A wife unit who goes fishing with you.....yeah that's gonna be the real catch of the day

 

I hate what Stripers do to most Bass fisheries, along with Alabama's only little Rainbow Trout locale, but they are easily one of the most fun freshwater fish to catch.   Very exciting catching them when they are blowing up bait on the surface.   

2 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

N Florida Mike, if you don't mind, will you share a photo of your fluke rig and a tip or two for using them?

 

Aw, shucks, T-Billy!

It’s easy . Use a 3/0 wide gap hook and T-rig it. I use no weight because I primarily fish in less than 6 f.o.w . Let me clarify- I use zoom SUPER  flukes, rarely the smaller flukes anymore.

I catch a lot just deadsticking or pulling it over weeds and letting it drop into holes, also skipping around brush piles or under docks.

Another method is finding a weed line and  skipping the fluke parallel to the edge.

I have never done well twitching it like so many people do.  

Yeah I just twitch the things along weed lines, or throw them into pods of baitfish.   I rig the same way, but use a 4/0 or 5/0.    There is a tradeoff doing so, I think the smaller hooks give much better action, but hookup ratio is reduced in my experience.   

 

Somebody here was talking about putting them on a jig head, and bumping the bottom with them.....a lightbulb went off when I read that, but have yet to try it.   

If I used a jighead, I’d get a clump of weeds every time with the waters I fish.  I get a lot of bites on the fall too, I just think in the primary lakes/ponds I fish it would sink too fast.

I also occasionally use 4/0, never 5. Your right. Not as many bites with the 4… 

another great trick is to Carolina Rig them......

Our pup was sleeping so I snuck out to go fishing.

 

 

Meanmouth, smallmouth, largemouth? 

Nice, thinking first two are Smallies, and the last guy is a LGM.    River fishing it looks like, love fishing around big structures like those below the dams.    Wish I lived closer to the TVA lakes, as it stands I'm an hour + away.     I think the variety of fish is one of the things that makes that area so special.    

N Florida Mike, when you Super Fluke, what weight line are you using? I ask because you said that you let your fluke drop into holes and I'm wondering if my 17 lb. test is enough to haul a bass out of a hole.

20 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Nice, thinking first two are Smallies, and the last guy is a LGM.    River fishing it looks like, love fishing around big structures like those below the dams.    Wish I lived closer to the TVA lakes, as it stands I'm an hour + away.     I think the variety of fish is one of the things that makes that area so special.    

I was on tellico, it’s been tough there for me lately 

Lately the fishing has been S.L.O.W.  I was talking with a ranger while fishing this forest preserve and he said the animals are totally messed up due to the insane weather we've had all season.  He pointed out that half of the deer were a couple months late having fawns and he personally saw a fisherman pull a bass guarding fry at the very end of July!  That's way out of bounds here.  I was glad to get this 3-2 off of a rocky point.  Mostly I'm just digging 1 and 2lb-ers out of the brush and very few in a day.  

 

1 hour ago, ol'crickety said:

N Florida Mike, when you Super Fluke, what weight line are you using? I ask because you said that you let your fluke drop into holes and I'm wondering if my 17 lb. test is enough to haul a bass out of a hole.

I use 12 pound mono. I fish a lot of eel grass with algae clumps everywhere right now. Also fish a lake with a lot of maidencane and use the same. I can’t remember having one break off down in these weeds. I have lost some in there of course.

17 should be more than enough.

I fish a lot of moderately clear        ( somewhat stained) water. So I feel like I get less bites the higher pound test I go. I definitely get less bites with braid .( Unless I fish more stained waters.)

I even use 10 pound mono in less weedy waters.

 

1 hour ago, ol'crickety said:

N Florida Mike, when you Super Fluke, what weight line are you using? I ask because you said that you let your fluke drop into holes and I'm wondering if my 17 lb. test is enough to haul a bass out of a hole.

I use 12 pound mono. 10 in less weedy water. I fish fairly clear water so I feel like I get less bites the higher pound test I go. Ive lost fish down in the weeds, but don’t remember breaking off because of the weeds.  My home lake has eel grass and lots of algae clumps. Another lake I fish primarily has maiden cane. I don’t have problems with line breakage with these.

17 should be more than enough. 

If it’s clear water you won’t get as many bites though…

Had a lively hour and a half this evening. Wind kicked up a little from small storm cells close by and got the bass active. Caught a quick dozen on my small blade bait with this one, probably three lb. or so the best.

Thanks, Mike. I plan to use flukes more going forward. 

21 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

I too always thought of Maine as a smallmouth state and there are lots of smallmouth here and big ones, but I've fallen in love with bog fishing, which means largemouth

 

Do those bogs freeze up in the winter there?

They do, Gimruis, but they freezing doesn't kill the fish because there are deep pockets. I am so excited to fish this fall when the bass grow feistier! Sadly, I can't fish for the next four days as I'm flying to visit my mom. She actually lives on a lake in Florida and the lake has largemouth, but they're pale. I like the dark Maine bass. 

Still prefishing for an upcoming tournament next Saturday. Saturday was tough with mostly very small fish. Broke one off that felt decent in the morning, then came back and caught it later out of the same tree with my hook still in its mouth.

Also caught a crappie trolling a buzzbait...

Monday was much better. Caught a respectable limit with a 4.63lb big fish, and a walleye flipping a stump in a foot of water.

This morning I stopped in the fog for 20 minutes with the tiny SPRO 40 popping frog, fishing it on a Bass X spinning rod and 20lb braid, caught 3 and missed 2.

 

So far, my catching ratio with popping frogs is catch one and miss five.* So, well done!

 

*It doesn't help that I can't cast far and so the bass explode right beside my canoe and my reaction is to yelp and yank. 

3 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

They do, Gimruis, but they freezing doesn't kill the fish because there are deep pockets.

Well that's good.  Up here in MN if there is a shallow body of water it often results in winter kill.  Some lakes have installed aerators to avoid killing fish over the winter.

28 minutes ago, gimruis said:

Well that's good.  Up here in MN if there is a shallow body of water it often results in winter kill.  Some lakes have installed aerators to avoid killing fish over the winter.

I lived in western WI for 30 years and I've lived on the coast of Maine for 10 years, so I'm confident in asserting that MN is way colder than coastal Maine. We have winters where it doesn't drop below zero. However, I do love MN.

Managed to pull a ~2lb-er out close to the spillway in our pond this morning. Was using lite tackle with a wacky rigged blue/black worm. Second cast I think and he busted the knot right as I got him on the bank. Heck of a fighter. ? Been real slow here too no matter what I throw nor how shallow or deep. Best thing that’s worked fairly reliably are worms in dark colors.

—-

 

Labor day come 1pm wife and I decided to go fishin for blue gills, she wanted fish in her diet this week so yeah i was cool with that.

We went to a favorite lake to bankfish but the white caps were crashing the bank so we went to another lake and wind was under controll.

We wernt doin any catching and were thinkin about leaving at 6.30 but i said its gonna happen and sure enough at 7.30 pm the gills attacked us.

Wife was using gulp minnows on a tiny ball head jig and i was using for an experiment some small plastic berkley max scent minnows that i never used and were being neglected.

I ripped the heads off to shorten them up and put them on a small black fuzzy jig thinking nothins gonna bite this odd lookin setup but bite they did.

Wife also used gulp minnows with bitten off tails and still caught bluegills.

 

1 hour ago, TnRiver46 said:

What the hell is that thing? Looks like a bass but I haven't seen one in so long I can't be sure.