By Sunday I am a mess. The twisted ankle kept me sidelined on Saturday. The beer review (albeit adventurous) was not enough to pacify my casting jones. The shorter days mean that the warm water season is fading. Soon the landscape will be covered with snow and the bass casting action will turn gruelingly tough at best. The ankle wasn’t cliff-dive ready so I hit a local pond to burn some mono.
Working the accessible areas of the lake I only manage to come up with one dinker bass in the 8-inch class. Half the lake is no access with a long cattail section in the back. Strip off the swimbait and load up the fantastic plastic in the 6-inch Senko flavor. The low profile and weight is just enough to reach the cattail section.
One heavy cast and “ploooomp”, into the water. The swimbait (and a lot of other lures) would have made an enormous splash from this distance as where the stickbait will often make a tiny pin drop of a splash. Manage some line slack and wait a few seconds for the lure to sink. Then a soft bump is felt on the line. It was as if I had been waiting for this bump my whole life. Before the third bump my arm swung burying a quick hookset. The rod bent a little at first and then doubled over fiercely with the drag singing.
The shorebang fish battle was at hand. Fighting fish from shore can be far more difficult than from watercraft. The angler is forced to close the distance from the bank bringing the fish up, over and sometimes through any obstacles. As the fish surfaced I could only see a portion of it but the fish still looked big and green.
“Oh please…hold on, baby!”
Moments later the fish submitted to the shallow water near my feet and was in hand. I dare say it has been a while since I wanted to see a big lunker bucketmouth this badly. The ankle never gave me a second thought. Thanks to all who shared their concern. You folks are the best!!!
My name is Matt and I’m a fishaholic.
5 comments:
Glad to see you are not on "Injured Reserve" and can still get out and tough it out with the Bigmouth's. Adrenalin is an amazing thing isn't it!
It takes more than a bum ankle to keep you from your sport. I bet you could catch a mega-bucket in a full body cast!
Excellent! My brother showed me some of your awesome bass ponds. I caught some nice bucketmouths. I can't wait to go back.
In the meantime, I have to find some similar waters here at home.
Glad to know the ankle is healing and what better medicine than to land a pig like that---brings back the days I used to go solely after bass with the casting rigs, now the fly rod takes up most of my fishing time. Great Post.
@ Kim Gibson: That would make the best youtube video ever!!! Awesome comments like these only encourage me…but yes, I would at least try to fish in a full body cast.
MNAngler: Eggzaktlee!!! I fish those ponds (just commented on your blog about the trip) a few times a year. Not too shabby! Excellent write up! Good to see Colorado water treating you well.
@Mel: It wouldn’t be so bad if the ground didn’t hate me. Rocks roll underneath my feet, holes appear out of nowhere and sometimes sections of ground will completely move underneath my body. I move slower every year…that helps actually.
Thanks, Bill! I like to mix things up a bit and do little bit of everything. Winter is coming up so who knows, I might even ice fish.
Love the comments, folks. I encourage comments on these actual fishing posts too. Ha ha
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