So there I was...

....back at the creek were last week I broke my pole and lost the only top
water bait I had with me. I was armed with a new Rod & Reel and an
assortment of poppers, top water plugs, jitterbugs, Buzz-baits and a few
floater type soft baits just in case.

First I tied on a jitterbug, nothing, I tried two or three others with the
same result. Then I tried some poppers the Bass looked interested but I
couldn't get them to strike, I switched to Buzz-baits and then soft baits
nothing sparked their interest. Nearly consigned to another day of bad
fishing I saw in the very bottom of my box a "Hula-Popper" in a leopard frog
pattern that is so old the skirt has all but fallen away from dry rot, the
paint is scarred and chipped to the point of being nearly unrecognizable.
Still I had nothing to loose so I tied it on, tossed it over to where a few
Bass were lurking waited for the water to settle, then gave it a gentle pull
with my rod tip, let the water settle again and once more gave a soft pull
with the tip, it was at this point that all hell broke loose as the water
erupted in a volcanic fury, for a full ten minutes I fought, but the drag on
my reel just kept pulling, I tightened it a bit and kept fighting, finally I
got it close enough to lip a nice two and a half pounder on six pound test
line.

As a side note IIRC I purchased that hula-popper sometime between 1970 and
1975. It just goes to show that sometimes you just have to go with the old
stuff.

The rest of the morning was spent catching perch with night crawlers
although I did land a couple of 12" Bass and an 8" Bass on the 'crawlers as
well.
--
Jim M
posted on this day, the 3978th of September 1993
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"Look alive. Here comes a buzzard." -- Walt Kelly (Pogo)