Thinkin' About Spring

With all of the warm weather that we had last week I've really been craving spring. Every year it feels like winter lasts until you can hardly stand it. But then when spring comes you take advantage of it, and before you know it you're locked back in the cold embrace of winter. I vow that this year will be different, I'm really going to appreciate what spring has to offer. I'm going to go crappie fishing every weekend in my friends boat. The only weekends that we won't go will be the weekends that we go turkey hunting.I've been looking forward to both for a very long time, and when the time comes I'm going to hunt and fish them like there's no tomorrow.

Last week my brother and I spent a long time talking about all of the different places we were going to try out this year. We even talked about going on a weekend trip to Minnesota to fish to our hearts content.

We spent most of the week checking our hunting and fishing stuff making sure that it was all still good to go so that when the time comes we'll be ready. All of my fishing gear was in mint condition, but there are a few lures that I want to buy. My hunting gear was a similar story, but I need to buy another camo shirt.

I just don't think I can seriously stress to you how excited I really am, and sorry to those who don't care. I mean you really don't have to read this unless you're Mr. Ayers.

Anyway back to the subject. My uncle is a fisherman as well and we've already arranged several fishing weekends with him. My brother and I were also talking about buying a cheap boat that we could hook to the back of my dad's pickup. It is going to be the best spring/summer thus far.

One Right After Another

About a week after I caught my big ol' bass I went to the same lake but clear on the other side. I was at the spillway. The spillway consist of three main water falls. It starts off flat with grass and various weeds growing and channeling the water to the waterfalls. Then the water takes a dive off the side of a relatively small cliff about 30 feet. I was all by myself (I don't recommend going hunting or fishing by yourself EVER!!! Use the buddy system) and i was on the middle island with the two waterfalls crashing down on either side of me. I set up shop and got to fishing.

Now it wasn't long until these two people that were fishing on the other side of the barrier reeled in a largemouth. It was about the right time for them to start biting. So anyways they fumbled with the fish for a few minutes before they give up. I hear one of them call me over so I grabbed my pliers and skirted the waterfall in no time. When I got to the other side I took one look at the bass, grabbed the hook with my pliers and yanked that bad boy out. Followed by the words of gratitude from my fellow fisher men I climbed back across the falls. I don't know if it was good karma or what but not five minutes after I had helped those two I reeled in a 13 inch largemouth of my own.

Over the course of the next 30 minute I nailed 25 largemouth bass, ranging in size from 10- 15 inches. Even though i didn't keep any of them I had an immense amount of fun on this particular trip, and now the spillway is my go to spot for all of my fishing pleasures.

Until next time, cya!!

Monster Bass!

Late July. My brother and I are fishing with one of his friends at another lake in the area. We started out the day on the south shore of the lake by a small causeway. We were all out on the end of a jetty fishing for bass. We would catch small bass, maybe six to nine inches, at irregular intervals. After a while of this we decided to move to another spot across the highway. So we drove over to our new spot across the lake. We climbed out of the car and the first thing we saw was a big sign with four pictures on it, and a heading that read: Fish in This Area. The sign told us that we could catch bluegills, crappies, bass, and channel catfish. We set up shop on a nearby bench and started fishing.

We all were using worms and bobbers and we were catching bluegills left and right. It was a lot of fun, but one can only catch so many bluegills before it's time to find another quarry, and I bet we had already caught 100 bluegills. Time to move on. After we packed up the car, we drove to a dock on the north shore of the lake. There were already some people on the dock so we walked a little ways up the shore and started casting off the rocks. An hour later we moved to the other side of the small bay to a small ledge with a log in the water five feet below. We all voiced our feelings that this was the right spot.

We caught several medium sized bass over the next several hours, and my brother continued to reel in bluegills from under the dead log in the water. Then, as I was reeling in something jerked on my line. I had a lot of snags that day and I was cautiously optimistic that this was more then a snag. The drag on my reel was going out like crazy. Just when i was about to call it a snag and give up the surface of the water ten feet in front of me erupted. A monster bass as on my line and he was fighting with all of his strength. As soon as he hit the water again he took off towards the log. "He's going to get under the log," yelled my brother's friend. He jumped into the water up to his knees and grabbed onto my line. Pulling the bass into the shallows was no easy task, it was thrashing and fighting the whole way. Finally the bass was on shore. We measured the bass, 23 inches!!! Alright but now to keep it alive long enough to get it home. My car was all the way on the other side of the bay. Bass in hand I took off down the road.

When I got to my car i popped the trunk and grabbed the cooler. There were still bottles of water and cans of pop in it, but sacrifices had to be made. I pulled all of the stuff out of the cooler, leaving the ice, I put the bass it it and emptied the rest of our water into the cooler. I drove over to where they were waiting, and we filled the cooler the rest of the way with lake water. I called anyone who I thought would know what to do. Everyone told me I had to keep it alive as long as i could. After getting the same advice from two different sources we decided to go into town and buy some ice to put on the fish.

After getting ice we had to take my brother's friend home. His mom took so many pictures that I lost count of time. Finally we got home where my mom was waiting to take my picture some more. Following the advice of the people I talked to I wrapped the fish in a wet towel and put it into my freezer where it will sit until i get enough money to get it mounted.

That fishing trip was the highlight of my summer. I had so much fun. Fisher man for life!

First Fishing Trip of The Summer

It was early July. My brother and I were just leaving Wal-Mart with our new lures. We had plans to go fishing in an hour with our friend who was to meet us at the lake. When we arrived he was waiting for us on the short boat dock that protruded ten feet into the water. I walked out onto the dock and what I saw was not encouraging. The water around the dock was nothing but weeds in every direction. No problem. I just tied on my top water scum frog and gave it a big heave. It landed with a faint plop about 20 yards away. I reeled it in with no results. My brother and friend had similar results. We continued this procedure for the next hour and nothing to show for it. We were growing more and more disappointed by the minute. Finally we decided to call it a day and head out. We packed the car up with our gear and left the lake the same as we had found it, full of tricky little fish. No matter a real fisher man is a fisher man for life.