robday1211
08-20-2011, 12:45 PM
I decided to leave the rivers alone today and head out on one of the nearby ponds here on the base... Things did not start off well. I got to my launch point early - around 0600hrs - way before the sun ever came up. I was so eager to get the boat out on the water that after I launched, I remembered I left my tackle sleeve in the back of the truck. Man, was I excited to be out on the pond before sun-up... I thought that if I could start slinging my topwater baits early, I knew I would have some early morning action !
There were fish breaking the surface all around me, driving me crazy... although I couldn't tell what they were (bass, bream, crappie, whatever else) I could hear them teasing me about every 10-15 seconds and NOTHING was hitting my topwater... not the pop-r, not the buzzbait, not even my hula popper !!! I finally got discouraged and decided to tie on one of my favorite plastic worms. I rigged a tomatoe colored 7.5in culprit on my medium spinning rod with a drop shot weight; tied the drop shot on the end of the line and used an offset 2/0 worm hook about 8in above it tied with a palomar knot... since these culprit worms seem to float, this set-up has a nice inverted action when tied with the dropshot.
Second cast & WHAM, line starts running away from me... I feel the weight of the fish once all the slack is out of the line and I lean back to set the hook, but the worm breaks in half just below the burried hook. hmmmm, that tells me that the fish didn't have the whole thing in his mouth, just the back end.
another hour later and no follow-up bites at all... by now, its little after 9am & I'm starting to get frustrated... pond fishing is only good (at least around here) in the early morning and late evening, so I knew I was running out of time... I decided to try the topwater bite again now that the sun was up , but not so high overhead that there wasn't any shady areas.
I paddled behind this little island in the middle of this pond where I heard the fish breaking the surface earlier in the morning... this time I was armed with my favorite frog bait (Strike King poppin' frog). 2nd long cast away from the kayak and I start popping the frog along a weedline and POOF ! the bait disappears from the surface. I didn't know if it was a fish or if my stroke had caught the trailer hook on some vegitation below, but then the tell-tail sign of a fish-on... line running away from me !!! I snapped my 7ft baitcaster rod back swiftly and what do you know, nice first bass of the morning...
http://riverbassin.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=3720
I could see as the fish came up that he hadn't sucked it down very far, in fact, I could see that he was BARELY hooked at all in the right corner of the mouth, so I had to play him to the boat extra-carefull. I got him in my net and took some photos before sending him back of into the murky deep.
http://riverbassin.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=3719
http://riverbassin.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=3718
So now I think I've figured out what the fish are interested in later in the morning... I continued around the corner of the same island where there's a posted fish-feeder and make a couple of casts towards it. 3rd cast, same thing happens as before - there's a blowup on my frog but can't tell if they took it down...
So, I draw the line up and feel some muscle at the other end so WHAM! set the hook, but the weight doesn't move for about 5seconds, then just ambles on away from the boat. So i'm thinking what the heck - I just set the hook on you, fish, you'r suppose to fight now! and started reeling in.... well, then this big momma knows what's up and decides to start pulling me around the lake. she flashes on the surface a couple of times and I know that I've got a good one one the line, maybe 4+. I start to literally tremble when I see that she's a big-un. Once again though, I can see that the frog is on the outside of her mouth and that she's barely stuck in what looks like the tongue so I have to play her smooth, but she's pulling really hard so I loosen the drag on my baitcaster to give her some space... She finally tires out and comes up to the surface, but with my rod in my left hand, net in the right and the fish on the starboard side of the boat, I can see that she might not fit in the net !!!!
I get her big ol' head in there, but her tail is stickin straight out and flapping hard to tried to break through the mesh. in all the commotion, she throws the hook but I am able to lift the net into the boat and secure the tail before she starts flapping any more. So no I'm in the middle of the lake with a monster bass & make a b-line for the nearest shoreline so I can jump out and get pictures... here they are, enjoy!
http://riverbassin.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=3729
http://riverbassin.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=3728
http://riverbassin.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=3727
http://riverbassin.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=3726
http://riverbassin.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=3725
http://riverbassin.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=3724
http://riverbassin.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=3723
This is my 3rd fish this year of 5lbs+... I think I should get a bigger net !
Tight Lines !
There were fish breaking the surface all around me, driving me crazy... although I couldn't tell what they were (bass, bream, crappie, whatever else) I could hear them teasing me about every 10-15 seconds and NOTHING was hitting my topwater... not the pop-r, not the buzzbait, not even my hula popper !!! I finally got discouraged and decided to tie on one of my favorite plastic worms. I rigged a tomatoe colored 7.5in culprit on my medium spinning rod with a drop shot weight; tied the drop shot on the end of the line and used an offset 2/0 worm hook about 8in above it tied with a palomar knot... since these culprit worms seem to float, this set-up has a nice inverted action when tied with the dropshot.
Second cast & WHAM, line starts running away from me... I feel the weight of the fish once all the slack is out of the line and I lean back to set the hook, but the worm breaks in half just below the burried hook. hmmmm, that tells me that the fish didn't have the whole thing in his mouth, just the back end.
another hour later and no follow-up bites at all... by now, its little after 9am & I'm starting to get frustrated... pond fishing is only good (at least around here) in the early morning and late evening, so I knew I was running out of time... I decided to try the topwater bite again now that the sun was up , but not so high overhead that there wasn't any shady areas.
I paddled behind this little island in the middle of this pond where I heard the fish breaking the surface earlier in the morning... this time I was armed with my favorite frog bait (Strike King poppin' frog). 2nd long cast away from the kayak and I start popping the frog along a weedline and POOF ! the bait disappears from the surface. I didn't know if it was a fish or if my stroke had caught the trailer hook on some vegitation below, but then the tell-tail sign of a fish-on... line running away from me !!! I snapped my 7ft baitcaster rod back swiftly and what do you know, nice first bass of the morning...
http://riverbassin.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=3720
I could see as the fish came up that he hadn't sucked it down very far, in fact, I could see that he was BARELY hooked at all in the right corner of the mouth, so I had to play him to the boat extra-carefull. I got him in my net and took some photos before sending him back of into the murky deep.
http://riverbassin.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=3719
http://riverbassin.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=3718
So now I think I've figured out what the fish are interested in later in the morning... I continued around the corner of the same island where there's a posted fish-feeder and make a couple of casts towards it. 3rd cast, same thing happens as before - there's a blowup on my frog but can't tell if they took it down...
So, I draw the line up and feel some muscle at the other end so WHAM! set the hook, but the weight doesn't move for about 5seconds, then just ambles on away from the boat. So i'm thinking what the heck - I just set the hook on you, fish, you'r suppose to fight now! and started reeling in.... well, then this big momma knows what's up and decides to start pulling me around the lake. she flashes on the surface a couple of times and I know that I've got a good one one the line, maybe 4+. I start to literally tremble when I see that she's a big-un. Once again though, I can see that the frog is on the outside of her mouth and that she's barely stuck in what looks like the tongue so I have to play her smooth, but she's pulling really hard so I loosen the drag on my baitcaster to give her some space... She finally tires out and comes up to the surface, but with my rod in my left hand, net in the right and the fish on the starboard side of the boat, I can see that she might not fit in the net !!!!
I get her big ol' head in there, but her tail is stickin straight out and flapping hard to tried to break through the mesh. in all the commotion, she throws the hook but I am able to lift the net into the boat and secure the tail before she starts flapping any more. So no I'm in the middle of the lake with a monster bass & make a b-line for the nearest shoreline so I can jump out and get pictures... here they are, enjoy!
http://riverbassin.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=3729
http://riverbassin.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=3728
http://riverbassin.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=3727
http://riverbassin.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=3726
http://riverbassin.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=3725
http://riverbassin.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=3724
http://riverbassin.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=3723
This is my 3rd fish this year of 5lbs+... I think I should get a bigger net !
Tight Lines !