Following a hunch up the river
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Good read Joe....felt like I was in the boat with ya!

John
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Group: rec.outdoors.fishing.bass Date: Tue, Jul 4, 2006, 11:58pm From:
(Joe*Haubenreich)
Last week I accompanied a respected bass guide on a section of Percy
Priest that I had not visited in many months. We were fishing a local
bass tournament, and a notion burrowing deep in my psyche told me to go
upriver to a bluff where one year earlier I had hooked and released a
four pound seven ounce largemouth bass. The fish seemed a little green
around the gills the first instance I saw it, and so I assumed that
meant it was about six years old then. If it were still in the lake, I
calculated it would be a year older this year.
The urge I felt was inexplicable. I had been catching bass on sloping
points or around laydowns in coves, and that was nothing like the bluff
to which my instincts drove me. My partner, too, had been having good
luck down toward the lower end of the lake and wanted to go straight to
his string of honey holes. Still, the cliff seemed to call to me, and so
insistent was it that I persuaded my partner to point the prow of his
Triton into the channel and make the long run toward the lakes
headwaters.
As twilight waned we began fishing around the guano-encrusted pilings of
an highway bridge just downstream from the bluffs. Hundreds of cliff
swallows darted around us, a few making kamikaze runs at us and then
pulling up in the last instant to dart into mud huts that clung to the
overhanging road bed above our heads. I was casting a 5/16-ounce
Midnight Snack Buzzrbait toward the cerulean shore. My partner tried a
series of crankbaits, plastics, and spinnerbaits. My buzzbait had built
a reputation as a sure-fire fish magnet on this lake, and with every
cast I expected to see my bait sucked into a swirling funnel and feel
the tug of a chunky largemouth bass. As minutes passed by and then
evaporated into the evening mists, we made our way up the bank. Brillian
orange and pink-tinted clouds above us grew weary and grey. Sinister
shadows crept out from glowering willows that overhung the lapping water
like an old gaffer's tousled eyebrows. I usually made low, sidearm casts
in order to send my clattering, gurgling buzzbait into the black heart
of the deepening gloom, but occasionally I would fire a long cast down
the bank and retrieved my lure parallel to the drip line. By deft
twitches, inspired rod work, and subtle changes in retrieve speed, I
made the bait chirp, hiccup, burp, squawk, and splash like a drunken
coot.
Perhaps the noise was too much for the fish that plied the inky depths,
because by all evidences they cleared out of the area. And since no
battling bass interrupted my deliberations, I frequently stole sidelong
glances at the ever-approaching bluff. The premonition I'd had earlier
in the evening of something calling me back to the wall grew stronger,
and as I peered through the gloom at the looming rock wall, a chill
swept up my spine, ricocheted off my occipital protuberance, and escaped
from between clenched jaws as a shuddering groan.
My increasingly frustrated partner turned silently toward me. His eye
impaled me in its baleful glare, eerie blue glints from our ultraviolet
lamps imparting to his shadowed visage a wraithlike appearance. With
ne'er a word, he nudged the trolling motor into life, moving the sturdy
watercraft onward, and we crept ever closer to the wave-washed cliffs.
I hadn't noticed when the breeze died. Earlier a gentle south wind had
refreshed us as it swept away the heat of a blast-furnace afternoon. But
now, not a ripple was stirred on the water's oily surface. Quail that
serenaded us earlier had retired after a last encore, and as yet no
whippoorwill had begun warming up for an avian rendition of nachtmusik.
Curiously, we heard neither turkey nor owl; no raccoon plied the shore.
Blue herons that often stalked the shallows were absent, and we seemed
to be the only warm-blooded creatures in the night. And except for
insects, there didn't seem to be too many cold-blooded creatures around,
either. And the pull grew more intense. And the crags loomed closer
still.
Finally, we drew within a cast-length of the limestone bluff, and I bade
my companion to hold his distance. As I scanned the waterline, my
attention was drawn to a slight irregularity in the wall; scarcely a
notch - more like a hairline fissure that started below the water and
climbed upward toward the tree roots above. I knew had seen that crevice
before - a year hence; I was once again above the ambush point of a big
bass.
For some reason, I felt certain that the bass I had caught one year
earlier was still there. patiently biding its time.. eating. growing.. I
pictured it as I'd last seen it before I dropped it into the water. An
unusual pattern on its left flank resembled a Rorschach test's bat-like
inkblot. It also had a W-shaped cleft in its soft dorsal fin. When
released, it flipped its tail to propel it downward, yet before drifting
out of sight, the bass had turned and gazed at me in a curious,
thoughtful way.
I set down my Buzzrbait rig and picked up an old All Star jigging stick,
matched with a venerable Abu Garcia Ambassadeur reel spooled with
17-pound test bargain bin fluorescent line. A quarter-ounce slip sinker,
3/0 wide-gap hook, and 7-inch Power Worm were rigged and ready for
service. I swung the rod into action, lifted my thumb to release the
line, and then feathered the spool as the bait slipped into the water
just inches from the rock face. I peeled off line so that the worm would
fall straight down and not pendulum back toward the boat as it sank.
Two seconds.. five.. eight..twelve seconds... It seemed like an eternity
before the worm came to rest among the chunk rock at the foot of the
submerged precipice. My eye followed its progress by the glowing line
out in front of our black light. Carefully I engaged the spool and then
slightly lifted and jiggled the rod tip to impart a little action to the
worm. One subtle hop. then another.. Then another.
And then, nothing.
I reeled in and cast again to the same spot, watching for any twitch or
movement that would reveal the bass's presence. A slow drop was followed
by excruciatingly slow retrieve. Again, nothing.
Another cast. Nothing.
Another. Nada.
Again. Zip.
Once more. Blanked.
Then we cranked up and headed back down the river to try a few tapering
points. I finally caught a few bass in a cove, just around the corner
from the weigh in. I don't know why I keep listening to those stupid
urges; I alway kick myself later. I should just stick to where I've been
catching fish -- especially when I've laid down money to fish a
tournament.
Well... that's fishing.
Joe