I had reset all my fly rods as I said I would in my last posting and set out on the pond after an early supper.  I said that I would set up 5 rods but set up six instead, the last with a sinking tiny (fly rod size) Rapala minnow.  I tried it first where I saw some surface activity but with no takers.  I switched to a white hula popper and again no takers.  Then I tried a floating Rapala minnow without success.  I could see the surface activity still happening and I was casting just beyond or in front of the activity where I thought the fish were chasing the fry of the spawn.  I then tried a Betts popper in silver/black and managed to catch a large bluegill.  Well I tried all my new lures and this one seemed to be the one.  I continued with the Betts and managed to land a few more bluegill and another small bass…so, I switched again to a  white/crystal wooly bugger. 

Then the action began; a big fish hit it.  The water was exceptionally murky with about a foot of visibility so I didn’t know what I had on the end of my line, but it was big!  I did see some silver flash and thought at first, “this must be the granddaddy of the bass in the pond.”  But, the fish didn’t fight like a bass.  He made a very long run to the middle of the lake and then turned to head for the shoreline.  I didn’t want him there so I turned on my Min-Kota trolling motor and headed out to the middle of the lake trying not to put too much pressure on the fish and breaking my 6 lb tippet.  I managed to ease the fish back out to the middle and away from possible snags.  Then he came up to the surface and I recognized the fish, a drum. 

No matter, the fish was putting up a mighty struggle.  He made several more long runs and after nearly  a half hour I got him next to the boat and into the net.  I didn’t weigh him but I’d guess 7 or 8 lbs.  What to you think?

It was fun to say the least.  I quickly set up my camera which was already prepared on the small tripod and got the picture and let  him go.

Continuing on I changed my fly rod to the Betts popper that I had caught bass with on my previous outing while going back to where I keep my boat.  The sun was on the horizon and would be dark very soon.  On the way back I manage to land two more bass of about 12′” and a big bass that bombed my popper and made a beeline toward me.  I couldn’t get a good hook set because of that and he got off,  I’d guestimate he was over 3 lbs as I did see him briefly but, who knows!  When a bass makes a very large explosion hitting your lure don’t we all think, “he was the big one that got away?”

Tight lines

Jim

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010 at 11:51 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.