6 inches of rain a couple of days ago here. The normal chocolate milk color in my favorite pond was pure mud this morning. No bites on the bass worms, so swapped over to the tiniest Beetle Spin about 3 feet under a weighted bobber. One juvenile bluegill that wasn't worth a picture. At least I wasn't skunked after 2.5 hours. 

 

Heading out of town tomorrow for work. Found a park 3 miles from the hotel that allows fishing. Website says bluegill and catfish are in there. Hope the luck changes next week. 👍

Hey,

 

Caught two nice sized peacocks today. Hope you all had a nice weekend 👍

Hey,

 

Landed a nice peacock after work. Hope everyone had a nice start of the week 

Caught 7 Trout, Give away three of them around 10lb. Kept this 4 and weigh them at home, Lightning was smallest by 6lb and two 8lb each and one 9lb. Total of 31lb for them.

G. Loomis fan boy here. Love the toboggan!!!!

Things got wild last night. Lost count quickly, lots of skipjack and white bass. Got several reeling a boot tail fluke across the surface, they were cartwheeling up and over it repeatedly, crazy. The 2/0 gamakatsu nano alpha was sticking them well, even right in the dorsal fin 😂 

@TnRiver46: What fun! I've caught mooneye, but not skipjack. Mooneye fight like tiny tarpon, launching themselves again and again. How about skipjack? 

@ol'crickety, sounds to me like maybe you have caught skipjack. They are shaped just like tarpon, fight hard and jump often. Mooneye are much smaller rounder and rarely jump. Granted I only catch 2-3 mooneye per year, but I catch several hundred skipjack per year 

19 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

@ol'crickety, sounds to me like maybe you have caught skipjack. They are shaped just like tarpon, fight hard and jump often. Mooneye are much smaller rounder and rarely jump. Granted I only catch 2-3 mooneye per year, but I catch several hundred skipjack per year 

 

Hmmm. Maybe I did! Then I know how they fight. Ha!

I’ve never fished Mississippi River so I could be way off. People seem to catch goldeye there too 

4 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

What fun! I've caught mooneye, but not skipjack. Mooneye fight like tiny tarpon, launching themselves again and again. How about skipjack? 

Skipjack are sometimes called Tennessee Tarpon down here.

 

From P. 34 from the Angler's Guide to Tennessee Fishing (link)

 

Skipjack Herring (Alosa chrysochloris) Other names: skipjack, river herring, hickory shad, Tennessee tarpon

 

Skipjack herring prefer large rivers with clear, cool, flowing water. They are also common in large mainstream reservoirs where they can be found in the fast-flowing waters below dams. They feed primarily on fish, insects, and plankton, and often in schools, when they force groups of small shad to the surface. Skipjack herring are found mostly in Tennessee’s mainstream reservoirs and their larger tributary rivers. They are common in this habitat from Knoxville westward, excluding the Cumberland Plateau. They average approximately 12 inches in length and the range is 9-20 inches. The state and world record is 4 pounds, 3 ounces.

I saw the guy that holds the world record at the ramp near my house last week. He’s a licensed bait dealer that sells skipjack all over the US 

I had an evening free finally tonight but not enough time to really put the boat in so I grabbed the trout rod and went to the local stream that’s 2 minutes from the house. I haven’t trout fished since 2020 when I got the kayak. This year I decided to buy a trout stamp just to have something to do. Instead of hopping to the local pond to catch a dozen 8” largemouth I could pop to the stream and catch some 9” trout. The water has been up from the rain but it was pretty clear and coming down. Still not an insignificant amount of water running though but this is how I like it. I was shooting for 20 trout in 2-3 hours and I got close. Ended up with 15 or 16.  Most all were the NJ standard 9” stocked rainbow but a couple were 10-11” and two were in the 15” range. Considering I haven’t been out for almost a month, it was good to be out and about on the water. 

 

 

 

 

 

Nice rainbows @casts_by_fly, what gain setting do you use on livescope to fish that creek ? 

2 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

Nice rainbows @casts_by_fly, what gain setting do you use on livescope to fish that creek ? 

too much turbulence this time to be us full.. no live scope, just live bait. 

My standard disclaimer,  I only target Bass so when I catch another species it's a matter of luck, not skill.

A guy I know stayed out of work today and went fishing with Dolly (Yorkie).  I........."he" caught an 11.40 pound Blue cat on my third cast.  After getting it to the boat I held it next to the boat for a while so it was good and tired.  Dolly was all excited, barking and growling at it.   She had to check it out real good once I got it in the boat.   I also caught a decent Crappie.  I'd guess 11 inches.  It's a minnow compared to the Crappie I see around here though.   

 

While Bass fishing today in heavy fog I caught a 12 inch White Perch.  I don't know what "big" is for that species, but the ones I usually catch are only 6 to 8 inches long.   

42 minutes ago, Woody B said:

While Bass fishing today in heavy fog I caught a 12 inch White Perch.  I don't know what "big" is for that species, but the ones I usually catch are only 6 to 8 inches long. 

They're more closely related to Bass - true Perch are closely related to Walleye and Sauger - but giants of White Perch are around 20" and 5#

 

I use to catch them all the time in Indian Lake and Wachusett Reservoir when I lived in MA.

 

12" is good eating size.

Fished for 9 hours today for bass at one of my favorite lakes which is quickly loosing favor.  55-57 degrees, both sunny and heavy overcast, still and windy. I fished the bank, fished off shore, fished the flats, fished the drops. At one point I was fishing 55’ of water for fish I marked. Tons of bait but couldn’t buy a bass. I livescoped transition areas between deep water and spawning areas from 50’ to 5’. Anything I thought was a bass got thrown to. Most were crappie. Some I thought that before casting but the last one was on its own on a big flat and I was sure it was a bass. It was not. Didn’t keep any but if I’d have had my net bag I would have caught more. 
 

 

39 minutes ago, casts_by_fly said:

 

...for the picture above, consider putting the hook through the base of the guide rather than the guide.

 

Odds are slim you'll damage the guide, but it's possible. 

Just now, Further North said:

...for the picture above, consider putting the hook through the base of the guide rather than the guide.

 

Odds are slim you'll damage the guide, but it's possible. 

im aware. That was just for the picture.  I usually use the hook keeper but on this rod the keeper is in the split of the grip which sits down in the rod holder tube. I was sending my dad a pic of what I caught it on. 

1 hour ago, casts_by_fly said:

im aware. That was just for the picture.  I usually use the hook keeper but on this rod the keeper is in the split of the grip which sits down in the rod holder tube. I was sending my dad a pic of what I caught it on. 

Cool.

 

I never know what others might not know.

Hey,

 

Just wanted to show my latest caught fish 😎

And a couple more 

Launched the ole canoe around 6:30, slow going for the first 30-45 minutes with only a tiny SMB, then the skipjack and white bass went crazy. The tails were all crooked on my tiny crappie minnow baits so I just ripped them off and the fish approved