Bob La Londe
August 8th, 2004, 04:11 PM
For a fish story, I ran into three areas where fish were actively chasing
shad yesterday. In the third spot I nailed largemouth and smallmouth both
chasing, and saw lots of stripers breaking over on the shad in the
shallowest water... See the rest of this in the post. I saw a coupl good
fish chase shad through an area and then dive into small weedbed just off
shore along a point. I made a cast between the shore and the weedbed to
pick up one keeper LM. I jerked him out of the area as fast as I could and
made another cast to the same spot. Well, just a little too far. I hooked
it up on tte bank. Rather than motor over the area I decided to break off
and go get the bait later rather than distrub an obvious hot spot. After
tieing on another crank bait of a different design and making a couple casts
I worked around the far side of the weed bed to retrieve my crank bait which
was now floating out over the back end of the bed. I retrieved my crank
bait and switched back to it. It had already produced several keeper fish
and several good hits for the day. Just as I got it tied on I saw a good
size school of shad swim over the weed bed about half way between my boat
and the open water end of the weeds. Without even thinking I just knew I
needed to make a cast past the far end of the weed bed and bring it back
through the edge of the school of shad. As the crankbait came back past the
far end of the weed bed I coudl see something huge come off the end. My
excited eye estimated it as atleast two feet long. Might have been smaller.
At first it came straight towards me, but knew it was big. I maintained my
composure and calmly screamed at the top of my lungs, "Get the fricking net
its a big one!" At about twenty feet fromt he boat it decided to go in
another direction. My rod took every bit of its action down to maximum
deflection, and the drag started to scream. That fish left like there was
nothing pulling on it at all. I saw it head into the near end of the
weedbed so I let off on it a bit hoping it would ball up in the grass and
then just sit there while I repositioned the boat. It didn't happen that
way. There was a tree hidden in the grass. I tdove under the tree and
just kept going. I let it run hoping I could get the boat around the tree
and free up the line, but I couldn't get the rod far enough in the water to
get the line off the tree. I felt that fish stripping line like crazy until
it changed direction again and the line stopped moving. I tried pulling it
back, but it was tagnled up then. It wouldn't move and I could no longer
feel anything pulling back. I had to resign myself to losing it, and break
off.
I wish I had gotten a better look at it. It ran like a striper, just hard
pull dead away, but the way it came out of that weedbed it looked just like
a largemouth waitng to ambush prey. The water was a little murky, and
against the dark background of the weedbed it was hard to distinguish. I
just hop its not tether by a crank bait tied to that tree. It was only 8lb
fline so hopefully it will atleast break at the knot, but with those
rotating hooks I can just imagine that porr fish having its mouth stapled
shoot by the hooks on the bait.
If it was a striper I'ld guess it 5 or 6 pounds and healthy. I've caught
plenty of stripers on other lakes upto 12lbs so I feel plenty qualified to
judge them. I base that on its length and fight both. If it was a
largemouth, holly cow. It would be a personal best for sure. I'd have to
say it would go 7 or 8 atleast.
I'm betting ti was a striper since I saw several good size stripers withing
50 feet of that spot busting shad, but without putting it in the boat or
getting a good look at it I can't tell for sure. It seemed to be light in
color, but I have caught several largemouth in that area in the past that
were almost white.
--
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shad yesterday. In the third spot I nailed largemouth and smallmouth both
chasing, and saw lots of stripers breaking over on the shad in the
shallowest water... See the rest of this in the post. I saw a coupl good
fish chase shad through an area and then dive into small weedbed just off
shore along a point. I made a cast between the shore and the weedbed to
pick up one keeper LM. I jerked him out of the area as fast as I could and
made another cast to the same spot. Well, just a little too far. I hooked
it up on tte bank. Rather than motor over the area I decided to break off
and go get the bait later rather than distrub an obvious hot spot. After
tieing on another crank bait of a different design and making a couple casts
I worked around the far side of the weed bed to retrieve my crank bait which
was now floating out over the back end of the bed. I retrieved my crank
bait and switched back to it. It had already produced several keeper fish
and several good hits for the day. Just as I got it tied on I saw a good
size school of shad swim over the weed bed about half way between my boat
and the open water end of the weeds. Without even thinking I just knew I
needed to make a cast past the far end of the weed bed and bring it back
through the edge of the school of shad. As the crankbait came back past the
far end of the weed bed I coudl see something huge come off the end. My
excited eye estimated it as atleast two feet long. Might have been smaller.
At first it came straight towards me, but knew it was big. I maintained my
composure and calmly screamed at the top of my lungs, "Get the fricking net
its a big one!" At about twenty feet fromt he boat it decided to go in
another direction. My rod took every bit of its action down to maximum
deflection, and the drag started to scream. That fish left like there was
nothing pulling on it at all. I saw it head into the near end of the
weedbed so I let off on it a bit hoping it would ball up in the grass and
then just sit there while I repositioned the boat. It didn't happen that
way. There was a tree hidden in the grass. I tdove under the tree and
just kept going. I let it run hoping I could get the boat around the tree
and free up the line, but I couldn't get the rod far enough in the water to
get the line off the tree. I felt that fish stripping line like crazy until
it changed direction again and the line stopped moving. I tried pulling it
back, but it was tagnled up then. It wouldn't move and I could no longer
feel anything pulling back. I had to resign myself to losing it, and break
off.
I wish I had gotten a better look at it. It ran like a striper, just hard
pull dead away, but the way it came out of that weedbed it looked just like
a largemouth waitng to ambush prey. The water was a little murky, and
against the dark background of the weedbed it was hard to distinguish. I
just hop its not tether by a crank bait tied to that tree. It was only 8lb
fline so hopefully it will atleast break at the knot, but with those
rotating hooks I can just imagine that porr fish having its mouth stapled
shoot by the hooks on the bait.
If it was a striper I'ld guess it 5 or 6 pounds and healthy. I've caught
plenty of stripers on other lakes upto 12lbs so I feel plenty qualified to
judge them. I base that on its length and fight both. If it was a
largemouth, holly cow. It would be a personal best for sure. I'd have to
say it would go 7 or 8 atleast.
I'm betting ti was a striper since I saw several good size stripers withing
50 feet of that spot busting shad, but without putting it in the boat or
getting a good look at it I can't tell for sure. It seemed to be light in
color, but I have caught several largemouth in that area in the past that
were almost white.
--
** FREE Fishing Lures
** Weekly drawing
** Public Fishing and Boating Forums
** www.YumaBassMan.com