9/18: Two Trophy Largemouth in Under Two Hours

Toward the end of the work day Thursday Amanda called to tell me that she would be going to the mall with her mother. This could only mean one thing......I was free to fish! At the time I really didn't consider the fact that I had been on the water the previous two days, or the fact that I had been running on less than 6 hours of sleep. All I had on my mind was hitting a local lake for a few hours after work. For the last week and half Russ had been talking about his desire to fish a lake near my house. He didn't know it yet but those little conversations would push me into hitting that very lake this evening, which would then result in one epic day of bass fishing.

Before I hit the water I called Skidmore to talk about our weekend plans. We had made plans Saturday to head out and try to upgrade our five fish total in Buckeye Kayak Fishing Trail's Buckeye Bass Challenge online tournament. As of now Shawn was leading the pack with a five fish total of 105.5" and I had slipped into second place with my late season run and was sitting at 104". The other anglers weren't far off, which was really putting some pressure on us. With less than two weeks to go we had to find a few larger fish. I also told Shawn that I was on my way to hit the water while he was stuck at work....just to shake him up a bit. I had no preconceived notions of actually upgrading my smallest fish which was at 20.25", however he didn't need to know that. We got off the phone around 3pm and here's the text messages that followed that phone call:

Clearly he was worried, and to be honest I was just poking the fire.

I got on the water around 4pm and started working my way around the small state lake. I had tied on a weightless plastic, a hollow body frog, and a jig. My plans were to work the frog along the weeded banks and see if I could tempt a few bass into crushing it. If that didn't work I was going to switch to a weightless stick bait and see if I could find a few fish sitting near wood. I had the jig as a back up plan, but I honestly didn't think I would throw it. Lately the fish have been feeding on baitfish, which means most of the time they are looking up in the water column, not down on the bottom. I began by working the banks with the frog and success came quick.

A 19.5" bass fell victim to a frog that was quietly placed onto the bank and then slowly drug into the water. It wasn't an upgrade to my five fish total, but it was worth sending a quick picture text to Shawn......poking the fire again. I turned my phone on silent and went back to working the banks. Ten minutes later I hook into yet another solid fish on the frog.....17" and worth another text to Skidmore!.

I worked my way around the lake with the frog, pounding the banks and every fallen tree I could find. About halfway down the lake I tossed my frog up onto the bank and pulled it across a scum mat, when all of a sudden a fish stirred the surface scum but didn't eat my frog. I stopped for a second and then gave the frog a couple quick twitches.....nothing. Once I cleared the scum mat I reeled my frog in and made another cast onto the scum mat. This time around I worked the frog more aggressively, jerking and pulling the frog quickly across the surface. The fish couldn't resist this time! The fish exploded on the frog sending scum and water flying everywhere. It was a good fish! I reeled down to take up slack and set a solid hookset. I fought the fish for 5-10 seconds and then proceeded to pull it up and over a small branch. With a couple quick head shakes and a wave of the tail she said goodbye. I was sick to my stomach. I feel confident in saying that it was ~20" give or take a half an inch....a good fish by anyone's standards.

I continued working my way around the lake and eventually made it back around to the boat ramp. I had done my damage with the frog, landing 3 bass over 16". At this point the sun was starting to fall over the trees so I cut off my frog and tied on my lucky buzzbait.  I had just enough daylight left to work the lake one more time if I hurried. I started working the buzzbait by casting as close to the banks as I could and then ripping it off and slow rolling it back to the boat. Every now and then I'd twitch my rod and splash the surface just to give the bait a little extra noise. I was hoping that this extra splash would call in a few fish that were setting deeper in the water. After 20 minutes I was losing hope in the buzzbait.

On one particular occasion, I underhand casted my bait under an overhanging limb and proceeded to slow roll the bait back to my kayak. As soon as the buzzbait made its way past the overhanging limb something sucked the buzzbait under the surface. It wasn't your typical explosive topwater bite but this fish was moving. I couldn't even drop my rod to set the hook, as soon as the fish took the bait he dove back down to the bottom. I could tell pretty quickly that this was a good fish. The water visibility was about 3 feet and that's just about where this fish stayed. I couldn't see the fish, but with every change in direction I could see it stir the surface of the water. Eventually it surfaced beside the kayak and I landed the fish quickly. At fist glance I thought I had beaten my person best of a public water bass of 5lbs 1oz. I had tied this personal best twice last year and fell only an ounce shy one other time. Onto the scale she went......5lbs 2oz. A new personal best by 1oz. It wasn't the break out fish that I was looking for, but I would take it. It also went 21.75", which tied me with Shawn in the BKFT Bass Challenge. (Remember the text above.....I pretty much called that!)

 I broke the news to Shawn that we were going to be tied going into our fishing trip Saturday. I continued working my way down the lake and picked up a few fish here and there. Halfway up the lake I casted my buzzbait into a pile of logs and began slow rolling my bait back to the kayak. As soon as the bait hit the water I saw something wake off of the bank and head right to my buzzbait. It kept its distance at first but eventually it found itself trailing the buzzbait. It would burst forward, disturbing the surface of the water,  like it was going to hit the bait, and then it would fall back. This fish followed my bait all the way to my kayak and as I went to lower my rod and try to "figure 8" the buzzbait I caught a glimpse of the fish. It made the 5 pound fish I caught less than an hour ago look like a baby. It took one look at my kayak and took off, throwing water everywhere. I threw my buzzbait for nearly thirty minutes around the wood, and even threw my jig a time or two but the fish wasn't interested. There was nothing I could do so I began working back down the lake.

At  8pm I decided to paddle back the lake toward the boat ramp. Along the way I stopped and hit a few spots that had produced fish earlier in the day. Eventually, I paddled up to the spot where I had landed the 21.75" bass earlier and threw my buzzbait up and under the tree again. This time around the buzzbait didn't even have the chance to clear the overhanging limb before something exploded on it. I didn't get to see the explosion, but the fish felt solid. About 10 seconds into the fight the fish cleared the water, and with a few head shakes tried to free the hook. It was another good fish! The fish made a few good jumps, and then swam up to the side of my kayak. I was hoping the fish would clear 6lbs and help me break out of the 5 pound club. After a few pictures I placed her onto the scale.....5lbs 10oz....a couple tail shakes......5lbs 12 oz,.......and then it settled on 5lbs 8oz.

 Lightning had struck twice....two five pound fish, over the Fish Ohio trophy length, from the same exact spot, and less than 2 hours apart. I was pumped! I continued working around the lake until well after dark but failed to fool another fish into biting. I broke the news to Shawn and told him that I had landed yet another giant bass, which propelled me into first place. After doing some math he figured that he now needed a 22" fish to beat me, which under normal circumstances would be tough to do. However, in the last 2 weeks I have landed 6 fish over 20" in 6 trips, 2 of which were over 22". With those odds anything is possible.



------------------------------------------Update--------------------------------------
A few days later we weighed a fish in the 5.5lb range on Shawn's scale and I had a hard time believing his scale was accurate so I weighed the fish on both scales. My scale was 10-11oz short of Shawn's scale, which only happened to be a few weeks old. He went home and ran a few tests to verify his scale was accurate, which more or less meant my scale was going bad. Not that it matters much, but I will consider my personal best 6lbs 3oz....adding the 11oz difference to what I previously thought the fish weighed.