Out Today

I decided to head under the bridge to the other side of the lake to fish the weeds, before I head under the bridge I noticed a canoe on the other side with a father and son fishing. They both had some of the biggest wal mart saltwater rods available, looked like 6/0 hooks with bunchs of nightcrawlers on them. I asked if they were coming through and the father says " No, we are doing pretty good here" I asked what they caught and he told me 2 bass and something with a lot of teeth. He then starts reeling like a mad man and gets a small bass. As he is getting it in the net I cast a wacky rig under the bridge. I let it fall and the line went tight, I thought it had settled down in the rocks there as the line was tight but not moving. I yanked up hard thinking I could pop it free and then I realized rocks don't swim as this fish sucked up my wacko and was heading towards the canoe. It leaped into the air about 5 feet from the canoe and I knew it was a real good fish. I just hoped my pansy hook set would hold up with the 2/0 octopus hook. Well it did, as a few moments later I had the fish at the boat and grabbed it by the lips. I didn't have a scale but I figured around 7 lbs. I did have a tape measure with me and decide that would be the next best thing.. 23 inch length and a 15 inch girth. I couldn't remember the formula for weight on bass so I found this website(http://www.bassresource.com/bassfishing/fishcalculator.html), not sure how accurate it is but I would think it was really close. It came up as a 6.6 lb bass. I noticed the fish had some real weird black spots, not sure if that's a normal thing or not so I took some pictures. Posted at a,b,p,f

So.... after your demonstration, did you offer any equipment advice to dad?

In some lakes, I've noticed a significant proportion of bass with dark markings like that. And it seems to fluctuate from year to year.... but that's just among the relatively small number of bass I took. I asked a couple of marine biologists about it, and they told me it's benign, whatever it is... doesn't seem to affect the bass's health or quality of the meat.

Joe __________________________ "alwaysfishking" <Fishking@nospam.ptd.net> wrote in message news:MkidnWqoj_8kobneUSdV9g@ptd.net... Woke at 5 a.m to 47 degree temps, went back to bed but couldn't sleep, so up at 6 and off to the store for some coffee. Hit the lake at 7.a.m and launched to a flat lake, no wind and the sun was starting to shine. I motored over to the bridge where I have been having some good results lately. First cast was immediately picked up, I set the hook and the fish took off, I got it to the boat and it was a decent fish between 2-3 lbs. I fished for a bit more but no more bites.

I decided to head under the bridge to the other side of the lake to fish the weeds, before I head under the bridge I noticed a canoe on the other side with a father and son fishing. They both had some of the biggest wal mart saltwater rods available, looked like 6/0 hooks with bunchs of nightcrawlers on them. I asked if they were coming through and the father says " No, we are doing pretty good here" I asked what they caught and he told me 2 bass and something with a lot of teeth. He then starts reeling like a mad man and gets a small bass. As he is getting it in the net I cast a wacky rig under the bridge. I let it fall and the line went tight, I thought it had settled down in the rocks there as the line was tight but not moving. I yanked up hard thinking I could pop it free and then I realized rocks don't swim as this fish sucked up my wacko and was heading towards the canoe. It leaped into the air about 5 feet from the canoe and I knew it was a real good fish. I just hoped my pansy hook set would hold up with the 2/0 octopus hook. Well it did, as a few moments later I had the fish at the boat and grabbed it by the lips. I didn't have a scale but I figured around 7 lbs. I did have a tape measure with me and decide that would be the next best thing.. 23 inch length and a 15 inch girth. I couldn't remember the formula for weight on bass so I found this website(http://www.bassresource.com/bassfishing/fishcalculator.html), not sure how accurate it is but I would think it was really close. It came up as a 6.6 lb bass. I noticed the fish had some real weird black spots, not sure if that's a normal thing or not so I took some pictures. Posted at a,b,p,f

Congrats - very nice fish....

Jim

On Sun, 11 Sep 2005 10:18:17 -0400, "alwaysfishking"