3 hours ago, everythingthatswims said:

I am back at school and caught my first ice bass today after class. My friends and I caught over 50 fish, mainly bluegill but a few bass and crappie as well. Looks like the weather this week is going to make the ice unsafe so this might be the only ice trip for a while!

Sweet! I have still never ice fished. I've had to break it up with the boat and fished near the edges of It but never cut a hole in it 

Not the "latest catch" but thought I would post since I thought I lost the pic. Heck of a fiasco On this day. Up for 27 hrs straight, forgot the net, sheared a pin in the trolling motor, dropped pliers in 20ft of water so couldn't replace the pin. Was throwing a kvd sexy frog On my 6'6 Shakespeare medium heavy with 15Lb mono. Forgot my braid setup. I believe this is my 4th biggest bass. And I have caught it once more 2 years later after it was spawned out and not nearly as big. We tagged this fish after I caught it the first time. 

Only 2 fish Monday, but they were both nice ones. First one just barely missed 6 pounds at 5.92lbs, on a Savage Gear Shine Glide 185, love that bait. 

 

 

 

Tuesday I took a member of the Kansas State University fishing team with me. We had a steady day, catching fish or two every half hour for most of the day. Most every fish we caught was in the 3lb range but Zach's first fish of the day was 5.08lbs. It's been a good year already. 

Finally caught my first fish of 2018. Too bad it wasn't a bass. It was a decent catfish though. Weighed about a pound and a half or better. Didn't put it on the scale but it was kinda fat. First catfish I've ever caught with an artificial bait. Caught it with a crappie jig head with a small piece of Ol' Monster on it. Not what I was hoping to catch, but it was nice to catch something for a change. Caught it in a little bayou up the road a little ways from the house. I feel like there's got to be some bass in it somewhere just haven't found them yet. May have better luck the closer it gets to the spawn if there's any in there.

Supper!! ?

5 hours ago, MichaelCopeland said:

Finally caught my first fish of 2018. Too bad it wasn't a bass. It was a decent catfish though. Weighed about a pound and a half or better. Didn't put it on the scale but it was kinda fat. First catfish I've ever caught with an artificial bait. Caught it with a crappie jig head with a small piece of Ol' Monster on it. Not what I was hoping to catch, but it was nice to catch something for a change. Caught it in a little bayou up the road a little ways from the house. I feel like there's got to be some bass in it somewhere just haven't found them yet. May have better luck the closer it gets to the spawn if there's any in there.

That’s a Bullhead or a yellow belly. Nice chunky too!

5 hours ago, N Florida Mike said:

Supper!! ?

I threw it back. Wasn't prepared for any catch and keep today...lol. Didn't actually think I was prepared to catch a catfish. Guess I learned something new. ?

4 hours ago, Dorado said:

That’s a Bullhead or a yellow belly. Nice chunky too!

I've always known them as mud cats. Never eating any of them because I heard they weren't very good. Now channel cats are a different story...lol. ?

Looks like a yellow bullhead. Around here we call them butter cats.

My favorite catfish to eat ! Delicious!

That one is very big for that specie.

Bullhead from cooler water are delicious!

2 hours ago, J Francho said:

Bullhead from cooler water are delicious!

May have to try them some day. I don't really cat fish much. 

11 hours ago, MichaelCopeland said:

May have to try them some day. I don't really cat fish much. 

Bullhead make excellent live bait for flathead catfish where it's legal. We've used them up to about 1.5lbs for live bait on limblines. It only takes about a 10lb flathead to eat a bullhead that size. 

Not sure if it's legal here or not. Not even sure where to find flathead catfish around here. In the Red River maybe?

Species: CATFISH, FLATHEAD (Pylodictis olivaris) Species seperation 1994.)

Rank Weight Angler Where Caught Date Caught

*1. 95.0 Roland Lasseigne Wax Lake July 2007

*2. 66.0 Harley Rakes Red River July 1998

*3. 52.04 Michael L. Guimbellot Red River February 2000

*4. 50.44 Ricky Gauthier Cane River April 1998

*5. 41.0 Mrs. Joyce Engolia Irish Bayou April 1995

*6. 38.0 Bill Dickinson Cane River Lake June 1994

*7. 33.50 Lucien A. Robert Lake Cataouatche June 1975

*8. 33.13 Justin Burbank False River May 2005

*9. 31.94 Michael Wiley Bayou Decade July 1997

*10. 26.13 Cody Normand Bayou Terrebonne April 1994

 

They're a blast to catch. I used to guide for them and have spent a lot of hours targeting them. Not many meaner fish out there in fresh water in the US.

Wow! That's a big ole flathead you got there. What are some other baits to use for catching something like that?

Use a live red breast bream ?

6 hours ago, MichaelCopeland said:

Wow! That's a big ole flathead you got there. What are some other baits to use for catching something like that?

Live sunfish, fresh cut shad, goldfish are popular. They'll bite lures often too. The biggest one I've caught was on a finesse jig fishing for bass.

The bass were going nuts chasing this swim jig I was tossing from the bank last evening, as a storm moved in from the west, pelting the water surface and my rain jacket. Just before sunset, the clouds cleared and the red sun lit up the sky, and the bite shut down. I sloshed across the wet grass back to my car, quite satisfied with myself.

 

 

 

 

19 minutes ago, hawgenvy said:

The bass were going nuts chasing this swim jig I was tossing from the bank last evening, as a storm moved in from the west, pelting the water surface and my rain jacket. Just before sunset, the clouds cleared and the red sun lit up the sky, and the bite shut down. I sloshed across the wet grass back to my car, quite satisfied with myself.

 

 

 

 

Sounds like a good time. Our grass is crunchy right now from yesterdays ice storm 

On 1/11/2018 at 3:30 AM, MichaelCopeland said:

I threw it back. Wasn't prepared for any catch and keep today...lol. Didn't actually think I was prepared to catch a catfish. Guess I learned something new. ?

I've always known them as mud cats. Never eating any of them because I heard they weren't very good. Now channel cats are a different story...lol. ?

put it on the grill with lemon pepper  YUM  YUM!!!

On 1/8/2018 at 9:14 PM, everythingthatswims said:

I am back at school and caught my first ice bass today after class. My friends and I caught over 50 fish, mainly bluegill but a few bass and crappie as well. Looks like the weather this week is going to make the ice unsafe so this might be the only ice trip for a while!

I use to love to ice fish, that was before I got old and wimpy.

Somewhere in the mountains of WV.....(and it's not Mt. Storm )

 

 

Somewhere in the mountains of WV.....(and it's not Mt. Storm )

 

Now THAT"s what I call by-catch ! 

 

Would that be Surf & Turf or Field & Stream ? 

 

A-Jay

 

On 1/10/2018 at 1:23 AM, Bluebasser86 said:

Only 2 fish Monday, but they were both nice ones. First one just barely missed 6 pounds at 5.92lbs, on a Savage Gear Shine Glide 185, love that bait. 

 

Is that Dottie?! That fish has the same markings!

First outing of the year in the ol boat enjoying the abnormal warm winter were having here, a few bass and a thooty bonus:

 

 

Toledo has been tuff. Today was my second day on the lake. We put about 15 in the boat, which was a significant improvement from day 1 when we boated 5 and only 2 were over the 14" mark they need to make for the tournament.

 

Very strange place compared to anything I've fished. Most places you can find a couple trees on the bottom to fish, but here the whole bottom is trees!

 

The areas I've gotten bit in are extremely small, and it's weird because the fish seem extremely active and cooperative in those places, but you can't pick off one or two anywhere else. Mainly have two "spots" at the moment, and it's like a 3-5 casts per fish guarantee there, I caught fish on back to back casts a couple times! But then you run all over the place trying to find something similar and won't even get a sniff.

 

Size is my main concern right now. I was worried that the fish I am on aren't big enough, but today I pulled a 4lber off of a place that had been kicking out fish that were only flirting with the 14" mark. The other area I found produced a couple 2.5-3lb fish, so I'm hoping there are a couple big girls nearby. Only way to find out if the size is there would be to open fire on them and I'll save that for tournament day. I like playing the numbers game anyway, keeps my confidence up.

 

On the bright side, the small fish I am catching are shaped like absolute footballs so they do weigh a little more than an average fish that length would. The bottom photo is a 14&1/4"er.

 

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