Saturday, November 14, 2009

Best Day of the Year

November 14th-

Who'd a thunk it? This late in November and the weather continues to be phenomenal. I never imagined that the best day of the season would be on the same day as OSU's last home game. After catching a big cat last night I was pumped to catch more fish. Otter just moved into a house with the Darby practically right in his back yard. We had yet to fish it, so we went with live bait to scout it out. As we were hiking in you could see 2 huge lakes about a quarter mile away in the middle of the woods on the other side of the river. After an hour on the river with no luck we decided to cross and check out the lakes. We took off our kicks and waded through the freezing cold water to the other side. A short hike further we found the 2 quarry ponds and decided to fish the bigger of the 2.

It was slow at first but the sun was shinin so good we didn't mind. Around 1pm the sun was so bright i took my shirt off to catch some rays on my pasty ohio skin. Next cast BANG. Bluegill the size of my hand. Okay, this is a start. A few casts later BANG the smallest bass i've caught all year. A bass was a bass at that point, and Otter said "catch one on the next cast." sho nuff, on the next cast another small bass. A few more bluegill here and there. Everything was 1 to 3 feet from the edge, where the water was warmer than the deep part of the quarry. We decided to give the smaller lake behind us a try.
That's when the fun started. We're slayin fish. Old school night crawler and bobber style. Otter's catchin bluegill and bass on every cast. I had 2 poles out and it was tough to manage both in the water at the same time. I saw my bobber disappear and set the hell out of the hook. After catching small fish all day, you know when you got a good one on. Big ol healthy 3lb bass.


Here's the best part. I broke my hook off on the 3lbers mouth. We went ahead and released him and affectionately named him Captain Hook. I'm going to catch that fish again. He must be my Moby Dick.

This pond was unreal. We worked around to every corner of the lake and just killed em on every cast. At one point, I had one fish on one pole and my bobber on my other pole disappears. i bent down and set it with my left hand while still holding the other pole. For about 2 hours we caught around 10 bass a peice, I caught a white crappie and probably a combined 50 blue gills, most of which were hand size.







It's taken all summer to find the secret fishing hole, and I never dreamed it would be in November. Old school worm and bobber fishing. Getting Sunburned. By far the most fun i've had fishing all year.

Friday, November 13, 2009

Friday the 13th Indeed

November 13th-
The indian summer continues to roll on in Ohio with temps getting up in the mid 60's today. I met Poppa Rob after work to try to get my November bass. I'm trying to catch a bass every month of the year, which is no easy feat here in Ohio. I went out to old faithful in Hilliard and tried a new spinnerbait but didn't have any luck. A customer of mine who's an excellent angler has been having luck on spoons lately. I have never tried one but i have a couple in my tackle box so i gave it a whirl. I think i'm hooked (no pun intended). You get some crazy action on these things. I caught a few bluegill on it and had some nice strikes but didn't land a bass. Poppa Rob and I decided to throw some live bait on and take it easy since the sun was sinking quickly.
I stabbed a night crawler onto 4 different poles and casted out. I wasn't even paying attention when Ryan noticed one of my bobbers disappear. I set the hook and had something big on the end. I thought YESSSSS here's my november bass! I got the tank landed and couldn't believe my eyes. Big ol Cat!
here kitty kitty...
That's only my second cat of the year. I rarely fish with live bait anymore since i'm targeting bass. This is by far the biggest cat i've caught in the past 2 years which isn't saying a whole lot. Poppa Rob is an avid Catfisherman (amature) and needless to say, he was not happy to take this picture. My smile says it all.
What a wacky Friday the 13th indeed!

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

A Gift From Above

Oct 30th-

TALKIN BOUT A HEAT WAAAAVE! Friday Oct 30th was an interesting day to say the least. I was out sick the day before with a sore throat and fever. I woke up Friday morning feeling like hell. I took a nap from about 10-3 and woke up at 3 with the sun BEATING down and about 72 degrees. I went outside for the first time for the day and just couldn't sit inside with the weather like this. I decided that sitting in front of the TV was the same as sitting in a chair watching a bobber. I got a bunch of live bait and went out to see what was biting.

About an hour later I was bored catching bluegill and needed to meet the yak shortly to go Halloween costume shopping. (fun times indeed...) It was actually windy-er than a sack full of farts (thanks Grandpa) and I decided to roll a black spinner bait on the side of the pond that the wind was blowing to. I figured the wind would blow the baitfish to that end and the Bass might be down there feeding.

On what was to be my last cast, something came up and creamed the spinner. I had the hook set but he spit it out before i could land him. That's happened so many times to me with spinnerbaits this year. i need to get a better hookset or something. I decided to run it through the same area one more time and sure enough he came back for it. WHAM!!!!!! This time i wasn't about to lose him, so i kept setting the hook as i reeled like all hell to get the whopper landed. I could not believe my eyes when i got the donkey on shore.
I couldn't be happier for a late October bass. I never thought I had a chance at something this big until April when the water warms up and the fish are in Pre-Spawn. It's amazing how quickly an illness leaves your body when you catch a 4lb bass!! Cross October of the catch list!

Blame it on Football!!

Sept 2009-

Football or fishing...football or fishing. I found myself repeating this quandry every weekend. Football and beer are hard to beat, and needless to say my fishing suffered. I got out a few times but didn't catch anything I deemed "blogworthy." After a great run in August, I pretty much shut it down for the fall. A decision I'm sure to regret come January.

My goal now is to catch a bass every month of the year. I've got March through October down, but that's the easy part. This outta get interesting.