7 minutes ago, thediscochef said:

it was 58 degrees outside this morning.

 

Whoa! That was my fishing temp in Maine. That's crazy cool for you. I'm guessing it felt like paradise. No wonder lost tungsten and a lost jig and lost bass couldn't spoil your mood. 

32 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

 

Whoa! That was my fishing temp in Maine. That's crazy cool for you. I'm guessing it felt like paradise. No wonder lost tungsten and a lost jig and lost bass couldn't spoil your mood. 

I lost no fewer than 5 jigs fishing with him. Can’t make this stuff up. The rocks there are crazy

12 minutes ago, LrgmouthShad said:

I lost no fewer than 5 jigs fishing with him. Can’t make this stuff up. The rocks there are crazy

 

And I haven't lost a single lure to a rock in two years of fishing in Maine. I have, however, removed about an aggregate two tons of weeds from lures. 

 

P. S. - Thanks, @TnRiver46, for all those photos. Other than eating walleye, your photo-essay took us along with ya!

Anytime, it’s a trip we try to do yearly, right up your alley 

 

we ate bass too but I keep those pics to myself so PETA doesn’t come after me haha

6 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

we ate bass too but I keep those pics to myself so PETA doesn’t come after me haha

I saw them. I saw them all ?

 

Do largemouth or smallmouth taste better?

18 minutes ago, LrgmouthShad said:

I saw them. I saw them all ?

 

Do largemouth or smallmouth taste better?

Samesies

Bass caught on spinnerbaits taste best.

^starvation 

3.88 on my new Scorpion/SLX and Chad Shad. The 7.9 gear is perfect to me for chopping a glide.

I got to fish for the first time in almost a month on Friday. We were pretty pumped because this time of year has given us some pretty fantastic days. We hit the lake excited about topwater blowups, and catching fish cast after cast. We spent the first three hours of the day going to all of our favorite fall spots without seeing a single shad feeding frenzy, a single school of fish, or getting a single bite. My buddy turned around and asked, "What do we do now?" I thought for a minute, and told him that we should explore new water since our favorite spots were not producing. That's what we did.

 

We only saw one shad feeding frenzy all day, which turned out to be white bass...sigh. But then a stroke of luck turned the day around. My friend was quickly reeling in at the end of a cast, and a fish hit his lure. Then on his next cast he tried cranking the reel as fast as he could turn the handle, and caught another one. It was on then! Turns out that we were fishing too slow. In spots neither of us had ever fished before we ended up catching 10. Eight of the ten were caught on a lipless crank burned as fast as we could move them. I caught one spotted bass, and the rest were cookie cutter largemouth. Nothing big, but the adjustments turned a frustrating morning into a decent afternoon.

 

 

The picture below shows a cove we found where the path of a storm passed through back in the spring. Obviously that's not an easy spot for a lipless so we switched to soft plastics. We had no luck until I remembered that everything we were catching them on earlier in the day was using very fast moving bait. I decided to try the heaviest worm weight I had in my bag and boom! I picked up a couple more in the laydowns due to the faster fall rate. I had never heard of fall rate, and the difference it can make until I joined BassResource so thanks to y'all for that tip!

 

5 hours ago, LrgmouthShad said:

I lost no fewer than 5 jigs fishing with him. Can’t make this stuff up. The rocks there are crazy

the reason I've never caught a jig fish is because I don't keep the jigs long enough ? 

 

5 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

I have, however, removed about an aggregate two tons of weeds from lures. 

my favorite spot to fish gets choked up with invasive milfoil on top of the rocks, I wish so dearly that it could be hydrilla. the milfoil clings to everything and makes punching a real task. As long as it's not filamentous algae I'm good with it though. It was a beautiful morning

9 minutes ago, thediscochef said:

It was a beautiful morning

 

Gosh, I love your attitude. I once fished with a pretty famous female fisher. We took a drift boat down one river and the boys took a drift boat down another. We caught 10" smallies and the boys caught 20" smallies. They kept texting us photos of their beasts and I pined to be in their boat, as I hooked another 10-incher.

 

Then this woman said, "They're all good."

 

And she was right. I'll never forget that day, for it was my first time rowing a drift boat, and listening to her stories, and rounding a corner to see five bald eagles atop rocks in the river, our fellow fishers.

 

It was a beautiful day.

I can't figure out how to shrink photos enough to put more than one, so enjoy this one ?

 

Great day for me today. Beautiful weather, fall like for NC. Found the bass roaming shallow coves and flats. Caught them on shaky head, jigs, but mostly on a large paddle tail worm from z man on a jig head which was new to me. They'd only hit it if I burned as fast as possible. I had several get off, realized I need a larger hook than what I was using but am excited to try again with some tweaks soon.

Finally the bait monkey paid off, I bought these from Seibert on a sale along with some jigs I'm quickly burning through. If losing jigs in timber were a sport I'd get a gold medal. 

So far fake fall in NC is treating me way better than the entire summer did. Fits my fishing strengths way better!

Thanks again for all the great info on here, I learn so much reading everyone's comments and have definitely improved from participating on this forum!

Triple crown of black bass and a nice sunset. I watched the smallie eat my fluke, he inhaled it!!!

Fished a new area further up the canal than I've ever fished before. Got 9 bass between 15"-17" and 2 snakehead with the biggest at 26". All caught on a jig.

15 hours ago, NJBasstard said:

Fished a new area further up the canal than I've ever fished before. Got 9 bass between 15"-17" and 2 snakehead with the biggest at 26". All caught on a jig.

Are the Snakeheads edible? Looks like some really good fillets could be obtained.

Cooler weather has let me get out before work again. Got some Zman Tiny Goatz the other day and have been having a good time fishing them on the UL. Catching a little bit of everything including a pretty warmouth and a monster bass.

 

5 hours ago, Blue Raider Bob said:

Are the Snakeheads edible? Looks like some really good fillets could be obtained.

 

I personally haven't eaten from here but I'm told they're edible. The one pictured went home with my buddy who took the pic. 

 

Really fun quick pre morning session.  Trying out 'finesse' fishing with 8 lb big game/weightless fluke he and did alright with a 2.5 and a 5 lber.  Missed a couple and then needed to retie but it was too dark for that light line and my clumsy fingers and I couldn't get a bite on my alternatives.

 

Definitely gonna be putting more time in with the old soft jerk technique.

Are you guys fishing less because of the transition? Shorter days? Hunting? There are not as many pics and stories are being posted and I miss them.

 

I'm going fishing for two hours this evening and five hours tomorrow morning, fishing the little stream that leads to the bog this evening and then tomorrow morning, the pond I fished last Monday morning. So, in two sessions, I'll be fishing a stream, bog, and pond and I'm excited about that.

 

My Zoom Trick worms arrived and I'll be fishing them for the first time in my life. I've rigged some black ones and I just hope it's not too late in the year for them to work well. I'll also be casting my 6th Sense squarebills that Alex (@AlabamaSpothunter) suggested way back when and zooming them. I'll also be working a bone-colored River2Sea popper with extra split rings and upgraded hooks, tricks I learned at BR. Anyone else here decide what they'll be using before they reach the water? It saves me time on the water to have all my outfits rigged and ready. 

 

A MH spinning rod to replace the last of my whippy rods also arrived, so now all my rods are wonderfully stout and I've been loving my two new reels too, which replaced one with missing gear teeth and another with a handle that stuck on every rotation. The handles of the new ones turn like the gears are buttered!  

@ol'crickety nice, good luck

 

Just not much happening here. I poked around on some ledges last night looking around and caught a couple dinks out really deep but didn’t care to share. One was in 30ft though so that was cool. Think that’s my deepest bass ever

13 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

Are you guys fishing less because of the transition? Shorter days? Hunting? There are not as many pics and stories are being posted and I miss them.

 

I'm fishing less because all I do right now is work.

 

Also black goes with everything. They'll work.

@Pat Brown: Nice ones! Pat, I love how you're always working new lures and being successful with them. I work new lures, but don't have much success. One of the BR guys opined that one doesn't need to use all the lures in their tacklebox, only three well, i.e. a surface lure, a shallow-running lure, and adeep-diving bait. I'd rather master a couple dozen lures, but so far, I've failed. Seeing you score on different lures keeps me trying though! 

Katie I'm fairly certain if I only brought the same 3 lures every day of the year, I'd catch fish...but not these ones at this pond today ?

 

Ironically, when I hit a big lake, I'm more prone to approach it with three baits I have a lot of confidence in.

 

These pressured ponds are more like a chess match that unfolds day to day year to year between me and these big spooky bass.

 

It always surprises me what new technique I try that they go bananas for a second over and then never bite again!  ???

On 9/19/2023 at 9:59 PM, NJBasstard said:

Fished a new area further up the canal than I've ever fished before. Got 9 bass between 15"-17" and 2 snakehead with the biggest at 26". All caught on a jig.

 

Killer haul my man.  With that said, I (somehow) have never heard of a "snakehead" and figured it was another name for a bowfin.  I looked it up and while they have a very similar body structure, they aren't that closely related and the snakeheads appear to be an invasive species.  So do you keep the snakeheads to reduce their population, or what is the policy where you are?