First Bass of the Season . . .

[islandbass]

Finally! I had a chance to go fishing earlier today and I am glad I did. I was going to target smallies for the first time and my gut was telling me it was going to happen.

Upon receiving excellent advice from a friend who works at a local shop, I headed out to the Ship Canal. Another thing he told me was that if I didn’t catch anything after about 5 casts to move to another spot.

He told me that the last time he was there he was killing them with chartreuse colored crankbaits and it might still work or they could tune out cranks. I told him that drop shotting was going to be my secondary tactic. He recommended a brown snub as a good first choice.

I got there at about 12:30 and it wasn’t until I got to my third spot that I finally got into some. There was a seemingly nice college girl sitting on a bench to my left as I made my first cast. I had on a brown sniper snub on and shortly after it hit bottom I felt a tug and then the line went slack. I figured the fish ripped the bait off and I was right. No problem, I’ll just put another one on I thought to myself. Much to my dismay, I discovered it was the only snub I had. #$@$@#@. Fortunately, I had one of my favorite baits, the Robo Worm in the Aaron’s Magic color and it has a brown tone similar to the snub. I quickly nose hook it and make my cast.


Next, I feel the hit. Wohhhh Nelly!!! I’ve only heard and read accounts of a smallmouth’s fight but never experienced it until now. My goodness! The fight in him was so strong. I thought to myself, “You had better not lose this.” I had to climb off the retaining wall and onto the rocks to get to the smallie and lip it.

I was beyond stoked! My first fish of the bass season and first smallie too and she wasn’t too shabby either. The fight caught the attention of the girl on the bench who watched my climbed up the wall to take a quick photo with my phone. Here is my first smallmouth bass!!!! Yeeeeeeeehaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!



The young lady was gracious enough to take a picture of me with the fish. I quickly released it after that and the fish swam away with the same vigor it displayed during the fight.



The next cast yielded another smallie. Unbelievable!!!! I quickly let it go and I decided to see if a larger roboworm would yield a bigger fish. Apparently, it did not. Look at the size of the smallie compared to the roboworm. Talk about being aggressive! The little bugger fought like a 2lb. Largemouth.




I had other strikes, 7 total. Three successful, three with the worms ripped off and one short strike on a crankbait. As much as I wanted to stay, I had to leave to pick up my little girl.

The ironic thing about this outing is that I did not have my best gear with me. A lower end rod did the job! I only get to use my true bass rods on the weekend because they won’t fit in my car without being exposed.

The Rod
I was absolutely impressed with the performance of the low-end Berkeley Cherrywood rod. It is a 2-piece medium action rod too! I was fishing with 8# mono and despite this, the rod was able to give me enough information to paint a picture of the bottom in my mind’s eye and feel the strike. This is awesome for a sub $20.00 rod with stainless steel guides! This is a far cry from my Lamiglas Certified Pro Drop Shot Special rod. So if you are on a tight budget I would definitely recommend it because it will not break the bank. It was mated to my steelhead reel, a Shimano Symetre. I don’t think I need to say anything more since it is a solid reel. Imagine that; A sub $20 reel performing superbly, sensitive enough to drop shot with.

I have to say thanks to my buddy who goes by the name Kokanee King at a local forum for his willingness to share his knowledge about this spot. He knows his stuff and had the number of those smallies. I am still stoked about today. My first bass of the season and my first smallmouth bass at the same time.

Weather: Sunny probably about 60 deg F
Gear: 7’ (2-piece) Berkley Cherrywood Medium Action Rod/Shimano Symetre
6’6” Shimano Claurs (2-piece) Medium Action Rod/Pflueger Trion BC reel

The only thing that would have made it a better outing would have been if my daughter were with me. She really wants to catch her first bass. Having my true bass rigs like my Crucial/CuradoD, Lamiglas DS Special/Rapala Reel and other set ups couldn’t have hurt either. Throwing down the dough for such gear and not being able to use it. Oh, the horror! ;D

[Rebbasser]

WTG, Island! Congrats on the two firsts!

[zooker]

way to go island thats a decent smallie even more so for the first one.. smallies are in a class by them selfs when it comes to fighting..

zooker

[crankybait]

beautiful job, thanks for the story. Smallies are fantastic things, aren't they? Try a tube, it kills em

[brushhog]

Congrats - - got a lot of smallies up my way but haven't got out for them yet. Even the littlest ones fight great!

[Super Fluke]

Nice fish.