I ran to a local sporting goods store over my lunch hour yesterday to buy some "crank baits". After work, I thought I'd slide down to the pond to check out how the fish were biting. I started out with the Berkley Flicker Shad and was hammering smaller bass, even caught a couple huge bluegill.
I decided to work my way around the pond, changed to a Strike King Bitsy Minnow Baby Bass and tossed it next to one of the "fish structure" trees (second pic) I had dragged onto to the ice last January. The pond went into the winter low from last years drought and has filled nicely with this years monsoons.
The first cast landed perfectly next to the base of the log. I looked down at my spin casting reel and noticed a loop of line over the spool, so I stripped some line off by hand, figured I'd be able to cast further without the loop. I noticed that my line was moving, so started reeling to flip the bail and set the hook. Immediately, the fight was on, good fish. The way it was fighting, figured for sure it was a cat so I wasn't surprised when I finally got it to the bank.
A couple casts around the structure yielded some more small bass. I switched back to the Flicker Shad and headed for deeper water along the face of the dam. About the third cast, I hook a bass, reach for it with my left hand as I swing it up over land. As it goes by my hand, it shakes it's head and drives one of the treble hooks into the back of a finger. The little bass just hooked a 200 lb sucker.
The fish calmed down and stopped thrashing, but I'm in kind of a pickle with both of us hooked. I grabbed the hook that was in my finger with the needle nose pliers and gave a tug: didn't budge. Now I'm worried how much longer the fish is going to remain motionless. Luckily, I got the fish unhooked rather easily.
The hook in my finger was driven to the shank, with the barb sticking through the skin. Side cutters to nip the hook off at the base, then pulled the barb out the other way.
I was back down at the pond at 5 am this morning and the fish were biting good. Even caught a few with the two rear hook Flicker Shad. The gnats were biting as well. Even with bug spray on, they were so horrendous it wasn't even fun and I quit after only a half hour. I'm planning on giving it another try tonight with different bug spray.
200 lb'r
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Re: 200 lb'r
Ouch! Those gnats probably smelled blood.
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- Stanley
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Re: 200 lb'r
Not cool, getting hooked.
You can fool some of the bucks, all of the time, and fool all of the bucks, some of the time, however you certainly can't fool all of the bucks, all of the time.
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Re: 200 lb'r
Been there done that hook thing before. Not fun. Actually have done it three times after thinking about it.
I'm reason they call it hunting and not shooting.
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Re: 200 lb'r
Great read... I really like the flicker shads for walleye too. Get any pics of the gills, they sounded like dandies!
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Re: 200 lb'r
Singing Bridge wrote:Great read... I really like the flicker shads for walleye too. Get any pics of the gills, they sounded like dandies!
Here's a pic of one I caught last weekend on a jig. They are all "twins" so seen one, you've seen 'em all. I didn't bother to take pics of them last night or this morning. Maybe tonight.......
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Re: 200 lb'r
Went fishing from 7-8 pm tonight. It was 70° so I was able to wear a hoodie to keep the gnats off the back of my head/neck. I sprayed down my head first, put the hoodie up and sprayed it as well. It worked pretty good until the breeze died. That's when I quit.
I caught a 4 bass with the first 5 casts, then settled into about every third cast. I was using the Berkley Flicker Shad.
I took a picture of every bluegill I caught, except for one that got off the hook before I got it out of the water. Not a bad hour of fishing.
I caught a 4 bass with the first 5 casts, then settled into about every third cast. I was using the Berkley Flicker Shad.
I took a picture of every bluegill I caught, except for one that got off the hook before I got it out of the water. Not a bad hour of fishing.
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Re: 200 lb'r
That does not look like it felt good
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Re: 200 lb'r
Nice gills. You keep any for the pan or put them back?
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Re: 200 lb'r
Uncle Lou wrote:Nice gills. You keep any for the pan or put them back?
Catch and release on the gills, as they are my breeder/feeder fish.
I hope to get the bass and cat population in line so that I can knife some gills, as I love them breaded and fried!
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