My First Fishing Trip

[X-JaVeN-X]

So, I recently decided to take up fishing to try and find something to do with the family and to get me out of the house more (I'm legally blind and unfortunately I can't do most of the hobbies I used to enjoy any longer).  I joined here to start gathering some advice and between the advice here and elsewhere on the net, I've been piecing together a tackle box to get me started.

 

Anyway, I finally got everything in and got some line spooled on my reel.  My wife borrowed a fishing rod and reel from her dad and we headed out to a little family owned pond that we were told has some bass and catfish as well as some bream.  I was interested in trying to catch some bass, so that's what I've been researching the most.

 

I finally got a chance to go out there with my wife and spend a couple hours.  It was a very hot  and muggy (eastern NC summers are pretty brutal), and later in the afternoon by the time we were able to make it out there.  I had decided on just starting with a Booyah Buzz because I thought it'd give me some practice on just casting and reeling.  I spent 20 minutes or so just casting that and playing around with it and getting it to stay on the surface of the water.  I never caught anything on this (but I was also fishing on a deck and not much under the water in the way of hiding places for bass).  My wife was in the house visiting and getting our daughter settled in (she's 2 years old) during this time.  She popped out for a minute to tell me to rig her up one of the senkos (recommended to me here on the forum).  I figured that would be something else to learn, so I got her rod and reel and rigged up a senko weightless on a 3/0 gamakatsu offset hook.  She still hadn't come out of the house at this point, so I decided to walk down the bank a bit where I had been told would be a good spot for bass as there was an old sunken boat of some sort and a couple fallen trees.

 

I cast out the senko and did what I had seen online.  just kinda raised the tip and then let the senko drop to the bottom and wait a couple seconds and then repeat.  On my second cast out, on about the second "hop", when I went to left the rod, I thought I was hung on something, but remembered reading that with this lure it would feel like dead weight, so just in case, I set the hook.  I then reeled a bit (still thinking I was likely hooked on some debris), but to my surprise I felt a fish start fighting.  So, I reeled it up to the bank, and low and behold there was a nice large mouth bass on the end of the line.

 

I got ahold of him (by the lower lip) and quickly realized he had swallowed the hook ...crap!  I hadn't planned on keeping any fish that day (even though we were told we were welcome to keep anything we caught), but by the time I was able to get the hook out (I honestly hadn't prepared for this situation...learning experience the hard way), I didn't feel like the fish would make it.  He was bleeding bad and had been out of the water a decent amount of time.  I made the decision to keep him, so I carried him in the house and dispatched him and got him on some ice immediately. 

 

By the time we had done this, my wife was ready to fish (seeing there were actually fish there to catch got her excited lol).  So, she went out, and we put a new senko on the hook (the last one was MIA).  I explained to her the technique to using it and just like me, on her second cast, she had caught another bass, and AGAIN  it swalled the hook.  Repeat the above process, and we ended up keeping that one too. 

 

So, before going out again, I changed my lure to a Mister Twister G-Grub and we went back out.  My wife continued to use the senkos.  She quickly caught another large mouth bass (luckily it was in his lip) and we were able to get it back in the water quickly with no damage.  A couple minutes later, I caught the largest bass of the day (I think he measured in at just under 18"...don't know the weight, but it was the only one of the day that actually took some drag out).  He was easily unhooked and let go.  My wife then caught the last bass of the day (it was a very small large mouth) and he was hooked cleanly and we were able to throw him back.

 

So, all in all it was a great time.  Aside from gut hooking two bass, it was a success.  We caught 5 large mouth bass in probably a 30 minute window (a lot of our time was spend trying to deal with the first two bass that were gut hooked as we ignorantly didn't plan for that).

 

Thanks a lot for the tips and tricks to get us started.  Senkos must be made of magic lol.  I've already picked up a few more lures that I want to try out (got a couple hula poppers and jitter bugs, as well as a cavitron, and a koppers hollow body frog.  I'm hoping for the next trip that we'll have more time and can bring our son with us (he's 7) and maybe get him set up catching some bream with a hook and bobber.

 

Thanks again!  God bless!

[Catch and Grease]

Great job, I hope you have success on all your next fishing trips!

[Topwaterspook]

I really enjoyed your account of the fishing. It put a smile on my face. I wish you much more success in the future.

[flyingmonkie]

So you're hooked now, right?!?!  Sounds like you might have your wife hooked too - if only we were all so lucky!   You seem to have the perfect place to get some experience and confidence... places like that are few and far between, so take advantage of it.

 

Swallowed hooks will come less frequently as you get better at detecting bites and setting the hook.

 

Be prepared to spend the rest of your life obsessing over those little green things. Welcome to the club!

[GADawgs]

Sounds like a great time! It's also nice that your wife is interested in fishing with you. Best of luck in the future, it becomes quite addicting!

[Mccallister25]

Awesome! Just keep at it. It gets better, I promise!!!