9 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

I wish I were brave and sturdy enough to fish through the night. When I've launched at 3:50 a.m., I hear bass feeding in all directions. Big galoomps when they hit the surface. 

Safety first Katie. Wise trumps brave. Fishing alone, late at night, in a tippy canoe, in a weed choked bog, is not the safest of activities. On the other hand, a more stable craft, like a small row boat at your new place... 😉

2 hours ago, Fishlegs said:

It's been a while since I've posted. I've had too much going on to fish much lately, and when I did get a chance it's been a struggle. Finally caught a few in the past week or so. No big ones, but any fish is better than a skunk.

 

The fish on the left was caught on a day when my buddy and I caught 10. He caught a 4 lb largemouth, and a 3 lb smallmouth...which was his PB smallmouth! He was pretty excited, and I was excited for him. It fought like a beast. I think he may want to chase those brown fish more often now. 9 out of the 10 we caught that day were on rattle traps. Any color would do. Orange, red, silver, and gold worked. The LM in the picture was the lone fish caught on a TX rig.

 

The fish on the right was caught on an quick 30 minute bank trip that resulted in 3 fish. 2 small largemouth, and the smallmouth pictured. The smallmouth hit a trick worm like a train. I thought it was going to be a lot bigger, but I'll take it. Just glad to get to fish.

 

 

Nice to see you back at it. Beautiful smallie!

Caught 3 LM and 7 Spots today in the glorious 30 mph winds.

Got in some roadside pond action with my brother.

I've got nothing to add yet, I'm still just perving all y'alls fish photos. lol.  Work's been very busy, and any day I could maybe go fishing it's been raining. 😒  But, busy work means a few extra Canadian Pesos in my pocket, everyone here is healthy and our little Sea Bass is ready whenever we are.  My son and I are pumped for it, and my daughter has even said she's looking forward to fishing.😁  I just need work and weather to align - so many techniques I want to catch a big ol' bass on first!

@The Baron, yes, the fish are thinking about you too. They want to dance with you. That's you on the left and a fine bass on the right:

 

Don't react to this post until you read it.  This post is also a poll without hijacking the thread.   

I caught 3 or 4 today in a short trip.  I fished a part of the lake I had never fished before.  I had ridden through it in my boat but never fished.  (Nivens Creek for you people who know Lake Wylie)   Why do I say I caught 3 or 4?   I caught the same Bass 2 times, with one cast.   I caught a 15 inch Largemouth (middle picture) on a Devils Horse.  When I unhook a fish , especially with trebles I just toss my lure into the water next to the boat.  This keeps from getting hooks in my carpet, lunch box ect.   So, I unhooked this Bass, tossed the Devils Horse into the water next to the boat, took it's picture and released it.   I released it 3 feet or so from the Devils Horse floating in the water.   When I let it go it turned and smashed the Devils Horse.  I barely grabbed my rod before it went overboard.   This was the same Devils Horse I had just caught it on.  I unhooked it and released it again, without a picture, and without the Devils Horse floating next to the boat.   So, did I catch 3 or 4?   Use the laugh reaction if you think I caught 3, or the like reaction for 4.    Had this been a catch and immediate release tournament would it have counted?   The Spots (13 inch and 14 inch) both came on a spinnerbait.   None of these fish (all bucks I'm guessing) show any signs of spawning.  Last week, a few miles North (in the same lake) I was catching females with rub marks on their sides from spawning.  Fish behavior is interesting.  

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When I let it go it turned and smashed the Devils Horse. 

 

Whadda bass!

@Woody B, pray you don't meet that bass again in another ten years. With its appetite, it'll be pushing 30 pounds and if it has the same ferocious attitude, you're gonna need a bigger boat.

 

@Woody B I’d definitely claim 4. 
 

My skunk streak came to an end today.  The Gun Club was the only place nearby that wasn’t totally blown out by all the rain we’ve been getting.  55 degrees, blue skies, and winds out of the WNW at 12 mph with gusts up to 26 mph.

 

I worked the wind blown bank pretty hard with the Booyah Blade and was rewarded with 3.  Average sized fish for this body of water but it felt great to actually be catching something again.

 

Edited April 14, 20242 yr by bp_fowler
Can’t spell

Terrible conditions today - lake 3' flooded higher (and colder), sustained gusts >20, <1' visibility and mud. Went to the most wind protected side (still awful) and bomb casted from the bank to a rock bed I spotted from the kayak a couple weeks ago (~8-10') deep. I had a northern lights stunna still tied on from before - thought what the heck, get the line wet then change the lure. That first cast caught a 1 lber. The cadence must've been exactly right for THAT ONE fish

 

Then moved to a black n blue chatterbait (zako), and on the first cast of that, caught a fatty (pic).

 

Then nothing for the next 40 mins until a crappie took a chartreuse Jackall TN50  Then more coffee! Everything I know is wrong

Had to go to a funeral back in Durham for a friends mother and after the processions we hit a friend's private stocked pond and I caught a 5 lb 8 oz donkey on a 7 inch swimbait (thanks @deep for the inspiration !) I've been helping him cull big sunfish and smaller bass and it's nice to see a healthy girl like this in here.

 

 

It's always funny when you catch a fish THIS size on a big bait:

 

 

The Zaldaingerous swimbait definitely gets bit!  Got some of the new 6" whales coming to try because they're a great price and I love the smaller ones!

12 minutes ago, Pat Brown said:

Had to go to a funeral back in Durham for a friends mother and after the processions we hit a friend's private stocked pond

So you went to the funeral in a blue hoodie?

23 minutes ago, gimruis said:

So you went to the funeral in a blue hoodie?

Yup ~ But it was cool because it matched that Strike King Cap perfectly.

#fashionista

😎

A-Jay

I brought a change of clothes.  #prepared

Pat just keeps catching and catching and catching...big gals.

 

Well done, @OHBuckets and @bp_fowler.

 

Today and tomorrow deliver(ed) daytime highs in the mid-fifties and nighttime lows around 40 degrees. Monday will reach 60 degrees, which is when I'll try again to catch more than one, two, or three bass.

 

Here's hoping three mild days will nudge the water temps above the 41 to 44.5 degree surface temps I measured about a week ago, but since I was working the bottom, about eight feet down, I'm guessing the temperature there was in the high thirties. 

On 4/10/2024 at 1:57 PM, LrgmouthShad said:

Pat and Alex carry. The rest of us just do doughnuts around the lake and sip on sweet tea whenever someone asks if we are catching. Disco likes to catch a 7lber every so often to keep us on our feet.

Wild Card!!

6 hours ago, Woody B said:

So, did I catch 3 or 4?

Interesting question. I’m no legal advisor 😂, but I’d say it’s about how your phrase it. You could say you caught 3 bass, or you could also say you had 4 hookups.

 

Regardless of the number, it made a very cool story. I say kudos to you for it.

1 hour ago, ol'crickety said:

Here's hoping three mild days will nudge the water temps

That's about to happen here finally. 72 on Wednesday. Tonight, we had to cancel our Jon Boat trip. 32mph gusts and a flat-bottomed Jon boat is a no-go. The battery would be dead in an hour or so, and I wouldn't be able to fish at all trying to keep us from getting endlessly spun out. Forget getting blown a few hundred feet just changing baits. Nah.

Fished a flooded lake this morning, very cloudy water except tight against the bank.

So I drug the bank with the little boat and casted parallel.

Caught 10 in a little over an hour in the flooded grass throwing a bluegill colored spinnerbait

Ooops a duplicate 🙄

@Bird:

 

Quote

Caught 10 in a little over an hour

 

That's fast catching, Buddy.

Went fishing yesterday and caught one little guy on a drop shot rig using a little hellgrammite type bait. Fishing is still slow, but as the water temps rise, I expect the catch ratio to rise as well. I've only found one spot on the river where they'll bite. 

 

I would have fished more, but left my phone on top of my car, and when I pulled out to go to the next location it fell off and broke. I don't like catching fish I can't document, so I called it a day.

 

 

(P.S. I didn't have any appropriate drop-shot weights so I made one from a snap-swivel and some split shot.)

 

Wife and I are camping so I went back out after lunch and 5 more fell victim to the spinnerbait........done for the day.

 

Caught a decent largemouth also 😎

Found a few on a pattern I've never seen before. They were hunting trout in open water, not relating to any particular structure or cover. Every now and then I'd see a trout frantically trying to escape being pinned against a steep island bluff bank but for the most part I was seeing these massive explosions out in open water and occasionally against the bank. There wasn't really a way to target these fish other than being in the right place at the right time. Ended up with 3 at 4-5, 4-11, 6-0 on a deps 250. Only thing I figured out for certain was that they wanted an uphill presentation. Cast out into deep water and retrieve toward the bank and they'd pin it against the bank like they'd been doing to the trout. There were definitely bigger fish in the mix, I missed out on a large part of the bite window before I realized what was happening.