Monster Bass

On the day our second son was born I put in 18 hours of errands and surgery and recovery and you get the idea. The when I went home to let the dog out and go to bed I decided to stop off and go fishing for an hour. Then I caught the biggest fish of my short fishing career. Truly a big fish for any bass fisherman. The difference is the great fisherman can catch 8-10 of these a day under all kinds of conditions.

Fish Stories

Last week was a six day work week with two projects for school which is not really all that different from a lot of weeks but just a busy week in general. As it is I was only able to fish once, on Sunday morning, for about three hours. I went back to the Messer Street trestle. There was a nice temperature and an ever so light breeze. The downside with the breeze was that it made light ripples on the water reducing visibility.

I was able to hook another large bass in the three pound neighborhood. I was using a wounded shad pattern, mostly silver with flecks of red which I picked up at Wal-mart for a couple of bucks. I had been losing a lot of fish slipping off the back of my lures so I wanted to buy this particular style with a hook on the back. I tend to do a quick retrieve to avoid a lot of reeds and rocks looking for reaction strikes and I thought this style would help. So anyway, I hooked the bass and he fought well enough that I had to let the drag out a little. With the 20 lb. test line it was probably unnecessary but I'm still pretty new at this. Anyway he tugged hard and brought the line under the bridge. Somehow he was able to rip the lure off the line. Now a customer at the bank that I was telling this story looked at me dubiously at the suggestion that a 3 lb. bass could snap a 20 lb. line. But in reality once we talked about it I realized that I am not tying my lure on correctly and I need to learn a more secure knot. This knot will provide a tremendous amount of strength and doesn't look to complicated to master.

Viva La Espana!

Congratulations to Spain on a brilliantly played World Cup Final Championship game. Iniesta scored on an overtime strike giving Spain their first ever golden trophy. Sadly, soccer now slips back into obscurity on the North American continent for another three and a half years. One of the nice things about soccer is that a regulation game fits neatly into a two hour commercial free time slot. Add in a a half hour pre-game show and your still shorter than your average baseball. Soccer is supposed to be the sport of global appeal but a quick scan of the results shows that 13 of 32 finalists, 6 of 16 to make the knockout stage and both of the teams in the finals call Europe home. South America runs a respectable second but the rest of the world is "futbal" wasteland.

Segueing to other popular European sports which I enjoy but know nothing about, the Tour de France is also underway. I can DVR this daily and condense a somewhat tedious three and a half telecast into an hour or so highlight show. I watch a good chunk of the pre-game so the stage is nicely set, then I fast forward to the mountainous parts (slower cycling but higher drama and better scenery), then I fast forward to the last 10k or so to see who wins the stage and what that does to the overall standings. No one could accuse me of not being much of a purist but I do have a day job you know.

In completely unrelated news, I still eagerly await the mythical pile of government money. Conveniently, I work at the bank so if it was a scam I would literally be the first to know, or at least the second...my wife is very sharp. At this point it has been more than a week and most crooks aren't that patient, and you will recall I did independently verify the existence of the program. We will probably spend the bulk of the funds sprucing up the bathroom, but Renee did agree to let me buy a small one-person kayak and related accessories...which brings me to fishing.

Today I caught my first honest-to-goodness respectable fish. Not just a fish which I can be proud of, at this point I am still pleased with any fish, but a fish with which anyone could be pleased. Today I caught a modest 14" lake trout and was going to have to be content with that, but as my time was winding down a saw a mammoth smallmouth hanging in the reeds about forty yards from the trestle I was fishing (near the Messer Street bridge for locals). So I figured what the hell he was either going to bite or not and I casted my new neon yellow worms past his head and reeled them into the strike zone. He was interested and followed it a little but I could tell after three or four casts that he wouldn't bite. So I quickly switched to my other new lure a 4" Wild Eyed Minnow and I continued casting about ten to twenty feet past the bass so I wouldn't spook him. Each time I let it settle for just a few seconds and then I would reel frantically hoping for a reaction strike and also that the large exposed hook wouldn't get caught in the reeds. He was definitely interested in who was swimming through his water and on about the third cast he bit hard and plunged a little. This was the first serious test of the new 20 lb test line that I have been using as the smallie dragged my line deep and through the reeds and then he lashed back and forth a bit. after a minute or so the bass conceded defeat and I had to reel him the 20 or so feet up to the train trestle (again another good test of the line). Easily the biggest fish I have ever caught, he was a solid 17" and using a weight estimator on the Bass Resource website and my own instinct I would say he was very close to 3 lbs (2.8 says the estimator). All in all a very good day, for me and the bass which I unhooked and let go.

Big Adventures Tomorrow!

So I am excited for tomorrow for two reasons. First and foremost we have a Mitchell family outing to Odiorne State Park, essentially an oceanside state park with tidal pools and a lot of other fun things the boy.

Exciting event number two is opening day of bass season. It wasn't actually closed all that long but remember, I have only been fishing a month which was basically bass spawning season. Tomorrow, very briefly in the morning, I am going to go out and try and catch my limit of two bass. They don't have to be huge, just large enough to fillet. The only real limitation is the time constraint to be at the park at 9 am or so we need to leave home at around 7:30 meaning we should start getting ready at around 6:30 which is when I really ought to be standing in the kitchen with four clean six ounce bass fillets. I may be putting too much pressure on myself. If I succeed I am hoping Renee will help me cook this Japanese-style recipe with white rice and asparagus...and if I fail hot dogs are always a nice standby.

Hooray for Vacation!

So I had to work today, but as of noon-ish I am on vacation for the next week. I am DVR'ing most of the World Cup matches (congrats USA on the tough draw with England) and I plan on getting up early just about everyday to go fishing.

I really want to go the next few days to at least practice a bit before open season on bass Wednesday. Up until then it is catch and release only. Wednesday we are trying to go to the beach so the first "keeper fish" may have to wait until Thursday. I do want to try a couple of recipes this week and see if for one thing bass tastes any good. If it taste terrible I guess I will just have to be a catch and release guy. There are about a thousand ways you can fish; different species, different lures, fly or reel, you get the idea. Basically in the interest of sanity I have been studying bass lures and techniques only and if anyone else jumps on the hook we'll worry about it then.

Tonight we have a Muskrats game. After a nice start the home team has slipped to 4-3 after yesterday's loss and is in fourth place. Tonight the Musky's take on the Gulls a team they trail in the standings. Fourth place in the division would still make the playoffs but with a short season of 42 games one wants to avoid digging to deep a hole.

The Fish Story

For the first time in my life I, with my own two hands, have captured the elusive fish. This morning at around six I caught a very modest Largemouth Bass (for the totally uninitiated Largemouth Bass refers to the size of the mouth not the fish). He was about 7" and maybe a pound or two at best. Look don't laugh, I've only been fishing like three weeks and until yesterday I have been using a three-foot Spider-man pole. I have left the Spidey pole for the boy and upgraded to a Wal-Mart special, I bought a low end Ugly Stick by Shakespeare, stock line 6-lb test, a black night crawler lure, and some chartreuse Power Bait. I guess my personality is that I could care less about something for thirty years but if I am going to try it and get into it I really want to learn and understand the activity. So in the last three weeks I have actually done a lot of reading and research, basically learning how to fish.

The funny part is that I was so stunned to actually catch the fish that I was frantically scrambling to grab my little state magazine with pictures to figure out what I had, then I knew I had to let him go (Bass are catch and release until June15 for spawning). Then I was frantically trying to figure out how to get the stupid hook out of the guys mouth, Renee advised me to put a pare of pliers in the tackle box (I love that my wife is brilliant, could you imagine spending the rest of your life with an idiot). In the meantime I essentially used the finger sweep method to pull the hook out of the fish's mouth (thank you Army first aid training). Then I was able to toss him back and my prayers were answered as he swam away safely. I really didn't want to be a criminal the first time I caught a fish. The picture is of a largemouth bass (not mine, same idea but mine was a lot smaller and you know, not flying) the health and safety of our sporting friend was my first priority so I have no photographic evidence of my embarrassing catch (maybe next time).