Dedication? Or Insanity?

[D.W. Verts]

Knowing that we have weather coming in (and a line of thunderstorms is passing thru at this very moment, good deal) I decided to hit a pond pretty hard today. I got on the water about 10 AM, and wen to work.

It was terrible windy- I didn't get that when I left the house, so I didn't bring my little anchor. Not a  huge deal, but it makes it hard when you make a cast, make a quick stroke or two to re-position the kayak, finish your retrieve, then paddle again to do it all over. Of well, no step for a stepper.

This is an acre and-a-half pond. And it has three very small key areas this time of the year. I fished two of them (the wind was just wrong to spend any real amount of time on the third) for almost four hours, rotating back and forth. These spots are less than twenty yards long, each. I'd vary a retrieve, change baits, vary the retrieve again, move and start all over on the other side. And again.

I caught maybe twenty fish in those four hours. Four HOT hours (92 degrees and thankful that it WAS breezy). Most of the smaller fish came on slightly errant casts to shallower water. In four hours I caught four fish over three pounds, and none over four. My point? That's how I catch big fish. No, I didn't get any today, but that's how I do it. Dogged determination. Hope that makes sense to someone.

I decided to make one more pass down spot #1. I had a strike on a Doc Irv worm, set the hook, and this fish PULLED the kayak around in a half circle for about ten seconds. I mean pulled HARD. Then she popped off. Oh well... I went home and drank ice water.

A side story. Again-

There's something under the water on the end of the dam in this pond. It's fairly sizeable, and it's not wood. It feels like it's maybe metal, or plastic. And I have never in two years caught a fish off of it. It's in exactly the perfect spot, but has not yielded anything. Yet. In my opinion it's a big fish spot, and I just haven't made one of them bite there. Yet.

So today I backed my kayak onto the bank facing this unknown cover, and because it's in one of those zones that I like so much, I made a ton of casts to it, first with a jig, then with a wacky-rigged Doc Irv Senko, and finally with a Doc Irv G-Tail worm. Now this is over a period of HOURS, you understand.

I was working the worm thru the cover for the umpteenth time, when it just stopped. No strike, it just stuck. Except for what feels like maybe some fishing line down there, I've never been hung up in this thing. So, sweating about half to death, and just flat gettin' worn out & frazzled from catchin' no big fish, I just pulled the kayak over to whatever it is I'm hung up in. It's too deep to reach with the rod tip, but I tried anyway. No go.

Now you don't have a lot of leverage with a kayak. So I gave one good pull, and suddenly I'm pulling up dead weight. Okay- I'm finally gonna see just what this cover is made of!

And then from the depths comes a 20# snappin' turtle, with my 4/0 hook stuck in the top of his mouth.

Now, it wasn't stuck deep, but I didn't have any pliers (rookie mistake), and he wasn't happy, and I wasn't gonna get bit. I did get my sinker back- I was brave enough to reach down and grab it, but I donated the hook to the turtle.

As I was re-rigging, my Doc Irv G-Tail floated back to me, so THAT worked out. There ya go.

[Donald Garner]

it's Dedication my good man    There have been times I've fished like that over on Nolan Lake.  Kept on making those passes to those hot spots. 

Tks for sharing the trip with us.  One of these days I'll have to stop in and have lunch with ya.  We go up to Missouri once a year or so.  My wife's sister and brothers all live in and around Greenville and Poplar Bluff area.   I'll give ya a holler well in advance when we're heading up that way.

[Lipripper]

Thanks for the story Dale and I don't blame you no way would I have tried to get my hook back.  Them things can snap youre finger off in one bite.

[zippyduck]

If you didn't try a perfect spot like that everytime there then it would be insanity.
Just plain stubbornness in my book. 

[Mike Cork]

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result, EXCEPT in bass fishing. 

[Oldfart9999]

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result, EXCEPT in bass fishing. 

Then it's tenacity and when you do connect pure genius!!!
Dale I have a couple spots like them, just can't believe  it doesn't hold any!!!
Rodney