09 fishing

Instead of making a new post every time I will just use this one all year. Today I went to some farm ponds around my cousins house. We had minnows so I was expecting to catch alot of little bass. We did catch alot of little bass (about a dozen apiece), but we hooked into some nicer fish. The biggest I caught was about 3 1/2 or 4 and I had another at the dock that would've weighed 5 or better probably. I didn't take pictures of him because I though I would catch something bigger. Austin caught a nice bass before we left there too. We went down the hill to another pond fishing with minnows again. I was spooking flatheads every where. After catching some more small bass I hooked into something A little bit bigger. Jacob had not caught anything big all day so of course I had to let him catch this one. Pretty nice channel for such a small pole.

nice fish n pics

NIIICCEEE

Very nice, Willy! Thank you for sharing. That is fine to use this post for your fishing all year long!

Thanks guys. I went back to my neighbor's pond with the rest of those minnows. I caught 6 crappie and one channel. Missed a bunch of other channels because I wasn't setting the hook hard enough but that is okay. 3 crappie were 6-7 inches 2 were about 11-12 inches and one was 14 inches. The channel had a big bite missing out of him. That is a size 14 shoe for a size reference.

14 inch crappie



11-12 inch crappie



Channel with turtle bite

Awesome to have places like that to fish willy, congrats on the nice catches it looks like you had a lot of fun out there. How deep are these ponds i can remember fishing a few farm ponds down in Arkansas at my relatives and them darn things were like 30 feet deep and had some giant cats in them.

Nice fish...Looks like fun!

Looks like you had an awesome time, Willy! Congrats on the catches!

Thanks guys. I just got back and caught another channel. Not a real big one but it was pretty nice to be caught on a little crappie rod.



Right now the pond is about 7-8 foot deep. When it is full it is about 18 feet deep.

NICE!!!

Went back tonight and caught 3 more crappie and a nice bluegill. As soon as I got there I caught one crappie about 6-7 inches long before I could get my other pole out. Figured I would tear them up. Didn't have another bite for another hour or so. Then I caught 2 about 30 seconds apart. One 6-7 incher and one 10-11 incher. About 20 minutes later I caught an 8-9 inch bluegill. The channels and bluegill were biting really good today. The bluegill couldn't get the hook in their mouth and I didn't set the hook hard enough for the channels. Most of the time a crappie hook set wont hook a catfish anyway. Sorry no pictures. I didn't deem any of the photo worthy.

Nice pic from last night, Willy! Also, glad you had a good time fishing again today. I am looking forward to more reports and/or pics from you this year

Thanks Peg and Greg. Sorry I missed your post Greg. Sitting in 3rd period today I was thinking about how some of those fish I was missing were biting an awful lot like crappie but wouldn't hook them. I assumed they were bluegill. The more I thought about it the more I thought I needed to try some smaller hooks. As soon as I got there I caught a 3-4 inch crappie. Just as I thought the smaller ones I have been catching were not from the last spawn but the one before it. After that I caught a 6-7 incher and another 3-4 incher. Trent came down and fished a little bit. I don't know how many we caught all together but I did take pictures of my biggest two and Trent's first two crappie. He had never crappie fished before so it took a fish or two to get him to lighten up on the hook sets. Here are some pics. Once it got dark Trent said he had to go home. I caught one before he could even reel his pole in. 10-11 incher. I told him one last cast since I could barely see my bobber. I seen it lay over once they take off to the right a little before it went under. Last cast last fish was an almost 14 incher

Hands down the biggest crappie I have ever caught



Trent's first



Trent's second size 10 shoe



10-11 incher



last cast last fish

Great job, Willy and Trent! I am very glad to see you catching some fish! You're very welcome! Hope to see some more in the future. Once I get to start fishing, I will be posting some pics as well!

You should have enough for a fish fry now.

All of the fish that were not used for bait were released alive. All of these fish have been caught out of farm ponds that I don't want to take fish out of. I am headed back out in afew minutes.

Nice fish Willy.

Man i can't wait for the crappie spawn here this spring, nice catch willy

Thanks guys. I caught 3 more crappie tonight. Biggest one was 8-9 inches. Other two were 6-7. I still haven't caught any of the real big ones yet. Last summer I caught some that were 16-17 inches long. Raccoons or something killed 2 of them and brought them up on the bank. I wonder how many are left? If there are any left they are monsters by now. I didn't fish as long tonight though. I went over to Trent's house to play basketball for a couple hours. I might not fish tomorrow. John is wanting me to stay after school and play basketball with him and some of his friends.

Glad to hear you caught some more fish, Willy! Crappie are sure fun to catch too!

Tonight sucked. I all ready didn't feel good when I went out, but me and Jake need bait for spring break. I went over to the old rock quarry to try and catch some gills. Storms coming in and I couldn't see anything in the water. I have been kind of sight fishing them. I sit up there on the four wheeler to see if I could see any swirl or something. I finally did and caught 2 bluegill. Couldn't catch anymore so I decided to go use these because I didn't think 2 gills would make much difference. I casted one out live on my ambassaduer 7000 and cut the other one up. One head and two fillet. Cast the head out on my 5600 and forgot the rod holder. Thought it would be okay because these channels don't really hit that hard until they feel pressure, I will just keep it in free spool until one picks it up and is swimming away. As it swims away I will lock the reel up and it will take off like a rocket as usual and should be about the same as loading the rod up (I'm using a circle hook on this rod BTW). I cast a fillet out on my little abu garcia stealth. Not 15 minutes into fishing and one grabed the live bluegill and starts taking slack. I see the bobber pop back up just as I set the hook. I reel in the mashed up bluegill and throw him back out there. Probably 45 minutes to an hour later The bobber goes down again and I catch a 6-7 pound channel on the mashed up bluegill. It starts to rain a little so I reel up my 5600 and my 7000. As I am reeling in my little stealth I feel it stop. I knew the bluegill fillet would kind of flutter as I reeled it in so I wasn't too surprised. I set the hook thinking it is a bass. 15 seconds of drag peeling later and a huge swirl I came to the conclusion that this was no bass. It starts down pouring big time. 7 foot medium action rod and a small spinning reel spooled with 8 pound test there was not much that I could do what ever I had. I was not sure what I had because it would take huge runs and sometimes felt like I was pulling in a big log. probably 20 minutes later it is still down pouring and I am still fighting this thing. I finally see it and it is a huge grass carp snagged towards the middle of the back. I knew there was not much of a chance of landing this fish but I was determined. I had him at the bank probably 5 or 6 times and as soon as my hand touched the 30+ pound grass carp it took another drag screaming run. Finally as I try to grab it again it takes another drag screaming run and the hook pulls loose. I had been fighting the fish for about 40-45 minutes by now, I am soaked, muddy, it is all most dark, and I still don't feel good. After I get done here I am taking a bath and going to bed. Here is a picture of a monster bass I caught while trying to catch bait. I figure it will weigh around 10-12 pounds.

LMAO!~! You are too funny, Willy! Sorry to hear you're not feeling well, although it sounded like you had a good time!

I caught the little bass over at the old rock quarry trying to catch bluegill Peg. I really did hook a big grass carp on my little stealth.

I truly believe that you did hook into one. It's not impossible. From the sounds of it, it gave you a run for your money!

I am surprised the line didn't break or the hook didn't come loose sooner. Shows what you can do with the drag set right.