I posted these in my trip report on the bass reports, but thought I"d share these pics here too.  31" and 26" pike.  Crappie 10-12".  There were crappie for days on the fish finder.  I could have sat and caught a bunch of them and might do just that later this summer for a fish fry.  Shame the limit is only 10 here.  

 

 

 

 

We got ourselves into quite the topwater frenzy last night, only had to dodge a few hundred lightning strikes on the way back to the truck. Wild evening! 
 

 

Is that 4th fish a small tarpon?

@gimruis, People call them TN tarpon, it’s a skipjack herring. They make premier catfish bait, that’s what I catch mine with cut up but the serious cat fishermen sell them for $6 apiece and they catch hundred pounders with them. My wife caught a 44” striper with a dead one that was about a pound 

13 years ago today ~ My best trout from the Old Town Canoe.

 

A-Jay

Struggled to catch bass yesterday, so I decided to smell the roses and play with some sunfish.

By catch on jerk baits while fishing for smallies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Got an hour of fishing in on Tuesday. It was overcast with a sporadic drizzling rain. Caught a nice bluegill and small largie.

 

Some stud panfish caught over the years! Full moon coming on the 23rd so getting ready to hopefully catch some giants on UL. Been watching them slowly get bigger over the years, not sure why, its a public lake but lucky me!

These little delinquents ate a KVD 1.0 squarebill around sunset last night 

The struggle has been real for me with the esox this spring. Actually not just me, everyone I've talked to has had a tough time of it since March. Things seem to be coming around though. The weed beds are coming along nicely, and the muskie are transitioning off of wood, and setting up on them. They're still not very aggressive but they're beginning to chase baits a bit.

 A friend of mine caught one, and raised two others the other day on a chatterbait I made. He's a nice old fella who's lived on the lake for 40yrs and has been a big help to me getting started in this pursuit. It makes me happy to see him catching fish on baits I made and gifted him. 

 I had a mid 30's come in hot on a Medussa today. It went round the 8 a couple times, but wouldn't commit. Then I missed one on a Cowgirl. It knocked a bunch of slack in my line, and by the time I caught up it was gone. I caught the chunky 32" pictured below by dangling a big redear on a quick strike rig about 4' below the boat. That's one thick little ski for post spawn. It's built like a late fall fish. 

 

Beautiful markings on your chunky ski, Tim. 

PB pike! And a snagged "carp" that upon further inspection seems to actually be a redhorse. Which I didn't know was a thing. 

 

 

 

Edited May 13, 20242 yr by IcatchDinks
Misidentified a fish.

27 minutes ago, IcatchDinks said:

PB pike

 

How big do you think it is?  30 something inches?

1 minute ago, gimruis said:

 

How big do you think it is?  30 something inches?

I measured him off camera. 30.5". Good eye. 

Striped bass

10 hours ago, IcatchDinks said:

PB pike! And a snagged carp

 

 

 

That's not a carp. I dunno what it is. Looks like a big specimen of some kind of chub. Hey @TnRiver46, what is that?

42 minutes ago, T-Billy said:

That's not a carp. I dunno what it is. Looks like a big specimen of some kind of chub. Hey @TnRiver46, what is that?

Ya, that looks like a creek chub...while part of the minnow family, they can get to 11" long.

1 hour ago, MN Fisher said:

Ya, that looks like a creek chub...while part of the minnow family, they can get to 11" long.

It was well over 11. Closer to twenty inches. 

2 hours ago, T-Billy said:

That's not a carp. I dunno what it is. Looks like a big specimen of some kind of chub. Hey @TnRiver46, what is that?

American or silver redhorse ? Do they have fall fish in Michigan? Don’t know if they get that big either, first guess without opening the book is redhorse 

I was going to say some species of redhorse too.

Supposedly redhorse is good food according to the old books I read as a kid, never had the guts to try it myself. Well that and I catch about one per decade 

Just now, TnRiver46 said:

silver redhorse ?

That would have been my next choice - but no measurement was supplied in the OP...those details help.

The thing is with redhorse is that they generally do have some "reddish" or variation of it on their fins, and this one doesn't seem to have that, which is why I doubted that initially.

 

Presence of redhorse is a good sign that the water is healthy though.  Despite being a fish with a sucker mouth and often viewed as a junk fish, they cannot live in polluted waters.  So if they are around, the lake/river is in good shape.  Good species to have around for other, bigger predators too.

I must do further research. Thanks for pointing this out, guys.