We lost Giants... part two!!!

[Fairtax4me]

Ever have one of those months? 

It's working out to be that way. 

 

We hit the lake EARLY. Chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon so we were on the water at 4:30am to try to maximize our chance at catching good fish. Didn't exactly work out that way.

6:30 am thunderstorm pops up, and at this point we've been fishing two hours without a bite. After the storm blows through, I switch to the same swimbait I've been catching fish on for the last three weeks. A 4.8 Keitech on an Owner flashy swimmer. Couple casts later and I've got the first fish of the day. The stumpiest 2lb bass I've ever seen. About 10" long It looked like a big bluegill... big head, big shoulders, tiny tail! Tried to get a pic and he shook out of my hand and back into the water before I could. 

 

Around 11:30 I've got three, and my buddy is still working on a blank. The bite just isn't happening on Sandy on this day, it's time to make a switch... To Briery Creek!

 

With a good breeze and a little chop we start grinding crankbaits through the underwater forest. After an hour with no bites (and I've washed about half a dozen different lures) I hook up on a decent 2lber on a rapala dt10. Not convinced, I switch to a 6 foot luckycraft and catch another about 20 minutes later. My buddy gets the drift and starts chucking a BIG chartreuse square bill (he's devoted to the big bite). Another hour or so goes by and he finally hooks up on a hungry 2.5lber. Maybe 20 minutes later my buddy yells for the net. He's hooked up on something big. His rod is bent like a bamboo twig and I can see the headshakes in the tip of the rod. Problem is... This is Briery, and this fish was 100 feet out from the boat. He gets it about halfway and hangs up in a tree. Snap, line flies, fish gone along with his crankbait.  

 

We come across a flat where I know I can drag the Keitech through some stumps. Couple casts and I bring in another 2lber. I know I've got a pattern of some sort now, and I tell my buddy where we need to go to catch more fish. We move along and three fish (for me) later he's tying on a Keitech :Lol: 

 

Around 4pm we pull around a point and I hook up with my biggest catch of the day (the pic). We'll call it a generous 4lbs. Nice solid fish in 6Fow not far from a dropoff. Still working the Keitech for all its worth another hour later I hook into another decent fish, and pretty quickly it gets pinned against a tree and shakes the hook. 

 

Catch a handful more in the 2-2.b range over the next couple hours and we start seeing clouds building on the horizon. BIG Thunderstorms north and south of us, and some seriously dark clouds heading towards us, but somehow we escape with not a single drop of rain. We haven't had a fish bite in about an hour either. 

 

We move back onto a flat where we caught the most fish we've pulled out of one spot all day. It's 7:30ish dragging the Keitech and it just goes mushy, then my line starts to pull back a bit. Set the hook straight up and BIG head shakes and pulling drag! The bite I've been waiting for since two weeks ago. Time for my revenge!!! Line stops, I can see where it's against a tree and a belly flash just under the surface. I feel one more head shake then the line goes slack, Solid 7-8lb bass jumps 3 feet out of the water 20 feet from the boat.  

 

Grrrrrrraaahhhhhh!!!!..... I at least got my lure back this time, but the frustration and sunburn are nearly killing me at this point. Par for the course I suppose, but d**n am I tired of losing big fish on a tree! This should have been a PB story, instead I'm switching my two heaviest rods to braid and so help me I am getting the next d**n one in the boat if it kills me! 

 

We finished out the day with a couple more fish. My buddy snagged probably the biggest of the day on a plopper right at dusk and I had another 2lber on the Keitech. I shouldn't complain, we put close to 20 in the boat for the day, which I'll cnonsider a d**n good day. Just need to figure out how to get that big girl to the boat. Until next time Buela... 

 

 

[NittyGrittyBoy]

Great story. Always say fish with braid fish with confidence!

 

[LunkerHunt]

Great post, thanks for sharing!

[lonnie g]

smaller boats and mono line create a lot of give , and on something less than a medium heavy rod, long cast usually spell trouble, still sounds like a fun day ,your doing something right ,hooking into that many good ones.keep swinging you know they are there

[Fairtax4me]

I use mono for walking topwater baits if I'm in an open water lake, but that's it. 

Everything else I use 12-17lb flouro, except my g loomis 7'5 jig rod which I normally use 50-65lb braid. Right now it has 65 on it because I also use it for frogs. 

The rod I lost mine on is an Abu Veritas MH 7' with 17lb p-line tactical flouro on a Curado 70 8:1 reel. A heavier rod probably could have got that fishes head turned and coming towards the boat sooner, but another fishing rod isn't on the priority list right now. 

 

I forget which rod my buddy uses for the big cranks he throws, but I know he uses 20lb Seaguar Abrazx on 3 of them. The fish that broke off was on one of those rods. 

His other rods have 15lb Abrazx, or some weight of PowerPro braid. 

 

 

Problem I have with braid is I don't get bit with it nearly as often unless I'm fishing heavy cover or grass. Normally at this point we've got 8-10 foot visibility and fish are sitting deep, which makes getting bit more difficult with braid.

Instead we've had rainstorm after rainstorm for the last three months and everywhere we fish is pretty much 1-2 foot vis chocolate milk. So I suppose I need to spool up some 40lb on the MH rod and see what I get. 

 

Thanks for for the kind words. And yes, It does feel nice to know that I'm in the right places. Much better than last year when I had trouble getting bit at all, much less catching anything over 3 lbs.