7 hours ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

I had a 21lb+ Spotted bag the one time I fished with a true pro.....Dalton Bobo, who lost the Classic on a dead fish penalty.     That was in high school, I knew right then I'd never be a pro like that.   Still one of the best days of my life.    One 4lb+ Spot after the next on Lay Lake in the Fall on big Jerkbaits.  

Now there's a cool memory! Friends, laughs, and photographs.

8 hours ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Best 5 fish went almost 22.5lbs. 

Very nice!

8 hours ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Sure wish I had fished winters before

I can usually suck it up on cold days, especially when I have "that" feeling, but some winter days up here are just a bridge too far.

 

Just let my pooch out for her morning squirt. She made it out about 5 feet from the door when an arctic blast stopped her cold in her tracks. She did a cartoonish four-paw-skid then nearly hyperextended my knee barreling back through the partially opened sliders. Just checked the forecast. I was gonna...I really was... but NFW! In the meantime, I'll have to live vicariously through your vidya. Thankee!

 

 

 

@AlabamaSpothunter Awesome man. That's a great day of fishing. Always love the videos. I can't wait to spend some time throwing an A-rig this year. I have at least 2 months before open water, but that gives me some time to pick out a dedicated setup for it.

This might sound a little strange, but I awoke this morning happy for Alex. We've all had a good evening of fishing and awoke the next morning happy for all the bass we caught, but today, I had that same giddiness, except my first thought was, "Alex caught all those big bass!"

 

And I was grinning, remembering Alex's video and photos. 

 

Sincerely,

 

A Yankee who hasn't caught a beautiful bass for more than a couple months, but is happy when her Southern cyber-pals do

Southern ice fishing, saw some frozen puddles walking to the spot…….

 

8 lb seaguar basix zoom tiny fluke 

52 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

This might sound a little strange, but I awoke this morning happy for Alex. We've all had a good evening of fishing and awoke the next morning happy for all the bass we caught, but today, I had that same giddiness, except my first thought was, "Alex caught all those big bass!"

 

And I was grinning, remembering Alex's video and photos. 

 

Sincerely,

 

A Yankee who hasn't caught a beautiful bass for more than a couple months, but is happy when her Southern cyber-pals do

Haha, you're so kind Katie, I know exactly what you are talking about.    You wake up pumped to have the opportunity to put into practice the stuff you just learned.

2 hours ago, Jar11591 said:

@AlabamaSpothunter Awesome man. That's a great day of fishing. Always love the videos. I can't wait to spend some time throwing an A-rig this year. I have at least 2 months before open water, but that gives me some time to pick out a dedicated setup for it.

Thanks brother!   Yeah you definitely need to be slinging this A-Rig in a few months.   Toads seem to love it, and that strike is quite addictive.   Fish really hammer this bait, very similar to how they hit the bigger swimbaits.    

 

I can't wait until all my Northern best buddies get back into the action, this thread is so much more fun when everybody is in season.    I could look at fish pics all day ?

17 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Southern ice fishing, saw some frozen puddles walking to the spot…….

 

8 lb seaguar basix zoom tiny fluke 

Pretty fish, and what a deadly little bait.   Need to learn how to tie those knots.  

5 hours ago, PhishLI said:

Now there's a cool memory! Friends, laughs, and photographs.

Very nice!

I can usually suck it up on cold days, especially when I have "that" feeling, but some winter days up here are just a bridge too far.

 

Just let my pooch out for her morning squirt. She made it out about 5 feet from the door when an arctic blast stopped her cold in her tracks. She did a cartoonish four-paw-skid then nearly hyperextended my knee barreling back through the partially opened sliders. Just checked the forecast. I was gonna...I really was... but NFW! In the meantime, I'll have to live vicariously through your vidya. Thankee!

 

 

 

You get a pass friend, I ain't fishing in 20mph wind, with freezing temps.......yeah I'm soft, so what ?

24 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Haha, you're so kind Katie, I know exactly what you are talking about.    You wake up pumped to have the opportunity to put into practice the stuff you just learned.

Thanks brother!   Yeah you definitely need to be slinging this A-Rig in a few months.   Toads seem to love it, and that strike is quite addictive.   Fish really hammer this bait, very similar to how they hit the bigger swimbaits.    

 

I can't wait until all my Northern best buddies get back into the action, this thread is so much more fun when everybody is in season.    I could look at fish pics all day ?

Pretty fish, and what a deadly little bait.   Need to learn how to tie those knots.  

You get a pass friend, I ain't fishing in 20mph wind, with freezing temps.......yeah I'm soft, so what ?

@Deleted account can show you how to tie the loop knot……..

 

just kidding it’s super easy, I do the rapala knot. It used to come diagramed on paper with every rapala in the box 

1 hour ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

I can't wait until all my Northern best buddies get back into the action, this thread is so much more fun when everybody is in season.    I could look at fish pics all day ?

 

Heck, yeah. I'm up to 44 ponds I want to fish in 2023, 10 from last year and 34 new ones. Of course, I won't be able to fish all of them because I'll find some favorites that I'll want to fish several times, but I'm feeling like a kid outside a candy shop with my face pressed against the window, waiting and waiting for the shop owner to flip the sign from "CLOSED" to "OPEN"! So, I study and study them on Google Earth and study the Maine Fish and Wildlife depth maps too and plan where I'll fish first and second and....

1 hour ago, TnRiver46 said:

@Deleted account can show you how to tie the loop knot……..

Be happy to, I can tie several, (perfection is my favorite) just ain't using one...  

7 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

 

Heck, yeah. I'm up to 44 ponds I want to fish in 2023, 10 from last year and 34 new ones. Of course, I won't be able to fish all of them because I'll find some favorites that I'll want to fish several times, but I'm feeling like a kid outside a candy shop with my face pressed against the window, waiting and waiting for the shop owner to flip the sign from "CLOSED" to "OPEN"! So, I study and study them on Google Earth and study the Maine Fish and Wildlife depth maps too and plan where I'll fish first and second and....

I'm already counting down the days until those beautiful dark Maine greenbacks are posted ?

 

44 Ponds is awesome, that might be the total number of ponds I've fished in my whole life.   That certainly makes the sport more exciting.   

24 minutes ago, Deleted account said:

Be happy to, I can tie several, (perfection is my favorite) just ain't using one...  

I use the perfection loop quite a bit in fly fishing

Moving spots. I’ve already picked up a couple today on spinnerbaits 

44 minutes ago, LrgmouthShad said:

Moving spots. I’ve already picked up a couple today on spinnerbaits 

 

Is this a live feed fishing day? Cool! Go, Mr. Shad, go!

2 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

I use the perfection loop quite a bit in fly fishing

Yeah, I use one for fly line to butt, and sometimes line to tippet, but mostly for snelled hooks.

Alright I’m going to call it quits early. I wasted almost 2hrs walking in the woods trying to find other spots on the bank that I could fish on this lake and didn’t really find anything that pleased me. My spots to fish right now are really limited.

 

But picked up four, three on spinnerbait and one on the same lipless as yesterday. The wind was absolutely roaring around noon. The largest bass looked decent, I didn’t weigh it but thought maybe it was around 2.5lbs. It was also the shallowest fish that I caught. 
 

Fun day out on the water. Love it when I can get them to eat a spinner. The one I used today is a clear water assassin. 

Almost got skunked 

 

34 minutes ago, LrgmouthShad said:

Alright I’m going to call it quits early. I wasted almost 2hrs walking in the woods trying to find other spots on the bank that I could fish on this lake and didn’t really find anything that pleased me. My spots to fish right now are really limited.

 

But picked up four, three on spinnerbait and one on the same lipless as yesterday. The wind was absolutely roaring around noon. The largest bass looked decent, I didn’t weigh it but thought maybe it was around 2.5lbs. It was also the shallowest fish that I caught. 
 

Fun day out on the water. Love it when I can get them to eat a spinner. The one I used today is a clear water assassin. 

Beautiful fish, and there is catching Bass, and then there's catching Bass the way you want to catch them.  One of those ways is lot more fun than the other.

 

First day I tried out a Ned Rig I caught several fish on a day when they wouldn't bite anything else....guess what I haven't thrown since, yep a Ned Rig.   Somethings just aren't fun to fish with.  

1 hour ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Beautiful fish, and there is catching Bass, and then there's catching Bass the way you want to catch them.  One of those ways is lot more fun than the other.

 

First day I tried out a Ned Rig I caught several fish on a day when they wouldn't bite anything else....guess what I haven't thrown since, yep a Ned Rig.   Somethings just aren't fun to fish with.  

Well, yeah, I do like catching them on a spinner. And when the wind is so strong like it was, about the only thing that I like to throw is something that I can retrieve constantly, and I had two fish within 30min on spinner so not a hard choice for me! Lol. But I mixed in some lipless too. 
 

By the way, that last fish bit so weird. Basically I’d been casting out in the same general area for a while, covering a dropoff, and every time then spinner came back to me, it was still pretty deep close to shore because I was retrieving it real slow. Well, I look in front of me and I just see this nice looking piece of cover that I’ve been running by and without a single thought telling me to do anything, I just make a short, super soft entry next to that piece of cover. Now, like I said I’d already passed there deeper. But this time I cast right to it, so my lure was higher up in the water column, and that fish came up and grabbed it. I had to take a moment to process what just happened after that bite. Really strange. Subtle differences make a difference sometimes I guess

46 minutes ago, LrgmouthShad said:

And when the wind is so strong like it was

I just checked the weather for tomorrow and saw that the weather today had updated. At noon when I was fishing my spot, the winds were 20mph. I’m not surprised 

 

 

23 hours ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

You should throw an A-Rig tomorrow.   

 

Big ol Skunk today.  (I did "touch the leader" but I don't count that)  I've got A-rigs.   I normally use 4 Money Minnows on 1/8 ounce jigs heads, with a 1/2 ounce Johnson Silver Minnow spoon in the middle.   I lost my favorite A-rig last week as well as my spoon.   The one I was catching bass on at Lake Norman is bare.  The others ones I have, and the one I was using today have small willow leaf blades.   I lost 3 fish today.   2 were an A-rig double that I "touched the leader" on.   Not much of a fight, but I could tell there was some weight.  I had my glove on to lip it.  When I saw it was a double I was fumbling to get my net.  I must have gave the some slack, both shook off right beside the boat.   They weren't huge, I'd guess 2 or 3 pounds.    The other one I lost might not have been hooked.  It grabbed my jerkbait as I was picking it up out of the water.   When I made that cast I decided that was my last cast.  I fished 15 more minutes after the boatside hit.  Water was 48 when I got there.  Air temp was 24 on the way.   The lake was still pretty bad muddy on the lower end.  I went up the lake ~15 miles to water that wasn't as muddy.   I saw one BIG log sticking out of the lake.   It wasn't sitting on the bottom, it's 40 feet deep where I took the picture.   

 

 

 

I believe attitude can effect fishing.  (and most other things in life)  The landing that I love is closed for construction.   There's one I hate a couple miles away.....but I HATE it.  The landing I used is near the dam, not near the section of the lake I normally fish.   I may go to some other lakes until my favorite landing is open again.  

51 minutes ago, Woody B said:

 

Big ol Skunk today.  (I did "touch the leader" but I don't count that)  I've got A-rigs.   I normally use 4 Money Minnows on 1/8 ounce jigs heads, with a 1/2 ounce Johnson Silver Minnow spoon in the middle.   I lost my favorite A-rig last week as well as my spoon.   The one I was catching bass on at Lake Norman is bare.  The others ones I have, and the one I was using today have small willow leaf blades.   I lost 3 fish today.   2 were an A-rig double that I "touched the leader" on.   Not much of a fight, but I could tell there was some weight.  I had my glove on to lip it.  When I saw it was a double I was fumbling to get my net.  I must have gave the some slack, both shook off right beside the boat.   They weren't huge, I'd guess 2 or 3 pounds.    The other one I lost might not have been hooked.  It grabbed my jerkbait as I was picking it up out of the water.   When I made that cast I decided that was my last cast.  I fished 15 more minutes after the boatside hit.  Water was 48 when I got there.  Air temp was 24 on the way.   The lake was still pretty bad muddy on the lower end.  I went up the lake ~15 miles to water that wasn't as muddy.   I saw one BIG log sticking out of the lake.   It wasn't sitting on the bottom, it's 40 feet deep where I took the picture.   

 

 

 

I believe attitude can effect fishing.  (and most other things in life)  The landing that I love is closed for construction.   There's one I hate a couple miles away.....but I HATE it.  The landing I used is near the dam, not near the section of the lake I normally fish.   I may go to some other lakes until my favorite landing is open again.  

You nailed it at least when it comes to me.....POSITIVE ATTITUDE is the most important thing to load on the boat before I fish.      It's a constant fight some days with yourself....."I suck", "you're just wasting your time" thoughts start to creep in, and once that happens it's like manifested destiny in terms of bad luck, and poor results.    

 

4 hours ago, LrgmouthShad said:

 Love it when I can get them to eat a spinner. 

 

At this point I’ll just have to take your word for it 

3 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

At this point I’ll just have to take your word for it 

I'm kinda scared that the A-Rig is nothing but a oversized Spinnerbait.....has me questioning my life ?

 

Fishing is wonderful because of the bitter as much as the sweet.   The old saying 'the sweet is never sweet without the bitter".

 

Today conditions warmed up significantly, beautiful skies, and NO WIND......but atlas I caught 4 fish, only 2 of which are pic worthy.   A 2lb class fish, and and 3lb class fish.   It's neat how this time of year that 2lb and 3lb fish would have been much smaller without these awesome bellies 90% of them have.     In the Summer and Fall I'd have to catch 5lb+ class fish to get bellies like these.   Now all the fish except a rare unhealthy fish or a dink have these beer bellies that make you smile even when the fish are smaller.   

 

3lb fish came on the 110jr +1, 2lb fish came on the Yum A-Rig.   

 

Ended the day snagging the brand new Yum A-Rig from yesterday's success, ran home and got my jerry rigged retriever, I recovered it but broke off a snap and mangled it up pretty good.   We all know the Monkey was down there and broke it, it knew I had a $25 gift card for the local Monkey hangout.    

 

So all in all, the opposite of yesterday ?

 

@TnRiver46  Can I get some help on these birds.......three of them that stayed pretty close to each other, and were hunting in the same area as Blue Herons, but unlike those they again were sticking together, and were giving the Blue Herons a wide berth.

 

Some stuff I was reading said Blue Herons could be all white as Juveniles, makes since but they weren't much smaller than the Blue Herons.    Then the wiki page for Blue Herons talks about Great White Herons.  Beautiful birds, and much easier to spot.....and shamefully I'll admit I use them very often to find active fish and then they fly away lol.    Poor man's SideScan sonar.

8 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

I'm kinda scared that the A-Rig is nothing but a oversized Spinnerbait.....has me questioning my life ?

 

Fishing is wonderful because of the bitter as much as the sweet.   The old saying 'the sweet is never sweet without the bitter".

 

Today conditions warmed up significantly, beautiful skies, and NO WIND......but atlas I caught 4 fish, only 2 of which are pic worthy.   A 2lb class fish, and and 3lb class fish.   It's neat how this time of year that 2lb and 3lb fish would have been much smaller without these awesome bellies 90% of them have.     In the Summer and Fall I'd have to catch 5lb+ class fish to get bellies like these.   Now all the fish except a rare unhealthy fish or a dink have these beer bellies that make you smile even when the fish are smaller.   

 

3lb fish came on the 110jr +1, 2lb fish came on the Yum A-Rig.   

 

Ended the day snagging the brand new Yum A-Rig from yesterday's success, ran home and got my jerry rigged retriever, I recovered it but broke off a snap and mangled it up pretty good.   We all know the Monkey was down there and broke it, it knew I had a $25 gift card for the local Monkey hangout.    

 

So all in all, the opposite of yesterday ?

 

@TnRiver46  Can I get some help on these birds.......three of them that stayed pretty close to each other, and were hunting in the same area as Blue Herons, but unlike those they again were sticking together, and were giving the Blue Herons a wide berth.

 

Some stuff I was reading said Blue Herons could be all white as Juveniles, makes since but they weren't much smaller than the Blue Herons.    Then the wiki page for Blue Herons talks about Great White Herons.  Beautiful birds, and much easier to spot.....and shamefully I'll admit I use them very often to find active fish and then they fly away lol.    Poor man's SideScan sonar.

I have heard tale of white herons but when I see a white bird like that I think great egret, lesser egret, or cattle egret. A cattle egret looks like it spilled a milkshake on its chest so I don’t think that’s it. I’ll guess great egret 

1 minute ago, TnRiver46 said:

I have heard tale of white herons but when I see a white bird like that I think greater egret, lesser egret, or cattle egret. A cattle egret looks like it spilled a milkshake on its chest so I don’t think that’s it. I’ll guess greater egret 

So this one?

Great egret - Wikipedia

I had that one first but then I read the Blue Heron page again.

 

Thanks!

2 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

when I see a white bird like that I think greater egret, lesser egret, or cattle egret

Definitely an egret.