13 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

@thediscochef: I can break the curse. Absolutely free. Trust me.*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*Simply send me a cashier's check for $5,000, of course, for standard and nominal handling and processing, curse-breaking fees.

Can I send you 5000 of these 

9 hours ago, Buzzbaiter said:

How do you catch gar? I’ve got a bunch (probably longnose gar) in the marshes near me but they mostly ignore plastics.

Jerkbait mostly, but the ones near my dock dont ignore anything. It’s hard to get them to see the bait but if they do, they are snapping at it. Had one go crazy for a fluke on Saturday as well . Hard part is hooking them, usually they just get their snout wrapped in the line 

 

best method for me is to wait to cast until you see one gulp air and cast quickly to it. As soon as they gulp they submarine back down so it has to be timed perfectly, you’ve only got a couple seconds . The best shot is when they gulp twice consecutively . Just try to make sure you put it right on them, above the head. I don’t think they can see very far. 
 

a dead bluegill will almost always get bit even without sight fishing but they will swim all over creation holding it in their mouth like a dog with a bone and when you pull tight they just let it go 

3 3s

Im never taking a photo in the dark with a hat again good grief I need to get it together

@thediscochef: I'll take the Monopoly money. The curse-breaking business has been slow recently, so I'm not going to be picky. 

12 hours ago, FishTank said:

Anyone need an Abu Garcia Black Max. Its crappie friendly. 

 

 

 

Love that bryozoan butt section and grip.  Is that a new Abu feature they'll be putting on every rod???

14 hours ago, FishTank said:

Anyone need an Abu Garcia Black Max. Its crappie friendly. 

 

 

I pulled a Veritas combo out of the river a couple years ago.  Somebody had even gone to the trouble of replacing the tip. 

I was finally able to get out fishing again yesterday.  Fished for 6 hours I managed 8 small bass.  Most of them came on a 1/8 ounce jig worked through the coontail.

Extended report: the hole I was on for day one was significantly less active for day two. A lot of the fish just left. In one day. Had no idea what was going on and couldn’t find where fish went. Fish caught: 0. The photos shown are from day 3. I launched somewhere different worried that quality might take a hit. 3lbers are nice I had fun but worse than 5lbers. So the search continues 🔎

17 hours ago, Buzzbaiter said:

How do you catch gar? I’ve got a bunch (probably longnose gar) in the marshes near me but they mostly ignore plastics.

Tubes work well. They seem to have a hard time letting go of them. Once they grab it, just put a little pressure on them and they'll roll, wrapping their mouth shut on it. You'll lose a few feet of line per fish. 

Been a rough month and a half. I tried a new lake very close to home. Biggest lake on long Island. It's incredibly different from every other lake I fish. No lake I fish is over 10ft deep. This ones 20ft with holes even deeper, one as deep as 65ft. No real shoreline cover. A ton of thick tall grass from 5ft deep out to about 12-15ft. No breaks or holes. Just grass. I'm hitting the grass line and structure (holes, humps, drop offs, and stump "reefs") in 10-20ft of water. Went out and got a garmin 93sv and mapped out a ton of the lake. Caught a few, but not nearly the success I'd have elsewhere. A ton of other species of fish. But I specifically target bass. Nothing else gives me that fizz but bass. Been tough but I enjoy the challenge. 

 

This weekend I decided to go back to my roots. Meaning water less then 10ft. Which puts me in the grass. Weightless t-rig and a 1/4oz jig. Some sort of moving bait over the top of the grass. I caught three over the whole weekend. Better than iv been doing but still not great. 

 

Today I had that light bulb moment. Every fish iv ever caught was in the grass. Iv been trying to spot the not, if you will. The weed line. Holes (there's not many). Differences in the bottom throughout the weeds. Like I said, caught a few. But not alot. Well today I hit every piece of structure I have marked on the garmin. No bass. That's when it hit me. They are deep in the grass. They aren't on the deeper structure. They are in the thick of it. Went and got a rod and reel dedicated to flipping the thick stuff. Spooled with braid, somthing iv never used. Hopfully I'm right. When I do get them, they are nice bass.

 

As frustrating as it's been, this Is why I love bass fishing. Just got to figure out the puzzle. I hadn't seen or heard of anyone having much luck with bass in the past month. I also hadn't seen anyone really getting into the thick stuff. I pretty much refuse to stop hitting this lake until I can figure it out and have continued success. By that time it'll be fall and I'll have to figure it out all over again. HA! Git to love it. 

 

Anyway, here's a few from when I have caught them.....

Open water Super Spook.  Quite the explosion 😀

I caught a handful of cookie cutter Spots today along with 2 decent Bass.  A 17 inch Spot, and an 18 inch Largemouth(both pictured).   Back to work tomorrow.   

Finally got some free time today and hit the Grand River. 

 

Best of 10 went 18" and is easily my best Smallmouth this year:

 

Couple of 16"s also showed up::

 

Got a lot of bites and blow-ups that didn't hook up, but every one that did hook up went absolutely ballistic.  Each of the 3 fish above jumped 3 or 4 times. The net was essential today. 

A chilly north wind today, water temps dropped from mid 70’s to 69 in just a week!  Wes and I tried a lake he’s never been to and I haven’t fished yet this year. A very laid back outing, just enjoying the cool weather and I was hoping for that one good bite on a glide bait.  A buddy who grew up nearby said the lake used to be a very good for bass then pike took it over 15-20 years ago, but apparently the bass are making a comeback.  
 

I fished the glide bait for about an hour with no bites.  Wes caught a couple small pike and lost a couple inexpensive baits to others before I “suggested” he should put a leader on.  We got into more shallow/weedy water so I started throwing a buzzbait - one of my favourite lures to fish.  I caught one small largemouth as did Wes, then I called the shot on a little point of pencil reeds in about 2-3ft. of water.  Wes caught a small pike then I caught a nice bass off it.  I didn’t weight the bass, was probably about 3#.  Not long after Wes had another oopsie and accidentally hit the cast button when he tried to flick weeds off his bait. Another spool of FC Sniper cut off prematurely. ☹️

 

Fun Labor Day, got 2 bass a catfish and a gar. 

 

 

14 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Fun Memorial Day

I knew it was one of those Monday holidays…….

@The Baron: Wes looks ten years older in that photo.

4 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

@The Baron: Wes looks ten years older in that photo.

Yea, he shot past 6ft. tall over the summer - he’s not even 15yo yet.

 

Here’s my little boy picking me up at the dock yesterday. 🤪😊

 

9 minutes ago, The Baron said:

he shot past 6ft. tall over the summer - he’s not even 15yo yet.

 

Man, I was about 5 feet tall when I was 14.  And weighed maybe 125 pounds soaking wet.

 

Growth spurt didn't happen until I was 19.

Finally back out on the water today.  We had a bit of a heat wave here since I’ve been back from Ontario so I haven’t been too keen on going out.

 

Went to the Licking River just below the Dillon dam. Last time I was there my son and I witnessed quite a few good sized smallies jumping, but unfortunately we were skunked.

 

This time I made way out onto a gravel bar and fished around it and the various currant breaks and eddies.  The first hour of so I couldn’t get bit but of course my luck changed the last 30 minutes.  No smallies but managed two largemouth and one hybrid striper, my first ever of that species.

@bp_fowler: Hey, quit taking pics of cool dudes with soul patches and their bass! You're only supposed to take photos of your bass. 

 

 

Nice striper. I bet it stretched your line.

4 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

Nice striper. I bet it stretched your line.

Oh yeah, it fought like hell.  Now that I know that there 3 species of bass in that stretch of river my goal is to catch the trifecta in one outing.

Nice to see more mustache representation @bp_fowler - carry on 😎 

 

@Choporoz - that one looks worthy of the full body shot for sure.  Looks like a super big one?  Did you get a weight on her?

 

@Pat Browndidn't weigh her... maybe 6ish

Got to remember to try to zoom it out a bit