danthefisherman Posted December 31, 2017 Report Share Posted December 31, 2017 Haven't contributed to this section for far too long. I'll admit I was having a pretty tough season fishing swimbaits. I hadn't landed a big bait fish since July and responsibilities at school/home/etc made it hard to spend much time on the water. Plus I've been trying to tune up some homemade baits so that took up a lot of my attention when I did get out "fishing" Finally with school out I had a bit more time to really concentrate on getting bit. It was a cold day at first and the water was like glass. Dave had just whipped up two soft threadfin shad prototypes that were perfect chomping size for the bass in our little home lake. We hadn't been fishing in a few weeks, and so the fish had already transitioned with the cold weather. We had to row out into deep water to find them congregated around weed transitions and drop offs. Dave was the first to get hit. Little chunker absolutely inhaled his shad rigged on a 4/0 Owner Beast! He had caught his last swimbait fish much more recently than me, but he was stoked nonetheless. I got pretty excited too. It felt like a good day and the fish were playing nice already! Discovered pods of big bluegill occupying the weed transitions next to the drop off we were fishing, so I assume the bass were feeding up on them. We fished for a while longer in that area, but the fish in the lake are pretty pressured so we moved on to let the spot rest. The second deep hole we knew of had zero big fish in it that we could see (imagine crystal clear water with max depth of around twelve feet). It barely had any bluegill or dinks either! It's amazing how picky these fish can be... Paddled back to the honey hole to find that the fountain had been turned on. I picked up Dave's prototype shad with an internal harness and launched it to the right and past the fountain. Not a sniff. Then I tried the left. Not a sniff. Back to the right. Slow and steady all the way to the fountain...then a slight tick and a pull and the fight was on! I think I started screaming. She isn't big by most people's standards, but she definitely is for our home lake. We've been fishing here 12+ years averaging a trip once every one or two weeks, and this is one of the largest I've ever pulled out. She was skinny but was long and had a big head to boot, and I was just glad to be holding her in my hands. Shaking head to toe for a good while after the release. That felt good. dheath2, 365swimbait, daminator and 13 others 16 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ipleadthefish2 Posted December 31, 2017 Report Share Posted December 31, 2017 Awesome!! danthefisherman 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bassbass Posted December 31, 2017 Report Share Posted December 31, 2017 Great job and awesome fish danthefisherman 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScummyBadger Posted December 31, 2017 Report Share Posted December 31, 2017 Nice work Dan & Dave! danthefisherman 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danthefisherman Posted December 31, 2017 Author Report Share Posted December 31, 2017 Awesome!! Thanks David! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danthefisherman Posted December 31, 2017 Author Report Share Posted December 31, 2017 Great job and awesome fish Thank you sir! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danthefisherman Posted December 31, 2017 Author Report Share Posted December 31, 2017 Nice work Dan & Dave! Thanks so much, Shawn! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PNW bass Posted December 31, 2017 Report Share Posted December 31, 2017 Ahhhhh, bet that felt great! Nice fish bud! danthefisherman 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
azfisher Posted December 31, 2017 Report Share Posted December 31, 2017 Nice fish Dan and way to rock the homemade baits!! danthefisherman 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danthefisherman Posted December 31, 2017 Author Report Share Posted December 31, 2017 Ahhhhh, bet that felt great! Nice fish bud! It sure did...thanks Micah! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danthefisherman Posted December 31, 2017 Author Report Share Posted December 31, 2017 Nice fish Dan and way to rock the homemade baits!! Thanks Will! Homemade all the way! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
surfk9 Posted January 2, 2018 Report Share Posted January 2, 2018 Good background story Dan....nice fish!!!....Lil' Piggy gets it done.!!!! danthefisherman 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drewmoniz Posted January 2, 2018 Report Share Posted January 2, 2018 Way to close out the year on a good note! danthefisherman 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danthefisherman Posted January 2, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 2, 2018 Thanks Michel! Thanks Andrew! drewmoniz 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LUV-2-CATCH'EM Posted January 2, 2018 Report Share Posted January 2, 2018 Great fish man! Awesome looking bait! danthefisherman 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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