Your 2014 season.

[keithdog]

How was it? From what I read in various posts from this site and others, the 2014 season was tough for most of us. As for me, I caught quite a few bass, but the majority were dinks. They averaged 10-13 inches for the most part, with many that could have been mistaken for a cigar. I can probably count on two hands the number of bass I caught that were "legal" size here in Indiana. I am not sure why this was the case. I am convinced though that the past severe winter had something to do with it. I did catch this pig in September and it gave me proof there was still a decent size bass around. And now I can't wait till ice out in the spring to get back on the water! So how did YOU do?

[nobass]

mine started out great at dale. then went south in a hurry. fished new lake. most of year. with learning the lake and high bait fish popullation was really hard. but then no one was killing them around here this year

[WatterBoy]

Keith, here is more info than you want to know.

We had another FANTASTIC year of fishing on the lake our cabin is on, arguably the best year of the 6 years we've owned our cabin. Counting Kaye and me, a total of 41 different people caught at least one fish while staying at our cabin this year (compared to 45 last year). Total fish caught was an all-time high at 1,754, which is a nice increase from last year's record of 1,426. Largemouth Bass (1,027), Rock Bass (383) and Smallmouth Bass (159) led the way. All of those totals were one-year species record highs. We also track Northern Pike (63), Silver Pike (3 - new record), Perch (18), Walleye (19) and Crappie (82 - new record), but they are not usually targeted except a few times when some of Kaye's family like to go after Walleye and Crappie.

Since I am the "guide", I do way more fishing than anyone else and caught my highest total number of fish ever at 839, beating my previous best of 685 from last year.

3 pounds and up is kind of our cutoff for a "noteworthy" fish (sorry if that's tiny to you guys from warmer parts ) and we caught 3+ pound Largemouth at an all-time high rate of 8.1% this year. Not sure what happened there since last year was only at 3.4%. 3+ pound Smallies came in at an all-time low of 18.9%, but I'm pretty sure that's because the population is growing and there are many in the 2-3 pound range now.

I didn't catch a single bass on a spinnerbait or crankbait this year, which is crazy, I guess. I don't use them very often (obviously), but that's probably no surprise to any of you who have read my posts in the past. After having caught 62.5% and 62.1% of my bass on a "Zoomie" (Zoom Speed Worm with the tail pinched off) the last two years, I went even more overboard (pun intended) with them this year by catching 88.4% of my bass on them. Obviously, that's function of using them almost exclusively this year.

[Thornback]

So far this year I believe it to be an average year. I don't keep records. I fished mostly shiners but did go a few times and use artificials. Best trip was 48 bass in the boat with the largest at 8.1. Best trip with plastic worms and plastic frogs was 4 with the largest around 3 pounds.

[mikechell]

2014 isn't over, yet ... by about 10 fishing days for me. I hope to be on the water once a weekend, a couple times over the Thanksgiving weekend and 5 or more times during Christmas break.
But to date, I shouldn't even be posting here, since my fly fishing produced hundreds of sunfish in multiple species. I probably caught a bass for every 5 sunfish. One bass out of 10 was over a pound ... and one out of 10 of those was over 2. I only caught one bass over 5 pounds, barely.

On conventional gear, I fished a few times, mostly going with someone else who didn't fly fish. I took a couple of bass over 5 pounds, but nothing over 6. Since my memory sucks, I can honestly say I don't remember getting skunked this year. I would estimate my catch rate averaged out to one an hour for the year.

[mikechell]

Still having problems locating big fish this winter. Last two trips out, 27th and the 29th ... I got a couple of small ones.
Got real close to some fly tying material, too ... but failed to harvest any.

[nofearengineer]

Mine was very dry.

2015's gonna be different!

[bassfisher]

I caught my smallest largemouth bass last year, about 4" on a rooster tail while rainbow trout fishing. I had my normal year for Kentucky, mostly 12 to 18", and a few smallmouth 10 to 15". Put them all back FYI.

[bassfisher]

I can't believe I forgot to tell you all about my two first last year. My first largemouth bass on a frog, it was right at 14". And my freakiest catch of the year, was a very large bullfrog while fishing the same frog about 30 yards from where I caught the 14" bass. This darn frog keep chasing my frog and kept jumping on it, until I finally caught it. We had another, larger frog that we saw swim away after awhile trying to catch that frog. This was on Corinth Lake in Kentucky, the lake we go to for large bluegill and catfish. They stock that lake with farm raised catfish, throughout the year as needed.