Got out last night and they were hitting a crank and a rico popper.  unfortunately one of my crank trebles went right thru a fishes eyeball and by the time I got it to the boat, the eye and optic nerve behind it were fully pulled out of the fish's head still on the treble.  The fish was bleeding really badly out his eye socket and from behind his gills.  I didn't feel that the fish could recover from this so I made a judgement call to severe it's spinal cord to quickly end it's life.  I felt it was the most humane way to deal with the situation.   

 

For the record, I HATE killing fish and felt horrible about needing to do that.  I didn't want that death to be for nothing, so I broke out my fillet knife right there on the boat, put the fillets in a ziplock bag and then into an iced cooler.  That fish ended my fishing and I went home, fired up the grill, and ate grilled bass for dinner.  TBH, I still feel horrible about that situation.  My lake karma is so negative now that I probably wont catch another keeper until 2019.

 

What would you have done in that situation?

4 hours ago, BigBassLoveSenkos said:

Got out last night and they were hitting a crank and a rico popper.  unfortunately one of my crank trebles went right thru a fishes eyeball and by the time I got it to the boat, the eye and optic nerve behind it were fully pulled out of the fish's head still on the treble.  The fish was bleeding really badly out his eye socket and from behind his gills.  I didn't feel that the fish could recover from this so I made a judgement call to severe it's spinal cord to quickly end it's life.  I felt it was the most humane way to deal with the situation.   

 

For the record, I HATE killing fish and felt horrible about needing to do that.  I didn't want that death to be for nothing, so I broke out my fillet knife right there on the boat, put the fillets in a ziplock bag and then into an iced cooler.  That fish ended my fishing and I went home, fired up the grill, and ate grilled bass for dinner.  TBH, I still feel horrible about that situation.  My lake karma is so negative now that I probably wont catch another keeper until 2019.

 

What would you have done in that situation?

Don't sweat it.  I keep a few smaller bass regularly for an elderly neighbor, selective harvest is proven to be a good thing for the lake.  Even if you removed 200 bass from an average lake, that would still just be a drop in the bucket and probably wouldn't impact fishing at all.  Catch mortality is scarily high during the summer anyways..

 

Oh, and I've actually caught a lot of one eyed bass that seemed to be very healthy (see pic of ajay's 7.29 pound pig of a one eyed smallie), one actually looked like it was born with only one eye.  Didn't have an eye socket or anything.

 

BTW, does anyone have any idea how many catchable sized bass would live in your average 350 acre lake?  Just curious to compare that number with the number I've caught this year.

6 minutes ago, IndianaFinesse said:

Don't sweat it.  I keep a few smaller bass regularly for an elderly neighbor, selective harvest is proven to be a good thing for the lake.  Even if you removed 200 bass from an average lake, that would still just be a drop in the bucket and probably wouldn't impact fishing at all.  Catch mortality is scarily high during the summer anyways..

 

Oh, and I've actually caught a lot of one eyed bass that seemed to be very healthy (see pic of ajay's 7.29 pound pig of a one eyed smallie), one actually looked like it was born with only one eye.  Didn't have an eye socket or anything.

 

BTW, does anyone have any idea how many catchable sized bass would live in your average 350 acre lake?  Just curious to compare that number with the number I've caught this year.

I would almost bet there are over 200 per acre on average. 

13 hours ago, IndianaFinesse said:

Don't sweat it.  I keep a few smaller bass regularly for an elderly neighbor, selective harvest is proven to be a good thing for the lake.  Even if you removed 200 bass from an average lake, that would still just be a drop in the bucket and probably wouldn't impact fishing at all.  Catch mortality is scarily high during the summer anyways..

 

Oh, and I've actually caught a lot of one eyed bass that seemed to be very healthy (see pic of ajay's 7.29 pound pig of a one eyed smallie), one actually looked like it was born with only one eye.  Didn't have an eye socket or anything.

 

BTW, does anyone have any idea how many catchable sized bass would live in your average 350 acre lake?  Just curious to compare that number with the number I've caught this year.

 

i hear ya. thanks

 

to your question, i think the answer depends on several variables:  

- depth and available real estate above thermocline that bass can relate to

- available food sources (shad population, bluegills, crayfish, baitfish, etc...)

- available oxygen (the greener the grass, the more O2 it produces)

- size of bass within bass population (a lake may be able support a population 200 1-pounders, but not 200 5-pounders) 

Up at 5am on my birthday 

a mile and a half hike

totally worth it, even if they are dinks 

I'd guess him about a pound and a half, maybe closer to two. The picture doesn't do him justice. I hooked into a bigger one that threw my swimbait at the weedline  

good looking fish, @frosty

they look almost as dark as FL strain LM

5 hours ago, BigBassLoveSenkos said:

good looking fish, @frosty

they look almost as dark as FL strain LM

It's a pretty shallow pond that's even shallower due to our lack of rain!

Fished Geist a few days ago.....caught 78 largemouth...in the first 1/2 hour......then i woke up from my nap.....No really went out there but only caught a few...biggest was 2.5lbs......seems like the fishing has slowed down......

I'm looking into buying a boat but I have no where to store. For those of you guys that don't keep your boats at your house what are the cheapest option as far as storage?

On 9/19/2017 at 3:22 PM, Kevinator1 said:

Fished Geist a few days ago.....caught 78 largemouth...in the first 1/2 hour......then i woke up from my nap.....No really went out there but only caught a few...biggest was 2.5lbs......seems like the fishing has slowed down......

I had the same kind of day last Friday on Geist, except it was 37 fish (both LM and white bass) in 90 minutes.  Biggest was a 4, most LM were 2-3 pounders.  Went back Sunday and caught 4 in 6 hours 

On 9/22/2017 at 9:34 AM, LxVE Bassin said:

I'm looking into buying a boat but I have no where to store. For those of you guys that don't keep your boats at your house what are the cheapest option as far as storage?

I've seen boats stored on storage unit lots, but personally, I wouldn't feel comfortable keeping my boat anywhere but at my house.  If it wasn't an option at my current house, I'd look into moving.  Just sayin

Unless you have a friend with some acreage and a barn, storing inside the fenced area of a storage facility is about your only option. I did it for a couple years when I lived in a condo that didn't allow boats. You want to have 24 hr access. You will also want a road cover of some sort. Don't leave anything of value in the boat (rods, reels, tackle, or easily removed electronics). Also, you'll have to figure out some way to charge your batteries, which isn't as simple as it sounds. Not certain of the going rate, but guessing $35-$50 per month.

 

The other option is to store it inside a lockable unit at one of these same facilities. I'm doing that now while in every middle of another move. Still have to figure out battery charging, but I can leave everything in the boat uncovered after a trip. Costs vary, but expect $150-$200 per month for such a setup.

The fishing has been pretty dismal lately, but everything changed today.  I only had 1hr 15minutes, one of those unplanned trips where I just hoped to set a couple hooks and relieve some stress.  I started out fishing the shallows for the first half hour like the green book says, but with only two bass to show for it I moved offshore for the last 45 minutes.  Boy I'm glad I did.  It was completely insane, with 38 bass being caught in the 45 minutes left.  That's averaging a bass every minute and ten seconds or something like that, I barely had time to start the retrieve before I got bit. Hands down the most bass I have ever caught in 45 minutes, I got one almost every cast with one stretch going nine bass in nine casts.  The school of 14-17 inch bass had moved up onto breaks in 10-12 feet of water, particularly one brush pile set on a break line off of a point.  I fished that same brushpile the entire time, just slowly circling around it to keep showing them different angles.  Had to leave em biting, there's no way to know how long that movement would have lasted but I would have liked a crack at breaking 100 bass.

 

 Shaky heads caught all of them, but I think they would have hit just about anything I threw at them.  Not a monster limit, but almost all of them were over 14 and about 20 were over 15 inches, with the largest going about 17.5".  And this is on a lake that hasn't had a limit weighed in a tournament for over a month and a half!

2 hours ago, IndianaFinesse said:

The fishing has been pretty dismal lately, but everything changed today.  I only had 1hr 15minutes, one of those unplanned trips where I just hoped to set a couple hooks and relieve some stress.  I started out fishing the shallows for the first half hour like the green book says, but with only two bass to show for it I moved offshore for the last 45 minutes.  Boy I'm glad I did.  It was completely insane, with 38 bass being caught in the 45 minutes left.  That's averaging a bass every minute and ten seconds or something like that, I barely had time to start the retrieve before I got bit. Hands down the most bass I have ever caught in 45 minutes, I got one almost every cast with one stretch going nine bass in nine casts.  The school of 14-17 inch bass had moved up onto breaks in 10-12 feet of water, particularly one brush pile set on a break line off of a point.  I fished that same brushpile the entire time, just slowly circling around it to keep showing them different angles.  Had to leave em biting, there's no way to know how long that movement would have lasted but I would have liked a crack at breaking 100 bass.

 

 Shaky heads caught all of them, but I think they would have hit just about anything I threw at them.  Not a monster limit, but almost all of them were over 14 and about 20 were over 15 inches, with the largest going about 17.5".  And this is on a lake that hasn't had a limit weighed in a tournament for over a month and a half!

I dream of having this day.  Sorry you had to leave.

Got out to a local lake with my brothers last night. Trolled a few hours and caught a few pike, walleye, some decent bass.

The last 45 min of daylight we tried casting different lures. I caught a dink on a spook style bait and 5 on a senko. The biggest were around 16".

Was a great night with my brothers and catching some decent fish.

Got out again yesterday, caught 14 in about two hours, plus a decent 28 inch channel cat.  All offshore again, but they were on the deeper ~15 foot breaks now.  Shaky heads caught them all, fished painstakingly slow.

 

On a side note, the green book is always saying that "all fish relate to structure situations", and yesterday that included a big (15 inch shell diameter) soft shell turtlePulled it off of a structure situation on a shaky head in about 16 feet of water.  Even got the sucker in his mouth.

On 9/28/2017 at 10:20 AM, IndianaFinesse said:

On a side note, the green book is always saying that "all fish relate to structure situations", and yesterday that included a big (15 inch shell diameter) soft shell turtlePulled it off of a structure situation on a shaky head in about 16 feet of water.  Even got the sucker in his mouth.

 

Picture or it never happened!!

 

j/k

 

i always seem to get them in the foot webbing.  Bet it wasnt fun removing the shaky head from that dude's mouth.

5 hours ago, BigBassLoveSenkos said:

 

Picture or it never happened!!

 

j/k

 

i always seem to get them in the foot webbing.  Bet it wasnt fun removing the shaky head from that dude's mouth.

It's a heck of a lot easier than removing a hook from a snapping turtle, those things make a soft shell turtle's tiny claws look like tooth picks.

I think this was worth going to a wedding rehearsal with the wife. I was all about it when she said that there’s a pond there. the bull frogs were mighty aggressive there to  

 

what do do you guys think this one weighs, I guess him around 5, but I’m not sure cause the battery in my scale died when I went to weigh him 

I wouldn't give that frog 8 oz. Oh, you mean the bass.  Depends on how far your arm is stretched out.

53 minutes ago, The Bassman said:

I wouldn't give that frog 8 oz. Oh, you mean the bass.  Depends on how far your arm is stretched out.

I wouldn’t either, he wasn’t much of a fighter, I guess if you drove a hook through my nose I wouldn’t be either! 

 

No no arm stretch, I don’t normally catch them big enough to even worry about all that, nothings going to make a 6” bass look like it’s 3 pounds! Here’s the original picture with my ugly head in it. 

Just messin' with you. Very healthy solid fish.

When's that fall people are talking about going to make an appearance?  It has been very tough (aside from the notable exception of last Monday), most times I have to resort to fishing the ned rig up under docks, with a sporadic offshore bite sometimes in play.  Only caught 17 in three hours between two of us last Sunday, and not one measured 15".  Most everything seemed to be 13 inches and only a couple over 14.  Caught a few offshore, but that bite petered out quickly so we went shallow and finished off our time there.  A 1/16 oz. mushroom head on a 3.5 inch finnesse wormz caught most of the fish, along with half a dozen on a shaky head and one on a deep crank.  I can't wait until fall comes, and I can break my jerkbaits, buzzbaits, and cranks out...

5 hours ago, IndianaFinesse said:

When's that fall people are talking about going to make an appearance?  It has been very tough (aside from the notable exception of last Monday), most times I have to resort to fishing the ned rig up under docks, with a sporadic offshore bite sometimes in play.  Only caught 17 in three hours between two of us last Sunday, and not one measured 15".  Most everything seemed to be 13 inches and only a couple over 14.  Caught a few offshore, but that bite petered out quickly so we went shallow and finished off our time there.  A 1/16 oz. mushroom head on a 3.5 inch finnesse wormz caught most of the fish, along with half a dozen on a shaky head and one on a deep crank.  I can't wait until fall comes, and I can break my jerkbaits, buzzbaits, and cranks out...

I have a feeling we aren’t going to have much of a fall season, it’s so dry the leaves are just falling off the trees, and it’s hotter than normal... I’m also afraid winter is going to be a suck fest!

I haven't been fishing much since the little one came home from the nicu, but hoping to get out 1 or 2 more times before "winter" we didn't have much of a winter last year, with anything over about 5 acres not freezing completely. Which made prespawn forever long. Then we got the flooding in late April and were still catching pre spawners in 20 feet of water 1st weekend in May. 

On 10/2/2017 at 11:23 PM, IndianaFinesse said:

I can't wait until fall comes, and I can break my jerkbaits, buzzbaits, and cranks out...

 

Once water temps drop to mid to low 60's, it's time