Most improbable place you've ever caught a bass

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BloodyChamp
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Most improbable place you've ever caught a bass

Post by BloodyChamp »

The places about to be named, by me anyway, aren't necessarily improbable but I think that's how some people will get the point. Many people think that just because a place doesn't look like some bass lake that it doesn't have many bass in it. I kinda like it that way because it leaves my bass holes to myself lol but I also like to brag on the places that have been good to me, especially this day and age when any body of water that doesn't get talked about alot is considered expendable.

I've caught bass out of the upper St. Marks River jungle (my father caught an 8 and a 6 in 1 day when I was a child...yes it helped that I was raised up on this stuff), the upper Pinhook river, sinkholes, creeks, and just random backwater during floods like now.

I've caught bass out of upper, narrow portions of the Aucilla River and from some of the upper bayous that are considered Blackfish country. I think my favorite story though is the bass that I caught out of the pond on our property. It was always there but it wasn't a real pond or anything. It was just a low area that never had anything more than minnows in it and it dried up all the time. Meanwhile the swamp also on our land ultimately connects to the Aucilla River. My father had the pond dug out to look like a real pond and dug a creek out from the swamp...a mere 10 or 12 feet channel. I was completely against the idea because I thought it would kill the swamp but I've had to eat those words a million times. The swamp hasn't missed a beat and the only change has been our pecan orchard not flooding and getting all messed up and A POND FULL OF BASS LOL!!!!!! It's never been stocked. I've caught bass, catfish, bluebream, warmouth and specks (and a few blackfish :mrgreen: ) almost all the time now. My favorite kind of fishing is that type of fishing...way, way up rivers and in backwater and stuff.
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Re: Most improbable place you've ever caught a bass

Post by WannaDoDat »

I sure do love bass fishing. Wherever they be. :D

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Re: Most improbable place you've ever caught a bass

Post by GoodCall »

saw Waltdawg catch a 4# bass on the flats near the Econfina one day in between redfish. That was pretty shocking and improbable
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Re: Most improbable place you've ever caught a bass

Post by kikstand454 »

I have caught nice bass within sight of the Apalachicola bridge. By " in sight" I mean I could read the numbers on it. There are lots of bass in the St marks as far south as the East river mouth if you know where to look.

Like you, I spent many many days in my youth, fishing everything with water in it....looking for a bass. I've caught them in city ditches and even in a culvert box once. When I got older and more mobile, I would drive around the forest aimlessly....looking for a clear spot in the trees that indicated a pond of some sort.

My strangest? catch though .....wasn't a bass.....but one year, lost Creek in wakulla flooded up almost over the bridge. When the water had receeded a bit, I was going to a buddies house back off govt road and the road was a flowing Creek.......I hopped out and waded around with a rod, and soon caught a jack ( pickeral) right in the middle of the road. Lol.
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Re: Most improbable place you've ever caught a bass

Post by BloodyChamp »

I was actually mullet fishing 1 day on the Aucilla River mouth and saw a 10 lb bass jump out of the water. I grabbed my bass pole so quick lol! I didn't catch the monster but I caught atleast 20 normal sized ones...1 after the other until dark. Granted that wasn't the straight flats but it was pretty close and I haven't repeated that feat after trying again many times. The fish were just crazy that day. My sister did catch a big bass while Redfishing on the flats, and my friend told stories of people catching bass on live shrimp and cursing out loud about it when he lived in Yankeetown.

There is 1 certain kind of Pickerel that lives almost exclusively in creeks and swamps iirc. I found a live 1 in the road last summer. He was scratched up but alive so I guess a bird dropped him???

It's to bad seeing this and that doesn't count because I've "seen" a ton of fish in improbable places lol! Ugh...if you only knew the 10 lb bass I've seen and the places I've seen them. They don't survive by being dumb I guess.

Meanwhile way, way down the Wacissa River I've seen Sheephead and Blue Crab. I first saw this enormous Sheephead 1 day that was so huge I thought maybe he'd just swam up there to die (similar to the Dolphin that they found that time). Then a little while later I saw several normal sized ones and Blue Crabs. I couldn't believe it *but* it's not that far fetched if you consider just how close you're getting to the Aucilla mouth at that point. I told 1 of the few people I know who also goes that far down river (the lower Wacissa is very undisturbed) and he laughed and told me he was down there gigging mullet back when it was legal and ended up gigging a Flounder.
Last edited by BloodyChamp on Tue Apr 19, 2016 3:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Most improbable place you've ever caught a bass

Post by BloodyChamp »

And GoodCall my other friend caught a fat Redbreast at Hickory Mound (Econfina). That I'd never seen or even heard tales of but that happened that day...threw it in the cooler with the Trout lol!
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Re: Most improbable place you've ever caught a bass

Post by GoodCall »

cool stories! hope others share more as well!
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Re: Most improbable place you've ever caught a bass

Post by JPVERN »

Not necessarily an improbable place, but timing and expectation was that I never expected to catch one.
When I was 12 years old, fishing a lake in central Georgia (Lake Juliette), it was hot and my dad put me and my brother out on an island to cool off because we were restless in the little boat, while he and my oldest brother went to catch some bream in the back cove (this was common because I was hyper as a kid)... :20
So being bored out of my mind I was standing in knee deep water, throwing a Rebel broken back lure. I would throw it out, yank it back and pretend I had a fish because it was stuck in the weeds that were grown to the surface of the water. The water was at most 4 ft deep for 100ft around that island.
After a good 20 minutes of this nonsense, I yanked back one time only to feel "the pretend bass" pulling back really hard.
Of coarse they didn't believe me and just laughed at my excitement, until they saw a huge swell and the water break.
That largemouth bass, 8lb 6oz, hangs on my wall to this day. I am now 43yrs old.
It's a memory I'll take with me forever.
Whether it be with weapon or wits, an armed man defeats an unarmed man with monotonous regularity.
SO MOTE IT BE
BloodyChamp
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Re: Most improbable place you've ever caught a bass

Post by BloodyChamp »

My biggest bass also came off the bank :A1

My boat was at the welder so I went sinkhole bank fishing one day and on my last stop I was just hoping to leave with 10 bream. The drought was on and fishing was tough without a boat, especially in sinkholes of all places. I hooked onto a nice bream and when I got in to my feet something went WHOOSH right at it. It was a ginormous bass! I ran all the way back to the truck for the baitcaster and ended up with an 8 lb bass and what I would say was a 6 lb bass (let him go). I don't usually keep native bass that size but I hadn't caught 1 that big in so long, plus I didn't even have enough bream. I've kept maybe 4 bass since and they were just keeping size. Also, while this also proves my ethical nature in spite of keeping that bass, it's also the coolest part of the story - I went around the bend to the easiest place to release the other bass and what I saw I will never forget. It was a mass of 20 or so giant bass. I wouldn't doubt that some 15 pounders were out there. The smallest ones were 6 or 7 lbs easy. It was tempting but I left them alone and took my 1 nice bass and few bream home.
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Re: Most improbable place you've ever caught a bass

Post by BloodyChamp »

I was actually referring to the upper St Marks as in above the entire mouth...way, way, way up the river towards Horn Spring where it first turns into a riverbed. I've never been to the mouth of the St. Marks :cry:

I have been above Horn Spring believe it or not. There are some tasty Warmouth Perch in that tree filled part of the river. I haven't pulled a bass out of there yet but I saw something huge take off when I was bream/perch fishing last year. It was to fast and apparently to smart to be a trash fish. I bet it was a bass. Also when you consider the whole Lake Miccosukee and Lafayette connection, surely a bass or 2 made it downstream into the jungle.
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Re: Most improbable place you've ever caught a bass

Post by BloodyChamp »

Saw a bass jump 5 or 6 times at a frog today on the upper, jet black colored Aucilla River. The frog was going across the river and the bass finally got him at the opposite bank. That was pretty cool...I obviously threw over there but didn't have any luck. Bass were striking everywhere but I only caught 1 small 1 while bream fishing with a Rapala.
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Re: Most improbable place you've ever caught a bass

Post by garydroze »

Wanted to see how close to my house I could catch a bass. I live just north of the Tallahassee Mall (now being renovated as "The Centre."). Between my house and the mall is a little drainage creek. Crawled through a hole in the fence, then got on my knees and "bow & arrow" casted a beetle spin into a bend in the creek. Caught/released a couple 11 inchers in there. Made me feel like a kid again!
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Re: Most improbable place you've ever caught a bass

Post by BloodyChamp »

I know that feeling!!!!!!!! My guess is those bass came from Lake Jackson. My distant second guess is the St Marks River which is massively flooded.
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Re: Most improbable place you've ever caught a bass

Post by BackCast »

The most improbable place I ever caught a bass was undoubtedly the watering trough on the farm where I grew up. When I was 4 or 5 years old I had developed a love for fishing but my folks thought I was too young to go fishing on my own. Since my dad and grandad had limited time to take me, I kept a couple of bass and about 4 bluegill and "stocked" the 4' x 6' concrete cattle trough. When I wanted to fish and there was nobody to take me, I'd gather worms from the shade behind the garage (that's a story in it's own) and head for the old trough. That's also where I learned about catch and release. Without that I'm afraid the fishery would have soon become depleted.
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Re: Most improbable place you've ever caught a bass

Post by Noles »

Good stuff, BackCast.
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