts and caught my first carp. I had no idea how to handle this fish. It was much too large to mouth grip, and I wasn't going to use my pliers. Left him in the water until he calmed down and I could dislodge my lure.

For future reference, how am I supposed to handle these fish?

Handle them very carefully, they can be pretty wild. They have sharp fin rays that can stick you pretty bad. I usually try to get my hand under the gill flap (not the gill rakers)

I tried to retrieve my lure numerous times before he finally settled down long enough to get my crankbait out without fear of taking a treble to the hand. 

Noted on the actual handling of it. When I got him to the surface, I saw a very sharp dorsal protruding from the water. I think I'll just continue dislodging them from the water, should they want to hit a bass lure again. 

Is this even considered a "decent" sized carp? 

I usually just put my thumb in their mouth and my other fingers under the gill plate, but you can just grab under the gill plate as well.

That's actually a smallmouth buffalo, not a carp. They look similar but buffalo are suckers, while carp are in the minnow family. The world record is listed at just over 82 pounds. I enjoy bowfishing for them and even though that may not be a big one, I know from experience how hard one that size fights. 

This is great information, thanks! I thought I had a good fish, but only 70 pounds shy of a world record. 14lb fluoro got him in. Was an adventure for sure. 

I snagged one that looked to be around 30lbs the other day on a medium action rod with 12lb line. The only fish I have seen behave like that one did is honestly a sailfish. That thing dumped 75 yards off my reel in seconds and was going completely airborne every 10 or so yards. Came unbuttoned but I didn't mind. Kind of makes me want to target them now, I had heard about how hard they fight but that was astonishing.

I have yet to catch a buffalo, but I do carp fish occasionally.  Biggest one yet weighed 38 pounds, caught her on the ned rig while bass fishing.  It was spawning and full of eggs, so it was less energetic than a smaller carp, but it still put up an impressive fight on a medium lite rod.

On 12/13/2016 at 9:36 AM, everythingthatswims said:

I snagged one that looked to be around 30lbs the other day on a medium action rod with 12lb line. The only fish I have seen behave like that one did is honestly a sailfish. That thing dumped 75 yards off my reel in seconds and was going completely airborne every 10 or so yards. Came unbuttoned but I didn't mind. Kind of makes me want to target them now, I had heard about how hard they fight but that was astonishing.

Black Buffalo are a nuisance at one of the power plant lakes. They pile into the outlet in the washout where I like to target wipers with spoons. Most days I end up snagging more of them on my spoons than I catch wipers. I've landed a few over 30 pounds, but most of them are in the 8-12 pound range. It's pretty wild when I get one that decides to start jumping, and they are crazy fast for a fish that look like they'd be slow moving, bottom feeders. Occasionally I'll catch one with the spoon completely in their mouth to the point they had to be trying to eat it. 

Yep that is definitely the fish I hooked

Got my butt handed to me today. Weather was doable and the next two days will not be so I spent the day on a local reservoir. Only bite I had was this 2.5 I caught on a shad rap, so I did avoid the skunk. Rain dropped the water temps into the low 40s. Should have gone to the magic A-rig lake again!

Guess the weight of this fish.

 

Headed to the lake where I caught all the A-rig fish in November. Water is down to 44 degrees now, and the past two days here in VA did not get above freezing, with nights in the teens, so I'm sure the fish were affected by the drop in temps. Lots of fish nipping at the rig, but I did put 4 bass in the kayak with me. I am hoping to head back out there later in the week once conditions stabilize, maybe those fish that were bumping the rig will be eating it by then. Off to the power plant lake tomorrow!

Fished this morning before work. Air temp was 45, water temp probably in the 50s. Pretty darn cold for Socal, there was even frost on the grass in the shade. Fished textbook winter stuff. Steeper bank with quick access to deep water fished the Finesse jig and reins craw.

 

 

My Christmas Pig. 6 pounds, 3 oz. Caught at sunset today from the bank on a Livetarget Trap

Caught 2 Christmas bass today before dinner on the jig again, sure is a fun bite. 

 

@hawgenvy if that's a livetarget lure then I have the same trap . And it has caught me a nice fish as well. Apparently it works nice all around . I don't own many because of the price (and because other ones work ) , but no doubt they work. Nice one. !

Yep, it's a Livetarget Golden Shiner, and it has been a great lure for me in the winter and spring.  I always change out the hooks. The lures are not cheap but they are durable.  After many hours of use, superficial tooth marks are the only damage.

These did not come from the 70 degree nuclear water, had to switch things up today and fish in cold water like the rest of the world has to

Caught a couple little guys dragging/dead sticking a jig in a pond yesterday. The best method was honestly to drag the jig about a foot and then do something on my phone for a while, then drag it a little more. They wanted it SLOW!

Yesterday on speed shad

Today on red eye shad

Got out the first time since the baby was born. The fish were not very nice but we did catch a couplegood ones. I had some baits I've been working on to test out and all our fish came on those so that was a nice bonus. My buddy had big fish with a thick 20" fish that went 5 1/4.

great fish guys. Keep them coming!