2 hours ago, galyonj said:

 

Fish are ridiculous and I love them for it. Little while back, on another trip with @TnRiver46, I caught a bluegill on a squarebill, then I caught a largemouth on a Choppo that wasn't much bigger than the lure.

 

The bluegill cracked me up. All it had was the rear treble, and it couldn't fit but one little hook in its mouth, but it went for it. 

It is amazing to see the predatory instinct of game fish, had the same thing a month or so ago on crankbait 

1 hour ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

It is amazing to see the predatory instinct of game fish, had the same thing a month or so ago on crankbait 

 

Exactly. Fish are nuts. I love it.

Can't buy a bite hardly on moving baits lately, so sticking with the micro jig. Post-frontal a couple days ago, then 20-25 mph winds today (and another frontal passage). I think this particular pond is just too pressured much of the time. All that blue sky in the background of both pics probably isn't helping much either, but I prefer it most days. Need to check out some different water soon.

 

 

1 hour ago, Team9nine said:

Need to check out some different water soon.

Hole. Jeans.

What a difference 24 hours can make.   Kind of a 2part report:

 

Today for a period of about an hour, it was as close to saltwater fishing as I've ever experienced while Bass fishing.   By that I mean I was watching hundreds of 1-3lb Bass launching themselves out of the air over about a 5acre section of water.    They were pushing all these threadfins back into a huge creek arm of the lake.   You could see the entire lengths of full sized Bass going aerial.    You could see all these little tiny wakes rushing towards your boat, and then Bam, a Bass would bust the top and shad would go flying 2-3ft in the air.     

 

I hooked and caught a Spot that jumped about as high as I've seen a Bass jump.   I'd say 2-3ft in the air, seriously.    Mid flight it spit out several threadfins.    Really incredible visuals, I'm gonna setup a GoPro after today.     

 

The fish were so riled up in this one hour period that I didn't have to pick up a single bottom contact bait, everything was a moving bait.    Caught a number of Spots using the Chatterbait Flashback which is just a fish magnet I'm finding out.     Also caught a number of fish finally on a high dollar crankbait....that same RC 2.5 in Bluegill from yesterday.      I got so excited in the heat of the moment that somehow on a bomb cast the line severed, and the rest of the line on the reel backlashed LOL.   Thankfully it was a floater.   I didn't have time to retie another setup so crankbaits were done for the day.      

 

Part 2:   During all this madness, I was near one of my favorite places for big fish, so I decided to put down the small tackle stuff, and slow roll a chatterbait over a big pine tree laydown in about 10ft of water.    On the first cast I was rewarded with my second biggest fish of the year....a 6lb 7oz LGM, and the biggest since I caught a 7lb 14oz on Aug. 4th.   This is the first fish I've wanted to measure because of how short it and round it was.   Jumped 3 times, really great 1min+ fight, and one of those fish that when you release you just sit down and soak it all in.       

 

The piggy and chatterbait setup.....this is the best big fish bait I've seen, I thought a big lizard was until I started throwing these chatterbaits in July.       It's a big bait though in general, and doesn't get hit by small fish unless you have Spots in your waters I've found.         

 

   

Next pics are representative of the size fish I was catching in the frenzy, both LGM and Spots.   Note the one Spot's belly ? 

Lastly, an Alabama sunset

 

14 minutes ago, gimruis said:

Hole. Jeans.

I can only hope the size of the bass I’m catching increases proportionally with the size of the hole in my jeans over the next couple months  

What an evening! And what a bass! I sure would have loved to see the spots herding shad, but thanks to your explanation, I kinda did.

14 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

What an evening! And what a bass! I sure would have loved to see the spots herding shad, but thanks to your explanation, I kinda did.

Thanks Katie!   I wish all my new friends on here could have witnessed it, again nobody else gets it.

 

I was so excited that at points I was casting straight into the air, straight into the water, casting lures off.......I've just never seen anything like it ?

 

If you could get any moving bait to where they happened to be blowing up at that moment, it was an instant hookup.    

27 minutes ago, Team9nine said:

I can only hope the size of the bass I’m catching increases proportionally with the size of the hole in my jeans over the next couple months  

LOL that was a good one.

8 hours ago, Team9nine said:

 Need to check out some different water soon.

 

 

 

 

Haven't heard much mention about the reservoirs this year. I'm guessing fall crappie fishing is going to change that?

8 hours ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Thanks Katie!   I wish all my new friends on here could have witnessed it, again nobody else gets it.

 

I was so excited that at points I was casting straight into the air, straight into the water, casting lures off.......I've just never seen anything like it ?

 

If you could get any moving bait to where they happened to be blowing up at that moment, it was an instant hookup.    

I've seen seals compress mackerel, alternating between a picket line and Pickett's Charge, but seals are mammals' big brains to coordinate. Dolphins do the same thing, compressing prey into bite-sized balls. And I've fished for white bass when you could chuck a roll of nickels into the water and they'd eat every one, but to do it with spots?!? What an evening! I laughed at your casting, in your overwhelming excitement and joy, hither and yon.

 

Nobody "getting it" reminds me of the Beetles' song: "When the rain comes, they run and hide their heads. They might as well be dead."

 

If you're not thrilled by bonkers banzai spots, you might as well be dead!

Caught a lil o baby bass this morning followed up by a 4+ pounder just now. Lipless One Knocker crank in shimmering red. ? Back at it to see if I can get papa (bass) bear

 

Wow, very nice fish friend!   We can basically use each other's fishing reports to know if the fish are biting.....seems the fish turned on for both of us within the last 24hours.

 

More importantly it's great to see your hands feel well enough to hammer a pig like that

7 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

I've seen seals compress mackerel, alternating between a picket line and Pickett's Charge, but seals are mammals' big brains to coordinate. Dolphins do the same thing, compressing prey into bite-sized balls. And I've fished for white bass when you could chuck a roll of nickels into the water and they'd eat every one, but to do it with spots?!? What an evening! I laughed at your casting, in your overwhelming excitement and joy, hither and yon.

 

Nobody "getting it" reminds me of the Beetles' song: "When the rain comes, they run and hide their heads. They might as well be dead."

 

If you're not thrilled by bonkers banzai spots, you might as well be dead!

And if you ever start feeling bad for the Mackerals....?

 

I often think about the circle of life while fishing, it's so easy to observe all around you.  It's sometimes easy to forget that we as humans are the supreme predator on the planet.   

54 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Wow, very nice fish friend!   We can basically use each other's fishing reports to know if the fish are biting.....seems the fish turned on for both of us within the last 24hours.

 

More importantly it's great to see your hands feel well enough to hammer a pig like that

It was like they switched on for a few hours and sent the baby out as a scout. Ha! It’s died off now so I’m going to try again later this afternoon. Hands are feeling better today so I took full advantage. ?

 

 

I give up. I kept trying to guess what a DD bass is. I failed. A little help?

Double Digit ?

Ahhhh. No wonder I couldn't solve it: IT'S BEYOND ME!

8 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

Ahhhh. No wonder I couldn't solve it: IT'S BEYOND ME!

You and me both?

I tried out my active target today for 20 minutes at a near by lake that get's fished to death.   First I went to open water so I could watch my lure, and see what direction I was "looking".   Then I found a group of 3 fish.  All 3 of them came toward my spinnerbait.  One hit.   14 inch Spot.   I hooked it in the upper lip.  It's lower lip is proof the lake is overfished.   

Very cool, I want to play with that tech so badly.    

 

Watched some really cool stuff on my sonar today speaking of tech.

 

First pic shows a large pod of 1-3lb Bass, both Spotted and LGM on the outskirts of a huge shad ball that were being funneled up by channel current and wind.

 

Second is really cool as it shows several Bass swooping into a massive wave of shad, and you can see the shape of the Shad ball/wave change.

 

Last pic shows lots of these 1-3lb suspending on a flat right off the channel.

 

 

Another excellent day for moving baits.   Best Crankbait bite I've had of the year as well.   Caught 4-5 on the Chatterbait Flashback as well.......love this little lure.   

 

Saw a D Day painted DC3 I think as well.   

 

Well my Friday streak of smallmouth at Jaycee park in allegan is still going, that’s 3 weeks in a row on a Friday that I catch something. I lost a jig to a tree branch in the water hidden, I felt the line tighten and get heavy and I swung. Then I was like yep that’s a branch lol. I lost another jig to a pike, felt the hit dropped my rod tip down towards it reeled up any slack and set hard. Felt it get tight and felt it pop, jig no more. I caught my tiny smallie on a 1/2 megabass blade bait yo yoing it. Caught this fish in less than 15 minutes and thought it could be a good day, it was a good day I didn’t get skunked ?

Today wife and I went back to our favorite dam in North Dakota.

I was all geared up for smallies and walleye having snelled up 20 cheap 1/16 and 1/8 oz ball head jigs using 20# Abrasix.

 

It rained all day with the temp at 60 degrees so the frog tog rain jacket went on but left the pants in the car so i was only 50% dry.

I was using my cheepo 7ft medium berkley cherrywood rod and a pfluegeur supreme spinning reel.

Caught a walleye pretty quick and then a bunch of hand size smallies on the jig with berkley flat tail worm and that was it for smallies.

 

 

I then hit a lull and put on a red rattle trap and threw it up below the dam and caught a much bigger fish. Then i put on a 1oz ball head jig with a pink tube and caught another big fish Here are the pics of my 2 bigger fish.

 

So now it really started to rain and i put on my rain jacket minus the pants and rigged up an 1/8 oz ball head jig with a berkley max scent shiner with a slip bobber and tried again for smallie and walleyes.

Well darn i caught me another nice fish on this small little jig.

I was so worried about loosing this one that i had to really lighten up the drag so to not bend the hook or break the 20# abrasix leader. This fish ran 30 yards down stream and i was fine with that.

I thought i wore her out but as i reeled her back in front of me she jumped completely out of the water and that little jig stayed put.

I brought a net today and wife helped land it.

Take a look at this fish and the jig in its mouth hooked perfectly in the corner.

 

I was just blown away that i landed this fish on this jig, it took me 15 minutes to get her in the net, i was fishing for smallies and walleye just crazy good fortune today that, ummm wait a second i caught 1 more.

 

 

4 tiger muskie from 1.30 pm till 8.30pm, i was blessed today along with the walleye we caught to bring home for supper. It was one of those days that everything aligned just right to make it happen.

One more thing, i was looking down the muskies gullet and seen it had eaten someones fingers, i then realized they were mine haha. Thats how i pick them up by sliding my fingers just inside their gill plate. I now see i need to me more carefull as i am very close to the teeth.

 

Had a tough outing yesterday. Fished 3 hours in the afternoon and got 3 that were less than acceptable for my picture standards lol.

Tried a chatter and spinnerbait off and on with nothing.

Caught one on a super fluke, one on a zoom lizard, and one on a big bites stick worm. At least that one absolutely blew up on it.

Im thinking of expanding my new water search.

My home lake is the worst it’s been in years.

Ive been seeing an otter lately , so that’s  not helping !?

19 minutes ago, N Florida Mike said:

Had a tough outing yesterday. Fished 3 hours in the afternoon and got 3 that were less than acceptable for my picture standards lol.

Tried a chatter and spinnerbait off and on with nothing.

Caught one on a super fluke, one on a zoom lizard, and one on a big bites stick worm. At least that one absolutely blew up on it.

Im thinking of expanding my new water search.

My home lake is the worst it’s been in years.

Ive been seeing an otter lately , so that’s  not helping !?

Hey now, every fish is pic worthy ?