Let's talk about fishing!

Man its dead quite on here so every one must be fishing.
So what's every one fishing for?
If it swims IL fish for it. Mostly bass. But crappie and gills are so much fun also. If I can just learn to find them now that I have another boat.
Got pics of your haul or C@R's.

When it comes to fish, my main target is crappie. Secondary is bream/bluegill and third would have to be catfish (preferably flathead). The last couple of years, the weather has been so messed up, it has caused the crappie to move/spawn abnormally and it has made it a real challenge to find them in numbers. I didn't do well with the bream last year but this year is looking good so far. The males are just now starting to dig their beds and the females should start showing up soon. I don't like the bream as much as crappie, but my brother loves them and will eat every one I can catch. And I enjoy catching them.... so. I'm hoping this year will be a repeat of 2013, it went something like this on a daily basis, for a while.

Had an assum day last week. But my stupid water proof phone got wet ( two days I a row!) and wouldn't take pics of the big girls I released. Had a 6 and 7 pounder. And serval more 4 s. Missed or quick released a bunch.
These are three I kept to stock the wife up on bass fillets as that's what she likes best. Now i need to find me some crappie or big gills.

Wow JMichael. That's a lot of gills. I'm digging for the pic of a few I had two weeks ago but I haven't found it yet. Stupid phone put it somwhere weird again.
Here's some white bass from winter.

When the spawn is on and the weather is right, we normally bring in anywhere from 60 to 100 a day (50 per person per day limit here). Pre spawn like now, we're lucky to get 2 dozen, post spawn will be a little better on a good day.

JMichael said:

When the spawn is on and the weather is right, we normally bring in anywhere from 60 to 100 a day (50 per person per day limit here). Pre spawn like now, we're lucky to get 2 dozen, post spawn will be a little better on a good day.

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Are you live baiting or jigging. I'm wanting to get into jigs for them. But have had limited success in past years. They always take a worm over the jig for me. But I here tell you can catch big ones during the summer on jigs.

I use both, but mostly live bait (crickets and wax worms). I've found that they love crickets in the early spring/spawn but stop biting on them before the spawn is over and that's when I switch to wax worms. I also use artificial wax worms and "Bream Killer" jigs. I've got some artificial crickets that I plan to try this year. If they work out it would sure save me some time and hassle having to go get crickets all the time.

BTW What part of TN are you in?

This is what I like to see at the end of my fishing trips. There's nothing for scale in the pic but the 2 largest were pushing 3 lbs. There were a few in this pic that would have normally been tossed back, but they swallowed the hook too deep and weren't going to survive.

Got this bad boy (31") Thursday afternoon, just hanging a shiner under a bobber. Still amazes me the power a Northern has.. When they want to leave, they do!!!

I had just gotten home from being gone from work for a week and just wanted to get out.. I had too many projects to do after fishing, so adding fish cleaning to the list didn't seem like a good idea so I tossed it back in.. A couple pumps after putting it back in the water, it left in a hurry, and now someone else can catch it and it can make more little Northerns for me to catch at a later date..

Clarksville middle tn. Lots of water here to fish.
I used to use wax worms and crickets. There much cleaner to use.
But i can cast a inch long piece of night crawler weightless better.
I want to get into fly fishing this year I love to see them pop the bugs off the surface.

I've got a Larance 4 dsi. And I still can't find the crappie. I'm looking in the wrong places I think. Lol

The shell cracker where on beds at the local pond a couple days ago. I'm fighting the ederge hard rite now not to go take a few. Lol
I'm trying to leave them alone this year so they can multiple. Counted 40 I could see. Big fat ones to.
I'm gonna go bass fish it in a few. But im not taking nothing but bait casters to make sure I don't harass them. :mrgreen:

I have been mostly chasing Strip[ed Bass in the ocean and black drum as well.

Did red drum last month - wish that were a closer fishery for me!


In FW I have started my night tripping - lots of males as the big girls are still doing the sex thank round here!


Need to go look at the DE river smallies very soon

I'm in NE Ga, and the bream bite was ON about 2 weeks ago. I fly fish and there are not many things as fun as bedding bream on the fly. I fished the last 2 hours of daylight, never moved the boat, and caught 40 or so, all on a little yellow foam spider.
And just for good measure boated a few crappie by trolling as I headed back to the ramp. My wife doesn't like to eat fish, so they were all released to fight another day.

spring fishing for trout. its full on mayhem since early april.we bought a new camper so we've been out camping every weekend.the wife kicked my butt last year but this year its all me .she's not happy.last weekend me 9 her 1.

Walleye, Northern Pike, Channel Cats and Perch are what I target. But like many I am just happy to be on the water and maybe catch something....

bcbouy said:

spring fishing for trout. its full on mayhem since early april.we bought a new camper so we've been out camping every weekend.the wife kicked my butt last year but this year its all me .she's not happy.last weekend me 9 her 1.

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Man I miss those days. We had an airstream parked on a seasonal site a few years ago. Theres nothing like camping and fishing every weekend.

IL admit it I've been striking out lately. Fishing creeks that feed into the main river here. And the fish have moved out. My daughter's been going with me and I don't feel comfrontable taking my little boat out on the main river with her with me.
Going back to a small lake this weekend. See if they can hide there. Lol

Fish mostly for panfish when the weather lets us, this year it's been so cold and wet we haven't been out much. If it doesn't stop raining here I'll be using the boat or kayaks to go to work! Seems the spawn was late this year so hopefully I can get back out and get some crappie and bluegill and maybe a catfish or three.

Been fishing a lot up here... Lot's of Bass, a few Walleye, and plenty of Northerns as always (caught by accident of course, but still a ton of fun none the less).

My brother and I had a hell of a weekend 2 weeks ago. We had 5 17" to 17.5" fish in the boat in the span of two hours. Here is one of them:



And then I hauled in this nice 18.5" hawg:

Nice fish!

From a few ago - my son reeled in one of many blues that day!


LM Bass has turned on here - I already have two over 5 lbs this year which is nice and about a zillion less then that

I've been fishing for drums...red or black.

Great pictures guys! =D>