4 hours ago, Aaron_H said:

 

Our Florida bass have a very long growing season compared to O Canada, like @ol'crickety said a 6lber in your waters will be a much rarer, much older fish than the same weight this far south.

 

But yes, there are some true giants in this pond. It's not the same one I caught my DDs in, but my longest bass ever (pushing 28" or so) came from here. Sadly I caught her in the middle of June with no belly so she went 8lb 9oz, I dream of catching her in prespawn. Her head was so big I was able to comfortably fit both fists in her mouth, and her shoulders were so thick I couldn't get my hand around her.

 

I had to hold her back away from me just to get her all the way in the photo. For reference, I am 6'3" and my forearm from where my wrist is bent to the point of my elbow is 11.5". She was a big, healthy girl.

 

You could stash a dachshund puppy or two in her mouth! It's been my experience that Maine bass don't grow to be 28" long or anything near that. They do grow guts and shoulders though. 

One senko fish from the bank today, only had about 15 minute of moving water before the slack tide.

Also managed to land my PB seagull this morning while striper fishing, didn't get a hook in it thankfully but had to crush a jighead barb to get it out of his feathers.

At the inlaws this weekend and catching everything but bass. Did some night fishing and caught this nice sunset. Then this morning had a really good hook up and suddenly went light. Thought I broke off but I had 40# braid. Turns out I broke the hook on a dirty jigs swim jig. No rust... no idea what happened and although it had a lot of weight I can't see any bass breaking a hook. 

 

I picked the wrong landing this morning.  I got there around 5:45.  A club tournament with ~25 boats was blasting off at 6 so I just waited until they were gone.  I didn't want to get ran over.  I have a pretty good day after getting started.  I caught 11 Bass,  7 Spots and 4 Largemouth.   The biggest Largemouth was 17 inches (pictured).  1 Spot was 18" and another was 19" .  (biggest, caught on my last cast at 9:58 is pictured)   I also shook off a couple Cats beside the boat.   

You think she wanted it? Biggest of the evening went 3.73lb. Most of the fish I've been catching seem to be starting to bulk up on shad, this one was still a very skinny summer bass. Gave me a spirited fight, though. Chatterbait setup working as intended so far.

Got to sneak into a couple team derbies during our recent visit back home to NNY with my old man and we hit a couple home runs! Won both by over 3lbs and on lakes we don’t have a ton of history on (and no pre practice). 17.66 and 22.7lbs! Gotta emphasize the equipment in this day and age:

- 2014 Nitro Z7 w/ 150hp

- single power pole

- 9in Lowrance Elite at console

- no bow graph

- 80thrust Fortrex

- blown aerator pump (had to hand fill the well and use recirc/stand alone oxygenators (no fish died)

- top speed 51mph, had to lay on front deck to get on plane with a full livewell and half tank of gas

 

It’s super fun to beat guys running $80k boats with all the bells and whistles!

 

 

Made it a point to do some wilderness fishing only accessible swim/wade  this time of year . A brief 45 minute hike 2 miles downstream of the car and we hit the water.  We ended up with 45-47 fish between the 3 of us and a couple fairly nice ones including what I think was a meanmouth. Also got lots of smallies , a largemouth, some rock bass , redbreast sunfish and green sunfish . 

 

 

 

 

Only 4 dinks today in 4 hours. Tried a bunch of new techniques though. And my new curado mgl 151 6.2 is amazeballs.

28 minutes ago, Rockhopper said:

Only 4 dinks today in 4 hours. Tried a bunch of new techniques though. And my new curado mgl 151 6.2 is amazeballs.

Glad they're not in the picture.

😎

A-Jay

5 hours ago, Aaron_H said:

You think she wanted it? Biggest of the evening went 3.73lb. Most of the fish I've been catching seem to be starting to bulk up on shad, this one was still a very skinny summer bass. Gave me a spirited fight, though. Chatterbait setup working as intended so far.

After I switched to a mod fast rod and braid for chatterbaits, hooking them like that became the norm rather than the exception. I lose far fewer fish on them than I used to.

@TnRiver46: That's beyond fishing. That's adventure!

Mom visited TX for work. For weeks before coming, she talked about fishing Stillhouse with me while she was here. So we went out in the yaks and she got a nice bass that weighed 3lbs even. That is her first TX fish. And of course she boat flipped it on a spinning rod like she always does 😂. 

Me: 🦨

 

We were around some schooling fish in the morning but we could not get them to eat our topwater. They were too focused on the shad balls I guess. Later in the day I found some patches of hydrilla using my electronics and that was a big deal. There were some big fish hanging around the stuff in 10-16ft. They did not like anything in the small collection of stuff I brought. Mom’s fish was off the marina which can be a reliable place to fish. Ate her weighted senko about halfway to the bottom. 

12 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

some rock bass

Thank you for not posting photos of these fake bass.

Good afternoon friends and neighbors!

 

 It's been at least two months since I've been able to log on here and just as long not fishing. Father in law died, had to move my mother in law to my town, just a real mess. 

 

 I hadn't even driven by my favorite farm pond but had the chance to go yesterday. The water is extremely low. Never saw it this low before. Weeds and some sort of vegetation have appeared where they never were before. In all actuality, it looks horrible. This pond is where I've always caught large bass but the crappie and bluegill populations were hit and miss. Usually miss. I think I found out why, though. Caught this pic of four otters swimming and playing near me. They're probably tearing up the bluegill population. 

 

 

 Overall, was a pretty good morning though. Caught 15 fish- a mix of bass and bluegill. Caught all of them on tiny swimbaits (less than an inch), a tiny jighead with a #12 hook and fished about a foot under a weighted bobber with a steady retrieve. That was the only way I could keep the lures above the weeds. Couldn't find the crappie- if they're even there anymore. Biggest bass was about 4lbs. 

 

 Hopefully it won't be another couple of months before I get to go again. Good to be back (here and there!).

I caught 12 today.  11 Spots and 1 lone 16 inch Largemouth.  I caught the LM on my 3rd cast.   Biggest and last on last cast was a 19 1/2" Spot.  First and last pictured.  The first few came on a spinnerbait.  Later ones came on a (gasp) Ned rig.  (no I didn't go over to the darkside.  I'm still using baitcast equipment)

 

 

Went joyriding with the wife today along some crazy mountain road neither of us had ever been on, luckily it ended up just above a dam where I had been before and I got to stop and fish. Tossed a fluke and saw some small bass and one large one. They chased but wouldn’t hit it. Went back to the car and grabbed a senko , got it fairly quick blind casting with 50 lb seaguar tactix and a 4/0 gamakatsu nano alpha round bend hook

 

also got a rock bass in a different spot in a small creek, picture just for @gimruis. Missed/spooked many smallmouth in the creek 

 

also saw a cool waterfall that was fairly dried up 

 

Lol that largie could literally eat that puny rocky.

Slow morning. Caught three, lost two. All on a weightless #297 Senko TR. No bites on anything else. 
 

The first bass was the biggest (none were big lol). But like @ol'crickety posted recently, some of these smaller bass are real scrappers. That bass made three runs that peeled line off the drag. I thought it was a minimum of 5 lbs. I was surprised when I netted it. All three really fought well. 
 

19 minutes ago, gimruis said:

Lol that largie could literally eat that puny rocky.

He certainly could, but it would have to jump over a dam and swim several miles up a creek to find it……..

 

I actually used a live rock bass for bait in a deep pool yesterday for 3-4 casts, then I released it because we had to keep walking /swimming 

Caught this 4 lber today. I had just turned my head for a second(used live bait). Was going to get me a drink and take my morning BP med when I turn around to find my rod literally in the water. I was like "sh...... where did it go?!?!?!" Then I saw it gently bobbing along the bottom.

 

Fortunately it was just a foot or so off the bank and I was able to use my net to get it close enough to scoop back up. Knew a nice size bass had to do that. So I started cranking the reel a bit and sure enough saw the head poke up in the weeds about 15-18 feet away. It felt like it was going to definitely be a lost fish, but I lifted my rod up a good bit and just sort of let the fish do the work and swim itself out, and then the fight began-- lots of darts to the left and right, and a big jump that made me pucker big time.

 

Gotta keep your head on a swivel here when live bait fishing, they can and will drag your stuff in. I just happened to turn around in time and not only catch the fish, but save my recently purchased rod and the daiwa reel my dad got me all those years ago.

Keep it up, Hammers.  I've been able to fish exactly once this month, and don't know when my next opportunity will be.  Catch a few for me.

Here is another pic I took of yesterday's big bass(I personally consider anything 4 lbs+ to be big, anything 8+ huge). Is it just me or does it have more teeth than the average bass? Or perhaps my phone just got more detail of it. Either way I think it's a cool shot and it's currently my wallpaper. She darted right off immediately after being revived.

11 hours ago, BluegillsTightlines said:

Caught this 4 lber today.

 

Please do us and the fish a favor.  Remove that metal j-hook from your scale and replace it with a clamp.  I cringe every time I see photos of that thing shoved into a fish's gills.  Plus they can flop off very easily from it.

Got some *catching* up to do 😏😏😏😏

 

 

Got some fish on my Bobby's Perfect Frog in the 'Hot Mess color yesterday middle of the day bluebird skies.  Ultra fun.

 

Missed two huge ones and some buzzbait bites but we had a great time.  GoPro batteries ran out and sadly didn't capture the action this time.

 

 

Got on a fun jig bite at the snotty pond the other day with Jake.

 

 

They also wanted the golden shiner frog in the shade.

 

 

And some nicer ones on the golden shiner scum frog in there too 😎😎😎😎

 

 

A speedworm fish to round it out.

 

 

 

Smashing success came out on the big lake!
 

 

Had a really solid day on the boat with this 4 lb 12 oz kicker on jigs off of deep timber.

 

 

Jake went back to school today and I'm counting down the hours til his bus gets home and we can get a line wet after chores and homework.

 

It was a fantastic summer full of bass and memories.