Fishing has been slow for the last two weeks.  My friend Ivan and I went to River end a week ago and fished all afternoon from about 2:00 pm until 7:30 pm and didn’t catch a single bass until about 6:30 pm.  We tried cranking, trolling, and fly casting using a variety of baits. 

I stuck with crank baits for the most part along with my tried and true stick worms and I tried the Blue Fox spinner.  I used the Blue Fox in the pond a couple of days before and caught 17 crappie and two bass and 4 bluegill with it but, I didn’t get a single tick with it on River Bend.  That shows that  what is good in one lake doesn’t mean it will be good everywhere, so be prepared to change your tactics.

Ivan stayed with the fly rod and caught a few nice bluegills.  I used my fly rod as well for a short time and only caught one bluegill.  Hmmm…Ivan’s out fishing me!  I really wanted to locate the bigger bass  at River Bend as I had tried and failed the week before but I did manage to catch some of the average 1/12  -  2lb bass.  But even that was not happening on this trip until we  saw fish breaking water…bass chasing fry and bait fish.  I cast my Yum pearl stick worm as far as I could to reach them and finally caught my first bass of the day.  We began chasing the fish that were surfacing and I managed to land 5 bass altogether in last hour of our fishing day.  They were all about 2 lbs.  Ivan tried a surface plug and couldn’t get one to hook up.

Last week I went out with Roy on the pond for a couple of hours from 6 to 8 pm.  Naturally I brought out my Blue Fox spinner; Roy was using his stick worm.  I had one bite that evening and landed a nice bluegill.  Roy caught a bass of about a pound.  And that was it!

I went out again last evening from 5:30 to 8:00 pm.  I started out using the Yum stick worm, the Zoom trick worm, a popper, spinning rod size and the Blue Fox spinner.  At first I used the popper in an area…no hits…switched to the Yum…no hits…the Zoom…no hits…the spinner…one small crappie.  And that’s the way it went from place to place until 7:30 pm.  That’s when I hung onto this really nice bass and on the Blue Fox spinner.

The fun began.  The fish made several 20 to 30 foot runs peeling line off my old Cardinal light action spinning reel, my old Shakespeare light action 6” spinning rod and 6lb test Stren mono line.  And the fish had only a single barb of the small treble hook hooked on his lip.  When the fish jumped my heart leaped thinking,”I’m going to lose him!”  This is only the second 7 lb bass I have ever caught in my entire fishing life of 67 years and I sure as …. didn’t want to lose him. 

After I got my picture I immediately let the fish go as I always do.  He was out of the water for less than two minutes.  When you let a fish of this size go you are helping the pond retain fish of a superior genetic species and by releasing him as fast as possible.  And I do want the offspring of this fish to continue in our pond for as long as possible.   Wouldn’t you?

About 15 minutes later I caught the cat again, on the Blue Fox spinner and, yes, I did re- tie my spinner as the line had been frayed when I was playing the bass.  Using two minutes of your time to re-tie might just save you from losing a big fish.  So, keep that in mind, “two minutes could save your seven pounder”.

Tight lines

Jim

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