[ September 18, 2015 ]
Where do I begin?
It is now the middle of September... the weather is getting worse, the water is cooling down, and the Fall Season is in full swing. The fishing has been great the past few weeks as I have caught great numbers of fish in a short amount of time. I have seen bass schooled up in numbers roaming around in the shallows and have been able to catch them on almost every cast. It didn't matter if it was calm, windy, sunny, rainy, early, or late... they have been biting. That was until a few days ago where it seemed like most of my fish came during the day and then the bite seemed to slow down during the evening. I took note of this and have been trying to fish as much as I can, as early as I can - which for me would be the afternoon.
Well today I got off work early at 2:00pm and started making my way out to the lake. I have been consistent catching bass for the past 85 days that I have fished, and today I was starting to feel a little burnt out. Since I had extra time to fish, I planned to spend a few hours at the marina, then possibly head out in the boat for the rest of the day...
I arrived at the lake around 2:30pm, grabbed two of my combos (first with a Tube softbait, other with a LiveTarget Blueback Herring Swimbait) and started fishing. The sky was mostly cloudy, with little to no wind. The water has about 10+ ft clarity with a bit of color to it, and the temperature is 62F. The lake is also currently over a foot low, and seems to be slowly falling as the days progress. I made only 2 or 3 casts, then dropped the tube next to a piling in about ~25ft of water. I was watching the line as it was starting to sink and when it got down about 5-7ft deep, I saw the line stop. I immediately dropped the rod, reeled up the slack, and set the hook hard. First impression was I thought I just had a decent one on... then a few seconds later I knew I had a good one on... and when I got it near the surface and it started going crazy I knew I had a great one on (but I didn't think it was a PB). That was until I put it on the scale and learned that it was...
5lb 1oz, 21 & 1/2''
I will point out that my digital scale which I believe to be fairly accurate said 5lb 01oz (and I double checked the weight and even re-zeroed it). However my BogaGrip which is a $100+ fish gripper that can be officially certified said it was around 6lb. I don't know if I can believe it was 6lb... so for now I'm going with the lower weight that was on my digital scale. In the future I might decide to invest in a new scale (AccuScale) to be sure.
Anyway I continued fishing to catch another 7-10 smaller bass and also hooked into a nice bonus fish.
It was a great day, and just what I needed to spark my enthusiasm again. What a way to start my weekend...
86 Days Consistent.
WolfyBrandon
