scotto Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devil duck Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 O yeah, I'll take a skillet full sir. Nice slab. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scotto Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 O yeah, I'll take a skillet full sir. Nice slab. Love crappies,, Every evening about an hour before sunset I can get my limit without even getting in a boat. My live well Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devil duck Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 Holy crap, now that's a live well. Is that at the house or ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scotto Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 Holy crap, now that's a live well. Is that at the house or ?The live well is at my cabin, the crappie honey hole is off the road in front of my cabin in northern Minnesota. So close I can even do drive by's Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
youngod Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 Black nose crappie is some fine eats! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devil duck Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 Lol, dosen't get much better. Now, If you could only train them to just jump into the bed as you drive by. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scotto Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 Black nose crappie is some fine eats!Got that right!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gshayd Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 Dayum that's a big fish man. I bet that did wear you out. I was watching a show where they were trying to see if big Halibuts like these were knocking fishermen out of their boat into the water and taking them out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hkriflenut Posted March 13, 2022 Share Posted March 13, 2022 Nothing huge yet this year, but here's some recent fish... First top water fish of the year - he's almost as big as the lure A few from February / January Yeah, with fishing like this available year-round here, there isn't enough money in circulation to get me to move back to the Pacific North-Wet. Too damn cold in the winters for me anymore. I think the Texas climate has also helped get rid of the webbing between my feet (PNW peoples will understand that) My kiddo caught his personal best bass yet last winter - there's a 0.5% chance of that happening in Oregon. We're coming up on 2 years as refugees to Texas, a couple more years and we can maybe apply to be naturalized Texans Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retcop Posted March 13, 2022 Share Posted March 13, 2022 1 hour ago, hkriflenut said: Nothing huge yet this year, but here's some recent fish... First top water fish of the year - he's almost as big as the lure A few from February / January Yeah, with fishing like this available year-round here, there isn't enough money in circulation to get me to move back to the Pacific North-Wet. Too damn cold in the winters for me anymore. I think the Texas climate has also helped get rid of the webbing between my feet (PNW peoples will understand that) My kiddo caught his personal best bass yet last winter - there's a 0.5% chance of that happening in Oregon. We're coming up on 2 years as refugees to Texas, a couple more years and we can maybe apply to be naturalized Texans SWEET ! Looks like you are going to have a great year. Those fish look like they wintered very well. Have fun with the kids ! John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snake46 Posted March 13, 2022 Share Posted March 13, 2022 We’re proud to have you and yours.. God Bless Texas.. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hkriflenut Posted May 3, 2022 Share Posted May 3, 2022 So I've been on a big swimbait jag for a while now - its become my absolute favorite way to fish and catch fish, even though it is a low-percentage bait compared to others. I just got this guy in earlier this week: Its a 10 inch long line-thru style soft swimbait by Savage Gear. I got it because I wanted a stupidly large bait to see if I could get the biggest fish in our ponds to react. Largest bass confirmed to have been taken from our little community pond is 13lb - that's only 2lb shy of Lake Conroe's largest bass on record. I had some time to kill between helping my neighbor out with her zero turn mower, and getting the kid from the school bus, so I gave it a test swim. About 5 or 6 casts in I got my first grab - and boy was it a surprise! I was hoping it was a double digit largemouth. My personal best so far is just over 7lb. Turned out to not be a bass at all, but a big ol' kitty cat A couple neighbor ladies were walking along the trail around the lake and they stopped to talk and one lady wanted to get a picture to prove to her husband there are big fish in the lake / pond. I asked her to send the picture to me, and she kindly obliged. I love catching catfish. I love a well prepared catfish supper (thankfully its a lot easier to find catfish, especially good catfish here in the south than it was up in the PNW) but this kitty got set free, because I wasn't fishing for cats, and I wouldn't keep one that big to eat anyway. She needs to go make babies. I don't do a lot of bait fishing anymore these days, I prefer being active and casting lures or flies vs sitting, waiting for a tip to dance or a bobber to go under. Lure eating catfish? Hell yeah. This wasn't my first lure caught cat, I've caught a bunch of smaller cats on other bass lures, including a bunch on smaller swimbaits, like this one last year: He ate a 6 inch soft swimbait. Part of me wants to really focus on getting the lure-bite dialed in on catfish, just because so few people do it, but the bigger part of me says "nah, focus on the bass and enjoy the occasional by-catch." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hkriflenut Posted May 3, 2022 Share Posted May 3, 2022 Here's a few of the more recent bass catches, not to take the thunder away from the kitty cats posted above: That's a 5 inch long bluegill bait hanging out of that fishes' mouth. And a couple others caught on the same bait: Not long after getting those fish, I had my main swimbait rod and that swimbait pictured above wrecked by a damned turtle. I saw bait busting, cast into the fray expecting a big bass to hit. Nope. Big ol' soft shell turtle. Snapped my rod before I could land it, absolutely ruined the bait - all in all setting me back about $150 in replacement of those two pieces. I couldn't find that exact bait either, the shop I got it from was out. I got some other baits by the same company (I'm seriously becoming a Savage Gear fanboy, since all my new baits are from them lately) Wound up getting a couple 4 inch bluegill baits, couldn't find *any* five inchers. The fish don't seem to mind though, I think they view them like slider burgers versus a big mac. It does allow smaller fish to eat the bait too, which helps break up the chuck & wind hypnosis you can get throwing bigger stuff. The fish like that bait, and have chewed it up pretty good so far I picked up another one just like it yesterday, because I fear that a few more fish will wreck the one above soon enough. Great little swimbait! I also held my nose and picked up a Googan Squad swimbait - I've not been a big fan of their stuff (its over priced, in general, and their quality is questionable at best) but I wanted to see if their swimbait, which is made by a different company than their other baits, was any good. That guy liked it. I picked up a Savage Gear shad style 5 inch glide bait too, because I like glide style swimbaits more than the multi-joint hard baits in a lot of situations. Usually I'm throwing 7+ inch gliders, but this smaller 5 incher has a great action. It's also caught me a few fish of late, tho nothing huge yet: This guy is probably destined to be a 20lb'er, if it doesn't get eaten by a bigger fish, bird, turtle, snake, gator, or redneck first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MontanaLon Posted May 3, 2022 Share Posted May 3, 2022 On 5/2/2022 at 10:56 PM, hkriflenut said: Part of me wants to really focus on getting the lure-bite dialed in on catfish, just because so few people do it, but the bigger part of me says "nah, focus on the bass and enjoy the occasional by-catch." A lot of the difference between bass and catfish lure fishing is bass are highly visual predators and cats are highly vibration predators. Even in clear water if your lure isn't making noise you won't catch the cats. I've lost count of the catfish, including some whoppers, that I have taken on spinners with big blades in cloudy water or at night. Either straight or bent arm will do it but the blades have to be thumpers so they can find them. Bent arm spinners I get a lot of foul hooked cats I think because they are hitting the spinners instead of the body. I don't think I have ever caught a cat on a soft plastic when fishing for bass. They just don't make enough noise to rile up a cat. I would imagine it would be the same with a swimbait though I have to admit I've not fished them a lot. But I have caught cats all over fishing spinners and even on topwater baits at night. A jitterbug after dark in open water can be a lot of fun where there are big cats. We have a river to the north of here that has a low dam that is famous for big flatheads. Guys always fish live bluegills for them but I have caught quite a few with "musky size" spinners at night even when the river is running like chocolate milk and the live bluegill guys are striking out. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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