38 minutes ago, gimruis said:

I think that electric motor is toast.

She ran good lol....maybe she craps out tom.

Had a little warm spell and some of our lakes thawed (barely), so I opted for a cold water lake instead of the power plant that has been kicking my butt. It wasn't fast, but we did get some fish, and a couple pretty good ones. 

 

Blade bait caught both the bigger fish, Ned, jerkbait, and a squarebill also caught fish. Had to break ice at the ramp to launch the yaks.

 

 

Gosh, you had a great day, Bluebasser! You catch a lot of solid fish.

For the first time ever in my 58 years on this planet I got skunked at Lake Wylie......Kinda.   It rained buckets again yesterday.  The lake isn't chocolate milk,  it's redder than that.   It was a little clearer down near the dam, which means that area will be redder tomorrow.  I've caught bass in muddy water plenty of times before.  I guess it's the combination of muddy water and 49 degree water temp that's making me struggle.  I did "catch the hatch",  and "match the hatch",  as you can see by the picture.   

 

Added:  I've taken 3 days vacation this week.  A bad day fishing still beats a good day at work.  

"catch the hatch"

 

Any bass fishing in Indiana in January while fishing open water is always a nice bonus. A dozen today was pretty much above expectations given the recent arctic air blast that froze everything up. A couple on jerkbait, but mostly Ned doing work. Outside of several rainy days and a brief cold snap toward the weekend, the 10 day forecast isn't too bad for keeping things open and fishable. Working on getting a clothing sponsor to market a line of holey jeans for anglers  I think the market is pretty much untapped at this point  - lol. Here's a few...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Went out to the pond this afternoon after spooling up some 8# Seaguar BasiX fluoro on one of my BC rigs and managed to catch 2 decent fish in the few hours I was out there. Bass were blowing up the pond in several spots chasing baitfish so I was pretty stoked with anticipation. Nice day with blue skies albeit a tad cool with the breeze but I was determined to give fluoro a try on a bait caster. Didn’t work out so well on my spinning gear.

 

I was skunking out until my daughter came out to see how I was doing. We moved to a different spot and she sees the water exploding off to the right side of the pier. I cast out with a weighted paddle tail and snagged the first fish almost immediately. It weighed maybe a pound/pound and a half. I was so stunned at catching it that I got my hand wrapped around the line and had a time of it freeing it up. ? Of course she videoed me ranting and trying to free my hand while getting my grippers on the fish. She thought it was funny.

 

I set her up with another rig with the same paddle tail and she went at it for a while until I switched to a whopper plopper 90 to work the bank by a downed tree. Right as it passed over the tree a biggun blew up on it. To say I was startled would be an understatement as I’ve not caught anything in a while with a top water. My daughter wanted to try it next and had a blast with it. She didn’t catch anything but enjoyed working it down the bank. I may have her addicted to top water fishing now. ?
 

Fish #2 weighed in at 3.10 and was a beauty! Managed to dig my scale out for it. I’m sure glad my hands are almost healed up. Not sure I could hold out much longer. ? 

 

7 minutes ago, ScottW said:

Went out to the pond this afternoon after spooling up some 8# Seaguar BasiX fluoro on one of my BC rigs and managed to catch 2 decent fish in the few hours I was out there. Bass were blowing up the pond in several spots chasing baitfish so I was pretty stoked with anticipation. Nice day with blue skies albeit a tad cool with the breeze but I was determined to give fluoro a try on a bait caster. Didn’t work out so well on my spinning gear.

 

I was skunking out until my daughter came out to see how I was doing. We moved to a different spot and she sees the water exploding off to the right side of the pier. I cast out with a weighted paddle tail and snagged the first fish almost immediately. It weighed maybe a pound/pound and a half. I was so stunned at catching it that I got my hand wrapped around the line and had a time of it freeing it up. ? Of course she videoed me ranting and trying to free my hand while getting my grippers on the fish. She thought it was funny.

 

I set her up with another rig with the same paddle tail and she went at it for a while until I switched to a whopper plopper 90 to work the bank by a downed tree. Right as it passed over the tree a biggun blew up on it. To say I was startled would be an understatement as I’ve not caught anything in a while with a top water. My daughter wanted to try it next and had a blast with it. She didn’t catch anything but enjoyed working it down the bank. I may have her addicted to top water fishing now. ?
 

Fish #2 weighed in at 3.10 and was a beauty! Managed to dig my scale out for it. I’m sure glad my hands are almost healed up. Not sure I could hold out much longer. ? 

 

What a toad Scott, even more awesome is fishing with your daughter.....what a lucky man you are!

 

That fish is eating really good, love to see it.

 

Hope those hands are feeling better, great to see you fishing again!

You guys called, the TM crapped out an hour into the session, and during the best A Rig bite I've been on thus far.    Wonder if just letting it dry out might fix it.     Either way, I'll be a dedicated Bass rig in due time, tired of this one.   

 

Had my first double on the A Rig......a 5lb class fish and a 1.5lb fish, caught a total of 4.5 before the motor quit.     I managed to get some pretty crazy footage of the second smaller fish hitting an exposed bait mid fight with the 5lb class fish.   Put a couple sections in Slow mo, including the surprise that I won't ruin. 

 

 

30 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

You guys called, the TM crapped out an hour into the session, and during the best A Rig bite I've been on thus far.    Wonder if just letting it dry out might fix it.     Either way, I'll be a dedicated Bass rig in due time, tired of this one.   

 

Had my first double on the A Rig......a 5lb class fish and a 1.5lb fish, caught a total of 4.5 before the motor quit.     I managed to get some pretty crazy footage of the second smaller fish hitting an exposed bait mid fight with the 5lb class fish.   Put a couple sections in Slow mo, including the surprise that I won't ruin. 

 

 

Congratulations @AlabamaSpothunter That double up was awesome to watch! Shame the big one came off...

Do you mind me asking what the surface water temps are in that body of water you're fishing?

3 minutes ago, Kyle S said:

Congratulations @AlabamaSpothunter That double up was awesome to watch! Shame the big one came off...

Do you mind me asking what the surface water temps are in that body of water you're fishing?

Thanks Kyle, and yeah that was gut wrenching the big fish that I'm pretty confident was the only fish on there in the beginning......I wonder how much the smaller fish contributed to the big fish coming unglued.....ahhhhh you play it back so many times lol ?

 

Surface temps were 55.5d today.     Another interesting thing from today, just in the few hours I was out there I watched the lake gain another several inches in viz.    So many factors I'm sure go into this.  Guy has 5acre pond south of me that is murky normally, during the freeze it was crystal clear.   Guy has a cool YT channel called BamaBass.   

1 hour ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

What a toad Scott, even more awesome is fishing with your daughter.....what a lucky man you are!

 

That fish is eating really good, love to see it.

 

Hope those hands are feeling better, great to see you fishing again!

Thanks Alex! She’s been fishing since she could hold a rod. Pretty good at it too. Hands are feeling much better. Still have some more healing to do but it’s getting there.

40 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

You guys called, the TM crapped out an hour into the session, and during the best A Rig bite I've been on thus far.    Wonder if just letting it dry out might fix it.     Either way, I'll be a dedicated Bass rig in due time, tired of this one.   

 

Had my first double on the A Rig......a 5lb class fish and a 1.5lb fish, caught a total of 4.5 before the motor quit.     I managed to get some pretty crazy footage of the second smaller fish hitting an exposed bait mid fight with the 5lb class fish.   Put a couple sections in Slow mo, including the surprise that I won't ruin. 

 

 

Sorry to hear about the TM crapping out. Bad timing I’m sure.

9 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Guy has a cool YT channel called BamaBass.   

Used to watch BamaBass for the same reason I watched LFG...

6 minutes ago, ScottW said:

Thanks Alex! She’s been fishing since she could hold a rod. Pretty good at it too. Hands are feeling much better. Still have some more healing to do but it’s getting there.

Sorry to hear about the TM crapping out. Bad timing I’m sure.

That's awesome, raised her right clearly!   Love hearing the hands are feeling better, keep up that healing.   They were looking like a train hit them in the pic you sent, now your catching toads ?

 

Boat is bad timing, but it's forcing my hand into getting something that is proper for Captain Ahab, along with his friends like yourself.    I'm thankful for this Jon boat, but my time with it is hopefully very close to coming to an end.  

3 minutes ago, Deleted account said:

Used to watch BamaBass for the same reason I watched LFG...

LFG?

 

Tactical Bassin, and BamaBass are the only videos I watch often.   

29 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

LFG?

Lake Fork Guy. Has a really popular channel. I used to watch him pretty frequently but not so much anymore. 
 

I used to love watching BamaBass. When he had that aquarium with the pet bass and bluegill I was really into it. Was cool to see how quickly they grew and how and what they would eat. 

Dang it, Alex! That lost bass could have easily eaten the caught bass.

11 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Had a little warm spell and some of our lakes thawed (barely), so I opted for a cold water lake instead of the power plant that has been kicking my butt. It wasn't fast, but we did get some fish, and a couple pretty good ones. 

 

Blade bait caught both the bigger fish, Ned, jerkbait, and a squarebill also caught fish. Had to break ice at the ramp to launch the yaks.

 

 

Some dang nice bass and some primo catfish bait.

11 hours ago, DitchPanda said:

Some dang nice bass and some primo catfish bait.

I about saved that shad in case I snagged a couple more so I could freeze them for bait ? 

16 hours ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

You guys called, the TM crapped out an hour into the session, and during the best A Rig bite I've been on thus far.    Wonder if just letting it dry out might fix it.     Either way, I'll be a dedicated Bass rig in due time, tired of this one.   

 

Had my first double on the A Rig......a 5lb class fish and a 1.5lb fish, caught a total of 4.5 before the motor quit.     I managed to get some pretty crazy footage of the second smaller fish hitting an exposed bait mid fight with the 5lb class fish.   Put a couple sections in Slow mo, including the surprise that I won't ruin. 

 

 

Just my opinion but if you remove your trolling motor top cover you may be able to allow the electrical parts to dry out. It is probably just a short caused by wetness. The only part that can be affected is the switch unless water got into the shaft and filled up the motor. In that case you still should be able to remove motor and air dry.

1 minute ago, Blue Raider Bob said:

Just my opinion but if you remove your trolling motor top cover you may be able to allow the electrical parts to dry out. It is probably just a short caused by wetness. The only part that can be affected is the switch unless water got into the shaft and filled up the motor. In that case you still should be able to remove motor and air dry.

Knock on wood Bob, I think you just might be correct!    I took it home last night, tore it down and was shocked the amount of water down in the shaft and inside the cover.   

 

Drained it all out, and just took it down to the lake to test, smooth as silk.    Fingers crossed I can post a picture of a pounder later ?

12 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Knock on wood Bob, I think you just might be correct!    I took it home last night, tore it down and was shocked the amount of water down in the shaft and inside the cover.   

 

Drained it all out, and just took it down to the lake to test, smooth as silk.    Fingers crossed I can post a picture of a pounder later ?

??

2 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

 

Are you guys ever struck by how beautiful some bass are? It might be color, shape, both. ^This" smallie is a beauty. 

5 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

 

Are you guys ever struck by how beautiful some bass are? It might be color, shape, both. ^This" smallie is a beauty. 

I think a vividly colored smallmouth bass is the most beautiful fish that swims. 

32 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

 

Are you guys ever struck by how beautiful some bass are? It might be color, shape, both. ^This" smallie is a beauty. 

I definitely thought it was quite golden compared to a lot of other ones we catch