Bizarre

This week we spent a few days on Kentucky Lake. Hadn't been there in many
years. We hit it just right with the full moon just waning and the fish
still unbelieveably agressive. But had something happen that I've never
experienced before and was wondering if anyone else here ever has.

We located zillions of shad in gigantic schools in the back of bays.
Naturally the bass were all over them. The first day we through Beetle Spins
and thumper single colorado bladed spinnerbaits at the edges and tore them
up. The next two days they wouldn't even look at our offerings. Supposed
they were pretty gorged.

On the first day I landed a 5lb 3oz largemouth that was healthy and as fat
as could be. She was hooked in upper lip and side with hook and stinger
hook. Took a quick pic, wieghed her and turned her loose. When I set her
over the side she waited a few seconds, smacked me with a huge splash and
was off towards the deep. Less than a min later she was floating and dead as
a doornail ! ! ! We tried to revive her for several mins but there wasn't a
movement out of her. DEAD . . . I've never seen a fish of any size do that?
Has anyone else? What do you think caused it ? Felt bad, but couldn 't think
of anything we did to hurt her like that. We actually spent 7 mins trying to
get her to right herself and swim off, but no dice.

Also wondering what anyone thought about the second day shut down. We
weren't able to get the schooling bass to bite on anything the third day as
well. We did get good fish crankbaiting main and secondary lake points on
the windward side the third day ending with 20 fish and one good 4lb 3oz.
kicker.

Thanks for any thoughts.

--
God Bless America

Josh The Bad Bear

On Fri, 2 Nov 2007 11:58:06 -0500, "Joshuall"
wrote:

We located zillions of shad in gigantic schools in the back of bays.
Naturally the bass were all over them. The first day we through Beetle Spins
and thumper single colorado bladed spinnerbaits at the edges and tore them
up. The next two days they wouldn't even look at our offerings. Supposed
they were pretty gorged.

I think this must be pretty common on Kentucky/Barkley...as I've
experienced the same situation before in the fall time. To be honest
with you, I think there are some things fishing that we may never
know and this may be one of them. You can swear the bass are still in
there...but something wasn't triggering them to hit the bait (ie. too
much competition, weather change). Changing patterns to something
else does seem to be pretty smart though and the move to wind-blown
areas/points is always a smart move on these lakes.

On the first day I landed a 5lb 3oz largemouth that was healthy and as fat
as could be. She was hooked in upper lip and side with hook and stinger
hook. Took a quick pic, wieghed her and turned her loose. When I set her
over the side she waited a few seconds, smacked me with a huge splash and
was off towards the deep. Less than a min later she was floating and dead as
a doornail!

Never seen that happen. Maybe somehere in the process...she
partially spit up a large shad and that damaged her gills?

One thing about fishing...there always seems to be something new
that pops up that surprises us!

--
Dwayne E. Cooper, Atty at Law
Indianapolis, IN
Email:
Web Page: http://www.cooperlegalservices.com
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