2 hours ago, T-Billy said:

@Team9nine, those crappie are lucky it's you catching them instead of @TnRiver46 and I. 

 #RELEASETOTHEGREASE!!! 😋

You got that right 😆 Everybody goes back home…

 

…and yes, mass has its advantages. Even though they’re small, my 45 ft deep lakes cool slower than my 25 ft deep ones (the reverse is true in spring).

Fished a pond this afternoon that I haven’t fished in awhile and caught some big bream but no bass.

I came home and fished on the dock. Bass were not biting at all, got a few little bream and a small catfish.

I got a bite on my 5 foot ultralight that has 6 pound test, and was baited with bread. 
but when I hooked the fish, it was something big. I have probably caught 200 bream, shiners and catfish on this  same hook. It is so weak now , I have to bend it back in place every other fish or so.

So I fought the fish by keeping just enough pressure to keep it on the line  without bending the hook. I also manually pulled line out when the fish would run. I was not expecting a BASS.

but that’s what it was. I am sure this is the same bass I caught the other day. Same weight, length, and appearance.

5 pounds, 3oz. Hooked barely in the top lip. On a piece of bread.!!

when you’re hot, you’re hot ! 🤠

Cool story, Mike!

You know @N Florida Mike, I have a few days off and I was preparing Christmas Eve dinner today. I had some time and needed a break and decided to watch an old James Bond movie. I just realized that the villain in the movie was just like you. Everything he touched turned to gold! Haha

 

Wave that wand my friend!

 

Merry Christmas 
 

 

Got out for an unplanned trip Sunday to the power plant lake that wasn't power planting. No smoke from the stack meant cold water (43.8* was the warmest I saw which is about 10* colder than normal), and the water was the lowest I've ever seen it. I almost didn't even launch, instead going to a nearby small lake with cold water, but decided to give it a try. The bite was slow, but better than I expected. I caught 10 or 12 in 5 hours I was on the water and every one was an absolute football. I also caught 1 catfish and a carp that both ate the same Ned rig that all my bass ate. 

 

 

 

I love the power plant bass. Merry Christmas, Clayton, and thanks for protecting us from the bad guys!

I fished 4 hours this Christmas morning, I think I caught about 7ish. 2 largemouth, 2 crappie, one smallmouth and two meanmouth. Purple worm did most damage, Weather was amazing. 

 

lucky loon was swimming around in front of my dock when I embarked

 

 

Congrats on the Christmas fish @TnRiver46. I had to work or I'd have been out there also. We've had a thaw and the deeper lake basins are open. I'm hoping to get out Sunday. 🤞

Anyone north of Georgia who fishes in December is hardcore. 

 

We've had an unusual run of warm weather in north central Arkansas;  air temps up to 80 degrees have warmed the lake back up to high fifties.  Fish are gorging off shore on shad balls, causing shallow water bites to be few and far between.

Snuck out for a few hours yesterday afternoon to chase bass. This lake is deep and holds its heat better, plus we’ve had a bit of a warm spell, so surface temps had risen to 50 degrees; air temp steady at 55-56 all afternoon. Calm and cloudy conditions had the bass roaming. Picked up one on a jerkbait and the rest on jighead minnow, mostly schoolers. Half a dozen or just over, with nothing over 3 lbs., along with a bonus bullhead.

 

 

Got a beautiful, healthy fish out of the church pond- 5 pounds even, 21.5 inch…

Got out yesterday for some day after Christmas bassing. Got all the way up to 64 degrees for a high in the afternoon, but the water was 39.3-40.7 in the morning, although I did find a couple areas close to 42 by the end of the day. I started out fishing a Ned and jerkbait mostly, and the bite was better than I expected, although it was a lot slower than the past couple trips to this lake. I set out in the morning telling myself I was going to force myself to get off the bank for at least a portion of the day. Late in the morning, I was scanning around off a swimming beach and found a rockpile that came sharply from 20' to 6' and top was flickering like crazy. When I threw a jerkbait across it, the bottom looked like it rose up behind it. Not sure how many fish were there, but I'm pretty sure they all wanted my jerkbait. I caught several on it before they started to scatter and I slowed down, picking them off with a Ned rig. I saw some big marks swimming around, and was hoping to get one to bite, and it seemed like they fired all at once. I caught a 20.75" fish that weighed 5.17 on the Ned, then a 17.50", a 16.75", a 20" walleye, and then lost probably the biggest fish I hooked off the pile on a finesse football jig right at the kayak. I got snagged and broke off about 3 cast in a row, and that was it, they seemed to all disappear and I never could locate them again. I did catch several more little fish scoping, but those were the only big ones I found. 

 

 

Couple more glide eaters on bigger water. Small lakes are a bit too iced to fish right now. Bites so soft you really need fluorocarbon this time of year.

 

 

Fished the home lake for 2 hours before dark.  Temps around 70, mostly sunny, with a light ripple of wind. I fished the eel grass beds going down the lake from the house , and the june bug  magnum speed worm and the smaller speed worm produced 4 fish. I didn’t take a picture of the biggest fish I caught , because I caught it in front of a family relaxing on their deck and didn’t want to make a big deal about it in front of them…it wasn’t much bigger than the pictured fish anyway.

I lost the biggest fish I hooked at the boat , but it wasn’t over 3 it didn’t look like.

only the eel grass produced today. No fish activity in the wood or in the deep holes. I caught nothing at the south end of the lake, which seems to be a trend lately. 
Beautiful day to be out on the water. The last pic is what I see when pulling up to the house…

 

 

 

7 minutes ago, N Florida Mike said:

 

Beautiful day to be out on the water. The last pic is what I see when pulling up to the house…

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m absolutely green with envy but at the same time so happy you and so many others are willing to share your photos such as these. My wife loves the idea of a waterfront property when we retire but my fear is it will be way out of our price range.

 

On 12/26/2025 at 8:13 AM, Swamp Girl said:

Anyone north of Georgia who fishes in December is hardcore.

Tell that to this guy

 

15 minutes ago, Eric 26 said:

I’m absolutely green with envy but at the same time so happy you and so many others are willing to share your photos such as these. My wife loves the idea of a waterfront property when we retire but my fear is it will be way out of our price range.

 

 

Eric, there are websites that list properties with ponds. In many places in the United States, they are affordable for middle class people. You might remember that my five acres was only $75,000 less than two years ago. I keep slowly improving it. It was wild when I bought it and a wild property works to the buyer's advantage. 

@Swamp Girl Thank you for the information which I will definitely look into and I was actually going to reference you and your property. Although the older I get the more I dislike the cold Chicago winters even though we are currently in a seriously crazy warm period the land you own is exactly what I would prefer to have even if it was a seasonal split, and although my wife would love the peaceful serenity the bugs and lack of amenities that come with it will not appeal to her. Although I often day dream of the simple and absolute wonderful (1) week vacations from my youth spent in rural Minnesota I too have to remember I was a different person back then having zero health issues and the most simplistic needs back then. This is not to say I’m ruling anything out at this point of my life but at 56 with a college freshman who plans on attending post graduate schooling I’m still a few years away from seriously looking into any future properties right now. 

1 hour ago, Eric 26 said:

I’m absolutely green with envy but at the same time so happy you and so many others are willing to share your photos such as these. My wife loves the idea of a waterfront property when we retire but my fear is it will be way out of our price range.

 

Northern Illinois properties are out of sight and the taxes are worse;  I lived most of my life there.  Try crossing the borders North, South, and West;  you may be surprised what you find.

@Tackleholic I appreciate what you’re saying and yes that’s the plan which as I said for now I can’t take advantage of with the not only my son but also my daughter who’s 21 and also wants to go post graduate schooling.

10 hours ago, Eric 26 said:

I’m absolutely green with envy but at the same time so happy you and so many others are willing to share your photos such as these. My wife loves the idea of a waterfront property when we retire but my fear is it will be way out of our price range.

 

Ours is an older house built in the 50s so it was very affordable, even for waterfront. What gets me is that only a few people besides me ever fish it.

2 hours ago, N Florida Mike said:

13 hours ago, Eric 26 said:

 

Ours is an older house built in the 50s so it was very affordable, even for waterfront. What gets me is that only a few people besides me ever fish it.

 

Florida has soooooooo much water that waterfront can be more affordable. 

 

Michigan too. I would love this property with two ponds full of big bass and all that acreage:

 

https://www.land.com/property/80-acres-in-ogemaw-county-michigan/25330888/

 

In Maine, riverfront property is MUCH cheaper than lakefront. Oceanfront property used to be the most desirable, but some buyers are backing away from the ocean because it can be surly. On average, five acres of pond front property in my area runs close to a million, but I bought scruffy wetlands-front property and had four local guys build a boardwalk on my budget, which means they used beaver-felled trees and free pallets that I acquired from the hardware store. They did mill some oak boards for the top.

 

I'm hiring the same guys to clean up my shoreline. Beavers have dropped quite a few oak trees and they'll cut those and give the wood to an old guy who heats with wood. I also paid five grand for a driveway and a neighbor donated his time and tractor to spread gravel on my footpath.

 

In the end, with about ten grand and considerable sweat, it'll be worth about four times what I paid. Maybe more. However, I'd never sell it for $300,000 or even $1,000,000. It means too much to me. 

14 hours ago, N Florida Mike said:

I lost the biggest fish I hooked at the boat , but it wasn’t over 3 it didn’t look like.

Wait, what? Only a 3 lber? Do I need to send a Genie in a Bottle? 

Just kidding Mike, I wish I can get on the run you're having!

42 minutes ago, Jigfishn10 said:

Just kidding Mike, I wish I can get on the run you're having!

 

He is smokin' hot.