My Day Fishing

The kids are on Easter vacation right now, which means I don't have to take anyone to school in the morning. And if I don't have to take anyone to school in the morning, that means I can hit the road early and get some fishing in before going to work which is what I did yesterday.

I left the house at about 6am and got to the lake at 7:30. Within 15 minutes I had my first bass. As I was retrieving the hook from it's mouth, a man walking his dog commented on the fish. I asked him if he would mind taking a picture for me. He was a bit straggly and didn't seem like someone who was familiar with cellphone cameras. He agreed to take the picture and left a little bit of himself for me to remember him by (getting a good shot of his own finger).

• First actual bite in weeks
• First night-catch at Harveston
• First catch on a drop shot
• First catch on Flourocarbon line
• First fish on my new YUM purple worms

The other day when I took the kids to Bass Pro Shop to do some trout fishing I picked up a few things, one of them being a lipless crank bait. I had seen them before lots of times but was hesitant to buy one because those treble hooks are so exposed. I figured I'd get snagged on everything since most of the places I fish aren't more than maybe 15 feet deep. But I had watched an episode of Classic Patterns where a guy was using a red lipless crank. He would lift his rod, then reel down as the bait would drop, then repeat. Doing that over and over, he said that for some reason it made the fish think that little, red, fish-shaped bait was a craw. So, when I saw that same kind of bait at Bass Pro that day I figured I'd give it a shot. Plus, it was only $3, so I didn't have much to lose.

Well, I was right. I went to Harveston today and tied that bait on. And those big treble hooks proceeded to drag up all kinds of stuff off the bottom of that lake. I had to make sure I was really working that retrieval method well to keep it from dragging the bottom.

I moved into what I figured would be the last spot I would try for the day and wouldn't you know it? I got that thing snagged on a rock. "NO!" Man, I like that crank. I don't want to lose it! So I start walking a little to try to free it up and luckily was able to work it free. Yes!

It's starting to get late and I figured I give it one last cast. And wouldn't you know it AGAIN? I got snagged.

Except, this time I snagged a 10 pound catfish!

I felt my bait strike something and as I was about get frustrated, in that split second my entire rod bent completely in half. I thought, "That's not normal for a rock!" Then my line started singing right off of my reel, and I started having delusions of grandeur. As I starting fighting this thing, I was picturing a big 10 pound LMB come flying out of the water doing a headshake, but it never did come up. I fought that thing long enough to attract a crowd and started to realize this probably wasn't a bass.

As I got it close to the bank a lady said, "You caught it by the tail!?!? Isn't that backwards??" I had snagged this great big catfish with 2 hooks from one of the trebles. One hook was through the tail and the other was through the skin just above the tail.

Everyone was chattering all over the place.

"That's a really big fish!!"

"Wow! Maybe I WILL come fishing here."

"I didn't know there were fish that big in this lake."

"You didn't even bring a net????"

This last comment was directed to me as I was reaching for my pliers. I couldn't get a good hold on him, so I figured I'd just grab the hooks with the pliers and release him straight back into the lake without picking him up.

I got the first hook out of his skin. Then I reached for my camera before removing the second hook. I figured I'd at least get a picture of him hanging 1/2 in the water before releasing him. He must have caught a second wind right then because he jerked himself right out of my grip.

With one hook still in him he took off like lightning towards the deep water. I reached for my rod, and as he reached the end of the initial slack he already had enough momentum. He snapped my line (12 pound test) like it was a blade of grass, and I watched him speed off into the deep with my beautiful lipless crank swimming along behind him ... still stuck in his tail.

I knew I'd get that bait snagged and end up losing it!

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This morning I had to watch my youngest son for a few hours while Mom went to a meeting, so I offered to take him fishing for a little while and he thought that was a good idea. So we ran an errand then headed over to the little pond.

We picked a spot, laid a towel down so that we wouldn't sit in duck poop, and I put a little power worm and bobber on his line.

It was a fun time and I realized I could keep him interested longer if I went ahead and cast his line out and let him just start reeling. When he'd get the line all the way in, I'd say, "Ah! We missed him!" That seemed to keep him more interested than casting out and telling him to wait for a bite.

On Saturday I took my two youngest kids to Bass Pro because SARL was there sponsoring a kids C&R trout pond. With kids that young, if you're going to take them fishing, you have to take them to a place where they are sure to get a bite. The fishing has been slow by kids' standards at all the local ponds and lakes, so I figured this would be a good chance to at least put a fish on their lines, and that's about all it turned out to be. In order to manage the number of people there, Bass Pro had employees out at the pond doing all the baiting, casting, and hook-setting for the kids. Once a fish was already on the line, then the rod was handed to the child and they had a chance to reel the fish in ... that is, if the employee didn't just pull the fish straight out of the water first. So, it wasn't exactly what I was hoping for, but the kids had fun anyway and that was the important part. The nice thing was that since it was the last weekend of the event, they were letting the kids keep the fish, so my little ones brought home their first trout and we cooked 'em up for dinner last night.

I found out that one of the lakes that I frequent is open late into the evening, which is nice for those times when I'm busy all day and don't get a chance to get out .... like today. So this evening after dinner I headed over there and did some night fishing. It's been pretty cold lately, so I didn't think I'd have too much luck. But the weather is supposed to start warming up through next week. From everything I hear and read, bass start becoming more active around this time as Winter starts to give way to Spring. I'm hoping to see some of that next week and I think I saw some signs of it tonight.

For the most part it was pretty quiet at the lake. I did get one bite, but he was gone when I tried to set the hook. But not long after that I saw a fish hit the surface pretty hard at about the midway point between the bank and the deep part of the lake. So I'm thinking that if I'm actually seeing a bass hitting the surface at night even though the day was still pretty cold, then maybe they really will start to wake up a bit.

When I saw him surface like that, I did switch my bait and actually tried throwing a top water lure at him, but didn't have any luck with that. Hopefully they'll start hitting those pretty soon.

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Headed over to Harveston yesterday. I was suprised by how clear the water was. I could see so much more than usual, but I still didn't see any fish. It was a cold day and the past couple of days have been cold, so I didn't expect to see any fish close to the bank. I fished for a little while, then decided to take this opportunity, with the clarity of the water, to just walk the lake and study the contour of the lake floor and look for structure.

As I came around the other side of the lake near the playground I noticed a clump of branches that were all tangled together with fishing line, which isn't unusual to find, but this one was moving. As I got up close I saw that it wasn't just branches. There was a turtle caught in the line.

We headed out to the lake today during lunch. I wacky rigged a worm and tossed it out, but while I was working that first cast I noticed a LMB right next to the bank about 20 feet down from where I was. As I was reeling in he moved up right next to the rocks where I couldn't see him anymore. I pitched my bait right to where he was but about a foot and half out. I watched as the bait started to sink and out he came to check it out. With no hesitation, he picked it up and started heading for deeper water. I set the hook and landed my first bass via site-fishing.

So, I headed over to the pond this evening. There were a lot of other guys there fishing. I started with a drop shot minnow but wasn't getting any bites (as usual). I figured I'd try a different bait. I remembered that last time I was there I had seen several bluegill spawning beds, so I thought I might give that same little swim bait a try that worked for me last week at RSM.

It Worked!!!

FINALLY!!!!

Now, I thought the other little one was ambitious for going after a bait that was fairly large compared to his own size, but this LMB was much smaller and he still went after that bait. That is down right Bold.

And of course, I forgot my cell phone at home, so I don't have a picture of him. He was little guy, not more than 1/2 or 3/4 of a pound. But since he was my first catch at this pond, he was Beautiful.

So, there you have it. After fishing that pond for over 2 months without a single bite, I finally got one today. The Bold and the Beautiful.

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