06-04-2005, 04:28 AM
Haven't taken a vacation day in several weeks and since my two eldest boys just finished up second grade and kindergarten last week, I decided to take the day off.
I took the motor off my 14-foot aluminum boat, and the boys and I headed to Salem Pond. We arrived around 10 a.m., and for the first hour or so, there were no takers on my senkos nor on my sons' rattlin' raps and spinner baits. I was getting frustrated, but my sons seemed to be enjoying just casting and drifting in the slight wind.
Once I got serious and began casting with more precision in close to the shoreline vegetation, I began to hook up with the largies. They were small, about eight or nine inches apiece, but I managed to land five in under an hour.
Since I wasn't catching fish with great regularity and the fish I was catching were very small, the boys thought they'd have more fun playing along the shore. As luck would have it, it wasn't long after I let them out of the boat that I hooked into a decent largie.
I made a long cast with a four-inch smoke sparkle senko off the point of some bullrushes, jigged it for a moment or two with no results, and then laid my rod down to paddle up the shore.
With the senko drifting slowly as I paddled, the big largie hit, and it was apparent to me before I picked up the rod to set the hook that it was a much better fish. I got it boated and measured it--a 17-incher. Fun!
With renewed interest, I began vigorously working the same shoreline from which I'd just caught the big largie and immediately hooked up again. This time, to my surprise, it wasn't a LMB that came to the surface but a channel cat. A channel cat on a senko? Who would have thought? The kitty fought like crazy and measured 21".
In three more casts, I boated three more big channels, and all including the first were beatifully colored and spotted. Two were a pale blue, and the other two were the standard light tan color. All, to quote the illustrious TubeDude, "were invited home to dinner."
Talley for the day: Six largemouths and four channel cats and a pretty fun day with the kids.
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I took the motor off my 14-foot aluminum boat, and the boys and I headed to Salem Pond. We arrived around 10 a.m., and for the first hour or so, there were no takers on my senkos nor on my sons' rattlin' raps and spinner baits. I was getting frustrated, but my sons seemed to be enjoying just casting and drifting in the slight wind.
Once I got serious and began casting with more precision in close to the shoreline vegetation, I began to hook up with the largies. They were small, about eight or nine inches apiece, but I managed to land five in under an hour.
Since I wasn't catching fish with great regularity and the fish I was catching were very small, the boys thought they'd have more fun playing along the shore. As luck would have it, it wasn't long after I let them out of the boat that I hooked into a decent largie.
I made a long cast with a four-inch smoke sparkle senko off the point of some bullrushes, jigged it for a moment or two with no results, and then laid my rod down to paddle up the shore.
With the senko drifting slowly as I paddled, the big largie hit, and it was apparent to me before I picked up the rod to set the hook that it was a much better fish. I got it boated and measured it--a 17-incher. Fun!
With renewed interest, I began vigorously working the same shoreline from which I'd just caught the big largie and immediately hooked up again. This time, to my surprise, it wasn't a LMB that came to the surface but a channel cat. A channel cat on a senko? Who would have thought? The kitty fought like crazy and measured 21".
In three more casts, I boated three more big channels, and all including the first were beatifully colored and spotted. Two were a pale blue, and the other two were the standard light tan color. All, to quote the illustrious TubeDude, "were invited home to dinner."
Talley for the day: Six largemouths and four channel cats and a pretty fun day with the kids.
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