Recap of the year

[kt]

I'm done in the boat for the year so I figured I would start a thread on how everyones year went. For me personally I wasn't able to get a 7 lb largie or a 5 lb smallie like I had hoped, but I can definitely say it was by far the best year ever in terms of numbers of 4+ pound fish and numbers of quality fish overall. Our total numbers of 4+ pound fish was off the charts, and its hard to put my finger on the reason. It might have been the low water levels, or the fairly stable weather, or just luck in hitting some really hot bites at their peak without many others knowing about them. Whatever it was, it was an absolute blast.

We ended up with 38 5+ pound fish coming into the boat this year and 3 fish over 6 lbs. Our big fish of the year tipped the scales at 6 lbs 9 oz and was caught by my brother, i caught a 6 lb 4 oz fish and a 6 lb even fish. We also learned/found a couple new lakes this year that we caught a ton of nice fish on. Can't wait to explore them more next year, especially in early summer. Most of our big fish came on 5 different lakes. Each one of those five lakes seemed to get really hot at different times throughout the year as well. Im really hoping these peak bites are close to the same next year as they were this year!

I consider myself more of a deepwater fisherman, and in most years we catch lots of 4-low 5 lb fish deep(8-15 feet), but our upper 5 and 6 lb fish usually come from water that is less than 6 feet. This year all three of our 6 lbers came out of 8+ feet of water on or near the weedline. We also caught two 5 14's and two 5 12's and all 4 of those came from water that was 8-12 feet. I really think the lower water levels pushed a lot of the shallow water fish out to the weededge more this year including some of the sows that usually inhabit the thick stuff.

As good as our top 5 lakes were this year, some of our old standby's have really tailed off the last 3 years. Including a lake where we caught a 23.5" fish and a 23" fish out of 4 years ago. This year we didn't even catch one 4 lb fish out of this lake. I think a lot of the big/old fish in a couple of our old standby's have died off and there are a couple missing year classes in the current population, hopefully they will bounce back and cycle back up soon.

About the only thing that wasn't too great this year was the smallmouth fishing for me. Then again we were on some unbelievable largemouth bites for such a long period of time, we really didn't fish for the smallies as much as we used too. Also the couple smallmouth lakes I fish don't usually produce smallies much bigger than 4 lbs and as much as i like catching smallies when the 4+ lb largemouth are biting as good as they were this year i found it hard to go after 2-3 lb smallies. Next year Im gonna try to make it a point to make a couple trips over to mille lacs, I'd love to hook into one of those beasts.

I hope everyone elses year went well and may the count down begin to memorial day weekend 2013!

[bassfshin24]

Sounds like a great year KT. I didnt get out fishing as much as I would have liked this year and when I did it was only for a couple hours and I usually stuck around the Roseville area. I really wished I would have concentrated more on the Chisago chain of lakes this year but oh well. My over all year for big largemouth was kind of disappointing. I caught quite a few 4lb+ fish but I couldnt even get a fish over 5lbs, how sad is that. I probably should have ventured to some different lakes but when you only have a couple hours to fish you want to do it close to home.

My year for big smallies however was fantastic. I cant even tell you how many smallies I caught this year over 4lbs. Biggest smallies of the year for me were 5lbs 7oz and 5lbs even. All my big smallies came on Mille Lacs this year. I cant wait to hit it up again next year.

If someone would be willing to show me how to catch a 5lbs+ largemouth it would be much appreciated haha

[Cecil]

Tough to not look for brown ones on Mille Lacs, but there are a bunch of 5# green ones out there. Easy to find as well

[lookincalifornia]

nice year KT!

i didn't get as many minnesota bass as i would have liked. started the year in california, with some really good bed fishng, frogging the delta, and tossing swimbaits in the foothill lakes. saw some GIANTS, caught some 4-5lbers. i will miss that about cali. moved here just in time to see the weigh in at the la crosse elite seires event.(very cool!) got to fish in my first tourney and a co-angler at the alma BFL event.(51st place) stuck a treble in the palm of my hand, found a nice little pond that has three pounders. looking forward to next year(two BFL's this year). want to see if my new found bed fishning skills work here as well as they did in the crystal clear lakes of cali.

[Doufish2]

Decent season for me, fished several new lakes and several local southern MN lakes. Big fish this year, just over 5. Decided to finally fish deep water cranks, still suck at it, but givin it a good try. Put the boat away way to early this yr due to knee surgery.

[thatoneguy]

This was my third year as a bass guy, and it was great! More big fish than ever before, with a best for the season of 6lb 3oz, and a bunch more over 5. Fished in my first tournaments, and after getting over the initial nerves, I had an absolute blast. 3rd place was my best finish, had one other top 10, and won my first big bass pot.

Most importantly, fishing a few tournaments showed me what I need to improve on to be more successful, so that I can do better next year both in tourneys and fishing for fun.

A big thanks to all on this board who share their knowledge, especially Meat Run who got me started on this bass stuff

[GooBack]

Easier winter and longer growing season this year.

Boated more 5lb+ fish than I can remember since living in Mn(20yrs)

Global warming sucks!

[Deitz Dittrich]

Had a fantastic season. Fished with a lot of friends, time with friends is always a good time. Boated a lot of fish. Finished the season with 1178 bass touching the BassCat. My personal biggest was 5.87, but really had a lot of really good quality fish this season. Had a couple of what I would call Epic days. Where you dont move the boat and catch 50+ solid fish cast after cast.

2012 will be a year to remember for sure. Thanks all for the memories.

[bemidjibasser]

Kind of an off year as far as bass go for me this year, as I have been bitten by the musky bug...

Still managed to catch a bunch of bass and a few nice ones here and there, but didn't fish for them nearly as much as in the past.

[RK]

Hiya -

I never keep track of numbers, and I'm not sure I've weighed a bass in the last 10 years, so I can't exactly quantify it, but...man this season was a blast.

I don't know what it was, but some of the patterns I got on this season held up for weeks - especially some of the deep weedline stuff which I really enjoy. There was a weedline jig bite on a couple of my favorite lakes that basically held up from early August through October with amazing consistency. Fish really bunched up, so there were a lot of 5 fish in 6 casts episodes, which is a riot. Plus I just flat out love jig fishing - something satisfying about really being able to jack a fish on the hookset.

Also learned a lot this summer, which for me is really the measure of a good season.

Found a new lake that's really different than what I usually fish, so it was fun figuring that out a little, although I definitely have some unfinished business there for next season.

Got to fish frogs a fair amount, which until this season I almost never did, and learned a lot about how to fish them effectively. Also did some actual punching, which again I'd never really done much. Nice coming out of the season with a couple more tools in the toolbox for next year, and definitely more to learn.

On the down side, some of the rush bite stuff I usually do a lot of never really got going on some of my usual lakes this season. I think low water had a lot to do with that. It was good at times, but very inconsistent. Some friends of mine had similar observations. Something I'll consider in low water years in the future for sure.

All in all though - awesome season. Going to be too long until spring...

Cheers,

RK

[cjac]

I had a blast this year, as I was reminded that fishing is meant to be fun and about catching and learning, not cursing and 2nd guessing missed opportunities. Case in point... I let dust grow on my muskie gear and had a fun Fall bass fishing.

Clear northern MN water fishing is a different game compared to the TC Metro area, yet in some respects still the same. It's all about refinement and tweeks to a presentation. I had to shelve my bold colors and lean on the natural colors more than a few times (and order more natural ones as a result). It's still about reading the fish and adapting the approach, be it 4 fow clarity or 22, which one of the lakes had as a sechhi disc reading. That threw me for a loop....

Browns and greens on the same lake is so much fun, as I have that on the cabin lake in Rice Lake in Stearns Co and I got to see that as well up north. It's so much fun to set the hook and not know if it's gonna be a green or a brown fish. I learned a ton about the "home" lake.

Equipment: Everyone has their favorites, but I have noticed that little refinements here and there do make a difference.

Fun year, thanks to all for the sharing of catches and motivation to get out and "one up" the rest of you!

[Deitz Dittrich]

great to see you back on the boards Cjac!!!

[Lals]

Like Cjac, my musky gear got dusty this fall after a friend took me bass fishing in August and I forgot how much I enjoyed it. It had been over 10 years I had been bass fishing. Based on the reports, the bass fishing was really incredible this year. I never caught so many 4lb+ fish. Although, I have been humbled reading the reports. Some of you guys are incredible with the fish you caught. It has been great reading the stories. For me, the most fun was punching mats and catching bass for the first time. Learning to flip a jig was great. My hottest bait this fall was slow rolling a spinner bait with the hollow belly swim bait trailer. Once that slowed down, I having good success with a wacky worm. However,I come to learn that speed in the fall with lures like lip less cranks works really well. Most of my fishing was shallow water (I was more of deep water bass fisherman years ago), reading the stories about fishing deeper water from kt, RK and Cjac, I need to work on that next year. Can't wait..

[Bobby Bass]

A mixed season for me this year having now fully retired I was looking forward to spending a lot of time on the water and upgraded my graph and dropped some money on a couple of new rods and reels that mama still does not know about. Injured my wrist a week before opener and it took eight weeks before I could fish with out setting a hook and yelping. Up north here two months of loss fishing time it a big chunk out of the season.

Hot and dry and I spent a lot of time chasing northern looking for a wall hanger with no luck before going back and fishing bass. Had a couple of real good weeks in the fall and everything that came over the rail was 17" or better, which up here is a nice size for bucketmouths. Found two new lakes for me and I think one is going to be a real honey hole for early in the year fishing. One of my buddies has also now retired so we will be fishing hard again like we did before we both got married. Thinking back it was not that bad of a year at all and I just broke in the new rods for next year!

[Nick Kuhn]

I think I fished less this year than I have in about the past 5. Too many friends getting married and other hindrances on the weekends.

A few things though: low water and changes in the weed growth on the home lake meant I could no longer catch fish from the dock with any consistency. The fish seem to prefer the deeper and less dense weeds located on the far side of the lake now.

Tried some new lakes too; one lake was great and the rest were kind of stinkers. They were tough to fish because of low water though: humps that were supposed to come up to 5 feet were islands...

Fished jigs and frogs a lot this year. Frogs were just on fire for a long time in that hot weather. Also found a deadly new way to fish a rage toad: backlash, land the toad in the thick weeds short of the pads, and let it slowly sink. After catching fish twice in one outing on backlashes that way, I started using them to just slowly dive into pockets of weeds. Not sure why but there were times when that outfished every other kind of plastic you could try drop in those holes. Maybe it's because they dive at an angle instead of a straight fall.

[jalberg]

Ok now that I'm officially calling it quits for the year, I can post my response here.

This season didn't start out that great and I would say it was average to below average through July. Things picked up after that though.

I had good sucess with a few techniques that I either havn't used much or at all in the past.

One was deep cranking. Have had zero sucess with it in the past. This year I had some awesome days with it.

Some of my old go-to baits didn't seem to be as effective this year for me for some reason. It could have been the low water, but whatever the reason I'm glad in a way because it made me adapt and figure out what I had to do to catch them.

Here are the 5lb+ bass for me this year.

6lb 2oz

6lb 0oz

6lb 0oz

5lb 13oz

5lb 12oz

5lb 11oz

5lb 10oz

5lb 9oz

5lb 6oz

5lb 5oz

5lb 5oz

5lb 3oz

5lb 3oz

5lb 3oz

5lb 3oz

5lb 3oz

5lb 2oz

5lb 2oz

5lb 1oz

5lb 1oz

5lb 1oz

5lb 0oz

Despite the sluggish first few months, it ended up being a good year for me. I wish I would have kept a total count again.

I had a GoPro camera on a tripod in the boat with me all year. I have a ton of footage that I am going to be editing in to a video. It probably wont be done for a while but I will post it when it's done.

[RumRiverRat]

Was an awesome year for me. Fished 129 days and put 1284 bass in the boat.

Started the Sunday after Saint Patrick's day on Pool 4 in the Wabasha backwaters absolutely whacking the Largemouth.

Fished Pool 2 and Pool 4 hard from then until the 1st week in May. Really had the Largemouth patterned on P4, had 2 days where I found the Smallmouth and had a blast catching them on an A-Rig and a Donkey Rig.....many times 2 fish at a time.

Bass Opener was missed because of the death of my Father-In-Law, but I fished 7 days straight starting the Sunday after the opener. Season started slow but once I found my stride I consistently put fish in the boat. Had one day on a new lake that resulted my only Zero for the year.

Concentrated on one small lake in Wright County, fished it 59 times. Really figured the fish out and had 4 presentations that on any given day one or two would work and on the truly epic days all worked.

I found fishing to be very therapeutic this year. My sister took her own life in February and with the sudden death of my Father In Law in May. I would not have been able to cope if I would not have been able to fish.

I fished alone a lot, this really allowed me to find some peace and clear my head. To make sense of the tragedy in my life. I had days that I am sure I had extra help from the spirit of my sister.

Early Summer through late summer I threw a frog a lot. On the small lake in Wright County my go to lure was a Money Frog. Spent a lot of time throwing shallow/middle depth cranks over weed flats in 4 to 10 feet.

As the summer progressed and water temps soared and water levels fell I used jigs more and more. Pitching shallow wood and isolated clumps/mats of weeds.

Fall meant shallow cranks and lipless cranks. Used a Rapala Clacking Crank 74 extensively and put a lot of quality fish in the boat.

I rarely used a Senko type bait this year.

I achieved my goal of catching a Bass in all 12 months, caught a Smallmouth on the river in Monticello yesterday. Thought I was going to fail since I fell out of my tree stand the day after Thanksgiving and sustained several injuries. But I was feeling OK and decided to get out and try to catch my December Bass.

[Juan Grande]

Great reports everyone and good luck in 2013!

I had an up and down season. Didn't get out as much as I wanted to, but hopefully that will change as my son gets older.

Had a lot of fun fishing that "small lake in Wright County" with RRR. Learned a lot and really enjoyed putting down the senko and catching fish on cranks, creature baits and other presentations.

Had a pretty disappointing season on Mille Lacs although I only fished it three times. I did get to see the biggest smallie of my life caught which was cool.

Lowlight of the season was losing a fishing buddy for no explainable reason. We had a day of fishing planned and he pulled a no show/no call. I attempted to contact him several times that day and since then and have been ignored for no apparent reason. Still trying to figure that one out...