Beautiful fish, @T-Billy!

@T-Billy Great start to your season.

17 hours ago, T-Billy said:

I'm BAAACK in the saddle again!!! 😁 I played hooky today and it paid off.

43" on a crankbait.

42.5, 41, 37, and 36 came to dine at the crappie buffet.

Sweet !

Way to go.

And all of that felt very good.

Now go wash your pants.

A-Jay

2 hours ago, A-Jay said:

Now go wash your pants.

Did you accept the position of Gim's deputy? 😂

I caught this sow of a 44" this morning.

Then she caught me.

She was hooked on the rear hook of the crappie rig. She went ballistic while I was trying to unhook her and hooked me with two barbs of the front treble. There was so much net balled up on the hook, I could barely get the cutters in there to cut myself free from her. She went off a few times while we were hooked together. That was fun!!! Lol. I ripped the hook points out with pliers. Like grandpa always said, If your gonna be dumb, ya gotta be tough. 😂 As you can see in the pic, after she was done torturing me, she crapped all over me and the boat. 🤣

Also got a 35".

Hopefully you're up to date on your tetanus. If not, I would highly advise to go get one. Blood infections can be fatal. @Pat Brown had a bad infection in his hands last season if I remember correctly.

Also, you might want to consider a snag/hook-proof glove. Lindy makes one for each hand.

10 minutes ago, T-Billy said:

I caught this sow of a 44" this morning.

Then she caught me.

She was hooked on the rear hook of the crappie rig. She went ballistic while I was trying to unhook her and hooked me with two barbs of the front treble. There was so much net balled up on the hook, I could barely get the cutters in there to cut myself free from her. She went off a few times while we were hooked together. That was fun!!! Lol. I ripped the hook points out with pliers. Like grandpa always said, If your gonna be dumb, ya gotta be tough. 😂 As you can see in the pic, after she was done torturing me, she crapped all over me and the boat. 🤣

Also got a 35".

Nice Musky Bud but that's pretty brutal !

Please tell us those daggers were barbless . . . .

Stay Safe

A-Jay

@T-Billy Nice. But those fingers are gonna be sore.

Nope, not barbless. The point in the finger came out pretty easy. The one in the thumb took FOUR tries. 🤦‍♂️😂

Just left stat care. Got a tetanus shot and some antibiotics. All good. Back after them tomorrow.

59 minutes ago, T-Billy said:

Nope, not barbless. The point in the finger came out pretty easy. The one in the thumb took FOUR tries. 🤦‍♂️😂

Just left stat care. Got a tetanus shot and some antibiotics. All good. Back after them tomorrow.

At some point between the 2nd, 3rd & final 4th attempt,

I'd have been rethinking my life choice big time.

You are not a girly man.

👌

A-Jay

1 hour ago, T-Billy said:

Nope, not barbless. The point in the finger came out pretty easy. The one in the thumb took FOUR tries. 🤦‍♂️😂

Just left stat care. Got a tetanus shot and some antibiotics. All good. Back after them tomorrow.

There are a lot of nerves in fingertips. Four tries sounds brutal.

35 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

At some point between the 2nd, 3rd & final 4th attempt,

I'd have been rethinking my life choice big time.

You are not a girly man.

👌

A-Jay

8 minutes ago, Swamp Girl said:

There are a lot of nerves in fingertips. Four tries sounds brutal.

It sucked for sure, but in the grand scheme of things, no biggie. I dislocated my right shoulder five times before finally getting it fixed. THAT SUCKS BIG TIME!!! Broken ribs, ankle, both wrists, broken sinus cavity, teeth knocked loose, three concussions all to the base of the skull. Hello CTE. All way worse than today's fiasco. 😉

This is the second time that crappie rig has got me though. Going forward, if they only have one hook, I'm gonna cut the free hanging one off the rig before unhooking the fish. I make my own rigs and it only takes a few minutes to replace the piece of wire.

30 minutes ago, T-Billy said:

It sucked for sure, but in the grand scheme of things, no biggie. I dislocated my right shoulder five times before finally getting it fixed. THAT SUCKS BIG TIME!!! Broken ribs, ankle, both wrists, broken sinus cavity, teeth knocked loose, three concussions all to the base of the skull. Hello CTE. All way worse than today's fiasco. 😉

So were you a stunt car driver or MMA fighter?

6 minutes ago, casts_by_fly said:

So were you a stunt car driver or MMA fighter?

I lived a wild life for a few decades and worked physically demanding jobs.

3 hours ago, T-Billy said:

Back after them tomorrow.

Is there anything that slows you down?

Clearly changing clothes, showers, meals, and sleep don't. We can go ahead and add injuries and urgent care to that list now too.

Dude's gonna be out there after a leg gets amputated one of these days.

4 minutes ago, gim said:

Is there anything that slows you down?

Clearly changing clothes, showers, meals, and sleep don't. We can go ahead and add injuries and urgent care to that list now too.

Dude's gonna be out there after a leg gets amputated one of these days.

I'll get all the rest I need when I'm dead. 😉

1 hour ago, casts_by_fly said:

So were you a stunt car driver or MMA fighter?

T was a ninja for a few years. I know this because I had to hire him twice.

I told him, "No one else will do the job I need done. I expect you'll say "no" too."

T said, "Yes."

I replied, "Don't you want to...."

"Nope."

And then he ninjaed away like a gust of wind. The next day, the job was done with the dark wizard cast into a chasm, the dragon tamed, and the princess rescued.

I've had a pretty solid streak of catching catfish while bass fishing lately. Most have been smaller but a couple have been nicer ones. I scoped a decent blue cat with a Ned rig, that was a good time. She was really testing the ML spinning rod and 8lb Seaguar Gold Label leader but I got the best of it in the end.

I caught a decent little flathead with really nice colors on it a week later, also on a Ned rig. It was the only fish I caught from that lake on the trip. The wind that was supposed to be blowing 2-12 was rocking white caps down the lake straight into the area I was wanting to fish. That's what I get for not checking my Deep Dive app and just trusting the weatherman. I swear that app is more accurate than the local news.

Not sure which is uglier. The catfish or the crocs.

Been on a bit of an ultralight kick recently, some highlights from Saturday.

One eyed kitty on an ultralight rod with a 1/28oz #12 ice fishing jig head was a heck of a fight.

On one of the smallie trips last week i was motoring between spots and good old 2D sonar said there were some fish in the rocks in 30’. I thought it was going to be post spawn smallies that backed off the beds so I dropped a marker and swung back around with FFS and a minnow. It only took one cast before I saw multiple fish come up off the bottom. When one fish comes off the bottom to look at a minnow you have a 50/50 shot it will eat it most times. When 1 comes off and then a second follows it, I’ve seen a just about 100% hit rate. This looked like and then felt like a nice bass. When it hit the surface my jaw hit the floor. Over 15” and the longest perch I’ve ever seen. Probably the heaviest too. Now knowing they are there I might have to go catch a handful for the table.

Then during one of my unremarkable bass trips this week (different lake) I pitched a rage bug up into some grass that has always held bass. Halfway to the bottom the line started swimming off so I swung- and the rod doubled over. I thought I finally had my 5+ NJ bass because it felt heavy and was swimming off like a big bass does. I’ve caught a bunch of 4#+ bass on this setup and this was a bit bigger. It only took about 10 seconds before it came up enough and I saw what was going on. I immediately about crapped my pants first. Then I had the sense to back off the locked-up drag a little because while it was cooperating right now it was going to get angry in a sec. Smart move. We ended up doing 3 rounds around the boat with a couple drag pulling runs before it finally rolled on the surface. I had it hooked right in the corner of the mouth with a 4/0 flipping hook (right where a circle hook would be) so I was fortunate to not be anywhere near a tooth (or heavy cover). I managed to just squeeze it into my XL bass net which it promptly ripped a hole in. I put the whole thing onto my silicon landing mat which was wholly inadequate for the task ( @A-Jay -now I see why you have, and I will soon have, the oversized one). It barrel rolled in the net and wrapped the line around itself so I had to cut my line to get the rod out of the way. Of course it was rolled in the direction that was hiding the hook so I had to grab the gill plate to straighten it out and it didn’t like that, giving me some scars for my effort. Eventually I was able to grab the hook from the point side and take it out point first from the outside. Of course it felt like a lifetime but it all happened in a minute before the fish was back in the water swimming away. I don’t have a tape big enough but I stretched my hands across its back and it was a couple inches over 36” (four hands) so I’m calling it 38”. I weighed it in the net and it was just over 13#. After all that, I am reminded why I don’t want to catch any more of these things. A fun surprise 24” fish is great. A 38” dinosaur is a lot of work. Can’t imagine what a 45” or bigger fish would be. Definitely not my ambition.

I have been catching more other species since coming back home and getting back on my kayak. In my neighborhood lake I caught 2 pickerel this week, and I’ve only fished for around two and a half hours. Previously I’ve only ever caught 1 or 2 fishing there for over a year. I am in Spotsylvania VA btw. Would you guys remove them from your home lake, given this is 28 acres and not managed for fishing would it help the bass to remove the pickerel?

On 5/21/2026 at 2:41 PM, casts_by_fly said:

Over 15” and the longest perch I’ve ever seen.

That's a big perch. What they call a jumbo.

Biggest I ever saw was a 16 1/4 incher, way back in 2006.

On 5/3/2026 at 1:31 PM, T-Billy said:

Then she caught me.

She was hooked on the rear hook of the crappie rig. She went ballistic while I was trying to unhook her and hooked me with two barbs of the front treble. There was so much net balled up on the hook, I could barely get the cutters in there to cut myself free from her. She went off a few times while we were hooked together. That was fun!!! Lol. I ripped the hook points out with pliers. Like grandpa always said, If your gonna be dumb, ya gotta be tough.

...and that's why I debarb all my hooks, right there.

We were fishing for smallmouth on the tidal part of the susky. Ended up into a school of stripers. We were catching time and the numbers of them like smallmouth.