That's a jumbo in my local waters @TnRiver46. Congrats on catching a tasty dinner. 

 On that note, I've been blackening all my fish dinners lately. I found I can do it in the oven without smoking up the house. Just brush some clarified butter on the fillets, coat with seasoning and bake at 450 for a few. 😋

Seems as tho the late great Catt said “blackened means burnt” 😂 

Cotton Cordell strikes again.

I was unable to improve my position in the State vs. State deal today.

However, this season's assault on the local pike population continues.

A-Jay

 

First big striper boils of the year, no big fish yet but we followed this school for almost 3 hours, 100+ fish landed.

Wasn't taking pics since we were unhooking and casting as fast as possible, but I finally got my first a rig double.

On 10/3/2025 at 6:23 AM, TnRiver46 said:

Seems as tho the late great Catt said “blackened means burnt” 😂 

That he did. They sure are tasty that way though!!! Zatarain's blackening seasoning is the bomb.

Accidental PB.  1.7#.   Swallowed a 4" flutter spoon...so much so that I couldn't dislodge without fatally tearing the gills.  Will be dinner tonight. 

Different day.  Same spoon. Another PB. ...lol.

39 minutes ago, Choporoz said:

Different day.  Same spoon. Another PB. ...lol.

 

Snag her or did she actually eat it?

1 hour ago, HawkeyeSmallie said:

 

Snag her or did she actually eat it?

Snagged, but just outside the bottom of the mouth. I was popping it off the bottom at 25 feet.  I'm guessing she came over to check it out and I jammed her.

7 minutes ago, Choporoz said:

Snagged, but just outside the bottom of the mouth. I was popping it off the bottom at 25 feet.  I'm guessing she came over to check it out and I jammed her.

 

Fun either way.

 

Probably thought you had a monster bass on for a second.   Dang!  lol

 

That drag was singing pretty good I bet. 

 

 

Caught a mixture of over 20 of these knot, hook, line testers today.

Third day in a row with same spoon.  May not actually be a pb since I've only ever weighed one catfish, but that was a flathead.  Won't be a 4th day, because shortly after this, I broke the spoon off in a brush pile.  

  And just in case anyone was wondering if it catches bass... about 3 dozen today

Three day campaign at a pond, 3 fish limit every day. All rainbows. 

 

Ps. Fair weather fishermen don't catch fish

 

 

 

I went muskie fishing for the first time in weeks today.  I had been burned out and frustrated with the unseasonably warm weather in September, so I had to take a break.

 

Although I didn't catch any, I did have a couple of aggressive follows.  So that at least caught my interest again.  I might give it one more try before my boat gets winterized on October 27.

50 minutes ago, gim said:

I went muskie fishing for the first time in weeks today.  I had been burned out and frustrated with the unseasonably warm weather in September, so I had to take a break.

 

Although I didn't catch any, I did have a couple of aggressive follows.  So that at least caught my interest again.  I might give it one more try before my boat gets winterized on October 27.

We were out in that miserable wind last Friday...Wound up losing an expensive rod/reel over the side of the boat...

We moved one fish almost right away but couldn't get it to commit to eating either flies or gear...Moved another about a half hour later, then caught one, then moved another.

It was a small "up north" lake, and there were six other boats out there on a weekday...frustrating.  We bailed out about 3:00.

Good that you're getting some follows, that helps.

I'll still be out after October 27th if you want to make the drive.

So the water temperature has finally cooled off on my favorite retention ponds causing the weeds to decrease significantly which is a good thing for me. I went out for about 2 hours yesterday late afternoon and after casting for bass unsuccessfully for 1/2 an hour I broke out my Tica Cetus/BPS Bionic Blade ultralight combo and had a ball. I caught a few more than I’ll share but it was a good trifecta for this pond.

 

 

It's ALMOST fall fishing.  Caught 17 LM and 5 stripers in five hours of fishing today.  The baitfish are still in "deep" water in the middle of creek channels.  The striper are slaying the baitfish and it's a blast to watch, but tough to catch them as they fly at light speed through the cloud of baitfish in 10+ feet of water.  I caught five in the shallows but in a couple weeks all (baitfish, LM and striper) will be in the shallows and it will be game on.  

 

Spooned up 16 of these silver torpedoes today.

@GreenPig, jealous, party of one! 
 

I bet that’s possible on two highland lakes not too far from where I live (Norris and Cherokee) but I’ve never had any luck catching them in bunches. I can get them below a dam sometimes or a random huge one blowing up topwater once per every 5 years 

Party of two!

Two big browns and a bow

Decent size striper still refuse to show up for me this fall but at least the numbers have been fun. Last sighting of my favorite spook before it sailed away.

Fished a couple humps yesterday and the Channels had apparently taken over and liked my football jigs. Moved on after a dozen cats and one big girl, probably a big Flathead that opened up a Dirty jig hook.

Hey hope everyone is doing ok, caught a few nice peacock bass this morning with jerkbaits. have not fished all year until this morning, and glad I did 😎