Way to go, Mighty T-Billy!

 

Cool double, Woody!

Streak day 67!. Went out a bit ago and got this guy in the rain. My feet were soaked, water comes up under the grass. I love Florida during the summer, Hot and rainy. 
 

Got him off a blazing worm. Just switched out my beads on my rigs for brass. Glass and tungsten, not a good mix haha. 
 

Went to PK for an evening of stargazing with my lady, decided to toss a lipless off the 'pier' for a bit, ended up with this little dude. Mission accomplished. 

@thediscochef: That's no black bass, brown bass, or green bass. That's a brass bass!

 

If thunderstorms don't prevent it, I'll be fishing for three hours this evening. If the weather report holds, I'll also fish Tuesday and Wednesday mornings too. With light southerly breezes, cloudy skies, and a chance of rain, it should be perfect and I'll be casting floating worms, swim jigs, chatterbaits, a RoboPop in Chrome Shad, and a monstrous BIGmistake in Chubby, which looks like a golden shad.

 

 

The past few days have been difficult. I've caught cell phones, turtles, birds (as shared previously), and lost far more lures than I normally do. But today and yesterday were a real struggle. Yesterday, all I could manage to hook at the river was a BIG old snapping turtle. I snagged him on a spoon and thought he was a big stick off the bottom until I got him close enough to see. He broke off right at the bank and took my lucky spoon with him. Early this morning I went to the pond for a few hours. It was pretty quiet fishing all morning until, WAM, something massive hit my crank bait and RAN. I've never fought anything that fought back with that much authority before. And then with a little "pop" my line snapped off. At first I thought it must have been a bad knot, but the same thing happened when I snagged some grass near the bank on my next cast. Now I'm suspicious of the line itself. This was on my second rod, not my main pole, and the line came pre-spooled from the store. I always check for kink and abrasions when tying on, so I know it wasn't something like that that caused the breaks. I'm just gonna respool that reel. 

 

I'm still not sure what that fish I hooked was. If I had been on the river I would have thought I'd gotten bit off by a pike. But this pond doesn't hold pike. It does hold extremely large carp, and if I foul hooked one of those with bad line, I can see that happening. It also holds some pretty good size catfish, and I can see a similar result. 

 

If it was a bass, it's a big one. Twice as large as my PB at least. 

 

But whatever it was, he's free, and I'll never know. 

 

That sorta took the wind out of my sails. I didn't really enjoy the rest of my trip. I caught two tiny little bass in the next two hours. I didn't get skunked, but it sure felt like it. 

 

Ah well, there's always next time. I'll live vicariously through all the monsters you guys post on this thread until my next biggun. 

 

The three fish I've caught in the past three days: 

 

@IcatchDinks: Losing a big one is a sock in the gut.

 

I find myself asking again and again, "What did I do wrong? What should I have done?"

 

I'm sorry and sad for you, bass-buddy. 

44 minutes ago, thediscochef said:

Went to PK for an evening of stargazing with my lady, decided to toss a lipless off the 'pier' for a bit, ended up with this little dude. Mission accomplished. 

So Cbump likes Possum Kingdom too, and a little while back I was looking through ShareLunker entries trying to see where the big fish are being caught. The amount of entries from both OH Ivie and Possum Kingdom is astounding. Record largemouth for PK is @16lbs 

Just now, ol'crickety said:

@IcatchDinks

I find myself asking again and again, "What did I do wrong? What should I have done?"

 

Same. And usually there's not much I could change. It's just the way it plays out sometimes. I appreciate the empathy. 

Hot, sunny and very windy (15-25) when I took the dog for a walk yesterday after lunch, so I rigged up a jig on a casting outfit. Between chasing and thinking about it, I ended up not getting out before a line of storms blew up and moved through the area around dinner time. After that, the sun popped back out, but there was no more wind - dead calm. So I grabbed the finesse rig instead and headed out after eating.

 

Bite was slow but steady. Ended with 24 bass and a nice sunset. Size continues to disappoint from what used to be the best quality pond in the system. But the evening wasn’t without entertainment. 
 

I had hooked a bass and was reeling him in when I hear a loud, “hell, yeah” directed at me. That was followed up by, “nice one” after landing it.

 

Turns out a guy is standing on his 3rd story apt. balcony watching me, and either overly friendly or a little drunk - lol - as he is a good 350 ft away from me on the other side of a field. I hold the fish up, along with a ‘thumbs up’ and yell back “thanks!,” then continue fishing.

 

A few more minutes pass, then he yells out again; “there’s some activity. Throw to your right.” I look up and to my right and see a slight ring where a fish surfaced, so throw my Ned rig over there to appease him and catch a bass on the first cast - lol - which prompts an “I told you” bellowing out from the balcony. “Lot of activity over there.” 
 

This went on a few more times as I circled that end of the lake. At one point I hook a fish on the opposite side to where the ‘coaching’ started, and get a “told you. That’s a good spot” yelled from the 3rd story ?

 

It was all pretty entertaining. 
 

 

 

My view of the sunset over this small lake, with the apartments in the background where the 3rd story coaching took place - lol.

 

12 minutes ago, LrgmouthShad said:

So Cbump likes Possum Kingdom too, and a little while back I was looking through ShareLunker entries trying to see where the big fish are being caught. The amount of entries from both OH Ivie and Possum Kingdom is astounding. Record largemouth for PK is @16lbs 

It's been on fire for a while now, a buddy booked us with our usual Ray Bob guide for late October. Fingers crossed we land on a fatty. If it weren't 2+ hours away I would be there more 

Just now, thediscochef said:

If it weren't 2+ hours away I would be there more 

Almost 4 for me. So off-limits on a day trip

 

But, Stillhouse is climbing the leaderboards baby. Ain’t got those 13lbers, but it’s got 7-10s, alright 

 

23 minutes ago, IcatchDinks said:

The past few days have been difficult. I've caught cell phones, turtles, birds (as shared previously), and lost far more lures than I normally do. But today and yesterday were a real struggle. Yesterday, all I could manage to hook at the river was a BIG old snapper. I snagged him on a spoon and throught he was big stick off the bottom until I got him close enough to see. He broke off right at the bank and took my lucky spoon with him. Early this morning I went to the pond for a few hours. It was pretty quiet fishing all morning until, WAM, something massive hit my crank bait and RAN. I've never fought anything that fought back with that much authority before. And then with a little "pop" my line snapped off. At first I thought it must have been a bad knot, but the same thing happened when I snagged some grass near the bank on my next cast. Now I'm suspicious of the line itself. This was on my second rod, not my main pole, and the line came pre-spooled from the store. I always check for kink and abrasions when tying on, so I know it wasn't something like that that caused the breaks. I'm just gonna respool that reel. 

 

I'm still not sure what that fish I hooked was. If I had been on the river I would have thought I'd gotten bit off, by a pike. But this pond doesn't hold pike. It does hold extremely large carp, and if I foul hooked one of those with bad line, I can see that happening. It also holds some pretty good size catfish, and I can see a similar result. 

 

If it was a bass, it's a big one. Twice as large as my PB at least. 

 

But whatever it was, he's free, and I'll never know. 

 

That sorta took the wind out of my sails. I didn't really enjoy the rest of my trip. I caught two tiny little bass in the next two hours. I didn't get skunked, but it sure felt like it. 

 

Ah well, there's always next time. I live vicariously through all the monsters you guys post on this thread until my next biggun. 

 

The three fish I've caught in the past three days: 

 

Those are tough stretches, I went through that a lot last year and a little bit this year. Mostly during jerkbait season last year, which got pricey. It'll happen less as time goes on but it does still hurt. I hope you land on better fishing soon, with less lure loss. Nice spoon work you do though, I've never caught a bass on a spoon 

1 minute ago, LrgmouthShad said:

Almost 4 for me. So off-limits on a day trip

 

But, Stillhouse is climbing the leaderboards baby. Ain’t got those 13lbers, but it’s got 7-10s, alright 

 

It's pretty much Ray Roberts or Texoma for me most of the time. Once in a while I make my way down to Whitney and PK. Being on the shore, I prefer the lakes with state parks. Less $ and higher security. I've wanted to stop at stillhouse sometime, I know it's been hittin pretty good this year. I'm lucky that the only really notable Hog Farm that's more than 2-3 hours drive is Ivie. And it's a zoo in its own right these days lol

8 minutes ago, thediscochef said:

Those are tough stretches, I went through that a lot last year and a little bit this year. Mostly during jerkbait season last year, which got pricey. It'll happen less as time goes on but it does still hurt. I hope you land on better fishing soon, with less lure loss. Nice spoon work you do though, I've never caught a bass on a spoon 

It's pretty much Ray Roberts or Texoma for me most of the time. Once in a while I make my way down to Whitney and PK. Being on the shore, I prefer the lakes with state parks. Less $ and higher security. I've wanted to stop at stillhouse sometime, I know it's been hittin pretty good this year. I'm lucky that the only really notable Hog Farm that's more than 2-3 hours drive is Ivie. And it's a zoo in its own right these days lol

I would not bank fish at Stillhouse. Rough terrain and can’t really access spots good.

 

There are lots of great lakes in TX. Hopefully I learn Stillhouse well enough to start joining these guys catching the good ‘uns. I kinda suspect that with the 14-15ft water clarity, I just haven’t been fishing deep enough. 

 

@Team9nine says the bite is a little slow and ends up with 24.   You da man!!!

 

The bite was slow for me today.  I ended up with 2 bass, a crappie and small channel cat.   Water temp is 88.   A friend of mine told me no one had a limit yesterday for the club tournament.   He said the winner had 3 for 6 pounds.   He also said they were "releasing" dead bass after the weigh in.   It should be against the law to put a "catch and release" bass in a live well at these temperatures.   

 

Both bass were caught on a wacky worm.  The cat and crappie on cranks.   

 

12 minutes ago, Woody B said:

He also said they were "releasing" dead bass after the weigh in. 

 

At the very least, eat those bass. I know it's against their rules, but still.

 

12 minutes ago, Woody B said:

 It should be against the law to put a "catch and release" bass in a live well at these temperatures.   

 

Agreed. Do what the kayakers do and photograph the bass on a bump board with a tag indicating the fisher's name and the date.

3 hours ago, Team9nine said:

 

 

Nice bass but that shirt is clearly defective,

A-Jay

Blue

bird skies and constant wind out of the north made for some tough sledding this morning. I had 6-7 hit the frog but none hooked up. Lost a dink at the boat on a T-rig pit boss. To add insult to injury I anchored on a sunken island in 2’ of water and was casting a 10” Rage Thumper to 20’ and dragging it up. No takers. As I moved to the other side of the island I saw what I’m guessing was a 4lber swimming around next to me. Here’s all I caught today and I’m not sure they’re bass. ?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

9 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

Nice bass but that shirt is clearly defective,

A-Jay

Naw he's holding some tournament winning walleye if I ever saw some

10 minutes ago, 12poundbass said:

Blue

bird skies and constant wind out of the north made for some tough sledding this morning. I had 6-7 hit the frog but none hooked up. Lost a dink at the boat on a T-rig pit boss. To add insult to injury I anchored on a sunken island in 2’ of water and was casting a 10” Rage Thumper to 20’ and dragging it up. No takers. As I moved to the other side of the island I saw what I’m guessing was a 4lber swimming around next to me. Here’s all I caught today and I’m not sure they’re bass. ?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hmmm. Maybe bass but by the way they are vertically stacked, my guess is no

11 minutes ago, 12poundbass said:

Blue

bird skies and constant wind out of the north made for some tough sledding this morning. I had 6-7 hit the frog but none hooked up. Lost a dink at the boat on a T-rig pit boss. To add insult to injury I anchored on a sunken island in 2’ of water and was casting a 10” Rage Thumper to 20’ and dragging it up. No takers. As I moved to the other side of the island I saw what I’m guessing was a 4lber swimming around next to me. Here’s all I caught today and I’m not sure they’re bass. ?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What garmin unit is that by the way? Looks the same as mine

4 minutes ago, LrgmouthShad said:

Hmmm. Maybe bass but by the way they are vertically stacked, my guess is no

What garmin unit is that by the way? Looks the same as mine

93SV UHD GT54

Just now, 12poundbass said:

93SV UHD GT54

Okay gotcha. I have the same, just 73sv

29 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

Nice bass but that shirt is clearly defective,

A-Jay

I’ve always been a huge “crossover” fan when it comes to fishing (and learning). The walleye guys were way ahead of the curve in regards to electronics compared to the bass guys. I was making my own 1 ft contour maps of my local lakes years before any of the big companies came out with their hi-def mapping courtesy of following the walleye tourney trends. Similarly, the professional crappie anglers/circuits were Livescoping years before the bass guys finally caught on. Multi-species is where it’s at ?

@12poundbass, it was equally as tough on this side of the great lakes today too, at least for me. Spent a couple hours on a lake I used to fish constantly when I was younger, tried a bunch of spots and all I got was this one guy on a ned, and a small pike on a spinnerbait. At least the temps were decent, and I managed to shake the skunk out of the boat for the trip (although just by the skin of my teeth)!

@12poundbass  It looks to me like Crappie stacked up, but they're usually near a brushpile or other cover around here.   

@Way north bass guy, I was unaware you had tough days on the water