FishDr

I definitely wear gloves when it approaches or drops below freezing - it gets hard to thumb a reel while casting but it beats frostbite. With the ice fishing experience, I kept taking my gloves off to change baits or change lures and then would forget to put them back on to work the reel. Never said I was smart…

Congrats! That bass is a tank.

I learned that lesson the hard way by ice fishing with a metal ABU Garcia 5501 C3 - I just about got frostbite palming the reel and finally realized how cold the metal parts of the reel where when ice started building up on them.

You’ve gotta love a big wels catfish - they have an “if it swims (or lands by the water), we can eat it!” attitude.

Looks like a good day indeed!

Gorgeous northern! When your fish is longer than your measuring board, you're doing something right.

I'd say you've made a good choice - I don't think you can go wrong with a Calcutta. I've got 301e and 301d's and they are workhorses - I've been using them for a long time. The Calcuttas were the gold standard when I was getting into swimbaits but I just couldn't swing the cost at the time, and since my 301s are going strong, I've not looked into replacing them. If you do any cold-weather fishing (like freezing, cold, not SoCal-cold), then one thing to consider is the reel surface - metal reels get very cold and will freeze the crap out of your hands in the winter. The plastic/graphite sideplates are a bit more forgiving - not that much more forgiving but a bit.

Wow!

In

Congrats! I’ve struck out so far in the fall night bite for CO walleye, but that’s not unusual. Keep grinding and a DD will come - there’ll be ice in the guides tonight!

Definitely a good day on the water and a fortunate one in the road. That’s good advice about the trailer inspection and maintenance.

Great fish - cool shorebird. What was the bird?

You and the Taco are putting in some serious work!

I've had a similar experience, at least fishing with Slammers in a lake that has limited fishing pressure and lots of small to medium sized pike, and a few big ones (40"+). The majority of the fish hit the 7" Slammer, a few hit the 9" Slammer (though it gets lots of looks), and very few hit the 12" Slammer. That 7" size seems about right, at least for the pike I encounter.

All but one of the big (26"+) walleye I've caught on swimbaits have been from shore, and almost all at night - sometimes just after dark, other times in the wee hours of the night. The one constant factor is that the fish were all pretty close to shore, often in very shallow water.

Sweet! That's one fish I'd love to score on a swimbait.

Nice fish! Getting a 30 is a solid goal, and if your waters are kicking out high 20s, there are definitely 30s on tap. It is definitely trophy walleye time, aka time for chronic sleep deprivation until the lakes start to freeze. Like @Fried Lemons said, they will hit big swimbaits. Is it the most effective way to catch them? Probably not, but it's how I like to catch them.

in

Congrats on your first tiger muskie! That fish has been in the wars - looks like another muskie took a chunk out of its tail.

Nice fish! I've bank-flipped a number of walleye but I've had a couple of fails as well - they've got pretty bony mouths and apparently do not always get well-hooked. Seeing a high 20s walleye swim away before you can lay hands on it hurts. That NY fishing is intriguing - I've got a fishing buddy who is fishing in the Seneca lake region and doing decently on musky and I'm trying to learn about the fishing around Albany since my son just started college in the area.

Way to get a trip in before things got soggy.

Road trip for sure!

I just heard from one of my best friends (the guy who got me into swimbait fishing) who lives in the St. Petersburg area that they are either now under or are about to be under a mandatory evacuation notice because of Hurricane Ian. He and his family are heading out and have somewhere to go, but it's definitely a pucker factor situation. I hope that the SU community and their friends/families in the potentially affected areas of Florida (and states to the north) stay safe over the next few days.

Solid fish!

That's a nice looking fish - code or no code. How heavy was it?