I mostly fish Hodges and it has more fishing line,hooks,baits,hard and soft,trash and used fishing gear than any lake I've been to!!!!
I'm always pulling braid and mono line out of my prop by the end of the day the back of my boat has a pile of line and trash from the days journey!! This year I've collected quite a few baits I've found along the way from swimbaits,crankbaits,jerkbaits ect!!
5 of the baits I cleaned up and put new hooks on and they are now ready to put in play!!
2 jerkbaits
3 crankbaits
Of these 5 one has entrigued me the most!
It's an older Bill Dance fat free shad! It's a big crankbait 3" long minus the bill and #2 hooks!!
I found this bait back in February and now that there is a pretty good crankbait bite I decided to tie it on and just fish it hard and see what I could get on it!!
I decided to head down to the Dam and since it's a deep diver went to some places with rock piles and Bring it across them!
First stop I got bumped on the next cast the fish was on!
Because this crankbait is pretty big wasn't used to the feel as it feels like a small fish is on but there was a fish on about 2lbs but it came off I should of just towed it in as it wasn't a fighter but got some slack in the line!
Oh well got the feel and kept on heading down to the dam!!
I went to a spot I missed a fish two months earlier a heartbreak that was also on a crankbait huge fish comes up big mouth shakes the bait and gone!!
So this time I was ready!! Rod reel drag sharp hooks ect.!!! I made a cast at the same angle I missed that fish 2 months earlier with the new old Bill Dance fat free shad crankbait!! First cast hammered I can't believe it!!!
The fish comes straight up jumps and it's a big one!! and it stays on!! now I have to land it it tows me around for awhile and I pray it stays on!!
As it gets close to the boat I'm looking at how it's hooked trying to grab it with those big #2 trebles as I don't use a net! It shakes once and I miss the grab but it's really hooked well second attempt and it's in the boat put it on the scale it's 8.95 lbs.
My second biggest bass of the year!!
I always get the shakes after landing a big fish no matter what the water other than the enjoyment of fishing getting a big fish is what we all are after!!
For most and myself this would have been an excellent day fishing and you could go home happy but it was early and I wasn't done yet!!
I decided to throw some different stuff because now I know the fat free shad crankbait is now in the rotation!!
I'm still kind of shaking or just exited from the last fish and BAM!!!! it's on again!!
I know it's a big fish and it comes up twice just under the surface big boils but can't see it! I'm standing up on the kayak and it's towing me and then it comes up an absolute monster I'm guessing 10lbs easy now I'm kinda shaking again
OK alot of things are going through my mind of what went wrong after the fact but I had one grab at the fish that now looks closer to the biggest bass I've ever seen or caught!!
I miss the grab on the second attempt and it breaks off!!!! noooooooooo!!!!
A few cuss words then the heartbreak sets in of losing the biggest bass of my life which is ironic because just a few weeks earlier I caught the biggest bass of my life a 9.79!!
Extreme frustration sets in and maybe I should have played the fish a little longer who knows that's fishing!!
Some people would say why don't you have a net??
I don't know if it would have fit in a net
As for my new old CB well I fished it yesterday and caught 2 more fish on it then lodged it in some deep rocks never to be seen again
Until maybe someday it floats back up and someone can fish it again!!!
So if you find a craw colored Bill Dance fat free shad crankbait tie it on and fish it that thing is MAGIC!!!!!