Yesterday's fish of 874 & 1/2 cast

6 hours ago, GreenPig said:

Yesterday's fish of 874 & 1/2 cast

Bucca Shad?   Nice fish.   You love throwing some big baits, get great results too

I fished a new lake this morning. Deep enough for trout, but considering I was chucking a Whopper Plopper and wacky worm, I caught no trout. See the first pic of the cliff. Now imagine that slope extending into the water. My map showed it was 40 feet deep about ten yards from shore. I caught fish in three places: the inlet, the outlet, and a point. I only caught 17 fish, but some of them were big for me, in the 17" to 19" range. See the bass with the big belly, the sixth photo down? I photographed her twice because she was so nice, so the seventh pic is the same fish on the board. I also included two short fish at the bottom so you could see that they were chunky too. No fishing for at least three days due to cold nights. I don't like being in a canoe in my shorts when it's in the thirties. 

8 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

I fished a new lake this morning. Deep enough for trout, but considering I was chucking a Whopper Plopper and wacky worm, I caught no trout. See the first pic of the cliff. Now imagine that slope extending into the water. My map showed it was 40 feet deep about ten yards from shore. I caught fish in three places: the inlet, the outlet, and a point. I only caught 17 fish, but some of them were big for me, in the 17" to 19" range. See the bass with the big belly, the sixth photo down? I photographed her twice because she was so nice, so the seventh pic is the same fish on the board. I also included two short fish at the bottom so you could see that they were chunky too. No fishing for at least three days due to cold nights. I don't like being in a canoe in my shorts when its in the thirties. 

Nice ones as always. Do you dangle night crawlers off all the hook points on your whopper plopper? I’m just noticing they make a lot of appearances in the pictures 

17 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

I fished a new lake this morning. Deep enough for trout, but considering I was chucking a Whopper Plopper and wacky worm, I caught no trout. See the first pic of the cliff. Now imagine that slope extending into the water. My map showed it was 40 feet deep about ten yards from shore. I caught fish in three places: the inlet, the outlet, and a point. I only caught 17 fish, but some of them were big for me, in the 17" to 19" range. See the bass with the big belly, the sixth photo down? I photographed her twice because she was so nice, so the seventh pic is the same fish on the board. I also included two short fish at the bottom so you could see that they were chunky too. No fishing for at least three days due to cold nights. I don't like being in a canoe in my shorts when its in the thirties. 

SHE SAYS ONLY 17 ?

 

You so spoiled lol, beautiful fat fish!  Beautiful lake as well!     There is a certain inherit magic a lake, pond, bog, river that doesn't get pressured by humans.    

 

Great report, and get some rest......after all, your season technically ended when you called it before catching hundreds more quality fish ?

9 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Nice ones as always. Do you dangle night crawlers off all the hook points on your whopper plopper? I’m just noticing they make a lot of appearances in the pictures 

She's just ripping off Hank Hill ??

 

edited.....look up the Hank Hill fishing video, don't want to get in trouble lol 

14 hours ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

I can say I know you'll love big swimbait fishing

Careful now. You may end up picking up trail plastics in order to fund a burgeoning swim bait addiction.?

 

My bud from the other night hit 2 spots last night.

 

Lil Buddy wake.

Tiny Klash

Side Hustle Garage Bullycat wake. Yes, a catfish wake bait.

 

 

2 minutes ago, PhishLI said:

Careful now. You may end up picking up trail plastics in order to fund a burgeoning swim bait addiction.?

 

My bud from the other night hit 2 spots last night.

 

Lil Buddy wake.

Tiny Klash

Side Hustle Garage Bullycat wake. Yes, a catfish wake bait.

 

 

That catfish one is crazy cool!!!   Beautiful deep rich colored fish as well.   Those are some pigs. 

Alex, I had a tradesman at my house yesterday and we started talking fishing. That conversation went for about an hour. He showed me fish pics. I showed him fish pics. He was stunned at the number of bass I catch, but then he showed me a photo of his boat. Gorgeous boat. Big outboard.

 

And I said, "That's your handicap."

 

The outlet for this morning's pond, with a waterfall at the end, would not permit a big boat. Too many big rocks just under the surface. Too many weeds. 

 

The inlet was the same, for when the weeds weren't on the surface, they were just under it.

 

"But my boat is so comfy," he said.

 

And he's right. And a canoe isn't comfy, relatively. 

 

To be frank, I'm a former writer for Canoe & Kayak magazine, so I'm happy in a canoe, but I'm even happier that they let me cast to bass that the guys with big boats can't reach. However, there were times this morning when I felt like the pond was designed by a miniature golf designer. They only trap that wasn't present was a little windmill. At one point, my line arced over a tree branch and when the lure hit the water, a bass hit it. There were even floating beaver logs. 

13 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

That catfish one is crazy cool!!!

And this KGB crappie is cool too, and xxxxx is cool, and on and on it goes! Next thing you know...

 

13 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

At one point, my line arced over a tree branch and when the lure hit the water, a bass hit it.

That's called "The dirty dangle".

Just now, PhishLI said:

And this KGB crappie is cool too, and xxxxx is cool, and on and on it goes! Next thing you know...

 

For sure, these are the coolest lures imho.  It's easy enough to become a Crankbait collector, big swimbaits seems like they should come with a Surgeon's General warning ?

1 minute ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

big swimbaits seems like they should come with a Surgeon's General warning ?

Yup, and then there's an entire SB subculture.

On 10/25/2022 at 5:00 PM, ol'crickety said:

On Sunday, I wrote that the "Early bird gets the bass."

 

That was not true at all today. I drove to a pond I love, which is really a river with a dam that turned it into a bog. Unfortunately, there were two cars there with homeless people in them. Considering it was dark and they were parked in a gully and I was alone, I left. If T-Billy or Alex or Eric or any of you had my six, I would have stayed and launched, but none of you were there. Sigh.

 

So, I went to another pond and launched in the dark. I caught a fish on my fifth cast with a Whopper Plopper, but over the next 2.5 hours, I could only catch nine more with no pattern whatsoever. There was a gob of lures in the bottom of my canoe that I tried without much success, which was weird, for the conditions were perfect: 56 degrees at 6:00 a.m., no wind, foggy, and occasional drizzle.

 

Then it all changed. It's like someone dropped a goofy roofie into the water, for the bass were suddenly giddy. Slap happy. Not trying to eat my Whopper Plopper, but beat my Whopper Plopper. I caught 17 of them in the next 1.5 hours, but lost at least that many. They put on some air shows too and pulled like terriers. It was like a Bruce Ward Batman episode: Wam! Blam! KaPow!

 

The photos start with a couple of the pond. Then the first fish in the dark. Then some of the 27 I caught. Again, there were no dinks, like Sunday. Weird, huh? Don't the little ones have to fatten up too for the winter? 

 

If Maine bass were a candy bar, they wouldn't be the Snickers. They'd be the Chunky, short and thick. 

 

Phish, I don't own a single jointed swimbait, but seeing the fish you catch with them, I'm going to have one next spring, for sure.

 

Beautiful bass, Alex. I've never fished with an Alabama rig, but I wanna. I think I would catch two or three bass at once with one up here. 

Your like the energizer bunny. Keep catching.. ??

On 10/26/2022 at 12:12 PM, ol'crickety said:

Alex, how do you do ^this^?

When the bait pauses and you throw a little slack into the line it will continue around if it glides good. You can kind of see the cadence on how to do it in this video I took last Sunday.

The first fish I had follow it in this video I really made the bait 180 on the fish but I was drifting at it too fast and I think my shadow spooked it. 

 

2 minutes ago, Bluebasser86 said:

You can kind of see the cadence on how to do it in this video I took last Sunday.

ALL net. No rim! Awesome boat flip!

28 minutes ago, Bluebasser86 said:

When the bait pauses and you throw a little slack into the line it will continue around if it glides good. You can kind of see the cadence on how to do it in this video I took last Sunday.

The first fish I had follow it in this video I really made the bait 180 on the fish but I was drifting at it too fast and I think my shadow spooked it. 

 

HAHAHAHA....the doggies got me.   I only saw the one in the last video I watched of yours.

 

What good puppers

7 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

HAHAHAHA....the doggies got me.   I only saw the one in the last video I watched of yours.

 

What good puppers

Yeah mine would have attacked the fish, then each other, then me. And probably ate the lure and crapped out the hooks 

5 hours ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Bucca Shad?   Nice fish.   You love throwing some big baits, get great results too

That's only a medium sized 7". I do enjoy the bigger than average fish. Caught these two before I came to my senses and swapped. 

2 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

When the bait pauses and you throw a little slack into the line it will continue around if it glides good. You can kind of see the cadence on how to do it in this video I took last Sunday.

The first fish I had follow it in this video I really made the bait 180 on the fish but I was drifting at it too fast and I think my shadow spooked it. 

 

Thanks, Blue. I had misassumed that you worked a swimbait with your rod like you do most lures. I LOVED musky fishing, but it was the size of the lures that led me to quit. Is it hard on your body to throw the big swimbaits?

When the big lakes around here are stingy the creek never disappoints.

 

7 fish in 2 hours, 5 of them keepers. Although we might be playing fast and loose with the word "keeper" here...

 

4 on the drop shot, 2 on the Vision 110, and 1 on the jig (3/8oz Dobyns Extreme "Craw Daddy" football jig + Flappin' Hog)

 

1 hour ago, ol'crickety said:

Thanks, Blue. I had misassumed that you worked a swimbait with your rod like you do most lures. I LOVED musky fishing, but it was the size of the lures that led me to quit. Is it hard on your body to throw the big swimbaits?

It's not easy but not as taxing as muskie fishing. I make a lot of shorter cast with swimbaits for bass instead of bombing cast like with muskie fishing and they don't have near the resistance or require as much effort to work them in most cases. 

This BD Shad really seems to produce.   Last couple weeks have been really tough as we're stuck in a holding pattern....water fell nicely from 85 to 65 before that, but has stalled out in the mid 60s.

 

This bait beats the skunk like a ned rig or roboworm lol.   

 

Every fish has hit the bait like a freight train.     This one was somewhere in that 3-4lb range.  

2 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

Thanks, Blue. I had misassumed that you worked a swimbait with your rod like you do most lures. I LOVED musky fishing, but it was the size of the lures that led me to quit. Is it hard on your body to throw the big swimbaits?

Yes they are hard on your body......4 days of throwing either an A Rig or 5"+ hard swimbait has my shoulder barking something fierce.     

 

It's a new rod, so I'm hoping I chill out.    I've been throwing them for most of my sessions, if I would mix in other stuff I'm sure it would be all good.   

 

That's a great point though, they are a pain to chunk.  

55 minutes ago, Bluebasser86 said:

It's not easy but not as taxing as muskie fishing. I make a lot of shorter cast with swimbaits for bass instead of bombing cast like with muskie fishing and they don't have near the resistance or require as much effort to work them in most cases. 

Yeah I'm done bomb casting these baits for a minute ?

16 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

This BD Shad really seems to produce.   Last couple weeks have been really tough as we're stuck in a holding pattern....water fell nicely from 85 to 65 before that, but has stalled out in the mid 60s.

 

This bait beats the skunk like a ned rig or roboworm lol.   

 

Every fish has hit the bait like a freight train.     This one was somewhere in that 3-4lb range.  

Yes they are hard on your body......4 days of throwing either an A Rig or 5"+ hard swimbait has my shoulder barking something fierce.     

 

It's a new rod, so I'm hoping I chill out.    I've been throwing them for most of my sessions, if I would mix in other stuff I'm sure it would be all good.   

 

That's a great point though, they are a pain to chunk.  

Yeah I'm done bomb casting these baits for a minute ?

I always take a Fluke or Spinnerbait to cast while giving my body a little break.

Just now, GreenPig said:

I always take a Fluke or Spinnerbait to cast while giving my body a little break.

Dang out of emotions, but that sounds like the ticket.   Balance it out with some finesse stuff. 

At it again this afternoon. They were biting anything I threw. Perfect weather- Mostly cloudy, temps in the 70s, Windy at times but perfect for fishing the home lake.

Started out with the baby brush hog, then the speed worm, then a culprit, then a ol monster. Caught 10 , but lost that many again. They were tight to the bank and I lost several after they got into brushpiles.