CG_Fishes

Hell of a fish, you and Jim have really been putting the hurt on those NJ bass recently!

Huge congrats! You have put in the time and effort and it all payed off. What an absolute giant fish!

Wow! You have really been on them recently, good work!!

What a fish, love those monster picks!

It's Ben Milliken's bait, of course it is garbage. As Brad said, it is hard to beat a magdraft. I'm yet to find a bait that is as versatile. Just about the only thing I throw these days

IN! This is what SU is about at its core, always happy to see such generosity!

Phenomenal catch! Anything over 6 in the Northeast is a true trophy in my mind. What a build that fish had as well. Congrats on a great catch and fantastic write up

School has had me crazy busy the past few months, but I've made sure to get out and fish at least once a week, so I have quite the backlog of catches. First, when we had the late October warm spell in the Northeast my friends and I were fishing hard, thinking it was going to be a fire bite. I had been out all week and all I had to show for it was a small tiger, some medium bass and an illegal in many states bait we termed the "mag-delier". I decided to get out on my kayak the last day of this warm spell. It was super windy with a cold front rolling in and so the fish were stacked on one stretch of shoreline. Once I figured that out, with about an hour and a half of daylight left I sacked up 40 or so fish, mostly on the 5" magdraft with the biggest going just over 5. I was pretty stoked to finally have the day I had been hoping for all week. My friend and I then took a trip out looking for some Pike and Musky. He had recently gotten an interest in Esox and was itching to get out. I had lots of action but could only connect with high teens, low 20s fish. Meanwhile he caught the fattest 32" fish I have ever seen. We counted 6 fish in the belly and a sucker in the gullet, and she still wanted the 8" magdraft. It was safe to say he was hooked shortly after this. Shortly after this, @NickFish and I decided we couldn't let a 60° day go to waste and we got out on the boat one last time before it got winterized. I ended up with two twin 4.5s for the day on the 5" magdraft while he got a 3ish on a jig and snagged a big gizzard with a westin bait he received from a bait giveaway on here. I couldn't complain about fish that size just before thanksgiving! Over thanksgiving break I was on a bit of a Walleye kick, really looking for that big fish I've been searching for. The first night I went out was the first night of frozen guides for the season, I assume there will be many more. I just down-right fished like ish. I got 15 or so bites and landed one fish. They were eating at my feet and just not hooking up. One of the strikes which I was able to see at last light was a 24-26" fish that I would've been very happy with. I went out again the next night with 40s, pouring rain and winds heavy enough to warrent a sever weather warning. I ended up going 3 for 3, learning from my mistakes the day prior and downsizing. I didn't find the size I was looking for but I won't complain about 18-20" fish. I got out a few more times before returning to school with nothing but 1 strike from a ~10" Walleye to show. I was pretty defeated from my last trip home but my friend convinced me to get out for Pike yesterday on my rivers. He had just gotten a new kayak and wanted to get it out. Well, we braved the pouring rain and cool temps for the whole day just to get one strike from a small Pike. I was just happy to have connected and made it count after the poor luck I had been having recently. The water is cooling down, sitting in the low 40s or high 30s depending on where you go now, but my season isn't over. There are still Walleye and maybe some Pike to be caught!

Wow, big one!! Great work sticking with it. Plenty of time left for some big soft bait bites!

Monster Chain, such a cool species, incredibly underrated. Good work Jim!

Dude that is sweet! Glad I motivated you to get out and catch a few, they love that magdraft at night! Curiously I have never caught a walleye during the day on the bait, only once it gets dark right at dusk, and usually not after that either. There is a certain period of time when they seem to be actively hunting and ready to eat anything that swims in front of them, I can usually get 2 or 3 strikes in that window before the bite dies. Seeing the fish with the headlamp is awesome, and such great photos yiu captured!!

Yesterday was the Annual Alumni Tournament for my school's Bass Team. Last year my team placed 2nd, this year there was only one goal, 1st. The teams of this tournament are randomized with one current undergrad and one alumni fishing together. Luckily I was able to get on a boat with the homie @jmm_4. While everyone else was on their fast and fancy bass boats, we ran an old Crestliner 16ft, putting us at an immediate disadvantage. We started the day without any plans, neither of us had even targetted bass in months. Our plan was just to go out and have fun and hopefully catch some fish. We ran all over the lake throughout the day picking up a fish here or there, almost always on different baits, but two fish in the bag came on the magdraft and magslowl, something I was stoked on. As the day was ending we got on a pattern with some shallow fish, Jake was throwing a finnesse jig and I was burning a chatterbait with a 6" trailer. At the beginning of the day we realized we didn't have a net and decided we would just commit. Throughout the day we had no issue, landing every hooked fish including 2 Pike and a monster Pickerel. As the clock was nearing time Jake made a cast to a fallen tree and was hooked up. We were looking to replace a 1lber and immediately knew this would cull. As we brought it closer we realized this fish would put our best 5 over 20 and give us a serious shot at winning. It got boatside, I went to grab it and the jig popped out. Immediate heartbreak, I tried to grab it but wiffed. There was nothing more that we could do. We went back to weigh in and made 3rd with 17.96, missing out on the money by 0.8 and first by just over 4lbs. That last fish would've made us seriously competetive. At the end of the day, I am proud of how we fished and what we put together. It was seriously some of the most fun I've had during a tournament. That first place finish still eludes me, but I'm 4/6 on podium finishes

That's a real one Jim! Crazy how green it still is down there! Fall is in full effect here, most of our leaves are gone!

As I was heading back to school Monday I decided to stop at one of my best fall spots and see if the high water had brought in some Pike. I walked up and immediately saw baitfish everywhere but not much was chasing. It took a while, and a few missed strikes from small fish, but I got the strike I was looking for. This fish was sitting right at 30" and FAT. I kept casting around, hooking a giant fish shortly after. I am 99% sure it was just a foul hooked carp, but I did see an upper 30" Pike hunting later that night, that could've done the same to me. The fish made a run so fast I couldn't even think, ripping out locked down drag and immediately bending out the hook out. For my sanity, we will say it was a carp. A while later, after missing a few short strikes I landed this decent smallie, my first of the season on the big bait. I missed these guys, it seems like they are starting to fire up now in the colder temps. I stuck around until dusk hoping I could find a walleye to complete the trifecta, but no such luck. I did run into a little smallie blitz, catching 4 fish in 5 casts before they shut off. Nothing big, but it's all fun. Happy that I could find the time to get out in one of my favorite home spots and enjoy some beautiful fall weather and fishing!

Thanks! Yes the magdraft and its cousins the magslowl and deadslowl seem to be money in my waters. I have caught them on the 5", 6" and 7". No strikes on the 8" yet but I'm sure it's bound to happen with the right fish. I want to try a wedge tail like a real prey for them sometime as well