The Cookout, The Citation Streak, and Frankenbass

Yesterday I met up with few of my fellow MKF'ers for a little fish fry and crab feast. I wasn't able to make the morning fishing/crabbing extravaganza but everyone was gracious enough to let me come eat the fruits of their labor. We shared stories and caught up with everyone.

I had a conversation with Turtle135, my fiercest competitor at the moment in the KBF Regional Challenge for June. We shared what had been working for us this month and thoughts on how to catch a few more big ones before the month ends. Before today Turtle was in 1st place with a total of 39 inches for two fish and I sat in 2nd with 35.75 inches. After some of the advice Turtle gave me yesterday I was itching to try out this technique.........

Fortunately, I was able to sneak home to my parents to get a few hours of fishing today after I finished my on call duty at the hospital... and I'm so glad I did!!!

Was super slow, but I was using a new technique that I had never used before so I was prepared to expect a learning curve... I stuck with it though as I really want to expand my arsenal of techniques. I was fishing a 12" ribbon tailed snake with a shaky head. Trying to fish it as slow as I could and even trying to deadstick for as long as my patience allowed. (Which is tough as I usually fish cranks and spinners)

About an hour into fishing I had only experienced a few light takes that were probably bluegills, when I made a cast about 8ft off the shore dropping my snake right next to a submerged tree. Let it sank and sit for about 2 seconds and then my line started running.... Hook Set.... Drag started screaming (and it was set pretty tight)..... I knew it was a good fish....a few more runs and avoided some jumps and finally wore the fish out....Lipped and into the yak!!!!!!

Fat 21.25" and 5lbs 6oz

 

This extended my Citation streak to 2 months in a row with 3 total citations for Largemouth Bass!!!

I only caught one more fish with the 12" snake worm and it went about 15".  I then switched over to a topwater popper as I saw and heard bass breaking the surface all over the lake and notice the water was much clearer than the last time I fished. Caught about 5 bass up to 15" with one Frankenbass... It was completely missing its top lip, but it still ate my bait and it actually had a dragonfly in its mouth too!!

So after today I took the lead in the Mid-Atlantic KBF June Challenge, but I owe my success to Turtle who said I should try some LARGE worms reallllllllllly slow... and that is what is truly great about the kayak fishing community.... we love to help each other out and are willing to give each other advice even though we're each others competition.