In the aftermath of Hurricane Irma the bass in southeast Florida have been biting better than expected for this time of year. Went out bank fishing tonight on a local golf course with Sandra, the only woman I know who's into bass fishing and knows how to do it. I nailed this 6 or 7 pounder (estimated, digital scale batteries were dead).  Her fish probably was around 4 1/2. We had a great time hunting the green monsters. Most everything is back to normal around here, besides the uprooted trees all over the place.

 

Caught my first swimjig bass burning it above receding weeds.

 Weapon of choice:

3/8oz Pepper Signature Swimjig (Hawks Secret) paired with a BPS Speed Shad (Sexy Shad)

 

 

Went fishing with my best friend and his uncle to a spot that t really produce much and this weekend we just started slaying them left and right. One of the funnest days of fishing in a while.

 

Great weekend! Sept. 15th was my son's 14th birthday and my wife and my 16th wedding anniversary (He was born on my 2 year wedding anniversary, best present ever) I Partied on the 16th and went fishing on the 17th and caught my PB Largemouth Bass of the year, a 3 pound 10 ounce river monster.

 

I was using my Kastking Speed Demon on a Medium/Fast action Daiwa rod to cast weightless 4" green pumpkin Yum Dingers.

 

I found an overhanging tree that was dropping leaves 3 feet off the shoreline. I was about 30' out  on my kayak casting towards shore under the tree limbs. I had caught a big Bluegill (I will post in the other species thread) earlier in the day so I came back to the same spot to try again. I kept getting pulls that felt like a sunfish grabbing the end of the worm. Then the Bass hit the Dinger and I knew it was something special. Rod was bent but the Speed Demon burned him out of cover. The drag was perfect and I was able to land the fish.

 

Here is a video of the release. My son and I recently watched the original Clash of the Titan's so I was thinking of him when I recorded and sent him this. That's the reason for the title.

 

 

Almost forgot what a bass looks like; so I had to go out and remind myself.

 

Bluebird skies, no wind, fished from 1230-400 pm. It was pretty brutal. 7 dinks, and a 3# fish.

 

Managed to pull off a win this past weekend on Choke Canyon with tough conditions, fish with Lock-Jaw, and 96 degree temps. Had 17.8 lbs anchored by this 5.43 Florida. Caught all but one on a drop shot in 10-20 fow. Pulled 7 lbs ahead in AOY standings.

congrats on the win!! nice fish.

Fun last hour of sunlight and then a tank just after sunset...all bass released to fight another day.

 

I hate being as big as I am because in pictures every fish I catch looks so small hahaha.

Caught this one on a Popper last night right at sunset. 

They've been treating the heck out of the small lakes I've been fishing trying to knock out the algae. Three weekends in a row, and the water is almost a cobalt blue color. Still finding a few bass willing to eat my finesse baits though.

 

 

Past few days I've been going for nothing but rainbows and sunfish because on the 10th is our stocking day for our river.

They will be releasing 1700 rainbow trouts into the river and i'm hoping i can do well and get my limit in one day.

But, I decided to switch things up and went for bass before heading home and caught it on weightless senko on trapper hook and on a spin caster outfit. "Not my normal outfit for bass."

Personally, I'd use my bait caster but i wanted to see if i could get a bass on this outfit and the picture shows for itself.

I have all these neat lures and stuff but bass don't want it.

But they'll take a weightless wack rig senko.

So here is a picture of my bass before leaving for home, The bass was calm and didn't want to give up my sister's thumb lol.

 

 

Strange day. Landed ~15, but had almost twice as many bites. Tick/ bump/ loss contact usually followed by a swing and a miss!

 

I don't carry a lot of stuff with me, played around as much as I could with the limited resources at my disposal. Finally started connecting on pretty much every swing with a 3/16 oz jighead and a rage menace in the fourth quarter.

 

Oh well, I hate fishing on weekends anyway.

 

-Bass for dinner.

 

-One of the ~10 that didn't make it to the table.

On 9/19/2017 at 8:14 PM, Bulletman20XD said:

Managed to pull off a win this past weekend on Choke Canyon with tough conditions,

Congrats . I find those tourneys more interesting than easy ones .

12 hours ago, Team9nine said:

They've been treating the heck out of the small lakes I've been fishing trying to knock out the algae.

Has it affected the health of the fish ? They sprayed the vegetation at my favorite small lake and it seems the bass are skinnier than they use  to be  .

11 hours ago, deep said:

Bass for dinner.

I like it .  I keep bass to eat but release the bigger ones .

13 minutes ago, scaleface said:

 

Has it affected the health of the fish ? They sprayed the vegetation at my favorite small lake and it seems the bass are skinnier than they use  to be  .

 

My first guess is just the opposite. There appears to be no shortage of small fish prey in this lake, mostly baby bluegills, and eliminating most of the shoreline moss is making it easier on the bass to feed - much less places to hide for the little guys. My main concerns are oxygen levels and copper poisoning, but so far no obvious detrimental affects other than the toilet blue water color 

The TSD sale got me to give the Hippy Rat a try;

 

Took it out this morning and felt a bit silly, until I got a blow up.  I missed the hookset but I buckled down and keep casting around the same area.  A few casts later the rat got smashed.  

 

I was delighted that the rat worked and kept casting around the same area, about 10 more casts then this guy hit;

My scale battery picked that moment to die, but he was a bit smaller than the first one.  

 

I was throwing the rat on a Fred's Magic Stick and it felt really overpowered.  The rod is only rated for 2oz, but it throws a 2oz Huddgill perfectly, so I was surprised at how hard it was to cast the rat.  I can bomb it out there, but any kind of close range lob was very awkward and inaccurate.   I bought the Fred's as a frog rod, but I have been throwing big baits with it far more often, so I might look at replacing it with something more powerful and finding a new frog solution.  

I went out the other morning trying to get back on a top water bite. After not getting bit on the plopper and a buzz bait, I decided to pick up the pompadour and see what happened. On my third cast, I got my first pompadour fish when this guy crushed it like he was a fish twice his size. Cut him loose, and picked up the senko and threw it in the same general area and felt that familiar tick. I set the hook and battled this chunk to the boat...

caught this one this pm on a homemade frog sorry for the poor pic casting left handed and trying to take a pic with my junk right hand is a real pain

forgot the pic of the frog  I caught a couple pounders after the one pictured

21 hours ago, deep said:

Strange day. Landed ~15, but had almost twice as many bites. Tick/ bump/ loss contact usually followed by a swing and a miss!

 

I don't carry a lot of stuff with me, played around as much as I could with the limited resources at my disposal. Finally started connecting on pretty much every swing with a 3/16 oz jighead and a rage menace in the fourth quarter.

 

Oh well, I hate fishing on weekends anyway.

 

-Bass for dinner.

 

-One of the ~10 that didn't make it to the table.

Nothing wrong with eating some bass. They are some very good eatin'! This summerlike weather we're having here in central Louisiana is for the birds. Had that kinda cool spell for a week or so when Harvey come through and did all that damage in Houston. Since then we've have temps in the low 90s during the day and high 70s at night and over night. Heck I got sunburned yesterday. I've never gotten sunburned in late September. Be glad when those high 70s low 80s are the daytime temps and 50s and 60s at night get here. I've gotten skunked everyday for the past week. I've almost forgotten what it feels like to catch one. 

Though the belly isn't as big as @A-Jay's pb from the other day, this little guy sure put on the feedbag over the last few days...lol  The structure was a rock finger between a point and an island with current coming across it from left to right, and then finally going over a small dam a little ways downstream. Caught a whole bunch tonight on the Strike King KVD 2 Hook Jerkbait in ayu pattern and the old reliable, the Rapala Shadow Rap in yellow perch pattern.

 

Caught a bunch of these yesterday. Not exactly a hawg but it's who was with me that matters. Drop shotting humps on ouachita can be so much fun. First time I went fishing just for fun in a while had a blast and so did he.

Had another good catch at the little pond today;

 

My scale is still battery-less, which is a shame cuz the she felt quite heavy and I am still trying to crack 4lbs out of this spot.  Got her on a spinnerbait and a pair of 1-2lb ones as well. 

 

Tomorrow I am giving this pond a break and am going wading for smallies, but I will be back soon.  

All i wanted was a bass but instead i get two pickerel, I guess bass and other fish are hiding.

I don't run into them to often but when i do, It really puts me in a panic mode and i'm not really to sure what to do in the situation.

I hooked this guy and he gave up such a fight and wouldn't open his mouth for hook removal.

Any attempts to trying to get him unhooked and set free he'd thrash around.

So my sister put her foot barely on him and that was enough to stop him from thrash around and calm him down to where i was able to remove the hook and put him back where he belongs.

Any advice on the correct way of handling these fish would be much appreciated.

55 minutes ago, Angealy said:

Any advice on the correct way of handling these fish would be much appreciated.

 

3 Tools for Toothy Critters, (what I use)

 

1) Fish Gripper (Bogagrip)

 

2) Pliars / Hook Remover (Quarrow Hook Remover)

 

3) Jaw Spreader (Danielson Fish Mouth Spreader)

 

Having them makes dealing with pike a night/day difference.

6 hours ago, Angealy said:

Any advice on the correct way of handling these fish would be much appreciated.

look at my picture above yours you slide your finger into the gill plate which will force them to open their mouth so you can unhook them normally i use pliers so i dont cut myself because they do shake a lot