Hiya folks, it's me again

Super Bowl Sunday and the weather was great this afternoon! Clouds started breaking up and the sun was shining through. Got to the lake around 9 AM or so and started fishing. I was talking on the phone with my buddy bigfatsmallys while casting a chatterbait(black/blue with a pumpkin/chartreuse Tiki Monkey trailer) when I saw a bass come up in the shallows and smack the tar out of it, I set the hook.........at least I tried to. My drag was too loose and the bass just laughed at me and spit it back out and swam away. Rookie mistake

so I tightened up the drag. Fish - 1 and Me - 0. I change lures after a few minutes and catch my first fish of the day( 2 pounds 8 ounces) with a new lure....it's a Koppers Live Target Crawdad Lipless crankbait in a 1/2 ounce size. Very nice lures and very realistic looking. Now this makes it Fish - 1 and Me - 1

. A few minutes later I had another hit on the crawdad lure and this bass came up head shaking and I could see it was not hooked good. It came up a second time and threw the lure back at me after another violent head shake, now it's Bass - 2 and Me - 1. On around the lake I went using a Speed Trap this time and caught my smallest bass of the day....1 pound 15 ounces

Bass - 2 and Me - 2. I continued on down the sidewalk fishing the Speedtrap and then felt a hit and set the hook and the rod bowed and line was pulling out, I thought I had hooked a hog! After only a couple seconds I had that familiar feeling coming through the rod and into my hands......I knew what I had without even seeing the fish........A CATFISH! First one hooked this year while bass fishing and it was p

d! LOL A nice fat 5 pounder.....and no Lipp I didn't keep it although I thought about it when it clamped down on my thumb!

The rear treble had hooked it directly in the main vertical part of the tail. I am surprised that it held up to all the pulling.

Man that was fun! I worked my way on down the sidewalk some more and felt another hit on the Speedtrap but missed it. Walked about another 50 feet or so and changed back to the Koppers Crawdad and fished it in the same area but from the opposite direction and on the second or third cast......WHAM! A solid hit! Got a good hook set and the fight was on! I felt right away this was a good fish. She was in shallow water so she only had 1 way to go.....and that was up! She jumped, shaking her head, trying to throw the lure but it wasn't gonna happen this time as you will see. I got her up outta the water and clamped onto her bottom lip and this is what I saw...

She had the bait swallowed with both hooks holding on! Here is a better side view of her...

She weighed 4 pounds and 15 ounces! My best fish of the year so far!

Bass - 2 and Me - 3! Today was a good day! One more thing about this weekends fishing.....Saturday morning I was able to pick up a new rod. One of the new Shimano Cumara Reaction rods, 7'11" MH Extra Fast action paired up with my Curado 200E7 and 14# Sufix ProMix line. That rod is awesome and is the only rod I used the whole weekend for fishing. Very light and sensitive(for me) and even tho it is rated for 1/2 to 1 1/2 ounce lure weights I had no problems throwing 3/8 ounce jigs/chatterbaits and 1/4 ounce 'traps with it. It has a soft tip to it which makes it feel like a cranking rod and loads up nicely while throwing them. I am glad to have been able to get that rod, go check them out! Tight Lines Everyone!