Lake Gaston fishing on June 19th, 2010

Ok, went fishing with dad on Saturday at 3 pm after Clair had to leave early to go back to work. :( It was so very hot outside. I decided we should fish deepwater boatdocks because I was not satisfied with the small fish we had been catching in prior weeks. We started at the mouth of Little Stonehouse Creek on a perfect boatdock in clear water in high wind that we had never fished before. With a texas rigged worm, we worked each post and for some reason, I threw back to a spot we already hit and my line tightened up and I set the hook. A 5 pounder emerged and jumped! I got him to the boat and dad had the net in hand, the fish jumped again and was gone! Oh no! So frustrating, but at least we knew we were doing something right. We kept working that same boatdock and dad set the hook on a nice keeper, a one pound largemouth in the boat! We moved a few hundred yards to some calmer areas since our trolling motor was no match for the high winds. We stopped after about 1 1/2 hours because dad had to go to a meeting. I dropped him off and headed back out to find more fish. I told him on the way back that I was going to fish 2 specific boatdocks that looked good. Sure enough, on the second one, I flipped my worm to the shaded side of an uncovered boatslip and the line tightened up so I set the hook and I felt a ton of pressure! The fish kept near the bottom as I tried to horse him away from the dock structure. Since he wasn't coming up to the surface, I thought it might be a catfish or a carp. Finally as he neared the boat, I finally caught a glimpse of him....a huge largemouth!!! He continued to fight like a freight train, running drag off my little spinning rod until I grabbed his fat lip and brought him into the boat. The biggest largemouth I have caught in at least 10 years and maybe ever. I didn't have a scale, but he was a fat 21.5" fish. I know he was right around 6 pounds, so we will go with that. I have caught about 5 right around the 6 pound mark, but one day, I look forward to getting that 8 pound citation. He will be on my wall. I caught 2 more keepers on boatdocks on the same worm over the next hour, so we had them figured out with 4 keepers (9 pound stringer) in about 3 hours and one lost 5 pounder.

I picked dad up on the dock at 7 pm and we headed out again. Dad caught 2-3 more keepers off deep boatdocks! I couldn't get a hookset but I think I had a few bites. It started getting dark so dad stopped fishing and sat back to enjoy the sunset and watch me fish a little more. With the sun setting, I decided to switch to a buzzbait. On my first cast, wham! Keeper boated. Second cast, wham! Another keeper threw my buzzbait after a nice jump. Now I know I am doing something right. I started working shallow stumpy flats with the buzzbait. I caught another keeper and then a fat 2 pounder off a shallow stumpy point near the shore. I could barely see the strike because it was so dark now. We headed back to the dock (without lights due to electrical problems) slowly after a successful day. That was a blast! So it was a 10-11 keeper day totaling 18 pounds!!! HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO DAD WITH 3 KEEPERS IN THE BOAT!!!

Little Creek Res., June 5th, 2010

Yesterday, I planned on waking up around 7am to head out for largemouth fishing on Lake Smith. Well, somehow I woke up on my own at 4:45am and said, "why would I not?," and hit the lake at 5:45 am. I actually ended up on Little Creek Reservoir (across the street!) instead because the lazy park officials didn't wake up as early as I did and Little Creek doesn't have a locked gate. I have caught nice fish in both but I have more confidence in catching larger fish in Smith. As soon as I hit the water, the waterfall from Smith into Little Creek was flowing hard with TONS of baitfish and larger fish feeding on the surface, so of course I try topwater for 30 minutes but nothing to show for my efforts. How could I not get bit!! I stopped immediately after I noticed a carp jump out of the water...great...I think it's breeding time for them in early summer.

Here we go...I started working the SW shoreline with a buzzbait for an early morning bite as the sun was just starting to break on the horizon. After 30 minutes, I threw to a pretty small, sandy beach and halfway to the yak, a largemouth boiled, but missed my buzzbait! Dang! As seen on TV, I casted right back to the same spot with a topwater popper (Rico) and twitched it a few times and WHAM! After a few really nice jumps, I landed a nice 2 pound largemouth. I can't help but think I could have caught more bass on topwater if I didn't waste my time with those baitfish and carp! I went 3 hours without a nibble using small crankbaits and topwater. I started getting discouraged so I slowed my presentation and went to the Zoom Trick Worm. I was working the brush lined shore in the canal in the NW corner when Clair calls and I take a break from fishing with the yak resting against the shoreline. After I got off the phone, my first cast was to a good looking laydown log which was 10 feet away and my plastic worm begins swimming into deep water! I took up the slack and set the hook! What a great fight...this guy did not want anything to do with my yak and I had to cradle him with my hand instead of lipping him...he was angry and fat! Nice chunky 3 pounder!

I worked the rest of the canal with the plastic worm and came across a huge laydown, a full sized tree in the sun...the other bass came from the hot sun too, which surprised me. I flipped the worm into the heavy cover (Fireline is crucial in this stuff) and I felt snagged on some branches underwater for an abnormally long time so I set the hook hard and a pretty bass leaped out of the water with my worm in his mouth! I fought him through some more cover and horsed him out of there. He looked huge coming out of the water in the middle of that fallen tree, but he wasn't as fat as the last one...2 1/2 pounder. I'll take it! These two fish came on large diameter wood, not the small, thick brush that they were relating to in Lake Smith recently. All of these fish seemed to be males that were left behind post-spawn to look after their fry. No evidence of the large females anywhere...I assume they are in the deep water suspending and recuperating from the spawn. By this time, it was about 11:30am. I am pretty tired and hot. It's 92 degrees and feels like 100. I fish a little more but packed it in and headed 1/2 mile back to the ramp, splashing water over me so I didn't die of heat stroke! Not a bad day on the water.

Ended the day with 3 healthy largemouth totaling 8 pounds. I'll take that any day. All bass were released so they can protect their fry so I can catch more next year!