Just be careful, @T-Billy, if a grizzly bear sees you in your hat and there's a sudden twinkle in her eye.  

5 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

Just be careful, @T-Billy, if a grizzly bear sees you in your hat and there's a sudden twinkle in her eye.  

Don't I know it. She's over there in her recliner eyeing me up right now!!! ?

2 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

You can't hear it but they're all crowing "SINK-O, SINK-O!"

I posted a Gizzard Shad I found half alive a few months ago that was hand sized.....not all uncommon for Gizzards although seemingly uncommon in a small lake.    Today I snagged the mother of all Threadfins.    Everything in this lake gets big.

 

Today I found threadfins stacked so thick I could have caught one every retrieve with a snag.   I felt my bait bumping into thousands......never quite experienced anything like that.    Snagged them from 7"+ all the way to 1".

 

Caught half of dozen Bass, but now that my lake has dropped from 65 to 55 over the last 7-10days, fishing has dramatically slowed.   Seeing that monster threadfin reaffirms why I'm going to be fishing so hard this winter regardless how frustrating it's going to be.        My dream fish is swimming somewhere in this lake.    Baits that caught fish were the 3/16th mini underspin Gama head with 3-3.5" swimbaits, a Shimano Flashboost Jerkbait, and a Flashback Mini with 3" Armor Shad.    

 

Happy Thanksgiving all!   

The Threadfins....

 

15 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

I posted a Gizzard Shad I found half alive a few months ago that was hand sized.....not all uncommon for Gizzards although seemingly uncommon in a small lake.    Today I snagged the mother of all Threadfins.    Everything in this lake gets big.

 

Today I found threadfins stacked so thick I could have caught one every retrieve with a snag.   I felt my bait bumping into thousands......never quite experienced anything like that.    Snagged them from 7"+ all the way to 1".

 

Caught half of dozen Bass, but now that my lake has dropped from 65 to 55 over the last 7-10days, fishing has dramatically slowed.   Seeing that monster threadfin reaffirms why I'm going to be fishing so hard this winter regardless how frustrating it's going to be.        My dream fish is swimming somewhere in this lake.    Baits that caught fish were the 3/16th mini underspin Gama head with 3-3.5" swimbaits, a Shimano Flashboost Jerkbait, and a Flashback Mini with 3" Armor Shad.    

 

Happy Thanksgiving all!   

The Threadfins....

 

Another nice day on the water! The top two shad are gizzards, bottom upside down shad may be a threadfin. The blunt rounded nose is my preferred characteristic for a Gizzard 

Just now, TnRiver46 said:

Another nice day on the water! The top two shad are gizzards, bottom upside down shad may be a threadfin. The blunt rounded nose is my preferred characteristic for a Gizzard 

Thanks!

 

All of them had the quintessential "threadfin" including the big one.   Do Gizzards have the threadfin too?    Dang now I have no idea how to tell them apart.  

 

 

A couple of the places I fish have been froze over with our recent cold snap, but after a few warmer days and some sun, they were partially melted today. Checked a couple of them out, passing by the areas that still had large ice sheets sitting over them. Fortunately, the deeper holes were open, and I was able to nab half a dozen bites on blade baits. May take a crack at the local reservoir in the next day or two if schedule allows.

 

18 minutes ago, Team9nine said:

A couple of the places I fish have been froze over with our recent cold snap, but after a few warmer days and some sun, they were partially melted today. Checked a couple of them out, passing by the areas that still had large ice sheets sitting over them. Fortunately, the deeper holes were open, and I was able to nab half a dozen bites on blade baits. May take a crack at the local reservoir in the next day or two if schedule allows.

 

All the ponds here are locked up solid...heck even the river as of yesterday is mostly froze over as we've been unseasonably cold up until a few days ago. We are in a stretch of nice weather so if the river opens up enough I may try for gold eye Monday when I'm off. They will make good catfish bait come ice out.

Picked up my best bass of the season and new ol muddy pond record on Turkey Day. Not using my usual high contrast scale because don’t have my gear with me. The one I used read 6.8. Only reads to tenths. 
 

Caught on the ol muddy special: a black senko.

 

Back in NC briefly to see family. Happy to be back.

 

almost no sleep today or last night. Hunting in the morn

2 minutes ago, LrgmouthShad said:

Picked up my best bass of the season and new ol muddy pond record on Turkey Day. Not using my usual high contrast scale because don’t have my gear with me. The one I used read 6.8. Only reads to tenths. 
 

Caught on the ol muddy special: a black senko.

 

Back in NC briefly to see family. Happy to be back.

 

almost no sleep today or last night. Hunting in the morn

I was like dang that’s a monster for MO, then I kept reading down to NC haha

 

great fish buddy 

1 hour ago, TnRiver46 said:

Another nice day on the water! The top two shad are gizzards, bottom upside down shad may be a threadfin. The blunt rounded nose is my preferred characteristic for a Gizzard 

After some research they do both have a "threadfin" just to update my bad info.....much harder to tell apart than I thought.    Thanks again for letting me know.  

17 minutes ago, LrgmouthShad said:

Picked up my best bass of the season and new ol muddy pond record on Turkey Day. Not using my usual high contrast scale because don’t have my gear with me. The one I used read 6.8. Only reads to tenths. 
 

Caught on the ol muddy special: a black senko.

 

Back in NC briefly to see family. Happy to be back.

 

almost no sleep today or last night. Hunting in the morn

Congrats, glad to see you fishing, much less catching a pig

5 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

After some research they do both have a "threadfin" just to update my bad info.....much harder to tell apart than I thought.    Thanks again for letting me know.  

I do a lot of cast netting so I’ve sorted through a blue million of them over the years. 
 

heres some threadfin I got Saturday , although I did have one gizzard somewhere in the bunch. That may be it on the right but I don’t think so . Around here everyone calls threadfin “yella tails” for obvious reasons 

I give thanks for Thanksgiving fish photos.

 

Alex, if you land a DD this winter, I'll pay for your dinner. Promise. 

 

Woo-hoo, @LrgmouthShad!

Well no fish for me today I caught a skunk lol. I have been planning on getting the kayak out for one of my last few times this year today. It’s been warmer than it has been the past few days, high of 50 today so I figured that I might stand a chance. I was wrong, have not been by spring valley in a minute so I had no clue if there was any soft water at all.

 

 I took my lipless, blade bait, mid depth crank, square bill and jig trays with me and some trailers. I fought the kayak down my apartment stairs from my deck loaded it on top of my mini suv and headed off to fish.

 

 I got there and saw ice as far as I could see. I didn’t give up though I was determined. I was hoping that it was thin ice still, nope it was 1.5 inches thick. Still determined I unloaded my kayak and all my gear and set off. 
 

I had to use my anchor to knock holes in the ice to push off of and keep moving forward three to six feet at a time. I was heading for the deeper channel to reach thinner ice, nope wrong again. See the pattern lol.

 

 I was heading to the deepest part of the lake to fish the drop from 4-18 feet, there’s a very big cove that I normally do great in throughout the year. I can normally paddle there in 20 minutes or so from the far side of the lake with soft water, nope not today I was a tortoise. I think it took me a hour and forty five minutes to get there.

 

 I got about halfway there and knew that I was probably not going to catch anything because I was going to have to break ice to be able to get anything in the water. I was still determined and wet from the water splashing when I was knocking holes in the ice to push off with my paddle. 
 

I finally get there and there’s no soft water in sight, well now it’s time to make a hole and probably scare all the fish away. I proceeded to do exactly that, I am not giving up. I tried my lipless by casting it a short distance in the spot I cleared and let line out till it hit bottom and would yo yo it in tiny short burst and let it set, nothing. Time for the jig same thing cast out let line out let it reach the bottom and very gentle short raises and let it set nothing.

 

 I didn’t catch anything but I was soaking wet and had thrown my 5lb anchor to knock holes in the ice to clear my spot and to get myself back to shore, the shallows froze over on my original path. I didn’t give up though and I persevered through it and enjoyed every single minute of it and I can’t think of a better way to spend 5 hours of my time on thanksgiving. Happy thanksgiving to you all and good luck, keep catching them for us poor souls up north with our frozen water. It makes me smile and feel like a kid at Christmas when I see all of you still catching them,

9 minutes ago, Jmurphy87 said:

 I didn’t catch anything but I was soaking wet and had thrown my 5lb anchor to knock holes in the ice to clear my spot and to get myself back to shore, the shallows froze over on my original path. I didn’t give up though

BadAzz! ?

4 hours ago, LrgmouthShad said:

Picked up my best bass of the season

The kid is back! Congrats!

49 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

I give thanks for Thanksgiving fish photos.

 

Alex, if you land a DD this winter, I'll pay for your dinner. Promise. 

 

Woo-hoo, @LrgmouthShad!

Haha, dinner will be on me.    I've gotten so obsessed over this that the longer it goes without a DD on my homelake, the more I have no idea how I'll react.    I know this one will be much more meaningful.   I took the first one for granted in my early 20s and in college.    This one will mean a lot more if it happens.  

 

The 7.8lb I caught in early August got the ball rolling, but when an old friend who has access to the lake sent me this pic from last February, all I do is think about trying to catch this fish.    She was 10.6.   Over the summer the lake biologist got a 9.4 on a fly rod lol.     Lake was built in the late 60s, and over the decades it's produced a number of DD fish.    

 

I go to bed thinking about how many others are out there like her, or if this old girl is still swimming and has even gained a lb+.     The wonderment of fishing, not having a real clue what's swimming down there is one of the things that doesn't change whether you are 10 years old, or 90 years old.

 

My friend's fish from last Feb.

 

 

Quote

I didn’t give up though and I persevered through it and enjoyed every single minute of it and I can’t think of a better way to spend 5 hours of my time on thanksgiving. Happy thanksgiving to you all and good luck, keep catching them for us poor souls up north with our frozen water. It makes me smile and feel like a kid at Christmas when I see all of you still catching them.

 

Gosh, I LOVE ^this.^ I just followed you.

 

Quote

Haha, dinner will be on me.   

 

No, Alex, you'll get the dinner if you land that DD. It will be a treat for me to treat you.

 

I'm guessing that Walt Whitman would have known how you'll feel when you land another Scaly Mammoth. As Whitman wrote, "I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable, I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world. The last scud of day holds back for me,."

 

I'm just hoping that I can hear your mighty yawp from Maine and if I do, I'll yawp too. So will Tim. So will Phish and Eric. We'll all rejoice with you. 

 

The bulges in your friend's bass made me laugh. The bass I catch don't ever get so big that they grow every which way. 

 

Quote

The wonderment of fishing, not having a real clue what's swimming down there is one of the things that doesn't change whether you are 10 years old, or 90 years old.

 

Heck, yeah, ^that's^ right. I wrote an essay for Gray's Sporting Journal where I shared how fish swim in my dreams and the uncertainty of dreams is in my fishing. We don't know what's down there and I love not knowing. As you age, you see the same comedy and tragedy play out again and again and I sigh for the sameness, but not fishing. Fishing keeps us wondering and thus, the wonderment of fishing. 

18 hours ago, The Bassman said:

I gotta get one of those hats.

 

16 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

 

Gosh, I LOVE ^this.^ I just followed you.

 

 

No, Alex, you'll get the dinner if you land that DD. It will be a treat for me to treat you.

 

I'm guessing that Walt Whitman would have known how you'll feel when you land another Scaly Mammoth. As Whitman wrote, "I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable, I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world. The last scud of day holds back for me,."

 

I'm just hoping that I can hear your mighty yawp from Maine and if I do, I'll yawp too. So will Tim. So will Phish and Eric. We'll all rejoice with you. 

 

The bulges in your friend's bass made me laugh. The bass I catch don't ever get so big that they grow every which way. 

 

 

Heck, yeah, ^that's^ right. I wrote an essay for Gray's Sporting Journal where I shared how fish swim in my dreams and the uncertainty of dreams is in my fishing. We don't know what's down there and I love not knowing. As you age, you see the same comedy and tragedy play out again and again and I sigh for the sameness, but not fishing. Fishing keeps us wondering and thus, the wonderment of fishing. 

Your replies are always such a pleasure to read Katie, you have such a wonderful command of language, wit, and intelligence

 

I hope to see you keep writing articles for BR at the minimum.

Alex, I once went musky fishing with about 20 guys in northwestern Ontario. One was an ex-fighter pilot. Two were bouncers. One played college football. One was a race car driver. And so on.

 

I was the only nerdy English major there, but lawdy, they were so creative with language. Funny. Raw. Profane. Playful. Word-wise, I felt like a puppy playing with the big dawgs. 

 

But those men were so much than their words. The final evening, I got in trouble on the big lake in a lightning storm. They didn't sit around and fill the warm, dry cabins with words. They went to their boats in that storm and went looking for me, their searchlights making the lake look like London in the Blitz. And when they finally found me, after a couple hours of searching, those big, tough men were so tender. They didn't chastise for lingering in the storm to cast a few more times and then running out of gas. They were simply grateful that I was returning to the warm, dry cabins with them. 

 

And I was too. 

 

P. S. - I wrote another article for Bass Resource yesterday. I have to let it sit for a few days before I submit it. 

16 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

Alex, I once went musky fishing with about 20 guys in northwestern Ontario. One was an ex-fighter pilot. Two were bouncers. One played college football. One was a race car driver. And so on.

 

I was the only nerdy English major there, but lawdy, they were so creative with language. Funny. Raw. Profane. Playful. Word-wise, I felt like a puppy playing with the big dawgs. 

 

But those men were so much than their words. The final evening, I got in trouble on the big lake in a lightning storm. They didn't sit around and fill the warm, dry cabins with words. They went to their boats in that storm and went looking for me, their searchlights making the lake look like London in the Blitz. And when they finally found me, after a couple hours of searching, those big, tough men were so tender. They didn't chastise for lingering in the storm to cast a few more times and then running out of gas. They were simply grateful that I was returning to the warm, dry cabins with them. 

 

And I was too. 

 

P. S. - I wrote another article for Bass Resource yesterday. I have to let it sit for a few days before I submit it. 

I love your stories and can't wait for the new article!    Writing is a rare talent these days especially, it's a pleasure to read someone who writes old world.    Hard to describe great writing, just one of those things where you know it when you see it. 

17 hours ago, LrgmouthShad said:

Picked up my best bass of the season and new ol muddy pond record on Turkey Day. Not using my usual high contrast scale because don’t have my gear with me. The one I used read 6.8. Only reads to tenths. 
 

Caught on the ol muddy special: a black senko.

 

Back in NC briefly to see family. Happy to be back.

 

almost no sleep today or last night. Hunting in the morn

Congrats on the pig! You ought to come south more often! ?

 

13 hours ago, Jmurphy87 said:

Well no fish for me today I caught a skunk lol. I have been planning on getting the kayak out for one of my last few times this year today. It’s been warmer than it has been the past few days, high of 50 today so I figured that I might stand a chance. I was wrong, have not been by spring valley in a minute so I had no clue if there was any soft water at all.

 

 I took my lipless, blade bait, mid depth crank, square bill and jig trays with me and some trailers. I fought the kayak down my apartment stairs from my deck loaded it on top of my mini suv and headed off to fish.

 

 I got there and saw ice as far as I could see. I didn’t give up though I was determined. I was hoping that it was thin ice still, nope it was 1.5 inches thick. Still determined I unloaded my kayak and all my gear and set off. 
 

I had to use my anchor to knock holes in the ice to push off of and keep moving forward three to six feet at a time. I was heading for the deeper channel to reach thinner ice, nope wrong again. See the pattern lol.

 

 I was heading to the deepest part of the lake to fish the drop from 4-18 feet, there’s a very big cove that I normally do great in throughout the year. I can normally paddle there in 20 minutes or so from the far side of the lake with soft water, nope not today I was a tortoise. I think it took me a hour and forty five minutes to get there.

 

 I got about halfway there and knew that I was probably not going to catch anything because I was going to have to break ice to be able to get anything in the water. I was still determined and wet from the water splashing when I was knocking holes in the ice to push off with my paddle. 
 

I finally get there and there’s no soft water in sight, well now it’s time to make a hole and probably scare all the fish away. I proceeded to do exactly that, I am not giving up. I tried my lipless by casting it a short distance in the spot I cleared and let line out till it hit bottom and would yo yo it in tiny short burst and let it set, nothing. Time for the jig same thing cast out let line out let it reach the bottom and very gentle short raises and let it set nothing.

 

 I didn’t catch anything but I was soaking wet and had thrown my 5lb anchor to knock holes in the ice to clear my spot and to get myself back to shore, the shallows froze over on my original path. I didn’t give up though and I persevered through it and enjoyed every single minute of it and I can’t think of a better way to spend 5 hours of my time on thanksgiving. Happy thanksgiving to you all and good luck, keep catching them for us poor souls up north with our frozen water. It makes me smile and feel like a kid at Christmas when I see all of you still catching them,

 

Geez! That’s some fishing trip there. My shoulders are sore after reading that. Good on you for sticking it out though.

31 minutes ago, ScottW said:

You ought to come south more often! ?

Keep an eye on my location. Might change to somewhere warmer…. Oh idk…. Maybe around March. 
 

Anyone feel like Whataburger?

 

tentative! Nothing set in stone

Got an SMB and meanmouth. Also missed several bites on cut bait for catfish 

5 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Got an SMB and meanmouth. Also missed several bites on cut bait for catfish 

Meanmouth is really cool. Sweet deal. 
 

I almost had a spinnerbait biggun from ol muddy to show you. 
 

Im ashamed to say but that fish owned me. Had no control.