SammyLee

Just a hello to the other Bass seekers out there. I am mid fifties and been fishing since I was a toddler, though never very skilled. A couple of years ago, my neighbor who lives on the lake in my subdivision asked me to come over an fish. I had drop shot some worms in the past had pretty good luck with them in the local lake, so we had some fun. I had medium spinning outfits and decided to go to light rigs as the Bass were running 3/4 lb. to 2 lb. and bought a 40 dollar closed face Zebco pinky trigger thing and caught a few with that. Two weekends ago, I had the opportunity to take a one day silent retreat on the property owned by my church denomination. (Episcopal) and there is a nice lake there about 40 acres. Five years ago I had caught a few bass there and took my gear on the retreat. I put a grub/bug spinner bait lure on the light line and made a cast. WHAM! A slab Brim gave me a good fight. Within 45 minutes I had caught a dozen nice brim and five nice bass! This was about 11:00 in a light rain. I went back about 3 pm (still raining) and switched to a small minnow jerk lure and was getting either a large brim or small bass on nearly every cast. Just for kicks, I switched to a 5 inch green, top water popper on that very light line and rod. First cast, SMASH! SPLASH! JUMP! a nice (for me) super clean, healthy fat bass was on. She gave that little reel a workout for sure. In the next hour and a half, I was getting at least a hit for every third cast. I kid you not. These fish were hungry, angry and acted like they'd never seen a lure in their lives. Kinda funny, the females I caught acted kinda scared when I got them on the bank. The big sleek males had a glint in their eye like, "Go ahead, reach down here, see what happens!" One of them looked like he'd be willing to take on a good sized house cat! After a couple of hours and countless fish, all but one released (I had a bleeder which I ate that night) I was actually "caught out". I never thought that'd happen. I didn't even fish on Sunday although the lake was a hundred feet from the cabin. I went back to the local lake (my neighbor's back yard) and started to make a cast with the little zebco. The darn thing was worn out! The spool release lever was like gravel and hung every other cast. No way could this new Bass Master could put up with that. I went to Bass Pro and bought a Shimano Saros 2500 SF reel and a St. Croix 6 foot single piece rod, running 6 lb. mono. What a difference! $$$ (edited just in case the wife ever reads this) bucks but it should last me the rest of my life, I hope. Anyway, if they are jumping into my lap, I can catch em. I hope to learn here how catch a few bigger ones when it's not like a dang "pay per pound" trout farm like it was at the church lake. Y'all take it easy and have fun. SammyLee