On 1/13/2024 at 8:05 PM, NorcalBassin said:

Another awesome sunrise at the ramp to kickoff a solid day on the water.

 

First one dragging a 2.8

 

Another on a 2.8

 

Hula grub also did some damage

 

 

This chubby fella came on a finesse jig.

 

 

 

That's the biggest spot I've ever seen. I've caught a couple 3 pounders but never pigs like that!

Took advantage of the nice weather; high 58 and lighter (<10 mph) winds. Back out to the ‘not as muddy as everything else’ reservoir for a few hours. Little bit slower today - just 4 keeper bites, but caught another good one (just a couple shad shy of 4 lbs.). Water 44-46 deg today. Also saw some wild turkeys near the waters edge, and had a nice sunset courtesy of the snowstorms not too far off to our west.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Red Eye Shad getting it done tonight.  I snagged what they were eating on the cast before.

 

Those are TINY bluegill!  I'd wager they spawned recently!!!!  I mean they can't be that small if they didn't right?

 

Watching Bass try to take the red eye shad away from other bass in the muddy shallows was pretty exciting.

 

I wish I'd caught one of the bigger ones from the school and I wish they were eating better, but it's good to see that they're at least moving up shallow with the intention to eat right now. Maybe the muddy water does have them missing a meal or two in this pond?

@Pat Brown Probably bluegill from ‘23 spawn - they’ll spawn in waves & multiple times in some lakes if the temps are conducive.

 

Any tilapia in this body of water?

I was hard headed last three weeks to just throw hinkle trout, Finally this week I did some sane fishing and catch few fishes.

Nice fattie on the last guy @ATA

 

If I had a Hinkle Shad much less a Trout that's all I'd throw for weeks lol

The wind chill here hasn't made it above zero since early Friday morning and I don't think it's supposed to Tuesday either. Wednesday is supposed to get above freezing, but then straight back to sub-zero temps. Next week looks better, but looks like they're going to get at least a 3 week break from me bugging them. 

Right there with ya bud, we had -9 this morning. Finally some sun this afternoon but it'll be next week before I can even hope to fish, just work. I'm thankful for the OT but like. I need a January bass. I'm dyin' here!

7 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

The wind chill here hasn't made it above zero since early Friday morning and I don't think it's supposed to Tuesday either. Wednesday is supposed to get above freezing, but then straight back to sub-zero temps. Next week looks better, but looks like they're going to get at least a 3 week break from me bugging them. 

Right on that. At least it gives me an opportunity to focus on work. Long range forecast seems to indicate a 180 on this weather. It's still very much El Nino.

7 hours ago, thediscochef said:

Right there with ya bud, we had -9 this morning. Finally some sun this afternoon but it'll be next week before I can even hope to fish, just work. I'm thankful for the OT but like. I need a January bass. I'm dyin' here!

 

The world is topsy-turvy. I'm so far north of you and we haven't had -9 all winter. We only reached single digits (6 degrees) one night.

 

Nice fish, @ATA.

Into my veins, the sunshine into my veins

3 hours ago, ol&#x27;crickety said:

 

The world is topsy-turvy. I'm so far north of you and we haven't had -9 all winter. We only reached single digits (6 degrees) one night.

 

Nice fish, @ATA.

I'm sure everything is fine and totally normal

Yeah it's not looking like there's going to be much good fishing between now and next Thursday here either. And it's going to be dumping rain all day Thursday.

 

It's all good though. I mean it's got to be good for the fish to have the hard reset I suppose!

 

It's pretty hard to get out and do my usual routines when my guides completely freeze and I can't see the line. So basically I've been not fishing very much with the weather being the way it is but I do appreciate the opportunities, few or far between as they may be.

 

Hopefully some free time intersects with some hungry fish and a little fishable weather this week.

 

This boy don't do frozen guides though.  I fish for fun and when I can't feel bites or cast, that's when I just stay home.

19 hours ago, Pat Brown said:

This boy don't do frozen guides though. 

It's reallllly bad when a levelwind freezes.

19 hours ago, Pat Brown said:

Hopefully some free time intersects with some hungry fish and a little fishable weather this week.

No such luck here. We'll be frozen over any moment. I'll be filling cork handles and U-40ing to feed my jones. It's fishing related anyway. Either way, it's OK. I firmly believe that spring fishing is better served around here by a good winter ice-over. The remaining dead or dying weeds get knocked down completely by the cold instead of lingering endlessly and slowly rotting away causing dead zones where they ordinarily wouldn't be. Spring will be here in the blink of an eye. Scary how time flies.

9 hours ago, PhishLI said:

It's reallllly bad when a levelwind freezes.

I'll second that. I thought I had broken one of my Lexa 300's last Dec. I had been battling ice all morning, and the level wind quit working altogether. A couple hours thawing out in my bibs pocket remedied it though. 

On 1/15/2024 at 7:55 PM, RipzLipz said:

@Pat Brown Probably bluegill from ‘23 spawn - they’ll spawn in waves & multiple times in some lakes if the temps are conducive.

 

Any tilapia in this body of water?

 

 

Yeah there are tilapia in here.  I feel like those are some pretty prolific spawners regardless of conditions.  I feel like in the winter time, because the deepest this pond gets is 4 ft, there are some desperation/survival spawns for some of the species every year and then it warms, they realize they aren't going to die, and then they do their more ritualistic spawning stuff in line more with seasonal changes.

 

The bass even spawn at this pond in the mid 40s once it's up a degree or three from it's bottom out temp.  They don't care that it's not 65 yet at all.

 

I guarantee the first wave of spawning females will be up looking next Friday after 4 days of warming weather with rain.

 

No doubt in my mind at all.

 

Whenever you have any kind of extreme warming trend happening around the upcoming full moon, it's gonna be Nadine time.

Made the drive down from Connecticut the other day, spent some time on headwaters today.  Didn’t catch anything to write home about, caught mostly on jigs and senkos.  Dealt with  trolling motor that wouldn’t start and then wouldn’t stop all day.  All in all had 6 2ish lb fish.  I’ve never seen so much vegetation in my life!  Overall it was a good day on the water.  We are planning to hit up Kissimmee tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

I was absolutely shocked and thrilled at the same time to see my youngest voluntarily get up at 545 to join us since we usually can't get her up before 10:00. To sweeten the pot I told her I'd bring her a heater and get Starbucks. 😆

 

And of course she caught the first one of the day...

 

They were inhaling the underspin.

 

Microjig was also successful.

 

And a Ned.

 

Good times!

 

And added some great memories.

@NorcalBassin, you might have a 5G phone, but you have a 3G boat: 3 generations! Those spots sure are pretty.

 

Good luck today, @Jamesg0418!

I'm chomping at the bit to get the new Krej and work it up and down the ripraps off the pier...the motion should be perfect for hovering right over the rocks. Game on. 

We didn’t get the ice or snow here, but we got the cold temps. Water still stained to muddy and surface temp now down to 42-43 deg. The fish don’t seem to like it continuously dropping, but still managed a couple small keepers on jig for the effort. Could be a lot worse 😆 Another cool sunset, too.

 

 

 

On 1/17/2024 at 2:01 AM, T-Billy said:

I'll second that. I thought I had broken one of my Lexa 300's last Dec. I had been battling ice all morning, and the level wind quit working altogether. A couple hours thawing out in my bibs pocket remedied it though. 

Winter is the one time I will bring 8 or 9 rigs with me.  I rotate them in and out of the car as the reels freeze up.  Sometimes it's the levelwind that freezes, and sometimes it is the handle.

Got a chance to go out in some mild temps in between storms. Morning was 48* and the water temps were 51-53*. Anticipated a morning of them hitting reaction baits, but they wouldn't touch anything besides a Ned. Fortunately they really liked the Ned.

 

 

 

 

Even this LM couldn't resist that thing.

 

 

I love when Pops catches bass. And you know how much I love those 19-inchers too. 

Tough fishing on headwaters today, but got a decent one.  That was before the starting battery randomly went dead and had to get towed back from the Flag canal.  

I lost count on how many fish I catch with this specific lure.