Alex, can a heron eat a bass that big? 

 

Sweet spot!

I kinda didn't get skunked today.  I had 1 dink fall off the hook and flip back into the lake when I boat flipped it.  It was on my deck for a few seconds.  

 

Bass ran from my "special" Alabama rig.  I had it rigged with 4 swim baits and 1 chatterbait.   They literally ran from it on sonar.   

 

I lost a HUGE catfish.   I caught on back in April that was 45 inches long.  This one was bigger.   I hooked it on a "normal" Alabama rig.   Like most cats it just wanted to hug the bottom under the boat.  I kept moving the boat and it would swim back right under it.   I finally got it to the boat but it took off again.  It was hooked on 2 of the swimbaits.   I upgraded to 17 pound line (instead of my "normal" 12) for the A-rig.  I knew it was hooked good, and knew my line was stronger than I was used to so I decided to horse it a little to try and tire it quicker.   I was pulling it up a little and my line went limp.   It had straightened the hooks of 2 swimbaits.   

 

 

I tried everything today.  Bass would follow various lures but just wouldn't bite.    I even switched hats a couple times.  

 

I'll try again tomorrow.  

34 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

Alex, can a heron eat a bass that big? 

 

Sweet spot!

Thanks Katie!

 

I wouldn't have thought so, and before this, I can't remember seeing a LGM with a Heron wound, whereas I catch Spots quite often with Heron wounds.    The Herons on my homelake are very successful just based on the amount of catches I see them get.    I do see how these Bass end up living on a few occasions.   They snatch it however they can first, and then they have to flip it to orientate it to slid down their gullet.....on this part is when I see a few slip free.   Saw one even slip free, and the Heron caught it again. 

 

Saw an Osprey hunting for the first time today after TNRiver46 informed me I had them on the lake.   Didn't see it make a catch.   Looked like it was swooping down for Shad, maybe the bigger Gizzards.   Oh yeah, saw a Groundhog today as well ?

35 minutes ago, Woody B said:

I kinda didn't get skunked today.  I had 1 dink fall off the hook and flip back into the lake when I boat flipped it.  It was on my deck for a few seconds.  

 

Bass ran from my "special" Alabama rig.  I had it rigged with 4 swim baits and 1 chatterbait.   They literally ran from it on sonar.   

 

I lost a HUGE catfish.   I caught on back in April that was 45 inches long.  This one was bigger.   I hooked it on a "normal" Alabama rig.   Like most cats it just wanted to hug the bottom under the boat.  I kept moving the boat and it would swim back right under it.   I finally got it to the boat but it took off again.  It was hooked on 2 of the swimbaits.   I upgraded to 17 pound line (instead of my "normal" 12) for the A-rig.  I knew it was hooked good, and knew my line was stronger than I was used to so I decided to horse it a little to try and tire it quicker.   I was pulling it up a little and my line went limp.   It had straightened the hooks of 2 swimbaits.   

 

 

I tried everything today.  Bass would follow various lures but just wouldn't bite.    I even switched hats a couple times.  

 

I'll try again tomorrow.  

Lol at the fish running on FFS.....that's still really cool.   

 

My Chatterbait bite that turned me into a fanatic went dead cold about 4-6weeks ago.    Took me a week of pouting and being stubburn and then moved on.    I'll be back at it in March I assume with them.

 

Big Catfish are super tough to actually boat I've found.....they've cost me $50 bucks in Crankbaits and made 12 and 14lb mono look like sewing string.    I love catching them, and eventually me and fellow member @ScottW are going to fish for them specifically.

Just a 2.7lber on a small Nichols single colorado spinnerbait today. I was fishing on a point and a pod of baitfish rose to the surface where I could see em and threw my spinnerbait in the middle of the pod. Let it helicopter down, couple handle turns, fish on. 
 

Nothing special but I keep learning more and more about this lake and happy to be fishing of course 

I caught 6 today at Mountain Island Lake.  I've never been there before.  Mountain Island is between Lake Norman and Lake Wylie on the Catawba river.   I've been to most of the Catawba river lakes (all the NC ones) but I'd never been to Mountain Island.   It's ~3300 acres.  What's strange to me, the water is quite a bit clearer than Lake Wylie,  and also 3 degrees warmer.  (I was at the Lake Wylie side of the Mountain Island dam Saturday).   

I caught 5 of the 6 (all spots, I haven't caught a Largemouth is a few weeks) dragging a Carolina rigged craw across points.   The other was on a lipless crank, under a dock.   I didn't measure any.  They were all pretty much the same size.  (14 inch range?)   I went from dam to dam on the lake.  I never saw a BIG school of shad on sonar.   I have heard bad things about the landing.  A friend of a friend had his catalytic convertor cut off there last year.  There was fresh looking broken glass from vehicle break ins all over the landing.  (probably people who were night fishing)   I took a picture of the Lake Norman Dam.  I should have taken one of the other end of the lake.    I enjoyed seeing and fishing in a new lake.  In the future I'll probably just go to Lake Wylie or Lake Norman instead of the in between lake.   I think I'm done for the year.  I "could" sneak in a short trip but I've got family/Christmas stuff for the next 2 weekends.  My Dads 88th birthday is the 31st so I'll spend that day with him.  I'll probably go to Lake Wylie Jan1.   I've included a picture of the Lake Wylie side of the Mtn Island dam I took a few months ago.  

Those break-ins make me sad, Woody. And mad. 

 

@LrgmouthShad Love that smile!

28 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

Those break-ins make me sad, Woody. And mad. 

 

@LrgmouthShad Love that smile!

He used to frown at the bass…….. luckily bass resource members gave him heck so now he’s happy 

40 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

He used to frown at the bass…….. luckily bass resource members gave him heck so now he’s happy 

One member in particular as I recall! Starts with Tennessee and ends with river. You were right, smiling with the fish is better. My smile crinkles up my whole face but better to appear as happy as I am to be catching something. No need to mean mug

Fished for about 5 hours post cold front at a 500 acre lake Saturday. I threw almost everything in the box and got nothing. There were hundreds of ducks though. Called a few in.

I only had 30 minutes to fish this morning. Went to a 5 acre strip pit 10 minutes from home and got one within 10 minutes.

Here’s a photo of the fish I caught Sunday 

 

I even had some premium live bait. Oh well, at least I caught 4 shad 

Weatherman can't even get close to the right forecast lately. I went out Sunday in the kayak with another local guy. Supposed to be a nice day, upper 40's, partly cloudy, light wind, so we opted for a small, cold water lake instead of the power plant lake to avoid the crowd. 

 

It was super foggy, and cold, cold enough it was freezing on my truck the whole way to the lake.

Water was actually a little warmer than I expected, 41-42.5, and the fish were very active. Normally, this lake is a great multispecies lake, but this day I had caught nothing but largemouth, until the last couple hours, then I found the motherlode school, and it seemed like all species of fish in the lake were in it. I was getting all different kinds of pecks and thumps, different from the dead weight bass bites I'd been getting. I only managed to hook a few of them though, a few warmouth, a big green sunfish, and 3 trout. Not sure how many bass I caught, I'd guess around 30. Nothing overly big, but they were all fat and healthy fish that fought pretty well for the cold water. 

The fog never really burned off until the very end of the day and it never even made it to 40* out, the wind was also much stronger than it was supposed to be, made for some numb fingers by the end of the day. The guy that was with me did get a couple cool action shots of me while I was working down my first bank of the morning also.

 

 

                                                             

8 minutes ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Weatherman can't even get close to the right forecast lately.

 

I read on the internet they are 95 percent accurate………

 

great outing as always, I don’t catch 30 largemouth in a year and here you are doing in with ice on the car 

On 12/10/2022 at 7:36 PM, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Thanks Katie!

 

I wouldn't have thought so, and before this, I can't remember seeing a LGM with a Heron wound, whereas I catch Spots quite often with Heron wounds.    The Herons on my homelake are very successful just based on the amount of catches I see them get.    I do see how these Bass end up living on a few occasions.   They snatch it however they can first, and then they have to flip it to orientate it to slid down their gullet.....on this part is when I see a few slip free.   Saw one even slip free, and the Heron caught it again. 

 

Saw an Osprey hunting for the first time today after TNRiver46 informed me I had them on the lake.   Didn't see it make a catch.   Looked like it was swooping down for Shad, maybe the bigger Gizzards.   Oh yeah, saw a Groundhog today as well ?

Lol at the fish running on FFS.....that's still really cool.   

 

My Chatterbait bite that turned me into a fanatic went dead cold about 4-6weeks ago.    Took me a week of pouting and being stubburn and then moved on.    I'll be back at it in March I assume with them.

 

Big Catfish are super tough to actually boat I've found.....they've cost me $50 bucks in Crankbaits and made 12 and 14lb mono look like sewing string.    I love catching them, and eventually me and fellow member @ScottW are going to fish for them specifically.

Would like to when I get back. Currently in LA (Lower Alabama) on a camping trip. No fishing gear with me per my promise to my wife ? and we’re not 100 yards from the bay. Ugh! Was gonna try smuggling a rod or two but the only places to stash ‘em are in the bathroom or shower. 

22 hours ago, LrgmouthShad said:

Just a 2.7lber on a small Nichols single colorado spinnerbait today. I was fishing on a point and a pod of baitfish rose to the surface where I could see em and threw my spinnerbait in the middle of the pod. Let it helicopter down, couple handle turns, fish on. 
 

Nothing special but I keep learning more and more about this lake and happy to be fishing of course 

Why are you all bundled up like it’s cold or sumpthin’? ? Come to Bama (The Dark Side) and fish in flip-flops! ?

47 minutes ago, ScottW said:

Would like to when I get back. Currently in LA (Lower Alabama) on a camping trip. No fishing gear with me per my promise to my wife ? and we’re not 100 yards from the bay. Ugh! Was gonna try smuggling a rod or two but the only places to stash ‘em are in the bathroom or shower. 

Why are you all bundled up like it’s cold or sumpthin’? ? Come to Bama (The Dark Side) and fish in flip-flops! ?

Bama is nice… I’m dreaming of giant Texan bass. 

Did y’all think about Whataburger?

6 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Weatherman can't even get close to the right forecast lately. I went out Sunday in the kayak with another local guy. Supposed to be a nice day, upper 40's, partly cloudy, light wind, so we opted for a small, cold water lake instead of the power plant lake to avoid the crowd. 

 

It was super foggy, and cold, cold enough it was freezing on my truck the whole way to the lake.

Water was actually a little warmer than I expected, 41-42.5, and the fish were very active. Normally, this lake is a great multispecies lake, but this day I had caught nothing but largemouth, until the last couple hours, then I found the motherlode school, and it seemed like all species of fish in the lake were in it. I was getting all different kinds of pecks and thumps, different from the dead weight bass bites I'd been getting. I only managed to hook a few of them though, a few warmouth, a big green sunfish, and 3 trout. Not sure how many bass I caught, I'd guess around 30. Nothing overly big, but they were all fat and healthy fish that fought pretty well for the cold water. 

The fog never really burned off until the very end of the day and it never even made it to 40* out, the wind was also much stronger than it was supposed to be, made for some numb fingers by the end of the day. The guy that was with me did get a couple cool action shots of me while I was working down my first bank of the morning also.

 

I would have L-O-V-E-D your fishing day. Those bass are comically fat and your sunfish are tropically colorful and beautiful. And trout too? Whoa, what a day!

On 12/10/2022 at 7:55 PM, ol'crickety said:

Alex, can a heron eat a bass that big? 

 

Sweet spot!

I've seen herons spear carp up to about 3#, and throw 'em up on the bank. They eat the eyeballs and leave the rest to rot.

@LrgmouthShad 

Quote

Did y’all think about Whataburger?

We can do that! ?

9 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

I read on the internet they are 95 percent accurate………

 

great outing as always, I don’t catch 30 largemouth in a year and here you are doing in with ice on the car 

What website? Meteorologistsunited.com?

1 hour ago, T-Billy said:

I've seen herons spear carp up to about 3#, and throw 'em up on the bank. They eat the eyeballs and leave the rest to rot.

The eyes are probably the best part when it comes to carp hahaha 

 

not speaking from personal experience, I would have to be hard up 

Caught a quality LGM on a finesse jig and a new rod I'm trying out, but I still can't stop thinking about that scene from a few days ago so I made the long run to see what was going on.   

 

Sure enough I found hundreds on active fish, saw a dozen 2-3lb fish go aerial at least, tried 8-10 baits.....ZERO FISH, ZERO BITES ?   

 

For the level of epic activity, I saw last Friday, I still only managed to catch 6-7 fish.    They were so thick they could have been snagged seemingly.    I'm pretty sure a soft weightless jerkbait is going to be the trick tom. if conditions can hold on just one more day for me.   I think if I can find the magic bait, I'll have the most epic raw thumb day.  

3 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

The eyes are probably the best part when it comes to carp hahaha 

 

not speaking from personal experience, I would have to be hard up 

Don't lie ?

2 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Caught a quality LGM on a finesse jig and a new rod I'm trying out, but I still can't stop thinking about that scene from a few days ago so I made the long run to see what was going on.   

 

Sure enough I found hundreds on active fish, saw a dozen 2-3lb fish go aerial at least, tried 8-10 baits.....ZERO FISH, ZERO BITES ?   

 

For the level of epic activity, I saw last Friday, I still only managed to catch 6-7 fish.    They were so thick they could have been snagged seemingly.    I'm pretty sure a soft weightless jerkbait is going to be the trick tom. if conditions can hold on just one more day for me.   I think if I can find the magic bait, I'll have the most epic raw thumb day.  

Schooling bass do that to people somewhat regularly, I’ve had many many people say they saw 3-4 lb LM busting shad on top all day, flying thru the air, and they couldn’t catch them no matter what they tried. I usually hear these tales from watts bar lake for whatever reason. 
 

And believe it or not I haven’t had carp, although my father in law said he used to buy carp sandwiches for less than a dollar 

Just now, TnRiver46 said:

Schooling bass do that to people somewhat regularly, I’ve had many many people say they saw 3-4 lb LM busting shad on top all day, flying thru the air, and they couldn’t catch them no matter what they tried. I usually hear these tales from watts bar lake for whatever reason. 
 

And believe it or not I haven’t had carp, although my father in law said he used to buy carp sandwiches for less than a dollar 

Yeah this has been a theme since starting back fishing my homelake.    I cracked the code during the summer after a week or two with a Scrounger head and Live Magic Shad, I threw 15-20 baits before that point.

 

I literally drove away with an hour left of light, and fish blowing up in the background......the level of frustration is up there.     I think the big problem I keep having is that I'm way off usually on the size bait they are throwing up in the air.       Really little bait in this current scenario, not those bigger sized 2"+ threadfins and gizzards I posted.   They are so thick I catch them on those sticky Shimano jerkbait hooks.   Sub 1" sized fish.    The Bass must be like whales, just sucking in numerous Shad in at a time.

 

It's all just so fascinating, always has been.   There is a wonderment to this process that never seems to age.    If I could do over again in terms of school/career......I'd have studied fish biology.    Gotten a job working for Southeastern Pond Management or something.      It's still fun being an idiot and guessing ?

On 12/10/2022 at 8:36 PM, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Saw an Osprey hunting for the first time today after TNRiver46 informed me I had them on the lake.

 

There's Osprey nests on all of the lake I fish.  They have signs that read "Osprey Nest"   Can the Osprey read, so they'll know it's "their" next?  Can the other birds read so they'll stay away?   I see the Osprey flying around but I've never seen them catch a fish.  Last spring Mrs B and myself saw a Heron catch a BIG white perch.  I slipped out of it's grip and almost landed a couple feet from out boat.   I hooked a small bluegill in the eye with a Devils Horse.  When I released it it couldn't hardly swim.  A Heron swooped down and got it about 10 feet from the boat.  The Heron flew around in a circle squawking.  I believe it was thanking me for the fish.  LOL

 

@LrgmouthShad  I'll have to try and start smiling when I take bass pictures.  Maybe I won't look like a grouchy old man then.  I'll still look old, but not grouchy.  

Finally got some wind today, which seems to be key to getting many bites right now despite the cold. Briefly touched 42 degrees, with an east wind from 14-18 mph. Made for a chilly couple hours, but managed to load up on nearly a dozen bass before calling it. Most came on Ned, but also scored a couple early on jerkbait. Not much size to them, but we probably only have another couple days of open water left before we lock up for the year. Another good cold snap is supposed to hit Friday and last for most of next week, so it's all but over. Rain all day tomorrow, but hoping for one more shot at a fish on Thursday.