9 hours ago, T-Billy said:

Great Blue Heron.

I love herons, such loud hilarious birds. 

 

Nice morning out at the lake, a crisp 34 degrees when I got there. Six LMB today, this dink being the big one. They really liked the falling red eye shad today.

Can these storms please be over with so I can fish?

 

Went out to one of my favorite spots after the storm blew through and lightning was ~20 miles away and moving out, thought I'd get into a decent post-storm bite to break in the new jerkbait combo. Instead I made a handful of casts and got run out by a lightning strike just a few miles away from a wonderful surprise storm that wasn't on the radar when I left. You'd think it was summer with how these storms have been lately. I had two fish on before I got run out, but they came off right at the bank. Not used to throwing these jerkbaits on mono, it will take some adjustment on my part.

 

Was worried I was going to get my first skunk for 2022, decided to walk to the canal out back and managed this one tiny ~11" guy. It ain't much but it's no skunk, at least, and first fish on the new combo. 2022 SLX A 6'10" MXF paired with a SLX MGL 151HG spooled with 12lb Big Game. Too early to tell, but rod definitely feels lighter and better balanced than the previous model, and holy moly that MGL is a massive upgrade over the standard SLX reels. I was bombing that 3/8 oz Rapala Shadow Rap Shad with no weight transfer into a hefty wind and getting the same distance as I get with my standard SLX throwing 1/2 oz jerkbaits with a weight transfer in no wind.

 

Still no big fall girls, yet. Couple over 3lb but still on the hunt for Big Momma.

I managed to catch 6 nubbins (dinks) today.  Once I get acclimated to winter it takes quite a bit to get me cold.  I was COLD today.  It was 41 degrees with 15 mph wind, 25 mph gusts.   

 

So, a weather story, kinda.   Decades ago I was at Huntsville for a series of 4th of July races.  It was Alabama in July.  No shade and no wind.  There was an old man who had 2 sons that raced.  He was cool.....I always enjoyed talking to him.  He reminded me of my Grandfather.   I was with my car in the staging lanes near him.  I said "It sure it hot isn't Mr Carr".   He said "Sometime when you're cold think about the time you were at Huntsville talking to Tommy".     I pretty much forgot about that.  Fast forward a few months.  It was October, I was at a series of races at Bowling Green.  (Ky)   It was probably 45, with the wind blowing.  Not really cold, but the first cold I'd seen since summer.   Mr Carr was near me in the staging lanes.  I said "It sure is cold isn't Mr Carr".    He said "Yep, it was nice when we were talking at Huntsville wasn't it".    I had forgot about the Huntsville conversation, but now everytime I'm hot or cold I think about Mr Carr.    

Last club tourney before the snowball fundraiser. 29 degrees at launch and even snowed a bit. Never got above 35 degrees all day but the water was 49°. Finished 4th with 8.3lbs. Could’ve had a lot more and won easily if we hadn’t lost about 15 fish ?. It’s a bad theme the last few tourneys. I am consistently on winning fish so I’m confident wins will start coming again. Not too concerned I fish these to get a break from class ?. Anyway it was a blast and finally got to fish with my friend who I consider the best boater on the team. We’re fishing together on Geist on December 18th which will be as cold as this one. 

19 minutes ago, JWall14 said:

Last club tourney before the snowball fundraiser. 29 degrees at launch and even snowed a bit. Never got above 35 degrees all day but the water was 49°. Finished 4th with 8.3lbs. Could’ve had a lot more and won easily if we hadn’t lost about 15 fish ?. It’s a bad theme the last few tourneys. I am consistently on winning fish so I’m confident wins will start coming again. Not too concerned I fish these to get a break from class ?. Anyway it was a blast and finally got to fish with my friend who I consider the best boater on the team. We’re fishing together on Geist on December 18th which will be as cold as this one. 

 

LMB will always be my first love, but my goodness look how gorgeous those smallies are! You northern guys are pushing me closer and closer to taking a trip up there to try targeting them (but when it's warmer ??).

17 minutes ago, JWall14 said:

Last club tourney before the snowball fundraiser. 29 degrees at launch and even snowed a bit. Never got above 35 degrees all day but the water was 49°. Finished 4th with 8.3lbs. Could’ve had a lot more and won easily if we hadn’t lost about 15 fish ?. It’s a bad theme the last few tourneys. I am consistently on winning fish so I’m confident wins will start coming again. Not too concerned I fish these to get a break from class ?. Anyway it was a blast and finally got to fish with my friend who I consider the best boater on the team. We’re fishing together on Geist on December 18th which will be as cold as this one. 

Makes me crazy jelly knowing that highschools and colleges have Bass fishing teams, and you can even get a scholarship to my Alma Matta Auburn for Bass fishing.    

 

Great job, beautiful fish, and never forget to stop and enjoy this period of your life.   I guess now I've got to begrudgingly pull for the Boilermakers unless they play my Tigers in March next year.   

 

Like you said, if your losing fish, the most important thing is that you can find them.   You'll refine your techniques and equipment in due time and those fish will be boated.   My Chatterbait journey was exactly like this.    I could find the fish with chatterbaits, but just lost way too many.  Then I got a dedicated setup for them, and everything changed.  

Went out about 1 pm and it was cold and windy, you can see snow on the higher peaks in the background
I tried to fish the main channel but I couldn’t hack it, maybe just the first blast of cold and I wasn’t used to it. The same weather will probably feel warm in late February.

 

I found some calmer waters up against a rock wall. Just a short pitch from the bank, my boat was sitting in 50 feet.

I missed 4 in a row and finally caught two. Then missed some more, they were chomping and carrying it away fast . Water temp was still 62 and I think they were pretty active 

41 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

 

 

 

(nice fish!)

On 11/12/2022 at 7:01 PM, Woody B said:

Caught 11 today.  8 spots and 3 largemouth.   Didn't weight any.  All between 13 and 18 inches.  The 17 inch Largemouth pictured was deformed, or had some kind of injury.  It swam, fought and jumped good.   Biggest was three 18 inch spots.  They looked like the same fish, but I caught them a couple miles apart.   No boat picture today, so I've included a bird pic.  I think it's a different kind of bird than the one I posted a while back.  

 

Could not imagine an 18" Spot! River fish around here top out for me at about 16". But I'm always hoping!

Sunday was another crazy numbers day. Took 8 rods with me in the kayak, caught at least 1 fish on every one of them ( @A-Jay I finally caught a smallmouth on a blade bait ?).

 

Jerkbaits and a 3/8oz flipping jig did most of the work but also caught several on a Ned and wiggle wart. No real big ones, but a ton of them were in the 2.5-3lb range with the biggest being a hair over 18". Caught 10 fish out of 1 tree on the jig at one point. The big crappie were really wanting to join in the mix also, as well as several drum, a white bass, and a couple wipers. 2 days in a row of over 50 fish, been pretty nuts.

 

Ole faithful marble pit. Biggest one I’ve ever gotten there 

Got a 20 inch fish on a black/grape culprit worm with a blue tail…

17 minutes ago, N Florida Mike said:

Got a 20 inch fish on a black/grape culprit worm with a blue tail…

You catch it out of the sink ?

 

Very nice fish Mike

Finally got into a nice fall fish, and got it on the new jerkbait combo to boot. Took a page out of @thediscochef's book and caught a 5lber. Couldn't stand getting run out of that spot yesterday by the storm, so went back today for some revenge. Pretty decent wind out of the east, caught most of my fish along the windblown bank on a jerkbait and lipless, including one ~3lber on the lipless. The 5 was the biggest of the evening, got it on the opposite bank twitching the jerkbait next to a point.

 

Also got a stud bluegill on the jerkbait working it through a drain outflow that's kicking pretty good from all the storms. Didn't have my measuring tape with me so I can't submit it to FWC, but took a picture of it laid out on my hand, then measured once I got home. Would've been 10.5", not my biggest but my biggest in a while and a nice surprise.

 

I think I'm starting to get the hang of throwing the jerkbaits on mono. I think my drag was too loose for the first few fish that came off, so used to being ginger with the drag throwing them on braid. I tightened it way down (not cranked down but compared to my old braid setup) and stopped missing those bites. Gotta really lean hard into them to bypass the stretch and load that rod deep/drive those trebles home instead of just reeling/sweeping into them with braid.

 

It's a learning process, but I'm happy to have some nice results. The 5lber jumped 3 times, had a couple of nice runs, but I was able to really lean into her on that 12lb mono and never felt like she was going to come unpinned, and no bent out trebles so far either.

27 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

You catch it out of the sink ?

 

Very nice fish Mike

Not far from it. The lake is about 40 feet from the back door…

On 11/13/2022 at 7:15 PM, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Makes me crazy jelly knowing that highschools and colleges have Bass fishing teams, and you can even get a scholarship to my Alma Matta Auburn for Bass fishing.    

 

Great job, beautiful fish, and never forget to stop and enjoy this period of your life.   I guess now I've got to begrudgingly pull for the Boilermakers unless they play my Tigers in March next year.   

 

Like you said, if your losing fish, the most important thing is that you can find them.   You'll refine your techniques and equipment in due time and those fish will be boated.   My Chatterbait journey was exactly like this.    I could find the fish with chatterbaits, but just lost way too many.  Then I got a dedicated setup for them, and everything changed.  

Thanks! Changing gear is something I am playing around with this winter to try and eliminate those so hopefully it works! I don’t think we’re going to be any good this year so you will likely have an easy win if we meet in March!

Highs in the upper 30s this week, but I've snuck out twice to throw suspending jerkbaits at a couple different places. Had half a dozen the first trip two days ago, so switched water and had a better day today, picking off 26 bass. Nothing too big, but fairly aggressive fish considering some of these small waters will likely be seeing skim ice by the weekend. Should be short lived as we are supposed to warm up a bit into the upper 40s next week.

 

 

 

25 minutes ago, Team9nine said:

Highs in the upper 30s this week

Good thing you patched the holes in those jeans. Would get awful cold on the bare skin!

10 minutes ago, gimruis said:

Good thing you patched the holes in those jeans. Would get awful cold on the bare skin!

Don’t tell anyone - but I got smart and figured out how to crop my pics before posting ?

6 minutes ago, Team9nine said:

Don’t tell anyone - but I got smart and figured out how to crop my pics before posting ?

Can't fool us...you actually went out there in shorts. That's why the cropping...don't wanna blind us with that lily-white skin.

52 minutes ago, Team9nine said:

Highs in the upper 30s this week, but I've snuck out twice to throw suspending jerkbaits at a couple different places. Had half a dozen the first trip two days ago, so switched water and had a better day today, picking off 26 bass. Nothing too big, but fairly aggressive fish considering some of these small waters will likely be seeing skim ice by the weekend. Should be short lived as we are supposed to warm up a bit into the upper 40s next week.

 

 

 

 

Your third fish is one of the prettiest I've seen all year.

Love this time of year when the lake is mostly empty, mornings feel like winter and the daytime temps rise up into the low 50's. Saw a lot of bait but not many fish around it... fortunate to still cross paths with some solid ones.

 

Pops picked up a nice trout (very nice out here) on a Keitech.

 

 

This fatty really, really wanted my burrito.

 

On 11/13/2022 at 6:14 PM, Aaron_H said:

 

LMB will always be my first love, but my goodness look how gorgeous those smallies are! You northern guys are pushing me closer and closer to taking a trip up there to try targeting them (but when it's warmer ??).

Don't have to go too far north! Just make a trip to Tennessee. We got smallies and the first time you hook a four pounder and it takes off like a scalded dog, goes airborne, and rips your heart out, you will be a regular visitor!

24 minutes ago, Blue Raider Bob said:

Don't have to go too far north! Just make a trip to Tennessee. We got smallies and the first time you hook a four pounder and it takes off like a scalded dog, goes airborne, and rips your heart out, you will be a regular visitor!

 

Heck, yeah, Tennessee is Smallmouth Town. I've never fished it, but I know its long, glorious smallmouth history. However, If you're going to fish Tennessee, Aaron, you might as well mosey up to Erie. If you're fishing Erie, you're not far from St. Clair. If you're fishing St. Clair, you're already in Michigan and you might as well roll a little farther north to its countless smallmouth lakes. Then, if you're fishing northern Michigan, you oughta....

13 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

 

Heck, yeah, Tennessee is Smallmouth Town. I've never fished it, but I know its long, glorious smallmouth history. However, If you're going to fish Tennessee, Aaron, you might as well mosey up to Erie. If you're fishing Erie, you're not far from St. Clair. If you're fishing St. Clair, you're already in Michigan and you might as well roll a little farther north to its countless smallmouth lakes. Then, if you're fishing northern Michigan, you oughta....

Last year I went from TN to Erie to Michigan. I fished some but my best catch was at Point Betsie lighthouse in Frankfort 

 

 

headed back in July also!