The Walleye Fisherman That I'll never forget...

...my brother.  His influences on me are a huge part of my success in the outdoors world, probably about as much influence as I had on him as his older brother.  Not only did this influence me, but also some of my fishing friends, especially when it came to walleye fishing locally.  Kyle figured it out, and we took advantage of that.

Here's a nice 'eye that Kyle caught while night fishing from shore at one of his favorite spots.  

Kyle was an extremely intelligent and analytical person.  When he set is mind to do something, he was all in, one hundred percent, and he always seemed to succeed.  In this post, I'll detail one goal that he mastered, and what it taught my friends and I.

When our Mom began her battle with cancer, my Brother moved back to Maryland from Mississippi to help take care of her.  He coached a competitive swim team and had everything going his way.  He gave up everything to come back to Maryland and take care of my Mom.  But, he made the most of the situation with some of his free time by doing some fishing.

During his time in Maryland, Kyle read in the newspaper fishing reports that people were catching walleyes, and decided that he wanted to figure out how to catch them also.  We all knew that they were there, as we'd caught them now and then while fishing for smallmouth bass.  But, this was different...he only wanted to target walleyes and catch them consistently.  He wanted to catch a lot of them, and he was driven to be good at it.  That was his way, always strove to be the best.

Kyle became obsessed with walleyes.  He researched the web, read books, and watched fishing TV shows on how to catch walleyes.  In developing his strategy, the first thing that he did was to check out maps, both paper and on-line, and look for river structures that would hold walleyes, similar to the types of places that you'd see on fishing shows when they fished for river walleyes.  In 2004, Google Maps and Mapquest came out with satellite map imaging.  He used that to find specific spots to fish.

After researching, Kyle set out to catch them.  It took him a couple of trips to figure out which of the spots that he scouted held fish.  One afternoon, while at work, he emailed me a report after one of his trips and a picture of the fish that he caught.  He was so excited.  He had my attention.  At this point, none of my fishing buddies or I had really thought about doing this.

Here's what Kyle emailed me after his first successful trip. "I caught a walleye!  In fact I caught 3 and kept the two biggest, 18 and 18 1/2 inches.  There is a slot limit right now from 15-20".  These were filleted right after this horrid picture..."

Naturally, that night he had to call me and tell me all about it.  He was back at it two days later.  The picture and report are below.

"The water was like chocolate milk, but I found fish.  I fished where a small, clear creek flowed into the river.  The first fish I caught was 23" and dwarfed these.  I'd estimate around 4 pounds.  I had to throw it back because it exceeded the 20" limit.  Unfortunately I didn't have the camera.  These are 17", 18", and 19".  Targeting walleye has been challenging, but every bit as fun as I thought it could be."

The very next day, he was at it again.

"Caught several eyes in about 1 1/2 hours.  I left to clean a couple and I'm going to scout out another spot.  I'm confident I can catch more in that hole...I'm pretty psyched, this was my largest Maryland walleye (24") yet and today I brought my camera!  I released it right after the picture per MD regulations.  I kept the two 20 inchers in the other picture.  I've now caught 11 walleye and kept 7.  I'm going to start taking pictures and releasing them, the freezer is beginning to fill up."

Not a bad start, right?  One thing that I should mention, is that, after that trip, he consistently practiced catch and release.  He kept a few fish early on, mainly to help my Mother out and give her another healthy option for food.  Once he got the hang of it, I believe that he released all of the walleyes that he caught.

Just five days later, he really was dialing them in:
"I was fishing for walleye today and caught a 41" musky on a a 5" Rapala husky jerk, using a medium action rod with 12 lb test.  I'm estimating the fish weighed about 22 lbs.  At first I thought he was a little longer, but the measurement I made using my rod came out to 41 inches.  What a great way to end the day!  After this fish, I called it quits, 11 walleye and a monster."

After that, he consistently caught walleyes mixed in with a musky here and there.  Kyle eventually used his kayak for all day trips to gain access to more spots, mixed in by shore fishing for quick short trips.  After a little more than two weeks of fishing, he stated, "I've now caught 69 walleye and 2 musky since 1st of last month, and 107 walleyes to finish the spring.”

Below are a few pics.

I had the pleasure of shooting the picture of this nice walleye after one of our walleye trips.

Kyle caught this musky on a 5 inch twister tail jig while jigging for walleye.

Kyle caught this carp one day while jigging for walleye, fair hooked on a 5 inch Kalin's grub on a 1/4 oz. jighead.  He told me that, when fighting it,  he thought he had hooked the mother of all walleyes!

Here's the account from one of his fishing reports about that carp catch, "I threw a cast along a current break and it was slammed!  The fish immediately started peeling line off my reel and I just sat back and thought, "relax, relax and play this fish right, it's probably another muskie."  It was exactly where a muskie would be, hanging in the slack side of an eddy.  When the fish came closer, I could see that it was a carp and I could also see that it was "fair hooked (you can see the grub lodged in the upper lip)."  It was strong at times and a lot of fun to fight.  Good practice for other, more desirable big fish, as Fat Boy noted.  It was 30" long and somewhere around 10-15 lbs.  It was fun, although it didn't fight as long as the muskies did."

Here's a musky that he caught while fishing from his kayak.  He hammered the walleyes that day, and picked up two muskies, all on Rapala Husky Jerks.  He learned that it's tough to get a good picture of a musky out of a kayak!

When Kyle caught the second one, he wanted a better picture, so this was the best that he could do.  He towed the fish to shore, climbed out of the kayak, and placed the fish carefully in the yak.  He didn't want to beach the fish and get it all muddy, or risk hurting the fish.  The fish was released quickly thereafter, unharmed, and took off like a shot out of his hand.

Here's a big fat 26 inch walleye that he caught while night fishing for them out of his kayak, also released.

Here's another fish he caught that night out of his kayak.  He caught a dozen that night, all on 5 inch Kalin's grubs.  This pic, and the last one, were his two biggest fish.

This nice walleye fell for a five inch grub while Kyle fished from the bank.

Kyle landed this 25 inch walleye that hammered a 6 inch Rapala Husky Jerk while bank fishing the same night.

Kyle loved fishing that Husky Jerk.  Here's a kayak walleye that took that jerkbait.

So, how did all this influence us?  It changed the way we thought about our fishing calendars, to bring our attention to a couple new species that we could target.  Kyle paved the way for us.  My close fishing friends and I benefited from Kyle's desire to master walleye fishing in the area.

As a result of what we've learned, I've caught several walleyes since above 27 inches long.  What they'll bite is pretty simple, when they're hungry, they'll hit just about anything that you'd toss for smallmouth bass in our rivers.  But, they seem to particularly like shallow suspending minnow jerkbaits, like Kyle's favorite Rapala Husky Jerks, and large twister style tail grubs.  Those were the staples of Kyle's fishing walleye tackle.

When the water is up, shoreline current breaks, eddies, or wing dams are favorite targets.  During lower water river levels, they can pretty much be anywhere, but ambush points where current meets deeper river runs are likely walleye hideouts, such as ledges and rock outcroppings that hold deep water behind them.

Because of Kyle's influence, walleye fishing has become one of our fishing passions between my fishing pals and me.  Here's my buddy that I've referred to on this blog as Captain Steve Kelley with a really nice walleye.

My good friend and fishing pal Bob Barber has also developed a passion for walleye fishing.  He's done quite well catching them over the years.  Kyle's efforts paid off for all of us.

This walleye is probably is my personal best.  A 29 inch beast that hammered a musky lure.  

Kyle got us all fired up to catch walleyes locally when we hadn't really done much of that before.  He wasn't a pioneer by any means, as there were many local anglers targeting walleye successfully for years.  But, his efforts to learn about walleye fishing, and that fact that he figured them out so successfully and quickly, inspired us to get into that game.

However, from all of this arose another passion of mine.  It all started on one of our walleye fishing trips that got me hooked on something else, as told by an excerpt out of one of Kyle's fishing reports below:

"I recently witnessed the usually restrained, well mannered 'Fat Boy' go into an intense fit of rage!  We were walleye fishing in the river, and it had been a pretty slow day.  A roughly 30" muskie hit Fat Boy's grub and the battle was on.  The fish made a run along the bank around a pretty good sized sapling.  I quickly positioned myself to grab Fat Boy's rod if he wanted me to, so that I could hand it back to him and he could continue to fight the fish.  Fat Boy wanted to maintain control, so I grabbed the sapling and pulled it down to make it easier for him to get around.  Unfortunately, the line wrapped around a branch, giving the muskie a little slack in the line, which proved to be all it needed to release the lure.  

I was upset for Fat Boy, I know the fish would have eased the frustration substantially, but all I could do was sit in awe at the next serious of events.  After a brief silence, Fat Boy began to look like the Tasmanian Devil and a torrent of obscenities came out of his mouth for about the next 15 seconds.  After another brief pause, Fat Boy eyed his nemesis, the sapling.  Then, he lashed out at the tree, ripping off branches and bending the trunk!

This was the result of his tirade:

I've been told that you can cruise the shores and banks of lakes and rivers in Maryland and Pennsylvania and actually see Fat Boy signs where frustration reared it's ugly head.  This picture is evidence of a confirmed Fat Boy rub.  We're not sure if he scrapes, but considering recent events, it is very likely..."

Yes, that was embarrassing and a bit funny, but, it was out of character for me.  I guess that's why it was funny.  I haven't had those fits of rage since, keeping in mind that embarrassing fallout could result.  From the next few years until his passing, he never let me hear the end of it.

But, it was that story along with his success at walleye fishing, and especially his musky catches, that sparked my passion and obsession for musky fishing.  Because of Kyle, my personal best walleye, pictured above, and every musky caught since he passed away has been because of his desire to learn and master walleye fishing.  That musky, that caused all the rage, as mad as I was, really intrigued me, and lead to my intense desire to catch them.  They're such a challenging fish to catch.  So, I just took the next logical step, to upgrade my tackle and lure selection to target them, and learn to fish for them.  After all, they eat walleyes!!!

I've learned a lot about musky fishing from my musky fishing pals from present to recent past.  But my passion for fishing for them was sparked by Kyle's passion for walleye fishing, his musky by catches, and from that fateful raged tree incident.

Kyle's passion was walleye fishing at the time.  Eventually, after my Mom passed away, he moved back to Mississippi, and then, on to Southwest Virginia.  While in Mississippi, he became obsessed with catching flathead catfish.  He did fairly well at that too, even catching flatheads in Virginia.

With regard to muskies, this statement from him pretty much summed up where he was at the time.  "All the muskies I caught in the river were naturals, all while targeting walleye.  I thought about switching over to targeting muskies but I was already into a solid pattern."  

I'm certain that if Kyle was alive today, he'd be right at my side targeting muskies and the many other species of trophy fish that we target today.  I think that was a species that he meant to chase, but, simply ran out of time.

So, why write about this today?   This date of the year is the one that I dread most, the anniversary of his passing, 12 years ago today.  I miss him greatly.  You can read more about what happened to him on my tribute page, here:  Tribute to my Brother Kyle

I miss you Brother!

Search, Find and Follow-up Bassin'

I guess that I'll categorize this as a combination of a fishing report, fishing story, and bass fishing tips type of blog post, all in one.  A few days ago, my buddy, Rodger, and I got an early morning start and ventured out in search of bass on a cloudy day with a high percent chance of rain.  The hourly weather outlook on my weather app indicated that we'd be mostly rain free until the early to mid afternoon.  Our original plan was to take my boat out on a local lake.  However, one of my trailer tires was flat, and the spare had dry rotted.  Rather than spend all morning of rain free weather fixing the boat trailer tire, we decided to maximize fishing time, hoof it, and fish from the bank.

We met at the lake around six thirty AM and decided to fish a cove next to the bridge that crossed the lake.  The shoreline consisted of a reeds over a shallow spot that dropped to deep water, and rip rap with a fair amount of blow downs that often held fish.  The water depth in the cove averaged about twenty feet deep in the middle, with much deeper water at the mouth of the cove, and a shallow flat in the far end of the cove.  I know this because I fish there with my boat often.

This particular cove had been very good to us this time of year.  I've had success tossing hard and soft jerk baits, as well as soft plastic worms and creature baits.  I've also had success casting faster moving baits, like crankbaits, chatterbaits, buzzbaits and spinnerbaits parallel to shore that pick off more aggressive bass and cover water quickly, especially during low light time periods of the day.

I carried two rods with me.  My baitcasting outfit was rigged with a chatterbait, and the other rod was rigged with a baby brush hog (a creature bait made by Zoom) that Texas rigged, using light weight and line on a medium action spinning outfit.  My plan was to alternate between the baby brush hog and a finesse plastic worm until I could figure out a decent pattern.

Rodger was the first to catch a bass.  I wasn't near him at the time.  According to him, it was a decent sized fish, about seventeen to eighteen inches long.  He used a small, four inch plastic worm, and tossed it to the tip of a log that dropped off into deep water, and let it sink.  After a few seconds of dead sticking the lure, the line started moving off in the opposite direction.  Rodger picked up the slack and set the hook, and landed a decent sized bass.

Rodger working a plastic worm around some blow downs.

Access to the cove from the road was easy, but tricky, especially since I'm ten years older than the last time that I'd accessed this spot.  I was pretty spry ten years ago, now climbing down rip rap is risky business for me.  Back in 2012, I was in a car accident that pretty much blew out my ankle.  Surgery may have fixed me up, but, the doctor recommended that I take the rehab route and make a few changes in my lifestyle.  I had to give up playing softball, at least, playing infield, because, I couldn't plant my right foot while going to my backhand from the left side of the field, to make that long throw to first base.  If I couldn't play like I used to, and I wasn't interested in playing other positions, then it just wasn't fun any longer to me.  Plus, the doc said that surgery may not have made a difference anyway.

Sorry that I digressed.  We worked the area thoroughly and decided that the action didn't warrant us to spend much time at the first spot, so it was time for a spot change.  I had plenty of good shoreline spots to try.  So, we left and tried another spot on the lake.

This area of the lake was much shallower, with a submerged rip rap sediment barrier that crossed the lake.  We walked an old road bed where the shoreline had numerous dead falls that provided plenty of cover for bass.  I started off with the first bite at this spot, as a fish aggressively inhaled my baby brush hog and swam off.  I was excited as I set the hook, only to find out that it wasn't the species that we were looking for.  It was a less than spectacular sized nine inch crappie!  I've never had a crappie inhale a baby brush hog before, much less a small one, so that was surprising.

Never would I imagine a medium sized crappie eating a baby brush hog.  He inhaled it!  Learn something every day, I guess.  

I moved up the lake in search of more bass and logs that hid them.  At the next spot within a spot, there were several submerged logs and trees.  This was another spot that I'd done well in the past.  I worked the baby brush hog thoroughly through all of the logs.  Birds were singing nearby.  I'm not sure what the species was, but, it sounded like it was singing the word, "chatterbait, chatterbait, chatterbait".  I took that as an omen, so, I switched up and tossed the chatterbait.  However, the bass weren't listening to the bird, at least at my spot.  Rodger, meanwhile, again, out of my camera range, texted me a selfie.  He'd just caught another nice bass on a chatterbait!  That bass was listening!  I mentioned the birds to Rodger, and he didn't notice them, so, the chatterbait idea was his all along.

Rodger's selfie sporting another decent sized bass that listened to the birds singing, "chatterbait, chatterbait, chatterbait"!

We moved further down the lake along the old road, and I picked up a Maryland "keeper" sized bass, a twelve to thirteen incher, on a chatterbait.  So, finally, a bass that I targeted with a chatterbait listened to the birds!

Finally, I found a bass that listened to the birds.

We worked our way down the lake to a cove that is heavily wooded with standing timber and blow downs.  I picked up a dinky sized bass that chased down my four inch finesse worm as I reeled it up to make another cast.  Hmmm, I figured that maybe these fish were more active than I gave them credit for.  So, I cast to the same spot, reeled the worm in quickly, and caught another twelve incher.  Maybe a pattern?  I tried it all over the area without another bite, so no, not the pattern.

In that same area, there was a log that reached out to what was left of the cove's creek channel.  I decided to work that log thoroughly, as it seemed very fishy to me.  On one cast, I put the worm right where a branch on the log created a Y, at the channel edge, and let it sink to the bottom.  I took off my sunglasses and cleaned them, then, put them back on, reeled up the slack, and there was a fish hanging on my plastic worm.  So, I set the hook and it turned out to be a decent sized sixteen inch bass.  That was all the action at that cove, so we decided to fish our way back to where we started.

On the way back, Rodger caught another nice eighteen inch bass that inhaled his plastic worm.  I made a bee line to the same log where I caught my first bass.  This time, I tossed my finesse worm off the tip of the log, same exact spot where my first bass hit.  Sure enough, another fish was there.  I felt the tap on the worm and watched the worm swim toward the thick cover, so, I set the hook.  It was a nice fish.  I could see it as it splashed at the surface.

Rodger with his third nice bass of the day, caught using a four inch plastic worm.

The only problem was that the fish took my line into the brush, and my line was over the top of a small branch, just by an inch or two.  As the fat female bass dangled half way out of the water, I tried giving it line so it could free itself from the cover, but, that didn't work.  Next, I tried shaking the rod tip to free the line or get the bass to flip itself off.  In doing so, I must have sawed a week spot in the line, because, it broke, and the fish, and my lure, were gone.  My guess was that fish may have been between eighteen and twenty inches, and my heart sank as that could have been my best chance at a decent fish all day.

The fish were just not on.  The bite was slow, typical for post spawn fish at this lake.  A few boats that we talked to had similar results.  The common theme was, "you shoulda been here last week"!  We fished our way back without another bite.  It was almost noon, and we decided to leave, get lunch, and try another body of water.

After a nice lunch, we hit our second body of water not far from a local country store that served up a mean cheeseburger sub that I found quite satisfying, while Rodger enjoyed a tuna sandwich.  I was worried about this spot, because, rain pounded our area the previous night, that it might have been muddy.  But, after a short drive, we arrived to find that the water was in really good shape.

The water had a tannic acid stain to it.  The spot was very weedy and had a bunch woody cover in the water, perfect for bass fishing.  It's not an easy spot to fish, and, I wasn't familiar with the best spots in this area, since I rarely fish it.  I decided to rely on my chatterbait to cover as much water as possible in an attempt to find active bass.

Early on, I had a light bite and missed the fish.  Rodger was fishing his finesse worm, so I urged him to toss to the spot where I had the hit, but, after a couple casts, the fish did not bite.  After that, I threw the chatterbait a few more times, hoping the fish would take it more aggressively, then moved on.  That might have been a mistake, that I didn't continue to try for that fish with my plastic worm. Instead, I moved on in search of more fish.

Meanwhile, Rodger gave crappie fishing a go, and caught a decent crappie right off the bat.  I didn't bring any panfish gear, so I kept moving to cover water, walking down the bank, casting to any cover that may hold a bass.  And, there was a lot to cast to.  Places like this are often difficult to fish, because, the bass could literally be anywhere.  Still, with time, you can establish a pattern.

About a hundred yards up the lake, I had another fish dart out and nip my chartreuse chatterbait and miss it.  So, I switched tactics, reached for my other rod that was rigged with my finesse worm, and followed up with a cast to the spot where I had the bite.  A fish instantly inhaled my plastic worm, and I set the hook and landed a twelve inch bass.  I was on the board here, and my confidence grew.  Not only did this place look very bassy, there were willing bass here.

I just love when fish hammer chatterbaits.  This bass from a different fishing trip inhaled a white chatterbait with a white plastic worm trailer.

Not long after that, about another hundred yards up, I caught another twelve incher on the chatterbait.  No follow up needed on this fish, as it slammed the chatterbait.  I released it and moved on.  I had the bug now, more confidence, and felt like I was starting to dial in a pattern, finally.  A few casts later, and another bass fell to the follow up worm after it missed my chatterbait.

Rodger didn't have much luck crappie fishing, so, he switched back to bassin' and caught up with me.  I skipped a couple huge blow downs to give him a better chance at finding a bass.  Instead,  I decided to work a small tree branch that stuck out along the near shoreline, that had a weed mat sandwiched between it, and the bank.

I tossed my chatterbait out and worked it back across the tip of the log.  A big fish shot out and nailed the chatterbait, but, missed it.  I yelled out that it was a nice fish that I just missed.  Quickly, I reached for my follow up rod, and tossed my plastic worm to the spot...nothing.  No bite.  I tried several casts from different angles, and nothing.  I figured that the bass still had to be there, so, I persisted.

My next cast followed the same trajectory as the one where I had the bite.  Only, this time, I worked the worm very slowly through the spot, jigging very slightly, to make the worm dance, almost in place, without gaining much line.

Finally, I had a pick up, the line went tight and the fish started to swim off with my bait.  I set the hook and hooked the fish solidly.  As the fish rose to the surface, it shot half way out of the water, with big mouth agape as she shook her head in an effort to throw the hook.  I pleaded out loud for the fish to not spit the hook as I fought her.  Eventually, she tired enough that I was able to lift her out of the water.

After I unhooked her, I started to do my hand measurement as I admired the fish.  Rodger was right there, and pulled out a measuring tape.  I held the fish steady as he measured her at twenty inches.  During pre-spawn, a female bass like this could weigh four to five pounds, but, my guess was that she was now between three and a half to four pounds.  Still, a nice fish that saved my day, and redeemed me from my earlier heartbreak of a lost fish.

The key to catching this twenty inch bass was to follow up my chatterbait with a finesse worm that she couldn't resist.  It took me a few casts, but was eventually able to tempt her into biting.  That was my pattern for the day, search, find and follow up.  Sorry about the leaf in the pic.  Apparently, as I hoisted her out of the water, a leaf stuck to her side, and I didn't see it.

I worked my way up the lake but the water was very shallow and weedy there.  Not that fish couldn't be there, as it would be worth fishing when they are more active, but, they didn't seem to be in the shallows on this particular day.  Rodger stayed put and fished the sunken logs while I worked my way back to him.  It started to rain pretty heavily at that point, and we were both sore and tired.  Getting old sucks!

So, we called it quits and were thankful that for most of the day, the bad weather held off.  Most of all, it was great fishing together again with a good friend.  Next time, I hope to have my boat ready so we can sit and relax on something more comfortable than a rock or log once in a while!  Still, shore fishing brought back a bunch of memories, and proved that we can still find fish with or without a boat.

One thing that I do when shore fishing, is to secure the fishing rod that I'm not using to a clip that hangs off the back of my fishing vest.  Keeping my hands free allows me to make more casts and stay mobile.  I don't have to bend down a hundred times a day to pick up a fishing rod.  Wearing a fishing vest, stuffed with my tackled needed for the day, allows me to not have to carry a tackle box with me, for the same reason, to keep my hands free.

In this picture, other than me unhooking a bass, you can see my tip above in action, with the rod hanging by a clip attached to a strap behind the neck of my vest, so my fishing rod can hang behind me as I fish my other fishing rod.  If I need it quickly, all I have to do is unclip it, then clip on the one that I don't need.

Finally, the pic above provides my fishing tip, the fishing report is well detailed, as was the story, and the pattern for the day that resulted in most of my fish caught, was the search, find and follow up technique.  I used a search lure to find the fish (a chatterbait, in this instance), and when they bit and missed, as finicky fish often do, I followed up with a finesse plastic worm on light line to get them to bite and seal the deal.  As it turned out, the birds were correct, that a chatterbait played a vital role with my fishing luck for the day.  Fishing was tough, but, we made the most of it, and caught some pretty nice fish.

I hope you liked this report/story/tip/pattern blog post.  Please let me know in the comments if you enjoyed the post, and let me know of  your find and follow patterns that have worked for you.  Thanks for following.  Until the next post!!!!

How About a Little Bait, Big Bass Story?

Here's another campfire type story that brings back fond bass fishing memories for me, one of a big bass caught while finesse fishing on a rather small lure.  Only this big bass wasn't caught by me, rather, it was caught by my fishing pal, Captain Steve Kelley.

It was early spring, near the end of March.  Cloudy skies, light winds, air temperatures in the upper fifties, and water temperatures in the low fifties were ideal conditions to catch pre-spawn big bass.  Water visibility was about two feet, which was really good for such a windy month.  We started out fishing with a moving incoming tide in our favor.

Recently, in previous trips, we'd done well casting lipless crankbaits, and we expected similar results on this trip.  Basically, the hot pattern at the time was to find emerging weedbeds, cast out a crankback, and as you reeled it in, tick the tops of the weeds with it.  Often, if you lighly snagged a weed during the retrieve and jerked the crankbait off it, you'd provoke a bass to strike.   Lipless crankbaits work great with this method. 

Click Here for more info on fishing lipless crankbaits and fishing this weed pattern.

We reached our first location of the day around mid morning, a cove at the mouth of a creek that had a fair amount of sunken wood and plenty of fallen timber along the bank.  The bottom consisted of pea gravel along the bank, and a muddy bottom out toward the middle of the cove.  Bass consistently spawn in this cove, so we felt that was a great reason to start there for the day.  This cove usually had a fair amount of weeds, so we thought that the crankbait pattern be the perfect method.

However, the fish had other plans for us, at least at this spot, at that particular time.  Steve finally hooked up on his first largemouth, an eighteen incher, after about a half hour cruising the cove on a crankbait.  I picked up a couple of punk fish, but the bite wasn't as fast and furious as it had been during previous trips.  For some reason, the weeds hadn't grown as they had in the past at this spot.

Sometimes, when things are slow in the cove, it often winds up being better fishing inside the creek.  We fished our way into the creek.  As we entered the creek, Steve commented that he often caught fish on plastic worms off one of the points.  At the tip of this point, there was a log that created a small current break during an incoming tide.  Steve picked up his rod, rigged with light weight, a light wire hook, and four inch green pumpkin ringworm, and pitched his worm perfectly into the eddy created by the log.  Almost immediately, he yelled, "Fish!  It's a good one!"

After hearing that, I reeled in my lure and grabbed the net.  The current swept us further into the creek as Steve battled the fish on eight pound fluorocarbon line spooled on a medium light action spinning rod and reel combo.  As the fish neared the boat, I had the net in the water at the ready, but the fish saw the net, and took off for a run.  At this point, neither of us got a good look at her.

It peeled off a little line, and then Steve worked her back in.  After a few head shakes under the boat, Steve brought the fish out from under the boat and I eased the net underneath her.  This fish was a fat girl for sure.  After I netted her and took pictures, Steve placed her on the measuring board and she went twenty one and a half inches long.  We didn't have a scale, but I'd guess, based on her girth, that she weighed about six pounds, perhaps a little more.  At the time, this was Steve's personal best tidal river bass.  What a beast!

Steve's twenty and a half inch personal best tidal river largemouth bass inhaled a four inch finesse worm!

In recent blog posts, I posted stories about big bass caught on big lures, and that is such a true saying worth repeating.  But, this bass was caught on a finesse style worm, texas rigged fished with a light bullet sinker on light line.  It wasn't a new pattern for either of us, as this rig has caught lots of fish, for both of us.  And, I personally have caught several five pound or better fish on this rig.  It's productive.  During a tough bite, you can't beat it.  But, this fish was caught finessing on a day when the crankbait bite should have been king, and at the end of the day, it was. 

Pictured here are a few productive finesse soft plastic lures.  The second lure from the top, a four inch green pumpkin ringworm, fished with a light wire hook, and a light 1/16 ounce bullet sinker on eight pound line caught Steve's lunker fish.

After that fish, we moved to another spot with a good weedbed, where the fish really turned on to the lipless crankbait pattern.  I don't remember if he caught any more on a worm, but, it's tough to finesse fish when your boat partner is cranking in big fish and covering water.  In other words, when the crankbait bite is on, it's a tough choice to put that lure down.  Let's face it, lures like that cover a lot of water, and when they're hot, you can really rack up the numbers of good fish in a hurry.

We fished into the early afternoon and then he had to be off the water for a family function.  Steve finished with fifteen bass, all of the over three pounds, including his personal best fish.  I had a great day as well, finishing with sixteen bass, including nineteen incher and several in the seventeen to eighteen inch range, along with a couple fifteen inch fish.

I had a good day as well, as I caught good numbers of bass, including this nineteen incher.

What made this day memorable, other than fishing with a good friend, and other than the fact that we caught good numbers of nice sized bass in a short amount of time, was that I got to experience my fishing pal catch his personal best tidal river largemouth bass.  It was my honor to net and photograph this fish.  I can't wait to do the same when he catches his next personal best bass, if I'm lucky enough to be there when he does!

The "Make Fun of Me, Will Ya" Bass...

Continuing with my story telling, as we sit around our virtual campfire, let me tell you about a what might have been my first bass over five pounds out of my home lake.   It's a kind of an "I'll show you" story, sort of a tale of an underdog, overcoming the odds and achieving a goal.  But for me, it turned out to be a good memory that may have shaped my approach to bass fishing altogether.

This story took place in the late 1980's, way before anyone, that I knew of, heard of blogging or the internet.  In fact, I don't think that Al Gore had even invented the internet yet!  This particular lake was one that I learned to fish on, just a couple miles from where I grew up.  This lake never really got any serious bass fishing pressure.  Most of the anglers that fished there were focused on fishing for the stocked with trout, as I had also done for several years prior to this event.

Spring was in full force.  The spring peepers had been chirping for a few weeks, forsythia bushes were in full bloom for almost as long, and eastern redbud and cherry tree flowers filled the landscape splashes of pink and purple. Other trees and shrubbery sprouted new leaves that tinted the landscape with a hint of green.  Parking was limited, because just a week earlier, the Maryland DNR  stocked several thousand rainbow trout into the lake.   As we'd come to learn, all these signs meant that big bass cruised the shallows in search of a fishy meal.

Howard sports a nice spring time bass caught on the lake that I grew up fishing.

Certain popular access points were packed with anglers that fished for the stocked trout, most of them seated on buckets that contained their tackle, bait, supplies and perhaps, lunch.  Their rods were seated between the twigs of carefully selected fork sticks that they stuck in the bank in front of them, intensely focused on their rod tips for the slightest of nibble of finicky trout.  The hot baits at the time were round globs of Velveeta Cheese or Berkeley Powerbait molded to their hook, or the commonly used and equally effective bait, a juicy fat night crawler.

Other trout seeking anglers found room  and cast out Roostertail, Mepps, or Joe's Flies spinners in search of more aggressive trout.  That day, many of those using bait or lures already had stringers with a few trout dangling in the water as they sought their limit of five trout per person per day.

One of these access points was at the upper end of the lake, where a road bridge crossed the main feeder creek.  On both sides of the bridge, trout anglers stood or sat shoulder to shoulder in pursuit of their coveted limit of trout.

The upper end of this lake also was, as we discovered, a pretty good area to find bass.  It made sense.  There was shallow water near a deeper channel, with a nice gravel point that we suspected was a spawning area.  There was plenty of debris and cover on the bottom.  On the other side of the channel, there were stumps on the flat providing nice ambush points.  Also, the upper end of the lake happened to be the Northern end of the lake, where the lake received plenty of sunshine from the Southern sky, providing the warmest water in the lake that time of year.

The incoming creek sported a good population of minnows.  Stocked trout roamed in and out of the creek.  My buddies and I always wondered if the largest bass in the lake fed on these stocked trout as opportunities arose.  Or, perhaps they kept minnows on the move into locations where largemouth could wait in ambush.

My fishing pals that day, Howard and John, joined me at the lake after work on one warm cloudy afternoon in April.  Although the vast majority of anglers that frequented this lake targeted trout, there were, at times, guys like us that liked to target crappie or bass.

On the East side of the bridge, there was a swampy area that most of the fishermen avoided walking through.  After the swampy area, there was a long, shallow point that led to the creek channel about a cast away.  There, brush piles often held good populations of panfish and bass.  The creek channel ran through the bridge, along the Eastern shore, and then turned and followed the point out into main lake.  The use of hip boots or waders allowed us to traverse the swamp like area, and provided us with more room to fish or wade out off the point, away from the crowd.

Howard and John waded out off the point, and tossed Texas rigged plastic worms fished on light spinning gear to the brushpiles, where they hooked into a few keeper sized bass.  I decided to lob a bigger lure, a half ounce white tandem spinnerbait, along the creek channel, hoping for a lunker largemouth bass.  I changed out the outer blade in favor of a huge size 7 willowleaf blade.  This spinnerbait put out a lot of flash and vibration, and I felt that it surely would call in a big bass if there was one nearby.  If that didn't work, my plan was to switch off to fishing soft plastics. 

I thoroughly worked the side of the point along the channel to the right of the brush piles, and then cast parallel to shore to my right along the creek channel.  The oversized willowleaf blade moved a lot of water, perhaps a key to tickling a big mama bucketmouth's lateral line and allow her to hone in on the beefy bait.

The spinnerbait created a loud splash on each cast, prompting the trout guys to grumble that, perhaps, I was scaring their fish.  My lure never went near anyone's lines or where they were casting, but many of the trout guys, sitting on their buckets, rather than concentrating on their rod tips, joked out loud  and made fun of me tossing such a large bait.

Why were they mocking me?  I have no idea.  Perhaps they felt that the splash of my spinnerbait chased their precious trout away.  Maybe they just didn't know that there were nice bass in this lake and trout were the only game in town.  Maybe the sight of such a large lure seemed silly to them.  I have no idea, but, they were laughing it up pretty good.  I just ignored them and kept casting.  I had a good feeling about my lure choice.

After several casts worked parallel to shore along the creek channel, a fish finally annihilated my spinnerbait.  After I set the hook, my rod doubled over, and she shot straight up out of the water and fell back with a tremendous splash.  My immediate thought was one of elation and surprise that I hooked this big bass, followed by the thought, "That outta scare the trout away!"

I fought her for a bit, and, as she tired, I was able to wade out and lip her.  I hoisted her out of the water, and showed off her massive mouth and bulging gut to my fishing pals.  This fish was at least twenty inches long, perhaps slightly longer, and may have been my first five pound or larger bass out of my home lake.  I didn't carry a tape or scale back then, or a camera, for that matter.  Heck, I was just out there for fun.

I used a white half ounce tandem spinnerbait with an oversized willowleaf blade to catch the bass mentioned in the story that was similar in size to this fat one.

As you may suspect, the laughing and mocking ceased.  At first, it was so quiet that you wouldn't know anyone was there.  The trout guys observed, jaws agape, wondering what they had witnessed.  My friends started giving me props, and it felt good.  I felt vindicated.  I was extremely thrilled by the experience, so much so, that my hands shook.  The trout guys really gasped when I released her back into the lake and watched her swim off.

After that, wouldn't you know, that some of them scrambled through their tackle boxes in search of spinnerbaits!  That was pretty funny.  As it turns out, I had the last laugh that afternoon!  But, the overall lesson for me was to confirm that, what I read about in my fishing magazines, that big lures catch big springtime bass, a lesson that I'd remember time and again throughout my angling years.

Steve's New Boat, a Maiden Voyage Big Bass Story

When I first considered writing about my big bass stories, I pretty much had a few of my bigger bass in mind.  As I pondered my plans for blogging these stories in the future, it occurred to me that I need to include my fishing buddies big fish stories as well (for those trips that we shared).  After all, it's our fishing world, not just mine.  So, from now on, I'll tell their tales as I saw them, with pictures, if I have them.  Not only can I share our experiences with you, but my fishing buds and I can look back and enjoy these memories.  This particular story tells of two memorable bass caught on the same trip.

March 19th, 2012 marked a new day in the history of Captain Steve Kelley and his fishing career, the maiden voyage of his brand new Mako boat.  His boat is similar to a bass boat, with a front deck and a strong trolling motor, but has a center console.  It has a 200 horsepower outboard and is pretty fast for a bay style boat.  He likes to fish saltwater as well as the tidal waters of our state.

Steve's boat is a perfect match for what he loves to do, fish the tidal rivers and the Chesapeake Bay. 

After launching his new rig, on our way out from the ramp, we debated whether to fish the main stem of the river, or fish a nearby tidal creek.  Just a couple days earlier, I fished with another buddy of mine in the creek and did well, so I convinced Steve to give that spot a shot, and then try the main river later.

A chrome/blue back Rat-L-Trap was my lure of choice to start with.  In my opinion, this lure somewhat resembles a blueback herring or other flashy shad like baitfish.  The chrome coloration, tight but heavy vibration, and lots of flash on the retrieve are irresistible to hungry springtime bass.  I felt it was a good choice for a sunny day.  Actually, I did well on that lure a couple days prior, therefore, I had confidence in it, more importantly, it was already tied on, and I was too lazy to tie on anything else.  Meanwhile, Steve had a Yo Zuri version of a lipless crankbait tied on in the same basic color scheme.

The tide was low, water visibility was about 2 feet or so.  Water temps were in the upper fifties.  It was a beautiful, seventy degree, sunny day with just a small amount of wind.

Our plan was to cast lipless crankbaits and focus on the vast emerging weed beds.  The wind is our ally when fishing like this because if you position your boat correctly, you can use the wind to your advantage, drift, and cover quite a bit of water, saving juice on the trolling motor.

We started along a deeper channel where it met a large weed bed that was at least four or five acres in size.  As I rearranged the weeds with my crankbait, Steve hooked up on his very first cast, and landed his biggest tidal river largemouth as of that date, a stout twenty one inch hawg that I’d say weighed about six pounds, although we didn’t have a scale.  How's that for a start on the maiden voyage of your boat?

He worked the lure back, and made sure to just tick the top of the weeds with the lure. When the lure hung up slightly on the weeds, Steve ripped it off the weeds and the bass hammered his crankbait.  Most of our bass that day bit when we jerked the lures off of the weeds.  The trick was to not snag the weeds so much that you had a glob of weeds on the end.  Rather, your lure had to barely touch the weeds and maybe grab one with a treble hook, and then you had to rip it off with a sharp jerk of the rod.  The bites mostly happened when you ripped the lure off of the weeds.

My friend Steve with his personal best (at the time) tidal river largemouth bass, caught on his maiden voyage of his new boat, on the first cast of the day.

Just a few casts later, Steve tied into and landed a fat eighteen and a half inch chunk of a bass, using the same technique.  Of course, we were pretty pumped to find that the bass were still attacking crankbaits.

Meanwhile, as Steve boated nine pounds of fish in just a few casts, I politely used my retrieving technique to clear a path through the weeds so he could work his lure more effectively.  I had trouble with not snagging too many weeds.  In other words, Steve was catching the protein, and I was collecting the salad.  

He proceeded to catch another nice seventeen inch bass a few casts later.  Not long after that, I was on the board hooking into a less than massive twelve inch skinny male largemouth.  Hey, it was a dink, but, at least the skunk was broken.

Then, the tide stopped moving, and although we both had a few more hits, the water was lower and it was difficult to work that pattern.  The tide was so low that the weed tops were nearly up to the surface.  We tried different lures and worked the weedy surface and the channel edges without any luck.  We knew that if we stayed in the creek, it would have eventually produced, but Steve was itching to play with his boat and run it a bit, so out of the creek and off to main stem of the river we went.

We stopped at the mouth of another creek to see if the weeds had emerged yet.  If we found weeds, were were likely to find willing bass.  This spot had always been good to us, but on this day, the weeds weren't there yet.  Fishing was slow, but Steve managed to catch a white perch on his crankbait, but no bass bites.

Steve changed tactics and worked the woody shoreline with a Texas rigged plastic worm.  He caught a couple chunky largemouth and a couple yellow perch with that rig.  I continued to work the crankbait, but it didn't happen for me at that spot.  

After a while, I decided to try something different, and do a bit of finessing.  I pulled out my trusty spinning rod rigged with a 1/8 oz. jighead, a Mann’s Sting Ray grub dabbed in Smelly Jelly (that actually smells pretty good), and proceeded to snag on my first cast with it.  I tried to straighten the hook with my strong braided line, but must have had a nick in it and broke it off…I could have waited for Steve to move the boat as he was willing to do so, but got impatient.  So I tied on another jig and proceeded to catch a yellow perch and a couple fifteen inch fat largemouth.

As we moved toward the creek mouth, we noticed that the tide was coming in, so I switched back to my Rat-L-Trap, and hooked up with a nice chunky bass that would have been about three pounds.  Would have been?  Yes, would have been.  I lost it while trying to yoke it in the boat,  Bassmaster style!  Dumb…fishing was tough, and I should have thought to be more careful to make every bite count.  I had a couple more hits and misses, but at least the activity picked up.  

We decided it was time for a spot change and to find some different weed beds.  We pulled up to a spot that my friend, Mark, and I found a couple days earlier that held fish.  I finally hooked up and landed a decent bass that crushed my Rat-L-Trap, that was just shy of nineteen inches. 

I finally hooked into a decent bass after having a tough morning.

I caught a couple more smaller keeper sized bass over the next half hour.  After that, we moved to check out another large weed bed.  I started to get some consistent action, and landed some more fat bass that were scattered among the weeds, but really had to work for them.  

Steve decided to fish the bank and work the wood with a green pumpkin plastic worm.  On his first cast, he landed a fat seventeen inch bass, followed by a yellow perch.  A few casts later, he hooked into a fish that catapulted out of the water on the hook set.  This fish almost performed a back flip.  I yelled out, “snakehead”!  Sure enough, Steve landed his first snakehead ever.

Steve hooked into an extremely acrobatic northern snakehead.  Man, did that fish ever fight!

I’m not sure if it was the next cast or not, but he hooked into another one shortly after, not quite as big.  We wondered if they were pairing up to spawn, and, perhaps he caught the mated pair.  

Steve's second snakehead of the day.  What a thrill these are to catch!

I also really wanted to catch a snakehead.  At that point in time in my life, I hadn't caught one.  I tried to fish a plastic worm and caught a couple yellow perch.  But, really wanted to catch a snakehead.  I had a bite and the fish bit me off, so unless chain pickerel are in there, my guess is that may have been a snakehead.  I guess it just wasn't meant to be on that day.  I was still snakehead challenged by the end of the day.

By then, it was late afternoon, and we wanted to get back and finish where we started the day.  We knew that the fish were there.  So, we went back to the spot where Steve caught his big bass, and worked it thoroughly.  The tide was up, so it was much easier to work our crankbaits over the tops of the weeds.  We had a couple hits, but no fish landed, then decided to let the wind drift us toward the Northern shoreline.  

We noticed a bass, definitely a bass, in shallow water, doing some sort of evasive maneuver, leaping out of the water several times like baitfish fleeing a big bass.  It didn’t look like it was feeding.  Rather, it appeared as if it was leaping for its life.  We thought it might have been chased by a snakehead, gar, or perhaps a large blue catfish.  I'd never seen a bass behave like that before.

Both Steve and I managed to catch a few more fat bass on the trap while probing a different weedy area, a place that we vowed to keep in mind for next time.  We drifted to a point that dropped into deep water and after a few casts, I hooked into another big bass.  I landed it, and noticed that the beast was barely hooked by the back treble of my crankbait!  She measured twenty one and a half inches long, my biggest bass in the past few years.  Man, she was fat and heavy.

This bass was twenty one and a half inches long.  Although it wasn't my personal best, she was my biggest bass caught in quite a few years.

To sum things up, Steve started out with the hot hand, and landed his personal best tidal river bass.  He also landed his first two snakeheads, ever.  Despite my tough start, I also caught my biggest bass in several years.  We each had a blast.  We caught several big bass as well as decent numbers of fish, and a mixed bag of species as well.  Not bad for the maiden voyage of his boat!  What an epic day it was!

Another Big Bass Fishing Story

Last week, I posted a couple stories of a couple of my biggest bass caught in my local area.  I hope you all enjoyed them.  I have more stories to share, and will post more over the next few posts.  Later, I will mix in some other funny or adventurous stories that I have experienced over the years.  The way that I will try and tell these stories is as if we are sharing our experiences over a campfire.  I plan on posting more adventures and less tutorials in the future.  I won't stop posting tips and stuff, rather, I just plan on posting more fun experiences that I've had in the outdoors.  Please let me know in the comments if you like these types of posts.

Five Five Pounders and a Lunker
It's funny, but I keep mentioning stories shared with my fishing buddy, Howard.  The last two stories, he was there, and this next one, he's in it too.  Why?  I don't know, maybe he's good luck for me, but we've caught a ton of big bass together over the years.  This story happened between my boat owning years, where all we did is wade or bank fish.  We found some of these spots while fishing out of our boats, and then found ways to reach them from shore.  Some spots required tough hikes or wades to get to them effectively, but it was worth it.

We arrived at the parking lot of a public park, and hiked along a boardwalk style nature trail as far as we could go.  Then, we hopped off the boardwalk and into the water to wade the rest of the way.  We fished our way forward until we reached our destination, an old wharf along the tidal river.  We'd done well over the years at this spot while boat fishing, and figured it would be worth the wade.

It was about this time of year, a beautiful warm spring day.  Just about every tree was flowering and the woods was greening up fast.  It was time for big female bass to make their ways to the spawning areas.  The tide was falling, and that usually means that fish are active.

Both Howard and I were lobbing large, double willowleaf, tandem spinnerbaits.  Our color of choice in the spring was chartreuse with chartreuse blades.  This was a hot bait for us over the years at this location.  A local fishing guide once told me a saying, "If it ain't chartreuse, it ain't no use!"  That was a great lesson, and it applies to almost any water in my state.

About ten casts into the day, Howard hooked up and yelled, "Fish on!"  After a brief battle, he landed the fat largemouth bass that measured twenty inches.  The bass, at that time, hadn't spawned yet, so this female was fat with eggs.  I estimated her to be about five pounds or so.

On the very next cast, Howard again yells out, "Another one"!  I'm a bit perplexed, because he cast exactly to the spot where I placed my previous cast, where I ran my spinnerbait along and parallel to a log, and did not hook up.  Usually, that is a money cast.  He showed me how it was done, and landed the fat female bucketmouth.  He measured her at twenty one inches, another probably five pounder, and we weren't even anywhere near our hot spot!

We both waded and cast our way for the next quarter mile without a bite, and reached the point of our destination, and area with much flooded timber, and tougher wading, that stretched for about three hundred yards, culminating at a very old, abandoned, flooded wharf.  This particular spot also has four small points sandwiching three coves.  The depths varied with the tides, but low tide ranged from two to five feet deep, with flooded logs and debris just about everywhere, with pea gravel banks, perfect for bass searching for good spawning locations.

When we reached the first point, Howard hooked up again.  "Fish on!"  I still hadn't had a bite.  Again, he landed another very nice bass, and it measured nineteen inches.  Two casts later, Howard had another fat bass hammer his spinnerbait.  This one measured twenty inches.  Man, did he have the hot hand!  Meanwhile, I wondered if my wife had put a curse on my spinnerbait, or perhaps poison!

As we waded around that cove, I hear, "Holy hand grenades, I'm into another one!"  Howard landed that fish, and it measured, you guessed it, twenty inches!  This fish was the fattest one of the day and had to weigh a good six pounds.

I still hadn't had a bite, and I'm wondering what in the world I did to have the good Lord punish me this way.  Don't get me wrong, I was very happy for him.  Any time your fishing buddy is catching fish, big fish, one after another, you have to feel good for him.  Seeing that still gives you hope that the next bite will be on your lure.  Still, I felt it would be nice if I could just get that first bite.

We worked our way around all of the coves, and, although the total numbers weren't that high, Howard still landed a bag limit of five big bass that would have made the Bassmaster Classic guys envious.  Of course, all of these bass were released.  Meanwhile, I forgot what a bite felt like.  I was just going through casting practice.

Howard shown here with an eighteen inch fat tidal largemouth bass.  He caught five nineteen to twenty one inch bass on our trip that day!  Unfortunately, neither of us brought a camera.

At that point, the old reliable chartreuse spinnerbait wasn't working for me, so I switched to a tandem white spinnerbait with gold blades.  The larger blade was a huge size 7 willow leaf that really provided a ton of flash, but had much water resistance on the retrieve.  I added an all white ringworm as a trailer to give the bait a larger profile.  I figured that I had to try something different.  Howard's pattern worked for Howard, but not for me.

On our way back, I stopped at a point that was a huge gravel bar.  It was now almost low tide.  I heaved a cast as far as I could, not aiming for any cover or anything.  I'd made some great casts throughout the day along flooded timber without a so much as a sniff, so why not try something different?  The channel edge wasn't far away in the direction of that cast, and the bottom was littered with debris and sunken logs that you couldn't see.

I reeled immediately as the lure hit the water.  About four cranks of line back, my lure just stopped cold, and then yanked back.  I set the hook as if it was going to be the last fish of my life, and hooked it solidly.  I felt a few head shakes, and then she came to the surface.  She rolled on the water with a tail splash.  Howard turned around after the splash and watched me fight the fish.

This fish turned and bulldogged, not letting me gain any line for about fifteen seconds.  It was the biggest bass, if it was a bass, that I'd hooked so far all year.  I wondered if it was a big catfish that sometimes fool bass anglers like me into thinking that we've caught the mother of all bass.  Either way, this was a good fish.

The water had some color to it, a slight brownish stain, with about two feet of visibility.  Until she reached the shallows close to me, I still didn't know that type of fish that I was dealing with.  Then, her head popped up, and this huge bucket of a mouth shook at me, tossing water droplets on my face and sunglasses.  I waded out and grabbed her huge lower jaw, and hoisted her out of the water.

I pulled out my measuring tape and Howard measured her for me, and she was twenty four inches long.  This was the first big largemouth bass that I was able to measure.  In previous years, I didn't worry about carrying a measuring tape, but, for some reason, it was important to know these things, especially since I started keeping fishing logs.  We did not have a scale.  And, neither of us had a camera.  This was prior to the waterproof digital camera years, and my budget at the time did not include an expensive, waterproof camera.  I released the fish as both Howard and I admired her.

I've caught a bunch of fish like this in our tidal river, but the fish described in this story was another class of fish.  The fish pictured was twenty two inches, while the one caught years ago was a whopping twenty four inches long!  What a fish that was, but it was my only bite of the day!

We both worked the entire way back to our parking area without a single bite the rest of the day.  When it was over, Howard had the thrill of catching five big bass, all weighing at least five pounds.  That's a heck of a day for anyone.  At that point, my only bass caught might have been the biggest largemouth of my life at that point in time.  It was the only bite that I had that day, and what a bite it was!  It's funny how one bite, and one fish, can make your day, or perhaps wind up being your personal best!