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Slow at St. Mary's Lake, 7/14
I did some cipherin’ based on the photos of the bass I caught on the snakehead hunt (forgot to measure them), fingertip widths, etc. and realized that they were probably my personal best from a kayak. This information, the fact that a 7lb bass was caught at St. Mary’s Lake, and the fact that I was feeling too lazy to do any saltwater fishing made me want to apply my newly-found bass mojo (what little I have) to see if I could improve upon the usual 10-12” bass I catch there.
I launched at 6:45 and was planning on fishing until after sunset. I brought my assortment of frogs, the Pop’R I caught the Mattawoman bass on, and an ultralight with a spinner to ward off a skunk. I actually picked up a nice 8” bluegill on the spinner:
I didn’t choose my bass spots wisely. Most of the places I fished early were too sunny, even close to sunset, and the places I fished near dark were probably too shallow for decent bass. I had two small blow ups on a buzz frog that were probably tiny bass. Both fish missed the lure. I also scared the hell out of something big that was right up on shore, but it didn’t hit my lure. I put my Pop’R on my ultralight to see if I could get any good topwater action. I heard a fish jump and cast at it. It slammed the popper right away, and I set the hook bass tournament style to make sure I could drive the hook home with my little ultralight. A ~7”, very surprised, little bass came flying out of the water and ended up getting so tangled in my line that it looked like a mummy.
It also had the biggest mouth-to-body length ratio of any fish I’ve ever seen. It looked like a monkfish minus the teeth. That was it for the night on fish, but I got some decent sunset pics:
The other folks fishing that I spoke with seemed to be having a slow evening, too. Fishing immediately after a cold front came through wasn’t a great choice, either, but I think I know where to try for some bigger bass now. Anyway, I called it a night a little after 8:45 so I could get out before the ranger locked the gate.
I launched at 6:45 and was planning on fishing until after sunset. I brought my assortment of frogs, the Pop’R I caught the Mattawoman bass on, and an ultralight with a spinner to ward off a skunk. I actually picked up a nice 8” bluegill on the spinner:
I didn’t choose my bass spots wisely. Most of the places I fished early were too sunny, even close to sunset, and the places I fished near dark were probably too shallow for decent bass. I had two small blow ups on a buzz frog that were probably tiny bass. Both fish missed the lure. I also scared the hell out of something big that was right up on shore, but it didn’t hit my lure. I put my Pop’R on my ultralight to see if I could get any good topwater action. I heard a fish jump and cast at it. It slammed the popper right away, and I set the hook bass tournament style to make sure I could drive the hook home with my little ultralight. A ~7”, very surprised, little bass came flying out of the water and ended up getting so tangled in my line that it looked like a mummy.
It also had the biggest mouth-to-body length ratio of any fish I’ve ever seen. It looked like a monkfish minus the teeth. That was it for the night on fish, but I got some decent sunset pics:The other folks fishing that I spoke with seemed to be having a slow evening, too. Fishing immediately after a cold front came through wasn’t a great choice, either, but I think I know where to try for some bigger bass now. Anyway, I called it a night a little after 8:45 so I could get out before the ranger locked the gate.
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