One Month, One Week and 4 Days...Finally Bass Fishing!

[islandbass]

I had the chance to fish for about an hour Sunday morning after not having the opportunity for exactly one month, one week and four days. Talk about torture!

I awoke to the sound of pouring rain and despite that I knew in my gut that I had still had a good chance for a topwater bite. My local lake has been good to me this time of year on top water lures, particularly, the Rapala Skitter pop, and I was looking forward to at least one strike.

I got to the lake at about 8:30 am and the rain was coming down softly. I discovered as I was tying up my rigs that I did not bring my top water lure Plano box of poppers. Arrrgh!!!!!! #%@*&$^!!! Dad gummit! This was definitely not the way to start the morning.

I worked a craw colored crankbait in the usual spots off of the dock with my daughter’s 6’ Daiwa rod and Cardiff and got no hits. I switched to my crucial rod with a tandem spinnerbait hoping to get my first hit on one and it yielded the same result.

It started pouring hard at this point and I was thinking, goodness gracious, this is primo top water time with the rain pelting the water. Dear Lord, help me out!

I cut off the crank bait and was about to tie on a hard jerk bait when all of a sudden, I find at the bottom of my backpack an unopened virgin Rapala Skitter Walk. Let me tell you it’s amazing what you can find among your lures. I had completely forgotten about buying it one quite a while ago.

To date, while I love working this type of lure, I have never had success with Zara spooks or Lucky Craft Sammies, but my gut feeling told me that while poppers would have been ideal, this would be a decent alternative. It was the first time I would be using a skitter walk so I pitched it out to get acquainted with its nuances.

I tossed it out in the spot well known to me for getting a good topwater bite after about 7 casts, WHAM!! It was on the pause. I shouted, “I knew it!!!!!” The bass smashed the skitter walk hard enough to set the hooks on itself and all I needed to do was reel up the slack and add a bit more tension. I quickly brought the bass in, took a pic and let it go. He was small but at this stage of being not fishing for over a month and being desperate to catch something, I would have been happy catching a blue gill.


A small, but aggressive bass. It might have been cold (air temp) but the water still felt warm to the touch.

The deluge was reduced to regular rain and with that, the top water action stopped. Nothing else worked either including my drop shotting and chatterbait, but given my limited time to fish, I went home a happy camper. I got my fish and my first catch on a walk the dog lure and got the funk off to boot. Thanks for reading.

_ib

[skeeter944]

sweet! nice bass!

[Christopherkeene9]

Love the story and nice feesh!