6 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

Having to fish after dark on these shorts days, dreading time change. Water temp still 69 but we had frost this morning 

Did they ever get the goalposts out of the river?

Don't want to get snagged on one when they drift down this far!

19 hours ago, gimruis said:

 

 

It’s easy to tell how chunky that fish is compared to the others just by the way it’s laying on the board.

WHOA! That dude looks like he ate everything in the lake! 5-1/4 at 19" That is amazing!

1 hour ago, sdw215 said:

Temperature I can deal with but can’t fight Mother Nature

Sure you can. With a few Daiwa SVs, long underwear, and a stiff upper lip, anything's possible.

 

Ripping winds and freezing. Almost 24".

 

1 hour ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

My belief is that those who are willing to fish in the worst, most dynamic, or general uncomfortable weather, the greater chances they are the ones who catch the real big fish.

?

Fall bite is on here. I’m going to fish as much as possible in the next few weeks. Even started taking a combo in the work car again. ( I’m commission pay only, not hourly ?)

Got this one on a watermelon seed Fluke jr. , and one of his friends…

All it takes is a day like today for me to give every Yankee a Courageous Award....wow do I hate cold weather lol.     15mph winds today were brutal.   

 

When I'm catching fish on a Ned Rig, it's time for me to go home, that's where I'm at the last two days.    Grateful to not be skunked and catching a few, but something major is shifting in my lake currently.   Heck I even broke out a drop shot today.     I would have got skunked 100% today and yesterday without sonar.    The few fish I could catch were offshore, chasing small bait balls over a featureless bottom.     

 

Third time in last several weeks I've had a huge catfish break me off.   BFS Steez with BFS Steez 6'3 and 12lb CXX didn't phase the fish.....peeled off 20yds and drove right into a thick patch of dying weeds.   Spent thirty minutes trying to get the dang fish out so I could get back my Jackall.   $38.99 + tax is what these big trash mudfish owe me, and I'm drawing up a gameplan currently to collect.   Very frustrating.

 

   

Dang it, Alex. I hate to read you frustrated. And chilly. And $38.99+tax-less.

 

I'm going again in a few days. I wonder if Maine lakes will have flipped and I'll be wearing a white stripe down my back like Pepe Le Pew. 

15 hours ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

 

LOL, look at that piece of junk tied on the end of that pole in the background ?

 

Nice pretty fish.    I thought DST is going away.....you just soul crushed me with that comment 

Haha! I slung that silly thing all evening and got zilch. Caught the one and only fish while furiously paddling (Got trolling motor probs) the boat back up into an eddy, had a plastic worm dangling over the side of the boat and the fish grabbed it haha. 
 

I heard rumor of daylight savings being permanent, hopefully it’s true 

On 10/17/2022 at 3:50 PM, thediscochef said:

I was on the bank slaying dinks on a lipless when a nice man graciously offered me the back seat on his boat. It's the second time he's offered so I figured I'd take him up. Guy knows his fishing and has been at it a long time. It was a very cool experience. It was real windy out today so we didn't venture too far out. Lake was choppy. I caught probably 10-12 with this fat 4lb fish being the heavy on the day. Chatterbait Minimax with a yamamoto shad shape worm. I'm very thankful he invited me on his boat, we exchanged info so I assume I'll be back out with him. It's been a good day.

 

Great fish, bud! Very cool of him to offer you a seat on the boat, hopefully you guys continue to partner up out there.

Learned a new trick how to catch Bass 100% of the time today:    GO CRAPPIE FISHING ?

 

I went and bought 3 dozen Tuffy minnows because the last three days have been brutal for Bass.

 

I made a deal with myself, I could take one Bass setup, and one lure.    I took a Jackhammer, and three spinning reels along with the minnows.   

 

Caught half of dozen nice 1-2lb LGMs on the Jackhammer before the Live Magic Shad trailer gave up the ghost.   

 

In between throwing the Jackhammer a little bit, I was tossing these Tuffy minnows on a GL3 Medium Fast 6ft rod, and 4lb test around deep brush piles.     Every single brush pile I dipped a minnow on, I ended up in a several minute fight with quality sized Spots.     When I say I was fighting these fish for minutes, that's not a lie.   I hooked 7, and 4 broke me off.    Ridiculous amounts of fun, albeit moments of shear frustration.     

 

I did catch a beautiful hand sized Bluegill.     Overall caught a number of Bass, and one Bluegill....no Crappie, yet that's what I was fishing for.....fishing never fails to make you look like a fool ?

Hey

 

Decided to cast out in the back after work, landed these two examples. Nice size tilapia, I don't catch these very often. Juvenile peacock bass but still a decent fighting fish ?

Alex, next time, go Mako shark fishing at the same lake and see what you catch. 

1 minute ago, ol'crickety said:

Alex, next time, go Mako shark fishing at the same lake and see what you catch. 

Haha, Mako Sharks were my favorite "animal" growing up.    Talk about an amazing fish.   

 

Do you ever target anything besides those beautiful Maine Bass?    It's all but impossible for me to target fish other than Bass when freshwater fishing.    I love to catch every type of fish even Carp and Gar, but you know this better than anyone perhaps in this thread......Bass get ahold of your soul, and make you beyond obsessed.     I don't go to bed dreaming about catching a PB Crappie, Catfish, etc., but I do for every species of Bass.   

Squeezed in a quick sesh after work and before dinner. Chilly SE wind was ripping, and I was not dressed for it. Not a whiff for the first 45 minutes before I took a run over to one of my favorite newly recharged flats. I found em stacked up nicely on the north edge of a big mat which was creating a current break. Had a nice one shake off in the pads which sent my Jackhammer flying into my rod like a bullet. Figured it might be toast, but after fighting a few more feisty fish through the pads I think it's hunky-dory. Had another one spit a Project Z weedless as I was trying to lip it while holding the rod in the middle of the blank, so under tension. Thank god for that weed guard or I'd have face jewelry right now. Right then my wife called to let me know she'd already ordered dinner, so I called it a win and boogied on outta there. Not bad.

 

 

Found a nice looking spinnerbait while cleaning out my boat, figured I’d try it a while. After one hour no bites I tossed my jig on the St croix Legend tournament bass rod. It’s probably not designed for jigs but I had 15 lb invisix on there and a few minutes in I felt thump thump and caught a nice smallie. It’s crazy how dense/springy/something that line is and how that transmits the bite. Quite the fun battle in 30,000 cfs of current 

Beautiful fish, Phish!

 

Alex, I had musky fever for about three years, but casting big lures is so hard on a body. I was smallmouth focused for about 30 years. As a kid, I loved bluegills. I've done some walleye fishing too, but nowadays, it's bass, bass, and BASS. Smallie or largies doesn't matter, much like largies or spots doesn't matter to you. 

 

I have yet to fish a chatterbait. Or a roboworm. Or a swimbait. Sigh.

2 hours ago, BassSteve said:

Hey

 

Decided to cast out in the back after work, landed these two examples. Nice size tilapia, I don't catch these very often. Juvenile peacock bass but still a decent fighting fish ?

 

Those tilapia are the bane of my existence. I'm up to 85 of them culled for 2022. A little sad that I haven't gotten a big one this year yet, but still got some time. Pretty good fighters, at least.

2 minutes ago, Aaron_H said:

 

Those tilapia are the bane of my existence. I'm up to 85 of them culled for 2022. A little sad that I haven't gotten a big one this year yet, but still got some time. Pretty good fighters, at least.

Lol this one basically let me drag it out of the water, did not put up much fight 

1 hour ago, TnRiver46 said:

Found a nice looking spinnerbait while cleaning out my boat, figured I’d try it a while. After one hour no bites I tossed my jig on the St croix Legend tournament bass rod. It’s probably not designed for jigs but I had 15 lb invisix on there and a few minutes in I felt thump thump and caught a nice smallie. It’s crazy how dense/springy/something that line is and how that transmits the bite. Quite the fun battle in 30,000 cfs of current 

Nice brown piggy! 

53 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

Beautiful fish, Phish!

 

Alex, I had musky fever for about three years, but casting big lures is so hard on a body. I was smallmouth focused for about 30 years. As a kid, I loved bluegills. I've done some walleye fishing too, but nowadays, it's bass, bass, and BASS. Smallie or largies doesn't matter, much like largies or spots doesn't matter to you. 

 

I have yet to fish a chatterbait. Or a roboworm. Or a swimbait. Sigh.

I'd love to Musky fish!    

 

Honestly with your amazing results, I wouldn't change or add a thing.   That said, it's too fun to tickle the tackle monkey to not always be trying new stuff.

 

I'm the same way with your whopper plopper, I intend to try those this summer.  So many lures, so little time haha 

4 minutes ago, BassSteve said:

Lol this one basically let me drag it out of the water, did not put up much fight 

 

Yeah the small ones aren't much sport, but once they get a little heft to them they are aggressive strikers in my experience that are pretty good at using those tall flat sides to their advantage to bulldog you, and they can make some pretty impressive runs. No jumps, though. I've had a handful over 7lb (and one just over 8.5lb) and they were fantastic fights.

 

FWC says they "rarely" strike artificials, but I'd like to take one on a trip with me to some of these spots....

It's always funny reading about different parts of the country how different the weather is. When guys are bemoaning fishing in 15mph winds while I'm looking at Sunday's forecast hoping that maybe the wind will only be 15mph when I start in the morning before it gets up to the forecasted 25-30mph ?

 

WindS 25 mph

Wind Gusts60 mph

1 minute ago, Bluebasser86 said:

WindS 25 mph

Wind Gusts60 mph

Come up here for the weekend

 

Saturday

Mostly sunny, with a high near 75. Southeast wind 10 to 15 mph.

1 hour ago, Aaron_H said:

 

Yeah the small ones aren't much sport, but once they get a little heft to them they are aggressive strikers in my experience that are pretty good at using those tall flat sides to their advantage to bulldog you, and they can make some pretty impressive runs. No jumps, though. I've had a handful over 7lb (and one just over 8.5lb) and they were fantastic fights.

 

FWC says they "rarely" strike artificials, but I'd like to take one on a trip with me to some of these spots....

Oh it definitely hit my crankbait with force lol, I thought it was a decent size bass at first. I would agree that they rarely go for artificial lures, there are a lot of them in my local pond and my lures pass right by and they don't really react lol, sort of get spooked if anything 

30 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

Come up here for the weekend

 

Saturday

Mostly sunny, with a high near 75. Southeast wind 10 to 15 mph.

That's about what it was last time I fished Tonka. Such a huge body of water with so many good looking areas. 

Just now, Bluebasser86 said:

That's about what it was last time I fished Tonka. Such a huge body of water with so many good looking areas. 

Well, it's a bit different right now - about 1.5' below normal cause of the drought.

4 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

It's always funny reading about different parts of the country how different the weather is. When guys are bemoaning fishing in 15mph winds while I'm looking at Sunday's forecast hoping that maybe the wind will only be 15mph when I start in the morning before it gets up to the forecasted 25-30mph ?

 

WindS 25 mph

Wind Gusts60 mph

You know it's too windy when your lipless crankbait starts skipping across the top of the water from your line bowing, and that's on a three acre pond.

3 hours ago, The Bassman said:

You know it's too windy when your lipless crankbait starts skipping across the top of the water from your line bowing, and that's on a three acre pond.

I've had those days, lipless, spinnerbaits, and bladed jigs just skating across the surface because a 50mph gust just caught my line and drug it.