1 hour ago, gimruis said:

Good lord that thing is just preposterous. Too bad it’s still a drum lol

I thought it might be a state record, nope, a solid 11 pounds short. One thing Kansas grows well is trash fish.

1 hour ago, RipzLipz said:

Went fishing in December in my home state for the first time in my life. Didn’t matter what I did or how I did it. This pretty much sums it up.

 

The end.

Been there done that with the fish and the mammal 😂 

 

TN state record drum is 57 lbs, I’m shocked at the 12-15 lbers 

@TnRiver46 Just one of those days man. Would have rather picked out a backlash on that Ambassadeur. 🤣

 

Got out of the boat & felt like I’d been doing this all afternoon…

Dare I say a drum would have been welcome at that point? 🤣

I just finished sifting through the catches over the past month. Y’all have been killing it out there! So excited for y’all.

 

And happy belated birthday to @thediscochef!

Drum do not know they aren't game fish.  I catch them only rarely, but I promise you, my next one will be posted right here on this thread, shamelessly.

8 hours ago, RipzLipz said:

Went fishing in December in my home state for the first time in my life. Didn’t matter what I did or how I did it. This pretty much sums it up.

 

The end.

Small waters (ponds, strip pits), light spinning, midwest finesse (ned)=boatload of fish. This benign Dec. weather has been a gift. Go get 'em.

6 hours ago, MIbassyaker said:

Drum do not know they aren't game fish.  I catch them only rarely, but I promise you, my next one will be posted right here on this thread, shamelessly.

 

I haven't caught drum for years simply because I haven't fished water holding drum, but I used to catch them on the Mississippi and they were fun and I'd gladly catch them again. Small chain pickerel are the fish I'd be happy to not catch because they save their fighting energy for when I try to unhook them. 

52 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

 

I haven't caught drum for years simply because I haven't fished water holding drum, but I used to catch them on the Mississippi and they were fun and I'd gladly catch them again. Small chain pickerel are the fish I'd be happy to not catch because they save their fighting energy for when I try to unhook them. 

 

Ya those small pike can just go away.  Slimy, nothing to grab, wrecking lures, aggressively and constantly biting, etc.  When one of those things inhales a treble hooked lure, removing it is just a mangle or sharp hooks and slime that has almost nothing to grab and hang on to.  Its an accident waiting to happen.

 

I've never caught a drum.  Or a catfish, carp, white bass, or any species of trout.  In almost 30 years of fishing.

Forgot some footage I captured last night 

 

15 minutes ago, gimruis said:

 

Ya those small pike can just go away.  Slimy, nothing to grab, wrecking lures, aggressively and constantly biting, etc.  When one of those things inhales a treble hooked lure, removing it is just a mangle or sharp hooks and slime that has almost nothing to grab and hang on to.  Its an accident waiting to happen.

 

I've never caught a drum.  Or a catfish, carp, white bass, or any species of trout.  In almost 30 years of fishing.

 

White bass are a blast. I once caught a mirror carp in the Mississippi just downriver of the Twin Cities. Here's a mirror carp:

 

 

 

@The Bassman I know bud, I know. I’m stubborn that way. Appreciate the help.  I was at another much larger lake which has made me put the strip pits on the back burner for about the past year. Giant hunting & I know they’re in there - just a matter of time & hoping any potential "windows" don’t slam shut on my fingers. Strip pit needed a rest.

18 hours ago, MIbassyaker said:

Drum do not know they aren't game fish.  I catch them only rarely, but I promise you, my next one will be posted right here on this thread, shamelessly.

I caught a drum on a buzzbait a couple years ago. Still one of my proudest angling achievements 

 

11 hours ago, gimruis said:

I've never caught a drum.  Or a catfish, carp, white bass, or any species of trout.  In almost 30 years of fishing.

 

Drum, cats and white bass are common in low-gradient river systems & impoundments, and trout need colder water. If you fish mostly natural lakes or classic smallmouth rivers (e.g., rocky, moderate-gradient, warm water), I can easily imagine not encountering these other fish.

This is turning BR into the Rough Fish Report. @roadwarrior’s gonna have a coronary. 🤣🤣🤣

I've never caught a Drum.  I've never caught a Carp while bass fishing.  I've caught plenty of Carp, but I was fishing for them.   Last weekend I felt a little tug on my A-rig, and had a big scale about the size of a quarter on one of the hooks.  I suspect a big Carp brushed against the hook.   What else would have a scale that big?  There's all kinds of different species where I fish but Cat's don't have scales, Striped/Hybrid bass aren't going to have scales that big.  Neither are Perch.   I don't think a Longnose Gar or Bowfin would have a big scale like that.   I should have taken a picture of it.  

@Woody B, I am quite shocked you have never caught a drum, maybe they’re just aren’t many of them in the Catawba. I would bet it was definitely a carp scale you got, I try to snag carp all the time and only get scales. Also no hook on earth will go thru a gar scale, I cut them with tin snips. Have seen others use a sawzall. Native Americans used gar scales for arrow points and armor plates 

1 hour ago, Woody B said:

I've never caught a Drum.  I've never caught a Carp while bass fishing.  I've caught plenty of Carp, but I was fishing for them.   Last weekend I felt a little tug on my A-rig, and had a big scale about the size of a quarter on one of the hooks.  I suspect a big Carp brushed against the hook.   What else would have a scale that big?  There's all kinds of different species where I fish but Cat's don't have scales, Striped/Hybrid bass aren't going to have scales that big.  Neither are Perch.   I don't think a Longnose Gar or Bowfin would have a big scale like that.   I should have taken a picture of it.  

 

Woody, you saw that drawing of the mirror carp I posted and you likely noted the size of their scales. Some of those scales are huge.

I was out of town for a few weeks for work, putting my every month open water bass project of 23 in jeopardy, but yesterday I had an opportunity to get the canoe out with weather in the 50's.  Turned out to be a great idea, nothing huge but 12 bass in 3 hours is well worth my time.  Also, got to try out a new rod and ended up doing almost all the catching on that one.

 

scott

 

 

@softwateronly That's the way to break in a new rod.

The green ned keeps on catching. Bait refuses to die. Had to work to catch a dozen, eight that I would call counters. El Nino is keeping us in a quiet weather pattern by keeping all the rough stuff south and east. We're actually dry right now which isn't typical for this time of year. We usually catch up from late summer dryness by late fall.

I "caught" a big ol skunk today.  Use your imagination for the picture.   I lost a 3 to 4 pounder on my first cast, and didn't see a Bass after that.   I went to an area with some fairly deep lay downs.  I saw what I figured was a Bass on sonar and made my first cast.  It hit right after my (brand new) Bandit 300 bounced off a limb.   It came up, danced on it's tail a little then my line went limp.   My brand new lure broke off right behind the lip.    I fished several more hours and never saw another Bass,  or even anything I thought was a Bass on sonar.   The forecast is for high winds and buckets of rain tomorrow.  I won't be able to go next weekend due to family Christmas stuff.   Likely my next outing will be the 30th.  

Tough sledding on this side of the mtn for me as well today @Woody B. I narrowly avoided skunk but I did get one and lost another boatside. My buddy got a nice one in his tracker right after I left the honey hole, haha. Took a friend up to a dam to fish shallow swift current with his fly rod after that and it just wasn’t happening . Got some cool photos tho, saw loons and eagles and even witnessed two loons in flight

 

 

 

 

and before it all began the sunrise was nice from the deck 

41 minutes ago, Woody B said:

st a

You should have Pradco reimburse you the cost of a 3-4 pounder! Around here I'd say 10-15 bucks

It was a rough one today but caught two keepers and one dink. Temps in the upper 40s most of the day and 10+mph winds constantly. It made keeping the kayak in one place impossible. 

 

 

5 hours ago, Woody B said:

I "caught" a big ol skunk today

It's a start, but you've got some catching up to do if you wanna compete with me. LOL. I've been skunked 3 of my last 4 trips, and taken more than I care to think about over the course of the last 6 weeks. 

 Muskiepalooza 23 hasn't been even close to what it was last year. I've caught about half the number of fish over the same time period, and taken a bunch of skunkings. Surface temp was 39 this morning and the bite's really getting tough, but I've been around fish, and getting follows. Getting them to commit is another story. My guide buddy caught a few giants this past week, couple 47's and a 49", so I'm not quite ready to hang it up yet, but the end is near.

 I'll be back out there after church tomorrow, in a 42 degree rain, grinding away.