A Day on the River 7/24/1

A Day on the River 7/24/11
What Third Place Feels Like

Getting everybody on the water was a struggle, but after some wrangling and
some generosity of others we did it. Kalib took The Tin Can and Lannes
Brock loaned me a spare trolling motor (I broke a steering cable on mine for
that boat) and we got everybody situated. I still sweated it until the very
last minute. I forgot to call one of the guys who signed up as amateur with
boat to let him know he needed to fish as a pro for the day. He had seen
the sign up sheet earlier in the week, and brought his boat anyway.

I had a plan. I actually had a plan for high falling water and low water.
It was neither. It was high and rising. Didn't matter though. My
hydraulic jack plate wouldn't go down. We started in host marina instead.
I mostly threw a buzz frog and and my partner mostly threw a popper. I got
one of the skinniest 14" fish you have ever seen on the buzz frog, and had
one roll on it. Those were the only two bites we get there.

I told my partner to take the front of the boat, while I checked to see if
the I could find the problem with the jack plate. It was time to try
someplace else. It just worked.

We spent some time working the deeper water with blades on the way out, but
not even a bump.

Off we went. I decided to try my high water plan. It wasn't on, but we did
it. I didn't figure to catch any in lake mouths, and we didn't. My partner
did flip one about 2 in the current. For quite a while it was our big fish.

Then we moved into a lake I like. The primary spot in the lake produced
some dink (tug tug tug) bites, but no connection. My partner wacky rigged a
13 incher off one of my secondary spots. Three in the boat, and it was
about 9:30 AM.

We fished our way to one of my secondary spots in the lake, and I decided to
burn a buzzfrog across it. A nice fish followed the bait but spooked and
turned off at the boat. Looked to be a solid 3. He spooked hard and turned
into the brush when I reached for a senko to throw on him. I grabbed my
flipping stick instead, and said I was going to pick that little stretch
apart just in case. First pitch with an RFG, and BAM! He was on. I
figured it was a 3 at the time, but it was probably closer to 4. It was fat
and thick. That secondary spot usually only produces one fish, but I went
ahead and flipped around it and around the little point it makes. BAM!
Another one. Just under or right at 3. Two in short order on the RFG. I
was sold. That was my flip bait for the rest of the day.

We didn't catch any more in that lake, but I did spot an easy 4 on the
inside lake mouth. It was cruising and looked spooky when I first spotted
it, but we punched the area just in case. We flipped and senkoed it. Then
we moved off and re-fished my primary spot on the lake to give him a few
minutes to calm down. As we approached the inside lake mouth again we long
cast and long pitched the area around the inner mouth, but that fish was
either gone or he just wasn't taking.

We were out of there.

After pulling three keepers (2 decent ones) out of a lake, and the slow bite
I've had lately on my current spots we decided to hit another lake. The
water was rising fast now, so I knew we could get into anywhere we tried. I
wacky senkoed a short in the channel into the lake, and had another decent
fish chase the senko out when I reeled it in. My partner both threw on that
fish with senkos, but he was really spooky or so it seemed. He ran from my
senko, but he turned and came back to my partners. He gave it a little hop
and I saw the gills flare. That is one of those things senko fishing does
sometimes that is almost as adrenalin pumping as topwater. When you see
those gills flare as a bass sucks in your bait. I think I must have blown
his ears out when I yelled, "He's got it! Set the hook!"

After that I slowed down to fish our way in, but that was our last bite in
the channel.

In the lake I missed a flip bite in a tulie patch. The line twitched, but
when I set the hook there was nothing. I was trying to figure out the high
rising water pattern. I don't think I ever figured it out, but as we moved
up shallower I flipped a short near some cat tails. We ground that out for
some more, and then we decided to try some brush and cane near a hard bank.
Not sure why I kept at it since we weren't getting bit, but we kept
swinging. Flipping to tulies, cane, cat tails, trees, grass edges, and
submerged rocks.

As I pulled the RFG out of a tulie patch I saw a big swirl and dropped the
rod. I never checked to see if the fish was on or not. I just gave it a
half second, cranked down and set the hook. My flipping stick loaded up
good. At first I thought she was down in the grass, but she came out across
the top of the grass and she had my rod bent down good. I was yelling for
my partner to get the net, and saying it was probably our kicker fish for
the day. He was good on the net. I brought her up to the boat one time,
and he had the net down in the water under her when I did. I figured it was
atleast a 5. (Turned out to be a 6) I had her hooked good, but when she
flipped out of my hand while I was fighting the hook I lifted the rod hoping
to keep her on and swung her towards the cockpit of the boat. Wew! She
stayed in the boat and stayed on. We got her in the livewell about 12:30,
and decided to grind out the rest of our day in that area.

You can see a picture he
http://www.yumabassman.com/bulletinb...t=5435&p=28930

Around 1:00 we headed in.

We caught 9 fish total all day:

4 Flipping an RFG
1 Flipping something else (River worm I think)
3 on senkos (I am out of Club-Os and haven't had time to make more)
1 on a buzzfrog

Our best five went 16.28 and our big bass was a 6.2. That was only good
enough for third place and third place big fish. First had 18+ and 2nd had
about 16.4. There were 5 fish over 6 pounds brought in. 1st place had two
of them.

It was a very good day though. In spite of the slow bite I never felt
pressured to perform, or like my partner was worried. We just went fishing.
I was as relaxed as when I am fishing by myself or fun fishing with an old
fishing buddy. We both caught some decent fish, and at the end of the day I
was as relaxed (although very tired) as you hope to be when you come off the
water.

After weigh in several guys hung around and helped me put everything away,
and I headed home to fall asleep in my easy chair for a couple hours before
going to bed. LOL.

Good report and good catch. Wish I could catch fish like that this
time of year.

Ronnie

http://fishing.about.com

"Ronnie" wrote in message
...
Good report and good catch. Wish I could catch fish like that this
time of year.

Ronnie

http://fishing.about.com


Not quite the same type area, but I've got a buddy in NC who is learning to
find bigger fish year around in the deep reservoirs there in the summer
time. Not every day or every fish, but when he first moved there he was
thrilled to catch a few small keepers.