@galyonj, you're a heckuva storyteller and the coolest cat fisher at BR, considering how you kept your cool again and again and again. I like your photos too.

 

P. S. - I also like your beard. 

 

P. P. S. - WHAT A FISH!!!!!!!!

17 hours ago, Eric 26 said:

@PhishLI Yeah I did something similar, I just bought an 18 gauge trim nailer loaded it up with 2-1/2 in nails grabbed a scrap piece of trim and proceeded to put the nail clean through the trim and my pointer finger on my left hand. Asked the wife to pull it out for me and her response was “you’re an idiot and I’m on the phone with my mom” ?

Eric we could start a whole new thread on this topic. I believe you once framed didn't you?

I shot a 3" through two fingers into a subfacia while up on a ladder with no one around. Nailed myself to the side of a house. Fortunately, I could reach my hammer and was able to pull out the nail from the house. Pulling the nail out of my fingers was much harder. Missed the bones though! That is just one of many painful adventures in the live of a former framer. I have also done the trim nail through the wood thing. OOCH!  

Aw, thank you, @ol'crickety. I appreciate that.

 

My beard tells me it thinks you're pretty great, too.

Fished until 9:30 this morning. You all know I'm a Whopper Plopper junkie, but if the bass this morning knew this too, they weren't willing to give me my fix. So, it was mostly a soft plastic paddletail with a shaft-weighted hook and a 7" Texas-rigged Senko. I caught 28 total, with three 18-inchers (One was football fat.), a 20.25-incher (Post-spawn skinny!), and a smattering of smallmouth. The 20.25-incher did jump twice, completely clearing the water, so she might be thin, but she was plucky.

 

The photos lead with a typical fish followed by the 18-inchers followed by the thin 20.25-incher and finish with a smallie. 

 

The best part of the morning was paddling by a football field-sized lily pad patch and seeing a bass rise in the center. I didn't have a frog, so I skipped my paddletail over the top and KERSPLOOSH! Then, because I just had to catch something with a surface lure, I tried my chrome blue Rapala Skitterpop on the edges and caught three more. That was fun and I'll be sure to have my frog outfit when I return to that pond.

 

Oh, it was cold this morning. That's what a clear night sky at 45 degrees north will give you, even in June. Maybe that's why the bass weren't looking up and raring to hit a noisy Whopper Plopper.

 

I looked up the definition of the word awesome. This is what I found.

@Blue Raider Bob yes indeed I’m sure there are more than enough of us former (myself) and current framers to start a thread on this topic. Speaking of which those of us who’ve done it knows why I left a laughing emoji instead of a sad one ?

20 minutes ago, Eric 26 said:

@Blue Raider Bob yes indeed I’m sure there are more than enough of us former (myself) and current framers to start a thread on this topic. Speaking of which those of us who’ve done it knows why I left a laughing emoji instead of a sad one ?

     Then you can relate to this! After starting a job selling materials instead of putting them together, I was driving through an under construction sub-division late on a Friday. The place was abandoned except for one dude who was up on a ladder waving at me. Dude is just a little too friendly, I though to myself, so I drove over to see what he wanted. He had nailed his hand to the top plate and dropped his hammer! His butt was stuck there bigr-n-you know what! If I hadn't have driven by, no telling how long he would have been there. Possibly till Monday morning! This was before cell phones!

     He was durned grateful when I handed up his hammer so he could pull the nail! 

14 minutes ago, Eric 26 said:

@Blue Raider Bob yes indeed I’m sure there are more than enough of us former (myself) and current framers to start a thread on this topic. Speaking of which those of us who’ve done it knows why I left a laughing emoji instead of a sad one ?

There should be a thread on this in the everything else forum. I'm sure there are plenty of us here who've worked physical jobs that have no shortage of these stories. The first one that popped into my mind was the time I blasted myself in the nose with a 26oz framing hammer.

 I think Foxworthy was talking about @TnRiver46 with his, If you've ever had your nipple bitten off by a beaver line. ?

There actually is a thread about people nail gunning their fingers , its not that old either 

@TnRiver46 I know you have to have some good similar stories in your line of work  as @T-Billy mentioned ? I’m looking for that thread you mentioned first chance I have ? @Blue Raider Bob that guy was darn lucky you showed up.

Y'all are posting pictures of monsters,  and I'm posting minnows.  I enjoyed catching them,  and I enjoy looking at everyone elses pictures.  

I love it when I'm on vacation.  I went fishing for the 6th day in a row today.  I caught 12 bass, and a few uncounted white perch.   I believe it was @ol'crickety who mentioned posting pictures of where we're casting.  I forget most of the time.   A 15 inch Spot(pictured) that fought like a Whale was my first.  I caught 2 more (smaller ones) from the same tree.  The tree is on a channel swing bank, next to a flat.  Boat is in ~5 feet of water.  It's ~12 feet deep at the end of the tree.   The spot pictured came from skipping a bladed jig under the tree.  For some reason I'm better at skipping than pitching.   I'm going to continue in another post so I can explain the other pictures better.   

Continued.  I moved across the main channel to a point and caught several there including a 4 pound LM.  This lake is heavily pressured, but many people don't "pressure" the right places.  I should have taking more water/land pictures so you could see better "where" it looked like I was.  There's a tapering point that goes out to the intersection of a big tributary channel, and the main river channel.   The actual point is a couple hundred yards where the land mass indicates it's at.   I should have taken a picture of the sonar.   Boat is positioned on the point, in ~8 feet of water.  I caught the bass here on a Carolina rigged baby D Bomb.   I was casting off the edge of the point into 20 feet of water.  It's my belief that the D bomb floats up, then when moved it jerks back down, then pops back up.  (if d bombs don't float, don't tell me)  Strikes come right after moving it.   

 

I caught my last, the smallest one pictured on a point another 1/4 mile down the lake.  I took, and included this picture because of a conversation I had with a guy at the landing a couple days ago.  We were talking about bass behavior.  He said Spots eyes lock into place...... or at least don't move quickly like largemouth eyes.  He said to pay attention to the direction of their eyes.  If they were looking down they were probably feeding on the bottom.  If they were looking up they were attacking prey from below.   @AlabamaSpothunter  have you heard this about spots?   

 

52 minutes ago, Woody B said:

Continued.  I moved across the main channel to a point and caught several there including a 4 pound LM.  This lake is heavily pressured, but many people don't "pressure" the right places.  I should have taking more water/land pictures so you could see better "where" it looked like I was.  There's a tapering point that goes out to the intersection of a big tributary channel, and the main river channel.   The actual point is a couple hundred yards where the land mass indicates it's at.   I should have taken a picture of the sonar.   Boat is positioned on the point, in ~8 feet of water.  I caught the bass here on a Carolina rigged baby D Bomb.   I was casting off the edge of the point into 20 feet of water.  It's my belief that the D bomb floats up, then when moved it jerks back down, then pops back up.  (if d bombs don't float, don't tell me)  Strikes come right after moving it.   

 

I caught my last, the smallest one pictured on a point another 1/4 mile down the lake.  I took, and included this picture because of a conversation I had with a guy at the landing a couple days ago.  We were talking about bass behavior.  He said Spots eyes lock into place...... or at least don't move quickly like largemouth eyes.  He said to pay attention to the direction of their eyes.  If they were looking down they were probably feeding on the bottom.  If they were looking up they were attacking prey from below.   @AlabamaSpothunter  have you heard this about spots?   

 

 

No I haven't heard that, but I'll certainly look for it in the future.   

 

Be a good question for Steven Bardin

 

Second to last LGM has some really beautiful colors in it.  

 

Weather forecast held true today. Highs about 10 degrees cooler than yesterday (78 vs 88), much more cloud cover, though some patches of sun, and east winds 15 gusting to 25 - actually felt pretty enjoyable out there. East winds aside, the bass pretty much didn’t seem to care as I was able to grab around 36 fish in 3 hours. When all was said and done, it was close to a 50/50 split between swim jigs and vibrating jigs. 
 

 

 

Got out this evening finally, I caught a 4Lb fish finally. Scale says 3.96 but it went to 4.06lbs before it threw itself on the ground twice by shaking the fish grippers lose. I got a weight to lock and had my daughter take two pictures and called it good. My daughter caught 4 fish, I caught 10 more small bass and probably 10 small crappies. I had something bite me off with my ribbon tail worm. It was quite windy out there today but the weightless stick bait was the ticket for bass. The crappie and one bass magnet was a jackall tn50. I had a good day not bad for 2 hours.

Murph!!!

 

 

Great pics too. You do a fine job documenting your fishing trips. I'd like to see what you could do with a boat. I'm guessing if @Team9nine had a boat, he'd be catching 100 bass per session. 

19 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

Murph!!!

 

 

Great pics too. You do a fine job documenting your fishing trips. I'd like to see what you could do with a boat. I'm guessing if @Team9nine had a boat, he'd be catching 100 bass per session. 

Yeah if I had a boat it would definitely be interesting for sure, last summer when I had my kayak I could pull 30 fish in three hours or less on a heavily pressured place. The weird thing is that these bigger fish all come right out of where everyone fishes. I have caught 5 to 6 fish between 4-5lbs right here. Not 400 yards down the bank walking in the muck down the bank even though it sets up better. I think that it has to do with all the baitfish that hang out there. 

6 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

Murph!!!

 

 

Great pics too. You do a fine job documenting your fishing trips. I'd like to see what you could do with a boat. I'm guessing if @Team9nine had a boat, he'd be catching 100 bass per session. 

I have a boat ? Local reservoir kind of sucks for bass, so I haven’t had it out in about 5-6 weeks. Just had trailer bearings all replaced, so its ready to roll. Some days it just seems like its more trouble than hitting a shoreline ? …and I’ve only ever had 4 100 bass days - lol

Even though I always fish from my canoe, I LOVE to cast from a shoreline, which is what I do every morning before I launch. It's easier to hook and play a fish standing than sitting. So, I understand your shoreline fishing @Jmurphy87 and @Team9nine.

4 hours ago, Team9nine said:

…and I’ve only ever had 4 100 bass days - lol

Only 4? Look out! That means I only need 4 more 100 bass days to catch up to you!  ?

1 minute ago, Fishlegs said:

Only 4? Look out! That means I only need 4 more 100 bass days to catch up to you!  ?

 

Fish a portage lake in Ontario for smallmouth. Like Maine ponds and bogs, some of those Ontario lakes are quantity and some are quality. Fish the former on a good day and you'll boat a 100 or more. 

We had light rain and 15mph winds yesterday but I got out for a few hours anyway. Water was 69 degrees and muddy. Started out slow but I ended up dropping anchor on a little grass flat yoyoing a Jackhammer. Ripping it up and out of the vegetation was triggering bites and got me 8 bass. 

1 hour ago, ol'crickety said:

 

Fish a portage lake in Ontario for smallmouth. Like Maine ponds and bogs, some of those Ontario lakes are quantity and some are quality. Fish the former on a good day and you'll boat a 100 or more. 

Maybe someday I'll get a chance. I love seeing the pictures of the places you fish. I know it would be awesome, but that's a long way for this southern boy.

Well I didn't get another 7# bass but last night did produce a smallmouth, a mess of bluegill, and a tiny spotted bass. Smallie ate the same thing as the 7# from the other night. Smallmouth were never stocked by TPWD in this lake. Many anglers fish decades here without catching one - so to me, it's a significant occurrence and is still special even when they're not particularly big. To have caught three this year (and for this to be the smallest of them) is feeling really awesome.

3 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

 

Fish a portage lake in Ontario for smallmouth. Like Maine ponds and bogs, some of those Ontario lakes are quantity and some are quality. Fish the former on a good day and you'll boat a 100 or more. 

I can't imagine catching that many bass in a day. I feel like I would have spaghetti arms after that, even if they don't get that big

I once had a pair of back-to-back 200+ days. I fished hard, pretty much from four in the morning to ten in the evening with four hours off mid-day to nap and eat. The most fish I caught on consecutive casts was seven, but I had several four and five caught in four or five casts and many two or three in a row. On the third day, the feeding frenzy continued, but mostly without me. I was worn to a nub and I was young then. They averaged a thick, hard-fighting 16".

 

A few hours into the first day, I stopped bringing them into the canoe. I'd simply grab the shaft of the Mepps treble hook, aim the points at the water, and the bass would shake free.