August, 28, 2011--Mid-west Southern MN Lake (not its real name)--An action-packed great day that started out hopelessly! The friend, known more as Fly_Guy, thrilled me two weeks ago about possibly catching lunkers beyond belief! The talks and anticipation had me going so strong, I couldn't sleep the night before and got up at 4:15 a.m. after just a two hours of sleep.
When I got to Fly's place, he had been up earlier and was already waiting too long for me. He said he had gone back go sleep because I was a bit later than we had originally proposed.
Nonetheless, we hitched up his boat to his truck and drove west of the Twin Cities.
Having arrived around 6:00 a.m., we quickly cast at Fly's favorite spot. For the next few hours, we continued to cast hard with our spinner baits. Yet the lake didn't produce anything but junkies of green fertilizer taints from the local farms. By noon, I had lost all hopes of fun-filled fishing, and I was beginning to believe that the other friend, Sushi, who had previously agreed to come along but decided this morning to pull out--he claimed he was too tired from a family gathering the night before--I was believing he did the right thing pulling out.
I suggested going home for the day. But Fly insisted on just changing the lake.
There was another one he knew well of down somewhere totally unknown to me. On the way there, I slept throughout the interim because I was both too tired and bored. By the time I awoke again, we were already just a few blocks from a new lake! Unknown to me, but Fly said this was farther south of where we were just 40 minutes ago.
Boat off the truck and onto the lake. We hopped on, equipped to cast again. Over the lily pads near the edges of the lake, we maneuvered Fly's Bass Tracker boat. Casting here and there. Nothing was happening! Same old stuff like the previous lake except the green junkies weren't there. The lakes were equally dirty looking. But this one just didn't have the stinky looking stains on the surface. I actually said that to Fly when he said they kind of looked the same.
Then suddenly, a huge splash!! The sound was too familiar for those in the know. (We were among that group.) Something had caught onto Fly's bait. He just set the hook and reeled it in real quickly without saying anything.
I just watched and admired the action! "A large mouth!" I said.
He agreed. But he didn't stop. He just kept on reeling!
A keeper green bass (another term we use for largemouth bass).
We continued around the edges some more, casting here and there.
My first catch: a tiny large mouth bass. A second was a larger crappie! Enough to dispel my sleepiness. So, we kept casting!
I managed to catch a few more crappies with a spinner bait tipped with plastic minnows. But that didn't excite anyone!
Our hope of finding lunkers was almost out! We had come a long way on the edges and now were making our way towards another side of the lake. Nature seemed to play us a bit, too: it put some thick clouds just above our spot and dropped some rain onto us, harsh enough that we had to put our rain gears on for a time. After the short storm, Fly got so tired (and bored for sure), he asked me to pilot his boat after just some brief instructions. No fish still, as I slowly controlled the boat around the area. Sounds just like those bad luck days other people have had at other times.
I kept the boat silent and fished around for some 15 minutes 'til Fly got up again. "Caught anything?" he asked.
"Nope. Nothing," I said.
Fly took over the boat again and we kept moving around the edges again. He knew that lunkers would hang around logs, lily pads, and other thick structures around the edges. (I am not sure what the fishes do with the deeper parts of the water, really.)
But still no catches.
Near 3:00 p.m., Fly finally suggested we go to another spot where there were lily pads--yes, one more before we quit for the day.
I had no more hope other than finding ways to catch crappies and sunnies for fun. At least there was some yanking actions for a bit, I told myself.
Then we found several tiny beds of lily pads, and Fly suggested we start with one of them. So, over some lily pads farther into a corner of this lake, Fly and I cast. Just top water actions, pretty much since we didn't want our hooks to collect the weeds that were growing thick in the areas.
Boom! Fly caught a lunker bass! Quick actions as before! This one was larger than the other one.
My sleep totally disappeared! I was more alert than a gazelle fearing a wild predator!!
I took out one of my scum frogs and cast it into the pads! Then in between two sets of pads! Fly was putting his near, too!
The water rose with some ripple effects near mine, a huge panel of teeth or something grabbed my frog and pulled it under the water! This was happening so fast, I couldn't even tell my frog had disappeared had it not been for the line moving quickly out of position. It was alive. Must be a bite!
A bite it was!
I pulled my line, as if to set the hook!
The line came off real smoothly! Real light. That's because there was no fish coming along! We saw the bite! It was a lunker pike! But I didn't hook it!
"You should have set the hook faster," Fly said.
"It's not the hook," I said. "The line is cut off."
More bass actions followed. But they were Fly's and not mine. I kept losing fishes. And Fly kept counting the losses that I wanted to forget!
"Let me show you how to do frog actions," he said.
Fly took out a soft-gel frog with dark brown top and a white belly. A hook runs almost throughout the frog's body. He said this kind was no longer made. We couldn't determine why.
Fly quickly tied up the frog onto the line, replacing another bait he had just used before. He cast it into the lily pads just to our left and dragged it back in slow motion, brushing over the leaves. I could see the frog's legs beating on the surface like a vibrating jello. I commented on those. "Oh, I see. It's swimming real fast," I added.
Just as the frog got off the lily pads and onto the opening water just a few yards between our boat and the pads, a lunker bass jumped at it! The water splashed almost a foot into the air! The water parted! A huge ripple formed and the bass dived right back down into the water with the frog!! We could already see how big it was!
"Whoa!!!" I applauded loudly! (The entire lake must have hummed up and other fisherpersons and nearby residents might have heard me.) Real unchoreographe d, live actions before my eyes like never before! Water splashing, sweeping with quick, scrubby sounds as Fly reeled in the fish!! Better and more thrilling than in the movies!
But Fly already set the line and had the lunker hooked! No matter how hard the bass jumped now, it was hooked good, and Fly seemed to know that! He was not going to stop reeling in the lunker! I would have softened up the reeling in case the fish's lips fell off or something. But that was not the way, according to Fly. Why was I still being nice to the fish, after all? And that seemed to be my problem: not setting the hook hard or fast enough.
Apparently, the fish was too huge among all of those we caught today for just the three or so hours here, I was afraid Fly's line might break, so I reached down to the boat side with the net!
It measured between 19" and 20". And its weight: 5.20 lbs!!!
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