I’d also like to specify. This was no finesse jig. This was a full size living rubber football jig lol. I have a feeling I picked the wrong area

Green Sunfish were the deal today. Beetle Spins and lite tackle. 

@lunkerboss923: I caught a pumpkinseed once and caught yellow perch on two trips, but other than the occasional chain pickerel, I just catch bass. There are white perch in all the water I fish, but I've never caught one, even though I wanna. I did catch a pike once.

Went fishing this weekend both days. Went to the lakehouse to grab my wife’s kayak, paddled it across glass slick waters to load it up on the daily driver Honda and go to a different ramp on the same lake where people are catching nice big smallies. Somehow this access point was in a sunny hurricane with the wind blowing the same direction as the current. Two older guys with a huge boat were sitting in the parking lot saying it was too windy, and here I am with a kayak. Well two of my buddies pulled up with a bass tracker so I left the kayak in the parking lot and hopped in with them. Right as we are about to launch, a guy pulls up and asks if we have a scale. He had a 22” 6 lb 10 oz meanmouth and two other really nice smallmouth. Said he had launched at 3 am trying to catch walleye haha. Anyway here’s a pic of that monster 

 

so now we are fishing, but can’t do a thing on the main channel with the wind and current going through same direction. We retreated to a creek arm I knew held small largemouth and caught a bunch of those, better than braving the sunny hurricane

 

so Sunday rolls around and I can’t stop thinking about the potential for PB so I go back to the same spot in the pouring rain, this time the wind isn’t blowing tho. I paddled upstream and broke off a fish , re rigged and found out why I broke off, I was amongst the toothy critters. Got one for the ice box ! 

I can't imagine catching a 6-7lb Meanmouth......."we're gonna need a bigger boat" comes to mind.     That's about as alpha of predator as it gets 😎

 

eta:  I would have gotten a repro mount of that fish no doubt

 

 

That meanmouth looks so perfect. Not a nick or a scuff. 

10 minutes ago, Swamp Girl said:

That meanmouth looks so perfect. Not a nick or a scuff. 

Built like a Swamp Girl Maine fattie 😁

3 hours ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

I can't imagine catching a 6-7lb Meanmouth......."we're gonna need a bigger boat" comes to mind.     That's about as alpha of predator as it gets 😎

 

eta:  I would have gotten a repro mount of that fish no doubt

 

 

He does his own taxidermy and is  mounting that fish and the 7/11. (Skin mounts, not replica)  He’s still waiting on DNA tests for possible record on that larger one from last year. 
 

He let the SMB go but said the govt recommends removing the meanmouth, I assumed since it’s a hybrid it can’t reproduce 🤷🏼 

First fish of my Christmas break. Caught on a watermelon seed speed worm.

Got to fish below Pickwick dam the other day. The temp was in the 20s the previous night. It had probably warmed into the upper 30s by the time we started fishing. The sun was supposed to come out, but it never happened. It was tolerable, but didn't warm up liked we hoped. The fishing started out as cool as the temps. We had good current. We were drifting 3 mph without the trolling motor. We did a 2 1/2 mile drift and caught nothing. We tried the other side, and only caught one.

 

We went back to the other side again, but all we caught were drum. Hopefully @roadwarrior won't be too disappointed that we don't have pics of those. 🤣

 

Since we were having no luck on the bank, we decided to try fishing along the channel. Turns out that the fish were in the middle of the river. We only caught 3 in the first 5 hours along the banks, but got 6 in the last 2 hours in the middle of the river. Nothing too big, but one solid 3 lb 6 oz smallmouth.

 

 

The most interesting part of the day came as I caught the first fish along the channel. We noticed a boat speeding toward us. While I was reeling I said, "He sees us, right?" He sped right up to us, and turns away at the last second. When he turned we see "Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency" on the side of the boat. I pulled the fish out of the net as he pulled up beside us. I said, "I'll get my license out in just a second." He said, "I don't want to see your license. I want to see the fish." I was confused since it was just a dink smallmouth. I held it up for him, and he said, "No, I want the fish." So I gave it to him. He measured it, and asked me if I wanted it back. I said, "no" so he released it.

 

I thought we were about to get checked by the game warden. Turns out that he was with the TWRA Angler Survey. He asked us several questions about our fishing experience. He wanted to know where we were from, how much our trip cost us (counting gas, meals, etc.), how satisfied we were with our experience, if we'd fished there before, and if we planned to fish there again. It was actually a fun, and interesting experience. We had a nice chat. He seemed like a good guy. He went on his way, and we started catching fish. Too bad he didn't see us when we caught a bigger fish. 🤣

@Fishlegs: Cool story and beautiful bass!

@Fishlegs   Great report, and great to hear our tax dollars are being spent to help our fisheries.   

 

That seems like a really good thing especially the question about how much you spent on the trip.    Ultimately at the end of the day, dollars and cents matter the most, and if the powers at be see how big of an economic impact anglers make, they'll be more inclined to listen when we say DON'T SPRAY THE GRASS!  

@AlabamaSpothunter, only a very, very small portion of tax dollars goes to Twra and it’s only a tax from purchasing fishing or hunting gear (see wallop/Breaux and dingell/johnson acts). They are funded almost completely by license sales and boat renewals (which are going up again this year). They were 8 million bucks in the hole last year 

 

and they don’t spray the grass, that is privately contracted out by TVA

 

Wasn’t specifically targeting them much yesterday, but ran into one anyway. Hopefully back out after them later today - highs in the mid 60s 😎

 

Its been a minute since I last posted here but I've got into ultralight fishing lately  and yesterday I got this pleasant surprise by that wall. 

 

I thought about keeping it with some of the gills I caught but I didn't have a tape measure on me. Do you think it's 15 inches(minimum legal length for largemouth, spotted, and smallmouth here)? 

 

Fought like a demon on that ultralight.

15 hours ago, BluegillsTightlines said:

Its been a minute since I last posted here but I've got into ultralight fishing lately  and yesterday I got this pleasant surprise by that wall. 

 

I thought about keeping it with some of the gills I caught but I didn't have a tape measure on me. Do you think it's 15 inches(minimum legal length for largemouth, spotted, and smallmouth here)? 

 

Fought like a demon on that ultralight.

Looks like a really cool place to fish. I admire those stacked stone walls. Lots of skill and elbow grease.

15 hours ago, BluegillsTightlines said:

Do you think it's 15 inches(minimum legal length for largemouth, spotted, and smallmouth here)? 

 

Yeah, I do. 

27 minutes ago, Blue Raider Bob said:

Looks like a really cool place to fish. I admire those stacked stone walls. Lots of skill and elbow grease.

Me too, unique looking place and you know you don't have to worry about that road washing out. I love finding places like that. 

26 minutes ago, Swamp Girl said:

 

Yeah, I do. 

next time I go down there and if I catch a couple largemouth that size, I may just keep em and eat them. it's been a minute since I've had bass. my usual fishing spot doesn't let us keep bass at the moment, none over 13 inches anyway.

2 hours ago, Blue Raider Bob said:

Looks like a really cool place to fish. I admire those stacked stone walls. Lots of skill and elbow grease.

 

I agree with Bob that you caught it in a cool spot. Mainers have long built with stone and whenever I admire a stone wall, curb, bridge pillar, I tip my hat to the men and beasts who stacked it.

50 minutes ago, Swamp Girl said:

 

I agree with Bob that you caught it in a school spot. Mainers have long built with stone and whenever I admire a stone wall, curb, bridge pillar, I tip my hat to the men and beasts who stacked it.

same here. lots of elbow grease, skills  and hours put into that. and i saw probably 25 bass in that spot that day. several very nice ones too.

On 12/2/2024 at 7:38 PM, Swamp Girl said:

I think @T-Billy should loan Clayton his fur hat for the next two or three months. 

I don’t know if they make those fur hats in my size 😅

 

I fished a small tournament last Saturday, last one of the year. It was a weird bite for me. I struggled to get bit on a jerkbait like I planned on and my Ned rig fish were tiny. Water temps were 40-42, so I switched from a suspending jerkbait to a slow sinker (Stunna), in almost the same color. Almost immediately caught a 15” fish, which was by far my biggest fish. I made a long run to one of my best areas and caught another cull fish that was 14.75”. I was still expecting more fish but there was another rounded point on this cove and I knew there was a tree that usually holds fish. I pulled my bait across the point and my line jumped on the pause. The fish was surprisingly thin for this time of year but a huge help, culling an 11” fish with an 18.25. My next cast. Another big fish loaded on over the tree. She drug in slowly with heavy head shakes. I saw a big fish with my bait crossways in its mouth, then it shook and my rod relaxed 😭 It was an easy 20” fish. Next cast, another heavy one loaded on, and just as fast, it was gone. I culled one more 15” fish and a 13”. It wasn’t much, but it was enough. 

 

Clayton wins again! Your 18" fish is only skinny by Kansas standards. That's a standard bass for most places. 

Fished the last 1 1/2 hours of the day. Warm, clear , and calm weather. 
Got 3 on the bama craw dinger, all while reeling slowly on top.

 

Something told me to put on a magnum speed worm ( june bug ) , and I fished it through and around a deep hole with no success. Turned around and threw in between 2 big eel grass beds. After several casts turning from left to right , I got a violent strike , and after a very hard fight, got  a  21 inch fish. It was just shy of 4 pounds.On the very next cast , I got a 19.5 inch fish that was 3.5 . Lost 2 more, 1 at the boat that was 2.5 to 3. 
I will be fishing the magnum SW more often!!

 

@N Florida Mike: Great trip report, Mike. Ya got me smilin'!

On 12/19/2024 at 7:26 PM, N Florida Mike said:

 I will be fishing the magnum SW more often!!

 

 

Some nice ones, Mike.  It’s fun how one good day can put a particular bait into the favourite pile.  (Yes, “favourite” is spelled correctly 🇨🇦 😝)

 

Great job on the slow bite win @Bluebasser86 👍🏻

 

Update from Canada:  It’s cold, and diving off the dock really hurts now.