Mrs. Matstone

Great job on the video. I really wish I could have made it there. Looks like everyone had a great time.

Awesome! Congrats to you. ;D

Great pics and nice fish too. ;D

Nice fish Congrats! ;D

Thanks guys it was an awesome day. I cannot wait to have her out there fishing again. It is the only thing better than doing the fishing yourself. ;D I could watch her fish all day and never stop smiling.

Great fish congrats to you and thanks for sharing. ;D

Beautiful fish paul. Congrats on another successful outing. ;D

Nice report and nice pickerel too. I just recently tried the spacemonkey in a junebug color other day and did incredible with it. I am going to be fishing junebug a little more often from now on too.

Mothers day was the greatest this year for me. I was up by 6 and fishing by 7:30. I hit one of my favorite local honeyholes for about 2 hours and landed 8 bass. I was very pleased, my whole point to this morning was to catch 2 fish in memory of 2 very important people to me who passed this past year, my grandmother and my friend Lisa since they would not be here this Mothers day. It was a great start to the day in my book, but the real highlight was to come later. I headed back home and was greeted by my girls with some chocolate covered strawberries and some Jordan crackers and last but not least some brand new fish hooks. We then had some cholcolate covered strawberries and jordan crackers for breakfast and headed out on our next adventure.O0 Today was the first time that I took my 10 year old Madison out to specifically target bass. I chose a private local farm pond in our area that I was given permission to fish as long as I made the Apple Pie. ;D I figured the best thing to start Madison off with was to rig up my rod with one of those perfect plastics senkos. We started with the basics of how to cast with a spinning rod and what places would be good to target. It was not long and she had her first bass of the day. I then gave her a little room and let her have a go of it on her own. To my surprise she had 5 more fish, all bass within the first 1/2 hour. I was so proud and she was so hooked. ;D Here are a few more pics and as you can see size does not matter because she was thrilled to meet them all regardless of how big they were. ;D It was not long and I heard some screaming.... " Mom!!!! I got a big one " so I came running over camera in hand and she sure did have a nice one. I was so proud. ;D ;D ;D It turned out that this was not to be her biggest fish for the day either. That one she got when she was walking around the other little pond with her dad and since I had the camera we did not get a pic of that one but daddy said her little sunfish rod (as maddie calls it) was screaming and pulling drag when she finally got it in it was about a 3 pound bass. ;D At the end of this wonderful day I ended up with the best present a mother could ever ask for.. A day with my family and a 10 year old daughter with her first bass thumb. She also ended up with a few sunnies and I managed to get my rod back long enough to get one on the Ragetail shad too. ;D I knew she was hooked after today and on our ride home she was already asking when we would be going back and then said..... "Mom I want a rod just like yours now." ;D ;D

Got up at 3am yesterday morning and just could not get fishing off my mind. By 4:30 am I was whispering in Matts ear about fishing... A few hours later Matt was up and around and I had the kids off to school already so we headed out to fish a new spot that we have not fished yet. It was rainy and overcast, the wind was a force to be reckoned with as well but I was determined to go fishing. We found a spot that we could back the trailer down to and went as far as we could before taking the boat off and dragging it another 50 yards or so till we reached the water. Found the water temps to be in the 60's... ;D I could not find any real structure in this lake which I thought for sure the fish would be hanging tight to given the weather. It was either that or we would be peeling them off the bottom. Decided to hit the pads and since it was the only "different thing" in this place for the fish to relate too. Hooked up a space monkey behind a splitshot in the junebug color. I never have fished this color very much before but thought with I might do pretty well with it given the weather conditions. Lets just say we did very well with it but our day started off to be one of those days where we just could not get a fish all the way to the boat. So at that point I decided to place a little bet with the husband on who was gonna bring the first fish to the boat. Let's just say I had to win this bet. ;D Next cast out I had one on and man I set the hook like I have never set the hook before. ;D In the process of doing this I ended up smacking my husband upside the head with the tip of my rod and to my own surprise instead of apologizing I was surprised at the next words that came out of my mouth.... I said " Hun get the heck out of the way and sit down in the boat like your supposed to because I've got a fish on!" I just can't believe I said that I don't know where it came from but I think he was as shocked as I was because I thought he was gonna fall out of the boat he was laughing so hard. Apparently competition is not a good thing for everyone. This is the first fish that broke the skunk and honey I am so sorry for what I said. :-[ This fish also hooked me back and I found that the fish hooks go in much easier than they come out. OUCH! After I got a hold of myself and Matt stopped laughing it was not long and I had another one on the line and this time it was not a bass but a crappie. I love catching these fish, they are so cool looking. Just a few seconds after that crappie Matt had his first one on and it was crappie bigger than mine. We then moved down to another section of the lake and were tossing the spacemonkey around there the edges of the pads and Matt landed a few bass too. I then landed the biggest catch of all.. myself.. :-[ Eventually after that last catch I caught a few more too.. Well after all that we were out of time and had to leave but I am gonna be heading back to this place for a little more exploring as soon as I can. ;D Hope you all have been fishing!

That is awesome and I love the smile on his face. Congrats. ;D

Nice fish Congrats ;D

Beautiful place and nice fish. Love the yak too. I would like to get one of those myself.

Spanky what a wonderful post and one that was a pleasure to read. I must say that I think your father would be so proud. Your perspective on the situation is admirable. I have lost 2 people in the past few months that were very important to me and aside from my husband and my children were the only ones that supported me in my love for fishing. One was my grandmother and the other was a friend of mine. My friend was 41 years young when she lost her battle with cancer. She leaves behind 4 children 2 in college and 2 of them who are in elementary school. I intended on taking her on a little fishing trip to celebrate the end of her chemo but unfortunately we never got the chance. I have really struggled with remaining as positive as you are but you post sure helps me to put things back in order. As for the coffee table it is a great idea. I have done something similar to that. I posted a report after my grandmother had passed and asked everyone to hold their next fish they caught up high for my nan. I saved the post and the pics of some of the fish that folks posted for my nan and they are in a scrapbook. It was one of the best things that I did and I think you will appreciate the coffee table just as much as I do the scrapbook. Next fish I catch I will hold up high for your dad too. Again great post, thank you for sharing it with us.

I think I have tried them all and have had luck with all of them too but my favorite one is the shad. ;D

Great fish and pics. Looks like you guys had a great time. Congrats ;D

Incredible fish! Congrats to you. ;D I have got to start throwing spinnerbaits. ;D

Nice fish guys and Congrats to you wife on her first bass of 09 with a baitcaster no less! ;D Always great to read about a husband and wife that fish together so keep it up! ;D

As always beautiful fish Paul. Congrats!

Good luck and make sure you let us know how you did!

Keep at it. Everyone has those kind of days. Don't get discouraged. ;D

This weekend the weatherman promised the weather was going to be nice so I decided to take him on his word and do as much fishing as I possible could do. I just could not wait to feel that nice warm sunshine on my back again. Friday my husband and I did not have a whole lot of time but headed out to see how my favorite honeyhole was going to treat us this year. First thing I did when we got there was run up and feel the water, it was not real warm but felt warm enough for me to be tossin that shad around so I did. Waded out just far enough so I could toss my line around the side of some pretty tall cat tails and along the edge of some nice lilypads where I thought for sure that some fish may be sunning themselves. Sure enough they were and I managed to get myself one of them. ;D She was not huge but it was so good to be catching fish on topwater again!! Saturday was looking to be even warmer so Matt and I loaded up the boat and took an hour drive to the top of the mountain to another lake. Needless to say we did not last long there. It was sure not warmer and the wind was so bad I was afraid to stand up in the boat for fear of getting blown out. We headed out of there quickly and decided to try another lake in the middle of the mountain that was a little smaller. Hopefully a little less wind there. Luckily we were right. Water temps were about 58 degrees here and the fish seemed to be hanging tight to structure. The fishing was tough but we did manage to hit a few and miss a few too. Another one that I ended up with... Today my friend and I decided to feed the boys some lunch and head over to the creek behind my house to try to catch some smallies. She does not fish very much at all but I was determined she learn to and being the good sport she is she went along with me. ;D See this? That is all we got.. a big ole nothing. It appears that the little hole I found last year the trout fisherman found this year and the fish were not biting at all by the time we got there. Still all in all we had a great day and alot of laughs. Until next time.... It is supposed to be 79 degrees this Saturday boys so do what you have to do to make it happen but get out there and fish. I am sure plannin on it, and good luck to you! ;D

I hope that you all have a great time and a safe trip home. Wish I could have gone, I have heard it is a beautiful lake and I hope you all catch some hawgs. ;D

I have chosen the craw because that is what I have been fishing the most lately, dragging it across the bottom and swimming it on a jig. I have also caught fish on the lobster, lizard, and the space monkey too. I personally cannot wait until the water temp warms up enough to start using the shad... ;D ;D ;D

Congrats! Great fish and nice pic, it sounds like you too had an awesome day. ;D