Redfish12 - Monthly Fish Challenge

[Redfish12]

Got my January fish!

It was about a 2lb LMB on a Sebille stick bait.



I only caught one fish on this lure but I hooked another one... I've got to say I am very disappointed in these lures. They catch great but they are pretty crummy for the price. First the rear treble hook bent when I was fighting a rockfish this fall. I tried to straighten it on the water and it snapped... so I replaced the rear hook with a single hook that I had tied as a teaser. Worked great.

Today... hooked what I think to be the man in the camo suite and after some thrashing I reeled this in.





Oh well. I probably would have lost it anyway, but I was "this" close to crossing off one of my goals for 2011!!!!!

[Redfish12]

I also got this tiny one on a marabou jig...

[jffoley]

Good job, Michael! Guess that plug is for little ones. Bummer you lost a good one due to poor quality...

[eastonkayaker]

Nice catch, LMB in January, that is some good fishing! How hard did they hit the bait?

[Redfish12]

John - You've fished with me before so you can probably imagine what I said after the snakehead got off. It wasn't pretty.

Bryan - I though it was a leaf until it started to have some resistance. Not much of a fight. The one that broke off did some thrashing, but that was it. I think next time I'm going to try nymphing for carp because I saw a lot of them, some were even jumping out of the water.

[ictalurus]

Nice bass. Sorry about the one that got away. It's even worse that it was the result of lure failure. I've been looking at different brands of swim baits, but I've been wondering how sturdy they are. I guess I know now. It blew me away when the stripers bent the hooks on my "saltwater grade" Bomber this past summer. It sucks that you have to shell out $7+ for the lure then buy better hooks for it.

[Redfish12]

From what I have read on other boards the larger version of this plug was the 'it' lure at the cape cod canal this last year. I guess it must be of better construction.

So far bombers have been pretty good to me, but they look like they could have a hook pull pretty easily. I guess that's why those northern guys pay so much for through wired stuff.

I'm hoping to cross that snakehead off early!

[surfdog]

nice job! too bad about mr snakeeven with bommer and mirrorlure sw grade lures changing the trebles to 4x and upgrading the split rings is a good idea. i picked up a couple spro jointed swimmers last year at the tim. fair for 18 each but they were already up graded, lost 1 in the cayman isl. last fall tried to find it while snorkeling but no luck talked with the capt of Indian head charters and he said that the snake head is becoming the new sport fish on the potomac, also that the rock they have been catching were spitting up snake head fry so at least they are making them selves use full in the food chain

[Redfish12]

Surf, that's good to hear that they are at least helping to feed the ecosystem. I think a big jointed sebille would be killer on the flats. I saw a few big nsh in the river today, but they were not very active. Oddly enough, they were swimming around with a bunch of coy or goldfish, couldn't tell.

Added a few more fish to Jan:







Got a lot more of those, then finally started catching the right kind...



getting a little bigger

[Redfish12]

it doesn't look it but this bluegill was huge!



Here we go, this one was what I came for! Very fat LMB.

[mdmakaira410]

michael you are making us look stupid. your pictures are just a reminder that its crunch time for my january fish. i havent been out since my failed attempt at brandon shores. i may have to take off one day next week if i dont get a fish tomorrow at the stream. if that happens i may have to shake you down for that spot. im confident ill be able to catch fish at the gun, im just not confident my hands can take being outside for more than 20 minutes. i stocked up on hand/foot/ body warmers yesterday so hopefully ill be ok. that is a good lookin blue gill. if the other fishing is slow at loch raven i like to bring a 4wt and chuck tiny plastic bass poppers in shallow and watch those guys inhale it off the surface.

[Redfish12]

Haha sorry, not trying to antagonize! I wished I had my fly rod with me today actually. I figured it was way too cold for wet hands though. I used a thingamabobber and a 1/32 head and some of those fancy berkly realistix 3'' minnows (these tear so easily it's not funny) and some plain white trout type worms. Worked ok. Big bass needed more action and hit after I took the bobber off. Forgot bluegills on ultralights can be fun. Good luck if you make it out there tomorrow!

[surfdog]

WTG michael! too cold for me im in hibernation mode i'll have to make up my fish in march. i did pick up some fleece wader pants and wool sweater to layer up with.

[ictalurus]

Those are some killer bluegill. It's always a good sign when you can't wrap your hand around them. I wish I had gone out today. It wasn't as cold as I thought it was going to be, and the wind is supposed to pick up tomorrow...

[jffoley]

Got my January fish! Picked the coldest day of 2011. First time I've fished this time of year since my NY days when we'd go out on head boats for whiting and ling cod!

Bunch of decent bluegills (pretty ones, too) and a couple 10" LMB. Sorry, my pics came out terrible...