16 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

I just hope a chain pickerel doesn't steal it!

That's the only reason I won't get into the swimbait gig. Y'all know what swims in the lakes I fish. It would get expensive very quickly.

2 minutes ago, T-Billy said:

That's the only reason I won't get into the swimbait gig. Y'all know what swims in the lakes I fish. It would get expensive very quickly.

Yeah that's a big thing because just yesterday while chunking this thing I was thinking to myself that unless a giant Cat or Bass or breaks me off once hooked up, it'll be pretty darn hard to lose this bait.

 

It's a lot more fun throwing a $40 bait around when you know it won't get snagged deeper than you can get to, or that ESOX fish won't bite me off.   

I have a horror movie idea:

 

A feared musky hunter, who looks a little like Grizzly Adams, decides to throw musky-bait-sized lures to bass. Without a titanium leader, the muskies take all his big bass baits. With an empty tackle box and equally emptied wallet, the broken-hearted musky hunter drives his boat off into the sunset and is never seen again.

 

The title? "Revenge of the Muskies"

 

The sequel would be "Grizzly Adams Returns," and would tell the story of the former musky hunter making his way down to the Ohio River, up the Mississippi, and west on the Missouri River to grizzly bear country, where he befriends a griz and they live happily high in the Rockies. 

 

The last film in the series would be a return to the horror genre and would be called "You left me for a BEAR?" and would tell how an Ohio wife tracked her man down one river and up others, then up into the mountains, becoming madder and madder along the way, until she arrived many times more fearsome than a griz. 

I go from hardly ever a chatterbait bite to it being my biggest producer this year. Mini dragging two 4lbers in 2 weekends among 90% of my other fish. 

 

 

Another day on the bank. They’re not the biggest, but they’re not terrible either (lol), and they sure keep you sharp. You also learn so much about the fish, how they behave, as well as your setups and techniques. Picked off 20 this afternoon on a combination of Ned, swimbaits and jerkbaits. Bring on the snow ?

 

 

 

 

I’ve been skunking out for a while now. Went back down to the pond with my Garmin to try to find the sneaky buggers. Found them alright. Made no difference though. They wouldn’t bite anything for some reason. Water temps were in the low 60s. Same as outside. Sky was going from partly cloudy to cloudy and back again. Finally called it and made one last cast with my KastKing Royale Legend 2/Daiwa MH rod with 15# flouro and a Booyah lipless crank bait. The fish that bit was barely larger than the lure. ? Still counts I guess.

 

 

Edited March 12, 20233 yr by ScottW
Image size issues

31 minutes ago, ScottW said:

I’ve been skunking out for a while now. Went back down to the pond with my Garmin to try to find the sneaky buggers. Found them alright. Made no difference though. They wouldn’t bite anything for some reason. Water temps were in the low 60s. Same as outside. Sky was going from partly cloudy to cloudy and back again. Finally called it and made one last cast with my KastKing Royale Legend 2/Daiwa MH rod with 15# flouro and a Booyah lipless crank bait. The fish that bit was barely larger than the lure. ? Still counts I guess.

 

Pretty wild, myself and another Crappie angler I was talking to on the lake today were talking about how frustrating it was to see so many fish on sonar without any of them biting.    

 

That 38d night last night put the lockjaw on them that's for sure, otherwise it's was a perfect day to Bass fish.

 

Caught one small guy, and 3 Crappie.     Only had three followers on the Shimano swimbait which I threw the vast majority of the time.    

 

Spring just sucks ?

@Functional: Beauties!

 

@Team9nine, 20 fish from the shore is impressive. So is your consistency. You are a fine fisher.

 

@AlabamaSpothunter and @ScottW: 

 

36 degrees this morning.  Water temp is down to 56,  but I managed to catch 12 today.   I didn't weigh any.  Biggest was a 18 inch Spot.   So, everyone knows I do things different.   I caught 7 on a chatterbait......with a money minnow trailer.  4 on a 3X and 1 on a T-rig.   I was rigging my rods last night.  I couldn't decide between a chatterbait, or money minnow on my 3rd rod.  I decided to do both.  They weren't clobbering anything, not even the crank.   I probably missed some.  On the bladed jig all I would feel was the vibration stop.  The wobble would stop on the crank, but not much more. The one I caught on a T-rig was an accident.   I cast into the wind, and hit a dock post.  I cleared my(opps) backlash.  When I got the line tight after that the bass was there.   Weather forecast is BAD tomorrow.  I'll see how cold, how much rain, and how much of it is frozen before I decide about going.   

 

I'm new here and just put up an introduction post a couple days ago in which 'Ol Crickety asked me to post my fish here so I can get some attaboys.  Unfortunately I haven't been out yet this year.  It was looking good around here for a bit last week and the week before when water temps were hitting upper 40s, but I missed out.  Now we're back to Winter and water temps crashed back down to mid 30s the past couple days. 

 

I am chompin at the bit to get after them when water warms back up. 

 

Best I can do for now is show a nice 21.5" I got last year right about this time.

 

20 minutes ago, Jeff Zurawski said:

I'm new here and just put up an introduction post a couple days ago in which 'Ol Crickety asked me to post my fish here so I can get some attaboys.  Unfortunately I haven't been out yet this year.  It was looking good around here for a bit last week and the week before when water temps were hitting upper 40s, but I missed out.  Now we're back to Winter and water temps crashed back down to mid 30s the past couple days. 

 

I am chompin at the bit to get after them when water warms back up. 

 

Best I can do for now is show a nice 21.5" I got last year right about this time.

 

Beautiful fish...and welcome.

42 minutes ago, Jeff Zurawski said:

I'm new here and just put up an introduction post a couple days ago in which 'Ol Crickety asked me to post my fish here so I can get some attaboys.  Unfortunately I haven't been out yet this year.  It was looking good around here for a bit last week and the week before when water temps were hitting upper 40s, but I missed out.  Now we're back to Winter and water temps crashed back down to mid 30s the past couple days. 

 

I am chompin at the bit to get after them when water warms back up. 

 

Best I can do for now is show a nice 21.5" I got last year right about this time.

 

Truly a magnificent looking fish, and equal magnificent beard.   

 

That fish looked up and said, "this ain't no real Santa" ?

 

Welcome, awesome group of guys and GAL in this thread. 

@Jeff Zurawski

 

 

Jeff, I'm chompin' at my bit too. I live in Maine, so our water is still hard, but daytime highs are hitting the low forties some days, so it won't be that much longer before out water is soft and then hopefully just a few weeks longer before it's warm enough to wake the bass. 

Best one so far this season.  Relatively calm winds forced me to go midwest finesse. Coppertreuse TicklerZ did the trick. Plenty of bites from the usual suspects, too. Nobody told them it snowed last night.

10 minutes ago, The Bassman said:

Best one so far this season.  Relatively calm winds forced me to go midwest finesse. Coppertreuse TicklerZ did the trick. Plenty of bites from the usual suspects, too. Nobody told them it snowed last night.

That's a beautiful toad, congrats!  

Well broke the new combo in, maybe 30 minutes if that. Just yo yoing a lipless, not too cold out there today at 34 degrees overcast sky’s with a very slight Breeze. Not big by far, although it could be a lot smaller, I am definitely doing a lot better than I have been this time of year for the past few. I will definitely take it happily.

I was sitting around the house today bored.  Mrs B was taking a nap.  I was torn between going to Academy, or going fishing.  (36 degrees and raining)  I decided to go fishing.  A fishing trip is cheaper than an academy trip.  I made it an hour and half.  My hands felt like blocks of ice.  I can do OK in rain, or cold but the combination got me.  Disposable hand warmers don't work when they're wet.   I caught 2.  One kinda decent, and a nubbin.  The first one (16 inches) was on a 3xd on my 2nd cast.  The other(nubbin/dink)  was on a t-rig on my last cast.  (When I'm able I've been stopping right after catching a bass.  Catching on on the last cast is kinda magic.   (I might as well explain)   Last year one day I decided I was going to fish until 1PM.  At 1PM I made a cast and told myself "this is my last cast".  I caught a 3 pounder, so I decided to fish for 15 more minutes.  On my next cast I caught a 53 pound flathead cat.  When I finally got it in the boat it was 1:45 and I had to go.  All the next week I was excited about catching a giant on my last cast.  Most of the time since then I've been leaving after a catch.  Instead of saying "I'm leaving at whatever o'clock" I'll decide to leave on the next fish after a certain time.   I decided about 15 minutes after the first one today that I was leaving when I caught another....or froze.   

I saved money.  I went fishing instead of feeding the bait monkey.  

 

9 minutes ago, Woody B said:

I was sitting around the house today bored.  Mrs B was taking a nap.  I was torn between going to Academy, or going fishing.  (36 degrees and raining)  I decided to go fishing.  A fishing trip is cheaper than an academy trip.  I made it an hour and half.  My hands felt like blocks of ice.  I can do OK in rain, or cold but the combination got me.  Disposable hand warmers don't work when they're wet.   I caught 2.  One kinda decent, and a nubbin.  The first one (16 inches) was on a 3xd on my 2nd cast.  The other(nubbin/dink)  was on a t-rig on my last cast.  (When I'm able I've been stopping right after catching a bass.  Catching on on the last cast is kinda magic.   (I might as well explain)   Last year one day I decided I was going to fish until 1PM.  At 1PM I made a cast and told myself "this is my last cast".  I caught a 3 pounder, so I decided to fish for 15 more minutes.  On my next cast I caught a 53 pound flathead cat.  When I finally got it in the boat it was 1:45 and I had to go.  All the next week I was excited about catching a giant on my last cast.  Most of the time since then I've been leaving after a catch.  Instead of saying "I'm leaving at whatever o'clock" I'll decide to leave on the next fish after a certain time.   I decided about 15 minutes after the first one today that I was leaving when I caught another....or froze.   

I saved money.  I went fishing instead of feeding the bait monkey.  

 

I'll quit once I catch the next fish is like I'll quit once I win the next hand in poker/blackjack......it's literally impossible to do for myself.

 

Catching a fish sends a new wave of energy and motivation through me, doesn't matter how small......"I'm like yeah this when it's all gonna turn around, finally I've nailed down the pattern" ?

4 hours ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

I'll quit once I catch the next fish is like I'll quit once I win the next hand in poker/blackjack......it's literally impossible to do for myself.

 

Catching a fish sends a new wave of energy and motivation through me, doesn't matter how small......"I'm like yeah this when it's all gonna turn around, finally I've nailed down the pattern" ?

It gets easier for me to fish till I catch that last one when the fishing improves at my usual spots...still just a touch cold here. If I did that today I'd probably still be out there lol

Took a few shots for @Jigfishn10 to prove we did some work today while at the lakehouse 

 

 

1 minute ago, TnRiver46 said:

 

Took a few shots for @Jigfishn10 to prove we did some work today while at the lakehouse 

 

 

"Feeling kinda of cute, think I'm gonna rock this new SM look"

 

That's the instagram caption for the last SM pic ?

Just now, AlabamaSpothunter said:

"Feeling kinda of cute, think I'm gonna rock this new SM look"

 

That's the instagram caption for the last SM pic ?

Even long arm that’s a non keeper……

Nice work at the lakehouse. I enjoy when you guys share what you do when you're not catching bass.

First Bass of 2023 caught her at night I named her Sophie and in second look I think it was Steve ?

I'm ready for the cold to be over, but I'm not ready for the fat winter bass to be over, a catch 22 I suppose.