Thank you for the crucial update my inbox runneth over with love... Now, umm...many of you have been calling and writing asking if I've been up to the Big Res this year, and until today the answer was no. But yesterday I had decided to go up today and after picking up the fishing pards new peddle kayak last night, I set up my gear and set out early afternoon, in spite of a fierce hangover and the crappy Canada fire air quality, on the long trek to the golden shores of that venerated reservoir.
. I had tied on a vintage Spit n Image topwater lure in the rare pumpkinseed sunny pattern and started working it deliberately over those submerged boulders and shoals I know so well.
. 4 hrs of amazing no stop action, I believe aided by the haze - 20 beautiful Smallies landed in 4 hrs, many 2-2 1/2 lbers (5 others got off the hook). Hard fighters, leapers and tail-walkers. Another awesome day at the Big Res.
.. Sorry bout the no pictures.
You very well know that all of my stories are entirely true.
Neither do I weave them of pure waters. They really happen just as I report them.
Have you eaten 300 bass so far this year?.. It's been quite a successful year to this point. I'm approaching 300 Bass caught over a month earlier than last year. Having fished for as long as I have it's rare to have an experience unlike never had before - but today was one of those days, never before have I caught and released a Bass this way.
I was fishing a topwater bait that I have had very good results with at this time of year. It's a bait that closely enough mimics a dragonfly in distress upon the water's surface. In these summer months you may witness Bass coming out of the water like missiles in an attempt to snag a dragonfly on the wing. I have no idea what the success rate is but apparently them insects are tasty and nutritious or why expend all of that energy trying to catch them. So today I have on a black shore minnow color and had caught one Largemouth already when I get another strike. I pause to feel the weight of the fish, then set the hook - the line gives way (bad knot, weak line?). 15 minutes this fish is jumping trying to throw that hook. I feel like shit when that sort of thing happens - not so much for the lose of lure but that the fish is stuck with that lure in its mouth. Eventually, I see what I initially think is the lure resting on the surface and think Yay the fish threw it and I start trying to snag it with another topwater lure. Then I realize, no, it's the fish I see resting there. Continued efforts to hook it up fail, but it is slowly drifting to a rocky outcrop where the water is shallow enough to wade out an secure it....which is just what I did. At one point the fish started to swim off as I yelled (softly) "no no fishy, do not swim away or I can not rescue you from certain death!" The fish seemingly understood and floated gently back to the surface where I collected it, removed the lure, and released it - it eventually recovered its wind and swam off. What a wonderfully happy ending to what might have been a tragic tale.
I have not eaten any Bass so far this year.
Oh, wow. And you've given them PTSD. Cheerily.
Of course not. I'm not trying to be a butthead. I'm just wondering why you catch so many if you throw them all back. And, yes, I do also know catch and release is better than eating them all. I'm just curious.
I'm a fisherman, Lotus. Fisherman do fisherman things.
Why Bass over Trout? Please be as salient as possible.
trout are wily critters
I suppose that I grew up on a Bass lake, and there were no nearby trout streams.
LoLz - pound for pound, no freshwater fish fights like a Smallmouth Bass. Largemouth second.
I love river and stream fishing too. I have the beautiful Lenapehanna in my (so to speak) backyard, and a number of excellent trout streams/creeks etc nearby. I wet wade them, shore fish. I love climbing on rocky banks, and getting in the water. It too is a skill to develop.
