07-06-2009, 09:00 AM
My son in law Jordan was in for the 4th and we decided to give it a try early on Friday the 3rd. I wanted him to experience catching some bass and / or stripe in the jumps like I did with Polo a few days ago. We were at the point where the fish had been jumping as the sun came up and I was expecting great things! It was not to be. We saw only a few blow ups and no real sustained jumping fish. Jordan managed to catch one bass on a rattle trap. About 8:15 I decided to give up on the fish schooling and we moved to a grass edge. I was throwing a T rigged worm and Jordan kept throwing the rattle trap. He hadn't made many casts when his rod is bent over double and the drag is singing that song we all love to hear. It was obviously a big, big fish and after just a minute or so I knew is wasn't a bass. I thought a catfish or drum / carp maybe. I had to follow it for quite a ways with the trolling motor until it finally tired. The attached pic is Jordan's personal biggest freshwater fish of all time. The drum would have gone around 15 - 17 lbs just guessing. Anyway it was big and it stretched Jordan's line good. He was very happy as the picture shows. We continued to fish the grass and we picked up 3 more bass in the grass. I only caught one on the worm. They seemed to hit the worm very lightly, but Jordan's rattle trap found a couple of more aggresive fish. Things got even slower and he started throwing a worm also. We were in 3 or 4 foot of water when I turn to see his rod bent over. I think he is hung up and he says, "no its a fish". I have my doubts until I see the line start moving and the drag start singing again. I'm thinking, this is Jordan's day! After a good fight, and some excellent coaching from father in law about keeping the fish out of the prop, Jordan lands his new personal best largemouth! It was a 4 lber and the pic is attached. I had to put Jordan off at the dock at 9:30 and while I stayed out until 11:00 the fish just wouldn't cooperate and the boat traffic was starting to pick up so I put the boat on the trailer and headed home. While we only caught 5 bass and the one drum, it was still a great morning and I had fun watching Jordan catch his two new personal bests! Water temps started in the low 80's and ended at 84.7. Water clarity was very clear since we haven't had much rain. My son in law put it on me on this trip as I only landed the one bass. I hope we get to share many more days on the water and I'll get to redeem myself!