awesome fish, your finger looks like its tongue.

Great Fish numbskull! Looks like you were dressed for a COLD night in the water I fished last night as well and the wind finally died down around 11:30 on the back side of Cranes

34" on one of my 5 " spook

Chilly out there???? Great fish!

Thanks, guys. You give me hope! Trying NH opportunities this weekend if I either get a turkey on Saturday or give that up for the moment. J

Nice fish George. I finally got my first decent fish of the season last night. 25# on one of my black darters...

Oh yeah. Of all the plugs you can build, knowing you got a darter right is always special.

my little bunker pattern spook has outfished everything in my bag so far, even at midnight last night when all else had failed, worked extremely slowly it produced...

Nice catches guys. Some pics from last week. The shallow water, top water fishing was to die for with larger fish each time I went out. The best day I forgot the camera. Anyway my yellow howdy in red cedar is my usual go to plug, thanks John, but had very good luck with the spooks I made over the winter like the red headed one and one in yellow and a green top white bottom one too. Also had real good luck with a yellow howdy that had the bottom flattened like a hawg hunter. Caught pissa but a fish stole it on me. Had a different action, which I liked. Its all about the strike for me . You could take the hooks off and I would still have a ball.

you guys are on fire.

even though these will most likely be the only two that I lay to rest for this season it still doesn't make it any easier...first two legal fish on my own wood.

Way to go, Eskimo.

Here are a few from last pm and today.
A fish caught by Earlybird on one of Flap's spooks
A fish caught by a really, really, handsome guy on a skinny danny
A bad picture of a 24.5# that ate a yellow bottle.
Time to go get 'em, guys.

Nice fish guys. George I threw the big yellow darter I got from you @ plugfest in the bag last night and it caught first cast. My first bluefish of the year... :hihi: I really like that one, it's heavier than mine and perfect wieght for the rod I'm using.. I put it back in the bag for tonight.

I fried my cell phone a couple nights ago so I haven't been carrying the camera the past few nights. I'll bring one tomorrow...

A couple teens on top and a 21 that inhaled a darter pre dawn. I may retire that one and use it as the standard to judge my others by. Most of my decent fish this year have been on that plug.

I love seeing these fish on homemades!

I got a fatty on my flat bottom pencil this morning, the fish was in the rocks the entire time and my biggest concern was losing the plug as I felt my line dragging across the structure it seemed to keep finding ...it's the only one I'd made...got em' both out of the surf safely:kewl:

It is amazing how valuable a home made plug becomes, when it is your only prototype and is working better than anything else in your bag. You start trusting it so much and fishing it so often, surviving the season becomes unlikely.......yet taking it out of the rotation deprives you of your most useful tool. I've gone both ways (got the same dilemma right now with the yellow bottle). What I try to do is measure it, weigh it, get a profile, float it to record its waterline, and record its balance point.........then I keep fishing it and hope for the best. I think you learn more by fishing a plug through its lifespan, than by quitting while you are ahead.

Wow
 

Good job everyone, things are rolling now!

Not a big fish but my first striper on my first jointed plug.:jump1:

Attachment 33886

Got a few small bass on homemades recently but can't figure out how to save the pics from the card yet, if the wife ever helps me I'll post them. Took Danny out in the skiff yesterday and he had his gary2 tiger nailed right by the boat, but it came unbuttoned before we could land it. Then I got some on my jigman spook copy and Dan got one we got some pics of on a small Cranium howdy, love those howdies, ya can't beat them things.

Good job everyone on your success so far:bounce::drool: get some more :soon:

nice fish everyone!!
 

:tm:

:btu: Nice Dave, I think I have one of your darters, a squid colored one, I intend to try it shortly.

Here is one I wasn't expecting. Walking the dog, tide too high and I was too tired (after spending myself for naught last night) to fish the jetty I wanted so I was tossing a toy donny (5" 1/0s) on a small rod along a featureless swimming beach to amuse the dog when BANG this showed up.

Nice way to end a walk.

Ya, those came out nice but they have too much action. They are more of a subsurface swimmer than a true darter but they do cast well..


I decided to retire it and I ended up taking my biggest fish of the year on its replacement last night(28#) but then I hung it up and broke it off, so now I'm glad the good one is safely tucked away in the basement... Boy do I want a 30 on a darter... Funny how learning a new way to catch the same fish makes it interesting all over again.

I didn't make that many good darters and the big batch I made when I finally figured them out got 'oversealed' and were too heavy so they were all sitting in the basement. This morning I took a few of the lightest ones and just spray bombed them black. I think a few will be ok, we'll see.

"honey, I'm taking the dog for a walk"..."why do you need your rod and camera to walk the dog?" very clever...I'd never get away with that:laughs: great to see the bass appreciating your plugs as much as we do!

Ask the Professor how HE got out yesterday morning with his daughter!!:btu: Pretty funny story!:bgi:

Great pictures guys! Always fun seeing everyone's works of art throughout the winter...but nothing is better than seeing them actually produce!

Here's one from 2 weeks ago. Nice topwater bass from the yak!

Beautiful fish and on light tackle to boot. That one must have been a thrill.

Slingah's 30 pounder on a BigFish Canal Pencil!:claps: Way to go Matt!

Nice fish on a nice plug...gotta love topwater!

BTW...the kayak bass was on a small spook/howdy I made. We were catching nice sized bass on plastics, but the wood brought the big one up.

That's excellant! Nice fish Matt :btu: