Been awhile since I posted. Spent most of the summer/early fall at the Sheds. Have a ton of pictures and catches to post (some really nice Footballs). Will save that for another day when we are all bored and need some good stories and fish P@rn.
This Sunday was heading out with a few friends to my local waters for some mid Sunday afternoon action. Saturday night on my way home decided to quickly drop in and scout out some areas and see if the bite was on. It sure was on from about 5pm to 6:15ish. Caught too many pesky Blueguills, a perch or two, a few crappie and a few dink bass. (small jig with a 3’ gulp minnow). Went to another spot after sundown and I found the bigger bass in a deeper pool. Ide say about 7 or 8 bass in the 1 to 2lb range in a matter of 15 minutes(see pics #1 and #2). WOW!!!!
So I had my usual 6’10 medium action rod and my 5’4 ultralight trout st.croix spinning combo as a backup. Said, what would a 2lb bass feel like on this ultralight??? Threw in a tiny crappie jig with a 2’ gulp minnow. BOOOOOMMMM!!!! WTF did I catch? I honestly thought it was a snapping turtle cause it was HUGE and MEAN and NASTY and I couldn’t do a thing with my rod. Reeling was useless. My Rod was completely bent over (upside down U). I got her a few feet from shore it was just thrashing around like on TV when people hook alligators and they roll around. Then I saw what looked to be a monster bass. Holy S, I dropped the rod, grabbed the line and went into the water to grab her. You can see pictures below. It was dark, barely any daylight and nobody to snap a photo with this once is a NJ lifetime bass…WTF!!!. My lens was smudgy to take the typical selfie too. So F-ing pissed. I was trying to juggle the fish, the camera while half in the water. Snapped a few shots (pics #3-4-5), put the big girl back in to breathe and get her back on her way. Ide say 6 or 7lbs easy. Unbelieve the girth and the mouth on her. Ive caught a fish this big before in these waters and we named her Annabelle (sounds like a “big” girls name…ahahahah). So I believe I was once again reacquainted with my favorite big girl out there. What a great night. Caught one last bass with the last rays of light (pic#6)
After that fishing High, I could barely sleep even with the extra hour on Sunday. Couldn’t wait to get back out there with my buddies. Boy did they get an earful of my story. We were all pretty excited about the days potential. We hit the first spot and damn, the bite was on again. The Panfish were biting pretty much on every cast. I guess we hovered over a school and it was pretty intense black crappie and perch action for about an hour. Bite my tongue for saying this, but we got bored of catching them and decided to move on and find the bass. We chased the bass the rest of the afternoon and came up short as far as solid big LMB. We caught a bunch more dink bass and a few 1lb-rs. A perch or crappie here or there. The bite was dead by 4pm. Still a GREAT fishing weekend. One of the best to date for sure. And in early November… go figured that one out.
We shall see what this weekend brings. Saturday is going to be cold. Sunday should be decent.
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