Decided to go to a “big fish” lake today. Fishing can be tough here, but the possibility of a new PB exists with every cast at this lake. 
 

It was 34 degrees at launch, and water temps were 53-54. Typical late season bassin conditions. It wasn’t until the sun made its way over a mountain that the bass started biting. No great size to any of em, but they were all fat and healthy. A few on spinnerbaits and even got one topwater on the PopMax in the cold water. 

 

In between the bass, I probably caught 25 pickerel. Couldn’t keep them

off the line. This lake has true lunker largemouth but didn’t run into any today. But had a lot of fish, beautiful scenery and wildlife in the way of otters, a bald Eagle, blue heron, and some deer. 

 

4 minutes ago, Jar11591 said:

Decided to go to a “big fish” lake today. Fishing can be tough, but the possibility of a new PB exists with every cast at this lake. 
 

It was 34 degrees at launch, and water temps were 53-54. Typical late season bassin conditions. It wasn’t until the sun made its way over a mountain that the bass started biting. No great size to any of em, but they were all fat and healthy. A few on spinnerbaits and even got one topwater on the PopMax in the cold water. 

 

In between the bass, I probably caught 25 pickerel. Couldn’t keep them

off the line. This lake has true lunker largemouth but didn’t run into any today. But had a lot of fish, beautiful scenery and wildlife in the way of otters, a bald Eagle, blue heron, and some deer. 

 

Great pics.. ?

Lots of early action for dinks but the legal aged fish seemed to all be hungover and asleep. As is always the case, still awesome being out there in the fall with hardly anyone else on the water.

 

Pops with a little fella on topwater.

 

Double hookup with a couple of giants.

 

"Big" fish of the day 

 

2 hours ago, gimruis said:

There is usually a point in the fall around the first half of October here when the water cools into the 50's and there is a really good bite with an aggressive approach.  That pattern has played out here for about 3 weeks now; last fall it never materialized, presumably because it was so warm all the way into November.  I also think that it is beneficial to wait until midday or so to start fishing after its warmed up some, as opposed to starting early in the morning when its midsummer.

 

Another item to keep in mind, at least here, is that the pressure has dropped significantly lately because hunting season has opened.  Duck, pheasant, grouse, and deer archery seasons are all open here now and I think a fair number of anglers switch gears to that (which is what I'll be doing soon too). 

Yes, that is correct.  There is a panel of judges that look at entries/photos submitted and take that sort of thing into account.  As I previously stated, the primary reason I bought this white hawg trough with black numbers was to show the size of the fish as clearly as possible.  The less "subjectivity" there is, the better.

 

Someone has a 19 1/4 inch smallmouth which is the clubhouse leader.  I'm probably going to finish in 2nd unless a miracle occurs the next 2 weeks here.  I honestly think that the trophy class status for largemouth here in region 1 being 22 inches is a bit excessive.  Additionally, the trophy class status for a smallmouth here is only 20 inches, which I think it too low.  They should both be 21 inches IMO.

Yeah I go years without catching a  22” largemouth. 

19 hours ago, gimruis said:

I had my best outing of the entire season today.  Ironically, its probably going to be my last attempt to bass fish too with water temps plummeting.  I might muskie fish once more.  I caught 31 largemouth and 1 pike in about 4.5 hours.  13 of the bass were over 17 inches, including my biggest this season, a 20 incher.  At one point I caught fish on four consecutive casts.  I never saw another person out there the whole time either.

Atta Boy!!! Them's some nice chunks. If you don't make it back out, that's a fine way to end the season.

1 hour ago, TnRiver46 said:

Yeah I go years without catching a  22” largemouth. 

I've never caught one that big here in 20+ years.

 

On the contrary, I've caught probably two dozen smallmouth that are 20 inches during that span.  The smallmouth grow just as big as the largies do here.

We were hammered by big rain here yet again this past Thursday, which was awesome. My spots that had been dilapidated for the past 5 months are fully refreshed now. It usually takes several days for these places to stabilize after a blitz of rain like we had, but the wind was blowing late yesterday afternoon so I had to give it a whirl. Made it down to one of my spots to find it void of people, which made me smile.

 

The milfoil here is still laced with filamentous algae, so chucking spinner baits is a misery. It simply shuts the blades down pronto, but with @LrgmouthShadalways babbling on about them, I though what the hey.?

 

On my first cast a giant Pickerel slammed a double willow bluegill spinner and fought hard 'til the end. Really thought I had a mongo bass until I saw it. Unbuttoned his slimy azz in the water, threw again, and got another. Nicked up my Tastu, but I didn't lose my spinner. My fingernails were already gack'd up from trying to get the algae off, so back in the bag it went.

 

Got a nice hard fighting bass running a jackhammer along a pad line while wading in a flat which was bone dry just 2 short weeks ago. Darkness fell, and next up I got a crappie and a healthy small bass on the trusty Livingston wake.

 

Shortly thereafter I watched as wave of headlamps descended through the woods on the opposite shoreline. They were so bright that they lit up my side of the lake. This crew doesn't turn them off, so it's pretty unbearable. By the time I made it back around to where I planned to fish last, the brigades had occupied every spot on the eastern shoreline with surfcasting gear and live bait. This faction had huge coolers with water in them, so around here we know they're selling the fish to certain restaurants in the city that want them alive. They get busted sometimes, but ultimately nothing stops them. There were already bullhead and perch swimming in coolers by the time I made my way around. They take everything, so only god knows how many of our quality bass have ended up in a wonton. This is how it is living 30 miles outside of NYC. Oh well. Next time.

 

16 minutes ago, gimruis said:

I've never caught one that big here in 20+ years.

 

On the contrary, I've caught probably two dozen smallmouth that are 20 inches during that span.  The smallmouth grow just as big as the largies do here.

Same here with the exception of chickamauga, but even that lake has some monster smallmouth 

27 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

^Beautiful photo!^

18 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

^Beautiful photo!^

Thanks! My wife is a professional hahha. She took leaf pics for hours today 

6 hours ago, Jar11591 said:

Decided to go to a “big fish” lake today. Fishing can be tough here, but the possibility of a new PB exists with every cast at this lake. 
 

It was 34 degrees at launch, and water temps were 53-54. Typical late season bassin conditions. It wasn’t until the sun made its way over a mountain that the bass started biting. No great size to any of em, but they were all fat and healthy. A few on spinnerbaits and even got one topwater on the PopMax in the cold water. 

 

In between the bass, I probably caught 25 pickerel. Couldn’t keep them

off the line. This lake has true lunker largemouth but didn’t run into any today. But had a lot of fish, beautiful scenery and wildlife in the way of otters, a bald Eagle, blue heron, and some deer. 

 

What beautiful trees and country, great stuff man!   

3 hours ago, PhishLI said:

We were hammered by big rain here yet again this past Thursday, which was awesome. My spots that have been dilapidated for the past 5 months are fully refreshed now. It usually takes several days for these places to stabilize after a blitz of rain like we had, but the wind was blowing late yesterday afternoon so I had to give it a whirl. Made it down to one of my spots to find it void of people, which made me smile.

 

The milfoil here is stall laced with filamentous algae, so chucking spinner baits is a misery. It simply shuts the blades down pronto, but with @LrgmouthShadalways babbling on about them, I though what the hey.?

 

On my first cast a giant Pickerel slammed a double willow bluegill spinner and fought hard 'til the end. Really thought I had a mongo bass until I saw it. Unbuttoned his slimy azz in the water, threw again, and got another. Nicked up my Tastu, but I didn't lose my spinner. My fingernails were already gack'd up from trying to get the algae off, so back in the bag it went.

 

Got a nice hard fighting bass running a jackhammer along a pad line while wading in a flat which was bone dry just 2 short weeks ago. Darkness fell, and next up I got a crappie and a healthy small bass on the trusted Livingston wake.

 

Shortly thereafter, I watched as wave of headlamps descended through the woods on the opposite shoreline. They were so bright that they lit up my side of the lake. This crew doesn't turn them off, so it's pretty unbearable. By the time I made it back around to where I planned to fish last, the brigades had occupied every spot on the eastern shoreline with surfcasting gear and live bait. This faction had huge coolers with water in them, so around here we know they're selling the fish to certain restaurants in the city that want them alive. They get busted sometimes, but nothing stops them ultimately. There were already bullhead and perch swimming in coolers by the time I reached them. They take everything, so only god knows how many of our quality bass have ended up in a wonton. This is how it is living 30 miles outside of NYC. Oh well. Next time.

 

Beautiful fish, I'll get banned if I said what I wish happened to people like that.     That's why we can't have nice things in society.

1 hour ago, TnRiver46 said:

Nice fish, even nicer photo of the sweet looking pooch who appears to be saying “hey dad look at what I see”. 

20 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

What beautiful trees and country, great stuff man!   

Thanks. It truly is beautiful up here in the mountains this time of year. Todays trip help numb the pain of the Braves’ early exit ?

Well it's gotta be tomorrow then lol......huge drop in temps on Tuesday, been putting in extra hours fishing in front of this thing mainly fishing for my DD home lake goal.    Eventually you have to pick up some smaller baits and catch a few fish to keep yourself going.     Caught 7-8 fish, mixed bag, and did catch one pig that I did break the scale out for, but it was only 4.2lb.      

 

This is perhaps the shortest, fattest LGM I've ever caught, and such a fantastic fighter for a LGM.    She came off a 3/8th JackHammer in BamaBug with a 4" Live Magic Shad trailer with spiked tailed.   She was hiding in a laydown near deep water and the main lake channel.   These are the places I've been catching all my fish over 5lbs since the end of July.   They get under a dock, or besides a laydown somewhere near the main channel with close access to deeper water, and then let the current and surface wind bring the bait right by their faces is my theory.     

 

 

 

Lastly, the type of conditions I'm struggling to deal with 

5 hours ago, NorcalBassin said:

Lots of early action for dinks but the legal aged fish seemed to all be hungover and asleep. As is always the case, still awesome being out there in the fall with hardly anyone else on the water.

 

Pops with a little fella on topwater.

 

Double hookup with a couple of giants.

 

"Big" fish of the day 

 

Always so envious of your wonderful fishing partners, your fish are fantastic as always too

8 minutes ago, Jar11591 said:

Thanks. It truly is beautiful up here in the mountains this time of year. Todays trip help numb the pain of the Braves’ early exit ?

100%.....didn't hurt this year like in 2020, 2019, and 2018 though.     Knowing WS history, the likihood to repeat is very low, and a number of teams have never won a WS.    I'm grateful us fans got to have such an epic run to the WS ring last year.     If we can do that once a decade, I'll be happy. 

Alex, you always encourage all of us, but no one posts more four-pound-plus fish than you. You are the man.

2 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

Alex, you always encourage all of us, but no one posts more four-pound-plus fish than you. You are the man.

Why thank you Katie, and right back at you.   Nobody more encouraging, and friendly than yourself on here, and that's saying something as this is a community full of amazing folks.   

 

 They’re biting! Got 8 this evening. 6 on a watermelon red UV Speed worm, and 2 on a June bug red ol monster …The bigger fish were on laydowns by our island…

They did not want the zoom  lizard. I also tried a strike king bitsy minnow micro crankbait with no action…

 

Mike, those look like Yankee bass. They're so dark and beautiful, especially that second one. 

42 minutes ago, Eric 26 said:

Nice fish, even nicer photo of the sweet looking pooch who appears to be saying “hey dad look at what I see”. 

One time she thought the water was dry land and just walked off the boat. She sank more than I knew a dog could sink! When she finally surfaced she was swimming after some geese hahah, had to run her down with the trolling motor 

19 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

Mike, those look like Yankee bass. They're so dark and beautiful, especially that second one. 

 Thanks! We have a lot of dark colored fish here , due to all the cypress tannic stained waters. Actually, many are quite a bit darker than these …

19 minutes ago, N Florida Mike said:

 They’re biting! Got 8 this evening. 6 on a watermelon red UV Speed worm, and 2 on a June bug red ol monster …The bigger fish were on laydowns by our island…

They did not want the zoom  lizard. I also tried a strike king bitsy minnow micro crankbait with no action…

 

Beautifully rich LGM brother, like Katie said, they look like those heathy dark beauties she pulls from the bogs and swamps 

 

Seems that regardless of latitude, LGM get this rich dark green color in more swamp, boggy type waters.    

 

I'm a bit of a zoom man myself, my biggest fish including my PB until this year almost exclusively came off Zoom Magnum 8" Lizards.    Caught a few nice fish on that Junebug Ol Monster too.   It's just so big for a worm, feels un-natural but it works.  

6 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Beautifully rich LGM brother, like Katie said, they look like those heathy dark beauties she pulls from the bogs and swamps 

 

Seems that regardless of latitude, LGM get this rich dark green color in more swamp, boggy type waters.    

 

I'm a bit of a zoom man myself, my biggest fish including my PB until this year almost exclusively came off Zoom Magnum 8" Lizards.    Caught a few nice fish on that Junebug Ol Monster too.   It's just so big for a worm, feels un-natural but it works.  

It’s funny, the dark LM we have live in super clear water in the mountains. I guess they get a suntan because the water is so clear? Who knows. There are no swamps of any kind in east TN, water is  busy rolling downhill 

Just now, TnRiver46 said:

It’s funny, the dark LM we have live in super clear water in the mountains. I guess they get a suntan because the water is so clear? Who knows. There are no swamps of any kind in east TN, water is  busy rolling downhill 

I wish I was a fish biologist, but obviously am not so I'm always just throwing out my theories based on anecdotal evidence and data points.    The actual fish biologist I know isn't all that impressive on Bass, and in general very very few are.    One could make the argument that professional or savant level Bass anglers are the true experts of Bass biology.    

 

I might be mildly autistic though, so my point connecting skills might be extra sharp ?

4 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

It’s funny, the dark LM we have live in super clear water in the mountains. I guess they get a suntan because the water is so clear? Who knows. There are no swamps of any kind in east TN, water is  busy rolling downhill 

I’ve noticed fish in clearer water can be dark if they spend a lot of time under cover.

My lake is between clear and stained, but the “under cover “ fish are dark…