We lost Giants...

[Fairtax4me]

Sandy River Res is one of those places you either have a good day and catch a couple studs or you totally blank. Seems like there's never an in between. With plans to hit a small local lake my buddy calls me Friday evening and says "Let's hit Sandy tomorrow!". I'm in! 

 

We get there a little late (6:45) and it's cloudy cool morning. Bit of a breeze but otherwise really good conditions. We run up lake to shallow water and start fishing top water and after about 20 minutes figure its not happening. Change up to moving baits and try to cover some water. My buddy gets bit on a ribbon tail worm on a tree and swings. Worm comes up cut clean just behind the hook. Darn pickerel. 

 

After that we keyed in on slow moving soft plastics with action. Water is muddy but the fish won't have anything to do a with a noisy bait, and they won't chase down anything it's gotta be right in their face. Between the two of us we put 15 fish in the boat by noon. Couple dinks, but mostly solid 1-1/2 to 2 lbers. d**n good day so far for us on Sandy, and at this point we're on the way to having our best numbers day there. 

 

Bite shut off at around noon, sun came out, fish weren't biting anything. We coast around and hit some main lake points, my buddy hangs a 6.2 on a lipless. Typical Sandy, when they don't want to bite you pull one random big fish and that's it. 

 

7pm rolls around and we haven't had a bite since 3. We've headed back for shallow water and catch a couple again on soft plastics. Around 8 we're watching a storm that has been building on the horizon for a few hours but the sun is still out for us. 

 

Any angler knows... It's Time for something to happen... 

I'm dragging a small soft plastic and feel a stump, pop it over and feel the hit. Hook set and for a half second I think I've set on the stump... Then enormous head shake and the line starts to scream. I'm running 17lb floro and drag is down tight. I yell for the net, feel the line go numb and watch bucket head jump out of the water about 6 feet to the right of where my line is going in. She's got me around a stump. Back in the water she goes and now she's pulling drag for half a second as she's running again, still pulling my line across the stump. Adrenaline rush! This is new PB for sure! Hear a "tick" and the line goes slack... I reel in and there's 4 feet of chewed and mangled line at the end, and I'm pretty sure she ran off with about 6-8 feet of line still hanging from her mouth. I sit in disbelief for about 30 seconds. There's one big bass here, there has to be more! Tie on the same rig and go right back to casting, still shaking from the adrenaline. 

 

My buddy ties on a 7" swim bait casts about 20 yards to the right of where I just lost possibly my biggest bass ever. I hear the "swoosh" of a hook set and a "holy $&@% NET!!!" Turn, grab the net and watch even bigger bucket head jump shake back in the water. Comes up again, too big for a second jump, she tail walks... She goes one way... Lure goes the other... 

 

Two giants in two minutes... 

Some choice words As We we both cast back in the same spot. My buddy sets the hook again almost instantly and brings in a 3.5 lber! 

We drift around for another hour without a bite. Rain finally sets in and we head for the ramp. 

 

I don't think either of us could have done anything different. We just got the short end of the deal this time around. Overall, we did put 20 in the boat, and one solid 6lber that was a half inch short of citation length, so was a good day.