| It's more than that, we had a great day together despite less-than-optimal
conditions. We agreed to split time on each bed rather than bombard every fish we saw
with two baits. I've found this approach very favorable in draw
tournaments. I'd get the first five casts at one fish, then 5 for Harry,
then we'd trade casts for the most part until we caught it or we quit on it.
Next fish Harry would get the first shots. Harry openly told me he was new to sight-fishing. I think the difference in
experience was the only thing that kept Harry from boating a limit. By
day's end he was really getting a grip on how to present the baits, and how
to "annoy" a non-feeding bass into striking a lure, We both agreed he'd kick butt at that lake next time around, and I believe
he will. The day was interesting. Thursday I scouted (prefished), and caught a limit
somewhere in the 26-27 pound range (my 5 biggest. no, really.). Yes, we're
talking New Jersey here. This lake is clear, deep, very infertile, and
loaded with stocked trout. Just like the California lakes, exactly. It's
got a small population of both largemouth & smallmouth bass, but the fish
that are there are big. It's home to the state record smallie in fact,
7-something I think. Tourney day was cloudy, unlike Thursday's sunshine. A bit of rain too. And
wind. Pretty much the worst set of conditions for good sight-fishing. A couple cool things happened, to me at least. Harry & I decided to leave what I knew to be the best area early because it
just got impossible to see into the water. We hit a small cove & almost
immediately saw a good bass on a bed, a 5+ I figured. She looked huge to
me, lol. We cast to & left her more than once, just to let her forget about
our bombardments. The fourth time we went back to her we were ready to give
up on her when we both started casting to her simultaneously. Before long
she gets noticeably annoyed, and Harry & I both cast to the same spot just
past her bed. We both drag our lures near her, and she spins & whacks what
I thought was Harry's big old jig-n-pig. He sets the hook & nothing. So I,
being born at night but not last night, set the hook myself. You know the
rest. She was a 4, not a five unfortunately. Later in the day we came across a juicy pair of bass doing the nasty. Well,
I've had little (to none) success trying to draw strikes from bass having
sex. But these guys were big, and we had to try. It seemed useless after
10 minutes or so, so I moved the boat closer & eventually right on top of
the happy couple. I dropped a dropshot down & whacked the male right in the
head with my bait about 5 times & that guy annihilated it, clearly only
because he was pissed. As far as Harry goes, the man is a total sport. He told me to cast to a
bass he'd been working for 15 minutes. I told him I'd feel bad if I caught
him, and he said go ahead, that he'd had his chances. Yea, I caught him.
Sad thing is I culled him too. Classy dude that Harry. Good net-man too
;-) So while I would have preferred a 1-2 finish in my boat with Harry, it
didn't go down that way. I had a little more fun than he did, but I have no
doubt that he had some fun. I hope he learned something too. And I hope he kicks my -ass soon, he owes me a few. WW |
