EricM
Well-known member
Since the wife is out of the country for ten days, I thought I'd do what any red-blooded American husband would do, but it turns out I'm too old, so I went fishing instead.
Since no threadfin shad are to be had, I prowled the shallow bays looking for golden shiners. Found a few too (maybe 20) with my cast net, along with all the winter sticks and trash and enough weeds to bale. I'll need a hay fork in the boat if I'm going to keep this up. Had enough vegetation on the boat to use it as a blind for duck hunting.
And of course now my back hurts from throwing the net (well DUH!).
Lots of current out on the river today. I worked the channel edge, but didn't get any shallow or on the drops - what I did get were about 30 feet deep. First fish was a huge white bass, 17-1/2" long (18" is a TARP and they are rare). It went into the cooler. Next was a 2-1/2 lb spotted bass that joined the white bass. I only caught 2 largemouth bass, twins at about 3 lb each. One more normal sized white went into the cooler and that was it for the catching today.
I had a number of hits on big golden shiners, but they must have been generally smaller fish that I couldn't hook up, likely whites. There were NOT a lot of fish in the area, and it was rare to see any on the H-bird. The highlight of the day (except for that great white bass) was when I pitched the biggest golden shiner (8-1/2 or 9") out and had a HUGE hookup! The bass pulled drag like it wasn't even set, went under the boat and jumped on the far side (of course) and wasn't even thinking of getting tired after a couple of minutes more when the 4/0 hook just pulled loose. I know I hung my head and likely even uttered a bad word. That was the bass of my lifetime, and without weighing it I couldn't even hazard a guess (but it will certainly get bigger with each telling of the story). At least I didn't break it off.
Saw drumking and cuonthelake, and wished the old fart (uh, drumking) a very happy birthday. 71 today! Congrats!
Here is the big white bass. Use your imagination for that durn largemouth!!!! (poop, poop, POOP!)
Since no threadfin shad are to be had, I prowled the shallow bays looking for golden shiners. Found a few too (maybe 20) with my cast net, along with all the winter sticks and trash and enough weeds to bale. I'll need a hay fork in the boat if I'm going to keep this up. Had enough vegetation on the boat to use it as a blind for duck hunting.
And of course now my back hurts from throwing the net (well DUH!).
Lots of current out on the river today. I worked the channel edge, but didn't get any shallow or on the drops - what I did get were about 30 feet deep. First fish was a huge white bass, 17-1/2" long (18" is a TARP and they are rare). It went into the cooler. Next was a 2-1/2 lb spotted bass that joined the white bass. I only caught 2 largemouth bass, twins at about 3 lb each. One more normal sized white went into the cooler and that was it for the catching today.
I had a number of hits on big golden shiners, but they must have been generally smaller fish that I couldn't hook up, likely whites. There were NOT a lot of fish in the area, and it was rare to see any on the H-bird. The highlight of the day (except for that great white bass) was when I pitched the biggest golden shiner (8-1/2 or 9") out and had a HUGE hookup! The bass pulled drag like it wasn't even set, went under the boat and jumped on the far side (of course) and wasn't even thinking of getting tired after a couple of minutes more when the 4/0 hook just pulled loose. I know I hung my head and likely even uttered a bad word. That was the bass of my lifetime, and without weighing it I couldn't even hazard a guess (but it will certainly get bigger with each telling of the story). At least I didn't break it off.
Saw drumking and cuonthelake, and wished the old fart (uh, drumking) a very happy birthday. 71 today! Congrats!
Here is the big white bass. Use your imagination for that durn largemouth!!!! (poop, poop, POOP!)
