Kevin Van Dam Forums

Eating Bass

2013-05-18T20:39:59-05:00

Do you guys eat the bass you catch?? I did when I was a kid but I don’t have the heart to now. When I look into the eyes of Bubba Bass I pull a Jimmy Huston and kiss them and let them go. BH

Long day on the water

2013-05-20T19:20:52-05:00

Heather and I had one of our longest day fishing trips ever – we started just before 7:15am and didn’t get off the water until after 5pm.

Heather started us off with a foul hooked gill:

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c344/flymantex/foulhook_zps12c90514.jpg

I started out fishing for bass – which I did for most of the day; my first was off a Senko:

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c344/flymantex/nicebass_zps882aa116.jpg

I then caught a little catfish:

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c344/flymantex/littlecat_Gene_zps1cce7b12.jpg

I then had a pretty good 30 seconds. I cast my catfish setup toward the dock in the background. I then picked up my Senko and threw it to the log you can also see. Next thing I realized my bobber was gone; I laid my Senko rod down and set the hook on a good eating 3lb cat (no picture). I put the cat in the basket and picked up my Senko rod and there was a fish on there – the biggest bass of the day:

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c344/flymantex/realgoodfish_zps998ea6d9.jpg

Heather was whining all day about not getting a cat – she lost a real nice one right after we both baited up the catfish rods. Near the end of the day she caught this little guy on her ultra-light:

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c344/flymantex/littlecat_Heather_zps903ffc9e.jpg

We ended the day with my catfish and Heather added 1 crappie, 2 nice gills, and a redear.

Great day on the water.

Feels Great

2013-05-18T21:40:39-05:00

Well, yesterday I came home on leave for the weekend for my sisters graduation tomorrow. Of course my club had a tourny today and I just had to get in on it. Thank goodness I did. I absolutely clobbered them today!!!!!! My best 5 were around 20lbs. I don’t know the exact weight of all 5 put together since my club goes by length and then the length of the fish equals a certain amount of points. I ended up with 1700 fish points today. 4th biggest limit in club history!!!! My limit consisted of a 17”, 17 3/4”, 18”, 19 1/2”, 20 1/2” (5.1lbs). 2nd place had I believe it was 1365 fish points.

I found fish in 1-3ft of water on a spawning flat with old lily pad stems on it. I alternated between a chatterbait, buzzbait (early), lipless crank, Black dog baits Shell Cracker in bluegill pattern, and a swimjig. I had 3 fish hit the Shellcracker but only got 1 in the boat. It worked very well and I think I now have enough confidence to throw it on a regular basis.

Here are some pics of the bass I caught today. Only got pictures of 3 of the bass because it was getting repetitive catching the fish that all looked almost the same (big and chunky)

http://i721.photobucket.com/albums/ww219/LilJakeC/13a4fea5-ae56-4ceb-aa2a-7eaf34fe42f1_zpsd466fcf5.jpg 17 3/4”

http://i721.photobucket.com/albums/ww219/LilJakeC/fish2-6_zps157a94d0.jpg 20 1/2” 5.1lbs

http://i721.photobucket.com/albums/ww219/LilJakeC/fish1-8_zps3efa93c7.jpg 19 1/2”

Haven’t got out much lately.

2013-05-16T15:03:37-05:00

Been doing to much other spring stuff around the house, along with the weather being a nightmare to this point. Got out yesterday & drug a jig around, only caught a 30"er though… A 30” piece of log that is. I thought it was a fish at first, since it weighed heavy & floated right up to the surface, but when it just laid there & did nothing, I got disappointed. It was dead calm for a while, but then the wind picked up & put a ripple on the water, so I picked up a forgotten friend, a #5 Mepp’s Black Fury & started burning it in the upper end by the creek channel. About 5 casts in I felt it get heavy & set the hook. It felt heavy & about as lively as the log, but it did move, so it was a fish. Leaned on it pretty hard to keep it out of a branch that claimed a chatterbait on my last trip, which it was really close to, but she put up one of the most disappointing fights I’ve ever experienced in a 4+ lb bass. I really hope she was about spawned out, because she was 21” & didn’t break 5 on the scale. Caught another 16-17"er not too long after that, but then the wind went dead & the water was practically a sheet of glass, couldn’t get bit on anything no matter how I worked it.

Have some more garden/house stuff to do in the next few weeks, but hopefully I can get out more & actually run into some more active fish, because it’s been slow & infrequent so far this year. BTW, that rod I caught that on got stuck into the ceiling fan before I left, so it must’ve came out of it alright, since I did bend it pretty hard leaning on that fish.

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/919800_526934960701123_1028345444_o.jpg

Fly Fishing

2013-05-16T14:00:02-05:00

Played with the fly rod a bit today. Got one DANDY 8.75” gill, then some smaller 7.5-8"ers and a bunch of little ones. And one monster largemouth.

http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l213/shebadog_01/FlyFishing/20130516_105916_zps9d36dbba.jpg

http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l213/shebadog_01/FlyFishing/20130516_094747_zps8e3e08a2.jpg

http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l213/shebadog_01/FlyFishing/20130516_104351_zpse1283565.jpg

http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l213/shebadog_01/FlyFishing/20130516_104342_zps31c56efc.jpg

http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l213/shebadog_01/FlyFishing/20130516_111108_zps263f0d30.jpg

I suck!!!

2013-05-13T03:46:15-05:00

I went catfishing friday after work, saturday evening and a few hours sunday. The results is one bite and I missed it!

I dont know crap about catfishing and followed other people’s advice and it just didnt work. It took my a few years to learn the behavior of bass and figure out where they should be and how to adjust and what to throw. Looks like its time to break out text books and videos on catfishing because this has became personal now. Im going to start spending each weekend, or trip tryin to figure out what works where and why. With the most emphasis on why this doesnt or does work. Looks like the bucketmouths and dinks just got a break from me, cos its time to whip some catass.

Not your average bass

2013-05-06T17:20:27-05:00

These have stripes! I did get one small smallmouth today, but otherwise I got 51 of these. Only kept the nice ones, biggest is 16.5” and 3lbs even.

http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l213/shebadog_01/100_0544_zpsd6c40560.jpg

Grandson caught his first

2013-05-08T21:34:13-05:00

Took the grandkids out to the pond to feed the ducks/geese:

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c344/flymantex/babygeese_zps6024d543.jpg

And of course I had to take a rod – Senko rod.

Caught a few little ones. The 2nd one I set the hook on I quickly gave the rod to Zach and he ‘caught’ his first fish.

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c344/flymantex/1stfish_zpsfd9180d1.jpg

His little brother – Tristan thought the fish was pretty cool:

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c344/flymantex/Tristenisimpressed_zpsc3d4e5a3.jpg

My daughter even got a picture of the release:

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c344/flymantex/therelease_zpsec4dc8f6.jpg

jerkbait bite

2013-04-28T10:15:38-05:00

is just getting on here. water temp is around 53 in the afternoon and the big girls are moving around.

http://i790.photobucket.com/albums/yy184/BORN2FISH001/IMAG0060_zps7fa64492.jpg

caught this one on a lucky craft pointer, she weighed just under 5. also lost about a 3-4lbr at the boat and shook two off i didnt get a good look at. its gonna really get good here in a while!

I spent most of my time with a spinning rod in my hand throwing them jerkbaits but i did throw a jig with some new lews speed spools I bought, man I love those things! solid reels!

caught 8 males today and snagged a 25 lb carp

2013-04-29T16:51:01-05:00

caught 8 males today, none of any size so no pics. caught 5 at one lake and went to another and caught 3 more. fighting the wind but got her done. 3 on Cabelas flat sided shallow crank, chartreuse/black back. water is a little muddy from the rain and wind. caught one on a spinnerbait, 1 on a cordell super spot. Snagged the carp with the super spot. i thought i had a world record on, i had the drag of the STX cranked down all the way and she was still pulling drag. finally got her 10 feet from shore and she came up and rolled and it was a fat 25 lb carp. got her on the bank and all i wanted was my spot back, finally got it lose and she rolled back into the water. I’m impressed with the BPS Crankin Stick, 7’, ML, i thought for sure i was going to break my rod. I was using 10 lb Trilene Big game. wasn’t worried about the line, BG never breaks.

Went to anothe pond and caught 3 on a spinnerbait. none were shallow, caught em all way off the bank. apprently the females haven’t moved up yet, didn’t see any on beds at either place and i walked around and looked. guess i got to cast farther to get to them females. was casting as far as i could with the wind howling. All in all a good day. i’m going back to the pond i caught the 5 tomorrow and then i am going to a different pond. the other pond has more size to the fish because of the 18 ” limit. ran into a vietnamese guy and he wanted me to give him a couple of the bass and i said they got to be 15” bud, he says no 12”. i know it is 15, all these ponds are 15 except the one at 18. so i know this vietnamese guy has been keeping all the shorts he’s been catching. like to throw him in. learned 1 thing, catching is more fun than not catching, lol