Spend enough time on the water....
Apr 22, 2024 14:06:03 GMT -5
paul105, cubrock, and 11 more like this
Post by squawberryman on Apr 22, 2024 14:06:03 GMT -5
or in the woods and you will SEE things. I've put up pictures of my kids and the largemouth bass that they have caught this year, Friday 4/19/2024 was different by a large margin.
My wife is the elementary principal at a school in Central Florida. They do babies through 12th but she is the principal of the elementary part. She, however, writes the schedule for the entire school taking into account the Orange County public school holidays and anything else the school deems a good day off, like Good Friday. Every year around this time there is a teacher workday on a Friday, after Spring Break and before the end of the year. As she is the principal and not a teacher, she goes to the beach. Trust me when I tell you she spends a considerable amount of time there that's not on the schedule, so scheduling a day to go to the beach is one of the most awesome things I can think of that she does. My two oldest kids (girl fifteen and boy thirteen) were excited to go to the beach and take a friend. The youngest (11) is like his dad. If you drive to the beach I don't enjoy it, but if you get there by boat I'll stay until the bugs run me out. So Levi says "Dad can we go fishing?" to which I replied Awwwww yeah. He asked if he could take a friend and I usually always say yes and I did this time. So me, Levi, and Hudson (Huds we call him) head for Lake Lotsabass. I'd gotten shiners the day before. This is what the fishing app said for the day:
The spawn is past and the "good" fishing appeared to be past us. I do not agree with taking females off of the beds, it's a hard rule but I was pretty sure the spawn had already happened. We put in at 9AM trolled along a favorite weedline. A half hour into it Levi gets this, a heavy two pounder.
Understand as I'm in the front running the trolling motor I can't fish because each boy has a rod sticking ninety degrees away from the boat at the rear. I could make Levi sit on the polling platform and fish shotgun but then he wouldn't be sitting next to his bestie and yakking it up as well. Their conversations cover a broad range of deep and meaningful things! Ten minutes later Levi hooks this and hands the rod to Huds. I never know how truthful any kid is when I ask if he can fish and it was apparent that Huds didn't know how to catch bass, let alone a six pounder. It did a tail walk and I knew it was north of four pounds and it was hard not to take the rod to make sure the fish got in the boat, but my boy hooked it for Huds, not me. Levi netted it and we got it in, six pounds. Huds doesn't like holding fish so Levi did. I'd forgotten I had a Boga grip in the bag.
Ten minutes later Levi gets this solid five
The boys decide to take a break from fishing to eat a snack so I get to fish and put a small keeper in the box, no pic. We fish for another hour with no luck so we decide to go to the opposite side of the lake to our swimming spot. Along the shoreline in this one area there are a number of large, beautiful homes where I've never seen a soul. I suppose they are vacation homes. This ONE house appears to have paid to have the lake weeds removed out from the shoreline and it's a clear, sandy bottom. The weeds are about ninety five percent gone. This pic is after the mayhem as I took it for perspective later in the day. I took the picture from where the fish were, and the boys are where I was standing when I hooked the first one.
We've got the boat jammed up against the shoreline and Frik and Frak are out yukkin' it up splashing in the beautiful water which is about a foot and a half deep. I walked out with my vienna sausages to where it was two feet deep and was taking in the day, it was already magical. My boy gave a six pound fish to a kid that was used to catching minnows and he had a five in the box. We already had Sunday supper, the rest of the day didn't matter. As I'm standing there taking it in I see LOTS of small fish, baitfish. Upon looking closer I realized they were small largemouth bass fry from the hatch, all about four inches long. There were thousands of them all around me.
As I stood there pondering this wonderful anomaly I thought "Why aren't there hungry fish trying to gorge on this buffet?" After a few minutes, the "Wolves of the weeds" came out from the dark bottom to the sand. I was standing toes to face with five large, black objects staring at me. I slipped over to the boat and grabbed a rod and a shiner. I walked back to where I was standing and they were still there, fifteen yards way. I chunked my shiner in the midst of them and one hammered it. When my rod bent over I screamed at the boys to get a rod and a shiner and get over here quick. Levi got there first and threw where I told him. We watched a bas zoom over and suck him up. We were both on before Huds got there. I threw mine in the boat and told Huds where to throw and we watched another wolf inhale it and try get away to no avail. I threw another one to the same spot and nothing happened. I told the boys to set the rods down so I could try to wrap my head around what had taken place. I have sight fished for redfish on the coast, and cobia and dolphin offshore, but I've NEVER heard any friend of mine talk about sight fishing big, hungry, largemouth bass. Here's the boys two fish:
In three minutes we put three fish in the box that was two fives and a six and a half, Levi's personal best. That deal stopped so we finished eating and Levi asked if we could leave and I said sure as we had a LOT of fish to clean. We trolled way from there and I thought I wanted a couple more pics of where we were so we trolled back to the spot. As we approached there was a menacing black figure in a foot and a half of water so I added him to the box, a heavy four pounder.
When we loaded up we stopped and got ice for the fish and a bag of BBQ pork rinds which is a tradition, catch fish or not. We stopped at my buddies place on the way home and I asked if he had a piece of rebar or half inch EMT so we could get a look at them all, here they are:
Nine fish, 37 pounds. Huds had never caught a decent bass in his life and got a five and a six. My boy got his new personal best with his six and a half in the frenzy. I weighed each fish as I cleaned them. There were four over four pounds, one over five, and two over six. Bass in this lake tend to have a thirty percent yield and that held true with eleven pounds of boneless fillets. This doesn't happen guys, it was my best day on fresh water in my 58 years (59 this Friday!) and I tried to impress upon those two what had just happened. Here's one fillet from a big one, it's about a pound:
Those turn into this:
And in turn this too appears:
I told Huds' mom I'd topped out, there's no way any friend of any kid could get a better day outta me that Huds did. Huds is an introvert, the opposite of my ham but on the way in he hollered to Levi "BEST DAY EVER!". What an amazing, beautiful gift we received.
My wife is the elementary principal at a school in Central Florida. They do babies through 12th but she is the principal of the elementary part. She, however, writes the schedule for the entire school taking into account the Orange County public school holidays and anything else the school deems a good day off, like Good Friday. Every year around this time there is a teacher workday on a Friday, after Spring Break and before the end of the year. As she is the principal and not a teacher, she goes to the beach. Trust me when I tell you she spends a considerable amount of time there that's not on the schedule, so scheduling a day to go to the beach is one of the most awesome things I can think of that she does. My two oldest kids (girl fifteen and boy thirteen) were excited to go to the beach and take a friend. The youngest (11) is like his dad. If you drive to the beach I don't enjoy it, but if you get there by boat I'll stay until the bugs run me out. So Levi says "Dad can we go fishing?" to which I replied Awwwww yeah. He asked if he could take a friend and I usually always say yes and I did this time. So me, Levi, and Hudson (Huds we call him) head for Lake Lotsabass. I'd gotten shiners the day before. This is what the fishing app said for the day:
The spawn is past and the "good" fishing appeared to be past us. I do not agree with taking females off of the beds, it's a hard rule but I was pretty sure the spawn had already happened. We put in at 9AM trolled along a favorite weedline. A half hour into it Levi gets this, a heavy two pounder.
Understand as I'm in the front running the trolling motor I can't fish because each boy has a rod sticking ninety degrees away from the boat at the rear. I could make Levi sit on the polling platform and fish shotgun but then he wouldn't be sitting next to his bestie and yakking it up as well. Their conversations cover a broad range of deep and meaningful things! Ten minutes later Levi hooks this and hands the rod to Huds. I never know how truthful any kid is when I ask if he can fish and it was apparent that Huds didn't know how to catch bass, let alone a six pounder. It did a tail walk and I knew it was north of four pounds and it was hard not to take the rod to make sure the fish got in the boat, but my boy hooked it for Huds, not me. Levi netted it and we got it in, six pounds. Huds doesn't like holding fish so Levi did. I'd forgotten I had a Boga grip in the bag.
Ten minutes later Levi gets this solid five
The boys decide to take a break from fishing to eat a snack so I get to fish and put a small keeper in the box, no pic. We fish for another hour with no luck so we decide to go to the opposite side of the lake to our swimming spot. Along the shoreline in this one area there are a number of large, beautiful homes where I've never seen a soul. I suppose they are vacation homes. This ONE house appears to have paid to have the lake weeds removed out from the shoreline and it's a clear, sandy bottom. The weeds are about ninety five percent gone. This pic is after the mayhem as I took it for perspective later in the day. I took the picture from where the fish were, and the boys are where I was standing when I hooked the first one.
We've got the boat jammed up against the shoreline and Frik and Frak are out yukkin' it up splashing in the beautiful water which is about a foot and a half deep. I walked out with my vienna sausages to where it was two feet deep and was taking in the day, it was already magical. My boy gave a six pound fish to a kid that was used to catching minnows and he had a five in the box. We already had Sunday supper, the rest of the day didn't matter. As I'm standing there taking it in I see LOTS of small fish, baitfish. Upon looking closer I realized they were small largemouth bass fry from the hatch, all about four inches long. There were thousands of them all around me.
As I stood there pondering this wonderful anomaly I thought "Why aren't there hungry fish trying to gorge on this buffet?" After a few minutes, the "Wolves of the weeds" came out from the dark bottom to the sand. I was standing toes to face with five large, black objects staring at me. I slipped over to the boat and grabbed a rod and a shiner. I walked back to where I was standing and they were still there, fifteen yards way. I chunked my shiner in the midst of them and one hammered it. When my rod bent over I screamed at the boys to get a rod and a shiner and get over here quick. Levi got there first and threw where I told him. We watched a bas zoom over and suck him up. We were both on before Huds got there. I threw mine in the boat and told Huds where to throw and we watched another wolf inhale it and try get away to no avail. I threw another one to the same spot and nothing happened. I told the boys to set the rods down so I could try to wrap my head around what had taken place. I have sight fished for redfish on the coast, and cobia and dolphin offshore, but I've NEVER heard any friend of mine talk about sight fishing big, hungry, largemouth bass. Here's the boys two fish:
In three minutes we put three fish in the box that was two fives and a six and a half, Levi's personal best. That deal stopped so we finished eating and Levi asked if we could leave and I said sure as we had a LOT of fish to clean. We trolled way from there and I thought I wanted a couple more pics of where we were so we trolled back to the spot. As we approached there was a menacing black figure in a foot and a half of water so I added him to the box, a heavy four pounder.
When we loaded up we stopped and got ice for the fish and a bag of BBQ pork rinds which is a tradition, catch fish or not. We stopped at my buddies place on the way home and I asked if he had a piece of rebar or half inch EMT so we could get a look at them all, here they are:
Nine fish, 37 pounds. Huds had never caught a decent bass in his life and got a five and a six. My boy got his new personal best with his six and a half in the frenzy. I weighed each fish as I cleaned them. There were four over four pounds, one over five, and two over six. Bass in this lake tend to have a thirty percent yield and that held true with eleven pounds of boneless fillets. This doesn't happen guys, it was my best day on fresh water in my 58 years (59 this Friday!) and I tried to impress upon those two what had just happened. Here's one fillet from a big one, it's about a pound:
Those turn into this:
And in turn this too appears:
I told Huds' mom I'd topped out, there's no way any friend of any kid could get a better day outta me that Huds did. Huds is an introvert, the opposite of my ham but on the way in he hollered to Levi "BEST DAY EVER!". What an amazing, beautiful gift we received.
