Top Water Bass on the Fly Personal Best

May 24, 2023

My past few outings I've been testing new flies.  Some work.  Some are fails.  I decided to test one more but I planned to switch early if I wasn't feeling it or if Luc hooked up before me.  After a few casts, when Luc landed the first fish, a two pounder,  I gave up and put on a CJ's Freaky Frog I tied the night prior.  I have several of these in my box but I tied this one specifically for this day.  It took me over an hour to tie it.  Not because it is particularly difficult to tie but because I could not find my rubber legs. Late last year I rearranged all my tying material into a more "organized" boxes.  Having not tied much in the past few months I've forgotten where some of the materials are despite labeling the boxes.  It took me forever to find those damn legs but I did.  Like I said I have plenty of freaky frogs in my box but none have weedguards so I tied one with it.  I knew I would need it on this outing.  I only had time to tie one so I better not lose it on the first cast.  It was still alittle too dark when we started but just as it began to brighten up I was on a fish.  It was big.  At first by the bend of my rod Luc thought it might be a catfish as it refused to come up and just dug down.  I managed to get him to surface and he saw it wasn't a catfish but a lunker bass.  With help form Luc we landed the pig and weighted it with the digital scale.  6lbs 11 oz my personal best on topwater beating out my previous 5lbs best. 

Shad were spawning and splashed around banks with occasional chase from bass.  That stopped after an hour or so of light.  The rest of the day we'd get strikes here and there.  Missing more than landing.  Did end up with a fish in the 3.5-3.75lbs range.  On the previous day Luc and his partner for the day had over a dozen blow ups by very few connections.  We fished the lily pads and it was there I finally lost my fly despite the weedguard.  Once the sun was out it was tough fishing adn we quit around 10am.