Sorry I missed all of you the last week, but I had to take a small fishing trip. I was invited to take a fishing trip that most fishermen should try at least once in their life: the chance to fish a private pond that’s been stocked with largemouth bass.
The pond was located in south central New York State on a farm belonging to friends of ours. About 10 years ago, they decided to use a spring on the backside of their property to create a fishing pond of about five acres. The pond is only about 6 to 8 feet deep, but is strewn with downed trees and standing stumps from when the pond was flooded – absolutely perfect water for largemouth bass. After getting my first look at the water, I couldn’t wait to go fishing.
My friend Bob has a small two-seat electric-powered boat that we used to get around on the pond. It rained the first morning we were there, so we had to wait until after lunch to go out on the water for the first time.
Bob wanted to take me to a spot on one of the corners of the lake where they had been catching some really nice-sized fish, so we eased our way over to the spot.
I wasn’t sure which baits I was going to use, but he suggested using top-water baits, and it’s his pond, so he should know. Well, the choice was correct, and we were both landing fish after only a few casts.
Bob was complaining because there were really big fish in the pond and we weren’t catching them, but I was having so much fun catching so many it didn’t matter. We moved around to several more spots before I finally made Bob happy and picked up about a 3-4 pound largemouth.
I have to admit that I didn’t miss not catching a lot of really big fish. When you’re catching a bass on nearly every cast you make every day for a week, you tend to forget that they’re not all monsters.
I really enjoyed my week in New York, and now it’s back to fishing here in Evanston, and fishing reports on our local waters. Reports from the summer hot spots in the next edition. Until then, keep a tight line…
Visit Dick at hookedonfishing@comcast.net.