Early Spring Bass and a New Pond

Sorry I haven't been keeping up with posts.  School and track season are in full swing.

At the end of my Spring break, I went back out fishing with Charles.  We went to the secret pond again.  The fish seemed very uninterested.  Charles ended up picking up 10 on senkos and one on some crazy giant swimbait, but they were all dinks.  Maybe two of the fish were over a pound.

We decided to try a neighbor with a pond behind her house.  She is very kind and lets us fish there.  We got there and saw the water was incredibly dark and muddy, so I put a black "versicraw" on the line while Charles tried his swimbait some more.  I made two casts and immediately hooked up with a 3 pounder.  We circled around the bank some more, and Charles picked up one.  

We came to an opposite bank under some trees and I started hammering fish.  I pulled out two more.  Then,  I fired another long cast and started my slow strip retrieve.  I felt something suck the fly in, so I made a hard strip set and lifted the rod on a massive fish.  I knew as soon as I hooked it it was different.  After a solid minute of tug-of-war, he gave in, and I landed the biggest bluegill I'd ever seen.  It was well over 11 inches.  What amazed me is that it had a mouth big enough to eat a size 1 jig hook!

I pulled out another nice four pounder, which my neighbor wanted to photograph, then decided to get one more fish before we had to leave.  

I circled back to the area I'd caught my first fish and immediately got a take, but I didn't set hard enough and the fish came loose before I saw it.  I thought i might have another chance at it, and sure enough, the fish aggressively grabbed my fly again.  This time, I set HARD and felt a massive fish pull the line through my fingers.  The power and aggressiveness of these fish was unlike anything I've seen in a long time.  The fish surfaced and attempted a jump, and thats when I yelled to Charles, "Bring the scale, this one's over 5!" You know how when a big fish jumps it can't get more than half of its body out of the water?  That's how I knew.  When I finally landed the beast, I couldn't believe I'd gotten it on the fly.  It was 5 pounds and 2 ounces and easily a personal best on the fly.  What a day!!!

If that wasn't enough, my neighbor told me that during the spawn huge carp come and eat off of the bass beds.  She wants them gone, so if we can't catch them on flies, she will let us use her bowfishing kit.  This sounds like something to stay tuned for!!

Tight lines!!!