Well today Ryan invited us out with his buddy Matt on his Triton. Its like a whole different world of fishing. The day started out around 6:30am still dark with heavy fog. You could barely make out the moon.
Heres a shot of Ryan's boat before the launch. I'm gonna have to get me one of these!
I was hoping the fog would clear up with the sunrise. Navigating the boat in this dense fog was tough.
With only a few feet of visibility we had to creep along the river. Heres a picture of Matt the lookout!
Heres Ryan reading the depth to make sure we stay on path
Once we get to our first destination it doesn't take Matt long to hook into the first fish of the day.
As we continue fishing and trolling along the sun seems to peak out through the fog
Heres a shot of my wife (Katoune) prepping her drop shot for some action
Ryan and Matt spot bass blowing up on bait fish on the surface and both cast right on top of them. They wind up with a double each hooking into a fish. These guys are amazing power fishermen.
Ryan with his first fish of the day
Shortly afterward Katoune thinks she snagged up her drop shot. While she tries to pull it free, it starts pulling drag. She continues to reel it in, but we still haven't gotten a glimpse of whats on the other end. As she wrestles it in we saw a large mass.
It starts to pull back under, but her mighty 7' Berkley Cherry Stick and 12# line is just too much for the fish to handle. The fish surfaces.
As you can see what she thought was a giant bass, is really a 15lb carp.
She's happy, cold and shaking after this big fish.
Afterwards we decide to go down river. Today just happens to be the opening day of hunting season. The fog still is amazingly thick but we managed to spot this buck.
He was not scared of us pulling right up on him on the boat, and just sat motionless on the bank. He sat so still I thought it was a decoy. But eventually got up walked along the bank and took a dump right in front of us.
Here is a picture of Matt wondering why he didn't bring his hunting rifle with him.
We continue to navigate down the Willy to look for a good spot. Here is a cool photo from the back
When we stopped at our next spot we had a new tag along. We'll call him Howard the duck. This big mallard must be domesticated because he kept following the boats looking for food.
Matt tells me to try a drop off with my drop shot with no luck. But as soon as he casts into the spot he hooks into another fish. Man that guy has a way with fish.
We move from this spot and Ryan realizes we're getting low on gas. We go to a boat dock that has a gas pump but it was closed. Meanwhile I still haven't hooked a fish yet. So I cast right off the dock with my drop shot. Bingo!!!!
This is my first bass caught from a drop shot, so heres another pic.
Unable to get a refill, we decide to troll along the banks.
Matt throws out his crank quickly hooks into a fighter. You could tell this fish was big, the rest of the fish Matt hooked into earlier he practically just yanked them out of the water.
Matt landed the big fish of the day, aside from the carp, haha. The smallie was right around 3lbs - Showoff!
The sun was up but still cloudy, a little wind and no rain. The bite started to pick up from here.
My next fish came on a lipped crankbait, again this is a first for me.
Katoune was really getting into it. Shes getting better at the steps to catch and release her own fish.
Step 1: Land the fish
Step 2: Lip the fish
Step 3: Remove the hook
Step 4: Hold up the fish and take cheesy photo
I hook into another fish with the drop shot.
These fish are bigger than anything I've caught from the bank
Here is Katoune's biggest fish of the day, which is also her personal best of the season.
Another crankbait fish
Man those treble hooks are sharp. Thanks Matt for the assist. Bleeding and still smiling from ear to ear. Actually the cut was from helping Katoune release her last fish.
And here is the last photo of the trip. Katoune with her 5th bass of the day.
Today was undoubtedly the best fishing day of my short but fun filled bass fishing experience. My wife and I typically lose a couple of packages of hooks, weights and lures during every fishing trip. Today we managed to lose only 2 drop shot rigs. Boat fishing rocks! Thanks again Ryan and Matt for bringing us out and showing us the way. And thanks to this forum for providing us access to such a great community of bass fishing people!
