Hard Work on the Coast
August 2nd, 2008
I just got back from a coastal lake North of Florence. I got out every night in search of large bass. The summer warm up of the lake was a couple of weeks late due to the cool spring but there had been reports of a few nice fish being taken. The second night out, I got a nice 3 pounder right about dark and thought that things were looking up.
I got a couple of small ones the next two nights and wondered what was going on. I was fishing from about 7:30pm until about 9:45 pm. We fished hard the next night without a bump. As dark got close, I moved into an area where Chris had gotten his first nice bass on a surface plug. I laid one at the back end of a dock and let the plug just sit there.
After a While I gave the plug a very light twitch and wham, a big guy took it like a freight train. It was pretty dark but when the fish turned I could see it was a big guy. I ran straight for the piling on the dock and I horsed him as hard as I could. He could not quite make the piling. I fought him for a while more and finally reached down and did the old bass lift out of the water. I did not have a scale but figure that the fish was a good 6.0lbs. We fished a bit more.
My sister made a bad cast dropping her plug a good twenty feet from shore. She was going to do a fast retrieve and I suggested she fish it out. At dark the fish are moving around looking for food and the cover does not seem nearly as important as during the day. She got hammered by a nice 2.5 pounder.
It cleared the water twice before bringing it to the boat. It was her first nice bass on a surface plug. By this time, it was pitch black and we decided to roll it in. That was the best night of the week. Nothing like night bass fishing with surface plugs. It is a religious experience.
Sal
