19 hours ago, Jar11591 said:

Pickerel usually twist and flip like you'd imagine a snake would.

 

True words!

 

 

I'm pretty good at deciphering but I cannot tell ya the difference between a Walleye and Smallmouth.

18 hours ago, Sword of the Lord said:

Anyone ever have LMB who literally don't fight at all? I've hooked into LMB that left me thinking I was pulling up a snag because it's dead weight.

 

Catch them in 41* water and they feel like you're reeling in a plastic bag...

 

I have been able to take this a step further. I can even tell the gender.

You sir, are da man!

I can usually tell a pickerel from a bass pretty quickly, everything else is still in a big "anything else" category.   

 

Weirdest fight was my first tilapia.  No fight, just felt like someone swam over and clipped a cinderblock to my line.  I would lift and and could just ever so slowly work it up, it was just slow and steady heading to the bottom.  

Smallmouth: Shakes a lot, runs for the surface, may make epic jumps
Largemouth: Feels heavy, may go for a couple strong runs, may jump

Rockbass: like a small largemouth

Yellow perch: SHAKY like hell...hard to describe, but I can tell with 99% certainty when I have one

Big pumpkinseed/bluegill/sunfish: more of a stronger less rapid shakyness

Lake Trout: Feels like you're hung up on a rock, until it makes a run, and another run....

Northern: Heavy, runs, like a big lake trout or a big bass depending on size

17 hours ago, Catt said:

 

 

I have a 2lb crappie hanging on my trophy wall and your fish dwarf it. 

A bluegill, sunfish etc makes circles. A pickerel makes darting runs, I've had bass like the 6.1 # in my pic gave my lure a tour of the small pond before she came in.

On 8/29/2017 at 6:28 PM, Jar11591 said:

I can usually tell when I am fighting a bass, a pickerel or a pike. With bass, I can feel the head shakes which usually gives it away. Pike swim extremely fast and they pick a direction and just run. Pickerel usually twist and flip like you'd imagine a snake would. Its pretty easy to tell what I am fighting out of those 3 fish. 

 

Well said. It is very easy to tell the difference on how many species of fish fight. For example, I know immediately if I hooked a snook or a bass depending on how it fights. A snook will give faster, stronger runs, with more endurance than a bass. A bass will pull ok for the first couple seconds, maybe do a couple jumps, and quickly give up. A tarpon is even easier to tell since it will most likely hit like a pile of bricks, do strong runs, and jump multiple times in a fight.

The channel cats on my lake give themselves away on their strike, it is much more violent than a largemouth bass, even on slow moving lures.  I have had catfish grab a Ned rig in the same manner a largemouth smashes a frog or fast moving squarebill. 

 

It seems like the catfish are trying to crush & kill even the slowest moving lures, while the bass are content to just inhale them.  With Ned rigs, I always imagine the bass inhale them and then forget that they have them inside their mouth.

 

My friend has a bass in his koi pond and it is interesting to see the different way he strikes different food (the bass, not my friend).  Minnows & goldfish are run down and just hammered, while nightcrawlers and meal worms are slowly slurped.

The only one I can't discern is a trotline!  ?

On 8/29/2017 at 8:04 PM, Sword of the Lord said:

Anyone ever have LMB who literally don't fight at all? I've hooked into LMB that left me thinking I was pulling up a snag because it's dead weight. Get 'em out though and then they go nuts.

My PB @ 7-4 fought exactly like this.  She never jumped and barely pulled drag, it felt like I was reeling in a tire.

5 hours ago, Catt said:

The only one I can't discern is a trotline!  ?

 

Snagging an old crab trap always gets me excited for a second or two!    

11 minutes ago, Bunnielab said:

 

Snagging an old crab trap always gets me excited for a second or two!    

 

The thing with a trotline is they will pull back ?

27 minutes ago, Catt said:

 

The thing with a trotline is they will pull back ?

Traps do as well, sorta.  They are light enough to lift on the hookset but heavy enough to pull the rod back down.  I do imagine that you could fight a trotline for longer before you realized what was happening.   

Well this is a great list of knowledge. Boiling it all down, it seems that experience and time on the water is the ultimate teacher here. In most of my waters I only encounter bass, bluegill, occasionally a crappie, striper, and cat. I never see pike, musky, pickerel, trout, or perch too often. 

 

As for kickerfish being able to tell the gender, that's a whole new level of discernment. Haha!

Bass jump, big bluegill fight to get down and their head snaps are short, crappie fight a little on a level plane and make straight glides, but give up pretty easily, catfish fight hard in short runs and will roll before giving up, stripers peel off your drag for 10-20 yards before they know they're hooked. 

2 hours ago, Catt said:

 

The thing with a trotline is they will pull back ?

A well placed tree branch in the water also has a tendency to do a head shake or two.

On ‎8‎/‎29‎/‎2017 at 7:04 PM, Sword of the Lord said:

Anyone ever have LMB who literally don't fight at all? I've hooked into LMB that left me thinking I was pulling up a snag because it's dead weight. Get 'em out though and then they go nuts.

 

I get this sometimes when the water is cold.  Around these parts that would be October/November.  I don't ice fish but I've heard that a LMB hooked through the ice is like a wet shoe.

 

The most common fish I catch when targeting bass (besides bass, obviously) are pike.  Its easy to tell the difference most of the time.  Pike go on accelerated horizontal runs and have much faster bursts of speed than bass do.

On 8/29/2017 at 7:04 PM, Sword of the Lord said:

Anyone ever have LMB who literally don't fight at all? I've hooked into LMB that left me thinking I was pulling up a snag because it's dead weight. Get 'em out though and then they go nuts.

 

Fishing a tourney on Lake Falcon this past spring. It's almost 2 p.m. weigh-in is at 3 and I have 4 fish in the livewell. Started throwing a deep crank in about 20 feet of water near some trees. Something hits buts did not fight. I told the backseater I had a stick fish. That was until it was right beside the boat and a 4 pounder went nuts. I did manage to land it and finished out an important limit. Finished 3rd but the points were more important for end of year numbers.

A LMB will shake his head pretty good along with a pull. A SMB will go nuts and fight like an cat with it's tail on fire. A carp feels like a LMB at first but then almost completely quits. Depending on the size, a white bass fights a lot like a SMB and hard to tell. A blue or channel cat shakes their head from their nose to their tail slowly and feels like a heavy limb that moves. Bluegill---tap-tap-tap bite, I won't even set the hook.

 

Stuck this Lake Falcon Blue Cat with a T-Rigged Brush Hawg last month. Didn't have to tell my partner to get the net he saw me set the hook and the fish didn't come up an inch. After about 5 turns of the reel I told him it's not a bass (as bad as I wanted it to be)!!

 

 

On ‎8‎/‎30‎/‎2017 at 6:22 AM, Catt said:

 

 

them are some  nice slabs!! WOW!

The shake and speed of the bounce usually tells me if Bowphin, Pickeral, Panfish, Catfish etc...You can never be 100% sure, but usually if it does not feel like a Bass, not doing what bass do, it is usually something else or foul hooked.

 

Its the same in Saltwater, you can tell a bluefish from a Striped bass right away just by the speed and amount of bounce, head shake, drag pull.

 

Bass have a thump and weight/speed that just feels "right" Plus just the way they strike, swim toward cover or come to surface etc.... although sometimes a Striper or Snook, snagged Tilapia etc. in freshwater can get you confused. 

 

Big Turtles have gotten me super excited for about 10-20 seconds, the fast swimming soft shell turtles that strike topwaters, swim jigs etc...Also gators at night, although I usually realize quickly that if it is a bass, odds are I am not breaking the world record by 30lbs. The initial topwater stike of a 4-6' gator at night will get the blood pumping, plus you want to believe you have a giant, but the extra weight eventually ruins the moment, and you lose your lure.

I can tell a blue cat because they roll in circles .