I neglected to post this the other weekend. Went deer hunting on our far far southern IL family land. Got my deer after only being in the tree for about an hour so that meant I had the rest of the weekend to fish.
We have two large stocked ponds, and we are the only ones that get to fish them throughout the year so it's generally like fishing in an aquarium. Makes you feel like a genius when you pull in a fish every other cast.


The highlight was a 19" 4.0lb LMB.





I also caught this smaller guy that had a mean battle damage scar from what I assume is some kind of water bird.



All the bass had very pronounced red upper lips. Not sure if that's from eating something specific like crayfish, or something else pond specific.

Nice.

The ponds I fished the other week, the bass had those same markings in their mouth. I assumed from rummaging around on the bottom eating things. So I put on a YUM crayfish and promptly lost two fish cause I don't know how to set a hook.

Congrats on the deer. I have a few pounds of venison in the freezer and a cool chili recipe from Field and Stream to try out. It calls for 5 different kinds of peppers, a bottle of Guiness and a huge variety of other things. When I feel like typing it all, I'll put it up here.