2024 Catches of the Year

[Ryan N]

Ayy I have that rod, Aird-x. Feels good in the hand, one of my favorite finessey rods

[Team9nine]

Had to wait until the end of the season to post in this thread because, well...you just never know. I took a different approach this year than I have in the past in an effort to catch more quality than quantity. Bill Murphy might have been "In Pursuit of Giant Bass," but I was more like "In Pursuit of Better Bass." As an average nationwide, it's pretty well documented that somewhere in the range of 85%-90% of all bass in most lakes are under 18" in length, around 3 lbs. or less. Obviously there's a lot of lake to lake variability, but that's my 'over-under' that I was using to track and assess how well (or not) things went this year. Anything close to that mark got weighed and photographed so I could easily keep records throughout the year.

 

Now that the year is over, I have the tally of my final results:

 

Bass 3-3.99 lbs: 25

Bass 4-4.99 lbs: 10

Bass 5-5.99 lbs: 8

Bass 6-6.99 lbs: 1

Bass 7-7.99 lbs: 2

 

Considering I was fishing all new waters to me after having moved to another state just a few months prior (late 2023), I was pretty happy with the results. I'll post the pics of the two best fish below.

 

On 1/2/2025 at 8:25 PM, Pat Brown said:

I DO think that systematically targeting tougher pieces of cover and main lake structure is more what I'm referring to.  You basically still end up mostly catching normal sized bass BUT you get less bites per year/per trip on average by a country mile - the trade off is your average size goes waaaaaay up because the other half of the time it's Nadine or one of her cousins.

 

As to how I went about targeting a better quality of fish, I believe my approach is pretty similar to what @Pat Brown posted previously and quoted above. I spent a good 95% of my time on the water this year fishing off the bank, specifically targeting isolated pieces of cover, structure or breaks/breaklines that I felt weren't getting near the pressure of the bank cover/shallow water bass in these lakes. I utilized FFS heavily, and it really helped out for the way I fished. I recently compiled a ton of stats for the area lakes I fish, calculating man-hours necessary to catch a bass of each class from 4 pounds and up, and it pretty much supports my conclusions/theories.

 

So for 2025, I don't expect much change to my approach, and will again be tracking the same stats now that I feel I have a little better understanding of these waters with a year's worth of time under my belt. The only handicap to these numbers, much like last year, will probably be the amount of time and effort during peak pre-spawn that I will be targeting the big crappie again, and not bass.

 

 

[WRB]

Caution targeting big bass is addictive.

Tom

[Swamp Girl]

On 1/4/2025 at 7:25 PM, Team9nine said:

Bass 3-3.99 lbs: 25

Bass 4-4.99 lbs: 10

Bass 5-5.99 lbs: 8

Bass 6-6.99 lbs: 1

Bass 7-7.99 lbs: 2

 

My grouping would look much different than yours. I didn't keep count of the weight classes like you did, but here's my estimate:

 

Bass 3-3.99 lbs: hundreds

Bass 4-4.99 lbs: three or four score, more or less

Bass 5-5.99 lbs: half a dozenish

Bass 6-6.99 lbs: maybe one or two, but if so, just barely six pounds

Bass 7-7.99 lbs: one

 

So, what this tells me is that your focusing on quantity worked. Contrast our ratios. I'm bottom heavy. You're top heavy, like an Olympic swimmer. You:

 

 

Me:

 

 

Considering that I caught hundreds of three-to-four-pounders, I should have caught many more six-to-eight-pounders than you, but I didn't. You're quality. I'm quantity. 

 

[Bluebasser86]

I had some good catches this year including my heaviest at 6.02lbs.

My longest of 21.75"

After a 10 year hiatus, I took a muskie trip and put 3 in the boat in a couple days.

And I put some really nice big uglies on the bank too.

Some of the best ones weren't big though. Almost catching a limit with my good buddy on one of the hardest lakes around in a weeknight tournament. We giggled like little kids all night.

My oldest son fishing his first kayak tournament and coming up 1 fish short of a limit, beating over half the field.

Putting a good friend who hadn't catfished in many years on a good one.

And every time my boys would go walk the creek bank with me.

 

[Fried Lemons]

Biggest of the year and pb at 22.5” 8lb 4oz. Bad picture, she slid forward a bit on the board. 

 

Another very memorable catch, my first double up with a combined weight of 9lb 2oz.

 

[Team9nine]

10 hours ago, Swamp Girl said:

Considering that I caught hundreds of three-to-four-pounders, I should have caught many more six-to-eight-pounders than you, but I didn't. You're quality. I'm quantity. 

 

What interests me about your numbers is why such a drastic cut-off at the 5 pound mark? Are most not living long enough to get that big? A hole in the forage base not allowing them to get much bigger? Or perhaps a massive year class of fish now in that 3-4.99 range that is simply overwhelming the catch of the fewer 5s and 6s, and if so, will it work itself out over the next couple years 

[TnRiver46]

51 minutes ago, Team9nine said:

 

What interests me about your numbers is why such a drastic cut-off at the 5 pound mark? Are most not living long enough to get that big? A hole in the forage base not allowing them to get much bigger? Or perhaps a massive year class of fish now in that 3-4.99 range that is simply overwhelming the catch of the fewer 5s and 6s, and if so, will it work itself out over the next couple years 

First world problems 

[Swamp Girl]

36 minutes ago, Team9nine said:

 

What interests me about your numbers is why such a drastic cut-off at the 5 pound mark? Are most not living long enough to get that big? A hole in the forage base not allowing them to get much bigger? Or perhaps a massive year class of fish now in that 3-4.99 range that is simply overwhelming the catch of the fewer 5s and 6s, and if so, will it work itself out over the next couple years 

 

I did catch more sixes and upper sixes in 2023, so I think it's partly luck, but it's due to (I'm just guessing here.) my living so far north where sixes, sevens, and eights are really rare, plus when I bought my waterfront land, I spent a LOT of time fishing my pond that doesn't seemingly grow bass bigger than four pounds.* Also, I didn't fish one of my big fish bogs in 2024 because some guy that I don't know fell in love with it and pretty much set up shop on it. 

 

*I don't regret focusing on my pond. It's beautiful and I learned a lot about it. If you ever fished it with me, I could say, "There's a rock there. There are bass over there. There aren't bass thatta way." and so on.

 

My weight ratios are different than yours, for sure. 

 

Lastly and again, you're quality fishing and I'm quantity fishing.

 

#Itrytocatch'emallandhopeforabigone

[MIbassyaker]

No great stories last year, no pbs, no giants, no epic days. Didn't fish as much as I wanted, or as successfully.  Oh well, still had a good time.

 

First bass of the year was my earliest ever - march 4th.

 

Biggest largemouth of the year on my last cast one day back in Sept, a bit over 4lb:

 

 

Best Smallie went a little over 3lb, on the only river float trip I was able to make time for this year:

 

Some fun with other species too.  My best Channel Cat in many years:

 

For an occasional change of pace, I thought I'd try for some stream trout, which I have very little experience with. Got a few little browns.  There are much larger ones around, which I will find sooner or later:

 

...and of course: