09-25-2009, 09:00 AM
I had the privilege of helping out with the Abba’s House Youth Bass Tournament a week ago. My partner was Ben who is a senior in high school plus I knew Ben from teaching him in Sunday school. Ben had fished a little bit but not much in the last few years. I had found several places that held a few fish and I just wanted Ben to be able to catch some fish. Ben got on board quickly by catching a fish on his second cast so the pressure of catching a fish was gone. We were fishing schooling fish so I had tied on a Pop-R and that is when things got interesting. We hooked a fish on the Pop-R and it jumped out of the water and at the time it appeared to be about a 12†bass. Ben fought it for a second and said it must have come off. I said “are you sure?†He made about two cranks of the handle and said no it’s still on. I noticed something different about the way the fish was fighting. His spinning rod was bowed over and the fish appeared to have eaten it Wheatie’s. As he fought and the fish got closer to the boat, I began to wonder if a second fish might have hit the Pop-R, about that time I saw the fish and it was a big smallmouth. I’m not sure if the smallmouth took the bait from the little largemouth or if the largemouth shook the bait and the smallmouth took it as it was floating up. Either way Ben ended up with a nice 3 lb 11 oz smallmouth. <br /> <br />The tournament had three categories; most length, most weight and most fish. Ben was either second or third in all three categories and had the second largest fish caught that night. God truly blessed our time on the water. It was a true blessing to take Ben and have him catch some fish and place in the tournament. An evening we will never forget.