Saved by the bass

A buddie and I went out on Friday - made the day of it - 1st time in
quite a while for the two of us to hook up due to conflicting
schedules.....

We started looking for walleyes - we were working jigs and crawlers,
but there was no joy to be had - we were getting some hits, but when
either of us connected, it was "Sheepies" aka Sheephead aka
Freshwater Drum. After 6 of those and wayward Crappie, Lloyd was
disgusted.... even trolling cranks failed to connect us....

I saw a bullrush line on a far shore, and suggested we give the bass a
shot - see if they wanted to play.....

A side benefit of trying the bass was it got us out of the wind, which
had been hitting us all day....

I started throwing a 3/8 Fire Tiger SW and connected - hard hit - and
a big fish from below and behind - but it didn't look quite right to
be a bass. Finally got it up and close to the boat, and Lloyd yelled
"Its a Dog!" (dog fish) - sure enough. Had a devil of a time getting
it unhooked.

THe next action was on top water - for Lloyd a miss on a Spinner Pop,
for me - a miss on a Jitterbug. I threw back one of Randy's stick
baits at my miss, felt something - set the hook - weight for an
instant and gone - so was the stick bait.

I finally connected on the Jitterbug - got a 16" LM.

We ran out weedlines, so proceded to fish docks. Lloyd pulled a
12-13" LM out of some cabbage to the side of a dock, and I pulled
a short 12" LM off the same dock on a inside corner - our only double.

Next I threw at another corner and saw my line take off when the stick
hit the water - I set the hook - water boiled - and the line was
headed for three dock posts and then nothing - the fish came
unbuttoned. Lloyd threw in - and had a hit - the same thing happened -
except he got wrapped around the posts.

A bit later, Lloyd flipped under a dock, and pulled out a nice 16 1/2"
LM, and got a couple smaller fish, while I missed mine. We were off
the water about 6.30.

Bass saved our day.

Jim