cjgentile13

The pictures were the only reason I kept reading this thread haha..

Mighty impressive catch there.

Envious… I've had one somewhat similar day this year and man, nothing beats the thrill of hitting big one after big one. Congrats.

Wow, beautiful fish.

Personally, I like D… Being a bunch of oafs and proud of it though makes for an interesting conversation starter, so C as a runner up.

6lb Yozuri hybrid line.. Had no intentions to run into him clearly. He was really larthargic when I pulled him in, it was mainly the resistance of his bill as he pulled his head down.

Gar bite on anything you throw... Soft plastics, jerk baits you name it those nasty suckers bite.

The bass in my picture was taken from Mallard. At the end of summer when I went out in the morning's I was hot on bluegill as well. Hadn't caught a single one until about July though. Never caught a crappie there.

I've been trying to post a picture of him but it's saying the I'm not allowed to whenever I upload the image

Caught him with a single hook soft body minnow right on the tip of the bill.. Maybe Four feet? Right when you cross over the part that takes in the flooding from the Meramac.

Two weeks ago (give or take). I wouldn't be surprised if it were the same one when I tried releasing him he didn't go far. Unger still had some iced over water in spots. Its sad, he was a hell of a good looking fish.

Tons of luck at Lake Mallard - most bass are between 10-13 but a handful of 4lb+ (never did very well on Creve Ceour), some nice bass at Simpson, caught a huge paddlefish out of Unger the other day (snagged on a soft body minnow jig) but to the reason why I am actually writing - Where is Fire Lake? I wanna get out tomorrow and looking to try some new things.

Beautiful bronze back!

I have done much better at Mallard (the smaller lake attached by the canal). The side opposite of the Lake Shore Diner is money - the entire stretch. Like you said it's very shallow, but in the early morning top water lures will do a killing on both bass and blue gill (original floating raps 1 1/2"). There is an abundance of fallen trees and under water structures to provide shelter and an ambush point. When there done biting on top throw some texas rigged culprits in there or even a zoom pumpkin seed lizard. I've pulled out quite a few lunkers (4lb+) but a lot in the 10-15" range. Tons of gar and carp - seen a few people pull out some cats and drum as well. My profile picture was taken at Lake Mallard.

Reading posts dating back years has been really helpful. There are many lakes that people have said to be good gems in the past - many of them still are. Public notification though has given the impression that these are holes frequently fished and hard to be successful on. However I have found a lot of good public water from scouring these forums, many of which have produced very nice fish.