Bass smorgasbord
 

The water on my favorite fishing hole, Lake Monkey Business, is up
over 80 degrees. The bass have long since spawned and, I thought,
moved off to deeper water. Deeper water in this case is nine feet.

I got on the water at daylight Sunday morning and started throwing a
spinnerbait while heading for the deeper water. Within a dozen casts
I had caught a small bass in about 1 foot of water. About that time I
heard a bass busting minnows of some sort in the open water. I picked
up a spinning rod with an X-Rap, cast in the direction of the school
of minnows and picked up another bass.

I figured I would keep on fishing the banks until the sun got up and
moved the fish back into deeper water. I started casting a jerk bait,
a Redfin, and found that if I put that bait within a foot or so of the
bank the bass would jump on it.

A little further down the bank there is a small drainage ditch that
comes out several feet into the lake. Bass are often spread out
around the mouth of that drain. I cast a 1/2 ounce RatLTrap around
the area and picked up two more bass.

There is a big bass, over 8 pounds, that lives around the mouth of the
creek that was dammed to form Lake Money Business. A couple of weeks
ago she hit my Redfin within about six feet of the boat and came
unhooked right at the boat. I went back looking for her. She didn't
show, but I caught a couple more bass on a Senko.

By this time I had caught nine bass on five different lures and it was
getting to be time to get back to the house. I picked up my little
ultralight rod with four pound test, rigged with a crappie jig and
began to troll down the old creek channel to see if I could find any
crappies, locally known as speckled perch. All of a sudden the little
rod was just about jerked out of my hand by a three pound bass. That
was fun on my little crappie rod.

I was back at the house by 10:30 am. I had caught ten bass on six
different lures. Life is good... darned good.

Dick Durbin
Tallahasse