Catch All Fishing Thread
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Scott85
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Big Sky
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texwest44
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texwest44
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The fall rainbow bite is on!! The little lake up the road from my house has been putting out the good stuff!
bowhuntmontana
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Tigers were cruising the shoreline and hungry on Saturday. It was a lot of fun to sight fish them.
mevertsen
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bowhuntmontana
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Was hoping to catch the Fall bite at a place that is supposed to be great at times. Caught two nice cutthroats, but it was really slow. At least these guys were kind enough to swim by continuously for the four or five hours I was there.
texwest44
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Montana trout season has arrived!! Excellent first day, lots of good fish cruising the shallows - caught several 14"+ bows and cutbows out of my local lake.
Salmonchaser
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Looks like they wintered well. Beautiful fish.
texwest44
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Yes, they're all a little tired from the spawning run, but bouncing back very nicely, it seems. I'm going out for river smallmouth tomorrow - we'll see if they're faring as well as their mountain cousins were today.
After moving back to Montana in February, and taking my sweet time to dodge ice storms on the way, I finally made it out to chase some trout in March. Got 5, this was the smallest of the day.
This weekend, had to fly to Florida for a wedding. Given the long distance, we took a couple extra days. And given the unscheduled mornings, I decided to fish the local beach. Some leader material, jigheads, paddle tails, and gulp shrimp brought in some jacks, trout, and lady fish.
Day two, I got some frozen shrimp and managed some snapper, sheepshead, more jacks and ladyfish, plus a bunch of those devil catfish. Plus a fun little bonnethead shark. Carolina rig to a #1 mutu circle. Would have had enough for dinner if I’d been keeping fish.
Day three- starting to figure out that dawn is the time to be down there. So back to it. More jacks, snapper, and ladyfish until I run out of bait. Then it’s popping gulp shrimp off the bottom.
This rod was all of $30, and now the reel handle won’t fully tighten, the anti reverse quit working, but the drag is still solid. So I pop the shrimp in the rocks, hit one solid and lose my grip on the handle. It comes back around on my knuckles- great. But when I start to reel down to shake the line loose, the line starts shaking without me. To my utter disbelief, a 20” snook jumps to tell me I need to buckle down. To prove this point, he immediately jumps again and sends the 1/2oz jig with a 4/0 hook directly at my forehead. Thanks to some residual reflexes from a formerly athletic life, at least injury wasn’t added to insult.
No fish, but snook can chafe through bite leader pretty fast, so I retie. Another hour, only a couple ladyfish out in the sand, and I’m back to those rocks. I want revenge on that snook. Every half dozen casts, I seem to be sticking in the rocks. Get it free, check for frays, retie if necessary. So when I pop the shrimp and the drag slips, I don’t think anything of it. But then the rod dips, and the line goes sideways. This is something big. Bigger than what I think this reel was designed for, especially since I put 15lb braid on it.
Then whatever this is realized it’s hooked and makes a big run. Then another one. I get it close, and it pops to the surface to show white sides and a single white stripe- snook. Big snook.
A few more runs, a couple scary jumps, questioning the tackle, maybe saying a prayer, and I finally land it. Right at the upper end of the slot, ~33”, maybe somewhere around 10lbs. Released, much to the disbelief of the other fisherman.
I call it quits and go get a shower, lunch, and a beer. I think I’d like to go back.
This weekend, had to fly to Florida for a wedding. Given the long distance, we took a couple extra days. And given the unscheduled mornings, I decided to fish the local beach. Some leader material, jigheads, paddle tails, and gulp shrimp brought in some jacks, trout, and lady fish.
Day two, I got some frozen shrimp and managed some snapper, sheepshead, more jacks and ladyfish, plus a bunch of those devil catfish. Plus a fun little bonnethead shark. Carolina rig to a #1 mutu circle. Would have had enough for dinner if I’d been keeping fish.
Day three- starting to figure out that dawn is the time to be down there. So back to it. More jacks, snapper, and ladyfish until I run out of bait. Then it’s popping gulp shrimp off the bottom.
This rod was all of $30, and now the reel handle won’t fully tighten, the anti reverse quit working, but the drag is still solid. So I pop the shrimp in the rocks, hit one solid and lose my grip on the handle. It comes back around on my knuckles- great. But when I start to reel down to shake the line loose, the line starts shaking without me. To my utter disbelief, a 20” snook jumps to tell me I need to buckle down. To prove this point, he immediately jumps again and sends the 1/2oz jig with a 4/0 hook directly at my forehead. Thanks to some residual reflexes from a formerly athletic life, at least injury wasn’t added to insult.
No fish, but snook can chafe through bite leader pretty fast, so I retie. Another hour, only a couple ladyfish out in the sand, and I’m back to those rocks. I want revenge on that snook. Every half dozen casts, I seem to be sticking in the rocks. Get it free, check for frays, retie if necessary. So when I pop the shrimp and the drag slips, I don’t think anything of it. But then the rod dips, and the line goes sideways. This is something big. Bigger than what I think this reel was designed for, especially since I put 15lb braid on it.
Then whatever this is realized it’s hooked and makes a big run. Then another one. I get it close, and it pops to the surface to show white sides and a single white stripe- snook. Big snook.
A few more runs, a couple scary jumps, questioning the tackle, maybe saying a prayer, and I finally land it. Right at the upper end of the slot, ~33”, maybe somewhere around 10lbs. Released, much to the disbelief of the other fisherman.
I call it quits and go get a shower, lunch, and a beer. I think I’d like to go back.
Best $30 spent! Looks like an enjoyableuse of time, especially with the finale! That must have been a hoot to bring in!
Salmonchaser
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Love fishing Florida, well done.
JV842
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Took my son, son in law, n grandsons down to Corpus Christi the other day to try n get in on the Sheepshead run…pitiful fishing, but we did manage to scrape up a pomp, a sheepshead, n troutSimilar threads
