BRRRR! It was 34 degrees when I launched my canoe this morning. The water was shallow, so I had to step into it. It was so foggy too. I did see four Great Blue Herons and one Bald Eagle. I also saw a beaver. It had no fear of me. Fog is nature's curtain and when the curtain is drawn, animals are less afraid of us, I think.

 

I only caught nine fish and two were pickerel, which I didn't photograph because they are bonkers. BONKERS! I just try to survive them. And most of the time, I just get a blur when I do try to photograph one.

 

I'll lead with some short, but stout bass and then a photo of the fog. Then some longer bass. The smallmouth was so rotund and so was the last bass. The last bass was only 15 inches, but built like a 19-incher. See how its body slopes downhill to its tail? Drop some snow on that bass and your pet mouse could ski him. 

 

Hey, the lead article on the Bass Resource home page is mine. Cool, huh? 

 

Alex, I also have an old camera. It's an Olympus Stylus Tough. One of these years, I'll upgrade.

 

 

53 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

BRRRR! It was 34 degrees when I launched my canoe this morning. The water was shallow, so I had to step into it. It was so foggy too. I did see four Great Blue Herons and one Bald Eagle. I also saw a beaver. It had no fear of me. Fog is nature's curtain and when the curtain is drawn, animals are less afraid of us, I think.

 

I only caught nine fish and two were pickerel, which I didn't photograph because they are bonkers. BONKERS! I just try to survive them. And most of the time, I just get a blur when I do try to photograph one.

 

I'll lead with some short, but stout bass and then a photo of the fog. Then some longer bass. The smallmouth was so rotund and so was the last bass. The last bass was only 15 inches, but built like a 19-incher. See how its body slopes downhill to its tail? Drop some snow on that bass and your pet mouse could ski him. 

 

Hey, the lead article on the Bass Resource home page is mine. Cool, huh? 

 

Alex, I also have an old camera. It's an Olympus Stylus Tough. One of these years, I'll upgrade.

 

 

Nice trip report and pics as always, and excellent article ! I only have one question, how do you keep track of 157 bass??? I lose count somewhere between 3 and 5. (Tennessee public education…….)

59 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

BRRRR! It was 34 degrees when I launched my canoe this morning. The water was shallow, so I had to step into it. It was so foggy too. I did see four Great Blue Herons and one Bald Eagle. I also saw a beaver. It had no fear of me. Fog is nature's curtain and when the curtain is drawn, animals are less afraid of us, I think.

 

I only caught nine fish and two were pickerel, which I didn't photograph because they are bonkers. BONKERS! I just try to survive them. And most of the time, I just get a blur when I do try to photograph one.

 

I'll lead with some short, but stout bass and then a photo of the fog. Then some longer bass. The smallmouth was so rotund and so was the last bass. The last bass was only 15 inches, but built like a 19-incher. See how its body slopes downhill to its tail? Drop some snow on that bass and your pet mouse could ski him. 

 

Hey, the lead article on the Bass Resource home page is mine. Cool, huh? 

 

Alex, I also have an old camera. It's an Olympus Stylus Tough. One of these years, I'll upgrade.

 

 

Wow, look at how cool the head on the last one is.....has an almost Salmon elongated shape to it.

 

Such special fish as always Katie, these are seemingly unmolested fish devoid of human contact.....the way you are able to unobtrusively sneak into their magical realms where other humans think "naw, too much work", or "not worth the risk for a skunk", adds to the magic of your fishing style.

 

In regard to a camera, you fish in about the worst conditions possible to take pics.   You fish early, early in the morning, lots of fog usually, and with your spartan form of fishing, water is getting on everything at some point if only droplets.   Heck when I paddle I end up more wet than water ?

 

I bet you caught hundred + quality Bass since you called the season, God bless stubborn addicted Bassheads

Oh snap, I'll go check the article out right now!   

 

@ol'crickety still crushing them a month after you were ready to hang it up for the year! Really enjoyed the article as well. That’s the kind of fishing most people never get to experience. 

I went for a couple of hours before work today. It was the first day in a couple of weeks that they weren't hitting the spook. Switched to a lipless and no luck there either. It was a little cloudy and breezy so I picked up a spinnerbait. This one was 17".

4 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

Nice trip report and pics as always, and excellent article ! I only have one question, how do you keep track of 157 bass??? I lose count somewhere between 3 and 5. (Tennessee public education…….)

Most years, I simply counted as I caught them. One year, I took three of those clicking counters, one each for pike, smallmouth, and walleye. That was way too complicated. Then I settled on a single counter with each fish, whatever the species, counting as a click. BTW, you're a hoot and a half!

 

1 hour ago, Jar11591 said:

@ol'crickety still crushing them a month after you were ready to hang it up for the year! Really enjoyed the article as well. That’s the kind of fishing most people never get to experience. 

There are so many lakes loaded with smallmouth, but you do have to be willing to sleep on rocky shores and bathe in the lakes. That eliminates a chunk of fishermen right there.

 

4 hours ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Wow, look at how cool the head on the last one is.....has an almost Salmon elongated shape to it.

 

Such special fish as always Katie, these are seemingly unmolested fish devoid of human contact.....the way you are able to unobtrusively sneak into their magical realms where other humans think "naw, too much work", or "not worth the risk for a skunk", adds to the magic of your fishing style.

 

In regard to a camera, you fish in about the worst conditions possible to take pics.   You fish early, early in the morning, lots of fog usually, and with your spartan form of fishing, water is getting on everything at some point if only droplets.   Heck when I paddle I end up more wet than water ?

 

I bet you caught hundred + quality Bass since you called the season, God bless stubborn addicted Bassheads

Oh snap, I'll go check the article out right now!   

 

 

You're right, Alex. That bass does look like a mating salmon. Imagine what it will look like in five years and if keeps growing in its current directions: It will be Jurassic Bass!

 

You're also right about my struggles with water in the boat. After 30 minutes or so, my canoe has water in it, as the paddle sheds water as I switch sides. And water, as you've seen, has freckled my camera's lens more than once. 

 

You're right again (Trifecta!) about the risk of a skunk. I have worked darned hard to reach some lakes in Canada, thinking I'll be casting to fish that have never, EVER seen a lure and I ended up casting to no fish at all.  

6 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

BRRRR! It was 34 degrees when I launched my canoe this morning. The water was shallow, so I had to step into it. It was so foggy too. I did see four Great Blue Herons and one Bald Eagle. I also saw a beaver. It had no fear of me. Fog is nature's curtain and when the curtain is drawn, animals are less afraid of us, I think.

 

I only caught nine fish and two were pickerel, which I didn't photograph because they are bonkers. BONKERS! I just try to survive them. And most of the time, I just get a blur when I do try to photograph one.

 

I'll lead with some short, but stout bass and then a photo of the fog. Then some longer bass. The smallmouth was so rotund and so was the last bass. The last bass was only 15 inches, but built like a 19-incher. See how its body slopes downhill to its tail? Drop some snow on that bass and your pet mouse could ski him. 

 

Hey, the lead article on the Bass Resource home page is mine. Cool, huh? 

 

Alex, I also have an old camera. It's an Olympus Stylus Tough. One of these years, I'll upgrade.

 

 

7 bass that size is a decent day in my neck of the woods. Congrats on the article. I enjoyed it.

Katie the article was dynamite, but that's what I expected.    Beautiful writing style, and amazing subject matter obviously.   I thought you were going to write about your current form of Bass fishing, but I guess we must DEMAND a second article in the future.    "Maine's secret treasure trove of Largemouth Bass, bogs, and copious topwater action"....see I already got a title for you

 

Go figure I start to catch the Crappie better once I stopped wasting so much time trying to catch them.   Today I edged my previous biggest one out....this one was 1.3lbs.    Caught 3 more, along with 7 Bass.    The Bass remain in the 1-2lb range, but boy are these smaller fish getting fat.  

 

Everything came off the Flashback Mini 1/8th with a 3" Armor Shad burning it.   As close to a fish magnet as I've found.    

 

 

Those are fine looking fish, Alex. They look like the fish I caught this morning. Not long, but well fed and healthy. 

 

I'm marinating a second article. So glad you enjoyed the first!

I went fishing again this morning, but I'm thinking the days of 30/40/50 fish mornings are done until next year. I did catch ten, but only seven were largemouth. The other three were pickerel and I took a photo of an especially pretty one. I also caught an 18-inch bass (the second photo) and one pushing 17 inches, so they were fun. Heck, it's always fun, even when I don't catch a bunch or they're short. I just like being on the water. There was a huge flock of geese on the water this morning and another that looked like they wanted to land on the lake, but passed. I even like taking pics of the little bass with fat tummies because they're on their way to being big bass!

Wife and I went to the small dam on wednesday which was a balmy 65 degrees here in north dakota.

I brought left over minnows that i stored in the freezer for a week. To freeze them i put them in a tupperware container and then poured windshield washer solution in to cover them up.

The fluid is good to minus 20 so the internals of the fish containng water will freeze but the minnow remains very flexible. Next time i will use cheap potato vodka.

 

I started with hair jigs and small paddletails and caught nothing, wife was allready catching small smallies and walleye on the dead minnows using bobber and 1/8oz ballhead jig.

I finally put down the fake lures and went with jigging a ballhead with a dead minnow and caught some smallies.

 

I then went with a bobber and jig and joined the wife in bringing home a very tasty dinner for thursday night and leftovers for friday night.

 

 

You two have such fun, throttleplate.

Not the caliber of jerkbait fish I was expecting from this pond

 

 

This one was the biggest of the evening, but still a far cry from what I'm after. Only one I weighed out of the ten I caught, went 3lb 1oz.

 

 

This pond has some real big girls in it that I'm hoping to connect with this fall. Last November in this pond I caught my then-PB of 9lb 1oz yo-yoing a lipless through some shad schools. Been a little slower going this fall, but today was the first time I've seen serious bait activity on top so far this fall, a good sign. Wind was kicking for the first few hours, sustained around 12 or 13 mph which wasn't too bad, had some gusts around 20 though, definitely helped get the bite fired up. That first hour they were munching the gold Stunna 112, but quickly shifted to the lipless once the wind laid down a bit.

 

And managed to get this little guy on that 4" BD Shad swimbait I found a while back. Had one other fish on it but it came off when I bank flipped it. Smaller than this one so I didn't sweat it.

 

 

I also got into some tilapia schools, caught (and culled) seven of them before I got bored and moved on, all on the Thunderhawk Sergeant lipless in gold/black. It's a sweet lipless, I've been trying to put more time into it to see how it stacks up, and I do love those rotating hook hangers. Today makes 92 tilapia I have culled for 2022 so far, all caught on hook and line.

Fishing in a nutshell:  4 days in the life of a fisherman 

 

Thursday......takes until the end of the session to figure out the correct patten

 

Friday....uses newly learned pattern and absolutely wears out Spots, LGMs, and big Crappies 

 

Saturday......90% chance of rain, and like chalk on a sidewalk, my pattern that produced such a memorable day will be washed away only for me to have to find a new pattern on Sunday. 

 

My PB for Crappie is rapidly changing, one of the good things about learning a new species.   Two weeks ago it was 1.2.    Yesterday or the day before can't remember, it was 1.3.    Then today I got a 1.4.     I have to wonder if a guy who has never Crappie fished until the last month or two and can catch Crappies this size, just how big do the Crappie get in this lake. 

 

Caught double digit Crappie, and double digit Bass.     Biggest Bass was a healthy 2lb+ fish, several Spots likely close to that 2lb range.    A couple of different times I had multiple Spots trying to rip the bait from the hooked fish's mouth right by the boat, but again couldn't get another lure on them fast enough before they saw me.    So exciting.     One of those rare days where you are catching a fish every 5-10mins....the one's where you are willing the sun to stay above the horizon.   

 

The Flashback Mini with a 3" Armor Shad in the silver or white colors are as close to imitating fleeing threadfins as I've found in any bait.   This time of year, you can't retrieve it fast enough.   This thing darts randomly about 2-3" to one side or the other every few seconds.......the effect seemingly triggers an instant reaction strike.    All Chatterbaits "hunt", but this is a 1/8th finesse style bait that is being burned on retrieve yet remains down in the water column and violently hunts randomly without any additional input from the angler.   I ended up trolling with the TM and catching them even better, for whatever reason I couldn't quite match the trolling retrieve.    I've been talking this flashback mini up for months, but the wow factor still hasn't faded.   

 

   

 

 

Lastly the new PB Crappie 1.4

Thrilling report, Alex! Plump with information too.It was both a macro and micro look at fishing. The macro is learning a pattern and then realizing it's chalk on the sidewalk with thunder and pelting rain on their way. The micro was the details about fishing the Flashback Mini. That's the good stuff that the barkeep secrets under the counter for when the customers leave, but you brought it out and put it on the counter for all to see and enjoy.

 

I'm going to eat and then I'm off. I hope to experiment a little more today. I think my plunging numbers have been because the fish have changed and I haven't. Yesterday morning, I did catch a couple on Phish's suggestion of a soft plastic paddle-tailed bait, so I'm going to use that more this morning and I'm going to try a walking-the-dog bait and cast a lipless crankabait too, as well as a jerkbait. We'll see. 

 

But I'm glad you're catching them, Alex! 

5 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

Thrilling report, Alex! Plump with information too.It was both a macro and micro look at fishing. The macro is learning a pattern and then realizing it's chalk on the sidewalk with thunder and pelting rain on their way. The micro was the details about fishing the Flashback Mini. That's the good stuff that the barkeep secrets under the counter for when the customers leave, but you brought it out and put it on the counter for all to see and enjoy.

 

I'm going to eat and then I'm off. I hope to experiment a little more today. I think my plunging numbers have been because the fish have changed and I haven't. Yesterday morning, I did catch a couple on Phish's suggestion of a soft plastic paddle-tailed bait, so I'm going to use that more this morning and I'm going to try a walking-the-dog bait and cast a lipless crankabait too, as well as a jerkbait. We'll see. 

 

But I'm glad you're catching them, Alex! 

Thanks Katie!  Look forwarding to seeing some of Maine's most beautiful Bass later today!  

I launched my canoe in total darkness and was on the water for five minutes when my headlamp stopped working. It was windy too, so I was bobbing in the dark. I ended my fishing season like Willie Mays in center field, bumbling and stumbling. 

 

I did hear a hoot owl and we chatted for a bit, as I do a pretty good hoot owl imitation, good enough to fool those birds. And the stars were brilliant. I'd forgotten how bright they can be, since I always have light with me that dims them. 

 

When there was finally enough light to see, I was struck by how deep into the fall we are. Only the larches had a few leaves and the reeds looked as dry and cracklin' as November corn. So, I went home, made some chai tea, and looked at pics of fish caught this wonderful year!

36 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

I launched my canoe in total darkness and was on the water for five minutes when my headlamp stopped working. It was windy too, so I was bobbing in the dark. I ended my fishing season like Willie Mays in center field, bumbling and stumbling. 

 

I did hear a hoot owl and we chatted for a bit, as I do a pretty good hoot owl imitation, good enough to fool those birds. And the stars were brilliant. I'd forgotten how bright they can be, since I always have light with me that dims them. 

 

When there was finally enough light to see, I was struck by how deep into the fall we are. Only the larches had a few leaves and the reeds looked as dry and cracklin' as November corn. So, I went home, made some chai tea, and looked at pics of fish caught this wonderful year!

Hate to hear about the troubles, but I chuckled over the Willie Mayes line haha. 

 

At least you got some fantastic exercise in.

12 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

I've never seen a jighead\worm in blue back orange belly with trebles.

50 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

I was struck by how deep into the fall we are.

Same here. A ton of leaves have fallen since Monday, and my spot looked winter-sad all of a sudden. The forecast claimed 8mph S winds with 15 mph gusts, so that might've counteracted a blaring moon somewhat, but it was glass flat. Since the trout imitators got no play on Monday, I thought a slow-rolled Magnum UV Speedworm might offer a profile and gentle kick that might be palatable to belly-down bass unwilling to chase. Got one piddling bite-and-spit over the next hour running it and several other baits in a zone, but that was it. The brigades swarmed in with their blinding headlamps that they never turn off and saved me from my stubbornness. A lot can happen over two hours and my wife had stories. She was glad I was back way earlier than usual.

 

"They" say it'll be windy again tonight, so I'll try, try again.

Quote

The brigades swarmed in with their blinding headlamps that they never turn off and saved me from my stubbornness. 

 

^And here's another funny line!^

I caught these 2 Smallmouth Bass today, as well as catching my first Walleye!

I managed to get 7 in the boat today.  5 spots between 14 and 16 inches, one 16 inch Largemouth and a 10 inch largemouth.  I lost a nice one right at the boat, maybe a 4 pounder.  I could see it was barely hooked.  I tried to rush it by boat flipping it and it came loose.   I suspect it would have came loose anyway had I tried to tire it out and lip it.  I only weighed 1 fish.  The FAT 14 inch spot pictured weighed 2 pounds, 3 ounces.  I don't think I've ever caught a 2 pounder that was only 14 inches long.  They were all healthy.  They're eating well.  

Keep fishing, Woody! I'm done for 2022, so I need you southern guys to keep bringing fish aboard. Nice spot! Crazy heavy for 14 inches. It's cool that you weighed it.