Fishing with my dad last week...really long and lots of pics

[WatterBoy]

My dad has been battling various health issues for the past couple of years, and he had to skip a planned fishing trip with me up to our lake place earlier this summer because of them. He was determined, however, to make the long (6.5 hours for him) trip up there this past week to give us one last chance to fish together this year. He can't drive right now though, so my mom had to chauffeur him up there and back. He wasn't able to handle the rigors of fishing as much as he would have liked to while we were there, but he was able to get out with me in the boat at least once per day for 2-3 hours. Here is a long account of our week. All the fish in the pictures were released to be caught again another day.

Monday, September 5

Dad with a 2lb 2oz, 15.25" Smallie caught (from our dock) on a 5" T-rigged senko




Tuesday, September 6

Dad with a 3lb 6oz, 18.25" LM caught (from our dock) on a 5" T-rigged senko



Me with a 3lb 2oz, 16.75" LM caught (from our dock)



Dad with a 3lb 2oz, 17.0" Smallie caught on a 5" T-rigged senko; Me with a 4lb 0oz, 18.0" Smallie caught on a yellow & orange spinnerbait and a 3lb 4oz, 16.5" Smallie caught on a 3/4 oz PB&J Thunderstruck jig with a Green Pumpkin Super Chunk Jr. trailer




Wednesday, September 7 (my birthday! )

Dad with a 2lb 13oz Smallie caught on a 5" T-rigged senko; Me with a 3lb 7oz, 17.0" Smallie (12.75" girth) caught on a Zara Spook (Bullfrog color)



Dad with a 2lb 2oz, 14.75" LM caught on a yellow spinnerbait and a 1lb 15oz, 14.5" LM caught on a Pop-R; Me with a 2lb 8oz, 15.0" LM caught on a yellow & orange spinnerbait and a 2lb 13oz, 16.0" LM caught on a gold/black buzzbait




Thursday, September 8

I don't even know how to describe the morning outing for Thursday. It was surreal to say the least. I had one miss on a buzzbait and two misses on a Zara Spook to start the day. Then I had what felt like a real solid one on while using a wacky-rigged 5" senko on a dropshot setup. I played it for awhile and was getting it close the point of seeing it when all of a sudden it was just gone. Usually that would get me flustered a bit, especially since one crank after it got off I saw my lure, so I was real closing to seeing what it was and how big it was. But for some reason, on this day, I didn't get upset at all and just took a deep breath and kept fishing. Two casts later, still with the dropshot, I felt a real light "tick", set the hook, and the fight was on. There was a bunch of back and forth, with the fish making runs and taking drag, and me gaining ground on it every now and then. Eventually I got it up to the boat, all the while pleading, "Please stay on! Please stay on!", and thankfully it did! It weighed in at 4lb 10oz, was 19.0" in length, and had a 14.25" girth. This was my SECOND all-time biggest Largemouth on this lake that I've done almost all my fishing on for the past 10+ years (caught a 5lb 1oz there last year). I ran into a guy I knew out on the lake, showed him the fish and happened to mention that I was off to a good start on setting a new "bag record" for one outing, although I didn't really think it would happen. (I had two outings last year where my best 5 bass weighed in at 14.0 pounds total, which was my current best.) Well, that was at 8:30 a.m., and by 11:30 a.m. I had boated 4 more bass, but the biggest of them was only 2lb 1oz, 14.5" LM on a Pop-R. Even though it was hot, almost completely calm, and very sunny, we decided to try fishing shallow. First we headed to a bay that was only 4' deep where the boat was. We were tossing worms up to the edges of lily pads in probably 2'-3' of water. Just after 11:30, I was using a "Zoomie" and saw my line take off. After a short battle, I now had a 2lb 13oz, 15.75" LM in the boat also. That was all we got from that bay, so we headed to a reed-filled shoreline that I'd had good luck on last year during sunny, mid-day times. We proceeded to catch 7 LM (all on Zoomies) there from high noon until 1:00 p.m., with the two biggest being 3lb 4oz, 17.0" and 2lb 12oz, 15.5", which I landed at noon and 1:00 p.m. respectively. I couldn't believe it -- 15lb 8oz of LM all in a 5-hour window -- and after I'd lost a real solid one to start the day! WOW, what a morning! Here are the pics:

2lb 1oz, 14.5"



4lb 10oz, 19.0" length, 14.25" girth



My best four of the morning - 4lb 10oz, 3lb 4oz and 2lb 13oz, 2lb 12oz




Friday, September 9

After catching my first-ever bass on a jig at the end of July, I'm addicted to jig fishing now! I caught several more bass, and some pesky little pike, on them last week. Fun stuff!

2lb 14oz Smallie caught on a 3/4 oz PB&J Thunderstruck jig with a Green Pumpkin Super Chunk Jr. trailer



And the fish I caught on the Zara Spook last week were my first-ever on that lure also since I just bought one for the first time before this trip up to the lake. Here's a 2lb 13oz, 16.0" LM that took down my Spook right at sunset that night. I think I'm going to catch a lot of bass on this lure.




Saturday, September 10

Dad and I decided to make one last, short outing early in the morning on Saturday before we headed home. We were on the water right at sunrise (6:45 a.m.) and the lake was absolute glass that morning. I put the boat in position on the same reed-filled shoreline from the Thursday story and went to put the trolling motor down. Before I could even pick up a rod after putting the troller down, Dad was already hollering, "Fish on!". I grabbed the net and hopped to the back of the boat. Once netted, I weighed it, put it in the live well to be photographed later and went to grab a rod. But again Dad was exclaiming, "Fish on!". Two casts for him, two LM in the boat. Dad had FIVE Largemouth in the boat before I could even make my first cast...and I couldn't have been happier. It was awesome to see him having so much fun on the final outing of our trip. We had to head back in by 8:00 a.m., but in that short time we caught 12 bass total -- 7 for him and 5 for me. Here are the 3 best ones.

Dad with a 2lb 8oz, 15.25 LM and 2lb 7oz, 15.25 LM both caught on a 5" T-rigged senko; Me with a 2lb 6oz, 15.25 Smallie caught on a 4.75" Creature bait (Electric grape with blue flakes) on a dropshot



Wow, what a fantastic 9 days at the lake for me and 6 days up there spent with my parents and fishing with my dad! And what a great capper to the week with the Saturday morning outing. Now it's back to the "real world" tomorrow when the alarm for work goes off at 4:30 a.m. ... but there is another trip up to the lake this weekend to look forward to.

If you made it down this far, thanks for reading the long stories and looking at this mess of pictures!