Reprise 4/24/12

Well, so much for keeping it short.  I will try harder this time.  The weather was still warm, and there was still too much fun to be had, so I returned to the pond the next day.  I caught a decent but skinny bass on the 110 pretty quickly.

I was alone today, so I decided to work my way up into that bay where I was told all the fish were.  I scored a few smaller to okay fish from the brush on the soft jerkbait.

I even managed to catch a decent foot long bass on an Evergreen Combat Popper.  Kind of crazy to get topwater action in April in Idaho.  I tried the 110, a chatterbait, a swimbait and a lipless crank out from shore, but I couldn't find anything.  I pulled a few more from the shrubbery, I even managed this nice little fatty.

I got all the way into the back of the bay, but all I could find were fingerlings.  A couple of shore fishermen showed up, so I decided to work my way up the far bank.  I found more dinks and some bluegill, but nothing worth bothering with.  There was a smaller bay off from the larger one that I had always been curious about.  It was The Avian Kingdom apparently.  There were several Canada geese honking, splashing and attacking each other while a pair of voyeuristic sandhill cranes and a great blue heron looked on at their shenanigans.

I only found dinks once again, so I decided to head back to the point where I had my first flurry of action the day before.  I switched out the popper for a Jackall Squirrel 76 in perch.  I got to some deeper water, and on my first cast with it I caught the best bass of the day so far.

I continued up the bank, missing one fish, but not much more.  The wind was getting to be rather pesky making it difficult to sense a strike.  I arrived at the point, but didn't have much action.  I missed one fish, and was about to leave when my fortunes changed.  I was jerking in the 110, when I thought I hit some moss near the end of the retrieve.  I tried cranking it in as fast as I could so that I could clean it up, but I had a bass on.  A good one, and she was completely hooked in the side.  That was quite the fight on a medium light rod and 8lb test, but I eventually scooped this porker up.

I moment later I hooked another good fish on the Squirrel.  I saw a huge head come to the surface and thrash.  She jumped several times, which was surprising, because she looked decrepit and ancient.

Judging by the size of it's head, that fish would have been a toad had she been as fat as her peers.  I lost another good fish, and then it quieted down.

I was nearly out of time, so I went back to the bank where I had ended the day before.  I caught several 12" males on the Twitchy Minnow before finally getting this nice one on the Squirrel.

I caught a couple more decent ones on the 110 before losing a really good fish on the Squirrel.  I had to leave for work at this point, but it was another productive day.

Total for trip:  14 largemouth bass

Total for year:  262 fish