Caught my first striped bass from the kayak, and two more behind her.

It's really more of a surprise when I go to this lake and DON'T catch a flathead anymore, especially at night. Sunday I went ahead and caught 2 of them, both on a 1/2oz football jig, almost the same spot about 5 hours apart though. 

 

11 lbs on a jug line. 

Not a catch, but this was a crazy sight.  A friend and I were wading the local river and came upon this flathead just chilling in 4" of water.  It seemed that he was trying to get to a side channel in the river and got a little mired in an ultra shallow spot on the backside of a sandbar.  I grabbed ahold of its tail and it thrashed its way upstream into deeper water.

 

I've never seen such a fish, 10+ lbs, just basking like that with 2/3 of its body OUT of the water.

11 hours ago, Pickle_Power said:

Not a catch, but this was a crazy sight.  A friend and I were wading the local river and came upon this flathead just chilling in 4" of water.  It seemed that he was trying to get to a side channel in the river and got a little mired in an ultra shallow spot on the backside of a sandbar.  I grabbed ahold of its tail and it thrashed its way upstream into deeper water.

 

I've never seen such a fish, 10+ lbs, just basking like that with 2/3 of its body OUT of the water.

They'll do that when carp are spawning, frogs are mating, birds are hatching over water, ducklings are hatching, anytime there's food there. I managed to sight fish one in the 10lb range on a jig several years ago in about a foot of water way up a creek.

Don’t see them too often in the ponds around here, but this is the second fat yellow belly (bullhead) I’ve caught from this one. Wondering if it was the same fish both times ?

 

Caught a couple drum today........

My girl caught a bunch of bluegills and a weird looking fish this morning.  Any one know the species?

 

2 hours ago, Dorado said:

My girl caught a bunch of bluegills and a weird looking fish this morning.  Any one know the species?

 

Awesome catch! Can’t help with species, That thing ain’t from ‘round here.......

Maybe some sort of cichlid

2 hours ago, BASS302 said:

Maybe some sort of cichlid

Thanks man! We confirmed that it’s a Rio Grande Cichild. 

10 hours ago, Dorado said:

Thanks man! We confirmed that it’s a Rio Grande Cichild. 

I bet it fought like crazy! 

On 9/8/2019 at 9:35 PM, Dorado said:

Thanks man! We confirmed that it’s a Rio Grande Cichild. 

Those are some big ones too! They're supposed to be excellent eating. 

 

I had a couple heart breakers this weekend. Both were in laydowns right were a big bass should be and absolutely crushed my squarebill.

 

On 9/8/2019 at 4:54 PM, Dorado said:

My girl caught a bunch of bluegills and a weird looking fish this morning.  Any one know the species?

 

I would call that one a knucklehead

Looks like a male texas chiclid to me.

19 hours ago, mrpao said:

Looks like a male texas chiclid to me.

AKA, Rio Grande cichlid

 

 

This little fish may not look like much, but it's kind of like seeing Bigfoot or something to me. I was exploring a tributary creek just off the Kansas River in my kayak, catching mostly tiny white bass and wipers, when I caught this little sauger. While not super rare in a couple of our reservoirs, catching one out of the river itself is extremely rare. I know guys that try and try and never accomplish it. So to go out and catch one was a pretty big deal to me. Sometimes it's not all about catching the biggest fish ?

@Bluebasser86, that's poor man's lobster 

Decided not to bring this flathead into the yak....but after 20 minute fight, I got it tired enough to bring to surface and lay a rod across his back before the challenging release.  Something greater than 40 inches. 

That had to be fun....

Just now, J Francho said:

That had to be fun....

You know....not so much.  I caught one even bigger from a kayak and that one took me up and down the river forever.  This one just wanted to bury into the bottom....at 30 feet.  Was using a LMHF rod with 20# braid....and I was a bit nervous about the rod; especially since I broke a favorite discontinued rod on a cat earlier this year.  So, maybe I should have enjoyed it...instead, I got an attitude and was furious at the fish for cutting into my bass fishing time

The interesting part of kayak fishing - if your gear is heavy enough - is you can lock down on most fish, and the kayak becomes the drag.  But if they dig straight down, you have no choice but to let them.

8 hours ago, Choporoz said:

You know....not so much.  I caught one even bigger from a kayak and that one took me up and down the river forever.  This one just wanted to bury into the bottom....at 30 feet.  Was using a LMHF rod with 20# braid....and I was a bit nervous about the rod; especially since I broke a favorite discontinued rod on a cat earlier this year.  So, maybe I should have enjoyed it...instead, I got an attitude and was furious at the fish for cutting into my bass fishing time

What did the cat take? Awesome pic 

11 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

@Bluebasser86, that's poor man's lobster 

That's actually what I hear small flatheads called around here. Not supposed to eat anything out of the Kansas River though due to high levels of pollution. Even if it was a keeper there's no way I'd keep one. Catching that tiny sauger was about like catching a 6lb largemouth.