Fun catch

[mark poulson]

I was fishing my club's monthly tournament on the CA Delta yesterday, and throwing my homemade (with Lurepartsonline's help) bluegill spinnerbait through the tules at the edge of a big grass flat. I love throwing a blade through the tules because it is such a good reaction bait for getting bit as it surprises bass who think they are "safe" back in there.
I made a cast about 10' into the tules, parallel+- to the outside edge, and was bring it back, bumping tules as I went.
As it was still about 20' away, it jumped over a bent tule, and a 4lb bass literally jumped out of the water to eat it!
It was like a Whopper Plopper explosion, but it actually ate my blade mid air!
My heart skipped a beat!
I have never had a blade fish do that, and thought it would be fun to share.

[IlliniDawg01]

Those are awesome! I've had big pike do similar up in Canada and it never fails to scare the bejesus out of me.

[mark poulson]

Those are awesome! I've had big pike do similar up in Canada and it never fails to scare the bejesus out of me.

Man, I don't think I'd want to be around a big fish with those teeth that jumped out of the water!

[toddmc]

That's a cool story Mark. I have a similar one that fits this thread because mine happened with a jig. There is a golf course lake in back of the house that I have been fishing for almost four decades. It is gin clear with a concrete erosion barrier around the edge with a light sandy bottom. This small lake has a cut that is about thirty feet wide by thirty feet deep with a flood light on a pole in the back that makes it very easy to see what is in this shallow area.
About 1986 at night, I was at the outside left casting a black jig to the inside right of the cut close to the light pole. There are lots of dark crawfish in this lake that you can see crawling around the edge at night, making the black jig a good choice.
A 14 inch bass with lightning speed tracked my airborn jig from the center of the cut causing a wake. It caught my jig about 15 inches out of the air in the back of the cut. This is why I say never underestimate the speed of a largemouth bass. They get the reputation for lazily sitting under a piece of cover with nothing to do all day, but they are incredibly fast. I have seen fish in this lake tracking bats since. I have had several more fish eat my bait out of mid air over the decades in various clearwater lakes.
Fast forward to a few months ago. I saw a nice three pound cruising fish in the cut. I pitched my 6" Baby E in front of it and it caught it just as it hit the water.
The lake has silted in over the decades, and tules grew in the silt in the back of the cut. The golf club was sold a few weeks ago to new owners. They ripped out the tules and all of the flood lights last week. I went out in the dark to check out the change. Surprisingly, I heard what sounded like someone eating potato chips in the dark. I turned on my light to find three raccoons digging in the balled up grass that the tule clean up crew had dislodged. It wasn't potato chips. It was crawfish that they were gorging on.

[Jeffbro999]

Watched bass do backflips many times grabbing dragonflies out of the air. Pretty amazing. Funny, when I told my buddy about it 10 years ago he didn’t believe me, until a pro said the same thing a few years ago. Was a shame there were no dragonfly lures back then.

[toddmc]

Watched bass do backflips many times grabbing dragonflies out of the air. Pretty amazing. Funny, when I told my buddy about it 10 years ago he didn’t believe me, until a pro said the same thing a few years ago. Was a shame there were no dragonfly lures back then.

We have been hand-pouring just about everything that you can imagine in SoCal over the decades. Hand-pouring is ingrained in our bass culture. You can tell by all of the crazy baits that have originated in our area over the decades. The tiny clear and heavily pressured puddles that we call reservoirs in our area make ingenuity a must. A local secret from decades past was to hand-pour bright blue 4" straight tail worms and thread blue living rubber through it to make it look like the wings of a blue dragonfly. This rig will float if you use the right rubber, but it doesn't have to. The fish are usually on it immediately. You can cast it on light spinning tackle around tules. I don't know if the fish really think that it is a dragonfly, but it does work.

[Jeffbro999]

We have been hand-pouring just about everything that you can imagine in SoCal over the decades. Hand-pouring is ingrained in our bass culture. You can tell by all of the crazy baits that have originated in our area over the decades. The tiny clear and heavily pressured puddles that we call reservoirs in our area make ingenuity a must. A local secret from decades past was to hand-pour bright blue 4" straight tail worms and thread blue living rubber through it to make it look like the wings of a blue dragonfly. This rig will float if you use the right rubber, but it doesn't have to. The fish are usually on it immediately. You can cast it on light spinning tackle around tules. I don't know if the fish really think that it is a dragonfly, but it does work.

No doubt Todd. How does that saying go? Necessity is the mother of invention! I did something similar, but never had to pour anything, althought that was a fantastic idea. I ended up throwing a weightless plum(with blue flake) finesse worm worked on top of the grass patches, since the dragonfly’s were either blue or red, and they were all over it.

Sorry to go off topic Mark with the dragonfly’s, but this brought back some memories. That was a great story of an eye opening experience. Happens quite a bit on Seminole, especially with a bluegill chatterbait. Seen bass chase bream up on top of mats a few times, and those bass will chase those chatters up and over the mats.

[toddmc]

We have been hand-pouring just about everything that you can imagine in SoCal over the decades. Hand-pouring is ingrained in our bass culture. You can tell by all of the crazy baits that have originated in our area over the decades. The tiny clear and heavily pressured puddles that we call reservoirs in our area make ingenuity a must. A local secret from decades past was to hand-pour bright blue 4" straight tail worms and thread blue living rubber through it to make it look like the wings of a blue dragonfly. This rig will float if you use the right rubber, but it doesn't have to. The fish are usually on it immediately. You can cast it on light spinning tackle around tules. I don't know if the fish really think that it is a dragonfly, but it does work.

No doubt Todd. How does that saying go? Necessity is the mother of invention! I did something similar, but never had to pour anything, althought that was a fantastic idea. I ended up throwing a weightless plum(with blue flake) finesse worm worked on top of the grass patches, since the dragonfly’s were either blue or red, and they were all over it.

Sorry to go off topic Mark with the dragonfly’s, but this brought back some memories. That was a great story of an eye opening experience. Happens quite a bit on Seminole, especially with a bluegill chatterbait. Seen bass chase bream up on top of mats a few times, and those bass will chase those chatters up and over the mats.

The finesse worms are great when they are eating small stuff. Sometimes the fish just want something similar in size and color to what they are eating. We throw some tiny small stuff out here.

[Johnny A]

Watched bass do backflips many times grabbing dragonflies out of the air. Pretty amazing. Funny, when I told my buddy about it 10 years ago he didn’t believe me, until a pro said the same thing a few years ago. Was a shame there were no dragonfly lures back then.

That pro was most likely Mike Iaconelli, he's talked about a lot, actually had Mann's Baits design and pour some sort of dragonfly imitation. Mann's bait was called the mosquito hawk. In Japan, they had some sort of Rube Golberg dragonfly lure using a styrofoam bobby and a piece of wire sticking out of the top with a dragonfly suspended from some thread off the wire.

[Cali]

One time I was throwing an xrap around, and not getting any bites. One cast I accidentally over-casted onto a nearby dock. It was hanging from one of the railings low enough that the bass could see it. As soon as I pulled it over into the water a small-ish bass slammed it. Learned me a new "technique" that day.

[toddmc]

One time I was throwing an xrap around, and not getting any bites. One cast I accidentally over-casted onto a nearby dock. It was hanging from one of the railings low enough that the bass could see it. As soon as I pulled it over into the water a small-ish bass slammed it. Learned me a new "technique" that day.

I've caught quite a few bass over the decades while my bait was hanging from something. The common factor seems to be a smaller isolated area that a fish can call home. It could be the corner of a dock, a tule pocket, a hole in the brush, or whatever. When a fish has a small area that is surrounded on at least two sides, it seems like they tend to get more territorial and aggressive of the area. I've caught fish when my bait is hanging from brush, tules, and dock pilings. The last time was at Clearlake this summer. I pitched into a bush surrounded with heavy tules and grass. My beaver got caught in the bush and a fish ate it off of a branch. Those heavy bushes are hard to penetrate sometimes ! This seems to happen most often with the frog and overhanging brush.

[mark poulson]

One time I was throwing an xrap around, and not getting any bites. One cast I accidentally over-casted onto a nearby dock. It was hanging from one of the railings low enough that the bass could see it. As soon as I pulled it over into the water a small-ish bass slammed it. Learned me a new "technique" that day.

I've caught quite a few bass over the decades while my bait was hanging from something. The common factor seems to be a smaller isolated area that a fish can call home. It could be the corner of a dock, a tule pocket, a hole in the brush, or whatever. When a fish has a small area that is surrounded on at least two sides, it seems like they tend to get more territorial and aggressive of the area. I've caught fish when my bait is hanging from brush, tules, and dock pilings. The last time was at Clearlake this summer. I pitched into a bush surrounded with heavy tules and grass. My beaver got caught in the bush and a fish ate it off of a branch. Those heavy bushes are hard to penetrate sometimes ! This seems to happen most often with the frog and overhanging brush.