26 minutes ago, gimruis said:

Rock bass are indeed a bass, but they’re like that ugly loser cousin that no one in the family really wants to associate with.

If you squint - they are a part of the Centrarchidae family, which includes Sunfish, Crappie, Rock Bass, and the other Bass genus/species (LM, SM, Spot, etc)...but the body type is more typical of Sunfish or Crappie.

 

I suppose if we allow 'Rock Bass' in here - the Crappie guys are gonna want to barge in too.

Unless we call them Crappie Bass, I think we'll be safe. 

1 hour ago, IcatchDinks said:

Unless we call them Crappie Bass, I think we'll be safe. 

 

Now ^that's^ funny!

 

Up at 3:30 in the morning to fish. I have to paddle a couple miles to a sweet spot I discovered last time I fished. 

 

Wife and I hit the dam in Lisbon N.D today. Bought a scoop of fatheads to do some bobber jig fishin for smallies and walleye. I had a very fun day full of some great fighting fish.

I caught this Buffalo head fish and it was a nice battle, I played him so as to not break off and he oblidged. Then i caught some white bass and they were scrappy fellas and some wallaye thrown in to take home.

I then hooked into this welterweight fighter, this catfish i tell ya they really have some muscle. I hooked 3 of them this size today on a bobber, jig, minnow, they get hooked nicely in the very corner of the mouth and though not huge cats when ya get them close to shore they turn and roll and take off for another run, great fighting fish. We arrived home at 12:30 am.

 

12 hours ago, IcatchDinks said:

@galyonj funny thing: It started raining right as I started driving home. 

 

Got an 18" and nice 4# 20" 

For the 4# used my Core50mg7 on Quantum Smoke7' M/F rod 14# fireline attached to Fat Ika.

 

 

I fished a bog that I've come to love. Last year, I fished it and caught quantity, but not quality. This year, I caught a six-plus pounder and two four-and-a-half-pounders last Friday. This morning, I hooked a bass that cracked my rod and straightened my hook. I wish I could fish from a boat where I could stand. I think that would help a lot. However, I couldn't launch that boat in this bog. 

 

I also hooked myself, the second time in three days. Sigh. Both times, I struggled to punch the hook through my skin so I could cut the hook under the barb. Both times, I pushed the hook up with one hand and push my skin down with the other. 

 

I caught 36 Butterballs and here are some of them. I think Maine's short, fat bass are funny. I also caught a 19-incher and hooked her seven feet from a huge lay-down in deep water.

 

"I've every advantage," I thought.

 

Then she pulled me into the tree and I couldn't even use my rod. I had to hand-line her to the canoe, amazed that she didn't catch on a sunken limb.

 

She's the first fish in the column of pics. I know she's just a tad under 19", but since I call my 19.25", 19.5", and 19.75" bass all 19-inchers, I'm calling her a 19-incher too. She's certainly got the build of a 19-incher.

 

 

@throttleplate: I would really enjoy fishing below that dam. I'd love hooking a fish and not knowing what it was. 

10 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

I fished a bog that I've come to love. Last year, I fished it and caught quantity, but not quality. This year, I caught a six-plus pounder and two four-and-a-half-pounders last Friday. This morning, I hooked a bass that cracked my rod and straightened my hook. I wish I could fish from a boat where I could stand. I think that would help a lot. However, I couldn't launch that boat in this bog. 

 

I also hooked myself, the second time in three days. Sigh. Both times, I struggled to punch the hook through my skin so I could cut the hook under the barb. Both times, I pushed the hook up with one hand and push my skin down with the other. 

 

I caught 36 Butterballs and here are some of them. I think Maine's short, fat bass are funny. I also caught a 19-incher and hooked her seven feet from a huge lay-down in deep water.

 

"I've every advantage," I thought.

 

Then she pulled me into the tree and I couldn't even use my rod. I had to hand-line her to the canoe, amazed that she didn't catch on a sunken limb.

 

She's the first fish in the column of pics. I know she's just a tad under 19", but since I call my 19.25", 19.5", and 19.75" bass all 19-inchers, I'm calling her a 19-incher too. She's certainly got the build of a 19-incher.

 

 

@throttleplate: I would really enjoy fishing below that dam. I'd love hooking a fish and not knowing what it was. 

That looks like a fun morning for sure, getting hooked is not so much fun. But it’s a risk we take to pursue our passion, I am glad that you got it out and that you are doing good ?

I may not like the heat but right now the fish are telling me that I should go in it. Still really slow fishing though. I got nothing while it was still dark and then got two fish while punching. First one I photo'd went a little over 3lbs, not bad. Second fish I photo'd is a dink but he is still appreciated. 

 

Next weekend I will switch it up and change where I launch and then try to commit to punching if the fish are willing to cooperate again. Punching is quite possibly my favorite thing to do out of enjoyment. The fish might just be setting up for me to do it effectively ?

 

That's 65lb braid to a 1.5oz tungsten sinker pegged. Owner jungle flipping hook engulfed by a gambler burner craw in green pumpkin black swirl. 

@throttleplate passes the haircut police initiative. Confirmed.

My night fishing didn't work out as planned.   I fished from 1:30 until 6:30.  I caught a couple Perch,  1 decent Largemouth, and a 205 pound 69 inch long sucker.  I caught the bass on a DT6.  When I lipped it and pulled it into the boat it flipped.  I dropped it but ended up with the bass on one hook, with my thumb and index finger on the other.   I cut the hook off the lure to get me loose from the bass.  I got it loose from my thumb but the hook was buried all the way up to the shank in my right index finger.   It was buried too deep to work it on through.   I ended up going to an Urgent Care to get it cut out.  I've got a couple pictures of the hook in my finger, but I don't want to look at it so I figure no one else does either.   I cropped it out of the Bass picture.   

 

40 minutes ago, gimruis said:

@throttleplate passes the haircut police initiative. Confirmed.

?

Hot, muggy and somewhat smoky morning on the lake. The wildfires are still hazing up the place. Was all about the spinnerbait today. No lunkers but lots of chunkers. Fish were all very fat and healthy. Lost the would-be best fish of the day that was over 4 pounds. The lake got extremely crowded by mid morning and I was out of there by noon. 



 

This lake has really thick milfoil and hydrilla mats, spent hours punching and frogging them to no avail. Fish were only found in sparse to moderately thick curly-leaf pond weed and elodea. This lake is an enigma, but it gives up fish readily and I know it’s a potential PB location so I’ll continue to try to pick it apart. 

34 minutes ago, Jar11591 said:

This lake has really thick milfoil and hydrilla mats

Ditto. Photos from Cedar Gap Park boat ramp on Stillhouse

 

All hydrilla though. Almost looks nasty here doesn’t it?

@LrgmouthShad that’s the easiest way for me to tell hydrilla and Eurasian milfoil apart. When the hydrilla mats up it gets that nasty cheese/slop on top where the milfoil is just a mat of vegetation. I prefer to fish milfoil, and prefer to not have punch at all if I can help it. 

I didn't get a chance last night to fish, was really late when I came home and haven't been sleeping with all going on. 

 

However, the streak must continue....fish for 7/23 (Day 48) off the new rod. Really like the Victory line of St Croix, very sensitive for the money. 

 

Both fish off the Rat-L-Trap, as you can see. 

 

 

 

 

 

It felt like I was being broiled midday yesterday, but by the time I hit an eastern lake with my brother at 11:00pm the temps dropped to 61 and it felt like we were freezing. It was a dry cold though...

 

Not a lick of wind was swirling, and not one pop was heard in the pads or weeds. It was really tough to find anything biting, so after humping a Jon boat 300 feet down a beaten path we were questioning ourselves for fishing a brand new cold front. Finally nabbed some wading a super shallow shoreline then jumped back on das boot for one last shot and got a few more. The lake holds golden shiners and good thing I brought a Berkeley Grass Pig in Swamp Gas because they wouldn't touch anything else. 

The toll for crashing on my brother's couch is levied by Sammy the cat. He's very pushy and won't let me sleep unless I agree to be his pillow. It was 5:00 am by the time we drove home and unloaded, so I was too exhausted to negotiate with him.

29 minutes ago, PhishLI said:

It was a dry cold though...

 

And the veal is very good this evening!

 

That last bass is a beee-uuuu-teee!

Saturday was our Tri-County roadrunner style tournament. Tuesday night I had some pretty significant pain flair up. It didn't get any better by Thursday so I'd gone to the walk in clinic at my doctor. He pretty immediately told me to get to the ER, so I got to spend some time there Thursday and got sent home with painkillers and medication for the infection I'm apparently dealing with. I probably shouldn't have fished the tournament, but like the saying goes; "If you're gonna be dumb, you gotta be tough". 

 

I got to the ramp at the lake I wanted to fish in plenty of time and was surprised that only 5 other trucks were there. Unfortunately, when I picked up my tacklebox out of the back of my truck, I had a shot of pain run through me like I'd been stabbed in the back and kicked in the groin at the same time. I spent several minutes laying on the front of my kayak before I was able to regain composure and finish loading everything. It was a few minutes after first cast before I finally made mine. Didn't take long to catch fish. I watched another angler catch a 20.75" within casting distance of me on a buzzbait, it was a pretty cool catch and he's a good guy so I enjoyed watching it go down. I had a limit pretty fast but mostly small fish as I worked down the lake. I had a huge brushpile that hangs out over a ledge I wanted to fish because it always hold fish. I got snagged in it with my crawtube, retrieved it, and cast a big worm towards the edges of it and got a light tap. My drag slipped terribly when I set the hook, but she stayed stuck and buried into the tree. Thankfully, the 20lb Tatsu held and I slid the net under a solid 20 incher.

I pedaled across to a small group of stumps on the edge of a flat that drops into deeper water. Ran a crankbait through them, nothing. Cast my crawtube to one, got a little peck and the line started moving. Next keeper was a nice 17.25" fish.

Then for some reason, another big surge of pain. I couldn't even lift my feet to the pedals for several minutes, just sat there trying to take deep breaths and hope it would go away. Finally it did somewhat. I paddled close to the shore to a single log and ran a bladed jig down it. Watched a wake shoot over the tree and felt the jolt. The fish looked a lot bigger, but still a decent 16.75" fish.

I had a pretty decent dry spell of just a few small fish, when I switched my craw tube to an old color of Strike King Denny Brauer Flipping tubes. It was like a light switch. I missed several of the bites unfortunately, but the first one I actually hooked was an 18.25" fish.

I caught several more small fish on the tube and a squarebill, and had a serious issue with missing and losing fish. Had a couple solid feeling fish hooked that just came off before I saw them. I hooked and lost or missed fish off the same stump 3 times before finally catching this 17.25" fish.

I have no service at this lake, so I had no idea how I was doing but I kept hearing about big fish and heard a rumor from the neighboring lake of someone having "Multiple 21" fish". So I was pretty much just on cruise control, happy to have a decent limit despite the difficulties I was dealing with. 

At our weigh in, I found out that someone had just had allegedly had chances at multiple 21" fish but failed to convert (happens to all of us every trip doesn't it?), and the fishing was tougher than what I'd thought. I ended catching 3 dozen bass on the day, and my biggest 5 went 89.5", which proved to be good enough for 3rd and just a small cull away from winning the thing. Todd was who I watched catch the big one on the buzzbait first thing in the morning, so I was happy to see him win it. 

 

22 hours ago, galyonj said:

Go when it's raining. Cuts down on the riff raff. 

It thins our herd, but I'LL still be out there!!!

I love fishing in the rain, as long as there's no lightening.   

5 hours ago, Woody B said:

I caught the bass on a DT6.  When I lipped it and pulled it into the boat it flipped.  I dropped it but ended up with the bass on one hook, with my thumb and index finger on the other.   I cut the hook off the lure to get me loose from the bass.  I got it loose from my thumb but the hook was buried all the way up to the shank in my right index finger.

Sounds familiar, except I wrenched mine out at home. Not sure I could do it again, but I was determined in the moment. Just got the bill yesterday for a tetanus shot and antibiotic. 438 smackers. I wonder what it would've come to had they removed the hook?

36 minutes ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Saturday was our Tri-County roadrunner style tournament. Tuesday night I had some pretty significant pain flair up. It didn't get any better by Thursday so I'd gone to the walk in clinic at my doctor. He pretty immediately told me to get to the ER, so I got to spend some time there Thursday and got sent home with painkillers and medication for the infection I'm apparently dealing with. I probably shouldn't have fished the tournament, but like the saying goes; "If you're gonna be dumb, you gotta be tough". 

 

I got to the ramp at the lake I wanted to fish in plenty of time and was surprised that only 5 other trucks were there. Unfortunately, when I picked up my tacklebox out of the back of my truck, I had a shot of pain run through me like I'd been stabbed in the back and kicked in the groin at the same time. I spent several minutes laying on the front of my kayak before I was able to regain composure and finish loading everything. It was a few minutes after first cast before I finally made mine. Didn't take long to catch fish. I watched another angler catch a 20.75" within casting distance of me on a buzzbait, it was a pretty cool catch and he's a good guy so I enjoyed watching it go down. I had a limit pretty fast but mostly small fish as I worked down the lake. I had a huge brushpile that hangs out over a ledge I wanted to fish because it always hold fish. I got snagged in it with my crawtube, retrieved it, and cast a big worm towards the edges of it and got a light tap. My drag slipped terribly when I set the hook, but she stayed stuck and buried into the tree. Thankfully, the 20lb Tatsu held and I slid the net under a solid 20 incher.

I pedaled across to a small group of stumps on the edge of a flat that drops into deeper water. Ran a crankbait through them, nothing. Cast my crawtube to one, got a little peck and the line started moving. Next keeper was a nice 17.25" fish.

Then for some reason, another big surge of pain. I couldn't even lift my feet to the pedals for several minutes, just sat there trying to take deep breaths and hope it would go away. Finally it did somewhat. I paddled close to the shore to a single log and ran a bladed jig down it. Watched a wake shoot over the tree and felt the jolt. The fish looked a lot bigger, but still a decent 16.75" fish.

I had a pretty decent dry spell of just a few small fish, when I switched my craw tube to an old color of Strike King Denny Brauer Flipping tubes. It was like a light switch. I missed several of the bites unfortunately, but the first one I actually hooked was an 18.25" fish.

I caught several more small fish on the tube and a squarebill, and had a serious issue with missing and losing fish. Had a couple solid feeling fish hooked that just came off before I saw them. I hooked and lost or missed fish off the same stump 3 times before finally catching this 17.25" fish.

I have no service at this lake, so I had no idea how I was doing but I kept hearing about big fish and heard a rumor from the neighboring lake of someone having "Multiple 21" fish". So I was pretty much just on cruise control, happy to have a decent limit despite the difficulties I was dealing with. 

At our weigh in, I found out that someone had just had allegedly had chances at multiple 21" fish but failed to convert (happens to all of us every trip doesn't it?), and the fishing was tougher than what I'd thought. I ended catching 3 dozen bass on the day, and my biggest 5 went 89.5", which proved to be good enough for 3rd and just a small cull away from winning the thing. Todd was who I watched catch the big one on the buzzbait first thing in the morning, so I was happy to see him win it. 

 

Congrats on a solid day while feeling sub-par. Hope ya feel better soon.

4 minutes ago, PhishLI said:

. I wonder what it would've come to had they removed the hook?

1 hour ago, T-Billy said:

Congrats on a solid day while feeling sub-par. Hope ya feel better soon.

 

Ha!

 

@PhishLI: Yanking it out at home sounds MUCH worse to me. You have to drive all the way home with sharp steel embedded in you. 

Nothing worthy of a pic this afternoon, but I took one anyway ? Still, 10 bites is 10 bites. Gets super hot for here this week, low to mid 90s, so trips this week might be limited.