Holliday's World Famous Fishing Thread - 2023 Version

[oldslowandugly]

 

[The Best Holliday]

Got back out to my favorite walk-in LMB lake and everything went well with the re-rigging.
. 12 hits, 12 hookups, 12 landed.
A lovely day of showers and not too distant thunder.
7 on Slug-Gos, then switched to my worm rig - Creme and Mann's 6", Texas rigged with Lazer Auto .45 and a nail wt. First of the 5 I caught on that set-up was on the favorite color of my yute - blue (Mann's), the others on purple Creme.

Meaning to ask you @oldslowandugly what you might have concluded regarding your hook choices if you made the comparison.

Keep thinking about them crabs me and my bro used to catch.
Too far to go though.

 

[oldslowandugly]

A lovely day of showers and not too distant thunder.

I feel crappy weather makes for better fishing. The biggest Fluke I ever caught [ 8 lbs ] was on a drizzly day with a thunderstorm off in the distance. No boats, just big fish out that day.

I have had little luck with the hooks I tried. I can't seem to find the right conditions to use them. The weighted ones snag too much stuff on the bottom. I fall back on the wide gap Kahle hooks. They get the fish in the side of the mouth most of the time.

The Bluefish are back from spawning early this year. Normally they are gone in August but this year there were gone in July. Heat? Even the babies [snappers] will tear your baits to pieces.

 

[The Best Holliday]

I feel crappy weather makes for better fishing.

Well today was a bright sunny day, and I had a bit of a longish hike to the river spot I wanted to fish.
Long short, landed 33 Smallies, lost 8 - none of any consequence sizewise. 3.5 hrs between 12 and 3:30 in the afternoon.
...but, I had caught about half the total number and decided to give topwater a go.
Was about to tie on a Pop-R then thought, why do I have this Dalton Special in here and never use it, so on it went. I was also thinking I wanted to give any larger fish something appealing - even though it was a river Smallie sized lure. 3rd cast I get a big hit and this fish starts peeling line in a dash for the middle of the river. 10 seconds, no jump - I don't think it's a Smallie. What could it be?...a Striper? it never breaks the surface and keeps taking line.
I work her in easy on my 6lb line and 6'6" medium action spinning gear. Shernuff - a nice Striper. I don't know - 5 lbs? I had one hook in this fish and it was bent out 90 degrees. I have no idea how it stayed on.
I unhook it which was easy, it falls into the water at my feet and lingers there like "duh fuck was that? Mom never said dis shit". Then swims gently away. I see one of these a year.

Nice day.