Back on the dock at SML VA

[patchtech]

The wife and I decided last minute to spend the weekend with my in-laws, so that means back to the dock for the weekend!

 

Day 1 morning:

 

Cloudy, mist/light rain, wind blowing into the cive.

 

I wanted to work on my strike feel, so I started with a 1/0 worm hook with a couple split shot clipped a few inches above the hook.  Used a curly tailed zoom worm.  (Basically following the bass resource video). Didn't care about catching, just learning/practicing feeling the bottom and identifying structures, etc...  I recently bought a bass pro tourney special medium light rod and an abu Garcia black max 6lb spinning reel, since most of my stuff is heavier, for this exercise.

 

After I broke off the first worm, I figured what the hell, I'll take a break and throw a lipless shad crankbait, and tied it on.  I was getting excellent casting, and was almost hitting the neighbors dock.  Hit an apparent sweet spot by the rip rap near their dock.

 

Got one strike, and got him hooked and started to reel him in.  I wanted to practice "playing the fish" instead of just horsing him in, and he almost immediately jumped and threw the hook.  A few minutes later, I hit the same spot and repeated the same situation, with a slightly bigger one.

 

A few casts later, and I throw a wild one that wrapped around the trunk of a leaning tree.  While trying to bounce my bait free, the rod snapped like a toothpick and I lost the crankbait.  Such a disappointing ending to a morning of promise.  Luckily, I brought a few rods/reels with me.  We'll see what the next couple of days have in store!

[Bird]

Hope the rest of the week delivers for Ya'

 

That lake is so big it's intimidating. Lol

But docks always seem to hold fish

[patchtech]

Day 2: Learning more by failure (or This is getting (relatively) expensive!)

 

Another overcast morning, no mist/rain today.  It was pretty obvious yesterday that a lot of green sunfish that made their home in the rip rap have moved along, and most bigger fish have moved out of the area I'm fishing not long after daybreak.  So I settle in for more practice throwing stuff and feeling it.

 

Tried the split shot rig with one of the other poles I brought.  Just not feeling the same.  Will wait till I get another medium light rod to practice feeling the bottom/cover/bites.  (Following the bass resource video on the topic)

 

Pick up a spinner bait and start throwing that around.  Apparently my knot sucked and after a few casts, it went flying while my line stayed on the reel...

 

So I have an old rattle trap with a small bass type pattern on it.  Figured I'd throw that around, and see if I can start consistently hitting the spot from yesterday near the neighbors dock.  The 6lbs monofilament on the rod I was using just wasn't transferring anything, so I switch to my bigger reel with 12lb floro.  Casting distance took a hit, but I can at least feel the crankbait.  Decide to put my wife's reel on the rod, since it has 6lb floro.  First cast, there's a loud snap and the crankbait flies across the cove while the line is staying on the reel again.

 

Guess I didn't cut enough of the line off from where my wife got her beetle spins stuck in the rocks.

 

Calling it there, as I can only tolerate losing so much in a trip and I didn't bring down my whole compliment of tackle.

 

Definitely learned a lot though, about how various pieces of equipment interact with each other and what not.  Can't wait till next time I hit some water.

[patchtech]

 

Day 2 evening:

 

Bass resource makes you want to fish edition

 

So, I was reading the "best of" sticky, and came across Guaranteed to catch bass, and I had some time to kill while alone.

 

I have a few senkos, albeit neon green and a red/blue, and a few larger worm hooks.  I decided to rig it up weightless, and try my luck following the instructions from that thread from the inlaws dock.

 

Sure enough, after some patience, I had a strike no more than 10 ft from the dock, where I know a submerged tree limb is.  Alas, he as well got away, but definitely looked to be at least a keeper, and had a nice color.

 

I think I'm going to give those thing a try almost exclusively till I get better at detecting bites/strikes.