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!!!