Springtime bassin'....

[5bass]

The fishing is heating up quick here in Virginia so I headed out yesteday after work to see what I could do. I was mainly cruising along pretty quick looking for beds and just throwing a crankbait around. Caught a couple decent fish and a few dinks in the midst of looking for beds. I noticed lots of small bass holding on the tops of laydowns but most of these fish were 12" or less. Anyway, I head back into this cove in one of the major creeks about mid-lake. This cove is full of laydowns and i started down the shaded bank. I threw my LC crank over a couple of laydowns and caught one that was about 7" long. I throw over the next laydown and  was threading my crankbait thru the brush and WHAM! a good fish smashes it, goes straight back into the tree and immediately breaks me off....it happened so fast I didnt have a prayer with this fish. I was a little ticked about my $15 LC I had lost so I just took a deep breath, grabbed another rod and kept going.

Coming out of the cove I see this funky looking jon boat with a couple of metal rods hanging off the front and a couple of guys scooping up fish around the boat with nets. It was the Game Commission SHOCK boat.    I went over and started talking to them and watched them for a few minutes. Then I asked the guy if he was planning on shocking the cove I just came from and he said "yep, thats where we're headed". I told him that a bass had just broke me off in a tree and I'd like to get my crankbait back and see how big the fish was.....he said sure and asked which tree it was so I pointed it out and they headed straight for it, lowered the rods into the water and within about 30 seconds, fish started popping up everywhere, including the fish that broke me off with a nice shiny LC stuck in its mouth. One of the net guys scooped her up,measured it then got my LC back and threw it to me. The fish was 21" and full of eggs and they estimated it to be 6.5# or a little over. All in all it was a decent 4 hour trip. I saw lots of signs that the spawn is starting and with the full moon tonight, it should pull some fish up. Its definitely a good time to be a fisherman.

[roadwarrior]

Interesting story. That sure makes for a nice afternoon on the water...

And you got your Lucky Craft back!  8-)

[KU_Bassmaster.]

;D ;D

That's cool

[Jimzee]

Cool story with a happy ending!! ;D

[Dan:]

That's AWESOME! I always thought it would be cool to watch those guys work. I'd probably ask them what the biggest fish was that they had shocked recently and asked them where it was.

[zeppy]

great story. that sounds like an awesome job.

[5bass]

That's AWESOME! I always thought it would be cool to watch those guys work. I'd probably ask them what the biggest fish was that they had shocked recently and asked them where it was.

I left some info out just because of the length of the story. When I was first talking with them they said the biggest largemouth they had shocked yesterday was just over 22" and the biggest smallmouth was right around 20". I believe they actually only recorded any bass over 16". They had quite a stack of pages recorded and had been shocking for 6 hours when I saw them at 4pm.

[Craw]

Great story Scott. You must be living right! Looks like it's time to head your way. I'll talk to you soon.

[jomatty]

yeah sounds like all that clean living is paying off for you:)

i followed the shocker boat around on lake orange one day last year and learned a lot.  it was "shocking" to me how many fish there were and how many big ones.  i found it very interesting, but didnt get any cranks for my trouble.

matt