Surface temps : 36 - where there is water.  🥹

 

Spent three hours out in what was wet yesterday and graphed a few areas that had some fish maybe?

 

It was a ghost lake.  The guy at the marina said that nobody has launched a boat in weeks and that we were crazy and then pointed out all the dead shad and big crappie floating near the marina.

 

Gonna try one more time today and then probably won't get out on a lake til February unless we get lucky.

 

Monday through Wednesday are gonna have our lakes hard as a rock and deeper than the last two freezes.

 

Today is my ONE day of wet water and air temps near 50 for a long while.

 

Wish me luck y'all.  Probably gonna try some really really slow presentations in some of the areas that looked like they maybe had some fish and see what happens.

25 minutes ago, Pat Brown said:

Wish me luck y'all.

 

Luck, luck, LUCK!

 

However, all that ice makes me wonder if your wife didn't sedate you and move you and Jake to Maine. Or Michigan. Or Minnesota. OR CANADA!

 

@A-Jay, @gim, and @The Baron, have you seen Pat over your way? I'll keep an eye out for him. I'm suspecting he's now a Yankee or Canuck and doesn't yet know it. 

Good luck Pat!!!!

 

All I know is that when the levee breaks for you, it's going to be absolutely spectacular.   I can't even imagine how much of a benefit it is currently for all your heavily pressured fisheries to be getting ZERO fishing pressure.    That would make me so excited!   

 

I suspect you're going to experience the most epic fishing of your life before the spawn.    You heard it here first 😎

I saw this pic and realized I forgot to post it to impress (should be in other species thread, but meh). This is by far the smallest fish I have ever caught - it was wedged in the bill/split ring, but I still landed it

 

Still a pretty fish

I'll just pile on from Pat's post. We feel like we're in Canada and we are gaining respect for all of you up north. I couldn't do it. Every day I get up and just see how much ice there is and feel sad. 

Last time out I watched a bald eagle for a while so that was neat.

 

The good thing down here is we aren't used to these temps and neither are the fish. There is a fish kill happening as Pat mentioned, which we are guessing will create a huge buffet for the bass and in about a month we hope to be making PRs with pot bellies. Maybe not, but we have to have hope to survive our month of cold. We are missing our hundred degree summer days right now. At least falling out of the boat won't kill you on those days. 

Anyway, here's to huge future fish on future soft water, and kudos to the yanks for your fortitude in surviving the winters! 

^ The NC fishing was not good while I was there. It will get better

Last trips before the Arctic blast. Hitched a ride with a friend for about 90 min Fri, then put in 3 hours today in steady 20 mph winds gusting to 35 as the high pressure system barrels in. Was 57 when I launched, but just 45 when I left a few hours later. Cooling off fast. Avoided a blank both trips though - got 3 or 4 Fri and 2 today. Water 43-44. That’s it for at least a week.

 

 

 

20 hours ago, OHBuckets said:

I saw this pic and realized I forgot to post it to impress (should be in other species thread, but meh). This is by far the smallest fish I have ever caught - it was wedged in the bill/split ring, but I still landed it

 

Still a pretty fish

That's a keeper for the Amish. 

 You Carolinians are getting some crazy cold, it’s not that bad on this side of the mtn 

On 1/17/2025 at 3:57 PM, thediscochef said:

I blanked today but I got to see a cormorant take off and drop a huge deuce right onto the head of a blue heron. That's a catch of sorts. I wish I had that on video. We're due for a huge cold blast this weekend so hopefully some decent fishing comes after that

Dang Chef!     Now I can't unview that mental image!

1 hour ago, Blue Raider Bob said:

Dang Chef!     Now I can't unview that mental image!

My work here is done 

First one of 2025!

It's not as cold here as it's been some other places but it's been cold for an extended period. I think the second we start warming up it's game on 

Caught one on the june bug magnum speed worm. 43 degrees when I caught him. Hit it on the fall. 

Been quite a while since we've been out on the water! Able to take Pops out for his 80th right before my daughter had to head back to school. Only right he caught the first of the day.

 

Fishing was pretty slow but we still managed a few.

 

The three gen trips are always a good time...

@NorcalBassin well done! Glad to see three generations out fishing together.

I don’t wanna give up all the Canadian secrets @Pat Brown but when the fishing really gets slow, or if you’re just in a hurry, you can try a CIL wobbler. 😉🤫

@NorcalBassin: Sportin' some new facial fur I see. Looks good!

Good ol’ California, got this guy in a small local lake in about 2-3ft of water in the evening flipping a rage bug near some tules. Weather has been very nice, but we definitely need some rain. 

Edited January 25, 20251 yr by ryanerb
spelling

We made it above freezing today , got out in the kayak and caught a few. One LM had a lamprey on the top of its head, thankfully it fell off while boating the fish. You can see the scar on its head in the picture 

Tried to go back upstream of the dock to catch some crappie and the water was frozen…….. called it quits after that . Beautiful day, fun paddle 

 

Fished the power plant lake with my buddy today in our yaks. Weather wasn’t bad but pretty chilly, 21 at launch and 37 at take out but winds were pretty light so it made it more tolerable. The normal rock was was very unproductive, and Stony wanted to fish some different places we normally couldn’t get to, but I wanted to fish my flat point first, so we went there. We were immediately on fish, both fishing  a Ned rig. I caught a football of a 17” fish that weighed 3.60. 

But I hadn’t even released mine when Stony hooked up with a tank that went 6.25.

We caught several more small fish before it slowed down a little. I was slowly dragging my Ned rig on 10lb Seaguar TacX and 8lb Seaguar Pounce leader when my bait just disappeared. When I caught up set the hook, the fish bulldogged for deeper water and then under the kayak before sliding into the net. Not quite as heavy as most fish with a fish this size, but still a 4.73lb fish.

We caught a few more little ones before we decided to go fish some other areas of the lake. I hung around a little longer than Stony and started to notice what looked like schooling activity to me and caught a few fish before I left and caught up with Stony, but I kept thinking about those fish. A couple hours later, I had one small fish and lost a big one on a crankbait. I told Stony I was going to spend my last couple hours on the flat point and he thought that was a good idea. 
They were biting again right away and the schooling activities had ramped up. They were chasing shad on the point and into the shallow pocket next to it. I caught several small ones off the point, but the fish in the pocket looked bigger. I caught one on a 2tap that was a little bigger and called Stony over and told him what was happening. He took that information and immediately stuck a good one. I don’t think he weighed it but it was another 4-5 pound fish. I rotated through several baits trying to find something different. I took off the 2tap and put on an Ima Suspending lipless. First cast I pulled it down and paused and got thumped. I knew it was a good one, but the mini blimp that surfaced was bigger than I expected, and it liked what I was throwing.

I though she might go 7 but not quite long enough, still a little over 6.5lbs, biggest of the year so far.

We made a few more cast but both had to get on the road. A great winter day on the water.

I love Clayton's blimps!!!! Thank blue somebody is still catching bass. 

Home lake put every boat in a 30-day quarantine with golden mussels being "discovered" well over an hour away, and after being rather upset my annual pass was worthless the past month it lessened the sting just a tad when they decided to allow non-motorized kayaks to access the lake without any quarantine or inspection. 

 

I had a short work day and figured I'd dust off the kayak to see how the lake was doing after no pressure for the past month. Afternoon air temps were in the 60's and water temps were upper 50's... no complaints there.

 

Only had a couple hours to fish so figured I'd start with a ned since it tends to do well here in the winter. It did not disappoint with a solid spot within the first few minutes.

 

Not going to complain about an almost 18" spot in January!

 

Worked my way around the bridge mindlessly casting finesse baits while taking in how odd it was to be on an empty lake. Since finesse wasn't delivering any consistent bites I figured I'd switch it up and throw a swimbait. I almost couldn't believe my hands when I felt that hit!

 

Couldn't have been happier with that plus-sized spot and figured it was the perfect time to call it a day.

 

16 hours ago, NorcalBassin said:

Home lake put every boat in a 30-day quarantine with golden mussels being "discovered" well over an hour away, and after being rather upset my annual pass was worthless the past month it lessened the sting just a tad when they decided to allow non-motorized kayaks to access the lake without any quarantine or inspection. 

 

I had a short work day and figured I'd dust off the kayak to see how the lake was doing after no pressure for the past month. Afternoon air temps were in the 60's and water temps were upper 50's... no complaints there.

 

Only had a couple hours to fish so figured I'd start with a ned since it tends to do well here in the winter. It did not disappoint with a solid spot within the first few minutes.

 

Not going to complain about an almost 18" spot in January!

 

Worked my way around the bridge mindlessly casting finesse baits while taking in how odd it was to be on an empty lake. Since finesse wasn't delivering any consistent bites I figured I'd switch it up and throw a swimbait. I almost couldn't believe my hands when I felt that hit!

 

Couldn't have been happier with that plus-sized spot and figured it was the perfect time to call it a day.

 

Wowza, that's a tank. Amazing what a lake can put out when all the other boats get kicked off! haha Nice job in the yak! I bet you will be going back again soon?!

I'm surprised you were high 50's water temp, all my lakes here in cen-cal are high 40s or very low 50s. 

24 days later I can officially announce a very happy ending to my lost GoPro data saga.

 

While I wasn't able to recover the entire cast to catch video, or other ones from that day due to not wanting to spend more money, they were able to recover the one video I wanted most which starts the moment the fish is in the net.   

 

It's total amateur hour with me being in half a state of shock hooking myself 50 ways from Sunday so don't judge me too harshly 😅

 

Jeremy at Recovermyflashdrive.com is truly a magician and miracle worker.   He's extremely fair with regard to pricing.   It should have been a flat rate to recover the full 128gb, however GoPro files require more extensive work.   If he would have recovered everything on the card, it would have cost about $1450 which I just couldn't do.    @Bluebasser86   It might worth sending your card to Jeremy, especially if you think you might not need everything recovered and you can help him home in where exactly the data is you most want off the card.   

 

Lastly, a huge thanks for all the love and support from my friends here when it happened......I was crushed and you folks made me feel better!   Katie was even checking in to see how the progress was going.....everybody should be so lucky to have a pal like Katie in your corner.