It was early on Saturday, May 3rd. I woke up and took a 5 minute walk down to the lake. I only carried one rod, with no extra tackle, just a texas rigged junebug lizard with a screw in weight.
The lake has a asphalt path that people walk and jog on, which turns into a wooden bridge here and there out over the water.
I walked out on one of the bridges and saw a very large bass sitting still on a bed. I have fished this lake for almost 7 years and this is the first time i have seen a bedding fish, other than the thousands of bream and crappie. It was dead still, just sitting there, not moving a muscle. I pitched the lizard at it and it still did not move. I thought for sure it would have been spooked, but no. So since it did not move, i pitched at it again, and again. It must have been 15 times, then WHAMMO! It nosed down on my lizard and sucked it into its mouth. I set the hook and it proceeded to pull drag and go up under the bridge i was standing on. I grabbed my spool to attempt to stop it, which in turn popped my 14lb Fireline at the knot.
I was left standing there with my heart pounding a mile a minute, empty handed. "SON OF A...!!", i said over and over. I was able to get a good look at it when it turned sideways and estimated it to be around 11 lbs. I was so pissed, standing there with a nice Pflueger in hand with nothing in my pocket to tie on, just my broken line swaying in the breeze.
I walked back home and told my son what happened and even left my friend
Marni a comment on her getREELed blog. I had to tell someone.
I grabbed my other Pflueger President
that has newer line on it, cut off the crank bait i had tied on, and rigged it with another texas rigged lizard and a screw in weight, then proceeded to go back down there and complete my mission.
I did not expect to see that same fish down there in that same spot, but since this was the first time i saw a bedder here, i figured there must be another somewhere. I walked down a little further on the bridge and low and behold, there was another. It was not as big as the first one but none the less, it was a quality fish.
This time i must have thrown at it 25 times. It was stubborn like the first one and did not move one bit. Finally, i saw it nose down and suck in the lizard, i guess it was tired of me massaging its back with this lizard over and over. Kind of like when someone scratches your back, but in one spot... it gets old after a while.
I set the hook and had dejavue all over again. It tried to go up under the bridge and was successful, wrapping itself around a piling and getting stuck. it turned on its side and sat still for a minute, then was kind enough to swim back around the piling in my favor. We wrestled for a minute then i brought her in by walking her down to the end of the bridge, as she was too heavy to sling up over the rail.
I must have caught a hundred bass in this lake, some of them being one pound, some being eight and nine pounds, all by just throwing in hot spots i have learned over the years. This was the first time i SAW one and targeted it. I would have thought SEEING one would make it easy, but they are stubborn when on a bed.
I will turn 41 on mothers day, so like they say, there is a first time for everything, and sometimes a second time shortly there after, if you are lucky.
