05-19-2009, 09:00 AM
<br /> Pointer78 was gracious enough to invite me back to fill the backseat of the red Ranger for a second go around, and was a great host. We started out the day throwing topwater and Jerry boated a keeper on his first cast. We were concerned for the first cast Jinx but I reminded him that I had already casted several times so I was hopeful that would not follow us around. We stayed on the topwater bite for a couple of hours, catching a few and mixing in the occasional spinnerbait and jerkbait in an effort to find what the fish wanted. We also lost a fish that we knew would have been a keeper, but my idiocy of not setting the drag properly on a new reel cost us. We continued to fish shallow and sometime around 9 am we were fishing hard and the conversation went as follows:<br /> Pointer: I think the topwater bite has left us...<br /> Dropshot (as casting): Yeah, I think I may tie on a shallow crankbait and see what happens...<br /> No more than those words come out of my mouth when pandemonium broke out. I figured at first that the fish was hung up, but when it boiled up to the water the first time and shook her head we both realized we had hooked into a toad (in the words of Denny Brauer). After a fight we finally got her netted and into the boat and realized how big she was. My heart felt like it was going to jump out of me as the adrenaline was unreal. I immediately realized how big she really was when I stuck my fist in the fishes mouth, telling me how big the head was. Pointer78 was so kind as to snap a pic and we put her in the livewell. <br /> We then stayed in shallow water and started catching constant keeper fish throwing plastics and spinnerbaits. At one point it seemed like we were catching them on every cast. Our bite seemed to die as the wind died and the sun came out. We then spent the rest of the day hitting several different spots and culling smaller fish, but never could come up with another big fish.<br /> I estimate we probably caught a total in the high 20&#39;s as far as total fish. Once we caught our limit mid-morning, we sized up our baits in an attempt to upsize our 3-fish limit which limited our overall numbers. <br /> The Lord blessed us with a great day and by his grace we were fortunate enough to finish in first and take home big fish. As most can guess, my wife will make great use of my share of the money... <br />