It's a good day. I'm having a good time.

It's been a complex year.  Early on I went 8 hours on the water, never had a bite, then found some warmer water and hit about 8 in an hour, with my personal best.  A few tough days in the spring with few fish but good fish, then could not find them in the summer.  Fall was spotty, tough mostly due to the wind, but a very good pike, and a great final day on St Clair with one that was within 3 oz of my personal best.  For me, it's all about smallies.  (and whatever else I can catch)  Didn't keep a single fish this year, but Costco has some nice Canadian walleyes now and then.

17 minutes ago, MickD said:

It's been a complex year.  Early on I went 8 hours on the water, never had a bite, then found some warmer water and hit about 8 in an hour, with my personal best.  A few tough days in the spring with few fish but good fish, then could not find them in the summer.  Fall was spotty, tough mostly due to the wind, but a very good pike, and a great final day on St Clair with one that was within 3 oz of my personal best.  For me, it's all about smallies.  (and whatever else I can catch)  Didn't keep a single fish this year, but Costco has some nice Canadian walleyes now and then.

Great year and neat collage 

went fishing today at the dam again in fergus falls mn. Caught me a muskie and a sucker.

 

Back in NC. Feels good to be home

9 minutes ago, LrgmouthShad said:

Back in NC. Feels good to be home

Now you can really let your toes out hahah

Had to get out after work this morning. Windy and in the low 50's when I walked out the door at work a little after 6am. Went home to get the boat and got to the ramp right at 7. I was hoping to get into some wipers but for some reason they haven't shown up this year. The bass were willing though and I kept my eyes on the shoreline for baits as I went along. Caught between 15-20 bass, mostly on a Ned but a few on my homemade compact spinnerbait also. Biggest was a 4.09 on the Ned. Found some baits along the way also. 

Yesterday it warmed up into the low 60's.  This is the largest of the day at 4-03 lb.  It hit a RES that I was casting across a creek channel. 

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. I am thankful for chunky bass who like a Ned rig… sight casted to her and got to watch her attack when I twitched it off the bottom. Only fish this AM but I will take a 2.5 pounder any day of the week. 

13 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said: 

Custom made A rig. ?

Caught This Lunker oct 8th, it only weighed 9 pounds, my PB but wished it had a meal so I would hit that 10 threshold, it should have weighed 10+ by all bass measuring charts 

20 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

You found 20 baits along the way?

Ah ha...the ol plant a section of chain link fence under water trick.

11 minutes ago, Chris Catignani said:

You found 20 baits along the way?

Ah ha...the ol plant a section of chain link fence under water trick.

I’m telling ya man, bluebasser finds more lures than I’ve ever seen. I think I’ve found about 12 lures in my life. Maybe. I’ve found a decent amount of trout flies in the mountains but the hooks are always rusted. You can really put new hooks on a fly! 
 

last year after some serious flooding I found a lure in a customers yard haha

1 hour ago, Chris Catignani said:

You found 20 baits along the way?

Ah ha...the ol plant a section of chain link fence under water trick.

That’s impressive. It’s much more likely that I would lose that many rather than finding that many.  ? 

2 hours ago, Chris Catignani said:

You found 20 baits along the way?

Ah ha...the ol plant a section of chain link fence under water trick.

I found 47 or 48 in a day once last year. My best day was over 100 baits from a heavily pressured lake I use to fish a lot. That was back when I had my 2 man and the whole bottom of it was covered with baits. I got checked by the park ranger that day and he was dumbfounded that I'd pulled that many baits from the lake. I fill shopping bags full of bobbers and donate them to kids fishing derbies also. 

I found a few at one of the irrigation ditches I fish .

 

I did not intend to post this here . I thought I was posting in the found lures thread .

 

Fished hard today to get 10. Most were on zoom super flukes.

Put the boat in for a few hours thanksgiving a.m. fished 9-1 caught 9, all on a jerkbait, with the biggest at 3-2. Figured it was worth another shot so i went back and fished for an hour before work this a.m. in a chilly rain.  While i can't cast to where i caught them yest. I hit a spot near the launch and got 3 more on the same jerkbait. Forgot to grab my scale but the best was probably around 3lbs. again.

Caught 5 today. Best was 5.28

On 11/24/2021 at 10:58 PM, Bluebasser86 said:

Had to get out after work this morning. Windy and in the low 50's when I walked out the door at work a little after 6am. Went home to get the boat and got to the ramp right at 7. I was hoping to get into some wipers but for some reason they haven't shown up this year. The bass were willing though and I kept my eyes on the shoreline for baits as I went along. Caught between 15-20 bass, mostly on a Ned but a few on my homemade compact spinnerbait also. Biggest was a 4.09 on the Ned. Found some baits along the way also. 

i would like to have the rock crawler back please, i remember losing it there.

I've caught some quality fish lately though my numbers have been way down. This one came from the same pond and shoreline location as one I posted last weekend. Thought it may be the same fish but could see some slight differences when I compared pics. 

 

edit: Just realized that top pic was one from earlier today, probably closer to three lbs. Six pounder may in fact be the same fish from last week.

23 minutes ago, The Bassman said:

I've caught some quality fish lately though my numbers have been way down. This one came from the same pond and shoreline location as one I posted last weekend. Thought it may be the same fish but could see some slight differences when I compared pics. 

Awesome, I bet that was fun!

I got one more big one today on my last day here in NC before going back to the cold, dark north. This one measured 21 1/4". Very slow retrieve with a senko weightless texas rigged. I used similar retrieve in the postspawn for big ones on the same pond. 

 

It's a pretty morning, a nice 2.25lb was the large of the morning. I love the coloration in this fish. Going to hit a pond this afternoon to see if I can get something there too.

I hope all yall had a great Thanksgiving and weekend 

Had a day today! We got to spend basically an entire day on the water. Took my buddy and his son out, tried the offshore spots although we thought water temps were still too high (56-58). Luckily we aren’t fish and they were in the winter spots ! We boated 5-6 nice ones, the youngster with the biggest at 21.5” (his new biggest bass). We also lost 3-4 fish in this spot including one fairly beastly one I brought up to the boat and my buddy grabbed the line and it jumped off. He felt worse than I did about it haha. We also ran way up river and caught 3 more small fish and one decent one fishing shallower on stumps. Tried offshore on the way back in but the wind was picking up after all day of slick calm so we called it.  Even a little yellow bass and spotted bass rode home with me for dinner