Great Morning

Summer09 Sun
Originally uploaded by reidbiz

Well, I had a great morning of fishing - I caught 4 bass, 3 of which are pictured below. Right before I took this picture, I snapped my line setting the hook on a bass. He jumped and shook the worm a minute later and I'd say he was about 2 LB's. I must have had a nick in the line or something. In any case, it made me stop and look at the sunrise so I took this picture. A little bit later, I caught one that was barely longer than the 6 inch worm I was using. I didn't bother to get a picture of him, so just the biggest three of the morning are below.

First largemouth on a spinner

Summer09 047
Originally uploaded by reidbiz

The bass run on the purple worm seemed to run dry today. After getting hung up on the rocks in the background, I switched to a spinner. At first, I thought I was hung up again, but the bait kept moving. Then I thought I had a catfish because he kept diving deep and never broke the surface until very close to the shore. He went about 4 pounds and was quite a fighter. Even had two ladies walking the path behind me comment on it being a nice bass - at least that's what I think they said :)

Bass number 3 of the am

Just when I think the first spinner bait bass was luck, I catch this little guy. He's about a pound and has some nice color. The wind was blowing into a little cove on the lake and I fished the section pretty hard after this one but didn't get a second. Not sure how the schooling is on our lake, but I don't to catch many after the first in a given location. More of a stick and move kind of lake.

Ended the morning with a nice one

I went back to where I lost the bass due to a broken line this morning and started fiddling around with different retrieves on the spinner bait. Caught this one with a jerking retrieve sort of like you'd do with a stick bait. Thought I'd take the picture before removing the spinner bait to see if that helps with perspective. This one is in the 3-4 LB range, but the angle hides a bit of his girth

Really need to work on setting the hook

Man, after a Saturday morning missing one fish after another because I was setting the hook too early, I overcorrected Sunday night.  I waited way to long and set one deep.  The poor little guy already had a hook in there beside mine.  I'd love to say that he fought the good fight and survived, but that wasn't the case.  No pictures because I was working to get him back in the water fast. 

A friend has asked that I start posting tips - I may do that or I may just start linking to pages that have good tips as I've found quite a few.

1LB largemouth bass on plastic worm

1LB
Originally uploaded by reidbiz

Here's the little brother, though by far not the smallest one to take a bait this summer. Not sure if he was in a school or just hard to catch, but I missed a number of times before finally hooking him. I do think I found a few good spots this morning. Had the lake to myself which was nice. Also caught him on a purple worm with blue flakes.

4LB largemouth bass - big brother

4LB
Originally uploaded by reidbiz

I decided to go fish the golf course side of the lake today for the first time. I think all the bass in the lake must be hiding over there. I'm going to have to look into more effective hooks (or work on my technique) as I missed at least 4 good hits this morning. I'd set the hook and all I'd find was water. After about three misses, I finally got this one. It's always amazing to me how hard these guys can pull. Water was a bit murky and I caught him on a grape worm with blue flakes. Thoughts on the photo? I'm still working on how to get good perspective in the pictures when I am fishing alone. Good perspective on this one, but I'm not realy keen on lying them on the ground.

Map of my home lake - where the fish are

fish map
Originally uploaded by reidbiz

So this clearly shows that I am hooked and a bit obsessed. I used google to make a map of my lake so I can track my fish, water conditions and baits. Not sure if it will help, but it can't hurt and it was kind of fun.

2.5 LB's bass, number 3 of the morning

2LB small
Originally uploaded by reidbiz

Continued excitement for the morning. Not only did I catch my personal best, I caught the most fish of any single summer outing so far. This is the third of the trip. I had just changed my line the night before to heavier test (from 8 to 12) - good thing as I pulled this one out of some major shrubbery.

The second fish isn't pictured as I hooked him a bit deep and wanted to get the hook out and him back in the water quickly. Happy to say that I think he survived to add a bit more weight to his 1 LB frame.

My Biggest Largemouth Bass Ever

5lb small
Originally uploaded by reidbiz

OK, so near the end of the summer, I finally decided to get up at the crack of dawn and head to the lake by myself. The lake bottom finally cleared up and I could get back to fishing plastic worms again without all the hassle.

Man am I glad I did. I caught my largest ever bass. I wish I had someone else there to take the picture though as I don't quite have the self-photo down yet. This one was a solid 5 LB's. Did I mention that it is my personal best - now I can legitimately go get one of thos 5 LB patches from Bass Pro. I'm not really going to, but it is nice to know I finally can.