Big Bass Bite – Think Top Water Even When Nobody Else Does
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Getting bit on Lake Ray Roberts recently.
Okay, so I guess I have to start with a good old fish story first. There was this bass, and I didn’t know where this big bass was until I found it one evening last week. I wasn’t even looking for a big bass. I was getting my kicks on roving tribes of sand bass that were marauding around a cove and point that is easy access, and has (or had) all the attributes of a sand bass nursery. High winds had relegated me to my childhood favorite – a spinning rod.
What, you may ask wonder, is a sand bass nursery? It’s one of those places the little sand bass go to learn how to be big sand bass. They do their topwater thing in their little nursery schools, and I teach them what not to eat – usually little silvery “Little Cleos” or some other hardware that lets me discipline them quickly and release them back to nursery school.
It just so happens that this particular spot had baitfish everywhere, and instead of continuing to spank the juveniles, I changed directions, switched to a “Torpedo” to float over (terrorize) a line of milfoil in the opposite direction of these recalcitrant sand bass.
What I got was hit after hit after hit on top, crushing largemouth bass hits close enough that I would see them launch out of the water and go face down (from the air) on this little lure. As I worked my way along this fertile line, gradually going deeper into the water, the bite trailed off a bit, but I kept going.
The structure I was standing on was precarious, but held its depth so that I was only in water two to three feet deep but nearly a hundred yards offshore. Alone, completely alone, save the oblivious bass boaters in Thursday pre-tournament bliss happily burning fossil fuel to go miles when they could’ve walked to their five-by-three. (Do you have to fish from a boat in one of these official tournaments? That $1K entry fee could slow me down a bit.)
So I am happily plugging away, a long way from shore, and about as far as I want to go. There’s this landmark, bass guys would call it “structure,” that marked the point where I would risk going no further. But I did want to cast at that structure, okay a post, and the ultralight spinning rod (a TFO Lefty Kreh TI Cr2 S663ML) allowed for a launch. As soon as I was in the area of that structure, one twitch of the rod, a rest, and then a ferocious wham! I don’t work very hard to set hooks when these plugs have treble hooks sticking out in all directions like the devil’s ass, so by the time I stretched the mono this fish was already running. I flexed the rod, and slight tension, real flex on the rod and nothing. I reeled in nothing … torpedo gone fish gone, all objectivity and sanity gone.
I rarely draw back a nub, so I take it personally when I do. And at about $5-dollars a nub, this fight was not over.
To Be Continued …
NOTE – If you didn’t read this mornings article on “Minding Your P’s & Q’s” be sure to go back to that as a piece to this entire saga. And when I say saga …
Category: Culture on the Skids, Fishing Reports, Fly Fishing for Largemouth Bass, North Texas
