Fish-Hawk.Net

Tonight Saskette and I arm-twisted our good friend Firefox into showing us where and how he's been getting all those nice bass. He graciously agreed and so I released the arm lock I had him in just before his elbow popped. Off we went to Taylor. On the way all 3 agreed that small bass were fun, and definitely better than nothing but we had all had our fill of 12" bass - tonight we were after size over numbers. We put in and very quickly I had a nice fish on - a nice smallie to start us off:


The first flat we worked over produced a few smallish LM, but not the quality fish we sought so we were off in search of Mr Big. It was a long search. The wind was playing havoc with our attempts to manouever through the stump fields and weed flats, but Fox proved he was equally adept with the trolling motor as he was with a flippin stick and kept us from running aground. Once the wind died down enough that we could spend more time fishing than worrying about bumping stumps the action started. Firefox put on a flipping jig clinic nailing several 13-14". Finally I got my first bucket of the day on a buzzbait:


Then the big boys came out to play...first it was FireFox again landing this hefty brute:

.

Now you may have noticed that Saskette has been absent from the story. She had picked up a few fish but not the numbers and certainly not the size we were after. The reason - the last of her magical raspberry-red senkos was gone. The replacements so generously provided by Slushpuppy the previous night lacked the magic and were utterly ignored, even by Rock Bass. It was truly sad to she her flip jigs, spinnerbaits, wacky/tex rigged worms like we mere mortals.

Then, just when all seemed lost she spied it: in some far forgotten corner of the boat, carelessly discarded weeks ago after being declared too worn out - a rasberry-red senko. True it was tattered and scarred from many a battle, but there it was. With trembling hands she found a piece of plastic sturdy enough to hold a hook, and gingerly cast it toward some lilly pads....we all held our breath. And then.......................................

nothing


But on the next cast - this beauty:




The end

Outstanding!! WTG folks!!!

First off - I have to say thank you to Saskie, Saskette and Chester for graciously ofering me a seat in their boat.

The promises of showing them the good spots ended up with yours truly sprouting a bunch of lines like :

"thats odd - last few times there was at least one bass around here"

"hmmmm - lets try that spot over there. They have to be somewhere."

It was one of those days where the bass were just hunkered down and werent really interested in chasing much. Somehow saskie managed to find the only two active bass on the lake with his spinner/buzzbaits. The fish seemed to want the lure to land right on their nose if they were expected to bite.

The wind did make it a little tricky - and my inexperince with the fott controlled trolling motor didnt help. You bass boat guys must have to put in a lot of hours before you get used to that foot pedal. I think I like the usual hand control on the 14 foot tin boat better. I missed a real nice bite when I was off balance adjusting my foot on the pedal - couldnt set the hook well and the fish was gone.

Anyways - I was glad to share some spots with you guys and Im also glad that Saskette was able to catch that beauty bass at the end - up until that point she was looking rather unimpressed with the quality of the lake.

Thanks again for the trip out on the lake.

Fox

Firefox, Saskie & Saskette,

what a great report and nice looking fish. Too funny about Saskette's good luck bait!! I, too, have been guilty of putting on a crappy, tattered preferred plastic over a brand new one when I had a hunch.

Firefox, did ya have little beads of sweat breaking out as your honey holes were striking out? Thinking madly to yourself, "C'monnn!!!!"

W.

PS: nice to see a smiling Chester, too.

Those are nice bass! Nice to see the sunny skies, too!

I guess Chester wasn't too tired to go fishing again, eh?

Nice fish. I need to catch a few of those.

slushpuppy wrote: I guess Chester wasn't too tired to go fishing again, eh?

Chester's never too tired to do anything...he'll drag his little butt over to his bed (ok, our bed) collapse in exhaustion:

"Hey Chester, wanna go fishing" and it's like he's zapped with lightening, up and at 'em, waiting by the door

Awesome report ..photos are great

/p

That's too funny.

I just finished telling a pile of people how the BPS stick baits in Pumpkinseed are the only ones that work for me - that the watermelon variety, while very close in colour, just don't have the same effect on the bass.

All my discarded plastics go into my daughters' red tackle box. When the girls get bored with fishing they go into the tackle box and sort out all the crawdads, worms, senkos, slugs, grubs etc. The watermelon stick baits weren't working and neither was anything else. I went into the red tackle box and recovered a dozen pumpkinseed baits. Ahhhhhh the relief - even if the baits were chewed up and tattered and would barely stay on the hook. The confidence was back and we were catching bass again.

So Saskette - I feel your pain.

But I can't find me any 6 inch pumpkinseed baits!

Help...where I can find Strawberry Red Senkos...can't find them anywhere!

Before finding that senko in the deep reaches of the tackle box, Saksette was looking absolutely dejected. Every worm, creature, spinnerbait or jig that she pulled out of the box and attached to the line was getting a stare that said - "Sigh. Why would any fish ever want to eat this ugly thing ?".

And when the senko was found, it was like a totally different saskette - precision casts to the best looking spots, total attention to the line and look at the results. I sometimes wonder how much of it truly is the lure and how much of it is having the confidence that this cast will be the one that gets bit.

Regardless, its still a beauty of a largemouth Saskette.

Fox