17 hours ago, hawgenvy said:

 Fishing was a struggle, just three small bass and a miniature peacock. A boat near us, though, landed a clown knifefish, quite an interesting creature.

 

 

If I were in Florida bass might be my second, third or even forth primary target. I would love to fish for clown knife again. I'm not sure if you can catch them with lure but I used to use live shrimp and minnow(4-5"). Look for log or stump in the water and wait to see if they come up to breath. They are a good fighter and jumper too. 

Pics from my 2 early bird tournaments the last week of October. Took first at both with my father taking a close 2nd in both.  All largies that Saturday (20+lbs) and 26.5lbs of Lake Onatrio smallmouth that Sunday.  I  NY!

Took my bait caster out and headed out into the rain and over cast.

Finally i have landed and caught a almost three pound bass on my white chatter bait and strike king rage swimmer swimbait as a trailer.

I was also told by Extreme Philly Fishing people open chatter baits in the store and steal the trailer that come with it and most people don't even know they do come with it "I didn't know and i didn't have one in mine so i guess someone stole mine in walmart"

Regardless it felt good to catch at least one on it.

 

No giants to see here, but some solid chunks that I'm pretty proud of. Been bank fishing a few new ponds, and this one particular one has been very stingy. It's clear water, very shallow and dishpan like, coverless, with grass growing over the bank edges. Turns out, that's where the bass like to just hang out, nose to the bank (literally) in just 4"-6" of water. If you walk fast or heavy, or get close, you get a splash of water at your feet as they spook and shoot straight to the center of the pond. Throw a heavy bait along the shoreline and splash the entry, they're out of there. Land more than 2 feet off the bank, they won't come out and get it. Too close to the bank, your line ends up over the grassy edge, bait spending half the time out of the water. Needless to say, this was a tough nut to crack, and catches have been meager, but I finally put the pieces together last night and managed over a dozen bass. Something special and satisfying when you finally make a good catch from a place that seems to have your number most days 

 

 

 

The last two look healthy and chubby, so the ponds must be doing well.

Interesting you bring that up. In this particular pond, about half the fish I catch appear to be severely deficient in this regard, while the other half look fine. You can kind of see that on the first picture. Several I caught I didn't bother with a pic because of their poor condition (big head, skinny body). One particular fish of above average size, I'll be surprised if he lives another week he was in such poor condition. The fact that they can successfully strike a lure suggests to me that the bass, per se, aren't the issue, but that there simply isn't enough food to go around for everyone, and only the strongest/healthiest are making a good living for themselves.

 

Two other ponds I spent time on were total opposites in this regard despite being connected together by a small inlet. One, the bass were fat as ticks, and strong as all get out. The other, 2/3rds were skinnier than they should be and obviously weren't getting enough food. Aspects like this are one of the reasons I like fishing new bodies of water. Each one is unique in some way, and ascertaining their differences is part of the fun of fishing, for me 

That pond might benefit from some harvest, or a food source that thrives better?

My last scheduled tournament of the season was last weekend, the FOBA Classic on Lake Gaston.  This lake has really changed over the past several years with the spotted bass population finally reaching 'tournament quality' size.  The LM fishing was pretty tough, so the majority of fish weighed in overall were spots, I'd guess at least 75%.  I was one of the few that got on a LM pattern and weighed 4 LM and 1 spot on the first day and then 2 LM and 3 spots on the second day.  Weighed 9-0 on day 1 and 11-12 on day 2, which was good enough for second place...But only 3oz behind the winner .

 

Only two patterns for me...Covering A LOT of shallow water with a spinnerbait for LM's and fishing a Vision 110 on points for spotted bass.  On day 2 I had to give up on the LM pattern after getting only 2 fish by noon, spent the rest of the day targeting spots, worked out OK but I wish I would have pulled the plug sooner - might have had time for 1 more cull .  Oh well, still fun and getting paid is never bad!  

 

 

Man those spots are some beautiful fish. Crazy colors/patterns! 

well done, love those spots brother

Well done Logan, and like you said a check is always a good thing! And that would happen to be a Mann’s Hank Parker “Classic” on the deck would it ?...

Caught this morning around 10:45. Hardly any bites rest of the day. 3.6lbs, short and stocky. T-rigged black/blue Yumdinger. Interesting dorsal, or lack thereof. 

 

 

I’d call him “Spike”.

Just now, J._Bricker said:

I’d call him “Spike”.

Side view looks like he’s got a nice scar across his back. Assuming that’s why the dorsal is abbreviated. 

 

3 hours ago, J._Bricker said:

Well done Logan, and like you said a check is always a good thing! And that would happen to be a Mann’s Hank Parker “Classic” on the deck would it ?...

It's actually a Hawg Caller, but it does look similar to the Mann's.  Thanks

Had a half hour to fish today between work and sunset, so I raced over to a local pond. The bass were going nuts all over the place chasing little fish.  I threw out a Menace grub and caught about ten 1-2 pounders in 15 minutes. I then tossed the grub to a wooden retaining wall and something big grabbed it, but I lost the fish on the hookset. I tossed to the same spot, and same result!  Third time I had him, and after a spirited fight -- he was pulling out drag on 17 pound fluoro  -- I landed, to my great surprise, this huge blue tilapia.  Must have been at least 5 pounds. I should have weighed it but it didn't occur to me at the time. The gash in its flank may have been from one of my prior hooksets. It is unusual for tilapia to bite a lure, so my guess is that the fish was defending a bed and not trying to eat it.

 

 

 

 

 

Haven't ever caught one that big, but like you said, the ones I've caught were serious fighters. 

Caught this one and a couple others and some stripers bank fishing after work. 1st stripers I'd caught. Burning a 1/4 oz yamamoto lipless in some kind of shallow water

22 hours ago, JustJames said:

Went out yesterday the same route I tried on Monday with @MTPandafor 5 hours and caught only 4 small bass? 2 on buzzbait and 2 dinks on wacky rig Senko.

Bass is active alright they are schooling but who know where. By the time I'm done I saw a big group of bass boiling up feeding on shad for a few minutes on the shallow side of skipper island(I was gonna fish that area but spent too much time on those dinks). Now my lake is 3 miles long, I don't think I'm gonna be able to find those school of bass unlike small pond that I use to fish where I can see bass chasing shad by the bank. Now i can say "Fall is suck for me" Anyway here is my small bass.

 

Haha that's awesome!  Glad you went back and got em.  Thanks for the invite and ride on your boat!  Was a fun time.  Till next time!

Nabbed a 12lb limit in 2 and a half hours this evening. Water temps ranged from  42-47. Blade bait, ned rig, and a slow rolled spinnerbait.

@everythingthatswims: That's how it's done, Good job my man.

Decided to fish the south (deeper ) end of the lake and caught 7 , mostly on zoom super flukes in watermelon seed and red shad. Also Picked 1 off on the ultravibe speed craw.

Braved the brutal cold this saturday in NY and was rewarded with my first smallmouth. Hit a jerkbait on the test cast lol. Chunky guy too. Brought my new scale with me but was too cold to open the package with frozen fingers. Caught a good size pickerel on the same jerkbait

 

when you have a 3 month old baby you don't see a lot of water....  when the wife says you should go fishing today YOU GO!  nevermind that it was cold and wet....  i was in heaven yesterday, had the whole lake to myself and couldn't have been happier.  also managed to land about 6 fish, all on the spinnerbait or s waver.  great day!

 

If that's your first smallmouth you may want to retire!