Fishing BS Thread

a lot of our big lakes are managed by a Dam and typically they drop the water level down in the winter for ice up and then when the snow melt/run off from the mountains comes down it fills up to the "normal level. It can range anywhere from 5'to6' in Couer Da Lene lake. Dworshak reservoir is much more...up to 30' difference I believe.

 

OK cool. That makes sense. Thanks

 

Lots of lakes in Texas are just managed by rainfall so they go down over time but fill up quick with a few rainstorms. Fort Phantom lake by Abilene was like that. drought it would be way down, they always find a body (bones) or two when the lake goes down. then it rains a few times and its back up to normal levels

 

Heading out on the water (Grapevine Lake) for the first time this year on Saturday. Hope those damn bass are biting!

 

Well that was a bust. 5 hours into fishing for the black bass an not catching anything i see a bunch of boats gathered in a group slaying the sand bass. My FIL is so determined to catch big black bass that he wont even let me try to catch the sandys. We have to keep fishing where the blacks are "supposed" to be. Its his boat but damn, I atleast wanted to snag something. So frustrating.

 

Speaking of sand bass...Couple of 12" +/- Salt River whites from last week. Cleaned them removing all red meat. Soaked for about an hour in cold water with a tiny bit of lemon juice to firm them up. Made four decent lunch sized fillets for myself, the wife, and our two kiddos. Egg/milk dip then seasoned flour and fried. Never had white bass before but this was delicious! Some of the best freshwater fish I've had. Wife and kids loved them, which is high praise for sure. So mild and flaky that the next time I catch a few, I'll probably bake them. I dipped one fillet in Frank's instead of egg/milk before the flour and it tasted like Buffalo chicken and had a better crisp than the others. Very good.

I caught a bunch more but they were smaller. I'm generally not the type to "fill the cooler" just because I catch them. I catch what I need and release the rest. Saw dudes with limits (15) of mostly 6-8" fish (no size limit in KY except no more than 5 over 15"). I get that it's good to harvest some of the smaller ones, but gosh it's a ton of work to clean them just to get a fish stick, in my opinion. I catch what I need and release the rest.

 

I surf fished Stone Harbor, NJ yesterday. Throwing plugs and jigs...
I need to stop fishing during full/new moon, the bite is non existent !

 

Whaaaaat? Those are my favorite times to fish.

 

Yes, many anglers say the same to me but I have better luck at every other moon phase. I also have more luck at low tide than high.

 

The few times I’ve fished the tides, I’ve had more luck at low than high, as well.

 

I thought this was a great picture. reminded me of being a kid in Florida.

 

I came across this old ship in one of the areas I fish...

 

My first 10 lb. bass! So blessed!

 

That thing's a chunk!

Here's my smallie from last weekend. 17" on the button, about 2.5lbs. Much better than the last one I posted (https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/fishing-bs-thread.213982/page-44#post-20203956) and definitely on the high end for the creek I fish:

 

Good one! Smallmouth are so fun and strong. I mainly fish for smallies but this year I haven’t had much time to hit the river but I will get out there soon.

 

Damn nice fish man! Did you take any other measurements?

 

Yes. 20” girth and 24.5” length. Definitely getting a replica mount. I let her go to fight another day. I just couldn’t take a monster like thought out of the water just to mount it. Nearly twice as big as my biggest bass but I still couldn’t feel good about taking such a great fish home just for mounting purposes.

 

Some recent creek fish. Nothing big lately.

 

Figured out that the pond next to my office has bass in it...

 

Nice one!