Ryan, you're a great addition to the Latest Catch thread. Plus, @thediscochef's Viking beard now has a Viking beard brother! I'm going to save and eventually buy the two of you this bass boat:

 

2 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

Ryan, you're a great addition to the Latest Catch thread. Plus, @thediscochef's Viking beard now has a Viking beard brother! I'm going to save and eventually buy the two of you this bass boat:

 

Thank ya!! Hey us bearded brothers gotta stick together!!

Sustained winds of 16-20 mph with gusts regularly over 30 mph almost made me stay home; but partly cloudy skies and temps in the mid sixties made me go. Spent most of the afternoon chasing bass and was able to land 4 keepers between 1.5-2.5 pounds. Managed a couple crappie, too, but I’ll post those in the Other Fish Species thread. Damiki-type stuff continues to be the best for me, but largest today came on Ned.

 

 

 

Man, that is the definition of pounding it out.

 

                 

                                                   

After catching that tank this morning I had to go back for more after work when Jake got home from school...

 

20 mile an hour southerly airflow smacking a warm sunny rip rap bank huh?

 

Red Eye Shad said hold my beer today:

 

 

 

Heck of an afternoon fishing the lipless!  Managed another tank when the sun got low.  Hoping the fun continues tomorrow!  🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

@Pat Brown: What an angler. Speaking of outstanding anglers, where's Alex?

2 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

@Pat Brown: What an angler. Speaking of outstanding anglers, where's Alex?

Probably either a) getting his buzzbait ready for maximum hookset power coming soon to an Alabama lake near us or b) perhaps getting the new Alabama state record spotted bass certified.  Who's to say!?!?

 

 

Good looking fish @Pat Brown glad your son was able to get a nice one too!  Lipless crank bite is picking up here as well.  

 

Years ago, I used to rent a house that backed up to a pond and I fished almost every day.  I miss catching them on the regular like that!  Good times...

16 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

Ryan, you're a great addition to the Latest Catch thread. Plus, @thediscochef's Viking beard now has a Viking beard brother! I'm going to save and eventually buy the two of you this bass boat:

 

Thanks for the laugh Katie! I really needed it this morning!

Planned a quick fishing trip last week when I got a few comp hours at work and needed to take off. Of course, it's raining and windy. Still went, though. Lasted 1.5 hours. This is all that bit. Doesn't look like much but the bait is an old (10 inch?) Mann's Jelly Worm.  

17 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

Ryan, you're a great addition to the Latest Catch thread. Plus, @thediscochef's Viking beard now has a Viking beard brother! I'm going to save and eventually buy the two of you this bass boat:

 

     Katie, MN Fishers got that Viking thing going on too! I used to, but if you notice my Avatar, chasing those green and brown river devils have turned my Red Beard into the color of sausage gravy! Either the bass did it or raising kids..........marriage......taxes....or the bait monkey!

All the above!

4 minutes ago, Blue Raider Bob said:

     Katie, MN Fishers got that Viking thing going on too! I used to, but if you notice my Avatar, chasing those green and brown river devils have turned my Red Beard into the color of sausage gravy! Either the bass did it or raising kids..........marriage......taxes....or the bait monkey!

All the above!

It's just age - 20 years ago mine was red as well.

 

Beautiful beard, @MN Fisher.

After reading Mr Dwight's recent post in the smallie section I decided to spend a day with jerkbaits.Yesterday picked up a few supplies.

I knew today would be blue sky and north wind so I wanted to start early.

My second cast I caught a 3.0.My third cast I caught a 4.58.My fourth cast I caught a 3.68. My fifth cast 2.0.Sixth cast 2.1.

I caught and weighed a 15 lb sack between 629-647.I  never done that in that small of time on any water lol.I paddled in some backwaters to rest and regain my composure and stop shaking.

Paddled up to my next spot caught a few 2s then a 3.30. Paddled up a little further and got a 3.32.

Best 5 were 17.88  Thank you Mr Dwight for helping me have a good day with prespawn smallies.

 

 

 

First things first: kudos to @Creek Pirate. How does one follow an act like that? Congrats! 

Now on to less exciting things. Got on a great bite this afternoon. Caught about a dozen on Flashy Swimmer/Swimmin Trout Trick and Mini Max bladed jig. Definitely a transitional feel to the seasons. Neds are bread and butter but moving baits are more fun.

18 minutes ago, The Bassman said:

First things first: kudos to @Creek Pirate. How does one follow an act like that? Congrats! 

Now on to less exciting things. Got on a great bite this afternoon. Caught about a dozen on Flashy Swimmer/Swimmin Trout Trick and Mini Max bladed jig. Definitely a transitional feel to the seasons. Neds are bread and butter but moving baits are more fun.

Thats one of my secrets with fat 3.3" or 3.8" keitech when I want to catch uncatchable bass. Great catch 

Best three of today.

Wow @Creek Pirate that's an epic result on those jerkbaits!

 

We've had an easy winter so I expect even the protected bays of Lake Ontario will be open very early this year.  Fingers are crossed I might be launching our little See Bass in April and chasing fat pre-spawn smallies to start my season.  If that happens, I figure jerk baits, slow rolled Keitchs and slow dragged finesse football jigs or small tubes might be my go to's.🤞

Green Pig of Georgia is catching them steadily through the winter. Now Creek Pirate had smallies go bonkers with a jerkbait in Alabama and Alex had his great streak too. I'm thinking a little Georgia/Alabama rivalry might be fun. 

3 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

Green Pig of Georgia is catching them steadily through the winter. Now Creek Pirate had smallies go bonkers with a jerkbait in Alabama and Alex had his great streak too. I'm thinking a little Georgia/Alabama rivalry might be fun. 

The next best thing to catching them myself is seeing the BR gang get some. Thought I might get out tomorrow morning with my brother, but the weather gods say NO!

I went late today.   I had a little work to finish on my boat last night and I had some kind of bug.  Instead of working on my boat I went to bed.  I got up this morning, finished what I needed to do and went fishing.   I caught 5 cookie cutter Spots.  I didn't measure any of them.  They all were close to the one pictured.  Then I caught a 15 pound Blue Catfish.   The wind and waves were rocking my boat so the scale wouldn't lock in , it was bouncing between 15 and 16 pounds so I'm calling it 15.   It was 32 1/2 inches long.   After I released it I realized I didn't take a picture.   I was considering calling it a day, but decided to fish some more.  A couple casts later I caught a 11 pound Blue Cat.   Same thing, scale wouldn't lock due to boat rocking.  It was bouncing between 11 and 12.  This one was 30 inches long.  Picture in other species thread.   It was nice to get the skunk out of the boat from last week even though none my Bass were big.  I'll go earlier tomorrow and hopefully get some fishing in before the wind starts,   

 

Today was one of those days I wish I checked the forecast… granted they likely would have missed. It was cold and WINDY, winter is relentless this year. I went to a tributary where I knew the water wouldn’t be raging to try out some new T rig hooks, didn’t realize the wind would be raging. I laboriously paddled to a mud flat and finally got my anchor to grab. Then sitting still in a hurricane was pretty cold so I got my jacket on and rigged a fluke on a jighead and casted into open water, proceeded to catch 6 consecutive drum………

 

Also got some yellow bass, a white bass, more drum, then a channel catfish. The jighead/minnow was on fire. All the other boats appeared frustrated with the wind and left so I was able to try a stretch of docks and caught a LM with a T rig worm, courtesy of @KP Duty (thanks buddy). My canoe was slamming into dock posts and Mach 3 even with an anchor on the bottom so I just headed on back to the truck (downwind thank god ). Ended the day catching 20-30 fish, mostly drum 😂, but quite a surprising result considering the conditions. Saw a billion shad flipping and had no net, plan to go back tomorrow with net and bigger boat. 

 

 

 

                                                   

I went out for half a day. Forgot my rain coat and wasn’t prepared for the wind but I pushed through despite being cold and wet. Got a big skunk for my efforts. I think I’ll try a different lake next time, maybe that’ll be the spark I need. All those new lures couldn’t get it done, the bait monkey is an idiot. 🙈

My birthday is next weekend and I'm pretty sure the bait monkey is coming over to take his toll.  Those Zaldaingerous 7" swimbaits look fun and unnecessary.  I had a tough time yesterday too @FishTax  those winds shifting to out of the north makes the bait monkey happy 😂😂😂