I am about one week away from being out of commission for a month or so. Next Wednesday, May 3, I will be getting my left knee rebuilt. Since its pretty hard to use a walker on a pontoon boat this week was my last opportunity to spank a few bass. Fortunately, my buddy Bruce had planned on coming down this week long before the knee surgery got scheduled. We fished roughly 2 ½ days mostly with topwaters. And, for the first time when fishing with Bruce, I ended up with the big fish trophy.
I picked up a 6lb-6oz fish on a white topwater popper about 10am on day one as we were working our way up the east shoreline of the lake.
Just an hour or so later, as we were just about to pass from the channel into the upper end of the lake, I pitched the same popper up against the bank and had a big strike. As soon as the fish began shaking its head on the surface, I knew it was a big boy. Turns out it was the second largest bass I have ever caught, and weighed 8lb-6oz.
The next day, while fishing just 30 feet from where I had caught my big fish the day before, Bruce flipped a worm on top of a raft of coontail and had a big strike. This was another big fish, weighing 7lb-13oz on the scales. For a while we wondered whether it was actually the same fish I had caught less than 24 hours earlier, but a close examination of the fins showed that they were definitely two different fish.
At the end of two days fishing, we had a final tally of 160 bass and two sore right arms. Next week will definitely not be as much fun.