pocketfisherman

A handful of teams originally planned on getting together at one of my favorite places to fish on the north shore and after all was said and done, five (5) showed up to fish. We've done very well here in tournaments the last few years and this year managed to get the first place win again.

The day was very, very tough fishing for whatever reason. We had some really good anglers fishing who we were pretty concerned with as far as catching more or bigger fish than us. I had one bite all day despite throwing just about the entire box at them. Fortunately for me, I hooked and caught that one bite. Turned out to be a 4.11 lb largemouth, which was big enough to take lunker and surprisingly, overall total weight.

Was a tough, tough day and as small of a total weight that it was, I'll take it and the small payout that came with it!

Lake Chebacco once again smiled upon Team Northshore, giving us another victory, albeit probably the toughest one ever to date!

Having suffered a defeat 2 weeks before, Kman and I decided to throw down a challenge to Chuck and John (aka Angry Landlords) and fish at a place that WE knew very well now. Nothing really close by for good food, so being the simple guys we are we made it a "Dorito Challenge". Each person brings a bag of Doritos and the losing team hands over theirs to the other. Simple, inexpensive and a fun throwdown, which is what it's all about in the end! Our fun challenge was quickly accepted! Weather was overcast with a 85% chance of rain. We all met up at the pond and off we went.

It ended up being a tough day of fishing as far as this place goes and the rain did end up coming and coming hard at times, but that's fishing! After toughing it out to completion, we ended up pulling in a little over 13 lbs of larrys for the win. The Angry Landlords reported about 7lbs for the 2nd place finish and having to hand over their Doritos. Not exactly juicy burgers and fries at $10 a piece, but Team Northshore are good sports and walked a little taller (albeit wetter) this day regardless.

***Angry Landlords side of the story***
Chuck and I had a tough grind of a day. We fished deep, shallow and all in between. We had enough of the crappy weather by 1pm and packed it in. Worms got most of our fish. For keepers Chuck had a 2lber, I had a 2-1/2lber, 1-1/2lber, and a 1lber. Chuck had a nice 4lber come off 5ft from the boat...Pave it!

This season had pretty much sucked for me so far! I got fish, but not the numbers I usually do, nor the size. I went out with the KMAN (Karl) to a new spot for us, fittingly on the North Shore. We started out at a pond that a few nights before, we absolutely killed it at! We caught at least 30-40 bass easily, ranging from your typical 1 lb rats to about 2.5-3 lbs lbs. They were biting everything under the sun, it was very fun!

We got an early start, but a little later than we'd have preferred, what are you gonna do? While it was a beautiful, warm and sunny bluebird sky day, we all know what that means for the fishing. It took an hour or so to figure them out, but we found the fish in about 8-10 feet of water. No size this time around, but we got about 10-12 each. Not wanting to waste the day anymore but not wanting to call it a day yet, we pulled up anchor and decided to move to another body of water not too far away that we've been wanting to try.

We arrived to the other pond to a mix of 90's and hispanic sounding music. Yes, the bucket brigade was in full force on the shores that we could see from the launch. Huge saltwater rods, bobbers floating all around in the water like tiny minefields during the war, orange and red buckets lined up and down the shoreline. Yup, it was disappointing to see and made us a little apprehensive about what we were in store for, but they were on shore and we were going out to deeper water, so it didn't really matter. I watched them off and on all day and they did not seem to be catching much, which made us feel even better!

We pretty much started catching bass right away. Nothing of great size, but the pace was continuous. It's mid afternoon now and the action seemed to start picking up pretty good. The dragonflies were flying all over the place and the panfish were popping at the bottom of lilly pads and picking off bugs on top of the water. There were several large stringy grass mats floating on the surface. Probably about 100 feet long and almost as wide or more and a few of them. It looked super bassy!

We had been throwing frogs a little to that point, but not at a regular clip. Probably my 2nd or 3rd cast into an open pocket between clumps of mat, BAM......my poor little frog got smoked! I set the hook and the fish wrapped itself in a bunch of the matted grass. I had heavy braid on and a great hookset, so I wasn't too worried about losing the fish. I patiently pulled in the line and Kman grabbed and dug through the slop. A quick weighing and the fish was a 4 lb fatty. While taking the hook out and taking a quick pic, we had drifted about 50 feet away. I threw Mr. Froggy out again and WHAMMO.......a huge looking bass completely breaches the water and turned it's tail sideways in mid air, like a great white attacking a seal. It was fitting, being that it was Shark Week on the Discovery Channel. This fish didn't get as tangled in the grass and I could tell it was bigger than the last. I landed the fish with Kman's help again and was thinking this may be a new PB for me, but alas it was not. The scales don't lie and it was what it was. A nice 5 lb plus fish with a tennis ball shaped belly, sweet!!!

We caught a bunch more fish, including a few 3's and a bunch of 2's. We took a few pics of the bigger fish. Kman has been catching nice fish all season, with a 6 plus lb'er under his belt from a few weeks ago, but this was a very nice way for me to break out of my own personal funk! I haven't written a trip in awhile, so I figured why not? Hope you enjoyed the ride and thanks for reading.

I was on vacation this past week and have been meaning to hook up with Mark "Pepe" Degrenier", one half of the famous "Landlords" team for some time. Every time we tried to get together from as far back as last year, something would come up at the last minute for one of us. This time, the stars all aligned and we met up.

It was a nice warm day, but clouds above kept the temps just right and made for some good fishing as well. I met him at his house at about 2pm. We headed out right away to a body of water that he likes to go to from time to time that we'll call "Lake X" out of respect. I don't want to blow up his spot, as we've all been discussing on the board as of late.

The day started out pretty good, as we both were catching quite a few fish, all getting progressively bigger as the day went on. About an hour before we called it a night, Mark hooked into a 3.80 Larry that looked much bigger than that. But the scale said what it said, so be it. Then Mark started hooking into a bunch of rats (about a pound or so) as he calls them. I started getting snagged left and right and the fishing slowed for me a bit. We decided to try a different part of the water, so off we went.

After we both started catching a few fish (which by the way were pretty much all jumpers, making for some exciting landings), Mark let me take the front of the boat and move us all over the place with the trolling motor. THAT was a cool feeling and something I can get used to real quick! Sooner than later I hope. So I hooked into something midway into the lillys and after a decent fight, Mark netted the fish for me and we had a 4lb, 8oz in the boat. High fives commenced and more fishing we did. BTW, Senkos were the bait of the day. I did catch a couple on 2.5 KVD squarebills as well, but the rest were on Senkos.

My host had to work early the next morning and was getting a little tired, so we made the call to fish one last shoreline with lillys and then the night would be over in about 15 minutes. A few cast for both of us and BAM! I thought I hooked into an alligator the way the fish hit. After another decent fight, Mark netted the fish and it was another nice Larry @ 4lb, 7oz. We fished a few more minutes after that and made our way in to the launch. After waiting for a group of yackers to load up their rigs, we pulled his boat out of the water and drove off back to his house.

I just want to thank Mark for being a gracious host, sharing some tips, letting me drive his bass boat around a little (big motor and trolling) and just being great fishing company all around. Best five fish were about 16-17 lbs easy, not to mention all the 1.5-2 lb'ers we caught in between. Any time you need a partner Mark and don't mind taking this guy along, I'd love to join you bud!

Finally broke the ice and landed my first bass of the season. Turns out the 3rd time really IS the charm.

Kman and I set out late morning and ended up in one of our old honey holes. It took about an hour into the trip before I landed my first bass of the season. A solid 3 1/2 lbs was what the scale said, not too bad! Kman landed a 2 1/2 lb bass about an hour after that. In between, we caught 7 nice nice pickerel and a decent sized perch. I joked to the Kman about batting for the cycle by catching one of each major species of fish with the same lure (KVD 1.5 silver shad square bill crank) in the pond and the challenge was on. I caught a sunfish/bluegill, perch, pickerel(s), bass and with about 5 minutes left before we went home, pulled in the crappie to complete the cycle!

Not an outstanding day, but got the first bass out of the year out of way!

Wow, talk about a windy day Saturday! When we got to the pond in the early afternoon/ late morning, the water looked very calm, almost glass like. It was cool, but the sun was out and there were only a few clouds out at that point, with slightly warmer temperatures being forecast for the day.

We launched the U.S.S. Northshore and were off running and gunning. Nothing for the first 45 minutes or so and then I caught a decent size perch (on a jig no less) and then a slime dart pickerel was soon to follow (on the same jig). A little while later BAM, Kman catches the first bass of the day. Probably weighed in at about 1 lb, but hey it was a bass! A little more time goes by and I catch another slime dart pickerel. By this time, the wind had picked up quite a bit and it got pretty chilly! The pond started to develop white caps on the waves, I kid you not! We were being tossed all over the place and Kman did his best to keep us on course and find some calm water somewhere. We spent another hour or so going all over the place, looking for the calm stuff, but it was very difficult. Finally we did find a small cove, which was very promising looking, but ended up not producing anything.

Getting tired of not catching anything, the Kman and I called upon an old indian ritual we were shown, many moons ago by a very old and wise indian Chief named Yatahey Yataho Yatawho. We prayed to the sun & wind Gods as shown before and just then, the wind started to die down. Kman guided the boat towards the northwest section of the pond, which has always been productive for us. Within minutes, BAM, Kman hooks into another bass. Maybe a little bigger than the first one, but still a bass and the main quarry we were after. Then I took a deep breath and made some precise casts, with the new gear I had purchased in the off season (for me anyway).

Bam, a bass about a lb. Then minutes later BAM, another one that was just a little bigger. In the next 20 minutes or so, I landed another 3 bass, progressively getting bigger and with the biggest one weighing 3.7lbs. Kman caught the last fish of the day, with a chunky 2 lb'er. We were pretty frozen at that point and called it a day. It was by no means a killer day, but a decent one! I am SO looking forward to the warmer weather and the tournaments.

Kman and I went out to our favorite fishing spot. Spent about 5 hours on the water, which was as smooth as glass mostly. Temperature was about 73 degrees, with a real light breeze. Lots of baitfish breaking the surface and we tried to keep up with them as best as we could. We caught at least 7 or 8 big fat pickerel that put up a nice fight each and 3 Largemouths, Biggest fish was 4.5 lbs (I thank you!), then a 2 and 1.5 Lb'er. Not a killer day, but nice to get out and feel some fish on the other end of the line!