Gone Fishin'

[haunted]

Just posted this in the whatcha look like thread, but I caught this bad boy off a POPPER, in February!!! Anyone who does a little freshwater fishing knows that this isn't typical l.m. bass behavior. Yeah, dependent on your location there's a nice pre-spawn bite in march-ish but typically it has to be warm for them to hit something on the surface like a popper. Anyway, was pretty cool.

This guy was kind of fat although you can't see it. I'd say in the 2.5-2.75 lb range.

[Whirlingdervish]

that's a nice lookin largie!

I'll be heading out over the next week or so, after the last little spurt of winter/spring rain that we get here in cali, to check the local lakes for bass action. It tends to go just like you said out here. Some action in march-april but only if you get down on the bottom and piss them off when they're starting to defend prime spawning spots. Nothing will bring them to the top to attack food unless a miracle happens.

When it's like that, I'll take half a rubber worm in some dayglow green or yellow color and stick it on a leadhead hook so it drops straight to the bottom with the "stick" of color sticking straight up. Then I'll jiggle and walk the fucker around in little hops in an area where I know there is a big ol bull defending his spot. Sometimes if the water's clear enough and I have my good sunglasses on I can see the fuckers getting ready to charge and bash the lure from my spot on the shore.

This is one from the lake up the street from my pad, that my hawaiian buddy's kid caught early last year around the start of the season. I've been showing him the ropes the past couple years as he's been getting old enough to go off on his own and not get in trouble, and now he catches more fish than I do most times, and shoots his shotgun better than I ever have. Either the kid is really lucky or the beers are slowin me down.

[[BTF]Sigma]

[Whirlingdervish]

bwahaha! We've been giving him shit about that for some time now.

 

[haunted]

yeah derv, certain yellows and greens and on occasion purple have always done the trick with me in worms. Caught another one today off a shalow-diving crank bait: It's the most life like lure both action and appearance i've used bought for 3.99. Looks like a fat baby rainbow trout kind of haha. Made by this company although the one I have isn't on there http://www.stormlures.com/products/index.cfm

I'm gonna try and get some big ones with some live bait this summer 

[Whirlingdervish]

I've had some luck gettin largies to bite on the original floater style Rapala crankbaits, usually in that horrible green/orange tiger motif, and somewhere around 2-3 inches long. From what I can tell, they seem to like the more minnow-like profile over the tubby shad shapes.

I've seen a couple guys over the years doing pretty well in the same fishin spot I go to, using the jointed shad ones with the more realistic flashy silver paintjobs too.


All told, I'm getting pretty stoked to get out fishin this year. Last ones I caught were when I went quail hunting near the colorado river late last year, and I've been itching to get back out ever since the weather went to shit.

[haunted]

Yeah I've used those... I used to swear by minnow-like and grasshopper-like profiles but tbh, I don't have to be too selective around here. The bass around here hit most of the freshwater lures I own; beetle-spins and large spinners the least. The two best methods, by far, are live-bait and rebel's crickhopper lure.



Summertime--If I use livebait at one of the 4 best ponds on the island i will have a decent sized bass on every cast, without exception unless some freak thing happens lol. The crickhopper will get me one the majority of casts.

[|iR|Focalor]

Fishing season again.

Past few evenings I've been hanging out at the pond. Right in front of the dock there's usually a ton of bluegill and brim gathered. I take pinched off pieces of old hotdogs and stick em on a hook, they love em. But they don't go after it too hard. There's usually a couple of big bass that hang around wherever I toss the hook. Any time a bluegill or brim goes after the hook quickly, the bass will charge them down, I'm not exactly sure why. Well I managed to get a small brim. I took him off the tiny hook I was using and hooked him through the upper lip with a larger long shank snelled hook and then tossed him back out. I kinda swam him around the top of the water right in front of where the bass was lurking. He made a few snaps after him and finally swallowed him up. The hook caught him in the upper lip and I started fighting him in. He was at the least a 12 pounder, probably more. Fucking huge. I get him up to the side of the dock with his head out of the water and tried to pull him up by the line with enough finesse so as not to snap the line. Of course the minute I start pulling up on the line, he starts thrashing around again and snaps the line. I HAD an old landing net out there on the dock that would've been very useful for hauling his fat ass up, but some little fucking punk in the neighborhood saw it out there and helped himself to it. I didn't have a camera with me, would've been a great picture. Fucking moby dick of a bass. I'll have to get some video if I can of the fish by the dock, its a trip to watch. Maybe a video of me tossing the little bastard who stole my net into the lake too.

[|iR|Focalor]

I spent a few hours at the pond again today. Managed to catch that same monster bass again with the same technique. I didn't think I would. The bluegill that I caught to use as bait was pretty damn big, but he swallowed him up anyway. This time I actually got him out of the water. I know it was the same one because the hook that snapped off my line yesterday was still hanging out of his face. He was every bit of 17 inches long and 12+ pounds. Unfortunately I didn't have a camera handy at that time. After dinner I went back out to try and snag him again but he was off hiding somewhere. Maybe tomorrow I'll try to hook him again and get a pic of him this time.

I caught a few smaller ones after dinner. Nothing really impressive. Only took pictures of 2 of them.





I forgot posted this earlier in this thread, but it's definitely bump-worthy.

What NOT to do on your next fishing trip.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mArGzsNglCU

[splisskin]

haha  gj Focalor!  largemouth bass definately love to eat bluegill!
love to see a pic of that fatty!     

[haunted]

Caught the biggest largemouth of my life today, no picture. It was longer than my 5-gal bucket and pretty fat..not to mention a softball could have moved around in his mouth. I think it was 7 lbs(and i'm fairly conservative in my estimates.. may have been heftier), off a live baby oyster toad.

Yes, an oyster toad:


It was blowing 25-30 SW today. Perfect conditions... keeps the mosquitoes just barely off ya. Live-baiting small salt-water fish in the select ponds in my village is like taking candy from a baby. I caught 12 I think today, but the mosquitoes and ticks were REALLY bad. Picked 6 spotted ticks off me already.  The area I like to go to has 2 ponds separated by 20 feet of land. One has 4x more area, is 25 feet deep in the center, and has much bigger bass, not to mention they hit usually much better there. But the wind has blown very hard lately and it was just too rough for it, basically unfish-able. So I fished the still very good, larger sized pond right next to it.  I brought my friend yesterday who had never even fished and he caught a near 2 lb bluegill on a live bull minnow (or mud minnow, or whatever you prefer), not to mention 4 large mouth 1.5-2.5 lb range. I caught 5 yesterday in the same range.......

Anyone ever eat these bastards(largemouths)?

[|iR|Focalor]

Oh yeah. I used to get medium sized ones and toss the filets on my smoker grill for a while to get em hickory flavored, then finish cooking them (if they aren't done, kinda hard to cook anything on the smoker, takes a long time especially if you keep listing the lid) on a skillet on my other charcoal grill or coleman stove.

I got 2 pictures of him today. I think it's the same one. Caught him in the same area.





And a few bluegills using pinched off little pieces of hotdog. Fish aren't as stupid as they look, I think these suckers are getting wise to my tricks. They won't gobble up the hotdog bits like they used to. They can tell when it does and doesn't have a hook in it. They swim up to it like they're fixing to suck it up, and then they stop and swim backwards.

[haunted]

That looks about how much mine weighed foc or probably a little more, although once they get 5 lbs it gets a lil more difficult to judge. Is that the 12 lber? If he had a nice belly on him i'd say he could push that much but he's looking kind of lean(nice sized head though, is what i mean). He's a pretty, clean looking bass though. I'm afraid to try eating them around here... most of the time i'm fishing in a murkier pond although there are a few clear ones. What type of water are you dealing with? I just don't want to bite into a fish and have it taste like swamp(like some of the ducks around here...) Are bluegill alright eating? There's a pond that's stocked with grass carp around here too(has huge bass as well!).... it's pretty clear, but they add green dye to the water. Rumor has it(friend from water company) they do this so turds from septic tanks(tons of houses along the pond...at least 50) don't discolor the water. So idk about eating these tasty treats... These carp also really don't hit anything, very hard to catch. So you just poke a few holes in a can of sweet corn and throw 'er in, get a rod with like 40 lb test, then snag yourself one on a rod that could muscle a 65 lber(at the most) in. I've traded one to a guy at the local chinese restaurant for some chinese food.

[|iR|Focalor]

Eh, maybe I fibbed a little on the weight. Probably more like 8 or 9 pounds. But he's definitely 17 inches nose to tail. It's an old manmade farm pond. Usually the water is pretty clear. Here lately its starting to grow more and more green algae. Last spring it got pretty horrible with tons of reddish looking algae, but as summer got closer, it seemed to go away on its own. I think the fish might've eaten it all. I keep hearing what sounds like fish snapping stuff off of the top of the water, I can't tell if its the fish nibbling the algae or the myriads of frogs splashing around.

I was more impressed with the overall size of this bass considering how small the pond is. I think some of these fish were in there before the neighborhood was built. One of the neighbors kids caught a gigantic probably 15 or 20 pound snapping turtle 2 summers ago. He was probably 50 or 60 years old (who knows, maybe even older), I'm not too sure how long they live or how to tell. All I know was his damn shell was as big as my chest. His asshole father took a pitchfork and impaled his neck to the ground. Fucking pissed me off to no end. He obviously wasn't going to eat him, he just wanted to clean the shell out to impress people with it. I always throw them back unless I plan on eating them. The damn turtle had lived to be that old without anyone fucking with him, then along comes one son of a bitch.

[haunted]

Yeah 9lbs is a monster though, still! Hell, 5 lbs is a monster for these parts. But I gotta say, 15-20 lbs isn't a big snapper for around here. I mean it is........but...... I've sold 'em with my commercial fishing license and used to catch them when i was younger as well in homemade traps. IDK what their life expectancy is either, but i've encountered some with shells that measure up to a yard stick. The rest of their bodies correspond too......so..... 25-30 lbs? Not sure. When the price is right i'd get 20$ for a big one.