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A DS day on the lake.



 
 
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Old September 21st, 2003, 10:18 PM
RichZ
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Default A DS day on the lake.

Congamond Lakes had always been one of my favorite places to fish in the
Sept/October. Holds quality fish, but more important for me, it has always
been productive fishing the way I like to fish best. Basically small jigs
and plastics on light line.

I looked in my fishing database last week, and was surprised to find I
hadn't been there in nine years! How did I ever let that happen?

So Half-day Frank accompanied me to Congamond on Saturday. We started at an
old ice house foundation, then worked docks and scattered pad beds, moving
toward a large, shallow bar that extends out a couple hundred yards off
shore. At the bar, Frank got our first fish of the day -- a 3-1/2 pounder
-- on a baby brush hog, (grn pmpkn/grn flk). Then I got one about 2-1/2 on
a drop shot rig. We worked around the point to the other ice house
foundation, where we each got a 2-1/2 pounder. Mine on the drop shot rig,
Frank's on the BabyB-hog. That would prove to be the last non-drop shot
fish of the day.

Knowing we had little time left before the boat traffic started, I figured
we'd better hit the extended point again. We putted back there, and
imediately started catching fish. Well, I did. DS-ing in 12 to 22 feet of
water, I got 3 on consective drops while Frank never got a hit. Then I lost
a fish that felt better than the "near-3's" I'd been catching.

Frank has never drop shotted, but he figures now is the time to learn, and
he puts down the brush hog rod. He has rigged up a spare rod with 6 lb
line. It's a bit too much rod for DSing, but it should work. Unfortunately,
it appears I have left my DS hardware box in the truck. No fear, There's a
few weights rolling around the tray on the gunwale. Frank digs around in
his box and the closest hook he can come up with is a tiny #4 or 6 salmon
egg hook. He nose hooks one of my motor oil airetailes and proceeds to try.
I catch a couple more. He's not getting hit. By now, we are being used as a
course pylon for the water skiers and joy riders, so we have to get off
that exposed, far-from-the-bank spot.

We try a few more shoreline related spots. I catch a half-dozen fish over
the next couple hours, but they are 1-1/4 to 2 pounders. Not nearly the
kind of fish the off shore point was holding. I keep telling Frank he's
over working his drop shot rig.

Somehow, it gets to be 2PM. I wanted to fish an extended point in the South
Pond before leaving, and we expected to be off the water by 3:30, so we
book for the South Pond. It's a lot less crowded on the other side of the
culvert. I pull up on the edge of the shoreline shelf, a couple hundred
yards before the extended point juts out from it, and we start fishing our
way towards it. 50 yards along, Frank sets the hook. The too stiff rod is
doubled. The fish runs under the boat, and takes Frank to his knees,
reaching down over the side of the boat with the rod banging against the
hull.

I hear no drag screaming, although Frank typically fishes with (IMHO) too
loose a drag, and doesn't back reel. "Frank, back off," I tell him, "You're
putting way to much pressure on that fish!" Some how, Frank snubs the
fish's run, gets it back on the right side of the boat, and then follows it
around the outboard the next time it runs for the depths. I see enough of a
flash to know that this is a BIG fish. I'm not talking 5 or 6 pound big.
I'm talking BIG, big. Then the teeny, tiny hook pulls free. No doubt in my
mind that the first bite Frank had on a DS rig would have been the biggest
fish to come into my boat this year. Maybe in a couple of years.

In a classic "close the barn door after the horse is gone" move, Frank now
loosens his drag. He had no idea how it had gotten that tight, he hadn't
used that reel since we went striper fishing in the spring. He may not have
landed the fish, but he did break his drop shot cherry. Once we reached the
bar, we each caught four more, and like the extended bar we fished in the
Middle Pond, the fish on this bar were all solid fish in the 2-3/4 and up
range. The largest was a fish just over 4 that Frank got.

RichZ©
www.richz.com/fishing

 




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