Latest Catch Pics Thread

[AlabamaSpothunter]

1 hour ago, NorthernBasser said:

Let me know if you ever come up this way! 

 

I just wanna visit your tackle cave/monkey cage.....must be like the Chocolate Factory for Charlie ?

[gimruis]

8 hours ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

I just wanna visit your tackle cave/monkey cage

Its a SHED, not a cage.

[king fisher]

On 5/8/2023 at 5:16 AM, roadwarrior said:

  I was back to trying floro again, after swearing I would never use it again for the hundredth time, but I will say the 15 pound fluorocarbon was up to the task.  Now for the real test, how well it performs next week after being stressed to the limit.

 

Maybe respool?

I would, but the only floro here is for leaders, 60 pound and up.  The airlines wont let anyone bring fishing line in carry on luggage.  All my friends fly down with only carry on bags.  The Sniper I put on will have to live up to its reputation, and last for more than one big fish and a snag.  If it doesn't I will once again, be off the floro wagon.    

[Bluebasser86]

My second kayak tournament of the year was this past weekend at El Dorado lake in Southeast Kansas. El Dorado is Spanish for "The Big Wind". Okay not really, but I've never seen this lake without whitecaps I don't think and this weekend wasn't any better. It was super low, so the limited areas was even more limited than usual. I'd heard through the grapevine that my favorite areas to fish, the creeks, had almost no water in them and were a huge hassle to even try to fish, so I was going to focus on mainlake stuff. Like usual, when I got to the lake and was setting up my tent, I put out my catfish rods, which found a nice blue. I was excited about that, until it promptly removed a couple good sized chunks of skin from my hand as I tried to release it. Those spots would be sore and uncomfortable the rest of the weekend.

I prefished for 10 or 11 hours. I started the morning by immediately dropping my pliers in the lake. I caught 4 or 5 little bass along with several accidental bycatches before I did what I told myself all day not to do, I went to the area I planned on fishing. I guess I was hurting bad to catch a fish, because I caught a 15" smallmouth pretty fast, then another, then this one.

Kicking myself for leaning on this one, I was grumbling while I dropped my bait back in the water to fix a loop, and it took off again with a 17" largemouth. I finally bent the hook all the way in on my Ned rig and had several more swim off with it but not hook up. I decided to see if they'd eat a glide bait. Of course I couldn't protect them from the hooks, and yes they would literally try to eat it.

So I knew they were there but I ended the night just fuming at myself for sticking a mid 80 inch bag in practice on a tough lake. 

 

Tournament day was blowing 25mph at launch and got windier as the day went on. There was white caps in the small marina I was sharing with 12-15 other kayaks. Took a minute to get my first bite, which was only 13". Second bite was 8 3/4". 3rd bite was 14", and I broke my brand new rod on the hookset, my first fish I got to catch on it. The day never got much better. I caught a small limit and culled up an inch here, half and inch there, but never caught any kicker fish like the day before. Finished in 9th with 77" and found out that 1st, 2nd, and 3rd all fished in the creeks, should have trusted my instincts there. I did catch all 3 species of bass, which is pretty rare in Kansas, so that was neat.

 

Last night I got off work a little early and it was nice and cloudy with storms on the way, so I got the okay from Mrs. Blue and asked my boys if they wanted to fish the pond down the street for some bluegills for a short trip before the storms moved in. My youngest wasn't interested, but my oldest jumped at the chance. The only thing more eager than he was, was the bluegills. Not sure how many we caught before we had to call it because lightning started rumbling, but it was a bunch. I missed the first dozen bites I had on my flyrod before I finally looked at my fly, the hook was bent so awkwardly there was no way I would have ever landed a fish. My son was talking some serious smack with about a 10-0 advantage on me, but I made a furious comeback once I had a functioning hook.

There's some huge hybrids in this pond. I caught one of the more average ones but she appeared to be about to pop with eggs.

Ended the night on back to back doubles.

 

 

[ol'crickety]

@Bluebasser86

 

As always, I loved your trip report, but man, you've really raised the bar, for your trip report was actually three trip reports with the grand finale of catching bluegills with your son. I surrender all my bases to you.

 

P. S. - Please tell your son that he's the best. Whadda fisherboy. Whadda smile!

 

P. P. S. - Ouch! 

[roadwarrior]

 

 

                                                       

[Fat Ika]

This past Sunday was the end of a low pressure trend with 10-15 SE - E wind shift. Swim jigs, jackhammer, glide bait all generating bites. After landing some swim jig/jackhammer fish and then being short struck by a few other swim jig and Jackhammer/5.5 Spunk Shad fish, decided to try out the Gilly on a Jackhammer. Landed 3 bass and a pike in 20 min before the Gilly was unusable and didn't have more Gillys on hand. Even from the human perspective, seeing the Gilly buzzing throwing the water looked pretty annoying! 

[Jar11591]

Little guy with a big tail munched the jig: 

 

Tough morning. Air temp was 28° when I launched. Warmed up to 65° by the time I left. Few small fish here and there, including my first topwater fish of the year; a 12” on a PopX. Only saw a couple shallow cruisers. Not the day I was expecting but even during prespawn bass can be unpredictable. The first couple weeks of fishing were incredible, with excellent quality and quantity, but the last two weeks there’s been an unseasonable lull. Still a little early for true pre spawn action compared to years past though. Did see a ton of wildlife though. A bald eagle, two foxes, a deer, a mink, a blue heron, my loon pals, and a beaver that scared the beard right off my face after he snuck up on me and smashed his tail on the surface 20 yards from my boat. 

[ol'crickety]

@Jar11591, 28 to 65 degrees, all those critters, and that whale tail make for a perfect morning. I'm struggling with quantity too.

 

@Fat Ika, I like your Gilly on a Jackhammer. Did you get weight or length on your bass? It looks big.

 

 

[Jar11591]

8 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

@Jar11591, 28 to 65 degrees, all those critters, and that whale tail make for a perfect morning. I'm struggling with quantity too.

Hard to complain, despite the lack of wildlife of the micropterus variety. Had the lake to myself again, even until noon. Whenever I go fishing at this particular mountain lake, I tell my girlfriend “I’m

going to my favorite place in the world”. 

[keagbassr]

Got out for about 6 hours today, boated 6 bass, 2 on a buzzbait and 4 on a frog, with 1 buzbait fish weighing 4-2, and 1 of the frog fish at 4-3 .

[GaryH]

4 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

My second kayak tournament of the year was this past weekend at El Dorado lake in Southeast Kansas. El Dorado is Spanish for "The Big Wind". Okay not really, but I've never seen this lake without whitecaps I don't think and this weekend wasn't any better. It was super low, so the limited areas was even more limited than usual. I'd heard through the grapevine that my favorite areas to fish, the creeks, had almost no water in them and were a huge hassle to even try to fish, so I was going to focus on mainlake stuff. Like usual, when I got to the lake and was setting up my tent, I put out my catfish rods, which found a nice blue. I was excited about that, until it promptly removed a couple good sized chunks of skin from my hand as I tried to release it. Those spots would be sore and uncomfortable the rest of the weekend.

I prefished for 10 or 11 hours. I started the morning by immediately dropping my pliers in the lake. I caught 4 or 5 little bass along with several accidental bycatches before I did what I told myself all day not to do, I went to the area I planned on fishing. I guess I was hurting bad to catch a fish, because I caught a 15" smallmouth pretty fast, then another, then this one.

Kicking myself for leaning on this one, I was grumbling while I dropped my bait back in the water to fix a loop, and it took off again with a 17" largemouth. I finally bent the hook all the way in on my Ned rig and had several more swim off with it but not hook up. I decided to see if they'd eat a glide bait. Of course I couldn't protect them from the hooks, and yes they would literally try to eat it.

So I knew they were there but I ended the night just fuming at myself for sticking a mid 80 inch bag in practice on a tough lake. 

 

Tournament day was blowing 25mph at launch and got windier as the day went on. There was white caps in the small marina I was sharing with 12-15 other kayaks. Took a minute to get my first bite, which was only 13". Second bite was 8 3/4". 3rd bite was 14", and I broke my brand new rod on the hookset, my first fish I got to catch on it. The day never got much better. I caught a small limit and culled up an inch here, half and inch there, but never caught any kicker fish like the day before. Finished in 9th with 77" and found out that 1st, 2nd, and 3rd all fished in the creeks, should have trusted my instincts there. I did catch all 3 species of bass, which is pretty rare in Kansas, so that was neat.

 

Last night I got off work a little early and it was nice and cloudy with storms on the way, so I got the okay from Mrs. Blue and asked my boys if they wanted to fish the pond down the street for some bluegills for a short trip before the storms moved in. My youngest wasn't interested, but my oldest jumped at the chance. The only thing more eager than he was, was the bluegills. Not sure how many we caught before we had to call it because lightning started rumbling, but it was a bunch. I missed the first dozen bites I had on my flyrod before I finally looked at my fly, the hook was bent so awkwardly there was no way I would have ever landed a fish. My son was talking some serious smack with about a 10-0 advantage on me, but I made a furious comeback once I had a functioning hook.

There's some huge hybrids in this pond. I caught one of the more average ones but she appeared to be about to pop with eggs.

Ended the night on back to back doubles.

 

 

Great job BB….??

[Fat Ika]

1 hour ago, ol'crickety said:

@Jar11591, 28 to 65 degrees, all those critters, and that whale tail make for a perfect morning. I'm struggling with quantity too.

 

@Fat Ika, I like your Gilly on a Jackhammer. Did you get weight or length on your bass? It looks big.

 

 

@ol'crickety Just a rod estimate. 19.5"-20" 

[T-Billy]

2 hours ago, Jar11591 said:

a beaver that scared the beard right off my face after he snuck up on me and smashed his tail on the surface 20 yards from my boat. 

Those dirty buggers will do that 2 feet from your boat at night. 

[Jar11591]

8 minutes ago, T-Billy said:

Those dirty buggers will do that 2 feet from your boat at night. 

I’d probably end up overboard. I was fishing a calm cove, it was dead silent, and I was completely locked in and focused until “WHAM!”. I’ll confess to the words I called it in the profanity thread ?

[T-Billy]

50 minutes ago, Jar11591 said:

I’d probably end up overboard. I was fishing a calm cove, it was dead silent, and I was completely locked in and focused until “WHAM!”. I’ll confess to the words I called it in the profanity thread ?

LOL, Yup. They're territorial, and at night they'll swim right up to the boat and tail slap. You're fishing along in the dark, usually dead quiet, and all the sudden it sounds like someone did a cannonball right behind you, and there's water raining down on ya. Sometimes they'll circle the boat and keep doing it. 

Fargen herons are another pesky critter at night. They'll wait until you're directly under their roost tree, then launch out of it squawking at the top of their lungs. Either they think it's funny, or The Lord does. Someone's getting a laugh out of my reaction, of that I'm sure.

[ol'crickety]

I had five beavers slapping last night. 

 

#whosaidnatureisquiet???

[Dwight Hottle]

@keagbassr your fish always look well fed & stocky.  

[keagbassr]

1 hour ago, Dwight Hottle said:

@keagbassr your fish always look well fed & stocky.  

Ya these fish around here sure ain't shy about eating, here's a pic from last week of a 13"er that decided to have my frog for dessert before finishing his lunch. 

[A-Jay]

Big Fish Jeff put on a Clinic today ~ 

A-Jay

[GaryH]

28 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

Big Fish Jeff put on a Clinic today ~ 

A-Jay

WOW… Great catch..they are hogs.

 

[ol'crickety]

1 hour ago, keagbassr said:

Ya these fish around here sure ain't shy about eating, here's a pic from last week of a 13"er that decided to have my frog for dessert before finishing his lunch. 

I saw ^this^ movie. It was called "Alien."

[MIbassyaker]

A representative catch from this morning -- a dozen cookie-cutter 15"-17"ers about like this one. 

My favorite little lake in my area -- publicly accessible only from a creek, which can be carry-down launched 1/2mile upstream from a minor gravel road out in the middle of nowhere, .  Only rarely do I ever see anybody else on the water here.

[ol'crickety]

5 minutes ago, MIbassyaker said:

A representative catch from this morning -- a dozen cookie-cutter 15"-17"ers about like this one. 

My favorite little lake in my area -- publicly accessible only from a creek, which can be carry-down launched 1/2mile upstream from a minor gravel road out in the middle of nowhere, .  Only rarely do I ever see anybody else on the water here.

 

Nice bass and my kind of pond!

[MIbassyaker]

2 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

 

Nice bass and my kind of pond!

...and 30 min from the center of the 2nd largest city in the State.

 

If @Mbirdsley is the king of 2 pounders for Central MI, I'm the king for Western MI!