Sunday, April 26, 2015

Chugging baits

Again, I visited an unfamiliar place o fish in. I started fishing at 04:20, of course still in the dark. At first, I used Big Bud and Jitterstick in a shallow area by slowly retrieving them, but I got no good results. Once, a small fish reacted my Jitterstick, but I could not hook it. Then, I changed to a Wounded Spook, but got no bites, either.

When I fish in an unfamiliar water or when I can't tell the water color of it before I go, I always put a Chugger Spook in XRW color in my tackle box. This color is very versatile in any type of water, while I often choose NBL in clear lakes and a fluorescent color in muddy ponds. Anyway, this worked very fine today, too.

As soon as I felt I could accurately cast at a small spot under a tree, something let my lure pop up on the water and pulled it into the water. I set a hook hard, and luckily I hooked it. The fish was bigger than I first thought, but smaller than one that I caught on Friday. Anyway, it was very nice to see fish in the place where you never fished before. 


I totally felt at ease. I changed lures to Pico Pop, and tried fast-retrieving. I cast it, waited for several minutes, and then retrieved it giving a dog-walk action without stopping. When I retrieved 4-5 feet, I saw a big blow-up. What a good bite, it showed! I set a hook hard, and enjoyed the fight. It was not so big, but fat and powerful. The weight was 3lb or more, but see how sturdy the belly and tail fin.


It was a short time (one and half hours) fishing, but I fully enjoyed it.


Today's tackle: ABU 5000 DeLuxe, Fenwick Fenglass Lunkerstik 2053 (customed), Stren 14lb (Clear/Blue Fluorescent), Big Bud, Jitterstick, Original Zara Spook, Wounded Spook, Chugger Spook, Pico Pop, etc.
  BF=2/3

Friday, April 24, 2015

Started with Pico Pop

I took a day off today, and went fishing early in the morning. Only one reaction from fish was by this big mother bass, and it was very lucky I could catch her.


I softly cast one of my favorite lures, a Pico Pop, just near a group of fallen branches of a tree, waited a few seconds, and gave it a single small action. Suddenly the water surface blew up, but as is often the case with big fish, the splash was rather small. At first, I thought it was a small one, as I supposed what I saw on the water was the whole body of it. Then when I set a hook, I realized it was my mistake. I re-considered what I saw was only the mouth of it. She was a hard fighter and it took long to catch her.

My fishing logs show that I caught the first fish of each fishing season with a Pico Pop in these three years in a row. The tackle (reel and rod) I used are also the same. I must say these are my mascots.

Good memory with many teeth marks 
on the head of my go-to lure, Pico Pop.
  
Today's tackle: ABU Record 5000 (BLK), Phillipson Challenger (9055 rebuilt), Stren 14lb (Clear/Blue Fluorescent), Pico Pop, Heddon Zara Spook, Original Zara Spook, Chugger Spook, Lucky 13, Jitterstick, etc.
  BF=1/2

Saturday, April 18, 2015

Fishing in 'new' ponds

My fishing season has just started.
I got up at 03:00 today and visited two ponds, both of which were new to me and I fished in for the first time. In the first pond, I got a small bite, maybe an attack from a small bass or bluegill, but it was so faint that I could not set a hook on it. In the second one, I could see aquatic animals chase my lures. One was a big turtle (a red-eared turtle?) and it almost tried to take a bite at my lure. The other was a snakehead, which was also big. I wasn't thinking snakehead inhabited there and very surprised. I know they often break lures by their teeth, so I reeled lines very fast to show it that my lure was not a food! I got skunked in the end, but I could fully enjoy a few hours on the water for the first time in these five months.  


Today's tackle: ABU Record 5000 (BLK), Phillipson Challenger (9055 rebuilt), Stren 14lb (Clear/Blue Fluorescent), Heddon Zara Spook, Original Zara Spook, Lucky 13, Pico Pop, Crapshooter, etc.
  BF=0/1

Sunday, April 5, 2015

Next pair

I decided to send one of my old jeans for repair. As my fishing tackle, I have several new backups, but some are getting up close to so called 'vintage' or 'old fashioned', so I'm a little hesitating to wear them. Now, I'm wondering if I should start wearing this pair (dead stock Lee 202, presumably made in the 1970-1980s) or I should buy a new one.